ON THE CHARTERS, DOCUMENTS, AND

INSIGNIA RELATING TO THE
ANCIENT MANOR AND BOROUGH
OF MACCLESFIELD.

EFORE proceeding to describe the various charters,

BEF

documents, and insignia relating to this ancient borough it will be necessary to give a brief account of its history, especially in relation to these documents. The earliest mention we have of this township is contained in the Domesday Survey of 1086, in which is stated that the Saxon earl, Edwin, held it, and most probably held a court here. It also states that this Saxon earl was succeeded by the Norman Earl of Chester, and he and his successors held this manor until the earldom became extinct in 1237. It is to one of these Norman Earls of Chester that the town of Macclesfield owes its first charter. About the year 1220, Randle Blundeville, probably the third earl, is stated to have made the town into a free borough, and ordered it to consist of one hundred and twenty burgesses, each of whom should pay 12d. per annum to the earl. Of this

charter there is no trace, as far as I can gather, but Ormerod, in his History of Cheshire, prints a charter in connection with this matter. After the extinction of the Norman Earls of Chester in 1237, the manor passed to the Crown as one of its appendages, and it was held by the Princes of Wales or reigning sovereigns, as Earls of Chester, who frequently granted it to their consorts, or devised it at times to various families in the country. As an instance of this I may mention that in 1270 it was granted to Eleanor, the wife of Edward, Prince of Wales, who afterwards became queen, and who, eight years later, in 1278, founded our parish church. In subsequent years it passed through various hands. The manor belonged to Joan, widow of the Black Prince, in 1382; in 1386 it was granted by the latter's executors to Dame Joan de Mohun, and this was confirmed to her for her life by King Richard II. This latter lady exchanged it in 1389 with Queen Ann, consort of Richard II., for an annuity of £100. On February 28th, 1437, a lease of the manor of Macclesfield was granted to Sir Thomas Stanley and John Savage, Esq., for twelve years from the death of Queen Catherine, widow of Henry V. About 1650, after the execution of Charles I., it was again sold, one portion to Peter Brereton and James Winstanley, and the other to Mr. Samuel Rowe, of Macclesfield; but at the Restoration these sales became void. Ultimately, the profits of the manor were leased to various persons, and in 1796, when the commons and waste lands were enclosed, the manorial rights of the Crown, except as to coal mines, were extinguished.

Such is the brief history of the manor of Macclesfield from the earliest known times, that is, the Domesday Survey, but we are more particularly interested with the charters, documents, &c., connected with these many

changes, and it is with those I now intend to deal. I am sorry to say that, unfortunately, many of our records are missing, but we are fortunate in possessing a charter dated May 29th, 1261, and granted by Edward, son of King Henry III., Earl of Chester, and afterwards Edward I., to his burgesses of Macclesfield. The seal is destroyed, but otherwise it is in very good condition. I will not repeat it verbatim, but will describe a few of its salient points. After the usual greeting, it goes on to say that the king has conceded and confirmed to the burgesses of Macclesfield that the town shall be a free borough, that the burgesses shall have a guild hall with all its liberties and free customs. Also that they shall be free throughout Cheshire, by water and land, of toll, passage, i.e., money paid for leave to pass through certain liberties or over rivers and streams, pontage (tolls over bridges), stallage (money paid for leave to erect stalls and booths in any market town), and lastage, i.e., a toll paid for goods sold by the last or load, and all other customs, except salt, in the "Wyches." The reason of this last proviso is that the tolls on salt brought from Nantwich, Northwich, &c., were a source of revenue to the Earls of Chester. They also had the privilege of pasture and "housebote and haybote in our forest," that is, in the forest of Macclesfield. The terms haybote and housebote refer to wood for making fences or hedges and houses, but this privilege is followed by an important proviso, in those days, which runs as follows: "Saving to us our pannage when there are acorns," that is, reserving the acorns for pigs, which were then kept in large quantities in charge of a swineherd. I may here mention Earwaker states that as late as the middle of the eighteenth century a "pig catcher" was an officer annually appointed by the corporation. The charter then proceeds to grant certain

legal privileges and to enjoin the burgesses to have their corn ground at the king's mills to the twentieth grain, and allows them to elect their own provost or mayor by the assent and consent of the earl or his bailiffs. They could hold their burgages and lands belonging to their burgages for 12d. per year, and sell or exchange the same to all except religious houses. This burgage tenure was a feudal service or tenure of houses or tenements by which the owner held it of the king or lord of the manor by a certain annual pecuniary rent or other service relating to trade, &c., but having no relation to military service. In this instance the rent was 12d. per year, but the king reserved to himself the liberty of his bakehouse in the town. The charter is signed by the Lords Erard de Valery Fulk de Orreby, then "our justiciary of Chester," Ralph Bassett, Thomas de Orreby, then "our escheator of Cheshire," Hugh de Clifford, John de Brereton, "keeper of our wardrobe," Thomas de Boulton, and others. It is signed at Guildford, on the 29th of May, "in the forty-fifth year of the reign of our Lord the King our father 1261." Such are the most important and interesting points in this charter, which throws a very vivid light upon the social conditions of the people of those far-off days, nearly six hundred and forty-three years ago. Our existence as a borough dates from that time, and we claim to be one of the oldest boroughs in the kingdom. The privileges contained in this charter were ratified and confirmed by subsequent sovereigns. We find that Edward III. issued a charter, dated at York on February 26th, 1334, for this purpose, and he was followed by Richard II. on November 14th in 1389 at Westminster, but this document is, I regret to say, missing. Also at Westminster by Edward IV. on January 30th, 1465, and by Elizabeth at Westminster on May 13th, 1564.

In 1595, Elizabeth issued Letters Patent confirming the previous privileges and adding many new ones, but as my object is not to enter into cur municipal history, but only to describe the documents, I will only mention that one of her injunctions was that we should have an officer attached to the body corporate, known as the sergeant of mace, who should be yearly elected by the mayor for the time being, and should attend upon him and execute all processes, &c. He was to carry a golden or silver mace, with the arms of the kingdom engraved thereon, before the mayor for the time being.

This second charter of Queen Elizabeth was confirmed by James I. on May 31st, 1606, and by Charles II. in 1666, with a few modifications. An entirely new charter of privileges was granted to the town by Charles II. on November 19th, 1684, and these continued in existence until the Municipal Reform Act, 1835.

Our list of mayors commences in 1330, but the list is incomplete owing to the loss or destruction of the old rolls of the mayor's court and the mayor's accounts prior to the eighteenth century. These court rolls were examined fifty or sixty years ago, but they have, I believe, disappeared. The records, too, are very few in number, and I shall, unfortunately, be unable to show you any earlier than those dated October, 1618. Earwaker states in his History of East Cheshire that "early in the last century they were very numerous and important, amongst them being a number of rolls of the mayor's court going back to the reign of Richard II., in 1377. The earliest mayor's accounts, full of quaint and curious information, went back to 1560," but none of these are now in the possession of the corporation. This is, indeed, a lamentable fact, as such records are not only of the utmost value to us locally, but they have almost a national