LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
From the 13th
century to the late 16th view of frankpledge at
Bottisham with the assizes of bread and ale
belonged solely to the lords of the honor of
Clare, who in the late 13th century also claimed
infangthief with the right to a gallows and
tumbrel. (fn. 71) Rolls for their courts leet held at
Bottisham survive for 1320-72, (fn. 72) 1386-98, (fn. 73)
1425-30, (fn. 74) for some years between 1530 and
1553, (fn. 75) and for 1585. (fn. 76) The ordinary courts were
held regularly every three weeks throughout the
14th century, and still frequently in the 1420s.
Besides admitting tenants to freeholds and
supervising farming practices for the whole vill
through rules made 'by the assent of the community', (fn. 77) those courts provided a forum for the
villagers' pleas of debt and trespass, sometimes
settled by wager of law. (fn. 78) Some civil actions were
still being formally begun in the Clare court into
the 1580s. (fn. 79) At leet sessions, held twice a year
in the 14th and early 15th centuries, annually in
the 16th, in 1541 at the guildhall, (fn. 80) the jury,
beside enforcing the assizes of ale, for which up
to four aletasters were named, and, occasionally,
of bread, required villagers to enter into tithing,
20-40 at a time in the late 14th century. (fn. 81) The
court also regularly presented, even sometimes
in the late 16th, (fn. 82) and penalized cases of disorder: assaults, bloodshed, and raising the hue.
In 1512 a man was forbidden to sell butter or
cheese while his wife had the 'French pox'. (fn. 83)
Constables 'of the peace', active in the 14th century, (fn. 84) were still being named at that leet in the
16th. (fn. 85)
In the Middle Ages the two priory manors
had only courts baron. Anglesey priory's had by
the early 16th century taken over from the Clare
court the making and enforcement of agrarian
bylaws, (fn. 86) and continued to exercise that authority until the 1700s. (fn. 87) Rolls for that court,
which after 1730 were almost entirely, as they
had long been largely, concerned with transfers
of copyhold title, survive for 1514-32, (fn. 88)
1569-1612, (fn. 89) 1626-47, and 1654-1725. (fn. 90) The
rolls were followed by court books for 1736-
c. 1830 and 1881-1935. (fn. 91) For Tunbridge manor
court, besides an isolated roll for 1357-8, (fn. 92) there
are draft minutes for parts of the 17th century (fn. 93)
and a court book for 1750-1938. (fn. 94) They deal
solely with copyhold transfers. The surviving
court book for Alingtons and Vauxes manors
between 1712 and 1938 deals only with alienations of freehold. (fn. 95)
By the late 18th century parish affairs were
managed by a small vestry of 9-12 farmers. The
office of churchwarden descended until the
1860s almost hereditarily in two families, the
Newmans of Parsonage Farm and the Kings of
Tunbridge Hall. (fn. 96) By 1730 up to 10 poor men,
widows, and children were commonly assisted
each year, receiving allowances in corn and by
the 1760s in clothing also. (fn. 97) Total expenditure
on poor relief, which between 1776 and c. 1785
had risen by 150 per cent to £350, almost
doubled again to £625 by 1803. (fn. 98) In 1785 the
parish had bought six cottages at Lode for conversion into a workhouse to employ its ablebodied poor in spinning. By 1787 there were 15
inmates, well fed on beer, eggs, beans, and
potatoes, besides others on out-relief. The
parish tried out in turn management of the
workhouse by a salaried master, farming its
inmates to him, as in 1788-90, letting outside
suppliers take the profits of whatever yarn was
produced, and direct control by the overseers,
but all expedients proved troublesome and
unprofitable. By the late 1790s the paupers with
large families, whose wages were made up by
parish allowances, were sending fewer children
to the workhouse. About 1801 it was made a
'school of industry' for up to 90 children living
at home, but their number fell to 12 by 1808,
and it was left empty by 1810. (fn. 99) In 1803 41
people had received regular, and c. 25 more
occasional, outside relief. (fn. 1) In the early 1810s the
number permanently assisted was almost 50,
while another 180-200 could obtain occasional
help at a total cost of up to £1,000. (fn. 2) Between
the late 1810s and the late 1820s such expenditure amounted to £950-1,000 in most years and
c. 1830 reached almost £1,200. (fn. 3) About 1834 40
men or more might be supported in winter when
unemployed. Some were set to work on the
parish roads, or to digging, or if boys gathering,
stones, and relief was given in bread or its price
to up to 90 people. Occasionally wages were supplemented for very large families. (fn. 4) From 1835
Bottisham belonged to the Newmarket poor-law
union, (fn. 5) which in 1837 sold the 1-a. Town close
at the south end of the village. (fn. 6) As part of that
union, the ancient parish belonged from 1894 to
the Newmarket rural district and was included
from 1974 in East Cambridgeshire. (fn. 7) The former
parish gravel pit, 3 a. off the Stow-Swaffham
road, was in 1969, after 50 years' disuse, sold to
the National Trust to make a car park for
Anglesey Abbey. (fn. 8)
After Lode was made a separate ecclesiastical
district in 1863, (fn. 9) it was disputed whether cottagers there could vote for their landlord in
electing churchwardens for Bottisham. (fn. 10) From
1894, when Lode became a separate civil parish,
it and Bottisham had their own parish councils.
In the first election for that at Bottisham labourers won all the seats. (fn. 11)
In 1796 Mrs. Elizabeth Jenyns had left £50
to buy for the parish a fire engine, (fn. 12) kept in the
church by 1819. (fn. 13) Donkey-drawn and worked
by six volunteers, it remained in use, being kept
from the 1860s at the police station, until 1935,
when it was moved to the Cambridge Folk
Museum. (fn. 14) In the mid 19th century Bottisham
had two rival Associations for prosecuting
felons, one sponsored by the Kings, the other
by the Newmans. The older was started c. 1840,
the other by 1849. The first succeeded in four
fifths of the cases prosecuted, concerned mainly
with stealing sheep and poultry, and arson. It
was less active in the 1850s. (fn. 15) Petty sessions held
in the 1850s at the White Swan (fn. 16) were transferred from 1860 to a brick court house with a
round-arched, rusticated front, built in 1858
north of the high street. Behind it were cells and
quarters for a police inspector and constable,
permanently stationed at Bottisham by 1861. (fn. 17)
The magistrates' court was moved to Cambridge
in 1972. By 1970 the local police were transferred to a new house on Bell Road. (fn. 18) Having
briefly housed, 1976-8, a school for disruptive
children from elsewhere, the Old Court House
was sold in 1979. (fn. 19)