A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE A year later ' the king's visit to Dunstable found the town still in revolt. He was entreated by the prior to mediate, and in his presence the burgesses indeed consented to submit ; but as soon as his back was turned they resumed hostilities. The case went to Westminster ; the amount of fine was limited to d. as the burgesses had asked, and after a second appeal it was granted that only those who held of the prior in capite should pay the tallage. Peace seemed at last to be secured ; but the manner in which the tallage was collected by the burgesses appointed for the purpose provoked a fresh outbreak. Again the people withdrew their offerings, refused to use the prior's mills, and harried his servants in every way they could. Men and women rose in a body against the bailiff who tried to distrain any man's goods ; they said they would rather go to hell than pay the tax. They even went so far as to negoti- ate with William de Cantelow, lord of Eaton Bray, to give them forty acres where they might build another town and leave Dunstable for ever. At this juncture, when justiciars were weary of the matter, and the town was in a state of anarchy, ' the Lord visited the spirit ' of John Houghton the archdeacon, and the tempest was turned into a calm. An agreement was made by which the burgesses were to pay £60 down instead of the tallage, and were no more to be taxed individually. 2 From this time there seem to have been very few difficulties, and the relations between the prior and the tenants were on the whole quite friendly, 3 until the end of the fourteenth century. John Houghton, who plays such a prominent part in this dispute, was one of the most notable of the early archdeacons. He held office from 1 21 8 to 1231 4 (when he was transferred to Huntingdon), and was employed as a mediator in several matters more important than this. He was sent to Rome in 1228 5 with the dean of Lincoln, who had to render an account to the pope for his boldness in summoning to his chapter one of the canons who was a cardinal and an alien. He had been one of those who were sent to negotiate between the king and the followers of Fawkes de Breaute ' before the taking of Bedford Castle in 1223. In 1224 7 he was busy collecting a loan for the king in Eng- land, and the next year 8 in France. He was employed with others by the pope to inquire into the case of the abbot of Tewkesbury, who was suspected of having forged papal letters. 9 All these commissions would call out the same qualities as the troubles at Dunstable ; he must have been a man of considerable tact and sympathy, and ready to take some pains to understand both sides of the question at issue. Another archdeacon of Bedford who did important public work 1 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. p. 1 18. 2 Ibid. p. 122, where the concordia is printed in full. 3 e.g. in a quarrel between the king's falconers and the prior's men in 1276. The townspeople were quite ready to take the part of the prior (ibid. pp. 273, 274).
- Ibid. pp. 53, 128.
6 Ibid. p. 109. 6 Ibid. p. 88. ' Pat. 8 Hen. III. m. 10. 8 Ibid. 9 Hen. III. m. J. 9 Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 88, 95. 320
