Burgesses Sentence Examples

He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1759-1760.

Roger de Lacy in 1194 granted a charter to the burgesses confirming their liberties and right to be a free borough at a fee-farm of 12d.

Since the Reform Act of 183 2 the burgesses have returned two members to parliament.

King John (1201) constituted Helleston a free borough, established a gild merchant, and granted the burgesses freedom from toll and other similar dues throughout the realm, and the cognizance of all pleas within the borough except crown pleas.

Two burgesses were returned in 1577, but it was not again represented till the same privilege was conferred on it in 1832.

In 1593 Elizabeth incorporated it, and gave the burgesses a town hall and court of pie powder.

At the time of the Domesday Survey Tateshall (now Tanshelf, a suburb of the town) was the chief manor and contained 60 burgesses, while Kirkby, which afterwards became the borough of Pontefract, was one of its members.

This committee consisted of six members, two barons, two ministers and two burgesses - the two barons selected being John Napier of Merchiston and James Maxwell of Calderwood.

The burgesses returned two members to parliament in 1320 and again in 1338 and 1341, but were never represented again.

Two great central courts sat in Jerusalem to do justice - the high court of the nobles, and the court of burgesses for the rest of the Franks.

In 1327 thirty burgesses in Penzance and thirteen boats paying 13s.

The only town charter is one of 1567-1568, in which Queen Elizabeth confirms an ancient privilege of the burgesses that they should not be upon assizes or juries with strangers, relating to matters outside the town.

Thirty-five years later John of Eltham granted to the burgesses the whole town of Grauntpount.

Two burgesses had attended parliament in 1343, but none had been summoned since.

In 1383 Bishop Fordham gave the burgesses licence to receive tolls within the borough for the maintenance of the walls, while Bishop Neville granted a commission for the construction of a pier or mole.

Burgesses could buy and possess property in towns, which knights were forbidden to acquire; and though they could not intermarry with the feudal classes, it was easy and regular for a burgess to thrive to knighthood.

There were some thirty-seven cours de bourgeoisie (several of the fiefs having more than one), each of which was under the presidency of a vicomte, while all were independent of the court of burgesses at Jerusalem.

The bishops did not obtain possession until the reign of John, who during the interval in 1201 gave Hartlepool a charter granting the burgesses the same privileges that the burgesses of Newcastle enjoyed; in 1230 Bishop Richard Poor granted further liberties, including a gild merchant.

The incorporation charter of 1468 granted these to the burgesses, who continue to hold them.

In 1284 the inhabitants petitioned the burgesses of Hereford for a certified copy of the customs of the latter town, and these furnished a model for the later demands of the growing community at Cardiff from its lords, while Cardiff in turn furnished the model for the Glamorgan towns such as Neath and Kenfig.

The mention of four burgesses at Bridlington (Brellington, Burlington) in the Domesday survey shows it to have been a borough before the Conquest.

Two burgesses were summoned to the parliaments of 1300, 1307 and 1309, but no further returns were made until 1625.

Burgesses and nobles, however different in status, were both of the same Frankish stock, and both occupied the same superior position with regard to the native Syrians.

Finally, when one remembers how, during the First Crusade, the pedites had marched side by side with the principes, and how, from the beginning of 1099, they had practically risen in revolt against the selfish ambitions of princes like Count Raymund, it becomes easy to understand the independent position which the burgesses assumed in the organization of the kingdom.

Like the nobles, again, the burgesses had the right of confirming royal grants and of taking part in legislation; and they may be said to have formed - socially, politically and judicially - an independent and powerful estate.

Later charters were granted by various sovereigns, and it was incorporated by Elizabeth in 1598 under the style of a mayor, 6 brethren and 12 capital burgesses.

By the charters of 1664 and 1674 the corporation was given the title of mayor, aldermen and burgesses.

The assizes of the kingdom itself are twofold - the assizes of the high court and the assizes of the court of burgesses.

In 1219 the prior secured the right of holding a court there for all crown pleas and of sitting beside the justices itinerant, .and this led to serious collision between the monks and burgesses.

The privilege of returning two members to parliament which had belonged to Pontefract at the end of the 13th century was revived in1620-1621on the grounds that the charter of1606-1607had restored all their privileges to the burgesses.

Its most important early charter was that granted in 1340 by Hugh le Despenser, whereby the burgesses acquired the right to nominate persons from whom the constable of the castle should select a bailiff and other officers, two ancient fairs, held on the 29th of June and, 9th of September, were confirmed, and extensive trading privileges were granted, including the right to form a merchant gild.

The ordinary burgesses consisted of the freeholders and the master-workmen of the gilds.

The burgesses of Droitwich are mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but they probably only had certain franchises in connexion with the salt trade.

The burgesses appear to have had much difficulty in paying this large farm; in 1227 the king pardoned twenty-eight marks of the thirty-two due as tallage, while in 1237 they were £23 in arrears for the farm.

In medieval times Droitwich was governed by two bailiffs and twelve jurats, the former being elected every year by the burgesses; Queen Mary granted the incorporation charter in 1554 under the name of the bailiffs and burgesses.

King John's charter granted the burgesses a fair on the feast of SS.

In the Domesday Survey it appears as a me g ne borough under Juhel of Totnes, founder of the castle and priory; it had 95 burgesses within and 15 without the borough, and rendered military service according to the custom of Exeter.

The present governing charter was granted by Elizabeth in 1596, and instituted a governing body of a mayor, fourteen masters or councillors, and an indefinite number of burgesses, including a select body called "the Twenty-men."

The town was incorporated in 1467 by Edward IV., who granted a gild merchant and appointed that the town should be governed by a mayor and two serjeants-at-mace elected every year by the burgesses.

Henry VII., while confirming this charter in 1505, granted further that the burgesses should hold their town and soke with all the manors in the soke on payment of a fee farm.

In 1623 Ralph Salvin tried to regain the manor of Doncaster from the mayor and burgesses, who, fearing that the case would go against them, agreed to pay about £3000, in return for which he gave up his claim to all the manors in the soke.

By the charter of 1194 the burgesses received licence to hold a fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of the Annunciation, and this with the fair on St James's day was confirmed to them by Henry VII.

The first charter was that granted by the prior and convent in 1252, by which Weymouth was made a free borough and port for all merchants, the burgesses holding their burgages by the same customs as those of Portsmouth and Southampton.

The continual disputes between the two boroughs led to the passing of an act of union in 1571, the new borough being incorporated under the title of the "Mayor, Bailiffs and Burgesses" by James I.

Even earlier than Heriot's hospital was the Merchant Maiden hospital, dating from 1605, which gave to the daughters of merchants similar advantages to those which Heriot's secured for burgesses' sons.

In 1738 George Watson's hospital for boys was founded; then followed the Trades' Maiden hospital for burgesses' daughters, John Watson's, Daniel Stewart's, the Orphans', Gillespie's,' Donaldson's 2 hospitals, and other institutions founded by successful merchants of the city, in which poor children of various classes were lodged, boarded and educated.

It was as much as Matthias could do to keep the civic life of Hungary from expiring altogether, and nine-tenths of his burgesses were foreigners with no political interest in the country of their adoption.

Every nobleman had the right to engage in trade toll-free, to the great detriment of their competitors the burgesses.

According to this Hamburg is a republic, the government (Staatsgewalt) residing in two chambers, the Senate and the House of Burgesses.

The members of the Senate are elected for life by the House of Burgesses; but a senator is free to retire from office at the expiry of six years.

The House of Burgesses consists of 160 members, of whom 80 are elected in secret ballot by the direct suffrages of all tax-paying citizens, 40 by the owners of house-property within the city (also by ballot), and the remaining 40, by ballot also, by the so-called "notables," i.e.

The House of Burgesses is represented by a Biirgerausschuss (committee of the house) of twenty deputies whose duty it is to watch over the proceedings of the Senate and the constitution generally.

In February 1644, at the express desire of King Christian IV., the Copenhagen burgesses elected him burgomaster.

It was he who on this occasion obtained privileges for the burgesses of Copenhagen which placed them on a footing of equality with the nobility; and he was the life and soul of the garrison till the arrival of the Dutch fleet practically saved the city.

His greatest feat was the impassioned speech by which, on October 8th, he induced the burgesses to accede to the proposal of the magistracy of Copenhagen to offer Frederick III.

The first charter of incorporation was granted by Queen Mary in 1553, and instituted a common council consisting of a bailiff, 12 aldermen and 12 chief burgesses; a court of record, one justice of the peace, a Thursday market and two annual fairs.

Charters were granted by subsequent sovereigns down to Charles I., who reincorporated the town under the title of the mayor, jurats, bailiffs and burgesses of Queenborough.

By the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 a mayor, aldermen and a council replaced the capital burgesses, the older governing body.

On the commons or moors burgesses have rights of pasture.

There is no description of Tamworth in Domesday, but its burgesses are incidentally mentioned several times.

The sovereignty resides jointly in the senate and the Biirgerschaft, or Convent of Burgesses.

It was a mesne borough held of the bishop of Winchester, but it is probable that during the i 8th century the privileges of the burgesses were allowed to lapse, as by 1835 it had ceased to be a borough.

Much evidence has been produced to show that gild and borough, gildsmen and burgesses, were originally distinct conceptions, and that they continued to be discriminated in most towns throughout the middle ages.

Admission to the gild was not restricted to burgesses; nor did the brethren form an aristocratic body having control over the whole municipal polity.

It was constituted a free borough under the title of the mayor, aldermen and burgesses of Hadleigh.

The first charter, of which a copy only is preserved among the corporation records, is one given in 1262 by John Fitzalan granting the burgesses self-government.

The town was incorporated by Elizabeth in 1582 under the government of two bailiffs and a common council of 24 burgesses, and her .charter was confirmed by James I.

The former granted some additional exemptions whilst the latter incorporated the town under the title of mayor and burgesses of Marlborough.

By an undated charter still preserved with the corporation's muniments he surrendered to the burgesses all the liberties given them by his predecessors (antecessores) when they founded the town.

By Isolda, granddaughter of Robert de Cardinan, the town was given to Richard, king of the Romans, who in the third year of his reign granted to the burgesses a gild merchant sac and soc, toll, team and infangenethef, freedom from pontage, lastage, &c., throughout Cornwall, and exemption from the jurisdiction of the hundred and county courts, also a yearly fair and a weekly market.

In 1609 a charter of incorporation provided for a mayor, recorder, six capital burgesses and seventeen assistants and courts of record and pie powder.

In conformity with the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1840 the constitution of the corporation was made to consist of ten aldermen and thirty councillors, under the style and title of " The Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Borough of Belfast."

In the parish of Tintagel is the hamlet of Bossiney which under the name of Tintagel received a charter (undated) from Richard king of the Romans, granting freedom to the borough and to the burgesses freedom from pontage and stallage throughout Cornwall, a market on Wednesdays and a three days' fair at Michaelmas.

In 1333 the burgesses, those who held tenements within the borough, numbered zoo.

By the middle of the 18th century the franchise had become restricted to the freemen or burgesses.

Its importance continued in Saxon times, and in 1086 it was a royal borough with 107 burgesses.

Hampton was settled in 1610 on the site of an Indian village, Kecoughtan, a name it long retained, and was represented at the first meeting (1619) of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

The moneyers, who were elected by the burgesses, were responsible for the manufacture of the coin, and according to Madox were liable at the time of Henry II.

At the time of the Domesday Survey of 1086 it already ranked as a borough, with a castle, a market paying 4 shillings, and four burgesses.

From time immemorial the isle of Gotland had been the staple of the Baltic trade, and its capital, Visby, whose burgesses were more than half German, the commercial intermediary between east and west, was the wealthiest city in northern Europe.

In July 1361 Valdemar set sail from Denmark at the head of a great fleet, defeated a peasant army before Visby, and a few days later the burgesses of Visby made a breach in their walls through which the Danish monarch passed in triumph.

Louis the Great placed the burgesses on a level with the gentry by granting to the town council of Cracow jurisdiction over all the serfs in the extra-rural estates of the citizens.

Another statute prohibited the burgesses from holding landed property and enjoying the privileges attaching thereto.

Deputies from the towns took part in the election of John Albert (1492), and the burgesses of Cracow, the most enlightened economists in the kingdom, supplied Sigismund I.

In England the franchises enjoyed by burgesses, freemen and other consuetudinary constituencies in burghs, were dependent on the character of the burgagetenure.

A fuller grant in 1206 gave the burgesses a gild merchant, the husting court to be held once a week only, and general liberties according to the customs of Oxford, saving the rights of the bishop and the earl of Arundel, whose ancestor William D'Albini had received from William the moiety of the tolbooth.

Among numerous later charters one of 1268 confirmed the privilege granted to the burgesses by the bishop of choosing a mayor; another of 1416 re-established his election by the aldermen alone.

The first burgesses probably obtained their privileges from him.

He also confirmed the privileges granted by his father to the burgesses of Barnard Castle, and was succeeded by his son Eustace.

There were also certain burgesses, holding twenty-eight burgages.

The corporation in the 18th century consisted of a portreeve and eleven burgesses, and was abolished when the town was reincorporated in 1853.

In 1 292 William de Tabley, lord of both Over and Nether Knutsford, granted free burgage to his burgesses in both Knutsfords.

It provided that the burgesses might elect a bailiff from amongst themselves every year.

The burgesses surrendered the proceeds of the borough court and other rights in 1365 in return for respite of the fee farm rent; these were recovered in 1405 and rent again paid.

Bishop Waynflete is said to have confirmed the original charter in 1452, and in 1566 Bishop Horne granted a new charter by which the burgesses elected 2 bailiffs and 12 burgesses annually and did service at their own courts every three weeks, the court leet being held twice a year.

In resisting an attack made by the bishop in 1660 on their right of toll, the burgesses could only claim Farnham as a borough by prescription as their charters had been mislaid, but the charters were subsequently found, and after some litigation their rights were established.

It granted to the burgesses all privileges and free customs such as they held in the time of Edward the Elder, with many additional exemptions, in return for help rendered against the Danes.

It was not incorporated, however, until 1645, when it was made a free borough under the title of "aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Malmesbury, County Wilts."

It became a mesne borough by the charter granted by John in 1201, which provided that the town should be a free borough, the burgesses to be free and quit of all tolls, and made William de Briwere overlord.

In the 14th century the burgesses of Hull disputed the right of the archbishop of York to prisage of wine and other liberties in Hull, which they said belonged to the king.

In 1381 Edward III., while inspecting former charters, granted that the burgesses might hold the borough with fairs, markets and free customs at a fee-farm of £70, and that every year they might choose a mayor and four bailiffs.

The king in 1440 granted the burgesses Hessle, North Ferriby and other places in order that they might obtain a supply of fresh water.

Hull was represented in the parliament of 1295 and has sent members ever since, save that in 1384 the burgesses were exempted from returning any member on account of the expenses which they were incurring through fortifying their town.

Besides the fairs granted to the burgesses by Edward I., two others were granted by Charles II.

The first account of the borough and its privileges is contained in an inquisition taken in 1333 after the death of Anthony, bishop of Durham, which shows that the burgesses held the town with the markets and fairs at a fee-farm rent of 40 marks yearly, and that they had two reeves who sat in court with the bishop's bailiff to hear the disputes of the townspeople.

In 1317 the town was burnt by the Scots under Robert Bruce, although the burgesses paid 3000 marks that it might be spared.

The privilege was revived in 1553, after which the burgesses continued to send two members until 1867, when they were allowed only one.

Its medieval importance as the only shelter between Portland Roads and the river Exe caused the burgesses to receive grants of quayage for its maintenance in 1335 and many subsequent years, while its convenience probably did much to bring upon Lyme the unsuccessful siege by Prince Maurice in 1644.

When the borough originated is not known, but Domesday Book mentions two hundred and seventy-six burgesses and land in commune burgensium, a phrase that may point to a nascent municipal corporation.

Other adversaries of the episcopate, the burgesses and the petty nobles dwelling in the city, also profited by these frequent changes of bishops, and the disorders that ensued.

The right of the burgesses to self-government and self-taxation is acknowledged and confirmed, they, on the other hand, being held bound to a constitutional obedience and subjection to the sovereign, particularly to the payment of definite imperial taxes, and the rendering of a certain amount of military service (as the ancient municipia had been).

According to tradition, Daventry was created a borough by King John, but there is no extant charter before that of Elizabeth in 1576, by which the town was incorporated under the name of the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty of the borough of Daventry.

The bailiff was to be chosen every year in the Moot Hall and to be assisted by fourteen principal burgesses and a recorder.

The charter of 1576 confirms this market and fair to the burgesses, and grants them two new fairs each continuing for two days, on Tuesday after Easter and on the feast of St Matthew the Apostle.

Tavistock was governed from before the Conquest by a portreeve, who in the 14th century was assisted by a select council of burgesses, styled in 1660 "the Masters of the Toune and Parish of Tavistock."

Randolph wrote the address of remonstrance to the king in behalf of the Burgesses against the suggested stamp duties in 1764.

He was re-elected to Congress in March 1775, and on the 10th of May was again chosen to preside, but on the 24th he left to attend a meeting at Williamsburg of the Virginia Burgesses.

It was then granted that the burgesses might elect from among themselves a chief officer, who was first called a mayor in 1296.

The right of the burgesses to his election was, however, lost, and the mayor was always nominated by the lord of the manor.

This arrangement lasted until 1565, when the burgesses put in a claim to their right of election, and it was decided that out of four burgesses nominated by the lord of the manor the jury of the court leet should select the mayor.

In 1201 King John increased the farm paid by the burgesses, while Henry III.

From 1295 till 1305 the burgesses returned two members to parliament but then ceased to do so till 1586.

Another charter, dated 1664, appointed two capital burgesses t o be justices of the peace with the warden.

In 1900 the association for the preservation of Virginia antiquities, to which the site was deeded in 1893, induced the United States government to build a wall to prevent the further encroachment of the river; the foundations of several of the old buildings have since been uncovered, many interesting relics have been found, and in 1907 there were erected a brick church (which is as far as possible a reproduction of the fourth one built in 1639-1647), a marble shaft marking the site of the first settlement, another shaft commemorating the first house of burgesses, a bronze monument to the memory of Captain John Smith, and another monument to the memory of Pocahontas.

It was a royal borough in Saxon times, and in 1086 had 34 resident burgesses.

There is a tradition, supported by a reference on a plea roll, that Randle, earl of Chester (1181-1232) made Macclesfield a free borough, but the earliest charter extant is that granted by Edward, prince of Wales and earl of Chester, in 1261, constituting Macclesfield a free borough with a merchant gild, and according certain privileges in the royal forest of Macclesfield to the burgesses.

As a royal possession it appears to have enjoyed various privileges in the 12th century, among them the right of choosing a bailiff to collect the toll and render it to the king, and to elect six burgesses and send them to the view of frankpledge twice a year.

The first charter of incorporation, granted in 1636, appointed a bailiff and 12 capital burgesses forming a common council.

Llanelly, though an ancient parish and a borough by prescription under a portreeve and burgesses in the old lordship of Kidwelly, remained insignificant until the industrial development in South Wales during the 19th century.

The first charter was granted about 1283 to the burgesses by Henry de Lacy, second earl of Lincoln, confirming the liberties granted by the first Henry de Lacy, who is therefore sometimes said, although probably erroneously, to have granted a charter about 1147.

The municipal government was formerly vested in an in-bailiff and an out-bailiff elected annually from the in and out burgesses.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the town obtained a charter, and this was confirmed by James I., who added the privilege of sending two burgesses to the Irish parliament.

Under the second charter of 1690 the common council consisted of a mayor and eight aldermen and these with a recorder elected the free burgesses.

Otto Bodrugan in 1320 granted the burgesses the privilege of electing their own portreeve and controlling the trade of the town.

A charter of incorporation was granted in 1558 under which the common council was to consist of a mayor and 8 chief burgesses.

West Looe (known also as Porpighan or Porbuan) benefited by a charter granted by Richard king of the Romans to Odo Treverbyn and ratified in 1325 constituting it a free borough whose burgesses were to be free of all custom throughout Cornwall.

In 1574 a charter of incorporation was granted, providing for a mayor and 11 burgesses, also for a market on Wednesdays and two fairs.

The borough probably obtained its charter during the following century, for Hugh de Puiset, bishop of Durham (1153-1195), confirmed to his burgesses similar rights to those of the burgesses of Newcastle, freedom of toll within the palatinate and other privileges.

No charter of incorporation is extant, but in 1563 contests were carried on under the name of the bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty, and a list of borough accounts exists for 1696.

At the inquisition of 1336 the burgesses claimed an annual fair on St Peter's Day, and depositions in 1577 mention a borough market held on Tuesday and Friday, but these were apparently extinct in Camden's day, and no grant of them is extant.

Unfortunately, too, for Norway's independence, the native gentry had gradually died out, and were succeeded by immigrant Danish fortune-hunters; native burgesses there were none, and the peasantry were mostly thralls; so that, excepting the clergy, there was no patriotic class to stand up for the national liberties.

The burgesses had not yet recovered from the disaster of " Grevens fejde "; but while the towns had become more dependent on the central power, they had at the same time been released from their former vexatious subjection to the local magnates, and could make their voices heard in the Rigsdag, where they were still, though inadequately, represented.

Within the Estate of Burgesses itself, too, a levelling process had begun.

All this tended to enlarge the political views of the burgesses, and was not without its influence on the future.

Yet, after all, the prospects of the burgesses depended mainly on economic conditions; and in this respect there was a decided improvement, due to the increasing importance of money and commerce all over Europe, especially as the steady decline of the Hanse towns immediately benefited the trade of Denmark-Norway; Norway by this time being completely merged in the Danish state, and ruled from Copenhagen.

The nobility at first claimed exemption from taxation altogether, while the clergy and burgesses insisted upon an absolute equality of taxation.

In accordance with this proposal, the two Lower Estates, on the 16th of September, subscribed a memorandum addressed to the Rigsraad, declaring their willingness to renounce their privileges, provided the nobility did the same; which was tantamount to a declaration that the whole of the clergy and burgesses had made common cause against the nobility.

On the 17th of September the burgesses introduced a bill proposing a new constitution, which was to include local self-government in the towns, the abolition of serfdom, and the formation of a national army.

It fell to the ground for want of adequate support; but another proposition, the fruit of secret discussion between the king and his confederates, which placed all fiefs under the control of the crown as regards taxation, and p rovided for selling and letting them to the highest bidder, was accepted by the Estate of burgesses.

On the 8th of October the two burgomasters, Hans Nansen and Kristoffer Hansen, proposed that the realm of Denmark should be made over to the king as a hereditary kingdom, without prejudice to the privileges of the Estates; whereupon they proceeded to Brewer's Hall, and informed the Estate of burgesses there assembled of what had been done.

On the 10th of October a deputation from the clergy and burgesses proceeded to the Council House where the Rigsraad were deliberating, to demand an answer to their propositions.

The incorporation charter of 1605 recites that the burgesses are chiefly engaged in agriculture, and grants them a fair, which still continues every year on Tuesday in Easter week.

Ludlow was a borough by prescription in the 13th century, but the burgesses owe most of their privileges to their allegiance to the house of York.

Richard, duke of York, in 1450 confirmed their government by 12 burgesses and 24 assistants, and Edward IV.

The corporation was to consist of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 12 capital burgesses.

Its buildings, arranged around Under the Commonwealth Richard Bennett (elected by General Assembly)1652-1655Edward Digges (elected by House of Burgesses)1655-1657Samuel Mathews (elected by House of Bur gesses).1657-1660Under the Crown Sir William Berkeley, Governor.1660-1677Francis Morrison (or Moryson), Deputy Governor.

In 1524 the burgesses were exempted from appearing at the shire and hundred courts, and in 1583 the body corporate was reconstructed under the title of mayor and commonalty, and power was granted to make by-laws and to punish offenders.

The town was a borough by prescription, but there appears to be no mention of burgesses before the 15th century.

The burgesses were given the right to elect annually their mayor, who with the commonalty should elect four bailiffs.

Five years later, in 1307, the mayor and burgesses received another charter, granting them their town with all things that belonged to it in the time of Alexander III., for a fee-farm rent of 500 marks, which was granted back to them in 1313 to help towards enclosing their town with a wall.

In 1482 the burgesses were allowed to send two members to the English parliament, and were represented there until 1885, when the town was included in the Berwick-upon-Tweed division of the county of Northumberland.

In addition to royal burghs, there were burghs of nobles and of bishops, and the provostship was apt to become, by custom, almost hereditary in a local noble family, which protected the burgesses.

Burgesses do not yet receive mention as present on such occasions.

Edward took homage from all, including burgesses even, at Perth; his decision on the claims was deferred to the 2nd of June 1292 at Berwick.

James and his leaders, Atholl and Huntly, with their Stewarts and Gordons, and the levies of burgesses, and the mounted gentry of Fife, encountered the wild border spearmen of Hepburn and Home and the Galloway men, the whole being led by Angus and the rebel prince at Sauchie burn, near Bannockburn.

Meanwhile the many noble and dissatisfied pensioners of England adopted Protestantism, which also made its way among the barons, burgesses and clergy, so that, for political reasons, James at last could not but be hostile to the new creed; he bequeathed this anti-protestantism, with the French alliance, through his wife, Mary of Guise, and the influence of the house of Lorraine, to his unhappy daughter, Mary Stuart.

The Court of Session was also to be removed, and the burgesses, fearing loss of trade, laid down their arms. The leader of the clerical agitation, Mr Bruce, with a wild preacher named Balcanquhal, fled to England, and James returned in triumph to his capital on the 1st of January 1597.

Although the town was evidently a borough by the 13th century, since the burgesses are mentioned as early as 1292, it has no charter earlier than the incorporation charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1572.

The town was founded by the convent of Durham about the middle of the 13th century, but on account of the complaints of the burgesses of Newcastle an order was made in 1258, stipulating that no ships should be laden or unladen at Shields, and that no "shoars" or quays should be built there.

In the Domesday Survey Caine appears as a royal borough; it comprised forty-seven burgesses and was not assessed in hides.

He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1752 until the organization of the state government in 1776, was the recognized leader of the conservative Whigs, and took a leading part in opposing the British government.

Richard (1225-1272), king of the Romans, constituted Dunheved a free borough, and granted to the burgesses freedom from pontage, stallage and suillage, liberty to elect their own reeves, exemption from all pleas outside the borough except pleas of the crown, and a site for a gild-hall.

The parliamentary franchise which had been conferred in 1294 was confined to the corporation and a number of free burgesses.

Jefferson began his public service as a justice of the peace and parish vestryman; he was chosen a member of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1769 and of every succeeding assembly and convention of the colony until he entered the Continental Congress in 1775.

The executive is in the hands of the Senate, but the House of Burgesses has the right of initiating legislation, including that relative to foreign treaties; the sanction of both chambers is required to the passing of any new law.

In 1479 he called a meeting of two burgesses from each "good city" of his realm to consider means for preventing the influx of foreign coin.

The borough, first claimed as such in the reign of Henry I., was in existence by the middle of the 13th century, since a deed of Gilbert Fitz-Stephen, lord of the manor, mentions the services due from "his burgesses of Dertemue," and a borough seal of 1280 is extant.

A French attack on the town was repulsed in 1404, and in 1485 the burgesses received a royal grant of 40 for walling the town and stretching a chain across the river mouth.

Philip supported the clergy against the feudal lords, and in many cases against the burgesses of the towns, but rigidly exacted from them the performance of their secular duties, ironically promising to aid the clergy of Reims, who had failed to do so, "with his prayers only" against the violence of the lords of Rethel and Roucy.

All that might be required besides would be a common for the pasture of the burgesses' cattle.

The site was probably chosen partly on account of the fisheries, which are mentioned in the Domesday Survey, one of the chief services of the burgesses being that of taking fish to the king's court wherever it might be.

The burgesses must have received certain privileges from Henry I., since Henry II.

This probably included a gild merchant which is mentioned in the Quo Warranto Rolls as one of the privileges claimed by the burgesses.

The governing body consisted of a high steward, deputy steward, two water-bailiffs and 28 burgesses, but the cdrporation was abolished by the Municipal Corporation Act of 1883, and a Local Board was formed, which, under the Local Government Act, gave place in 1894 to an urban district council.

By it the king granted to William, count of Albemarle, free borough rights in Hedon so that his burgesses there might hold of him as freely and quietly as the burgesses of York or Lincoln held of the king.

King John in 1200 granted a confirmation of these liberties to Baldwin, count of Albemarle, and Hawisia his wife and for this second charter the burgesses themselves paid 70 marks.

The burgesses returned two members to parliament in 1295, and from 1547 to 1832 when the borough was disfranchised.

The community had now become self-supporting, and the year that witnessed these changes witnessed also the first representative assembly in North America, the Virginia House of Burgesses, a meeting of planters sent from the plantations to assist the governor in reforming and remaking the laws of the colony.

In 1621 a constitution was granted whereby the London Company appointed the governor and a council, and the people were to choose annually from their counties, towns, hundreds and plantations delegates to the House of Burgesses.

The return of Berkeley was the beginning of a reaction which concentrated authority, both in the House of Burgesses and in the Council, in the hands of the older families, and thus created a privileged class.

The governor, supported by the great families, retained the same House of Burgesses for sixteen years lest a new one might not be submissive.

This first West, made up of the older small farmers, of the Scottish settlers, of the Germans from the Palatinate and the Scottish-Irish, far outnumbering the people of the old counties, demanded the creation of new counties and proportionate representation in the Burgesses.

When the clergy, refusing to acknowledge the authority of the Burgesses in reducing their stipends, and, appealing to the king against the Assembly, entered the courts to recover damages from the vestries, Patrick Henry at Hanover court in 1763 easily convinced the jury and the people that the old church was wellnigh worthless.

When the Burgesses undertook in May 1769 to declare in vigorous resolutions that the right and power of taxation, direct and indirect, rested with the local assembly, the governor hastily dissolved them, but only to find the same men assembling in the Raleigh tavern in Williamsburg and issuing forth their resolutions in defiance of executive authority.

In 1200 King John, bribed by the burgesses, confirmed this charter, but in 1201, bribed by the successor of Richard de Waterville, quashed it as injurious to the dignity of the church of Whitby.

A bitter struggle went on, however, till the 14th century, when a trial resulted in a judgment against the burgesses.

In 1618 the borough received its first charter of incorporation from James I., instituting a governing body of a mayor, 12 chief burgesses, and 12 assistant burgesses, with a recorder, deputy-recorder, townclerk and two serjeants-at-mace; a court of record every fortnight on Tuesday; and fairs at Michaelmas and on the second Tuesday after Trinity Sunday, which were kept up until within the last fifty years.

The burgesses returned two members to parliament in 1295, and continued to do so until 1867, when they were assigned only one member.

A yearly fair on the feast of the Translation of St Leonard and three following days was granted to the burgesses in 1 359, and in 1630 Charles I.

John took up land at Bridges Creek, became a member of the House of Burgesses in 1666, and died in 1676.

For his services he received the thanks of the House of Burgesses.

Like others of the dominant planter class in Virginia, he was repeatedly elected to the House of Burgesses, but the business which came before the colonial assembly was for some years of only local importance, and he is not known to have made any set speeches in the House, or to have said anything beyond a statement of his opinion and the reasons for it.

In May following, when the House of Burgesses was dissolved, he was among the members who met at the Raleigh tavern and adopted a non-importation agreement; and he himself kept the agreement when others did not.

On the adjournment of the Congress he returned to Virginia, where he continued to be active, as a member of the House of Burgesses, in urging on the organization, equipment and training of troops, and even undertook in person to drill volunteers.

In 1249 John Mansel granted by charter to the burgesses that each should have five roods of land to his burgage as freehold on payment of 12d.

There are no early charters extant, but in 1586 Elizabeth acknowledged the right of the mayor and burgesses to be a body corporate and to hold a court for pleas under forty shillings, two weekly markets and four annual fairs - which rights they claimed to have exercised from time immemorial.

The first mention of Bishop Stortford as a borough occurs in 1311, in which year the burgesses returned two members to parliament.

It was probably to this relation that the burgesses owed the privilege of parliamentary representation, conferred by Edward VI.

In 1774, the corporation being in danger of extinction, burgesses were added, but it was not until 1886 that the ratepayers acquired the right of electing representatives to the council, the right up to that time having been exercised by the members of the corporation.

When twenty-five he was appointed justice of the peace of Westmoreland county, and in the same year was chosen a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, in which he served from 1758 to 1775.

Another brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797), was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1770-1775.

All power was vested in the people as represented by the Riksdag, consisting, as before, of four distinct estates, nobles, priests, burgesses and peasants, sitting and deliberating apart.

This famous body, which consisted of 50 nobles, 25 priests, 25 burgesses, and, very exceptionally, 25 peasants, possessed during the session of the Riksdag not only the supreme executive but also the surpeme judicial and legislative functions.

A second attempt of the king to mediate between them foundered on the suspicions of the estate of burgesses; and, on the 24th of February 1772, the nobility yielded from sheer weariness.

Whatever the number of its attendant burgesses, each city counted but one on a division.

By 1 3 05 the burgesses had become so powerful as to wring a most liberal grant of privileges from their then seigneur William de Braose (fourth in descent from his namesake to whom Gower was granted by King John in 1203), and he bound himself to pay LSoo to the king and 500 marks to any burgess in the event of his infringing any of the rights contained in it.

By this charter the burgesses acquired the right of nominating annually two of their number for the office of portreeve so that the lord's steward might select one of them to exercise the office, an arrangement which continued till 1835; the bailiff's functions were defined and curtailed, and the lord's chancery was to be continually kept open for all requiring writs, and in Gower - not wherever the lord might happen to be.

Cromwell's charter of 1655, though reciting that "time out of mind" Swansea had been "a town corporate," incorporated it anew, and changed the title of portreeve into mayor, in whom, with twelve aldermen and twelve capital burgesses, it vested the government of the twn.

This charter was not adopted by the burgesses.

His father was long prominent in Virginia politics, and became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1764, opposing Patrick Henry's Stamp Act resolutions in the following year; he was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774-1777, signing the Declaration of Independence and serving for a time as president of the Board of War; speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1 7771782; governor of Virginia in 1781-1784; and in 1788 as a member of the Virginia Convention he actively opposed the ratification of the Federal Constitution by his state.

In 1240 he constituted Liskeard a free borough and its burgesses freemen with all the liberties enjoyed by the burgesses of Launceston and Helston.

His son Edmund earl of Cornwall in 1275 granted to the burgesses for a yearly rent of r8 (sold by William to Lord Somers) the borough in fee farm with its mills, tolls, fines and pleas, pleas of the crown excepted.

Edward the Black Prince secured to the burgesses in 1355 immunity from pleas outside their franchise for trespass done within the borough.

The parliamentary franchise, at first exercised by the burgesses, was vested by James' charter in the corporation and freemen.

William Ruffus in the reign of John granted to the burgesses, in consideration of a fine of 12 marks silver and of a rent of 12d.

The municipal boroughs (246 in England and Wales in 1832) were governed by mayor, aldermen, councillors and a close body of burgesses or freemen, a narrow oligarchy.

A person so qualified is entitled to be enrolled as a burgess, or registered as a county elector (as the case may be), unless he is alien, has during the qualifying period received union or parochial relief or other alms, or is disentitled under some act of parliament such as the Corrupt Practices Act, the Felony Act, &c. The lists of burgesses and county electors are prepared annually by the overseers of each parish in the borough or county, and are revised by the revising barrister at courts holden by him for the purpose in September or October of each year.

The governing body in a borough is the council elected by the burgesses.

These auditors are three in number - two of them elected annually by the burgesses.

Tausen's preaching was so revolutionary that he no longer felt safe among the Franciscans, so he boldly discarded his monastic habit and placed himself under the protection of the burgesses of Viborg.

It was governed by a bailiff elected by the burgesses at the court leet of the lord of the manor, and never received a charter of incorporation.

The burgesses were represented in parliament by two members in 12 9 5 and again from 1552-53 to 1832, when by the Municipal Reform Act the number was reduced to one.

In 1554, by a charter from Queen Mary, bestowed as a reward for fidelity during the rebellion of the duke of Northumberland, Aylesbury was constituted a free borough corporate, with a common council consisting of a bailiff, 10 aldermen and 12 chief burgesses.

In 1207 Maurice Paganel constituted the inhabitants of Leeds free burgesses, granting them the same liberties as Robert de Lacy had granted to Pontefract, including the right of selling burgher land to whom they pleased except to religious houses, and freedom from toll.

He also appointed as the chief officer of the town a reeve who was to be chosen by the lord of the manor, the burgesses being " more eligible if only they would pay as much as others for the office."

The burgesses were represented in parliament by one member during the Commonwealth, but not again until by the Reform Act of 1832 they were allowed to return two members.

The states-general of the 2nd of February 1317, consisting of the nobles, prelates, and the burgesses of Paris, approved the coronation of Philip, swore to obey him, and declared that women did not succeed to the Crown of France.

To the men of the town which grew up outside the castle walls he gave, about the middle of the 12th century, a charter making them burgesses and granting them the same privileges as the town of Richmond in Yorkshire.

An important charter of Edward V., as prince of Wales and lord of Haverford, enacted that the town should be incorporated under a mayor, two sheriffs and two bailiffs, duly chosen by the burgesses.

The burgesses of Bedford and the prior of Dunstable claimed jurisdictional freedom in those two boroughs.

Originally devoted (as Gordon's Hospital) to the instruction and maintenance of the sons of poor burgesses of guild and trade in the city, it was reorganized in 1881 as a day and night school for secondary and technical education, and has since been unusually successful.

About 1290 its principal officers were a mayor and coroner, afterwards assisted by eight burgesses, whom Henry VIII.

Since 1832 the burgesses have returned members to parliament.

Entries in the Patent Rolls show that Poole had considerable trade before William de Longespee, earl of Salisbury, granted the burgesses a charter about 1248 assuring to them all liberties and free customs within his borough.

The bailiff was to be chosen by the lord from six men elected by the burgesses, and was to hold pleas for breach of measures and assizes.

It is uncertain when the burgesses obtained their town at the fee-farm rent of £8, 13s.

In 1372 the burgesses obtained assize of bread and ale, and right to hold the courts of the lord of the manor, the prepositus being styled his mayor.

The burgesses were licensed in 1433 to fortify the town; this was renewed in 1462, when the mayor was given cognisance of the staple.

In the manor of the abbess of Shaftesbury were 111 houses and 151 burgesses; here 42 houses had been totally destroyed since St Edward's reign.

In 1252 the burgesses received their first charter from Henry III.

This granted that in all eyres the justices itinerant should come to Shaftesbury and that the burgesses should not answer for aught without the town and might choose for themselves two coroners annually.

By 1471 a general asembly of burgesses had acquired power to take part in elections.

The earl founded the abbey of St Mary de Pre at Leicester and other religious houses, and by a charter confirmed the burgesses of Leicester in the possession of their merchant-gild and customs. His son, Robert, succeeded to the earldom of Leicester, and with other English barons assisted prince Henry in his revolt against his father the king in 1173.

Montfort attempted to strengthen his position, and to show his confidence in the commons, by summoning to his second and last parliament, that of 1265, a new elementtwo citizens from each city and two burgesses from each borough in the realm.

Several Scots parliaments met within its walls, notably that of 1326, the first attended by burgesses from the towns.

During the Scottish wars of the reign of Henry V., Bamburgh again suffered severely, so much so that in 1439 the burgesses had decreased in number from 120 to 13.

Country gentlemen like Sir Thomas Latimer of Braybrooke and Sir Richard Stury protected them, while merchants and burgesses supported them with money.

As early as Domesday, where it is several times mentioned, there were forty burgesses within the town and nine without, who rendered 40s.

In Edward II.'s reign the burgesses petitioned for the restoration of rights bestowed by a pretended charter from Athelstan.

The later charter states that the burgesses should have customs similar to those granted to London, and further charters confirmed the same right.

A charter of Queen Mary in 1556 added some new privileges, and specified that the common council should consist of a mayor, two aldermen and twenty-four chief burgesses.

James I., by a charter dated 1610, increased the number of chief burgesses to twenty-five and instituted a recorder, a clerk of the market, justices of the peace and other officers.

The harbour, originally constructed and maintained by the abbots, by an agreement between the burgesses and John Gedy, the abbot in 1394, was replaced by one more commodious in 1725, which in turn was enlarged and improved in 1844.

The corporation included 2 bailiffs, 10 capital and 24 inferior burgesses, until the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.

Burgesses were added as early as 1310.

In the reign of Henry I., Thurstan, archbishop of York, gave the burgesses their first charter, which is one of the earliest granted to any town in England.

In it he granted them the same privileges as the citizens of York, among these being a gild merchant and freedom from toll throughout the whole of Yorkshire, with right to take it at all the markets and fairs in their town except at the three principal fairs, the toll of which belonged to the archbishop. In 1200 King John granted the town a new charter, for which the burgesses had to pay 500 marks.

In 1 5541 555 Queen Mary granted the three fairs on the feasts of St John the Confessor, the Translation of St John and the Nativity of St John the Baptist, together with the weekly markets on Wednesday and Saturday, which had been held by the archbishops of York by traditional grant of Edward the Confessor to the burgesses of the town.

Its first charter of 1181 granted that the burgesses should possess all liberties in the same way as the citizens of York.

But in the course of the 14th century the burgesses were added.

The independence of the burgesses was better secured in Navarre than in other parliaments of Spain by the constitutional rule which required the consent of a majority of each order to every act of the Cortes.

Thus the burgesses could not be outvoted by the nobles and the Church.

As early as 1295 two knights were returned to parliament for the shire of Lincoln, and two burgesses each for Lincoln, Grimsby and Stamford.

Burgesses of Reigate are mentioned in a close roll of 1348, but no early charter is known.

For the grammar school, founded c. 1S50 by the mayor and burgesses, a new building was erected in 1883.

The burgesses of Wycombe have ancient rights of common pasturage on the neighbouring Rye Mead.

In1225-1226Alan Basset granted to the burgesses the whole town as a free borough.

Wycombe returned two burgesses to parliament in 1300 and continued to send members until 1885.

A market was granted by Basset to the burgesses in 1226, and at the present day it is held every Friday, the day fixed by the charter of Queen Mary.

Elizabeth in 1580 confirmed all previous charters and incorporated the freeholders under the designation of "the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of the borough of Tenby."

In June 1639, however, a more definite statement of political principles was framed, in which it was clearly stated that the rules of Scripture should determine the ordering of the church, the choice of magistrates, the making and repeal of laws, the dividing of inheritances, and all other matters of public import; that only church members could become free burgesses and officials of the colony; that the free burgesses should choose twelve men who should choose seven others, and that these should organize the church and the civil government.

From the time of the Conquest down to the 18th century, Bideford remained in the possession of the Grenville family, and it first appears as a borough in an undated charter (probably of the reign of Edward I.) from Richard de Grenville, confirming a charter from his grandfather, Richard de Grenville, fixing the rent and services due from the burgesses and granting them liberties similar to those in use at Breteuil and a market every Monday.

In 1573 Elizabeth granted a charter creating Bideford a free borough corporate, with a common council consisting of a mayor, 5 aldermen and 7 chief burgesses, together with a recorder, town-clerk and 2 serjeants-at-mace.

Before 1482 the burgesses were holding the town at a fee farm rent of twenty marks, but the abbot still had practical control of the town, and his steward presided over the court at which the bailiffs were chosen.

After the Dissolution the manor with the markets and fairs and other privileges was granted to Sir Philip Hoby, who increased his power over the town by persuading the burgesses to agree that, after they had nominated six candidates for the office of bailiff, the steward of the court instructed by him should indicate the two to be chosen.

Richard, earl of Cornwall granted the burgesses a guild merchant in 1268.

They all sent burgesses to Parliament from medieval times.

The Town of Henley was burnt down but quickly recovered for in 1295 it had 69 burgesses.

M (formerly Prescriptive) Sun; mercatum, recorded 7 Sept 1201, held by burgesses of Wells.

The municipal authorities are a mayor, one justice, and two bailiffs, all elected annually by the resident burgesses.

In the long list of the honorary burgesses of his suite is found the name of Samuel Pepys.

It returns two members to parliament; the right of election is vested in about 200 free burgesses.

In Dingwall, new burgesses could stay for ten years without paying rent.

The traders or merchants sought naturally to enhance their status by banding together (at the expense of other burgesses ).

It gave the king the power to dismiss capital burgesses he did not approve of.

The merchant Maiden Hospital was founded in 1695 for the education of daughters of decayed merchant burgesses of Edinburgh.

The medieval burgesses and the small peasant proprietors were the precursors of the modern bourgeoisie.

In 1679 the town received a charter from Charles II., and the corporation consisted of a mayor, two aldermen and 12 capital burgesses, until abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1886, under which the property is now vested in seven trustees, one of whom is appointed by the lord of the manor, and there are also two aldermen and four elected members.

Burgesses in Kendal are mentioned in 1345, and the borough with "court housez" and the fee-farm of free tenants is included in a confirmation charter to Sir William Parr in 1472.

Still more serious an encroachment upon the constitution perhaps even than the institution of the major-generals was Cromwell's tampering with the municipal franchise by confiscating the charters, depriving the burgesses, now hostile to his government, of their parliamentary votes, and limiting the franchise to the corporation; thereby corrupting the national liberties at their very source, and introducing an evil precedent only too readily followed by Charles II.

After the dissolution in 1538 the town sank into decay, and in 1555, on a representation of its pitiable condition, Queen Mary granted a charter establishing it as a free borough corporate with a common council consisting of a mayor, two bailiffs, twelve chief burgesses, and sixteen secondary burgesses, the mayor to be clerk of the market, coroner and a justice of the peace.

A charter of incorporation given by Elizabeth in 1558 vested the government in a portreeve, a steward and twelve burgesses, the continuance of the corporation being subject to the port and harbour being kept in repair.

Reginald de Mohun granted the first charter between 1245 and 1247, which diminished fines and tolls, limited the lord's "mercy," and provided that the burgesses should not against their will 1 The date of Dunstan's birth here given is that given in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle and hitherto accepted.

Though Trinity hospital no longer exists as a hospital with resident pensioners, the trustees disburse annually pensions to certain poor burgesses and their wives and children; and the trust controlling the benevolent branch of the Gillespie hospital endowment is similarly administered.

It was assumed that the Protestant nobles' jealousy of the burgesses would prevent them from interfering; but religious sympathy proved stronger than caste prejudice, and the diets protested against the persecution of their fellow citizens so vehemently that religious matters were withdrawn from their jurisdiction.

In the great market place in the centre of the city are gathered together the larger number of the most interesting buildings, including the quaint old Fleshers' Hall, built by Lieven de Key in 1603, and now containing the archives; the town hall; the old Stadsdoelen, where the burgesses met in arms; the Groote Kerk, or Great Church; and the statue erected in 1856 to Laurenz Janszoon Koster, the printer.

It returned two members to parliament in 1302, but no charter of incorporation was issued until that of Elizabeth in 1590, instituting a common council of a mayor and eighteen burgesses, three of whom were to be elected capital burgesses, with a recorder, steward of the borough court, two sergeants-at-mace, and a court of record every three weeks on Monday.

The rights of the burgesses seem to have been undefined, for frequent commissions attest to encroachments on the rights of warren, forest and wreckage belonging to the royal manor.

The house of burgesses of 1769, and its successors in 1773 and 1774, were dissolved by the governor (see Virginia) for their action on the subject of colonial grievances and intercolonial co-operation.

It is possible that Minehead had a corporate existence during the 15th century, as certain documents executed by the portreeve and burgesses at that date are preserved, but no record of the grant of a charter has been found.

Berkhampstead (Beorhhamstede, Berchehamstede) was undoubtedly of some importance in Saxon times since there were fifty-two burgesses there at the time of the Conquest.

In 1618, however, the burgesses received an incorporation charter; but after the civil wars the corporate body began to fail through poverty, and in the 18th century had ceased to exist.

Before the 13th century the burgesses held a weekly market on Sunday and a yearly fair on St James's day, but in 1218 Henry III.

Until 1 775 he continued to sit in the House of Burgesses, as a leader during all that eventful period.

No charter has been found, but a judgment given under a writ of quo warranto in 1578 confirms to the burgesses freedom from toll, passage and pontage, the tolls and stallage of the quay and the right to hold two fairs - privileges which they claimed under charters of Baldwin de Redvers and Isabel de Fortibus, countess of Albemarle, in the 13th century, and Edward Courtenay, earl of Devon, in 1405.

The town was governed by the mayor and burgesses until the corporation was reformed in 1835.

In 1368 an inquisition was taken to ascertain these privileges, and the jurors found that the burgesses held "all the soil of their borough yielding 7s.

It was a borough by prescription as early as 1201, in which year King John granted the burgesses a charter of liberties according to the custom of the burgesses of Northampton.

A governing charter, under the title of mayor and burgesses, was given by James II.