Saxon Origin

I. SAXON ORIGIN. 

Dover claims to be a Saxon Borough by prescription. By that phrase the text-books mean that the burgesses acted in a corporate capacity without any formal Charter of incorporation. But Dover claims more than that ; it claims that its privileges of independent jurisdiction and free courts in the Saxon time were acknowledged, although they possess no Charter by which those privileges were conferred. The acknowledgment is clearly written on the first page of the Kentish section of Domesday Book thus : ' ' The burgesses gave to the King twenty ships once a year for fifteen days, and in each ship were twenty men. This they did in return for his having endowed them with sac and soc.'' The lawyers interpret " sac and soc " to mean the right of independent jurisdiction and free courts. That historic record is as good as a Saxon Charter to Dover; it testifies to something much more definite than prescription; it proves that in Saxon times Dover actually had a Royal grant, and that the ship service rendered to the King by the burgesses was in return for that grant. It is not stated to which of the Saxoii Kings the ship service was first rendered, but considering the great need there was for coast protection all through the Saxon period, it seems highly probable that the mariner burgesses of Dover at an early period took up the duties which had been performed at Dover by the Count of the Saxon Shore in the time of the Roman occupation. The entry in Domes day Book makes it clear that the burgesses of Dover held an important position on the neck of the narrow seas, and that the valuable and honourable grant made to them by the King was for the purpose of ensuring a continuation of their services, which were of great importance to the nation. Such were the burgesses of Dover in the Saxon period, possessing ships by the score, trained mariners by hundreds, ever ready to convey travellers across the Straits, to ward off pirates and sea robbers, or to go forth on the sea to encounter the King's enemies. It is impossible to coirectly estimate how long this had been going on before the Norman Con quest ; but the Saxon municipal rule at Dover appears to have been well established under a Civic Chief called the "Reeve." Certainly, Dover was not then a newly made borough, carved out of some Kentish Manor by the will of its lord. The Dover Hundred had never been numbered with the Manors of the County of Kent. The Roman town had been transformed into a Saxon borough, and its bounds had been the same from the time beyond which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Time out of mind it had contributed its share towards public expenditure, two thirds of the contribution going to the King, and one-third to the Earl of Kent. Dover, too, was a place of trade, for there was a mint here in the reign of Edward the Elder. The borough Court was held three times a year, according to Edgar's Law, and it so continued to be held until an Act of the Nineteenth Centuiy made the Sessions quarterly. 

Dover, owing to its haven being at the point nearest to the Continent, must have been a place of importance since the dawn of history, but the first solid ground we touch is in the official de.scription given in Domesday Book, which we will quote: " In Dover there are twenty-nine houses, of which the King has lost the custom," which means that the quit rent of those houses had passed from the King to the Earl of Kent. Dover was one of the old " Third Penny " Boroughs — two-thirds of the custom was paid to the King and one-third to the Earl of Kent — from which it may be inferred that there were then in Dover fifty-eight houses that paid quit-rent to the Kiii'j; and twenty-nine to the Earl. The record continues: " ;)iid all in respect of these twenty-nine houses avouch the Bishop of Baieux [then Earl of Kent] as their protector. ' ' The burgesses of Dover who held those twenty-nine houses are named in Domesday Book as follows: 

Robert of Romney liad two of them. 
Ralph Curbspine, three. 
William, son of Tedal, one. 
William, son of Orger. one. 
William, son of Tcd.il, and Robert Niger, six. 
William, son of Godfrey, three (one of which was the Guildhall of the Burgesses). 
Hugh Montford, one. 
Durand, four. 
Ralph Columbel, one. 
Wadard, six. 
The son of Madbert, one. 

This detailed list is a raalistic picture of a section of the property holders in Dover in the far-back year of i®86 ; and one point of it, which is specially interesting for our present purpose, is the fact that William, son of Godfrey, was the holder of three of those houses, and that one of> them was the Guildhall, or Gilhalla, of the Burgesses. That William is the man who, as Prepositus, heads the roll of Dover's Civic Chiefs, as far back as it has been compiled. The Domesday Book also gives a clear view of the town and port both in the time of Edward the Confessor, and in the year of Domesday, thus: " Dover, in the time of King Edward (the Confessor), rendered eighteen pounds, of which money King Edward had two parts and Earl God wine the third .... the Burgesses gave the King twenty ships, once a year for fifteen days, and in each ihip twenty men. This they did in return for his having endowed them with sac and soc. When the King's Messenger came there (to use the Passage to France) he gave for the pas sage of a horse, threepence in Winter and twopence in Summer, but the Burgesses found the pilot and one to assist him, and if he wanted more he hired it at his own cost. From the Festival of St. Michael (29th September), to that of St. Andrew (November 30th), the King's truce was in the town (immunity from arrest for debt or civil actions) and if any one broke it the Reeve received a com mon amend (fine). Whoever resided constantly in the town and rendered custom to the King, was quit of toll throughout England. All these customs were there when King William came to England. On his very first arrival the said town was burnt, therefore no computations could be made of what it was really worth when the Bishop of Baieux received it. Now it is appraised at forty pounds, yet the Reeve rendered fifty-four pounds for it, to the King twenty-four pounds in pence, and to the Earl thirty pounds by tale." Then follows the list of the holders of the twenty-nine houses before quoted, after which was written, " Roger of Amsterdam built a house over the water where there had never been one, and there he collected the King's customs. In the entrance of the Port of Dover there is one Mill which shatters almost every ship by the great swell of the sea, and it was not there in the time of King Edward. Concerning this, the Nephew of Herbert says, the Bishop of Baieux granted leave to build it. '" 

Fairly paraphrased this Domesday record means that Dover, when William son of Godfrey, the first Civic Chief on the roll, ruled, was a well organised community of Burgesses, who received from the King the right of self government by contributing twenty ships to the King's service, with twenty men in each, — 400 able sea warriors who kept themselves fit, by fifteen days manoeuvres at sea every year at their own charges, and in readiness to serve for the defence of the Kingdom in any emergency. The ability of the Port to put to sea so many ships and such a large body of mariners was due to the fact that the ancient Passage Ser\ice, between England and France was then maintained at Dover under royal authority ; thus the daily avocations of burgesses of Dover had from early times fitted them to defend their country. For this service they had been raised to the honourable position of being barons of the realm, having thftir own local government, and their own free courts which were open to all. 

Such was the community that flourished at Dover in Saxon and Xorman times, under rulers elected by them selves and subject to no one else but the King, and the Earl of Kent whose seat was at the Castle. The borough was then a going concern with a considerable historj' behind it, and a large population. Those 58 houses which paid quit rent to the King and the 29 that were under the Earl of K'-\i were additional to the freehold property of the Canon of Dover and to the Barony held by the Corporation and let out to the burgesses, subject to the ship service due to the King- The 400 men who annually manned the twenty ships, together with their families represented a large section of the population, but there were other crafts and vocations making it clear that Dover was a large and important community when the Norman rule began.