for as the deed recites,—"if at any time, by any accident, or by any means, it should come to pass that the Friers Minors should have any property, or any thing of their own, they have agreed for themselves and their successors for ever, that it shall be lawful for us and our successors, by our own authority, to expel them from every part of our land, without the hindrance of any contradiction or appeal."
Under the same penalty of expulsion, the friers "were bound not to seek any other habitation on any part of the abbey lands, nor to extend the limits of what was already granted them, nor to request any thing but what was gratuitously and spontaneously allowed them, nor to receive any oblations, tithes, or mortuaries, due to the abbey. If the Friers should be expelled by the monks of Reading abbey, for any other causes than those above mentioned, it was agreed that they should be reinstated by the king's authority, and enjoy in their own right what had been granted them by the abbey. If the Friers should voluntarily relinquish their habitation, the buildings and scite of the edifice should belong to the abbey."
By a subsequent deed another piece of ground was granted them, immediately contiguous to the area already occupied by them. The conditions are the same as in the former grant, except the addition of a clause restraining them from interring in their cemetery, church, or any other place, the bodies of the parishioners of any of the churches belonging to the abbey in the town of Reading, or elsewhere, without special license. This deed is dated the 7th before the kalends of June, in the year 1285.
In 1288[1], Robert Fulco left by will to the Friers Minors in Reading, certain void pieces of ground in New-street, now Friers-street, adjoining to their former possessions. Edward I. in his 33rd year, 1306, issued a precept to John de London, clerk, constable of his castle of Windsor, to this effect;—"Whereas our beloved and faithful subject Robert de Lacey, earl of Lincoln, hath given to our beloved in Christ, the friers minors residing at Reading, fifty-six oaks of the most proper for building timber, in his wood of Asherigge, which is within the limits of our forest of Windsor; we connnand you that you permit the said friers to cut down the said oaks, and
- ↑ Cotton Library, Vespasian, E. V. fo. 55.
