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BEDFORD BOROUGH, 23 EDWARD I.

THE borough, market and county town of Bedford, situate 51 miles N.N.W. of London, is co-extensive with the parishes of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Cuthbert, St. Mary and St. John, all in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and formerly in the diocese of Lincoln, but now transferred to the diocese of Ely. There was anciently a sixth parish, called St. Peter's Dunstable. Bedford borough includes the whole of the town, which lies nearly in the centre, encircled by a broad belt of land; its area is 2200 acres, and the population 9178, there being 1880 inhabited houses, 87 uninhabited, and 34 building, according to the last census.

This prescriptive borough received its first charter 2 Henry II., when the town and its appurtenances were confirmed to the burgesses, on their paying into the king's exchequer, the fee-farm rent of £40 in value. In the 1 Richard I., besides being confirmed in the privileges of a guild merchant, they were exempted from toll, pontage, stallage, passage, assarts and all other customs throughout England and Normandy, in common with the citizens of Oxford. In the 19 Richard II., the mayor and burgesses having manfully resisted malefactors in certain counties of England, late insurgents against the king's peace, that monarch confirmed the charter of Richard I., and further granted them the right of pleading, or being impleaded, in all cases not affecting the crown, or the commonalty of the borough, within the borough-the burgesses were not to be put with strangers on any assizes, juries or inquests, so long as they should make stay within the borough; no strangers with the same burgesses, nor the latter to be convicted by any but their co-burgesses, unless in matters affecting the crown, or the commonalty of the borough. The mayor and bailiffs were empowered to hold twice a year a view of frank pledge. These privileges were confirmed 2 Henry IV., by letters patent, and again 2 Henry VI. From the great state of decay into which the borough had fallen in this reign, the burgesses were unable to pay more than £20 of their fee-farm rent; by charter the remainder was remitted them for the term of 60 years. All the above charters were reconfirmed by letters-patent, 2 Edward IV. and 10 Henry VII. The term of 60 years, just mentioned, expiring in the nineteenth year of the latter reign, upon a further petition of the inhabitants, who still continued in an impoverished condition, it was determined that they should only be charged with £20 a year for the fee-farm of the town. The whole of the privileges above cited, were subsequently reconfirmed in the 1 Henry VIII., 1 Mary, 1 Elizabeth, 3 James I., and finally 16 Charles II., in which charter it is further ordered that the oath of supremacy be taken by the corporation and burgesses, and that the king's

approval be demanded prior to the appointment of the recorder and town clerk.

By the Municipal Reform Act, passed in 1835, the government of the borough is vested in a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors, under the title and style of "the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of the town of. Bedford:" by the same act a commission of the peace has been granted to it, and the town divided into two wards. The assizes of the district and the quarter sessions for the town and county, are held at Lent and Midsummer, in the county hall in the town.

The principal manufactures are those of straw and lace, in which many women and children are employed: in the Bedford House of Industry flannel is also made. The amount of real property assessed in the town is £34,259. 12s. 3d. The quota of land tax assessed in 1798, under 38 George III., c. 5, was £653. 14s. 1d. From an official return made in 1831-2, it would appear that the five parishes of the borough were assessed in the proportion of one-third of the actual rent as to houses, and one-half as to lands. Under the 59 George III., c. 12, no assessments of landlords were authorised. In the proportion mentioned, the rents were considered fairly and equally apportioned, according to the value of the property in the town. The Bedford Poor Law Union comprehends 44 parishes; the annual expenditure on the poor for the three years prior to its establishment, was £25,716: expenditure in 1838, £10,044.

Bedford has returned two members to Parliament since 23 Edward I. Prior to the Reform Act, the elective franchise was vested by an order, dated 12 April, 1690, in the burgesses, freemen and inhabitants being householders, and not receiving alms. The laws and customs affecting the burgesses and freemen of the borough are as follows

The office of burgess is both hereditary and elective; every son of a burgess born after his father's admission, is entitled to be admitted a freeman, and by such admission becomes a burgess. Honorary burgesses are created by the common council without any restriction either as to number or qualification, only notice must be given at a previous meeting of the council. The fees on admission by birth amount to £2. 10s. including the stamp. There is a payment of 14s. 8d. to the corporation fund, 7s. 8d. to the town clerk; and other small fees to the inferior officers; on admission by gift the latter fees are higher. The burgesses are sworn before the court of aldermen, and they are still required to promise in their burgess oath, that they "will utterly forsake and eschew for ever the usurped power and unlawful jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, here most justly abolished." Besides obedience to the town authorities, they promise to assist in the apprehension and attachment of traitors, and other offenders, and in bringing them to justice "for the reformation of such their misdemeanours.' They alone are eligible to a place in the council, and all superior officers must be chosen from them. The character of the ruling body must therefore depend very much on the persons who compose this class.*

At the beginning of the present century, the corporation experienced a difficulty in finding proper persons to fill its municipal offices. In 1802, a lawyer who had been elected mayor refused to serve, because the council was composed of persons with whom he thought it below him to associate; and he stated this reason for refusing, to the recorder, the then Duke of Bedford. In the same year, the father of the present duke, succeeding his brother, addressed, soon after his election, letters to several resident gen. tlemen; in which, after stating his wish to conciliate the differences existing between the

The freemen are created by birth, apprenticeship, purchase and gift. The son first born after his father's admission is entitled to his freedom at the age of twenty-one, his title is ascertained by a burgess court, which is assembled twice a year; an apprenticeship for seven years with a freeman, resident or nonresident, followed by an actual and faithful service for the same period, entitles the apprentice to admission; the purchase of freedom has been regulated by successive bye-laws, and various sums fixed as the purchase money, the highest sum was £20; honorary freemen are created by the council without any restriction as to residence, service, number or property. All admissions take place at the court of aldermen, when the same oath is administered which is taken by a burgess. The fees on admission are the same as those paid by a burgess, except that in the latter case the sergeants' fees are double; each freeman has a voice in the election of the mayor, bailiffs, common councilmen, chamberlain and town-clerk. The inferior officers, with the exception of the field-drivers, are chosen from their own body.

The unlimited power of creating freemen, above alluded to, is obviously liable to great abuse. From 1738, the year when the list of these admissions were first preserved, to 1791, when creations of any extent ceased to be made, we find the following additions to their number: in 1738, 50 non-residents were elected; in 1740 again a considerable number; in 1747, about 100, principally non-residents; in 1748, the same number, all non-residents; in 1748, 35; from 1749 to 1761, about 50 per annum; in 1767, from 70 to 80; in 1769, 500; in 1770, about 50; in 1773, the same; in 1774, the same; in 1775, the same; in 1779, the same; in 1780, the same; in 1786, the same; from 1789 to 1791, about 350. From this list it will appear that the greatest number enrolled, at one time, was in 1769, when 500 were created in the interest of Sir Robert Barnard, afterwards recorder of the borough. These new freemen, it is said, came from Huntingdonshire, and were the tenants and neighbours of Sir Robert Barnard. They were called at that time "guinea-pigs" because perhaps they received a guinea each. The objects of their mission was to support the political interests of Sir Robert. On the secession of that gentleman from the recordership in 1789; and the appointment of the Duke of Bedford, it will be found from what we have stated, that from that year to 1791, 850 new freemen were created in the interests of the new recorder. This act of the corporation is thus represented by a political opponent: "The late Duke of Bedford finding that he had not sufficient influence to dragoon us, resolved to create a fresh body of freemen, to the number of at least 150; these persons constituting a body of men, consisting of his own tenants and tradesmen, and the tenants and tradesmen of other persons attached to him in politics. Some persons have offered to lend an apology for his grace's conduct upon this occasion, stating that the object of the noble duke was not to crupper and controul the town, but to raise a great body of

corporation and the town of Bedford, and that the corporation had acceded to a proposal he had made to them, for the admission into their body, a certain number of the most respectable inhabitants of the town, he expressed a hope that the individuals addressed would acquiesce in his wish, by accepting the office of burgess. This invitation was accepted, and twelve of the most respectable inhabitants of different political opinions were admitted as burgesses. Of this number one half were known political opponents of the recorder. In the following year they were elected into corporate offices without distinction of parties or opinions

men to act as a counterpoise to those out-voters (elected at a prior period) who had poured into the borough in 1790, much to the detriment of honest independence, and much to the injury of the free voice of the people of Bedford. On looking at the old poll-book, for 1790, I find that his grace's favourite candidate (Mr. Colhoun) polled more out-voters than the then candidate of the people; what then will be inferred from this? Simply, that the late Duke of Bedford, the pretended friend of liberty, was not anxious to rest on the kind affections and attachment of the men of Bedford, but to establish such a foreign force as could annihilate their political rights for ever."

The fact that many of the duke's servants and tradesmen were admitted to the freedom of the town is thus answered: "We know that some of the agents of the late Duke of Bedford were ardent politicians and most active whigs. One of these gentlemen resided at Bedford, and had extensive connexions in the town, and Mr. Colhoun being a whig, they were becoming the most zealous of his and the corporation's party. They naturally had recourse in forwarding his views to those with whom, from other circumstances, they possessed weight and influence, and this led to so many of his graces' tenants and tradesmen becoming freemen of the town. But surely his grace ought not to be held responsible for the acts of his tenants and tradesmen, unless he is to be arraigned not for controlling but for allowing too great a liberty to those connected with him. It may be admitted, and it is the only admission we have to offer, that it is possible he was aware of many of them having been made freemen, and that he did not interfere to prevent it. Why should he, more especially as his grace took no interest in political affairs, either local or general, at that time? But to conclude from his not preventing it, that he interfered to make them freemen, is nothing less than an absurdity." But what if Francis, Duke of Bedford, when little more than twenty-one, had countenanced a practice which was then thought fair in political warfare, was his memory for that to be charged with the reproach of tyranny? Transactions like these were not viewed with the same adhorrence forty years ago, that they very properly now are. Great changes have come upon us since then, as to our thoughts and actions, both in public bodies and private individuals.

This creation of freemen in 1791 was the last instance in this borough of such a practice; since then the franchise has with very few exceptions been conferred on those only who had a legal title, or who were willing and competent to undertake the municipal offices.

The present constituency comprehends the householders not receiving alms, including the renters of 786 houses of £10. Under the old regime the greatest number of electors polled for thirty years prior to the Reform Act, was 914. The mayor is the returning officer.

The boundaries are the parishes of St. Cuthbert, St. John, St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Paul.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF Members from ] E±w. VI. ro 10 VICTORIA.

Par..

Members.

Par. 1

Members.

1547 Gerard Harvey. G. Wright. 1625 Sir B. St. John, Knt. R.Taylor. 1553 T. Leigh. W. Godolphin.

Sir S. Luke, Knt.

1628

1640

1640. At this election there were two indentures; in one. Sir Beauchamp St. John and Sir Samuel Luke were returned; and in the other Sir Beauchamp St. John, and William Boteler. The controversy being therefore between Sir Samuel and Mr. Boteler, it was resolved. 5th Aug. 1641, "that Sir Samuel Luke is well elected as a burgess for the town of Bedford, and ought to serve as a member of the house.— Journ. of H. of C. Vol. 2.

+1661, May 16. Sergeant Charlton reports from the committee, concerning the several returns for the town of Bedford, that John Keeling, Sergeant-at-Law, and Richard Taylor, Esq, were returned in two indentures by the mayor, bailiff and burgesses; and that Sir Samuel Luke and Mr. Taylor were returned in another indenture by the mayor; and the opinion of the committee that Sergeant Keeling ought to sit until the said election be determined; to which the house agreed.-Journ. of H. of C.

1661. Vol. 8.

1690. March 29. A petition of Sir W. Franklyn, Knt., was read, shewing that he was duly elected and chosen by the proper officers of this town, and the returns being made to the high sheriff, which he received and returned to the under-sheriff, with orders that he should deliver the same, without any alteration, to the clerk of the crown, which he carried to the clerk's office. and altered the return by tearing off the indenture from the precept wherein the petitioner was returned, and affixed another in the room of it, whereby Mr Christie with Mr. Hillersden are returned to the abuse of your petitioner and the said borough, whereby a double return is pretended, purposely to delay the petitioner from serving in the house; and praying that the under sheriff and the clerk of the crown may show cause why the return was altered, and that the precept may be produced, and the return of the petitioner may be received and allowed.”