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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A57318 The Right of electing sheriffs of London and Middlesex, briefly stated and declared 1682 (1682) Wing R1504; ESTC R24147 5,029 4

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THE Right of Electing SHERIFFS OF LONDON and MIDDLESEX Briefly stated and declared 'T IS the present unhappy Fate of this great and ancient City to be betray'd by persons fostered within her Walls and raised and enriched through the benefit of her Franchises and Priviledges How many whose Hereditary Fortunes could not furnish them with Bread are swell'd to a bigness ready to burst by having suckt at her Breasts and like Vipers after they have been nourished in her Womb they state their interest in gnawing her entrails and stabbing her in her Vital parts The Antiquity of London is such that no Records can determine her Beginning Her subsistence as a Corporation is immemorial and no Registers of the affairs of former times can define or determine when her Greatness Prerogatives and Priviledges commenced and begun Annal. 14. Tacitus saith of her above Fifteen Hundred years ago That she was a City famous for Trade and Commerce And Cambden assures us That above 360 years since she was ennobled with the Title of Augusta which was a Name of the highest Honour and Dignity that any City was capable of and then he further tells us Britain fol. 305. the Bishop of this famous City was present at the Council of Arles which was held under Constantine the Great Yea Heylin and Howel whom our Tories so much Reverence and admire have so far in this matter consulted Truth and their own Reputation that the first of these Authors acknowledgeth she was a City of great renown in the time of the Roman conquest and the second confesseth That she was anciently not only the Epitome and Abridgment of the Kingdom but Caput Regum Legum the Head both of Kings and Laws Nor is the Citizens Right of chusing Officers particularly Sheriffs founded originally upon their Charters but it belonged unto them by the Common Law of England as appears by the Statute of Ed. 1. cap. 8. and 13. and Cooks Commentary upon it 2 Instit fol. 558. Lamb. fol. 146. wherein all he hath said relating hereunto is justified by Lambert in his Saxon Laws And when in the 9th Ed. 2. it was ordained by Parliament that the Sheriffs of the several Counties of the Kingdom should be nominated by the Chancellor Treasurer Barons of the Exchequer and the Justices London is excepted forasmuch as it is expresly declared that that Act extends only to such Counties and places 28 Ed. 3. cap. 8. where the Sherivalty is not in Fee And as all Sherivalties are shut out from being concluded by that Statute which are any ways held in Fee so by undeniable and natural consequence such Sherivalties stand ratified and confirmed by these two Acts of Parliament to the respective Grantees Stephanid M. ss in Biblioth Cotton And whereas London had anciently pro consulibus vicecomites for its Magistrates Sheriffs so William the Conqueror in acknowledgment of its ancient Rights granted and confirmed civibus Londini totam dictam Civitatem vicecomitatum to the Citizens of London the whole City and Sheriffwick thereof lib. K. in Archivis London fol. 120. And as to the Sheriffwick of Middlesex Henry 1. Son to William the Conqueror granted it to the Citizens of London and their Heirs at the Farm of Three Hundred pounds per annum Carta H. 1. Inspex 2 Hen. 5. so that they should chuse vicecomites quales voluerint de seipsis what Sheriffs they pleased from among themselves And King John Son to Henry the II. did in the first year of his Reign Demise and grant to the Citizens of London and their Heirs the Sheriffwick of London and Middlesex with all the customs thereunto belonging to be enjoy'd by them and their Heirs at the Fee-farm of Three Hundred pounds per annum Nor it is not unworthy of our remark that by that Charter the said Citizens have liberty and power to remove their Sheriffs when they please Ex Original Carta 1 Joannis because as the Charter expresseth it the City is to answer for their misdemeanors if they should offend against the duty of their office and Place To these we may subjoin the Charter of Hen. 3. who in the eleventh year of his Reign devised and confirmed to the Citizens of London the said Sheriffwicks of London and Middlesex with all the things and customs thereunto appertaining And all these Charters have by Inspeximus's been confirmed by Ed. 1. Ed. 2. Ed. 3. Rich. 2. Hen. 4. Hen. 5. Hen. 6. Ed. 4. Rich. 3. Hen. 7. Hen. 8. Q. Mary Q. Eliz. K. James K. Charles I. and his present Majesty Nay these Rights Liberties and Jurisdictions of chusing Sheriffs from among themselves and turning them out when they will are not only ratified and confirmed to the Barons or Free-men of London cap. 8. by Magna Charta or the great Charter and the Statutes of the 18 Ed. 1. 9 Ed. 2. but by the Statute 1 Ed. 3. wherein it is particularly Enacted That they shall both have all the Priviledges which they have enjoy'd from the time of Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror and other the Progenitors of the said Ed. 3. tam per cartas quam sine cartis ex antiqua consuetudine whether they possessed them by Charters or without them namely by prescription And it is observable that this Charter of Ed. 3. is not a meer Patent Grant or Charter of the said King but is it self an Act of Parliament made in the first year of that Kings Reign and confirmed by Inspeximus in the 2 Hen. 8. And consonant to this Charter and Statute of Ed. 3. is the Charter of the 7 Rich. 2. which is also ratified into an Act of Parliament Rot. Parl. 7. Rich. 2. Inspex 8. Jacob. and wherein he confirms unto the Citizens of London all their Franchises and Priviledges sive usi non fuerint sive abusi whether they were either such as they had not made use of or such as they had abused Accordingly the Free-men or Barons of London chose their Sheriffs without the least interposure of their Mayors during all the time of R. 1. K. John H. 3. E. 2. till the 20 of Ed. 3. But then they granted unto their Mayors the nominating or proposing one Sheriff but still with this reserve That they should have the ratifying confirming and chusing of them And this reservation of a Right to themselves to chuse Sheriffs plainly appears by the Act. For the only reason of allowing that favour unto the Mayor was upon a supposal that he had better knowledg than others who of the Citizens were fit for so important an office which many at that time were willing to decline by reason of an Act of Parliament pass'd in the said 20th Ed. 3. Empowering the Justices of Assize to enquire into the misdemeanours of Sheriffs and to punish them as Law and Reason did require And that this Ordinance doth not infringe the Rights and Priviledges of the Citizens