The Mayor of South Molton in Devon is an ancient historical office which survives at the present time. In the Middle Ages the town of South Molton was incorporated by royal charter into a borough governed by a Mayor and Corporation. This enabled the inhabitants to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor of South Molton and to subject themselves instead to the jurisdiction of the king.
Present function
The Mayor is elected for a one-year term annually in May by the South Molton Town Council. It is a non-political office. The Mayor acts as Chairman of the Town Council, of which he is the figurehead, and enforces the smooth running of Council business. He appoints his own ceremonial officers, namely two Serjeants at Mace, Mayor's Constables, Chaplain and Mayor's Cadet. During his year of office he attends various events and functions, within South Molton and outside the borough and parish, when he acts as the formalm representative of the Borough of South Molton. Typical mayoral duties include opening a local fete, judging floats at the South Molton Carnival, attending ceremonial church services, and visiting a parishioner on their 100th birthday.
Historic function
The Mayor formerly presided over a Bench of Magistrates at the South Molton Petty Sessions, now abolished.
Mayor's Parlour
The Mayor has exclusive and unrestricted use of the Mayor's Parlour within the Town Hall, a grand room designed for business and personal entertaining, built and decorated with fittings formerly within Stowe House, Kilkhampton, Cornwall, the mansion built by John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath and demolished in 1739.
Mayoral Pew
The north transept of St Mary Magdalene Church, South Molton, contains the "Mayoral Pew", comprising four rows of pews for the use of the Mayor and Town Council. The pew is used on ceremonial occasions, for example at the annual Harvest Festival service in September.
Regalia
The ceremonial dress of the Mayor includes a crimson fur lined robe, a cocked hat, white gloves, and the Mayor's Chain of Office, made in 1893, from which hangs a miniature portrait of Hugh Squier, the town's "great benefactor". Kelly's Directory of Devon reported in 1902:
Mayor's Charity
Each Mayor holds a Dinner Dance or similar event in the Town Hall for the purpose of raising funds for his chosen charity. Funds so raised are normally distributed at the end of the Mayoral term of office.
List of Mayors
1726: John Bowden, probable father of Anne Bowden, mother of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and wife of Rev. John Coleridge, Master of Hugh Squier's School and Lecturer of Molland.
1751: George Gay
1811: Joshua Bryan
1852: J.E.J. Riccard, Esq.
1875: Robert Tanner, wine and spirit merchant. He hit the headlines in September 1875 when his wife Hannah eloped to Paris with the local Plymouth Brethren preacher, a Dutchman named Vanderquast, and four of her children. Tanner left South Molton in 1876 and died in Brooklyn, New York, on 30 December 1889.
1887-8: John Galliford, who presided at the ceremonial opening of the South Molton Post Office, converted from the Market House. Commemorated by an inscribed tablet on the building.
1889: Albert Edward Shapland. He was "the fourth son of the late Mr John Terrill Shapland, solicitor, Southmolton, and on his father's death in 1879 he succeeded to his practice, which he carries on under the style of J. T. Shapland and Son. A native of South Molton, he was first elected to the Council five years ago, and three years after was again returned. Mr Shapland, who married in 1880, the younger daughter of Alderman Galliford, is a Conservative, the hon. Secretary and Treasurer of the Football Club, and a vice-president of the Cricket Club. His election will be a popular one".
1910: James Sanders. He erected a stone bust of Hugh Squier, on the bicentenary of his death, on the facade of the South Molton Town Hall, where it survives today, inscribed on the plinth as follows: "Hugh Squier AD 1625–1710. Our great benefactor. Erected AD 1910, James Sanders, Mayor".
1931: J.A. Powell. Photographic portrait in collection of South Molton Museum.
1978/9: Dr. Richard Linley Norris. Photographic portrait in collection of South Molton Museum.
2007/9: Stephen Lock
2013/14: Stephen White
2014/15: Stephen Lock. A heating and plumbing engineer, a town councillor for 13 years, previously mayor from 2007–9. His wife Christine also served as a town councillor. At the start of his term of office he declared that "debate was not possible due to an unacceptable level of infighting at town council meetings", and rebuked councillors.
