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See also: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 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 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: 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: 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: 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 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 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: 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: By the end of the 12th century many towns paid by the See also:hand of their own reeves, and See also: 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 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: 
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. 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: The novelty of the proceedings of Charles II. and James II. lay in using the weapon of the quo warranto systematically to ensure a general revocation of charters. The new charters which were then granted required the king's consent for the more important appointments, and gave him power to remove officers without reason given. Under James II. in 1687 six commissioners were appointed to " regulate " the corporations and remove from them all persons who were opposed to the abolition of the penal laws against Catholics. The new appointments were made under a See also:writ which ran, " We will and require you to elect " (a named person). When James II. sought to withdraw from his disastrous policy, he issued a See also:proclamation (See also:October 17, 1688) restoring to the boroughs their ancient charters. The governing charter thenceforth in many boroughs, though not in all, was the charter which had established a close corporation, and from this time on to 1835 the boroughs made no progress in constitutional growth. The tendency for the close corporation to treat the members of the governing body as the only corporators, and to repudiate the See also:idea that the corporation was answerable to the inhabitants of the borough if the corporate property was squandered, became more and more See also:manifest as the history of the past slipped into oblivion. The corporators came to regard themselves as members of a See also:club, legally warranted in dividing the lands and goods of the same among themselves whensoever such a division should seem profitable. Even where the constitution of the corporation was not close by charter, the franchise tended to become restricted to an ever-dwindling electorate, as the old methods for the See also:extension of the municipal franchise by other means than inheritance died out of use. At See also:Ipswich in 1833 the " freemen " numbered only one fifty-fifth of the See also:population. If the electorate was increased, it was increased by the wholesale admission to the freedom of voters willing to See also:vote as directed by the corporation at parliamentary elections. The growth of corruption in the boroughs continued unchecked until the era of the Reform See also:Bill. Several boroughs had by that time become insolvent, and some had recourse to their member of parliament to eke out their revenues. In See also:Buckingham the mayor received the whole town See also:revenue without rendering See also:account; sometimes, however, heavy charges fell upon the officers. Before the Reform era dissatisfaction with the corporations was mainly shown by the number of local acts of parliament which placed under the authority of special commissioners a variety of administrative details, which if the corporation had not been suspected would certainly have been assigned to its care. The See also:trust offered another convenient means of See also:escape from difficulty, and in some towns out of the trust was developed a system of municipal administration where there was no recognized corporation. Thus at See also:Peterborough the feoffees who had succeeded to the control of certain ancient charities constituted a form of town council with very restricted powers. In the 17th century See also:Sheffield was brought under the act " to redress the misemployment of lands given to charitable uses," and the municipal administration of what had been a borough passed into the hands of the trustees of the Burgery or town trust. The many special authorities created under act of parliament led to much confusion, conflict and overlapping, and increased the need for a general reform. The reform of the boroughs was treated as part of the question of parliamentary reform. In 1832 the exclusive privileges of the corporations in parliamentaryelections having been abolished and male occupiers enfranchised, the question of the municipal franchise was next dealt with. In 1833 a See also:commission inquired into the administration of the municipal corporations. The result of the inquiry was the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which gave the municipal franchise to the ratepayers. In all the municipal corporations dealt with by the act, the town council was to consist of a mayor, aldermen and councillors, and the councils were given like powers, being divided into those with and those without a commission of the peace. The minutes were to be open to the inspection of any burgess, and an audit of accounts was required. The exclusive rights of See also:retail trading, which in some towns were restricted to freemen of the borough, were abolished. The system of police, which in some places was still See also:medieval in character, was placed under the control of the council. The various privileged areas within the See also:bounds of a borough were with few exceptions made part of the borough. The powers of the council to alienate corporate property were closely restricted. The operations of the act were extended by later legislation, and the See also:divers amendments and enactments which followed were consolidated in the Municipal Corporations Act 1882. (M. See also:BAT.) Irish Boroughs.—In See also:Ireland the earliest traces of burghal life are connected with the maritime settlements on the See also:southern and eastern See also:coast. The invasion of Henry II. colonized these Ostman ports with Anglo-Norman communities, who brought with them, or afterwards obtained, municipal charters of a favourable See also:kind. The English settlement obviously depended on the advantages which the burgesses possessed over the native population outside. Quite different from these were the new close boroughs which during the See also:plantation of See also:Ulster James I. introduced from England. The See also:conquest was by this time completed, and by a rigorous enforcement of the Supremacy and Uniformity Acts the existing liberties of the older boroughs were almost entirely withdrawn. By the new rules published (in terms of the Act of Settlement and Explanation) in 1672 resident traders were permitted to become freemen, but neither this regulation nor the ordinary admissions through See also:birth, marriage and apprenticeship succeeded in giving to Ireland free and vigorous municipalities. The corrupt admission of non-resident freemen, in order to outvote the ancient freeholders in parliamentary elections, and the systematic exclusion of Roman Catholics, soon divorced the " commonalty " from true local interests, and made the corporations, which elected them-selves or selected the See also:constituency, dangerously unpopular. Scottish Boroughs.—In See also:Scotland burghs or burrows are divided into royal burghs, burghs of regality and burghs of See also:barony. The first were erected by royal charter, and every burgess held See also:direct of the crown. It was, therefore, impossible to subfeu the See also:burgh lands,—a distinction still traceable in See also:modern See also:conveyancing. Where perhaps no charter ever existed, the law on See also:proof of immemorial See also:possession of the privileges of a royal burgh has presumed that a charter of erection once existed. The charter gave power to elect See also:provost, bailies and council, a power long exercised under the act of 1469, which directed the new council to be chosen annually by the retiring council, and the magistrates by both councils. The jurisdiction of these magistrates, which was specially reserved in the act of 1747 abolishing heritable jurisdictions, was originally cumulative with, and as large as, that of the sheriff. It is now confined to police offences, See also:summary ejections, orders for See also:interim See also:aliment (for prisoners), See also:payment of burgh dues and delivery of title deeds. Three head courts were held in the year, at which all burgesses were obliged to attend, and at which public business was done and private transactions were ratified. There were three classes of burgesses—burgesses in sua arte, members of one or other of the corporations; burgesses who were gild See also:brothers; and See also:simple burgesses. The Leges Burgorum apparently contemplate that all respectable inhabitants should have the franchise, but a ceremony of ad-See also:mission was required, at which the applicant swore fealty and promised to See also:watch and ward for the community, and to pay his " main " to the king. These borough maills, or rents, and the great and small customs of burghs, formed a large part of the royal revenue, and, although frequently leased or feued out for a fixed duty, were on the See also:accession of James I. annexed to the crown as an alimentary fund. Burgh customs still stand in the peculiar position of being neither adjudgeable nor arrestable; they are therefore See also:bad See also:security. The early charters contain the usual privileges of holding a market, of exemption from toll or See also:tribute, and that distraint will be allowed only for the burgess's own debts. There was also the usual strife between the gildry and the craftsmen, who were generally prohibited from trading, and of whom dyers, fleshers and shoemakers were forbidden to enter the gildry. Deacons, wardens and visitors were appointed by the crafts, and the See also:rate of See also:wages was fixed by the magistrates. The crafts in Scotland were frequently incorporated, not by royal charter, but, as in the case of the cordiners of See also:Edinburgh, by See also:seals of cause from the corporation. The trade history of the free burghs is very important. Thus in 1466 the privilege of importing and exporting merchandise was confined to freemen, burgesses and their factors. See also:Ships were directed to trade to the king's free burghs, there to pay the customs, and to receive their cocquets or See also:custom-house seals; and in 1503 persons dwelling outside burghs were forbidden to " use any merchandise," or to sell See also:wine or See also:staple goods. An act of 1633, erroneously called a Ratification of the privileges of burghs, extended these privileges of buying and selling to retail as well as wholesale trade, but restricted their enjoyment to royal burghs. Accordingly, in 1672, a general declaratory act was passed confirming to the freemen in royal burghs the wholesale trade in wine, See also:wax, See also:silk, See also:dyeing materials, &c., permitting generally to all persons the export of native raw material, specially permitting the burgesses of barony and regality to export their own manufactures, and such goods as they may buy in " markets," and to import against these consignments certain materials for tillage, See also:building, or for use in their own manufactures, with a general permission to retail all commodities. This extraordinary system was again changed in 1690 by an act which declared that freemen of royal burghs should have the sole right of importing everything by See also:sea or land except bestial, and also of exporting by sea everything which was not native raw material, which might be freely exported by land. The gentry were always allowed to import for their personal See also:consumption and to export an equal quantity of commodities. The act mentions that the royal burghs as an See also:estate of the See also:kingdom contributed one-See also:sixth part of all public impositions, and were obliged to build and maintain See also:prison-houses. Some of these trade privileges were not abolished till 1846.
In the See also:north of Scotland there was an association of free burghs called the Hanse or See also:Angus; and the lord See also: Powers to hold markets and to levy customs were likewise given to these burghs. The Scottish burghs emerged slowly into political importance. In 1295 the procurators of six burghs ratified the agreement for the marriage of See also:Edward See also:Baliol; and in 1326 they were recognized as a third estate, granting a tenth See also:penny on all rents for the king's life, if he should apply it for the public good. The commissioners of burghs received from the exchequer their costages or expenses of attending parliament. The burghs were represented in the judicial See also:committee, and in the committee on articles appointed during the reign of James V. After the See also:Reformation, in spite of the See also:annexation of See also:kirk lands to the crown, and the increased burdens laid on temporal lands, the proportion of general taxation See also:borne by the burghs (viz. 1s. 6d.) was expressly preserved by act 1587, c. 112. The number of commissioners, of course, fluctuated from time to time. See also:Cromwell assigned ten members to the Scottish burghs in the second parliament of Three Nations (1654). The general practice until 1619 had been, apparently, that each burgh should send two members. In that year (by an arrangement with the convention of burghs) certain groups of burghs returned one member, Edinburgh returning two. Under See also:art. 22 of the treaty of See also:Union the number of members for royal burghs was fixed at fifteen, who were elected in Edinburgh by the magistrates and town council, and in the groups of burghs by delegates chosen ad hoc. (W. C. S.) See C. See also:Gross, Bibliography of See also:British Municipal History (1897), which contains all needful references up to that date; F. W. See also:Maitland, Township and Borough (1898) ; A. Ballard, Domesday Boroughs (1904); M. See also:Bateson, Borough Customs (1904–1906); S. and B. See also:Webb, English Local Government (3 vols., 1906–1908). For the character of the modern Scottish burgh see Mabel See also:Atkinson, Local Government in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1904), where other See also:works are mentioned. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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