gowns, and his officers, every Sunday morning; but especially the first Sunday in term-time, where he meets the twelve judges and invites them to dinner after divine service is ended.
The sheriffs are chosen into their office on Midsummer day annually by the liverymen also; to which end the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs meet in the council-chamber at Guildhall, about eight in the morning, and coming down afterwards into the Court of Hustings, the recorder declares to the livery men assembled in the hall that this is the day prescribed for the election of these magistrates for the year ensuing: then the Court of Aldermen go up to the Lord Mayor’s Court till the sheriffs are chosen; the old sheriffs, the chamberlain, common serjeant, town clerk, and other City officers remaining in the Court of Hustings, to attend the election. After the sheriffs are chosen, the commons proceed to elect a chamberlain, bridge-masters, auditors of the city and bridge-house accounts, and the surveyors of beer and ale, according to custom. The old sheriffs are judges of these elections, and declare by the common serjeant who are duly chosen. The sheriffs thus elected take the usual oaths in this court on Michaelmas eve, and the day after Michaelmas day are presented to the Barons of the Exchequer, where they take the oath of office, the oaths of allegiance, &c. The chamberlains and bridge-masters are sworn in the court of aldermen.
Where a Lord Mayor elect refuses to serve, he is liable to be fined; and if a person chosen sheriff refuses to serve, he is fined £413 6s. 8d., unless he makes oath he is not worth £10,000.
When the alderman of any ward dies, another is within a few days elected in his room, at a wardmote held for that purpose, at which the Lord Mayor usually presides. Every alderman has his deputy, who supplies his place in his absence. These deputies are always taken from among the Common Council. The aldermen above the chair, and the three eldest aldermen beneath it, are justices of peace in the City by the charter.
The Lord-Mayor’s jurisdiction in some cases extends a great way beyond the City, upon the river Thames eastward as far as the conflux of the two rivers Thames and Medway, and up the river Lea as far as Temple Mills, being about three miles; and westward as far as Colney Ditch above Staine Bridge: he names a deputy called the water-bailiff, whose business is to prevent any encroachments, nuisances, and frauds used by fishermen or others, destructive to the fishery, or hurtful to the navigation of the said waters; and yearly keeps courts for the conservation of the river in the counties it borders upon within the said limits.