Excerpt from History of Newcastle and Gateshead, Vol. 3: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries In matters municipal the reigns of Elizabeth and James were favourable to the citizens of Newcastle. Already endowed with special grants and charters by successive monarchs, they obtained from these two sovereigns fresh concessions and secured new privileges. From the queen they received the transferred lease of the manors of Gateshead and Whickham before mentioned, and a new charter, by which the municipal body was invested with admiralty jurisdiction, entitled to appropriate fines and forfeitures, and authorised to receive, for the public benefit, all wreck and treasure coming within the port and harbour of the Tyne. Towards the end of her reign, her majesty, in a deed called The Great Charter, confirmed to them all previous grants of herself and her predecessors, regulated the manner of electing the Corporation, reconstituted the local courts, established upon a surer foundation the Free Grammar School, and incorporated the fraternity of bestmen. King James confirmed, with some variations, Elizabeth's charter, refounded the hospitals of the Virgin Mary and St. Mary Magdalene, and vested in the mayor and aldermen, and certain members of the Merchants' Company and Trinity House, the conservancy of the river. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.