The 1835 Act & Commons Registration

1835 Act Freemen were men of power for they possessed privileges in trading and local taxes. They were also the exclusive electorate and consequently had a vast influence in local and parliamentary elections. The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 swept away these privileges and allowed all ratepayers of three years standing to vote. A reformed City Council, comprising 30 members, was elected on 26 December 1835, less than three months after the passing of the Act, and on 1 January 1836 the Council elected a Mayor and a Sheriff. Non-Freemen councillors had been elected and soon became the majority on the City Council. For a while, by virtue of seniority, Aldermen who were Freemen continued to be elected Mayor and it was not until 1853 that Oxford had its first non-Freeman Mayor. The influence of the Freemen, as a body, on local politics was drawing to a close and the Gild had ceased to exist. Apart from admission by purchase or gift, the 1835 Act confirmed the rights the Freemen had before the Act, including those in property. This meant that in Oxford the Freemen kept their rights in Port Meadow. The Acts which followed, the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 and the Local Government Acts of 1933 and 1972, confirmed the provisions of the 1835 Act. So that now, only those classes of citizen admitted before the Act was passed can become Freemen - in other words, those classes who previously had been admitted by right of custom. This, incidentally, is reflected in our motto ‘Libertas ad Usum’ which means ‘Freedom According to Custom’. In English law, a custom is an ancient rule of law for a particular locality, differing from the common law of the country - which, traditionally, was based on what had become customary in the country at large. To summarise the present legal position, although no new classes of citizen can be admitted, it is possible to adjust certain rules of admission if it was the custom to do so before 1835. Commons Registration Act Since Saxon times the Freemen had owned, grazed and maintained Port Meadow but the situation changed with the passing of the Commons Registration Act of 1965. This Act required all persons with right of commons to register their rights. The Freemen were advised by the Town Clerk that they must register their rights in Port Meadow and if they did not, they would lose them. Because the Freemen were not a wealthy body, they and could not afford to go to law to argue the case for their total ownership of the Meadow. In any case, if they won their case they could not afford the cost of maintaining such a large tract of land. As a consequence only the right to graze 700 animals, and the right to fish from the banks of the Meadow were registered. Rights of grazing on Wolvercote Common were also registered. Some Freemen, today, feel that they were wrongly advised and argue that Port Meadow is not common land and so need not have been registered under the Act.