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in the library of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge
until probably in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Romney was fortunate in having the service as Common Clerk
of such a shrewd and capable man as Daniel Rough. He was a fishmonger
who carried on a large business trading to London, Hertford, Dover,
Bury, St. Albans, Cambridge, Newmarket, Wallingford, Kirkby and
Uxbridge, as was discovered from a fragment of his accounts in the
binding of a later Court Book of the town. The Register consists of
three parts. Rough began with the custumal in Anglo-French containing
the rules by which the town was governed, those for legal procedure, and
details concerning the Cinque Ports Court of Shepway. The custumal was
drawn up for presentation to the Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1356, and
Miss Murray suggests that possibly many of the customs had not
previously been put in writing. Next to the custumal, Rough entered the
table of Maletolts, a general tax paid on all goods, bought or sold in
the town. This was followed by the general charter of the Cinque Ports
of 1278 by which Edward I granted them jointly the liberties hitherto
enjoyed under individual charters. Next to the General Charter, Rough
transcribed Edward II's Inspexmus of the charters granted to Lydd and
Dengemarsh by Henry II in 1155 and Edward I in 1290. The importance to
Romney of these charters was that Lydd was bound to provide one of the
five ships due from Romney and therefore enjoyed all the liberties of
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Cinque Ports. The Lydd charter of 1290 throws light
on the reason for the excommunication in June 1298 of fifteen leading
men of Lydd by their overlord, the Archbishop of Canterbury.1
He charged them with procuring the renewal of a charter which deprived
the church of Canterbury of rights and privileges. The men made
submission and were absolved, but as they refused to seal a bond to make
no use of the charter, the sentence of excommunication was renewed four
months later. Nevertheless it failed of its purpose. The relations of
Romney with the Archbishops of Canterbury were uneasy; as overlord the
Archbishop appointed the bailiff who was the official head of the town,
and Romney was unable to elect a Mayor until late in the sixteenth
century. In 1298 Archbishop Winchelsey told his men and tenants of
Romney when they quarrelled with each other and with the men of
Winchelsea that they were not merely subject to him as their spiritual
lord, as they admitted, but as their temporal overlord.2
On behalf of the barons of the Cinque Ports, on October 30th, 1298, he
wrote to Edward I asking for speedy justice against the men of Yarmouth
who had deprived them of their long enjoyed liberties at the recent
Michaelmas fair.3
1 Register of Archbishop
Winchelsey, pp. 256, 288 (Canterbury and York Society).
2 Ibid., p. 277.
3 Ibid., p. 289. |