The title Bailiff of Ipswich was used from 1200 to 1834 for the most senior officers of Ipswich Corporation, the municipal corporation that owned property in and was responsible for the government of Ipswich. Although over 40 English towns had been granted corporate status by 1200, with the granting of the charter, Ipswich became one of the first towns to be granted the privilege of having two bailiffs elected by the inhabitants gathered in common council.[1]: 21 The office was abolished with the implementation of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, after which the most senior civic office in Ipswich was Mayor.[2]
The bailiffs were either portmen or common councillors. They were elected every September along with the town clerk and installed before a partisan dinner at Michaelmas (29 September). Their role included acting as returning officers in elections, particularly UK parliamentary elections. They were also joint trustees of several charities which in the early nineteenth century yielded about £2,000 a year.[3]
The old corporation (or Assembly) was replaced in 1835 by a Mayor, High Steward, Recorder, ten Aldermen and thirty Councillors, with the usual officers