iS^^'i 
 
 ^ I 
 I 
 
 1^ °- 
 
 V>S;- 
 
CD 
 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 HENRY W. SAGE 
 
 1891 
 
The date shows when this volume was taken. 
 
 To renew this book copy the call No. and give to 
 the hbrarian. 
 
 iIll....AU6..1919 HOME USE RULES 
 
 '-!Di ^^ Books subject to Recall 
 
 All borrowers must regis- 
 
 ter in the library to borrow 
 
 books for home use. 
 All books must be re- 
 turned at end of college 
 
 ■■ year for inspection -and 
 
 repairs. 
 
 Limited books must be re- 
 
 turned within the four week' 
 
 limit and not renewed! 
 
 ' Students must rettirnall 
 
 books before leaving town. 
 
 Officers should arrange for 
 
 the return of hooks wanted 
 
 during their , absence from 
 
 town. 
 s 
 
 Volumes of periodicals 
 
 and of pamphlets are held 
 
 in the library as much as 
 " possible For special pur- 
 poses they are given out for 
 a limited time. 
 
 ...yvi /.' Borrowers should not use 
 
 / '•' their library privileges for 
 
 the benefit of other persona. 
 
 Books of special value 
 
 ""' ' ''""' '""." and gift books, wh«i tha 
 
 giver wishes it, arc not 
 J ' allowed to circulate. 
 
 Readers are asked to r»- 
 
 port ajl cases of books 
 marked or mutilated. 
 
 Do not deface books bj marks and writiac. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 CD 1067.A2H43 
 
 Municipal records, 
 
 3 1924 009 513 049 
 
The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924009513049 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
HELPS FOR STUDENTS OF HISTORY. No. 2. 
 
 Edited by C, Johnson, M.A., and J. P. Whitney, B.D., D.C.L. 
 
 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 BY 
 
 F. J. C. ^ARNSHAW 
 
 M.A., LL.D., Umivbrsity of London, Krao's CotLBGE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 igi8 
 5 
 
.\.y^65^ 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 rAox 
 
 I. Intboductoby - - - - - t 
 
 II. MtnadPAi Recobds in Nationai, Abchives - 14 
 
 III. MUNICIPAI, RECOBDS in LOCAI. ABCHIVE8 - - 21 
 
 IV. The Study of Municipal Records - / - 31 
 
 V. The Uses of Locai. Histoby - - - 89 
 
(7) 
 
 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 I.— INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Until the latter half of the nineteenth century the 
 history of English towns was generally neglected. 
 There were, it is true, a few venerable works treat- 
 ing of the antiquities of the more important cities 
 and boroughs;* but the places dealt with were, 
 mainly the seats of Bishops,t the ecclesiastical 
 interest was regarded as superior to the historical, 
 and the works themselves were not reasoned 
 accounts of municipal development, but rather vast 
 collections of archaeological materials. In 1871, 
 John Richard Green, travelling along the Genoese 
 Uttoral, wrote to a friend in England: " Roaming 
 through these little Ligurian towns makes me utter 
 just the old groans you used to join in when we 
 roamed about France — ^groans, I mean, over the 
 state of our local histories in England. There isn't 
 
 * For example, Somner's "Canterbury" (1640); Stow's (1598) 
 and Maitland's " London " (1739); Drake's "Eboracum " (1736); 
 Brand's "Newcastle" (1789); Milner's "Winchester "(1798); 
 and Oliver's " Exeter " (1821). 
 
 t But note also Owen and Blakeway's "Shrewsbury" (1825); 
 Poulson's "Beverlac" (1829); Frost's "Hull" (1827); and 
 Cooper's " Cambridge " (1842). 
 
8 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 one of these wee places that ghmmer in the night 
 like fireflies in the depth of their bays that hasn't 
 a full and generally admirable account of itself 
 and its doings. They are sometimes wooden 
 enough in point of style and the like, but they use 
 their archives, and don't omit, as all our local 
 histories seem to make a point of doing, the history 
 of the town itself."* 
 
 It was Green himself who played a pioneer part 
 in removing this reproach from English historical 
 literature. Born in the city of Oxford, he " was 
 from his childhood sensitive to the spirit of his 
 native city."f His first historical essays, published 
 in the Oxford Chronicle of 1859, related to the city 
 of his birth, and at the time of his death he was 
 busy adding to his large collection of materials for 
 a detailed history of the place. " When failing 
 health had put an end to all hope of his own work 
 on Oxford being continued, he took pleasure in 
 the thought that it might still be carried on by the 
 society which he had first planned, and which he 
 lived to see inaugurated — ^the Oxford Historical 
 Society.J 
 
 The enthusiasm for local history which illumined 
 John Richard Green was to some extent shared by 
 his friend and colleague E. A. Freeman, but in him 
 
 * J. R. Green, " Letters," p. 295. 
 
 t J. R. Green, " Oxford Studies," p. 10. 
 
 X Mrs. J. R. Green in Introduction to " Oxford Studies." 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 9 
 
 the flame of zeal burned with a light less pure.* 
 For one thing, he was pre-eminently a national 
 historian, and he was interested in towns, not for 
 their own sake, but only in so far as they could 
 contribute illustrations of general political de- 
 velopment. For another thing, he never could 
 be bothered to decipher manuscripts or read 
 records. Hence the series of monographs on 
 " Historic Towns " which he, in conjunction with 
 Dr. Hunt, began to edit 'in 1887 was not a con- 
 spicuous success. It avoided such defects of the 
 older mimicipal histories as were due to ignorance 
 of national' affairs, but it drew little fresh informa- 
 tion from the great untouched treasuries of local 
 sources, and it threw little fresh light on the growth 
 of municipal institutions. There was obvious 
 need that a great deal of dull preliminary work 
 should be done in searching, classifying, editing, 
 and printing local archives, before a satisfactory 
 series of municipal histories could be written. 
 
 What has been said of the histories of particular 
 towns applies also to the histories of municipal 
 institutions in general. The constitutional aspect 
 of town life had not been by any means ignored; 
 but the key to its secrets had not been discovered. 
 The works that dealt with it were either merely 
 antiquarian or primarily partisan. Among the 
 antiquarian treatises, Thomas Madox's " Firma 
 * For Freeman's debt to Green, see " Life and Letters," i., p. 303. 
 
10 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 Burgi " (1726) ranks easily first. It presents a 
 valuable collection of extracts from pipe rolls and 
 other public records relating to the cities and 
 boroughs of England. It does not profess, how- 
 ever, to draw upon local as well as national sources, 
 and even in respect of the national sources it is 
 fairly complete only for the thirteenth and four- 
 teenth centuries. Among the partisan treatises 
 two are specially eminent. One is Robert Brady's 
 " Historical Treatise of Cities and Boroughs " 
 (1690), written in defence of civic and burghal 
 charters at a time when conflict between Whig 
 and Tory, Conformist and Nonconformist, central 
 and local government, caused party passion to 
 wax particularly hot. The other is Merewether and 
 Stephen's " History of the Boroughs and Municipal 
 Corporations of the United Kingdom " (1835). 
 This is a massive work in three volumes composed 
 as a contribution to the controversy concerning 
 the reform of town administration which culminated 
 in the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. It is 
 of incomparably more value than Brady's treatise, 
 but it is vitiated by a persistent determination 
 on the part of the authors to see in every kind of 
 mediaeval court or council evidence of the existence 
 of an original popular assembly or folkmoot. 
 
 The controversy of 1835, however, produced an- 
 other work of a very different kind, which may be 
 regarded as the basis of all subsequent scientific 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 11 
 
 study of the constitutional history of cities and 
 boroughs. I refer to the four-volumed " Report of 
 the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the 
 Mxmicipal Corporations in England and Wales,"* 
 supplemented by five additional volumes of evidence 
 published during the years 1835 to ISSS.f It is the 
 immense masses of important information gathered 
 with complete impartiaUty within the covers of these 
 invaluable Blue books that has made possible such 
 general examinations of municipal institutions as 
 are provided in Mrs. J. R. Green's "Town Life 
 in the Fifteenth Century " (1894), or in Mr. and 
 Mrs. Webb's " English Local Government " (1906 
 et geq.). 
 
 But, as has already been noted, many years were 
 destined to elapse before the study of mimicipal 
 history began to attract the attention and absorb 
 the energies of competent scholars, and many more 
 before even they were able to set to work on sound 
 lines. For if Green and Freeman were pioneers 
 in the unexplored realm of local institutions, they 
 themselves were too much occupied with other 
 researches to give that concentrated attention 
 necessary to the making of discoveries in this region. 
 Green's " Oxford Studies " is a mere collection of 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers 1835, vols, xxiii.-xxvi. ; Index in ditto 
 1839, vol. xviii. 
 
 f Parliamentary Papers 1835, vols, xxvii., xxviii.; 1836, vol. 
 xxiy.; 1837, vol. xxv- ; and 1838, vol. xxxv. 
 
12 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 brilliant magazine articles; Freeman's "Exeter" 
 is a local commentary on the history of England. 
 It was reserved for Professor F. W. Maitland, 
 in his masterly study of Boroughs (in Pollock and 
 Maitland's " History of EngUsh Law," 1895) and 
 in his monograph on " Township and Borough " 
 (1898), to bring the light of penetrating intellect 
 and laborious research to bear upon the mediaeval 
 municipal administration of this country. The 
 illuminating generalizations of Maitland, based as 
 they were upon the soundest scholarship and the 
 most diligent investigation, inspired other students, 
 such as Mr. W. H. Hudson in Norwich and Miss 
 Mary Bateson in Leicester,* to explore and expound 
 the local archives. There were also other indepen- 
 dent scholars in the field, such as Mr. W. H. 
 Stevenson, who published valuable collections of 
 Nottingham documents in 1890, and of Gloucester 
 documents in 1893. About this same time Record 
 Societies were founded in many counties and towns 
 for the systematic study and publication of local 
 archives.' Finally, in 1897, Dr. Charles Gross, of 
 Harvard University, a bibMographer of unrivalled 
 skill, issued his comprehensive and excellently 
 classified " Bibliography of British Municipal 
 History." Thus, at the end of the nineteenth 
 
 * Miss Bateson was engaged by the Corporation of Leicester 
 to edit their Municipal Records; she had no prior connection with 
 the town. 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 13 
 
 century, not only was the history of English towns 
 acknowledged to be worthy of study, but for the 
 first time adequate materials for that study were 
 beginning to be available. 
 
 It is now time for us to turn and see what are 
 the main kinds of material from which trustworthy 
 information concerning cities and boroughs can 
 be drawn. 
 
II.— MUNICIPAL RECORDS IN NATIONAL 
 ARCHIVES 
 
 In the first place, a few words must be said con- 
 cerning the important sources for the study of 
 municipal history which exist in the national 
 collections. These sources must be dismissed 
 briefly, because their main interest is other than 
 local, and also because full information about them 
 is readily accessible in such works as Charles Gross's 
 "Sources and Literature of English History," or 
 S. R. ScargUl-Bird's " Guide to the Public Record 
 Office." 
 
 1. First in order of time stand the " Anglo-Saxon 
 Charters and Laws." J. M. Kemble's great collec- 
 tion of Charters, the " Codex Diplomaticus ^vi 
 Saxonici,"* contains 1,369 documents; later glean- 
 ings are stored in B. Thorpe's " Diplomatarium " 
 (1865), in W. de G. Birch's " Cartularium Saxoni- 
 cum " (1885-1893), and in J. Earle's " Handbook 
 to the Land Charters " (1888). The chief value of 
 these documents to the student of municipal history 
 
 * Six volumes published by the English Historical Society, 
 1839-1848. 
 
 14 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 15 
 
 is that they jdeld evidence, particularly in the case 
 of towns which sprang up on ecclesiastic estates, of 
 the royal donations of lands and royal grants of 
 privileges and immunities which determined the 
 nature of municipal origins. The Anglo-Saxon 
 Laws throw light on the condition which led to the 
 foundations of " burhs," the growth of a commercial 
 and industrial class, and the formation of confra- 
 ternities and gilds. They can be consulted either 
 in the Record Commission's two-volumed edition, 
 entitled " Ancient Laws and Institutes of England," 
 edited by B. Thorpe in 1840, or in the far superior, 
 but as yet incomplete, edition of F. Liebermann, 
 entitled " Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen " (1898 
 el seq.). 
 
 2. Next comes Domesday Book.* As a source 
 of information concerning towns it is, one must 
 admit, disappointing. It was compiled as a geld 
 book, and the assessment for the geld was made on 
 the manor. The old English boroughs could not 
 well be fitted into the manorial system, nor could 
 a place for an account of them easily be found 
 in the Domesday scheme. London is not described 
 at all, nor is Winchester, although it was to that 
 city that the returns were sent. Where a town — 
 e.g., Southampton — ^is dealt with, the information 
 given is obviously, and often demonstrably, 
 
 * With Domesday may be included other early Surveys, such 
 as that of Winchester. 
 
 3f 
 
16 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 incomplete. Nevertheless, happy is the town 
 which can claim a Domesday . entry. Its local 
 antiquaries are provided with conundrums for all 
 time. The use that can be made of Domesday 
 statistics is brilliantly illustrated by Professor 
 Maitland's " Domesday Book and Beyond " (1897), 
 where an important section treats of the boroughs 
 existent in 1086. Moreover, Mr. J. H. Round, in 
 the successive volumes of the " Victoria County 
 History," has, with great learning and abihty, 
 collected and interpreted all the Domesday evidence 
 respecting the places that came within his purview. 
 A new edition of Domesday as a whole is urgently 
 called for. Students have still to use the antiquated 
 issue commenced by Abraham Farley in 1783 and 
 completed by Henry EUis in 1816. The original 
 manuscript of the Great Survey can be seen among 
 the priceless treasures in the Museum of the Public 
 Record Office in Chancery Lane.* 
 
 3. The Charter Rolls supply direct information 
 of first-rate importance about most of the cities and 
 corporate boroughs of mediaeval England. The 
 series proper, consisting of enrolments of charters 
 issued from Chancery, extends from 1189 to 1517 
 only, later Charters being entered on the Patent 
 Rolls ; but there are enrolments of " cartas antiquae," 
 
 * Facsimiles of the County sections of Domesday have 
 been made at the Ordnance 0£Bce, Southampton (18G1 et 
 seq.). 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 17 
 
 some dating back to the time of Ethelbert of Kent,* 
 and the series is supplemented by duplications in 
 the Confirmation Rolls which extend from 1483 to 
 1625, and by similar entries in the earlier Patent 
 Rolls. The charters of the twelfth century 
 are particularly important. The towns of that 
 period were making strenuous efforts to escape 
 from the meshes of the feudal system, which had 
 become much more strangUng and restrictive 
 under the energetic administration of the Norman 
 and Angevin Kings. Hence they were willing — 
 and, owing to the development of commerce, able — 
 to pay large sums to the royal exchequer in order to 
 secure financial autonomy, trade privileges, judicial 
 independence, and local self-government, Henry 
 II. showed himself ready to grant charters in 
 response to satisfactory offers of payment ; but he 
 was far surpassed by his son Richard I., who made 
 the sale of municipal hberties one of the chief means 
 by which he raised money for his Crusade — charters 
 of date 1189 are extraordinarily numerous. Ten 
 years later John followed suit, and he fiu-ther made 
 much money by pressing the doctrine, which hence- 
 forth was generally recognized by the lawyers, that 
 a charter was valid only during the lifetime of the 
 King who granted it, and that it thus needed 
 confirmation at each recurrent royal accession. 
 
 * See " Inventory of Records in the Tower," published by the 
 Deputy-Keeper in 1841. 
 
18 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 The occasions of the necessary confirmations were 
 frequently made the opportunities for the securing 
 of additional franchises. To the original " firma 
 burgi " were added- merchant and craft gilds, 
 municipal courts, and finally a Mayor and Cor- 
 poration. A large selection of important town 
 charters will be found in the " new edition " 
 (1816-1869) of Rymer's " Foedera." A careful 
 comparative study, with numerous examples, is 
 provided by Mr, A. Ballard's "British Borough 
 Charters " (1913).* 
 
 4. Another and unduly neglected source of in- 
 formation respecting municipal institutions is the 
 Hundred Rolls of Edward I.'s time. These Rolls 
 supply the obverse of the information given in the 
 Charter Rolls. They show, not what rights the 
 King had granted, but what rights the subjects 
 had usurped. They embody, as is well known, the 
 results of the " Quo Warranto " inquests made 
 at the command of Edward I. soon after his return 
 from the Holy Land. There had been vast en- 
 croachments upon royal properties and prerogatives 
 during the troublous times of Henry III. and dur- 
 ing Edward's own long absence abroad. Hence 
 Edward's efforts to stop further usurpations, and, 
 if possible, to recover possessions and powers 
 already wrongfully acquired. The Hundred Rolls, 
 
 * C/. also " Cartse, Privilegia, et Immunitates," published by 
 the Irish Record Commission (1829-80). 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 19 
 
 from the fulness of their information, might almost 
 be called a thirteenth-centmy Domesday Survey. 
 It is diflBcult, however, to make use of the evidence 
 which these Rolls provide, because it still has to be 
 sought in an edition more than a century old — ^viz., 
 " Rotuli Himdredorum," issued in two volumes by 
 the Record Commissioners in 1812-1818.* 
 
 5. Soon after the date when the Hundred Rolls 
 made their appearance, the Rolls of Parhament 
 began to provide a systematic record of the doings 
 of the central legislature. These " Rotuli Parlia- 
 mentorum " commenced in the year 1278 and con- 
 tinued until 1503, after which the miscellaneous in- 
 formation that they contain began to be classified 
 in the Journals of the Lords and the Commons 
 on the one hand and the Statute Rolls on the other 
 hand. Both the Rolls and the succeeding collec- 
 tions of Statutes of the Realm contain numerous 
 legislative acts relating to the affairs of specific 
 municipalities, as well as statutes regulating the 
 affairs of cities and boroughs generally. The 
 " Rotxili Parliamentorum " are to be found in a 
 good six-volumed edition published towards the 
 close of the eighteenth century in obedience to an 
 
 * with the " Rotuli Hundredorum " of Edward I. may also be 
 mentioned the "Nomina Villarum " of Edward II. (Record 
 Commission, 1834). This gives lists of towns and the names of 
 their feudal lords in the year 1816. It is printed in "Parlia- 
 mentary Writs " (Record Commission, 1827-34, and in " Feudal 
 Aids," 1899 sqq.). 
 
20 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 order of the House of Lords dated March 9, 1767.* 
 The ancient Statutes of the Realm are best con- 
 sulted in the Record Commissioners' edition issued 
 in eleven volumes, 1810-1828. 
 . 6. Finally, there are the numerous Calendars 
 of State Papers, etc., various series of which are 
 in process of publication under the authority of the 
 Master of the Rolls. Some 300 volumes have 
 already appeared, and these compilations, well 
 edited and fully indexed, contain masses of new 
 information concerning many municipalities.f A 
 full catalogue of the Calendars can be obtained from 
 H.M. Stationery Office, London. 
 
 * An excellent index was provided in 1832. 
 
 t Tliere are large collections of " Court Rolls " (see p. 28), 
 " Ministers' Accounts," and " Rentals and Surveys " at the 
 Public Record Office, some of which contain information as to 
 boroughs. 
 
III.— MUNICIPAL RECORDS IN LOCAL 
 ARCHIVES 
 
 Although much information respecting cities and 
 boroughs can be obtained from national sources, 
 it is to the vast and still largely unexplored local 
 repositories that students of municipal institutions 
 naturally turn when they desire detailed knowledge. 
 How extensive are the materials available can be 
 seen by reference to the Reports of the Historical 
 Manuscripts Commission, which has already ex- 
 amined and catalogued the archives of seventy-two 
 mimicipalities. Probably no town can approach 
 the City of London in either the quantity or the 
 importance of its records; these fill seven huge 
 subterranean vaults at the Guildhall, and they 
 relate in many instances to affairs of national signi- 
 ficance. But even in the case of comparatively 
 small towns of high antiquity, when Fortune has 
 been kind enough to exempt the towns from the 
 ravages of war and fire and ignorant officials, the 
 mountains of venerable documents can be estimated 
 only by the cartload or the ton.* 
 
 * Mr. J. C. Jeafflreson, who catalogued the Southampton docu- 
 ments, says that he and two assistants were occupied for six 
 
 21 
 
22 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 In all too many cases, however, the extant muni- 
 ments are but a fraction of what should have 
 survived but for some calamity or other, or but for 
 the chronic negligence of the succession of town 
 clerks. Newcastle-on-Tyne, for instance, which 
 should be extraordinarily rich in mediaeval records, 
 has very little of earlier date than the disastrous 
 siege of 1644. Dorchester, in Dorset, lost most 
 of its archives in a devastating seventeenth-century 
 conflagration. The ancient documents of Hereford 
 were sold as waste paper, while those of Plymouth 
 were carted away as rubbish. 
 
 Surviving municipal muniments fall into two 
 main classes — viz.. Chronicles and Records. The 
 Chronicles claim first mention, although there are 
 only some three dozen of them all told; for they 
 are of prime historical interest. They profess 
 to be records of the notable local events that hap- 
 pened in successive mayoralties, but they generally 
 include important references to contemporary 
 national happenings. They become full and valu- 
 able at the close of the Middle Ages, and thus 
 serve to supply the deficiencies of the monastic 
 chronicles, which at that time were dying but. 
 They correspond to the annals of the German free 
 cities which Dr. Karl Hegel, as the result of a life- 
 weeks merely in sorting and labelling the MSS. before they 
 could begin the work which was more properly their own (" Hist. 
 MSS. Com.," Report XI., Appendix III., p. 1). 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 23 
 
 time of devoted labour, collected in the monumental 
 twenty-five volumes of his " Chroniken der deut- 
 schen Stadte " (1862-1896). Of course, no English 
 towns ever attained to quite such autonomy as was 
 enjoyed by German cities like Hamburg, Liibeck, or 
 Bremen, all of which were virtually independent 
 States. Hence no English civic chronicles have 
 quite the political significance of their Continental 
 counterparts, but the London Chronicles, at any 
 rate, do not fall far short of them. London more 
 nearly than any other English community reached 
 a height of opulence and power that made it possible 
 for its Mayor and Corporation to treat with 
 King and Parliament at Westminster on terms of 
 almost complete political equality. But never 
 quite; in the last resort the King and Parliament, 
 with the nation behind them, could compel sub- 
 mission. Nevertheless, so great was the influence 
 of London, and so nearly concerned was it with 
 national affairs, that its chronicles are of first-rate 
 importance. The oldest of these is Fitz-Thedmar's 
 " Chronica Majorum," completed in 1274; next 
 come some fourteenth-century " Croniques de 
 London " (printed by the Camden Society in 1844); 
 and thirdly a series of fifteenth-century chronicles 
 which Mr. C. L. Kingsford has recently edited 
 with great scholarship and skill (" Chronicles of 
 London," Oxford, 1905). Perhaps next in im- 
 portance to the London Chronicles is " The Maire 
 
24 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 of Bristowe is Kalendar," compiled by Robert 
 Ricart, who was town clerk of Bristol 1479 to circa 
 1506. This was printed by the Camden Society 
 in 1872. The majority of the town chronicles, how- 
 ever — e.g., those of Beverley, Chester, Newcastle, 
 Plymouth, Southampton — are still in manuscript 
 only. Many of them are no longer to be found in 
 the places where they were compiled, but have to 
 be sought in the Harleian, Lansdowne, and Egerton 
 Collections of manuscripts in the British Museum. 
 One of the most urgent tasks that awaits students 
 of English municipal history is that of collecting, 
 editing, and publishing the complete series of these 
 extant town chronicles.* 
 
 Town Records, in the stricter sense of the term, 
 are incomparably more numerous than town chroni- 
 cles. It is they that fill the shelves and pile the 
 floors of the municipal muniment-rooms. And 
 not only are they so numerous as almost to defy 
 examination : they are also so various as wholly to 
 baffle classification. The most unexpected dis- 
 coveries reward the curiosity of the patient explorer 
 — missals, treatises on the philosopher's stone, 
 poems, private letters, deeds, wills, genealogies, 
 miscellaneous writings of all sorts. These, how- 
 
 * A short account of the town chronicles is given by Dr. 
 C. Gross in his " Bibliography of British Municipal History," § 3. 
 Dr. Gross says that these chronicles " form an unexplored field 
 of historical literature of considerable interest." 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 25 
 
 ever, although found among municipal archives, are 
 not properly municipal records. They are the 
 flotsam and jetsam that have been attracted to the 
 security of the burghal strong-room. The main 
 varieties of records in the true meaning of the ex- 
 pression are (1) Charters; (2) Accounts of Stewards, 
 Chamberlains, and other Officials; (3) Gild Rolls 
 and Ordinances; (4) Court Rolls; (5) Assembly 
 Books ; (6) Books of Examinations and Depositions ; 
 (7) Books and Miscellaneous Memoranda. A word 
 or two concerning each class must here suffice, 
 
 1. The Charters, of course, are the originals, 
 transcripts of which are preserved in the Rolls 
 of Chancery. In many cases there are also numer- 
 ous confirmations and exemplifications drawn up 
 and sealed at later dates. Further, since its 
 charters were of vital importance to a town, as 
 the very basis of all its municipal liberties, they were 
 frequently copied by successive town clerks into 
 ornate and well-bound volumes. Most towns, 
 when they begin to publish their ancient documents, 
 begin with the charters. Thus, we have had in 
 recent years the Charters of Leicester (edited by 
 Miss Bateson), Cambridge (Professor Maitland and 
 Miss Bateson), Colchester (Mr. W. C. Benham), 
 Gloucester (Mr. W. H. Stevenson), Nottingham 
 (Mr. W. H. Stevenson), Bristol (Mr. F. B. Bickley), 
 Norwich (Messrs. Hudson and Tingey), Northamp- 
 ton (Messrs. Markham and Cox), and Southampton 
 
26 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 (Mr. H, W. Gidden). Mr. A. Ballard's collection 
 of " British Borough Charters " has already been 
 mentioned. 
 
 2. The Stewards', Chamberlains', and other 
 Accounts, although among the most difficult of 
 borough documents to interpret owing to the 
 obscurity of many of the technical terms employed 
 and to the awkwardness of doing sums by means of 
 Roman numerals, are rich mines of information to 
 students of economic history. They reveal precise 
 details of local income and expenditure; they enable 
 estimates to be made of general prices at various 
 dates, and thus give standards of the value of 
 money; they throw light, moreover, on many 
 mediaeval customs and modes of thought. For 
 instance, the constant recurrence in fifteenth- 
 century accounts of items of expenditure " ad 
 retoUrnandos amicos villae in quadam jurata " 
 confirms the impression conveyed by the " Paston 
 Letters " that in the time of Lancaster and York 
 no impartial verdict from a jury was ever looked for. 
 3. Gild Rolls and Ordinances: These are among 
 the most interesting of early documents, because 
 they portray a manner of life, a regulation of in- 
 dustry, and an organization of commerce, very 
 different from anything existent to-day. The 
 oldest of the gilds of which we have records were 
 the merchant gilds. These communal associa- 
 tions rose in this country shortly after the Norman 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 27 
 
 Conquest, and before the end of the twelfth century 
 every considerable English town possessed one. 
 They were inclusive organizations to which any 
 member of the burghal '" communitas," irrespective 
 of occupation, could belong, and to which occasion- 
 ally travelling merchants were admitted. The 
 members enjoyed the monopoly of the local trade 
 (except in victuals, which were free); they were 
 exempted from the payment of tolls ; they acquired 
 a status which secured for them privileges and gave 
 them protection when they travelled abroad; they 
 received aid in sickness and adversity; after their 
 death provision was made for the burial of their 
 bodies, the welfare of their souls, and the main- 
 tenance of their widows and children. The ordin- 
 ances of a large number of English gilds have been 
 collected arid analyzed, and compared with Con- 
 tinental models, by Dr. Charles Gross in his im- 
 portant work entitled " The Gild Merchant " (1890). 
 An excellent summary of all available information 
 concerning the merchant gilds is given by Mr. E. 
 Lipson in chapter vii. of his "Economic History " 
 (1915). 
 
 The craft gilds were very different. They came 
 into existence about a century later than the mer- 
 cheait gilds; they were limited to the members 
 of a single industry (or even part-industry) ^ some- 
 times (as at Beverley) they were mere delegations 
 of the merchant gild, sometimes (as in London) 
 
28 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 they were established by the municipality, some- 
 times (as in Winchester) they rose in definite 
 antagonism to the older authorities. Since they 
 were not, like the merchant gilds, organs of the 
 whole community, their records are rarely to be 
 found among the municipal archives, although, as 
 a rule, numerous references to them and regulations 
 for them appear among the town documents. 
 They kept their own records, and sometimes these 
 are of high interest and importance. Many of them 
 have been published, particularly in the case of 
 those gilds that developed into powerful Companies 
 and survived to modern times.* 
 
 4. Court Rolls: Every city and borough had a 
 civil court of some kind in which local disputes 
 could be heard, small debts collected, questions of 
 property settled. Usually this court sat every 
 month or every three weeks, under the presidency 
 of the Mayor. Chartered towns almost invariably 
 secured in addition the right to hold a criminal 
 court with jurisdiction and powers equal to those 
 of the great hundred court (sheriff's tourn), or 
 
 * Firth's " Documents of the Coopers' Company "; Kingdom's 
 "Archives of the Company of Grocers"; and " Charters, Ordi- 
 nances, and By-laws of the Mercers' Company." AH these are 
 of London. Bristol has published accounts of its Weavers and 
 Merchant Taylors (ed. F. F. Fox); Newcastle of its Merchant 
 Adventurers and Hoastmen, etc., etc. On the whole question see 
 Toulmin Smith, " English Gilds " (1870); G. Unwin, " Gilds of 
 London " (1908); and E. Lipson, " Economic History," chapter 
 viii. 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 29 
 
 even the shire court itself. Towns with fairs had 
 an annual pie powder court. Those that were 
 ports had an Admiralty Court. Of all these 
 courts careful records were kept, and in old towns 
 whose documents have been preserved these re- 
 cords extend in formidable series from the Middle 
 Ages (usually thirteenth or fourteenth cefltury) 
 to the time that the court ceased to exist, or even 
 to the present day in the rare cases where the 
 mediaeval court has survived all the encroachments 
 of rival jurisdictions. These Court Rolls yield 
 priceless information concerning former inhabitants 
 of the town, local customs, and economic conditions, 
 as well as concerning the constitutional machinery 
 of early days. Many have been edited and printed 
 during recent years.* 
 
 5. Assembly Books contain minutes of the pro- 
 ceedings of the governing body of the town, and in 
 some cases these are supplemented by (6) extra- 
 ordinarily interesting Books of Examinations and 
 Depositions, which contain preliminary inquiries 
 and investigations of all kinds. Both these classes 
 of documents are inexhaustible sources of informa- 
 tion to those who wish to investigate closely the 
 course of the mtmicipal development,! 
 
 * See Gross's " Bibliographies," passim. 
 
 t As examples see "The Coventry Leet Books," edited by 
 Miss Dormer Harris, in four volumes ( 1907-13) and the Southamp- 
 ton " Books of Examinations and Depositions," edited by Misses 
 Hamilton and Aubrey (1914). 
 
30 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 7, Finally must be mentioned Books of Miscella- 
 neous Memoranda, of which most old towns possess 
 examples. They were books in which were entered 
 all sorts of secret and important information, such 
 as grants of privileges and exemptions from taxa- 
 tion. Often, too, they contain enrolment of the 
 wills of prominent burgesses. Usually they were 
 kept under the security of two or three locks whose 
 keys were held by different responsible officers. 
 Sometimes they had names of their own — e.g.. 
 Black Book, Red Book, Oak Book, Chain Book. 
 
 Such are the most important classes of docu- 
 ments that may be looked for in municipal muni- 
 ment-rooms. It must not be forgotten, however, 
 that many things of the highest interest to the 
 community were not dealt with by "the municipal 
 authorities at all, and that therefore their records 
 have to be sought elsewhere. The case of the craft 
 gilds has already been mentioned. Much more 
 important than these, however, were the various 
 ecclesiastical organizations. Every parish had its 
 registers ; every religious house had its own chronicle 
 and account rolls; every diocese had the episcopal 
 repositories in which were entered not only the 
 record of inductions to livings, but also all matters 
 relating to testamentary succession. Thus, the 
 student who wishes to make a complete survey of 
 the history of a municipality has to search the 
 records not only of the town itself, but also those of 
 the nation, the gild, and the church. 
 
IV.— THE STUDY OF MUNICIPAL 
 RECORDS 
 
 The study of municipal records is still in its early 
 stages. The days of gross neglect, it is true, are 
 over; no longer are venerable documents carted 
 away as rubbish, sold as waste-paper, used to light 
 fires, or given to seekers after curiosities. Every- 
 where the ancient charters, court rolls, and memor- 
 andum books are being dusted, arranged, catalogued, 
 cared for. But though care has taken the place of 
 neglect, the disastrous results of centuries of ill- 
 usage can never be remedied. Few towns can 
 boast a continuous and unbroken series of any sort 
 of document whatsoever, and the missing links in 
 the series are irreplaceable. The zeal of private 
 collectors and the vigilance of the British Museum 
 and the Public Record Office have saved many 
 strayed treasures from oblivion, but the fact that 
 one has to go to London to consult such provincial 
 sources as the Black Book of Winchester and the 
 Ipswich Domesday is eloquent concerning the 
 negligence of their former custodians. At the 
 present time municipal records are usually kept 
 
 81 
 
32 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 in the custody of the town clerk of the borough to 
 which they belong. As a general rule it is easy 
 for students to gain admission to them, and 
 courteous assistance in the discovery of the docu- 
 ment or documents required. In some places, 
 however, difficulties have to be faced and obstacles 
 surmounted; in Newcastle, for example, owing 
 to the fact that a century ago the old historian 
 Brand made some damaging discoveries and 
 revelations which seriously prejudiced the position 
 of the then Corporation, the muniments are very 
 jealously guarded from inspection. But even 
 where access is easy and ready assistance available, 
 it is rare indeed to find anyone who has that expert 
 and specialized knowledge that is necessary for the 
 decipherment and interpretation of ancient manu- 
 scripts. In Continental towns it is common to find 
 the municipal records in charge of a professional 
 archaeologist and historiographer; in England the 
 City of London has its Record Clerk and the Cities 
 of Norwich and Hull honorary archaeologists ; but, 
 so far as I know, these three excellent examples 
 stand alone. It is therefore specially necessary 
 that students in this country who wish to pursue 
 researches in local muniment-rooms should equip 
 themselves with the paleographical and linguistic 
 knowledge required for their effective handling. 
 The languages that have to be known are Mediaeval 
 Latin and Old French. Paleographical skill 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 38 
 
 speedily comes with practice ; its rudiments, how- 
 ever, have to be learnt from textbooks with selected 
 specimens, and for the purpose of this instruction 
 Wright's " Court Hand Restored," and Martin's 
 " Record Interpreter," or Jenkinson and Johnson's 
 " English Court Hand," may be commended. 
 
 Of the growing masses of municipal docliments 
 which are available in print some specimens, 
 particularly the older ones, are exceedingly defec- 
 tive. It was the vicious practice of the editors 
 of earlier days to print selected extracts only, 
 without giving any indication of either the quantity 
 or the quality of the portions omitted. Thus, how- 
 ever pithy the extracts may be, and however 
 valuable the information they may impart, they 
 are useless to the student who wishes to obtain 
 a complete picture of the municipal develop- 
 ment.* 
 
 Other editors who avoid the eclectic snare 
 succumb to a second and only slightly less deadly 
 temptation — viz., the temptation to give transla- 
 tions of mediaeval documents only, without the 
 original texts. Thus, Mr. W. C. Benham, who has 
 within quite recent years (1902-1907) issued well- 
 edited versions of the Red Book, the Charters, 
 and the Oath Book of Colchester, has spoiled his 
 
 * Books which suffer from this defect are, e.g., Harland's 
 "Manchester," Picton's "Liverpool," Ross's "Lincoln," 
 Swayne's " Salisbury," and Davies's " York." 
 
34 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 work for scholars by giving his own English render- 
 ing only. 
 
 Almost perfect models of what the editing of 
 municipal documents should be are presented by 
 Mr. W. H. Stev.enson's " Gloucester and Notting- 
 ham," Professor Maitland's " Cambridge," Miss 
 Bateson's " Leicester " (which, however, is defec- 
 tive in arrangement), Messrs. Hudson and Tingey's 
 " Norwich," Mr. Leach's " Beverley," Mr. Bickley's 
 " Red Book of Bristol," and Dr. Sharpe's " London 
 Letter Books." All of these give both text and 
 translation with an adequate apparatus of intro- 
 duction, notes, glossary, and index. 
 
 It is to be hoped and expected that many more of 
 such model editions will be issued in the future; for 
 all over the country municipal authorities are waking 
 to a consciousness of the interest and value of the 
 muniments in their care. London, Nottingham 
 (although mainly because of a local squabble in 
 1877), Gloucester, Norwich, Northampton, South- 
 ampton, Leicester, Manchester — all have voted 
 sums of money more or less generous towards the 
 cost of editing and publishing their local records. 
 All over the country, too, as has already been 
 mentioned, local Record Societies have sprung into 
 existence. At the time of the outbreak of the war 
 some twenty were in active operation. Some 
 of them, such as the Surtees and the Chetham 
 Societies, cover groups of counties, and so only 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 35 
 
 occasionally deal with the records of the munici- 
 palities within their sphere of influence; the majority 
 are county organizations— e.g., Devon, Hampshire, 
 Somerset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Somerset. One only 
 — viz., that of Southampton — ^is restricted to the 
 documents of a single borough. 
 
 Vast, then, is the work yet to be done. If one 
 were to pick out the places where the formation 
 of local Record Societies is most urgently needed, 
 one would mention Bristol, Canterbury, Chester, 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, Winchester, and York. All 
 these, as it happens, are cathedral cities where 
 there are clergy well qualified by scholarly attain- 
 ments to take the lead in antiquarian enterprises. 
 The work is not only useful: it is also most fas- 
 cinatingly interesting. For although, no doubt, 
 a good deal of dull drudgery has to be patiently 
 borne, toil is lightened by frequent discoveries 
 and by a growing intimacy with the inner life of 
 a bygone age. Now and again a reallyiihoice bit of 
 phraseology or a delightful anecdote comes as an 
 ample reward for long spells of heavy toil. Perhaps 
 I may be allowed to close this section with two 
 extracts from the Southampton Assembly Books 
 which illustrate both the antique modes of ex- 
 pression and also the revelations of a crude social 
 system that render these old documents so interest- 
 ing. 
 
 The municipal council had been compelled to 
 
36 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 take note of the mental and moral defects of a 
 certain Mrs. Toldervey, wife of an Aldernaan and 
 
 ex-Mayor. 
 
 "October 27th, 1615. This day ordered, 
 that whereas it hath pleased Almightie God to 
 vysite Mrs Toldervey wife of Mr Phillip 
 Toldervey, alderman, with a lunacy and great 
 distemperature of minde, as too notoriously 
 appereth ; The like whereof he may (if so be it 
 his pleasure) lay uppon any one of us; from the 
 which we humblie beseech His Majestic to 
 preserve us and all others, and for his mercies 
 sake to restore her to her former sence and 
 understanding: In the meane time, seeing 
 that her speeches are manie times most idle, 
 odious and scandalous against His Majestic 
 and the state, and that also her walking abrode 
 appereth to be verie daungerous, bothe in 
 regarde of her owne percon and also of others 
 her neighbours whoe stand in great feare of her: 
 It is thought fitt and so ordered by the Assembly 
 of this house this day, that the said Mr 
 Toldervey be required to take course that she 
 may not hencefourth walke abrode out of his 
 house, but be close kept upp, until it shall 
 please god, to geve her a feeling of his grace. 
 All which we require to be done, as well to 
 prevent all daunger of hurte unto her owne 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 37 
 
 percon as aforesaid as to others, whoe alredie 
 stand in great feare of her, to avoide all dis- 
 quiettness in the Church at the Assemblies, 
 both on the Sabboth daies and other dales for 
 Christian exercises. As also all occasion of 
 scandall by reason he is one of our Company; 
 which if he shall refuse or wilfully neglect to 
 do, we shall be forced to take such further 
 order, as we are and shalbe unwilling to pro- 
 ceede unto." 
 
 Two years later, however, no amendment had 
 been shown, and once again the House was con- 
 strained to address a solemn warning to the hus- 
 band of the afflicted lady: 
 
 " Mr Toldervey, whereas of late your wife 
 hath many wayes misdemeaned herself both 
 in the Church, Towne haule and open streetes 
 against his Ma"* and the Queene his wife," 
 against me the Mayor of this Towne and others 
 of us and our wieves, wee have thought as 
 heretofore so nowe againe to give yo" notice 
 of it, And for that it is a great disgrace and 
 disparagem' to the governm* and state of this 
 Towne to suffer such disorders in any person 
 whatsoev', and much more in one of her 
 Rancke, and the rather for that the meaner 
 sort doe gen"aUy geve out thslt if she were of 
 
38 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 meaner place wee would not suffer it, w®" to 
 sale the truth is most certeyne, wee doe most 
 earnestlie desier yo" and in his Ma** name 
 also require yo° to take some course to keepe 
 her in, for whereas heretofore yo" complayned 
 that yo" had noe fittinge place to kepe her in 
 and by yo' mocon wee have geven Bordes and 
 nayles and paid for all the worckmanshipp to 
 fitt a roome to yo' Content in yo' owne howse 
 wch hath not cost yo" one penny and have cost 
 some of us money, otherwise wee thought wee 
 should have beene freed of this Scandall, w"** 
 nowe wee find to break out in as highe a 
 measuer as at any tyme heretofore, wherefore 
 if yo" shall not take such order as is fitting 
 (w""" wee hartilie desier yo" to doe) wee shall 
 bee constrayned uppon her next disorder to 
 comitt her to prison untill wee shall have 
 suerties for her good behaviour. Auditt howse 
 the 24th of Oct. 1617." 
 
v.— THE USES OF LOCAL HISTORY 
 
 There are some, it may be, who will ask at the end 
 of this survey of municipal records : What is the 
 use of disturbing these relics of bygone ages ? 
 Why not let the dead past bury its dead ? Is 
 not the neglect with which our forefathers treated 
 these musty parchments and crumbling papers 
 some evidence that they were and are indeed 
 negligible ? 
 
 The answer, it seems to me, is that although 
 municipal records, if privately interpreted, would 
 be too trivial to merit attention, and although local 
 history in general, if studied apart from general 
 history, would be too narrow and petty to be worth 
 serious labour, yet in their proper places as parts 
 of a broad scheme of applied historical science 
 both municipal records and the local history of 
 what they form the basis demand honourable 
 recognition. 
 
 As auxiliary to general history, the history em- 
 bodied in local records appears to fulfil the follow- 
 ing important functions : 
 
 89 
 
40 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 1. It supplies the illustrations^and furnishes the 
 detail without which the abstractions of the 
 historical textbook remain unrealized. Textbook 
 accounts of national events are necessarily brief 
 and bare. They lack atmosphere. They convey 
 to the imagination impressions little more vivid than 
 those conveyed by the multiplication table or the 
 axioms of geometry. The feudal system, for ex- 
 ample (assuming it to have existed), is little less 
 difficult to grasp and to explain than the binomial 
 theorem (assuming it to be true) ; but if a student 
 can have before him the Domesday report upon 
 some borough in his immediate neighbourhood, he 
 will at least realize that William the Conqueror 
 was a man and not a mere historic symbol or 
 pedagogic " x." 
 
 2. It brings history into touch with actual life 
 and with everyday experience. Outlines of general 
 history are forced, by reason of the immensity 
 of their theme, to confine themselves to big men 
 and great subjects. They cannot help it. But the 
 result is that they are " wound too high for mortal 
 man beneath the sky." Historians, like Macaulay, 
 who come down from their lofty pedestal and walk 
 the common ways of men have to give up the 
 attempt to portray long epochs and to limit their 
 realistic efforts to a microscopic portion of the span 
 of human evolution. Now, local records, when they 
 are available, serve to bring now one fragment of 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 41 
 
 the nation's story, now another, into relation with 
 history of the village or the borough community. 
 Thus they tend to invest not only the related frag- 
 ments but the whole with actuality. Just as there 
 are few places in England which are not within 
 reach of some historic site, few which have not been 
 associated with some man of more than local note, 
 so there are few whose parish or mimicipal registers 
 are wholly devoid of reference to events of national 
 importance, few which have had nothing to do with 
 any movement which has affected the kingdom 
 at large. Places such as York and London, New- 
 castle and Winchester, are so full of historic associa- 
 tions that it is almost possible to write the history of 
 England from the point of view of any one of them.* 
 3. History studied by means of local records 
 and relics has the educational merit of proceeding 
 from the known to the unknown, from the 
 more familiar to the less familiar. In Germany 
 " Heimatkunde," or knowledge of one's native place, 
 forms a recognized basis of instruction. Topo- 
 graphy prepares the way for geography. The plan 
 of the town makes intelligible the map of the world; 
 the spectacle of the pohceman fits the imagination 
 to comprehend the idea of the distant central 
 Government; and so on. Similarly, history may 
 
 * Gait's " Provost " and " Annals of the Parish " illustrate 
 the way in which local history can be used to illustrate general 
 history. 
 
42 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 well begin at home, and its sphere be extended until 
 it touches the national history. 
 
 4. Local records emphasize and bring into pro- 
 minence the social, industrial, and economic aspects 
 of history. The dramatic events of general history 
 are wars and diplomatic conflicts, and the easily 
 besetting temptation of the historian is to give 
 them somewhat more than their due attention. Of 
 course, they are important; but they are not the 
 only things that are important. After all, the 
 State exists for the nation, and not the nation for 
 the State. Politics, with its international and its 
 Parliamentary crises, is only a means to an end — 
 viz., the provision and maintenance of the conditions 
 of the good life for the people at large. Politics 
 loom too large in general histories. From local 
 records they are, as a rule, totally absent. Thus 
 local records " call a new world into existence to re- 
 dress the balance of the old." They bear witness to 
 the slow but sure development of the commonalty; 
 they tell of the evolution of popular government; 
 they show the effects of industrial and commercial 
 changes; they speak of birth and death, of love 
 and mortal sorrow, of faith and immortal hope. 
 I do not think, for instance, that I ever realized 
 what the plague meant to mediaeval England tmtil 
 I looked through the burial registers of a little 
 Hampshire township, and noted how, in bad years, 
 in family after family, mother and baby, father 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 48 
 
 and son, brother and sister, husband and wife, 
 were carried in swift succession to one common 
 grave. 
 
 5. Local records do for English history one 
 service over and above those which they render in 
 the case of the histories of most other countries. 
 They point the way to a realization of the process 
 by which the English constitution has been de- 
 veloped. The local community, rural or municipal, 
 was the original unit out of which the British 
 Empire has been constructed. Communal self- 
 government preceded national self-government; 
 Parliament was at first " a concentration of local 
 machinery"; municipal charters were the model 
 upon which Magna Carta was framed; Protection 
 and Free Trade were borough problems before they 
 became Imperial problems. Local records, there- 
 fore, especially in the cases of the larger English 
 towns and cities, not infrequently provide most 
 instructive evidence as to how, on a small scale, 
 in distant days, questions were dealt with which 
 have now become of international importance. 
 
 6. Local records provide admirable opportunities 
 for practice in historical research to teachers and 
 to their more advanced scholars. The sort of thing 
 that can be done, even by the intelligent but un- 
 inspired amateur, is shown by the summaries, all 
 made to a rigid pattern, which under the name of 
 local history give collected scraps of information 
 
44 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 respecting manors and boroughs in the " Victoria 
 County History " series. Very much more can be 
 accompHshed by the zealous student who can con- 
 centrate his efforts upon one place, and who can 
 bring to his work both local knowledge and an 
 .acquaintance with the course of general history. 
 It not infrequently happens that those who begin 
 by endeavouring to solve some knotty problem 
 in local history end by finding that they have in 
 their hands a clue to the solution of some obscure 
 question or other in constitutional history. 
 
 7. Finally, the study of history from local records 
 tends to stimulate what I, perhaps, may be allowed 
 to call local " patriotism."* It shows the signi- 
 ficance of things familiar ; it rouses a lively interest 
 in objects which otherwise might seem common and 
 base; it invests every well-known spot and every 
 existing institution with associations with bygone 
 generations of notable and worthy men; it makes it 
 appear to be an object not beneath the dignity 
 of the modern citizen to maintain the heritage 
 of the past, and to transmit it unimpaired to the 
 ages that are to come. 
 
 Let me end, as I began, with a quotation from 
 John Richard Green. In 1869 he wrote: " History, 
 we are told by publishers, is the most impopular 
 of all branches of literature at the present day, 
 
 * The historian Stubbs is a good illustration. Cf. "Letters," 
 ed. W. H. Hutton, pp. 4 and 16 
 
MUNICIPAL RECORDS 45 
 
 but it is unpopular only because it seems more and 
 more to sever itself from all that can touch the 
 heart of a people." He then suggests causes why 
 it is so dry and imattractive. Having done so, he 
 proceeds: " Now, there is hardly a better corrective 
 for all this to be found than to set a man 
 frankly in the streets of a simple EngUsh town, 
 and to bid him work out the history of the 
 men who lived and died there. The mill of the 
 stream, the tolls of the market-place, the brasses 
 of its burghers in the church, the names of its 
 streets, the lingering memory of its gilds, the mace 
 of its Mayor, tell us more of the history of England 
 than the spire of Sarmn or the martyrdom of 
 Canterbury. We say designedly of the past of 
 England, rather than of the past of burgh towns. 
 For in England the history of the town and of the 
 country are one. The privilege of the burgher has 
 speedily widened into the hberty of the people at 
 large. The municipal charter has merged into the 
 great charter of the realm. All the little struggles 
 over toU and tax, all the httle claims of custom 
 and franchise, have told on the general advance 
 of liberty and law. The town motes of the Norman 
 reigns tided free discussion and self-government 
 over from the Witanagemot of the old England to 
 the Parliament of the new. The busting coui t, with 
 its resolute assertion of justice by one's peers, gave 
 us the whole fabric of our judicial legislation. The 
 
46 MUNICIPAL RECORDS 
 
 Continental town lost its individuality by sinking 
 to the servile level of the land from which it had 
 isolated itself. The English town lost its indivi- 
 duality by lifting the country at large to its own 
 level of freedom and law."* 
 
 * Gieen, " Short History of the English People," pp. xi., xii. 
 
 BILLINQ AND SONS, LTD., PBINTERS, QniLDFOBD, KHOLANS 
 
'i''^':^.^' 
 
 '-v«%X' 
 
 
 ■i^^i 
 
 ^^:h^