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The index has also been annotated with index references, underlined in red, to Boyd's London Citizens Index, which is held at the Society of Genealogists. Some Mayor's Court records especially those for 18th and early 19th centuries were destroyed in the fire at the Royal Exchange in 1838. Other 19th century records were destroyed with the Registrar's permission in c.1941. It is likely that there was also serious loss during the Great Fire, as the Court of Aldermen was informed as such afterwards. But despite this, their poor survival is inconsistent with the survival of other City records such as the Repertories, Journals and Roll of the Court of Husting. As the business of the Mayor's Court grew in distinctness from the Court of Husting, the Mayor's personal responsibility, apart from the City, was accentuated. The Plea & Memoranda Rolls make mention of the 'Mayor's Bag' in which his correspondence and legal documents were kept, and it is likely that he retained this after his year in office, after the clerks had made copies of document which they deemed necessary. Portraits of the judges by John Michael Wright were put up in the Guildhall by the city in gratitude for their services. [3] These paintings, completed in 1670, hung in London's Guildhall until it was bombed during World War II; today only two (those of Sir Matthew Hale and Sir Hugh Wyndham) remain in the Guildhall Art Gallery [4] the remainder having been destroyed or dispersed, mainly to the Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and the Royal Courts of justice. Calendars of the Plea and Memoranda Rolls, 1323-1484, 7 vols; ed. A H Thomas and P E Jones (1924-1961) 60.12 CIT on open access in Information Area. The first 3 volumes 1323-1412 are available on http://www.british-history.ac.uk/place.aspx?gid=60®ion=1
The Fire Courts - Successfully Delivering Justice in a Time The Fire Courts - Successfully Delivering Justice in a Time
This isn’t just excellent writing, moving from tenderness to distaste in a moment, but the sign of a writer who knows and understands his period. That mixture of lust and disgust with which men – especially puritan men like Marwood senior – regarded women at the time is shown in a few perfectly-chosen words. No more explanation is needed. From 1444 the Mayor and Aldermen served as Justices of the Peace responsible for criminal trials in the City. From 1327 the Justices of Gaol Delivery for Newgate included the Lord Mayor. Petty Sessions were held before the Lord Mayor, originally at Guildhall but from the mid 18th century in the Justice Room at the new Mansion House. In 1737 a second Justice Room was set up at Guildhall where regular sittings were held before one of the other Aldermen. For more details see Information Leaflet 40 'Sessions Records for the City of London and Southwark'. Indexes of names and places on the Calendars of Deeds and Wills (compiled 1885-1908) - CLA/023/DW/02/010-014.Charles II, 1666: An Act for erecting a Judicature for Determination of Differences touching Houses burned or demolished by reason of the late Fire which happened in London.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), pp. 601–03. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47389. Date accessed: 7 March 2007. In parallel with the calendaring work I am analysing the decrees to show what they tell us about the ‘mechanics’ – legal and financial – of the property market at that time. The decrees ‘lift the lid’, so to speak, on the way City of London property was owned, occupied and generally ‘used’. I first made a stab at this in a talk to Derek Keene’s Metropolitan History seminar in 2002 and published a summary version of it in the London Topographical Society’s Newsletter in the following year. I am also encouraging the use of the rich Fire-related evidence to recreate London in 1666: see my contribution to the London Topographical Society’s Newsletter in June 2014. The Great Refusal” Why does the City of London only govern the Square Mile?’, The London Journal, 39 (2014) This is a tightly-plotted book, not afraid to vary the pace and let readers pause to orient themselves in the filth- and rubble-strewn, dangerous streets. Taylor knows his 17th-century London, and guides us vividly through it.
Sources: Corporation of London | British History Online
Plaints, accounts, proceedings, rolls of daily entries and issues tried 1653-1867 (many gaps) – CLA/025/CT/02/001-029 The City of London’s Debt to its Orphans, 1694-1767’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 56 (1983) Once English Heritage took over Witley Court, they repaired the damage and stopped it getting any worse (to see what it was like before, Procol Harum’s shot the video for A Whiter Shade of Pale at Witley not long before it was taken over). But it hasn’t been rebuilt – the house is still a shell, but a walk around the ruins and gardens makes a great day trip. Index of names and types of actions appearing within the Court rolls (Common Pleas), 1272-15th century (1 ring binder available on request) Most of the original bills dating from before 1560 (CLA/024/02/001-0001-004,007) have been calendared on index cards which can be made available by request.Overlooking the gardens, the conservatory – or orangery – was one of the most impressive in England. It originally had a domed glass roof modelled on Crystal Palace, and was heated by a coal furnace to create an oasis of tropical plants. Although it survived the fire, the glass and lead were stripped out and not much is left. But it’s still a good spot to look out over Witley Court gardens, which have been restored with some of the original planting. Mayor's Court Original Bills: Manuscript List of the schedules of goods among the common law original bills of the Mayor's Court (kept in Enquiry Office) Can a serious historical biography be too entertaining? In the case of Leonie Frieda’s rip-roaring book about Francis I, it’s a close-run thing. Frieda paints a surprisingly funny account of a king obsessed by power and sex, who took Renaissance France in directions that his predecessors would never have dared, but was nearly undone by his own hubris; only his mother Louise’s intelligence and steadfast diplomacy saved him. The scene-setting first couple of chapters verge on the stodgy, but after that Frieda maintains a fine balance between psychological insight, the intricacies and etiquette of 16th-century diplomacy and uproarious anecdotes of regal bad behaviour. The Fire Court Government Interference in City Politics in the Early 18th Century: the Work of Two Agents’, The London Journal, 8 (1982) The City of London in the 18th Century: corporate pressures and their implications’, in Revisiting the Polite and Commercial People, eds. P. Gauci and E. Challus (2019)
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