Freedom Of the Town

[maffie]

Hello,
Can anyone shed light on the following matter:-

My wife's grandfather Walter Gilliard has always said that one of his relatives (grandfather, G-Grandfather etc) was awarded the freedom of Maidstone.  I think it might even have been due to his work on the barges.  Time wise I would assume early 1900's

Does anyone have access to this sort of record, or point me in the general direction.

Many Thanks
Matt Wright

[Bill749]

Hi Matt

I would have thought probably mid-late 1800s would be more likely.

As far as I am aware, freedom could be claimed by descent - i.e. son of an existing freeman, or could be purchased.  It could also be granted by the local authority to someone who had done something special - this is the only way people have obtained freedoms in more recent times.

As examples, in more recent times, Sir Winston Churchill was given the freedom of Dover and the Royal Marines were given the freedom of Deal.

The local library in Maidstone, or the County Archives, will probably have either an index or possibly a microfilm copy of the Freemen's Rolls.

CKS has a book of freemen entitled to vote in 1871:

Class  324.4223 
 
Corporate author    Maidstone Borough Council 
 
Title    List of Freemen of the Borough Entitled to Vote in the Election of Members...Manuscript List 
 
Series    1871 
 
ISBN    bx88036917 
 
Not For Loan -  Reference book
 
You will either have to visit the Centre for Kentish Studies (Maidstone) or get someone to visit on your behalf to have a look at this material.

Regards, Bill

[bearkat]

This website has an index to Maidstone Freeman 1694 - 1842:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mrawson/free.html

Although this is earlier than you are looking it does give information about freemen.