Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	say_a	time_n	warden_n	5,154	5	13.4278	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

words of any Charter or Prescription Yet this Power the Common-Hall undoubtedly has and I may say incommunicably till that part of their Court or the Committee from them which sits in the Council-Chamber shall have legally possess'd themselves of the Hall I shall add but one Precedent of many where the Mayor Aldermen Common-Council and Commons acted together as one Court and true Common-Council of the City and that since the time that the present Common-Council and Livery Common-Hall are suppos'd to have been setled A Mayor dying in his Mayoralty the Locum tenens or Senior Alderman with the rest of the Aldermen appoint a Day for the choice of a new Mayor and order the Servants of the Chamber to summon the immense Community of the City There met the Common-Council and the immense Multitude of Commoners in their last Livery but one Aylmer was there chosen Mayor and sworn before the Aldermen and Commons In that Common-Hall they after the Election was over acted together as a Council For whereas the Mayor should as it seems according to the usual course in such Cases have been sworn to the King the next Day The Aldermen and Commons for certain Reasons moving them thereto appointed a farther Day That the Commons who did this were the Livery-men appears by what immediately follows in the same Entry Where it is said That the Aldermen conducted the new Mayor to the taking his Oath in their Violet-colour'd Gowns and the Common in their last Livery 5. That there is no colour to believe That the Common-Hall as now compos'd receiv'd its Being or Authority from such a Common-Council as now acts or from any thing but the general Consent of the Free-men express'd in some Act of Common-Hall before the time of E. IV. or implied in the long submission of the rest of the Free-men before that time may sufficiently appear by what has been prov'd under former Heads And yet if any Act or Acts of Common-Council in the Reign of E. IV. were the occasion of Elections having been restrain'd to the Livery-men it may appear by what has been formerly shewn That the submission of the Free-men implied in the Custom ever since that time gave the only force to that Restriction that of it self carrying no manner of Authority to diminish the Right of the Common-Hall But any one who remembers the Evidence that the Mysteries had Representatives of their own before the time of E. IV. and the Legal Presumption that those Representatives were the Livery-men will be more fully satisfied that they were so before the time of E. IV. when he observes the words of those Orders which are pretended to have given Being to the Livery Common-Hall The first Order is thus At a Common-Council holden on Wednesday in the 7th Year of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth it was agreed by John Young Mayor John Norman c. Aldermen and the Commonalty of the City of London inter alia That the Election of the Mayor and Sheriffs shall hereafter be made only by the Common-Council The Master and Wardens of every Mystery of the said City coming in their Liveries and by other honest Men for that purpose specially summoned 1. It must be remember'd That the Common-Council in Hen. the Sixth's time was the Council of the Mysteries and consequently unless an alteration can be shewn must be thought to have continued so at the time of that Order 7 E. IV. 2. This Representation of the Commons being so large as has appear'd above their Act is call'd The Act of the Commonalty of the City And this we must suppose to have been made in Common-Hall 3. None besides the Masters and Wardens are by this Act oblig'd to come in Liveries 4. Here is no restriction of Elections to the Liveries but to the Common-Council That is as is there explained the Masters and Wardens and other honest Men of the Mysteries specially summoned To which special Summons as has been shewn before the Livery-men and no others were entituled Wherefore this was no more than a repeating or affirming former Orders often occasioned upon the breaking in of other Free-men to the disturbance of Elections before plac'd in the more discreet which the Custom has interpreted to be the Livery-men Who according to this Ordinance with which the present Common-Council triumph were the only Common-Council at that time And thus as appears by the Entry before-cited 6 Hen. VII they continued after this Ordinance and after the next 15 E. IV. which has these words Then in the same Common-Council it is agreed That the Master and Wardens of the Mysteries of the City in their Halls or other Places of the City fit and convenient associating to them the honest Men of their Mysteries being clothed in their last Livery shall go together to the Guild-Hall of their City for the Election of Mayor c. And in their last Livery but one to the Election of the Sheriffs of the City c. And that no others besides the honest Men of the Common-Council of the City shall be present at the said Elections All that this adds to the former Provision 7 E. IV. is only the requiring all the Livery-men for distinction's sake to go in their Liveries to prevent the interposition of others Which was no restraint upon Persons but a requiring the Persons who came according to their former Right to wear their proper Habit to distinguish 'em from others Some may suppose that this speaks of honest Men of the Common-Council besides the honest Men of the Mysteries Whereas the Common-Council is plainly here mentioned as exegetical or explanatory of the honest Men of the Mysteries That is to say such honest Men of the Mysteries as are of the Common-Council and no others shall be present at the Elections Which as has appear'd were long before that Ordinance the Livery-men only If this and the other be not taken in this Sense then they neither confine the Election to Livery-men nor suppose the Livery-men only to have right to come but allow any Commoner who is chosen to the Common Council to Vote at the Elections tho' no Livery-man Whereas they who would derive the Authority of the Common-Hall from these Ordinances suppose that they restrain Elections to the Livery-men only But could it be imagin'd that those Ordinances or either of them is or are conceiv'd in terms importing a restriction of Elections to the Livery-men and that the Ordinances were made by a Common-Council chosen by the Wards it appears by the Ordinance which laid the moveable Foundation upon which following Common-Councils of the Wards have built up themselves besides other Evidences of the Superior Authority continuing in the Common-Hall the true Common-Council of the Mysteries or Crafts as it is called 8 R. II. That the force of such restraint could not proceed from the Authority of the Common-Council but that subsequent Common-Halls not having thought fit to alter this

the Common Seal which was in his Custody without the Assent of the Aldermen and others which others as I could shew were to be particularly chosen by the Common-Hall for that purpose For these Offences among others against the whole Commonalty of the City and contrary to his Oath he was judicially degraded from his Aldermanship and for ever incapacitated to be of the Council of the Citizens which was plainly a depriving him of his former Right of voting in Gildhall and indeed a Disfranchisement as it turn'd him out of the Gild. And thus I find Privileges in Canterbury granted to all the Burgesses of the Gild of Merchants 5. The present Possession of the Common-Hall is or must be agreed to be a legal Possession and therefore in all things which they have not parted with the Possessors are the legal Successors to them who exercised Power in greater Numbers 6. Even when those Numbers could regularly meet they were concluded by such a Number as came upon general Notice though the Number which met were very small according to the Resolution 33 Eliz. in the Case of the Vestry of St. Saviour's in Southwark 7. Though it may be proved that the great Barons in Parliament were antiently only those who held by Baronies or were created in Parliament yet those who have been made Peers by Patent or Writ succeed to the same Jurisdiction as they are possessed of the same House which the Lords formerly had 8. A Corporation by one Name is entituled to the prescriptional Rights which that City or Town had by another Name And thus it was held that though the Town of Colchester was incorporated by the Name of Bayliffs and Commonalty the Mayor and Commonalty might prescribe to the antient Customs of that Town That the Livery-men have such a Right to the Common-Hall appears by their long Possession for which according to the Resolutions of Judges before-mentioned we are to presume that there had been the express Assent of the Body of Freemen or of such of them as met upon a general Summons If I shew an Act of Common-Hall as antient as the Time of E. 3. for the Mysteries to chuse such as should represent the Commons which I shall have Occasion to shew under the next Head if we find that they had been represented in Common-Hall by the Mysteries before that Time and downwards to this Day and no Act of Common-Council or Common-Hall will appear to have first settled the Right of Elections in the Livery-men of the Mysteries then it will be evident that tho Originally the Mysteries might have been represented by such as they should chuse from time to time It is to be presumed that they agreed to be represented by the Livery-men as a standing Representative 8 E. 2. above 30 Years before the Pretence to any Act of Common-Council or Common-Hall which may be thought to restrain the Freemen from the exercice of the Power originally vested in them I find a Writ to prohibit the Multitude from meeting to chuse a Mayor and Sheriffs alledging that such Elections for Times past us'd to be made by the more discreet Men of the City especially summon'd But then lest this special Summons should seem at the Discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen it forbids all to meet unless specially summon'd or at the Time bound to come And a Proclamation which was publish'd in the City in pursuance of that Writ says That no Man upon pain of Imprisonment shall come to any Election but Mayor Sheriff Alderman and other good People of the chief of the City who by the Mysteries are especially summon'd to come thither or to whom it belongs to be there These Representatives of the Mysteries according to what I have before observed of the legal Possession of the Common-Hall are to be supposed to have been the Livery-men and none others but because the Partiality of the Masters and Wardens might occasion the not summoning some of the Livery-men therefore there is Liberty left for them who had Right to come though not summoned That they and none others had this Right will further appear when I come to prove that no Act can be found from whence their Right exclusive of others is or could be derived or so much as occasioned 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 any such Authority And however that the very Being of a Council of the present Form was soon taken away by Act of Common-Hall and a Representation by the Mysteries settled in their Places with greater Authority will appear very evidently I must agree that 20 E. 3. it was ordered by the Common-Hall That every Alderman at the holding of his Wardmote yearly should cause 8 6 or 4 of the ablest and wisest of his Ward to be chosen to treat of the Affairs concerning the Commonalty of the City But upon this it is observable 1. That though according to the Lord Coke the Wardmote is of the Nature of an Hundred Court that is in relation to the Districts or Divisions of the City and chiefly as to the Returns of Juries but in Relation to the present Debate it is more fully of the Nature of a Court Leet where all Resiants are obliged to attend and upon the Account of Resiancy are to bear Offices and contribute in several things together with the Citizens who in this Respect are as the Barons or Free-Tenents of a Mannor Wherefore this Order does not restrain Foreigners from being Electors or elected 2. This is not said to be appointed for the Common-Council of the City but in truth the Common-Hall as they were before then continued the only Common-Council Nor taking the Original Entry of that Order to import more than Affairs does the treating of the Affairs concerning the Commonalty in this Place imply more than such Affairs as concern them according to their Divisions by Wards in the Choice of Constables or the like or the assessing of Aids and Tallages for which Purpose I find certain Numbers in every Ward appointed very antiently before there is the least Pretence of the Settlement of any other Common-Council besides the Common-Hall But it is far from appearing that the Men of the Wards appointed to treat of Affairs 20 E. 3. were to treat of such as concerned the Commonalty as divided or acting by Mysteries Or however if the treating of Affairs extends to all the Affairs of the City it can here imply no more than treating of them by way of Advice to that supreme Power in the City which made them what they were and divested it self of no Authority nor indeed could any form of Words have passed away the Authority of that much less of succeeding Common-Halls And it is certain that antiently whatever Power the Common-Hall placed elsewhere they never thought