With others named, but not present. Sir Henry Felton, bart., and John Burrough, were appointed bailiffs under this charter. Sir Robert Broke, bart., Recorder. This charter, dated July 8th, 1685, deprived the freemen of all their rights and privileges, and vested the whole command of the corporation in the bailiffs, portmen, and common-council; and power was reserved, that the crown might, by an order of council, turn out any of the portmen or common-council, when and as often as his majesty or his successors might think proper; which power was, several times after, put in force. Though the burgesses received this charter, and acted under it, for three years, until 1688, yet the surrender of the town was not enrolled, nor was any judgment entered upon record upon the quo warranto brought against the corporation in the: reign of king Charles II.. Therefore, at the time of the landing of the prince of Orange, James II. by a proclamation and act in council, dated at Whitehall, the 17th of October, 1688, annulled it, and restored the corporations to their ancient charters, declaring the several deeds of surrender as informal and illegal. In consequence of this proclamation, the bailiffs, portmen, and twenty-fourmen who had acted under the charter of the 17th of Charles II. resumed their functions and filled up their bodies, respectively; the rights of the free burgesses were restored, and from these portmen, and these twenty-fourmen are the present portmen, and the present twentyfour-men, derived: and under this charter are the affairs of the corporation conducted. The principal officers of the corporation now are, two bailiffs, a high steward, a recorder, twelve portmen, of whom four are assistant justices, appointed by the bailiffs when they are sworn into office, a town-clerk, twenty-four common-council-men, two of whom are coroners, twelve of them head-boroughs or chief constables, and three clavigers; also a town treasurer, and two chamberlains. The corporation have likewise fifteen inferior or livery servants, consisting of five musicians, four serjeants at mace, two beadles, a common crier, a water-bailiff, a gaoler, and a bridewell-keeper. Their functions, and the power of the bailiffs, &c. will be more particularly defined in that portion of the volume describing the present state of the town. There is also a court of Small Pleas, for the town and borough of Ipswich, which has peculiar powers. This court, by prescription, has cognizance of all debts to any amount; but, until the reign of Henry III. not one record of the court of pleas can be found, owing to the flight of John Blake, a perfidious town-clerk, who carried away the same; so as, of all the pleas in former times, not more than four small rolls, and those in the latter part of the reign, are now left. The first entry found is in the thirty-ninth year of Henry III. "A debt acknowledged before the bailiffs in court, and, for non-payment, a distress to be taken by the bailiffs' order, of all goods and chattels in the liberty of Ipswich belonging to the debtor; and under penalty of £5 to the bailiffs' use, if it be not payde." "34th Edward I. An action of debt between Robert Tillet and Roger Patchett, merchants, for 17 marks, 6s. 8d., commenced originally, and was tried in the town court without the king's writ, and the king's writ comme, and injoin execution." And in the writ it is expressly mentioned, that the trial was according to the custom of the town without the king's writ. From this time processes have been uniformly granted by the bailiffs, for debts to any amount, originally, and without the king's writ. Affidavits to hold to bail are taken before the bailiffs for the time being, and writs are granted by the town-clerk, in the name of the bailiffs. There are four attornies of this court. In the 13th of George II. an act was passed for allowing magistrates of boroughs to exercise the same power of levying the Marshalsea rate in their jurisdiction, as had, the year before, been granted to the county magistrates. It is hardly necessary to premise, that this rate is levied upon the inhabitants in general, for defraying the expenses incident to the erection and government of prisons maintaining and removing prisoners-repairing of bridges - billeting of soldiers, and carrying their baggage from one town to another, coroners' fees, &c. &c. There is no peculiar privilege or power, in this respect, attached to the borough of Ipswich; but no order can be executed under this act, except by the authority of the magistates present at the general sessions of the peace for the borough; and as the present four assistant justices form a permanent majority, they have the power, and exercise it accordingly, of filling up all the appointments-such as jailor, surgeon, and chaplain to the prison, treasurer to the Marshalsea, &c. &c. in the manner most agreeable to themselves and friends. The Court of Requests was instituted by an act passed in 1807, and consists of the corporate body, and fifty-six other inhabitants; who meet every Tuesday, on the town hall, and take cognizance of all debts not exceeding £5. There is no appeal from their decision. This court not only applies to constant residents, but it is immaterial where the debt accrued due, provided the debtor is a trader, or in any way a dealer in the town at the time he is summoned. The extensive privileges and jurisdiction of the corporation have been before enumerated and explained; and there were several ancient usages and customs peculiar to the place, all of which have fallen into disuse, except the following, which have sometimes been acted upon. Upon an alienation of seisin of tenements, in the said town, delivered to a purchaser, the wife of the vendor may come into court, and being solely examined before the bailiffs, may acknowlege that alienation to be done with her consent; and that recognizance being enrolled, operates as a fine, and passes the estate of the feme covert. All those that have lands and tenements in the town, whether male or female, who can reckon, count, and measure, having completed the age of fourteen years, may give his or her land or freehold, or sell it, or let it, and of his or her right, quit claim for evermore, as if he or she had accomplished the age of twenty-one years. A woman covert may be compelled to answer in a plea of trespass, on pain of imprisonment, in like manner as she would were she sole, so that the trespass be personal and touch not freehold. Most of the privileges and exemptions from tolls, &c. of which our worthy free-burgesses are so wont to boast, have, from the lapse of time, and enacting of new laws and regulations, become nearly nonentities, and of little service or utility. Either from a desire of condensing their power into few hands, or from some extraordinary error or neglect, the portmen did not fill up the vacancies that occurred from time to time in their own body, till they were reduced to seven; when, some time after the death of Mr. Henry Seekamp and Mr. John Spooner, two of their number, in 1820, they proceeded to choose Sir William Middleton, bart., and Mr. Stephen Abbott Notcutt, in their room; but it was determined in the court of King's Bench, that 1 the words in the charter of the 17th of Charles II., where it is stated, "that any vacancy occurring in the number of the twelve portmen, shall be filled up by the rest or residue, or the greater part of them," meant the majority of the number twelve; and as, at the death of the two before-mentioned gentlemen, the number of portmen was reduced to five-four only of whom concurred in that election - the majority of twelve was lost, and, in consequence, they had not the power of choosing any new portmen; therefore, the election they had made was null and void. Thus the charter must, in a few years, naturally expire, for there will not be a sufficient number of portmen left to constitute a great court for transacting the business of the corporation; when it will be necessary to procure a writ of mandamus to fill up the number, or a new charter must be obtained; in which case it will be desirable for both parties to prevent the non-resident freemen from interfering in the election for the officers of the corporation, for the system of bringing them annually from all parts of the country, has, of late years, been carried to a ruinous extent; and it would likewise be proper to prevent any person from obtaining his freedom by servitude, unless he had duly and truly served his apprenticeship to a free burgess residing within the liberties of the borough, for the freedom being now obtained by apprenticeship to a free burgess, resident or non-resident, it opens the door to much fraud and abuse, and many have procured their freedom in a surreptitious and unlawful manner. This might, even now, be, in a great measure, prevented by not granting the freedom by servitude, unless the indentures were enrolled and registered in the town clerk's office within a stated time after the indenture was executed. The freedom is likewise acquired by patrimony, all the sons of a free burgess being entitled to their fran |