Totnes, Devon, England received its first borough charter from King John and the recorded list of mayors dates from 1359. The town was incorporated in 1505 with a governing structure consisting of a mayor, recorder and a single council of burgesses. A further charter in 1596 concentrated power in the hands of the town's leading merchants, redefining the corporation as a governing body of 14 ‘masters’, including the mayor, with an inferior council of 20 burgesses. The masters filled vacancies in their ranks by co-option and nominated the mayoral candidates.^[1]

The following have been mayors of Totnes:

1396–98: Walter Browning (MP for Totnes), 1388 ^[2]
1399–1400: Walter Browning
1401–03: Walter Browning
1517-1518: John Giles^[3]
1535-37: Christopher Savery^[4]
1548-49: Christopher Savery
1556-57: Christopher Savery
1585–86: Nicholas Ball^[5]
1589–90: Nicholas Hayman^[6]
1593–94: Leonard Darr^[7]
1598–99: Philip Holditch (MP for Totnes, 1601) ^[8]
1605–06: Christopher Wise ^[9]
1612-13: Richard Rodd^[10]
1620: Richard Lee (d.1620)^[11]
1621–22: Christopher Wise
1623–24: Philip Holditch II (son of Philip Holditch above, MP for Totnes, 1626) ^[12]
1638–39: Philip Holditch II

1687 Robert Symons

1718–19: Nicholas Trist (High Sheriff of Devon, 1708)
1737–38: Nicholas Trist (High Sheriff of Devon, 1708)
1754-55: Benjamin Babbage (grandfather of Charles Babbage)^[13]
1780–81: William Adams (MP for Plympton Erle 1796–1801 and Totnes 1801–11)
1788–89: William Adams
1797–98: William Adams
1866–67: Thomas Edward Owen^[14]
1870–1871: Robert W.Chaster
1872: Robert Bourne
1873: James Smith Rose
1874–1875: Jeffery Michelmore
1876–1877: Joseph Roe
1878: John P.F.P.Haines
1879: Jeffery Michelmore
1880–1881: Edward Harris
1882–84: Frederick Bowden ^[15]
1902-03: Dr. J. G. Gibson^[16]
1945–1946: Lilley Ramsden (1st Female Mayor of Totnes)
1950–51: Charles Stanley Jacka ^[17]
1970–71: Jean M Gilbert ^[18]

21st century

2001–02: Pruw Boswell-Harper
2003–04: J.A. Westacott
2004–05: Jim Parkes
2005–07: Pruw Boswell-Harper
2008–09: David Horsburgh
2009–10: Jean Rosemary Harrop
2010–11: Anthony Whitty
2011–12: Judy Westacott
2012–14 Pruw Boswell-Harper
2014–16: Jacqui Hodgson ^[19]
2016–17 Eleanor Cohen
2017–18 Rosie Adam
2018–19 Judy Westacott

References

^ "Totnes". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ "BROWNING, Walter, of Totnes, Devon". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
^ "mayors of totnes - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
^ Members Constituencies Parliaments Surveys. "SAVERY, Christopher (by 1502-60), of Totnes, Devon". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
^ Members Constituencies Parliaments Surveys. "BALL, Nicholas (d.1586), of Totnes; later of Dartington, Devon". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
^ Members Constituencies Parliaments Surveys. "HAYMAN, Nicholas (d.1606), of Totnes; later of Dartmouth, Devon". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
^ "DARR, Leonard (C.1554-1615), of Totnes afterwards of South Pool, Devon. | History of Parliament Online".
^ "HOLDITCH, Philip (D.c.1608), of Totnes and Blackawton, Devon. | History of Parliament Online".
^ "Christopher Wise (c.1566–1628), Mayor of Totnes (1605 & 1621)". Art UK. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ "RODD, Richard (-d.1633), of Totnes, Devon and Rodd, Herefs. | History of Parliament Online".
^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.527, pedigree of "Lee of Pinhoe"
^ "HOLDITCH, Philip (by 1587-1654), of Totnes, Devon". History of Parliament online. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ "Devon Perspectives-On Charles Babbage". Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ Robert Henry Mair, The School Boards: Our Educational Parliaments (London: Dean and Son, 1872), 332
^ "Frederick Bowden (1819–1903), Mayor of Totnes (1883)". Art UK. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ "Election of Mayors". The Times. No. 36922. London. 11 November 1902. p. 12.
^ "Charles Stanley Jacka (1893–1970), Mayor of Totnes (1950–1951)". Art UK. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ "Mayor Choosing in Totnes Guildhall". Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
^ "Councillors". Totnes Town Council. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2014.

Lists of civic mayors (excluding lord mayors) in the United Kingdom

England

Mayors

Wales

Mayors	Monmouth

Scotland

Provosts	Elgin Inverness Montrose Peterhead

Northern Ireland

Mayors	Castlereagh Causeway Coast Coleraine (to 2015) Craigavon Derry City and Strabane Larne Lisburn Lisburn and Castlereagh Newry Newtownabbey North Down

Ireland (pre-1922)

Mayors	Galway Waterford