Murage was granted twice, in 1315 (Rot. Parl. I. 302) and in 1337 (CPR, 387) (Turner)
It is not known if the bishop actually granted the murage. The vice-regal status of the bishop must have been known to the townsmen and that he had the authority to grant murage but they have petitioned the king through parliament, suggesting some difficulty in their relationship with the bishop (although they may also have wished for their difficulties to be more widely known in the kingdom). This should be compared with the relationship between the town and bishop of Wells in the 1340s where the bishop actively blocked the towns ambitions for walls. However, at Durham the existing town walls were strengthened, about this time, and the military threat to the city was certainly perceived as higher (and it had been attacked in 1312) so it would seem likely the bishop allowed murage to be taken and this petition is reasonably evidence of the date and form of (some) of the funding for this work.
DURHAM 4274 5420. Borough 1130 (BF, p. 106; BF, supplement, p. 62). Mint 1066-1154. Natural fortress on peninsula site overlooking river Wear. Traditionally, the site was settled c.995 by the community of St Cuthbert. It subsequently became one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in England. See of the bishopric was transferred from Chester-le-Street, Co. Durham (q.v.) to Durham in 990. The city was administrative centre of the largely autonomous region that the bps controlled and its principal market town. By 1200 there were four boroughs at Durham. The Bishop’s borough (also known as the borough of Durham), was held by the bp. The burgesses of the borough of Durham are first recorded in 1130; in c.1179, Bp Hugh du Puiset granted them the free customs of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland (q.v.). The three other boroughs were first recorded in the twelfth century. Old Borough (also called Crossgate) was held by Durham priory. The borough of Elvet (or New Elvet) was developed by Bp Puisset but granted to the priory; the burgesses of the new borough of Elvethalge were granted a charter by Prior Bertram and the convent in 1188x1219. The fourth borough, that of St Giles, first recorded in c.1180, was originally held by the bp, who granted it to Kepier hospital. Whilst these boroughs were physically separate when established, they subsequently developed and merged together. Only the bp’s borough had a market; the other three were unusual boroughs, in that they did not have markets (M. Bonney, Lordship and the Urban Community: Durham and its Overlords 1250-1540 (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 9-10, 26-9, 41-9; R.H. Britnell, ‘Boroughs, markets and trade in northern England, 1000-1216’ in R.H. Britnell, R.H. Hatcher eds., Progress and Problems in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1996), p. 51; BF, pp. 106-7, supplement, p. 62). Market town c.1600 (Everitt, p. 468). Fair 1587, 20 Mar (Harrison, p. 393). (Letters, S., 2003, Gazetter of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (Centre for Metropolitan History) online copy)