citizens the city, the king's mills in the city, and the
fishery in the Eden, at a fee-farm rent of L80 a year. A charter from
Edward III. in 1352 enumerates the privileges and liberties hitherto
enjoyed by the citizens, including a market twice a week, on Wednesday
and Saturday; a fair for sixteen days at the feast of the Assumption of
the Virgin (15th of August); free election of a mayor, bailiffs and two
coroners; and the right to hold their markets in the place called
"Battailholm." It also mentions that the city was greatly impoverished
by reason of the devastations of the Scots and by pestilence.
Confirmations of former privileges were issued by Richard II., Henry IV.
and Henry VI. A charter from Edward IV. in 1461, after reciting the
damage sustained by the city through fire, reduced the fee-farm rent
from L80 to L40, and granted to the citizens the fishery called the
sheriff's net, free of rent. Further confirmations were granted by later
sovereigns. Although the city had been under the jurisdiction of a mayor
and bailiffs at least as early as 1290, the first charter of
incorporation was granted by Elizabeth in 1566; it established a
corporation under the style of "a mayor, eleven worshipful persons, and
twenty-four able persons." A charter of James I. confirmed former
liberties, and in 1638 Charles I. granted a charter under which the town
continued to be governed until 1835. It declared Carlisle a city by
itself, and established a corporation consisting of a mayor, 11
aldermen, 24 capital citizens, 2 bailiffs, 2 coroners and a recorder;
the mayor, the recorder and 2 senior aldermen to be justices of the
peace, and the mayor to be clerk of the market; other officers were a
common clerk, a sword-bearer and three serjeants-at-mace. Two charters
from Charles II. in 1664 and 1684 were never accepted. The latter
granted a three days' fair or market on the first Wednesday in June.
Much valuable information relating to the early history and customs of
Carlisle is furnished both by the Dormont Book, which contains an
elaborate set of bye-laws dated 1561, and by the records of the eight
craft gilds--weavers, smiths, tailors, tanners, shoemakers, skinners,
butchers and merchants. The defensive and offensive warfare in which the
citizens were constantly engaged until the union of the crowns of
England and Scotland left little time for the development of commercial
pursuits, and Fuller, writing in the 17th century, says tha