Part 9

Pontage was a due payable for crossing bridges.

1194. Charter of Richard I. to the citizens of Lincoln.

... This too we have granted that all citizens of Lincoln be quit of toll and lastage throughout all England and in the seaports.

Stubbs, Select Charters, 266.

1200. Charter of John to the citizens of York confirming a grant by Richard I.

... Know moreover that we have granted and by this charter have confirmed to our citizens of York quittance of any toll, lastage, wrec, pontage, passage, or trespass, and of all customs, throughout England and Normandy and Aquitaine and Anjou and Poitou. Wherefore we will and straitly command that they be thereof quit, and we forbid that any disturb them in the matter, on pain of the forfeiture of £10, as is reasonably testified in the charter of our brother Richard.

Stubbs, Select Charters, 312.

The liability of shipwrecked goods to be forfeit to the king, or the local holder, other than the king, of the right of wreck.

The Great Value of the Market of Retford.

1329. THE KING TO THE JUSTICES IN EYRE IN COUNTY NOTTINGHAM.

Order not to molest or aggrieve the men of the town of Retford before them in eyre for holding a market on Saturday in every week in that town, as the king has granted that they may hold a market there every week on the said day during the eyre aforesaid, notwithstanding the proclamation made by the justices according to custom that no market shall be held in the county during the eyre, the men having shewn to the king that they hold the town of him at fee-ferm, and he has assigned the ferm to Queen Isabella for her life, and the greatest aid they have towards levying the ferm comes from the profit of the said market, and they have prayed the king that they may hold the fair notwithstanding the said proclamation, and the king accedes to their supplication for the reason aforesaid, and because of the distance of the town of Nottingham.

Cal. of Close, 1327-30, 585.

PRE-EMPTION AND PRISAGE.

The king exercised certain rights of pre-emption, of buying articles before they were offered for sale in the open market, and of prisage, of taking from the sellers without payment certain articles for his own use.

1207. THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF LINCOLN.

We command you that you acquit in the fair of St. Botolph all the great falcons which Henry de Hauvill and Hugh de Hauvill bought for our use in that fair, ... and moreover five hawks which they bought there for our use.

Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), I. 85.

1218. THE KING TO THE MAYOR OF LYNN GREETING.

We command you that you satisfy the merchants of the fair of Lynn as to the merchandise, namely, wax and pepper and cumin, which our bailiffs took in that fair for our use, and we shall cause payment to be made to you in London after the close of the said fair.

Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), I. 365.

1237. It was provided at Kennington before the king and his council, and granted by the king, that his bailiffs who are sent to fairs and elsewhere to buy wine and cloths and other merchandise for the king's use, shall take for his use no more than he have need of, and no more than shall be stated in the king's letters made for them as to the matter, nor anything for which they have not as warrant a royal brief. And when they come to fairs they shall take the wares and merchandise for which they have been sent at once and without long delay, lest any merchants be unjustly burdened by them, as formerly they have been burdened. And such bailiffs shall have letters so that four legal merchants of each fair, in the faith which binds them to God and the king, reasonably impose prices on the merchandise, in accordance with the diverse kinds of merchandise which the bailiffs have to buy.

Cal. of Close, 1234-7, 522.

1257. Petition of the barons in the parliament at Oxford.

The earls and barons petition ... as to the prises of the lord king in fairs and markets and cities, that those who are assigned to take the said prises take them reasonably, as much, that is to say, as pertains to the uses of the lord king; in which matter they complain that the said takers seize twice or thrice the amount which they deliver to the king's uses, and keep the rest, forsooth, for their own needs and the needs of their friends, and sell thereof a portion.

Stubbs, Select Charters, 385.

1417. A Court of our Lord the King, holden before Henry Bartone, Mayor, and the Aldermen, in the Guild-hall of London, on Tuesday, the 16th day of February....

William Redhede of Barnet was taken and attached, for that when one Hugh Morys, maltman, on Monday the 15th day of February, ... brought here to the city of London four bushels of wheat, and exposed them for sale in common and open market, at the market of Graschurch (Gracechurch) in the parish of St. Benedict Graschurch in the city aforesaid, the said William there falsely and fraudulently pretended that he was a taker and purveyor of such victuals, as well for the household of our said lord the king as for the victualling of his town of Harfleur; and so, under feigned colour of his alleged office, would have had the wheat aforesaid taken and carried away, had he not been warily prevented from so doing by the constables and reputable men of the parish aforesaid, and other persons then in the market; in contempt of our lord the king, and to the grievous loss and in deceit of the commonalty of the city aforesaid; and especially of the said market and of other markets in the city, seeing that poor persons, who bring wheat and other victuals to the city aforesaid, do not dare to come, by land or by water, through fear of the multitude of pretended purveyors and takers who resort thither from every side.

... And thereupon, by the said mayor and aldermen, to the end that others might in future have a dread of committing such crimes, it was adjudged that the same William Redhede should, upon the three market days then next ensuing, be taken each day from the prison of Newgate to the market called Le Cornmarket opposite to the Friars Minors (Greyfriars, whose house was on the site of Christ's Hospital), and there the course of the judgement aforesaid was to be proclaimed; and after that he was to be taken through the middle of the high street of Cheap to the pillory on Cornhill, and upon that he was to be placed on each of those three days, there to stand for one hour each day, the reason for such sentence being then and there publicly proclaimed. And after that he was to be taken from thence through the middle of the high street of Cornhill to the market of Graschurch aforesaid, where like proclamation was to be made, and from thence back again to prison.