Note 495 — Chapter X

The possible difficulty of getting rid of a clerk is illustrated by what happened when the mayor, sheriffs, alderman, and commons of York, in 1475, by their whole and common assent, dismissed the common clerk “for divers and many offences—excessive takings of money, misguiding of their books, accounts, and evidences, with other great trespasses.” They then wrote to D. of Gloucester to entreat his good lordship and that he would move the king to allow them to name another common clerk; and the Duke having sent letters to Lord Hastings and Lord Stanley, finally received an answer from the king that he had commissioned two serjeants of the law to examine the case, that they had reported in favour of the corporation, and that a new clerk might be elected. The grateful town agreed at a meeting of the council that the D. of Gloucester “for his great labour now late made unto the king’s great grace” should “be presented at his coming to the city with 6 swans and 6 pikes.” (Davies’ York, 53-55.)