OR1774

Letter to John Thurlo Brace esquire from John Biscoe junior enclosing case for Counsel’s opinion: – whether the neglect of the Recorder or his Deputy to attend the courts of the Borough, civil and criminal, to assist the Mayor in the trials, constitutes forfeiture of office and whether accordingly the Corporation can lawfully vote him out and choose another Recorder.

May 1 1725.

From: 1725 To: 1725

Or if their Charter and customs does not permit this then what can be done ‘to preserve the Corporation and their Courts from ruin’ -- ‘neither he (the Recorder) nor his deputy have ever once attended since they were chose’ The Recorder has taken no notice of the Mayor’s representations. Biscoe reports opinion that the Corporation might act as the Corporation of Ipswich did; they were displeased with their Recorder, Sergeant Whitaker, and proceeded to elect a new one while Whitaker was still in office, whereupon Whitaker moved in Kings Bench for a writ of Mandamus to be readmitted; the Court finally upheld the action of the Corporation.

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Bruce, John Thurloe,
Biscoe, John,
Whitaker

Bedford elections, recorder, Bedford Borough, Mayor, Ipswich, King's Bench