Beatrice Potter Webb - English Local Government From the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations ACT: The Manor and the Borough; Volume 3

IN a preceding volume1 we have dealt with two main forms of English Local Government, the Parish and the County; organisations which existed from one end of the kingdom to the other. But to the rule of the Countyto some slight extent also to the rule of the Parishthere were, up and down England, numerous exceptions, out of which had developed, as it happens, not the least important, and, as some may think, the most picturesque parts of the Local Government of England between the Revolution and the Municipal Corporations Act, namely, those connected with the Manor and the Borough. It does not lie within our province to inquire whether some or all of these exceptions to the uniform organisation of Parish and County may not represent a once universal government, either Manorial or of Village Community character. Whether or not this was the case, the continued existence of these forms after 1689 compels us to devote a volume to the various Exemptions, Immunities, and Franchises which enabled the inhabitants of particular localities to exclude the authority of the County at large, or that of one or other of its officers; and thereby to enjoy, within their own favoured areas, some peculiar forms of self-government.2

The proportion of the Local Government of England that was, in 1689, carried on, whether by prescription, by Charter, or by statute, in the form of exemptions from or exclusions of County jurisdiction, was far larger than is commonly supposed.

Thus, with a few insignificant exceptions, the whole force of police that then existed owed its appointment neither to the Parish nor the County, but to Manorial Courts or Municipal Corporations; whilst the magistracy of the large towns was provided, not by the Commission of the Peace, but by the Mayors, Aldermen, and Recorders. The suppression of nuisances, which comprised at that time nearly the whole regulative activity of local authorities, was practically monopolised by the Leets of private Lords and of enfranchised Boroughs; for the recovery of small debts, the Court Baron of the Lord, or its municipal analogue, often called the Court of Record or the Court of Pleas, had largely ousted the Court of the Sheriff of the County at large. Markets and fairs were matters neither of Parish nor of County concern, but were under the control of the individual or Corporate owners of Franchises; whilst many lay and clerical Lords, and most Municipal Corporations, had their own gaols, if no longer their own privileges of pit and gallows. More important than these common services, which, in 1689, were still small in extent, was the administration of the land, a service not now usually connected with Local Government. But even at the end of the seventeenth century, no small fraction of the surface of the Kingdom was still managed by or in connection with those local governing authorities that we class as Seignorial Franchises and Municipal Corporations. In thousands of rural Manors the rotation of crops, the dates at which the various agricultural operations should be undertaken, the management of the pastures, quarries, and fisheries, the care of the cattle, and the breeding of stock formed part of the business of the same open Court that suppressed nuisances, fined minor offenders, chose the local officers, and tried petty actions for debt and damages. In hundreds of urban districts the Manorial Courts or the Municipal Corporations were administering not only the remnant of the ancient commons, but also dwelling-houses, wharves, docks, quays, piers, shambles, and market places. The tolls and dues levied by these authorities, whether by Charter, prescription, or mere ownership of the soil, formed in the aggregate no unworthy rivals of the various County and Parish Rates. By 1835, it is true, the agricultural business of these local governing bodies had, with the progress of inclosure, shrunk into insignificance. The importance of the urban properties and the revenue from tolls had, on the other hand, in many places greatly increased.