BATH ADMINISTER'D Corporation Affairs at the 18th-Century Spa 5 on the right. - View View taken from the west The Stuart Guildhallbuilt the over open Markethouse, with the Georgian extension of 1724 BATH ADMINISTER'D Corporation Affairs at the 18th-Century Spa by Trevor Fawcett RUTON : 2001 The first thirty pages, said my father, turning over the leaves - are a little dry... but I doe believe that there is nothing herein mentioned which may not by chance att one time or another happen to bee needfull to some person or another. How these curiosities would be quite forgott, did not such idle fellowes as I am putt them downe. (Sterne, Tristram Shandy; Gough, The History of Myddle; Aubrey, Brief Lives) First published in the United Kingdom in 2001 by RUTON, 25 Northampton Street, Bath, and produced by R. Milsom & Associates 01454 850033 Copyright © Trevor Fawcett All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder. ISBN 0-9526326-2-4 INTRODUCTION 'The Mayor and Corporation of Bath', the Duchess of Somerset told her son in 1743, 'have published an advertisement in the newspapers, with a reward of twenty pounds [over £1000 today] to whoever will discover some idle people who threw dirt and cabbage stalks at the Duchess of Bedford as she was crossing the Abbey Green there.' The authorities could hardly ignore such an affront to the dignity of a valued client and to the city's own reputation for law and order. Sound local government mattered in any eighteenth- century town, but at a fashionable health resort the stakes were raised by the presence and favour of rank and riches. And if a well- regulated environment was seen as a priority, the role of the Corporation became paramount. True, it was private enterprise that furnished many of the amenities the spa trade needed - transportation, inns and lodgings, an endless supply of goods and services, medical expertise, and a constant round of amusements. These were certainly prerequisites if Bath was to stay ahead of its competitors, but underlying them all lay a framework of governance that ultimately centred on the ancient office of Mayor and derived from Bath's legal status as a corporate borough with freedoms dating back centuries. This book examines Georgian Bath through a rather unfamiliar lens then, the view from the Guildhall. It shows how the Elizabethan Charter and subsequent Acts of Parliament invested the Corporation with considerable powers while restricting those powers to the narrow limits of the Bath Liberties. It explains too how authority was shared at times with other institutions such as the Somerset magistrates, the parish Vestries, the various bodies of Commissioners, and, up to a point, the city freemen and the trade companies. Altogether over a hundred topics are covered, including every Corporation office and all areas of municipal responsibility - from managing the water supply, street lighting and rubbish removal to collecting rents and rates, licensing pubs, and inspecting weights and measures. The Council ran the historic hot baths, supervised the provisions market, administered a large portfolio of properties, and coped with an increasingly complex financial operation that required high levels of borrowing. It often found itself involved in negotiations with large landowners, in petitions to Parliament, and in expensive litigation. An oligarchic, self- perpetuating body of ten Aldermen, twenty Councilmen and one Recorder, the Corporation alone elected the city M.P.s, decided which of its number should hold which office, and appointed the Town Clerk, the Rector of Bath, the Master of the Grammar School, and many lesser officers - from the Sergeants-at-Arms and the Pumper (important characters nonetheless) down to the humble custodian of the town's weighing machine. Equally important, the Bath authorities supplied the magistrates' bench, presided over several courts of justice, and administered the city gaol. On their highest dignity they consorted with royalty itself. Yet while there was ample scope for political opportunism, the city fathers acquitted themselves none too badly by the standards of the time. Nepotism and lack of accountability were perhaps their worst sins. The Corporation and its members were associated or entangled in various ways with other significant organisations and interests within contemporary Bath society. A number of these links have seemed worth recognising by specific entries in this book. Notable among them are the sections on Master Tradesmen, Journeymen, and Apprentices, and their related institutions - the Trade Companies, the Freemen, the Freemasons, and the Friendly Societies. Other entries focus on the more independent organisations - Canal Companies, Infirmaries, Militias and Volunteers, and Turnpike Trusts - and special attention is paid to those flamboyant despots of the spa scene, the Masters of Ceremonies. Altogether this is a story rich in detail. It tells of tithingmen and Sunday schools, of elections and processioning, of fire engines and gilded maces, of weighing loaves of bread and the misappropriation of land. It lists the succession of M.P.s, of Town Criers, of Rectors of Walcot. It recounts how one Guildhall decayed and another rose in its place. It features the Abbey organist (and his organ blower) as well as Jane Austen's aunt, and at one moment the ornamental town swans sail into view. Should you be curious to learn what Sir Thomas White's money was used for? why Ralph Allen raised a troop of uniformed guardsmen? who died on a Bath gallows in 1780? or how many residents paid duty on hair powder in 1795? - you need only enquire within. This book in sum offers a mass of fresh, reliable information in an accessible format. It can be read straight through for its own intrinsic interest, casually dipped into, or used for quick reference and as a springboard for further inquiry. For ease of consultation a dictionary style of presentation has been adopted, i.e. an alphabetical sequence of entries with appropriate cross-references to help place the topic in a wider context. N.B. Pre-1752 dates are always given in 'new style', i.e. 28 Jan 1726/7 is regarded as occurring in 1727. Certain entries quote sums of money. To obtain very approximate modern equivalents multiply by around sixty - though because relative values have changed this will sometimes understate, sometimes overstate, the true comparison. Abbey Church (St Peter and Paul's) The main focus of Corporate worship since the late 16th century, the Abbey was where civic and sacred came together, where the city fathers knelt to the established church. Its Gothic dignity always impressed newcomers even if they did sometimes blink at finding rows of shops nestled against the buttresses and the nave being used as a general meeting place. Hidden behind a bulky central screen and organ gallery, the chancel was fitted up with pews and benches for services. Under the great east window stood Wade's marble altarpiece (donated by Bath's popular M.P. in 1726) and on the south side, facing the pulpit, the Corporation's cushioned pew with another for aldermen's wives. A Mayor's pew was ordered for newly enlarged St James's church in 1718, but the Abbey was far more convenient, an easy step from the Guildhall for the robed Corporation to walk to service. The Aldermen may have worshipped there most Sundays, with a fuller civic turnout on red-letter days like the induction of the Mayor (October) and anniversary of the Restoration (29 May), and on special patriotic occasions - coronations, victory thanksgivings, and solemn fasts and humiliations. When John Penrose, a visiting parson, preached in the Abbey at Whitsuntide 1766, he noted approvingly that the Aldermen (a 'pompous' sight in their scarlet gowns) made a point of taking the sacrament, so professing publicly their Anglican allegiance. From time to time the Rector of Bath would deliver one of the 'gift' sermons the Corporation paid him extra for. In fact, holding the advowson, they appointed the Rector to his living in the first place, just as they chose the organist, administered the charitable 'Lent bread' bequest (and a similar fund for church repairs), stored fire appliances in the north transept, flew the flag from the tower, gave the sexton his Christmas box, and generally treated the Abbey as their own. Cooperation between Guildhall and Vestry would have been vital over many matters, including the building's use for charity concerts or the massive Sunday School services in the 1780s, and similarly over the establishment in 1798 of a better choir than the Bluecoats children had hitherto provided, and to which the Corporation contributed. In a further gesture, the city sometimes paid towards the cost of beating (i.e. perambulating) the Abbey parish bounds. ••• See also Organist of the Abbey Church; Parish Administration; Rector of Bath. 1 Acts of Parliament The Elizabethan Charter guaranteed the Corporation's essential rights, but a series of special Bath Acts conferred important additional powers. These local Acts were typically initiated by the Corporation, lobbied for as necessary in London, and submitted to Parliament by the city's M.P.s. The ten 'Bath' Bills enacted between 1707 and 1801 are identified below by the monarch's 'regnal year' (e.g. 6 Geo III = 6th year of George III's reign) followed by the chapter and date of the Act. 6 Anne c.42 (1707/08) was a hybrid Act that set up a new institution, the Bath Turnpike Trust, and also initiated a sequence of legislation to 'improve' Bath by giving the Corporation certain legal rights over public space.