Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/976

In Hilary term 1740, an information, in nature of a quo warranto, was granted by the Court of King's Bench against Richard Tucker, of the borough and town of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, in the county of Dorset, Esq. to shew by what authority he claimed to be Mayor of the said borough and town.

To this information Tucker pleaded, that King James I. by his letters patent, bearing date the 1st day of July, in the 14th year of his reign, granted that the Mayor, Aldermen, Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Commonalty of the borough and town of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, in the county of Dorset, should be a body politic and corporate, by the name of Mayor, Aldermen, and Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Commonalty of the borough and town of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, in the county of Dorset: and that from thenceforth, for ever, there should be within the borough and town aforesaid, one of the burgesses or inhabitants of the same town, who should be, and should be called Mayor; and also that there should be divers men of the borough and town aforesaid who should be Aldermen; and in the like manner, there should he two other men of the borough and town aforesaid, who should be called Bailiffs, and that there should he twenty-four other men, who should be capital and principal Burgesses of the said borough and town and the said King, by his said charter, appointed a Mayor, eleven Aldermen, two Bailiffs, and twenty-four capital and principal Burgesses, naming them particularly. The charter further granted to the Mayor, Aldermen, Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Commonalty of the said borough and town, and their successors, that the Mayor and Aldermen for the time boing, or the major part of them, being assembled in the Guildhall, or in some other convenient place within the said borough and town, should, on the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle yearly, choose and name four of the Burgesses or inhabitants of the borough and town aforesaid, out of which four, so to be named and chosen, the Mayor, Aldermen, Bailiffs, principal Burgesses, and other Burgesses and inhabitants of the borough and town aforesaid for the time being, on the same day there assembled for that purpose, should, by the majority of voices of them so assembled, elect one to be Mayor of the said borough and town; and that he, after such election, should, before he should be admitted to exercise that office, take an oath before the last Mayor, his predecessor, [305] or the Recorder, in the presence of so many of the Aldermen, Bailiffs, and principal Burgesses as would be present, for the due execution of his office; and that after such oath so taken, he should execute that office for one whole year, and from thence until another should be duly elected, and sworn according to the directions of the said charter.—The plea then stated, that those letters patent were accepted by the Mayor, Aldermen, Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Commonalty of the said borough and town; and that on the feast of St. Matthew, 1740, the then Mayor and Aldermen of the said borough and town met together at the Guildhall, in order to name four of the Burgesses or inhabitants of the said borough and town, out of which the then Mayor, Aldermen, Bailiffs, principal Burgesses, and other Burgesses and inhabitants (being on the same day there also met for that purpose) might, by the majority of voices of those so met, elect one of them to be Mayor; and that the major part of them, the said then Mayor and Aldermen being then and there met as aforesaid, for the purpose aforesaid, did