In Medieval times London, like other towns, sought to develop
its own regulations independent of national life and to exclude
both the body of law of the realm and the officers of royal
justice. The Mayor and Aldermen were exercising functions as
Justices and Keepers of the Peace long before any charter confirmed
their jurisdiction. The position was regularised by a charter of
King Henry VI of 1444 which recognised the Mayor, Recorder and
those Aldermen who had served as Mayor as Justices of the Peace and
Oyer and Terminer (hearing indictments on serious criminal
charges), and this was the first of a series of charters that
gradually extended recognition to all Aldermen. Until 1921 the full
title of the Mayor's Court was 'The Court of our Lord the King
holden before the Mayor and Aldermen', though in practice the
Recorder officiated until the office devolved on the Judge of the
Mayor's and City of London Court.
The first Mayor's Court rolls survive from 1298, and show that the
court, which consisted of the Mayor and a Jury, was busy punishing
tavern-brawlers, bullies, night-walkers, gamblers and other
disorderly persons, as well as pursuing fraudulent tradesmen. The
medieval chronicler Robert Fabyan related that Mayor Sir John Shaa
in 1501 brought up a new business and held court every afternoon,
sitting alone to arbitrate on disputes, 'but not to all mennys
pleasures ... this court became known as the court of Requests,
much of the poor people drew unto it, whom he favoured sometime
more than justice and good law required'. Nor did the lawyers of
the day care for this system as it deprived them of the fees they
would have earned had such cases gone to the King's law courts.
This court, which was to develop into the Lord Mayor's Justice
Room, has left no other surviving records prior to 1624. From this
date we have the Waiting Books - the proceedings recorded by the
Attorneys of the Mayor's Court and known as the Attorneys in
Waiting; these men were effectively the first Clerks to the
Justices. The introduction to The City Law, a handbook of 1658,
states that 'the Mayor and Aldermen have always used to cause to
come before them the malefactors which have been taken and arrested
within the said city, for carrying of tales and spreading abroad of
news imagined in disturbance of the peace, makers and
counterfeiters of false seals, false charters and for other
notorious defects, and those which they have found culpable of such
misdeeds by confession of the parties or by enquest thereof made,
shall be punished by setting in the pillory, or further chastised
by imprisonment, according to their merit and according to the
reasonable discretion of the said Mayor and Aldermen'.
Anita McConnell, JP, 1990
William Penn
Early in 1670, William Penn, a Quaker, was caught preaching
in Grace Church street with Captain William
Mead, which appeared to be a breach of the Conventicle
act - which outlawed religious meetings other than those conducted
by the Church of England. They were arrested and taken before the
Lord Mayor of London, Samuel Starling, who sent them to the Old
Bailey. In the trial that followed, the jury would not do as the
judges and Recorder wanted and find both men guilty of preaching at
Grace Church street and causing a 'tumultuous assembly'. They would
only find Penn guilty of 'speaking in Grace Church street'.
The Recorder is recorded as saying "You had as good say
nothing"; and, later on, "Gentlemen, you shall not be dismissed
till we have a verdict that the Court will accept, and you shall be
locked up, without meat, drink, fire or tobacco; you shall not
think thus to abuse the Court: we will have a verdict by the
help of God, or you shall starve for it."
Accordingly, the jury was kept for two days and nights
without warmth food or water, but still brought in a verdict of not
guilty. Everyone on the jury was fined forty marks (the equivalent
of a year's salary) and sent to Newgate, while Penn and Mead were
also fined and imprisoned for contempt in wearing their hats in
court.
The jury was soon released, and brought an action against the
Lord Mayor of London and Recorder for false imprisonment, which
they won. As a lawyer wrote: "It (was) an instance not simply of a
Quaker pleading for the rights of conscience but it is that of an
Englishman contending for the ancient and imprescriptible rights of
his race."
Penn later emigrated to the New World where he made his mark.
Pennsylvania, most obviously, bears the name of his father, Admiral
Penn.
The Penn case made legal history, and established the principle
that a judge cannot tell a jury what to decide.
The Mansion House Justice Room
Until the 1990s the Lord Mayor dispensed justice from the
Mansion House and the prisoners' cells of yesterday are the wine
cellars of today. Among the more famous trials held there were
those of Sylvia Pankhurst, the suffragette, and a name that is not
so well known, Josph Strong.
Joseph Strong was a slave from the West Indies who was
continually abused by his owner. Grievously wounded, in 1765 he
stole away on a ship bound for England. His owner also returned and
seeing him by chance on the street wished to seize him back. This
had never happened in England before and a law case ensued, the
case coming before the Lord Mayor in the Mansion House Justice
Room. Strong was befriended by Granville Sharp, a government
clerk who, with his brother, had befriended Strong after he first
landed.
The Lord Mayor acquitted Strong of any wrong doing and told him
he was free. Upon hearing this, Strong's erstwhile owner leapt up
and tried to take him there and then. He was only prevented in
doing this by the Lord Mayor and the Swordbearer. Alas, it was a
hollow victory. Strong died not long after from his injuries.
Nevertheless, it established the principle that a slave from any
British or other colony would not remain one once he or she stepped
onto English soil or enlisted to be a sailor in Her Majesty's Navy.
This was a seminal ruling which helped bring the injustice of
slavery to a wider audience. Granville Sharp went on to become one
of the most famous of the anti-slavery campaigners and a deep
influence on the Abolition Movement which culminated in the
abolition of the slave trade in 1807.
Another famous defendant was the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, who
in October 1920 was tried and convicted for publishing 'seditious'
articles in The Workers' Dreadnought and sent to prison
for six months. This was a galvanising moment in the history of the
movement.
Today the Justice Room houses the officers of the Lord Mayor's
international and domestic programme.
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