Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/122

80 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. of the city for making a distress on his private or foreign debtors, provided he offers gages and pledges to prosecute his suit against them. The following customs are taken bv the bailiffs at the gates of Winchester from persons who are not freemen of the city : — Every cart carrying corn for sale pays a halfpenny every time it comes : a horse-load pays a farthing. A cart with iron or steel, 2d. ; a horse-load, Id. A cart carrying new cart-gear, 2d. ; a horse-load. Id. A cart carrying mill-stones, 4d. ; whet-stones, 2d. A cart carrying tin or lead for sale, Ad. ; a horse-load, 2d. A cart carrying korc for dyeing, 2d. ; a horse-load, Id. Scythes and sickles in a cart pay Id. ; a horse-load, d. A cart with tanned leather for sale, 2d. ; a horse-load, Id. A cart with madder for sale, 2d. ; a horse-load, Id. A cart with woad for sale, Ad. ; a horse-load, Id. Every cotter (?) who brings ashes for woad is to pay Qd. a year to the king and a Id. to the clerk for enrolling his name, unless he comes only once in the year. The usage of the mystery of dyeing is that two prudeshomes are to be chosen by common assent, and sworn to assay the woad brought by strange merchants for sale, and to enforce the assise as against buyer and seller. Every tanner who has a board in the High Street is to pay 2^. a year for the space occupied by him in the street, and Id. to the clerk in the name of Tangahle; and every woman who sells suet or lard by retail pays Id. at Easter in the name of Smergahle. Every shoemaker who makes new shoes of cow-leather pays to the city 2d. in the name of Scogablc. These usages (that is, I presume, the usage of Tangahle, Smeargable and Shoegable) are binding on freemen as well as others. The city has a common and authentic seal, with which charters of feoffment of the city are sealed. Such charters are to be in the custody of the aldermen who shall have delivered seisin under them for a year and a day, and if after that time the charters are presented by the aldermen, who testify due livery of seisin and the keeping of them without challenge or objection by any one, then, after bans or proclamation made in the city three days before the sealing, they shall be sealed by the above seal and made good for ever. For the sealing of every charter with this seal there is due 7d. for wax, which shall include everything. The seal itself shall be kept under three keys, of which two are to be kept by two prudeshomes of the twenty-four, and one by a prudehome of the commonalty ; and the coffer, containing the seal, shall be put into a larger coffer closed with two locks, and the key of one kept by a prudehome of the twenty-four, and the key of the other by one of the commonalty. The rest of the document contains a detailed account of the pleadings and procedure in the city courts. The tenure in the city seems to have been of the nature of copyhold tenure. Seisin by livery of the bailiff's, or by other public testimony, for a year and a day unchallenged, gave an indefeasible title if the rightful owner was under no disability. If rent was in arrear for a year, and there was nothing to distrain on the premises, the landlord could recover possession of them in a year and a day by a process anal- ogous to that of Gavelet or SJiortford in the City of London, Exeter, and other citicis.