FEUDAL RIGHTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 723, 26 December 1933, Page 5

FEUDAL RIGHTS

("Post" Special Correspondent.)

"LADY MARCHER" INVESTS * " NEW MAYOR OF ? , , keMES!5 CONFERRED BY' CONQUEROR "

Newpof t, Noy. 18. The Lady Marcher of Kemes. — last holder of hereditary fe.udal rights conf erred on her ancestprs . liy William the C.onqueror— -exerpised ' piie of her .privileges, by electing and in- 4 stalling the new Mayor pf Newport, Pembroke, the ehief town ip j the Barony of Kemes, over which she is compiete mqnarch, sub ject. pnly'tq the King. - . . , ' The presenfc holder, who is Mrs. F. E- Withington, of Fringford Lodge Bicestev, succeeded to the title and barony in April of this year on* the death of her father, Sir Marteine LJ.oyd, 25fch Lord Marcher of- fhe Barony of Kemes. It ig only the third time in 900 years that the power s have been handed down through the female line, and the last time there- was -a Lady Marcher was exactly 200 vears ago. The title and privileges were coiif erred on the first Lprd Marcher by William the Cqpqueror* for the wqrlike manner in which he conquered th.'s part of Wales for the Nor nuin King, and they have never laps'ed.' •Besides having .the, sole power of deeting and installing the, Mayor of' Newport, the Lady M.areher has the right to any wrecks washed up on the,, 18 miles of this stormy PerpbrokeSshire coast, and stray. cattle turned . into the common ppund helong fo Hpr hy .right, and she still has the power T-^-since it has never. beqn rescinqe(b— of hanging any eriminal.in the.bar.ony. • Once a year she-mugUmake a "perambulation" of her land, which- is. .a sort of beating of the bounds, and she holds two courts a year. . It is very difficult to follow my father in this position," Mrs. Withington said, "because he was one .6f the best-loved men in Wales. and had been Lord Marcher for more than 50 years. - . , . "Still I am very glad that the barony dces pass through ithe female Hne and did not have to lapse because my only brother was killed irl. the war." - • . . , From the present Lady Marcher the offiee will descend to her daughter now a schoolgirl of 13. 5 The Lord Marchers are still regal'.ded as absolute petty sovereigns in this remote and lovely corner of the Welsh coast, and every citizen of s'ubstance in Newport crowded into the little court to see the new Lady Marcher invest the new mayor. *■ Chly aldermen and burgesses ahd tqwn . dignitaries attended besides Lady Lloyd, the widow of- the late Lprd Marcher who still. lives in Newport Gastle, the crumbling shell of what frqm the 13th century> was a pp^verfnl feudal strongbold that never fell bef ore any siege. 1 V ' The court was held ih the poliee court of the little town, the L'a'dly Marcher "in purple with white sitting beside the mayor wh'o 'wps going out of pffiqe. • • S.peeches were made and coriipliments exchanged in English to hegin with, and then, as the atmosphere warmed, in Welsh. ,5 The retiring mayor was fofmally disfobed and his scarlet finery.fput;?ph fhe new, Mr. Caleb Mo-rris, ani eknpliceman and retired grocer,, wHPj being of-tbe classid build,fo.r.a..m8f^r> filied the robes more amply th.an'vHis predecessor. -. . >. . V" " The Lady Marcher put tbpC^pd ehain.of office round his.necjt.and^the ex-mayor stepped off th,e . pl^ofhi looking a little pathetic and\dirhinishedi his hair hadly ruffled .mlithe disrobing process; . £ • The schoolmaster read a coipplimenfgry W,elsh -poem. to • tHe' Tnjiw' the mayor proc|aim.e4> Bor.d.. Marcher is dead, jon'g JivA'the Lady Marcher," an,4 evprybody shbpk hands with everybody* "j At night all the local dignijignes met at the prineipal inn and fete'd-the Lady Marcher with, a» banquet-;'of Iroast beef and plum pudding ("Whisky for them a,s drink and'fiprt fpr the. teetotalers") , apd. eyerybplly made - at least .one lpp^ speeplifan Wplsh. - . V " '