[169] i.e. Trial by battle.
[170] i.e. Trial by jury.
[171] The case was again adjourned and the judgment has not been found.
6. The Affiliation of Boroughs [Charter Roll,11 Henry III, p. 1, m. 13, No. 117], 1227.
The King to all, etc., greeting. Know ye that we have granted and by our present charter confirmed to our burgesses of Bedford all their liberties and customs and laws and quittances, which they had in the time of the lord King Henry, our grandfather, specially their gild merchant with all their liberties and customs in lands and islands, in pastures and all other their appurtenances, so that no one who is not in that gild do any trafficking with them in city or borough or town or soke. Moreover we have granted and confirmed to them that they be quit of toll and pontage and stallage and lastage and passage, and of assarts and every other custom throughout the whole of England and Normandy by land and water and by the seashore, "bilande and bistrande," and have all other customs throughout the whole of England and their liberties and laws which they have in common with our citizens of Oxford,[172] and do their trafficking in common with them within London and without and in all other places. And if they have any doubt or contention touching any judgment which they ought to make, they shall send their messengers to Oxford, and what the citizens of Oxford shall adjudge hereon, that they shall hold firm and fixed and certain without doubt, and do the same. And we forbid that they plead without the borough of Bedford in aught whereof they are charged, but of whatsoever they be impleaded, they shall deraign themselves according to the laws and customs of our citizens of Oxford, and this at Bedford and not elsewhere; because they and the citizens of Oxford are of one and the same custom and law and liberty. Wherefore we will and straitly command that our aforesaid burgesses of Bedford have and hold their aforesaid liberties and laws and customs and tenures well and in peace, freely and quietly, fully and honourably, with soc and sac and tol and theam and infangenethef,[173] and with all other their liberties and free customs and quittances, as well and entirely as ever they had them in the time of King Henry, our grandfather, and as fully and freely and entirely as our citizens of Oxford have those liberties and as the charter of King Richard, our uncle, which they have thereof, reasonably testifies. Witnesses as above. Given [at Westminster on 24 March in the 11th year of our reign].
[172] Oxford was also affiliated to London by charter of 13 Henry III. [Charter Roll, 13 Henry III., p. 1, m. 12.]
[173] i.e. General rights of jurisdiction.
7. Bondman Received in a Borough [Bracton's Notebook, III, 243, No. 1228], 1237-8.
Order was made to the bailiffs of Andover that at the first coming of the lord the King to Clarendon they shew cause to the lord the King, wherefore they have detained from Everard le Tyeis William of Amesbury, his bondman and fugitive, inasmuch as he claims him at the time and hours, as he says, etc.
And Adam de Marisco and other bailiffs of Andover come and say that the aforesaid William was at one time dwelling at Wilton and was a travelling merchant and married a woman in the town of Andover, and within the year in which he married the same Everard came and sought him as his bondman and fugitive, but they refused to deliver him to him and dared not without the lord the King's command.