ABSTRACT
The connection of the Manorial Borough with the Court Baron, rather than with the Court Leet, is more clearly seen on the property side. Practically all the Manorial Boroughs had commons and wastes to manage, even if few were in the position of Godmanchester, with its commonfield agriculture. If the Village Meeting, desiring legal authority for the management of its common estate, obtained a Royal Charter, it might develop, out of a rudimentary constitution analogous to that of Aston and Cote, a form of government even approaching a Municipal Corporation. An interesting example of the Lordless Court is furnished by the little “Borough” of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in Northumberland, which held its markets and fairs by Royal grants of 1309 and 1319 and had in 1382 even sent members to Parliament. From the Lordless Court we pass by slight distinctions to the Lord’s Borough, itself developing with almost imperceptible gradations into the Enfranchised Manorial Borough.
