Before the Revolution in 1688 the lord wardens assumed the power and the right of nominating one, and sometimes both, of the members for each of the port-towns having parliamentary representation ; but this practice was terminated by an act passed in the first year after the Revolu tion, entitled An Act to declare the Right and Freedom of Election of Mem hers to serve in Parliament for the Cinque Ports.' The jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports collectively extends along the coast, con tinuously, from Birchington, which is west of Margate, to Seaford in Sussex. But several of the corporate members are quite inland. Tenterden, in the centre of a rich agricultural district, has not even a river near it. Many of the unin corporate members are not only inland, but situated at great distances from their respective ports, some as far as forty to fifty miles. All the unincorporated members being exclusively under the jurisdiction of their own ports, each of those members was obliged to have recourse to the jus tices and coroner of its own port. This inconvenience was partially removed by 51 Geo. III. c. 36, entitled An Act to facilitate the Execution of Justice within the Cinque Ports.' The Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 worked a considerable revolution in the political relations of the Cinque Ports, and the Municipal Reform Act has ope rated yet more decidedly to break up the ancient organization of the ports, and assimilate their internal arrangements to those of the improved English munici palities at large.
Anciently there were several courts, exercising a general jurisdiction over all the ports and members. The Court of Shepway was the supreme court of the Cinque Ports. The lord warden presided in it, assisted by the mayors and bailiffs and a certain number of jurats summoned from each corporate town. Two other ancient courts are still occasionally held, the Court of Brotherhood and the Court of Guestliug. The Court of Brotherhood is composed of the mayors of the five ports and two ancients towns and a cer tain number of jurats from each of them. The Court of Guestling con sists of the same persons, with the addi tion of the mayors and bailiffs of all the corporate members, and a certain number of jurats from each of them. It is thought that the bodies forming this addition may originally have been merely invited by the Court of Brotherhood to give their assistance, and that hence the assembly may have received the name of Guestling. In the Court of Brother
hood the arrangements and regulations were made as to the apportioning of the service of ships to the crown. The ne cessity for proceedings of this kind no longer exists ; and although these courts have been occasionally held of late years, such holding seems to have been mere matter of form, excepting only the Courts of Brotherhood and Guestling, held be fore each coronation, at which the ar rangements have been made respecting the privilege of the barons of the ports to hold the canopy over the king's head on that occasion ; another mark of the pre eminence among the municipalities of England given to these towns by the princes of the Norman line.
It remains to notice more particularly the nature of the lord warden's jurisdio tion as now exercised. All writs out of the superior courts are directed to the constable of Dover Castle, who is always the lord warden ; upon which his war rant is made out, directed to and executed by an officer called the bodar. This officer, by a curious anomaly, has also the execution of writs out of the distant civil court at Hastings ; and the necessity of having recourse to him has been a source of inconvenience and dissatisfac tion to the latter town. The clerk of Dover Castle acts as under-sheriff. The constables gaol for debtors is within Dover Castle ; and by act 54 Geo III. c. 97, their maintenance was provided for by an annual contribution of 3001., to be levied on the ports and members in proportions fixed by the act.
The Admiralty jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports, attached to the office of lord warden, is expressly reserved in the Municipal Reform 'Act. A branch of this jurisdiction appears in the court of Lodemanage, so call from the old Eng lish word lodeman, a lead-man or steerer, which is held for the licensing and regu lating of pilots, by the lord warden and a number of commissioners, of whom the mayors of Dover and Sandwich are offi cially two. The lord warden seems an ciently to have held a court of chancery in one of the churches at Dover, but it has long been obsolete. (Jeake's Char ters of the Cinque Ports, &e.)