V. THE RECORDERS.
The Officer known as the Recorder of Dover came into bemg soon after the appointment of Bailiffs ceased. The Bailiff used to sit with the Mayor to assist him in judicial duties; but the Bailiffs were chosen from the same rank as the Mayors and Jurats, and had no special legal knowledge. When the Statutes at large became numerous, and barristers attended at Sessions ready to pick holes in indictments, more legal knowledge was needed on the Bench, therefore Recorders were appointed. John Cowell, an English lawyer of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, described the Recorder of his day as " he whom the Mayor or other Magistrates of any city or town, having jurisdiction or a Court of Record by the King's grant, doth associate unto them for the better direction in the matter of justice and proceedings according to law." That is the service which the Dover Recorders were called upon to render from their first appointment in the Stuart Period. Those officials, unlike the present day Recorders, were chosen by the Mayor, Jurats and Common Council. Some confusion has been caused in recent years by a state ment which styles all the Recorders as Stewards previous to the Act of 1835. Many of the old cities and Boroughs had some high personages as Honorary Stewards, and when Charles II. forced his unsolicited Charter of 1638 on Dover, that document nominated the Tieutcnants of Dover Castle as Steward of Dover, and the Duke of Albermarle as Honorary Recorder, but, on the Accession of William III., that Charter was abrogated by proclamation, when the appointment of a Steward lapsed, and the election of a Recorder of the Common Council was continued in the usual way, there having been no vacancy while that Charter was in force. Again, in the Eighteenth Century, when Lord Hardwicke was the Recorder of Dover, an attempt was made to magnify the office by styling him " Steward," and when his son, the Hon. Charles Yorke, was appointed Recorder in 1764, he was appointed under the style of Steward, but he simply filled the same office as all previous and later Recorders did, who were described in the Common Council minutes as " Counsel with the Corporation and Assistant to the Mayor and Jurats at Sessions and Trials, duranto bene placito," and the fees that they received were 40/- a year for being the Corporation counsel; 40/- for assisting at every Session ; and the issue money for assisting at every Court of Trials." The following is a list of the Recorders of Dover as far as we have been able to tiace them from the Corporation Records : —
1. Dr. Lancelot Lovelace, appointed as Counsel with the Corporation in the year 1620, was probably the first of the line of Dover Recorders. He v/as a resident of Canterbury, and also Recorder of that city.
2. Francis Lovelace succeeded his father as Recorder of Dover in the Reign of Charles L, but was displaced during the Commonwealth. After the Restoration, he was re appointed, and was also made Registrar of the Courts of Admiralty and Chancery, posts which during the Common wealth had been held by Francis Raworth. the Town Clerk.
3. Thomas St. Nicholas was appointed Recorder in 1654, holding the office until the Restoration, when Francis Lovelace was re-instated.
4. Sir Thomas Hardres, of Hardres Court, Kent, a Serjeant-at-Law, sought the office of Recorder, and the Registrarship (a Cinque Ports office), which Francis T>ovelace had held. He seems to have received the office of Registrar of the two Cinque Ports Courts, but as regards the Recorder ship of the Borough, the Corporation contended that they had not elected him.
5. Edward Henden, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed Recorder in 1664, but Sir Thomas Hardres served a man damus on the Corporation, claiming to be restored to the office. The Corporation replied that they had not elected him, whereupon Sir Thomas Hardres commenced an action against the Corporation in the Court of Exchequer, but, the Corporation having intimated that they were prepared to defend themselves, the matter dropped.
6. Francis Barrell, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed Recorder on the 17th March, 1676. The minutes of the Common Council being, " Francis Barrell, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed to assist the Mayor and Jurats at all Sessions and Trials, and to receive fees and salary as Edward Henden in the same office." Mr. Barrell, who was a native of Rochester, held the office until his death in 1679.
7. Thomas Turner, Serjeant-at-Law, was appointed Recorder on the 19th January, 1679, on the same terms as Serjeant Barrell. Mr. Turner, who held the office ten years, resided at Ileden, on the Barham Downs.
8. Vincent Denne, Serjeant-at-Law, of Wingham, was appointed Recorder 6th August, 1689, on the same terms as his predecessors. It will be observed that Mr. Turner was appointed before the Charter of 1683 was granted, and held the office until after that Charter was abrogated, so it appears that there was no vacancy in the office while the Charter was in force; and Mr. Vincent Denne, in 1689, was appointed on exactly the same terms as Mr. Turner had been. Mr. Denne entered on the office in the year that William III. was crowned.
9. Jeffery Boys, Counsellor-at-Law, was appointed Recorder 8th January, 1694, and held the office three years.
10. Edward Crayford, Counsellor-at-Law, was elected Recorder by the Common Council on the 17th April, 1697. He resided at Sholden, near Deal, and held the Recordership sixteen years.
11. Herbert Randolph, by minutes of the Common Council, appears to have been appointed Recorder on the 23rd November, 17 13, " to have the same fees and allowances as Edward Crayford, deceased." He was also Recorder of Canterbury. This Recorder was dismissed to make room for a local man.
12. Philip Yorke, Counsellor-at-Law, a native of Dover, was appointed Recorder in the room of Herbert Randolph on the 3rd October, iyi8. He, like his pre decessors, was described in the minutes as being " Counsel with the Corporation and assistant of the Mayor and Jurats at Sessions and Trials." This Recorder, who continued to hold the office until his death — a period of forty-six years — was a son of Philip Yorke, a Dover attorney, who resided at Five Post Lane, Snargate Street. Young Philip Yorke, who had been a " gratis " apprentice to a London attorney, had recently been called to the Bar when he was appointed Recorder of Dover, which, being his first legal office, gave him great pleasure. The Dover appointment seemed to bring him luck. Six months later he was elected Member of Parliament for Lewes, and in the following year, 1720, he was appointed Solicitor-General; two years later Attorney General; in 1733, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench; and in 1736 attained the summit of his ambition by becoming Lord Chancellor, which post he held for twenty years. His first office, the Recordership of Dover, he held longest of all, forty-six years. Only for a few years did this busy and successful lawyer find time to personally discharge his duties as Recorder of Dover. They were dis charged by a deputy, Thomas Knowler, a Kentish barrister. As Lord Hardwicke, the Chancellor of England, Philip Yorke did not forget Dover ; he was frequently in correspondence with its leading inhabitants, and occasionally found time to visit his native place.
13. The Hon. Charles Yorke was appointed Recorder of Dover on the death of Lord Hardwicke, and he was elected by the Common Council on the 26th March, 1764. He held the office for six years, but being an eminent lawyer and having attained the office of Attorney-General soon after being made Recorder of Dover, his duties were discharged by deputy until 1770, when this Recorder also received the office of the Lord Chancellorship, but died suddenly at the age of 48, while his patent as Baron Morden was in preparation.
14. Charles Robinson, Barrister - at - Law, was appointed Recorder in Januar)', 1770, and continued to hold the office until 1807. He was a descendant of Mr. Matthew Robinson, of Monks Horton, Kent, and a nephew of Mr. Thomas Robinson, author of a well-known legal text book " Robinson on Gavel-Kind." The portrait of this Recorder, painted by Mr. Hev/son, of London, was hung in the old Court Hall in March, 1809, and is now hung in the Maison Dieu.
15. William Kenrick, appointed iii July, 1807, held the office of Recorder twenty-two years.
16. George Baker, appointed in 1829, was the next Recorder. He held the office five years, dying on the 30th October, 1834, at his residence at Canterbury.
17. Sir William Henry Bodkin, who had been for some years the leader of the Dover Sessions Bar, was, on the 15th November, 1834, elected Recorder by the Common Council. He was knighted in 1867. At the Sessions at which he first officiated, this Recorder, in his charge, con gratulated the Mayor and Jurats on having decided to restore the Maison Dieu Hall for use as a Sessions House. This Recorder soon after receiving the honour of knighthood pre sented to the Corporation the handsome gold chain which is worn by the Mayor. Sir William H. Bodkin resigned his office on the 15th January, 1874, having held the Recorder ship forty years.
18. Sir Harry Bodkin Poland was appointed Recorder by Queen Victoria a few days after the resignation of the late Recorder, who was his uncle. This was the first appointment of a Dover Recorder made by the Crown. He held the appointment with distinction and with advantage to the Borough and its Liberties for twenty-seven years, and was knighted in 1895. He highly esteemed his office as Recorder of this ancient Town, although the duties were unimportant compared with his doings in other spheres of public usefulness. He generously followed in the steps of his predecessor, enriching the insignia of the Coqjoration by the presentation of a costly jewelled badge, which is worn by the Mayor on semi-official occasions when the gold chain is not in use. This Recorder's resignation was made to King Edward VH. on the 24th June, 1901.
19. Archibald Henry Bodkin, the present Recorder of Dover, was appointed by the King on the ist July, 1901 ; and he first presided at the Dover Quarter Sessions on the 8th July of that year. He was cordially welcomed, both on his own merits and owing to his relationship to two previous Recorders, Sir William Henry Bodkin, his grandfather, and Sir Harry Bodkin Poland, his uncle.