City status in New Ingerland

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City status in New Ingerland is granted by the Sovereign to a municipality that meets the criteria as defined under the Local Government Act[1].

History

Until recent times, New Ingerland followed the practice employed in Ingerland and Wales, whereby city status was given only to those towns that where the seat of a diocesan cathedral. The link between a diocesan see and city status was established by Henry VIII in the early 1540s, with the formation of new dioceses in six towns leading to them being granted city status by the issuing letters patent[2]. With the formation of New Ingerland in 1836, the first settlers brought this tradition with them from Ingerland, and applied wherever a new diocesan see was established by the Ingerian Church of New Ingerland. Also, the two cities that served as the seat of government were elevated to city status before the Church had the opportunity to established a diocesan see, although cathedrals were subsequently established in both cities. As such there were only eight cities in New Ingerland until reforms were made to the system in 1947.

In 1947, the socialist Sims government undertook a reform to the Local Government Act[3], and instituted a new set of criteria that granted city status on the basis of population, budget, and urban coherence. All successive iterations of the Local Government Act have replicated this criteria, and it has endured to the present day. The reforms led to a tranche of new cities being proclaimed, from Axport (1952), through to Warnock (2001).

Privileges and status

The holding of city status brings few special benefits other than the right to be called a city. There are, however, some minor privileges that a city inherits by virtue of being elevated by the Sovereign:

  • The electors of the city are known as "citizens" rather than "burgesses" as they would be in a borough;
  • Under the rules and practices of heraldry:
    • Cities are entitled to the use of supporters; and
    • The mural crown used in the crest has three half-turrets added to the usual four turreted arrangement used for all other municipal corporations and rural districts.

Conferment of city status

The status of city does not apply automatically to any settlement, and must be granted by the Sovereign by way of letters patent. Using the practice of elevating towns with diocesan cathedrals, six of the eight diocesan sees of the Church were elevated to the status of city between 1870 and 1946. The two exceptions are the two cities that have served as the national capital. As the location of the royal court and seat of government, both Port Frederick (capital from 1836-68) and Kingsbury (capital 1868-present) were elevated as cities before their respective dioceses were formed[4].

Since 1947, it has been the practice that the status of city would no longer be bound to the presence of a cathedral or the seat of government, and grants made since have been awarded to municipalities on following criteria[5]:

  • The municipality has, during the five years next preceding such proclamation, had an average population of at least fifty thousand persons; and
  • The municipality has during the said period had an average gross income from all sources of at least twenty thousand pounds; and
  • The municipality is an independent centre of population and is not a suburb, whether residential, industrial, commercial, or maritime, of any other municipality or centre of population.[6]

Letters Patent

City status is conferred by letters patent, and uses the following formula that was used for the proclamation of Lunenborough as a city in 1907:

PHILIP, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING OF NEW INGERLAND

To ALL to whom these Presents shall come Greeting WHEREAS the inhabitants of the Borough of Lunenborough are a body politic and corporate by the name and style of the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Lunenborough AND WHEREAS We for divers good causes and considerations Us thereunto moving are graciously pleased to raise the said Borough to the rank of a City NOW THEREFORE Know Ye that we of Our especial grace and favour and mere motion Do by this Our Royal Charter will ordain constitute declare and appoint that Our said Borough shall henceforth for the future and for ever hereafter be a City and shall be called and styled the City of Lunenborough instead of the Borough of Lunenborough and shall have all such rank, liberties, privileges, and immunities as are incident to a City AND We do further declare and direct that the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Lunenborough shall henceforth be one body politic and corporate by the name and style of THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND CITIZENS OF THE CITY OF LUNENBOROUGH with all such powers and privileges as they would have had as the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the said Borough and as if they had been incorporated by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Lunenborough. IN WITNESS whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent Witness Ourself at Kingsbury the seventh day of December in the twenty-first year of Our Reign.

BY WARRANT UNDER THE KING'S SIGN MANUAL

List of cities

# Name County Population
(2010 Census)
Became city
1 Arms-port frederick.png Port Frederick Albanyshire 190,140 01836-06-066 June 1836
2 Arms-kingsbury.png Kingsbury Centralia 298,600 01868-11-022 November 1868
3 Arms-corfe harbour.png Corfe Harbour Fitzroyshire 177,024 01871-02-066 February 1871
4 Arms-earnestvale.png Earnestvale Westerland 74,523 01907-07-011 July 1907
5 Arms-lunenborough.png Lunenborough Lunen Island 112,766 01907-12-022 December 1907
6 Arms-swanbrook.png Swanbrook Deverauxshire 108,829 01931-06-011 June 1931
7 Arms-williamsdene.png Williamsdene Beaufortshire 87,719 01931-12-022 December 1931
8 Arms-langford.png Langford Vernonshire 72,715 01946-06-033 June 1946
9 File:Arms-axport.png Axport Lunen Island 85,105 01952-09-088 September 1952
10 File:Arms-philipstown.png Philipstown Centralia 82,908 01970-11-022 November 1970
11 Arms-shepton.png Shepton Centralia 74,642 01970-11-022 November 1970
12 File:Arms-beaconsfield.png Beaconsfield Deverauxshire 63,520 01996-11-044 November 1996
13 File:Arms-warnock.png Warnock Lunen Island 59,274 02001-01-011 January 2001

References and notes

  1. Local Government Act (Public Act No. 40 of 1989).
  2. Beckett, J. V. (2005). City status in the Ingerish Isles, 1830-2002. Ashgate Publishing. p. 22.
  3. Local Government Act (Public Act No. 62 of 1947).
  4. As the seat of the royal court and government, the mayors of both cities are by letters patent entitled to the privilege, honour, and style of The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor of ....
  5. Local Government Act (1989), §41
  6. Under this criteria, satellite towns such as Castleigh and Ossulstone cannot be considered eligible to become cities.