From hence it may be inferred that the district and division of land which they possessed, who found borh, or were pledges for each others good and peaceable behaviour, formed the limits of their jurisdiction. Whatever might be the number of freemen who inhabited a burgh originally, or whatever their number by the increase of population, the limits of the jurisdiction of such burgh still remained. And it is not improbable that the ancient tythings were nearly of equal extent with our present townships, and the bounds of our present boroughs.

As castles and other fortifications were built for the defence of towns, the term burgh came to signify a fortified place. According to Verstegan, all places which had this name were one way or other fortified.

The land and houses within a burgh might belong to the king, or to some of the thanes, or bishops. In Canterbury Edward had fifty-one burgesses*; in Bath sixty-four; and ninety burgesses of other men are mentioned t. In Romenel twenty-five burgesses belonged to the archbishop? On the authority of the Dodsworth manuscripts,

* Doomesday, Fol, 2.

+ Ibid 100.

Ibid 87. "The burgesses and tradesmen, in great towns, had in the reign of Edward the Confessor, their patrons, under whose protection they traded and paid an acknowledgment therefore; or else, were in a more servile condition, as being, in Dominio Regis vel aliorum, altogether under the power of the king or other lords." Brady on burghs, This advocate for the prerogatives of the crown, and enemy to the representative branch of our excellent constitution, would lead his reader to believe, that burgesses were in no better state than the servile, but equally subject to the will of some lord. It is true, they were subject to the land proprietors, as renting houses or land belonging to them; but it does not appear from any authority he has produced, that they were in that degraded state, he has described, till oppressed by the conqueror.

Camden informs us that one Aske* was the first Saxon proprietor of this place; and that it descended by due succession to one Alric, from whom William the Conqueror took it. He had issue, Swayne, who had Adam Fitz Swayne, who had two daughters; one of whom married Gaufrede Neville, and the other Thomas Brough †.

Burghs were generally inhabited by tradesmen and mechanics. They enjoyed the exclusive privelege of fairs and markets: and the commerce of the nation centered in them. By this privilege they were distinguished from the villages, which were inhabited by ceorls and villani, or farmers and husbandmen.

Burgesses were not considered in this period as

Madox has proved, that the burghs of the king were only subject. to a fee-farm rent; and as this was very moderate, they may be considered as the proprietors, and holding by burgage tenure, which Cooke considers as a species of free socage.

The family of the Aske's, continued in this county till the time of Charles I. The seat of the family was at Aske, in the parish of Easby, in Richmondshire. One Wyhomere, bearing the arms of Aske, was a kinsman to Allen, first Earl of Britain, in the reign of the Conqueror, which Allen had the Earldom of Richmond, given him by the said William the Conqueror, and gave to this Wyhomere the manor of Aske. He married Annabell, daughter of Sir John Neville, of Hornby and Hooton, Knight, had issue, Conan, Werner, Warine, Roger, Hugh. The manor of Aske continued in this family, and a branch of it married the daughter and heiress of de la Haye, of Aughton, on the Derwent; by which marriage, they became Lords of Ellerton and Aughton, and patrons of Ellerton Abbey, near Howden.

+ STOWE'S An. p. 116. It is difficult to reconcile the above account of the Saxon proprietors, with the silence of dormsdaybook. The manor of Tateshall is said to have belonged to the king in the time of Edward, and as the burgh of Kirkby is noticed in connection with Tateshall, without any Saxon proprietor being mentioned, it is natural to infer, that it equally belonged to the king. The king might indeed grant his right in the burgh, or

eminent either for their rank or property. A considerable part were such as by their good conduct, and the generosity of their Lords, had obtained their freedom. For among the Saxons slavery not only existed, but was acknowledged by the laws, and regularly organized into a system. In conveyances of land, slaves are mentioned with the stock, and disposed of in the same manner*. Many of the slaves were the remains of the conquered Britons; and others were such persons as had forfeited their freedom by their crimes †.

On the conversion of the Saxons, the mild influence of christianity was felt by this unhappy class of society. It became customary for the bishops and abbots to manumit the slaves attached to the property appropriated to them. Other persons, by being taught to consider acts of benevolence as a religious duty, imitated their example; and in their wills they frequently bequeathed the boon of freedom to their slaves.

what is now called the fee-farm rent, to the above family; which they might continue to enjoy without ever obtaining it as a freehold inheritance. In this case, though they would be considered as lords of Kirkby, in a popular sense, they would not be noticed in Doomsday-book, as not being the proprietors.

* In an innumeration of property on an estate, it is said there were an hundred sheep, fifty-five swine, two men, and five yoked oxen. 3 GALE's Scrip. 431.

A duke of Mercia, in a donation to a church, gave six men, with all their offspring and their family, that they may always belong to the said church in perpetual inheritance. HICKE'S Diss. Ep. p, 12.

In the laws of Ina, it is enacted "that if a freeman work on a Sunday without his lord's orders, he shall lose his liberty, or pay sixty shillings. LEG, Inc. 15.

A landholder, in Edgar's time, in his will, directed that thirteen of his slaves should be liberated as the lot should decide. 3 GALE's Scrip. 407.

Those who had thus obtained their freedom were called Frilazin. Some of them became agricultural labourers, and took land of the clergy and great, paying them an annual rent; but the chief part went and resided in the burghs, and be came burgesses. In the burghs, during the Saxon period, every freeman, or freedman, who occupied a house, and paid his gafal, or rent, was a burgess. The theows, or such as had lost their freedom, and the hereditary slaves, as being the property of their masters, though they resided within the burgh, were not admitted to enjoy the rights and rank of burgesses,.

Freedom deserves to be noticed as the first pri vilege, the burgesses of Kirkby enjoyed*. While the slave was doomed to toil for his lord, however severe and oppressive, the freeman could work for any employer he chose. This was a valuable right, as it secured to the freeman mild treatment. A slave for the most trifling fault might be whipped;

The Editor cannot but lament, that in the enlightened period in which he lives, when the rights and duties of men are more clearly ascertained; when a sound philosophy has not only encreas ed the circle of the sciences, but has enlightened the understanding and enlarged the social affections ;-when Revelation is admitted as the test of truth and duty; when that maxim, "Whatso ever ye would, that men should do to you, do ye also to them,” is admired for its conciseness, simplicity, and propriety; slavery should still be encouraged. He hopes the day is not far distant, when a sense of duty will prevail over personal interest, and this reproach of our nation be for ever done away. Though hitherto, the efforts of a Wilberforce and other friends of humanity, have not been crowned with success; they have not laboured in vain. They have produced a spirit of enquiry; they have exposed] the injustice of the slave-trade; they have laid a foundation for its abolition; and their names deserve, and will be handed down to posterity, with honour and respect.

but a freeman was exempt from this disgraceful punishment. If any person put a freeman into bonds, the law enjoined a fine of twenty shillings, a great sum in those days, and which demonstrates the high regard the Saxons had for liberty. If a freeman was accused of any crime, he was judged by his peers; while the master was both judge and jury over his slaves. How valuable was the privilege of being a burgess, when so many endured the galling yoke of vassalage.

Burgesses could acquire property and dispose of it according to their own pleasure. The avenue to wealth and honour was open before them; and this circumstance could not fail to impart energy to their exertions, which would in many cases be crowned with success. When the condition of a man is such as to preclude the hope of realizing property, and of bequeathing it to the objects of his regard, the noblest motive to industry is destroyed; and the mind sinks into an apathy respecting both present and future concerns. But burgesses and freemen could attain to the highest rank and dignity. By a law of Athelstan it is expressly declared," that if a ceorl, or farmer, and of course any other freeman, have the full proprietorship of five hides of land, a church, and kitchen, a bellhouse, a burgh-gate seat, and an appropriate office in the king's hall, he shall thenceforth be a thane by right. The same laws provide, that a thane may arrive at the dignity of an earl, and a merchant, who went three times over the sea with his own craft, might become a thane *. Though burgesses, as mechanics and tradesmen, did not rank high, yet, as freemen, who might aspire and attain to the *WILK. Leg. Sax. 70, and 71.

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