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CHARTER OF INCORPORATION, 1439
In 1439 a petition to His Majesty King Henry
VI set forth the grievances of the Plymouth townspeople and requested the
amalgamation of the town of Sutton
Prior, the tithing of Sutton Ralf (or Radcliffe) and the hamlet of Sutton
Valletort (or Vautort) to make it a free borough outside of the control of
the the County, the Hundred Court and thew Prior of Plympton.
The King granted this request by Royal Licence and on
November 12th 1439 it was confirmed by Act of Parliament. The Act
provided that:
- It was to be
known as the mayor and commonalty;
- It was to
have perpetual succession;
- It was to be
capable of holding lands;
- It was to
have a common seal;
- It could sue
and be sued as a corporate body;
- It had a
defined boundary;
- It had to
pay forty shillings per annum to the Exchequer for the fee farm
(instead of paying the Prior of Plympton);
- It was to
have Mr William Keterigge as its first mayor;
- It was elect
a mayor annually;
- It wax to
have the power to remove the mayor for misbehaviour;
- The mayor
was to take an oath each year before the Prior of Plympton or
his representative;
- The mayor
and commonalty was to receive all the property owned by Plympton
Priory within the borough, except three messuages and three
gardens, St Nicholas Island, and lands at Maker;
- Plympton
Priory reserved certain privileges for its servants in the
borough;
- It was to
pay an annual pension to the Priory for taking over its land
within the borough;
- The Borough
was exempt from the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Buckland in
respect of the Hundred of Roborough; and
- There was to
be an agreement between the Abbot of Buckland and Bath Priory
concerning Bampton Rectory, Devon.
On July 25th 1440, the King granted the first
Charter. Kingston-upon-Hull was the first town in England but their charter was
granted by an act of Royal grace. Plymouth's was the first to be granted by Act of
Parliament, making it the second municipal borough to be created in England.
The Charter granted
certain privileges to the new borough:
- That the
mayor was to be a justice of the peace;
- That the
mayor and recorder were to be justices of oyer and terminor;
- That the
borough was to have a merchants' guild as at Oxford;
- That the
borough was to have cognisance of pleas as at Oxford;
- That the
borough was to have the return and execution of all royal writs;
- That no
county official was to act within the borough;
- That no
burgesses were to be summoned outside the borough;
- That a
coroner was to be elected;
- That the
borough was to hold two fairs each year (on the feast of St
Matthew (September 21st) and the conversion of St Paul (January
25th)) and two markets each week (on Mondays and Thursdays);
- That it was
to have all rights and amercements within the borough; and
- That it was
to have freedom from tolls.
Thus the
divided and unprivileged market town of Plymouth acquired its legal rights
to become a borough, beholden only to itself and the Monarch, a status that
remained until the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835.
Principal Source:
Welch, C E, "Plymouth
City Charters 1439-1935: A Catalogue", Plymouth City Council,
1962.
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