[Illustration:
Hugh Lupus Earle of Chester
sitting in his Parliament with
the Barons and Abbots of
that Countie Palatine.
]
Each of these barons had his own court of all pleas, suits, and plaints
(except such as belonged to the Earl), and power of life and death. The
last instance of the execution of this latter power was in the person
of Hugh Stringer, who was tried for murder in the court of Sir Thomas
Venables, Baron of Kinderton, and was executed in 1597.
The business of these barons was to attend the Earl in Council, follow
him, and grace his court, and as an old record sets forth, “they were
bound in time of war with the Welsh to find for each knights-fee
one horse harnessed or two unharnessed within the divisions of
Cheshire. And their knights and free tenants were to be furnished with
breastplates and haubergeons, and to defend their respective fees in
person.”
The Abbots of Chester and Combermere also had their own courts as
well as the barons, and doubtless they and the heads of the other
monasteries and priories were called to the Earl’s Council in the same
way that other ecclesiastics were summoned to the Parliaments of the
early Kings of England. We here give a copy of the plate by Hollar in
King’s _Vale Royal_ of “Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, sitting in his
Parliament with the Barons and Abbots of that County Palatine.”
Of these Norman Earls of Chester the distinguished pre-eminence of Earl
Randle Blundeville during his long and active rule has been noticed by
all writers on Cheshire history. That he was a strong man is evidenced
by his refusal in 1232 to comply with the demand for money from the
county made by Henry III., as well as by his resistance to that King’s
permission given to the Pope’s officers to collect Peter’s Pence in
his Palatinate, and his expulsion of those officers from the county,
whereas all England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales paid.
On one occasion Blundeville was surprised and surrounded in his Castle
of Rhuddlan by a superior force of Welsh. He contrived to send a
message to his Constable de Lacy for help. It happened that the Abbot’s
great fair was being held at Chester, and de Lacy at once collected
from those attending it an immense crowd of “Players, Fiddlers,
Musicians, and other loose persons,” and marched with them to the
relief of Rhuddlan. The Welsh seeing this immense host, and hearing
withal the terrible discord of “harp, flute, sackbut, psaltery, and
other kinds of music,” evidently concluded that Bedlam was let loose,
raised the siege, and took flight.
“Was ever an enemy thrown in such plight?
Did ever a pen such a hist’ry indite?
And yet the fact’s true as black differs from white!”
After the Earl’s return he rewarded de Lacy with an exclusive
prerogative over the “Trades and Mysteries” of the followers in his
rabble army. The Constable’s son, John de Lacy, reserved his exclusive
privileges over the mechanic occupations, but granted the Player and
Minstrel prerogative to Hugh Dutton of Dutton and his heirs, who was
the son of that Dutton who marched at the head of the minstrels. The
Dutton family and their successors, down to the year 1756, regularly
held a court (which in the Cheshire Recognisance Rolls is called
“a Court of Histrionics”), and granted licences to play on musical
instruments within the county and within the city of Chester. The
various Acts of Parliament passed for the regulation of “Players
Minstrels and other Rogues and Vagabonds” specially recognise this
right, and exempt Cheshire from their provisions. We believe to this
day this right is recognised in the grant of certain music diplomas.
The rule of the Norman Earls of Chester may be said to have extended
over a period of about one hundred and sixty-seven years--that is to
say, from the time of the grant to Hugh Lupus down to the death of John
the Scot, when, he having died in 1237 without male issue, the Crown
seized the Earldom. King Henry III. then gave it to his son, Prince
Edward, probably in 1245 (together with other possessions), on his
marriage with the Princess Eleanor of Castile. Two years after this
the new Earl--the first of the royal Earls of Chester--made his public
entry into his county palatine, and in its ancient metropolis received
the homage of his officers and military tenants. The entry in the
_Chronicle_ of St. Werburgh’s Abbey recording the event runs thus:--
“1236. On the Feast of Kenelm (July 17) The Lord Edward, Earl of
Chester, entered Chester for the first time, and was received with all
due respect, as well the Clergy as the laity having gone forth to meet
him. Having remained three days to receive the homage and fealty, as
well of the Nobles of Chester as of Wales, he set out for Wales, to
inspect his lands and Castles there, and returning on the day of the
invention (or finding) of (the relics of) S. Stephen, August 3rd, he
left Chester and returned to England,[3] going by way of Darnall.”
[3] Observe the expression “left Chester and returned to England.”
Cheshire was a separate state apart from England.
On Prince Edward succeeding to the throne, he relinquished the Earldom
in favour of his eldest son. His successors, on being invested with the
executive power when they created their heirs-apparent to the Crown
Princes of Wales, at the same time invested them with the Earldom. The
oldest title the present King when Prince of Wales held was that of
Earl of Chester.
The greater part of the present county of Flint was held by the
Norman Earls before the conquest of Wales. King Edward I., after he
had created it into a separate county, attached it to the “Sword of
Chester” as presently described. It is evident that it was considered
an important appanage to the Earldom, as from time to time the name
Flint has been associated with that of Chester, the title adopted being
that of Earl of Chester and Flint. Edward of Windsor, eldest son of
Edward II., was summoned to Parliament by the name of Earl of Chester
and Flint, “since which time it has been continued as a title in the
Princes of Wales; and there you will be sure to find who were Earls of
Flint,” says Peter Heylyn in his _Help to English History_. The last
Prince of Wales summoned by that title to Parliament was Prince George,
afterwards George II., in 1714.
If the reigning sovereign had no son to succeed him, the Earldom
appears to have been retained by the Crown until a new creation.
This was so in the case of Richard II., who styled himself Prince of
Chester, and created the county palatine a principality. This, however,
was revoked in the following reign.
There seems to have been a close attachment between this King and the
people of Chester and of Wales, doubtless in consequence of the esteem
in which they held his father, the Black Prince, whom they followed in
his French wars, and who had placed confidence in them. King Richard
had a bodyguard of 2000 Cheshire archers, many of whom accompanied him
in his ill-fated expedition to Ireland, on his return from which he was
taken prisoner by Bolingbroke at Flint Castle, and from there, it is
said, brought to Chester Castle on his way to London.
When the conquest of Wales had been finally completed by the defeat
and death of Prince Llewelyn, Edward the First proceeded to regulate
the administration of the territory he had acquired. By his ordinance
called the “Statute of Rhudland,” he formed Flintshire into a county,
attached, as previously mentioned, but subordinate to, that of Chester,
and directed the Sheriff of Flintshire to render his accounts to
the Exchequer there. The judges were appointed, sometimes for both
counties, at others for each county separately. By the same statute the
greater part of the district governed by Llewelyn was divided into the
three counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioneth, and it was to
these counties that the name of “North Wales” was originally confined.
Chester and North Wales were the oldest of the Welsh Judicial Circuits.
Subsequently, on the petition of the Welsh themselves, in the reign of
the Tudor King, Henry VIII., Wales was incorporated with England, and
the Lordships Marches were divided into shires, the counties of Denbigh
and Montgomery being added to North Wales. Wales then for the first
time sent representatives to the English Parliament, but it was not
until the reign of his son, King Edward VI., that the County Palatine
of Chester was given parliamentary representation. Professor Freeman
has said:--
“The Earldom of Hugh of Avranches stood alone in its greatness from
the rest of the realm. How distinct Chester and Durham stood from
the rest of the kingdom, is best shown by their having for so many
ages (not until the reign of Edward VI.) no voice in the national
Parliament. While Chester had its own courts and own baronage, knights
and citizens from the all but independent state would have been as
much out of place as knights and citizens from the Isle of Man or the
Norman islands of the English Channel.”
About this time also, viz. in 1542, it was enacted that sessions for
the administration of justice should be held twice in every year in
each of the twelve shires of Wales, to be called “The King’s Great
Sessions of Wales,” apparently to distinguish them from those of the
Justices of the Peace, who were directed to be eight in number in each
county, and to hold their sessions four times a year. For the business
of the Great Sessions, Wales was divided into four districts, each
independent of the rest, with its own judge and its own establishment
of judicial officers. Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioneth continued as
before under the Justice of North Wales, and formed the North Wales
Circuit; while Denbigh and Montgomery were joined to Chester, to
which, as before mentioned, Flint from its first creation had been
attached. Each Circuit at first had a single judge, but in the reign
of Elizabeth a second one was added. The judges were styled Justices,
and within the limits of their Circuits they exercised all the powers
of the Justices of King’s Bench and Common Pleas. They also had an
equitable jurisdiction, but important equity cases were seldom brought
before them, as the Court of Chancery was open to Welsh suitors, and
it was only in matters of immediate urgency that the powers of the
Great Sessions as a Court of Equity were found of use. In equity an
appeal lay to the House of Lords, and in legal cases “error” could be
brought in the King’s Bench. In the administration of criminal law,
when cases of difficulty arose the opinion of the twelve Judges was
obtained, in a similar way to that which was pursued in England. The
process of the Courts could only be executed in the counties of the
Circuit, and the want of further power to give effect to their orders
outside their jurisdiction was one of their greatest disadvantages. But
when final judgment had been obtained, a transcript of the record could
be removed and execution issued from one of the Superior Courts. Each
Circuit had its judicial seal. The use of seals was looked upon as a
matter of paramount importance (as it is in many foreign Courts at the
present time), and Henry VIII. himself is stated to have devised these
seals. The original seal of Chester was used for Flint. Here we give
an illustration from the last seal which was in use when the Chester
Palatinate Court was dissolved. Another original seal for the shires
of Denbigh and Montgomery was entrusted to the Steward and Chamberlain
of Denbigh, and these two counties formed in some respects a distinct
division of the Chester Circuit. Causes commenced in the Superior
Courts could be sent down to Chester to be tried. The equitable
jurisdiction at Chester belonged to the Chamberlain and not to the
Justices. The Chamberlain’s Court is described as having been one of a
very singular character, and to have administered a mixture of law and
equity. The Vice-Chamberlain presided as the Judge, and the business,
which is said to have been at one time considerable, appears latterly
to have been small; but it is to be regretted that it was abolished and
not retained, as in the adjoining County Palatine of Lancaster, as in
these days it would have been of great use.
[Illustration: The last seal which was in use when the Chester
Palatinate Court was dissolved.]
The Chief-Justiceship of Chester, being the most lucrative as well as
the most important of the Welsh Judgeships, was looked upon as one of
the great prizes of the profession, and was held by many distinguished
men. When the Great Session came to an end the salary of the Chief
Justice was £1630, and that of the second Justice £1250. An annual
pension of £1015, 12s. was granted to Thomas Jervis (father of Sir
John Jervis, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas), who was second
Justice of Chester, by way of compensation for loss of his office. The
Chief-Justiceship of Cheshire was vacant at the time. In Ormerod’s
_History of Chester_, in the _History of the Great Sessions of Wales_,
by Mr. W. R. Williams, and in the contribution to the _History of
the Courts of Great Session of Wales and of the Chester Circuit_,
by the late Chancellor Trevor Parkins, from which I have obtained a
considerable amount of information, is given a list of judges and
officers of these Courts from early days to their abolition in 1830.
A very important person on every Circuit was the Attorney-General,
who was appointed by the Crown, and possessed all the powers of the
King’s Attorney-General. The principal officer on each Circuit was the
Prothonotary, who attended on the Justices when they held their Courts,
and discharged similar duties to those now performed by the Associate.
He was appointed by the Crown, and was usually Clerk of the Crown also.
The subordinate officers were a marshal, a registrar, and a crier, and
these were appointed by the Chief Justice.
The Chamberlain of Chester or his Deputy was the Keeper of the original
Seal of Chester and Flint. At Chester, where a considerable amount of
business was transacted, there was a much larger bar than there was
on the Welsh Circuits. The Northern Circuit was strongly represented
there. John Williams, James Parke (afterwards Lord Wensleydale),
Joseph Littledale, William Wightman, and Charles Crompton, all of
whom became High Court Judges, were among the members of the Northern
Circuit who practised at the Chester Assizes in the early years of the
last century. David Francis Jones, for some time Recorder of Chester,
better known as Sergeant Atcherley, and those eminent lawyers, John
Horatio Lloyd and William Newland Welsby, Recorder of Chester, and
long the leader of the present Chester and North Wales Circuit, were
also members of the Chester Palatine Bar. Lord Kenyon and Chief Baron
Richards, both of whom were afterwards Chief Justices of Chester, were
among those who belonged to the Welsh Circuit.
We give an illustration of the old County Hall and of the Old Court
of Exchequer at Chester Castle (where causes were heard), before they
were taken down and the present classical buildings, the creation of a
Chester architect, were erected at the close of the eighteenth century,
taken from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of June 1789. The Exchequer Court
is said to have been the building in which the Norman Earls sat in
Council.
Some years after the abolition of the Palatine Courts the records
relating to them and to the County Palatine were examined, arranged,
and ably reported upon by the late Mr. Black of the Public Record
Office. Efforts were made to retain these records at Chester, where
it was proposed that a branch of the Public Record Office should be
established; but ultimately in the autumn of 1854 they were removed to
London, first of all to the Tower, and afterwards to the Public Record
Office in Chancery and Fetter Lanes.
I find in Appendix 11 of the Sixteenth Report of the Deputy Keeper of
the Public Records the following:--“The records brought from Chester
packed as closely as possible, filled four or five large boxes and
369 bags, about 100 of the latter being large five bushel bags. The
weight was nearly 13 tons. They filled five of the largest London
and North-Western Railway luggage vans.” These records are being
gradually cleaned and classified. The reports and calendars relating
to them, which have already been published, are extremely valuable
and interesting, although they only touch the very fringe of the
information contained in such an immense mass of documents. There are
no more able or courteous public servants than those in the Record
Office, but they cannot do impossibilities, and unless the staff is
increased it will be ages before the public can be informed of the
entire contents of these valuable Cheshire and Welsh records. We here
give one of the entries on the Chester Recognisance Roll of the time
of the Owen Glyndwr rebellion, as a sample of the entries contained in
the Deputy-Keeper’s reports:--1403 September 4.--The Mayor, Sheriffs,
and Aldermen of the City of Chester are empowered and directed by Writ
to “expel all Welsh from the City, both men and women, the same not
to enter the City before sunrise or tarry in it after sunset, on pain
of decapitation, nor presume to walk about armed, except with a knife
to cut their dinner, nor to use any tavern or to hold meetings in the
same, nor any three of the said Welsh to meet together within the Walls
on pain of being sent to prison as rebels; and should any strangers,
Welshmen, viz. from the County of Flint, or other parts of Wales, come
to the said City, the same to leave their arms, &c., outside the gate
by which they entered.”
Camden, in speaking of Cheshire, has said “this County ever surpassed
the rest in producing nobility, nor is there any County in England
that has anciently brought more Noblemen into the field or can boast a
greater number of Knightly Families.”
“Cheshire Chief of Men” is an ancient Cheshire proverb, and is used by
Michael Drayton in his _Polyolbion_.
We may summarise the history of the County Palatine of Chester
thus:--On its foundation and during the reigns of the Norman Earls, it
assumed the form of a semi-regal state. Afterwards, on the assumption
of the Earldom by the eldest sons of the Kings of England, it became
their most ancient appanage, and at first was maintained with all its
regalities. Edward I. made Chester his headquarters during his Welsh
wars, and resided in the city and neighbourhood more than any other
sovereign or prince has done. Subsequently the powers of the Palatinate
were gradually vested in the Crown, and finally abolished in the reign
of Henry VIII., the administration of the law being all that was left
of its ancient prerogatives. Finally, by the Act of 1830 this peculiar
jurisdiction was also taken from it, and, as we have already seen,
in 1854 all its records (the muniments of its former greatness) were
removed to London.
All that remains is the name “County Palatine,” and the title it gives
to the reigning monarch’s eldest son.
[Illustration: The Old Shire Hall, Chester.
(_Now pulled down._)
]