| Description | The mayor, recorder, sheriffs and justices of the peace (aldermen who had served as mayor) met in the Inner Pentice adjoining St Peter's Church to deal with such matters as the admission of freemen; appointment of city officers; payment of money to the poor; cases of settlement; removal of paupers; and many other administrative matters dealt with by both the Assembly and quarter sessions. These meetings became known as the Inner Pentice. Although the Inner Pentice is known to have existed in the early seventeenth century, it probably assumed greater importance as Assembly meetings became less frequent in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Its files are therefore an important source for the day to day machinery of local government. Inner Pentice files exist as a separate series as well as being found in the mayors' files (MF). The separate series was probably created during conservation work on the city records carried out in the 1930s. The number of dates of files relate to all Inner Pentice files irrespective of location. |