La Secuencia de Actividad Recreativa Intensiva (SARI)

2. Close Rolls, 1247-51, 106.

3. 'Custumal of Sandwich' in W, Boys, Collections for an History of Sandwich, 428-9; D . Gardiner, Historic Haven, the Story of Sandwich, 57.

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Be it known that on Monday next after the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle the townsfolk of Sandwich cause the common horn to be sounded by the serjeant at the usual places in this town, namely at fourteen places, and proclamation shall be made by the common serjeant, who is called the wardman, in these words

'Ech man of twelf yer oyerraore go to St. d e m e n t i s cherche, ther oure commune hath niede, an haste, an h as t e . ' When the mayor of the year gone by and the jurats of the town, together with the whole

commonalty are gathered in the church aforenamed, and the serjeant comes with his horn, the mayor shall receive from the serjeant his rod and the horn. He shall also receive from the jurats appointed their custodians the keys of the common chest, and placing them beside him shall say to the commonalty, 'In truth, brethren, you know well how I have stood in the service of you all for one year, according to the manner of your election; and if I have exercised the office well and faithfully it pleases me well, but if otherwise it grieves me; and I ask you that if I have sinned against anyone in word or deed he may say so and here I am,

prepared to give satisfaction; and that you elect another who has knowledge of this office, and is able and

willing in the present year, by God's grace to exercise it successfully, e t c . ' The commonalty bid him rise and depart, and with him three upright men, nominated on the spot whether or not they are present. Providing

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ceremony,^ It seems probable, however, that this judgement was

1. A.S, Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century , 11, 429~30. that the four men thus chosen were born within the

liberty of the town, for no foreigner can be elected

mayor. Then some good man of the commonalty sitting & there shall say: 'Honest men, here are four combarons

of ours, whom you have chosen before the rest as

$ worthy of the mayoral office; they have gone out;

you must pronounce in God's name which of them you

wish to hav e ' . And those sitting on the four benches | (i.e. the jurats) speak first, and afterwards all the

bystanders shall acclaim with a loud voice such a John or such a W . ; and when the voice of the many becomes as one voice, or at least the greater part of the community offers general assent, two good men shall rise up and go to the home of the chosen

candidate, and tell him on behalf of the whole commune that he may come to take office and make his oath.

At first sight, the text of the mayor's retirai speech suggests

a remarkable degree of public-spiritedness, and this led J Mrs. Green to comment on the democratic nature of the election

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the matter was put to the commonalty. It is possible that this dominance by certain men merely illustrated the fact that they had exercised the office 'well and faithfully', but it appears likely that rule by a limited group was already well established by the

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coloured by what Clark and Slack have described as the early

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urban historian's search for 'the grail of democracy in the

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history of the medieval town' , and it is doubtful if the election

of the mayor was quite so democratic in practice, 3 During the period 1400-50, the office of mayor was held by

only 21 men and at times the concentration of the mayoral office - /S in a few hands was particularly intense. From 1403 to 1416 the

office was held by only four different people. Between 1433 and 1446 there were once more only four incumbents and two of them were

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probably the sons of previous office holders. Although the electoral procedure appears democratic the lack of variety in the list of | mayors casts doubt upon whether it was quite so spontaneous and f

free from pre-arrangement as the custumal suggests. In this context, it is perhaps significant that, when the time came to choose a mayor from the four candidates, the jurats were consulted first before

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1, P. Clark & P. Slack, 'Introduction' in Clark & Slack (eds.), | Crisis and Order in English Towns 1500-1700, 1. % 3 2. W, Boys, Collections for an History of Sandwich, 416-9.

opening of the period under consideration.

The mayor, together with twelve jurats, comprised the main - % governing body of the town. No details are given in the custumal

of how these jurats were chosen but, as happened in the other head ports, they were probably chosen by the newly-elected mayor,^ Their duties were specified in their oath of office; they were to ’truly advise and counsel the mayor of the town as well in judgements giving, as also in all other things, after the custom and use of

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the town.' Sandwich is exceptional among the head ports, however, in that the traditional form of government by the mayor and twelve jurats was modified during the fifteenth century by the introduction of a common council, ' Although such a development became fairly common in the confederation during the sixteenth century it occurs at an earlier date in Sandwich.

The first indications of a common council in a rudimentary form occur in 1448-9. In that year the commonalty empowered the

mayor, jurats and six men from each of the eight wards to make a cess, 3 or levy, upon the inhabitants, and to do other things in their name. Five years later, in 1454-5, this experiment was put into a more

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1. > See below pp. 120, 122, 126.

2. 'Custumal of Sandwich' in W. Boys, Collections for an History 3 of Sandwich, 430,

3. K.A.O., Sa/AC 1, f.76.

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113

definite form when a fully-fledged common council was introduced. The mayor and jurats chose four men from each of the three parishes and those selected in turn chose as many more commoners as they wished. The whole number chosen in this way were sworn to "assent* to the mayor and jurats when they had warning and, with the consent of the mayor and jurats, they were to make all elections and all scots and lots.^ In all, 70 people were chosen and they were sworn to defend the franchises of the town as well as taking the accustomed

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oath of loyalty to the king. In 1465 further regulations were introduced which reduced the common council from its rather unwieldy size of 70. The whole commonalty elected 16 men from each parish of the town and the mayor and jurats then selected 12 of them and dismissed four. In this way, the council was reduced to 36 men who

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were to meet at the guildhall each Wednesday, It was also ordered that a mayor breaking any decree made at a common assembly was to lose his fee.^

During the next decade there was remarkable fluctuation in the structure of town government, apparently reflecting the divisions

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within the country as a whole. In 1466, all acts of the common

1. K.A.O., Sa/AC 1, f.96v. 2. Sa/AC 1, ff.96v-97. 3. Sa/AC 1, f.l26. 4. Sa/AC 1, f.I31v. 5o See below pp. II

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assembly relating to elections made during the terms of office of John Copuldike, Matthew Hygon and John Westclyve (the mayors from 1462 to 1465) were annulled as contrary to the liberties,^ and the following year a new formula for elections was decreed. On 10 May, 1467 the traditional system of election was restored and all

elections were ordered to be made by the free barons, householders

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and indwellers. The result of this legislation was in effect to sweep away the innovations of the preceding years. The situation changed again following the resumption of the town's liberties into

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the king's hands in 1471. On their restoration on 8 February, 1471/2 Nicholas Burton was appointed mayor and the common council was restored. The commonalty chose 12 men from each parish, from the most 'discrete' men of the town, to form a common council. This council was to consult with the mayor and jurats for the good of the town and, together, the mayor, jurats and common council had

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the power to make ordinances. Anyone attempting to 'break the 5

common council' was to be punished by a fine.

The history of the common council over the next half-century is comparatively lacking in incident. On 3 March, 1478/9 the right

1. K.A.O., Sa/AC 1, f.l67. 2. Sa/AC 1, ff.l69v-70. 3. See above p.23. 4. Sa/AC 1, ff.205v-6. 5. Sa/AC 1, f.208v.

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of the mayor, jurats and common council to make decrees was reaffirmed.^ This reiteration may have been necessary because the powers of the common council had been called into doubt but there is no direct evidence to indicate this. In 1484, it was enacted that the power of granting process of withernam was to be

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with the mayor, jurats and common council. Some 20 years later, on 15 January, 1503/4 the rights of the common council were again confirmed and Edward Appleton was reprimanded for making a motion

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In document La recreación dirigida como mediación en el desarrollo de competencias ciudadanas: análisis de un proceso de intervención mediado por la recreación dirigido a un grupo de escolares de la Institución Educativa República de Argentina (IERA) Cali [recurso e (página 48-54)