Welsh Journals

230 BYE-GONES. Nov., 1873. men : "John Jones, mercer ; Hugh Price ; Richard Jones, mercer; John Jones, glover; Edward Evans, apothecary; Thomas Edwards, gent.; Thos. Edwards, clothier; Timothy George, mercer, Thomas Vaughan, and Thomas Felton." On a "third summons by the sergeants unto the defaulters to appear on the 3rd of April none of them appeared," so a fourth summons was issued for the 1st of of May. I gather that Sir John Trevor had not received his notice, and that he and Mr Lloyd, of Fords, were sworn Aldermen on the 27th of April. The others were still refractory, so another meeting was called, when Arthur Edwards, one of the Sergeants at Mace, " being sworn in open court did depose that he did give personal summons to the several that have here made Default, by delivering the aforesaid summons in writing into their hands :" on which the mayor issued the following mani¬ festo :—" Whereas the persons above have made Default in their Appearance arid refused to take the Oathes of Aldermen and Comn. Council and such other Oathes as are required by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, and have obstinately refused the same I the Mayor of this Town and Borough Do in His Majesties name Announce their places Severally and Prospectively void and that I with the assistance of the Aldermen and Common Council already sworn will Chuse others In Their Stead and make Return of the I efaulters To The Proper place at an Assembly Held at the Guild Hall The 4th day of May 1674 for the electing of new Members to fill up the number of Aldermen and Common Council The persons above whose names are here made subscribed were Elected and Shosen." What was done to the defaulters deponent sayeth not, but in the summons delivered by Arthur Edwards the re¬ fractory ones are told that they were liable " To suih lines as may be imposed upon your Body and Estates." Probably, as in the case of Modern Town Councillors, who ought to be fined for non-attendance to the duties they have so anxiously courted, the pains an) penalties were a dead letter. At any rate the places of the absent ten were filled by the following :—Peter Griffiths, Richard Williams, Humphrey Foulkes, Thomas Edwards. William Pierce, Thomas Richard, Thomas Tomkies, William Skye, Hugh Jones, and Joshua Roberts. From this it will be seen that although the li-t given by Mr Cathrall was correct as to election, ten of those named never acted. And now for the Mayors. Richard Pope, gentleman, was the first; and when he was gathered to his fathers the tomb stone marking the spot was placed in one of the aisles of the old'Church, where it has been walked over by succeec- ing generations of ratepayers. How many months Pop held office I am at a loss to say : the first meeting he summoned, as mayor,, was in March, 1673, and I find a record of one Mav 20th, 1674, at which he presided, andswor, in Alderman Gabriel Edwards as Deputy Mayor. Sir John Trevor was the second Mayor; and these were followed by Alderman Richard Edwards, of Lloyd Fords, Blodwell, and John Lloyd. The latter died during his year of office, and the office was taken for the rest of the term by Alder¬ man Edward Owen, who, however, does not appear to have filled the chair, except as a stop-gap, for he was not re¬ elected. Next we have Alderman Richard Pryce and John Glover elected as mayors, and this completes the first eight years in which strict seniority seems to have been observed. Amongst the original aldermen there are three names that do not occur in the list of mayors; viz., Morgan Wynne, Gabriel Edwards and Bichard Jones The first of these was Recorder, and the other two died, I imagine, before their term came. Gabriel Edwards did, as I have shown, act as Deputy Mayor, probably for Sir John Trevor. The Aldermen all having passed the chair, or passed from the scene altogether, in the ninth year, 1680, the original Councilmen seem to have had their innings. Perhaps some of them were aldermen by this time. The first was Peter Griffiths, and he was followed by Humphrey Foulkes; twc of the parties who were sworn in at the outset in place of the defaulters. Next (in 1683), came Thomas Edwards, another of the stop-gaps, but he, dying before he was sworn, William Pryce, one of the original Councillors, sworn at the first meeting, was placed in the chair. The next year another of the substitutes filling the places of the defaulters, was made Mayor (Hugh Jones), after which the Council seem to have departed from the rule of seniority, for in 1685 one Phillip Ellis was chosen; and his name was not amongst those of the original Council or substitutes. In fact. I find by my MS., he was not a member of the Cor¬ poration during the first eight years of its existence; the first entry bearing his name being as follows :—" Elected in the year 1681 when Mr John Glover was Mayor to be Common Council, Phillip Ellis, mercer, Morgan Powell, ironmonger, and at the same time they took the Oathes." And, having departed from a sort of " tacit understanding" of seniority in the matter of a mercer, no wonder that the next year. 1686, they did so for. a county gentleman, Sir Robert Owen, of Porkington. In 1687 they went back to the original lot for a Mayor, and elected Roger Edwards, and in 1683 again jumped to a young member, Morgan Powell, iionmonger, who had been mtde a Councilman in 1681, at the same time as Phillip Ellis. To follow the list further would only be guess work, as it is impossible to say whether the Mayors mentioned were not sons and successors of the original Council. Early in the list we have a Muckleston, a Skye, a Tomkies, &c , filling the official chair, but none of them, I fancy, the original men. In the old times, when a gentleman of the neighbourhood was chosen, he usually had a deputy to do duty, but since the passing of the Municipal Reform Act in 1836, the Mayor has himself done what England expects every man to do. In the eyes of some superfine scribes the office has lost dignity by the change; and it was only the other day that in a paper " written for gentlemen by gentle men" I saw a gentlemanly (?) sneer at the "little peddling tradesmen" who met the Lord Mayor of London at York. For all this most sensible men will say that if we are to have Mayors at all, they should be townsmen doing the work themselves, rather than neighbours who have to do duty by deputy. Jaeco. _______November 5, 1873.______ NOTES. FIFTH OF NOVEMBER IN MERIONETH¬ SHIRE.—It is a custom at Corwen for the childrtn to go about the streets of the town during the afternoon and even- ingof the fifth of November, collecting coals and firewood, &c, to make a bonfire at night in commemoration of the Gun¬ powder Plot. Enough fuel is usually obtained to make an immense pile, to which fire is set at dusk, and it continues burning all night. A man of straw, intended to imper¬ sonate the celebrated Guy Fawkes, is got up for the occasion, dressed in a huge old coat, with a large slouching hat, &c,, and having a lantern in his hand ; this is carried about the streets, accompanied by a crowd of youngsters, and is at last burned on tbe open area in the middle of the town, where also the bonfire is placed. Whilst parading the