LIEUTENANCY

<p>Some earlier material (1491/2-1563) will be found in GBR/B/2/1. See also GBR/G/5/1/ff. 59-63 for important lieutenancy material, c.1600-1619.</p>

The charter of Elizabeth I granted the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of any four of them (of whom the Mayor or Recorder were to be one) the right to 'array and arm the musters of the city, and assign them to keep watch and ward in the city and to defend the same whensoever we shall command it to be done; and no other commissioners of musters shall interfere or have jurisdiction in the city'. The Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen were commissioned as Deputy Lieutenants for the city and its county by the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and proceeded to levy men and make assessments for this purpose in the city and its county independently of the rest of Gloucestershire. Disputes sometimes arose over what was considered a fair quota of the number of men fixed for the entire county to be levied by the city, and between the city and its 'in-shire' over rating assessment.