Watch Rate. shall make a separate rate or assessment on the part or parts only of the parish liable to watch rate; which rate shall be made in like manner and under like regulations and with like means and remedies for recovery thereof as in the case of a rate levied in respect of the contribution towards a borough rate. (2.) No such separate rate shall be demanded, collected, or payable until it has been allowed by two justices usually acting in and for the borough and has been published, as a poor rate is by law required to be allowed and published. (3). Any person who thinks himself aggrieved by such a separate rate may appeal to the recorder at the next quarter sessions for the borough, or if there is none to the next court of quarter sessions for the county wherein the borough is situate, or whereto it is adjacent; and the recorder or court shall hear and determine the same, and shall award relief in the premises as in cases of appeal against a poor rate. (4.) Every such separate rate may be of the rate in the pound necessary for raising the sum charged by the council, but not exceeding twopence in the pound beyond the rate in the pound at which the council have computed the watch rate charged by them. (5.) The overseers shall account for money collected under such a separate rate as for money collected under a poor rate; and if there is a surplus in their hands, they shall pay it to the treasurer, to go to the borough fund, to the credit of the place for which the rate was made, and in part payment of the next watch rate laid on that place by the council. (6.) The council or a committee appointed for this purpose, on application on behalf of any person rated to such a separate rate to be discharged therefrom, and on proof of his inability through poverty to pay the amount charged on him, may order that he be excused from the payment thereof, and may strike out his name therefrom; and the sum at which he was rated shall not thereafter be collected, nor shall any person be charged with it or be liable to account for it or for omitting to collect or receive it. (7.) The overseers making any such separate rate may, by warrant from two justices usually acting in and for the borough, levy on every person refusing to pay the rate the amount charged on him, with the costs and charges of recovering and enforcing payment thereof, to be ascertained by the justices, by distress and sale of the offender's goods, rendering to him the Watch Rats. overplus; and in default of such distress two justices may commit him to prison, there to remain without bail until payment of the amount and arrearages. [The effect of sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of 8 & 9 Vict. c. 110 (1815) is preserved in this clause]. lovy of watch 199. Any warrant required for the levy or collection of a Warrant for watch rate or separate rate may be issued by the mayor, signed rate. by him, and sealed with the corporate seal. [The effect of section 5 of 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 104 (1836) is preserved in this clause]. 200.-All money raised by a watch rate, or by a separate Watch rate rate as last aforesaid, shall go to the borough fund. [The effect of section 92 of the Act of 1835 is preserved in this clause}. to go to borough fund. Freemen. Definition of freeman. Freedom The freemen's toll. PART X. FREEMEN. 201.-In this Part the term freeman includes any person of the class whose rights and interests were reserved by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, under the name either of freemen or of burgesses. [The opinions of two learned writers as to the qualifications of a "freeman" or "burgess" have been already quoted (see page 5), but another and no less valuable authority* thus intelligibly defines a "townsman" or "freeman ""They were deemed townsmen who had a settled dwelling in the town, who merchandised there, who were of the hans (hans-hus) or hanse-house" (being a designation for the hall of the Common Mercatory Guild similar to that which formed the germ of the institutions of the Hans Towns), "who were in scot and lot, and who used and enjoyed the liberties and free customs of the town." The freedom of a borough was obtained under a variety of forms, which, however, may be included under the following general titles,— Gift by the Governing Body, Purchase, Birth, Marriage, Servitude, Membership of Trade Guilds, and Possession or Occupancy of House or Land Property. The rights saved under the Act of 1835 legalize the beneficial interests therein without reference to the manner in which they originated. See Prestney v. The Mayor of Colchester, &c. L. R. 21 Ch. D. 111]. 202.-No person shall be admitted a freeman by gift or by purchase. [The effect of section 3 of the Act of 1835 is preserved in this clause.] 203.-The town clerk of every borough for which at the commencement of this Act there is a Freemen's Roll shall continue to keep a list, called the Freemen's Roll. [The effect of section 5 of the Act of 1835 is preserved in this clause. The Roll should contain the following class of persons: 1. All persons who on the 9th of September, 1835, had been admitted as burgesses or freemen. 2. All persons who were entitled on the 9th of September, 1835, to have been admitted, and who have since been admitted. 3. All persons who since the 9th of September, 1835, have become entitled to be and have been admitted in respect of birth, servitude, or marriage.] Madox-Firma Burgi, p. 269. + See Appendix for 48 & 49 Vict. c. 29 (Honorary Freedom of Boroughs Act, 1885), which provides for conferring the honorary freedom of a borough on persons of distinction. freedom. 204.-Where a person is entitled to be admitted a freeman Freemen. for the purposes of this Part in respect of birth, servitude, or Admission to marriage, and claims accordingly, the mayor shall examine into the claim, and on its being established the claimant shall be admitted and enrolled by the town clerk on the Freemen's Roll [The effect of section 5 of the Act of 1835, and section 27 of 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 78 (1837), is preserved in this clause. The mayor must examine and decide all claims with reference to the charter and local customs and usages of each borough. See the Helleston case (2 Doug. El. ca. 35), and the Derby case (3 Doug. El. ca. 287, 304). Servitude must be under binding deed duly stamped (not necessarily an indenture), and period of service be in accordance with custom of borough. (Rex v. East Bridgeford, S. C. 133). A claim may be made and admission allowed as late even as the day of election. See the Okehampton case (1 Frazer, 166). When once admitted and enrolled a party can be removed only by the High Court of Justice. See the cases relating to apprenticeships generally for qualifications and claims by servitude]. of rights of freemen and 205.-(1.) Every person who had before the passing of the Reservation Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, been admitted a freeman, or property to if that Act had not been passed might have been so admitted others. otherwise than by gift or purchase, and (2.) Every person who for the time being is (a.) An inhabitant of a borough, or (b.) Wife, widow, son, or daughter of a freeman, or (c.) Husband of a daughter or widow of a freeman, or shall, subject to the provisions of this Part, have and enjoy [The effect of sections 2 and 3 of the Act of 1835 is preserved in this clause. All persons who before the passing of the Act of 1835 were entitled to and possessed of corporate benefits, by virtue of any usage, custom, bye-law or otherwise are confirmed in them. See Hopkins v. Mayor &c. of Swansea (4 M. & W. 621, 643); affirmed in the Exchequer Chamber, M. & W., 901. Certain land on which the resident freemen had the right to turn stock was taken compulsorily under the Lands Clauses Act. Held, that the purchase money should be invested in other land for the same purpose, and that till this could be done it should be invested and the dividends paid to the resident freemen at the same time in each year as they had been accustomed to enjoy their common rights. Nash v. Coombs (L. R., 6 Eq., 51). See also Stanley v. Mayor, &c. of Norwich, as to rents and profits, W. N. (1887) p. 72. Freemen. Limit of value and saving as to conditions precedent. Saving for power to In an action by some (on behalf of all) of the freeman of a borough to establish the rights of all the individual freeman to share for their private benefit the net proceeds of certain properties vested in the Corporation. Held, on demurrer, that the effects of the saving of rights in sect. 2 of The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 was to legalise the beneficial interests therein mentioned, without reference to the legality of their origin, and in particular, to obviate any objection which might otherwise arise in respect of the tendency towards a perpetuity of any such beneficial interest. An action to establish such rights as aforesaid may be brought by parties claiming to be entitled, without an information by the Attorney-General. In such an action it was held on demurrer that in order to enable the plaintiffs to avail themselves of such saving rights as aforesaid, it was sufficient for them after stating the title of the Corporation by charter or otherwise to the property in question, to aver that at the time of the passing of the Act the rents, tolls, and profits claimed by them were not, nor ever had been, nor ought to have been held and applied to public purposes, but they were and always had been held and applied for the particular benefit of the freemen, and without pleading that such rents, tolls and profits had been enjoyed or acquired by virtue of any specific statute, charter or bye-law or custom, or expressly to aver that any custom to such effect as aforesaid existed. Prestney v. Mayor and Corporation of Colchester and the Attorney-General, 21 Ch. Div. 111]. 206.-(1.) The total amount to be divided among the persons whose rights are by the last foregoing section reserved shall not exceed the surplus remaining after payment of the interest of all lawful debts chargeable on the property out of which the sums so to be divided have arisen, together with the salaries of municipal officers and all other lawful expenses which, on the fifth of June one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, were defrayed out of or chargeable on the same. (2.) Where, if the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, or this Act, had not been passed, any such person would have been liable by statute, bye-law, charter, or custom, to pay any fine, fee, or sum of money to any body corporate, or to any member, officer, or servant thereof, in consideration of his freedom, or of his or her title to those reserved rights, or there was any condition precedent to any person being entitled to those rights, he or she shall not have any benefit in respect of those rights until he or she has paid that fine, fee, or sum to the treasurer on account of the borough fund, or has fulfilled that condition, as far as it is capable of being fulfilled according to the provisions of this Act. [The effect of section 2 of the Act of 1835 is preserved in this clause]. 207.-Nothing in this Act shall strengthen or confirm any question right claim, right, or title of any freeman or of any person to the benefit of any right in this Part reserved, but the same may in every case be brought in question, impeached, and set aside, as if this Act had not been passed. [The effect of section 2 of the Act of 1835 is preserved in this clause]. |