The Oak Book & the 15th Century

The Oak Book - This copy published in 1910

The Oak Book was translated by William Overey, town clerk in 1473, and presented to the Guild in 1478. This version was to become known as the “Paxbread”, but no reference can be found as to how it obtained this name. The Oak Book was reprinted in 1910

In Overey's work, the following oaths of the officers of the town can be found.

(1) The mayor’s oath
(2) the four aldermen
(3) the sheriff
(4) the recorder or town clerk
(5) the bailiff of the courts
(6) the water bailey and of the broker
(7) the water bailey and of his clerk
(8) the steward
(9) the four sergeants 
(10) the crowners
(11) the constables
(12) the bidelles
(13) a prisoner when liberated

As more officers were introduced to the Guild, they would make their own appropriate oath in accordance with their position.

The “Paxbread”, otherwise known as the Burgess Book was revised several times up until the Municipal Reform Act of 1835. In its various forms it is essentially a history of the borough constitution from about 1300 until 1835. It is therefore a document that defined the early laws that regulated both the Guild Merchant and the Town, out of which emerged the Borough Government. 

Further references to the sergeants are made in the Ordinances of the Guild Merchant. The ordinances or laws, by which the Guild Merchant would conduct its business, are well documented in “A History of Southampton” by the Rev. J. Silvester Davies.

In particular, ordinance 2 is as follows:

 2. During the time of the Guild none shall come among them except through the aldermen. – And during the Guild no one belonging to it shall introduce any stranger except by order of the aldermen or seneschal. And the aldermen shall have a sergeant to serve before him, the seneschal another sergeant, and the two eschevins a sergeant, and the two other eschevins a sergeant, and the chaplain shall have his clerk.

However, in “The Oak Book of Southampton” by P.Struder, reference is made to two kinds of sergeants. Those of the Guild and those of the Town. The four of the Guild were allotted to the various Guild officers, to work personally for them, and to render them any assistance or service they might require (ORD 2). A number of other sergeants we are told, were appointed at the same Guild meeting, and in the same manner as the Town Clerk (ORD 32). Their duties were to assist the town officers, and to execute all attachments and arrests within the town and its precincts.

In The History of Southampton (p211) by the Rev Davies, he records – In 1445 the Charter of Incorporation by Henry VI “The sergeants, besides their duty of attendance upon the mayor “and Corporation, are sworn officers to execute all attachments and arrests within the town and its precincts.”

He also notes that before the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 two of them were goalers, one of the debtors’, and the other of the felons’ prison; the third collected the tolls of the poultry and vegetable market, and the fourth was water bailiff.

By the Charter 23 of Henry VI dated 1447, they were also empowered to appoint brokers, packers, porters, and carriers, as they had been used to do before that charter.

The Stewards Book I (page xv) records that “There were four serjeants and there combined salaries amounted to £4 6s 8d, per annum, and as with other officers, their liveries cost even more. The remarkable thing about these uniforms is that they required renewing every year. Evidently the town took great pride in the orderly appearance of its officials.

One of the serjeants, Sampson Maycock who held office in 1428 and was still in office in 1439 seems to have a higher position than the other three as his salary was 6s 8d per quarter against 5s 0d for the others”.