The minutes of the Corporation provide fascinating detail of the social
and economic life of the town.
Regulation of crafts and trades, setting the poor to work, upkeep of
streets, the provision of godly ministers and schoolmasters and even the
maintenance of the church fabric (notably its famous spire) were all
matters of concernfor the borough government in mid-seventeenth-century
Grantham. The Hall Book (1633-1704), the earliest surviving record of
the proceedings of the Alderman's Court, has much to tell us about the
way the Corporation administered the affairs of the town.
This volume takes the story up to the Restoration settlement of 1660-2;
it spans the time during which the young Isaac Newton attended the
town's Grammar School, lodging with William Clarke, a wealthy apothecary
and prominent member of the Comburgesses, as the senior twelve of the
Borough Court were known, and the restoration to office of former
Royalists purged in 1647. It contains some 1,500 entries, along with an
appendix, which will be invaluable to local and family historians,
providing details of all those who served as members of the Corporation
as Comburgesses and Second Twelve men during this period. The
introduction examines the town in the seventeenth century, its ruling
corporate elite and civic culture.
John Manterfield gained his PhD from Exeter University, studying the
topographical development of Grantham between 1535 and 1835.
