File:The history and antiquities, ancient and modern, of the Borough of Reading, in the County of Berks (1816) (14782837332).jpg

Identifier: historyantiquiti00manj (find matches)
Title: The history and antiquities, ancient and modern, of the Borough of Reading, in the County of Berks
Year: 1816 (1810s)
Authors: Man, John, of Reading, Eng
Subjects:
Publisher: Reading : Printed by Snare and Man
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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e committed; and scarcely a day passed.without the commission of some crime; as may be seen by the examinations in the corporationdiaries. The following entries, are proofs, if any were wanting, of this prevalence of vice amongthe lower orders: Feb. 29, 1629, The assizes were holden at Abyngdon; at which time thirteen men and youthsdied here for their offences committed. April 1631, At this assizes, eleven men suffered death for their crimes; three of which wereof this town. + The last instance of a stranger obtaining the freedom of the borough, was in 1757, whenThomas Bramley, bricklayer, was admitted a freeman. But this seems to have been occasioned by adoubt that had been started, whether a non-freeman could partake of the charitable gifts belonging tothe town ; for it appears, that on the same day that he was admitted to his freedom, he gave securityfor sixty pounds, part of Mr. Kendricks gift, to be lent to poor tradesmen, for three years, withoutinterest. « Corporation Diary. ^
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I 1 THE CORPORATION. 365 The corporation also exercised a jurisdiction over part of the riverThames^ Iving eastward of the town; but of what kind, is not now known, -vyTTTas their power, whatever it was, has been long since superseded bj the actspassed for the improvement of that river. However, as long as they retainedthe right, they endeavored, like the city of London, to preserve it, by keepinga certain number of swans upon it, called the game of swans, which wereprotected by a keeper, or farmer, appointed for that purpose, as ia the year1457, when the mayor, in right of his office, farmed the whole, eight innumber, to Thomas Benwell, who agreed to take the stock, and to be at allcharges attending them, paying yearly to the mayor three cygnets; but thisagreement being soon afterwards cancelled, a keeper was appointed by thecorporation, with a salary of twenty shillings, per annum, to look after them. It is uncertain how far their jurisdiction extended, but it was, probablyas far as

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