Tunbridge Wells.
_Campvere, Privileges of_ (Vol. vii., p. 262.).--J. D. S. asks, "What were
these privileges, and whence was the term Campvere derived?"
In Scotland there exists an ancient institution called "The Convention of
Royal Burghs," which still meets annually in Edinburgh, under the fixed
presidency of the Lord Provost of that city. It is a representative body,
consisting of delegates elected by the town councils of the royal burghs
(not _boroughs_) of Scotland; and their business is to attend to such
public measures as may affect the general interests of their constituents.
In former times, however their powers and duties were of far more
importance than they are now. The Convention seems to have exercised a
general superintendence of the foreign trade of the kingdom. With a view to
the promotion of that trade, they used to enter into commercial treaties,
or _staple contracts_ as they were called, with the commercial cities of
the Continent; and I have now before me one of these staple contracts, made
with the city of Antwerp in 1540; and another with the city of Middleburg,
in Zeeland, in 1541; but latterly they seem to have confined themselves to
the town of _Campvere_, in Zeeland (island of Walcheren). In all these
contracts it was stipulated {441} that the Scottish traders should enjoy
certain privileges, which were considered of such importance that the crown
appointed a _conservator_ of them. The last of these staple contracts was
made with Campvere in the year 1747; but soon afterwards the increasing
prosperity of Scotland, and the participation of its burgesses in the
foreign trade of England, rendered such partial arrangements useless, and
the contracts and the privileges have long since been reckoned among the
things that were. The office of conservator degenerated into a sinecure. It
was held for some time by the _Rev._ John Home, author of the tragedy of
_Douglas_, who died in 1808; and afterwards by a Sir Alex. Lenier, whose
name is found in the _Edinburgh Almanack_ as "Conservator at Campvere" till
1847, when the office and the officer seem to have expired together.