The law
We continue our look at the Wallingford borough records, this time with a focus on legal aspects of the borough, namely courts and elections. Last time we looked at the general history of Wallingford and its trade. You can read that first blog online.
Death in the castle: medieval court records
The rich series of medieval court records (all written in Latin, the official court language of the time) include those of the Burghmote, c.1232-1333 (W/JBA) and its successors, the Great Court of the Borough, 1353-1405 (W/JBB), and the Borough Court, 1461-1561 (W/JBC). These records reveal the disruption to local administration caused by the devastation of the Black Death, which affected the formerly prosperous town of Wallingford very badly. After c.1348, when the disease hit, the very term 'Burghmote' (meaning town meeting) ceased to be used. Everything had changed.
Particularly fascinating are rare records of the borough’s medieval coroner, 1291-1507 (W/JC). He was a Crown appointee, and his records include appeal rolls, where prisoners appealed against their convictions for felony, c.1300-1320. More familiar to a modern eye will be his role in determining suspicious deaths, and there are various records of deaths and inquisitions in Wallingford Castle prison, 1294-1317. A couple of centuries later there is even a confession to murder at Brightwell in 1507.
After 1561 no records of any of the Borough Courts, other than those included in the borough minute books (W/AC), survive. Later we have plea rolls from the Court of Record, which dealt only with minor debt cases, 1750-1821 (W/JBD).
A sudden and dreadful fire: the Justices of the Peace
Records of Nicholas de Barre, the Custodes Pacis, 1308-1319 (W/JJ) are of interest as they represent the activities of forerunners of Justices of the Peace in the borough. Importantly this is actually earlier than the Statute of 1327 which first clarified the position of these officers. The records also reveal the crimes of the period, as they include inquisitions and proceedings relating to cases ranging from housebreaking and theft to assault.
Wallingford Borough was granted its own independent Court of Quarter Sessions by the charter of Charles II in 1663. The two surviving sessions books record business at the court from 1713 until 1836. The full sessions rolls survive only for a relatively short period, 1773-1787, and contain very few criminal cases. Most of them include the borough constable's regular return stating that the stocks, pillory and other implements of justice were in good order; the whipping post is specified in 1775, and the pillory is crossed out in the Midsummer 1782 file and does not appear subsequently, good evidence that it had fallen out of use as a punishment.
One interesting case occurs at the sessions of Michaelmas (autumn) 1784. The unusually named Lush Burch of Wallingford St Peter made a complaint in court against his apprentice William Kirby, the latter having on several occasions left his master for several days and refused to do his lawful business as he was required to do under the terms of his apprenticeship. There are a few bastardy bonds in these records as well. In addition, there is one bundle of loose sessions papers (W/JQZ), 1679-1808, which may have strayed from the sessions rolls. These include some settlement examinations for paupers, plus accounts of the losses suffered by William Norcot, a local malster, and three other men, due to ‘a Sudden and Dreadfull fire’ on 25 January 1684/5, as certified by eye-witnesses. This bundle also includes a very lurid deposition alleging rape and subsequent attempted abortion carried out by the teenage victim’s employer, Robert Clarke, the local surgeon, apothecary and ‘man-midwife’, in 1769-1770.
There is also a register of alehouse licences within the quarter sessions records, 1784-1871 (W/JQL).
A rotten borough?
Until 1832 Wallingford was able to elect two MPs to represent the borough, or at least its better off residents who were the only ones allowed to vote. Records of these elections go back to the 16th century. In the election of 1689, a period of great political turmoil (King James II had just been overthrown in favour of his daughter and son in law William II and Mary II), there were allegations of irregularities, and force was used against the mayor, who was the borough’s returning officer.
The Reform Act of 1832 tackled some of the abuses, and the Wallingford constituency was revised to include many neighbouring villages including Aston Tirrold, Aston Upthorpe, Brightwell, Cholsey, North and South Moreton, and Sotwell, in Berkshire, plus Benson, Crowmarsh Gifford, and Newnham Murren, Oxfordshire. A single member represented this constituency until it was abolished in 1885.
‘Malicious libel’ and fighting in the street: election controversies – scans of WA/AE
Records relating to elections 1839-1884 include a selection of handbills issued in support of candidates. Some would not meet today’s standards. During one particularly contentious municipal election in 1881, bitterness over the previous year’s parliamentary election spilled over, and one bill outright accused James Rusher and James Taplin of 'corrupt practices' in that election. They hit back, offering a reward for information leading to the conviction of 'some evil disposed anonymous Coward' responsible for publishing 'a malicious LIBEL', and the 'irresponsible boys employed to circulate the same after dark’ (WA/AE1/7/1-2). At the parliamentary election of 1852 Includes order by the mayor for the appointment of Special Constables to tackle public disorder during the election, and ordering them to seize any 'staves, bludgeons, or other offensive Weapons, in the Public Streets' (WA/AE2/3).
The electoral registers for parliamentary elections, 1832-1872, supplement those in the county set, filling a few gaps (WA/RE1). They are hand written up to 1843, then printed after that. Burgess rolls, 1835-1909, (WA/RE2) Under the Act of 5 & 6 William IV, c.76, a.5, burgess rolls were to be compiled and kept by the Town Clerk. The burgess rolls were registers of those entitled to vote in the election of councillors, assessors and auditors of the borough, and are a mixture of manuscript and printed copies.