October 1342

• On the day after Michaelmas [election day] the chamberlains of the previous year shall hand over to the new chamberlains all the muniments and records belonging to the community. The muniments and records shall be displayed and read out each year before the mayor and those ordained for [i.e. to represent and serve - probably the jurats are meant] the community. Each chamberlain is to provide surety for the performance of his duties; on any who acts contrary to his duty the common bailiff, at the commmand of the mayor, will levy [i.e. distrain] on the surety, which will be put towards the common profit, to offset the outrageous costs the community has had to bear.
• All officers elected are to take oath before the mayor and those ordained, upon pain of a fine.
• All debts due to the community are to be paid (at the exchequer in the gildhall) to the chamberlains and to no-one else; these revenues are to be deposited in the treasury of the hall, under lock and key, upon pain of 20s. fine.
• The chamberlains elected in future are to serve the community better than those of earlier times, taking from the community for their annual fee 20s. each (conditional upon good performance of their duties). Chamberlains are to strive for the profit of the community.
• Chamberlains leaving office are to render their accounts within 8 days after Michaelmas, on a day to be assigned them by the mayor; the account is to be reviewed by the mayor, the new chamberlains, and those chosen by the community to act as auditors. Anyone who refuses to come to render account shall be fined 20s.; defaulters who are assigned a second day to appear and fail to come shall be fined 40s. – and so on, the fine doubling from day to day.

[It is not clear from the larger record within which these ordinances are embodied whether they predated 1342, or whether they were additions at that time to a larger set of constitutional ordinances that were read publicly each Michaelmas. The borough budget ran up small deficits in several years during the 1330s. Account rolls for 1341/42 and 1342/43 have not, regrettably, survived, but an improvement in the style of recording the accounts between the rolls of 1340/41 and 1343/44 is one reflection of the attempt to reform financial management.]