Twelve Capital Burgesses And The Commonality Of The Town And Parish Of Sheffield

[RichardB]

Created by a Charter of 8 June 1554 - a strenthening measure by Mary Tudor in restoring Catholic orthodoxy.

[Bayleaf]

The story begins earlier...

In 1297, Thomas Furnival, Lord of Hallamshire, granted the tenants of Sheffield a charter, which gave them a degree of self government. While this did not incorporate the town as a borough, it made it possible for the Free Tenants to act as a corporation.

Even after the establishment of the Church of England, much of the north remained catholic. The parish of Sheffield had been in the care of the canons of Worksop, and its needs had been somewhat neglected. The revenues of the Burgery had benefitted from occasional bequests from townspeople. Many of these were for specific purposes such as prayers for the dead and lights in church, and in particular it became the practice for the Burgery to support three priests who ministered to outlying hamlets.

The Parliament of the protestant King Edward VI passed an act for the Suppression of Colleges and Chantries. Sheffield had no chantries at the time, but the investigating commissioners discovered the arrangement for the three priests, and declared that as their original functions included the singing of masses, their maintenance contravened the Act, and confiscated £17 9s 4d from the Burgery’s income of £27, leaving them just £9 10s 8d to pay for all the public services.

Edward was succeeded by catholic Queen Mary, and the Free Tenants, supported by the Earl of Shrewsbury, petitioned the Queen to return the confiscated money. After due consideration the Queen agreed to return the money, but instead of returning it to the free Tenants, she established a body by a charter of 8^th June 1554, which she called the Twelve Capital Burgesses and Commonalty of the Town and Parish of Sheffield.

She specified that the money was to provide three priests as before, but that any surplus could be used for the repair of bridges and highways, and any residue after that used for the relief of the poor.

The Burgesses had the right to fill vacancies in their number by people of their choosing, whereas the Free Tenants were elected by the freeholders. For many years they submitted their accounts for public scrutiny, though they had no duty to do so, but this gradually fell into abeyance, and the Church Burgesses, as they came to be called, have continued their public duties right down to the present day without consulting ‘the commonality’.<br><br><i>(Information from Mary Walton's "Sheffield")</i><br>

[Guest Gramps]

In fact there was good reason that the Charter should stipulate that the primary objective would be to pay the salaries of the three priests.

The background to this is that until about 1539 the priests had been paid from contributions from the parishioners and income derived from the 'May Games' and other entertainments in the town. Following the predation on Church revenues by Henry VIII the parishioners became reluctant to contribute voluntarily to the Church and the 'May Games and entertainments were discontinued. It was due to this collapse of revenue that the salaries of the priests first began to be met from the income vested in the town from certain lands and bequests.

When Edward confiscated this income he compensated the priests with a pension for life but it seems there was no contract to oblige the priests to serve the Parish and so they just 'retired'!! Even had they continued to serve, their services would have ceased eventually as their pensions died with them and the town would have no money with which to engage replacements.

The terms of the Charter were intended to correct this situation and reinstate the power of the town to hire, fire and pay the salaries of the priests and use surplus income for repairing roads and bridges as well as helping the poor. Presumably the three priests enjoying their retirement were swiftly brought back into line.

Before the confiscation by Edward the administration of the town's revenues was conducted on an ad hoc basis largely by the Vicar and Church Wardens and perhaps a Free Tenant or two whose appointment was unlikely to have been on any more democratic basis than that decreed for the Church Burgesses.

From the Charter it would appear that the creation of the body of Twelve Capital Burgesses was at the request of the petitioners who together with the Earl of Shrewsbury "have humbly desired and supplicated US that we would vouch safe to make create and establish the same Burgesses and Inhabitants into one body corporate and politick by the name of the Twelve Capital Burgesses and Commonality of the Town and Parish aforesaid.....", although it has to be said that no such 'desire and supplication' appears in the petition.

It also seems unlikely that Mary granted the Charter for purely sectarian reasons, - her accession was generally welcomed in the north as Ms Walton says and the petition was strongly backed by the local Lord of the Manor. In any case 'Bloody Mary' had more direct and painful methods of encouraging religious orthodoxy, heresy was a capital offence and often punished by being burnt at the stake. :o