Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	archbishop_n	york_n	yorkshire_n	33	3	11.6042	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26181	The rights and authority of the Commons of the city of London in their Common-hall assembled, particularly in the choice and discharge of their sheriffs, asserted and cleared in answer to the vindication of the Lord-Mayor, Court of Aldermen, and Common-Council.	Atwood, William, d. 1705?	1695 (1695)	Wing A4180; ESTC R28315	49,692	29

of Freemen of the City where it provides that they shall not be impleaded or troubled at the Exchequer or elsewhere by Bill except it be by those things which touch the King and his Heirs And how careful the City has been to keep Foreigners from partaking in the Privileges of Freemen appears from the Act of Common-Hall return'd under the Common Seal into Parliament 12 E. 2. and there confirmed whereby it is provided that if Foreigners be of any Mystery they shall not be admitted into the Liberty of the City without Sureties of six honest Men of the Mystery for their indempnifying the City and if they be of no Mystery they shall not be admitted without the Assent of the Commonalty of the City That the Freemen of the Mysteries had their several Gilds or Halls where the Society or Fraternity met not to mention more Authorities appears by a Charter of E. 3. reciting one of E. 1. which recites H. 2 d's granting to the Weavers of London their Gild to hold in London with all Liberties and Customs which they had in the time of Henry his Grandfather which was H. 1. and that no Man unless by them should within the City meddle with their Ministry unless he be in their Gild. As therefore the Gild was that Company or the Hall where the Men of that Mystery met the Common Guildhall was where all the Mysteries or Companies met 2. That whosoever are legally entituled to the Common Hall are entituled to all the Authority which the whole Body ever had especially in those things wherein the present Possessors exercise any Authority though they are not the whole Body of Men who used to assemble as long as they are a large Part of that Body may appear 1. In that the Folkmote in the open Air and that in Guildhall were antiently taken to be of the same Nature Accordingly I find a Writ to the Mayor Sheriffs and whole Commonalty of the City requiring them to swear Allegiance in their Hustings or at Paul's Cross 2. Guildhall has time out of mind been the Common-Hall of the Citizens and the Assemblies there have of all times before the first supposed Settlement of the Livery Common-Hall and since been accounted the Assembly of all the Commonalty as some Entries have it of all the City as others And if the whole City can regularly act together it is absurd to imagine that its Acts can be controled by a small part of the Great Body 3. The chief Power of making By-Laws for the Benefit of a City or Burrough is an Incident to the having a Gild or Common-Hall Accordingly in the Reign of H. 2. the Archbishop of York by the Counsel of his Barons granted to the Men of Beverlay in Yorkshire their Hanse that there they may treat of their Statutes for the Honour of God and St. John and the Canons and for the bettering the whole Town with the same kind of Liberty as they of York have in their Hanse H. 2. confirming this grants to the Men of Beverlay free Burgage according to the free Laws and Customs of the Burgesses of York and their Gild of Merchants So that Gild is the same with Hanse and Hanse as Bertius tells us in the old German Tongue signifies a League or Council According to this in a Case which I shall have another Occasion to mention the turning out of the Council of the Citizens was the turning out of the Gild and that was plainly a Disfranchisement 4 Such of the Commons as have from time to time assembled in the Common-Hall have with others been a true Common-Council of the City and acted as such since their Numbers have been restrained as well as before It must be observed that the City had or made a Common-Council before any such Restraint which is plainly intimated in Magna Charta 17 of K. John which mentioning a Common-Council of the Kingdom whether only for Aids belonging to Tenure of the Crown or such a Common-Council as the Cities Boroughs and Villages were at in Person or by Representation which D. Brady at last yields need not here be determined adds In like manner let it be concerning the City of London that is that the Cities Aids shall be taxed in its Common-Council Sutably to this 11 H. 3. a Tallage was assessed in the City by the Will of all the Barons or Citizens And thus the Commonalty of London in the time of Edw. 1. plead that the Citizens and their Heirs and Successors may for the Necessity or Profit of the City among themselves by their common Assent assess and raise Tallages without troubling the King So Ipswich not to name other Burroughs had its Common-Council of the Town c. And 25 H. 3. I find the Choice of Sheriffs in London by the Common Counsel and Assent of the honest Men of the City The Hustings I find to be the Court of these honest Men there they joined with the Mayor and Aldermen in the Grants of City-Land were Judges at Trials and Parties in the making By-Laws Prosecutions for Offences against the Rights of the City were in their Name And Quo Warranto's upon supposed Abuses of their Liberties were brought against them And therefore they not being represented by the Common-Council now using that Name those two great Ornaments of their Profession the late and present Chief Justices of the Common Pleas maintained with the Strength inseperable from their Arguments that no Act of the present Common-Council could be a Forfeiture of the City-Charter Indeed as the Clerks generally favoured the Prerogative often exercised by the Chair with the Advice of private Cabals I find a Mayor 47 H. 3. blamed for making the Aldermen and great Men useless while he did nothing without the Assent of the Commonalty That they acted as a Council and exercised a judicial Power at the Hustings after that time I might shew by numerous Instances but shall here content my self with one 3 E. 1. which was in the Judgment against Hervey above-mentioned who though he was the Darling of the People when he was chosen Chief Magistrate was soon overcome with the Infection of the Chair Some time after his Mayoralty the Mayor and Citizens having met in Guildhall for trying Common Pleas a Dispute arose before all the People between Hervey and the then Mayor and it seems Hervey's Party there was then the strongest for the Mayor found himself obliged to withdraw and make Complaint to the King The next Day the Mayor and Citizens returning to Guildhall to finish the Pleas depending before them a Roll was shewn and read before all the People containing several notorious Articles of Hervey's Presumptions one of which was that in the time of his Mayoralty he acted contrary to the Ordinances made by the Aldermen and discreet Men of the City Another was that he used

Liberties of the City rested in the whole Body of the Freemen and the whole Body of them have regularly voted in making Laws for the Benefit and Government of the City before they had any Charters and since 2. That whoever are legally possess'd of the publick Common-Hall are intituled to all the Authority which the whole Body ever had especially in those Matters wherein the present Possessors exercise Authority and that the Livery-men have this Right 3. That a Representation of the Commons by the Mysteries was settled in the Council-Chamber with Authority to make By-Laws before any Common-Council of the present Form had such Authority And however that the Authority of that Council was soon taken away by Act of Common-Hall and lodg'd for some time in the Representation by the Mysteries 4. That whoever are intituled to the Council-Chamber that Council is a meer Creature and Committee of the Common-Hall by it entrusted with the dispatch of some things and for preparing others for its ease And whatever Power they have about Circumstances cannot by their Act deprive the Common-Hall of any Right 5. That there is no colour to believe that the Common-Hall as now compos'd received its Being or Authority from such Common-Council as now acts or from any thing but the general Consent of the Freemen express'd in some Act of Common-Hall before the Time of E. 4. or imply'd in the long submission of the rest of the Freemen before that Time or since 1. As I before observ'd the Confessor's Law derives the City's Laws Rights Dignities and Royal Customs from its first Foundation I may add that it says in every County there ought to be a Folkmote on the first of the Kalends of October there to provide who shall be Sheriff and who shall be their Heretochs and there to hear their just Precepts by the Counsel and Assent of the Peers and Judgment of the Folkmote That London had such a Folkmote and the Judgment of that Folkmote extended to the making By-Laws before the Time of the Confessor appears by the following Instance In the Time of King Athelstan above 120 Years before the reputed Conquest Laws had been made at Gratelie Exeter and Winresfeld or rather the Laws made at Gratelie were ratified at the two other Places all the wise Men not being able to meet at the first These Laws are not only received by the Earls or rather Companions and Townsmen or Citizens of London but they make considerable Additions to them for the Good of the City Their Act or Judgment is called the Constitution which the Bishops and Head-boroughs who belong to the Court of London have made or published and which the Earls or rather Companions or Companies and Townsmen have confirm'd by Oath in their Free-Gild There among other things they provide that no Thief above 12 Years old found guilty by Inquisition or upon Trial shall be spared And that he who was rob'd having receiv'd his Capital or Principal the King should have half the Society should share the rest with the Lord of whom he held Book-Land or Bishops-Land It provides for a Common Stock for the Good of all and that all in common shall inquire into the disposal of it It settles Decennaries or Tythings and that there shall be one over 'em who shall summon them for their common Profit and take an Account what they send when they are to contribute or be taxed and what when they receive Money by Order of all the Citizens upon their treating together With other Particulars which I need not mention this being enough to shew their Authority at Common Law before the reputed Conquest Then which was above 750 Years since they had their Guildhall and as the Confessor's Law shews their Court of the Hustings which in that Law is spoken of as an antient Court and all things of Moment seem to have been transacted there till the Numbers of Freemen so encreased that they could not all meet in the Hall but were forc'd to keep their Folkmotes in the open Air at St. Paul's Cross where was a very wide Field before there were Buildings to the Water-side I shall not detain the Reader with the many Presidents of their Assemblies there upon all emergent Occasions but must observe that as late as 19 E. 2. they prescribed to a Right of holding Assemblies there I shall give but one Instance how early the Aldermen with those who called themselves the more discreet of the City would have usurp'd upon the Rights of the Commons in their Guildhall or Folkmote in the open Air. At the end of H. 3 's Reign the Citizens according to Custom had met in Guildhall for the Election of a Mayor the Aldermen and more discreet of the City would have chosen Philip the Taylor the Commonalty contradicted it with great Noise and chose one Hervey and placed him in the Chair Upon this the Aldermen and their Party complain to the King that they were over-run by the Commonalty The People follow'd them with great Noise to the Disturbance of the King who lay upon his Death-bed and cried that they were the Commons and to them belong'd the Election of a Mayor The others said they were the Head and the People but the Members the King's Council put them off till next Day and bid Hervey not to come to Court with more than ten in his Company However he summoned all the Citizens except those who adhered to the Aldermen And next Day a vast Number of Horse and Foot came to Westminster The King's Council finding they could not agree threatned to amove Hervey and put a Custos over them To avoid which they agreed that five should be chosen of each side to settle who should be Mayor However this being in Diminution of the Right of the Commons took no effect H. 3. dying the Archbishop the Earl of Glocester and others of the Nobility came into the City where they caused E. 1. to be proclaimed King and then went into Guildhall where a Common Hall was then assembled and enquiring about the Business of the Mayor the Aldermen told them the Matter was left to Arbitration The Earl of Glocester not valuing this bids them hold a Folkmote the next Day at St. Paul's Cross and he should be the Mayor to whose Election the major Part of the City should assent The great Men going into the Church with the Aldermen perswaded them to yield upon which Hervey was declared Mayor before all the People And thus were they in full Possession of their Right 1 E. 1. That this People who had the Right to carry Elections and other Matters in Guild-hall or their Folkmote in the open Air were the Freemen appears by the Words of some of their Charters declaratory of their antient Right Many of which are granted to the Citizens which the Charter pass'd in Parliament 1 E. 3. explains