The court of
appeal, when mother and daughter towns were at variance on the subject
of privileges, was the King and Council.
In England the powers of the mother-town were purely advisory, whereas
on the Continent some towns appear to have exercised coercive
jurisdiction over those whose laws were derived from them. Perhaps this
circumstance, that the process was one of adoption rather than
subjection, was the chief reason why English towns were so careful not
to communicate their privileges, at any rate freely, to boroughs of
_servile_ condition, i.e., those which owed service to some lord. The
case of Hereford is thus stated:
"The King's cittizens of Hereford, who have the custodye of his citty
(in regard that it is the principall citty of all the market townes from
the sea even unto the boundes of the Seaverne) ought of ancient usage to
deliver their lawes and customes to such townes, when need requires, yet
in this case they are in noe wise bound to do it, because they say they
are not of the same condition; for there are some townes which hould of
our Lord the Kinge of England and his heires without any mesne Lord; and
to such we are bound, when and as often as need shall be, to certifie of
our lawes and customes, chiefly because we hold by one and the same
tenure; and nothing shall be taken of them in the name of a reward,
except only by our common towne clerke, for the wryting and his paynes,
as they can agree.
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