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CIVIC BARONS
to its barons early in his reign 1 and this was confirmed by
John in 1205,2 but both Henry and his son’s charters to the
other ports are granted vaguely to their men (homines').
This might be regarded as merely chancery laxness, were it
not that the early seal of Dover, which was in use in the first
quarter of the thirteenth century, bore the legend : sigillvm
Bvrgensivm de dovra 3 and was later replaced by one with
the legend : sigillvm commvne baronvm de dovoria.4
Hastings even in its later decadence was held to be the chief
of the ports 6 and service at court, the bearing of the canopy
at coronations, is confirmed to it alone by Henry II and John.
A coronation service, however, did not confer the title of
barons upon the burgesses of Oxford and Hastings’ early
ship-service, though four times that of Romney, Hythe, and
Sandwich, was no greater than that of Dover.6 Was there
some recognition of its proximity to the scene of the decisive
battle of 1066 in the honours bestowed upon its burgesses ?
The sudden extension of these honours to the other ports
admits of more satisfying conjecture. Less than a year after
John’s simultaneous charters of 1205 in which barons are still
confined to Hastings, mandates were issued to the barons of
all five,’ and two years later to those of Rye, Winchelsea,
and Pevensey as well.8 It is impossible not to associate this
change with the greatly increased naval importance of the
ports after the loss of Normandy in 1204, and with the conse-
quent tightening of their hitherto somewhat loose bond of
union into a close confederation. The more frequent demands
upon their ships and the unusual liberties they enjoyed might
well be recognized by this heightened status of their bur-
gesses. Like the barons of London they were proud of their
special relation to the Crown, and those of Pevensey and
Winchelsea described themselves on their seals as “ barones
domini régis.” 8
That the barons at this date comprised the whole body of
citizens is fortunately not in doubt. It is true that the
Sandwich seal, which Birch attributes to a thirteenth-century
date, has the legend : sigill’ consxlii baronvm de Sandwico,10
ɪ B.B.C. i. 99 ; for his charters to other ports, see C. Chart. Roll, iii.
219 fi. a Rot. Chart. (1837), p. 153.
a Round, Cal. of Docs, in France, p. 33.
* Brit. Mus. Cat. of Seals, ii. 68. 5 C.C.R. 1369-74, p. 24.
, B.B.C. i. 90 ; D,B. i. ɪ. 7 Rot. Litt. Pat. (1835), p. 64 b.
s Ibid., p. 80. , B.M. Cat. of Seals, ii. 160, 210.
10 Ibid., p. ι8o.
CINQUE PORTS
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but, however this may be explained, it cannot controvert
a precise definition of a baron in these ports which has acci-
dentally been preserved, when local municipal records of
its period have mostly perished. In May, 1336, one Arnald
Camperyan of Dover complained to the king that the royal
collectors exacted custom on the goods and merchandise he
caused to be brought into the country, as if he were a foreign
merchant, whereas, as he brought letters patent of the mayor
and barons of the community of Dover to testify, he was a
baron of that town, holding lands there both by hereditary
right and by acquisition, and contributing to all things and
expenses touching the town with the other barons.1 Two
years later the mayor, bailiffs and community of Sandwich
laid a complaint against the exchequer for distraining them
because they had admitted certain Gascons from Aquitaine to
the liberty of the town as barons, to enjoy the same liberties
and contribute to scot and lot with the others? Their griev-
ance was still under consideration in 1340.3
The scanty survival of early archives of the ports renders
a reconstruction of their civic administration difficult, but
from the earliest extant custumal we learn that about
1352 the council of the jurats (jurés) at Romney was chosen
from the barons.4 Refusal to serve was punished by seques-
tration of the offending baron’s house. The chief ruler of
the year was acquitted at its end in a regular form by his
Combarons.8 They were the judges of the town court.®
But just as at London the elected and sworn council of aider-
men ultimately overshadowed the barons, from whom they
were originally taken, so the jurats of the ports seem from the
fourteenth century to have drawn administrative control into
their own hands, while there was also perhaps some extension
of citizenship. We hear less of the “ mayor (or bailiffs) and
the barons ” and more of the “ mayor (bailiffs), jurats and
community.” 7 As early as 1383 the Dover court was held
by the mayor, bailiffs, and jurats.8 It is under this title that
1 C.C.R. 1333-37. PP∙ 675-6∙ 2 jbid- i337~39∙ P- 512-
3 Ibid. 1339-40, pp. 216, 627.
1 Bateson, Borough Customs (Selden Soc.), ii. 39.
6 4 Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App., p. 424.
, Bateson, op. cit. i. 144, ii. 16, 116-17.
7 C.C.R. 1364-68, p. 326 ; 5 Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App., 493b et alias.
Sandwich was incorporated in 1684 as the mayor, jurats, and community
of the town.
8 S.P.H., Statham, Dover Charters, p. xxii. The Hythe seal in the
fifteenth century had the legend : sig’ ivratorvm ville hede (B.M. Cat.
ii. 94) ∙