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BOROUGH (A.S. nominative burh, dative...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 273 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOROUGH (A.S. nominative burh, See also:dative byrig, which produces some of the See also:place-names ending in See also:bury, a sheltered or fortified place, the See also:camp of See also:refuge of a tribe, the stronghold of a chieftain; cf. Ger. See also:Burg, Fr. bor, See also:bore, bourg)  , the See also:term for a See also:town, considered as a unit of See also:local See also:government . See also:History of the See also:English See also:Borough.—After the See also:early English See also:settlement, when See also:Roman fortifications ceased to shelter hostile nations, their colonies and camps were used by the Anglo-Saxon invaders to See also:form tribal strongholds; nevertheless burhs on the sites of Roman colonies show no continuity with Roman municipal organization . The resettlement of the Roman Durovernum as the burh of the men of (See also:East) See also:Kent, under a changed name, the name "burh of the men of Kent," Cant-wara-byrig (See also:Canterbury), illustrates this point . The burh of the men of See also:West Kent was Hrofesceaster (Durobrivae), See also:Rochester, and many other ceasters See also:mark the existence of a Roman See also:camp occupied by an early English burh . The tribal burh was protected by an earthen See also:wall, and a See also:general See also:obligation to build and maintain burhs at the royal command was enforced by Anglo-Saxon See also:law . Offences in disturbance of the See also:peace of the burh were punished by higher fines than breaches of the peace of the " See also:ham " or See also:ordinary dwelling . The burh was the See also:home of the See also:king as well as the See also:asylum of the tribe, and there is See also:reason to think that the boundary of the borough was annually sanctified by a religious ceremony, and hence the See also:long retention of a processional perambulation . Possibly the " hedge " or " wall " of the borough gave it, besides safety, a sanctity analogous to that enjoyed by the Germanic See also:assembly while gathered within its " hedge," which the priests solemnly set up when the assembly gathered, and removed when it was over . While the " peace " of the Germanic assembly was essentially temporary, the " peace " of the burh was sacred all the See also:year See also:round . Its " hedge " was never removed . The sanctity of the burh was enjoyed by all the dwellings of the king, at first perhaps only during his term of See also:residence . Neither in the early English See also:language nor in the contemporary Latin was there any fixed usage differentiating the various words descriptive of the several forms of human settlement, and the tribal refuges cannot accordingly be clearly distinguished from villages or the strongholds of individuals by any purely nomenclative test .

It is not till after the Danish invasions that it becomes easier to draw a distinction between the burhs that served as military strongholds for See also:

national See also:defence and the royal vills which served no such purpose . Some of the royal vills eventually entered the class of boroughs, but by another route, and for the See also:present the private stronghold and the royal dwelling may be neglected . It was the public stronghold and the administrative centre of a dependent See also:district which was the source of the See also:main features See also:peculiar to the borough . Many causes tended to create peculiar conditions in the boroughs built for national defence . They were placed where artificial defence was most needed, at the junction of roads, in the plains, on the See also:rivers, at the centres naturally marked out for See also:trade, seldom where hills or marshes formed a sufficient natural defence . The burhs See also:drew See also:commerce by every channel; the camp and the See also:palace, the administrative centre, the ecclesiastical centre (for the See also:mother-See also:church of the See also:state was placed in its See also:chief burh), all looked to the See also:market for their See also:maintenance . The burh was provided by law with a See also:mint and royal moneyers and exchangers, with an authorized See also:scale for weights and See also:measures . See also:Mercantile transactions in the burhs or ports, as they were called when their commercial rather than their military importance was accentuated, were placed by law under See also:special legal privileges in See also:order no doubt to secure the king's hold upon his See also:toll . Over the burh or See also:port was set a See also:reeve, a royal officer answerable to the king for his dues from the burh, his rents for lands and houses, his customs on commerce, his See also:share of the profits from judicial fines . At least from the loth See also:century the burh had a "See also:moot" or See also:court, the relation of which to the other courts is See also:matter of See also:speculation . A law of See also:Edgar, about 96o, required that it should meet three times a year, these being in all likelihood assemblies at which attendance was compulsory on all tenants of the burghal district, when pleas concerning See also:life and See also:liberty and See also:land were held, and men were compelled to find pledges answerable for their See also:good conduct . At these See also:great meetings the borough reeve (gerefa) presided, declaring the law and guiding the judgments given by the suitors of the court .

The reeve was supported by a See also:

group of assistants, called in See also:Devon the "See also:witan," in the boroughs of the Danelaw by a group of (generally twelve) " lawmen," in other towns probably by a group of aldermen, See also:senior burgesses, with military and See also:police authority, whose See also:office was in some cases hereditary . These persons assisted the reeve at the great meetings of the full court, and sat with him as See also:judges at the subordinate meetings which were held to See also:settle the269 unfinished causes and See also:minor causes . There was no compulsion on those not specially summoned to attend these extra meetings . At these subordinate jurisdictional assemblies, held in public, and acting by the same authority as the See also:annual gathering of all the burh-wara, other business concerning borough See also:administration was decided, at least in later days, and it is to these assemblies that the origin of the town See also:council may in many cases be ascribed . In the larger towns the See also:division into wards, with a See also:separate police See also:system, can be traced at an early See also:time, appearing as a unit of military organization, answerable for the defence of a See also:gate of the town . The police system of See also:London is described in detail in a See also:record of 930-940 . Here the See also:free See also:people were grouped in associations of ten, each under the superintendence of a headman . The bishops and See also:reeves who belonged to the "court of London" appear as the See also:directors of the system, and in them we may see the aldermen of the wards of a later time . The use of the word bertha for See also:ward at Canterbury, and the fact that the London wardmoot at a later time was used for the See also:frankpledge system as well as for the organization of the See also:muster, point to a connexion between the military and the police systems in the towns . At the end of the 9th and beginning of the loth century there is See also:evidence of a systematic " timbering " of new burhs, with the See also:object of providing strongholds for the defence of Wessex against the Danes, and it appears that the surrounding districts were charged with their maintenance . In charters of this See also:period a "haw," or enclosed See also:area within a burh, was often conveyed by See also:charter as if it were an apanage of the lands in the neighbourhood with which it was conveyed; the See also:Norman settlers who succeeded to lands in the See also:county succeeded therewith to houses in the burhs, for a See also:close association existed between the " thegns " of the See also:shire and the shirestow, an association partly perhaps of See also:duty and also of See also:privilege . The king granted borough " haws " as places of See also:refuge in Kent, and in London he gave them with commercial privileges to his bishops .

What has been called the " heterogeneous " See also:

tenure of the shirestow, one of the most conspicuous characteristics of that particular type of borough, was further increased by the liberty which some burgesses enjoyed to " commend " themselves to a See also:lord of their own choosing, promising to that lord suit and service and perhaps See also:rent in return for See also:protection . Over these burgesses the lords could claim jurisdictional rights, and these were in some cases increased by royal grants of special rights within certain "sokes." The great boroughs were honeycombed with sokes, or areas of seignorial See also:jurisdiction, within which the royal reeve's authority was greatly restricted while that of the lord's reeve took See also:precedence . Even the haws, being " burhs " or strongholds within a stronghold, enjoyed a local " peace " which protected from See also:official intrusion . Besides heterogeneity of tenure and jurisdiction in the borough, there was also heterogeneity of status; there were burh-thegns and cnihts, mercatores, burgesses of various kinds, the three See also:groups representing perhaps military, commercial and agricultural elements . The burh generally shows signs of having been originally a See also:village settlement, surrounded by open See also:fields, of which the borough boundary before 1835 will suggest the outline . This area was as a See also:rule eventually the area of borough jurisdiction . There is some evidence pointing to the fact that the restriction of the borough authority to this area is not See also:ancient, but due to the Norman settlement . The wide districts over which the boroughs had had authority were placed under the See also:control of the Norman See also:castle which was itself built by means of the old English See also:levy of " burhwork." The borough court was allowed to continue its See also:work only within its own immediate territory, and, to prevent conflict, the castle was placed outside the borough . Losing their See also:place in the national See also:scheme of defence, the See also:burgess " cnihts " made commerce their See also:principal object under the encouragement of the old privileges of the walled place . Besides the great co-operative strongholds in which many lords had burgesses, there were small boroughs held by a single lord . In many cases boroughs of this " seignorial " type were created upon the royal estates . Out of the king's See also:vill, as a rule the jurisdictional centre of a See also:hundred, there was sometimes created a borough .

The lines of division before Domesday See also:

Book are obscure, but it is probable that in some cases, by a royal See also:grant of jurisdiction, the inhabitants of a populous royal vill, where a hundred court for the district was already held, were authorized to establish a permanent court, for the settlement of their disputes, distinct from the hundred court of the district . Boroughs of this type with a See also:uniform tenure were created not only on the king's estates but also on those of his tenants-in-chief, and in ro86 they were probably already numerous . A borough was usually, though perhaps not invariably, the See also:companion of a Norman castle . In some cases a See also:French "bourg " was created by the See also:side of an English borough, and the two remained for many generations distinct in their See also:laws and customs: in other cases a French " bourg " was settled by the side of an English village . , A large number of the followers of the Norman lords had been almost certainly town-dwellers in their own See also:country, and lost none of their burghal privileges by the See also:migration . Every castle needed for its maintenance a group of skilled artisans, and the lords wished to draw to the castle See also:gates all kinds of commodities for the castle's See also:provision . The strength of the See also:garrison made the neighbourhood of the castle a place of danger to men unprotected by legal privilege; and in order to invite to its neighbourhood desirable settlers, legal privileges similar to those enjoyed in Norman or English boroughs were guaranteed to those who would build on the plots which were offered to colonists . A See also:low fixed rental, See also:release from the renders required of villeins, release from the jurisdiction of the castle, and the creation of a separate borough jurisdiction, with or without the right to choose their own See also:officers, rules fixing the maximum of fees and fines, or promising See also:assessment of the fines by the burgesses themselves, the cancelling of all the castellan's rights, especially the right to take a forced levy of See also:food for the castle from all within the area of his jurisdiction, freedom from arbitrary See also:tallage, freedom of See also:movement, the right to alienate See also:property and devise land, these and many other privileges named in the early seignorial charters were what constituted the Norman See also:liber See also:bur gus of the seignorial type . Not all these privileges were enjoyed by all boroughs; some very meagre releases of seignorial rights accompanied the lord's charter which created a borough and made burgesses out of villeins . However liberal the grant, the lord or his reeve still remained in close See also:personal relation with the burgesses of such places, and this See also:character, together with the uniformity of their tenure, continued to hold them apart from the boroughs of the old English type, where all varieties of personal relationship between the lords and their groups of tenants might subsist . The royal charters granting the right to retain old customs prevented the systematic introduction into the old boroughs of some of the incidents of See also:feudalism . Rights of the king took precedence of those of the lord, and devise with the king's consent was legal .

By these means the lords' position was weakened, and other seignorial claims were later evaded or contested . The rights which the lords failed to keep were divided between the king and the See also:

municipality; in London, for instance, the king obtained all escheats, while the borough court secured the right of wardship of burgess orphans . From Norman times the yearly profit of the royal boroughs was as a rule included in the general " See also:farm " rendered for the county by the See also:sheriff; sometimes it was rendered by a royal See also:farmer apart from the county-farm . The king generally accepted a See also:composition for all the various items due from the borough . The burgesses were See also:united in their efforts to keep that composition unchanged in amount, and to secure the provision of the right amount at the right time for fear that it should be increased by way of See also:punishment . The levy of fines on rent arrear, and the distraints for See also:debt due, which were obtained through the borough court, were a matter of See also:interest to the burgesses of the court, and first taught the burgesses co-operative See also:action . See also:Money was raised, possibly by order of the borough court, to buy a charter from the king giving the right to choose officers who should See also:answer directly to the See also:exchequer and not through the sheriff of the county . The sheriff was in many cases also the See also:constable of the castle, set by the See also:Normans to overawethe English boroughs; his See also:powers were great and dangerous enough to make him an officer specially See also:obnoxious to the boroughs . See also:Henry I. about 1131 gave the London citizens the right to choose their own sheriffs and a See also:justiciar answerable for keeping the pleas of the See also:crown . In 113o the See also:Lincoln citizens paid to hold their See also:city in chief of the king . By the end of the 12th century many towns paid by the See also:hand of their own reeves, and See also:John's charters began to make rules as to the freedom of choice to be allowed in the nomination of borough officers and as to the royal See also:power of dismissal . In See also:Richard I.'s reign London imitated the French communes in styling the chief officer a See also:mayor; in 1208 See also:Winchester also had a mayor, and the See also:title soon became no rarity .

The chartered right to choose two of more citizens to keep the pleas of the crown gave to many boroughs the control of their coroners, who occupied the position of the London justiciar of earlier days, subject to those considerable modifications which Henry IL's systematization of the criminal law had introduced . Burgesses who had gone for criminal and See also:

civil See also:justice to their own court in disputes between themselves, or between themselves and strangers who were in their town, secured See also:confirmation of this right by charter, not to exclude the justices in See also:eyre, but to exempt themselves from the See also:necessity of See also:pleading in a distant court . The burgess, whether See also:plaintiff or See also:defendant, was a privileged See also:person, and could claim in this respect a " benefit " somewhat similar to the benefit of See also:clergy . In permitting the boroughs to answer through their own officers for his dues, the king handed over to the boroughs the farming of his rents and a large number of rights which would eventually prove to be See also:sources of great profit . No records exist showing the nature of municipal proceedings at the time of the first See also:purchase of charters . Certain it is that the communities in the 12th century became alive to the possibilities of their new position, that trade received a new impulse, and the vague constitutional powers of the borough court acquired a new need for See also:definition . At first the selection of officers who were to treat with the exchequer and to keep the royal pleas was almost certainly restricted to a few See also:rich persons who could find the necessary securities . Nominated probably in one of the smaller judicial assemblies, the choice was announced at the great Michaelmas assembly of the whole community, and it is not till the next century that we hear of any See also:attempt of the " vulgus " to make a different selection from that of the magnates . The " vulgus " were able to take effective action by means of the several See also:craft organizations, and first found the necessity to do so when See also:taxation was heavy or when questions of trade legislation were mooted (see Guns) . The taxation of the boroughs in the reign of Henry II. was assessed by the king's justices, who fixed the sums due per capita; but if the borough made an offer of a See also:gift, the assessment was made by the burgesses . In the first See also:case the taxation See also:fell on the magnates . In the levy per communam the assessment was made through the wardmoots (in London) and the See also:burden fell on the poorer class .

In Henry II.'s reign London was taxed by both methods, the barones majores by See also:

head, the barones minores through the wardmoot . The pressure of taxation led in the 13th century to a closer definition of the burghal constitutions; the See also:commons sought to get an See also:audit of accounts, and (in London) not only to hear but to treat of municipal affairs . R y the end of the century London had definitely established two See also:councils, that of the mayor and aldermen, representing the old borough court, and a See also:common council, representing the See also:voice of the commonalty, as expressed through the city wards . The choice of councillors in the wards rested probably with the aldermen and the ward See also:jury summoned by them to make the presentments . In some cases juries were summoned not to represent different areas but different classes; thus at Lincoln there were in 1272 juries of the rich, the middling and the poor, chosen presumably by authority from groups divided by means of the tax See also:roll . Elsewhere the several groups of traders and artisans made of their See also:gilds all-powerful agencies for organizing See also:joint action among classes of commons united by a trade interest, and the history of the towns becomes the history of the struggle between the gilds which captured control of the council and the gilds which were excluded therefrom . Many municipal revolutions took place, and a large number of constitutional experiments were tried all over the country from the 13th century onward . Schemes which directed a See also:gradual co-optation, two to choose four, these six to choose more, and so in widening circles from a centre of officialdom, found much favour throughout the See also:middle ages . A See also:plan, like the London plan, of two companies, See also:alderman and council, was widely favoured in the 14th century, perhaps in See also:imitation of the Houses of Lords and Commons . The mayor was sometimes styled the " See also:sovereign " and was given many prerogatives . Great respect was paid to the "ancients," those, namely, who had already held municipal office . Not till the 15th century were orderly arrangements for counting " voices " arrived at in a few of the most highly See also:developed towns, and these were used only in the small assemblies of the governing See also:body, not in the large electoral assemblies of the people .

In Londom in the 13th century there was a See also:

regular system for the See also:admission of new members to the borough " See also:franchise," which was at first regarded not as conferring any form of See also:suffrage but as a means to secure a privileged position in the borough court and in the trade of the borough . Admission could be obtained by See also:inheritance, by purchase or gift, in some places by See also:marriage, and in London, at least from 1275, by a municipal See also:register of See also:apprenticeship . The new See also:freeman in return for his privileges was See also:bound to share with the other burgesses all the burdens of taxation, control, &c., which fell upon burgesses . Personal service was not always necessary, and in some towns there were many non-See also:resident burgesses . When in later times admission to this freedom came to be used as means to secure the See also:parliamentary franchise, the freedom of the borough was freely sold and given . The elections in which the commons of the boroughs first took interest were those of the borough magistrates . Where the commons succeeded for a time in asserting their right to take See also:part in borough elections they were rarely able to keep it, not in all cases perhaps because their power was feared, but sometimes because of the riotous proceedings which ensued . These led to government interference, which no party in the borough desired . The possibility of a See also:forfeiture of their enfranchised position made the burgesses on the whole fairly submissive . In the 13th century London repeatedly was " taken into the king's hand," subjected to heavy fines and put under the constable of the See also:Tower . In the 15th century disturbances in the boroughs led to the issue of new constitutions, some of which were the outcome of royal charters, others the result of parliamentary legislation . The development of the law of corporations also at this time compelled the boroughs to seek new charters which should satisfy the now exacting demands of the law .

The charters of See also:

incorporation were issued at a time when the state was looking more and more to the borough authorities as part of its executive and judicial See also:staff, and thus the government was closely interested in the manner of their selection . The new charters were drafted in such a way as to narrow the popular control . The corporations were placed under a council and in a number of cases popular control was excluded altogether, the whole system being made one of co-optation . The See also:absence of popular pretest may be ascribed in part to the fact that the old popular control had been more nominal than real, and the new charter gave as a rule two councils of considerable See also:size . These councils See also:bore a heavy burden of taxation in See also:meeting royal loans and benevolences, paying per capita like the magnates of the 12th century, and for a time there is on the whole little evidence of See also:friction between the See also:governors and the governed . Throughout, popular See also:opinion in the closest of corporations had a means of expression, though none of See also:execution, in the presentments of the leet juries and sessions juries . By means of their " verdicts " they could use threats against the governing body, See also:express their resentment against acts of the council which benefited the governing body rather than the town, and See also:call in the aid of the justices of See also:assize where the members of the governing body were suspected of See also:fraud . See also:Elizabeth repeatedly declared her dislike of incorpora-tions " because of the abuses committed by their head rulers," but in her reign they were fairly easily controlled by the privy council, which directed their choice of members of See also:parliament and secured supporters of the government policy to fill vacancies on the borough See also:bench . The practice in Tudor and See also:Stuart charters of specifying by name the members of the governing body and holders of special offices opened the way to a " purging " of the hostile See also:spirits when new charters were required . There were also rather vaguely worded clauses authorizing the dismissal of officers for misconduct, though as a rule the appointments were for life . When under the Stuarts and under the Common-See also:wealth See also:political and religious feeling ran high in the boroughs, use was made of these clauses both by the See also:majority on the council and by the central government to See also:mould the character of the council by a drastic " purging." Another means of control first used under the See also:Commonwealth was afforded by the various acts of parliament, which subjected all holders of municipal office to the test of an See also:oath . Under the Commonwealth there was no improvement in the methods used by the central government to control the boroughs .

Phoenix-squares

All opponents of the ruling policy were disfranchised and disqualified for office by See also:

act of parliament in 1652 . Cases arising out of the act were to be tried by commissioners, and the commissions of the See also:major-generals gave them opportunity to control the borough policy . Few Commonwealth charters have been preserved, though several were issued in response to the See also:requests of the corporations . In some cases the charters used words which appeared to point to an opportunity for popular elections in boroughs where a usage of See also:election by the town council had been established . In 1598 the judges gave an opinion that the town councils could by by-law determine laws for the government of the town regardless of the terms of the charter . In the 18th century the judges decided to the contrary . But even where a usage of popular election was established, there were means of controlling the result of a parliamentary election . The close corporations, though their right to choose a member of parliament might be doubtful, had the See also:sole right to admit new burgesses, and in order to determine parliamentary elections they enfranchised non-residents . Where conflicts arose over the choice of a member, and two selections were made, the matter came before the See also:House of Commons . On various occasions the House decided in favour of the popularly elected See also:candidate against the nominee of the town council, on the general principle that neither the royal charter nor a by-law could curtail this particular franchise . But as each case was separately determined by a body swayed by the dominant political party, no one principle was steadily adhered to in the trial of election petitions . The royal right to create boroughs was freely used by Elizabeth and See also:James I. as a means of securing a submissive parliament .

The later Stuarts abandoned this method, and the few new boroughs made by the Georges were not made for political reasons . The object of the later Stuarts was to control the corporations already in existence, not to make new ones . See also:

Charles II. from the time of his restoration decided to exercise a strict control of the close corporations in order to secure not only submissive parliaments, but also a pliant executive among the borough justices, and pliant juries, which were impanelled at the selection of the borough officers . In 166o it was made a rule that all future charters should reserve expressly to the crown the first nomination of the aldermen, See also:recorder and town-clerk, and a proviso should be entered placing with the common council the return of the member of parliament . The See also:Corporation Act of 1661 gave power to royal commissioners to settle the composition of the town councils, and to remove all who refused the sacraments of the Church of See also:England or were suspected of disaffection, even though they offered to take the necessary oaths . Even so the difficulty of securing sub-missive juries was again so great in 1682 that a general attack on the borough franchises was begun by the crown . A London jury having returned a See also:verdict hostile to the crown, after various attempts to See also:bend the city to his will, Charles II. issued a quo warranto against the mayor and commonalty in order to See also:charge the citizens with illegal encroachments upon their chartered rights . The want of a See also:sound philosophical principle in the laws which were intended to regulate the actions of organized groups of men made it easy for the crown judges to find flaws in the legality of the actions of the boroughs, and also made it possible for the Londoners to argue that no execution could be taken against the mayor, commonalty and citizens, a " body politic invisible "; that the See also: