Chapter VI: The Book of All the "auncient Customs." (2)

"Upon {39} agreement made by and between the ancient fishermen and
landmen of the town of Brighthelmston, in the county of Sussex, the
second day of February, 1618, for remedy and redress of certain
disorders in their said town, as also for the better increase of
brotherly love and amity for ever hereafter between the said
fishermen and landmen, and for the annual payment of certain money
called a _quarter of a share_, heretofore of ancient time usually
paid out of every boat in every fishing voyage, to the churchwardens
there, towards the maintenance of the church and other public charges
about the necessary defence of the town; and of a certain
contribution by the rest of the inhabitants, being landmen, towards
the bearing of the said charges, to be had and levied; and for the
purposes aforesaid the said fishermen and landmen, having met and
assembled together, here have set down in writing their ancient
customs and orders concerning the true making, paying, and employing
the said quarter share; and also of the paying and employing of the
said landmen's contribution, or yearly rate for the uses aforesaid,
and for the certainty and true payment thereof in manner and form
hereafter following:--

"_The Ancient Custom for Payment and Employing the_ QUARTER
SHARE.--_Imprimis_. It is concluded and agreed between the said
fishermen and landmen, the day and year above mentioned, that they,
the said fishermen, shall yearly make as they have done time out of
mind, a quarter of a share out of every fishing boat in every fishing
voyage; and the same so being made, shall yearly and every year pay,
at the end of every voyage, unto the fishermen churchwardens for the
time being, without diminution or deduction, the said quarter share,
to be by them and the other churchwarden, kept and employed unto the
only and proper use of the town in the common town box, until the new
constable shall be chosen yearly."--"_Item_. It is agreed between the
said landmen and fishermen above said, that the said landmen shall
yearly and every year pay and bring unto the said common town-box, in
or upon the second day of February, commonly called _Candlemas Day_,
yearly, half so much money {40} as the aforesaid quarter share shall
amount unto; there to be by all the said churchwardens kept and
employed unto the general and public use of the town."--"_Item_. It
is further concluded and agreed upon between the said fishermen and
the said landmen, that all manner of town charges whatsoever (the
king's composition or customary wheat only excepted) shall be taken
out of the common town box, whether it be for the maintenance of the
church, the communion bread and wine, the maintenance of the lecture,
the clerk and sexton's wages, the lights in the fire cage, the paying
the king's majesty's oats and coals, and the setting forth of
soldiers or sailors, and all manner of other necessary and public
town charge shall be taken out of the said common town box, by and
with the consent of the constable and churchwardens for the time
being, and six other, whereof _four_ to be of the sea, two of the
land."--"_Item_. It is further ordered by and between the said
fishermen and landmen, that if it shall happen that the said quarter
share and the land contribution will not at any time amount and
countervail the whole charge that shall arise and grow by reason of
any extraordinary charge happening, that then the constable and
churchwardens, and six other of the said inhabitants shall tax, rate,
and cess all the said inhabitants proportionably, every one according
to their estate and ability."--"_Item_. It is also agreed between the
said fishermen and landmen that the churchwardens, every year, shall
collect and gather and bring in unto the common town-box the said
quarter share, and the warders for sea causes to collect and gather
it; and the land-warden being with one of the sea-wardens shall also
yearly, and every year, bring into the said common town-box the rate
or taxation of the other inhabitants not being fishermen; which rate
or taxation every year ought to amount to half so much as the said
quarter of a share doth yearly; and also shall gather, receive, and
take up all rents and other land profits belonging to the town, as
the rent of the town-house, town mills, and Bartholomews, which,
being so received, shall yearly bring into the said town box, there
to be kept up to the general use of the town."

"_Orders concerning the_ CONSTABLE.--"_Item_. It is further agreed
between the said fishermen and landmen, that the constable of the
said town shall yearly have for and towards his labour and pains
taken in that behalf, and for and towards his charges and expenses,
the sum of twenty-five shillings, eight pence, of lawful money of
_England_, to be paid unto him out of the said common town-box, and
also that every constable, whether he be a landman or a fisherman,
shall yearly have, and quietly enjoy, to his own use, without any
let, molestation, or trouble, one horse lease."--"_Item_. It is also
ordered between the said fishermen and the said landmen, that the two
headboroughs of the said town, shall have yearly for their pains and
troubles in their office, the sum of five shillings, eight pence,
a-piece, to be paid unto them out of the said common town-box; and
also shall have and quietly enjoy to their own use, one cow lease,
and twenty-five sheep leases, according to the ancient
custom."--"_Item_. It is also ordered, that there shall be selected
and chosen out of the said ancientest, gravest, and wisest
inhabitants, eight fishermen and four landmen, for assistants to the
constable in every public cause, whereof every one shall be ready to
give his attendance upon the constable as often as need shall
require: and whosoever shall presume to call together any assembly to
the intent to practice or put in use any manner of device or act
touching the government of the said town, without the privilege,
consent, and commandment of the said constable and assistants, shall
forfeit for every time so doing, forty shillings: and to the intent
that the choice of the said _twelve_ grave and wise men, may have a
continuance, therefore, upon the death or removing of any one of the
said _Twelve_, or of the most part of them, to choose in supply such
other of the said town as by them, or the most part of them, shall be
thought meet, provided always that such choice shall be always
ratified and allowed by the stewards of the lords of the said town,
at the law day when the constable is chosen, or by such one of them
as shall happen to keep such court in the said town, or otherwise the
said choice to be void: and if every such choice shall be by the said
stewards, or by such one of them as shall fortune to be present as
aforesaid, be disallowed, until a sufficient man or such sufficient
men, shall be, in the judgment of the same steward, elected and
chosen."--"_Item_. For as much as the town is overcharged with the
multitude of poor people, which daily are thought to increase by
means of receiving under tenants, lodging and harbouring of
strangers, and the great disorder of tippling-houses; and that the
constable cannot without further assistance, take upon himself the
whole oversight and charge of all the parts of the town; in this
behalf, it is thought meet that every one of the said _Twelve_ shall
have assigned unto him some place, street, or circuit of the said
town, near about his dwelling house, where he shall, as deputy to the
constable, have special charge for the keeping of good order; and
especially to see that the order for the avoiding under tenants be
duly observed and kept; and that none lodge or keep tippling without
license."--_Item_. "For as much as the said inhabitants of the said
town of _Brighthelmston_, hath of long time, and yet still are to the
making hereof, been over-charged and suppressed by the multitude of
poor people, which daily are thought to increase by the means of many
ale-house keepers and victuallers which do harbour and receive all
comers and goers, to the great hurt and hinderance of the said
inhabitants, and doth still sell and keep ale and beer without
license, and against the said inhabitants' consent, it is now ordered
by the said inhabitants, for the suppressing of the said number of
ale-houses and victualling-houses, that from henceforth for ever
hereafter none of the said inhabitants whatsoever shall at any time
hereafter, draw, sell, or keep any victualling or ale-house within
the said town without a letter or testimonial of the said
inhabitants, in writing, first had and obtained, by and with the
consent of the constable, vicar, or curate, and six other substantial
men of the said inhabitants, whereof four to be of the seamen, and
two of the landmen in their behalf, to be made unto the Justices of
the King's Majesty's Peace, whereby they, and so many of them, and
not more, may be lawfully licensed to use the said trade of
victualling and ale-house keeping; and also that such a competent
number may be by the said Justices of the King's Majesty's Peace
(whereof one to be of the quorum), and by and with the consent of the
said inhabitants, nominated and appointed: and that none other of the
said inhabitants may use or occupy the said trade of victualling or
ale-house keeping in the said town, but so many of them as shall be
lawfully licensed as is aforesaid, upon pain and peril of every one
so doing contrary to the true meaning of this present order, to
forfeit for every barrel of beer so drawn, six shillings and eight
pence."--"_Item_. If any man hath heretofore builded, erected, or set
up any house, wall, pale, shed, or any such like thing whatever; or
if any hereafter shall erect, build, or set up any house, wall, shed,
pale, or any such like thing whatsoever, to the annoyance of the
market-place, or of the block-house there, and shall not, upon
warning given him by the constable, or his deputy for the time being,
pull down or remove away the same within ten days after such warning
given, that then he shall forfeit the sum of five pounds."

"_Orders for Payment of the_ QUARTER SHARE.--These being almost
literally the same as those presented to, and ratified by, Lord
_Buckhurst_ and Mr Shelley, in 1580, are purposely omitted; as are
also, for the same reason, the Orders for the LENGTH OF NETS in this
second book of Customs."

"_Orders concerning the_ LANDMEN.--_Item_. It is ordered, that the
constable and churchwardens of _Brighthelmston_ for the time being,
with two or three of the substantial landmen, shall yearly cess, tax,
and rate towards the common charge of the town, as well all the
landmen, husbandmen, and artificers, and all of the inhabitants
having land there; and also all such persons as have lands,
tenements, or other yearly profits by land, in the said town, and
dwell in other places, according to the quantity of their lands,
tenements, and profits, proportionably with the said inhabitants; the
which cessment, rate, or taxation, shall be yearly made and set down
in writing, under the hands of the said constable, churchwardens, and
substantial landmen, before the feast day of _Epiphany_, and shall
amount unto half as much as the quarter share shall come unto yearly:
and further it is ordered, that such persons as dwell in other
places, and have in their own occupation within the said town, lands,
tenements, or other yearly profits, shall likewise yearly pay all
such sums of money as they, and every of them, in manner and form
aforesaid, shall be rated and taxed, upon pain of such forfeitures
and punishments as are to be inflicted on the inhabitants of the said
town, for not paying such sums of money as they, in like sort, shall
be cessed, taxed, or rated."--"_Item_. Whosoever, being a landman,
husbandman, artificer, or inhabitant, or every other occupier of land
or tenements of and in the said town, that shall not yearly, before
the feast day of the _Purification of St. Mary_, pay unto the
Churchwardens for the time being, all such sum or sums of money as he
or they shall be cessed, rated or taxed, shall for every time so
doing, forfeit the double value thereof."--"_Item_. If any owner or
lessee of any house in Brighthelmston, admit any tenant or tenants,
under-tenant or under-tenants, into his said house, except the said
tenant or tenants shall, by the opinion of the constable and the
churchwardens in writing first to be set down, be thought of
sufficient ability to maintain himself and his family without
burdening the town, then the owner and lessee shall, for every month
that any such tenant, not being estimated as aforesaid, shall inhabit
or dwell in his house, to forfeit unto the use of the poor of the
said town, ten shillings."--"_Item_. That whereas it is before
ordered, that the owner and lessee of any house in _Brighthelmston_,
in case he admitted any under-tenant, without the consent of the
constable and churchwardens, first had in writing, shall forfeit
monthly during the abode or inhabiting of any such under-tenant not
being approved as aforesaid, _monthly_, ten shillings. Now forasmuch
as the said penalties cannot conveniently be levied of such owners as
are not resident or abiding within the town, and that the town is
more burdened and charged with poor than heretofore it hath been, it
is now further ordered, that the penalties for every default contrary
to the said order, shall be extended in all points as well against
the under-tenants, as against the said lessee or owner."

"The orders for the churchwardens in this town book, being in substance the same with those before transcribed from the former, they need not hero be repeated.

"The immemorial existence of the above customs in the town of Brighthelmston, is incontestible even at this day: and though some of them be now obsolete on account of the great changes which the town has experienced during the present century, no part of its existing polity can legally run counter to those ancient customs, except upon sanction of an Act of Parliament, or where the right of exercising them has been evidently given up. The commissioners in 1580, only investigated and affixed publicity and order to those customs: and their subsequent orders to the inhabitants, were no more than what a bench of justices may issue at the present day. The independent style of the ancient fishermen and landmen in the second book, seems to be that of men who were conscious of a prescriptive right of legislation in certain matters within their own parish: and the Saxon constitution, whose equitable and benign spirit still feebly pervades what we now call the British Constitution, granted the same right to every parish all over England.

"The custom of choosing three churchwardens annually is still exercised, though the cause of it has ceased to exist for more than half a century past. But the customary existence of twelve assistants and advisers to the constable has ceased, though the occasion for which they were first instituted still remains, nay, increases commensurately with the population of the town. The ancient society of the twelve shall therefore be revived. That such a society did once exist, by custom, cannot be denied: and the mere neglect of a custom for ever so many years is no deseasance of the right to exercise it at any subsequent period. But its revival shall not be for the creation or benefit of a party. Political equality is the birth-right of every Briton; and no civil power can be lawful which emanated not originally from the assent of society, and is invariably exercised for the public good. The Twelve therefore shall be chosen by ballot at a public meeting of all the inhabitants, and every future vacancy in that body filled by public election in the same manner. The gentleman who presides at present at the court leet of the town, there is every reason to suppose, would cheerfully ratify so respectable an election; and the police of so populous a parish would, in future, be managed with signal vigilance, under the inspection of twelve chosen guardians of the public peace and prosperity.

"It was the discontinuance of the ancient society of the Twelve, that made it necessary to appoint commissioners by act of Parliament, in the year 1772, for lighting and cleaning the streets, lanes, and other places within the town of Brighthelmston; as also for removing and preventing nuisances, holding and regulating a daily market there, and building and repairing groynes, in order to render the coast more safe and commodious for vessels to unload and land sea-coal, culm, and other coal, for the use of the town: and in order to enable the said commissioners to accomplish these public and serviceable ends, they are allowed by the act, a duty of sixpence on every chaldron of coal or culm so landed. As it is not unlikely a question may hereafter arise concerning the precincts of the commissioners' power, it may not here be unseasonable to consider how far it extends. As the letter of the act seems to confine it to the limits of the town, the sagacity of litigation may discover that the buildings erected since the year 1772, in the then common fields and environs of Brighthelmston, could not have been in contemplation of the framers of the act, inasmuch as those buildings were not then _in esse_. But as there never were any fixed boundaries to the town, as far as continuous buildings and population reach within the parish, so far, I conceive, shall the town, and consequently the power of the commissioners, be admitted always to extend. Otherwise, indeed, the act would be abortive and absurd. These commissioners were originally sixty-four in number, and constituted of the most respectable inhabitants in the town. Many vacancies by death and removal, have since occurred, and been very properly filled by election among the existing members. Yet I am so fully assured of the evil tendency in general, as well as the injustice of political monopoly of every kind, that I regret the right of election on those occasions had not vested in the inhabitants at large.

"But as the authority of the commissioners exceeds not, except in a few particulars, that of parochial surveyors, the Society of Twelve, if called forth again into existence and exertion, would be of great benefit to the town. In summer, Brighthelmston too frequently becomes the chief receptacle of the vice and dissipation which the sickening metropolis disgorges into our watering places at this season. Its population then is upwards of ten thousand, and only one constable and two headboroughs to preserve the order and safety of the town amidst such a medley. Were there twelve more of the most active and intelligent inhabitants of the town, united with them in directing and strengthening its police, the careful parent would then have less reason to fear the gambler for his son, or the debauchee for his daughter. The constable of Brighthelmston had such a society to assist him when it was but an obscure fishing town: the propriety of reviving the same, at this period of its popularity and splendour, I leave every thinking inhabitant of the place to consider and enforce."--_Dunvan_, 1795.