British Borough Charters 1307–1660

British Borough Charters 1307–1660 Synopsis

This volume is a continuation of Adolpus Ballard's study of medieval borough charters, British Borough Charters 1042–1216, continued in British Borough Charters 1216–1307, edited by Professor James Tait. Martin Weinbaum was an American historian who worked closely with Professor Tait during a stay in Manchester between 1933 and 1938, publishing this further continuation in 1943. Weinbaum discovered that after 1660 borough charters lost the individuality present in the medieval period, and this led him to end his analysis at 1660 instead of at 1835 as Ballard had planned. As a result of this increasing uniformity, Weinbaum also adopted a radically different scheme compared to the previous volumes, discussing the spread of uniformity in a shorter first section. An expanded second part provides a brief description of charter rights for individual boroughs, arranged by county, showing examples of increasing uniformity and listing where these examples can be found.

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