Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/999

they were, and should be in all times then to come, persons able and in law capable to have, demand, receive, and possess manors, lands, tenements, liberties, privileges, jurisdictions, franchises, and hereditaments, of whatsoever sort or kind they were, to themselves and their successors, in fee and in perpetuity, or in any other manner, and also goods, credits, and chattels, and whatsoever other [339] things, of what kind, nature, or sort soever they were; and also to give, grant, demise, and assign manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, goods, debts, credits, and chattels, and to do and execute all other acts and things by the aforesaid name of the Mayor and Citizens of the city of Chester; and that they and their successors might, by the same name, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend and be defended, in any courts and places, and before any Judges and Justices, and other persons and officers of the said last-mentioned King, his heirs and successors, and might in all and all sorts of actions, suits, plaints, pleas, causes, matters, and demands whatsoever, and of what kind, nature, or sort soever, in the same manner and form as others the said last-mentioned King's liege subjects of that his realm of England, be persons able and in law capable to plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend and be defended; and that the Mayor and Citizens of the city aforesaid, for the time being, should have for ever a common seal kept, to be made use of in their causes, and any other their businesses; and that it should and might be very lawful for the same Mayor and Citizens of the city aforesaid, and their successors from time to time, at their pleasure to break and change that seal, and to make it anew, as it should seem meet to them to do or to be done and further, the said last-mentioned King willed, and by the said last-mentioned letters patent, for himself, his heirs and successors, did grant and ordain, that there should be thenceforth for ever within the said city one principal magistrate or officer, who should be and should be called Mayor of the city of Chester; and also an honest and discreet person, learned in the laws of England, who should have been a barrister by the space of three years at least, who should be and should be called Recorder of the city of Chester and that there might and should be within the same city, twenty-four honest and discreet persons, who were and should be called Aldermen of the same city, of whom the Mayor of the city aforesaid, and the Recorder of the city aforesaid, for the time being, should be two; and that there should be within the city aforesaid, forty other honest and discreet persons, who were and should be called the Common-Council of the city aforesaid; and also two honest and discreet persons, who were and should be called Sheriffs of the city of Chester, and county of the same city, and one fit person who should be and should be called the Common Clerk of the city aforesaid; and also two honest and discreet persons, who were and should be called Coroners of the city of Chester, and county of the same city; and also an Escheator, clerk of the market, two surveyors of the walls of the city aforesaid, called Murengers, two Treasurers of the city aforesaid, two officers called Leave-lookers, a Sword-bearer of the city aforesaid, a Mace-bearer of the city aforesaid, one officer called the Yeoman of the Pentice, and a Cryer of the Courts of the city aforesaid and the said lato King Charles the Second did, [340] by the same letters patent, appoint, nominate, constitute, and make his dearly beloved and faithful kinsman, William George Richard, Earl of Derby, Thomas Grosvenor, Peter Pindar, Bart. Richard Dutton, Knt. Edward Lutwych, Knt. (the said King's serjeant at law,) Peter Shakerly, Esq. Hugh Grosvenor, Esq. Robert Werden, Esq. Robert Murray, Thomas Wilcock, Thomas Simpson, William Ince, William Wilme, John Sparke, William Wilson, Edward Oulton, Hugh Starkie, Ralph Burroughs, Francis Skellerne, William Starkie, William Allen, Henry Bennett, William Bennett, and Valentine Short, in the said letters patent mentioned, to be thon and thereafter the first and new Aldermen of the city aforesaid. And the said Thomas Amery further saith, that the said late King Charles the Second, by the said last-mentioned letters patent, for himself, his heirs and successors, also willed, constituted, ordained, and declared, that upon Friday next after the feast of Saint Dennis, every year, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-Council of the city aforesaid, or the greater part of them, might, without any contradiction, assemble and meet together in the Common-hall of the city aforesaid; and that they, so assembled, or the greater part of them, might by scrutiny, nominate and elect one of the Aldermen of the city aforesaid, who should by no means have served the office of Sheriff for three years before