[385] Leet Book, 379-80.
[386] Ib., 380.
[387] Corp. MS. F. 4.
[388] See Green, Town Life, ii. 315, for a similar case at Southampton. Here one "ancient" man was aged 104 years and more.
[389] Baron's Field is now part of the old cemetery.
[390] Corp. MS. C. 204. The varieties in the nomenclature of the various fields makes it difficult to pronounce decidedly whether Bristowe gained all he desired according to this arbitration.
[391] Leet Book, 375.
[392] Bristowe's case was again under discussion in 1475, see Corp. MS. D. 2. This time a verdict, given not by a Coventry jury, but by a jury of twenty-four knights from the vicinage of the city, was favourable to Bristowe, and acquitted him of the charge of assault, etc., brought against him by the corporation.
[393] Leet Book, 156.
[394] Laurence was a member of the "council of Forty-eight," Leet Book, 521, and a member of both guilds (Sharp, Antiq., 235; Leet Book, 578). In 1495 Saunders was discharged from all attendance at the mayor's council, the common council, and all other councils to be taken within the city (Ib., 564). The common council is first mentioned in 1477. Probably the "Forty-eight" and the common council were identical. The "mayor's council" consisted apparently of such of the "Forty- eight" as he cared to summon. There is no evidence that these councillors were elected by wards.