Zen Rabbit, I hope you don't mind me pestering you a bit more.
Presumably, proof of age would be needed for freedom to be granted? The only source of such proof for a man born in about 1805 would be parish registers? If a prerequisite was birth in St Mary & St Chad could baptism still be somewhere else (e.g. St Lawrence) or is the target clearly St Mary? Or could it be the other way about, i.e. born elsewhere, but baptised at St Mary? If so, it could be much later than you would ordinarily expect.
Was the "freedom" effectively freedom from indenture / apprenticeship or "Freedom of the City", in other words freedom to operate as a tradesman (in this case cordwainer) in his own right or something more in the line of civic ceremony or both?
The real puzzle is the absence of William and Catherine (and their sons) in the 1851 Census, which should give more precise information about birthplace and age.
I include a quote from Jack Kemp about the Stafford Burgesses below but essentially it allowed for certain trading and grazing rights within the borough plus the right to vote in local elections. William senior would have had to be 21 or over to become a burgess but as he is not given as "a son of" it seems likely that he was born outside of the borough (say St Lawrence) but underwent his apprenticeship within the borough of St Mary's. If he was older then it might indicate that he bought his burgess but I think that the apprentice route is the most likely.
Freemen of Stafford
The rights and privileges of the freemen of Stafford borough originate in a charter granted to the borough by King John in 1206. This granted them various rights but the main ones being exemption from taxes and tolls levied on non-burgesses in the town, the right of common pasture everywhere except cornfields, meadows or enclosures and a right to vote in the local elections. This last became a highly contentious issue when the question of vote rigging was raised in the early 1800’s, as the bribing and creating of freemen by politicians in order to secure an election was both wide spread and open. This nearly lost Stafford its freeman rights but for two petitions delivered to parliament in 1836 called the “householders” petition and the “freemans” petition.
By 1647 and presumably earlier there were three ways of achieving burgess status;
By birth (being born in the borough the son of a burgess)
By servitude (serving an apprenticeship in the borough and paying a fee)
By purchase (mentioned in 1566)
Admission was even then subject to approval by the majority of the council. Every person seeking admission had to pay a fee. Most “foreigners” admitted as a burgess had to pay a fee of £10 plus the usual fees.
Burgess could also be disenfranchised and by the mid 17th century any burgess who moved away from the borough lost his privilages. A burgess could also be disenfranchised by being disrespectful to the major and the council,
