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and that all Inhabitants thereof, and their successors, for ever, and those who should thereafter be Inhabitants thereof, should and might, thenceforth, be a new Body, Corporate and Polite, and be known by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgence of the T(indecipherable) of Colentine, and that, by such name, the said Inhabitants should have porpetual Succession.
That, by said Charter, it was obtained, that there should be a Mayor, Aldermen, and Twenty-four Capital Burgesses, in the said Town, to be elected out of the principle Inhabitants thereof, who were to be the Common Council of the said Town; and who were empowered to make Bye-laws, and to elect the Subordinate Officers, necessary for the management and government of th said Town; and, by said Charter, there was expressly granted, to the whole Incorporation, viz. - The then Inhabitants and large, and all who should thereafter become Inhabitants of the said Town, the power of electing Two Members, to serve in the Commons House of Parliament, for the said Town; which power has, by the Act of Legislative Union, between Great Britain and Ireland, been reduced to one.
That said the Charter expressly ordains, that the Burgesses, Aldermen, and Mayor, should be elected out of the Inhabitants and Freemen of the said Town, and should themselves be resident therein: and your Petitioners would, respectively, beg leave to refer your Honorable House to this Charter, as it, and the Charter to Derry, are altogether peculiar and different from the other Charters in Ireland, and are similar, so far as sense can be, to the Charters granted to London and Dublin, by the British Crown.
That this Charter was properly observed for about a Century after its being granted, as the resident Inhabitants an Traders of the Town were the Persons, out of whom the Capital Burgesses, Aldermen and Mayor, were selected; and, in an instance, during this period, has it been discovered, that a Foreigner or Non-resident was made a Freeman, or elected of the Common Council of said Town, but about the Year 1700, the Jackson Family, who became General Agents to the Irish Society, and had required great influence in the neighbourhood, commenced introducing strangers, and their own Servants and Followers, into the Common Council, and excluding the Merchants and Traders of the Town, who were legally entitled to fill such places, and to such an extent did this corrupt and illegal influence extend, that Lord Tyrome, the then head of the Beresford Family, who held large tracts of Property in the neighbourhood, under the Society, and who was the descendant of an Agent, sent over by the Society to manage their Irish Estates, joined the Inhabitants of Coleraine, in a remonstrance to the Irish Society, against the flagrant violation of the Charter, and particularly, in respect to the Jackson Family returning the Two Members to Parliament, for Coleraine, without the People and Freemen of the Town being permitted to take any part in such elections.
That the Irish Society then took measures, which for a time, procured the rights of the Freemen and Inhabitants to be restored to, and exercised by them; the the Jackson and Beresford Families having entered into a secret coalition, tat each should have the nomination of on Member; the Freemen and Inhabitants were completely ousted of their just rights, and from that day, although several attempts were made by the Inhabitants to assert those rights, the influence and power of those two Families were so great, that they contrived to keep the Town and Borough completely close, and to such an extent had this corruption grown, that about fifteen or twenty Years before the Union between Great-Britain and Ireland, Lord Waterford, the then head of the Beresford Family, to insure and acquire to himself the return of both the Members for the Town, actually gave the then Sir Gregory Jackson a very considerable Sum for the relinquishments of his influence, and power of returning one Member as he had theretofore done.
That since this time, all appearance of Right, in the Inhabitants has been put down. The Common Council has been elected out of near relatives, connexions or absolute dependants of the Waterford Family; and it has been generally understood, that no Person was elected into said Corporation, who had not previously stated their intention of following the directions of the Family, in all matters regarding the Corporation, or Town of Coleraine, or its Representation in Parliament, and so completely has this been carried into effect, that the individual who now sits, and has for the last fifteen or sixteen Years, sat for Coleraine: and who is the Uncle of present Lord Waterford, never thought it necessary, until the last Election, to appear in Coleraine, which he represented, or even in that part of the Country in which it is situate.
That by the Charter, the Aldermen are declared Justices of the Peace, and are required to reside in the Town, but you Honorable House will be surprised to find, that amongst the present Aldermen, are a late Comptroller of His Majesty's Household, who never resided in Coleraine; Two Clergymen, Cousins to Lord Waterford, residing in a distant part of the Kingdom - a Collector of Customs, at Londonderry, a relation, by Marriage, of the same Family - and another relation, a Barrister-at-Law, residing in Dublin - and amongst the Burgesses, (who are especially directed to be elected out of the resident Inhabitants, and whom the Charter meant to be of the Traders and Merchants of the Town.) are to be found, the Lord Primate of all Ireland, Uncle to the Lord Waterford - a Governor of one of the West India Islands, married to one of His Lordship's Cousins: two other Cousins of His Lordship, retired Store-Keepers of the Custom House, Dublin - and two Clergymen, residing in the other extremity of Ireland, who are utterly unknown at Coleraine - and the present Mayor of the said Town, who is the returning Officer at the Election of Members, to serve in Parliament, independently of his said Office of Mayor, in which capacity he presides as Chief Magistrate in said Town: holds other Places and Offices, incompatible with the independent discharge of his duty.
That your Petitioners would not mention these circumstances, but to show to your Honorable House, what perfect mockery it is to send a Writ for the Election of a Member for Coleraine, so long as the Rights of the Inhabitants, as granted by their Charter, are thus unjustly monoploized and exercised by a single Family, the head of which is, according the Constitution and Laws of the Land, altogether declared from acting is, or interfering with the Election of a Member of Parliament.
That Coleraine is a Seaport and Commercial Town, and not withstanding the foregoing disadvantages, has increased, and is daily increasing in Trade and Commerce and contains within its Liberties, a Population of nearly Eight Thousand Souls; for the greater part,composed of Protestants of the Established Church, or Protestant Dissenters, but who have, invariably, lived on terms of amity and good fellowship, with such of the Population as are Roman Catholics.
That in the Month of August last, upwards of fifty of the respectable Inhabitants, Merchants, and Traders of the Town of Coleraine, and who were, in every respect, unexceptionable in their characters, and clearly entitled to their Freedom, humbly petitioned the Common Council to be admitted to such Freedom, and offered to take the usual Oaths, and pay any Fees, when they were informed they would get an answer next Court Day, and they would accordingly attended at the time appointed, but were absolutely refused any answer to their said Petitions.
That on the First day of October last, agreeable to Public Notice, issued by the said Mayor and Common Council, several other respectable Merchants, Traders and other Inhabitants of the said Town, attended at the Town Hall, to claim their Freedom of said Town, and to take such Oaths, and to pat such Fees as were accustomed, but to the surprise and indignation on such Persons, and the Inhabitants at large, they were not only refused refused admittance into said Hall, but a Body of armed Police, with a Chief Constable at their head, were placed at the Door of the said Hall, and the Door locked inside, to prevent any Person or Persons from going in, save such Persons as were permitted to do so by the Mayor and Common Council.
That such arbitrary conduct has caused great dissatisfaction and discontent, amongst the respectable Inhabitants of said Town: and since said occurrances, your Petitioners have been informed, that even Five of the Common Council, themselves, not immediately connected with, as obliged to follow the dictates of the Waterford Family, have resigned their Situations as Burgesses and Aldermen, rather than Longer lead the support of their countenance to such proceedings.