Home :
History of the Borough
5: The Crisis of 1630
The Fishborne Affair
Huntingdon's government underwent revolution in 1630. Richard Fishborne, a native of the town and a member of the Mercers Company of London, had died in 1625 leaving a large fortune. Like all large bequests, his bequest of £2,000 to Huntingdon caused a number of problems, particularly over how the money would best be spent. Should the whole amount be given to the poor, or should some of it be set aside for a lectureship? The headmaster of the town's Grammar School, Dr Thomas Beard, was a lecturer and was therefore in favour of the lectureship. Most of the other townspeople however, having heard his lectures, preferred to give the money to the poor.
The arguments rapidly became personal and bitter. The Borough Corporation supported Beard's case because they would then be able to use the bequest money to pay for his lectures instead of paying him themselves with a headmaster's salary. The Mercers Company disagreed. Even King Charles I was drawn into the dispute at one point, siding with the Beard faction. The Mercers appealed and their choice, Richard Procter, was appointed. That was not the end of the affair, however, as Procter was refused a license to preach. The matter was finally settled when Beard was bought off with a grant of £40. The dispute had taken six years. The first lecture was delivered in St Mary's church in 1631: Thomas Beard died just a few months later.
The 1630 Charter
The importance of the Fishborne affair lay in its constitutional implications. At that time Huntingdon was governed by an 'open' and (by the standards of the day) representative corporation, and there were elections to the ruling body every year. But the animosities stirred up by Fishborne's will turned these peaceful elections into riots. Some burgesses therefore decided that the elections should cease. In 1630, after five years of fighting at elections, a new charter was proposed which would replace the old 'open' corporation and replace it with a 'closed' one. The bailiffs were abolished; Huntingdon would be governed by a Mayor and a small clique of aldermen who would serve for life; and instead of being accountable to the townspeople, they would be accountable only to the Crown.
King Charles thought this was an excellent idea, and he granted the new Charter in 1630. The Charter states:
We, at the humble Petition of the Bailiffs and Burgesses of the Borough aforesaid, being willing, for the better governance of the said Borough, to prevent and remove all occasions of popular tumult and to reduce the elections and other things and public business of the said Borough into certainty and constant order, do will . . .
One local burgess was so angered by the new anti-democratic charter that he soon left the town: Oliver Cromwell sold up all his property in Huntingdon, and in 1631 moved to St Ives.
The 1630 charter stayed in force until 1835 (with a small break between 1660 and 1688). The name of the corporation was changed to 'The Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Huntingdon,' a title which remained unaltered until 1961.
- Link to: translation of the 1630 charter (a PDF doc)
