Guildford has possessed many of the attributes of a borough for over a thousand years. There was a mint here by 975, it was the only town in Surrey at Domesday and was referred to as a borough as early as 1130. However, the town seems to have had no charter until 1257, when Henry III granted two. One of these in effect established Guildford as the county town of Surrey forever by stipulating that the Sheriff’s Court be held here forever. The king himself was Lord of the Borough and received an annual sum from the town from an intermediary – the Fee Farmer – who collected dues from the inhabitants. In 1366 the right to collect these dues – the Fee Farm – was acquired by the town itself, thus further establishing the community as its own administrative body. This process culminated in 1488 with the Charter of Incorporation, which recognised a body consisting of a Mayor and 20 to 30 ‘Approved Men’ as the government of the town. A grant of a court of Quarter Sessions in 1603 – confirmed in 1836 – emphasised Guildford’s status as a borough. Nevertheless, the town remained small, with a population of less than two thousand until the 18th century.
Until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, the town was administered by a number of courts, which had their origins in the Middle Ages. The three most important were the Guild Merchant, the Court Leet and the Three Weeks’ Court.
The Guild Merchant was originally a body of all the tradesmen who had completed a seven-year apprenticeship. They met to regulate the commercial life of the town. At first anyone who was ‘Free’ of the borough – and thus had the right to trade in it – was entitled to attend but later membership seems to have become more limited. It met once a year, on the Monday after Michaelmas, when the Mayor was elected by the Approved Men, who also appointed other borough officials. The most important of these from 1366 was the Bailiff, who acted as the general executive officer of the Corporation. He had often been a constable before and his labours – and not inconsiderable expenses – over the following year were usually rewarded by making him one of the Approved Men. A clerk was also appointed, together with wardens for the hall and the bridge, a Sergeant at Mace who assisted the bailiff, and after 1603 a Recorder, who was a lawyer.
The Court Leet was responsible for trading standards and in general for the peaceful running of the town. It met twice annually, in mid-January and at Hocktide, after Easter. At the January or ‘Hilary’ Court the Approved Men elected the minor officials of the borough: the Constables, the Tasters of Ale and of Fish and Flesh and sometimes the Tithingmen, the Constable’s assistants in each of the five ‘tithings’ in the borough. (Holy Trinity and St. Mary’s were each divided into two tithings, but St. Nicholas within the borough was a single tithing). Accordingly, a townsman might progress from serving as a taster, a tithingman, a constable, then a bailiff before becoming an Approved Man and in his turn Mayor.
The accounts were also dealt with. Income was principally from rents, market tolls, and fines from those who wished to avoid costly municipal appointments and those who wished to have the freedom to trade in the borough. Rates were very rarely levied. The Hocktide Court was the most important, however, known as the King’s Great Law Day or the View of the Frankpledge (harking back to the Saxon principle that each tithing should jointly be responsible for the behaviours of its members). The jury included the Approved Men and other townsmen. The Tithingmen presented individuals from their tithings for such offences as obstruction, nuisances and dishonest trading. Fines were fixed by four Affeerers. The opportunity was also taken to make various municipal announcements.
The Three Week’s Court met every third Monday. Personal actions were hears, often for debt. The Bailiff was responsible for the attendance of the defendant. Sometimes juries considered the cases, sometimes witnesses testified to the honesty of one or the other party, but most frequently the disputes were settled by compromise or arbitration. The Assizes of Bread was also dealt with: the prices of three grades of wheat were recorded and bakers fined for selling underweight loaves. Brewers and ale-house keepers were also fined, if necessary. The Three Weeks’ Court also enrolled apprentices in the borough.
There was also a Fair Court of Court of Pie Powder, which sat to decide disputes between itinerants at the two annual fairs, in May and November, but by Tudor times these came to be treated simply as extra meetings of the Three Week’s Court. A principal duty of the Borough’s Justices of the Peace was the administration of the Poor Law (until 1838).
The origin of the office of High Steward of the borough in 1580 is obscure. Traditionally he has been a local nobleman who accepted the office at the invitation of the corporation. It may well be that the town felt it needed a patron at court, though latterly the office became merely a compliment paid to a local aristocratic family, usually the Onslows or the Grantleys.
In 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act standardised borough government throughout the land with a Town Council elected by, at first, all ratepayers and eventually all adult inhabitants. There were at first twelve councillors for four wards: Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas & St. Mary’s, East Stoke and West Stoke. These were reorganised into five in 1904: Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas, Friary, Merrow and Stoughton; and in 1934 Onslow Ward and Westborough Ward were added. Aldermen were elected until local government reorganisation in 1974. The Corporation reached the height of its power and influence from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century: by the outbreak of the Second World War the borough had its own police (from 1836), fire brigade (from 1863), water works (from 1865), electricity works (from 1921), schools (from 1903) and was responsible for the drainage and highways. After the War, however, most of these functions were taken over by the Surrey County Council, which had been set up in 1889, and the rest by other government agencies.
Guildford was a Parliamentary Borough from 1295 to 1885, returning two members to Parliament except under Oliver Cromwell and from 1867 to 1885, when only one member was to be elected. From the 16th century until the end of the last, Guildford MPs were often members of the three dominant local families: the Mores of Loseley, the Austens of Shalford, and above all the Onslows of Clandon (who provided one MP in every parliament from 1660 to 1885).
Guildford Museum, Castle Arch, Guildford, Surrey
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