X. BOROUGH RECORDS.
The Records of the Dover Corporation, if only the more important of them had been carefully preserved, would have been a collection that would not in many cases have been surpassed in interest. Unfortunately, however, the records have been neglected. Many of the earlier ones have been entirely lost, while others which had passed into private hands have found their way to the British Museum. The records left in Dover, in passing from one Town Clerk to another, suffered owing to the want of a convenient public muniment room to retain them.
The necessity for a better system of dealing with the Borough records was pressed upon the Corporation in 1875 by the late Mr. Edward Knocker, F.S.A., and he so far aroused their interest in the subject that they created for him the office of Honorary Librarian, with a free hand to spend a moderate sum in collecting and translating, and in constructing a muniment cabinet in which the records would be safe and convenient for reference. Mr. Knocker, who was a keen antiquarian himself, and possessed special local knowledge, derived from having held the office of Town Clerk, put his heart into the work, and when he had com pleted it, in the summer of 1877, the Cabinet, which had been built under the South windows of the Council Chamber, was formally opened by the Mayor, Mr. George Fielding, and Mr. Edward Knocker gave an interesting statement of the muniments and records that had been salved from the wastage and wreck of centuries.
The earliest records in the possession of the Town Council, he said, are those relating to the Maison Dieu, the first being a Charter granted by Henry HI. in the year 1227, confirming a grant of land that Hubert De Burgh had made. The same King, in 1230 granted a second Charter, extending the liberties and franchises of the Maison Dieu. In 1236 Henry HI. granted another Charter which enlarged the first; and a fourth Charter was granted by Edward HI. in April, 1338. In addition to those four Charters, the Corporation possess seven deeds by which property was conveyed to that religious house. There are two very interesting deeds relating to the regulation of the ships of the Passage, and twenty royal charters connected with the Town and Port, granted by various Sovereigns from Edward II. to Charles II. There are also ninety-five deeds to which the Corporation were parties, ranging from 1365 to 1 806, and sixty-one other ancient documents connected with the Town and Port.
The minute books of the Common Assemblies and Common Council, which have been preserved by the Corporation, commence with the year 1557, but are only continued until 1560, after which date the minutes are lost up to 1603. Commencing again at that date the Common Council Minutes are continued until 167 1. From that year the original minutes have been lost, leaving a gap of ninety seven years, from 167 1 to 1757; but those minutes have found their way into the Egerton Collection of MSS., which have been purchased by the British Museum, and a copy of them from 1673 to 1768 has been made and placed in the Dover Muniment Cabinet; and from 1757 the original minute books have been preserved complete down to the present time. The early Chamberlains accounts are missing but from 1 38 1 to 1546 they have found their way to the British Museum, and the continuation of the accounts from 1547 to 1835 are in the Muniment Cabinet at Dover, as well as Copies from the British Museum of a portion of the older accounts, for a few vears, commencing 1365. Also there are two books of the Court of Record, one containing the transactions from 1684 to 1692, and another for the period from 1729 to 1740, as well as entries of cases from 1684 to 1801. There are enrolments and lists of Freemen from the beginning of the Stuart Period in the Muniment Cabinet at Dover. The Corporation records as preserve d at Dover, are, as before stated, very incomplete; but, happily, the original records at Dover, together with those in the Egerton and additional MSS. at the British Museum, gi\ e a fairly continuous account of the Dover Corporation affairs from 1365 until modern times. Of course, it is inconvenient to have part of the Dover Records in London, but that mi;jjht be remedied by having the remainder of them copied and brought to Dover. That, and the proper arrangement of more modem records, would require additional accommodation.
The Borough Miuiiments may be classed as records of historical interest and documents of practical utility. If the missing early records were copied, as suggested, and lodged in Dover, the historical side would be sufficiently dealt with ; but the modern muniments demand methodical and careful treatment. When Mr. Edward Knocker, in 1876, undertook the arrangement of the Dover Corporation Records, he acted in the spirit of the keen antiquarian that he was, sparing no pains in collecting and arranging the old documents, but he made no suggestions as to the arranging and preservation of the modern records, probably because he presumed that they were in safe and convenient keeping ; but that is now forty years ago. Since then the muniments have largely ac cumulated. The minutes, which are bound in yearly volumes, and other modern documents must require a good deal of room. Every document that is impressed with the
Corporate Seal is a muniment of more or less value, securing some advantage or accepting some responsibility. They are l)ublic documents, and there ought to be lists of them with a brief description of their contents printed and published every year, so that members of the Town Council and the ratepayers may know what documents there are in existence bearing on matters that come up for discussion in the Town Council. Such knowledge is neces sary' to equip Town Coimcillors for their duty in the Town and to enable ratepayers to keep Town Councillors up to their duty. The publication of such annual lists would l)e a safeguard against the loss of records, for if such lists had been kept in early times, and properly compared with the records in posses.sion, those piles of records, accounts and minutes belonging to the Corporation from the Four teenth Century to the Eighteenth Century would not have been transferred to private libraries and eventually sold to the British Museum. It would be a great public advantage to keep the burgesses interested in both the ancient and modern history of their native or adopted town ; that was one great object that the late Mr. Edward Knocker had at heart, and, to further that, he .suggested that as soon as the contents of the Muniment Cabinet were arranged they should be catalogued, and that the catalogue should be printed, so that, under proper safeguards, the burgesses might have an opportunity of consulting the records. If the ancient and modern records were so catalogued, more room than the present Muniment Cabhiet affords would certainly be necessary, both for the safety of the documents and for convenience in examining them. The great leakages of valuable records in the past evidently arose from the Corporation having no place of their own where the records could be conveniently kept. Previous to the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, the Mayor for the time being was the only person really responsible for the Muniments and he fairly discharged that responsibility while the Muniments were so few that they could be carried in a box into St. Mary's Church and handed over by the old Mayor to the new one; later the Town Clerks had charge, but had no special authority as Muniment Keepers until the Municipal Corporation Act made them the respon.sible custodians. At a later date the Corporation came to the conclusion that further help was needed in the keeping of their records and some forty years ago they deputed the care of those documents possessing historical value to their Honorary Librarian, to which office there have been three presons successively appointed since 1875, viz., Mr. Edward Knocker, F.S.A. (who had previ ously been Alderman, Mayor, and Town Clerk), Sir Wollaston Knocker, C.B. (who was Town Clerk for forty years), and Mr. John Ravington Jones (author of several l)ooks on Dover, and Editor of the " Dover Express " for more than forty years.)