Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/1006

named and called by the name of the Mayor and Citizens of the city of Chester, and by the same name should be persons able and capable in law, and by the same name might plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, before the said late King, his heirs and successors, Earls of Chester, and before every of the said King's Justices in whatsoever of his said courts. And that the aforesaid Mayor and Citizens might have, appoint, and elect out of themselves every year successively, two citizens to be Sheriffs of the same county of the city of Chester, which Mayor and Sheriffs should be in the form under-written elected and appointed, (that is to say) all the fellow citizens of the said city, and the suburbs and hamlets aforesaid, dwelling within the same city, suburbs, and hamlets of the same city, who would interfere in the election of Mayor, might every year upon Friday next after the feast of Saint Dennis, at the common-ball of the city aforesaid, freely and without any contradiction, assemble together, who being so there, or [350] the major part of them, might nominate two citizens inhabiting in the said city, of the most able, discreet, and honourable persons out of the number of the twenty-four Aldermen in the same city, suburbs, and hamlets aforesaid, in form following, likewise to be elected, either of whom had or had not before been Mayor or Sheriff of the said city, and who had by no means enjoyed the office of Sheriff within three years immediately preceding the said Friday next after the feast of Saint Dennis, out of which two so named, the major part of the said Aldermen and Sheriffs then present there, by scrutiny should nominate, elect, and appoint a Mayor; and if in such election or nomination of that one person to be Mayor, the voices should be in number equal, disagreeing from each other, then the said late King willed, that the voice of the Mayor of the said city for the time being, should be had and held for two voices. But in the election of the Sheriffs of the said city, the said late King willed, that the form following should be observed, to wit, that the Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen, and other citizens of the same city and county, inhabiting in the same, who should be willing to interfere in the election of the Sheriffs, should, on Friday next after the feast of Saint Dennis annually, without any contradiction whatsoever, assemble and meet together; and the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen for the time being, or the major part of them, then being personally there, should freely elect and appoint one able and sufficient person to be one Sheriff of the said city; and then the said other fellow citizens being there then likewise present, or the major part of them, should on the same day freely elect and appoint another able and sufficient person to be the other Sheriff of the said city, which two so elected Sheriff's of the same county and city, should be, and remain from the said Friday next after the feast of Saint Dennis for one whole year; and that the said Mayor, and Escheator, and Clerk of the Market, and Sheriffs of the city aforesaid, for the time being, should yearly, immediately after their appointment, take their oaths before him who preceded the same Mayor so elected in his office the year preceding, and before the commonalty of the said city, in manner and form, as heretofore they had been accustomed; and this without the said late King's writ of dedimus potestatem, to be sued out of the Chancery or Exchequer of the said late King, his heirs or successors, or waiting for other mandates of the said late King, his heirs or successors. And the said late King Henry the Seventh, by the said last-mentioned letters patent, further granted to the said Mayor of the said city, and his successors, that they might yearly elect out of the most discreet and honest citizens of the said city, two citizens to be the Coroners of the said late King, his heirs and successors, within the said city, and the limits and liberties of the same city, who before the Mayor and Aldermen of the said city, should yearly take their corporal oaths, that they, for one whole year, the office of Coroner within the said city, and the limits and boundaries aforesaid, would well and truly [351] execute and serve and that the said Coroner, so elected and sworn, should have power and authority in like manner as the Coroner of the said late King, in the county palatine of Chester, or in any other county of his kingdom of England, had used or exercised. And the said late King Henry the Seventh, by the said letters patent, further gave and granted to the aforesaid Mayor and citizens, and their successors, that they should elect yearly out of the citizens of the said city, two citizens to be surveyors of the walls of the said city, to be called Murengers, as anciently they had been accustomed to do there; and that they should yearly survey the walls of the said city, and repair them; and that they so elected