of Mace-bearer. Two pier-wardens were appointed annually by freemen at a salary of £5, to collect dues on merchandise and from vessels landing on the stade. There were two Key-keepers elected annually by the commonalty, without salary or emoluments. A Bailiff and Common-crier was appointed annually by the freemen, with the exclusive right of crying and attending to the Bourne at a salary of £7 10s. 8d. A Street-driver, to walk the street and to pound all stray cattle, was appointed by freemen at £2 a year. A Measurer was appointed by the freemen, without salary or emoluments. The entire body made the bye-laws, and the Mayor, with six jurats and one freeman, constituted an Assembly. The court of Quarter-session had unlimited jurisdiction, was exclusive of county-maistrates, and did not try capital offences, but sent them to the Assizes. The Mayor and two jurats composed a court. The Petty-sessions were held fortnightly, and the Civil-court — which was re-established in 1822, on application to Court of King’s Bench - extended to all actions, real, personal or mixed; but the actions tried were inconsiderable. The Mayor and jurats were judges of their own court.
Executions cost about £6, and trials about £12. The county-rate amounted to £400 a year. Grand-juries were empanneled by the Town-clerk, with the Mayor’s approval, and were composed of 34 inhabitant householders. Petty-juries were empanneled by the Town-clerk, selected out of 300 names written on cards and drawn out of a box. The jurats appointed a school-master to Parker’s Charity, whose salary was £211, the master to find a room, and the school open to all the sons of the inhabitants. At that time there were 112 boys. The appointment for Saunders Charity was vested in the Corporation; the salary was variable, and the number of boys to be taught was 70. Two schoolmistresses were also appointed for this Charity.
The Commissioner having intimated that he had no further questions to ask, Mr. Howard Elphinstone protested on behalf of the principal inhabitants against the general inefficiency of the magistracy. They had not, he said, the least confidence in men who, while he acknowledged their private worth, were totally inadequate to perform the duties of magistrates from a general want of education and capacity, they being chosen from some of the small retail shop-keepers whose habits unfitted them for so responsible an office.
The enquiry thus concluding with Mr. Elphinstone's protest against the system of choosing magistrates is a reminder that even if occasionally a shopkeeper got lifted to the magistrates' bench who was not quite up to Mr. Elphinstone's standard of competency, the greater number, as could easily be proved, were chosen for their general intelligence and educational fitness. Among the latter were Physicians, legal practitioners, bankers, educationists and gentlemen of independent means. One of these was J. G. Shorter, sen. Esq., whose excellent pensmanship is before me, and who rose from a freeman to a jurat and from a jurat of 40 years to the position of eight times Mayor. In the year under review he having removed to his villa residence at Guesling tendered his resignation as a magistrate, thus making way, as he intimated, for someone with greater facilities for attending. He should, he said, continue to pray for the peace and prosperity of "Hasting."
A special meeting of magistrates was then held at which it was resolvedThat this meeting learns, with extreme regret, that Mr. Shorter has entertained the idea contemplated in his letter, and, that feeling, as they do, the great value his services have always been to the Bench and to the town in general, they do most respectfully and most earnestly beg of him to reconsider his determination.
On receiving notice of the resolution, Mr. Shorter withdrew his resignation in compliance with the wish there expressed, but being then 72 years of age, and feeling his inability to undertake frequent journeys of several miles to the court, he again tendered his resignation, which was then accepted, and two other freemen (Dr. Wilmott and G. Scrivens, Esq.), were made jurats. Mr. Shorter joined the silent majority in the following year at the age of 73. The Shorters of Hastings have descended from a distinguished line of nobility, but their local genealogy I have traced back for about 200 years only.
To show that Hastings was not disposed to place any obstacle in the way of a contemplated Bill for the better management of Corporations, it was only a few weeks before the Town Clerk gave to Mr. Bingley the foregoing details, that the Corporation emphatically declined to co-operate with the Norwich Corporation to resist the inspection of records by the Commission appointed to enquire into the state of Municipal Corporations. Our own ruling body also set about some reforms themselves, among which was the resolution to elect the Mayor in future on the 4th Monday, instead of the 3rd Sunday after Easter; also to make the prisoner's dock more convenient and secure; and further that the election of Mayor and other officers in future take place at the Town Hall and not at other inconvenient places, any former decree or usage notwithstanding.
£184 Legal (but dishonest) costs in recovering £134 from the Chancery Court
The altered day for chosing(sic) the Mayor for this year was the 21st of April, and the person elected was Mr. William Scrivens. The choice was made by the votes of 8 jurats and about 40 freemen. Mr. J. G. Shorter, jun. was re-elected Town Clerk and Mr. Robt. Ranking was appointed Deputy Mayor. One of Mr. Ranking's sons (he with whom I several times stood at Wickham's slaughterhouse, witnessing the killing of sheep and-
