APPENDIX I
113
HISTORY OF THE RECORDS OF CARRICKFERGUS AND THEIR KEEPING.
It might be wondered why no records earlier than 1569 were copied by Richard Dobbs, and the reason almost certainly is given in this extract from the charter of 11 Elizabeth 20 March 15681 (old style or 1569 new style): “…considering that the said town is an ancient Borough and that the inhabitants thereof claim that many liberties privileges and franchise were granted unto them by our ancestors which now they cannot lawfully use because they mislaid and lost the Letters Patent of the grant of the aforesaid liberties privileges and franchises made unto them in the aforesaid time of war by the disturbances and prosecutions of our aforesaid enemies”. It seems reasonable to suppose that if the original Letters Patent were lost in the disturbances, then so were other earlier records. The charter goes on to make Carrickfergus a “free and undoubted borough and an entire and incorporated county of itself and entirely separate and distinct from all other counties and be and be called for ever the County of the Town of Knockfergus”. It then says that “the Burgesses and Commonality of the said Town upon sight of these presents may lawfully proceed to elect Thomas Stephens Mayor and Nicholas Wylles and John Teedes Sheriffs of the said town”—and this is where Dobbs’ record comes in, beginning as it does with “ThomÛ Stivenson pro tempore Maiorem de Villa Knockfergus existent. et JohanneÚ Teed & Nicholam Wills ejusdem Villa VicecomÒ primo die Junii anno Domini — 1569.” The rest of the material in this appendix has been transcribed from Reports From Commissioners 1835 starting at Page 746 and shows the attempts by the Commissioners to discover what records existed and what happened to them over the years. It will be noted that Samuel M‘Skimin said he had access to the original town records from 1805 to 1807 via a Thomas Hanley who had borrowed them to enable this. Hanley died some time before 1835 and the originals were never recovered. The Commissioners seem not to have been aware of Dobbs’ copy and they relied instead on M‘Skimins’s copies of the records and his History. 9. The Muniments of the corporation, according to ancient custom, have been lodged in a strong oaken chest, commonly called “The Town Chest.” That now in use has three locks, and it is stated to have been made in 1602. According to an ancient rule, the mayor for the time being should hold one of the keys, and each of the others should remain in the custody of an alderman. While the commons continued to send representatives to the assembly, they had charge of one of the keys. We found one of the keys in the possession of the mayor, Peter Kirk, Esq. This had been in the custody of his father, Sir William Kirk, who had served as mayor almost every alternate year from 1780 to 1817; he died in 1819. It was afterwards, for about a year, in the possession of Mr. Gunning, (the treasurer and an alderman,) upon whose death, (in October 1823,) if not before, it was returned to Mr. Kirk, who had been elected a burgess in 1821. Another key was in the hands of Mr. C. E. Dobbs, (the recorder and a burgess elect.) He had it from the Rev. John Dobbs, who had been an alderman since 1825. 1
Carrickfergus Book (1911) page 13.
