Records of Freemen of the City of Derry

The Common Council of the Derry Corporation consisted of the Mayor, the Sheriffs, the Aldermen and the Burgesses.  The Freemen of the City were the body from which the Aldermen and Burgesses were selected.

The links below provide access to digital copies of four handwritten manuscripts which relate to the Freemen of Derry from 1675 up to 1945.  The original volumes are part of the Derry City Council Archive and are currently housed in the Harbour Museum, Derry.  The first volume is an alphabetical index of the Derry Freemen and the three others are books containing extracts from the Corporation Minute Books where there is mention of a Freeman or to Freedom of the City.

The links provided here open as PDF documents. To access them you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader v7 or later installed on your computer. To download this software, which is free, visit the download pages of the Adobe website.

This volume is an alphabetical index of the Freemen of the City as mentioned in the Corporation Minute Books.  It includes the date of admittance and details of the minute book and page on which the reference can be found.  The closing pages contain text which detail indentures dating from 1780-1793.

The PRONI reference for this register is LA/79/2/AC/1.

This volume details the Minute Book and page number where reference is made to a Freeman or granting of Freedom of the City, and provides a handwritten transcript of the extract.  The extracts are complete and appear to have been taken directly from the Corporation Minute Books.

The PRONI reference for this Index to Extracts is LA/79/2/AB/1

This volume follows on chronologically from the last one, detailing the Minute Book and page number where reference is made to a Freeman or granting of Freedom of the City, and providing a handwritten transcript of the extract.  The extracts are complete and appear to have been taken directly from the Corporation Minute Books.

The PRONI reference for this Index to Extracts is LA/79/2/AB/2

This notebook contains references to the Freemen of the City taken from the Corporation records. The extracts include the relevant volume, date, plus a short paragraph which details the granting of the Freedom of the City to various individuals. This extracts book is unfinished and incomplete.

The PRONI reference for this Index to Extracts is LA/79/2/AB/3

The Derry Corporation, which was the chief local body governing the City’s affairs, was geared towards the administration of the plantation settlement rather than the promotion of the commercial and industrial City.  The Corporation was considered a closed body, consisting of a Mayor, two sheriffs, twelve Aldermen, twenty four Burgesses and the Freemen of the City.

Freemen had originally been those members of the various craft guilds in the City.  However by the mid eighteenth century the Freemen were practically semi-hereditary and it was a closely controlled group.  Freemen were often not resident in the City and rarely came from a merchant or commercial background.

The Corporation was operating as an administrator of land and property as granted during the Ulster Plantation, collecting rents and engaging in legal battles with the city’s London landlord, the Irish Society and any others who challenged locally established rights.

The jurisdiction and liberties of the city of Londonderry extended 3 miles in every direction (including the east bank of the River Foyle).  The liberties didn’t imply ownership of land; it meant rather the liberty to exercise one’s craft or trade.  No one was to carry out business in the liberties unless he was a Freeman.  Freemen consisted of two classes – the first, those entitled to it by birth, apprenticeship, marriage or purchase, and the second those granted it by favour.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, in a city dominated by merchants, shopkeepers and craftsmen, only freemen of the city were entitled to conduct business, own property and receive protection within the walled city.  Freedom from paying tolls and customs was clearly of great benefit to merchants and tradesmen.

The ‘ailen dues’ were a tax on traders who sought to sell their goods at the markets.  However, as only the Freemen were classed as ‘non-ailen’ the vast majority of traders were liable to such taxes.  A further charge, a custom, was added to practically all items sold in the markets; once again the Freemen were singled out and charged a rate of up to 50% less.

The Corporation minute books also detail complaints by freemen of ‘strangers and foreigners exercising their trade’ in the city and liberties.

John Hume, ‘Derry Beyond The Walls, Social and Economic Aspects of the Growth of Derry 1825-1850’; 2002

‘Ordnance Survey Memoir of the County of Londonderry: city and north-western liberties of Londonderry’; 1837