Town Records

Text Pages: 527.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin & Middle English.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1100-1500

Comments: Text organized thematically, with each ordinance/custom printed in original language (many in AN) and then translated. Extensive introduction: vol. I, pp. ix-lix. Covers custumals as a source (with a list of all extant custumals she examined). Text covers type of court action (Crime and Tort: arrest, mainprise, appeal, judgements, punishments, trespasses), court procedure (summons, pledges, attachment and distress, essoins, wager of law, debt, contract); real and mixed actions (disseisin, fresh force, waste, landlord and tenant). Intro to vol. II pp. xv-xlvi covers process and execution, contract, alienation and inheritance, husband and wife, rights in land, minority, seignorial claims, wills and intestacy, and borough courts. Appendix on sursise of rent (clvii-clix). Text covers borough courts (pleading, borough officers), seignorial and family law (land, chattels, feudal dues, husband and wife), inheritance, wardship, merchant law, ecclesiastical relations. List of rarer words, Index to Custumals, Index of matters.

Text Pages: 2.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman.

Translation: Anglo-Norman to English.

Record Type: Letter.

Dates Covered: 1420.

Archival Reference: Leicestershire Record Office, Leicester Archives.

Comments: This document is an example of a letter exempting the bearer from paying tolls, due to his status as a merchant or guild member, and is taken from Mary Bateson, ed., Records of the Borough of Leicester, vols. 1-2 (London, 1899).

Text Pages: 166.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English.

Translation: Latin to English.

Record Type: Local Ordinances, Chronicle/Annal, Charter/Deed, Custumal, Taxes.

Dates Covered: 1300 – 1550.

Archival Reference: Essex Record Office D/B 5 R2, which is unavailable to the public. There is, however, public access to the microfilm copy: Essex Record Office T/A 465/158.

Comments: Since public business in the Middle Ages was judicial in character, the custumal and the court roll were the principal registers of a medieval borough’s administration. Custumals were compiled for a practical purpose: to guide, and even educate, successive generations of civic officials tasked with keeping law and order within their boroughs. Custumals may have been modified to reflect the changing needs of the community, but they also may have been copies of local laws from neighboring towns. Borough custumals are prescriptive sources that shed light on the social and economic practices in a medieval town. Colchester had two town custumals in which important memoranda—such as court cases, royal correspondences, local ordinances, oaths of office, and even town histories—were recorded. The Red Paper Book contains ordinances governing the town’s guilds and crafts, markets and trade, and the duties of civic officers. Documents such as wills, property deeds, and donations have also been enrolled. The contents of the Red Paper Book (named for its red cover) are presented as they appeared in the original text (there is a useful “Kalendar of all matters contained in this book” on pp. 2-4). Benham, the editor, only translated the Latin passages and let the Anglo-Norman French and Middle English passages speak for themselves, though he did translate and even provided editorial headings for each document. The memoranda contained within range from the early 14th century to the middle of 16th century and appear out of order (that is, they do not appear in chronological order, although the earliest portions of the custumal tend to appear at the beginning of the book). For more information on this source, see R.H. Britnell, “The Oath Book of Colchester and the Borough Constitution, 1372-1404,” Essex Archaeology and History 14 (1982): 94-101 and Growth and Decline in Colchester, 1300-1525 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin & Middle English.

Translation: Facing-page, Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Register.

Dates Covered: 1300 – 1574.

Comments: Includes a wide variety of documents including ordinances on trade (many in Anglo-Norman), the guild ordinances, the collection of town revenues, the duties of civic officials, and copies of letters received by and sent to other towns, lords, and the king.

Text Pages: 192.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English.

Translation: None.

Record Type: Custumal, Local Ordinances.

Dates Covered: 1269 – 1551.

Archival Reference: British Library MS Add. 6036.

Comments: Borough custumals recorded the local, or customary, laws of a town. They were compiled for a practical purpose: to guide, and even educate, successive generations of civic officials tasked with keeping law and order within their boroughs. Custumals may have been modified to reflect the changing needs of the community, but they also may have been copies of local laws from neighboring towns, and can shed light on social and economic practices in a medieval town. The ‘Black Book’ of Winchester seems to have been the principle register of the borough, containing lists of civic officials (especially mayors), the results of elections, property leases, oaths of fealty, and licenses. The Black Book also contains various ordinances meant to regulate the town’s crafts, victualers, market, domestic animals, apprenticeship, court procedure, and the duties of civic officers. The contents of this register (which is named for its black cover) are presented as they appeared in the original text.

Text Pages: 9.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman.

Translation: None.

Record Type: Custumal, Local Ordinance.

Dates Covered: 1356.

Archival Reference: Manuscript is lost.

Comments: Borough custumals recorded the local, or ‘customary,’ laws of a town. They were compiled for a practical purpose: to guide, and even educate, successive generations of civic officials tasked with keeping law and order within their boroughs. Custumals may have been modified to reflect the changing needs of the community, but they also may have been copies of local laws from neighboring towns, and can shed light on social and economic practices in a medieval town. The custumal of Rye is divided into 48 clauses and share many of the legal concerns found in other Cinque Port custumals: procedures and pleading in the borough courts; imprisonment, arrests, and executions; inheritance and femme sole status; bloodshed, theft, and other crimes; the duties of the bailiff and coroner; and assizes, weights, and measures to be used at market.

Text Pages: 220.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin & Middle English.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Type: Tax.

Dates Covered: 1216-1319.

Archival Reference: TNA E179/144/2 and E179/144/3.

Comments: The lay subsidies of medieval England were income taxes which assessed personal property. The wealth of every adult was assessed and, if found to be over a certain amount, taxed a fraction of the total. The records of the lay subsidies, therefore, acted as a census of taxpayers, but many peasants, women and servants, whose wealth did not meet the minimum requirement, were not recorded. The subsidy rolls list the name of each taxpayer and the amount they paid. Ekwall includes extensive notes on nearly every individual, cross-referencing other medieval documents in which each person can be found. The book incldes an appendix of occupational words or surnames, indexes of taxpayers (a separate index for each subsidy), bibliographies, an index of wards, and a list of facsimiles. The entire book, including all notes and apparatus, can be found on the British History Online website.

Text Pages: 126.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman.

Translation: Facing-page, Anglo-Norman to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Customs Accounts.

Dates Covered: 1435-1436.

Archival Reference: Southampton R.O., S.C. 5/4, item 3.

Comments: Introduction (7 pp) with comments on the manuscript and its author, the language of the accounts, and trade. The text is divided into four: the Common Book (non-Italian trade), Alien Book (the Italian trade); summary account and audit (pp. 120-3), and two indentures certifying the receipt of funds by the town bailiff (pp. 124-7). There is also a Bibliography (pp. 128-9), Glossary/index of Commodities (pp. 130-34) and Gender Index (names and places, pp. 135-40).

Text Pages: 268.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English.

Record Type: Petition.

Dates Covered: 1250 – 1450.

Archival Reference: The National Archives.

Comments: During the reign of Edward I, the practice of petitioning was established to deal with complaints against royal administration. Individuals and groups sent letters to the king, his representatives, or parliament, asking for assistance in a wide variety of grievances. This volume (a continuation of Fraser’s earlier volume, Ancient Petitions relating to Northumberland, 1966) contains petitions from the fourteenth century related to Berwick, Cumbria and Durham. Topics of the petitions include trade, defense, franchises, and legal, financial, and clerical petitions. Due to the subject regions’ proximity to Scotland, there are also a large number of petitions for compensation of war damages. The petitions are translated and calendared in English with the original Latin and French included. French entries can be found at the Anglo-Norman Hub online.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman.

Translation: Anglo-Norman to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1250-1300,

Archival Reference: Winchester College.

Comments: First printed by Edw. Smirke in The Archaeological Journal, vol. 9, pp. 69-89. A Middle English translation made in the early years of Henry VI is printed in Toulim Smith, ed., English Gilds, EETS, o.s. 40, 1870, pp. 349-69. The ordinances relate to the civic government, trade, and pleas concerning land.

Text Pages: 165.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Type: Legislation, Custumal, Charter/Deed, Local Ordinances.

Comments: The majority of the sources in the volume are royal charters given to the borough of Chesterfield, with some documents relating to the boroughs of Nottingham and Derby because the Chesterfield charters seemed to have been modeled off of previous charters granted to these towns. These charters provide for the borough’s own yearly fair and weekly market. In addition, the burgesses would have the privilege to collect the tolls, possess a merchant gild, choose their own reeve, bequeath the same customs to their heirs, and be exempted from certain taxes. Other documents include leases, pardons, grants to monasteries, and letters patent. Even though the custumal, the Chesterfield Black Book, seems to have been lost (as stated in the introductory essay), the local customs of the town seems to have survived in the documents numbered XX and XXI, which cover the following areas: the duties and elections of civic officers (especially the aldermen), the responsibilities of burgesses, disputes between burgesses, oath taking, collection of tolls, keeping the council’s secrets, rendering accounts, and use of the common pastures.

Text Pages: 462.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman

Translation: None.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1229-1350.

Archival Reference: Dublin Chain Book, ff. 6-26.

Comments: Gilbert prints the text without commentary, but gives a brief abstract of the contents in his Calendar of Dublin Records, pp. 224-32. Some clauses also translated in Bateson’s Borough Customs. The custumal’s contents cover the duties of civic officials, court procedures, sanitation and safety in the town, debts, inheritance, mercantile dealings and many other issues.

Text Pages: 5.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: None.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal, Tax.

Dates Covered: 1303.

Archival Reference: TNA, E122/157/12.

Comments: The list is written in an alternating mix of Latin and Anglo-Norman. It consists mainly of the customs due ondifferent types of commodities. There is a similar local port customs list written in Anglo-Norman for Sandwich (in William Boys, Collections for an History of Sandwich in Kent with Notices of the Other Cinque Ports, etc. (Canterbury, 1792, pp. 435-40).

Text Pages: 419.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Type: Letter, Custumal, Court Roll, Charter/Deed, Local Ordinances, Guild Records, Coroner’s Roll.

Dates Covered: 1072 – 1496.

Comments: These volumes contain nearly 500 documents related to the city of Norwich in the middle ages. The first volume includes charters, custumals and other documents designed to give information about city government. The second has a much wider assortment of documents including letters, court rolls and guild records and are intended to illuminate the social and economic history of the city. These volumes are a fantastic place to start for anyone interested in studying the city of Norwich or urban history more generally.

Text Pages: 6.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: None.

Record Type: Local Ordinances, Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1356 – 1603.

Archival Reference: British Library MS Add. 34149, ff. 62-67

Comments: Borough custumals recorded the local, or customary, laws of a town. They were compiled for a practical purpose: to guide, and even educate, successive generations of civic officials tasked with keeping law and order within their boroughs. Custumals may have been modified to reflect the changing needs of the community, but they also may have been copies of local laws from neighboring towns, and can shed light on social and economic practices in a medieval town. The custumal of Pevensey contains 14 local ordinances which cover a variety of topics: the election and oaths of bailiffs, jurats, and the town clerk; the responsibilities of the coroner; pleading in the court of the Queen’s steward; the supervision and distribution of charity of St. John’s Hospital; the form in which the sentence of death should take; pleas of land; the hunting of hares and rabbits; the manner in which the freedom should be conferred; tolls; Pevensey’s use of the customs of Hastings; and that freemen should not be sworn in civil causes.

Text Pages: 27.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1300-1350.

Comments: The beginning section is missing, but the remaining ordinances (most in Anglo-Norman) cover the responsibilities of the Jurats (the chief town officials), customs concerning trade, the freemen, inheritance, pledges, debts, crimes, and local taxes. The custumal also contains many clauses regarding the peculiar privileges of Romney as a Cinque Ports town. In addition, the editor provides extensive notes comparing Romney’s custumal to that of other Cinque Ports towns.

Text Pages: 298.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: None. English abstracts.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Register.

Dates Covered: 1352-80.

Comments: The register contains the AN custumal (see the Bibliography entry above), as well as various letters and petitions sent by or received by the town of New Romney concerning their position as a Cinque Ports town, toll disputes with other towns, protests and inquests about Romney men elected to office at a local manor, inquests on vintners, letters testifying to good conduct of visitors, instructions to tax collectors, letters to foreign port towns regarding ships captured at sea, petitions about military service, and articles for an inquest by a justice of trailbaston. About half of the documents are in Latin, particularly those for the fifteenth-century additions. Index of Places and Names.

Text Pages: 295.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: None.

Record Type: Local Ordinances, Custumal, Court Roll.

Dates Covered: 1371 – 1596.

Archival Reference: York, Archives and Local History, York Memorandum Book (B/Y).

Comments: A bibliography follows the introduction. Manuscript B/Y of the York Memorandum Book contains various laws, customs, and legal disputes having taken place in the city of York between the late 14th and late 16th centuries. These include trade regulations, definitions of property boundaries, and processes for electing officials, among other things. The pages are reproduced according to the order of the folios in the manuscript, though these are not always ordered according to chronology or subject grouping: for example, a 1456 treatise on ironmongers might be followed by 1421 statutes from the court of Henry V. Footnotes provide additional information or archival data for some of the entries. An index of people and places, and another of subjects, follows the text. Volume 3 of 3 edited by the Surtees Society.

Text Pages: 738.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: English with some Anglo-Norman sections included.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1200-1419.

Archival Reference: London Guildhall.

Comments: Compilation of civic records, including oaths, fees, and duties of civic officials; procedures, writs, and pleas in city’s courts; city charters, ordinances, and trade regulations; customs regarding inheritance, dower, freedom admission, and immorality; misc. letters and other documents. Compiled c. 1419 by John Carpenter, the Common Clerk. Vol. I: Introduction (i-cxii); Summary of contents of Liber albus (cxii-cxxxi). Vol. III (1862) includes translations of Anglo-Norman passages (pp. 3-286, vol. III), along with glossaries of Anglo-Norman and Early English (289-372) and Medieval Latin words 375-407). Appendices contain extracts from the ‘Assisa Panis’ from 21 Edw I-16 Henry VI; and extracts from the Liber Memorandum, temp. Edw. II. Glossary to appendices; Index of Festivals; and General Index (479-520) and Index to Appendices. // Translation of the whole in H. T. Riley, ed., Liber Albus: The White Book of the City of London compiled 1419 (London, 1861). Some passages also translated in H. T. Riley, ed., Memorials of London and Lodon Life, 1276-1419 (London, 1868). See also, William Kellaway, “John Carpenter’s Liber Albus’, Guildhall Studies in London History, 3 (1978): 67-84.

Text Pages: 490.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: Select sections translated into English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1300-1350.

Archival Reference: London Guildhall.

Comments: Compilation of civic records, including many city charters, ordinances, and correspondence; royal writs and proclamations; provisions to collect taxes; trade and guild regulations; and records regarding duties of civic officials, city revenues, courts, assizes, disputes with other authorities, and various court cases. Vol. II, Part I contains extracts from the Liber Custumarum. Portions now missing (some found in BL Cottonian Ms Claudius D. II (ff. 1-135, 266-77). Introduction (pp. ix-cxvi); Summary of Contents (cxvii-cxlvii). Text. Vol. II, Part II (1860) continues pagination with text to p 490. English translation of selected passages (pp. 517-623). Appendix I (pp.491-503): List of omitted portions: most are printed in Statutes of the Realm (1810), T. Rymer’s Foedera (1816-25), and Thorpe’s Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (1840). Appendix II: Charter of Wm the Conqueror to London. Appendix III (pp. 505-16): Contents of BL Claudius ms that are in Liber custumarum and Liber Legum Regum ‘Antiquorum’ (pp. 624-92). Glossary of Anglo-Norman, Saxon, and Early English Words (693-780); Glossary of Medieval Latin (781-838); Glossarial Index of Festivals and Dates (841-44); Index 9847-96).// See also N. R. Ker, “Liber custumarum and other manuscripts formerly at Guildhall,” Guildhall Miscellany, I, no. 3 (1954): 37-45.

Text Pages: 15.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman.

Translation: Anglo-Norman to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1240.

Archival Reference: Devon R.O., Misc. Roll 2.

Comments: Introduction by Schopp and R. C. Easterling (pp. 5-23) discusses the language of the custumal, the manuscript, and the contents of the custumal. Appendix I (pp. 41-50); Appendix II notes clauses cited by M. Bateson in her Borough Customs; Appendix V is a Glossary. There is also an Index. The custumal describes local customary law regarding trade, civic officials, town dues, court procedure, and tolls on goods brought into town for sale. The volume also includes facsimiles of all folios.

Text Pages: 304.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Middle English.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal and Register.

Dates Covered: 1230-1300.

Archival Reference: Southampton Rec. Off. Audit House.

Comments: Vol. I Intro (pp. v-xliii) discusses the guild merchant. Text of vol. 1 covers towns obligated to pay toll at Southampton (4-21), ordinances of guild merchant (22-81). Appendices print material from other Audit House mss; Appendix A gives translations of guild ordinances made in 1473 and 1770 (85-115). Appendix B prints ‘modern’ guild ordinances in use from 15c-19c (116-50) and Appendix C reproduces laws of mayoraly in 1473 (151-60). Vol. II Intro (pp. v-lxxi) discusses tolls, customs and trade at Southampton; assize of bread; rolls of Oleron (including their AN language). Text covers customs (in AN) charged at Southampton c. 1300 (2-17); agreement (in AN) with Salisbury on customs (18-27); assize of bread (28-37); dispute with Bp of Winchester (38-53); laws of Oleron (54-103); charter of Hospitallers (104-117); murage grant; dispute with justices of the county; fragment of accounts from late 14c; concord with Portsmouth (dated 1239); and Inquiry on bounds of town in 1253. Supplement contains notes on the Anglo-Norman dialect of Southampton (1-50); Glossary of AN (51-118); Index of Persons (129-34), Places (135-9), and Subject Matter (140-55). For corrections on dating of Laws of Oleron used by Studer, see also D. Burwash, English Merchant Shipping 1460-1540 (Toronto, 1954), 171-6. See also the entries for “The Laws of Oleron” and “The Anglo-French Ordinances of Southampton” in this bibliography.

Text Pages: 81.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman.

Translation: Anglo-Norman to English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1290-1310.

Archival Reference: Southampton R.O., Oak Book of Southampton, S.C.2/1/1.

Comments: The ordinances cover aspects of the guild merchant (i.e., the elite merchants of the town whose membership entitled them to trading privileges, the right to elect and serve as civic officials, and privileges in the local courts. The ordinances also include a list of boroughs free of toll in Southampton. Appendix A contains English translations of the ordinances made in 1473 and 1770. Text also published by Charles Gross, The Gild Merchant, vol. II (Oxford, 1890), 213-31, who drew on the transcription in Edward Smirke in The Archaeological Journal 16 (1859), 283-96, 351-2. A translation is in Davies, History of Southampton, 139-51.

Text Pages: 207.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Middle English.

Translation: Anglo-Norman to Middle English.

Record Authority: Borough.

Record Type: Custumal.

Dates Covered: 1200-1470.

Archival Reference: BL Add MS. 25,012 (AN), 25,011 (ME).

Comments: Contains Introduction (pp. vii-lxxxvii) on custumals of boroughs in England and N. France, esp. Ipswich; shows similarities between charters of la Rochelle (on maritime customs) and the Laws of Oleron (which are the customary laws, dating from c. 1300, that governed all maritime disputes in England and most of northern Europe). Also discusses other collections of maritime laws in medieval Europe, theories on origins of Laws of Oleron, and much else. Text includes Table of contents (1-13) and customs of Ispwich, which cover all aspects of town life. Remaining part of the volume print the Customs of Oleron and Judgements of the Sea (210-397); the Etablissements (Laws) of the Commune of Royan (in France) (406-29); later additions to the Rolls of Oleron on shipmasters, merchants, and mariners (432-81, in AN). Index (485-500). Note also the Glossary of Anglo-Norman and Gascon Words in Vol. IV, pp. 147-97.

Text Pages: 67.

Original Language: Anglo-Norman and Latin.

Translation: Anglo-Norman and Latin to English.

Record Type: Custumal, Local Ordinances.

Dates Covered: 1450 – 1500.

Archival Reference: Canterbury Cathedral Archive MS U4/26.

Comments: Borough custumals recorded the local, or customary, laws of a town. They were compiled for a practical purpose: to guide, and even educate, successive generations of civic officials tasked with keeping law and order within their boroughs. Custumals may have been modified to reflect the changing needs of the community, but they also may have been copies of local laws from neighboring towns, and can shed light on social and economic practices in a medieval town. The custumal of Sandwich is one of many that have survived for the Cinque Ports, all of which share many similarities. The custumal of Fordwich seems to have borrowed extensively from Sandwich in particular, and the author, in the interest of saving time, did not transcribe the passages that could be found in the printed edition of the Sandwich custumal (which appears in William Boys’ edition of the History of Sandwich). The Fordwich custumal is divided into 31 clauses covering a wide range of topics, including: regulations governing victualers and their trades; holding a hundred court; drawing weapons and assault; inheritance and selling land; purchasing stolen goods; freemen and freewomen; custody of orphans; withernam; recognizances; jurisdiction of the abbot; pleas of debt, trespass, and covenant; maritime laws; pleas of the crown; and elections.