Degannwy (Gannoc) was given a grant of murage dated 21/2/1252.
This was in the form of:-
Wording
Grant that the town of Gannoc shall be a free borough, and that each of the burgesses of that town shall have within the said borough half an acre to build and make a curtillage and without the borough two acres of arable land for 2s. to be paid each year to the king's bailiff there, that is 12d, at Easter and 12d. at Michaelmas; and the said burgesses may enclose the said town with a dike and wall; and they shall have a merchant gild with a hanse and other liberties and customs therto pertaining, and no one who is not of that gild shall do any merchandise in that borough, except with the consent of the said burgesses ; and if any man's bondman shall abide in the said borough, and hold land there and be in the said gild and hanse and lot and scot with the burgesses for a year and a day without claim made, he shall not thenceforth be reclaimed by his lord, but shall remain a free man in the borough; and the burgesses shall have soc and sac and thol and theam and infangenethef and shall be quit throughout the king's land of toll, lestage, passage, pontage, and stallage, of leve, stanegeld, gaywite, and all other customs and exactions through all the king's dominions whether in England or elsewhere; and they shall have all the other liberties and quittances through all the land, which the burgesses of Mungumery have; and the said burgesses shall have a yearly fair in the said borough on the vigil, the day and the morrow of St. Martin and the six days following, and a weekly market there on Tuesday ; and all merchants of the king's lands and other lands at peace with him and their merchandise coming to the said borough and there tarrying and going thence shall have freedom to come, to stay, and to go as well by sea as by land, and shall have free entry into the king's land and free exit from it without impediment from the king's bailiffs on payment of the due and right customs; and all these liberties and free customs are granted saving the liberty of the city of London.
Granted by Henry III. (Regnal year 36). Granted at Westminster.
Primary Sources
Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1903,
Calendar of Charter Rolls Henry III 1226-1257 Vol. 1 (HMSO) p. 378-9
online copy
Secondary Sources
Coulson, C., 1995, 'Battlements and the Bourgeoisie: Municipal Status and the Apparatus of Urban Defence' in Church, Stephen (ed),
Medieval Knighthood Vol. 5 (Boydell) p170n201
Ballard, A. and Tait, J. (eds), 1923,
British borough charters, 1216-1307 p. 121
online copy
Comments
DEGANWY 2782 3794. Borough 21 Feb 1252 (CChR, 1226-57, pp. 378-9). Possibly occupied by the Romans. Site of a Welsh castle. A Norman castle built here in the late eleventh century changed hands several times. The castle was destroyed in 1241, the same year as a Welsh vill is first mentioned. K Hen III ordered the castle to be strengthened in 1245 and planned a town in 1248. The castle was destroyed by the Welsh in 1263 and it is likely that the new town shared its fate. After Conwy, Wales (q.v.) was founded across the river, Deganwy was revived. The market reappeared by 1290. It was still being held in the late fifteenth century (Soulsby, pp. 120-1). See also Soulsby, p. 120. (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 09/02/2009. Last updated on 05/01/2013. First published online 5/01/2013.
