The Gatehouse website record of a grant of murage for Wells granted 17/7/1341

Wells (Welles) was given a grant of murage dated 17/7/1341 but this grant was then revoked.

This was in the form of:-

Licence to crenellate {revoked}

Wording

Inspeximus and confirmation, in favour of the burgesses of Welles and their heirs and successors, of a charter dated at Westminster 10 June 18 Edward I {Calendar, Vol. II. p. 358} inspecting and confirming a charter dated at Chinon, 7 September 3 John.
With grant to the same, of further grace and for a fine of 40l. which they have made with the king, of the following privileges:-
that they shall be quit of toll, passage, pontage, lastage, stallage, paiage, quayage, tronage, picage, keueragio, morage, murage, works of castles, houses, walls, dikes, causeways and bridges and of all other aids and royal works throughout the king's realm and power;
that they may elect and create there from among themselves a mayor, bailiffs and constables of the peace for the better governance of the borough and the keeping of the peace, and coroners for the attachment of pleas of the crown, when they occur within the said borough and liberty; who after making oath according to custom shall discharge the duties of their offices; and that the coroners shall answer before the justices in eyre for the attachments aforesaid and the other duties of their office;
that there shall be a gaol in the said borough and that the burgesses shall have the keeping thereof and of all prisoners taken within their liberty;
that they shall have the return of all writs of the king and summonses of the exchequer in all matters touching their said borough or arising therein and the execution of the same by their mayor and other ministers; so that no sheriff or other bailiff of the king shall meddle therein to make summonses, distraints or attachments within their liberty nor enter their borough to do anything concerning his office save by default of the said mayor, ministers or burgesse ; that no one of them shall plead or be impleaded without the borough concerning lands or tenements within the bounds of the same or concerning trespasses, contracts or agreements arising within the said borough and liberty, but that all pleas of this kind shall be held within the borough- before the mayor and bailiffs thereof and there determined ; and moreover that they shall not, by reason of their lands or tenements within the borough or without so long as they stay within the borough, be placed upon any assises, juries or inquisitions with any men from without, nor shall such men be so placed with them, by reason of lands or tenements of that kind or of trespasses, contracts or any other matters within or without the said borough, but that assises, juries and inquisitions about matters which arise within the same and concern only the said burgesses shall be taken only in the borough; unless the pleas or the assises, juries or inquisitions aforesaid touch the king and his heirs or the commonalty of the borough;
that they may enclose and fortify their said borough according to the ancient bounds thereof with a wall of mortar and stone and with dikes and may crenellate the wall, and so hold the same.
King and Council and the fine above mentioned paid in the hanaper.
Vacat quia per considerationem curie restituitur et cancellatur sicut per recordum et processum inde facta et in filaciis de brevibus regis de anno regni regis nunc sexto decimo residentia plene liquet.

Granted by Edward III. (Regnal year 15). Granted at Tower of London. Granted by King and Council and the fine above mentioned paid in the hanaper.

Primary Sources

Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1916, Calendar of Charter Rolls 15 Edward III - 5 Henry V 1341-1417 Vol. 5. (HMSO) p. 6-7 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
Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 26 p. 98n25 online copy

Comments

Revoked per considerationem curie shortly after issue, probably as result of pressure from Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury. (see MI328)
WELLS 3550 1458. Borough 1174x80, or by c.1140 (BF, p. 159; D.G. Shaw, The Creation of a Community: The City of Wells in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1993), pp. 27-8). 1334 Subsidy £190. Bishopric 909-1090 and with Bath, Somerset (q.v.) from 1244. Market town c.1600 (Everitt, p. 471). (Letters, S., 2003, Gazetter of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (Centre for Metropolitan History) online copy)

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