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READING DIRECTORY— 1919.

M inster, Redlands, Victoria, W est, Tilehurst, Caversham East and
Caversham W est, and the Corporation consists of a high steward a
mayor, thirteen aldermen and thirty-nine town councillors. The Corpo­
ration of Reading was originally a guild, said to have been chartered by
E dw ard the Confessor: the members of this guild were styled burgesses
as early as 1254 in a charter granted by H enry H I. and confirmed by
Richard II. and H enry I V ., VT. and V I I I ., and in 1351 the master was
called m ay o r: H enry V I I . in 1487 enlarged their authority, and H enry
V III. m 1543 granted a new charter, making the mayor and burgesses a
body corporate, and this was confirmed b y E dw ard V I ., Queen Elizabeth
aud James I . : further charters were granted by Charles I. which were
confirmed in 1549, and also by Charles H . The Corporation was further
reformed under the “ Municipal Corporations A ct, 1835.” The borough
has a commission of the peace and separate Court of Quarter Sessions.
The Public H ealth Acts have been adopted by the Corporation. Reading
is a borough by prescription, having sent members to Parliam ent from
the time of the earliest records: b y the “ Redistribution of Seats A ct,
1885 ” (48 and 49 Viet. c. 23), the boundary of the parliamentary borough
was extended on the east to the South Eastern railway, and on the
south to Christchurch and Junction roads, and by the same A ct the
representation was reduced from tw o members to one. U n der the
provisions of the “ Local Government A ct, 1888,” the borough became
a “ County borough ” for certain purposes.
Reading is called in Domesday “ Radynges,” and according to the
description therein contained at that date (1086) 28/'houses, all belonging
so die K ing, 29 others in ruins, one held by H enry Ferrars, a church, two
mills, and fisheries, not having then recovered from recent disasters.
Stephen visited the town in. 1140, and in 1141 came the Empress Maud,
who w as received with much honour: in 1153 the castle was surrendered
to Henry, Duke of Norm andy, afterwards H enry II. who frequently visited
Reading between the years 1163-85: Richard I. held a parliament here in
1191: K in g John, in 1213, and H enry ni. in 1241: he also visited it in
subsequent years ; E dw ard n. was here in 1314, and Richard n. in 1384:
parliaments were again held here in 1440 and 1451, and in 1432 the parlia­
ment was adjourned from Westminster to Reading on account of a plague.
Reading A bbey was founded in A .D . 1121 by K in g H enry I . : it was
dedicated to the H oly Trinity, SS. Mary, John the Evangelist and James,
and wa3 intended for 200 monks of the Benedictine order, w ith an abbot
(mitred), prior and sub-prior: this community was endowed with ample
revenues and invested with almost regal p o w e r ; their possessions were
very extensive and their privileges scarcely less ; they were also the
uardians of a precious relic— the hand of St. James the Apostle— which
rought to them a continuous stream of wealth j the A bbot ranked next
to those of Glastonbury and St. Albans, and retained his seat in Parliament
t i l the Dissolution: the buildings of the abbey were completed in 1124,
but Ihe great church w as not finished until 1164, when it was consecrated
by Rocket in the presence of H enry H . and many of the nobility: here,
in !
John of Gaunt, fourth son of K in g E dward I H . was married to
iR.-.i-.fi.e, eventual heiress of H enry Plantagenet of Gresmont, Duke of
ij.rio, s r e r ; ileriry I. its founder, was buried here in Dec. 1135, with his
r.eov.l m en, A deliza, daughter of Godfrey of Louvaine, D uke of Brabant,
•"•s ’. <•!< ri the Empress M aud, wife of H enry V . of Germany, and after'.d--, '.--lie of fJeoirrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, who died 10th Sept.
and li re olio were interred W illiam , eldest son of H en ry n. d.
:1-aiiv.il!. Earl of Cornwall, his natural son : Richard, Earl of

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