Freedom of the City

(A historical note)

FREEDOM dates back almost eight hundred years to the earliest Norman times in Waterford. The Charter which founded the Corporation in 1205 A.D. granted 'diverse liberties, privileges, immunities and exemptions to the Citizens and their successors' and the exercise of these benefits was for centuries the prerogative ot the Freemen.

The original Freemen were most likely designated and new Freemen could be created; otherwise admittance to the Freedom was by right of birth, marriage or apprenticehood. This meant that the sons of Freemen were entitled to be admitted, also 'any person espoused to the daughter or widow of a Freeman' and finally,  'any person bound as an apprentice to a Freeman.'

The principal rights of the Freemen were (a) Franchise rights—for a very long time they were the only local and parliamentary electors, (b) exclusive rights in trade and commerce and (c) exemption from certain taxes, among which were numbered tolls, lassage, passage, pontage, murrage, etc., these being fees in respect of markets, fairs, crossing of bridges, entry of laden vehicles into the town, etc.; all major concessions in their day, but which diminished and eventually disappeared with the emergence of representative institutions of local government.

Freedom was a reflection of the way of life in other ages as much of historical conditions and it would be a mistake to conclude that they all belonged to a governing alien class. Thomas Francis Meagher, soldier, orator and patriot, who first proposed the Tricolour as Ireland's national Flag, was a Freeman. (His portrait hangs in the Council Chamber and the personal relics of his American career are on display in The civic museum—Waterford Treasures at the Granary).

The custom existed, too, of admitting distinguished public figures as Freemen. For example, Lemuel Cox, the Boston architect who, in 1793, built the first (wooden) bridge across the Suir at Waterford, was so admitted.

The Municipal Privilege Act of 1876, whereby each city in Ireland had the right to confer freedom, regulated this practice and established Honorary Freedom on an entirely new plane. Corporations availed of this measure—although sparingly—to honour chosen public figures and others whose accomplishments at home and abroad seemed to them to merit recognition. The Honorary Freedom was extended under the Local Government Act 1991 and counties as well as cities are now eligible to confer it.

Admitted as Honorary Freemen of Waterford since 1876 have been:—