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Copy & Transcript
of Chelmsford By-laws, 1564
Chelmsford
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In
this present schedule is contained a certain part of the decisions
of the jury of the (court) leet of the above-mentioned manor held
on Thursday, the 24th day of February in the sixth year of the
reign of the sovereign lady Elizabeth, as follows in these words:-
At this
(court) leet of the good consideration of all the jurors of the
same (for the common wealth good order and universal commoditya
of the queen's subjects, as well residents within this town of
Chelmsford as of other foreigners thither resorting, and for due
reformation and amendment to be had in diverse common annoyances
and other disordered things there of late unlawfully practised
and put in use) certain necessary by-laws, of the common assent
of the jurors aforesaid, be agreed, ordained and established,
there for henceforth to be observed and continued in manner and
form as hereunder be written and set forth in English, for the
better and more ready understanding, not only of the bailiff in
the execution of his office in this behalf, but also of all other
to whom it shall appertainb from time to time
to be warned of the same ordinances etc.
First
it is ordained and established as a by-law, in form and by the
authority aforesaid, that every inhabitant of the said town, dwelling
from Roger Webb's house to Colchester Lane, shall for his part
against his house yearly from henceforth scour and make clean
the common gutter coming through the town, once in every month,
under pain of forfeiture to the lord by every (one) of them that
shall there of make default....................................................................................................................12d.
Item that
neither the butchers, nor any other person at any time hereafter,
shall cast any horns, bones or any other filth either in the street
or in the river there, under pain to forfeit for every time so
offending ......................................................................3s.
4d.
Item that
no tenant or other inhabitant of any house within the said town
shall from henceforth kill any cattle or make any slaughter house
within his said house, to the hurt and annoyance of his neighbour
or neighbours under pain to forfeit for every item so offending................................................................................................................20s.
Item that
no person or persons shall from henceforth put out or suffer any
of their swine, old or young, to go or wander at large openly
in the streets or highways within this lordship (except only in
case that it be to drive them to their grounds or pastures) under
pain or forfeiture to the lord for every hog so found: 2d. And
for every pig: 1d.
Item that
if at any time hereafter any inhabitant within this lordship shall
be taken, proved or found in breaking of any hedge, and carrying
away of any part of the same to burn, either to the lord's demesnec
lands or of any of the tenants, that then every such offender
shall be punished for the first offence openly in the stocks by
the constables (with wood so stolen set before them). And for
the second offence to have also like punishment in the stocks.
And within one month next after to be avoidedd
the town.
Item that
every inhabitant there having any blocks or logs lying under the
eaves of his house or before his door, to the common annoyance
of the queen's people, shall remove and carry away the same, on
this side the first day of May next coming, under pain of every
default thereof: 12d. And that from thenceforth none of them shall
suffer any such blocks or logs to lie before or without his door
to any common annoyance in any year, from the feast of Saint Michael
the archangel, until the feast of Easter, under pain that every
one so offending shall lose: 20d.
And for
the better observing and execution of all and every of the ordinances
aforesaid, Nicholas Eve, Henry Somersham and Edmund Sabright are
lawfully chosen, admitted and sworn to the office of surveyors,
searchers, reprovers, reformers and presenters of every offender
contrary to any of the said ordinances from time to time as the
case shall require.
And it
is to be considered and noted that the by-laws and ordinances
aforesaid are thus written and contained in this schedule by itself,
and annexed to the engrossede roll of the leet
aforesaid, to the intent that the same schedule (or the true copy
thereof being already delivered to the bailiff to be always in
readiness in his hands) may be at every leet hereafter delivered
to the jury, whereby the more effectually to enquire, find and
truly to present upon their oath, all the offences done or permitted
in anything contrary to the said ordinances or any of them. So
as by means thereof the offenders therein may be worthily punished,
the lord justly answeredf of the forfeitures,
and the abuses to be so much the sooner redressedg.
Examined
by me William Sidey steward of the above court.
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Notes:
a. Well-being,
b. apply, c. land reserved to the lord, d. banished from, e. written
out, f .satisfied, g. put right.
By-laws are ordinances
or rules for the better order of the community. They are prohibitions
of nuisances. The various activities condemned in them reflect the normal
rather than the extraordinary behaviour of townspeople.66
The ways of life in Tudor towns are probably more easily uncovered in
by-laws than in exceptional events like witchcraft cases. Typically,
urban problems find more space than urban advantages.
Towns in Essex
had not grown much at the beginning of the Tudor period. Colchester
and Maldon were the only chartered boroughs, i.e. had gained special
liberties or privileges and exemptions. But by 1604 there were six chartered
boroughs.67
A part explanation for this lies in the establishment of 'new draperies'
in Essex cloth towns. A wave of immigrants from the Low Countries, who
were fleeing religious persecution, brought skill in fashioning light
woollens or semi-worsteds. These were light in colour and much in demand.
The chief of the cloths were 'bays' and 'says'. New markets could easily
be found for them in Europe.
In Chelmsford the
affairs of the town were administered through the manor court. The management
of the public water supply comes first. The spring which lay in Burgeyswell
Field to the west of the town was piped underground until it rose to
the surface on the west side of the open market opposite the barber's
house, Roger Webb.68
Then the water ran in a common gutter down the east side of the High
Street and in front of some of the most valuable properties, before
turning into Springfield Lane and disappearing into the Gullett. Each
inhabitant whose house faced the gutter was to scour and cleanse it
once a month on pain of a fine of 12d. for default. The by-laws cannot
have been too effective, for in 1584 the penalty for default was raised
to 10 shillings. After a warning in 1591 that all inhabitants on both
sides of the street should maintain the gutter 'as they used to do',
the court took a firmer line in 1592. All those living by it were forbidden
to throw dung or filth into it, and were required to contribute towards
its cleansing and 'good keeping...according to a rate made for this'.
Fines imposed in future were to be levied at once, if necessary by distraint
on the offender's goods.69
The stiffest penalty
set down in the 1564 by-laws for Chelmsford was 20s. for any inhabitant
who used his own house as a slaughter house, instead of the 'New Shambles'
in the Middle Row, where a house had been pulled down to create a place
to kill beasts and butcher meat. Butchers or anyone else who threw horns,
bones, or any other filth into the street or river risked 3s. 4d.. This
by-law could be invoked against all kinds of offenders, including fishmongers
who did not clear up the fishguts and straw beneath their stalls, housewives
who swept their dust, ashes and refuse out of the front door into the
street, followed by pailfuls of dirty slops, or townspeople who dumped
dung in the churchyard or dead dogs and cats in Shytburye Lane (Waterloo
Lane). How forthright and dirty was the past and perhaps very different
from the sanitised re-enactments of today!
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