[417]. I may quote a statement recorded of Congham Manor. ‘In 1349 Thomas de Baldeswell presented to the church aforesaid, as chief lord of this fee; in 1367, Adam Humphrey, of Refham, and in 1385, but soon after, in 1388, Adam Pyk; and in 1400, Edmund Belytter, alias Belzeter, who with his parceners,’ &c. (Hist. Norf., viii. 383.) The said Edmund is also met with elsewhere as ‘Belleyeter’ and Belyetter.’
[418]. Another ‘Ralph Balancer’ was sheriff of London in 1316.
[419]. This weight was abolished in 1351, and the balance made universal. ‘Item, whereas great damage and deceit is done to the people by a weight which is called Auncel (par une pois qu’est appelle Aunsell), it is accorded and established that this weight called Auncel betwixt buyers and sellers shall be wholly put out, and that every person do sell and buy by the balance.’ (Stat. Realm, vol. i. p. 321.) Cowell, in his Interpreter, suggests as the origin of the term ‘auncel’ handsale, that is, that which is weighed by the poised hand!
[420]. Another form is found in 1389. William Parchmenter was seized for holding independent views of the Sacraments. (Nicholls’ Leicester.)
[421]. In the Exchequer Issues we find the following:—‘To John Heth, one of the clerks in the office of privy seal of the Lord the King, in money, paid to his own hands, in discharge of 66s. which the said Lord the King, with the assent of his Council, commanded to be paid to the said John, for 66 great “quaternes” of calf skins, purchased and provided by the said John to write a Bible thereon for the use of the said King.’ In an old Oxford indenture between the University and the Town, dated 1459, we find the more usual ‘parchemener’ spelt ‘pergemener.’ The agreement includes ‘Alle Bedels with dailly servants, and their householdes, alle stacioners, alle bokebynders, lympners, wryters, pergemeners, barbours, the bellerynger of the universitie,’ &c. (Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 346.)
[422]. Another ordinance has the following:—‘And that all Jews shall dwell in the Kings own cities and boroughs, where the chests of chirographs of Jewry are wont to be’ (‘ou les Whuches (hutches) cirograffes de Geuerie soleient estre’). [Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 221.)
[423]. ‘Nicholas Cotes, lummer.’ (Corpus Christi Guild, York.)
[424]. In the Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 550, we find a quarrel settled by the Chancellor between ‘John Conaley, lymner,’ and ‘John Godsend, stationarius.’ Through him it is arranged that the former shall occupy himself in ‘liminando bene et fideliter libros suos.’ In the York Pageant the ‘Escriveners’ and ‘Lumners’ went together.
[425]. Thus in Kaye’s description of the siege of Rhodes it is said: ‘Anone after that the Rhodians had knowledge of thees werkes a shipman wel experte in swymmyng, wente by nyghte and cutted the cordes fro’ the ancre.’
[426]. In the Itinerarium of Richard I. we find it recorded that while the Christians were besieging Acre Saladin’s army began to hem them in. ‘In hoc itaque articulo positos visitavit eos Oriens exalto; nam ecce! quinquagintas naves, quas vulgo coggas dicunt, cum duodecim millibus armatorum, tanto gratias venerunt quanto nostris auxilium in angustia majore rependunt.’—p. 64. The Cog was evidently in common use as a transport. To judge from the following entries, it was, in some cases, at any rate, of considerable size:—‘Henrico Aubyn, magistro coge Sancti Marie, et 39 sociis suis nautis, 23l. 12s. 6d.’ ‘Thomo de Standanore, magistro coge Sancti Thomæ, et 39 sociis suis, 23l. 12s. 6d.’ (Ed. I. Wardrobe.)