List of mayors of Totnes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Totnes, Devon, England received its first borough charter from King John and the recorded list of mayors dates from 1359. The town was incorporated in 1505 with a governing structure consisting of a mayor, recorder and a single council of burgesses. A further charter in 1596 concentrated power in the hands of the town's leading merchants, redefining the corporation as a governing body of 14 ‘masters’, including the mayor, with an inferior council of 20 burgesses. The masters filled vacancies in their ranks by co-option and nominated the mayoral candidates.[1]
The following have been mayors of Totnes:
- 1396–98: Walter Browning (MP for Totnes), 1388 [2]
- 1399–1400: Walter Browning
- 1401–03: Walter Browning
- 1517-1518: John Giles[3]
- 1535-37: Christopher Savery[4]
- 1548-49: Christopher Savery
- 1556-57: Christopher Savery
- 1585–86: Nicholas Ball[5]
- 1589–90: Nicholas Hayman[6]
- 1593–94: Leonard Darr[7]
- 1598–99: Philip Holditch (MP for Totnes, 1601) [8]
- 1605–06: Christopher Wise [9]
- 1612-13: Richard Rodd[10]
- 1620: Richard Lee (d.1620)[11]
- 1621–22: Christopher Wise
- 1623–24: Philip Holditch II (son of Philip Holditch above, MP for Totnes, 1626) [12]
- 1638–39: Philip Holditch II
1687 Robert Symons
- 1718–19: Nicholas Trist (High Sheriff of Devon, 1708)
- 1737–38: Nicholas Trist (High Sheriff of Devon, 1708)
- 1754-55: Benjamin Babbage (grandfather of Charles Babbage)[13]
- 1780–81: William Adams (MP for Plympton Erle 1796–1801 and Totnes 1801–11)
- 1788–89: William Adams
- 1797–98: William Adams
- 1866–67: Thomas Edward Owen[14]
- 1870–1871: Robert W.Chaster
- 1872: Robert Bourne
- 1873: James Smith Rose
- 1874–1875: Jeffery Michelmore
- 1876–1877: Joseph Roe
- 1878: John P.F.P.Haines
- 1879: Jeffery Michelmore
- 1880–1881: Edward Harris
- 1882–84: Frederick Bowden [15]
- 1902-03: Dr. J. G. Gibson[16]
- 1945–1946: Lilley Ramsden (1st Female Mayor of Totnes)
- 1950–51: Charles Stanley Jacka [17]
- 1970–71: Jean M Gilbert [18]