ABSTRACT
The remnant of Gild organisation clinging to many eighteenth century Municipalities—possibly even the frequent admission to the Freedom of the Corporation by Servitude of Apprenticeship—points to an ancestry unconnected with the Manor. In the Municipal Corporation in particular, the new growths of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are often found inextricably twined about the old structure—the gain by accretion coming to be more than equivalent to the loss by decay. In hundreds of urban districts the Manorial Courts or the Municipal Corporations were administering not only the remnant of the ancient commons, but also dwelling-houses, wharves, docks, quays, piers, shambles, and market places. In the case of some of the larger and more populous Chartered Municipalities, such as Norwich and Bristol, Nottingham and Southampton, the development of a Corporate Magistracy so completely submerged the more ancient structure, whether Gild or Manorial, that we might almost have described them as particular varieties of a specialised form of the County.
