The Gatehouse website record of a grant of exemption for murage for

abbot and convent of Westminster was granted an exemption from murage dated 18/12/1393.

Wording

Among the liberties granted to the abbot and convent of Westminster by St. Edward and other kings of England, which the present king has confirmed to them, it was granted that they should have all manner of liberty for ever; and that if any of their men not being earls or barons for any fault ought to lose life or limb or should fly and refuse to abide judgement or should do aught else for which he ought to lose his chattels, in whatever court justice ought to be done on him, the chattels should go to the abbot and convent, who might put themselves in seisin thereof without impediment in the said cases, as also in all others in which the king's bailiffs could have taken the said chattels as belonging to the king;
and that if any of the tenants of the abbot and convent or of their cells should forfeit the fee, which he held of the said abbot and his cells, the abbot and convent may put themselves in seisin thereof and hold that fee, notwithstanding the king's claim to possession for a year and a day;
and that if any of their men or tenants, not being earls or barons, were amerced before the king, his justices, sheriffs, constables, foresters, bailiffs and their or other ministers, the abbot and convent shall have all amercements, and fines for licence to agree, with power to distrain for the same; and if by any chance these have been collected by the king's bailiffs, they shall be restored at the Exchequer to the abbot and convent by the view of the treasurer without diminution;
which liberties were granted and confirmed in frank almoin with all liberties and free customs, which the king can grant to any religious house ; and now the king has heard that the abbot and convent are impeded in their enjoyment of the same in the Exchequer and the Marshalsey and elsewhere, on the ground that it appears to the officers of those places (placearum) that certain words in the said charters are too general and not sufficiently specific;
now therefore, the king, at the petition of the said abbot and convent and for the removal of ambiguity hereby declares the said liberties and franchises as follows:
the abbot and convent shall have all goods and chattels of their men and tenants, free or bond, and of all dwellers upon their lands and fees, who are outlawed for felony, contempt, trespass, debt, account or any other reason at the suit of the king or at the suit of a party, and all the goods and chattels of the same, being suicides (felonum de seipsis), felons, fugitives, or condemned, so that if any of the men, tenants or dwellers aforesaid for any felony or other reason ought to lose life or limb or fly and refuse to abide judgement or be outlawed, or do aught else for which he ought to lose his goods and chattels, in whatever court justice ought to be done, whether before the king or the justices of either bench, or in the chancery or Exchequer or before the steward and marshals and clerk of the market of the king's household, or before the king's justices in eyre for common pleas, pleas of the crown and pleas of the forest, or before justices assigned to hear and determine felonies, trespasses and other matters at the suit of the king or of others, or before justices assigned to take assizes, juries, certifications, or any other inquisitions and to deliver gaols, or before keepers of the peace, or before justices assigned to administer the statutes and ordinances of craftsmen, labourers, servants, victuallers and of weights and measures, or before any other justices, officers, or ministers of the king whether in his absence or in his presence and in all other courts, leets or places (placets), the said goods and chattels shall go to the abbot and convent, who may put themselves in seisin thereof without impediment in the above cases or in any others in which the king's officers could have seized the same for the king's profit;
and the said abbot and convent and their cells shall have all fines for trespasses, oppressions, extorsions, deceits, conspiracies, conceal- ments, regrating, forestalling, maintenances, and other delicts, all fines for licences to agree, all amercements, ransoms, forfeited issues, forfeitures, as well of attaints as of other matters, year, day and waste, deodands, treasure trove and all that could belong to the king from year, day and waste and from murders and all felonies of all their men and tenants, as well as of the said residents, in any court of the king's as in the foregoing list of courts, where the said men, tenants and residents may chance to make fine be amerced, forfeit issues or where year, day and waste, forfeitures, deodands, treasure trove, murders or felonies may be adjudged, all the which ought to belong to the king, if they had not been granted to the abbot and convent ; and they and their cells may collect the same by their ministers without any impediment;
moreover among the other liberties granted to the abbot and convent by the king's progenitors and confirmed by him it was granted that they and their men holding of them should be quit of all toll in every market and in all fairs and in all passage of bridges, waters, ways and the sea through all the king's realm and wherever the king can give such liberties, and that all goods (mercimonia) of them and their men shall be free in like manner;
and now therefore the king, of special grace, and by the advice of his council hereby grants that the abbot and convent and their cells and all their men and tenants and the said residents shall be quit of all toll, pontage, pavage, murage, passage, stallage and picage in the said places. By p.s. {9195.}

Granted by Richard II. (Regnal year 17). Granted at Westminster. Grant by By p.s..

Primary Sources

Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1916, Calendar of Charter Rolls 15 Edward III - 5 Henry V 1341-1417 Vol. 5. (HMSO) p. 340-42 view online copy

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