Plea Rolls for Staffordshire: 10 Edward II

Coram Rege. Mich., 10 E. II.

Staff. Richard de Calewych, and Margaret his wife, and William de Somersale were attached at the suit of Roger de Tessington, for cutting down his trees in Great Lockesleye on the Monday after the Feast of the Annunciation, 9 E. II., and taking his goods and chattels, viz.:—wheat, hay, peas, and beans, and linen and woollen cloth to the value of £10. The defendants appeared and denied the trespass, and appealed to a jury which is to be summoned for the Quindene of Hillary. m. 30.

Staff. Thomas de Seymor, William Hubert, Chaplain, Henry son of Henry de Feld, Hugh de Coleville, and two others were attached at the suit of William de Boturdon, for taking by force on the Monday after the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, 8 E. II., his goods and chattels at Feld (Field), viz.:— wheat, barley, beans, peas, oxen, cows, sheep, brass pots, pewter dishes, linen and woollen cloth, and utensils of the house, to the value of £20, and keeping possession of them for a month, and for which he claimed £40 as damages.

Thomas de Seymor and the other defendants appeared by attorney and denied the trespass, and appealed to a jury which is to be summoned for the Octaves of Hillary. m. 60.

Staff. A precept to the Sheriff, states that whereas William de Bagenold had acknowledged a debt of 60 marks, as owing to Philippa de Dutton before John de Berewyk and his Fellow Justices Itinerant in co. Stafford, in 21 E. I., and which debt had not yet been paid, as the King had been informed by Robert de Dutton and James de Weverham, the executors of the will of the said Philippa, and the Sheriff had returned that the said William was dead; he was therefore ordered to summon Geoffrey de Bagenold, the son and heir of the said William at the Quindene of Hillary, to shew cause why the said sum should not be raised from his lands and chattels to the use of the said executors. m. 113, dorso.

Staff. John de Rossinton appeared against Richard de Cressewall and Richard his son, Ralph le Marechal and Hugh de Peshall in a plea of trespass. The defendants did not appear, and the Sheriff returned that Richard de Cressewalle had been attached by Robert de Modewale, and Ralph de Cressewall, and Richard son of Richard by Elias de Flamstede, and John his brother, and Hugh de Peshale by Hugh his brother, and William de Aderdele. They are therefore in misericordiâ, and the Sheriff returned that Ralph le Marechal could not be found; he was therefore ordered to arrest him, and to distrain the others, and produce them on the morrow of the Purification. m. 60, dorso.

Staff. John de Swynnerton not appearing to prosecute his plea of conspiracy and trespass against William de Penne and John his son, and Roger brother of John, Ralph de Essington, and Magister William de Essington, the suit was dismissed, and he and his sureties for the prosecution, viz., John de Charnes and Richard de Chelle are in miscricordiâ. m. 25, dorso.

Coram Rege. Hillary, 10 E. II.

Staff. The King sent his writ to the Sheriff of co. Stafford in these words: Here follows a writ stating that whereas the King had lately granted to his beloved Clerk, Magister William de Burston, the Prebend of Cannockbury in his free chapel of Pencriz, which had been vacant and in his hands by reason of the vacancy of the See of the Archbishop of Dublin, and he had sent to John, lately Archbishop, and to the Dean of the Chapel, to induct the said William into possession of the said Prebend, and to assign to him a Stall in the Choir and a place in the Chapter by reason of the said Prebend, as was customary; certain malefactors and disturbers of the King's peace, had forcibly ejected the said Clerk whilst he was in the King's service abroad, and the Sheriff had been commanded to re-instate him in the Prebend and maintain him there, and if he found any persons impeding him, to attach them to appear coram Rege at the Octaves of Michaelmas. And as it was now shewn to the King exparte the Dean and Chapter of Lichefeld that they had held the church of Cannockbury with the tythes and all other things belonging to it ever since the first year of King Richard, the King now commands him, notwithstanding the above writ to permit the Dean and Chapter to collect the tythes without impediment, on condition of their appearing coram Rege at the Octaves of Michaelmas to shew their right, etc. Dated from Lincoln, 1st Septe nber, 9 E. II. Upon which the Bishop of Chester had appeared in person and stated that King Richard by his Charter had given and conceded to the Church of the Blessed Mary, and the Blessed Cedde of Lychefeld, and to one Hugh, then Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, the vill of Cannok with the said Church of Cannockbury to be held by him and his successors, and the said Hugh had afterwards assigned the church for the sustenance of the Canons of the said Church of Lychefeld. (Here follows the Charter of King Richard granting to the Church of the Blessed Mary and St. Cedde of Lichfield, the vill of Rugelee and the vill of Canoc, with the Churches, and the Hundreds, and all other liberties in pure and perpetual alms, etc., dated from Canterbury, 4th December, 1 Ric. I. Also the grant of Hugh the Bishop, of the Churches of Canoc, and Rugelee to the Community of the Canons of Lichfield, with the confirmation of the same grants by Henry III., dated 13th April, 14 Hen. III.)

The Bishop also produced an Inspeximus by King Edward I., of a grant of King Henry II. confirming to the Bishop Walter all the liberties which his church had possessed in the time of King Edward the Confessor and Leofric the Earl, as testified in a charter of King Henry I., and which liberties the Bishop Robert had recovered in the King's Court at Portesmude. Also another grant of King Henry II., by which he gave to the Bishop of Coventry and to his Church 1,500 acres, at the perch of 25 feet, of the assarts which had been made after the reign of King Henry I., near Lichfield, out of the King's Forest of Canoc, with those 80 acres at Brewnde which were a part of the 1,500 acres, also another grant of King Henry II., in these words, viz.:— (fn. 1) H. Dux Normannie et Aquitanie et Comes Andegevie omnibus Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Comitibus, Baronibus, etc., Salutem. Sciatis me concessisse el dedisse Deo et Ecclesie Sancti Ceade, et Waltero Episcopo et omnibus successoribus suis in elemosinam perpetuam, omnes terras de assartis de forestâ Canoci de Langedona, et de omnibus pertinentiis suis, et de omnibus terris Episcopi ubicumque sint in forestâ meâ, quicquid videlicet assartatum fuit ab olim usque ad Pentecost quo fui apud Legrecestriam, anno videlicet incarnationis domini millesimo centesimo, quinquagesimo tertio. Quare volo etc., Testibus Abbate Willelmo Rademor, Laurentio Priore Coventrense, Willelmo Cumin, Ricardo de Humet Conestabulo, Roberto de Dunestanville, Maness. Aus. (sic) (fn. 1) Dapifero Petro filio Willelmi, Dapifero Dudele Apud Warewic.

Also a charter by King Richard I., by which he granted to Hugh the Bishop of Coventry and his successors, that all his manors, and all his lands, and all his tenants should be free for ever for fines, for murder, and larceny, of County Courts, and Hundred Courts, of Sheriffs aids, of all Forest Pleas, and of all works in the King's Castles, fish-ponds, etc., dated from Canterbury, 30th November, 1 Ric. I.

He also produced a charter of King Stephen, in these words: "Stephanus Rex Anglie Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, etc., et omnibus fidelibus suis Francis et Anglicis totius Anglie, Salutem, Sciatis me dedisse et concessisse Rogero Episcopo Cestrie et ecclesie Sancte Marie de Coventre et ecclesie Sancti Chedde de Lichefelda ecclesias de Pencriz et de Stafford quas Jordanus Clericus Rogeri de Fisc: (fn. 2) tenuit de me in capite, ita quod idem Jordanus eas teneat de Episcopo et predictis ecclesiis libere et quiete in vita suâ sicut carta ejusdem Episcopi testatur quam inde habet de donatione, et post mortem ejus ecclesie ille remaneant, Episcopo et predictis Ecclesiis in sempiternam, etc. T. W. Archiepiscopo Cantuarense et H. Episcopo Wintonense et R. de Fisc: (Fischam) et Willmo Mart: (Martel), apud Westmonasterium.

And these being inspected, and no one having anything to say against them, the Bishop's right was admitted. m. 31.

Staff. Agnes, formerly wife of Ralph de Bisshebury, sued Roger Purcel of Bysshebury, and Joan his wife, and Robert son of Robert le Provost of Oxeleye in a plea of trespass. None of the defendants appeared, and the Sheriff was ordered to distrain and produce them at three weeks from Easter. m. 33, dorso.

Staff. Joan, formerly wife of John L. Estraunge, sued Laurence de Acovere, and Margaret his wife, and John de Denstone in a plea of trespass. The defendants did not appear, and the Sheriff was ordered to distrain and produce them at three weeks from Easter. m. 33, dorso.

Coram Rege. Easter, 10 E. II.

Alice, formerly wife of Philip Hastang, appealed Robert son of Humphrey de Hastang of the death of Philip her husband, and stated that the said Philip was in pace dei, etc., in the vill of Herlawe, in co. Essex, on the night of the Sunday before the Feast of the Annunciation, 10 E. II., lying in his bed in a certain camera bassa near the Hall of the said Philip, when the said Robert, son of Humphrey, came up feloniously, and with a weapon which is called a misericorde in his right hand, struck the said Philip two inches under the left breast, causing a mortal wound of which he died in the arms of the said Alice, and as soon as the said Robert had committed the said felony and homicide he fled, and Alice raised the hue and cry and followed him from vill to vill as far as the four contiguous vills, etc., and if the said Robert, son of Humphrey de Hastang, denied the said felony, the said Alice who was present, was prepared to prove it against him, as against the King's felon, and as the Court should deem fit that a woman should prove it. And the said Robert son of Philip (sic) de Hastang who was present in Court, said nothing nor answered nothing before the Justices, and being frequently questioned, refused to speak or answer the appeal of the said Alice, standing always mute. It was therefore considered by the Justices that the said Robert should undergo the penalty provided in such cases. m. 12, dorso.