Excerpt from The Rolls of the Freemen of the City of Chester, Vol. 1: 1392-1700It was the custom for the Mayor of Chester to enter upon his office on the Friday following the Feast of S. Denis, and the mayoral year began and ended on that day [chester Corporation mss. 8th Rep. Hist. Com., p. So that, generally speak ing, the dates of the entries in these books commence and terminate with the mayoral years, but there are a number of exceptions in which earlier and later dates are included. The pages are of the rough paper known as pott, with various water-marks, and are, with the covers, in all stages of preservation, some being practically perfect, while others are represented by a few thin strips of paper with the edges rotted away, for although these manuscripts, with the other contents of the Muniment. Room, are well and safely housed now, they have passed through many dangers of fire, of water, with its insidious attendant damp, and of the ravages of vermin, &c., In the seventeenth century they were examined by the second Randle Holme, and in the Harleian Collection [ms. 2056, fol. I b] are his remarks on their very unsatisfactory condition. In his day they would doubtless be stored at the Old Pentice Hall, situated in front of S. Peter's Church, and facing Bridge Street. On the erection of the Exchange in the present Market Square they were probably removed to that building, and remained there until its destruction by fire on the goth December 1865, when they sustained considerable damage. The collections were then stored for a number of years in the old City Gaol, and while in this place were seriously injured by damp. Subsequently, in 1878, the manuscripts were transferred to a strong-room in the Town Hall but their wanderings were not yet finished, as sundry altera tions being made after the fire of a few years ago, a fresh strong room was built, into which they were finally transferred, and are now preserved.Near to the volumes of Mayors' Books are a number of paper covered parcels, which contain fragments of Mayors' and Sheriffs' Books, in too fragile or dilapidated a condition to be placed with those previously mentioned.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.