grant, muft fue and be fued, and do all corporate acts; it is, fays Sir Edward Coke, as effential to a corporation, as a name of baptifm to a natural perfon (a).

BUT when it is said that a corporation must have a name, it must be understood that this name may either be expreffed in the patent of incorporation, or implied in the nature of the thing: as, if the King fhould incorporate the inhabitants of Dale, with power to choose a mayor annually; though no name be exprefsly given, yet it is a good corporation by the name of Mayor and Commonalty. So, the city of Norwich, by a charter of Henry 4, is authorised to have a mayor and sheriffs, and yet the corporate name is Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonalty (b).

THOUGH the name of a corporation be compared to the christian name of a man, yet that comparison is not in all cafes perfectly correct: a christian name confifts, in general, but of a fingle word, as Oliver, Robert; and if there be an alteration in a letter, that may frequently make a material alteration in the name: thus if a man intending to fue Oliver, name him Olive, the writ must abate, because Olive is the name of a woman, and Oliver that of a man, and the two names of course totally different in sense: but the name of a corporation frequently confifts of a great number of words, and the tranfpofition, interpolation, omiffion, or alteration, of fome of them may make no effential difference in their sense (c).

Ir is not requifite that there should be truth in the name of a corporation, whether it be an hofpital, or any other body politic (d).

(a) 21 Ed. 4, 56 b. 1 Rol. Rep. 512. 10 Co. 28, 29.

(b) Per Holt. 1 Salk. 191. 3 Salk. 102, (182).

(c) Per C. Baron Manwood. 1 Anderf. 207.

(d) Vid. 10 Co. 32 juxta finem.

Ir is generally denominated of fome place, and that is in many cafes the principal part of the name by which one corporation can be diftinguished from another (a). It is not neceffary, however, that the place of which it is named should be actually in England, but it must either be actually there, fays Lord Coke, or fuppofed fo to be.-There were numberless inftances of fictitious names, in the times of popifh fuperftition: fuch were the hofpital of St. John of Jerufalem in England; the hospital of St. Lazarus of Jerufalem in England; the master of the Knights Templars of Jerufalem in England; the prior and brothers of St. Mary of Mount Carmel in England (b). These names, however, may be fo refolved as to exclude the neceffity of a fiction, that the places comprehended in them were in England. We have only to fuppofe that the faint, or the defcription of men, had their denomination from Jerufalem, and that afterwards a house dedicated to that faint, or belonging to thofe men, was established in England. Thus, "there is fuch a defcription of men as the Knights Templars of Jerufalem," and "there is a master or a house of that order in England.”

IN the name of a corporation is generally inferted the enumeration of the component parts of its government, as mayor, aldermen, and citizens; mayor, aldermen, and commonalty.-But fometimes, inftead of fome of these component parts, a more general defignation is used: thus, though the aldermen are a principal part of the government of the city of Briftol, yet by a charter of Charles the fecond, the corporate name is Mayor, Burgeffes, and Commonalty (c). So, though the component parts of the corporation of the city of London are mayor, alder

(a) Vid. 10 Co. 123. (b) Vid. 10 Co. 32 b. (c) Vid. Lutw. 1330.

1 Rol. 512. 123 b.

I Rol.

512.

men

men, and commonalty (a), or citizens, yet the corporate name is Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens (b).

A CORPORATION may have one name by which it may take and grant, and another by which it may plead and be impleaded thus, a corporation may purchase and grant by the name of Mafter, Wardens, and Brothers, and may be empowered to plead and be impleaded by the name of Mafter and Wardens only (c). But in this refpect there is a diftinction between the cafe of a corporation by prescription, and that of a corporation by charter; the former may have feveral names to the fame purpose; thus a writ was brought by the mafter of St. Lazarus of Burton, who faid that he and all his predeceffors, mafters of the hospital aforefaid, had been from time immemorial called and known, and had impleaded and been impleaded, as well by the name of Master of the Hospital of St. Lazarus of Burton, of the order of St. Lazarus of Jerufalem in England, as by the name of Mafter of Burton of St. Lazarus of Jerufalem in England (d).

AND a fcire facias will lie in one of the names, on a judgment obtained in a writ by the other. Thus, where a

(a) Though the common council be a felect body, and the livery another, yet I do not conceive that either of them is a diftin&t integral part of the corporation.

(b) Vid. 1 H. Black. Rep. 207. 4 Term Rep. 130.

I

(d) 9 Ed. 4, 19. Bro. Corpor. 32. But a diftinction is taken between the cafe of a corporation plaintiff and a corporation defendant; when the corporation are plaintiffs, it is faid, it is not a good replication to fay, they are known by one name as well as the other, because they ought to know their proper name; but if the defendants be named by the plaintiff by their known name, that is fufficient. 4, 6. Bro. Corp. 82; the latter fays, "tamen quæ: whether there be not a diverfity between action real and perfonal." I can fee no reafon either for the diftinction or the diversity.

1 Ed.

writ

writ of wafte was brought by the prior of the hospital of St. John of Jerufalem, and he recovered and took execution by elegit; the defendant, after the money levied, brought a fcire facias to have the land returned, and it was fued against the prior of St. John of Jerufalem; and it was held well, because he was known as well by the one name as the other (a).

BUT a corporation by charter, it is faid, though it may either by charter or by act of parliament be empowered to purchase and grant by one name, and fue and be fued by another (b), yet cannot have two names to the fame purpofe (c). This may be true 'with refpect to a grant by charter; but there feems to be no reason why an act of parliament might not empower a corporation by charter to use two names for the same purpose.

THE King may incorporate a town by one name, and afterwards by another name, and then they ought to use the name of the second incorporation (d). Queen Elizabeth by her charter incorporated the inhabitants of Wells by the name of Mayor, Mafters, and Burgeffes; King Charles the fecond granted to them, that they should be known by the name of Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgeffes; by this laft name they entered into a bond, and the obligee fued them by their former name. They pleaded non eft factum, on which a special verdict was found, ftating the preceding facts, and the question made was, whether this was the bond of the mayor, mafters, and burgeffes; and it was adjudged that it was not, on the ground that by taking

(a) 44 Ed. 3, 16. b. Bro. Corpor. 10. Mifnom. 15.

(b) Vid. Sir William Jones, 262.

(c) Vid. 3 Salk. 102. Lutw. 508, 519. Hardres, 504, (405), (d) 21 E. 4, 59. 1 Rol. 513.

the

the fecond letters patent, the first name was entirely ex

tinguifhed (a).

BUT with respect to the extinction of the old name by a in resale) new charter, Holt, C. J. afterwards took this diftinction: to the corpo. that where the new charter alters the conftitution of the ute lame. corporation and new models it, there they fhall lose their

old name; but that if the conftitution, as to all its integral parts, remains the fame, though the new charter give them a new name, the old one remains. Thus, if a mayor be added, or a mayor and mafters be made mayor and aldermen, or an abbot and convent tranflated into a dean and chapter, there they lose their old name, because the integral parts of the corporation no longer remain the fame. But if the bailiffs and burgeffes ville de Gippo accept a charter constituting then bailiffs and burgesses villa Gipwici, this is a new name only, and they may still use their former name, because the town is the fame, and the old constitution remains (b).

THOUGH the name given by charter to a corporation may feem to exprefs only a definite number of perfons by their names of office, yet in all legal acts, and legal proceedings, it must uniformly be understood to mean the whole corporate body. Thus, the merchant taylors of London were incorporated by the name of Mafter and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors of the brotherhood of St. John the Baptist, in the city of London, and their fucceffors; and it was granted to them, that they should purchafe and fue by the name of Master and Wardens of the

(a) Knight et ux' v. mayor, mafters, and burgeffes of Wells. 1 Ld. Raym. 80. Lutw. 508.

(b) 2 Ld. Raym. 1239. Salk. 435; in the latter book the examples mentioned are of "bailiffs and burgeffes" being changed into " mayor and burgeffes," or "" mayor and aldermen,"