The Gatehouse website record of a grant of murage for Boston granted 22/5/1285

Boston (Boston) is said to have been given a grant of murage dated 22/5/1285 but this report is rejected.

This was in the form of:-

Surtax:- for 1 year Starting 3/6/1285 running to 15/8/1286.

Wording

The town of Boston appears at this time to have been surrounded by a wall, for, in 1285 (13 Edward I.), a grant was made by the King to the bailiffs and burgesses, and other good men of the town of Boston, of a toll in aid of repairing the said walls, at the instance of John de Brittany, Earl of Richmond. This toll was granted for one year, and was as follows:—
"For every weight (256 pounds) of cheese, fat, tallow, and butter for sale, one farthing;
for every weight of lead for sale, one farthing;
for every hundredweight of wax for sale, one halfpenny;
for every hundredweight of almonds and rice, one halfpenny;
for every hundredweight of pepper, ginger, white cinnamon, incense, quicksilver, vermilion, and verdigrease for sale, one farthing;
for every hundredweight of cummin seed, alum, sugar, liquorice, aniseed, picony roots, or pimentum, one farthing;
for every hundredweight of sulphur, potter's earth, bone of cuttle-fish, rosin and copperas, one farthing;
for every great frail of raisins and figs for sale, one farthing;
for every hundredweight of cloves, nutmegs, mace, cubebs seed, saffron, and silk for sale, one penny;
for every 1000 yards of the best grey cloth for sale, one penny;
for every 1000 yards of Russet cloth, one farthing;
for every hundred of rabbits for sale, one farthing;
for every timber (40 skins) of fox-skins for sale, one farthing;
for every dozen of leather for sale, one halfpenny;
for every dozen of whet-stones for sale, one farthing;
for every ton of honey for sale, one penny;
for every tun of wine for sale, one halfpenny;
for every sack of wool, one halfpenny;
for every sieve of salt, one farthing;
for every ton of ashes and pitch, one farthing;
for every hundred of deal boards, one halfpenny;
for every barrel of steel wire, one farthing;
for every hundred of canvas, one farthing;
for every great truss of cloth, one penny;
for every 1000 stock fish, one penny;
and for all sorts of merchandise not enumerated, one farthing for every 20s. worth.
The year having been completed, the custom to wholly cease and be abolished."
Records of the Court of Chancery, Tower, dated 22 May, 13 Edward I. (1285). We have given the table of tell at length, because it exhibits an enumeration of the articles then brought to the market at Boston for sale, which we do not know where else to look for. These tolls were also granted in aid of the repairs of the town pavement.—Patent Rolls, 13 Edward I . (1285). (From Thompson)
-----
May 22. Westminster.
Grant, at the instance of John de Britannia, earl of Richmond, to the bailiffs and burgesses and the other good men of Boston of pavage, from Sunday in the Octave of Trinity, 13 Edward I., until one year after the Assumption. (CPR)

Granted by Edward I. (Regnal year 13). Granted at Westminster.

Primary Sources

Records of the Court of Chancery, Tower,
Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1893, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward I (1281-91) Vol. 2 p. 165 (grant of pavage 1285) online copy

Secondary Sources

Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 118
Thompson, P., 1856, The Histories and Antiquities of Boston (Boston: John Noble, jun.) p. 43-44 online copy

Comments

There are no murage grants: that claimed as support for the statement that walls were begun in 1285 (P. Thompson, Collections for an account of Boston, 1820, 32) is in fact a pavage grant (CPR, 165). There is no certainty that the ditch marked on Hall's map of 1741 was ever defensive in character ( Med. Arch., II. 200; ibid., V, 323). (Turner 1971)

Thompson does actually reference the patent roll entry as pavage (Thompson 1856 p. 44n1) but cites, as his source for a grant of murage, Records of the Court of Chancery, Tower. Both sources quoted by Thompson have the same date (22 May 1285). I've no idea what Thompson's source _Records of the Court of Chancery, Tower_ actually is/was; It may have been a handlist copied by someone from the original parchment rolls, previously held in the Tower of London but now at The National Archives Kew. It may be these two sources are two different official duplicates of the same lost original patent letter sent to Boston where murage was used in one and pavage in the other; equally it may be these are both copies taken from the same roll where one person has transcribed murage and the other pavage. In print this sort of transcription error seems pretty obvious but the highly abbreviated and minuscule hand of the original court scribe is difficult to read particular in the rather dark conditions of the Tower of London in the C19 using candlelight. Even in good light sometime transcription is a bit of guesswork. The scholarly Calendar, done by experienced men who had their eye in for the medieval hand, is more likely to be the correct transcription. However, this could be resolved by looking at the original roll at The National Archive.

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