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Bury St Edmunds (villam vestram Sancti Edmundus) was given a grant of murage dated 18/12/1215.

This was in the form of:-

Wording
Rex priori et sacriste Sancti Edmundus etc. Datum est nobis intelligi quod vos f'matis villam vestram Sancti Edmundus que sita est in terra pacis. Et ideo vobis mandamus quod opus inceptum ad villam illam firmandam penitus prostosni faciatis eicientes ab eadem inimicos et inimicras nostras qui in ea sunt et excommunicationis vinculo innodanter, que licet de privilegio Sancti Edmundus deberant homies ipsius et tenentes de feodo suo tuti existose: excommunicationicati tenen ex hoc in nullo meruerunt defensiomem habere vel tutamem. Igitur si hoc mandatum nostrum non adimpleveritis et nos forsitan illuc non venerimus tales illuc mittemus que hiis meritis veris exigentibus graviora vobis inferent mala quam si nos praesencialer adessemus. Prius autem vos super hoc monendos duximus quam gravandos. T. me ipso apud Sanctum Albanus. xviij. die Dec. annus ut supra.

Granted by John. (Regnal year 16). Granted at St Albans.
Primary Sources
Hardy, T.D. (ed), 1835, Rotuli Litterarum Patentium in Turri Londinensi Asservati (1201-16) (Record Commission) p. 161 online copy

Secondary Sources
Coulson, Charles, 2009, Murage Grants (Handwritten list and notes)

Comments
tenants of Bury St Edmunds to go to defend town. monks of Bury not to fortify town against the truce. (Coulson)
BURY ST EDMUNDS 5856 2640. Borough 1022x43 (BF, p. 165). Mint 1042-1154. 1334 Subsidy £360. A monastic settlement from the seventh century. Site of shrine dedicated to K Edmund the martyr. There was a vigorous small town here in 1086, enlarged and reshaped since 1066 (Little Domesday, fo. 372). The name ‘seynt Eadmundes biri’ does not necessarily indicate the existence of a town by 1043 (cf. BF, p. 165). In 1102-3, K Hen I confirmed the monastery and burgesses in the liberty they enjoyed under K Cnut and K Edw the Confessor, indicating a belief that there had been a town there by 1035. The single moneyer active at Bury c.1048-c.1065 was not very productive and probably indicates the status of the abbey rather than market activity, which perhaps took off in the 1060s. The market is later recorded as being in existence by 1087. Town enlarged in the twelfth century, in conjunction with the building of the new abbey ch. In 1202, the A of St Edmunds paid 40m. and 10m. for two palfreys for a royal charter by which no markets or fairs would be established in the liberty of St Edmunds that would damage his liberty (D. Whitelock ed., Anglo-Saxon Wills (Cambridge, 1930), pp. 74, 185; Regesta ii, no. 644; D.M. Metcalf, An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon and Norman Coin Finds, c.973-1086 (London, 1998), pp. 157, 215; PR, 4 John, p. 115). See also the entry for Freckenham, Suffolk (q.v.). Market town c.1600 (Everitt, p. 475). Fair 1587, 21 Sept; 13 Nov (Harrison, p. 396). See also B. Gauthiez, ‘The planning of the town of Bury St Edmunds: a probable Norman origin’ and M. Statham, ‘The medieval town of Bury St Edmunds’, in A. Gransden ed., Bury St Edmunds: medieval art, architecture, archaeology and economy British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions xx (Leeds, 1998), esp. pp. 93, 99, 101-2. (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 17/04/2009. Last updated on 04/01/2013. First published online 5/01/2013.

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