Dunwich (Dunewic) was given a grant of murage dated 13/5/1222.
This was in the form of:-
Order to the county of Suffolk to give unspecified aid to Dunwich (? labour services to dig ditches and make sea dykes)
Wording
De petitione auxilii ad villam de Dunewic claudendam. Rex comitibus, baronibus, militibus, et omnibus libere tenentibus in comitatu Suffolchie, salutem. Monstraverunt nobis probi et fideles homines nostri de Dunewic quod fluxus maris maximam partem ville nostre de Dunewic et terre adjacentis jam occupavit et occupat de die in diem, unde nobis et vobis danmum magnum poterit evenire nisi cicius obstaculurn pretendatur. Et ideo vos rogamus affectuose quatinus, pro amore nostro et petitione, ad hoc claudendum et obstruendum, ad honorem et commodum nostrum et vestrum proprium, tale et tarn efficax auxilium de homagiis vestris prefatis probis hominibus faciatis quod vos inde honorem simul et commodum habeatis et nos vobis inde graciarum actiones merito referre debeamus. Et in hujus etc.
Teste H. etc. apud Westmonasterium, xiij die Maii, anno regni nostri vj. Per eundem.
Granted by Henry III. (Regnal year 6). Granted at Westminster. Granted by Per ipsum justiciarium et dominum Wintoniensern.
Primary Sources
Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1901,
Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1216-25) Vol. 1 p. 332-333
online copy
Secondary Sources
Coulson, Charles, 2009, Murage Grants (Handwritten list and notes)
Comments
Aid from county to protect from sea
DUNWICH 6475 2705. Borough 1066 (BF, p. 166; Darby, p. 367). Mint 1135-54. 1334 Subsidy £120. Possibly the civitas ‘Domnoc’, where an episcopal see was established in the seventh century and survived into the ninth. Dunwich appears to have grown rapidly as a town from the mid eleventh century, supplanting Blythburgh, Suffolk (q.v.) as a local centre (J.M. Wallace-Hadrill,
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: a historical commentary (Oxford, 1988), pp. 11, 17, 78;
VCH Suffolk i, pp. 451-2; BF, p. 166). In 1242, it was alleged that the market at Leiston, Suffolk (q.v.) was detrimental to the king’s free borough of Dunwich (CRR, xvi, no. 2033). In 1274-5, the A of Leiston was said to be taking customs and toll from the market at Sizewell, Suffolk (q.v.) to the damage of the vill of Dunwich (RH, ii, p. 200). Dunwich was severely eroded by the sea and lost much of its business from the thirteenth century onwards. Market town c.1600 (Everitt, p. 475). (Letters, S., 2003,
Gazetter of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (Centre for Metropolitan History)
online copy)
Record created by Philip Davis. This record created 04/01/2009. Last updated on 04/01/2013. First published online 5/01/2013.
