II. NORMAN AND LATER.
There are but few details available as to the development of Municipal rule in Dover during the Norman period. The old Saxon Hundred Court was continued without any apparent change except that the presiding official, the Saxon Reeve was called by the Normans the Prepositus It is almost certain that the Saxon Reeve had, according to the custom of those times, selected twelve of his fellow bur gesses to assist him in the Administering Justice and so introduced the order of Magistrates, known in later centuries as the Mayor and Jurats, and which without material change has continued for fully a thousand years.
Although the title of the Civic Chief was changed from the Reeve to the Prepositus, the Norman Chief like the Saxon was a burgess of Dover selected from his fellows, and both appear to have discharged the two-fold duty, of collecting the King's dues and upholding the rights of the burgesses. Looking at the general history of Dover in the Norman period it appears to have been a busy time, but no great changes seem to have been made in the borough rule which was continued 191 years after the Conquest, under the Prepositus. In the year 1257 it v»'as found necessary, owing, no doubt, to the development of the Cinque Ports organisation, that the Municipal Chief should be more essen tially the representative of the burgesses and he was then called the Mayor, while instead of the Prepositus, an official called the Bailiff was appointed by the King's writ to represent the King and to assist the Mayor and Jurats in their judicial duties. There appears to be no actual record as to when the elections of the Civic Chief began to take place annually but it seems probable that it was from the 8th September, 1257, when James Lucas, the Chief Magistrate, first bore the title of Mayor.
The customs and usages of the Borough from this time until the year 1,356 are set forth in the Customal of Dover, which was drawn up in that year for the guidance of the Lord Warden, the Earl of March, in dealing with appeals made from the Mayor's Courts, to him, as the Judge of the Court of Shepway. The Customal, which emphasizes the important fact that the succeasion of Mayors was designed to be automatically continuous, says: — "They claim prescription and of old time used to choose the Mayor every year gn the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady ; and then the Common horn sounded in fourteen diverse places in the town for the Common Assembly in the Church of St. Peter, and there was brought the Common Box, the Seal and other Muniments ; and the Mayor that was, on resigning his office doth charge the next Mayor then chosen that he shall be true and lawful to the King of England and to his heirs, and rightfully maintain the franchises and liberties of the town, and rich and poor may right. God him help and all the holy saints, and so he kiss the book. The Jurats shall swear the same oath. And if the Mayor so chosen be not there to take the charge, the Mayor that was shall not be discharged, and it is to be understood that there shall be no Jurat in the election."
This statement of usage as to the election of the Mayor is mainly a description of the procedure at the time the Costumal was compiled. There is allusion made to the Jurats who were .sworn after the Mayor, and there is mention made of an " understanding " that if the Mayor chosen was not present to take the charge no Jurat .should be put in election, but that the old Mayor should remain in office. The ancient mode of election was for the Mayor to be chosen by the Burgesses from amongst themselves, and after the new Mayor had taken the oath, the Mayor selected from the burgesses twelve to assist him in his office, and they, having taken the oath, were called Jurats. This simple procedure was gradually changed, ard it became the custom for the twelve existing Jurats to be re-sworn, so giving permanence to the Judicial Bench instead of each Mayor selecting twelve men to his own liking. That stage seems to have been reached in 1.356, when the Do^•(^r Customal was compiled. The burgesses at that time siill maintained their right to elect a Mayor from amongst themselves, for which reason there was an understanding that no Jurat should be nominated ; but in the Tudor Penod the Freemen's privilege to elect a Mayor from amongst themselves was taken away by an arrangement that the Mayor should alwa^^s be chosen from the Bench of Jurats. Conten tion on tluu point was continued for about 150 years, but It was eventually ruled by the Privy Coi.ncil in the reign of Queen Anne that the Mayor should be chosen by the Burgesses out of three Jurats nominated by the Bench of Jurats. The Mayor and Jurats, as a Bench of Magistrates, held their Court once a week, on Fridays, except that during the month of harvest the Court was held on Sundays; and from the Friday before Christmas until St. Hilary, and from the beginning of Passion Week until fifteen days after Easter there was no Court but for the deliverance of strangers.
The general l)usiness of the Town was transacted in Common Assembly, where all Freemen had a voice. This method of dealing with the bu.siness of the Town and Port was continued until 9th October, 1556, when it was resolved that thirty-seven Freemen should be elected out of the whole body of the Commonalty to form a Common Council, and that they, together with the Mayor and Jurats, should transact all the business of the Town and Port, except that CommoH Assemblies should be called to elect the Mayor, the Burgesses of Parliament, the Bailiff for the Yarmouth Fishery, and the officers of the Corporation.
The BaiUff was a Freeman of Dover nominated by the Sovereign, his commission being under the great Seal; but before entering on his duties he had to appear before the Mayor and Jurats to exhibit his commission and to be sworn in the same way as the Mayor. After that he was admitted to sit on the right hand of the Mayor in the Hundred Court, where all sorts of pleas were heard, nicluding pleas Royal and those could not be dealt with without the presence of the Bailiff. This Bailiff, also, sat with the Mayor in the Court of General Gaol Delivery, until the beginning of the Stuart Period, when the appointment of the Bailiff lapsed and a Barrister-at-T,aw was appointed as " counsel with the Corporation an<l the assistant of the Mayor and Jurats at Sessions and Trials," and he was commonly called The Recorder.
The miscellaneous duties of the Mayor under the Charters and Customals were extensive. In the Criminal Courts he had to pass sentences — sometimes the sentence of death; and in the Hundred Court he had to adjudicate in Civil suits. That tribunal being a Court of Record, the decisions were recorded in triplicate, the writing being called a Dover Charter, one copy being given to the parties on each side, and the third was preser\'cd in the Dover Archives, many of which exist now. The Mayor was also the Coroner, and was paid by fees, which arrangement continued until 1836. When felons claimed sanctuary at the Altar of St. Martin-le-Grand, the Mayor had to visit them ; and if, after taking the cross, they left the town by the King's highway, they were secured from arrest; but if they turned back to the Town they were executed by being thrown over the cliff at Sharpness, now known as " The Devil's Drop." The Mayor was the Clerk of the Market, and it was his duty to set the price of provisions sold. He was also the Guardian of all Dover orphans ; he administered the estates of all burgesses who died intestate ; and, in cases where the wills of burgesses were proved in the Archbishops Court, the Mayor required accounts and acquittances to pass under the Seal of his Office, and, says the Costumal, " this rule ha» been used peaceably, without interruption, from the first foundation of Dover." The Mayor was invarial)ly one of the Barons of the Cinque Ports who attended Coronations, and down to the close of the Tudor Period he was frequently one of the Members of Parliament. Finally, if the Mayor died during his year of office, he had a public funeral, and one of the canopy cloths that had been used at the Coronation was used a.s a pall to cover his coffin. The dead Mayor's authority was .sustained by the " most ancient Jurat," who acted as his deputy, and gave the charge to the new Mayor, who was elected in the Church immediately after the funeral.
Of the insignia of the Corporation, the only article handed down from ancient times is the horn which was used for calling together C ommon Assemblers. The Mayor's most ancient badge was the wand. The Mayor still carries a white wand, and it has been said that it was white as a sign that the Dover Corporation were partisans of the Yorkists. Pepys, in his diary, mentioned ihat when Charles II. landed at Dover, " the Mayor of the town came and gave him his staff, the badge of his place, which the King did give him again."
The maces were very ancient emblems of the Dover Corporation. In 1354 Edward III. gave the City of London the right to have maces garnished with the King's Arms. The Dover Corporation used threr- maces from about that time. They were of silver, and small. One was carried by the Mayor's Sergeant, one by the Town Sergeant, and one by the Bailiff's Sergeant, until 167 1, when, by order of the Common Council, they were sold for £^(i los. 6d., and an order was given for the present large silver- gilt mace to be made. It has long been a tradition that this mace was presented by Charles 11. in memory of his landing at Dover. That was not so. The mace was paid for by the members of the Corporation, who were repaid out of the Court-fines; although there is no doubt but that the mace was intended to be a memorial of the landing of Charles II. at the Restoration, for it bears the inscription: — " Carolus — Hic-Posvit-Prima Secundus. May 25th, 1660 "; and underneath is engraved, " Will. Stokes, Mayor, 1676." The ancient horn, previously mentioned, is of the Thirteenth Century, and the Corporation possess a curious hand-bell of brass-gilt, which appears to bear date 1491. There are eight ancient seals, the largest known as the Corporate Seal, bearing date 1305. All the seals have the device .showing St. Martin dividing his Cloak with a beggar. Other parts of the Mayor's para phernalia are modern, consisting of Corporation plate given by Mr. Jonathan Taylor, 1769, Mr. J. M. Fector and Mr. Henry Pringle Brugers, 1828; a Mayor's gold chain and badge, given by Sir William Henry Bodkin, the Recorder, 1867; a jewelled Mayor's badge, given by Sir Harry Bodkin Poland, the Recorder, in 1898; and a lighter gold chain and badge, for the Deputy Mayor, given by the late Mr. Walter Emden, in 1908.