Sidney Oldall Addy

“ They and the Commonalty are a "body corporate and politic," [17] or in other words a civic or secular corporation. They are not, and never legally were, the "Church Burgesses." By the use of the word "politic" the draftsman or conveyancer intended to create, and did create, a civic corporation. Moreover, the seal of the Capital Burgesses and Commonalty bore the legend "Sigillum villa [e] de Sheflfelde anno 1554." It was the seal of the borough of Sheffield, not the seal of the Capital Burgesses. ”

“ Again the Letters Patent say that in the year 1539 the Burgesses were obliged to devote £17 9s. 4d., or nearly two-thirds of their whole income, to church purposes because the alms of the people which supported the priests had entirely fallen off and been discontinued. [13] But the petition which led to the granting of the Patent says nothing about this discontinuance of alms. It gives an entirely different reason, namely, the great increase of the population of Sheffield. ”

“ In mediaeval Latin the words commune and communitas meant a community of freeholders or of burgesses, and Maigne D'Arnis defines them both as "corps des bourgeois d'une ville, d'un bourg, constitute avec l'autorisation du roi ou du seigneur de la commune."—Lexicon Manuale, Paris, 1866.↑ Leader's Extracts, pp. ”