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Below is a list of all the articles and advertisements which appeared in the first issue of the Bridgnorth Beacon, dated 1st October 1852. The transcriptions can be viewed by clicking on the titles.
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Literary Extracts.
FASTING EXTRAORDINARY.—The old Corporation of Bridgnorth consisted of two Bailiffs, besides Recorder, &c. The Bailiffs were chosen every year on St. Matthew’s day, out of the twenty-four aldermen, in the following remarkable manner:—the court being met, the names of twelve aldermen, seniors of those then present, being separately written upon small bits of paper, were thrown into a large purse, which being well tossed, each bailiff according to seniority took out a scroll; by these scrolls the callers were fixed, who immediately mounting the chequer, alternately called the jury out of such persons as were burgesses, and then presented them to the court to the number of fourteen; these being all sworn neither to eat nor drink till they had chosen two fit persons who had not been bailiffs for 3 years, were locked up till they agreed, a resolution which sometimes occasioned long fasting. In 1793 the jury fasted 74 hours. Shropshire Gazetteer. What brave fellows those unfortunate burgesses must have been! It is to be hoped, that intolerable custom will never be revived.—Ed. B. B.
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