of silver, to the brethren and sisters of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, of two acres and a half of cultivable land in the plain of Neweham.

Another parchment deed, in Latin, without date, but probably 56 Henry III., the seal lost, whereby Sibelya, daughter of Adam le Minitare, of Fouleskote, grants to Thomas, son of Robert Waryn, of Hakeburne, a messuage lying between the churchyard of St. Mary de Stalles, and the messuage of Peter, son of Osbert the baker, sixty-seven feet long and sixteen feet in depth, for a yearly payment to herself and her heirs of one clove at Easter; and to Nicholas, son of Clement the clerk, and his heirs or assigns, of six shillings; and one penny for all service to the chief lord, forty shillings of silver having been paid beforehand. Among the witnesses are Nicholas Orfeure (or Goldsmith), mayor, and others, "with the whole Burgmote."

A parchment indenture, in Latin, finely written, being a mortgage of a seld in High Street, for securing sixty shillings lent by Alexander Dublet, Mayor of Wallingford, and the gildans of the said vill, to Nicholas de Stalles, to be repaid on or before the octave of St. Faith the Virgin, in the forty-second year of the reign of Henry III. Witnesses, Sir Godfrey, Prior of Wallingford, and others, "and the whole Portemot."

A large parchment deed, in Latin, dated 56 Henry III., whereby William Alane demises for nine years, to Richard de Benetlye and Alice his wife, a messuage in the parish of St. Lucian, in Wallingford, opposite the corn-market, except the solar (solarium, "upper storey "), and outdoor (forinseca) chamber, with ingress and egress through the doors of the solar into the street. William and his heirs shall find for the said Richard and Alice a furnace and flue, a great vat, and a tub for brewing, and shall make a stable for four horses, and an outdoor chamber; but if said William shall wish to give his daughter in marriage, and to give her the messuage, then the lessees are to remove. Witnesses, Nycholas Orfeure, mayor, and others.

CHAPTER XI.

EDWARD I. AND II.-1272 TO 1327.

A.D. 1272, 1 Edward I.

THE Castle of Wallingford having descended to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, on the death of his father, with the other large possessions, the earl, on the 7th of December, brought his bride to Wallingford, and in the Castle there kept a magnificent feast, for the barons and great men.' The bride was Margaret, sister of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, whom he married about Michaelmas preceding, some six weeks before the death of the king, which took place on the 16th of November. The above feast was, therefore, celebrated about three weeks after his death.

Three years before the marriage, a great difference existed between Prince Edward and Earl Gilbert, which was referred to the arbitration of Richard, King of the Romans, who, on the 26th of June, 1269, drew up articles for their mutual agreement, one of which was that the earl should accompany the prince in his expedition to the Holy Land.t

A.D. 1273. Early in this reign, legal proceedings were instituted by Robert de Ferrers, who had lost his title of Earl of Derby in consequence of his treason in the previous reign, to recover his castles and lands, which were held by Henry the Third's son, Edmund, Earl of Leicester and Lancaster. The latter alleged that Robert de Ferrers had, in the previous reign, pledged them to him, as a security for the sum of fifty thousand pounds, covenanted by a deed of Richard de Ferrers

Chronicle of Thomas Wikes; "Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores;" Chronicle of Wallingford, vol. ii. p. 98.

+ Chronicle, Thomas Wikes.

to be paid for his release from prison, and for the redemption of these possessions, and that he failed to pay that sum, so that the property had become forfeited. The earl replied "that this deed was by him so made and sealed at Cyppeham, upon the feast day of the Apostles Philip and James, 53 Henry III., at such time as he was a prisoner there; and that, being before in the king's prison at Windsor, he was carried thence to Cyppeham, when he so sealed the same as a prisoner, and for fear of corporal mischief; and moreover, that when he had so done, he was taken thence by armed men, and conveyed with a strong guard to the Castle of Wallingford, where he remained in restraint for three weeks, until Prince Edward (afterwards king) did procure his liberty." The court gave judgment against the plaintiff, dismissing his suit, on the ground that the deed was acknowledged before the chancellor, and that every man being there was free to express his mind fully.*

A.D. 1275-76. In consequence of an inquisition respecting Crown property in Oxfordshire, whereat the jurors of the hundred of Ewelme declared that the manor of Swyncombe, in the honour of Wallingford, was anciently in the hands of the predecessors of the king, but that by what warrant and by whom it was alienated, they were ignorant; another inquisition was held in the year 1279, and the jurors found that "the Abbot and Convent of Bec, in Normandy, held the whole vill of Swyncombe, by the gift formerly of Miles Crispin, in free, pure, and perpetual alms, without reserve, with all its privileges, even as Miles himself freely held it. And these gifts and privileges belong to the said manor, videlicet, fire, water, gallows, pillory, and ducking-stool, which were confirmed by the charter of King Henry, son of the Empress Matilda. Also the aforesaid abbot and convent have a warren there, by the gift of King Henry,† the son of King John, and of ancient time a fair, which has for some time been accustomed to be held on St. Botolph's [St. Martin's?] Day, before the court-gate; and there are in demesne two plough lands, with the appurtenances, and a certain plot of wood, belonging to the said manor, and it is of

* Dugdale, "The Baronage of England," tom. i. p. 264, citing Plac. Coram Rege.

† Charter Roll, 37 Henry III., m. 7.

the honour of Wallingford." Notwithstanding this finding, the Crown, on two subsequent occasions, instituted proceedings for the recovery of this property, which lasted till the year 1285, and resulted in favour of the convent. Its abbot, by name Ymer, was, it is said, a man of ability, and a zealous defender of the rights of his order; boldly asserting that Miles Crispin the manor gave to God and St. Mary of Bec, which gift was confirmed by William the Conqueror and Henry III. He raised the issue whether the king could maintain an action for the recovery of the property against the act of his predecessors. The finding was against the Crown, and the abbot and monks held the manor till about the commencement of the reign of Edward III. without interruption; after which it fell into the king's hands, having probably been seized in time of war, as a possession in England claimed by a foreign monastery. The English revenues of such convents were frequently taken in this way, though sometimes restored on the return of peace; confiscation took place twice temp. Edward III., and restoration followed.† On the passing of the Act of Parliament of 2 Henry V. (1414), all alien priories, etc., were dissolved, and their estates vested in the Crown.

A.D. 1276. The king this year honoured his cousin Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, with a visit at his Castle of Wallingford.

He was at Wallingford the next year, and heard the complaints and quarrel that had occurred between the Prior of Dunstable and the king's falconers, who mortally wounded the prior's chaplain.§

In the following year (1278), the earl founded || the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, in his Castle of Wallingford, and endowed it with lands and rents for the maintenance of a master, five chaplains, six clerks, and four "cofferers." Two years afterwards, he further endowed the college. The charter of foundation is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.T

* Hundred Roll, vol. ii. p. 757.

Rymer, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 957, 982, and vol. iv. p. 779.

Lysons' "Magna Britannia: Berkshire."

§ "Chronicle of Dunstable."

|| Dugdale, tom. iii. pp. 34, 35.

Roger Dodsworth, MS., vol. cxxx. fol. 126.

A full account of this college, and of the other monastic institutions in the town, and of the proceedings of its last dean, the notorious Dr. London, appears in Part II.

The earl obtained the king's precept to the Barons of the Exchequer, that they should not exact more from him for the honour and Castle of Wallingford than the service of three knights' fees, by which the grant had been made to his father and his heirs in 15 Henry III.*

On the 2nd of June, 1280, the earl granted to his servant, John de le Russe, two pieces of meadow, called Pontires Eytes, lying near the Thames, in the liberty of Clapcot, for the yearly rent of one rose, to be paid in the Castle of Wallingford. The charter, in Latin, is set out in Kennett.†

The same earl built and endowed the monastery in the north suburbs of Oxford, sometime called North Oseney, and he made provision for six Cistercian monks ‡ to pray therein for the soul of his father, Richard, King of the Romans, in the place of three secular priests, who had before performed that office. He also founded, in 1283, the first college § for the order of the Bonhommes, at Asherugge (Ashridge), Bucks., where he died.

In A.D. 1279, the name of "Lord" Russel occurs, as Steward of the honour of Wallingford, attesting a charter of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall.

A.D. 1293, 21 Edward I. Wallingford is one of the oldest parliamentary boroughs, having sent members to Parliament as early as the twenty-first or twenty-third year of this reign || perhaps earlier; the representatives being the principal inhabitants of the town, most frequently the mayor and one of his colleagues, who were paid for their attendance in Parliament out of the borough funds. A few years before, namely, in 1284, the number of cities and boroughs that returned members was confined, according to Lingard, to twenty-one. In 1295, the number was increased to one hundred and ten, market towns being also represented, and afterwards the number was again augmented, and no aids were to be levied without the consent of Parliament. The ready acquiescence of the town deputies * Dugdale, "The Baronage of England."