Punished; and the
aldermen, or a majority of them, have a negative in whatever is
propounded in the Common Council.
2. The Court of Hustings is esteemed the most ancient tribunal in
the City, and was established for the preservation of the laws,
franchises, and customs of it. It is held at Guildhall before the
Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, and in civil causes the Recorder sits as
judge. Here deeds are enrolled, recoveries passed, writs of right,
waste, partition, dower, and replevins determined.
3. The Lord Mayor's Court, a court of record, held in the chamber
of Guildhall every Tuesday, where the Recorder also sits as judge,
and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen may sit with him if they see fit.
Actions of debt, trespass, arising within the City and liberties, of
any value, may be tried in this court, and an action may be removed
hither from the Sheriff's Court before the jury is sworn.
The juries for trying causes in this and the Sheriff's Courts, are
returned by the several wards at their wardmote inquests at
Christmas, when each ward appoints the persons to serve on juries
for every month in the year ensuing.
This court is also a court of equity, and gives relief where
judgment is obtained in the Sheriff's Court for more than the just
debt.
4. The Sheriff's Courts are also courts of record, where may be
tried actions of debt, trespass, covenant, &c. They are held on
Wednesdays and Fridays for actions entered in Wood Street Compter,
and every Thursday and Saturday for actions entered in the Poultry
Compter. Here the testimony of an absent witness in writing is
allowed to be good evidence.
5. The Chamberlain's Court or office is held at the chamber in
Guildhall. He receives and pays the City cash and orphans' money,
and keeps the securities taken by the Court of Aldermen for the
same, and annually accounts to the auditors appointed for that
purpose. He attends every morning at Guildhall, to enroll or turn
over apprentices, or to make them free; and hears and determines
differences between masters and their apprentices.
6. The Court of City Orphans is held by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen
as often as occasion requires; the Common Sergeant being entrusted
by them to take all inventories and accounts of freeman's estates,
and the youngest attorney in the Mayor's Court is clerk of the
orphans, and appointed to take security for their portions; for when
any freeman dies, leaving children under the age of twenty-one
years, the clerks of the respective parishes give in their names to
the common crier, who thereupon summons the widow or executor to
appear before the Court of Aldermen, to bring in an inventory, and
give security for the testator's estate, for which they commonly
allow two months' time, and in case of non-appearance, or refusal of
security, the Lord Mayor may commit the executor to Newgate.
