LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
The town's status as a
borough, recorded in 1187, (fn. 72) is confirmed by its
exception from the hundred of Westbury. What was
called the hundred of Newnham witnessed deeds in
the later 12th century and in the earlier 13th. (fn. 73) That
the hundred or borough of Newnham did not include
the whole parish, but presumably only the town, is
clear from the fact that Stears was in Westbury
hundred in 1221, when Newnham township was
separately represented at the eyre. (fn. 74) Newnham was
again separately represented, by a bailiff and 12
jurors, at the eyre of 1248, (fn. 75) but not at that of 1287. (fn. 76)
In the late 12th century and early 13th there was
a reeve of Newnham for the collection of the king's
dues as lord of the manor, (fn. 77) but by 1241 the dues
had been farmed to the men of Newnham at £10 a
year. (fn. 78) From 1246 two bailiffs accounted for the
farm, (fn. 79) which by 1276 had been reduced to £9
because of infringements of the town's market
privileges. (fn. 80) The men of Newnham still held the
farm in 1326. (fn. 81) By 1421, however, the men of
Newnham no longer held the farm, and the lord's
bailiff accounted for the several profits and perquisites of the manor or borough. (fn. 82) The change
perhaps occurred when the Crown alienated the
manor c. 1330, (fn. 83) and had evidently happened by
1404, when the issues were valued at 46s. 4d. clear. (fn. 84)
The account of the borough was rendered by a
reeve in the 1450s (fn. 85) and in 1512, (fn. 86) but in 1533 the
profits were leased for 21 years at £1 a year to
Richard Underwood or Jeffery, (fn. 87) apparently a local
man. (fn. 88) In the late 16th century the profits were held
by another lessee, Richard Witts, (fn. 89) also a local man. (fn. 90)
Meanwhile, however, the office of mayor had
evolved or been introduced. The earliest recorded
mayor is John Sparke, in 1542. (fn. 91) In 1603 it was
stated that 40 years earlier the lord of the manor had
leased the court baron of Newnham to Thomas
Goold and his successors as mayor, who still held
the court in 1603. (fn. 92) It was presumably by that lease
that the mayor was responsible, in 1584, for weighing
bread. (fn. 93) The fact that the courts leet held 1581-4
were said to be courts baron also, and that the mayor
had no part in them, (fn. 94) does not rule out the possibility that he presided in the more frequent courts
baron, (fn. 95) while the fact that between 1503 and 1513
the lord's records ceased to include rolls of courts
that were not courts leet may indicate that the lease
of the court baron was first made in that period. (fn. 96) In
the early 17th century the mayor was said to be
chosen by the free vote of the burgesses. (fn. 97) The names
of 11 mayors, some of whom served the office more
than once, have been encountered, all in the period
1542-1691. (fn. 98) The burgesses or freemen, who claimed
certain privileges in the court baron, (fn. 99) were presumably not necessarily occupiers of the burgages
already mentioned. (fn. 1) Aldermen are recorded from
1576; (fn. 2) in the 18th century six were elected with the
mayor each year. (fn. 3) In 1683 the so-called mayor and
corporation drew up an address to the Crown, (fn. 4) which
was presented in the name of the mayor, aldermen,
and burgesses. (fn. 5)
The idea that Newnham was a corporate town (fn. 6)
seems to have been connected with the belief that
it had the right to return a member to parliament, (fn. 7)
and an account of the town c. 1708 mentioned
vaguely 'ample franchises making it a mayor town,
with other large immunities long since clearly lost.' (fn. 8)
One immunity claimed in 1603 was that the sheriff
did not serve or execute writs, other than non
omittas, which by ancient custom was done by the
constables at the mayor's appointment. (fn. 9) The constables, however, were presumably subject not to
the mayor but to the lord's court leet. (fn. 10)
Whatever the mayor's functions in the 16th
century and early 17th it was said c. 1708 that the
mayor and aldermen had no power over the town. (fn. 11)
The statement a few years later that the town was
governed by a mayor (fn. 12) is likely to have been based
on the assumption that since there was a mayor his
was the chief authority. The seat in the church
lately belonging to the mayor was mentioned in
1712. (fn. 13) The court baron, which had been held under
the mayor's authority, was summoned in the name
of the lord of the manor in 1736. (fn. 14) About 1775 the
inhabitants still chose each year a mayor and six
aldermen, who had no authority, (fn. 15) and not long
afterwards (fn. 16) the election, a mere amusement, was
abandoned. (fn. 17)
The Newnham sword is a survival of the state
once kept by the mayors. Notwithstanding the
belief that King John gave the sword to the town
with its charter, (fn. 18) the sword, which is exceptionally
large and designed for ceremonial not martial use,
was originally made in the mid 15th century. (fn. 19) In
1594 the mayor, John Morse, (fn. 20) raised a subscription
among the inhabitants and others with which he
repaired the sword, until then rusty and without
any scabbard, and had a silver mace made to replace
a little iron mace that had been carried in front of
the mayor. Sword and mace were thereafter carried
before the mayor at the time of the fairs and at a few
other festivals. The serjeant at mace was alleged in
1603 to have power of arrest on the goods of any
person in the town and manor of Newnham; (fn. 21) other
record of his office has not been found. The sword,
in a quill scabbard, and the mace were in use c.
1703, (fn. 22) but c. 1708 only the sword was mentioned (fn. 23)
and later evidence of the mace is lacking. In 1813
the sword was kept at the Bear Inn, (fn. 24) where the
manor court was then held, (fn. 25) but it was not clear
who owned it. John James, who bought the manor
in 1850, was later said to have bought the sword
separately and not as part of the manor. The
inhabitants of the town obtained an injunction
preventing his trustees from selling the sword with
the manor to Tom Goold, and James's family ceded
all rights in the sword to the town. The sword,
however, was pledged as security for the legal costs
of the injunction, and so passed into Goold's
possession. In or after 1879 Goold's son sold it to a
collector, Seymour Lucas, who sold it in 1890 to
R. J. Kerr, then lord of the manor. (fn. 26) In 1968 it
hung, on loan from the Kerrs, in the Gloucester
city museum.
The town had its own prison c. 1220, (fn. 27) in 1584, (fn. 28)
and in 1603. (fn. 29) The borough customs included stallgavel or stallgale, (fn. 30) also called smoke-silver, smokegroats, or smoke-pence, a payment of 4d. by each
burgess or other occupant of a substantial house in
which a fire was kindled; (fn. 31) tolls on the fairs and
markets; and stallage, stakepence, or pitching penny,
a payment of 1d. by outsiders offering wares in the
streets at fair-times. (fn. 32)
Rolls of the court of the manor or borough of
Newnham survive for 1503, 1513, 1516, (fn. 33) 1581,
1583-4, (fn. 34) and in draft for 1759-1831. (fn. 35) After 1503
they are rolls only of the courts at which the view of
frankpledge was held. By 1433 courts baron were
held on Mondays, at irregular intervals: in that year
there were eight such courts, at one of which the
view of frankpledge was also taken. (fn. 36) A court baron
was held every three weeks in 1460, and view of
frankpledge twice a year. (fn. 37) In 1503 the court baron
was held on alternate Mondays, to hear pleas of
debt, trespass, and detainder, and on one occasion
to deal with tenurial business. (fn. 38) In 1603, when the
court still met on alternate Mondays, the sums
within its jurisdiction were limited to 40s. (fn. 39) No later
evidence of the court baron has been found, apart
from the summons of the court in 1736 mentioned
above. The court leet in 1503 received presentments
from the constables of assaults and from aletasters
of brewers against the assize. (fn. 40) In the 1580s it also
made orders for restraining trade by strangers and
for mending the street and impounding horses
tethered there, admitted burgesses, and received
presentments against the constables for not imprisoning people who played cards at Whitsun and
against Owen Apbevan for refusing to keep the
watch according to the town's custom. (fn. 41)
Whereas courts baron were held in 1603 in the
town-house (fn. 42) and a court-house was recorded in
1715, (fn. 43) and although the court leet ordered in 1762
that the lord of the manor should build a courthouse, from 1759 to 1831 the court leet met at inns,
at the 'Bear' for most of the period but at the 'Upper
George' 1785-90 and 1822-31 and at the 'Ship'
1814-21. The court was held in October each year,
and in addition to the usual presentments and orders
about highways and nuisances it presented the lord
of the manor for not repairing the town well,
pillory, and stocks in 1759, ordered him to move the
pound in 1766 and 1768 and to remove stones and
rubble in 1771. In 1762, however, the court ordered
that whereas the lord of the manor should set up a
pillory the inhabitants should set up stocks. The
court appointed two constables and a crier who was
also the hayward; (fn. 44) the officers mentioned c. 1708
were the constables, a bread-weigher, an aletaster,
and a leather-sealer. The constables were said also
to be called beams, (fn. 45) and the crier may have held the
same office as the bellman who in 1637 received, by
what right was uncertain, the toll corn of the town. (fn. 46)
For Ruddle manor there was a separate court
recorded c. 1273, when as the halimote of Ruddle it
witnessed a deed, (fn. 47) and in 1336. (fn. 48) Rolls survive of 17
courts baron in the period 1598-1625, when the
manor evidently had no leet jurisdiction. (fn. 49) In the
later 18th century, however, the lord of the manor
held an annual court leet, (fn. 50) and there are records of
courts leet held in 1791, 1798, 1803, and 1809, of
perambulations of the bounds in 1819 and 1828, and
of five courts, with a perambulation on four of them,
between 1840 and 1892. (fn. 51) The tithingman of Ruddle
was mentioned c. 1708 as assisting the constables of
Newnham in the government of the parish. (fn. 52) The
court leet appointed a constable and a hayward from
1791 to 1809, and in 1803 claimed for the lord in
addition to view of frankpledge the liberties of wreck,
waif, strays, and felons' and fugitives' goods. (fn. 53)
The parish officers, two churchwardens, two
overseers, and two surveyors, were no more numerous than in an ordinary rural parish. In 1690 the
churchwardens paid for mending the church house,
which received attention at intervals up to 1787. The
church house may have been the same building as
that called the workhouse in 1791 (fn. 54) and later, and it
may also have been the house that stood until 1875
at the north-west corner of the churchyard. (fn. 55)
Certainly in 1809 the workhouse stood beside the
main road. (fn. 56) At about that time there were up to 20
paupers relieved in the workhouse, where the work
that they did included spinning, weaving, and
tanning. (fn. 57) The workhouse may have been instituted
in response to the rapid increase in the cost of poor
relief, which rose nearly fourfold in the period
1776-1803. The high number of non-parishioners
relieved (fn. 58) may reflect the passage of the main road
through the town. In addition to the workhouse, the
apprenticing of children by the parish was adopted
as an expedient for relieving the poverty of
parishioners: the parish had been doing so on a
limited scale since the late 17th century, but in 1802,
following an agreement about it, indentures were
made for 15 children, apparently all the poor of
suitable age. (fn. 59) The workhouse was still in use in
1834, (fn. 60) but it was presumably sold soon after
Newnham had become part of the Westbury Union
in 1835. (fn. 61)
A local board of health for Newnham was formed
in 1863, (fn. 62) and in consequence the parish became an
urban district under the Act of 1894. In 1935, however, Newnham U.D. was merged in Gloucester
R.D. (fn. 63)