The Mayor of South Molton in Devon is an ancient historical office which survives at the present time. In the Middle Ages the town of South Molton was incorporated by royal charter into a borough governed by a mayor and Corporation. This enabled the inhabitants to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor of South Molton and to subject themselves instead to the jurisdiction of the king.
The Mayor is elected for a one-year term annually in May by the South Molton Town Council. It is a non-political office. The Mayor acts as Chairman of the Town Council, of which he is the figurehead, and enforces the smooth running of Council business. He appoints his own ceremonial officers, namely two Serjeants at Mace, Mayor's Constables, Chaplain and Mayor's Cadet. During his year of office he attends various events and functions, within South Molton and outside the borough and parish, when he acts as the formalm representative of the Borough of South Molton. Typical mayoral duties include opening a local fete, judging floats at the South Molton Carnival, attending ceremonial church services, and visiting a parishioner on their 100th birthday. [2]
The Mayor formerly presided over a Bench of Magistrates at the South Molton Petty Sessions, now abolished. [3]
The Mayor has exclusive and unrestricted use of the Mayor's Parlour within the Town Hall, a grand room designed for business and personal entertaining, built and decorated with fittings formerly within Stowe House, Kilkhampton, Cornwall, the mansion built by John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701) and demolished in 1739.
The north transept of St Mary Magdalene Church, South Molton, contains the "Mayoral Pew", comprising four rows of pews for the use of the Mayor and Town Council. The pew is used on ceremonial occasions, for example at the annual Harvest Festival service in September.
The ceremonial dress of the Mayor includes a crimson fur lined robe, a cocked hat, white gloves, and the Mayor's Chain of Office, made in 1893, from which hangs a miniature portrait of Hugh Squier (died 1710), the town's "great benefactor". [1] Kelly's Directory of Devon reported in 1902: [4]
Each Mayor holds a Dinner Dance or similar event in the Town Hall for the purpose of raising funds for his chosen charity. Funds so raised are normally distributed at the end of the Mayoral term of office. [2]
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Barnstaple is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from which it earned great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, but its harbour silted up and other trades developed such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. A Victorian market building survives, with a high glass and timber roof on iron columns.
North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based just outside Barnstaple, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and South Molton along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.
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South Molton is a town and civil parish in Devon, England. It is part of the North Devon local government district. The town is on the River Mole.
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Sir John Doddridge was an English lawyer, appointed Justice of the King's Bench in 1612 and served as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1589 and for Horsham in 1604. He was also an antiquarian and writer. He acquired the nickname "the sleeping judge" from his habit of shutting his eyes while listening intently to a case. As a lawyer he was influenced by humanist ideas, and was familiar with the ideas of Aristotle, and the debates of the period between his followers and the Ramists. He was a believer in both the rationality of the English common law and in its connection with custom. He was one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince (d.1723).
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Henry Reginald Gamble was an Anglican priest and author. He was the Dean of Exeter in the Church of England from 1918 to 1931.
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West Anstey is a village and civil parish on the River Yeo, about 5 miles west of Dulverton, in the North Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 163. The parish touches Molland, East Anstey and Withypool and Hawkridge.
The Guildhall on Broad Street in South Molton in Devon was built between 1739 and 1743 and has been a Grade I listed building on the Register of Historic England since 1951. Today the building is the town hall for South Molton. Beside it, beneath the Old Assembly Room, is the entrance to the Pannier Market for the town.