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Liberty of the Duchy of Lancaster, comprises the ancient
parishes of St. Clement Danes and St. Mary-le-Strand, and
the precincts of the Savoy. The City, however, has no charter
of incorporation ; it possesses neither mayor, aldermen,
common council, nor freemen ; the burgesses of Westminster
are totally distinct, in the nature of their appointment and
functions, from the burgesses of a Municipality ; and the City
has no Recorder, Common Serjeant, or other judicial officers,
nor has it a common seal or corporate funds.
The first attempt at local government in Westminster was
the granting of a Commission by Henry VI. in 1427, with
jurisdiction over the sewerage of Westminster and the surrounding
districts. This Commission was continued from
time to time by Royal and Parliamentary authority until
1855, when it was superseded by the Boards created by the
Metropolis Local Management Act.
As regards municipal government, the earliest authority
appears to have been created by a statute passed in the 27th
year of Queen Elizabeth, which placed the maintenance of
law and order in the hands of the Dean and twelve Burgesses,
the latter to be appointed annually, and each of them to have
the government of a particular ward. The preamble of this
Act sets forth that the population of Westminster had greatly
increased, and the people being for the most part without
trade or mystery had become poor, and many of them wholly
given to vice and idleness. This state of affairs was common
throughout the kingdom, and was, in a large measure, due to
the establishment and subsequent dissolution of wealthy
religious corporations. Ordinances were promulgated by
authority of the Burgesses in 1585, the same year that the
Act was passed, and afford some insight into the mode of life
of that period. It is interesting to note that Cecil, Lord
Burleigh, was the Steward of the City of Westminster at that
time, and although the ordinances are not said to have been