Keeping the Judges Happy

In my article on the Jacobean Assizes in last year’s Journal I wrote that Hertford Corporation routinely complained about the cost of entertaining the Assize judges and their retinues. There exist in the records of the Bor­ough Months Court a number of items from the 1630s which, although somewhat confusing, do illustrate what was involved.

Following the Lent Assizes of 1635/6 the minutes of the Months Court for 23 March attempted to settle the problem once and for all. I modernise the spelling and insert punctuation:

Whereas formerly there hath been a due and constant course suitable to the ability of the townsmen for such things to be presented to the Judges of Assize for their entertainment, which amounted to the value of £4 at this assize at the uttermost, lodging and all else included. And that of late there hath been an interruption of the ancient custom in the time of the late Lord Chief Justicee to the pressing of the inhabitants of the town to a greater burden and charge than can well be raised. We, the Mayor and Chief Burgesses, well considering the poor estate and want of trade in this borough and the difficulties of raising money from the said poor victu­allers and tradesmen that do chiefly bear and defray the said charges, have ordered to settle the same in a constant way for after times, that is to say, that forty shillings (£2) every Assize time shall be paid for the house and furniture wherein the Honourable Judges shall be entertained, and also that a present shall be delivered to their Lordships that shall amount to the value of three pounds in money and not above. And it is further ordered that the Steward or Servant of the house where the Honourable Judges shall be entertained be spoken to in due and convenient time to lay in so much beer, bread, flour, meal, butter, eggs and firing as shall be thought fit for their necessary use and that the said Servant of the house present his bills whereby to receive satisfaction and payment from their Lordships for the same.

From which I conclude that the Corporation accepted the responsibility for providing and paying for the lodgings of the Judges and their retinue, and the nourishment of the former, but considered that the food and drink of the latter should be a charge upon the Judges.

There were, however, problems other than feedings and watering the invaders. It appears that their Lordships had complained not only about nocturnal noise outside their lodgings (Lombard House and elsewhere in Bull Plain: just how large were their retinues?), but of daytime disturbance as well. The 23 February 1636/7 minutes tell us (spelling and punctuation again modernised) that:

At this Months Court it was ordered that in respect of the King’s Serjeant­ at-Law and other Serjeants and Counsellors that lodge at Mr Barbor’s and Mr Packer’s houses have hitherto been disquieted in the night time and also in their passage by day by reason of the excessive noise in riding horses down to the water, they have entreated the Mayor and Company to take some course to prevent the same during the Assizes, that therefore notice be given to the several inhabitants that keep ostreys [stables] that they water and wash their horses at Butchery Green or elsewhere, and that there also be a bar between Mr Barbor’s and Mr Packer’s houses for the Assize time to prevent the said inconvenience. And that Sampson Clarke be warned for the said time and times to carry his tubs some other way.

Sampson Clarke was the gaoler: we hardly need to speculate as to the con­tents of those tubs.

We need to go back a couple of years to find some bills for what was provided. An entry for 13 August 1634 reveals what was disbursed by Mayor George Hoppy for a present to the Judges: a ”mutton” (sic) and a lamb, £1.11s.; a dozen rabbits, 9s.; seven trouts, 7s.6d.; and six eels, 6s., a total of £2.13s.6d. One might expect wine to have figured, but none is mentioned. It would scarcely have broken the bank: half a gallon of claret could be purchased for 1s.4.d.!

At the same Assizes £7.15s.6d was spent on the (hopefully) reimburs­able items, including four barrels of beer, ”20 dozen” of bread; two bushels of flour; firing; loan of brass and pewter; and ”mending the lane and for a bench”.

At the Lent Assizes, 1634/5, this expenditure came to £9.2s.6d.; firing, unsurprisingly considering the time of year, bulking larger, £2.18s. out of the total. A sheep, a calf and half-a-dozen pullets were provided, plus the usual bread, but on this occasion only three barrels of beer. A curious item is ”a seat for the Judges to get up to horse back”, while ls.6d. was spent on ”taking up the gates and stile in the churchyard (presumably All Saints’) for the Judges’ passage”. One would like to know the route taken, and wonders once more about the numbers involved.

NOTES:

The identity of the ”Late Lord Chief Justice” is not disclosed; nor is it clear precisely what ”the ancient custom” was.

Gabriel Barbor was a Chief Burgess and had been Mayor in 1635. He later became a leading Parliamentarian supporter, and died in I 649. I am unable to identify ”Mr Packer”. Was the ”bar” across Bull Plain?

SOURCES:

Hertford Corporation records in HALS, HCR20:125; 20:130; 20:137 & 20:151