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1 I '

SERIES or LITERARY AND
HISTORICAL STUDIES

No. I

THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF
SNOWDONIA

THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS
OF SNOWDONIA

A Study of the Rise and Development of the
Municipal Element in the Ancient Principality of
North Wales down to the Act of Union of 1536

BY
EDWARD ARTHUR LEWIS, M.A.

SOMETIME RESEARCH FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES

Thesis approved for the Degree of Doctor of Science (Econ.)
in the University of London

Published on behalf of the Guild of Graduates

of the University of Wales
BY HENRY SOTHERAN & CO.

PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS TO H.M. THE KING

140 STRAND AND 43 PICCADILLY

LONDON

1912

972738

PREFATORY NOTE

THE following essay is printed in substantially the same form
as it was compiled some time ago in candidature for a Research
Degree in the University of London. It is an extension and
amplification of a dissertation on * The Municipal Element in
the Principality of North Wales ' which was approved for the
M.A. Degree in the University of Wales in June 1902. The
essay embodies some of the results of my work in Welsh
History as a Research Fellow of the University of Wales,
1902-1905.

My thanks are especially due to Mr. Hubert Hall of the
Public Record Office, not only as Tutor of the Seminar Class
for Advanced Historical Studies conducted by him at the
London School of Economics, but also as a patient adviser
and sincere friend. I am also indebted to Professor Tout,
Mr. I. S. Leadam, and Professor Edward Edwards for several
kind criticisms and helpful suggestions. Mr. J. H. Davies and
Mr. Edward Owen have throughout allowed me to draw freely
from their unique knowledge of the sources of Welsh History,
and have shown me much personal kindness. I also desire to
express my gratitude to the authorities at the Public Record
Office and the British Museum for their ready and courteous
assistance in consulting the manuscripts in their charge; and,
finally, to the authorities of the University of Wales and its
Guild of Graduates for enabling me to pursue the work and
publish it in its present form.

71 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

In passing the essay through the press I have received valu-
able assistance from Mr. W. P. Wheldon of London and Mr.
G. R. Carter of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Mr. Carter is mainly responsible for the General Index.

EDWARD ARTHUR LEWIS.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES,
ABERYSTWYTH, April 1912.

OUTLINE SYLLABUS OF THESIS

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

Urban elements in Wales down to 1284. The dinas of the British
period. The Roman forts in Wales (map) ; their decay. The
caer of the Dark Ages. Influence of the Danes. Social Wales
at the close of the twelfth century. Welsh towns before and
after the Norman conquest. The urban centres of Gwynedd,
Ceredigion, and the Vale of Tywi. Their non-municipal
character. The rise of the Norman or English boroughs. Pro-
gress of the movement up to 1284. The main characteristics of
these boroughs — their baronial origin ; their political function ;
their affiliation ; and their adoption of the laws of Breteuil.
Illustrative lists showing (i) the burgi founded in Wales before
and after 1284 (map) ; (ii) the relation of Hereford and the
Welsh boroughs. The non-municipal character of Snowdonia,
or 'The Principality of North Wales.' The exact scope of
the present thesis .........

CHAPTER II

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF THE NORTH
WELSH BOROUGHS

A new era in the history of Wales. Period of settlement. Edward
i.'s policy. The Statute of Rhuddlan. The castle and borough
as one of the anglicising factors. The early building of the
castles and their garnishment for a special purpose. Number
and nature of the original garrisons. Costs of maintenance.
Importance of the victualling problem. Dependence of the
castle on its neighbouring district. Division of North Wales
into castle and market districts. Common function of castle
and borough. The borough founded 'for the munition of the
castle.' The North Welsh boroughs and the category of
boroughs known as the bastide type . . . . . . 21

CHAPTER III

INCEPTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND GENERAL CHARACTER

The genesis of municipal life. Acquisition and value of the founda-
tion charters. Their subsequent confirmation. Complete list

viii THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

PAGE

of charters for the period 1284-1536. The period of inception.
Geographical distribution of the municipal element in North
Wales. Three general characteristics : (1) Royal Boroughs —
Contrast those of the Marches ; advantages and disadvantages
of the royal patronage ; latter influence less favourable in
Wales than in England. (2) Free Boroughs (liber burgus] —
Analysis of the typical privileges ; their affiliation. (3) English
Boroughs— Established for English colonists . ' . . . 31

CHAPTER IV

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY (LAND, ETC.)

(1) Acquisition. — Main source of their territorial endowment. De-

tailed story of the land properties of the respective boroughs
(1284-1536). Amount acquired by each borough. End of the
period of acquisition. Its effects on the old tribal economy.
The borough liberties fixed. Perambulation of the boundaries.
Question of the extension of the franchise ..... 43

(2) Distribution and Description. — The borough territory divided

by the town walls. Only three walled towns in North Wales.
Structural features corresponding to the mile neuve type. Intra-
mural territory. The burgagium and its economy. Timber
houses and the forest of Snowdon. Burgage development
during the early .half of the fourteenth century. Curtilages,
shops, places, and the waste. Extra-mural territory — its
division and several and joint allotment to individual burgesses
and the town communities. The waste in the hands of the
Crown 60

(3) Tenure and Administration. — (a) Tenure. Burgage tenure — its

nature and character. Town lands diswarrened and dis-
afforested. The predominant position of the Crown on points
of ownership and administration. The borough communities
improve their status. Struggle for the farm and fee-farm
privilege. The fee-farm segregated the administration of the
borough and increased the executive power and responsibility
of the town community. The tenurial significance of the fee-
farm. The proprietary status of the individual burgess. Dower.
The consolidation of several interests or the rise of a private
landlordism. Illustrative instances. The Penrhyn interest in
Beaumaris. Effects of the fee-farm on the position of (1) the
Crown ; (2) the town ; (3) the ownership of the commons. Influ-
ence of the Crown modified in the fee-farm boroughs. The
Crown acts as lord of the manor in all the North Welsh
boroughs during the Middle Ages. It enjoys the escheats and
the profits of the waste. But the fee-farm gave some territorial
quality to the town community. Changes in law and politics
fostered its growth. The rise of artificial corporations. Late

OUTLINE SYLLABUS OF THESIS ix

PAGE

appearance of the corporate lease in North Wales. The Car-
narvon deed of 1430. The fee-farm in its relation to the
ownership of the common lands of the North Welsh boroughs.
(6) Administration — its ultra-municipal character. (1) Execu-
tive. The Rotulus dimissionum. The local justiciar and the
bailiffs. (2) Fiscal. Assessment and collection of rents.
Method and value of the land returns. Fictional character of
the account. (3) Legislative. Laws and ordinances of the
Crown. Early by-laws wanting. The privileges of Hereford . 71

CHAPTER V

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS

Division of the subject. The Defence of the Borough — Its import-
ance and character. (1) Apparatus employed. Castles, town
walls, gates, and quays. The Crown and their maintenance.
The growing liability of the town community. The moot point
of their ownership. (2) Agents of defence. Royal and civic.
Castles and town garrisons (1284-1536). Porters and vigils.
The view of arms. Watch and ward. A transition in charac-
ter. The Peace of the Borough — Its jurisdictional privileges.
Enumeration and definition. The borough courts. Court Leet
and view of frank-pledge. The Three Weeks' Court. The Courts
of Piepowder and Ponderacio Panis. The Crown pleas. The
boroughs and justice in North Wales. Racial feuds and re-
conciliation. Gaols. End of the mediaeval judiciary. The
Finance of the Borough — Sources of royal and private revenue.
Items of borough expenditure. Collection and disbursement.
Taxation. Some subsidy returns. The Officers of the Borough—
The constable and his fivefold function. The mayor. Alder-
man and the gild. The bailiffs and their duties. Coroners
and other subsidiary officers. Municipal Paraphernalia —
Maces, seals, weights and measures, etc., used .... 99

CHAPTER VI

THE NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS AS ECONOMIC UNITS

<1) The boroughs and their commercial privileges, (a) Acquisition
and definition. Gilda mercatoria and other privileges. Mar-
kets and fairs by distinct charters and otherwise. A tabular
list. (6) The commercial conflict. Edward i.'s policy. Trade
subordinated to the castle. The monopoly of the boroughs.
A silent revolution in the economy of North Wales. Reluctant
surrender of old tribal usages. The early phase of the new toll
and measure agitation. Conflict of the English burgesses with
ecclesiastical and other bodies. Gradual decay of the borough
monopoly. The commercial status of the Bishopric of Bangor
upheld. The monastic houses of Conway, Cymmer, and Bardsey
assert their prescriptive rights. The rise of other provincial

x THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

PAGE

markets. The latter phase of the toll dispute and the end of the
conflict. (2) The local activities of the boroughs. Separate
survey of each borough. The manorial and industrial activity
during the period of settlement. The respective importance of
each as factors of internal trade. (3) The boroughs and external
trade. The conquest of Edward i. and Welsh commerce. Its
general character. The boroughs and the rise of a merchant
class. The native shipping. The advent of English and alien
merchants. The new economy. Custom revenues. Official
collectors in the borough ports. Important change in 1339.
The Rhuddlan staple and Carnarvon. Table of customs
levied in North Wales. Summary of the commercial activity
of the North Welsh boroughs during the period 1284-1547. The
prominence of Beaumaris and the expansion of trade under the
Tudors. Change in the administration of custom dues with the
reign of Henry vin. An interesting legal dispute. The cus-
toms not appurtenant to the constableship. The relation of
Chester to the North Welsh ports 166

CHAPTER VII

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS,

1284-1536

Some features of North Welsh politics during the period. An epoch
of conflict and compromise. The relative position of the North
Welsh boroughs. Their condition under successive sovereigns.
From the conquest to the revolt of Madoc. Edward of Car-
narvon as Prince. The political boroughs defined. The restric-
tive ordinances. Precarious condition of the boroughs under
Edward n. Complaints and risings of the local Welshery.
The prosperous half of Edward ni.'s reign. The aggressive
policy of the North Welsh. The Black Death and new prob-
lems. The Black Prince and his policy. Richard's reign
prosperous and restless. The boroughs threatened in the time
of Glyndwr. Exciting episodes in the municipal story. The
penal statutes. The Cymricising of the borough populace. The
period of strained relations. Revival of Welsh nationalism. Re-
action in favour of the English boroughs. The Wars of the Roses
and the accession of Henry vn. A turning-point in the story
of Wales and of the North Welsh boroughs. The improving
status of North Welshmen. Settlement in sight. The Union
achieved. End of the mediaeval borough. Beginnings of the
modern age. The boroughs and Welsh progress . . . 219

APPENDICES A AND B 277

INDEX TO MEDIAEVAL WORDS AND PHRASES ..... 307
GENERAL INDEX 309

LIST OF SOURCES

PRINTED BOOKS

I. STATE PUBLICATIONS.

(a) EECORD COMMISSION.

Statutes of the Eealm.

Rolls of Parliament.

Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium, Henry in. to Edward iv. 1802.

Calendarium Rotulorum Chartarum et Inquis. ad Quod Damnum

(do.). 1803.

Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem (do.), i., 1806 ; ii., 1808.
Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium in Curia Scaccarii, Henry in.

to Edward in., i., 1805 ; ii., 1810.
Rymer's Foedera, i.-iii. 1816-30.
The Record of Carnarvon. 1831.
Proceedings Ordinary of the Privy Council, ed. Nicholas

1834-7.
Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales. 1841.

(6) ROLLS SERIES.
i. Calendars. —

Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward i. to Richard in. 1894-1907.
Calendar of the Close Rolls, Edward i. to Edward in. 1892-1907.
Catalogue of Ancient Deeds. Vols. ii. and iii., 1824-1907.
Letters and Papers, Henry vin. Vols. v., viii., and xiv.

ii. Deputy-Keeper Reports.—
Report ix., App. ii. 1848-9.
Report xxxvi., App. ii. 1875.

iii. Chronicles and Memorials. —

Brut y Tywysogion, ed. Williams, 1860.

Annales Cambriae, ed. Williams, 1860.

Royal and Historical Letters of Henry iv., ed. Hingeston, 1860.

Opera Giraldi Carnbrensis, ed. Dimock, vol. vi., 1868.

Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, vols. iii. (1866) and iv. (1869).

Materials for the History of Henry vn., ed. Campbell, 1873-7.

Flores Historiarum, ed. Luard, vol. iii., 1890.

xii THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

1835, vols. xxv., xxvi. ; 1837 (Boundary Commission).

1838, vol. xxxv. ; 1870, vol. Iv. ; 1880, vol. xiii. ; 1896, vol. xxxv.

II. LEARNED SOCIETIES AND CORPORATIONS

(1) LEARNED SOCIETIES.
(a) The Honourable Society of the Cymmrodorion. —

i. Transactions. — Early Fortifications in Wales. S. Baring- Gould.

1898-9.
Wales and the Coming of the Normans, J. E. Lloyd. 1899-1900.

ii. Magazine. — Y Cymmrodor. Vols. ix., x., xii., xiii.

iii. Publications. — The Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, ed.

J. Jones and W. Davies, 1837.
Gweithiau lolo Goch, ed. Charles Ashton, 1896.

iv. Record Series. — No. 1. Owen's Pembrokeshire, ed. Hy. Owen,

Part iii., 1906.
No. 4. Catalogue of MSS. relating to Wales in the British

Museum, by Edward Owen, 1903.
No. 5. The Black Book of St. David's, ed. Willis Bund, 1902.

(6) The Cambrian Archaeological Society. —

Archaeologia Cambrensis, Series I., vols. i.-iii. ; in., vols. i., vi., ix.,
xiii., xiv. ; iv., vols. iv., xiii. Original Documents, supple-
mental vol., 1877.

Montgomeryshire Collections. Vol. viii., 1877.

(d) The English Historical Society.—

Nennius : Historia Britonum, ed. Stevenson, 1838.

Malmesbury, William de, Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. Hardy,

1840.

Trivet Annales, ed. Hog, 1845.
Gesta Stephani, ed. SeweU, 1846.
Hemingburgh, Chronicon de, ed. Hamilton, 1849.
Transactions of the Royal Hist. Soc. New Series, vol. xvii., 1903.

(e) The British Archaeological Association. —

Journal. Vol. xxvii., 1871.

(/) The Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. —
The Archaeological Journal. Vols. vil, xxxv.

LIST OF SOURCES

XlU

(g) The Royal Society of Arts.—

Chronicon Adse de Usk, ed. E. Maunde Thompson, 1904.

(h) Society of Antiquaries of London. — *.
Archseologia. Vols. xx., xlviii.

(i) Selden Society. —

Leet Jurisdiction of the City of Norwich, ed. W. Hudson, 1882.

(2) CORPORATIONS.

The Swansea Charters, ed. Francis, 1867.
The Cardiff Records, ed. Matthews, 1898-1907.
Records of the Borough of Leicester, ed. Mary Bateson, vol. i.,
1899.

III. PRIVATE AUTHORS

(a) CASTLE AND BOROUGH HISTORIES.

BAYNE, J. Tourist Guide to Conway. 1852.

BRANSBY, J. H. A Sketch of the History of Carnarvon Castle.

1829.

„ ,, A Description of Carnarvon and its Neighbour-

hood. 1845.
Histoire du Chateau et de la Chatellenie de

Douai. 1877.
Ville de Bourg. 1883.
Royal Charters of Carmarthen. 1878.
Neath Charters. 1867.
Histoire de Libourne. 1845.
Registers of the Parish of Conway. 1900.
Overton in Days Gone By. 1883.
Old Karnarvon. 1889.
Chester in Plantagenet and Tudor Periods.

1893.

The Histories of Launceston, etc. 1885.
History of Cilgerran. 1867.
History of Conway Castle. 3rd ed., 1852.
„ „ History of Beaumaris, etc. 1852.

„ „ Illustrated History of Carnarvon. 4th ed.,

1850.
„ „ A Historical Sketch of Harlech Castle.

1846.

TATE, G. History of Alnwick. 1866-9.

WILLIAMS, J. . Ancient and Modern Denbigh. 1856.

WILLIAMS, R. History of Aberconway. 1835.

BRASSART, FE"LIX.

BROSSARD, J.
DANIEL-TYSSEN, J. R.
FRANCIS, G. G.
GUINODIE, R.
HADLEY, A.
HOWSON, G. J.
JONES, W. H.
MORRIS, R. H.

PETER, R. and 0. B.
PHILLIPS, J. R.
PUGHE, D. W.

xiv THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

(/>) GENERAL WORKS ON THE BOROUGH.

ASHLEY, W. J. The Beginnings of Town Life in the Middle

Ages. 1896.
BATESON, M. The Laws of Breteuil (E.H.E., vols. xv.-xvi.).

1900-1.

Villes Bastides. 1880.
English Towns and Districts. 1883.
Les Etablissements de Rouen. 1883.
Town Life in the Fifteenth Century. 1894.
Gild Merchant. 1890.
Corporation Plate and Insignia. 1895.
Histoire Critique de Pouvoir Municipale.

1828.

Firma Burgi. 1726.

Domesday and Beyond (pp. 172-219). 1897.
„ „ Township and Borough. 1898.

MEREWETHER, F. H., and History of the Boroughs of the United King-

STEPHEXS, A. J. dom. 1835.

POLLOCK and MAITLAND. History of English Law, vol. i. pp. 625-78.

1895.
STCBBS, W. Constitutional History. Library eel., 1880.

CUKIE-SEMBRES, A.

FREKMAN, E. A.

GIRT, A.

GREKN, A. S.

GROSS, C.

HOPE, W. H. ST. JOHN.

LEBER, C.

MADOX.
MAITLAND, F. W.

AYLOFFE, J.

BATESON, M.
BEAUFORT PROGRESS.
BRADLEY, A. G.
BRKEZE, E.

C.ESAR.

CATHRALL, W.
CLARK, G. T.

CONYBEARE, E.

CUNNINGHAM, W.

DAFYDD AP GWILYM.
DODDRIDGE, JOHN.

EDWARDS, OWEN.

ELLIS, H.

F HERMAN, E. A.

Calendar of the Ancient Charters and the

Welsh and Scotch Rolls. 1774.
Mediaeval England. 1903.
Dineley MS., ed. C. W. Banks, 1883.
Owen Glyndwr. 1901.
Kalendars of Gwynedd. 1873.
Bell. Gall., v. 14.
History of North Wales. 1828.
Mediaeval Military Architecture in England.

1884.
Carta? et Munimenta, etc., de Glamorgan.

1885-93.

Roman Britain. 1903.
The Growth of English Industry and Commerce.

3rd ed., 1896.

Barddoniaeth, ed. Cynddelw, 1873.
History of the Ancient and Modern Estate of

the Principality of Wales. 1630.
Wales. 1901.

Original Letters, ii. Vol. i., 1827.
William Rufus. Vol. ii., 1882.

LIST OF SOURCES

Village Community. 1890.

Family Excursions in North Wales. 1860

The Komanisation of Eoman Britain. 1905

Gough. 1900.

History of Wales. 1824.

History of Brecknockshire, ed. 1898.

History of Little England beyond Wales.
1888.

Ancient Welsh Laws. 1889.

History of Anglesea. 1833.

Fragmentum Commentarioli Britannicse De-
scriptionis. 1572.

Poetical Works of. 1837.

The British Kymry. 1857.

The Welsh Wars of Edward i. 1901.

A History of the Welsh Church. 1895.

Eoyal Visits and Progresses to Wales. 1851.

History of England. 1867.

Tours in Wales, ed. Khys, 1883.

Hanes Cymru. 1842.

Lancaster and York, ii. 1892.

Foundations of England. 1898.

Peerage and Family History. 1901.

Celtic Britain. 3rd ed., 1904.
RHYS, J., and JONES, D. B. The Welsh People. 1901.
SEEBOHM, F. Tribal System in Wales. App. 1895.

SKENE, W. F. The Four Ancient Books of Wales. 1868.

SOCIAL ENGLAND, ed. Traill and Mann, vol. i., illus. ed., 1901.
STEPHENS, T. Literature of the Kymry. 1849.

TOUT, T. F. Edward i. 1893.

„ „ The Political History of England (1216-1377).

WARRINGTON, W. The History of Wales. 1823.

WILKINS, C. The History of the Literature of Wales. 1884.

WILLIAMS, P. B. Guide to the County of Carnarvon. 1812.

WILLIAMS, W. E. Parliamentary History of Wales. 1896.

WYLIE, J. H. Henry iv. Vols. i. (1884) and ii. (1893).

WYNNE, JOHN. History of the Gwydir Family, 1827. 1878.

GOMME, G. L.
HALLIWELL, E.
HAVERFIELD, F.
ITINERARY OF EDWARD i.
JONES, J.
JONES, T.
LAWS, E.

LEWIS, HUBERT.
LLWYD, ANGHARAD.
LLWYD, HUMPHREY.

LLWYD, EICHARD.
MORGAN, E. W.
MORRIS, J. E.
NEWELL, E. J.
PARRY, EDWARD.
PEARSON, C. H.
PENNANT, T.
PRICE, T.
EAMSAY, J. H.

?) »

EOUND, J. H.
EHYS, J.

IV. PEEIODICAL PUBLICATIONS

Annales Arche" cliques. Vol. xiv. Paris, 1853.
Brython, Y. Tremadoc, 1859.
Bye-Gones. Oswestry, 1880.
Cambrian Journal. Vol. iv. Tenby, 1857.
Cambrian Eemembrancer. Carnarvon, 1877-9.

xvi THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Cymru Fu. Cardiff, 1888.

English Historical Review. London. Vols. xi., xv., xvi., xvii.

Notes and Queries. London, 1852.

V. DICTIONARIES, ETC.

Blount's Law Dictionary. 1717.

Dictionary of National Biography, s.n. Edward Bruce, Madoc ap

Llywelyn, Roger Mortimer (iv.).
Du Cange. Glossarium, etc. Paris, 1773.
Jacob's Law Dictionary. 1729.

Lewis, S. Topographical Dictionary of Wales. 1849.
Williams' Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen. 1852.

MANUSCRIPTS
A. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE.

I. Ministers' Accounts.
(a) Edward i. to Richard HI. (General Series). —

i. Bailiff Accounts of the North Welsh Boroughs.
Anglesea, Bundles 1149-1155, 56 accounts.
Carnarvon, „ 1170-1181, 106 „
Merioneth, „ 1203-1205, 130 „

ii. Chamberlain Accounts of North Wales.
Bundles 1211-1217, 75 accounts.
Bundle 1305, Nos. 16-21, 6 accounts.

iii. Sheriff Accounts of the North Welsh Counties.
Bundle 1227, No. 4.
„ 1231, Nos. 5, 10.
„ 1232, No. 1.

(6) Henry vn. —

i. Bailiff Accounts.

Anglesea, Nos. 1618-1621, 4 accounts.
Carnarvon, Nos. 1645-1646, 5 „
Merioneth, Nos. 1633-1644, 12 „

ii. Chamberlain Accounts.

North Wales, Nos. 1519-1602, 12 accounts.

i. Bailiff Accounts.
Anglesea, 31 accounts.
Carnarvon, 33 „
Merioneth, 31 „

ii. Chamberlain Accounts.
North Wales, 31 accounts.

LIST OF SOURCES xvii

II. Customs Accounts.
Bundle 2, Nos. 1-8.

III. Lay Subsidy Accounts.

Anglesea, Nos. 219/1-6 ; 242/9 (printed).
Carnarvon, Nos. 242/50, 51 ; 220/133-136, 153.
Merioneth, Nos. 242/53 ; 222/304-316.

IV. K.E. Accounts.

Nos. 5/18, 6/1, 8/28, 13/32, 17/11, 22/40, 23/10, 23/24, 43/24,
35,39 ; 111/1, 24 ; 486/29, 487/4.

V. Other Exchequer Documents,
(a) Rentals and Surveys (Wales), 17/84, 17/86, 17/88, and Roll 767.

(6) Exchequer Miscellanea, 6/38 ; 7/11, 17 ; 8/21, 28, 29 ; 9/13, 19, 30 ;
10/1, 24/2.

1. Treasury of Receipt, No. 144.

2. Augmentation Office, No. 166.

(d) Depositions and Commissions.—

1. Special Commission, No. 3381.

2. Depositions, 35 Elizabeth, No. 9 ; 10 James i., No. 2 ; 20
James i., No. 20 ; 11 Car. i., No. 31.

VI. Court Proceedings.

(a) Of the North Welsh Boroughs.— Court Rolls, Portf. 215/46-48,

53-45 ; 227/22-23.
Min. Ace. 1170/3, 16.
(6) Of the North Welsh Commotes.— Court Rolls, Portf. 215/4-5,

49-52 ; 227/28, 33.
(c) Of the North Welsh Counties :— (1) Plea Rolls.—

Anglesea, No. 1.
Carnarvon, Nos. 1-3.
(2) County Placita.—

Anglesea, Nos. 21, 21a.

VII. Chancery Documents.

Patent, Close, Charter, and Confirmation Rolls.

Welsh Rolls, 5-23 Edward i.

Inquisitions Post-Mortem, Edward i. to Edward in.

Chancery Files. New Series, No. 205.

Chancery Privy Seals. March. Bundle 1507.

xviii THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Originalia Rolls, EdwARD i. to Edward in.

Ancient Correspondence. Vols. xi. and liv.

Ancient Petitions, Nos. E 69, E 83, 134,1 566,1 1888, 1981, 2803,
3925, 4048, 4439, 6507, 7289, 7608, 7679, 80011, 9093, 9365,
10,058, 10,081, 12,729, 12,920, 13,029^ 13,107,* 13,683,
13,687, 13,936, 13,991.

B. BRITISH MUSEUM.

Harleian MS., 1954.

Harleian Roll, E 7.

Additional MS., 33,372.

Additional MS. Rolls, 7198 ; 26,595 ; 26,597.

1 Printed in the Rolls of Parliament. The rest have been transcribed from the
originals for the purpose of this essay.

THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF
SNOWDONIA

INTRODUCTORY

IT is usual to attribute the origin of the town to military or
commercial causes, the town taking its predominant feature
from the political circumstances of the age as well as from the
social condition of the people. A military fortress rudely con-
structed for purposes of war, when favoured by physical situa-
tion and economic condition, readily developed into a permanent
centre for trade. It is the object of this introductory sketch to
give a general outline of the military and commercial aspects
of town economy in Wales from the earliest times to the year
1284, the exact date at which the first of the North Welsh
boroughs originated.

The typical town during the pre-Roman period was the
Gallo-Brythonic dinas.1 The Ordnance Survey Map of Modern
Wales teems with the names of sites purporting to be old British
camps and cairns. It is evident from the locus of the generality
of these, that they served primarily either as the rival fortresses
of tribal warfare, or as the common units of a system of
military defence. They coped adequately with the demands of
the warring chieftain and his semi-nomadic followers, who found
their principal food in flesh and milk. The Britons of the
interior, according to Caesar, paid little attention to -agriculture.2
At any rate he hazards the statement that they sowed no corn.
The purely pastoral character of their economy is to some extent
borne out by the mountainous lie of almost all the British sites
in Wales. The choice of site points to no commercial pre-
dilections on the part of the founders. The trading activity
with the Continent was, of course, mainly confined to the

1 Celtic Britain (J. Rhys), third edition, 1904, p. 299. Cf. 'Early Forti-
fications in Wales' (S. Baring-Gould), Trans. Gym. Soc., 1898-9, p. 1.

2 Bell Gall, v. p. 14.

2 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

southern and south-eastern shores. We are told that inhabited
towns supplanted the old hill-fortresses in these latter districts
about the time of the Roman conquest.1 There were
apparently none of these inhabited towns in Wales, though
later Roman towns here as elsewhere arose near to, but not
actually on, the old British foundations.2

It is not until the Roman period that we have the formation
of a political framework that permanently affected the- sub-
sequent development of Wales and her towns. The Romans
were not so entirely governed by the impulse of war as the
Britons, and to them the instinct of commerce was second nature.
The Roman excelled the Briton in his choice of site, choosing
generally a slightly elevated situation, near a river, rather than
the highest point of a lofty mountain. The Roman garrison
town had a commercial surrounding. The convenient access of
the Roman roads stands out in strange contrast to the abrupt
approach of the British trackways.

Britain was not equally Romanised over all its area. Professor
Haverfield3 distinguishes the Romanisation of the Welsh up-
lands from that of the low-lying country to the south and to
the east of Britain. The land now occupied by Modern Wales
falls within the military as opposed to the civil region of the
Roman province of Britain. Wales, as such, was but little
affected by the civil and social economy of Rome.4 The few
extant inscriptions found on Welsh soil bear out this view.
There were no Roman towns of note among the hilly fastnesses
to the west of a line drawn from Chester through Wroxeter to
Caerleon-on-Usk. The Roman forts in Wales were mostly
military. Only Caerleon-on-Usk, the home of the second
legion, and Chester, where the celebrated twentieth legion was
stationed, are credited with any considerable trading activity.
Other stations such as Caerwent (Venta Silurum), Carmarthen
(Maridunum), and Carnarvon (Segontium), though primarily
forts, possibly flourished as lesser marts.6 The names of the
most important 6 of these, together with an approximate outline

Social England (ed. Traill and Mann), illustrated edition, 1901, i. p. 15.

English Towns and Districts (Freeman), p. 387.

The Romanisation of Roman Britain. Paper read before the British
Academy, 29th November 1905.

Cf. Trans. R.H.S. (Now Series), xvii. p. 123.

See map of Roman Wales given below.

See Trans. Cym. Soc., 1908-9, for map, facing p. 184 illustrating
Professor Haverfield's 'Military Aspects of Roman Wales.'

INTRODUCTORY

of the roads connecting them, are given in the following map of
Roman Wales.1

The influence of the Roman domination, so far as the story
of our Welsh boroughs is concerned, must be limited to such

VRICONIUM

(WROXETER)

..BRAVONIUM
CASTELL Couimi (UiNTmnoiHE)

GNflE.
(KENCHESTEK)

,*,JflNNlUM (

tABERGAVeNKY)

* '< </ffe$*RIUM3

ISCfi Shawn' ^EfifTA SlLURUff
fCAERWENT)

1 Large towns (civil).

2 Forts, and lesser towns (military).

3 Towns and villages (civil).

facilities of foundation as were offered by the ancient sites, and
the transport advantages afforded by the old Roman roads.
There is no direct connection between the ' old towns ' of Roman

1 Places marked [2] are taken from the conjectural map of Roman
Wales given in Arch. Gamb., Hi. 6 (facing p. 186), as are the dubious track-
ways that connect them. The character and situation of the remaining
places are based on Haverfield's maps of Roman Britain. (1) Historical
Atlas of Modern Europe (ed. R. L. Poole), Part i. (1896), No. 15.
(2) Social England (ed. Traill and Mann, 1901), vol. i. (frontispiece).

4 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Wales and the ' new towns ' or ' boroughs ' of the Middle Ages
that flourished on what, in many cases, must have been almost
identical sites. A comparison of the above map with that
given on p. 18 below will show some parallels in this respect.

The Romano-British towns of Wales shared the fate of the
generality of such foundations in Britain. These are reputed
to have suffered a widespread decay owing to the departure of
the Romans and the disturbing circumstances accompanying
the Saxon conquest of Britain.1 Town life was rudely checked,
especially perhaps in Wales,2 where the native tribes were likely
to be less versed in the working of municipal institutions than
the inhabitants of the civil region of Roman Britain.3 The old
sites, whether town or fort, seem to have fallen into the hands
of rival chieftains for purposes of military defence ; most of
them appear with native names in the list of towns supplied by
Xennius.4 Gerald the Welshman, writing at the close of the
twelfth century, gives some interesting information on the
condition of some Roman towns in the Wales of his time. He
particularly notices Caerleon, favourably situated on the
Usk, with the many vestiges of its former splendour. Among
other tokens of its ancient magnificence he includes wonderful
aqueducts, hot baths, theatres, and relics of temples. The
walls enclosing the city were only partly standing when he
visited the spot.5 He also found the brick wralls of Roman
Carmarthen in a similarly decaying condition.6 Gerald mentions
the castles of Carnarvon and Neath,7 but is silent as to their
Roman associations. In the cases of Caerleon and Carmarthen 8
he doubtless describes the twelfth-century stage of a decay that
had originated in the early days of the fifth century.

Of town life in Wales during the Dark Ages little is known.
From the departure of the Romans to the arrival of the Normans
the country made no marked economic advance. The native
princes and their respective clans were almost entirely occupied

1 Green, Making of England, pp. 137, 141.

1 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 123, n. 3.

' Celtic Britain, ut cit. supra, p. 101.

• E.H.S. edition, p. 62. Cf. Roman Britain (E. Conybeare), p. 250, where
it is suggested that the parallel substitution of Roman by English names
in England could hardly have taken place if there had been anything
like continuity in the inhabitants of Roman towns from ancient times.

• Itin. Kamb. (Rolls Series), Lib. i. vol. vi. p. 65.

• • /&., p. 80. 7 /&., Lib. n. vol. vi. p. 124.

• Desc. Kamb., Lib. I. vol. vi. p. 172.

INTRODUCTORY 5

with war l ; they had little desire and less opportunity for the
accumulation of wealth, and confined their scant patronage of
the fine arts to the quasi-military fields of the Muse and Song.
The caer, which we may regard as the typical Welsh town of the
period 613-1080, was primarily the military fort of a tribal
people fighting for the defence of their land. The native litera-
ture has much praise for the protection of the caer.2 The same
fortresses along with the early monastic establishments prob-
ably served as the temporary centres of their rude commercial
transactions.3

The prevalent view is that there are no towns of purely Welsh
origin.4 This statement is true in so far as the privileged status
of the important towns of Mediaeval Wales was one of artificial
creation or adoption, rather than of natural growth. The
making of boroughs in Wales originated with the Norman or
English conquest about 1080. Up to this time the native
economy scarcely required real urban centres, and the outside
influences to which Wales had been subjected hitherto do not
appear to have given much impetus to town life.

Moreover, it is worthy of note that the Danish pirates, during
their raids from the eighth to the tenth century,5 visited many
of our Welsh maritime villages, some of which have since
developed into towns of considerable importance. Swansea
and Haverfordwest are particular instances in point. These
and other towns on the South Welsh coast show a sprinkling of
Norse population from the earliest times. The Danes have not
left much trace of inland influence in Wales ; their settlements
were not so penetrating and permanent as were those in
England. Danish forts to some extent stimulated the rise of
the Anglo-Saxon boroughs.6 The raths of Pembrokeshire 7 and
the cliff castles of Gower 8 — reputed Danish forts — played no

1 See the entries of the native chroniclers as preserved in the Bruts
and Annales Gambriae (Rolls Series) for the state of Wales from the
seventh to the eleventh century.

2 Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, ii. pp. 17, 150.

3 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 127.

4 See Trans. Cym. Soc., viii. p. 193 ; Chester Archaeological Soc. Trans.,
vi. p. 2 ; Freeman's (1) William Rufus, vol. ii. p. 77 ; (2) English Towns
and Districts, p. 16 ; and The Welsh People (Rhys and Jones), p. 247.

5 On the relation of the Danes with Wales see Trans. JR.H.S. (New
Series), xvii. p. 125, and notes 3 and 4 at the foot of the same page.

6 The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (W. Cunningham),
1905, i. pp. 92-7.

7 Arch. Camb., m. v. p. 4 ; x. pp. 1-13. 8 2b., V. x. p. 2.

6 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

such part in the rise of the South Welsh towns. Thus from
the side of the sea, as represented by the activity of the Danes
— the Black Pagans of the native chroniclers — Wales does not
appear to have imported any appreciable impetus to the forma-
tion of towns prior to the time of the Norman conquest. The
same may be said of the town influences which came landwards
by virtue of the English policy of conquest.

The policy of the English kings (A.D. 613-1066), owing to its
external and military character, produced no great changes in
the economy of Wales.1 At any rate it originated no English
burhs in Wales beyond the establishment of frontier boroughs
at Rhuddlan and Radnor, which were founded consistently
with the English policy of border defence.2 These conditions
were suddenly changed with the advent of the Norman conquest.
The aggressive Welsh policy of the Norman kings and their
feudatories led to a systematic plantation of boroughs in the
conquered districts of Wales.

Before detailing the main features of this borough-planting
movement in the Welsh Marches under the patronage of the
Norman barons, we may briefly review the economic condition
of Wales at the close of the eleventh century, before the advent
of the Norman or French bourg to Welsh soil. Basing our
remarks upon the evidence of the Old Welsh Laws, the testimony
of contemporary chroniclers, and the later writings of the
versatile Gerald, we may regard Wales at this date as a moun-
tainous country divided into a number of kingdoms under the
rule of their respective princes. Each kingdom contained one
or more cantreds, which in turn wrere respectively divided up
into two or more commotes. The people inhabiting • these
commotes (administrative districts corresponding nearly to the
English hundreds) were mainly engaged in pastoral pursuits,3
living in family groups according to the traditions and
customs of the Welsh tribal system ; the free tribesmen occu-
pied scattered homesteads, whilst the unfree classes settled in
vills or hamlets containing a number of cottages. According
to Gerald, they paid no attention to commerce, shipping, and manu-
factures, and possessed no towns 4 ; they were pre-eminently a

1 Ramsay's Foundations of England, p. 284 ; The Welsh People, p. 1 52.
1 Trans. Cym. Soc., 1899-1900, pp. 140, 143, 148, 151.

3 Cf. Oesta Stephani (E.H.S.), p. 9 ; Desc. Kamb. (Rolls Series), pp. 179-
80.

4 Desc. Kamb., ut. cit., pp. 200-1.

INTRODUCTORY 7

fighting nation, a people wholly given to arms and the defence
of their country, allowing their martial exercises to be little
interrupted by civic pursuits.

For the description of something remotely approaching an
urban economy we must leave Gerald and turn to the pages of
the Venedotian Code of the Ancient Laws of Wales. One passage
defines the liability of the inhabitant of a vill in the case of an
outbreak of fire thus : ' If a house in a town (tref) take fire
through carelessness let the owner pay for the two nearest
houses that shall take fire, and thenceforward let them pay from
next to next as they are bound to do.' l The contiguous dwell-
ing-houses are presumably either those of the villein trefs or of
the maerdrev vills that flourished on the demesne as opposed
to the hereditary lands of the several commotes. The normal
commote contained a prince's maenor, set apart for the pro-
vision of the prince and his household. This home maenor
served as the centre for judicial proceedings as well as for the
performance of services and dues.2 The men of the commote,
free and bond, were responsible for the upkeep of the principal
residence and the appurtenant buildings. At these little capitals,
where the life of the several commotes centred, some kind of a
town economy must have existed from an early date. Such of
them as were favourably situated soon show a tendency to
develop on commercial lines. Circumstances connected with
the early relations between Wales and Ireland, and the later
foundation and upkeep of the new monasteries during the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, gave a decided impetus in this
direction to several of our Welsh maritime vills. Some of these
were further favoured by close and convenient proximity to
good fishing-grounds. Others, reaping the advantages of their
natural harbours, gradually assumed the name and importance
of a port ; Towyn, Barmouth, Nevin, Pwllheli, and Llanvaes —
maritime vills on the commote demesnes — were apparently
towns of this kind at the close of the twelfth century.

It is not clear how or when the inhabitants of the several
commotes came to carry on their trading transactions at their
respective centres. The process presumably originated with

1 Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (Rec. Com.), p. 126. To avoid
confusion with the English manor, the word maenor is used in this and
subsequent pages to denominate vills that flourished upon the old Welsh
royal demesnes.

2 The Tribal System in Wales (F. Seebohm), pp. 26, 164.

8 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

attendance at an occasional fair, which seems to have been
the sole avenue of commercial exchange in the purely Welsh
districts of North Wales at the close of the thirteenth century.1
Regular markets were confined to the districts of the Marches
owing allegiance to the English Crown.2 The exchange trade of
the districts of Cardigan and Carmarthen, which remained
almost entirely in Welsh hands until the last quarter of the
thirteenth century, was carried on by a number of chensers,
residing on the demesne maenors of their respective commotes,
and paying a nominal rent in respect of their privilege of trading.
Each commote apparently had its quota of buyers and sellers,
who paid their periodic visits to the important fairs held in the
Marcher districts. An entry in one of the earliest chamberlain
accounts of West Wales goes to show that at Conwil Elvet,
where several Carmarthen chensers were wont to reside, it was
customary to collect the tolls due from traders passing through
the local commote, apparently a tolnetum patriae such as was
levied in the Marcher lordships, and generally accounted along
with the market issues of the local borough.3 In the Report of
the Municipal Commissioners of 1835 it is stated that the
transitum tolls of the commote or manor of Cyveiliog were
collected at the town of Machynlleth. It would appear from
this that by the close of the thirteenth century the commercial
economy of the Welsh commote was to some extent fashioned
on feudal lines after the example of the Norman lordship.
The appearance of chensers in the rural maenors of North
Cardiganshire may be connected with the foundation of boroughs
in the Marcher districts. As a rule, the Marcher boroughs
included quite a number of censarii. It is somewhat significant
that we have no mention of this class of traders in the purely
Welsh commotes of North Wales, nor have we any trace of the
commote transitum toll. At the commote centres of Ceredigion
and Carmarthen taverners in addition to chensers made their
home, the price of beer yielding good profits to the local lord.4
It would be interesting to know how far the demesne maenors

1 See below, p. 176. 2 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 131.

3 E.y. at Built h and Knighton.

4 Min. Ace. 1218, No. 1, the earliest chamberlain account for the
district of 8outh and West Wales. The particulars relating to the
centarii of the Cardigan and Carmarthen districts are based entirely on
the evidence contained in this account, which runs from Michaelmas 1300
to Michaelmas 1301.

INTRODUCTORY 9

of the purely Welsh districts of Gwynedd, Ceredigion, and the
Vale of Ty wi developed on the lines of the burgus of the Marcher
districts before the English conquest of 1282. Those of
Carmarthen and Cardigan, as we have already seen, harboured
chensers and taverners. Llandovery,1 Dryslwyn,2 and Old
Dynevor,2 with their burgage tenants paying fixed rents, show
traces of development on Norman lines, and the towns of
Lampeter2 and Trevilan,2 demesne maenors in the district of
Mid-Cardigan, show a burgess populace in the early years of
the fourteenth century.

In Gwynedd, i.e. the district of North Wales, there were
apparently towns of a sort before the final conquest in 1282.
The Welsh Brut under the year 1263 relates of the burning of
some of the towns (trefyd) of Gwynedd by Prince Edward.
Were these towns something more than villein trefs with their
contiguous dwelling-houses, or the vills adjoining the principal
residences of the native chieftains ? 3 There is no contemporary
evidence to help us much in determining their character and
constitution. From data of a later period, however, it may be
surmised that almost all the demesne maenors of Gwynedd,
favourably situated on the coast between the rivers Dovey and
Conway, nourished as trading centres long before their endow-
ment with the privileges of the English liber burgus.

Conway traces its commercial growth from the date of the
foundation of the abbey. An early extent of the county of
Carnarvon taken in 1284 4 returns the value of the burgus of the
maenor of Carnarvon at six pounds besides the incidental tolls
accruing from the annual fairs and the local port. In the same
document the little herring towns of Nevin and Pwllheli are
each represented as having their burgus and local mart. The
extent of Nevin comes under the Latin heading, extenta manerii
de Nevyn cum maerdredo burgi. These instances almost warrant
the conclusion that the North Welsh princes had made it a
custom to bestow commercial privileges upon the inhabitants
of the maerdrevs of their demesnes. Examples of lavish grants

1 I.P.M., 27 Edward i., No. 55, taken on the death of John Giffard in
1299, contains the earliest detailed description of the borough.

2 Min. Ace. 1218, No. 1.

3 Cf. The Welsh People, p. 248.

4 The original extent is now lost, but its actual data are preserved in
accounts of a later date. The evidence quoted here is taken from Min.
Ace. 1171/7. Cf. ch. iv. below s.n. Nevin and Pwllheli.

10 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

of commercial privileges to representative religious houses by
the native princes of purely Welsh districts are common. It i&
highly probable that they would have been similarly disposed to-
wards the tenants upon their own demesnes. That they actually
did this is tolerably certain, but there is no extant evidence to
indicate the period at which this policy was begun. In the case of
monastic institutions such grants date from the twelfth century.

Miss Angharad Llwyd, in her History of Anglesea,1 quoting a
text in the Red Book of Hergest as her authority, refers to the
destruction of Llanvaes in 1211, from which the author infers
that there must have been a town of some, note there in the
time of Llywelyn the Great. Llanvaes, we know, was a con-
siderable town at the time of the Welsh conquest in 1282.
Edward I., at the special request of his Queen, Eleanor, regranted
and confirmed the old privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants.
The petition 2 which the latter subsequently presented to the
King, touching their forced removal for political reasons to the
royal demesne of Rhosfair, is of great interest. It contains one
remarkable item, in which the burgesses complain that they were
deprived of the privileges granted them by the charters of their
princes. The most important of these time-old immunities com-
prised liberty to buy and sell, the enjoyment of all profits coming
from merchant-ships and herring-boats calling at the local port,
and the use of the demesne pastures for the sustenance of their
stock.

The above petition, like the contemporary survey of the
town of Llanvaes,3 gives no hint as to the existence of a
municipal institution. The impression left by a perusal of
the earliest evidences available for the maritime burgi of North
Wales is that they were simple maenorial vills, gradually acquiring
a commercial character by virtue of the traffic of their local
ports and the exchange business of the occasional fairs that were
held in them. The appearance of burgages at Llanvaes, Nevin,
and Pwllheli is probably in some way connected with the
trading activity of these towns. ' It is a moot point as to whether
we are, on the one hand, to attribute the presence of burgages
at places like Nevin and Pwllheli to direct or indirect Norman
influences ; or, on the other hand, to regard their existence as

1 Pp. 167, 252.

* Ancient Petitions (P.R.O), No. 2803. Full text given in the Appendix
below.

' See Seebohm's Tribal System in Wales, Appendix A (a), pp. 3-4.

INTRODUCTORY 11

the natural transformation of an older Welsh tenure, in
response to the demand for a distinctive town economy conse-
quent to the advent of trade to the North Welsh coast from
about the middle of the twelfth century. Of one thing we may
be sure, the burgages of these towns are natural burgages ; they
#re not of the artificial cut-and-dried Breteuil type of burgage
with statutory dimensions. They remind us of the burgages of
places like Llanrwst and Abergele, in the district of the Four
Cantreds,1 or again of the burgages of little manorial towns
like Towyn in Merioneth,2 and Trevilan in Cardigan,3 and the
burgages that flourished in the majority of the towns on the
episcopal demesnes of the See of St. David's 4 ; in short, they
appear to be burgages owing their origin to the economic rather
than to the political impulse. Burgages of this character will
be generally found in those Welsh towns whose beginnings
involved little or no displacement of the existing inhabitants ;
needless to say, they form the exception to the rule in the
generality of our Welsh mediaeval boroughs, the majority of
which in the circumstance of their origin were purely artificial.

In the Middle Ages, we are told, towns did not grow but were
made.5 In reality both things happened, but from the strictly
legal point of view a formal act of creation was necessary to give
to the borough that status which marked it off as distinct from
the hundred in which it was situate. We have no reason to
believe that any Welsh prince qua Welsh prince ever created a
borough in this sense. This is, in a measure, equivalent to the
statement generally made that typical W7elsh princes never
incorporated any towns. Only those Welsh princes placing
themselves in the position of Marcher lords were permitted by
the Crown to establish boroughs of the Norman or English
type, which formed the nuclei of our later-day corporate towns.
Llanfyllin and Welshpool are possibly the sole examples of
towns that were chartered by Welsh princes and endowed with
privileges common to the English boroughs.6 We have reference
to an early borough at Cardigan 7 under the Lord Rhys, and it
is very probable that Dynevor and Dryslwyn made burghal

1 Min. Ace. 1182/1 (temp. Edward in.).

2 Arch. Camb., m. xiii. p. 182. 3 Min. Ace. 1218/1.

4 Black Boole of St. David's (Gym. Record Series), Introduction, p. xxiv.
Cf. pp. 63-4 below.

5 Mediaeval England (M. Bateson,), p. 125. 6 E.H.R., xv. pp. 317-8,
7 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1422-9, p. 522.

12 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

advances in his day, but there are no traces of any town charters
granted by him. The want of charters, moreover, is a charge
that can be made against the greater number of the early
Marcher boroughs; for example, those that flourished in the
districts now included in the modern counties of Radnor and
Monmouth. 0

The right of establishing burghal communities with a certain
autonomy of their own. was largely exercised by the Marcher
lords in consolidating their hold over their estates on the Welsh
border. The Marcher lords 1 were responsible for founding
nearly all the Welsh boroughs of the pre-conquest period. The
story of their origin represents a detailed phase of the Normanisa-
tion of the Welsh Marches, which began about 1080 and followed
the vagaries of Welsh political strife to the conquest in 1282.
The typical burgus (which in many cases developed into the
full-fledged corporation of later days) thus appeared in Wales as
one of the factors in the policy of the Norman or English conquest
— a created importation set up on a foreign model, and that
primarily with the view of promoting the political ends of their
particular founders.

The Xorman conquest of Wales, unlike that of England, was
not the outcome of a few years' struggle. The mountainous
character of the country did much to stay the military aspect
of the conquest. Wales was conquered in piecemeal fashion by
the sword of private adventurers, who for the safety of themselves
and their followers had to adopt the policy of castle-building.2

George Owen, the celebrated Pembrokeshire historian, has
well described the process in his famous treatise on the Lordship
Marchers.3 Commenting on the origin of the Norman lordships,
he goes on to say : ' And the saied lordes, att their first coming to
those lordships by conquest, espyenge out the fertile partes in ech
countrye, builded their castles for themselves, and townes for their
owne soldiors and countryemen ufh came w* them to remayne neere
about them as their guarde, and to be allwayes ready to keep under

1 Elizabethan jurists, filled with the legal notions of their age, obviously
confound their simple action of founding garrison boroughs with the
more complex one of incorporating towns. It is, however, sufficiently
evident that the boroughs originated by them were not corporations at
all, and that but a smnlfpercentagc of them made any subsequent develop
ment in this direction.

1 Freeman's English Towns and Districts, pp. 15-16.

3 Owen's Pembrokeshire, (ed. Hy. Owen), part iii. p. 141. Cf. dive's
', p. 101.

INTRODUCTORY 13

such of the countrye inhabitantes as wold offere to rebell . . .
and by this meanes all the townes and castles in most part of
Wales . . . were first built.'

As remarked in the preceding paragraph, most of the Welsh
boroughs owe their origin to the castle.1 The castle attracted
people in various ways. Homes were established for its
soldiers' families, as well as for the artisans that supplied
their wants. Traders were also attracted by the market
established there sooner or later by the lord for the benefit of
his followers.2

A concise list of boroughs, together with a rough map
indicating the approximate sites, illustrating the progress of
this burghal movement in Wales, up to 1284 will be found at
the close of the present chapter. It may be instructive to note
some of the more general features of the movement, so that
the points of agreement and difference with the North Welsh
boroughs may be the more apparent.

Upon comparing the respective maps of Roman (above) and
Mediaeval (below] Wales, it will be seen that the Normans, like the
Romans, advanced along the low-lying districts, choosing * the
fertile partes.' The result of this movement tended to confine
the native population to the hilly or upland districts, where
towns could hardly prosper. Town and country continued to
be at variance to a late date.

The element of racial antipathy enters largely into the story
of the Welsh boroughs. The graphic narratives of the native
chroniclers bear continued testimony to the warlike vicissitudes
which beset their early career. The burning of castles, the
destroying of towns, and the expulsion of motley garrisons
appear as normal episodes 3 in the annual programme of events —
a feature albeit that was quite in keeping with the military
character of the early boroughs.4 As was the case with the
contemporary French bourgs, the little garrison boroughs in
Wales lay hard by the castle, and were apparently not walled.5
The latter circumstance made them an easy prey to the fierce

1 Cf. E.H.R., xv. p. 74.

2 Beginnings of Town Life during the Middle Ages (W. J. Ashley), p. 17.

3 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 130, ref. 1.

4 Freeman, W.R., ii. p. 77 ; F. W. Maitland, D.B. and Beyond, p. 199.

5 Town walls do not appear to have been erected in Wales much before
the middle of the thirteenth century. Cf. Little England beyond Wales
(E. Laws), p. 180.

14 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

onslaughts of the Welsh.1 A Brut entry s.a. 1231 shows the
wanton destruction of the borough of Cardigan even to the very
gates of the castle. Welsh troops, deficient in besieging
apparatus as a rule, availed little against the Norman castle,2
whence the early burgesses fled for protection in time of war.

An account of the early vicissitudes of the castle forms a
normal chapter in the story of most of the South Welsh
boroughs. Another common feature is the fact of their vague
origin. Some uncertainty, closely akin to that which prevented
the grant of definite liberties by the Crown to the Marcher
lord,3 seems to have stayed the lord's desire to endow his
burgesses with a charter, giving them a political status with
fixed privileges. For example, the castle of Cardiff was begun
in 1080 4 ; the earliest charter of its borough was nearly a century
later.5 It will be instructive to contrast the case of the North
Welsh boroughs in respect of their charter grants.

By the time of the Norman conquest borough-making had
become a profession. It was usual for towns in quest of
enfranchisement to seek and accept the ruling privileges of
older established boroughs. This imitative process, technically
called affiliation, has been shown to be one of the predominant
characteristics of the Marcher boroughs of Wales. The dis-
tinctive burghal privileges which they exercised generally
emanated from a common source, due in part to the common
function which they had to fulfil, and in part to the dynastic
connections of their baronial benefactors.

Hereford is the real mother town of the Welsh boroughs.6
The raison d'&re of this is apparent on considering the peculiar
character of its early privileges. The distinctive immunities
granted it soon after the Norman conquest by William Fitz-
Osbern were derivable from Breteuil, one of the Duke's castles,
situated on the edge of a forest of that name in the south-west
of the Department of the Eure. These laws were particularly
adapted for communities of a semi-military and garrison char-
acter. In this respect they were eminently suitable to the
mounted burgesses of Hereford, and other of their prototypes in
the Welsh Marches during the Middle Ages.

1 Annales Cambria, s.a. 1116, 1193, 1201, 1204. * /&., s.a. 1219.

1 Swansea Charters (G. C. Francis), Appendix, p. 137.

4 Sic. in Brut, s.a. ; Ann. Margam. (Rolls Series), s.a. 1081.

* Cardiff Records, i. p. 2. Cf. E.H.R., xvi. p. 550.

• Gild Merchant (Gross), i. p. 257.

INTRODUCTORY

The outstanding traits of the Breteuil laws will be found in
the excellent tabulation compiled by the late Miss Mary Bateson
in the pages of the English Historical Review.1 The laws are
traced from extant data — (1) by the evidence of affiliation
given in the charters ; (2) by the genealogical relations of the
benefactors ; (3) by an analysis of the privileges granted to
each borough. One prevalent feature is the maximum amerce-
ment of twelve pence in the case of any offence done by the
burgesses, saving the three reserved pleas of the Crown.2
Twelve pence, too, was the normal yearly rent of the burgage,
irrespective apparently of its actual area.

The presence and influence of the above laws and customs are
most felt in the mediatised towns (i.e. boroughs of baronial
foundation) of the Marches. The Customs of Hereford, the
Charters of Haverfordwest, and the Preston Custumal supply
suitable data whereby the scanty evidence of other boroughs may
be classified and traced to their parental origin. The royal
boroughs of the Principality of North Wales, which were of a
later foundation, yield little constructive matter. But of this later.

1. LISTS OF THE WELSH BOROUGHS FOUNDED BEFORE (I. AND II.)

AND AFTER (III.) 1284

I.8 (BEFORE 1284)

Aberavon

Chepstow Knucklas

Norton

Abergavenny

Cilgerran Laugharne

Painscastle

Brecon

Denbigh Llanfyllin

Pembroke

Builth

Dryslwyn Llantrisant

Presteign

Caerleon

Flint Llanbadarn-vawr

Radnor

[Caerphilly]

Gannow (Deganwy) Loughor

Rhayader

[Cowbridge]

Grosmont Monmouth

Rhuddlan

Cardiff

Haverfordwest Montgomery

Swansea

Cardigan

Kenfig Neath

Tenby

Carmarthen

Kidwelly Newport (Mon.)

Trellech

Cefnllys

Knighton Newport (Pemb.)

Usk

Welshpool

1 Vols. xv. pp. 73-8, 302-18, 496-523, 754-7, and xvi. pp. 92-110, 332-45,
on which these remarks are solely based.

2 Cf. Peerage and Family History (J. H. Round), pp. 181-3.

3 The boroughs of Radnorshire are included in Table i. ; they have no
authentic evidences before the latter half of the fourteenth century, but
it is tolerably certain from structural and other data that they originated
about the middle of the thirteenth century. Caerphilly and Cowbridge
appear as burgi in the fourteenth -century accounts; they doubtless
originated about the same time as the other boroughs of the Glamorgan
group.

16 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

II.1 (PROBABLY BEFORE 1284)

Old Dynevor Talgarth

Llandovery Llanvaes (burgus) 2

St. Clears Carnarvon (burgus) 2

Llanidloes Kevin (burgus) 2

Llanbedr-talpont-Steven Pwllheli (burgus) 2

III. (AFTER 1284)

Bala Hope

Bere Nevin (liber burgus)

Beaumaris Newborough

Caerwys Newton-near-Dynevor

Carnarvon (liber burgus} Newcastle-Emlyn

Conway Overton

Criccieth Ruthin

[Ewloe] Pwllheli (liber burgus)

Harlech Holt

(b) Doubtful Cases

Dinas Mawddwy 4 Llanelly (burgages) 5

Fishguard 4 Trevilan 5

Abergele (burgages)5 Crickhowell4

Llanrwst (burgages) 5 [Macbynlleth] 6

[Newtown] 6

1 The earliest evidence available for the burgi included in Table n.
belongs to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

2 See p. 9 above. Cf. Table in. (a) below.

8 The original charters of these boroughs belong to 1284 and later.
Ewloe is nominally styled a burgus in a Court Roll of the close of the
reign of Edward I.

4 Styled corporations in the Report of 1835. Origin and history
doubtful.

6 Called burgi in the fourteenth-century accounts. They were appar-
ently maenorial vills (with burgages) where fairs were occasionally held.

6 There is no mediaeval evidence to show that they were burgi. New-
town, possibly an early foundation of the Mortimers, had traditions of a
corporate charter in 1835. Machynlleth enjoyed market and fair rights
in 1280.

INTRODUCTORY 17

2. A TABLE SHOWING THE RELATION OF HEREFORD TO SOME OF THE
WELSH BOROUGHS IN THE PRECEDING LIST l

(Kenfig-Aberavon (Arch. Camb., in.
vi. p. 19).
\\jwvny Mtscurws, vui.-, Llantrisant (Arch. Journal, xxxv. p. 6).
i. pp. 13-14). Neath (Carfa et Munimenta (Clark),

I ii. p. 55).

Carmarthen t Laugharne (Arch. Camb., iv. ix. p.

(Buncombe's Here- I 100).

ford, vol. i. p. 1 Cardigan (Gross, Gild Merchant, ii,
329). p. 359).

Haverford (E.H.R., xv. p. 515).
Montgomery ( Gannow (E.H.R., xvii. p. 287).

(Gross, op. cit., i. p. -j Llanbadarn-vawr (Arch. Camb., iv.

250). ( iv. p. 471).

Brecon (Jones's Breconshire, p. 74).
Builth (Gross, op. cit., ii. p. 356).
Denbigh f

(Gross, op. cit., i. p. -[ Ruthin (Gross, op. cit., i. p. 252).
262). I

C Flint (Hot. Part., i. p. 1).

Rhuddlan J Overton (Gross, op. cit., i. p. 251).

(E.H.R., xv. p. 306). j Hope (ib., p. 245).

{ Caerwys (ib., p. 245).
Llanfyllin (E.H.R., xv. p. 317).
Welshpool (ib., p. 318).
^ Dryslwyn (ib., p. 303).

1 For Hereford and the North Welsh boroughs see p. 40 below. It will
be observed that none of the Radnor and Monmouth group of boroughs
are included in the above affiliated list. There are no charters extant
for the Radnorshire boroughs excepting those of the town of Radnor,
dating from the reign of Elizabeth. The earliest charter of the Mon-
mouthshire boroughs is that of Newport, bearing the date 1385. The
evidence of the early accounts available for these respective groups
of boroughs show their ' ancient customs ' to be modelled on those of
Breteuil and Hereford. It is somewhat significant that, with the exception
of Newport, none of the mediaeval boroughs of Radnor and Monmouth
possessed a gild merchant.

18 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

3. MAP ILLUSTRATING THE ' BURGI ' OF WALES DURING THE
FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES, SHOWING THOSE
FOUNDED BEFORE AND AFTER THE YEAR 1284.1

The particular interest of the above map for the purposes of
our present study lies not so much in its municipal as in its non-
municipal features.

It will be observed that the borough element is confined to

1 In the shaded portion of the map Aberffraw, Llanerchymedd in
Angleaea, Aber and Trevriw in Carnarvon, Dolgelly and Towyn in
Merioneth, represent places not boroughs where markets and fairs were
established subsequent to 1284. Note. — Towns with burgage tenements
situated on the estates of the see of St. David's are not included.

INTRODUCTORY 19

the Marcher districts, particularly those of South Wales. The
rise of the boroughs situated in the diverse lordships was
simultaneous with the progress of the Norman or English
political conquest dating from about 1080. Towns along the
southern sea-board, extending from Chepstow to Kidwelly,
claim origins associated with the extensive conquests of the
celebrated Fitz-Hamon and his knights. The Pembrokeshire
boroughs, farther west, owe their beginnings to the early repre-
sentatives of the Clare and Martin families, and the settlement
of the Flemings under Henry i. The boroughs of the Brecon
district present a vague connection with the conquests of
Bernard de Neufmarche, and Llandovery, in the vale of the
Upper Towy, claims the patronage of the Cliffords from an
early date. Carmarthen and Cardigan came into prominence
under the care of the Marshals and the protection of King
John early in the thirteenth century. The small boroughs of
Radnor appear to have originated about 1250 under the pro-
tection of the Mortimers, whose interests in the districts of
Elvael and Maelienydd were fairly well established at this time.
The towns of the upper and lower divisions of Powysland,
excepting Montgomery, a Norman foundation dating from
the close of the eleventh century, seem to have flourished as
boroughs under their native princes during the last quarter of
the thirteenth century. The Treaty of Conway in 1277, by adding
the district of the Four Cantreds to the English Crown, gave a
new impetus to the burghal movement. Most of the Flint and
Denbigh boroughs trace their origin to the political opportunity
afforded by the terms of this treaty. Subsequent disasters to
the national cause, as represented by the policy of the princes of
Gwynedd, led to the foundation of royal castles and towns at
Builth and Aberystwyth, with the result that by 1282 only
the shaded portion of the above map was left without direct
traces of English municipal life. The opportunity for their
introduction into this district came with the fall of Llywelyn ab
Gruffydd.

The area shaded in the map is the old district of Gwynedd
minus the county of Perveddwlad and the cantred of Arwystli.
Bounded by the sea on the north and the west, from the mouth
of the Cdnway to the estuary of the Dovey, it is roughly flanked
on the south and east by the rivers Dovey, Girw, and Conway.
By the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 the same area was divided

20 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

into the * three thoroughly Welsh shires ' of Anglesea, Carnarvon,
and Merioneth, and with the exception of the addition of the
lordship of Mawddwy to the last-mentioned county in 1536,
its extent has remained unchanged to the present time. In its
entirety, as a general administrative and judicial unit, the
district is officially described during the later Middle Ages as
the Principality of North Wales.

The growth and development of the municipal element within
the Principality of North Wales, from the time of the conquest
of Wales to the date of the Act of Union with England, forms
the exact scope of the present essay.

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF THE
NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS

THE story of the origin of the Welsh boroughs, as we have already
stated, is the story of a detailed phase of the Norman or English
conquest of Wales. This conquest is regarded by historians as
being both political and economic. One peculiar feature of the
North Welsh boroughs lies in the fact that they begin to flourish
at a date when the political or military aspect of the conquest
was an accomplished fact. This has an important bearing upon
their history. Most of the Welsh boroughs founded during the
period of actual conflict appear as factors in an isolated policy
of conquest, whereas most of the boroughs of the post-conquest
period originate as units in an organised policy of consolidation.
These latter boroughs represent the factors of English conquest
during the period of settlement, when the political history of
Wales, from being involved with the disputes of native princes
and English lords, takes the more intense form of minor differ-
ences between Welsh tenants and English officials.

The period of settlement begins with the fall of Llywelyn ab
Gruffydd in 1282. He was the last prince of the unconquered
part of Wales. After him no one could plausibly call himself
prince.1 The so-called princes that appear later are the
pioneers of a different epoch in the progress of Wales. With
the loss of national princes Welsh history becomes less military
in character ; the local bards, with fewer themes for the eulogy
of military prowess, sing less of the battlefield, and gradually
betake themselves from the domain of eagle and sword to the
more domestic surroundings of the homestead, where the plough
thrived and the thrush sang.2

The fall of Llywelyn, from the Norman or English point of view,

1 See Rishanger (Rolls Edition), p. 91. Llywelyn was the last Welsh
prince to have barons under him.

2 Lit. of the Kymry (Stephens), pp. 473-4.

22 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

marks the consummation of the political conquest. Feudalism
had at last gained a direct footing throughout the Principality.
The 'land of Wales' as parcel of the Marches and of the
Principality was in the hands of feudalising agents. The pro-
gress of the conquest henceforward depended on the success
with which Edward I. would pursue the advantages he had
already won in the field. The problem to be solved was one
of government rather than of conquest. His policy was to
restore, to conciliate, and to civilise. Moreover, owing to the
inevitably unsettled condition of a newly conquered district,
the services of the soldier could hardly be dispensed with.
Accordingly, the governing policy had to be a semi-military one.

The task was peculiarly difficult. Edward had hitherto coped
with Welsh nationalism as expressed in the letters and actions
of its princes. Now he was confronted by the many grave and
serious problems that were presented by Welsh nationalism in
its popular and economic aspect. The princes and their policies
he had already overcome by a series of successful military
campaigns. The civilising of the people and their customs,
so eloquently urged by Archbishop Peckham, was the next
desired object. This was hard to realise among a people little
used to settled control, and with whom the recent loss of
national prestige would long continue to rankle. Fortunately
the situation was not a new one to Edward. His long apprentice-
ship as administrator of his own as of his father's lands now
served him well. He had long been accustomed to look to the
shire system as the remedy for Welsh legal and administrative
problems, and the political defence of subjected districts in
Wales as elsewhere was a circumstance in which he could claim
considerable experience.1

To consolidate his hold on the newly won Principality, Edward
resorted to the policy of castle-building, and with the additional
object of fostering its economic development he established the
North Welsh boroughs. Further improvements in the means
and methods of Welsh life, he inaugurated with the Statute of
Rhuddlan. This statute provided many of the channels through
which English law and other influences came to supplant the
ancient and less civilised customs of the Welsh. It arranged
the old commotes of North Wales into three counties, and gave
the district an administrative and judicial system of its own.
1 Y Cymmrodor, ix. p. 213, and Edward I. (T. F. Tout), p. 59.

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION 23

The disappearance of the old tribal mode of living was very
gradual. This was particularly the case in North Wales.
Feudalising influences had made little headway in this, the
most primitive of Welsh districts, during the period of political
conquest, save what may be attributed to the development of
possible feudal tendencies in the tribal system itself, and to the
indirect influences of the development of the sovereignty of
Wales on feudal lines.1 The Statute of Rhuddlan introduced
direct feudalising agencies for the first time. The circum-
stances connected with the origin, as well as the valuable evidence
contained in the returns of the Commission of 1280,2 issued
preliminary to the enactment of the statute, deserve a special
study of their own. Some of the old customs were abolished,
some were amended, and new ones were introduced.

In this way the year 1284 saw a series of new anglicising
influences brought to bear on the facts of tribalism in North
Wales. These influences continued to operate until the year
1536, when the process of assimilation was deemed sufficiently
complete for the purposes of practical union with England.
The soldier of the castle, the English burgess of the borough,
together with the Justiciar of North Wales at the head of a
well-defined administrative and judicial organism, were the
official agents appointed by Edward I. to superintend the change.
The castle and the borough were the mainstays of English
interests in North Wales during the period of transition ; this
constituted their main political function.

The erection of new fortresses, as well as the reparation of
those already existing, demanded Edward's immediate attention
after the conquest. Without castles he could have retained but
a slight and insecure footing in his newly acquired Principality.
Building operations were begun at Conway, Carnarvon, and
Harlech towards the close of the year 1283.3 The Welsh castle
of Bere, otherwise called Caerberllan, was already in the King's
hands, and repairs were being busily carried on at Criccieth
castle, nearly fifty pounds being expended there towards the
end of 1283.4 The castle operations extended over several
years, thirty-eight years elapsing before Carnarvon was com-

1 Trans. Gym. Soc., 1902-3, p. 3, n. 1. 2 Y Cymmrodor, xii. p. 6.

3 Annales Cambrice (Rolls Edition), p. 108 ; Archaeological Journal, vii.
pp. 237, 239.

4 /&., vii. p. 240.

24 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

pleted.1 Tlie works were not always allowed to proceed without
interruption.2 The short-lived revolt of Madoc ap Llywelyn
in 1294 led to the foundation of the castle of Beaumaris in the
following year.3

Local materials were largely utilised in the building, and
native labour, paid and customary, was requisitioned.4 English
artisans accomplished most of the skilled labour ; two-thirds of
the workers at Carnarvon in 1317 were Englishmen.5 Despite
this local aid in material and labour the building expenses were
enormous. As much as seven thousand pounds were spent on
the castles of Con way, Carnarvon, and Harlech in 1284.6 Seven
years later considerably more than double this amount was
expended.7 The issues of the Principality were not equal to
the strain. Church revenues were in some cases appropriated.
The emoluments of the Archbishopric of Dublin and of the
vacant See of York were specially devoted to this purpose for
some time.8 The cost of the original works, and of the periodical
repairs that were subsequently made, generally appear on the
chamberlain's roll of the local exchequer of Carnarvon. In
some instances the ministerial accounts, with detailed lists of the
actual workers, etc., have survived. Such lists throw inter-
esting light on the early peopling of the North Welsh boroughs.

The contemporary English chroniclers are emphatic as to the
purpose for which these Edwardian castles were so elaborately
built. The strong castle 9 of Conway in the north, like the
remarkable castle 10 of Llanbadarn on the northern skirt of South
Wales, was constructed to coerce the attacks of the Welsh, and
later the same annalists say that the fair castle n of Beaumaris
was erected to crush the insolence of the Welshmen of Anglesea.

(ed

Arch. Jour., vii. p. 256. 2 Chron. Hemingburgh (E.H.S.), pp. 57-9.
See note 1 1 below.

Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. pp. 140, 144. Cf. Pennant's Tours
Rhys), ii. p. 393.

Arch. Jour., vii. p. 255.

Ib., p. 240. ' Ib., p. 242.

Col. Pat. Rolls, 1281-92, pp. 149, 193. Cf. Arch. Jour., vii. p. 230.
Hartshorne rightly confutes the idea that the revenues of York were
devoted to this purpose for the space of seven years ; but Church revenues
were evidently used.

• Ris hanger (Rolls Edition), p. 105, * ad irruptiones Wallensium compe-
scendas.' Cf. Trivet. (E.H.S.), p. 308.

10 Ib., p. 91, * ad cohibendum irruptiones Wallensium.' Cf. Trivet., p.
298. The castle was not denominated Aberystwyth until the fifteenth
century.

11 Ib., p. 148, ' ad compescendas Wallensium insolentias.'

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION

The Edwardian castles, owing to their concentric character,
were admirably adapted for a policy of defence.1

The castles were at first adequately manned with defensible
men. Some idea of the number and nature of the original
garrisons may be inferred from the following extracts, taken from
the Welsh Rolls of the successive years 1283 and 1284. These
Rotuli Walliae, as a class, deal almost exclusively with matters of
Welsh interest passing under the Great Seal during the last
quarter of the thirteenth century. In tabular form the early
garrisons appear thus : —

Name of Castle.

Date.

GARRISON.

Name of
first Constable.

Constable's
Yearly Fee.

Total.

Including

% §

^ ® ! f-i c

•r

a P

s s

"C ^

o -*-*

•=.

"C 'E

"-? i

l§

.Sg 5

- & fa

o 'i

O o

Conway,

1283-4

William Sikun

£190

Carnarvon,

1283-4

Thomas de

£130

Maydenhaache

Bere, .

1283-4

Walter de

£130

Huntrecombe

Harlech, .

1283-4

Hugh de
Weonkeslow

£100

Criccieth, .

1283-4

W. de Leyburn

£100

Beaumaris

1295

W. de Felton

The North Welsh castles were seldom so strongly garrisoned
as they appear to be in the above table. With the advance
of the fourteenth century, the administrative staff, here so
elaborate, is much simplified, and the numbers of the castle

1 Med. Milit. Arch. (Clark), i. pp. 157-8 ; ii. p. 72. Cf. Tout's Edward I.,
pp. 309, 453.

2 Residui included amongst others the ' custos victualium ' (caretaker
of the provisions), janitor (doorkeeper), ' vigilatores' (sentinels), etc.

26 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

garrisons vary considerably with the political temper of the
times.1

Owing to the precarious state of political feeling in North
Wales (a phenomenon, by the way, frequently tested by royal
commissions during the Middle Ages), the military efficiency
of the castle demanded the careful and continued attention of
the English Government. Constable fees, with occasional wages
for soldiers making up the military complement of the castle,
were in annual demand. The buying and repairing of military
armour and weapons made the yearly drain on the local
exchequer considerably greater.2 But the most embarrassing,
and certainly the most important problem of the castle economy
was the effective victualling of its men. A brief consideration
of some of the means adopted to secure ample supplies will help
us to appreciate the true position of the castle and the borough
in their inter-relation (1) to one another, and (2) to the
surrounding district in which they were located.

One of the fixed principles of English policy in the Principality
during the period of settlement was that the emoluments of
office and other expenses relevant to its adequate administration,
should (as far as possible) be borne out of the issues, profits,
and customs of the Principality itself. This is instanced very
plainly in one of the provisions made for the sustenance of the
North Welsh castles.

In the local manorial accounts,3 the earliest of which belongs
to the post-conquest period, the rhingylls or bailiffs of the
several commotes account for a fixed sum rendered annually
by the native and protection tenants towards the store
(staurum) of one or other of the castles. For instance, the bond
tenants of the commote of Uwchgwyrvai contribute twenty-five
shillings, half the value of three oxen and three cows, yearly
to the store of the castle of Carnarvon.

The fact of the tribute being a yearly one, as also of its incidence
falling on the bond tenants of the commote, suggests the con-
tinuance of the old Welsh customary dues of daumbwyd.
These were the gifts of food rendered by the taeogs and aillts,
tenants of a servile nature, to the old Welsh princes and their
retinue while on their yearly circuit through their commote.

1 See pp. 109-12 below.

1 The extant rolls of the local chamberlain at Carnarvon give the
yearly expenses in this respect, e.g. Min. Ace. 1213/13.
' E.g. *6., 1173/4.

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION

The name apparently given to dawribwyd by the English
lawyers who drew up the extent of North Wales was staurum
principis, the store of the prince. The service is also some-
times described as staurum castrorum, the store of the castles ;
and in the vernacular parlance it was termed y stor vawr, the
large store.

More important perhaps than the widespread prevalence of
staurum principis is the fact of its nominal and several apportion-
ment to meet the requirements of one or other of the castles.
Analysed as to the place and amount of its incidence, the castles
and commotes of North Wales fall into the following groups : —

Commote.

Amount of staurum domini
or principis.

Pro municione
castri, de.

Remarks.

s. d.

Creuddyn, .

Half -value of one

In this table the

ox and of two

half-value of

cows, . . .

11 8

an ox is 5s. ; of

Ughaph,

Half - value of

a cow 3s. 4d.,

three oxen and

10s.,and6s. 8d.

of three cows, .

25 0 Conway.

were the nor-

Issaph, . .

Half - value of

mal prices —

two oxen and of

the other half

Nantconway,

three cows,
Half - value of

16 8

being paid by
the prince.

three oxen and

of three cows, .

25 0

Uwchgwyrvai

> >

25 0

Carnarvon.

Isgwyrvai, .

25 0

Dynllaen,

Half- value of two

oxen and of two

cows, . . .

16 8

Kemettmaen,

) )

16 8

Criccieth.

Eivionydd, .

) j

16 8

Gafflogion, .

Half -value of one

ox and of two

cows, . . .

11 8

Penllyn, . .

Half -value of two

oxen and of two

cows, . . .

16 8

Estimanner,

Half -value of one

ox and of two

cows, . . .

11 8

Harlech.

Ardudwy, .

Half- value of two

oxen and of

three cows,

20 0

Talybont, .

Half -value of two

oxen and of two

cows, . . .

16 8

Dyndaethwy,

16 8

Talybolion, .

16 8

Beaumaris.

Llivon, . .

16 8

Maltraith, .

16 8

Twrcelyn, .

16 8

28 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

What may be the significance of this external grouping of
the commotes into castle groups is not very clear. All the
commotes are represented excepting that of Meney (co. Anglesea),
which by virtue of its forming part of the dower lands of the
dowager queens of England has a somewhat detached history
throughout. The commote of Dynllaen is sometimes mentioned
as rendering its ' store ' to Carnarvon, at other times to
Criccieth. The ' store ' of Gafflogion is often assigned to the
castle of Criccieth, and occasionally indefinitely to the store of
the castles in general. This would seem to show that the
arrangement was mainly superficial, being little more than a
nominal application of the dues to a certain castle. The
Norman lawyer, doubtless, found the castle useful and con-
venient for the continuance of the old Welsh custom of dawn-
bivyd. There was apparently no practical advantage in the
arrangement beyond this. The fiscal dues were rendered by
the local rhingylls to the sheriff, and through him to the local
exchequer at Carnarvon. There was no direct payment to the
respective castles.

The arrangement, moreover, possibly represents some detailed
aspect of Edward's policy of settlement in North Wales. The
staurum principis bears a striking resemblance to the English
custom of castle ward — an imposition laid upon such persons
as resided within a certain radius of a castle towards the main-
tenance of such as watched and warded the castle.1 The division
of North Wales into castelries or castle districts is probably
a feature of Edward's semi-military policy of settlement, the
supervision of each castle district being delegated to a constable.
It is worthy of note, too, that the castle district often corre-
sponded with the market district of its adjoining borough.2
Corresponding districts such as this, of which we have a few
in North Wales, evidently represent some administrative or
civilising area connected closely to the castle and borough by
military, commercial, and other bonds.

The castelry in North Wales bears in many respects a faint
resemblance to the administrative counterpart of the French
chatellenie. It carries little trace of its territorial counterpart,
the circonscription or territory dependent on a castle.3 There

1 Cf. Hist, oj English Law (Pollock and Maitland), i. pp. 257-8.

1 Seep. 171 below.

3 Cf. Histoire du Chateau etdela Chatellenie de Douai (Brassart), p. 10.

POLITICAL ORIGIN AND FUNCTION 29

was no territorial relation between the constable of a North
Welsh castle and the tenants of the several commotes included
in the castle district. The constable held no manorial courts.
The North Welsh tenants, holding their lands as of the
Principality of Wales, made suit at the local hundred and county
courts.

Apart from their military significance, the North Welsh
castelries appear to have been administrative areas in some
matters of justice and social custom : of justice, in the sense
that the constable of the castle had the custody of prisoners
within its precincts ; of customary dues, in so far as it was
connected economically with the servile dues of the peasantry
inhabiting its district. It is essential to bear this in mind
when attempting to interpret the phenomenon frequently
described in mediaeval documents as the castle, the town, and
the lordship of, say, Conway, or Carnarvon, etc., as the case
may be. These lordships are seemingly administrative rather
than manorial entities,1 and represent the areas wherein the
respective castles and boroughs were to carry on their civilising
influences.

The castle was thus no mere military bulwark. It played
an important role in the civil administration of its district,
which derived additional significance from its frequent corre-
spondence with the prescribed market district of the borough.
In the circumstance of their political function both the castle
and the borough were closely associated. Both were the
pioneers of English influences during the period of settlement.
There was something coercive and economic in the character
of both. The military castle had its economic side, and the
economic borough had its extraordinary military functions.

The efficient victualling of the North Welsh castles, de-
pendent mostly on foreign marts, must have formed one of the
primary incentives to the establishment of borough towns. It
is evident from the various items that go to make up the
purchases of the castle garnishment (empcio garnesturae) ,
that the newly founded boroughs of North Wales played a
significant part in the victualling process. This continued to
be a feature of their political function during the period of this
essay. The burgesses of Beaumaris, when they found them-

1 Like those of the Marcher districts of, say, Kerry and Kedewain,
Cyveiliog, and Arwystli.

30 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

selves hard pressed by the influx of Welsh burgesses towards the
close of the fourteenth century, distinctly state that Edward I.,
from the consideration of peace in the parts of Anglesea, con-
structed the castle of Beaumaris there ; and for the, munition of
the said castle he ordained the town of Beaumaris to be near
by it, whither English folk, to whom he nominally granted
the monopoly of burgess-ship, came to reside.

In regard to the motive and the circumstances attending their
origin, the boroughs of North Wales belong to a category of
boroughs especially characteristic of the thirteenth century.
From about 1230 to 1350 the sovereigns of France and their
chief feudatories, notably the English kings who were also
Dukes of Gascony, improved their dominions and strengthened
their political hold over subjected districts by the establishment
of a number of towns styled bastides or villes neuves. Count
Alphonso of Poitiers was an eminent batisseur, and King John,
Henry in., and Edward I. founded many villes neuves in Guienne
and Gascony. Edward I. wisely applied this policy of town-
building to similar conditions in his newly conquered district of
North Wales, and, as in his dominions across the sea, arranged
that the new boroughs contributed au maintien de la domination
anglaise.1

1 See Essai etc. sur les Bastides (A. Curie-Sembres, 1880) and chs. iv.
and v. below for the structural and institutional relations of the North
Welsh boroughs to their Continental prototypes.

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL CHARACTER 31

III

INCEPTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND GENERAL CHARACTER
OF THE NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS

THE story of the creation of boroughs in the Principality of
North Wales is the story of the grant of their original charters.
The reign of Edward I. was a prolific period 1 in the creation of
boroughs. Towns were essential factors in his general policy
of consolidation in England, and their extension to Wales was
assured by their peculiar aptness to meet the political and
economic needs of the Principality at that date.2

Circumstances connected with the problems of political
government hi North Wales, already related,3 induced Edward
to establish the five castellated boroughs of Carnarvon, Conway,
Criccieth, Bere, and Harlech immediately after the conquest.
The perturbed state of political feeling in Anglesea, coming to
a head in the denizen revolt of Madoc ap Llywelyn, led to the
immediate origin of the castle borough of Beaumaris, and
subsequently to the enfranchisement of the borough of New-
borough in the same county.4 The borough of Bala traces its
political inception to the disordered state of the commote of
Penllyn towards the end of the reign of Edward n.5 The twin
boroughs of Nevin and Pwllheli 6 owe their origin to the Black
Prince, who, out of regard for the military exploits in the parts
of Gascony of one Nigel de Lohereyn, a member of his body-
guard, made him a grant of the maenors of Nevin and Pwllheli,
which by way of further compliment he created free boroughs.

The burghal communities recognised the value of the ruling
charters obtained in this way. The circumstances of their
first enfranchisement were not readily forgotten. The tradition

1 English Town Life in the Fifteenth Century (A. S. Green), p. 11.

2 Cf. Y Brython for 1859, p. 62. 3 Ch. ii. above.

4 See ch. iv. below, a.n. 6 Rec. of Cam., p. 174.

6 See pp. 56-7 below. Cf. Pennant's Tours (ed. Rhys), ii. p. 366.

32 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

of their charter day was a matter of common talk handed
down from father to son. It was the red-letter day of their
birtli into the possibilities of a corporate existence. The charter
was the most highly prized of municipal documents. This
the burgesses confidently produced when their privileges were
challenged by an exacting minister, or when their rights were
violated by a usurping neighbour.1

With the object of preserving the integrity of the original
charter, it was the usual custom on the demise of a sovereign
to present it for the approval or confirmation of his successor.
By way of courtesy the burgesses in return officially made fine,
or, in modern terms, paid a nominal sum of money into the King's
hanaper. This process of confirmation sometimes went through
the preliminaries of a petition to the King and his council,
followed by the usual order to the burgesses to appear at the
chancery with their charter and make fine.2

There was apparently no legal necessity for the continual
renewal of the old charters. However, by force of habit, it
assumed some importance. The exercise of the custom in 1376
was deemed to be salutary to the integrity of the British
municipalities.3 Its continuance was not likely to prove
irksome to the Crown so long as it made small additions to the
royal revenues. A learned Welsh lawyer of the late sixteenth
century seems to have thought that the confirmation even of a
fee-farm charter was necessary to validate the burgesses' claims
to their lands.4 Fee-farm grants, moreover, generally held
good for ever, and they were seldom confirmed, as may be seen
from the accompanying list. The amounts paid on the con-
firmation of previous charters vary from a minimum of ten
shillings to a maximum of five marks.5

The regularity with which the North Welsh borough charters
were confirmed is illustrated in the following complete list of
charters granted to these boroughs during the period 1284-1536.
The value of the charters in this list for the purpose of burghal
history is not so considerable as its length would lead us to
suppose.

E.g. Rec. of Cam. (P.Q.W. proceedings passim).

See Rec. of Cam., p. 223, and Rot. Part., i. p. 373o, for instances of
the.

Rot. Part., ii. p. 332o.

Exchqr. Deposn., 11 Charles i., Easter, No. 31.

The sums paid are noted at the close of the confirmation charters.

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL CHARACTER 33

Name of Town.

Date of
Original
Charter.

List of Charters and their subsequent
con Urinations, etc.

Carnarvon,

1284

Conway,

1284

Criccieth,

1285

(a) Flint, 8 Sept., 12 Edw. I.— Ch. Roll, No. 12;

Welsh Roll, 12 Edw. I., m. 3.

(b) London, 25 May, 34 Edw. I. Confirmation of

(a) by Edward, Prince of Wales (afterwards
Edw. ii.).— Rec. of Cam., pp. 185-6.

speximus and Confirmation of (b). — Ch.
Roll, No. 89.

(d) Westminster, 3 June, 2 Ric. n. Inspeximus

and Confirmation of (c). —Pat. Roll,p. 2,m. 6.

(e) Kenyngton, 1 March, 1 Hen. iv. Inspex.

and Conf. of (d) by Henry v. as Prince of
Wales.— Ref. (g) below.

(/) Westminster, 10 November, 4 Hen. vi. In-
spex. and Conf. of (e). — Ref. (g) below.

(g) Westminster, 28th Sept., 8 Edw. iv. Inspex.
and Conf. of (/).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 7.

(h) Westminster, 26 Nov., 1 Edw. vi. Inspex.
and Conf. of (g). — Conf. Roll, p. 1, m. 5.

(i) Westminster, 31 May, 1 Eliz. Inspex. and
Conf. of (h). — Conf. Roll, 1 Eliz. , p. 1, m. 23.

(j) Westminster, 4 June, 1 Eliz. Inspex. and
Conf. of (a). ('De executione pro villa
Kaernervan,' marginal heading.) — Pat.
Roll., p. 1, m. 19.

(a) Flint, 8th Sept., 12 Edw. I.— Ch. Roll, No.

15; Welsh Roll, 12 Edw. i., p. 5, m. 4.

(b) Westminster, 12 March, 9 Edw. n. (Fee-

Farm).— Orig. Roll, n. 18.

Conf. of (a).— Ch. Roll, No. 82.

(d) Westminster, 3 June, 2 Ric. u. Inspex. and

Conf. of (c).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 3.

(e) Westminster, 23 Nov., 1 Hen. iv. Inspex.

and Conf. of (d) by Henry v. as Prince of

Wales.— Ref. (/) below.
(/) Westminster, 17 Nov., 4 Hen. vi. Inspex.

and Conf. of (e).— Pat. Roll, p. 1, m. 16.
(g) Westminster, 9 Feb., 4 Edw. iv. Inspex.

and Conf. of (/).— Pat. Roll, p. 3, m. 5.
(h) Westminster, 28 June, 1 Ric. in. Inspex.

and Conf. of (g).— Conf. Roll, p. 1, n. 5.
(») Westminster, 31 Jan., 4 Hen. vn. Inspex.

and Conf. of (A).— Conf. Roll, p. 2, n. 14.
(/) Westminster, 7 March, 1 Hen. vin. Inspex.

and Conf. of (i).— Conf. Roll, p. 4, n. 12.
(k) Westminster, 7 March, 1 Hen. vm. Inspex.

and Conf. of (b).— Conf. Roll, p. 4, n. 11.

(a) Cardigan, 22 Nov., 13 Edw. i.— Ch. Roll,
No. 148.

34 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Date Of

Name of Town. Original
I Charter.

List of Charters and their subsequent
confirmations, etc.

Criccieth—
continued.

Harlech,

Bere, .

Beaumaris, .

1285

1295

(6) Westminster, 18 Feb., 12 Ric. n. Inspex.
and Conf. of (a).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 21.

and Conf. of (b) by Henry v. as Prince of
Wales.— Ref. (d) below.

(d) Westminster, 27 Oct., 3 Hen. vi. Inspex.

and Conf. of (c).— Pat. Roll, p. 1, m. 24.

(e) Westminster, 12 March, 10 Hen. vn. Inspex.

and Conf. of (d).— Conf. Roll, 6-10 Hen.
vii., p. 1, n. 25.

(a) Cardigan, 22 Nov., 13 Edw. I.— Ch. Roll,

No. 149.

(b) Newburgh, 8 Nov., 10 Edw. n. (Fee-Farm).

— Orig. Roll, m. 8.

Conf. of (a).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 9.

(d) Westminster, 18 Nov., 17 Ric. n. Inspex.

and Conf. of (6).— Pat. Roll, p. 1, n. 11.

(e) [Westminster, 23 Nov., 1 Hen. iv. Inspex.

and Conf. of (c) by Henry v. as Prince of
Wales].— Ref. (/) below.

(/) Westminster, 9 Feb., 3 Hen. vi. Inspex.
and Conf. of (e).— Pat. Roll, p. 1, n. 6.

(a) Cardigan, 22 Nov., 13 Edw. I.— Ch. Roll,
No. 150.

(a) Berwick, 15 Sept., 24 Edw. I.— Ch. Roll,

No. 5.

(b) Waltham H. C., 26 Jan., 5 Edw. m. In-

spex. and Conf. of (a).— Cb. Roll, No. 38.

Conf. of (6).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 8.

(d) [Hardelagh, 8 Sept , 9 Hen. iv. luspex. and

Conf. of (c) by Henry v. as Prince of
Wales].— Ref. (/) below.

(e) Westminster, 5 Dec., 4 Hen. vi. Inspex.

and Conf. of (d).— Ref. (/) below.
(/) Westminster, 28 Sept., 8 Edw. iv. Inspex.

and Conf. of (e).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 15.
(g) Westminster, 7 March, 1 Ric. in. Inspex.

and Conf. of (/).— Conf. Roll, p. 1, n. 8.
(h) Westminster, 13 Dec. , 18 Hen. vn. Inspex.

and Conf. of (g).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 10

(pencil Nos.).
(») Westminster, 1 March, 1 Hen. vin. Inspex.

and Conf. of (h).— Conf. Roll, p. 5, n. 17.
(j) Westminster, 20 Nov., 1 Edw. vi. Inspex.

and Conf. of (i).— Conf. Roll, p. 1, n. 4.
(k) Westminster, 22 June, 4 Eliz. Surrender of

(j) and Grant of Governing Charter. — Pat.

Roll, p. 7.

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL CHARACTER 35

Name of Town.

Date of
Original
Charter.

List of Charters and their subsequent
confirmations, etc.

Ne wborough ,

1303

Bala, .

1324

Nevin,

Pwllheli,

1355

(a) [Durham, 3 May, 31 Edw. i. By Edward,
Prince of Wales (afterwards Edw. n.)]. —
Ref. (b) below.

(6) Ffulmere, 27 April, 17 Edw. n. Inspex. and
Conf. of (a).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 19.

and Conf. of (6). — Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 22.

(d) Westminster, 3 June, 2 Ric. n. Inspex. and

Conf. of (c).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 9.

(e) [Kenyngton, 27 Feb., 2 Hen. iv. Inspex.

and Conf. of (d) by Henry v. as Prince of

Wales]. Ref. (/) below.
(/) Westminster, 16 Nov., 4 Hen. vi. Inspex.

and Conf. of (e).— Pat. Roll, p. 1, m. 16.
(g) Westminster, 30 April, 15 Hen. vin. Inspex.

and Conf. of (/) cancelled and returned

into Chancery [sic], — Pat. Roll, p. 1, n. 3.

(a) [Westminster, 1 June, 17 Edw. ii.]— Ref. (c)

below.

(b) Windsor, 18 Feb., 5 Edw. m. (Fee-Farm).

— Ch. Roll, No. 79, m. 29.

Conf. of (a).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 7.

(d) Westminster, , 20 Ric. n. Inspex. and

Conf. of (b).— Pat. Roll, p. 1, m. 34.

(e) Westminster, 5 July, 3 Hen. vin. Inspex.

and Conf. of (c). — Land Revenue Enrol-
ments, vol. 213, pp. 1426-144.

(a) [Carnarvon, 1 Feb., 12 Principate Black

Prince].— Ref. (b) below.

(b) Westminster, 10 March, 6 Ric. n. Inspex.

and Conf. of (a).— Pat. Roll, p. 3, m. 14.

(a) [Carnarvon, 14 Feb., 12 Principate Black

Prince].1— Ref. (6) below.
(6) Westminster, 26 Feb., 6 Ric. n. Inspex.

and Conf. of (a).— Pat. Roll, p. 2, m. 12.

and Conf. of (b) by Henry v. as Prince of
Wales].— Ref. (d) below.

(d) Westminster, 16 May, 1 Hen. vi. Inspex.

and Conf. of (d).— Pat. Roll, p. 4, m. 34.

(e) Westminster, 5 June, 19 Hen. vin. In-

spex. and Conf. of (d). — Land Revenue
Enrolments, vol. 212, pp. 191-2.

1 There are no separate documents extant for the Charters bracketed
in the above list.

3(5 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

It will be observed from the respective dates of the original
charters, that the period of inception covers a period of seventy-
one years. The creation of the North Welsh boroughs was a
sporadic one, the years 1284-5 accounting for five of the ten
boroughs that were nominally established. Bere has no history
beyond its charter, and so may be dismissed here.1 All the
castle boroughs originate at the close of the thirteenth century,
the inception of the four manorial boroughs falling within the
range of the early half of the fourteenth century.

As far as geographical distribution is concerned, the county
of Carnarvon contained five of the boroughs, Anglesea and
Merioneth two each ; Carnarvonshire taking three of the
castellatod boroughs — Carnarvon, Con way, and Criccieth, with
Nevin and Pwllheli of the manorial type ; Merioneth and
Anglesea effected a compromise, having one representative
of each, Harlech and Bala being to the one what Beaumaris
and Newborough were to the other.

The above charters reveal some notable traits in the status

1 The site of this castle was mistaken by W. Cathrall (Hist, of North
Wales, i. p. 190 n.), and W. Warrington (Hist, of Wales, ii. p. 280), for
Dolbadarn, a castle situated in the vale of Llan-f?erw». Its real site was
upon the western flank of Cader Idris in the parish of Llanvihangel-y-
Pcnnant, co. Merioneth. A few traces of it still remain and it is generally
known as Caorberllan Castle (Arch. Camb., I. iv., p. 211 ; in. ix. p. 189,
n. 1). The origin of the castle is doubtful (Clark, Med. Afilit. Arch.,
i. pp. 105, 158). It was one of the strongest Welsh fortresses diving the
last fight for independence. It was lost to David in 1 283, and falling into
the hands of the Earl of Pembroke became an English fortress under the
supervision of a constable (Walsing, p. 24, Welsh Roll, 13 Edw. i.). It was
hotly besieged by the Welsh in 1295, from which date it apparently ceased
to be a royal fortress. The last constable elected was Robert Fitz-Walter,
28th June 1293 (Welsh Roll, 12 Edw. i.). Robert was pardoned in 1298
of arrears duo inter alia from the castle of Bere (Col. Pat. Roll., 1298, p.
346). We have no reference to Bere as a fortress after this. The name

\vn- rM-met iiix-s n>«'d t» denote tli.- loi'u> fl \ >;irt ieul.Mr huuU (TVotW. <'>jni.

Soc.. 1902-3, App. 1). The alleged capture of * Bere ' by one David Gough
in the time of Glyndwr forms an interesting episode in the vernacular
literature. (See Qwaith Lcuris Qlyn Cothi, ed. 1837, pp. 141-2 n.)

The history of the nominal borough is contained \vithin the four corners
of its charter. The vill was made a free borough (liber bttrgus) as the rest
of the North Welsh boroughs, the constable of the castle for the- time.
being mayor of the town, etc. The burgesses claimed the privilege of
trial by their own ilk between the banks of the Maw and the Dovey. The
town was affiliated to Hereford. Edward i. made a personal visit to
Bere in November 1284, exactly a year before its enfranchisement.
The mayoral list of the borough consists only of three names : Hugo de
TubervUle, appointed 3rd October 1285; Robert de Staundon, appointed
28th November 1292; Robert Fitz-Walter, appointed 28th June li'iW
( Welsh Roll, s.a.o.). The nominal town, doubtless, decayed with tlv? castle
about 1295.

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL CHARACTER 37

of the North Welsh boroughs. One outstanding feature of these
charters is their homogeneous character. Excepting differ-
ences of date and place, the charter of one borough represents
the general character of all.

Turning to the superscriptions of the original charters, we
find that six of the boroughs, namely, Carnarvon, Conway,
Criccieth, Beaumaris, Bala, and Harlech, received their original
charters from the hands of an English king. The three remain-
ing boroughs of Newborough, Nevin, and Pwllheli were first
enfranchised by a Prince of Wales. Remembering the close
connection which existed between the English Crown and the
Principality,1 and also the fact that the princely-founded
towns were subsequently confirmed by English sovereigns,
we may take one general feature of the North Welsh boroughs
to be that of their royal foundation.

In this respect they stand out in clear contrast to the baronial
foundations of the pre-conquest period. This is evidenced in
the nomenclature of their diplomatic documents as well as in
the general character of their history. The superscriptions of
all the charters in the above list invariably produce the name
of an English king or a Prince of Wales. They lack the baronial
character of the parallel documents of the South Welsh boroughs.
The family history of their municipal benefactors is not
enveloped in the genealogical ramifications of a Clare, a Marshal,
a Braose, or a Despenser.2 The history of the boroughs them-
selves, too, is much simpler and more uniform. They were
the products of the royal hand, not of baronial hands.
Furthermore, they were the products of a different era. We
miss that period of vagueness between the foundation of the
castle and the appearance of the town charter, so character-
istic of the baronial boroughs. The castle and the borough in
the Principality of North Wales are of simultaneous origin,
and sometimes the grant of the borough charters, as in the
case of Carnarvon, preceded the completion of the castle
works.

The boroughs of North Wales were thus favourably placed
as regards their patrons. The Crown was likely to be less
prejudiced by those selfish interests that often hampered

1 Sir John Doddridge, Treatise on the Principality (2nd ed. 1714. p. 9).

2 Swansea Charters (ed. Francis), p. 3 ; Cardiff Records (ed. Matthews),
vol. i., s.v. Municipal Charters.

38 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the advance of a baronial town.1 This is the general distinction
drawn in England between the prospective position of royal
and baronial boroughs. In Wales the advantage was no doubt
modified by the political function which the boroughs had to
fulfil.

Royal patronage had done much to favour the growth of the
municipal idea in England during the eleventh, twrelfth, and
thirteenth centuries.2 It still does much to foster the condition
of the liber burgus in North Wales during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. The advantages accruing to the royal
boroughs of North Wales (owing to their peculiar function) are,
however, less marked when contrasted with the baronial towns
of South WTales, than is the case between royal and baronial
towns in England. It shows itself not so much in the check
upon municipal life, as in the pronounced predominance given
to the royal will. The burgesses were perhaps too conscious of
their position, and perhaps too ready to assert their essential
importance in Edward's policy of consolidation. The cir-
cumstances of their political environment partly explain their
slow growth to municipal manhood.

So long as the castle remained an important factor in Welsh
politics, the Crown continued to lend a helping hand to the
borough. The North Welsh boroughs were children of the
Crown in more senses than one. The king was ever their
ready benefactor, as far as his circumstances would allow ;
he strengthened the town walls when demolished by the sea,
and repaired the town quays when in need of repair ; he
respited their rents during the vagaries of war, preserved the.
integrity of their privileges, and often enacted laws dealing
directly with the municipal economy ; and he provided free
sites for their places of worship. The royal benefactor at all
times showed considerable interest in the rise and development
of the North Welsh boroughs. The burgesses had sufficient
cause to deem themselves ' the friends of the king.' 3

Leaving the charter superscriptions, we now come to the body
of the charters, all of which predicate that each of the nine
boroughs was constituted a liber burgus, or a free borough. The

1 E.g. at Kenfig and Neath (Cartes ct Mun. (Clark), iii. pp. 49, 68). Cf.
Town Life in the Fifteenth Century (A. S. Green), i. ch. viii.

« Stubbs'e Conatit. Hist. (Library ed.), i. p. 466.

1 Illustrations of this policy are given in the succeeding chapters
(iv.-vii.).

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL CHARACTER 39

subjoined analysis of the original charter of Carnarvon will
illustrate the general character of the municipal constitution
of all the North Welsh boroughs down to the end of the Middle
Ages.

The aggregate privileges assigned by the original charter to the
free burgesses of the free borough may be analysed thus : —

I. Those connected with the government of the town.

(a) Its Administration — the appointment of mayor

(except in the castellated boroughs) and bailiffs
by the burgesses, and the respective duties of
these officers defined.

(b) Its Jurisdiction — the burgesses imprivileged (a) to

possess a free prison ; (b) to exclude the sheriff
(except in cases of Crown pleas) ; (c) to enjoy the
privileges of Sok and Sak, Toll and Team, and
Infangenethef.

II. Those connected with the ' tenure ' of the town, etc.

(a) All borough lands diswarrened and disafforested.

(b) Residence prohibited to Jews.

dying intestate.

III. Those connected with the business of the town.

(a) Grant of a gild merchant with hanse, etc.

(b) Grant of other trading privileges : —

(i) Custumal — freedom from toll, lastage, passage,
murage, pontage, stallage, lene, danegeld
and gaywite.

(ii) Jurisdictional — (a) Burgesses not to be arrested
for debts of which they are not sureties or
principal debtors, (b) Burgesses should not
be convicted except by co-burgesses within
their specified district (in case of Carnar-
von, district between Carnarvon and the
Clwyd), except in cases touching the com-
monalty of the borough, and then according
to the liberties of Hereford.

Such in brief outline were the common privileges enjoyed by
all the boroughs in virtue of their original charters. The
non-intromittat clause exempting them from the sheriff's control,

40 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

as well perhaps as the grant of gilda mercatoria assured them the
essential attributes of a liber burgus, or free borough.

The original charter also indicates the source whence other
customs or privileges could possibly be derived. Six of the
boroughs were privileged with rights of direct reference to the
liberties of Hereford, the rest indirectly enjoying the same
privilege. Hereford in this way became the mother of more
Welsh boroughs.

-Carnarvon {Bala
Conway
Criccieth

Bere
HEREFORD 4 1

Harlecn

Beaumaris

[Rhuddlan] Newborough

The list is typical of the process of affiliation, showing how
a daughter-town became itself the parent of a subsequent
foundation, and this to the fourth degree.1

The existing muniments of these particular boroughs throw
little light on the significance and actual working of the process
of affiliation. In England affiliation involved the interpreta-
tion of law and custom. The mother-town transmitted to its
affiliated members two different kinds of documents: (1) an
exemplification of its charter ; (2) a certificate furnishing or
interpreting particular laws and customs.2

We have one possible instance of the first class of documents.
In 1303 the borough of Newborough received a grant of the
privileges of Rhuddlan, which, however, were not specifically
enumerated in the original charter, except by the general words
conceding them a gild merchant with hanse, and all other liberties
and free customs pertaining to a liber burgiis, such, forsooth, as
the burgesses of Rhuddlan have in their borough. Newborough
during the first two years of its existence seems to have had no
distinctive name, save that of the manor on which it was partly
established — Rhosfair. In 1305 the burgesses ask that they
should bear the distinctive name of Newborough, and that they
should have the charter of Rhuddlan in all its details (in puncto
ad punctum). They subsequently received an exemplification

1 Gross, Gild Merchant, i. p. 144. • /&., pp. 266-7.

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL CHARACTER 41

of the Rhuddlan charter, not of the Caerwys charter as was
specified in the reply to their petition. Asked about fifty years
later to show by what warrant they enjoyed the liberties of
Hereford, the burgesses of Newborough bring forward an
exemplification of the Rhuddlan charter.1 This instance is
interesting as showing how the affiliating process facilitated the
creation of boroughs. Nevin and Pwllheli were likewise founded
by abbreviated charters on the plan of Newborough.

Knowing the general character of the municipal privileges
granted by English sovereigns and Princes of Wales, let us
consider upon whom they were bestowed. The original charters
are exceedingly reticent on this point. All, except one, attribute
the privilege to the ' men of the vill,' or what apparently means
the same thing, the ' men inhabiting the vill.' The preamble
of the Bala charter 2 (a charter remarkable in many respects),
goes a step further, and ascribes the privileges to the ' English
inhabitants of the vill of Bala.' This is the only mention in
the foundation charters of the fact of a burghal plantation of
English burgesses.

In view of their political function it was natural enough that
the earlier boroughs should take the form of English colonies.
Racial sympathy between the castle garrison and the inhabitants
of the town proved one of the strong links in the chain of English
defence. ' Adventitious ' families, the ' Advenae ' of modern
genealogists, made up the bulk of the early town population in
the castle boroughs. Welshmen were nominally forbidden to
dwell or hold tenements within the liberties of the English
boroughs.3 It was no more appropriate to have a Welshman as
burgess in the castle boroughs of North Wales, than it was to
have a Scot at Berwick, or a Frenchman at Calais. To the
burgesses of the North Welsh boroughs, the country populace
were nominally foreigners, as they in turn were to the rural folk.

Racial antipathy, intensified by its identification with the
enjoyment or non-enjoyment of burghal privileges, gives a
peculiar interest to the municipal story in North Wales. The
situation was sometimes acute. There was once a loud outcry
by the English burgesses of Carnarvon, Conway, Beaumaris,
Criccieth, Harlech, Bala, Rhuddlan and Flint against the ' mouths

1 Rec. of Cam., pp. 179-180. 2 /&., p. 174. 3 See below, pp. 230, 256.

42 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

and oaths ' of the Welsh. It appears that the Welsh paid
little regard to those ]urisdictional privileges, of which the
English burgesses had the monopoly. How disastrous the
results must have been, we may surmise from the belief (albeit
exaggerated) of the burgesses that, if no relief was immediately
forthcoming, there would be no Englishman (alive) in Wales.1

The gradual legalising of burghal privileges to the Welsh,
concomitant with the subsiding of racial politics, is an important
point in the evolution of the Welsh boroughs. Until this is
accomplished there is something abnormal about the North
Welsh municipalities, though normal enough when viewed in the
light of their political function. Theirs is not merely municipal
polity. It is inseparably connected with the wider polity of
English defence in North Wales. In addition to the local policy
of the burgesses of a particular borough, we meet with the more
comprehensive policy of the English burgesses in North Wales.
In this wider vein the burgesses generally couched the preamble
of their petitions when seeking for particular as well as general
privileges. The burgesses of Newborough, most of whom were
Welshmen, with diplomatic instinct reminded the Black Prince
that their town was established for the habitation of Englishmen.
In this way they obtained the privilege of electing their own
mayor.2 Naturally the English burgesses were slow to forget
their association with the policy of English defence. They
clung to the theory of English burgess-ship long after its virtual
abolition by the milder policy of the Tudor kings.3 It is not
until they lose their military or racial character, that the North
Welsh municipalities are seen to develop on lines of their own,
and assume the full privileges and responsibilities of self-
government.

The fact that they originated as royal English free boroughs
has thus an important bearing upon their municipal history.

1 Ancient Petitions {P.R.O.), No. 13029. 2 See below, p. 157.

3 See below, pp. 271-2.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 43

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY

THE circumstance of land enters largely into the theory and
practice of the mediaeval borough. The municipal franchise
.or liberty was a definite area of land marked off from the rest
of the county by its definite metes and bounds ; it was the
territory over which the burgesses exercised their commercial
and institutional privileges. The holding of burgage lands
long continued to be one of the fundamental conditions of sound
burgess-ship, and agriculture occupied a considerable place
in the town economy. The North Welsh townsmen, we shall
find, took a vital interest in crops; their chief magistrate or
mayor was sometimes a farmer. The history of (1) the acquisi-
tion, (2) the distribution, and (3) the tenure and administration
of the borough lands, thus constitutes a considerable and
important aspect of the municipal story during the Middle
Ages.

1. THE ACQUISITION OF BOROUGH LANDS

Royal boroughs usually flourished on the royal demesne.
This was generally the case with the royal boroughs of North
Wales. All were established on sites, and endowed with lands
closely associated with the royal past. The lands of the old
Welsh maenors were in some cases supplemented by the bond
and escheat lands of the commote over which the royal will
was supreme. The hereditary lands of the Welsh family groups
residing in ' beds ' (gwelys) here and there were seldom appro-
priated. Conflict with the private rights of the new subjects
was best avoided. The municipal lands were accordingly, as
far as possible, taken out of the royal rather than the private
property of the North Welsh Principality.

The burghal franchises correspond, in whole or in part, with
the old royal maenors of the Welsh princes. The aggregate

44 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

lands of the boroughs of Nevin and Pwllheli tally with the
territoria of the old maenors. Borough-making in these instances
was simply a case of assigning the privileges of the liber burgus
to the old maenors as they then existed. There was no creation
of a new territorial unit. The boroughs of Conway, Carnarvon,
and Criccieth included something more than the old maenors
within the area of their franchises, and the liberties of Harlech
outstretched the old maenor of Estingwern. Beaumaris occupied
something more and something less than the old maenor or
borough of Llanvaes. The franchise of Newborough never
extended to the wider limits of the demesne lands of Rhosfair,
upon which it was established. The demesne lands of the
commote of Penllyn, on the eastern border of Merioneth,
were almost wholly occupied by the town and liberty of
Bala.

The acreage and other details of the lands assigned to the
boroughs must be drawn largely from the local bailiff accounts.
Charters detailing the original grants of land to the men of the
several boroughs are not forthcoming. Probably none ever
existed in the cases of Nevin and Pwllheli. The land charters l
of Carnarvon and Conway are referred to in the early accounts,
and the lands of the remaining boroughs are spoken of as being
4 delivered ' to the burgesses. The original foundation charters
in each case imply the existence of an inhabited vill with lands
already assigned to it.

(a) Conway

The town of Conway flourished on the demesne lands of the
commote of Creuddyn. Most of these had been included by
Llywelyn ap lorwerth in his munificent grant of lands to the
Cistercian Abbey of Aberconway. Two carucates of land with
an extensive meadow remained appurtenant to the royal maenor
there. The old town apparently thrived under the patronage
of the local Abbey. The Abbot's borough, including the site
of the Abbey and its appurtenances, was worth £8 yearly at the
time of its confiscation. Edward i. utilised its lands and the
residuary demesnes to found the new free borough of Conway.2
A detailed account of the removal of the Abbey to Maynan,

1 So far as I know, the only extant specimens for Wales of charters
of this character belong to the mediaeval boroughs of Dryslwyn, co.
Carmarthen, and Denbigh.

8 Min. Ace. 1171/7.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 45

and of the territorial exchanges which were necessary to com-
pensate for the released lands, is given on the Welsh Roll of 1284.1
The lands appropriated by the borough covered an extent of
nearly seven hundred acres. The town bailiffs in 1305 account
for the land issues of the borough in this way : —

(a) Burgages — £6. 2s. 2|d. being the assise rent of 121 1

burgages and a quarter of one burgage, of which 5Jd. is
for diverse feet of land found on the rental besides the
number of the aforesaid burgages.

(b) Lands of the Vill — £4. 10s. 8Jd. being the assigned

(assignata) rent of 362J acres 1 rood of land at 3d. per
acre, together with Id. for the rood.

11s. 5Jd. being, etc., of 55 acres at 2Jd. per acre.

43s. IJd. being, etc., of 258 J acres 1 rood at 2d.
per acre.2

This account represents the normal acreage of the town lands
until the particular items become absorbed in the fee-farm rent
of the borough in 1316.3

In the meantime (1305-1316) the burgesses made strenuous
efforts to increase and consolidate their territory at the hands
of Edward of Carnarvon. They endeavoured to add the
demesnes of the adjoining vill of Gannock to their franchise.
In 1305 they sought a grant of twenty acres of land (situated in
the midst of their own) held by six of the Prince's villeins there.
At the same time they contested the right of the Bishop of
Bangor to enjoy two hundred acres of the same demesne. The
burgesses were evidently in search of a more extensive and more
compact territory. However, nothing tangible came of either
of these requests. The maerdrev lands of Gannock remained
intact, and the bishop continued to enjoy the profits of the
demesnes that had been graciously granted to him by Edward i.
upon the conquest of Wales.4

The same year the burgesses made an attempt to secure the

1 Trans. Gym. Soc., 1902-3, pp. 40-41.

2 Min. Ace. 1170/5. The 5£d. for the diverse feet of land in the first
entry is first included in the account of 1307. The sum total for 1305-
1306 being £13. 7s. 0£d. (1170/3-4). In 1307-1310 it remains as above
£13. 7s. 6d. (1170/5-6). In 1313 more burgages are arrented, making the
total £13. 12s. 2d., at which figure it remains until its final incorporation
in the fee-farm grant in 1316 (1170/7-9).

3 A transcript of this charter is given in Add. MS. (Ch.) 33,372 (Brit.
Museum), f. 3 b.

4 Rec. of Cam., pp. 222-3.

46 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

demesne lands of the hamlets of Lleghan and Werdros, districts
bordering on their original territory. Unfortunately the
execution of the writ directed by Edward i. to the local Justiciar
at Carnarvon, sanctioning the grant of these lands, was stayed
because of the exigencies of the Scottish war. This was the
grievance complained of by the burgesses in their petition to
Prince Edward of Carnarvon at Kennington, who in reply
repeated his father's promise to grant the lands.1 The pro-
mise, however, was only partially fulfilled by his grandson,
the Black Prince, about fifty years later. The villeinage lands
of Lleghan, including four gavels, were conceded to the burgesses
on the 20th day of March 1355, at a fee-farm rent of 118s.2
This was the first and the last addition made to the lands
originally assigned to the borough of Conway.

(b) Carnarvon

The borough franchise of Carnarvon more than doubled the
original franchise of Conway in extent. It included the lands of
the old maenor of Carnarvon, and of the entire villein tref of
Llanbeblig, excepting nine bovates ' beyond the river Seiont.'
The maenor comprised six carucates in demesne at Carnarvon,
with a meadow and pasture, and an extensive garden of the
value of 20s. per annum. There were also three carucates and
a pasture in demesne at 'Penthlan' (Penllan), together with an
undefined tract of land at ' Pennaghkely ' (Pen-y-gelly). The
total profits of the maenor of Carnarvon, as notified in the extent 3
of the county taken after the conquest by Edward i., are a little
less than £22. 10s. This amount includes the profits of the
neighbouring vill of Llanbeblig which apparently formed parcel
of the maenor. Among other issues of the old maenor it is inter-
esting to find ' customs of the port 20s.' ; and ' Pleas and
perquisites of the Curiarum burgi.' Carnarvon was a typical
Welsh town of the pre-conquest period, having its ' port ' and its
* court ' like Llanvaes and Nevin. The parcel of the vill of
Llanbeblig, not included among the lands granted at a ' certain
service ' to the burgesses of Carnarvon, produced an annual
rent of 5s. 3d.4

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 222.

2 Min. Ace. 1171/11. A transcript of this charter is given in Add. MS.
(Ch.), 33,372 (Brit. Museum), f. 4a. ...

3 Trans. Cym. Soc., 1902-3, pp. 18, 74.

* Min. Ace. 1171/8. Cf. Rec. of Cam., p. 22; Exchqr. Misc. 7/11.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 47

Excepting the burgages, the total area of the lands which
were in this way nominally assigned to the burgesses appears
finally as 1464J acres. Only 1030 acres are arrented to the
burgesses in the rental of the town for 1298 — the remainder
evidently lying vacant in the hands of the king. Seven years
later, 1378 acres are arrented to burgesses and others, increasing
in the following year to 1444J. In 1339 twenty more acres are
accounted for, at which figure it subsequently remains for the
rest of our period. In the absence of other external evidence,
this amount was presumably included among the lands that
were originally set apart for the use of the burgesses. The
variations in the amount arrented very probably represent the
gradual process of burghal colonisation. Arranged in tabular
form they have the additional interest of illustrating the gradual
accumulation of the lands into the hands of bona-fide burgesses.

Date.

MS. Source.

Lands held by the
Burgesses.

Demesne Lands held by
divers Persons, among
others, Burgesses.

Total.

1298

R.&S. (P.R.O.)

1030 acres (sic).

1030 a.

17/84.

1305

Min. Ace.

1229£ acres 1

121 acres 1 rood, to-

1170/4.

rood of arable,pas-

gether with 27 acres

ture, and alder-

alneti in the hands of

1378 a.

land (alneti) at

the Prince, and let to

2d. per acre.

divers tenants.

1306

Min. Ace.

Do.

44£ acres at 2d. let to

1170/5.

divers tenants.

102£ acres at l£d. , be-

cause it was never culti-

vated after the war of

Madoc.

14441 a>

60 acres at Id., quia

alneti, let to divers ten-

ants.

8 acres at 2d., held

by Peter de Hunkelegh.

1308

Min. Ace.

1330^ acres at 2d.

106 acres at 2d. to

1170/6.

divers tenants.
8 acres at 2d., by

1444i a.

Peter de Hunkelegh.

1313-14

Min. Ace.

Do.

106 acres at 2d. to

-15.

1170/7, 8, 9.

divers tenants.
8 acres at 2d., by

1444* a.

Thomas de Esthalle.

48 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Date.

MS. Source.

Lands held by the
Burgesses.

Demesne Lands held by-
divers Persons, among
others, Burgesses.

Total.

1316

Min. Ace.

1330i acres at 2d.

106 acres terra* moro-

1170/10.

ace ac Kuarres, granted

by John de Havering to
W. de Shaldeford to be

1444^ a.

held at farm by him and
others holding lands

there.

1319-1336

Min. Ace.

1444£ acres at 2d.

1170/1 &

1171/3.

1444^ a.

1339-1536

Min. Ace.

1464£ acres at 2d.

1171/4 & Min.

Ace. 26-27

14C4^a.

Hen. viii.

No. 36.

The small amount arrented in 1298 is in some part explained
by the table. It was only four years after the revolt of Madoc ab
Llywelyn, subsequent to which some of the lands were not culti-
vated until 1306. The early comers, too, seem to have taken up
the best lands ; the alder, marshy, and stony (kuarres) lands were
arrented last. The total of 1464J acres remains virtually the
same throughout. It sometimes appears in a corrupt form,
e.g. Min. Ace. 1175/1, where 1454J a. occurs with the money
equivalent of 1464J acres.

The promise of a grant of sixty acres of land apiece had been
held out to induce burgesses to settle around the castle of
Criccieth. But no burgess apparently occupied more than six
acres, and some were left without any lands at all. Such is the
general tenor of an early petition in which the disappointed
burgesses seek redress.1 The nuclei of their borough lands
were those pertaining to the maenor of Criccieth, consisting of
two carucates of land, one meadow, and a pasture sufficient for
eight cows.2 These were supplemented by the acquisition of a
vacated patrimony (wele) in the neighbourhood of * Strinthlyn,' 3

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 224.

8 Rec. of Cam., p. 41 (modern Stymllyn).

2 Min. Ace. 1171/7.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 49

and later in the reign of Edward m. (about 1351), the burgesses
are charged an additional rent of 2s. for a certain meadow.
" The earliest account giving details of the town lands is that
of Robert de Ossilegh and Ralph de Wenlak in 1308.1 In this
year the bailiffs answer for twenty-three burgages with eighty-
one acres of land at Id. per acre. The successive bailiffs
make similar returns up to the year 1317, when the burgesses
are amerced 2s. by Roger de Mortimer, the local Justiciar,
for the concealment of one rood of land within their liberties.2
Eighty-one acres and one rood are minutely accounted for until
1325,3 which amount probably remained unchanged. All the
accounts subsequent to this date, however, return eighty-six
acres one rood, apparently through the mistaken analogy that
the number of acres accounted for should correspond to the
number of pence in the amount paid. The concealed rood,
upon its recovery, was arrented at 5Jd.,4 thereby increasing
the old rents of assize for land to 7s. 2Jd. Seven shillings odd
continues to be the normal issue of the borough lands during
the late Plantagenet and Tudor periods.

(d) Beaumaris

The founding of the new borough and castle of Beaumaris
led to the confiscation of the old maenor or town of Llanvaes.
A considerable share of the hereditary lands of the neighbouring
vill of Cerrigygwyddyl was appropriated for the same purpose.
The Welsh townsmen of Llanvaes were removed to the demesnes
of Rhosfair, about twelve miles away, and the disinherited
tenants of Cerrigygwyddyl were recompensed with grants of
land in some of the adjoining vills. The establishment of Beau-
maris occasioned a greater rearrangement of lands than was the
case with any other of the North Welsh boroughs.

The lands of the vill of Llanvaes, in the Anglesea extent of
1294, are said to contain thirteen carucates of land in demesne,
with a meadow and garden, in addition to the burgage
holdings yielding an annual rent of more than £8 sterling.

1 Min. Ace. 1170/6. The town was farmed during the years 1305-7.
The following note occurs at the foot of this account : — ' Memorandum
quod villa de Cruk' posita fuit ad firmam in annis a festo Michaelis princi-
patus quinto usque festum Michaelis anno regni regis Edwardi secundo
videlicet per iij. annos quibus annis non reddiderunt compotum quia
posita ad firmam.'

2 16., 1170/12. 3 16., 1170/1, 2, 13-15. « 76., 1170/16.

50 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The mills of the maenor, Llanvaes and Kevyncogh, were not
assigned to the burgesses. A little over twenty-two and a half 1
acres remained of the old vill of Cerrigygwyddyl after allotment
was made to the burgesses — about a fourth perhaps of the
original vill. The total lands of the borough as they appear in
the rental of 1305 cover an area of 1486 J acres — 1333 acres 1
rood arable ; 16J acres 1 rood meadow ; 104J acres pasture ;
4 acres turbary ; and 28 acres underwood. Most of these lands
were granted to the townsmen, but a considerable amount was
annexed to the castle demesne. The representatives of St.
Katherine's Church at Llanvaes, and of the Friars Minor
established there by Llywelyn ap lorwerth, had minor holdings
in the same lands. These several interests are set out in the
tabular analysis of the Beaumaris lands given below.

The lands originally arrented by the burgesses were hardly
favourable to their agricultural pursuits. They were partly
wedged in between the castle demesnes, which were situated at
Llanvaes and ' Fulbrok.' The continual trafficking to and fro
by the castle tenants proved detrimental to growing crops on
the intervening borough lands. Alive to the advantages of a
compact territory, the burgesses begged leave to hold the castle
demesnes at a much increased rent. The request is included
among the Kennington series of Welsh petitions preserved in
the Record of Carnarvon, and dates from about 1305.2 The
lands were not granted until May Day 1315, when the burgesses
for the first time arrented the demesne lands near the castle at
an annual fee-farm rent of £7. 10s. 10 Jd. In the Easter following
they were included in the bailiffs' charge.8

The only subsequent addition to the town lands was that of
the year 1366, when the Black Prince conceded the villeinage
lands of Bodenvewe to the burgesses, at a fee-farm amounting
to more than double the ordinary rent. This was the last
endowment of the municipal element in the Principality of North
Wales. It must, however, be observed that the bailiffs of
Beaumaris ultimately (1400) administered the residuary lands
attached to the local castle. The franchise of Beaumaris
seemingly comprised the entire castle demesnes.

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 74. * Ib., p. 223. 8 Min. Ace. 1170/10.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 51

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62 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

(e) Newborough

The confiscation of the town of Llanvaes led to the removal
of most of the old burgesses to the demesne lands of Rhosfair,
or Rhoshir. Some, we know, acquired lands elsewhere.1 Several
have given expression to the hardships to which they were put
by their compulsory eviction.2 The Church of St. Katherine's
was considerably impoverished 3 by the loss of its old parishioners.
The latter under the leadership of one Anian, a local doctor
(medicus), were reluctant to leave their old homes ; in conse-
quence Anian, with thirty or more of his co-tenants, were fined
for their delay at Llanvaes contrary to the King's ordinance.4

The burgage lands of the town of Llanvaes, in which the
burgesses had apparently a private interest, are extended in 1294
at £8. 8s. 5|d. Precisely the same amount is returned by the
bailiffs in the earliest extant account of the newly established
borough at Newborough. Ninety and a half acres, with twelve
and a half perches of the demesnes of Rhoshir, were appropriated
at one stroke to the use of the borough. Excepting four acres
taken up by the * royal roads ' of the borough, the whole of the
demesne lands were granted to the old burgesses in recompense
for the lands vacated by them at Llanvaes.5

The Rhoshir domain contained an area of more than six
hundred acres ; namely, ten carucates of land (each carucate
estimated at sixty acres), one garden, one pasture, and three
small meadows. When the burgesses first settled there a
considerable portion of these lands were unoccupied. Lands
to the value of nearly £4 were in decay after the first allotment
was made to the borough. A few scattered tenements, however,
occupied by Welsh bondmen, intermingled with the lands of the
townsmen, who very soon emulated the burgesses of Conway
and Beaumaris in their attempts to consolidate their territory.

In 1305, with diplomatic foresight worthy of larger munici-
palities, the burgesses of Newborough petitioned Prince Edward
of Carnarvon to remove the villein tenants then dwelling in their
midst, so that their burgages might be surrounded by certain
metes and bounds. They further asked to hold the demesne
lands of Rhoshir at a similar rent to that paid by the villein
tenants,6 together with two acres of pasture land intervening

1 Trans, Gym. Soc., 1902-3, p. 44, n. 1. * Rec. of Cam., p. 217.

» Ib., pp. 218-19. 4 Excliqr. K.R. Accts. 109/2.

• (Before 1302), 1227/4. « Rec. of Cam., pp. 223-4.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 53

between their territory.1 A favourable reply in the case of the
pasture lands was immediately received, but when or how much
of the demesne lands were granted to the burgesses is not clear.
A remarkable inquisition taken 22nd March 1333,2 hitherto mis-
construed to imply that the Anglesea burgesses held lands in
so far distant a county as Carmarthen,3 throws some light upon
this point. It clearly states that the burgesses normally held
of the demesne lands to the yearly value of £7. About one-
third of the lands had been badly damaged by a recent storm ; for
on the Feast of St. Nicholas, 1331, one hundred and eighty-six
acres were so entirely destroyed by the sea and overrun by sand
that they were useless for further cultivation — a loss to the
local burgesses of £4. 11s. 6d. per annum.

After this calamity the demesne lands held by the burgesses
were generally assessed at £4.4 The borough never succeeded
in absorbing the whole demesne. The portion of the old maenor
not included in the borough was usually called Hendre Rossir.
The puri nativi of Rhosfair in 1353 held lands to the yearly
value of £6. 16s. 5Jd.5 Still, the burgesses apparently acquired
sufficient lands to enable them to mark off their liberty by
definite metes and bounds. The traditional boundary,
annually perambulated by the burgesses, has been minutely
described by Henry Rowlands, the famous local antiquary, in
his manuscript notes on Mono, Mediceva, and published in the
Archaeologia Cambrensis.6

(/) Harlech

The town of Harlech, like its prototype Criccieth, flourished
near the site of an old Welsh castle. Its territorial status
during the reign of Edward i. is not very clearly defined. The
burgesses seem to have enjoyed the bond lands surrounding the
old Welsh stronghold, as well as the more considerable portion
of the lands of Estingwern, where the maenor of the Welsh
princes formerly flourished. This old maenor was demolished
at the time of the conquest, the houses were destroyed, and the
mill and lands (excepting one carucate granted in exchange
to the villeins expelled from their lands at Harlech) were

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 218.

2 I.P.M. (really A.Q.D.), 6 Edward in., No. 70 (2nd nos.).

3 Arch. Camb., m. ix. p. 194; Calend. I.P.M. (Rec. Com.), ii. p. 526.

4 Min. Ace. 1152/4, temp. 1409. B Rec. of Cam., p. 83.
6 Arch. Camb., i. i. p. 311.

54 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

arrented to the burgesses.1 Some hereditary lands formerly
occupied by Welsh freemen, and situated near the castle at a
place called ' Towyndresselethe,' were also included among the
borough lands.2

Moreover, the town patrimony was at best scanty. In 1308
only five of the burgesses held lands and pastures outside the
vill. Deficient pasturage was a burning grievance with the
local burgesses at this date ; they accordingly begged the Crown
to mitigate their poverty by a grant of the escheated tene-
ments in the neighbouring districts. The men of Harlech had
evidently seen better times. In the course of their petition, they
proudly recorded that before 1294, the date of the rising of
Madoc ap Llywelyn, they had been accustomed to enjoy the
profits of the royal mills as well as the use of the royal pastures
in their locality. These produced an abundance of butter,
cheese, and a goodly supply of meat. It was on this score that
the burgesses so stoutly guarded the castle of Harlech during
Madoc's rebellion, and by way of impressing King Edward II.
with the vital importance of these lands to their general welfare,
they stated that without them the local populace, burgesses as
well as castlemen, would have died of hunger.3 Their quest was
not in vain.

Ultimately the burgesses received a permanent grant of the
royal mills and lands in the commote of Ardudwy. The process
was a gradual one. Four years after this date (1312) the town
property comprised twenty-nine and a quarter burgages, and
one hundred and twenty-three acres of arable land at Id. per
acre.4 Forty-nine acres were added to the arable lands in the
next year, which were further increased by four acres in 1316.5
On the 10th of February 1315 the burgesses acquired a grant
of the borough, together with the royal mills and lands of the
Crown in the commote of Ardudwy, during the King's pleasure,
at the annual farm of £19. 18s. O^d.6 At the request of the
burgesses, the King on the 8th day of November in the following
year converted the grant into one of a fee-farm rent of £22 for
ever.7

During the next six years an interesting duel was waged

Min. Ace. 1231/10; Arch. Camb., in. ariii. p. 186.

Rec. of Cam., p. 217. 8 Rot. Part., i. p. 2766.

Min. Ace. 1170/8. 6 /&., 1170/10.

Original™ Rolls (P.R.O.), 9 Edward 11., m. 7.

Ib., 10 Edward 11., m. 8.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 55

between the town bailiffs and the local ministers of the Princi-
pality as to the exact definition of the royal lands.1 The contest
subsequently went in favour of the bailiffs.2 The royal lands
included detached arable plots in the vills of Trawsvynydd,
Maentwrog, Llanenddwyn, Llanaber, Llanddwywe, Llandecwyn,
and Ffestiniog. There was also the high mountain of ' Nancoyl,'
and a pasture called * Glasenys,' 3 the home later of Ellis Wynn,
the celebrated author of the Bardd Cwsgc. The story of the
acquisition of the Harlech lands ends with the fee-farm grant of
1316. The town bailiffs added no further tenurial responsibility
to their charge.

(g) Bala

The town of Bala was founded by Roger de Mortimer, the
Justiciar of North Wales, about 1310. Fifty- three burgages
were measured out early in this year, thirty-four on the royal
demesne of Penllyn, and nineteen on freehold lands there.
Only forty-four of these plots were built upon in the following
year, nine remaining vacant. The markets and fairs previously
held at Llanvawr, and producing the annual profit of £10, were
removed hither in the same year.4 This new vill of Bala formed
the nucleus of the town that was created a free borough in
1324.

All the burgages were arrented at this date, and the issues
of the local market show the slight increase of 2s.5 Early
in the following reign (1332) the burgesses were privileged to
hold their borough at the yearly fee-farm rent of £10. 12s.6
It is evident from the small total of this rent that no large
territory pertained to the fee-farm borough, the burgesses
depending mostly on the markets and fairs held there. How-
ever, it appears from the evidence of later accounts (1377-93) 7
that the burgesses rented the remaining demesne lands of
Penllyn at the yearly sum of £3. Os. lOd. Some of their
number occasionally farmed the royal mills of Bala and
Pennaran. The demesne lands are not specified, but £13.
12s. lOd. is regarded as the normal issue of the borough
during the later period. This amount is termed a fee-farm

1 Rot. Part., ii. pp. 17a, 6, 18a.

2 Gal Close Rolls, 1327-30, pp. 294-5.

3 Min. Ace. 1231/10. The acreage is given in most cases.

4 Ib., 1231/5. 5 Ib., 1232/1.

• Ch. Roll, 3 Edward in., No. 79. ' Min. Ace. 1203/1, 2.

56 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

rent in the account of 1427, l but there is no charter warranting
this description.

(h and i) Nevin and Pwllhdi

There was no acquisition of lands in connection with the
boroughs of Nevin and Pwllheli. They were simply the old
maenors enfranchised. The original extent of Carnarvonshire,
taken in the time of Edward i., no longer exists. Fortunately
the status of the maenors is preserved in the ministers' accounts
of a later date. Apart from evidence of a comparatively modern
date, these accounts are our sole authority for the territorial
history of the towns.

(h) Nevin

The maenor of Nevin, previous to its enfranchisement, is
described as comprising a dominicum and a burgus. There were
two carucates of land in the demesne, with a meadow of four
perches, a garden, and some turbary lands. On it lived five
(sic) villein tenants paying a money rent of 4s. 9d., and render-
ing divers services and dues to the value of 49s. 4d. The
burgus contained about fifty tenants paying fixed money rents
(varying in respective amounts from 2d. to 10s.) to the sum
of about £5 ; their corn, herring, and money dues are esti-
mated at £2. 13s. 5d. Three mills, named ' Geyr, ' ' Nevin,' and
* Wenneys ' yielded a yearly profit of nearly £4. The tolls
arising from the brewing of beer and mead, with the customs
of the market and the local port, are returned at 36s. 8d.
The maenor * aid ' due from the inhabitants of the commote of
Dynllaen for purpose of repairs, etc., was £2. The total worth
of the maenor at the time of the conquest would thus appear to
have been about £20. At the date of its grant to Sir Nigel de
Lohereyn in 1350 its entire value was estimated at £35. 19s. 4d.
(sic).2 The lands and mills in the meantime had been approved
at largely extended rents. In 1355, the burgesses took on the
borough at the fee-farm rent of £32. There was apparently a
new arrangement on the reversion of the borough into the hands

1 Min. Ace. 1204/1. The amount is changed to £13. 6s. 8d. during the
years 1454-73 without apparent cause (ib., 1203/1-6). It is similarly
changed to £13. 13s. 4d. (1476-92), which appears as £13. 14s. 4d. in the
returns from 1493-1536 (except 1524, when it is written £10. 13s. 4d.).

1 Ib.t 1171/7.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 57

of the Crown. The townsmen return no farm whatever during
the reign of Henry iv. owing to the political disturbances. A
paltry farm of £3 is offered in the reign of Henry v., increasing
gradually in the next reign to £15. £10 is the usual
farm during the early years of Edward iv.'s rule. In some of
the accounts of this reign the rents of assize are stated to be
£6. Os. 9d. Towards the close of the reign, and throughout the
reigns of Richard in. and Henry vn., the town was leased to a
fermor for a number of years at the fixed farm of £7. Under
Henry vin. it was let out at a farm of £10. 12s.

(i) Pwllheli

The royal maenor of Pwllheli contained five carucates of land.
One of the two carucates in demesne was farmed (for some time
after the conquest) by Ririd ap Cad', a Welsh vaccarius. Three
carucates are described as being in the maenor of the town
of Pwllheli, corresponding perhaps to the burgus of Nevin. The
mills of ' Dy vyniok ' and ' Dynenyor ' were situate within the
limits of the maenor. Twenty burgages, arrented at 12d. each,
made up the vill or town. The tolls and customs of the burgus,
the pleas and perquisites of the court, and the fair tolls of the
town realised 24s. 4d. The maenor ' aid ' due from the inhabitants
of the commote of Gafflogion, as in the case of Dynllaen to Nevin,
amounted to £2. The entire maenor yielded an even rent of
£14.! This corresponds with the fee-farm rent at which the
burgesses were permitted to hold their borough in 1355, on
payment of a fine of £24. The town of Pwllheli shared the
vicissitudes common to all the North Welsh boroughs during
the revolt of Glyndwr. The inhabitants of the borough during
the later Tudor period had no recollection of the £14 rent. At
least they said so. They only knew of the £4 farm that had
been in vogue since the time of Edward iv.2

The period of the acquisition of municipal lands falls well

1 Min. Ace. 1171/7.

2 Nil is returned temp. Henry iv. (ib., 1175/5-9). The town gradually
recovered during the reign of Henry v., a farm of 11s. 4d. in 1413,
gradually increasing to £8 by the close of the reign. It continued to
improve under Henry vi., the farm at one time realising the amount of
£10. 3s. 4d. In the fourth year of Edward iv. it falls to £4. 13s. 4d., at which
figure, with occasional variants to £4. 6s. 8d. and £4, it was subsequently
farmed till the reign of Edward vi. The twenty-one years' lease comes
into prominence during the Tudor period.

58 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

within the fourteenth century. With the addition of the
villeinage lands of Bodenvewe to the lands of Beaumaris in 1366,
the territorial endowment of the municipal element in the
Principality of North Wales comes to a close. During the
years 1284-1366 a total area of land, amounting to considerably
more than five thousand acres, was absorbed by the new
municipalities.

In appropriating this tract of land, hitherto untouched by
direct English influences, the municipal element partly accom-
plished the object it was intended to fulfil. It directly narrowed
the sphere of tribal custom, and indirectly undermined old
institutions existing in districts beyond the pale of its immediate
influence. It introduced the principle of the new regime that
the lands of a district were not to be inseparably attached to
the people of one neighbourhood, but that they were to be
subject to the mobility of tenant holdings. The old ties of
the family group were shattered in many instances. The
municipal element, too, swept away a host of the old Welsh
maenorial customs, and proved a veritable godsend in the
emancipation of the villein and his villeinage lands. The
burgesses of Carnarvon knew nothing of the boon works per-
formed in the autumn by the tenants of the old maenor ; nor
did they provide jars of butter or present hens to their over-
lords on New Year's Day.1 They held their lands by a certain
service, and paid rents of assize. The customs of harrowing,
mowing, carrying hay and corn were no longer attached to the
old lands of Llanvaes 2 as parcel of the borough of Beaumaris.
The enfranchisement of the rural maenors of Nevin and
Pwllheli also involved release from servile, agricultural, and other
dues. The men of Nevin freed themselves from the task of supply-
ing fuel, carrying millstones, and other predial services, and the
inhabitants of Pwllheli were no longer troubled with measuring
their crannocks of corn.3 This was the general effect of the
process of the acquisition of lands on the old Welsh economy.

The fact that the process came to an end in 1366 has an
interesting and important significance from the point of view
of municipal history. The question as to how much land each
borough franchise was to contain was apparently settled. What

1 Min. Ace. 1171/7.

1 Tribal System in Wales (F. Seebohm,), Appendix A (a), p. 4.

« Min. Ace. 1171/7.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 59

the municipal franchises were in 1366, they probably remained
until a comparatively recent date. If by franchise we mean
that area of land answered for by the town bailiffs in their
annual account, the metes and bounds of the North Welsh
boroughs remain unchanged to the close of the Tudor period
and even later. The burgesses appear to have concerned
themselves at an early date with the marking of their borough
boundaries.1 These were usually rehearsed on charter day in
each year. The burgesses of the mediaeval borough knew more
of the compass of their lands than of their exact acreage.
One David Williams (aged sixty-eight years in 1590), a burgess
of Pwllheli, walked the meres of his borough about forty-eight
times, * which he judgeth ' encompassed a circle of about four
miles.2 Particulars of the course of the annual perambulation
at Newborough have been already referred to.3 Those of the
remaining boroughs, though we have no early descriptions,
were doubtless well known.4

The perambulation of the borough boundaries was not
necessarily an annual function, though originally it may well
have been. The custom was apparently dying out by the time
of the governing charters, though a clause was sometimes
included authorising the burgesses to do as they pleased or
thought necessary. According to the Report of the Boundary
Commissioners in 1837, it appears that the limits of the borough
of Beaumaris, upwards of ten miles in circumference, were
walked once in every three years. Minute plans of the Old and
New boroughs of Carnarvon, Beaumaris, and Pwllheli are
included in the above report. The liberties of Criccieth
encompassed a circuit of from two to three miles ; stones with
a cross originally marked the limits, and were supplemented later
by holed stones. The municipal franchise of Nevin was seven
miles round, and was generally perambulated every Michaelmas
Day, sometimes by the bailiffs alone. The extensive boundaries
of Conway, comprising a circumference of eighteen miles, and
marked off in some places with stones bearing the words

1 See above, p. 52.

2 Exchequer Special Commission, No. 3381. The boundary, exactly co-
extensive with the parish of Deneio, was in reality about five miles (Part.
Papers, 1838, vol. xxxv. p. 115).

3 P. 53 above.

* Municipal Corporation Boundaries' Report, 1837. (Beaumaris, Car-
narvon, Pwllheli.)

60 THE MEDIAEVAL BOEOUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

* Conway Liberty,' were walked every three years. In later
times the town children took part in the ceremony.1

It is purely a matter of conjecture whether the burgesses of
Harlech walked round their detached strips of land in the
commote of Ardudwy. Did all lands assigned to the burgesses
of a mediaeval borough ipso facto form parcel of the franchise ?
Grants of county land to individual burgesses, of course, remained
part of the county. The franchises of Beaumaris and Conway
were evidently extended by the acquisition at fee-farm rents of
the lands of Bodenvewe and Lleghan respectively. When
offering more than double rents for these lands the burgesses
kept their eyes not on the land profits solely, but also on the
incidental profits likely to accrue from the extension of their
Jurisdiction, and of the commercial privileges already vested
in their body. The latter privileges were apparently of an
elastic nature, being granted to the burgesses irrespective of
the amount of lands pertaining to the borough. On the other
hand, the diswarrening and disafforesting immunities in the
original charters are limited to the lands 'already assigned'
(iam assignatae). With the addition of further lands these
privileges were perhaps liable to extension, the Crown having
its say in the amount of the fee-farm rent. The tenurial relation
of the burgesses to the lands of their franchise are considered
below.

2. THE DISTRIBUTION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BOROUGH

LANDS

The physical distribution of the borough is well expressed
in the bailiff's usual phrase, * burgages and lands.' 2 The general
phrase, ' town and its appurtenances,' represents the same thing.
The town included the burgages and other tenements within the
walls, the appurtenances comprising the lands of the liberty on
the outside. In this way the town walls divided the borough
into intra-mural and extra-mural territory.

The North Welsh boroughs were not all walled towns,3 though

1 Parl. Papers, 1838, vol. xxxv.

1 The first marginal entry in the normal bailiffs' account is this :
* redditus assisse burgagiorum et terrarum.'

8 There were not many walled boroughs in Wales before the time of
Edward i. The walls of Tenby, a borough of early foundation, bear a
striking resemblance to those of Carnarvon temp. Edward i. Cf. The
Cambrian Journal, iv. p. 246, and E. Law's History of Little England
beyond Wales, p. 80.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 61

they are sometimes indiscriminately described as such. Only
the boroughs of Conway, Carnarvon, and Beaumaris were really
walled. It is stipulated to the burgesses of Bala in their original
charter of 1324, that they should surround their town with a
wall of brick and mortar, but there is no evidence to show that
the wall was ever built. Not being a castle borough, royal
support was perhaps not so readily acquired, and the scanty
income of the burgesses was hardly equal to the task.

The town walls, where we know that they really existed,
as in Conway, Carnarvon, and Beaumaris, played an important
part in the ordinary life of these boroughs. They afforded
much needed protection in time of peace and war. The
burgesses of Carnarvon, in accordance with the terms of a
special ordinance, erected their barns and granaries for the
deposit of hay and corn produced in the out-fields1 within
the walls of their town. The towers and chambers of the castle,
as of the town walls, were often arrented by enterprising
burgesses as taverns or storage rooms. Moreover, the majority
of these were usually occupied by members of the local admin-
istrative staff.2

The structural interest of the boroughs is confined chiefly
to the walled towns. These were no haphazard foundations.
They were established with as much regard for regularity of
plan as were the parallel Edwardian towns of Aquitaine, Poitou,
and Gujenne. The commercial developments of the past century,
together with the drastic alterations necessitated by what an
early tourist has chosen to describe as * the aesthetic demands of
expensive Cockneydom,' have all but obliterated the mediaeval
traits.

Their place among towns of the ville anglaise type of the
early fourteenth century is, however, assured. These towns
were built on a regular plan, the principal streets wide, open,
and straight, crossing each other at right angles, with a large
market-place invariably in the centre of the town.3 Pughe,
writing of Carnarvon in 1850, goes on to say : * The intra-mural
portion still displays its ancient Edwardian form — a single
main street with broad rectangular intersections.' 4 Describing

1 Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), portf. 17/86. 2 See below, pp. 113-14.

3 Notes and Queries, 1852, pp. 150, 206, 257.

* D. W. Pughe's Description of Conway, p. 36. Cf. P. B. Williams'
Guide to the County of Carnarvon, 1812, p. 67, and Bingley's North Wales,
etc., p. 87.

62 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Beaumaris twelve years later, the same author conjectures
that the old walls enclosed an irregular, elongated area inter-
sected at right angles by the two main thoroughfares. Scarce
a vestige of the ' swaddling walls ' of Beaumaris existed at this
date.1 English towns of this type were Kingston-on-Hull,
Wokingham, and Winchelsea. Conway resembled the latter in
its triangular form.2 An English traveller in 1860 described
Conway as c all but a perfect specimen of a mediaeval fortified
town.' 3 The garrison boroughs of North Wales, however,
were never so elaborately designed as their Continental proto-
types.4

Pennant, the noted antiquary, was so impressed with the
regularity of Bala that he suggested a Roman origin.5
Rectangular streets meeting in a central market-place is a
characteristic of several Welsh towns. The little, town of
Rhayader (co. Radnor), like Bala, founded by a Mortimer, has
this feature.6 And its presence in the borough of Llanidloes,
in the adjoining county of Montgomery, is still more marked.
Of the structural form of the boroughs of Nevin, Pwllheli, and
Newborough we have little evidence. The first two were
obviously parish or village towns. Harlech and Criccieth were
perhaps never surrounded with stone walls, the castle in each case
providing the burgesses with sufficient protection in time of
war.

The prevailing characteristic of these mediaeval municipalities
was their rural appearance. Entering the town gates at the
dawn of the fourteenth century, we should be confronted with
a spectacle far different from what our modern notion of a
town would lead us to expect. There was no close amalgamation
of town houses, much less overcrowding of the urban populace.
The well-arranged terraces of burgages were interspersed with
green strips of land not appropriated by the dwelling-houses.
Royal roads or streets leading to the forum, or market-place of
the borough, intersected the terraces. These were daily traversed
by the burgesses attending to their lands beyond the walls, and

1 Pughe's Beaumaris, p. 26. 2 See above, p. 61, n. 3.

* Halliweil's Family Excursions in North Wales, 1860, pp. 110-11.

4 See Annales ArcMologiques (Paris), vol. xiv. pp. 316-9, including
plans of Beaumaris and Carnarvon. Cf. Arch. Camb., in. i. pp. 252-4.
A plan of Conway is given in Pennant's Tours (ed. Rhys), iii. p. 116, and is
reproduced in one of the later numbers of the now extinct magazine Wales.

* Pennant's Tours (ed. Rhys), ii. p. 205.

6 Cf. Knighton, Presteign, Painscastle, and Radnor in the same county.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 63

by the country folk on their coming to market for purposes of
exchange.

The burgage was to a large extent responsible for the rural
aspect of the mediaeval borough, and formed one of its pre-
dominant features. A burgage is defined by Dr. Gross to
include a tenement with the land under and around it.1 This
definition applies to the burgage in its developed or statutory
form. A burgage, not built upon, did not necessarily cease to
be a burgage, but the individual who held a burgage without
building thereon, ceased to be a burgess. The burgagium
primarily signified a defined piece of land employed as a unit
for burghal colonisation. It varied somewhat in extent in the
boroughs of North Wales.

The burgage of Carnarvon 2 and Criccieth 3 was eighty feet
long by sixty feet broad. That of Beaumaris 4 was .equally long,
but only forty feet broad. The actual size of the burgage in
Conway, Bala, and Harlech is not given. In Newborough the
individual holdings are termed 'places' (placece) yielding
variable rents. The burgages referred to in the maenor of
Pwllheli, though estimated at a shilling apiece, were not perhaps
of the colonising type. There were burgages at Pwllheli before
the town was created a free borough. And the inhabitants of
the old burgus of Nevin would perhaps have dubbed themselves
burgesses. The term ' burgages ' may have been applied to
tenements in those Welsh vills that were assuming the importance,
and playing the part of commercial centres. We have several
instances of burgages in the Black Book of St. David's, many
apparently representing the development of some old Welsh
tenure, assimilated by Norman influence into burgage holdings.
No burghal colonisation took place at Nevin and Pwllheli. The
principles of burgage tenure were applied to the status quo of
the existing maenors. The fee-farm grant emancipated the
holdings 5 from the payment of relief and other customary
services.6

In the remaining boroughs the burgage formed the unit of a
new territorial arrangement. The surveyors of the time show
great exactness in measuring out the respective burgages.

1 Gross, Gild Merchant, i. p. 71, n. 3. 2 Min. Ace. 1170/4.

3 Ib., 1170/5. 4 /&., 1170/6. Cf. Y Cymmrodor, vol. x.

5 Black Book of St. David's (Willis Bund), Introduction, pp. xiii. , xviii. , xxi.

6 The burgesses of Pwllheli never returned reliefs after the fee-farm
grant (Particulars of Crown Grants A.O. Commonwealth, Roll Y, 4).

64 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Even the inches are taken into consideration, and any subse-
quent encroachment, however small, was a cause of immediate
remedy in the borough or King's court.

It was stipulated by royal ordinance that every arrented
burgage should be built upon ; in case of default it reverted to
the Crown.1 Residence was one of the essential qualifications
of a burgess.

Town dwellings were for the most part built of timber, the
extensive forest of Snowdon supplying the material. A request
made (1305) by the burgesses of Beaumaris and Newborough 2
for a grant of housebote and heibote in the forest of Snowdon
came to nothing. It appears from the counter testimony of the
North Welsh people that the new burgesses were not altogether
scrupulous as to their means of acquiring the timber which they
required from time to time. They occasionally made free with
the family woods, surrounded with the halo of kinship rights,
and oftentimes defrauded the royal woodward of his nominal
fee. The burgesses had usually to win the assent of the local
Justiciar before the privilege of entering the royal woods was
extended to them.3 Stone buildings appear commonly in the
castellated boroughs,4 the unused material prepared for the
castle works being sometimes sold cheaply to the burgesses
for this purpose.5

Though normally the case of one burgess one burgage,6 great
irregularity existed during the early period when the boroughs
were in the making. The years 1283-94 were mostly occupied
with building and other material preparations, and civic life
hardly assumed a settled state. During the next ten years
(1294-1304) colonisation seems to have gone on at a steady pace,
encouraged no doubt by the royal ordinance exempting all
tenements from their annual rents for this period. Rentals
of the more important boroughs appear at the close of this
decade, and town accounts first appear about 1305. It is from
this date that the bailiffs become chargeable for the issues of
the town lands, which, as we have already seen, reached their

1 Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), No. 792.

2 Rec. of Cam., p. 223 (twice).

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 7679 ; Rec. of Cam., p. 213.

* Min. Ace. 1170/8, 10 (Beaumaris).

* Ib., 1211/4 (Carnarvon).

* At Llanidloes in 1309 there were sixty-six burgesses, '. . . quorum . . .
unusquisque tenet unum burgagium ' (Powysland Club Coll., viii. p. 226).

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 65

maximum area in 1366.1 The history of the borough territories
from 1366-1536 is one of quality rather than quantity.

At the outset there were too many burgages and too few
burgesses. Several unallotted burgages through want of tenants
remained in the King's hands. Some of these were devoted to
the King's use.2 An unarrented burgage at Carnarvon was
employed as a store-yard for the royal workers there.3 The
issues of vacant burgages were accounted for as being ( in decay '
(in decasu), and those exempted by special mandate or other
exceptional circumstances were held to be c in respite ' (in
respectu).

In the earliest rental of Carnarvon (1298) fifty-six out of
sixty-two burgesses rent one burgage each, the remaining six
holding half-burgages.4 The parallel rental for Beaumaris
returns about ninety burgesses to one hundred and forty
burgages, and there were several burgages and lands not then
arrented. Owing to the scarcity of tenants and the ever unequal
proportions of individual enterprise, it often occurred that a
burgess held more than one burgage and sometimes less. The
following extracts from the terrier 5 of the town of Conway in
1305 illustrate this : —

John de Oxon' holds 2J burgages entire.

William de Notingham holds 1 burgage entire next to the

burgage of the said John.

Felicia Godtyme holds 1 J burgages except 5 feet in breadth.
Robert le Mareschal holds 1 burgage entire near the gate.
John de Penecestre holds 1 burgage and 16 feet besides.
Robert Fot holds 1 burgage less 2 feet in length and 2 feet in

breadth.

The wife of Roger le Scoriere holds f burgage.
Roger le Porter holds 1 burgage less 3 feet in breadth.
William de Westgate holds 2 burgages entire.
Henry de Latham holds 1 burgage entire in breadth, but 3 ins.

superfluous in length.

It is sufficiently clear from the above that the burgesses
actually held more or less than one burgage. In the rental of

1 P. 58 above.

2 Min.Acc. 11 70/7-8 (Conway); 1170/6, 11 (Carnarvon); 1211/3, 1170/6
(Criccieth) ; 1170/7 (Beaumaris).

3 Ib., 1170/11. 4 Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), No. 17/86.
6 Ib., 17/87.

66 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Beaumaris we find as many as six and even eleven burgages
allotted to the same person.

The number of burgages arrented is thus no true index to the
number of the town inhabitants. Nevertheless, an increased
number of burgages is unmistakable testimony to the growing
prosperity of the borough. The burgage tenements arrented
in the North Welsh boroughs, gradually increase with the influx
of new burgesses during the early part of the fourteenth century.
This development is arrested about the middle of the century,
the available territory being apparently entirely appropriated.
The numbers of the burgages in Newborough, Pwllheli, and Nevin
are not known, and those of Harlech and Conway are lost in
1316, when the townsmen begin to hold their towns at fee-farm
rents. The burgage development as shown by the bailiff
accounts is as follows : —

Date.

Carnarvon.

Conway.

Criccieth.

Beaumaris.

Harlech.

Bala.

1298

59 l

1305

62A

132J2

24A

1309

121|

21*

141£

1311

121|

21*

14H

27J

1312

124

14H

29J

1316

23$

148

1317

23$

150

1321

23$

153|

1322

23$

154

1323

24$

164

1329

24$

154J

1331

24$

154J

1336

154*

1351

25$

154£

1351-1356

25$

154-f

This table illustrates the maximum amount of the intra-mural
lands of the respective boroughs which were arrented as burgage
tenements. They are ordinarily regarded as being in the
occupation of the inhabitants of the town (villce). The account
usually runs thus : * The rents of assize of the burgages and lands
of the inhabitants of the town.' 3

The original ordinance or proclamation, framed no doubt
with due regard to the sufficient garrisoning of the boroughs,

1 Rentals and Surveys, No. 17/86.

2 /&., No. 767 (printed text, Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877, pp. xiv.-xix.).
8 E.g. Min. Ace. 1711/2.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 67

enacts that the holding of all burgages and lands should be
confined to residents only. In the early rental of Beaumaris
we find the burgages of Adam Staney and Lewis Felton in the
hands of the Prince for non-residence. Following this trans-
action comes the interesting note that all the lands, burgages,
etc., of non-residents are to be taken into the hands of the
Prince as forfeited according to the ordinance of the King and
his council.1 This rule, however, was not rigidly enforced.

Though residence remained one of the essential qualifications
of a burgess, there was considerable laxity in enforcing the
strict letter of the old ordinance. Non-residence was often
allowed on showing sufficient cause. Absence on the King's
service was an excuse often presented and readily received.
The privilege of attorney was extended to many, particularly
to members of the gild merchant. The application of the rule
as to residence varied with the political temperament of the
time. The local Justiciars or royal Deputies of the period
immediately following the conquest stringently enforced the
new rules. William of Doncaster, a burgess of Beaumaris,
was deprived of his burgages and lands on the score of non-
residence by William de Sutton, the local Justiciar, in 1305.
He was subsequently reinstated on the intimation that he had
sufficient attorneys there.2 This privilege of attorney was
largely exercised — an indulgence which in the course of time
materially weakened the defensive strength of the borough.
There was, of course, no danger in such a policy, so long as the
political state of the country remained normal. Strong English
boroughs with fortified burgages were most needed in times
of local and national unrest. At such Junctures it was important
that every borough should be fully manned. When the insur-
rection of Glyndwr was at its height Gilbert Talbot, the new
Justiciar or Lieutenant of the Prince in North Wales, issued a
proclamation to the effect that any burgess having any heredity
or burgage in the walled towns of North Wales should come
to reside upon his heredity and burgage as ordained in ancient
time. Several burgages in the town of Carnarvon were seized
through non-compliance with this proclamation, but some of
the burgesses advanced a plea of sufficient attorney, and were
allowed to remain in possession by the * King's grace.' 3 The

1 Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877, p. xviii.

2 Rec. of Cam., p. 225. 3 Min. Ace. 1175/8.

68 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

King's grace had much to do with the burgages and lands of the
North Welsh boroughs during the Middle Ages.

Twelve pence was the stipulated * yearly rent of every burgage
tenement, payable in two equal portions at Michaelmas and
Easter.2 This shilling burgage is characteristic of the majority
of the Welsh boroughs.3 The placece or individual tenements
at Newborough varied considerably in size, and consequently
in the amounts of their rents,4 as was also the case at Nevin and
Pwllheli.

A fractional part of a burgage returned a proportional share
of the whole sum. Some of the burgages through the King's
grace were exempted from the annual rents, and others from
accidental and special circumstances yielded nothing. For a
long time Mary Maunsel, Edward of Carnarvon's first nurse,
held a burgage with seventy-three acres of land in the town
and liberties of Carnarvon free of rent.5 A burgage in the
same town provided a free site for the local Chapel of St. Mary,6
and the chaplain held thirty-three acres of the town lands free
of rent for his maintenance, in addition to the tithes of the town
mills. Beaumaris suffered considerably from the occasional
ravages of the Irish Sea, and the dearth of tenants constituted
a common cause of decay in all the boroughs.7

The burgage rents comprised the most considerable part of
the land profits of the in-borough. Over and above the burgage
tenements, the intra-mural territory contained detached strips
of land, some of which were arrented to the burgesses as curtilage
lands, some appropriated by the royal highways, the residue
lying waste in the hands of the Crown. Portions of the waste
were subsequently let to the town inhabitants.8 Curtilage
lands appear very commonly in Beaumaris, being pieces of
enclosed land, varying in size, held severally by the burgesses.9
There was an acre of curtilage land at Harlech,10 and several
minor strips at Carnarvon.11 At Newborough we meet with a
number of gardens and one orchard.12 A garden is also
mentioned as being opposite the castle of Carnarvon, and it

1 So ordained by Edward i. See Rec. of Cam., p. 223.

1 Mm. Ace. 1170/8. ' Ixiij. burgagia ville de Caernarvon quolibet
burgagio arrentato per annum ad xijd. solvendum ad duos terminos anni
videlicet ad festum Sancti Michaelis vjd. Et ad festum Paschae vjd.'

• See above, p. 15. 4 Rec. of Cam., pp. 85-9. 6 Min. Ace. 1170/12.

• Ib., 1170/4. Cf. Rec. of Cam., p. 224. ' Cf. p. 65 above.

8 See below, p. 85. » P. 65 above, n. 5. 10 Min. Ace. 1170/8.

» Ib., 1174/1. " Rec. of Cam., p. 89.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 69

was well preserved.1 The * gardens ' of Newborough are hardly
distinguishable from its * crofts,' 2 which were devoted to
agricultural purposes.

Other sources yielding rents within the intra-mural territory
were the placea and the schoppa. In the extent of Newborough
placea appears where we should expect to find burgagium.9
It had apparently no statutory size like the burgage, and is
used to denote either a piece of land 4 or a building of some kind.
We have inhabited placece at Conway on both sides of the town
walls.5 There was a placea outside the walls of Carnarvon,
employed as a store-room, where merchants apparently dis-
played their merchandise.6 Schoppce were usually situated in
the forum, and represent the permanent places of trade as
opposed to the temporary stalls or shambles. A piece of land
was sometimes annexed to a shop.7

Coming to the extra-mural territory, it may be at once noted
that the same rule applies to its distribution as to the burgages.
The town lands were to be holden by resident burgesses only.
One Thomas Danvers, claiming forty-six acres allotted to him
in the borough of Beaumaris, which were seized into the King's
hand owing to his personal absence, was promptly informed
that lands adjacent to the town of Beaumaris were to be held by
personal inhabitants, and by them alone.8 One John Bouqeor,
putting in a subsequent claim to these same lands, received an
equally emphatic reply, namely, that it was ordained that none
should hold land at Beaumaris unless they were resident there.
As in the case of the burgage tenements, the privilege of attorney
was often extended to the land holdings.

The original charters incidentally refer to the lands already
assigned to the different boroughs. Beyond this they throw
little light upon the relation of the burgesses or the community
of burgesses to the town lands. The extent and character of
this assignment we have to glean from the evidences of the
earliest official rentals and the bailiff accounts. The rentals of
Beaumaris and Carnarvon make it quite clear that the lands,
originally marked off to form the liberty or franchise of the

Min. Ace. 1172/1.

There were fourteen crofts in Newborough. The term ' croft ' is only
used once in the rental of Beaumaris.

See Arch. Camb., i. i. p. 307. 4 Min. Ace. 1173/2.

/&., 1211/2, 1170/6. • Rentals and Surveys, 17/86.

Min. Ace. 1170/7. 8 Eec. of Cam., p. 224.

70 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

respective boroughs, were severally allotted in varying amounts
among the burgesses. Some arrented as many as forty-eight
acres, some as little as five, and others none at all. The in-
dividual enterprise of the early settlers is well evinced in this
connection.

By way of example, take the following items from the rental
of Carnarvon : —

Henry de Allerton holds 1 burgage with 40 a. of land.
Walter le Barber „ 1 „ ,,20 a. „

John de Rescy „ 1 „ „ 10 a. „
John de Cardigan „ i ,, >, 5 a. „

Henry Tyllur „ 1 „

Or to quote the more elaborate instances of Beaumaris : —

John Darling holds 1 burgage with 28 acres of land (8 of the

best, 5 of the next best, and 15 mountain land).
Jordan de Bradford, the like.
Emmeric, UEngiw\ou\r, holds 2 burgages, 1 curtilage (7£ X 5

perches) together with 48 acres of land (18 of the best,

10 next best, 20 mountain land).
Robert L'Engleys holds 1 burgage, 8 acres of land (2 of the best,

2 next best, 4 mountain land).
Ralph Sutor holds 1 burgage.

It is evident that the burgage had no definite quota of lands
appurtenant to it in the lands of the liberty, and that the
burgesses enjoyed a several interest in the lands respectively
arrented to them. Their respective plots were hardly enclosed ;
the majority of those at Beaumaris are said to be in the common
field (campus) of Brennar, and the burgesses of Conway held
several interests in the campus of Gannow.1 The relation of
the burgesses to the unarrented lands or the extra-mural waste
is not clear.

The question of common lands is a moot point. It is evident
that there were some lands over and above those severally ar-
rented to the burgesses. These lands remained in manu domini,
and were subject to periodical increase through the process of
escheat, scarcity of tenants, and other causes. They formed
part of the royal waste until arrented again by the burgesses
or the town community. The following entry appears in the

1 See Records of Leicester, i. p. 11; campus used for land not enclosed.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 71

terrier of Conway : — ' Communitas villae tenet iij. acras quae
fuerunt William Giffard, debet per annum xiiijd.' The com-
munity of Conway here fills the gap caused by the loss of a
burgess. Would this strip of three acres be common land ?
The significance seems to be that the bailiffs of Conway would
have to answer for the fourteen-pence rent, rather than account
for the same as being in decay through want of tenants. In
the cases of special grants, we find that the community held
certain lands at fee-farm ; for example, the community of Conway
held the lands of Lleghan at fee-farm, and the community of
Beaumaris likewise held the demesne lands near the castle, and
the vill of Bodenvewe. These lands, communally arrented in
theory, with other vacant and unarrented plots (royal waste)
may well have formed the nucleus of the purely common lands
of the borough.

The town lands, in respect of their actual distribution, were
thus divided into — (1) lands severally arrented by individual
burgesses ; (2) lands arrented by the community (a) for a year
or term of years, (6) at fee-farm for ever ; (3) vacant or unarrented
lands in the hands of the Crown. The tenurial relation of
the burgess to the Crown and the community, together with
the relation of the community and the Crown to the town
burgages and lands, is treated in the following section.

3. TENURE AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE TOWN
BURGAGES AND LANDS

All lands assigned to the burgesses were held by burgage
tenure. This was the universal tenure by which all boroughs
were held.1 It is not expressly mentioned in the original charters
of the North Welsh boroughs.2 Moreover, its presence is suffi-
ciently indicated in the annual returns of the bailiffs. The
acquisition of the privilege of holding a borough at fee-farm
presupposed the existence of burgage tenure.3 Five of our
boroughs attained this privilege.

It was a free socage tenure.4 The North Welsh burgesses,
like those of their mother- town, Hereford, did ' no fealty, or any
other foreign service to the King for their tenements, but only

1 Merewether and Stephens, Hist, of the Boroughs, etc., i. p. 527.

2 See Gross, Oild Merchant, i. p. 6, n. 3.

3 Firma Burgi (Madox), p. 4.

4 Hist, of Eng. Law (Pollock and Maitland), i. p. 275.

72 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

paid the rents arising out of the said tenements, for the simple
reason that they held by the service of burgage or as burgesses.' 1
The burgesse% of affiliated boroughs usually repeated this plea
when pressed for military service abroad. The royal ministers
of the Principality at one time endeavoured to force some of the
Newborough burgesses into the ranks of the Welsh detachments
that were sent to support Edward m. in one of his Scottish
campaigns. The burgesses, however, promptly informed the
King that they were as free from all manner of services as were
the other free burgesses of North Wales, and, further, that
their service was to maintain the peace of the country when he
went to foreign lands.2 The burgesses were liable for service
only in cases where distance did not preclude their returning
home the same day.

Besides this personal exemption from military service, other
immunities were assured to the burgesses by a clause hi their
original charters. Borough lands were diswarrened and dis-
afforested 3 ; they were not to be molested by assarts, building
of houses, or by the hunting of such wild animals or game as
were to be found on them.4 The town tenants by virtue of
their tenure, and the town lands by virtue of this exemption,
were thus estranged from the ordinary tenants and lands of
the county in which they were situate.

The lands thus enfranchised were held free to the burgesses
on the payment of the stipulated rents. At first they may
be regarded as the King's lands arrented by the burgesses, and
administered in great measure by royal officials. The super-
vision of the territorial and other issues of the borough was
originally in the hands of the local Justiciar or the Deputy-
Governor of North Wales. This subjection to the annual
scrutiny of royal officials was not altogether in keeping with the
privacy of a community holding burghal privileges to themselves,
their heirs, and their successors. The full advantages of the
secrecy and permanence assured them by their original charters

1 Definition of burgage tenure by the burgesses of Hereford (Arch. Jour.,
xxvii. p. 47).

8 Rot. Parl., ii. p. 92a (temp. 9 Edward in.).

3 Much capital was made of this clause by the inhabitants of the North
Welsh boroughs at the time of the Enclosure Acts by way of establishing
their ownership claims in the common lands. The clause apparently
never implied this, and was generally so interpreted (vid. Municip. Corpr.
Comm. Rep., 1835, s.v. Flint, Rhuddlan, etc.).

« Rec. of Cam., pp. 164, 176, 180, 194.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 73

were to a large extent nullified by this public and temporary
character of their administration. The disposition of lands, the
assessing of the yearly farm of the court issues and perquisites,
the arrenting of the local market and fair tolls, were all in the
hands of royal officials. The town bailiffs, in fact, have the
appearance of being little more than servants of the Crown.
This was more or less to be expected during the precarious period
of their inception. When the boroughs assumed a more normal
and fixed form, we find that their administration comes more
and more into the hands of the burgesses, until the will of the
community ultimately excludes the will of the Crown.

In the earliest borough accounts of the fourteenth century the
bailiffs presented minute details of the issues and profits of their
borough. Some even included particulars of the small amerce-
ments made in the town courts. The physical borough was made
to stand out very prominently, by detailed enumerations of the
town lands, their acreage, value, etc., and the burgesses for
many years hazarded little in the way of annual farms. However,
it subsequently came to this. Some boroughs farmed their lands
at yearly rents, others, the pleas and perquisites of the town
courts, together with the tolls and customs of the local market
or port. The entire borough was sometimes farmed at one
round sum for a number of years, and town mills and ferries
bordering a town were often farmed in a similar way. The
local Justiciar frequently adjusted the money amounts of the
respective farms. This was the financial state of things at
Beaumaris, Carnarvon, Criccieth, and Newborough down to the
end of the Middle Ages. The landed profits of the three
boroughs first named were seldom farmed, but the commercial
and jurisdictional profits were periodically farmed for a number
of years, usually, though not invariably, by the town community.
In this respect, these boroughs continued to be subject to the
arbitrary treatment of the Crown official, and may be said to have
enjoyed the profits of their borough during the King's pleasure.

The burgesses of the remaining boroughs — Conway, Nevin,
Pwllheli, Bala, and Harlech — during the same period, succeeded
in obtaining grants of their towns at fee-farm rents for ever.
Instead of answering for the issues of the borough point to
point, the bailiffs returned a perpetual yearly rent, a round sum,
which never changed except under very special circumstances.
The burgesses of Conway took their vill and lands, together

74 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

with two mills and the site of another mill below the castle, at
a fee-farm rent of £33. 6s. 8d. in 1316. In the next year the
Harlech townsmen farmed their town and its appurtenances at
a perpetual rent of £22. Nevin and Pwllheli in 1355 opened
their career as free boroughs with respective fee-farms of £32
and £14 sterling. The burgesses of Bala acquired their borough
at a rent of £10. 12s. in 1332, but this amount did not include
the demesne lands held by the burgesses, and the two mills that
were sometimes associated with the town economy. The fee-
farm rent was a definite one, and was based upon all that was
permanently and clearly defined in the static quo of the town
at the date of the grant ; it was not necessarily a composition
for the total profits of the borough, but for some of the profits.
The burgesses of Beaumaris held some of the town lands at fee-
farm, but not their entire borough. The latter privilege was
reserved for the close corporation of the Elizabethan period.

The fee-farm or firma burgi was a privilege much coveted by
municipalities. Its acquisition, moreover, often involved great
sacrifice and cost, and sometimes disappointment. The
ordinary rents were liable to a substantial increase, and hand-
some fines were imposed by way of courtesy to the Crown. The
burgesses of Carnarvon made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain
the privilege in 1328. They petitioned for a grant of their vill,
mills, weirs, and lands of their liberty at a fee-farm rent for ever,
offering the annual rent as heretofore, with an increment of ten
or sixteen shillings.1 Why Carnarvon failed where the com-
paratively unimportant boroughs of Nevin and Pwllheli in the
same county succeeded is not easy to understand. The bald
request on the part of the burgesses is not, however, valueless.
It shows that the fee-farm grant conveyed privileges that were
much prized by the inhabitants of the mediaeval borough. What
these privileges comprised is another matter. The respective
accounts of the fee-farm boroughs and of those not so privileged,
present some obvious and albeit significant differences.

One thing is evident, the fee-farm segregated the adminis-
tration of the borough. This is very truly and simply marked
in the contrast between the bailiffs' return before the concession
and after, or again hi the centra-distinction between the

1 Rot. Parl, ii. p. 166. The petition printed here agrees with Ancient
Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,107, except that the amount of the increment is
sixteen (sys-dys) shillings, not ten (dye) shillings as in the MS. petition.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 75

financial statements of the fee-farm and of the ordinary borough.
One round sum took the place of the various detailed items.
The interests of the Crown, excepting the case of royal pleas
and other reserved rights, were sufficiently covered by the
fee-farm rent. The minute scrutiny of the royal official was in
this way checked and rendered at least unnecessary, if not
actually impossible. The burgesses were relieved from the
dominion of some of the King's officers, and their position was
made less subject to the arbitrary interference of the Crown.
The annual rents of their lands, the profits of their courts, etc.,
were no longer adjusted by the King's men. The firma burgi
in this respect gave a new impetus to the independence of the
borough, though modified perhaps to some extent in North Wales
by the garrison type of the boroughs. Despite the fee-farm,
the royal will remained predominant here, yet all grounds of
jealousy and suspicion that the Crown would ever oppress the
communities by raising the farm of their towns were removed.
As a general rule, the fee-farm rents were not changed. They
sometimes decreased in value through the operation of special
circumstances, but they hardly ever went beyond the original
amounts.1

The fee-farm not only emphasised, but also intensified and
harmonised the administrative responsibility of the town
community. According to Bishop Stubbs, it invested the
community with the further character of a communio or corporate
society.2 It was one of the potent affinities that ultimately
cemented the burgesses into a single personality. It did away
with the several method of accounting adopted by the non-
fee-farm boroughs, and thereby emphasised the personal rather
than the physical unity of the borough. The community of
the fee-farm borough took on the responsibility of answering
for the issues of their borough, irrespective of the liability of
possible loss which was thrown on their shoulders at the same
time. The Crown profited by the transaction in so far as it was
protected against minor losses. The royal issues of the ordinary
boroughs were subject to frequent decay through want of tenants
and other causes ; the individual losses were not covered by

1 For instance, after the revolt of Glyndwr the fee-farm of Pwllheli falls
to £4, and remained so until 29th June, 32 Elizabeth, when by an order
of the Court of Exchequer it was fixed as originally in 23 Edward in. at
£14 (Exchqr. Decrees and Orders, Series i. bk. xvii. f. 93).

2 Constitutional History (Library Edition), i. pp. 407-8.

76 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the common liability of the fee-farm community, the fiscal
relation of whose members allowed of a levelling or squaring
up from the common funds of the town. The liability for the
agrarian issues included in the fee-farm rent was a communal
one ; the mind of the community had some direct or indirect
connection with the lands of the franchise. To all intents and
purposes the agrarian liability in the ordinary boroughs was a
several one. This is illustrated very clearly by the prevalence
of the ' decay ' and * respite ' sections of their accounts in respect
of minor losses to the Crown ; these items seldom take cognisance
of phenomena included in the fee-farm grant. Arrears in
both instances are debited to the acting bailiffs for the year.
The phrase communitas debet x is indiscriminately applied to
both. From the point of view of the Crown, the debt of the fee-
farm borough was the debt of the community, that of the ordin-
ary borough being the debt of the individual or separate tenants.
It would be interesting to know what took place when it ever
came to a point of law over the arrears. Would the Crown
sue the community in the case of a fee-farm borough, and
would the town bailiffs as representatives of the Crown sue the
individual debtors in ordinary boroughs ? Or was the liability
for the yearly issues of the borough incident to the bailiffs'
function, the bailiffs of the fee-farm borough supplementing
any deficiencies in the landed returns with grants from the
common chest, and those of the ordinary boroughs making
good use of the ' respite ' and ' decay ' sections ? As far as
the evidence of the accounts goes, it was ostensibly so. We are
told next to nothing of the superplus or casual profit made on
the year's working. A late document relating to Conway
suggests that it was deposited in the common chest of the
borough. With the North Welsh boroughs it was almost always
a case of debent and quieti sunt (or sic equae), generally the
former.

The burgesses of the Middle Ages must have cared whether
they lived in a fee-farm borough or not, else why ask for the
privilege ? What advantages did they obtain in addition to
secrecy of administration and increase of executive power ?
Had the fee-farm a proprietary significance ? Did it in any way

1 E.g. ' communitas villae de Beaumaris debet £113. 17s. 2^d.1 (Min.
Ace. 1174/1), and 'communitas villae de Conewey debet 28s. 6d.' (ib.,
1173/1).

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 77

affect the tenurial status of the individual burgess ? Did the
estrangement of royal administration modify the territorial
position of the Crown ? Did the assumption of agrarian
liability by the community of burgesses assign to it the char-
acter of a land-owning community ? Was the Crown or the
Town, lord of the manor in a fee-farm borough ?

Taking first the individual burgess. His relation to his
tenement was much the same before and after the fee-farm
charter. What tenurial benefits were bestowed, influenced the
burgesses collectively as members of the community, and that in
relation to their communal rather than to their several landed
interests. But of this later. The relation of the burgess to his
individual holding in fee-farm and other boroughs may be stated
in a few words.

Every burgess had an inheritance in his allotted tenement,1
which he held in capite of the King, as Prince of Wales, by the
tenure of burgage, and which he was privileged to demise or
sell as he willed. Royal licences sanctioning grants or bequests
to ecclesiastical bodies were readily obtained. In this way
Peter Russell of Beaumaris, a burgess much abused in his time,
founded the ' Chantry of Our Lady Mary ' there,2 and a similar
licence was granted to Henry de Ellerton, who first endowed the
' Chapel of St. Mary ' at Carnarvon.3 Alienations in mortmain of
borough lands without the King's licence, of course, immediately
forfeited to the Crown, as did lands demised or leased by burgesses
to Welshmen, when the tentative ordinances forbidding such
transactions were enforced. A curtilage of land, worth four

1 See Rec. of Cam., p. 225, where Margaret, daughter of William de
Westgate, a burgess of Conway (who died about 1298), claims her father's
inheritance. The inquisition taken at his death (I. P.M., 27 Edward I., No.
66) before a jury of Englishmen shows his lands and tenements to be
escheated in the hands of the Crown. They were immediately granted to
one Simon, son of Vitalis (Col. Pat. Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 492), but William's
daughter is ordered to seek remedy before the local Justice of Assize. We
have another instance of a burgess's daughter inheriting the lands of her
father, and allowed upon her marriage with a person of a servile status
to reside in the borough on the payment of a fine of two shillings (Min. Ace.
1175/3).

2 Peter first resided at Beaumaris in 1318. He was imprisoned for some
time in the castle prison on the false evidence of his fellow-burgesses.
Upon his release in 1330 he founded the ' Chantry of Our Lady Mary '
(Min. Ace. 1170/12; Gal. Pat. Rolls, 1327-30, p. 549; 'and ib., 1333-7,
p. 570).

3 Min. Ace. 1170/11. Cf. Gal. Pat. Rolls, 1461-7, p. 310. See also Min.
Ace. 1149/2 for Housom's grants, with the King's licence, of lands to the
Friars Minor at Llanvaes,

78 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

shillings yearly, bequeathed (sine licencia regis) by a rich merchant
to the * Chantry of Our Lady Mary ' at Beaumaris, escheated in
Michaelmas 1418. In the very same year ten acres of arable
land leased by Robert Alford, a burgess of the same town, to a
Welshman named Madoc with the Black Eyes, were taken into
the hands of the King. The county escheator answered for the
subsequent profits in each instance.1

Children succeeding to the patrimonies of their parents paid
no heriots or other customary fines.2 On the failure of heirs,
felony and acts of outlawry, the tenements escheated to the
Crown. There were eight burgages in decay at Beaumaris in
1459 for the reason that no heirs of the deceased burgesses
claimed a heredity (proprietor) in them.3 The burgesses were
thus in much the same position as freeholders, holding their
tenements in fee-simple subject to the payment of their quit
rents.4 When they sold their lands, they were conveyed by
deed, livery, and seisin. Widows usually claimed dower at
common law before the Justice of Assize, some by composition
and others by consent. This was the custom at Pwllheli from
time immemorial, according to the testimony of the oldest
burgess in 1590.5 The same custom was in vogue at Carnarvon,
as the following item in the county escheator's return for 1410
seems to imply. Among other items, Thomas Dankynson
answers for ' iijs. iiijd. de parte de iiijs. vjd. ultra xiiijd. liberatis
Ceciliae Mason viduse nomine dotis de exitibus dimidietatis
unius burgagii cum suis pertinentiis in eadem villa quse fuit
Willelmi Schoklathe qui obiit inde seisitus sine herede. etc.,
die lune proxima post festum Sancti Michaelis anno regni
Henrici xj. seisita in manu domini et sic dimissa per annum.' 6

The dower at common law consists of one-third of such lands
and tenements as the husband died seised of in fee-simple or
fee- tail.7 The North Welsh boroughs had apparently no
special burghal custom in this respect.

1 Min. Ace. 1152/7.

* Cf. Arch. Journal, xxvii. p. 471 (Hereford customs), and p. 72 above.
8 Min. Ace. 1153/4.

4 William Ardescote is said to have died ' seised in his demesne as of
a fee, without heirs, of burgages and lands in the liberties of Carnarvon
which he held of the lord King in capite by burgage tenure ' (Min. Ace.
1177/2). Hugh Huls, a burgess of Beaumaris, outlawed in 1466, was
seised in his demesne as of a fee of his burgages and lands in the liberties •
of Beaumaris (ib., 1154/6).

6 Exchqr. Special Commissions, No. 3381.

• Min. Ace. 1175/8. 7 See Jacob's Law Dictionary, s.v.

THE BOKOUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 79

It will have been already observed, that originally all burgesses
nominally held their burgages and lands of the Crown. This
uniformity of tenure forms an interesting feature in the early
economy of the boroughs, and would doubtless have long remained
so, had not the individual burgess a several and devisable interest
in his holding. One of the fascinating problems in the territorial
history of the borough after the original allotment is the rise of
the several interests therein, or the growth and development
of intermediate proprietary rights. Its tenurial status became
continually a more complex one. We have to keep view — (1)
of the actions of the individual burgesses (so far as they are
revealed to us) granting or demising their several interests ; (2)
of the Crown seizing every opportunity to enjoy the profits of
vacated tenements, and regranting the same to other burgesses,
often upon terms different .from what previously applied ;
and (3) of the town community in its duel with the Crown for
supremacy over the waste and common lands of the borough.

The consolidation of minor interests in the borough territory,
through the occasional demise and exchange of tenements,
naturally formed the nucleus of larger private estates. A
Carnarvon burgess in 1410 held six burgages and two hundred
acres of land ; another had five burgages with one hundred and
twenty acres of land. Compared with these, the original allot-
ments as they appear in the rental of 1296 were insignificant.
The uncertainty of burghal prospects in North Wales, combined
with other circumstances, made frequent interchange of property
inevitable. Some burgesses sold or demised their lands,1 and
others under the pinch of poverty 2 abandoned their holdings in
disgust, which in consequence lay vacant in the hands of the
Crown. We find the same forces at work in the borough territory
as were causing economic changes in the rural hamlets of the
neighbouring commotes.3 Nearly a score of the ancient deeds
detailing the interchange of burgages in the mediaeval boroughs
of Harlech and Bala are still on record. They range in date
from the reign of Henry iv. to the reign of Henry vn., and

1 E.g. Min. Ace. 1178/1. John Parie of Carnarvon enfeoffed the town
chaplain, John Nugent, with his half-burgage. Nugent died in 1428, his
half-burgage escheating to the Crown.

2 16., 1153/4. John Goodhewe, a burgess of Beaumaris, on account
of poverty, left lands to the annual value of 25s. 2£d. in the hands of the
King.

3 Trans. Gym, Soc., 1902-3, p. 5.

80 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

exhibit the process by which private transactions complicated
the old and simple economy of the borough territory.1

The accumulation of private interests must ultimately have
lessened the importance of residence as one of the essentials of
burgess-ship. The condition of actual holding of a burgage and
lands within the franchise, comes to be supplemented by the
qualification of the nominal ownership of burgages and lands
in the town liberty, whether resident or not. The later surveys
elicit the presence of intermediary interests between the Crown
and the actual occupiers of the real tenements. In a survey of
Pwllheli, compiled about 1590, we have twenty-two burgesses,
all Welsh, living within the in-liberty of the town (infra burgum),
paying annual rents varying in amount from 2d. to 4s. 6Jd. ;
in the out-liberty of the town (extra burgum), by which is
apparently meant the country as opposed to the town counterpart
of the old maenor, we have forty-one tenements held by free
burgesses. Some of these latter tenements are grouped into
separate freeholds. The freehold of one William Jones, a non-
resident, consisted of three tenements, severally occupied by
individual tenants : —

One cottage and garden occupied by Hugh ap leuan, 20d.
,, „ „ David ap John, 18d.

One parcel of land „ Thomas ap John Wynn, 16d.

. William Jones's interest here represents either a threefold
division of the ancient patrimony of his ancestors, or tenements
severally acquired at some time or other of individual burgesses.
Various interests on a larger and more elaborate scale, appearing
in the economy of the North Welsh boroughs at a comparatively
modern date, are generally due to some abnormal circumstances
during the mediaeval period. Frequent grants by the Crown,
varying in character and amount, did much to complicate the
territorial relations of the burgesses. Some were given portions
of lands or wastes to be holden to their heirs and assigns for ever,
others had leases for a number of years. This was particularly
the case with the unoccupied burgages and lands. The Crown
sometimes utilised these in the exchanges of lands with the
landed nobility.

The most pronounced of these several interests in borough ter-
ritories are revealed in the inquisitions of the time of Henry vn.

1 Col. Ancient Deeds (P.R.O.), vol. iii. (Index, s.n. Bala and Harlech).

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 81

and his successors. They generally fell into the hands of royal
officials or court parasites, who during the Tudor period took
advantage to cement their private interests in lands over which
the Crown had exercised the practical rights of ownership during
the Middle Ages. The same official caste profited later by the
confiscated lands of the monasteries.

An inquisition taken early in the reign of Henry vn. on the
death of one John Moille, an official closely connected with the
administration of the towns of Newborough, Carnarvon, and
Beaumaris in the time of Edward iv., specifies his fee-simple
interest in the town of Beaumaris to consist of several burgages,
curtilages, and other lands. The several tenements were in the
actual occupation of divers tenants. One John Norres paid
him the annual rent of ten shillings for a burgage, ten times the
original twelve pence under the old royal and immediate holding.1

Two other remarkable inquisitions taken on the death of Sir
William Griffith, Kt. (ob. 12th July 1532), throw interesting
light on the growth of the Penrhyn interest in the boroughs of
Carnarvon, Conway, Beaumaris, and Newborough.2 In the
town of Carnarvon he held three messuages producing an annual
rent of £2. 3s. 4d., as well as several houses and gardens in the
suburbs occupied by Welshmen. In the fee-farm borough of
Conway there was only one tenement. His interest in New-
borough was not considerable, consisting as it did of two strips
of land held respectively by John Lloyd, and David, the son of
Edenowain. The Griffith tenements in Beaumaris were very
extensive owing to an exchange of lands between Sir William
and the Crown.

The early history of the lands forming the nucleus of the
Penrhyn interest in Beaumaris may be traced with some accuracy
to the latter half of the fourteenth century. Towards the end
of the fourteenth century the lands were inherited by one
Richard Golden (bailiff of Beaumaris 1386, 1393) through his
wife Catherine, sole heiress to the lands of William Cranewell
and Thomas Nesse. On Richard's death, some time before 1409,
the lands were seized into the hands of the Crown for divers
debts owing by him.3 In the year 1415 one John Kyghley,

1 Min. Ace., 23-4 Henry vn., No. 1621. See Add. MS. (Brit. Mus.),
33,372, f. 6, for his property in Conway.

2 Min. Ace., 24-5 Henry vin. (Carnarvon), No. 14 ; ib., 24-5 Henry vin.
(Anglesea), No. 4.

8 Ib., 1152/4.

82 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

purporting to be the next heir of William Cranewell, was allowed
to hold them.1 Alan Kyghley, son of Richard Kyghley, was
in possession in 4 Edward iv.2 During the years 2-4 Edward iv.
Alan paid no rents, with the result that the lands, by letters of
Privy Seal dated 9th September, 5 Edward iv., were granted to
Eleanor de Stanley. This grant applied apparently to the mills
of Llanvaes and Kevencogh only, which were previously held
by William Cranewell and his descendants the Kyghleys, but
it was evidently extended to the landed property as well. The
original patent to Eleanor was made good to Thomas, Lord
Stanley, first Earl of Derby, in 1474.3 A similar grant of the
same premises (no lands mentioned) was made to Thomas,
second Earl of Derby, of the 25th of February 1489. In 1492
Thomas was three years in arrears with his mill rents, and four
years in respect of the lands of William Cranewell and Thomas
Nesse.4 The escheator charged the Earl with illicit entry into
the lands, and during the years 1487-1505 included their
profits in his annual charge. It was not until the issue of a
warrant under the Privy Seal dated 7th March 1507 that
the Earl was allowed to continue in possession.6 During the
minority of Edward, third Earl of Derby, who was in the ward
of Cardinal Wolsey, the lands were granted by the Crown to
Sir William Griffith, Kt., in exchange for the manor of Bispani,
•co. Lancashire, parcel of the hereditary lands of the said
William.6 Edward Griffith, a minor at his father's death, was
allowed to take immediate seisin of his lands by special letters
patent.7

Up to the date of this exchange the town bailiffs generally
included the issues of these lands in their yearly charge,
nominally accounting for them in the arrears, and discharging
themselves in the respite section. After the grant they continue
to respite the usual sum of £8. 10s. 4d. in respect of the old
Cranewell and Kyghley lands, until the governing charter of

1 Min. Ace. 1152/6. 2 /&., 1154/4.

3 Rot. ParL, vi. p. 466. 4 Min. Ace., 6-7 Henry vn., No. 1615.

6 This Sign Manual is referred to in Min. Ace., 22-3 Henry vn. (Anglesea),
No. 1620. I have been unable to find either the original or an enrolment
of it. It does not appear in the March bundles of the Chancery Privy
Seals for this year, and the Auditor's Privy Seal Books, la (Exchequer of
Receipt), and the Warrants for Issues (Bdle. 86) of the same department do
not contain it. The Memoranda Rolls of the local exchequer at Carnarvon
have disappeared with a few exceptions.

• Min. Ace., 18-19 Henry vin. (Carnarvon), No. 62.

7 Pat. Roll, 24 Henry vnr., p. 1, mm. 14-15.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 83

4 Elizabeth excepted these lands from those included in the
fee-farm grant to the corporation. The corporate body of
Beaumaris in this way became the fiscal administrator of a
territorial area, considerably less than the original liberty
accounted for by the bailiffs of the mediaeval community.
Would this have happened if Beaumaris, like Conway,
had acquired a fee-farm grant in the early fourteenth
century ?

It must be noted that the influence of the Crown in its
relation to the creation of several interests is much more marked
in the ordinary or non-fee-farm boroughs. Did the fee-farm
in any way limit the Crown's right of alienation ? Did the
administrative power which it assigned to the town community
in any way check arbitrary grants of their lands by the
Crown ? If so, did this power over the lands vested in the
community, amount to territorial or ownership rights in
the common and waste lands of the borough ? Was the com-
munity by virtue of the fee-farm grant made lord of the
manor ?

It is fairly clear that the Crown did not cease to be lord of the
manor, in respect of the fee-farm charter, during the fourteenth
and at least the greater part of the fifteenth century, if not later.
The town community, moreover, profiting by such increased
hold over the town lands as the fee-farm grant implied, and
favoured by other external developments in the domains of law
and commerce, either gradually usurped or inevitably assumed
the functions of lord of the manor during the later centuries.
Parallel with the rise and consolidation of the private and
several interests in the proprietorship of the town lands, we have
the development of a public and communal ownership of the
common lands in the person of the town community, as quasi
lord of the manor.

According to Madox, whatsoever things the Crown granted
out in fee-farm, of all and singular those things the Crown was
at that time seised in demesne, and the King, when he granted a
city or town in fee-farm, was wont to grant the whole city or
town — soil, profits, adjuncts, and pertinencies.1 However com-
plete the grant may have been, in the North Welsh boroughs
the local muniments present evidence corroborating the late

1 Firma Burgi (Madox), p. 15.

84 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Professor Maitland's certain belief that King John in his fee-
farm grant to Cambridge did not mean to abandon the escheats.1
To quote a few instances : —

(1) ' The bailiffs of Conway, 1353, in addition to their usual
fee-farm rent, account for the profits of half a burgage, taken
into the King's hand through the forfeiture of one Philip, son of
Hulle, who feloniously slew John of Cardigan. The half-burgage
is appraised at 18d., but nothing is returned this year because
it remained unoccupied through want of tenants' (Min Ace.
1171/9).

(2) ' The bailiffs of the same town in 1396 account for 12d.,
the rent of one house falling into the King's hand by the death
of John of Doncaster ' (Min. Ace. 1174/8).

(3) ' An entry on the dorse of the account of Pwllheli for the
year 1399 consists of a petition to the discreet auditors of the
royal accounts in North Wales, from John de Stircheley, asking
for a twenty years' grant at a rent of two shillings per annum
of one built tenement together with an old house and its
appurtenances in the town of Pwllheli, formerly belonging to
Wirvill vergh leuan, a burgess of the vill aforesaid, and which
were seised into the hands of our lord the King as his escheats '
(Min. Ace. 1175/4).

(4) * Simon Thelwall, escheator of Merioneth, in 1426 returns
16Jd., the escheat issues of the fee-farm boroughs of Harlech
(IJd.) and Bala (15d.) ' (Min. Ace. 1203/15).

(5) ' Henry Gartside, the escheator of the same county, four
years later, accounts for 10 Jd., the issue of half a burgage with
a certain croft and garden in " Pentemogh " within the liberties
of Harlech. These were the forfeited lands of Reginald
Botringham, who, armed with an axe, on the morning of Monday
next before Martinmas Day, 1429, feloniously murdered his
co-burgess, John Holland ' (Min. Ace. 1204/4).

It is evident from these instances that the community of
burgesses was something less than lord of the manor. The
several burgesses held of the Crown, not of the community.
The late Professor Maitland, in his Township and Borough,
goes on to say : ' But if the right to escheats is not conveyed,
how about the seignory, and if there is no seignory, what of the
ownership of the waste ? ' 2

1 Township and Borough, p. 82.

2 Op. cit. supra, pp. 185, 189; also Appendix, pp. 116, 125.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 85

If by waste we mean such lands as were not severally or
communally arrented to the burgesses, there is reason to believe
that the position of the Crown was little affected. The bulk
of the waste was taken up with the royal roads and streets, and
the unarrented strips of land that lay vacant in manu domini.
The point which seems to establish the Crown's interest in these
is that all subsequent allotments thereof yield ' new rents.'
The fee-farm gave the community no prescriptive rights of use
over the waste lands any more than it did over the castle and
its towers, or the town walls and its chambers, which to a very
late date remained in royal hands. The position of the Crown
in this connection was the same in all the boroughs. The ' new
rents ' are always carefully returned. Additional burgages
were sometimes carved out of the intra-mural waste, and
burgesses frequently farmed the sites originally reserved for
government buildings. We find a parcel of the King's way in
Conway producing a new rent of five shillings.1 The Black Prince
enfeoffed Alan de Maxfeld and his heirs with a plot of twenty
square yards drawn from the ' royal road ' of Beaumaris.2 David
Overton farmed a parcel of land de solo Regis near the castle
ditch at a fee-farm of two pence.3 John Stannier, a burgess of
Carnarvon, in 1377 arrented a piece of land de solo domini near
the wall, with the express intention of enlarging his premises.4

It would appear from the evidence of the escheats, as well as
from the few glimpses that are afforded of the profits of the royal
waste, that the Crown in the case of a fee-farm grant still reserved
the seigneurial attributes which we associate with the lord of the
manor. What limitations were imposed on its tenurial status
must be found in the advantages bestowed on the community
receiving the same grant, as also in the subsequent importance
that later history attached to it. In considering the question
of the exact significance of the fee-farm, we have to distinguish
between what it actually was, and what it ultimately developed
to be.

What the fee-farm community gained tenurially during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was probably in respect of
its new administrative power. The individual tenant of a fee-
farm borough would evidently regard his territorial position as
being more permanent than that of the burgess of an ordinary

1 Exchqr. Miscellanea 7/11. 2 Min. Ace. 1149/5.

3 /&., 1153/4. 4 2b.t 1171/7.

86 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

borough. One held at a fee-farm rent for ever, the other at a
yearly rent. This in itself did not count for much. It was the
aggregation of these individual advantages into the hands of
the community that gave a predominant position to its members.
As a community the fee-farm gave them a something with which
they could defy the title of the Crown to their several lands,
and perhaps gave them for the first time a real interest in the
common lands of the borough. The fee-farm closed the door
against arbitrary grants of the town lands, etc., by the Crown.
The fee-farm rent is often leased, but not the particular sources
that produced it. The fact that the several interests in fee-farm
boroughs show less trace of the influence of the Crown, sub-
stantiates this limitation in its power of alienation.

The community by virtue of the fee-farm grant and of the
agrarian liability which it implied, seems to have acquired some
power or restraint over the members in the matter of a general
disposition or surrender of their lands. As a community they
had a title in the lands, which could not be surrendered without
the general consent of all the burgesses. Whether this common
title arose from the fiscal responsibility of the community for
the fee-farm rent, or from any proprietary interests in the several
or common lands of the borough, we cannot say. The proprietary
significance of the fee-farm, which was communal rather than
individual, is less pronounced during the Middle Ages than it is
during the late Tudor and Stuart periods.

There was no obvious reason why the individual burgesses of
Carnarvon, Newborough, and other ordinary boroughs should
not have given up their lands of their own accord ; it would not
in any way have affected the liability of the community. It was
different in the case of the fee-farm borough. There were several
burgesses at Nevin willing to surrender their scanty tenements
into the hands of King Charles, who asserted his title to their lands
in 1635 ; but there were others, holding larger interests in the
lands, who fell back on the fact that they were a ' corration '
i.e. a corporation, and that it should confer before any reply
was delivered. Their sole authority for incorporation was the
old fee-farm charter. Was this obligation on the part of the
Crown to beg leave to assert its title to the lands of the borough,
one of the original limitations occasioned by the fee-farm grant of
the mediaeval borough ? Or was it the result of the prescriptive
rights which town communities, especially those not privileged

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 87

with a fee-farm, were wont to assume as artificial and corporate
bodies during this later period ?

It is more than probable that we have a symptom of this right
of the community to confer on questions relating to the borough
lands, in the agrarian liability of the old fee-farm grant. There
were large, and there were small tenements at Nevin in 1635,
and it would appear that the lesser tenants, though quite
ready, could not give up their small inheritances without the
consent of the corporation. It was apparently Charles's
intention to deprive the burgesses of their ancient freeholds.
They were threatened with ejection, but successfully withstood
the King's threat by emphasising the rights assured them by
the fee-farm charter. One of the burgesses, named John
Hughes, was heard to exclaim that it was good for the free-
holders to have the same charter. Another John, surnamed
Wynn, a staunch advocate of the burgesses' title, warned the
burgesses assembled in the churchyard of Nevin to hear the
King's letter read, that they need not in God's name fear their
own title.

The burgesses of the later period evidently read a tenurial
significance into their old fee-farm charters, which operated
in the direction both of imbuing the community with a general
interest in the town lands, and of perpetuating their individual
interests in the several holdings. It is a matter of doubt whether
the privileges they claimed were precisely contained in the
original fee-farm grants, or whether they are to be attributed
to the influence of external changes in law and politics. One
thing is clear, that the town communities of the Middle Ages
were not lords of the manor by virtue of their fee-farm grants,
yet at a later period they claim to act as such by virtue of the
very same grants.

The problem of the change turns mainly on the question of
the ownership of the common and waste lands of the borough.
The Crown's position as far as ownership was concerned was
little affected by the fee-farm grants of the fourteenth century.
The point of ownership was hardly raised during the Middle
Ages. Considerable doubt must have existed as to whether
common lands should be regarded as belonging to the town com-
munity, or as being the waste of the Crown. But the general
trend of events gradually worked in favour of the town com-
munities, who, asserting their predominance over the common

88 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

lands, ultimately assumed the position and exercised the rights
of owners or lords of the manor.

The different stages in the transition cannot be adequately
ascertained. The process was slow and irregular. It did not
necessarily require the aid of a fee-farm charter. An impetus
was given to the movement by the statute of 15 Richard n.,
which extended the artificial notion of a body corporate and
politic to borough communities.1 A decision in the Courts of
Law in the eighth year of Edward iv.,1 establishing the precedent
that boroughs privileged with fee-farm charters were thereby
incorporated, gave additional prominence to the territorial
quality of a full-blown corporate body. The incorporating
craze, so prevalent a feature of British municipalities at this
time, was seemingly checked in the North Welsh boroughs by
their abnormal dependence on the Crown, and the necessity for
their remaining so. Autonomous action in relation to lands,
cannot very well be associated with the communities of the North
Welsh boroughs so long as we are impressed by the notion that
they are really units in a sort of clientele armee. It was not
until the Act of Union destroyed their quasi-feudal character,
that they virtually took distinct and independent action in
connection with the borough territory.

Corporate leases of so-called town property before the Act
of Union are extremely rare. Towards the middle of the
sixteenth century and later, most of the North Welsh borough
communities acted as if they had proprietary and demisable
interests in their common lands. They granted leases, enacted
by-laws, and performed other functions emphasising the territorial
quality of their artificial and corporate body. Their right to
do this was a questionable one. Learned lawyers of the time
were not sure of the legal position. The burgesses themselves,
too, entertained grave doubts as to their actual status. Some
were illiterate, but at the same time were contented to leave
their case to the comprehensiveness of the fee-farm charter,
and the rights which the payment of the ' ancient rent ' conferred.2
The fee-farm to them was a valuable asset in the conflict.

Curiously enough the earliest deed that we have come across
to which the town community or corporation is party, belongs
to a borough not imprivileged with the fee-farm grant. ltd

1 Gross, Gild Merchant, i. p. 93 and note.

2 Exchqr. Depositions, Easter, 20 James i.t No. 20.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 89

significance leaves room for doubt. What are we to make of a
deed to one Thomas Bowman, dated 20th April 1430, setting
forth a conveyance to him by John de Stanley, Constable of
Carnarvon and Mayor of the town, and others of the corpora-
tion,1 of a burgage in the town of Carnarvon ? The seal of the
communitv affixed to the deed was well preserved in 1873, and
is minutely though hardly accurately described by Breeze in his
Ancient Kalendars of Gwynedd? In view of the importance and
interest of the whole question as to when and how the town com-
munity came to grant the borough lands, one hardly knows what
significance to attribute to this case. Can we regard this
deed as being the private counterpart of the royal patent that
we should expect to have met with at an earlier date under the
seal of the Principality ? Was the so-called corporation acting
merely as the administrative representative of the Crown and
holder in trust of the Crown lands, or had it a proprietary right
. in the burgage ?

The origin of the corporation lease, or the arrenting of lands
by and not to the town communities, must form a stage in the
development of their administrative function. The point is,
would this predicate the existence of proprietary rights in the
lands which they leased ? The burgesses of a later date were
of the opinion that it did. It is perhaps possible that the
officials of Carnarvon in 1430 were merely acting as adminis-
trators of the Crown's landed interests there, and that the deed
presupposes no corporate property whatever. It is very likely
that the community would sooner or later assume the adminis-
trative functions of the royal Justiciar in this respect. Or
does the corporate lease mark the period when the community
from being administrator of the town lands, comes to regard itself
as the owner thereof ?

The question of the growth of the proprietary rights of the
community in the common lands of the borough is not easily
solved. In North Wales it is almost a case of making bricks
without straw.3 The estrangement of royal administration,
in the case even of fee-farm boroughs, did not do away with the
royal ownership. On the other hand, the fee-farm gave the

1 A facsimile of the deed, forming the frontispiece of Breeze's work, is
missing from the British Museum and other copies. A copy of the deed is
given in the Appendix below.

2 E. Breeze, Kalendars of Gwynedd, 1873, p. 126.

3 See preceding page for scarcity of sources.

90 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

community a kind of administration over the town lands. Was
this the nucleus of its subsequent proprietary claims to the
common lands of the borough ? Did the agrarian liability
imposed on the community by the fee-farm, invest its members
with rights of common in the common lands of the borough ?
Later evidence does not contradict this. Common rights were
vested in the community, in members holding enclosed lands,
and in those that 4id not.1 They seem to appertain to the
personal community and not to the landed section only. The
distinctive feature of the mediaeval borough communities, as con-
trasted with those of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries, is
their lack of personality or the absence of the exercise of their
territorial rights as a persona field.

It was the expansion of corporate notions during the late
Plantagenet and Tudor periods that emphasised this new aspect
of burghal activity. Towns, whether possessing a fee-farm or
not, classed themselves as corporations, and acted accordingly.
The disappearance of feudalism as a system of land tenure in
its wider aspects, resulting in the decentralisation and the closer
definition of ownership, aroused the borough communities to
the possibilities of their tenurial being. The rise of a private
landlordism, always eager to expand at the expense of any
common or other lands held under a precarious and doubtful
tenure in their immediate neighbourhood, threatened their
status as a community. Their best rejoinder was to emphasise
their own individuality as private landlords of their common lands.
Extensive leases of common lands were frequently granted in
the boroughs of Conway 2 and Beaumaris, where commercial
activity lessened the maximum utility of the lands to the
community. The success of these boroughs as commercial
centres, no doubt stimulated the exercise of their technical
powers in this direction. The condition of these boroughs
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, consequent to this
process, illustrates the varying fortunes of town commons under
the respective administration of the popular and the close
corporation. The Beaumaris commons by 1835 had dwindled
to an insignificant area of less than twenty acres.3

In the agricultural boroughs of Newborough, Nevin, and

1 Parl. Papers, 1870, vol. lv., and 1835, vol. xxxv.

2 R. Williams, History of Aberconway, 1835, p. 98.

3 Parl. Papers, 1835, vol. xvi. p. 2589.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 91

Pwllheli, which, during the period subsequent to the Act of Union,
may not be unfitly described as small and poor villages with a
glorious past, the common lands continued to be a necessary asset
for the everyday sustenance of almost all the inhabitants. The
mediaeval conditions of undefined ownership, together with the
practice of communal husbandry, survived in these boroughs to a
comparatively late period. Their commons were undisturbed
until the craze for ' Norfolk farming,' extending itself to Wales in
the early nineteenth century, caused drastic changes in the system
of Welsh agriculture. The Enclosure Acts of this period paid scant
respect to the landed rights of the Welsh municipalities, which
the burgesses claimed as their heritage from the Middle Ages.

The common lands of each borough have a separate story.
The burgesses of Conway, favoured with their fee-farm grants,
kept a firm grip on their land. When the commissioners visited
the town in 1835, the burgesses were actually possessed with the
idea that they were really the owners of more lands than
were then in their possession. They should rather, we may
think, have considered themselves fortunate to have held so
much. Their fate might well have been similar to that of their
fellow-burgesses at Nevin, Pwllheli, and Newborough. Nevin
and Pwllheli, though they successfully established their claim
to their freeholds in the time of Charles I.,1 and despite the
fact that they granted leases of their common lands (on a small
scale, it is true) during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
were yet deprived of their common rights by the Enclosure Acts
of the early nineteenth century. The feeling of disappointment
at the loss of the common was fresh and strong at Nevin during
the visit of the royal commissioners in 1835, and was likely to
continue, so long as entries in the town books authorised men
like one Richard Edwards, to enclose a small parcel (seven acres)
of the common (about three hundred acres) belonging to the
town, at a yearly rent of five shillings for ever. This was un-
mistakable testimony to the exercise of ownership rights by
the corporation. The burgesses were not far wrong in their
opinion that the whole common enclosed by the Act of 1812
was their own freehold. At Pwllheli matters were much worse.
The operation of the Enclosure Act of 1811, the burgesses stated,
was nothing short of complete robbery. Their old books con-
tained leases of the very lands that were confiscated. Moreover,
1 Exchqr. Depositions, 11 Charles i., Easter, No. 31.

92 THE MEDLEY AL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the royal commissioner appointed under the Act was of the
opinion that he sold nothing but waste lands of the Crown. And
there certainly was legitimate ground for this statement so far
as the original significance of the fee-farm was concerned, but
in view of the long custom of the community to regard itself as
a corporation and act accordingly in relation to its common
lands, the balance of a just verdict would probably have gone
in favour of the burgesses.1

The whole question of the enclosure of town and rural commons
in Wales is a fascinating problem. We have to some extent
anticipated this interest mainly with the view of illustrating some
of its mediaeval connections. The problem of ownership would
seem to start with the fee-farm grant, which presumably vested
in the members of the community rights of common pasture,
turbary, etc., the Crown remaining lord of the manor and owner
of the soil. The rise of the town community to the position of
lord of the manor was due either to the development of the
administrative power delegated from the Crown to the community
through the fee-farm grant and other channels, or to the
assumption of ownership rights on the plea that it was an
artificial and corporate body. Law and politics, as we have
seen, favoured the community. The victory of the community
at Conway was more complete and permanent than was the case
at Nevin and Pwllheli. The common lands at Carnarvon
were inconsiderable, and those at Beaumaris were subjected
to the will of a close corporation, that claimed to be lord of the
manor in virtue of the fee-farm grant of the borough by the
governing charter of the fourth year of Elizabeth.

The administration of the town property has been incidentally
dealt with in the preceding remarks on its tenure. Further
information is given below in the administrative section dealing
with the respective functions of the borough officers. A few
notes may be inserted here by way of summarising the scattered
remarks already made, as well as of notifying some of the special
features that present themselves. The administration of the
borough territory during the Middle Ages is concerned mainly
with the mode of letting or arrenting the town burgages and
lands, the collection of rents, and the formulation of general
and particular laws. It may thus be conveniently studied under
(1) its executive, (2) fiscal, and (3) legislative aspects.
1 Parl. Papers, 1835, vol. xxv., and 1838, vol. xxxv.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 93

(1) Executive. — The borough territories formed parcel of the
Principality of North Wales. The problem of their adminis-
tration is thus to some extent connected with the wider subject
of the general or state government of North Wales. This in
its fiscal and judicial aspects we consider later. It will be
sufficient to note here that the lands and other profits of the
borough were subject to the supervision of the royal officers of
the Principality. In respect of general management and the
arrenting of lands, etc., the administration was not purely a
borough one. The local Justiciar of North Wales in conjunction
with the local Chamberlain, during the Michaelmas audit at
the local exchequer of Carnarvon, defined and fixed the variable
rents and farms of the boroughs. In the case of fee-farm
boroughs this duty was, of course, limited to the reserved issues
and property of the Crown. The particulars of these transactions
were enrolled on the annual Rotulus dimissionum.

A few of these rolls, five or six in number,1 are still available
at the Public Record Office. They throw much light on the
annual routine work of the local exchequer at Carnarvon.

They tell us little of the fee-farm boroughs beyond detailing
the profits coming from items not incorporated in the perpetual
rent, such as castle towers and chambers, ferries, and detached
strips of the royal waste. Of these, as of the varying issues of
the ordinary borough, they generally give the name of the fermor,
the nature and amount of the farm, and the period over which
it extended. The names of the town bailiffs elected for the
coming year were also included. These * Demise Rolls,' together
with the extents and terriers of the town lands, were carefully
kept at the exchequer of Carnarvon for the convenience of the
auditors and the local administrative staff. The town bailiffs
made frequent reference to the ' Demise Rolls ' as their precedent.
They sometimes gave a brief recital of the particular of a rent
ut per rotulum dimissionum,2 and in the case of the decay of
some borough profit, they said on oath that no one wished to
arrent it ut in rotulo dimissionum?

1 The earliest extant is that of 27 Edward in. , which includes a profferer's
account as well (Min. Ace. 1305/16). Those preserved among the
Miscellanea of the Exchequer (7/11, 7/17, 8/28, 8/29) belong to the reigns
of Henry vi. and Edward iv. Some of them ( 1305/16, 8/38) contain several
other enrolments beside the demise of bailiwicks, and partake of the
nature of general memoranda rolls of the local exchequer at Carnarvon.

2 E.g. Min. Ace. 1153/4. 3 Ib., 1180/3.

94 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The grants of certain premises, occasionally made to
individuals by express order of the Crown, were sometimes
executed by letters patent under the Great Seal of England,
and sometimes under the seal of the North Welsh Principality.
In the latter case they were enrolled on the local memoranda
rolls of the Carnarvon exchequer. It was through the medium
of the local chancery and exchequer at Carnarvon, that the
royal will in relation to the burgage and lands of the borough
was communicated to the town bailiffs. The Justiciar ordered
them to take vacated tenements into the King's hand, and he
also instructed them to respite and pardon certain rents.

The Justiciar acted throughout as the deputy of the Crown.
The sheriff of the county had no tenurial jurisdiction over
the borough. The landed issues of the borough never formed
parcel of the sheriff's farm in the three counties of North
Wales.

The chief executive officers of the town lands were, of course,
the bailiffs. They collected the rents, and carried out the
respective orders of the local Justiciar, and of the local courts
relating to the same. The bailiffs, in the performance of the
territorial as of the other aspects of their duties, found their
chief posse in the jurisdictions of the town courts. Questions
of encroachment or purpresture, disobedience to the bailiffs'
command, non-payment of rent at the statutory times, etc.,
were remedied there, and vacant burgages were presented at
the Court Leet. A sub-bailiff or steward sometimes assisted
the bailiffs in the performance of their duties.

The escheat issues of the borough were for some time answered
for by town coroners,1 but towards the end of the reign of
Richard II. the county escheator began to take account of them.
We have only one instance of a sheriff answering for the issue
of escheat lands within a North Welsh borough.

(2) Fiscal. — The bailiffs had little or nothing to do with the
assessment of the rents : the burgages were fixed at twelve pence
each, and the towers, castle chambers, lands, etc., were assigned
by the Justiciar at fixed rents. These the bailiffs included in their
charge as the rents of assize. Upon the arrenting of any new
lands, mills, or weirs they made a return of the profits as new
rents. These latter represented the additional revenues emanat-.
ing from the town liberty apart from the rents of assize. " As far
1 See ch. v. below, s.n. Coroner.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 95

as the town lands are concerned, the accounts present a striking
similarity during successive centuries. The account of each
year is made to coincide as far as possible with that of the
previous year. The annual changes in the territorial condition
of the borough were marked by a minute process of subtraction
in the terms of pounds, shillings, and pence, arranged on the
discharge side of the account under the headings ' decay '
(in decasu) and ' respite ' (in respectu).

The rents of assize, once the boroughs assumed a fixed form,
differ little in amount. The items of the successive accounts
become exceedingly monotonous, redeemed only in the case
of occasional rearrangements in the amounts of the market
and fair profits, the fluctuating issues of the town mills, and the
slow and spasmodic development of the local fisheries. As far
as the houses and lands of the mediaeval borough are concerned,
the interest of the late fourteenth and fifteenth century accounts
is confined to their ' respite ' and ' decay ' sections. The
evidence presented by both of these sections is of more than
ordinary interest. In them are reflected the silent forces that
temporarily, and sometimes permanently affected the borough.
Note is also made of burgages and lands becoming vacant through
want of tenants, defect of heirs, poverty, and non-compliance
with the statutory regulations. The disastrous economic
effects of the political revolts of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries are carefully marked in the same sections. When
burgages and lands through some untoward circumstances
failed to yield their normal rents, the bailiffs returned what they
had for them per appruamentum, the deficit being accounted for
as being in decasu. This was often the case with tenements on
the expiration o£ a lease or grant for term of years, when the
lands reverted to the Crown for a short period previous to a
new grant. The checking of the periodical changes in the royal
issues of the borough territory formed an important feature in
the finance of the mediaeval borough. Respite and decay sections
are seldom found in the accounts of the fee-farm boroughs.
It was usual to bring forward the respite and decay rents of each
year as the arrears of the next. This gave a fictional character
to the account, e.g. the arrears of Beaumaris in the year 1534
appear in the account as £353. 16s. 2Jd., but the actual debt was
nothing, the amount representing the yearly respited rent of
£8. 4s. 6|d. for the preceding forty-three years. The same sum

96 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

is added to the arrears in 1535, making the total £362. Os. 9d.
This method of accounting, no doubt, served to keep the old
territorial unity of the borough intact.

(3) Legislative. — The laws and ordinances regulating the
administration of the borough lands were instituted at the
instance (a) of the Crown and (b) of the borough communities.

Those enacted by the Crown were mostly of a political character,
and fall naturally into two divisions. In the first division we
have two general ordinances safeguarding English interests
in the castellated boroughs. The first forbade to Welshmen the
right of residence within a walled borough and of holding a
burgage therein ; and the second in like manner withheld from
Welshmen the privilege of holding any lands within the liberties
of the English boroughs in North Wales. Both ordinances 1
were the work of Edward I., and in conjunction with other
ordinances of parallel origin and purport were given statutory
form in the repressive statutes of Henry iv. They were nomin-
ally ratified for the last time in 1446 by Henry vi., in response
to a complaint of the English inhabitants in North Wales. The
ordinances were never intended to be put into literal operation.
The degree to which they were enforced varied with the
fluctuating temperament of current politics. They were not
finally repealed until the reign of James I., but, as a matter of
fact, they had become legally ineffectual with the Act of
Union, and in actual practice at a much earlier date. It
would be difficult to name any English borough in North
Wales that did not harbour a Welshman from the time of
the conquest onwards. The story of this transition is related
elsewhere.

In the second division we have royal ordinances stipulating
the conditions upon which burgages and lands were to be held
in the North Welsh boroughs. These are five in number, and
are to the following effect in their Latin texts : —

(1) ' [Ordinatum fuit per dominum Regem et ejus consilium
quod] omnes terras burgagia et tenementa non residencium
capiuntur in manu principis tanquam forisfactura ' (Arch. Carrib.
Orig. Docts., suppl. vol., 1877, p. xviii.).

(2) ' Ordinatum fuit quod terrae adjacentes praedictae villse
liberentur commorantibus et personaliter habitantibus et
eisdem arententur et non aliis ; or, Ordinatum fuit per Regem *

1 Record of Carnarvon, p. 132.

THE BOROUGHS AND THEIR PROPERTY 97

(Edward I.) quod nullus teneret apud Bellum Mariscum nisi
tantum illi qui sunt residentes ibidem ' (Rec. of Cam., p. 224).

(3) ' [Proclamatum fuit] per Gilbertum dominum Talbot
locumtenentem domini Principis in North Wallia quod quilibet
burgencium habens aliquam hereditatem vel burgagia in aliqua
villa murata infra partes Northwallise ad residendum veniret
super suam hereditatem et burgagia domini principi prout in
antiquo tempore ordinatum f uit ' (Min. Ace. 1175/7). [Quoted
here to show that the principle recognised in the particular
case of Beaumaris in (1) and (2) was of general application.]

(4) ' [Ordinatum fuit quod omnes terrse assignatse burgensibus
de Caernarvon arrententur ita] pro quolibet burgagio xijd. per
annum, et pro qualibet acra terrse ibidem ijd.' (Rec. of Cam.,
p. 223).

(5) ' Proclamatum fuit] in prima fundacione villae Belli Mari-
scum quod omnes burgenses eiusdem villse tenerent burgagia et
terras eis ibidem assignata libere sine aliquo redditu per x
annos proximos sequentes ' (Rec. of Cam., ib.).

The main object of these ordinances, as may be inferred, was
(1) to encourage the early colonisation of the boroughs by English
settlers ; (2) to assure the munition and defence of the borough.

There is but very little evidence of private legislation by the
North Welsh borough communities during the Middle Ages.
The court rolls contain notices of trespasses committed against
what are termed the ' ordinances of the town.' One of these
items refers to the building of a house (? seunta) in the town
of Carnarvon sine licencia by a certain Richard of Pwllheli
on the land of William de Bethleye.1 The Leet evidently
supervised and regulated the structural growth of the town.
There are, however, no distinctive by-laws for the North Welsh
boroughs until the Tudor period and later. The corporation
books of this later date contain several local enactments dealing
with the proper custody of pigs, and the remedy of other Welsh
nuisances.

Some note must also be made of the ' customs ' adopted by

affiliative right from the mother- town. By a clause in their

original charters, each of the free boroughs of North Wales had

a nominal claim to direct their internal affairs in accordance

with the privileges of Hereford. The more important items in

the territorial complement of these laws related to the free

1 Court Rolls, 215/46.

98 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

assignment by a burgess of his tenement, and its exemption from
heriots and other customary services. The same c laws,' too,
provided for the secure administration of bequests made in the
last wills and testaments of deceased burgesses, and the process
of installing a new burgess in his tenement, together with details
concerning cases of illegal and forcible ejection, is carefully
enumerated.1

Instances of the actual exercise of these privileges and customs
in North Wales are, moreover, very rare in the existing muni-
ments. But as the latter are mostly of a royal rather than of
a private character, it must not be presumed too readily that
the theoretical connection between Hereford and the North
Welsh boroughs had no practical effect upon their economic
working.

1 Archaeological Journal, vol. xxvii. pp. 471-5.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 99

THE ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT OF THE
NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS, 1284-1536

THE administration of the North Welsh borough as a territorial
unit has been already discussed (ch. iv.). In this chapter we
treat of its administration as (1) a military and (2) jurisdictional
unit ; as (3) an organ of finance, together with (4) an enumeration
of the borough officers, and (5) the municipal paraphernalia used.
For the sake of convenience we have subdivided the subject
thus : —

I. THE DEFENCE OF THE BOROUGH.
(i) Apparatus for Defence.
(ii) Agents of Defence— (1) Royal, (2) Civic.

II. THE PEACE OF THE BOROUGH.

(i) Jurisdictional Privileges of the Borough,
(ii) The Borough Courts,
(iii) The Boroughs and the Crown Pleas.

III. THE FINANCE OF THE BOROUGH.

(i) Sources of Revenue,
(ii) Items of Expenditure,
(iii) Collection and Disbursement.

IV. THE OFFICERS OF THE BOROUGH.

(i) The Constable of the Castle.

1. Governor of the Castle.

2. Governor of the Fortified Borough.

3. Keeper of the Castle Gaol.

4. Ex-officio Mayor.

5. Extraordinary Duties.

(ii) The Mayor of the Borough,
(iii) Alderman,
(iv) Bailiffs.

100 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

(v) Sub-Bailiffs,
(vi) Affeerers.

(vii) Coroners and Escheators.
(viii) Mace-Bearers,
(ix) Keepers of the Town Prison,
(x) Town Crier,
(xi) Steward of the Borough Mills.

V. MUNICIPAL PARAPHERNALIA.

I. THE DEFENCE OF THE BOROUGH

Burghal defence was an exacting problem in the politics of
Mediaeval Wales. This was especially the case in the North
Welsh boroughs. With the exception of the little inland
borough of Bala, they were all exposed by the fact of their
situation to the perils of a seaport town.1 The prospects of
booty made them tempting objects for the daring inroads of the
Western rovers. The openness of the Welsh sea-board, with its
opportunities for stealthy approach, gave to the Welsh ports the
sinister repute of being admirable vantage-grounds for hostile
descent. Danger in this direction on the part of enemies from
Scotland and France during the Middle Ages, with the additional
fear of concerted action by the wavering Welsh, notorious as the
latter were for their lightness of head 2 or tendency to rebel,
often embarrassed the English authorities.

Rumours of alleged invasions of the realm by way of Wales,
suspicions (often unfounded) of pending revolt amongst the
native inhabitants, continually reached English ears, and served
to emphasise the national importance of an adequate policy of
Welsh defence. Even as late as 1436 the author of the Libell
of English Policy advised his countrymen to 4 beware of Wales.' 3
He was not unmindful of the recent rebellion of Glyndwr, which
so seriously jeopardised'the English cause in Wales. Sir Richard
Bulkeley, writing to Cromwell more than a century later (9th
April 1539) on the question of the defence of Wales, refers
especially to the dangers arising from the island of Anglesea.
' The Isle of Anglesea,' he says, * lies open upon all countries,

1 Green, Town Life, etc., i. pp. 128-9.

2 Cf. Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 167, n. 10. See also Letters
and Papers Henry VIII., vol. viii. p. 509. A light Welshman = a. disloyaf
Welshman.

» Trans. R.H.S. , ut cit., p. 168.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 101

it is but a day's sail from Scotland. Breton lies open on it,
and the men of Conquet know it as well as we do ; so also the
Spaniards know every haven and creek ; and Ireland and other
countries lie open upon it.' 1

Borough defence in Wales, before the Act of Union with
England, demanded something more than the ordinary pre-
cautions of the civic community, particularly in the castellated
towns. Carnarvon, Conway, Beaumaris, Harlech, and Criccieth
were in much the same position as some of the more important
frontier towns of the period, such as Hereford, Shrewsbury, and
Bristol.2 They were concerned not only with the maintenance
of their civic rights against troublesome neighbours, but also
with their additional obligations and duties as units in a syste-
matised policy of English defence. The North Welsh boroughs
were not isolated and self-dependent, as was the case with the
generality of boroughs. The problem of their defence was
almost an extra-municipal one, owing more to the political
precautions of the English Government than to the initiative
and enterprise of the town communities. This is very true of
the castellated boroughs, and under exceptional circumstances
of the non-garrison boroughs as well. A consideration of (1)
the physical and (2) personal apparatus of English defence in
North Wales will strengthen this conclusion.

(i) Apparatus for Defence

The physical apparatus comprised the castles and their
towers, the town walls and their gates, together with the town
quays and bridges. The castle, though hardly germane to the
subject of municipal defence in Wales during the Middle Ages
(yet inseparably connected with it) may be treated in a concise
way.

(a) The Castles of North Wales. — Of those it is enough to say
that the five castles of Carnarvon, Conway, Criccieth, Beaumaris,
and Harlech were elaborately constructed at the public expense,
and were adequately garrisoned throughout the fourteenth
century. Criccieth castle was irrecoverably damaged during
Glyndwr's revolt, but the remaining four continued to be
irregularly utilised for military purposes down to the beginning
of the Tudor period. After this date the castles lost their

1 Letters and Papers Henry VIII., xiv. p. 732.

2 Green, op. cit. et ref. Cf. Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 133.

102 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

primary military importance, and with the exception of the
edifices maintained within their precincts for administrative
purposes, entered upon a period of rapid decay. A warrant1
dated 1st July 1538 refers to the four castles of North Wales as
being * moche ruinous and ferre in decaye for lakke of tymely
reparations.'

(b) Town Walls, Quays, etc. — Only the typical garrison boroughs
of Conway, Carnarvon, and Beaumaris were really walled. The
early colonists, alive to the perils of their situation in a dis-
affected province, or as they usually put it, ' exposed as they
were to the insolence and assaults of their enemies around,' 2
were loud in their clamour for the protection of efficient town
walls. The walls, however, for a long time belonged to the
Crown rather than to the borough. The cost of building and
repair during the period of settlement was generally included
among the ordinary expenses connected with the garrison works
in North Wales. From the point of view of the Crown, the
town walls were evidently regarded as parcel of the apparatus of
English defence, yet from the obvious advantages which they
conferred on the town community, it was natural that the Crown
should exhibit a tendency to throw as much as possible of the
liability of maintenance on to the shoulders of the burgesses.

The burgesses of Beaumaris in a long petition to Edward n.
set forth the political and commercial advantages that would
inevitably accrue to them if their town were enclosed with a
wall. In reply, they were pertinently asked what aid they them-
selves were prepared to contribute towards the erection.3 The
details of their answer are missing. The town was apparently
badly protected until after the rising of Glyndwr, when Gilbert,
Lord Talbot, the reorganiser of the decayed boroughs of
Anglesea after the devastations of the rebels> appropriated thirty
of the town burgages for the purpose of building a new stone
wall round the town.4 Towards the repair of the same walls,
Henry vi. in 1451 allowed a sum of £20 yearly out of the royal
issues of the borough for four years.5 Small amounts payable
out of the general issues of the Principality were expended on
their reparation during the reigns of Henry vn. and Henry vm.6

1 Enrolled on divers ministers' accounts for North Wales of this date, .
e.g. Min. Ace., 29-30 Henry vm. (co. Merioneth), No. 1.

2 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,991. 3 Ibid.

4 Min. Ace. 1152-5 (temp. 1409-14). Cf. ib., 1216-2. 6 Ib., 1155-6.

• E.g. ib. (North Wales), 14 Henry vn., No. 1595 ; 27 Henry vm., No. 163.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 103

The last considerable sum spent by the Crown on the walls of
Beaumaris was in the year 1540.1 A roll of fourteen membranes,
now wanting, detailed the particulars of the work done. Out
of a total amount of £41. 6s. 9d., one Robert Burghill, who
superintended the walling operations for a whole year, took £10.

The burgesses of Con way, a town bordering upon a treacherous
part of sea, showed an early interest in their town walls. They
petitioned Edward of Carnarvon for a grant of murage, and at
the same time threw out the suggestion that an annual sum of
£20 issuing from the borough profits should be devoted
to the maintenance of the walls for a number of years.2 We
know that they received the promise of a grant of murage for
seven years.3 This instance is notable as being apparently the
only murage grant ever made to a North Welsh borough.
All the boroughs, by virtue of their original charters, included
murage among their general commercial privileges. This
exempted the burgesses from the payment of murage tolls when
entering other boroughs.4 The toll was chargeable on all
vendible goods entering the town. Special grants of murage
were frequently made, enabling the burgesses to collect murage
at their town gates for the reparation of their walls. Instances
of this appear commonly in the frontier and isolated towns of
the Marches, such as Montgomery, Radnor, Kington, Clun,
Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, and Abergavenny.5 The fewness
of such grants to the boroughs of North Wales is partly explained
by the fact that the district contained only three walled towns,
and that the brunt of the expenses of the town fortifications fell
upon the Crown, the borough finances in consequence being
little affected.

So long as the custody of the castle and that of the borough
were closely associated, as most certainly was the case during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the whole responsibility
of maintenance rested with the Crown. The burgesses made the
most of their political status as a useful means of soliciting aid
from the Crown. The walls of Carnarvon towards the castle
on the west side were erected by royal command in 1326, and
the western gate of the town, unfortunately burnt in the reign

1 Min. Ace. (Anglesea), 30-1 Henry vin., No. 239.

2 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 9365. 3 Rec. of Cam., p. 223.

4 Ib. (P.Q.W.), pp. 161, 165, 176, 181, 187, 195, 198. Cf. Daniel-
Tyssen's Carmarthen Charters, pp. 44, 59.

6 Cal. Pat. Rolls (temp. Edward i. to Edward in.), s.n.

104 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

of Edward i., was similarly repaired. The alleged purpose of
these new works was the better keeping of the castle and town.*
Seven years previously the burgesses of Carnarvon had petitioned
the Crown to repair the bridge of the ' great gate ' leading into
their town.2 The request was fulfilled two years later, after the
King was given to understand that he had been wont to repair
the bridge.3 Even as late as the Tudor period 4 English sovereigns
spent money on this same bridge. The liability of defence at
Carnarvon, as in the other castle boroughs, is very typical. It
was the King's planks, hewed at public expense in the royal
forest of Snowdon, that bridged the Seiont there, and the King's
gates leading through the town walls were continually guarded
by experienced watchmen at the royal expense.

This is again very evident in the circumstance of the erection
and maintenance of the town quays, where, naturally, we should
expect the burgesses to participate in the liability incurred.
The burgesses of Conway sought a royal aid of £100 to repair
their demolished quay,5 and in May 1315 the local chamberlain
was ordered to expend that amount for this purpose.6 In August
of the next year an additional sum of one hundred marks was
voted to carry on the same work, with a proviso that the
remainder of the work should be accomplished by the burgesses
at their own cost.7

In the same year (1316) a yearly sum of £100 was granted
towards the completion of the haven works at Carnarvon.8
Weekly accounts of the operations on the quay from 15th
October to 21st November 1316 are still preserved. They give
the names of several Welshmen who were employed in the quarry
at the end of the town. A portion of the quay was done by
contract ; Henry de Ellerton, the master mason, undertook to
construct twelve perches at £8 per perch of twenty-five feet.9
Six years later, in 1322, the quay was reported to be in a bad
state of repair, to the great peril of the King's castle there. The
King, it is expressly stated, was bound to repair and maintain it.10
Fourteen weekly accounts, ranging in date from June to
September, give minute particulars of the progress made during

1 Cat. Close Rolls, 1323-7, pp. 445, 451. 2 /&., 1318-23, p. 165.

3 /&., p. 406. 4 Min. Ace,, 23 Henry vn., No. 1600.

5 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,687.

6 Cal Close Rolls, 1313-18, p. 178. ' /&., p. 357. 8 76.,- p. 265.
9 Exchqr. K.R. Acct. 486/29. Cf. Min. Ace. 1170/11.

10 Cal. Close Rolls, 1318-23, pp. 449, 661.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 105

the summer of 1322. Five Welshmen plied the royal barge that
conveyed the bulk of the stone material utilized from the little
quarry of Aberpwll, on the border of the Bishop's territory.
The master mason, Henry de Ellerton, received 14s. a week,
the ordinary masons taking 8d. a day in wages. The weekly
stipend of one Robert de Hope, clerk of the works, was 2s. T^d.1
The quay of Carnarvon was subsequently repaired by the Crown
in a similar manner.2

Quays formed essential factors in the apparatus of national
defence. The necessity for constantly keeping them in good re-
pair was twofold. They protected the castles from the sea, and
facilitated the victualling of the garrison, a matter of paramount
importance. The burgesses of Beaumaris once told Edward n.
that for want of a quay the town and castle were in great
danger.3 In 1322 the King considerately ordered that the quay
between the castle of Beaumaris and the sea be repaired so that
the castle may not be damaged.* The cost of repairing quays
remained for a long time to come a common item among the
general works' expenses 5 charged to the chamberlain of the local
exchequer at Carnarvon. Conway in 1535 6 and Carnarvon in
1540 7 afford a few late examples of this outlay.

So long as the boroughs retained their garrison or political
character, the question of burghal defence was, as we have seen,
pre-eminently an affair of the State, the Crown discharging the
liability, either by the grant of munificent aids, or by executing
the necessary repairs. No doubt the burgesses (as some of the
evidence quoted above seems to imply) owing to the advantages
derived from good walls, quays, gates, bridges, etc., contributed
in some part to their general upkeep. But the ' works ' as such
hardly formed part of the municipal agenda during the Middle
Ages. The policy of defence was not merely a burghal one.
The prospective fall of a Carnarvon or of a Beaumaris meant
something more than local misfortune ; it was tantamount to
a possible retrogression of the Edwardian policy of settlement,
and the possible secession of Wales from the grip of the English

1 Exchqr. K.R. Acct. 487/4.

2 See Arch. Camb., in. ix. p. 193 ; Min. Ace. 1305/18, 19 (temp. Richard
n.), and ib. 4, 9 Henry vn., and 22, 23, 27, 31 Henry vm.

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 4048.

4 Cal. Close Rolls, 1318-23, p. 415.

6 Expenses operacionum, e.g. Min. Ace. 1216/7-8 (temp. 28, 29 Henry vi.).

6 Ib. (North Wales), 25-6 Henry vm., No. 3.

7 /fe., 30-1 Henry vm., No. 239.

106 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Crown. This was as good a pretext to the burgesses in clamouring
for royal aid, as it was an excuse to the Crown for interfering
with matters which, under normal circumstances, would have
been of purely municipal concern. The ready assistance
afforded by the Crown in this respect was often expressly
granted with the view of retaining English burgesses who were
threatening to leave the country.1

It may be observed that the particular aids made for this
purpose were not actually handed over to the burgesses, but
that they were paid by the local chamberlain out of his general
receipts. The control of the money granted to town com-
munities for carrying out public improvements is an interesting
point in the finance of the mediaeval borough. It has been said
that the English Crown showed more laxity in this direction
than was the case in France, where special auditors were
appointed to supervise the octroi money granted for similar
purposes.2 However, on the grant of such moneys to the
boroughs of North Wales, the Crown was careful to insist that
both the justice and chamberlain of the local exchequer should
act as supervisors of the accounts.3 This, too, was apparently
the case when the town bailiffs were allowed so much yearly out
of the issues of their borough for reparation of the town walls, etc.

During the Middle Ages, when the liability of repair fell Jointly
on Crown and town, especially on the former, the question of
ownership of the walls would hardly be raised. As far as
practical use went, it may be said that they were the walls of the
borough during peace, and the walls of the castle during war,
the legal ownership resting throughout in the Crown. The point
of private ownership probably arose with the separation of the
castle and borough economies during the post-Union epoch.
The complete absorption of the divided liabilities of the Middle
Ages by the town communities, would seem to be the natural
concomitant of the decadence of the garrison system, and the
simultaneous development in the commercial condition of the
Welsh towns. Both of these are evident features in the history

1 See Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 12,729.

* Histoire de Libourne, 1845, 3 vols., by R. Guinodie. Vol. ii. p. 128.
Cf. Exchqr. Miscellanea 24/2.

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,687 (endorsed) 'mandetur Justici-
ario et Camerario Northwalliae quod supervideant compotum centum
librarum infra contentarum et certificent Regi qualiter expenduntur et
quid in hac parte pro Rege melius fuerit faciendum.'

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 107

of Wales during the Elizabethan period. Beaumaris discarded
its political shell in the year 1562, and in so doing took on the
responsibility of repairing its walls and quays.1 Conway followed
suit at some later date,2 but at Carnarvon the mediaeval theory
continued to the days of municipal reform. The corporation,
to its great surprise, found before 1821, that it was not the actual
owner of what the burgesses had long been accustomed to regard
as their own town walls.3

(ii) Agents of Defence

The agents of defence were both royal and municipal,
representing respectively the military precautions of the State,
and the civic care of the town community.

1. The Royal Agents of Defence. — As opposed to the municipal
agents of defence, these were appointed by the English Crown,
and maintained out of the general issues of the Principality.
They consisted chiefly of (a) the castle garrisons ; (6) the town
garrisons ; (c) the ' warnesters,' or porters of the town and
castle gates ; and (d) the occasional watchmen placed on the
town walls. We may consider these in further detail.

(a) The Castle Garrisons. — The permanent garrisons were
not large. The normal garrisons of Conway, Carnarvon, and
Beaumaris during the greater part of the fourteenth century
each included about sixteen armed men.4 The complement of
fighting men at Harlech and Criccieth was somewhat less, ten
men-at-arms being placed in each. The early garrisons were
constituted on the lines that the constable should retain a
stipulated number of soldiers, and maintain the same out of his
allotted fee. The Crown made special provision, in cases of
political urgency, for all men-at-arms kept over and above the
original number. For instance, an elaborate garrison, about
one hundred and thirty strong, was placed at Beaumaris to curb
the Anglesea insurgents who had joined the early rebellion of
Madoc ap Llywelyn in 1294.5

1 Patent Roll, 4 Elizabeth, m. 19.

1 ' Le Key ' of Conway is repaired by the Crown as late as 28 Henry vnr.
(Min. Ace., s.a.c. North Wales).

3 Tourist Guide to the County of Carnarvon, 1821 (P. B. Williams), p. 28 :
* The castle and town walls are said to be vested in the King.' Cf. D. W.
Pughe's History of Carnarvon, p. 46 (fourth edition, 1857).

4 Exchqr. K.R. Acct. 17/11. A certificate showing the state of the
castle garrisons in 1326.

6 76., 6/1. Cf. Gal. Close Rolls, 1313-18, p. 392.

108 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The regularity with which the garrisons were kept up to their
normal complement depended to a large extent on the personality
of the constable. The Crown was not over-scrupulous in the
matter, except when rumours of war were rife.1 The constables
were somewhat lax in this respect, as may be inferred from the
testimony of the Conway and Beaumaris jurors when paying
their homage to the Black Prince in 1344. The ' sworn men '
of the town of Conway affirmed that the constable of Conway
should maintain sixteen men, one chaplain, and one watchman
out of his annual fee, but the fact was that he sometimes kept
ten, at other times eight. At Beaumaris affairs were somewhat
better, from ten to a dozen men taking the place of the normal
sixteen.2 Four years later (1348) the Black Prince instituted
an inquiry into the condition of the garrison at Criccieth, with a
recommendation that five men-at-arms should be employed there
at a wage of four pence a day when occupied, and at half that
sum when not occupied.3 This method of the direct appoint-
ment and payment by the Crown of soldiers making up the
castle garrison, became the general rule during the later
Plantagenet and the early Tudor periods. The garrisons from
the time of the Black Prince were of a temporary rather than a
permanent character, and were periodically arranged to cope
with the varying political needs of the country.4

Towards the end of the rule of Edward in., and throughout
the reign of Richard n., the local chamberlain at Carnarvon
ceased to charge himself with the expenses of garrison men in
divers parts of North Wales, neither men-at-arms nor bowmen
being sent out of England by the lord King or his council to
garrison the castles there. This is the story of John de Wode-
house, the local chamberlain in 137<8,5 and in view of the absence
of any positive evidence to the contrary, the statement may
generally represent the condition of the North Welsh garrisons
during the latter half of the fourteenth century. The reign of
Richard n. was a comparatively peaceful one for North Wales.
Mediaeval Wales, however, always teemed with rumours. Some
of these had attained ripened proportions by the close of the
reign.

See Additional MS. (Brit. Mus.), Roll 7198 (temp. 1340).
Original Documents (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877), p. clxvi.
Exchqr. T. of R. Misc. Bk., No. 144, ft. 926, 145.
See Harl. MS. (Brit. Mus.), Roll E, 7 (temp. 1370).
Min. Ace. 1214-5.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 109

The revolt of the Welsh under Glyndwr brought the question
of English defence in Wales to the front. Too much emphasis
could not be attached to the importance of the adequate
garnishing of the North Welsh castles, situated as they were
in the very locality where the rising took root. An additional
reason for the sufficient and timely manning of the castles, was
occasioned by the same district becoming involved in the
struggle of the rival claimants of York and Lancaster for the
English throne.

Scattered details of the history of the castle garrisons from
the reign of Henry iv. to that of Henry vm. exist here and there,
particularly in the accounts of the local chamberlain. Only a
few constable's accounts have survived, giving the names and
numbers of the garrison soldiers, with the length, period, and
cost of their service.1 The Patent and Close Rolls yield some
evidence, as do the Royal Letters 2 and the Acts of the Privy
Council? These authorities give sound facts as to the condition
of the garrisons at certain dates, but the continued status is
marred by several lacunce in the sequence of the evidence. In
most cases it may obviously be assumed that the garrisons,
during the periods intervening between the dates of which we
have evidence, were much the same.

Taking first the case of Carnarvon, which from the point of
view of defence was undoubtedly the most important castle
in the Principality during the Middle Ages. During the first
eleven years of the reign of Henry iv. the castle was continually
guarded by a permanent garrison of about fourteen men,4 con-
sisting of two men-at-arms and a dozen archers. During the
third and ninth years of the same reign small armies of a hundred,
and seventy strong respectively, were stationed there. The
permanent garrison apparently remained unchanged till 1444.5
On the 5th of February in this year, seven additional soldiers
were added to the usual garrison, making the total number of
defenders a round score.6 This was the exact number in 1455. 7
On the 28th of May 1460 the garrison is described as containing
two less.8 As a general rule, it was usual to specify the number

1 Exchgr. K.R. Accts. 43/24, 43/39 are instances in point. Cf. Arch.
Camb., m. viii. pp. 123, 129.

2 Ed. Ellis (temp. Henry iv.). 3 Ed. Nicolas.

4 Min. Ace. 1216-2 and ref. 1 above.

5 /&., 1216-3 (6 Henry v.), and 4 (13 Henry vi.). « /&., 1216-7.

7 /&., 1217-2. 8 Ib., 1217-3 (eighteen soldiers at four pence a day).

110 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

of soldiers maintainable by the Crown upon the appointment
of a new constable, which number under ordinary circumstances
remained the same during his term of office. Thomas
Montgomery, appointed constable of Carnarvon in the first year
of Edward iv., held the office throughout the reign. He received
the wages of twenty-four soldiers every year, as did his successor,
William Stanley, who took up the constableship 6th June 1484. l
Richard Pole, succeeding Stanley 21st April 1495, only received
allowance for twelve men.2 No soldiers are charged to the
Crown during the governorship of Thomas Heton, who held
the office for a period of ten months in 1506.3 John Puleston,
the next constable, who held office throughout the reign of
Henry vni., had a wage allowance for thirty-six soldiers during
the first seven years of the reign.4 No soldiers were charged
to the Crown after this date.

Conway, in point of administrative and military significance,
was not so important as Carnarvon. Its permanent garrison,
however, during the revolt of Glyndwr, was virtually the same,
consisting of fourteen men.5 This number had dwindled to
six 6 by 1418. There is no apparent increase in the number of
the garrison until 1441, when twelve more soldiers were stationed
in the castle.7 The letters patent, appointing Henry Bolde to
the governorship of the castle in 1461, nominally specify the
castle and town garrisons to contain as many as forty-eight
soldiers. In reality there were only twenty-four, twelve manning
the castle, and a like number protecting the town and its walls.8
Similar numbers served under Thomas Dunstalt 9 and Richard
Pole up to the year 1503.10 Only twelve Crown soldiers resided
at Conway in 1504,11 and they were apparently the last. Edward
Salysbury, who succeeded to the constableship 4th January
1505, and his kinsman, John Salysbury, following him 6th
October 1512 down to the close of Henry vni.'s reign, have no
money allowance beyond their annual stipend of £50.12

Beaumaris, from the circumstances of its situation in the
island of Anglesea, stood next to Carnarvon in point of military

1 Min. Ace. 1217-4-7; ib., Henry vn.,Nos. 1591-4; Campbell's Materials
for the History of Henry VII., i. p. 258.

2 Min. Ace., Henry vn., Nos. 1595-8. 8 Ib., No. 1599.
4 Ib., 1600-1, and 7 Henry vni. (North Wales), No. 127.

' Ib., 1216/1-2. • Ib., 1216-3. 7 Ib., 1216-7, 8 ; 1217/1, 2.

s Ib., 1217/4-6. » Ib., 7. 10 Ib., Henry vn., Nos. 1591-7

11 Ib. 1598. " Ib., Henry vn. and vm. passim.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 111

importance. Several small and temporary garrisons were
stationed there on the outbreak of Glyndwr's rebellion. The
ordinary garrison comprised about a dozen men.1 It fell to
half this number under Henry v. and during the greater part
of the reign of Henry vi.2 In June 1446 the garrison was
increased to twelve, and was further supplemented on the last
day of May in the following year by nine more men, one of whom
acted as chaplain. It was similarly constituted in 1455,3 and
probably remained so to the close of William Beauchamp's term
of office as constable in 1460. Under John Butler, Henry vi.'s
last constable of Beaumaris, the garrison had fallen to the
small number of six soldiers and one priest.4 Edward iv.,
alive to the Lancastrian tendencies of the North Welsh during
the first five years of his reign, allowed his new constable, William
Hastings, the money wages of forty-eight soldiers.5 Half
this number (as at Conway) were kept during the remaining
years of his reign. Twenty-four men also served under Richard
Huddlestone, constable during the reign of Richard in.,6 as
again under Stanley, who succeeded him in the next reign.7
Crofte, the appointed constable during the years 10-16 Henry vn.,
was allowed the wages of twelve soldiers only.8 There were
evidently no soldiers under Rowland Bulkeley, who held the
constableship from 4th July 1502 to 3rd July 1509.9 Under
his notorious successor, Sir Rowland Viellvile, the garrison is
said to have been wholly withdrawn. Moreover, during the
first nine years of his constableship, Sir Rowland successfully
claimed and enjoyed the garrison fees of forty-eight soldiers.10
But from 1518-36 he simply received a fee of forty marks,
no wages being allowed in respect of soldiers placed in the
castle.11 There were no soldiers kept in the castle during the
later years of his constableship, nor again during the successive
constableships of Henry Norres 12 and Richard Bulkeley in the
same reign.13

Harlech castle, from the fact of its occupation by the native
Welsh for a more considerable period than any of its neighbouring

1 Min. Ace. 1216/1-3. 2 Ib., 1153/1, 3.

3 Also 1450, 1451, and 1454. Min. Ace. 1216/7-8, 1217/1, 2.

4 Ib., 1217/3. 6 Ib., 1217/4-6. « Ib., No. 7.

7 Ib., Henry vn., Nos. 1591-4. 8 Ib., Nos. 1595-7.

9 Ib., Nos. 1598-1601 ; ib., Henry vm., No. 16.

10 76., 7 Henry vm., No. 127. " Ib., 27 Henry vm., No. 163.

11 Ib. (North Wales), 28 Henry vm., No. 175. 13 Ib., 26-38 Henry vm,

112 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

castles, has a peculiarly exciting yet obscure history. Little
is known as to the number of the garrison during the troublous
times of Glyndwr.1 About a dozen soldiers were stationed
there during the reign of Henry v. and the first twenty years of
Henry vi.'s rule.2 This number was doubled under the governor-
ship of Edward Hampden in 1444.3 The castle was in the
hands of the Welsh during the years 5-8 Edward iv.4 On its
recovery a garrison of twenty-four was placed there. Richard in.
had twenty soldiers there at one time, and as many as sixty
at another time.5 The normal garrison under Richard Pole
during the reign of Henry vn. was twenty-four up to the last
year of his office (1504), when it suddenly fell to twelve.6 Hugh
Lewis, who succeeded Richard Pole as constable on 28th
December 1505, was paid a round fee of £50, with no garrison
allowance.7 Peter Stanley, following Pole, took the old fee of
forty marks, together with wage allowances for twenty-four
soldiers, during the first five years of his constableship (2-7
Henry vm.).7 Thenceforward he received a fee of £50, which
probably carried with it the liability of maintaining porters and
other servants required for the sufficient keeping of the castle.
Francis Bryan enjoyed the same fee during the first thirty years
of his office (13-34 Henry vm.), but so nominal and honorary
had the duty become, that he only received £10 8 during the last
four years of Henry's reign.

This brings our statistical survey of the North Welsh garrisons
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to a close. It
would appear that the castles ceased to be garrisoned for
military purposes towards the close of the reign of Henry vn.,
except during their temporary resuscitation at the time of the
Civil War. The old-time function of the castle as a restraining
power on the Welsh inhabitants of the surrounding hamlets,
came to an end with the reign of Henry Tudor.

A letter dated 9th April 1539, and written by Sir Richard
Bulkeley (then Justiciar of North Wales) to Thomas Crom-
well, indicates the non-military character of the North Welsh
castles during the reigns of Henry vn. and Henry vm. Not
one of them was in a state of defence. Bulkeley, indeed, asserts

1 See below, pp. 250-3. 2 Min. Ace. 1216/3-4, 1204-5. 8 Ib., 1216/7-8.

« Ib., 1217/4-6. 6 Ib., 1217-7.

6 Ib., Henry vn., Nos. 1597-8.

7 Ib., 1598-1610; 1 Henry vm. (Merioneth), No. 16.
• Ib. (North Wales), 34-7 Henry vm.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 113

that the King's castles in North Wales were wholly unfurnished
with any means of defence, saving eight or ten pieces in the
castle of Beaumaris, with two or three barrels of powder and
some shot. . . . Conway, Carnarvon, and Harlech, he further
says, could not be defended for an hour. In the same letter he
begs a couple of gunners and some good ordnance and powder
for the defence of Beaumaris, which stood in most jeopardy,1

The predominant danger at this time was not so much domestic
as foreign. Bulkeley sought to defend the castle not against
the Welsh, but against the King's enemies in France and Ireland.
Henry Tudor's remarkable charter to the North Welshmen in
1507 had removed many of the grievances which justified the
existence of the mediaeval castles. This ordained equal burghal
and commercial privileges to English and Welsh, with the
result that the North Welsh castles soon lost their primary
military importance, which during the Middle Ages was decidedly
local. Henceforward it was the defence of Wales rather than of
the English burgesses in Wales that engaged the attention of the
Government and the local authorities. The same charter, too,
released the inhabitants of the surrounding castle districts from
their castle services, thus depriving the castles of their mediaeval
associations. About the same time the garrison men disappeared,
and the old edifices showed signs of physical decay. The latter,
as we have premised, was in some part stayed by the adminis-
trative use to which some of the castle towers and chambers
were put. With the building of shire halls and county gaols,
their importance, apart from the fee that was nominally
associated with the office of keeper, is almost solely confined
to their antiquarian interest. In Henry vn.'s charter to the
North Welshmen we have the key to the transition in idea from
the mediaeval to the modern castle.

A word may be said in conclusion respecting the subsidiary
officers, who superintended the victualling, repairing, and
other routine business connected with the efficiency of the castle
garrisons. The original arrangements were of a most elaborate
character. The vadia officiariorum amounted to a considerable
annual sum. The most important of these officers were — (1)
the custodes victualium, upon whom the responsibility of pro-
viding articles of food and provender fell ; (2) the attilliatores or
military superintendents, who cared for the weapons of attack
1 Letters and Papers Henry VIII., xiv., No. 732.
H

114 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

and the armour of defence, with the requisite materials for
their repair ; (3) the cementarius or master mason, and other
artisans employed on the castle works.1 At the outset, when the
castles were being built, each castle had representative officers
of every class. But when the preliminary works were done,
towards the middle of the fourteenth century, itinerant officers
were appointed with general powers of supervision over the
divers requirements of the castles of North Wales, including
those of Flint and Rhuddlan, and sometimes Chester. There
are several instances of masters of the castle works, master
plumbers, and later, master gunners or cannoneers, appointed
for these castles during the late fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries.2 The only offices that survive during the Elizabethan
period and later are those of the constable and Janitor.

(b) Town Garrisons. — The custody of both the castle and
town was usually vested in the hands of the constable of the
castle, and the soldiers of the castle garrison. Moreover, special
circumstances calling for increased protection during the revolt
of Glyndwr, and the unsettled period of the Lancastrian and
Yorkist factions, led to the establishment of small town garrisons
in the three typical English boroughs of North Wales. The
capital borough of Carnarvon came in for most attention in this
respect. This policy gave rise to the new office of the captaincy
of the town, each company of town soldiers being under the
control of a captain. The normal stipend of a captain was eight
pence per diem, the ordinary soldier taking half the amount.3
These town garrisons were of a temporary character, and varied
considerably in number. During the Tudor period they were
either wholly abolished or else indistinctly associated with the
soldiers of the castle. This was inevitable when, as was gener-
ally the case, the constableship of the castle and the captaincy
of the town became incorporated in one and the same person.

William de Tranmere, assisted for some time by one John de
Bostock, was the acting captain at Carnarvon during the rising
of Glyndwr. The company under his command ranged from
fifteen to twenty-five in number. To them in great part belonged
the honour of repelling the successive sieges to which the town
was subjected by Owen and his French followers.4 There was

1 Particulars will be found in the extant chamberlain accounts of -North
Wales. 2 Col. Patent Rolls (s.n.c.).

3 Min. Ace. 1216-7. 4 Exchqr. K.R. Accts. 43/24, 36, 39.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 115

no distinct captain after this, the office being attached to that
of the constable. We sometimes find notices of town garrisons
nominally distinct from those of the castle. During the years
1450-5 there were ' five soldiers of the town ' at Carnarvon.1
In 1460 the united garrisons of the town and castle numbered
eighteen, and were placed there in the May of this year ' for the
safe custody of the castle and town.' 2 A distinct town garrison
of twelve again appears at Carnarvon during the years 5-8
Edward iv., when the English cause at Harlech was in sore
jeopardy.3 In the reign of Richard HI. the castle and town
garrisons are united, not to be separated again.4 The constable
of the castle continued to enjoy the emoluments of the office of
captaincy down to the close of the reign of Henry vn.,5 when
the captain's distinctive fee of £12. 13s. 4d. per annum was
merged in the increased fee of the constable.6

At Conway there were several minor town garrisons at
different periods during the years 1401-4, under the dual
captaincy of Hugh Morton and Reginald Bayldon. Two men-
at-arms and twenty-four bowmen under their control, defended
the town at divers intervals during this period.7 A small
town garrison was apparently kept there to the end of the reign
of Henry iv.8 John Norres, captain of the town in 1419, had
one man-at-arms and nine bowmen at his command.9 The
office of captain was subsequently attached to the constableship,
but during the years 21-33 Henry vi., eight bowmen were
specially appointed to guard the town of Conway.10 This
number was increased to twelve during the critical years of
Edward iv.'s early rule in North Wales.11 The town garrison of
a subsequent date is no longer distinguishable from that of the
castle. Richard Pole was the last officer who received separate
fees in virtue of his position as constable of the castle and
captain of the town.12 Edward Salysbury, his successor, took a
combined fee of £50 in respect of both offices.13

On the 16th of July 1439, we find one Thomas Norreys

1 Min. Ace. 1216-7, 1217-1-2. 2 Ib., 1217/3.

3 Ib., 1217/4-6. * Ib., 1217/7.

6 William Stanley was the last to receive the fees of constable

and of captain at Carnarvon, as also at Beaumaris (ib., Henry vn.,
No. 1594).

6 Ib., No. 1595. 7 Ref. 4 on preceding page.

8 Min. Ace. 1216/1-2. 9 Ib., 1216-3.

10 Ib., 1216/7-8, 1217/1-2. " Ref. 3 above.

12 Min. Ace., Henry vn., Nos. 1597-8. 13 16., No. 1599.

116 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

appointed captain of the town of Beaumaris with a small group
of five soldiers under him called c warnesters.' This is the
earliest known reference to the office of captain at Beaumaris.1
Distinct town garrisons of twenty-four and twelve appear
during the eventful years 5-8 Edward TV. under the supervision
of the constable, who acted as captain.2 William Stanley received
the separate fees pertaining to the respective offices of constable
and captain,3 but again his immediate successor, Richard Crofte,
appointed in 1505, takes a round fee in respect of both.4 It is
fairly certain that distinct town garrisons, as opposed to those
of the castles in Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris, disappeared
with the reign of Edward iv.

(c) Porters of the Castle and Town Gates. — There were porters
in all the castellated boroughs of North Wales.5 However,
only in the more purely English towns of Carnarvon, Conway,
and Beaumaris did the janitorship acquire any prominence as
a distinct and lasting office. Porters of the castle appear
sometimes to be distinct from those of the town, but the
Janitorship evidently included the custody of the town
gates. The person holding this office was often " indiscrim-
inately described as porter of the castle and keeper of the
town gates.

The office of janitor of the town of Carnarvon may be traced
with some degree of continuity from the time of Edward n.6
That of Conway goes back to the date of the appointment by
the Black Prince of John Clerk of Tuttebury as porter of the
castle of Conway.7 The first notice of a janitor at Beaumaris
belongs to the reign of Henry VI., though the office may have
existed long before.8

At Carnarvon during the reigns of Richard n.9 and Henry iv.10
five ' warnesters ' or ' keepers ' guarded the town gates.
During the same time Henry Fleming 9 and John Hulle 10 suc-
cessively appear as porters of the castle. Five ' warnesters of
the King ' appear again in the reign of Henry vi. ( 1436-55), n
but no porters of the castle are mentioned. Under Edward iv.
and subsequent sovereigns, the office of Janitor was held by one

i Min. Ace. 1216/7-8. 2 Ib., 1217/4-6.

3 Ib., Henry vn., No. 1594. * Ib., 1595.

6 Welsh RoU, 13 Edward I., m. 3. 6 Rec. of Cam., p. 202.

7 Min. Ace. 1214/5.

8 Col. Pat. Rolls, 1377-81, p. 457. Cf. Min. Ace. 1215/8.

» Ib., 1214/5, 1216/10. lo Ib., 1216/1. ll Ib., 1216/4-7, 1217/1-2.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 117

person only at an annual stipend of £6. Is. Sd.1 The gates of
Conway were guarded by four royal * warnesters ' in 1435, and
a like number continued in office to the close of the reign.2
There was only one janitor during the Tudor period,3 and, as at
Carnarvon, the office continued down to the Stuart days.4

One keeper kept the three gates of Beaumaris towards the
close of the fifteenth century, and received a stipend of two pence
per gate each day.5 No janitor appears during the Tudor period,3
though Rowland Bulkeley, the constable (17-24 Henry vn.),
is allowed four pence per day in respect of his fee.6

(d) Royal Watchmen (vigilatores) . — Watchmen appear com-
monly among the ordinary members of the early garrisons.
The constable of Beaumaris had to provide a watchman at his
own expense. The vigilatores or royal sentinels described here,
may be regarded as extraordinary watchmen, and are only
met with in the case of Carnarvon for short intervals during the
reigns of Richard n., Henry iv., Henry vi., and Edward iv.

North Wales during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
was pre-eminently the land of prophecy and rumour. The safe-
guarding of Carnarvon — the central intelligence department
whence news of any untoward events was generally promulgated
— was a matter of prime importance. This alone explains the
appearance of special sentinels on the town walls.

One Richard Ince spent about six hundred nights on the
walls of Carnarvon during the years 7-12 Richard n. owing to
the rumours of a Scottish invasion.7 The tower which he
occupied was for a long time after called Ince's tower.8 Towards
the close of the same reign, when Glyndwr's great revolt was
gradually brewing, one Roger Sparrowe was deputed to carry on
special night watches on the town walls. A literal version of the
Latin of the original document expresses the object thus :
' For the safe custody of the town, and the assurance of greater
security to the burgesses inhabiting it, owing to the sinister
movements of the King's adversaries.' 9 The number of sentinels
was increased to three when the revolt was in progress.10 Two
watchmen, named Robert Dovere and Robert Bowman, kept

1 Min. Ace. 1217/4-6. 2 Ref. 1 1 on preceding page.

3 Min. Ace., Henry vn., vm. passim. 4 Ib. (James i.).

6 Ib., 1153-6. 6 Ib., Henry vn., 1598-1601.

7 Ib., 1214/10-12, 1215/1.

8 E.g. Exchqr. Miscellanea 7/11. Ince died 19 Richard n. (Min. Ace.
1174/5). • Min. Ace. 1215/8, 10. 10 Ib., 1216/1.

118 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

careful watch on the town walls from Easter, 37 Henry vi.,
to the Easter next following,1 and whilst the Welsh were investing
Harlech (5-8 Edward iv.), Carnarvon was incessantly watched
by one Gilbert Wode and two comrades, whose names are given.2
This is the last we hear of the royal sentinels. Their normal
stipend was two pence for watch by day and four pence for
watch by night.

This concludes our survey of the royal agents of defence.
It has incidentally thrown some light on the comparative
importance of the respective boroughs in the English policy of
defence during the period of settlement. The brunt of the
defence, as we have seen, fell upon the castellated boroughs
of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris. Of these Carnarvon,
the chief administrative centre, was almost always on the qui
vive as to Welsh movements in the surrounding districts. The
castle of Harlech was the sole bulwark of royal defence in
Merionethshire. Criccieth, its nearest ally in the adjoining
county of Carnarvon, decayed with the revolt of Glyndwr.
The part played by the manorial boroughs, as also by the
castellated boroughs qua boroughs, is treated below in a con-
sideration of the civic means of defence.

It is interesting to find that a ' garrison place ' consisting of
six houses was established at Bala during the insurrection of
Glyndwr, built and maintained at the royal expense. The six
houses described as being placed in the garnestura of Bala,
were farmed by Walter Elesmere in the first year of Henry v.
for a term of six years at an annual rent of 6s. 8d. Walter had
to repair the houses at his own cost, being bounden to return
the same on the expiration of his lease in good and sound con-
dition, unless in the meantime some soldiers of the King were not
ordered there.3 The houses were apparently built of timber.
In 1427 they are said to have been ' long since burnt.' 4 Nothing
further is known of them.

We now proceed briefly to deal with the question of burghal
defence in its relation to the civic organisation of the mediaeval
borough.

2. The Civic Agents of Defence. — There is but very scant
evidence to illustrate the methods adopted by the community
of burgesses for the purpose of defence, as distinguished from the

1 Min. Ace. 1217/3. 2 /&., 1217/4-6.

3 /&., 1203/10. 4 Ib., 1204/1.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 119

precautions taken by the Crown. The attention of the latter was
directed especially to the castellated boroughs. In respect of
the means of civic defence, the North Welsh boroughs present
no striking departure from what was the usual rule in the
generality of boroughs at that time. There was the customary
view of arms, the typical organisation of the Town Leet, and the
same careful observance of the common duty of watch and ward.

There is perhaps one feature in connection with the defence
of the North Welsh boroughs, which is peculiar to them as com-
pared with contemporary boroughs in England. For instance,
it was ordained that no Welshman should bear arms either of
defence or offence in the English boroughs of North Wales.1
This, no doubt, served to minimise ' the danger from the Welsh
around,' so terrible a reality to the inhabitants of the English
boroughs of Mediaeval Wales. The dread was particularly felt
in the Marcher boroughs, as also in all English boroughs of the
Principality where a Welsh element formed part of the borough
populace. The secret alliances of kindred Welsh in town and
country often spelt dire ruin to the municipality.2 In North
Wales an early ordinance nominally forbade to Welshmen the
privilege of residence in English boroughs. It was revived in
the penal statutes of Henry iv. Again, the danger of concerted
action on the part of the rural Welsh, was to some extent obviated
by the Conqueror's order against Welsh congregations in
North Wales for the purpose of common council and drafting
of propositions. Such meetings were to be suffered by royal
licence only.3 Other contemporary injunctions guarded the
burgesses against the disturbing influences of the local bard and
ballad singer.4 The glowing prospects of the British race as
foretold in prophecy, were as inspiring a theme to the mediaeval
Welsh as are the national anthems to peoples of our own time.
The North Welsh boroughs were legally protected against the
many-sided dangers of their political environment ; in this
respect they differed from English boroughs situated in districts
where the factor of race was not considered.

All boroughs, without exception, were alive to the question
of defence. The presence of enemies at home and abroad made
preparation for the emergency of war a matter of moment.

1 Bee. of Cam., pp. 131-2.

2 E.H.S. Trans. (New Series), xvii. p. 171, 11. 2.

3 Rec. of Cam., p. 132. 4 Ib., p. 132.

120 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The well-being of the community also depended to a large extent
upon the efficiency of the local system for the strict detection
and safe capture of robbers and other evil-doers. There was,
too, the additional onus of bearing their share as units in the
organised system of national defence.

To ensure this, a strict view of arms took place twice a year
according to the rule laid down by the Statute of Winchester.
In this way the North Welsh burgesses clearly showed that
their claim to be the guardians of the peace in North Wales
during the King's sojourn abroad was no vain boast.1 The
presentment of arms every six months kept the town authorities
well informed as to the condition of the military posse of their
borough. The question of defence was, in fact, a regular item in
the routine business of the Town Leet.

Every burgess of the mediaeval borough was armed. He was
in duty bound to hold his burgage in a defensible position.
Some inquest returns, detailing the goods and chattels of deceased
burgesses, throw incidental light on the weapons employed.
They include swords, knives, armlets, doublets, spurs, and sopce
(apparently a knotted stick used for military purposes).2 A
defensible burgage was not complete without its quota of victuals.

A presentment preserved in an early court roll of the town
of Carnarvon makes this quite clear. The jurors in the Summer
Leet of 1321, after presenting that all burgesses put in their
appearance at the Leet, add that four and a half burgages of one
Thomas de Esthalle were empty of men and victuals, and that
they contained nothing for the defence of the town if it were
necessary.3 Evidently the burgesses carefully estimated their
prospects of defence in the event of a siege of their borough.
The poor of the town of Carnarvon suffered severely during
the temporary blockade of the town by the forces of Owen
Glyndwr. They were, however, somewhat relieved by drawing
from the castle stores.

The necessity of appearing at the Court Leet, and of keeping
the burgage in a ' defensible ' position, represented the main
feature of the civic means of burghal defence, which one author
has described as a system of universal conscription. Every
burgess was subjected to a rigorous military discipline.4 The
terrors of war were thus removed.

1 See above, p. 72. » Min. Ace. 1170/19.

3 Court Rolls (P.R.O.), 215/46. * Green, Town Life, etc., i. p. 127.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 121

Moreover, there were the perils of peace to be overcome.
The precautions taken to meet the contingency of war frequently
proved detrimental to the ordinary peace of the borough.
Assaults, battery, and other acts of violence were often committed
through a misuse of the arms of defence. The borough courts,
of course, remedied most of these defects. For the apprehending
of thieves, rogues, and other evil-doers from without as well as
within the borough, the universal system of watch and ward
was enforced by the Statute of Winchester in 1285.1 One of
the oaths taken by the North Welsh burgess on his admission to
the privileges of a borough, was that of scot and lot with his
fellow-burgesses,2 by which he signified his willingness to bear
his share in the personal as well as in the fiscal responsibilities
of the community.3 The commonest of the personal duties was
that of watch and ward, each burgess being bound to take
his turn in keeping nightly watch and ward in the streets. The
court rolls of contemporary English boroughs in England
show frequent defaulters in respect of its performance. The
records of the North Welsh boroughs tell us little or nothing of
watch and ward. There is nothing to show that its normal
exercise was in any way modified by the exceptional circum-
stances of the castellated boroughs, though it is quite feasible that
some temporary disarrangement was caused when the boroughs
were almost entirely in the hands of the military. In any case
it was watch and ward in a royal rather than a private sense ;
the town gates and town walls, and even the town streets,
belonged to the Crown rather than to the borough community.
We may add that the statutory ' watch and ward ' could not be
literally carried out in such of the boroughs of North Wales as
were unenclosed.

So much for the defence of the North Welsh boroughs during
the period of settlement. Throughout there was no apparent
conflict between the royal and civic agents of defence. The
fact that the castellated boroughs by virtue of their political
importance were inseparably connected with the castle, gives
an extra-municipal character to the whole question of their
defence. The apparatus as well as the agents were pre-eminently
royal. One significant feature is the almost entire disappearance

1 Stat. of Realm (Rec. Com.), i p. 97. * Rec. of Cam., p. 187.

8 Merewether and Stephens, Hiet. of Boroughs, etc., p. 67.

122 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

of the royal agents of defence towards and during the early
Tudor period, a circumstance concomitant with the decay
of the castles and their garrisons. This tendency emphasises
the change that was taking place in the environment of the
North Welsh boroughs towards the close of the period of settle-
ment. It coincides with the decline of the period of racial
politics in Wales, and shows how, politically, Wales was preparing
for the Act of Union. From the data we have of the means of
burghal defence, it appears that the reign of Henry vn. forms
an important period of transition. During, and after his time,
the castle lost its military importance, and the town defence is
thrown more and more upon civic resources ; the townsmen
were able to sustain the liability through being partakers in the
general commercial prosperity to which Henry's rule gave rise.

II. THE PEACE OF THE BOROUGH

The distinctive feature of the medieval borough was its
independent Judiciary. This, in fact, was the essential feature
of the liber burgus.1 And this continued to be the prevailing
trait of burgess-ship during the late sixteenth and the following
centuries, when the methods of land tenure had long since
lost their old significance. The jurisdictional immunities of
the free borough marked it off as a separate hundred of the
county. The burgesses were again, legally speaking, further
removed from the common or rural folk of the county by the
acquisition of other additional privileges. The borough was a
hundred or commote in itself,2 and its inhabitants were hundred
or borough men. Asked as to the proof of their burgess-ship
in 1590, the burgesses of Pwllheli affirmed that they were sworn
before their bailiffs in their own Court Leet, and that they were
admitted as burgesses before the Justice of Assize.3 The problems
of jurisdiction and government were closely related during the
Middle Ages. The general administration of the borough was
for the most part carried on at the instance of the borough court.
The deliberative organ of burghal government was the court,
not the town council. It remains to be seen what jurisdictional
privileges the borough enjoyed, and in what way they were
exercised.

1 Of. Merewether and Stephens, Hist, of Boroughs, etc., p. xii.
* The borough of Criccieth is termed a * commote ' in the accounts
temp. Henry iv. 8 Exchqr. Spec. Comm., No. 3381.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 123

(a) Jurisdictional Privileges of the Borough. — The more
important of these privileges are included in the clauses of the
original charters. The non-intromittat clause was doubtless the
most prized, because it forbade the intermeddling of the sheriff.
The burgesses were no longer amenable to the sheriff's tourn.
They held their own leets, and had the return of all writs, pre-
cepts, and other processes issued by their bailiffs touching
matters arising within their franchise. They also had the
cognisance of all pleas of debts, covenants, trespasses, com-
mitted or contracted within the liberty of the borough. The
sheriff's jurisdiction was thus limited to the case of Crown pleas.1

The borough courts exercised a minor criminal jurisdiction by
virtue of the privileges of sok and sak, toll and team, and
infangenethef, which were granted to all the North Welsh
boroughs. The burgesses have themselves defined the signifi-
cance of these terms in their respective replies to a writ of quo
warranto of the fourteenth century.2 Sole implied the right of
appearance at the borough courts of all the borough residents
when impleaded or whenever their presence was necessary.
Sak co-instituted the right to take the cognisance of such pleas.
Toll empowered the burgesses to receive tolls of all goods bought
and sold within the boundaries of their local mart. Team,
which carried with it the right of holding town courts in which
outsiders or non-borough men could be vouched as warrantors,3
the North Welsh burgesses left unexplained.

The independent Judiciary of the borough thus extended to
all matters excepting those of life and limb, and other capital
offences of the Crown. In the case of Crown pleas, the burgesses
were answerable to the royal courts periodically held by the
local Justiciar and other subordinate officers of the North Welsh
Principality. In these courts, however, they enjoyed the right
of trial by juries drawn from their own members. In this way
the Englishery of the borough were protected in their judicial
trials against the Welshery of the county. A law-suit often
assumed racial proportions, but even after the disappearance
of racial politics as such, the borough men continued to enjoy
their distinctive privilege to a comparatively modern date.

1 See below, p. 136.

2 Rec. of Cam., pp. 160, 164, 176, 180, 194, 197. See Hist, of English
Law (Pollock and Maitland), i. p. 564.

3 Ib. (Pollock and Maitland), i. p. 504.

124 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The burgesses were also privileged by their foundation
charters with the liberty of a free prison. This was for the
safe custody of all prisoners that came within the purview of
their jurisdiction. Upon the release of every prisoner so taken,
the town bailiffs took a fee of four pence for the common weal
of the borough.1 In the case of Crown pleas the burgesses, as
others, were liable to imprisonment in the adjoining or nearest
castle. The burgesses, however, had the express option of
good and sufficient bail.

The original charters contained other Jurisdictional privileges
which were incident to the person of the burgess rather than to
the institution of the borough, and extended in their purport
to districts beyond the borough franchise. They were four in
number, and dealt mostly with matters of commerce.

The first provided against the arresting of the goods and
chattels of burgesses wheresoever in the King's lands and
dominions, for any debt of which they were not the sureties or
principal debtors, excepting cases where they (1) were debtors
in common, or (2) had the power to pay their debts in whole or
in part, or (3) hi the case of default of Justice to the creditors
of the same debt. The second privilege guarded the burgesses
against the confiscation of their goods (upon showing sufficient
proof of ownership) in the event of any acts of forfeiture by
their servants. The third enabled the heirs of burgesses to
succeed freely to their goods and chattels in case they died
intestate. By the fourth and last privilege, which was the
cause of no little trouble and commotion in Wales throughout
the later Middle Ages, the burgesses were entitled to self-trial
within certain limited districts ; they were to be convicted only
at the finding of their own co-burgesses, and that in all cases
excepting matters touching the commonalty of the borough,
in which event they nominally resorted to the privileges of
Hereford.2

The district within which the burgesses of Carnarvon were
allowed the enjoyment of this privilege, comprised the country
to the west of the rivers Conway and Dovey, corresponding
roughly to the modern counties of Carnarvon and Merioneth.
The privileged district of the Conway burgesses extended from
Carnarvon to the river Clwyd. Between the banks of the

1 Rec. of Cam. (as on preceding page) ; Col. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, p. 525.

2 Rec. of Cam. (as on preceding page).

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 125

Seiont in Carnarvon and the banks of the Dovey in Merioneth,
lay the common privileged territory of both Harlech and
Criccieth. The burgesses of Beaumaris enjoyed the right of
trial by their own co-burgesses throughout the length and
breadth of the isle of Anglesea, as did the men of Bala in the
county of Merioneth. The burgesses of Newborough were
similarly enfranchised in the county of Anglesea. and also in
the district between the Conway and the Dee. Why New-
borough should be so privileged between the Conway and the
Dee is not clear. There is nothing to show that members of
an affiliated borough were entitled to exercise this privilege
in the district of their mother-town. The Jurisdictional
privileges of Rhuddlan, the mother-town of Newborough, in
this respect, extended to the county of Flint and the lands
between the Conway and the Dee.1

No districts were specified in the cases of Nevin and Pwllheli,
but from analogy with the parallel manorial boroughs of Bala
and Newborough, such districts would extend in each case to
the county of Carnarvon. The privilege was doubtless less
prized in the smaller and purely Welsh boroughs. It was
apparently exercised only by the inhabitants of the typical
English boroughs. It was their common boast that the
Conqueror had ordained that they should not be convicted by
any ' foreign ' men upon any appeals within certain bounds.2
Moreover, they sometimes abused the privilege. The burgesses
of Conway were once severely admonished for unjust exercise
of their Jurisdictional privileges,3 and stirring law-suits were
carried on by the foreign men of the upper cantreds against the
English burgesses of the parallel boroughs at Flint and
Rhuddlan.4 It would be interesting to know the date at which
these nominal borough districts ceased to have any legal
significance.5

(b) The Borough Courts. — Having treated of the Jurisdictional
privileges enjoyed by each borough, we may proceed to the
consideration of their practice. The exclusion of the county
sheriffs, and the narrowing of the old commote jurisdiction, left
the holding of the new Courts Baron and Leet in the hands of
the town community. Besides these, there were the Courts of

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 175. 2 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,029.

8 Add. MS. Ch. (Brit. Mus.), 333,372, f. 56.

* Chancery Files (P.R.O.), New Series, No. 205. 6 See below, p. 142.

126 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Piepowder, or the courts incident to the local market and fair.
The extant records of the actual proceedings of the North Welsh
borough courts between 1284 and 1536 are not many. These
few, however, in the absence of other sources, throw some light
on the character of the courts and their function in maintaining
the peace and good government of the borough.

All told, the extant court rolls chronicle the business of less
than two hundred courts, and are distributed among the four
boroughs of Carnarvon, Conway, Criccieth, and Bala,1 between
the years 1301 and 1332 thus :—

Name of
Borough.

DESCRIPTION OF COURT.

Piepowder.

Assize of
Bread.

Three Weeks' Court.
No.

Lect.

Fair Courts

Carnarvon, .

Conway, . .
Criccieth,

39
70

Not speci-
fied
1

...

Bala, . . .

...

The court rolls were important factors in the administrative
machinery of the mediaeval borough. In one court we find the
bailiffs amerced for appearing without the rolls of the previous
court.2 The courts, of course, had a money value. The rotuli
placitorum kept an authentic record of the names of the suitors,
with the causes and amounts of their fines and amercements.3
Some of the above rolls appear in an account form, merely giving
the headings of the amercements. Others have a more extended
form, and are consequently of greater value as historical sources.4
In fifty-five of the courts reported in the above rolls, there were
no cases for trial ; beyond reflecting on the pacific state of the
boroughs, their historic value is confined to the bald enumera-
tion of the dates at which the courts were held. We may
consider each of the borough courts separately.

1. The Court Leet and the View of Frank-pledge. — Sometimes
called the great tourn as compared with the sheriff's tourn of

1 See chronological list of court rolls in the Appendix.

1 Court Rolls, portf. 215/47. 8 E.g. Min. Ace. 1170/3.

« E.g. Court Rotts, portf. 215/46.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 127

the county, and sometimes great or large court as opposed to
the small or little courts of the borough.1 It constituted the
central feature of burghal life during the Middle Ages. It
endowed the municipality with the character of an independent
hundred (or commote), with its judicial and police functions.
It was the most active organ of the borough executive, and was,
in short, the chief governing body.

The Leet, as in the hundred,2 was generally held twice a
year, at Easter and Michaelmas. But the few early records of
the North Welsh borough leets show some variations : the
Michaelmas tourn falling generally in one or other of the
months of September, October, and November, and the
Easter tourn ranging in point of time from March to July.
The proceedings of some twenty leets have survived, of which
Bala claims three, Conway four, Carnarvon six, and Criccieth
seven.

There is nothing in the rolls that indicates the place where
the leets were held. Two centuries later they were certainly
held in the town and gild halls, where such buildings existed.3
We find a ' common house ' at Conway in the reign of Henry vm.4
A general assembly of the burgesses of Nevin, late in the
sixteenth century, took place in the open air in the churchyard
of the town. The Court Leet was usually presided over by the
mayor and bailiffs. The common jury generally consisted of
twelve sworn burgesses,5 though at Criccieth we only find eight
on three occasions.6

The method of choosing the Leet jury is somewhat obscure.
A late survival of the old mediaeval custom, however, appeared
in Flint at the time of the Municipal Reform Commission.
The evidence taken at this time explains the process of the
election of the jury in the castellated borough there, which,
with possible reservations, we may take to have been the case in
the parallel boroughs of North Wales. The bailiffs apparently
drew up a list of names of the burgesses lawful and fit to serve as
jurors. About a week previous to the holding of the Leet, a
precept was sent from the constable of the castle to the sergeants-
at-mace, commanding them to summon the jury for the particular

See Min. Ace. 1170/5, 13; 1171/3-7; 1180/1.

Hist, of English Law (Pollock and Maitland), vol. i. p. 556.

See Parl. Papers, 1835 (xxvi.), 1838 (xxv.).

Hist, of Aberconway (R. Williams), p. 196.

Min. Ace. 1170/16. « Court Rolls, 215/53.

128 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

court.1 The Jury sworn at the Michaelmas Leet served through-
out the year.

The function of the Leet was of a comprehensive character,
and included almost everything pertaining to the good govern-
ment of the borough. We may look upon it as (1) an organ
of executive and legislative government, and (2) as a court
of Justice.

Before proceeding with the judicial business of the court,
matters dealing with the general administration of the borough
were taken. The primary duty of the jurors was to find that
all burgesses put in their appearance or made sufficient essoin,
and to present defaulters for amercement. In this way the Leet,
in conjunction with the system of frank-pledge, by which each
burgess of a tithing became pledge for the actions of the other
nine, performed the functions of the modern police. The sys-
tem was supplemented by the popular clamour of hue and cry.
Wrongful or false raising of the hue and cry was a matter of
common presentment by the Jury. It has been suggested that
the Jurors presented all raisings of the cry irrespective of their
legality,2 but the scanty evidence of the North Welsh borough
leets does not support the view. The system of frank-pledge
survived to a comparatively late date, though it became more
and more nominal in character in proportion to the develop-
ment of other Judicial institutions. Concurrent with their pre-
sentment of the appearance or non-appearance of the burgesses,
the jury made their declaration on the defensive posse of the
borough.3 Among other executive functions the Leet dealt
with the routine business of the borough. New burgesses were
sworn and enrolled, and henceforth took an active interest in
the government of the borough.4 Orders were also given to
perambulate the borough boundaries, encroachments of all
kinds presented, and any necessary repairs or other matters
of communal interest reported upon.5

The legislative side of the Leet was apparently little developed
in the North Welsh boroughs during the period of settlement.
Legislative activity was to some extent forestalled by the
general ordinances drawn up by the Conqueror for the govern-

Parl. Papers, 1835, vol. xxvi., s.v. Flint.

Leet Jurisdiction of Norwich (W. Hudson), p. xxxv.

See above, pp. 119-20.

Cf. Merewether and Stephens, Hist, of Boroughs, etc., p. xxi.

Court Rolls. See above, P. B. Williams, Hist, of Carnarvon, p. 78.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 129

ment of North Wales.1 The common law system of municipal
government is predominant, as was perhaps always the case in
garrison boroughs, where the royal edict so often expressed
the municipal will. We cannot point to any distinctive by-laws
enacted by the North Welsh municipalities of an earlier date
than the post-Union period. Yet what are we to make of pre-
sentments in the early court rolls, of offences ' against the
ordinance of the King or Prince,' and * against the ordinance of
the town (villce) ' ? 2 Is it a mere question of phraseology, or
something more? Is the ordinance of the King or Prince one
thing, the ordinance of the town another ? In the one instance
we could test, we found the ordinance of the town to be equiva-
lent to the ordinance of the King.3 Each borough apparently
regarded the common ordinances of the Crown as being in some
sense their own. But whether the North Welsh boroughs had
any laws of their own creation, which they could specifically
call their own before the late Tudor period, admits of little
proof the one way or the other. The probability is decidedly
a negative one.

The purely judicial side of the court was concerned with the
presentment and punishment of offences committed within the
borough. It embraced a wide area of criminal and correctional
jurisdiction, including matters of personal, commercial, and
communal import. Cases of theft, common assault, especially
' blood-drawing,' were frequently presented, and all common
nuisances were brought up for remedy. The jury also exposed
the sellers of unwholesome foods, and the users of false weights.
They also enjoined the strict observance of the fixed ordinances
of the assizes of bread and beer. Old offenders against these
rules were subjected to the ordeals of the pillory and the
tumbrel.4

The jurisdictional privileges accorded to the boroughs implied
the privilege of gallows,5 or the right to hang thieves taken
within their liberties. That they exercised this in virtue of
their privilege of inf angenethef , is to some extent apparent from
the topographical evidence of the mounds bordering some of

1 Rec. of Cam. pp. 131-2. 2 Min. Ace. 1170/3.

3 Court Rolls, 215/54. David ap Ralph in mercy three pence because he
housed (hospitavit) Dothegu, the daughter of leuan, contra ordinacionem
villae inde factam. Edward i. included an ordinance to this effect amongst
the general ordinances issued at the time of the conquest (Rec. of Cam.,
p. 132). 4 Rec. of Cam.., pp. 243-4.

5 Ib. (quo warranto proceedings. See p. 123 above, n. 2).

130 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the North Welsh boroughs. There were gallow-hills at Conway
and Beaumaris.1

(ii) The Small or Civil Court of the Borough. — This court was
held every three weeks (de tribus septimanis ad ires septimanas).
Normally there would be seventeen such courts held yearly in
each borough, but we sometimes find sixteen, fifteen, fourteen,
thirteen, and sometimes none at all. The court differed from
the Leet in that it had nothing to do with the government of the
borough as such. Its jurisdiction was for the most part confined
to civil suits ; it did not extend, as in the case of the Leet, to
minor criminalities and matters of police. The summary matters
dealt with were those of trespass, common battery, wrongful
levying of the hue and cry, and local slander.2

The Three Weeks' Court was presided over by the mayor and
bailiffs. There was apparently no Jury as in the Leet, though
we have occasional entries in the proceedings of the Court Baron
referring to convictions by ' adjudgment of the court.' 3 Is it
the adjudgment of the mayor and bailiffs, or of a Jury of bur-
gesses ? In a parallel account we find a burgess amerced six
pence because he contradicted the finding of the Jury.4 On a
court roll,5 detailing the business of a civil court at Carnarvon
19th February 1321, it is said that one Thomas Baker was
attached before the mayor and bailiffs for forestalling. Thomas
acknowledged this, and put himself at the mercy 6 and grace of
the mayor and bailiffs, who at the instance of two influential
burgesses 7 pardoned him. This entry makes it fairly clear that
the mayor and bailiffs constituted the magistracy in the civil
court. The p* jur* in the record of the civil court above may
possibly refer to a previous finding of the Leet jury.

(iii) The Piepowder Court. — This court was incident to the
privilege of holding local markets and fairs. The grant of a
local market and fair almost always implied the right of holding
piepowder courts 8 ; it is not often that we find the right
expressly mentioned in the grant.9 The courts were tenable

1 Min. Ace. 1154/5 (Beaumaris), and Rentals and Surveys (Conway),
17/88.

Court Rolls, as in notes 3 and 5 below. 3 /&., 215/53, 54.

Min. Ace. 1170/3. 6 Court Rolls, 215/46.

Cf . Peter's Launceston, p. 46.

Cf. Hudson's Norwich Leet and Jurisdiction, Introduction, p. Iii.

Cf. Phillips' Hist, of CUgerran, p. 48, and Williams' Denbigh, p. 1-24.

For a Welsh instance see Archaeologia, vol. xlviii. p. 439 (a charter to
Newport, Mon., temp. Richard n.).

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 131

on any market day l during the year. When held on the
specific market and fair days they were termed the market and
fair courts.

Such courts, as we know, treated urgent matters in dispute
between buyers and sellers at the local mart. It was from this
temporary and casual character of its jurisdiction that the court
received its name. It was best symbolised by the dusty feet
(Curia de pede pulverizato) of its suitors. Pleas of trespass,
debt, and of broken covenants are amongst the commonest
suit. We also find several North Welshmen amerced for the
non-observance of the general ordinances that regulated the
commercial activity of the Principality at this time, such as the
carrying of arms to market, and the too premature transaction
of business before the fair was openly proclaimed. Disobedience
to the injunctions of the local bailiffs, and other matters to the
contempt of our lord the King, made cause for additional
amercements in the Court of Piepowder.2

The proceedings were probably taken in the local toll booth,3
where the other issues of the market and fair were collected.4
The bailiffs (and perhaps the mayor as in the other courts)
formed the magistracy.5

(iv) Ponderacio Panis. — Two courts under this appellation
were held at Carnarvon in the eighteenth year of Edward n.,
one 15th October 1324, and one 29th June 1325.6 At these
courts only breakers of the assize of bread were presented and
amerced. This function was, of course, covered by the ordinary
Court Leet. As far as can be seen, it was not usual to hold
special courts for this purpose in the North Welsh boroughs.

The Court Leet, the Three Weeks' Court, and the Court of
Piepowder were the three typical courts of the North Welsh

1 The bailiffs of Conway, 1304-5, account for the pleas and perquisites
of the Court of Piepowder for every day of the year (Min. Ace. 1170/3).

2 Court Rolls (fair and piepowder proceedings, p. 126 above).

3 Min. Ace. 1211/3 (temp. 4 Edward n.). Paid for the hire of a house
outside the wall of the town of Carnarvon for collecting the lord Prince's
toll and the pleas of the fair courts, 2s ; also for the building of a Tolbothe
outside the gate of the same town, 58s. 8d.

4 The amount of the fair tolls are enumerated on some of the early
Court Rolls (e.g. portf. 215/46, 53), and Min. Ace. 1154/4. Like the issues
of the courts, they were evidently regarded as the profits of the legal fair.

5 The bailiffs performed the duties of the clerk of the market. The right
of holding piepowder courts was wrongly interpreted later to have been the
magisterial right of the constable of the castle, by virtue of his ex-officio
office of mayor of the borough (Bye Gones, 1880, p. 28).

9 Min. Ace. 1170/16.

132 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

boroughs. The internal working of each is indifferently revealed
by the scanty evidence of their proceedings. Beyond demon-
strating the prevalence of the old system of pledging, and the
system of compurgation by the aid of the oath-helpers, little
insight is afforded into their legal economy. Who comprised
the chief magistracy is fairly clear, as is the time at which the
respective courts were held. Where the early courts were held,
we have only surmised with the aid of later evidence.

On the question of court amercements the evidence is some-
what more instructive. They were assessed (as were the damages
in cases of slander, etc.) by two officers called affeerers —
assessores or taxalores. There is nothing to show how these
were elected, but their services were requisitioned in all the
borough courts. Corresponding officials appear in the county
and hundred courts.1 The amercements seldom exceeded twelve
pence, a feature particularly prominent in boroughs derivable
from the Hereford or Breteuil stock. There was a tendency
to impose heavier amercements on foreign or out-suitors.2
Refractory Welshmen disobeying the town bailiffs at the local
fairs, and serious cases of blood-shedding, were generally amerced
beyond twelve pence. The highest amercement recorded amounts
to half a mark. One Meredith ap Llowarch is so amerced in a
Michaelmas fair court at Carnarvon in 1326, because he carried
arms in the King's fair there, on the feast of St. James, con-
trary to the decree of the local Justiciar.3 There was always an
obvious attempt on the part of the affeerers to fix the amerce-
ment in proportion to the presumed capacity of the offender to
pay. One leuan, the shearman, was put in mercy three pence
because he was a poor man.4 Amercements were occasionally
pardoned on the plea of poverty 4 and for other causes, such as
absence on the King's service.5

The yearly issues of the borough courts varied considerably.
They evidently added little or nothing to the prosperity of
boroughs not held in farm or fee-farm to the burgesses. Up to,
and during the reign of Edward m., the amounts arising from
the pleas and perquisites of the non-fee-farm boroughs are given
in detail on the bailiffs' account. After this date the issues
were generally farmed or leased by the town communities for
a number of years at a fixed yearly rent. The issues or profits

1 Court Rolls, portf. 215/13. * See Arch. Camb., iv. xiii. p. 310.

> Court Rotts, 215/47, m. 2. 4 /&., 215/46. 6 Min. Ace. 1170/16.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 133

of the local markets and fairs were usually coupled with the
court perquisites. A distinct estimate of the jurisdictional, as
indeed of the commercial issues is not possible after this.
In the fee-farm boroughs all particulars of the local revenue
are unknown to us. We have two notable exceptions in the
cases of the much decayed boroughs of Nevin and Pwllheli
during the reigns of Henry vi. and Edward iv.

Taking first the non-fee-farm boroughs. Carnarvon began
to farm the incidental profits arising from both their commercial
and jurisdictional privileges in 1354, and continued to do so to
the end of our period. The amount of the yearly farm was £6
during the years 1354 to 1361. At the latter date the farm was
raised to £6. 13s. 4d., and remained at that figure to the end
of Richard n.'s reign. Early in the reign of Henry iv. the same
profits were arrented at £5, but by the eleventh year the farm
had fallen to 40s. Two years later it rises again to 66s. 8d.
During the reign of Henry v. the farm varies from 77s. to 70s.
The first ten years of the reign of Henry vi. show a slight increase,
the issues amounting to £4. From this point right down to the
close of the reign of Henry vm., £3. Os. 4d. is the normal farm.1

Beaumaris farmed their perquisites and tolls several times
during the reigns of Edward n. and in., and invariably did so
after 33 Edward m. The amount of the farm fluctuated from
a minimum of £5. 13s. IJd. to a maximum of £6. 13s. 4d. in the
time of Edward vi. Under Richard n. the farm was fixed at
100s. No returns are forthcoming for the troublous reign of
Henry iv., but from Henry v.'s day to the seventeenth year of
Henry vi. the amount of the farm is 70s. Thenceforward
the farm remained at the stable sum of 75s.2

The detailed returns of the Newborough courts, excepting
for the years 1304,3 1305,3 1409,4 1460,5 are included in the
general farm of the borough, and during our period the borough
itself was often separated from the general administrative
economy of North Wales. It formed parcel of the dower lands
of the successive English queens.

The borough of Criccieth showed a desire to farm the profits
of its courts and mart early in the reign of Edward n., but
several detailed returns were made for a number of years previous
to 27 Edward in. From this date to the close of the reign they

1 Min. Ace. (s.a.c.). See Appendix below. * Ibid.

3 /&., 1170/3. * /&., 1152/4. 6 /&., 1154/4.

134 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

were farmed at a sum varying from 43s. 4d. to 50s. During the
reign of Richard n., they were sometimes let to the community
and sometimes to individual burgesses at a rent ranging from
100s. to 106s. 8d. Throughout the reign of Henry iv., a reign
so fatal to its castle, Criccieth made no returns. The town
remained in an impoverished condition until the eighth year of
Henry v. Laurence Cok, a speculative burgess of Carnarvon,
farmed the court issues this year for a sum of 40s. In the
twenty-seventh year of Henry vi. the Three Weeks' Court realised
8s. and the Leet 5s. Ten years later what is known as the
stewardship of the town is farmed at 27s. 4d. The accounts
definitely state that there were no courts held during the years
8-13 Edward iv., but in the folio whig year they are valued at
7s. 6d. Throughout the Tudor period the court perquisites,
together with the local tolls, were farmed at 8s. per annum.1

Coming to the fee-farm boroughs, we may say that detailed
returns 2 of the judicial profits at Con way are available for the
eight years previous to the grant of its fee-farm charter. The pie-
powder court was by far the most profitable. In 1305 the profits
were 61s. In the accounts of 3 and 7 Edward n., piepowder and
fair courts at Gannow are accounted for distinct from those of
Conway. The fusion of the old borough of Gannow, founded by
Henry in., into the new borough of Conway was a slow process.

The history of the court perquisites in the borough of Harlech
is lost in its fee-farm of £22. Similar is the case of Bala,
except for the three tourns held there by the sheriff of Merioneth.
For the same reason nothing is known of the courts of Nevin
(except during the years 8, 12, 13, and 14 Edward rv.) 3 and
Pwllheli (except those of 27 Henry vi.).4

In view of the fact that the North Welsh burgesses farmed the
issues of their courts, it is difficult to say with what regularity
the boroughs kept and compiled their court rolls. That court
rolls were compiled is evident from the indirect notices contained
in the accounts and elsewhere.5 As we have seen, there were
some years during which no courts were held at all, and it would
appear that the normal holding of the courts, of which the
profits were inconsiderable, came ultimately to be regarded as
more of a burden than a profit. Why no court rolls should

1 Min. Ace. (a.a.c.). See Appendix below. 2 Ibid.

3 Ib., 1181/1-5. 4 /&., 1179/1. Perquisite. Curiarum=lls. lOd.

6 E.g. ib., 1154/4. Cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1461-7, p. 382.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 135

have survived for a date later than the year 1332 is not clear,
except it be for the fact that the farming of the profits caused
them to be stored away in the perfunctory local archives, and
not in the local exchequer at Carnarvon as heretofore.1 The
surviving court rolls have apparently all come from the Old
Treasury at Carnarvon.

The typical judicial organs of the mediaeval borough — the Three
Weeks' Court, the Court Leet, and the Court of Piepowder —
continued in operation long after the Act of Union. They subse-
quently fell into disuse through (1) irregular holding on the part
of the boroughs, and (2) through the gradual usurpation of
their old functions by the new courts introduced by the Welsh
judicial reforms of Henry vm. The commission of the peace
narrowed the purely judicial work of the old leets, and their
administrative functions came to be performed by the new
quarter sessions. The borough courts of Newborough were
in entire disuse at the time of the Municipal Reform Commission.
The Leet at Criccieth was only held once a year, and then merely
for the purpose of electing officers. Similarly Nevin only held
a Michaelmas Leet, and a civil court once a fortnight. There
were apparently two leets at Pwllheli, but their old jurisdiction
was confined. ' I have heard,' said one of the witnesses in his
evidence before the commissioner, * old people say that it was
said that formerly the Leet tried prisoners for stealing and the
like, just as they do now at the quarter sessions for the county.'
The civil court at Beaumaris had not been held for nearly fifty
years at the time of the commission. At Conway, however,
it was held as usual every three weeks. Only one reference is
made in the reports to the piepowder courts, and that to the
effect that they were no longer practised in Beaumaris.2 There
was no great change in the constitution of the respective courts
during the period intervening between the Act of Union and the
Act for Reforming the Municipal Corporations of England and
Whales. The one new feature is the appearance of borough
recorders, who seem to have crept in during the process of
adjustment required by the declining power of the Leet and the

1 An endorsement on Min. Ace. 1170/3 points to the sending of court
rolls and other accounts to the exchequer of Carnarvon. The history of
their transfer during the last century also shows that the extant rolls were
brought from here. Cf. Arch. Camb., i. iii. p. 54 (no court rolls at Harlech,
1650).

2 Parl. Papers, 1835 (vol. xxvi.) ; 1837 (vol. xxxv.).

136 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

election of borough constables. The stronger boroughs were
able to keep in line with the new and more elaborate system
of the county administration, and succeeded in preserving their
identity. The weaker boroughs, through poverty and indiffer-
ence, willingly allowed themselves to be absorbed by the new
county jurisdictions. The Municipal Reform Act of 1835 gave
a final blow to the distinctive traits of their medievalism. But
not to all in the same degree. Some survived as reformed
corporations with distinctive though limited jurisdictions.
Others assumed the rank of insignificant rural districts with
no borough privileges.

In this connection we have to consider the relation of the
burgesses to the extraordinary courts that were held in their
boroughs during the Middle Ages. These extraordinary courts
may be conveniently classified as follows : —

(1) Courts held by the Justice of North Wales or his deputies.

— Great and Petty Sessions.

(2) Courts held by the Sheriffs. — (a) County court once

monthly, and generally held in the county boroughs —
Beaumaris, Carnarvon, and Harlech. (b) Great Tourn
and View of Frank-pledge, half-yearly, in every
commote or hundred ; in some cases held in the
boroughs.

(3) Courts held by the Hundred or Commote Bailiffs. — The

Court Baron or Civil Court of the Commote, held every
three weeks ; in some cases held in the boroughs.

The burgesses were amenable only to such of the above
courts as were held by the justice of North Wales. They owed
no suit to the ordinary county courts 1 of their respective shires,
and as we have already seen, they possessed tourn and civil
courts of their own. All matters beyond the jurisdiction of
their ordinary courts, pertaining to the King's peace rather
than to the peace of the borough, were brought directly before

1 See above, pp. 122-3. Cf. Stubbs's Conatit. History (Library Edition),
vol. i. pp. 678, 681, as to the fullest county court before the itinerant
justices, when each borough had to be represented by twelve burghers.
The North Welsh boroughs, doubtless, were similarly represented before
the justice of North Wales.

ADMINISTRATION OB GOVERNMENT 137

the justice in his sessions. The North Welsh sheriffs
apparently interfered with the burgesses in their executive
capacity only, and that in so far as concerned the pleas of the
Crown. The non-intromittat clause of their original charters
assured them this privilege.

The following notes, taken from the scattered evidence of the
actual administration of justice in the three shires of North Wales
up to the Act of Union, serve to show the relative importance of
the North Welsh boroughs in the local judicature. Incidental
advantages accrued to several of the boroughs through being
the centre of one or more of the courts that were extraordinary
to their own jurisdiction. The castellated boroughs, with their
strong and commodious buildings, naturally outdistanced the
manorial towns in judicial prestige, and the Statute of Rhuddlan
particularly favoured one of the boroughs in this respect.

The so-called conquest of 1282 did not subject Wales to the
supervision of the Superior Courts of Law at Westminster.
This was the consummation of a much later date. The legal
aphorism has it : ' Breve regis non currit in Walliam.' In
North Wales the current writ was that of the King or Prince
(as the case might be) of the local Principality.

The Statute of Rhuddlan established a separate and inde-
pendent judicature in North Wales. It placed the adminis-
tration of justice in the hands of the justice of Snowdon. The
statute cited his charge to be the custody and government
of the King's peace in Snowdon and the lands of Wales
adjoining, a district incorporating the three newly formed shires
of Anglesea, Carnarvon, and Merioneth.

Royal justice was administered pursuant to original writs
issued under the King's seal (under the Prince's seal when there
was one) of the Principality. This seal was in the custody of
the local chamberlain at Carnarvon. The judicial writs, by
which process to a suit already commenced by the original writ
was executed, were issued under the justice's seal, which he
kept in his own custody.1

The original writs were drawn up and sent out from the local
chancery at Carnarvon. The concise form of many of these,
with their necessary variations, are given in the text of the
Statute of Rhuddlan. The activity of the chancery may be
minutely gauged from the extant records we possess of the
1 Rot. Parl, i. p. 273.

138 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

yearly profits of the royal seal there — the exitus sigilli of the
chamberlain's account. Petty writs were sealed at a fee of
6d. each, letters of protection, commission, and * cokets ' at 2s.,
and grants and confirmations of letters patent at 16s. 8d. each.1
A roll of particulars was kept yearly, and preserved among the
memoranda of the local exchequer.2 The location of the central
offices of the chancery and the exchequer at Carnarvon, and the
consequent residence of the leading officials there, placed the
borough of Carnarvon in the position of administrative and
judicial capital of the Principality of North Wales, if not,
indeed, of Wales, during the Middle Ages.3

The Statute of Rhuddlan throws very little light on the
practical administration of justice. The date, place, and number
of the courts were apparently left to the discretion of the justice.
The statute, however, stipulated that assizes should be held
twice, thrice, or four times a year, and also points to the necessity
of a fifteen days' notice to tenants in pleas of Mori d'ancestor.
It may be inferred from this that the justice held some kind of
sessions, and that he went on a tourn or circuit of assize.4
Supplementary evidence for the pre-Union epoch is decidedly
scanty. We have only four plea rolls,5 some scattered tran-
scripts of odd pleadings,6 and the incidental notices of the local
exchequer accounts.7

It appears from these, that permanent Courts of Law were
established at the chancery and exchequer of Carnarvon, where
matters concerning the prerogative of the Crown and the royal
revenue were despatched. We find in the accounts, issues of
' fines made before the chamberlain at Carnarvon ' and ' fines
made at the exchequer there.'8 These headings seemingly

1 Bee. of Cam., pp. xxii. and 129. Cf. Chamberlain Accts. (North
Wales Series) passim.

2 Carnarvon was proverbial for its lawyers. Cf. Wynne's Hist, of the
Owydir Family, 1878, p. 72.

3 Instances occur of royal orders being sent from London to Carmarthen
via Carnarvon, but not, as far as I know, vice versa, e.g. Min. Ace. 1214/1, 3.

4 Doddridge's Ancient and Modem Estate, etc., p. 35. Cf. Rec. of Cam.,
p. 208.

6 Plea Rolls, Anglesea (No. 1), and Carnarvon (Nos. 1-3).

6 Chiefly in the Record of Carnarvon and a Miscellaneous Bk. (No. 166)
among the Augmentation Office Records. There are also two fragmentary
documents for North Wales among the County Placita (e.g. Nos. 21 and 2 la).

7 Q.R. Accts. 109/2, 109/10, 111/1, 111/24, and the sheriff and chamberlain
accounts. The latter merely give the court headings and the fiscal profits.

8 Chamberlain Accts. of North Wales passim. ' Fines made before the
auditor there ' appears as a separate heading in some of the accounts.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 139

point to the chancery and exchequer sides of the royal courts
held at Carnarvon, in which the chamberlain and justice probably
exercised a concurrent rather than a separate jurisdiction.1 It
was at the chancery court at Carnarvon that the North Welsh
burgesses were ordered to exhibit their charters and make fine
for further confirmations of their liberties,2 and here they pre-
sented their petitions when seeking royal favour and the redress
of certain grievances. The proceedings of the exchequer
side show town bailiffs amerced for irregular presentment of
their accounts at the yearly audit,3 and the farming of the
issues and perquisites of the boroughs to the town communities
and others. In matters of a semi- judicial and administrative
character the chamberlain and justice appear to be closely
associated, but the justice himself held occasional pleas of the
Crown at Carnarvon during the intervals between the customary
sessions and tourns.4

Besides permanent and occasional courts at Carnarvon, the
justice held sessions in each county twice a year. To these
county sessions the borough bailiffs seem to refer in their returns
of the ' fines and amercements ' made before the justice at
Michaelmas and Easter.5 The sessions of Carnarvonshire
were mostly held at Carnarvon, and occasionally at Conway ;
and those of the county of Anglesea in the borough of Beaumaris.
The Merioneth sessions were held at Harlech, but some time
before 18 Henry vin. the sessions for this county were held at
Carnarvon.6 They were not restored to their native county
until the Act 34-5 Henry vin., when they were alternately fixed
at Bala and Harlech.7 The holding of the sessions was calculated

1 See Exchqr. Misc. 7/11 (justice), 8/21 (chamberlain), for suits heard
before them at the Carnarvon exchequer.

2 Rot. ParL, i. p. 373a; Min. Ace. 1170/2; Exchqr. Q.R. Ace. 109/10.

3 Min. Ace. 1170/19; also Exchqr. Q.R. Ace. 109/10.

4 On the plea roll of Carnarvon temp. Richard n. and Henry iv. the
records of pleadings at Carnarvon appear side by side with those of the
tourn and session courts.

6 Min. Ace. (North Welsh towns) up to 16 Edward n. After this date
the bailiffs cease to answer for these issues. They were evidently at this
point included among the sheriff's farm of the respective counties.

6 16., 18-19 Henry vm. (North Wales), No. 139, and Plea Roll
(Carnarvon), No. 2. Cf. stat. 26 Henry vm., c. 6. Late in the reign of
Henry vn. the burgesses of Conway endeavoured to get the sessions of
Carnarvon and Merioneth removed to Conway, the town being ' in decay '
(Williams's Aberconway, pp. 49-50).

7 Plea Roll (Merioneth), No. 1, contains a reference to courts held thus
in 37 Henry vm.

140 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

to add much to the prosperity of the borough in which it was held.1
At a later date Harlech all but sacrificed the privileges of its fee-
farm in order to obtain a monopoly of the great sessions.2

Next to the half-yearly sessions, we have the Justice's Iter
or tourn through the counties.3 He sometimes went once,
at other times twice, in the same year. The Statute of
Rhuddlan had emphasised the importance of holding the assize
twice, thrice, or even four times a year. The courts were held
in the principal towns, mainly, of course, in the boroughs. The
tourn courts or petty sessions of the four commotes of the
castle district of Conway, were held generally at Conway, and
sometimes at Trefriw or Gannow (Deganwy) ; those of Is and
Uwchgwyrvai at Carnarvon ; those of the commote of Eivionydd
at Criccieth ; and those of the district of Lleyn at Nevin and
Pwllheli. The tourn courts at Carnarvon, Criccieth, Nevin, or
Pwllheli were usually held on successive days.4 One ostensible
difference between the justice in sessions and the Justice in
tourn, was that no cases of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery 5
were taken. The tourn court was concerned chiefly with matters
of the assize 6 and various personal pleas.

An early plea roll of the county of Carnarvon details the
actual proceedings of many of these local courts during the
reigns of Richard n. and Henry iv.7 County sessions were held
at Carnarvon by one Henry de Hokes, a deputy justice, during
the Easter and Michaelmas terms of the year 1398. One tourn
was made in the same year by Richard de Pykenvere, another
deputy justice. Pykenvere called at Conway in May, and held
courts at Criccieth, Nevin, and Carnarvon on successive days
in June. The Easter sessions of the previous year were held
at Carnarvon, an August session being held at Conway. One
justice's tourn was made as above. The comparatively later
plea rolls, of a date previous to the Act of Union, only give the
proceedings of the county sessions.8 The tourn is evidently

1 Cf. Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 162, n. 1.

2 Arch. Camb., i. i. pp. 254-9; in. ii. p. 178; Exchqr. Dep., Easter,
20 James i., No. 20.

3 Referred to in the Rec. of Cam., pp. 208-10.

4 Carnarvon Plea Roll, No. 1.

6 Special commissioners were sometimes appointed for this purpose,
e.g. Col. Pat. Rolls, 1377-81, pp. 418, 422, 468.

6 Details are given in the Statute of Rhuddlan.

7 Carnarvon Plea Roll, No. 1.

• E.g. Plea Rolls, Anglesea, No. 1 , and Carnarvon, Nos. 2 and 3.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 141

dispensed with, its business being either performed in a supple-
mentary session,1 or by the new courts introduced by the com-
mission of the peace.

The plea rolls of the pre-Union period contain several
pleadings of burghal interest. We find town bailiffs sued for
arrears of their borough profits, as well as for neglect of duty in
aiding the sheriff to carry out the ends of justice.2 Instances of
the recovery of debts by burgesses from country folk buying
merchandise in the local markets appear frequently,3 as do pleas
on the part of the rural populace for remedy against the tyranny
and deception of the borough officials.4 One interesting case of
a plea of a broken term of apprenticeship appears between
a burgess of Conway and a merchant of Beaumaris.5 In
the quo warranto proceedings before John de Delves temp.
Edward in., it will be seen that in matters touching the com-
monalty the borough was represented by an attorney.6

Acts of conspiracy against the English boroughs on the part
of the surrounding Welsh are sometimes met with. In one
instance we get the details of a pleading moved by an English
burgess against one and twenty Welshmen in a placitum con-
spirationis.7 In these pleas between town and country, between
English burgess and Welsh peasant, the constitution of the
jury counted for much. It was, of course, the one special
privilege of the English that no Welshmen should inquire of a
cause in which they were involved. We have occasional petitions
on behalf of the Welsh in which they begged a compromise.
Such an one is the petition of a Welsh widow of Eivionydd, who,
when summoned by an English burgess of Harlech to answer for
debts incurred by her late husband, begged the Crown that the
jury should be composed half of Englishmen and half of
Welshmen.8 The reply was : ' Let it be according to the custom
of the country,5 which would seem to imply that the jury should
be entirely composed of Englishmen. The North Welsh were
apparently not allowed to adjudge on English causes until

1 In an account of 24 Henry vm. the sheriff accounts for the issues of
two great sessions and one petty session. The latter apparently corre-
sponded to the Tourn courts of the justice (Min. Ace., 23-4 Henry vm.
(North Wales), No. 96).

2 E.g. Plea Roll, Carnarvon, No. 1, m. 25, 25d, 2Qd, 31, 36.

3 Ib., m. 24d.

4 Ib., m. 22. 5 Ib., No. 2.

6 Rec. of Cam., p. 210. 7 Plea Roll, Carnarvon, No. 1, m. 38.

8 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 4439.

142 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the grant of a remarkable charter by Henry vn. in 1507. One
clause in this assured the above privilege to the Welsh, namely,
the right to inquire concerning English persons, as English
persons inquired and caused to be inquired of Welshmen.1
This at once obliterated the significance of the privileged districts
within which the English burgesses were warranted self-trial
by their original charters. The burgesses, particularly those
of the garrison boroughs of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris,
strongly opposed the grant.2 Articles of injunction, nominally
reinstating the burgesses in their old position, were issued by
Henry vm. in 1511 3 ; but the Welshmen or 'foreign men'
of the country practically never ceased to enjoy the privilege
which they obtained in 1507. Several cases of affray, riots,
etc., due to the affinity of the Welsh, are reported by the
burgesses between this and the Act of Union, when racial con-
sideration in matters of justice ceased to appear.4 The old
privileged districts of the mediaeval burgesses would thus seem
to have died a natural death. Just as they owed their origin to
the jurisdictional privileges granted to English burgesses at
the time of the conquest, so they owed their extinction to the
jurisdictional privileges bestowed on the Welsh during the
Tudor period.

In view of the political troubles and the lawless state of
the country during the greater part of the Middle Ages, the
arbitrary holding of courts 5 by the local justice or his deputy,
left much to be desired in the matter of adequate administration
of justice. The removal of the Merioneth sessions to Carnarvon
must point to some make-shift arrangement, and complaints
of excessive fees, with kindred acts of official tyranny, were
common during the early Tudor period.6 The judicial reforms
of Henry vm. put a stop to the most glaring of these abuses.
Legal fees were fixed and made certain, and permanent courts
were established. The new justices of the peace in their quarter
sessions more adequately performed the functions of the old,
irregularly held tourn, and the status of the old sessions, under

1 Patent Roll, 22 Henry vn., p. 3, m. 2.

2 See Hist, of Aberconway, p. 47. 3 Exchqr. Miscellanea, No. 9/13.
4 The Welsh become subjects of the realm.

6 Cf. Col. Close Rolls, 1339-41, p. 249. Sessions ordered to be held
oftener.

8 Several clauses of Henry vii.'s charter are especially concerned with
the remedy of such irregularities.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 143

the name * Great Sessions,' was much improved. The local
Justice, too, now rid of the more burdensome duties of political
defence, was more purely a Judicial officer, with an increased
stipend amounting to £50 yearly.1

Throughout the period, prisoners awaiting their trial in the
local sessions were kept in the castle gaols under the custody of
the constable.2 By the Act 34 and 35 Henry vm. prisoners
were placed in the custody of the county sheriff. However,
the castles, as heretofore, continued to be used as prisons until
adequate county gaols were erected. The boroughs, too,
continued to utilise their free prisons, but by the time of the
reform of the municipal corporations, several had become
amalgamated with or absorbed by the county prisons.

III. THE FINANCE OF THE BOROUGH

The finance of the North Welsh boroughs as revealed in the
surviving accounts, is almost entirely of an extra-municipal
interest. There are no private muniments that illustrate the
financial organisation of the municipalities. The bailiffs'
accounts merely picture the borough in its relation to the royal
revenue of the Principality. They only afford occasional side-
lights on the private or internal finance of the borough, and
that at points where the Crown is directly concerned. The
boroughs were in some respects the King's boroughs, in other
respects the townsmen's boroughs. Some of their profits went
to the royal trea§ury, some to the town chest. The same
principle is illustrated above in the divided liability of the
expenses of burghal defence — the Crown and the town con-
tributing to the upkeep of the town walls and the local quays.

(i) The Sources of Revenue. — The royal revenue of the borough
issued from the rents of the burgages and lands, the pleas and
perquisites of the borough courts, the fines and amercements
made by the burgesses before the local justice, the tolls proceeding
from the local avenues of trade — the port, the market, and the
fair, the rents and issues of the local mills, fisheries and ferries,
and the profits incident to the Crown as lord paramount of the

1 Stat. 34-5 Henry vm., c. 26. Before this Act his stipend was £33. 6s. 8d.
It was apparently fixed at this amount during the reign of Henry viz.
The accounts ranging from Richard n. to Edward iv. show the justice's
fee to be one hundred marks.

2 See p. 124 above. The burgesses had the option of bail according to
the laws of Breteuil.

144 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

town soil. In the case of fee-farm boroughs where the issues
were farmed to the borough community at a fixed sum, as well
as in those boroughs farming all or part of their profits, the
superfluous issues over and above the amounts payable to the
Crown went presumably into the common coffer of the borough.

The private income of the borough was apparently drawn
from the following sources : — (1) the profits issuing from the
jurisdictional and commercial privileges over and above the
farms at which they were held of the Crown ; (2) moneys received
in virtue of the ' scot ' liability taken by each burgess to con-
tribute to the local burdens ; (3) fines received upon the
admission of burgesses l ; (4) rents derived from lands leased of
the town corporations ; (5) special grants of money from the
Crown for special purposes ; (6) murage receipts. It is not until
the middle of the sixteenth century that we can be absolutely
certain that the town communities leased their lands ; and the
commercial profits issuing from local market and fair trans-
actions practically ceased to be levied in the North Welsh
boroughs after 22 Henry vii.

(ii) Items of Borough Expenditure. — We can be sure as to the
payment of common fines for the confirmation of the borough
charters, as of the occasional grants of town money in the way
of lay subsidies. There was also the purchase of such municipal
paraphernalia as was necessary for the administration of the
borough. These would include the common seal for attesting
the local leases, weights, etc. (weights and measures for the
proper adjustment of trade), and common chests for the custody
of the town muniments 2 and treasure. The expenses of works,
as we have already seen, fell partly upon the town community.
It is also true to say that the Crown provided some of the
municipal paraphernalia during the Middle Ages. We find the
burgesses of Conway debiting the costs of a new tumbrel 3 to
the Crown, by deducting the money spent on its construction out
of the royal issues of the borough. This, however, is the only
instance that is found, and it is one which from the fact of its

1 Cf. Hist, of Aberconway (Williams), pp. 97, 99.

2 See Arch. Camb., i. iii. p. 52. ' The Comone Cheste of the Towne of
Harlech.'

3 Min. Ace. 1170/4. Every borough or other liberty having view of
frank-pledge possessed its tumbrel or ducking-stool for the punishment of
scolds and unquiet women by ducking them in the water. A similar
punishment was also inflicted upon defaulting bakers and brewers (cf.
Rec. of Cam., pp. 243-4).

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 145

early date, may be an exceptional allowance on the part of the
Crown. The town communities when farming the local mills
or ferries usually took on the responsibility of repair. When not
so stipulated, the bailiffs deducted the cost of any necessary
repairs executed, out of the royal issues of their borough.1 It
cannot be definitely determined whether any of the borough
officers were remunerated for their duties 2 ; we find several
of the royal officers, as the constable and porter, paid directly
(sometimes) by the town bailiffs, who debit the same in their
account. Again, the porters3 of Carnarvon as early as 1331
are described as being bearers of the mace. Who bought the
mace ? Was it the Town or the Crown ?

(iii) Collection and Disbursement of the Borough Revenue

(a) Royal Revenue. — Surveys, giving particulars of the royal
profits of each borough, were carefully preserved in the local
exchequer at Carnarvon.4 Any changes in the .value and term
of different farms were enrolled on the memoranda rolls of the
local exchequer.5 The estimated income derivable from each
borough was thus known to the local chamberlain. The same
rolls, too, were referred to by the royal auditors who were
annually commissioned to audit the accounts. The town
bailiffs presented their yearly accounts at the exchequer of
Carnarvon.6 Issues in abeyance through abnormal circum-
stances, such as scarcity of hirers, or political revolts, were
respited, and the rents of lands and houses previously farmed,
which had become decayed in the meantime through destruc-
tion or want of repairs, were held to be ' in decay.' For what

1 E.g. Min. Ace. 1170/3, 5.

2 See Parl. Papers, 1837-8, vol. xxxv., s.n. Rhuddlan. The bailiffs
receive a small portion of the court dues.

3 Gal. Pat. Rolls (1330-4), p. 164 ; (1334-8), p. 96.

4 Min. Ace. 1211/2, 3, 1216/2. 6 See above, p. 93.

6 N.B. — In cases where the borough was leased by the Crown to a
fermor for life or a term of years, the lessee, of course, not the bailiffs,
answers at the local exchequer. When the boroughs were much decayed
and incapable of rendering their ordinary rents, the Crown frequently
delegated its administration to the hands of an approver (appruator), a
kind of royal bailiff, who realised what he could for the profit of the Crown.
This was sometimes done with one or more of the sources of royal revenue
in the borough. In the cases of Newborough, Bala, Harlech, and Conway
the issues were at times during our period entirely separated from the
fiscal machinery of the local Principality. In such instances special
receivers were appointed by the persons so entitled, and the local bailiffs
presented their accounts to the minor exchequers temporarily established
at Harlech and Conway.

146 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

remained over after the deduction of the ' respite ' and ' decay '
rents the bailiffs were responsible (Et debent, etc.). When not
paid before the presentment of the next account, these were
generally carried on as the arreragia in the account of the
following year. Though arrears accumulated for a series of
years, and appear in one round sum in subsequent accounts,
the liability of each year's arrears rested with the two bailiffs
that were first charged with it.1 We often find the ' respite '
and ' decay ' rents carried on among the arrears, and automati-
cally deducted each year. When the charge and discharge
actually balance, the bailiffs are either said to be ' quit,' or the
sides of the account are said to be ' equal.' The bailiffs paid
money into the exchequer at different times during the year,2
receiving tallies or indented bills as receipts. The porterage
of the royal money from Carnarvon to the royal exchequer at
Westminster, was entrusted to the auditor or any other person
of repute, appointed by the local chamberlain or the Crown.3

(b) Private Revenue. — Of the collection and disbursement
of the private as opposed to the royal revenue of the borough
comparatively little is known. We find, moreover, that there
was a common coffer kept at Con way in the reign of Henry vm.,
and that the bailiffs had to render account in the common house
of the borough before the comburgesses, as to how they had
spent the common revenues.4 This scrutiny on the part of the
borough communities as to the method in which their money
was spent, as of the security with which it was kept, must have
been a common feature in the burghal life of the North Welsh
boroughs. The common coffer of Conway was kept in the church.6

The Crown, as we should expect, never taxed the North Welsh
garrison boroughs with contributions in the way of tallages and
subsidies during the Middle Ages. When the Black Prince
sought an aid of the burgesses of Conway in 1343, they replied
by quoting an ordinance of Edward I., to the effect that they
were the appointed ' garnishers ' (garnesturi) of the town of
Conway, and that nothing more was asked of them. The
privilege of gaywite, included in their original charters, nominally

1 The names of the bailiffs for as many as nine years are sometimes
appended to the bailiffs' account, with the respective amounts of their
outstanding debts. * E.g. 1170/7 (eight tallies).

8 Chamberlain Accts. (North Wales), passim.

« Hist, of Aberconway (R. Williams), pp. 97, 99, 196.

6 Conway Registers (A. Hadley), p. xi.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 147

exempted them from moneys given to war, on condition that they
guarded the lands adjoining their boroughs.1 Moreover, two years
later, the burgesses of the English vills of Carnarvon, Conway,
and Beaumaris, granted a voluntary aid of £25 to Edward in. for
the purpose of assisting him in his French wars.2 The docu-
ment is silent as to how this sum was assessed. The vills
of Nevin and Pwllheli (before their enfranchisement) 3 con-
tributed to a fifteenth levied on all movables by Edward I.
Several returns relating to subsidy moneys collected during the
later years of the reign of Henry vin., show that separate petty
collectors were usually appointed for the boroughs of Carnarvon
and Conway. The rest were generally included in the returns of
the hundred in which they were situate.4 In the returns made
to the order for grants of money ' of the devotion of the people '
against the Turks, November, 35 Henry vin., the boroughs are
included in their respective parishes. The money was assessed
and collected according to instructions sent by the Bishop of
Bangor to the commissaries of the respective deaneries, and the
wardens of the several parishes. The parish of Conway con-
tributed 5s. to this particular grant, Criccieth 2s. 8d., Nevin
2s. 6Jd., Llanbeblig 4s. 8d.,6 Beaumaris 14s. 4d., and St.
Katherine's parish 14d.6 To a benevolence granted in May
of the next year the borough of Carnarvon contributed
£14. 2s. 4d.,7 Beaumaris £4. 5s., and Newborough 2s.8

IV. THE OFFICERS OF THE BOROUGH

(i) The Constable of the Castle. — The nominal duties associated
with the constableships of Welsh castles to-day are . apt to
belittle our notion of the importance and significance of the
office of constable in the Principality during the Middle Ages.
In the administrative machinery of North Wales during the
period 1284-1536, the constable of the castle ranked next in
importance to the local justice and chamberlain.

The constable was invariably elected either by the English
sovereign or the Prince of Wales for the time being. Appoint-
ments made by the English kings were usually enrolled on the
patent or close rolls ; those of the English Princes of Wales

1 Orig. Docts. (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol. 1877), p. cli.

2 Min. Ace. 1214/3. 3 Lay Subsidy (P.R.O.) 242/50.
4 Lay Subsidies, 220/135-6, 220/153. 6 /&., 220/134.

6 /&., 219/1. See above, p. 52. 7 76., 220/133.

8 Ib., 219/5.

148 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

were by letters patent under the seal of the Principality, and
were enrolled on the memoranda rolls of the local exchequer at
Carnarvon. The latter rolls are mostly lost, but a few of these
grants are preserved among the inspeximus* of later sovereigns.1
The letters of appointment were generally followed by a mandate
in pursuance, either to the previous keeper to deliver up his
custody, or to the local Justiciar to place the nominee in pos-
session of his office. Notice of the appointment, and particulars
as to the amount and payment of the constable's salary, were
also directed to the local chamberlain.2

The constables chosen were for the most part tried men.
The importance of the office called for capable and experienced
men, and the comparatively lucrative emoluments connected
therewith were a matter of some weight with the Crown when a
debtor or other person to whom the Crown owed an obligation
happened to be one of the prospective candidates. Constables
received their grants of office on the recommendation either of
the King or of his council in return for good service rendered.
The constableship was often bestowed as a mark of further
favour, and sometimes in mitigation of some acknowledged
indebtedness on the part of the Crown. Mediaeval Wales, with
its constableships, sheriffdoms, rhaglotries, rhingildries, wood-
wardships, and other minor offices connected with its complex
administration, was a particularly useful field for this purpose.
The later Plantagenets made frequent use of the farms and
issues of the Principality of North Wales, in relieving themselves
of personal debts incurred by the continued strain of the Scottish
and French campaigns. The English sovereigns, surrounded by
a host of court parasites and ambitious friends, all eager for the
emoluments of office, sometimes made duplicate grants of the
same office.3

We also find constables elected through official and family
commendation. A constable, leaving his charge through
special circumstances, occasionally recommended a suitable
person to be his successor. The case of one Gilbert de Elsefeld
affords an interesting example of this nomination system. He
was appointed constable of Beaumaris in 1328 through the

i E.g. Gal. Pat. Rotts (1377-81), pp. 153, 230; (1388-92), p. 419; (1422-9),
pp. 11, 15, 54.

» Ib. (1317-21), p. 593 ; (1330-4), p. 343 ; (1334-8), p. 497.
» Ib., 1330-4, p. 479.

ADMINISTKATION OR GOVERNMENT 149

influence of the notorious Roger de Mortimer (d. 1330). The
grant was revoked in 1333, apparently on the score of the latter's
rebellious conduct. The letters are said to have been procured
for Gilbert at the instance of Mortimer, who had brought the
King's affairs to ruin and disgrace.1

The silent workings of family interests are to be found in the
case of constables retiring through old age and failing sight.
On the voluntary surrender of their letters patent, they usually
solicited a regrant of the office to members of their family. The
result of this practice was that the office of constable became
more or less hereditary in one family. Such was the case with
the Stanleys at Carnarvon during the fifteenth century, and
with the Bulkeleys at Beaumaris during the Tudor period and
later. Hereditary constables are more prominent from the
time of Henry vn. onwards.2 By this period the office had
lost the gravity which pertained to it during the Middle Ages,
and was, in fact, little more than a mark of personal honour and
family prestige.

Owing to the important function of the mediaeval castle in
the political government of the Principality, the constable was
almost invariably an Englishman.3 ' Offices of charge ' were
legally forbidden to the Welshmen. A Welshman was once
appointed constable, but he only held office for a week.4 The
statutory enactments of the House of Lancaster prolonged and
intensified this racial qualification. In subsequent grants the
usual words ' or by his sufficient deputy ' are supplemented by
the formula ' or by his sufficient English deputy, and not Welsh.' 5
It is not until the early Tudor period that the native baronage,
through intermarriage and other anglicising influences, had its
representatives in any force and sequence.

1 Cat. Pat. Rolls, p. 465. Cf. Dictionary Nat. Biog., s.n. Mortimer
wielded considerable power in Wales.

2 See list of constables in Breeze's Kalendars of Gwynedd.

3 See Col. Pat. Rolls, 1324-7, p. 215, for the only known instance of
the appointment of a woman.

4 Ib., 1381-5, p. 100. Appointment of Gronw ap Tudor, 18th March
1382, to be constable of Beaumaris. He was accidentally drowned the
following Sunday, 23rd March. Baldwin Radington succeeded him in
the constableship, 25th March 1382 (C. Ashton, Gweiihiau lolo Goch, pp.
291-2). David Cradoc was nominally constable of Beaumaris before Gronw
ap Tudor (Breeze, Kalendars of Gwynedd, p. 121). The only other Welsh
name among the constable lists compiled by Breeze (before the Act of
Union) is that of Davydd ap leuan ap Eignon, the gallant defender of
Harlech for Henry vi.

6 Min. Ace. 1179/1, 1216/7, 1217/1.

150 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Excepting Criccieth, the constableship of which was dis-
continued shortly after the destruction of the castle by Glyndwr,1
constables were regularly appointed in the remaining castles
throughout our period. As a rule, they were elected for term of
life. The formality of granting the constableship of a castle
during pleasure, or during good behaviour, was sometimes
preliminary to a larger and subsequent grant for life. This was
to be construed as a mark of further favour. The custom was
sometimes overdone. William Trussel, a king's yeoman, was
appointed (18th November 1333) to the custody of the castle of
Beaumaris for life. In the September of the next year he
received a similar grant of the same office for term of life, which
purported to be an enlargement of the previous grant.2

The constable, as we have already seen, was privileged to hold
his office by a sufficient deputy. When absent on the King's
service, or disabled through illness 3 or other circumstances, he was
allowed to render his account, and perform other duties pertain-
ing to the office by attorney.4 Personal custody, however, was
strongly insisted upon in cases of prime urgency. A threatening
tone, with suggestions of dismissal in case of neglect, is given
to the royal mandates despatched to the local constables
during the abnormal periods of political unrest.5 The sinister
designs of the King's enemies in Scotland and France were a
sufficient pretext for enjoining personal custody.6 And the
personal residence of the constable was particularly needed when
rumours of a native rebellion became something more than the
common talk of the neighbourhood.7 For the neglectful custody
of Conway castle during the opening raids of Glyndwr's insur-

1 Min. Ace. 121C/7, temp. 28 Henry vi. The chamberlain, referring to
the castle of Criccieth, says : ' The castle was totally destroyed at the time
of the Welsh rebellion, and so remains to-day.' One Edward Grymeston
and Taket Blondel pray for the arrears of the fee of the constableship of
Criccieth, to which they were appointed 7th October, 25 Henry vi. This
is the only intimation we have of the nominal survival of the constableship.
Cf. ib., 1216/8, where a reference is made to Roger Acton, the constable
(next preceding the above) of the time of Henry iv.

2 Col. Pat. Rolls (1330-4), p. 480; (1334-8), p. 13. Trussel acted as
constable from the later date. No reference is made to the earlier letters
in the quo warranio proceedings brought against him at the instance of
the Black Prince in 1353 (Rec. of Cam., pp. 181-3).

Arch. Camb., m. xiv. p. 161.
Col. Close RoUs, 1327-30, p. 184.
Col. Pot. Rolls, 1399-1401, p. 469.
D.K. Report, xxxvi., appendix ii., p. 99.
E.g. Col. Close Rolls, 1313-18, p. 267.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 151

rection, John Mascy, the constable, was declared an outlaw.
He was, however, pardoned after the castle had been recovered.1

The average fee of the respective constables of the North
Welsh castles during the period when permanent garrisons were
stationed in the castles was a hundred marks per annum. Out
of this the constables paid the wages of the soldiery. From the
close of the reign of Edward in., when temporary garrisons begin
to be maintained directly at the royal expense, the constable
fees of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris were respectively
fixed at £40 a year, and those of Harlech and Criccieth at
twenty marks each. The constables of Carnarvon and Conway
continue to take £40 yearly, together with £12. 13s. 4d. for the
custody of their respective boroughs, until 20 Henry vn. After
this, the constable of Carnarvon takes £60 in respect of both
offices, and the constable of Conway £50. The constableship of
Beaumaris, with the captaincy of the town, produced fees of £40
and £12. 13s. 4d. respectively up to the tenth year of Henry vn.,
when they were nominally amalgamated into a reduced fee of
forty marks. The remuneration of Harlech's constable was
doubled during the reign of Henry v., and was further increased
to £50 by Henry vn.2 Other profits incident to the constableship
fell to the constable as keeper of the castle gaol.

The local constables were paid their fees by the chamberlain
of the exchequer of Carnarvon out of the general, issues of the
Principality of North Wales.3 The constable of Conway,
however, at a later date received the emoluments of his office
from the town bailiffs out of the issues of the local borough.4
Several petitions in the patent and close rolls show the fees of the
constables to be often in arrears.5 English sovereigns had per-
force to postpone payment at times, as for instance Edward in.
in 1342, when he was hard pressed by his debts to divers
creditors in parts beyond the sea.6 Constables paid their own
deputies, but on the death of a constable, the Crown generally ap-
pointed a custos during vacancy at a stipend of four pence a day.7

1 Wylie, Hist, of Henry IV., i. pp. 215-16.

2 Min. Ace. (chamberlain of North Wales), Edward I. to Henry vm.,
for constable fees.

3 See Gal. Close Rolls passim, e.g. 1327-30, p. 279.

4 Min. Ace. 1179/1. Cf. 1170/4 for an early instance of this.

5 E.g. Gal. Close Rolls (1333-7), p. 168 ; (1339-41), p. 286.

6 Ib. 1341-3, p. 326.

7 E.g. Min. Ace. 1212/3, 4, 7, and 1216/3; Acts of Privy Council (ed.
Nicolas), ii. p. 238.

152 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The duties of the constable of a North Welsh castle during
the period 1284-1536 were somewhat complex. He was the
administrative governor of both (1) the castle and of (2)
the fortified borough ; (3) the custos of the castle gaol ; (4) the
ex-officio mayor of the borough ; and (5) occasionally performed
other administrative duties of an extraordinary character.

(1) Governor of the Castle. — As administrative governor of
the castle he acted (1) as head of the military garrison, and (2)
as general supervisor of the castle economy. Being chief of the
garrison he was responsible for its military efficiency. He had
to keep the castle constantly garrisoned with the complement
of soldiers necessary to maintain the security of the English
interest in North Wales.1 He was also particularly charged
to be attendant to the mandates of the Crown touching matters
of national defence, either directly 2 from the King, or in-
directly through the local justiciar and chamberlain. Only two
constables' accounts are at present (1906) available for North
Wales. They throw considerable light upon the number and
character of the castle garrison, and note minutely the changes
that took place in the personnel of the garrison during the period
accounted for.

As general supervisor of the castle economy, all goods of the
castle, armour, victuals, etc., were put in the constable's custody.3
He attached his seal to indentures upon their receipt, and his
leave was necessary in case of their removal.4 He, too, occa-
sionally supervised the accounts of the castle works,6 and is
more than once found concerned with the direct victualling of
the castle.6 Subsidiary duties such as these more rightly
belonged to the local justiciar and chamberlain, and other
members of the castle staff, specially appointed for this purpose.7
The constables did not, at all times, willingly submit their castles
to the care and scrutiny of the justiciar and chamberlain.8

(2) Governor of the Fortified Borough. — The custody of the
borough like that of the castle was vested in the constable.
His status as military governor was further assured (1) by the
fact that he was ipso facto mayor of the borough, and, as we

E.g. Col. Close RoUs, 1313-18, p. 392. * Exchqr. Mis. 9/13.

Gal. Pat. and Close Rolls passim ; Exchqr. T. of B. Bk., No. 144, f. 87.

Col. Close Rolls (1313-18), p. 294 ; (1323-7), pp. 3-4.

Min. Ace. 1211/7, 9 ; Q.R. Ace. 13/32 (Beaumaris).

Min. Ace. 1214/11 ; Rec. of Cam., p. 224. 7 See above, pp. 113-14.

Col. Close Rolls, 1337-9, p. 91.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 153

have already seen, (2) by the later amalgamation of the castle
constableship and the town captaincy. The office of captain
implied the government and supervision of all town gates, all
hospices (hospitae) and houses placed upon all gates, over or
under the town walls, together with the supervision of all soldiers
therein.1 The captaincy was a purely military office. Some
writers,2 arguing from the fact that the offices of constable and
captain were sometimes held by different persons, have con-
cluded that the latter was the mayor of the borough. But it is
clear that the office of captaincy in no way affected the position
of the constable as ex-officio mayor of the borough.

The constable would naturally be the leader of the municipal
army in time of war, but there is nothing to show that this
formed part of his function as (qua) constable.3 It was in the
name of the King, rather than in the name of the borough, that
the North Welsh burgesses took up arms before the Act of
Union. The military individuality of the civic boroughs is veiled
by the fact that they were political units in a system of defence.

(3) Keeper of the Castle Gaol. — It was from this source that
what are called the profits of the constableship 4 apparently
sprang. The castles contained the recognised royal prisons
of the time. A small fee, perhaps five pence,5 was payable to the
constable in respect of every prisoner. Each constable was
seemingly charged with the custody of prisoners drawn from
his own castle district, a charge which was ultimately made
conterminous with the county, and vested in the hands of the
sheriff.6 In addition to the ordinary prisoners incidental to the
local administration of justice, the constable was often called
upon to undertake the custody of prisoners of war, heretics,
and local rebels. A large number of Welsh rebels, English
Lollards,7 and prisoners of war from France and Scotland,8

1 It is defined thus in Min. Ace. 1216-7.

2 See Parl. Papers, 1835, vol. xxvi., s.n. Beaumaris. Cf. S. Lewis,
Topog. Diet, of Wales, s.n.c.

1 Cf. J. Brassart, Hist., etc., de Douai, p. 14.

* Cf. Gal. Pat. Bolls, 1422-9, p. 56. The custody was implied in the
grant of the constableship (Rec. of Cam., p. 142).

5 Rec. of Cam., p. 141. Four pence paid to the constable and a penny to
the janitor. Cf. ib., p. 182, where the constable received five pence in some

• Stat. 34-5 Henry vni., c. 26, ss. 26, 27.

7 1215/7 (thirteen Lollards at Beaumaris. There were some more at
Cardigan). Cf. p. 246 below.

8 Gal. Close Rolls (1307-13), p. 207; (1323-7), pp. 3, 450; Min. Ace.
1211/2, 9 ; 1212/2, 3, 5, 10 (Scottish) ; 1216/3 (French, temp. Henry v.).

154 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

were safely lodged in the North Welsh castles, at frequent intervals
during the mediaeval period. The wages of the prisoners of war,
three pence per diem, which they received at the hands of the con-
stable, were debited to the royal account by the local chamberlain.

Prisoners were kept at Criccieth as late as 22 Richard n.1
The other castles served as prisons far into the Tudor period
and later. References to prisoners in the castle gaols appear
promiscuously in the patent rolls,2 the majority of instances
being the records of pardons obtained for homicides committed
in self-defence. In the event of the avoidable escape of prisoners
the constables were subjected to heavy fines. John de Sapy,
constable of Beaumaris, 13 Edward n., was fined £15 for the
escape of one leuan Cwtta and his comrade.3 Thomas Heiton,
constable of Carnarvon, for the voluntary release of a prisoner
in his custody, 20 Henry vn., was punished by a fine of £50.4
We also find castle porters (who as subsidiary officers of the
castle were to some extent responsible) heavily mulcted for the
escape of prisoners.5

The constable had apparently nothing to do with the custody
of the town prison. This was seemingly placed in the hands of
a responsible townsman. An entry in the patent roll for 1313
gives the pardon of William de Chalouns, a burgess of Conway,
for the escape of one John de Doncastre, a prisoner detained for
divers felonies, out of the prison of the town of Conway.6
William de Chalouns was not the constable of the castle, but
six years previously he had acted in the capacity of one of the
borough bailiffs. Evidently the boroughs had their independent
ciistodes prisonce.7

(4) Mayor of the Borough (ex-officio). — The original charters
of the five castellated boroughs of North Wales direct that
the constable of the castle shall be mayor of the borough. This
was generally the rule in cases where the castles were situated
within the limits of the adjoining boroughs. Other Welsh
instances are Hope, Flint, Rhuddlan, Cowbridge, Kenfig, and

1 Plea Roll (Carnarvon), No. 1, m. 35.

E.g. Gal. Pat. Rolls (1307-13), p. 158 ; (1313-17), pp. 388, 456, 652.

Min. Ace. 1212/2. Cf. ib., 1174/1, and Cal. Close Rolls, 1327-30,
124.

Exchqr. Miscell. 9/19.

Min. Ace. 1171/8; Rec. of Cam., p. 224.

Cal. Pat. Rotts, 1307-13, p. 525.
7 Rec. of Corn., p. 181, and other quo warranto proceedings relating to the
boroughs of North Wales there printed.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 155

Llantrisant. In all these boroughs the constable performed
the duties of the civic mayor (for which see below under s. (ii)
Mayor of the Borough).

It may be doubted whether this ex-officio mayor of the castle
borough stood in the same relation to the community as did
the popularly elected mayor to the community of the manorial
borough. The ex-officio mayors of the castellated boroughs
were in a sense royal mayors paid by the Crown. They were
not drawn from the townsmen as in the manorial boroughs.
We find the justice of North Wales appointing one William
de Fennes to exercise the office of mayor in the town of Conway,
because of the disobedience of those who kept the town there.
William acted as mayor for a few months in 1313 at a stipend of
ten pence per day.1 The contrast between the position of the
ex-officio and popular mayors is not very marked during the
Middle Ages, but the reign of Henry VIIT. would seem to mark
a definite limitation of the civic function of the constable of the
castle. The change of political atmosphere made his presence
unnecessary, and the prominence given to the notion of
' incorporation ' encouraged the town communities to rid them-
selves of all external control. It is a moot point whether the
ex-officio mayor ever formed an integral part of the corporate
body.2 At Conway and Beaumaris from the late Tudor period
onwards, the civic functions of the constables were confined to
formal visits to the towns on charter day to take the oaths of the
officers, and the taking of the president's chair at the parlia-
mentary elections.3 Even as early as 1570 the burgesses of
Conway elected their alderman as chief magistrate of the borough.
They seem to have ousted the constable from the enjoyment of
this right on the strange plea that the constable must be sworn
by the burgesses before he is mayor. The foundation charter
justified no such proceeding. The burgesses continued to do
this until 1830, when the constable was restored to his old position
as ex-officio mayor. The right was finally resigned by Richard
Bulkeley to one William Hughes, who acted as the first modern
mayor of Conway about the year 1878.4 The burgesses of

1 Min. Ace. 1211/5.

2 At Cowbridge the mayor was not an integral part of the corporation
(Parl. Papers, 1880, vol. xxxi.).

3 /&., 1835, vol. xxvi.

4 Hist, of Aberconway (Williams), pp. 92-6; Cambrian Remembrancer,
p. 27 ; J. Bayne, Tourist Guide to Conway, p. 74.

156 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Beaumaris were empowered to elect a mayor by the governing
charter of 4 Elizabeth. He was elected by the council of the
close corporation that was then formed. Nevertheless, the
constable of Beaumaris castle continued to exercise his nominal
duties,1 but he was not an integral part of the corporation as
such. At Harlech 2 and Carnarvon the constables seem to have
exercised their old civic duties right down to the Reform Act
of 1832.3 The constable of Carnarvon voluntarily resigned
his mayoral rights to the corporation in 1838. The mayoralty
of the town of Criccieth, where the constableship ceased early
in the fifteenth century, became hereditarily attached to the
owners of Ystym Cegid, a farm about a mile from the town.
The family claimed some genealogical connections with some of
the early constables.4

(5) Extraordinary Duties of the Constable. — In addition to
the ordinary duties attached to their constableship, the North
Welsh constables were frequently requisitioned to perform other
behests. Some of these were the supervision or collection of a
local subsidy, the executing of a commission of array,5 and
the conduct of an inquiry 6 into any local matters wherein the
Crown was concerned. At the outset, the administrative func-
tion of the constable was liable to be confounded with that of
the sheriff on the one hand, and with that of the town bailiffs
on the other. We find some of the early constables busying
themselves with the repairs of royal manors adjoining their
castles,7 and the constable of Conway once charged himself
with the tolls of the local fair.8 This latter duty, however,
pertained to the constableship of some mediaeval castles.9

The constableship of the North Welsh castles, it may be
observed, was a purely administrative one. No disputed
Jurisdiction complicates its history. There were no courts held
at the door of the castle. The lordship of the castle included no
tenants of the castle as such. The North Welsh constableships
have nothing of the feudal character which may be detected in

1 Parl. Papers, 1835, vol. xxvi.

* Arch. Camb., I. i. pp. 265, 267 ; iii. p. 54.

3 Old Karnarvon (W. H. Jones), p. 136.

4 Parl. Papers, 1835, vol. xxvi.

6 E.g. Col. Close Rolls, 1279-88, p. 605; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1292-1301,
p. 343.

6 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,991; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 165.

7 Min. Ace. 1211/2, 9. 8 Court Rolls, 215/48.
9 E.g. Exchqr. Q.R. Accts. 23/10 (Dover) ; 22/40 (Roxburgh).

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 157

the constableships of the Marcher castles that were founded at an
earlier date. True, the castles of Conway and Harlech possessed
small tracts of adjoining land,1 and true also there were
castle demesnes at Beaumaris 2 for a short time until they were
absorbed by the burgesses, but the lordship of the castle of
Beaumaris or of any other North Welsh castle, was something
very different from, say, the lordship of the castle of Builth.3

(ii) The Mayor of the Borough. — With the exception of
Newborough, the burgesses of the manorial boroughs elected a
mayor out of their own number at Michaelmas in each year.
The Black Prince ultimately conceded the same privilege to the
burgesses of Newborough.4

Until the acquisition of this charter, the steward of the
commote of Meney was ex-officio mayor of the borough.5
This arrangement is interesting as being the only instance in
the Principality of North Wales, where the government of
a borough was subjected to the control of the officer of the
local hundred.

In the English towns of Northern France, it was the general
rule for the mayor to be elected by the seneschal of the local
hundred, out of a number of burgesses selected by the town
community. The practice is said to be derived from the
celebrated establishments of Rouen,6 the codex of customs
that was generally adopted by towns of the ville anglaise type.7
We have excellent parallels of a similar practice in the borough

1 Orig. Docts. (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877), pp. clxvi., clxxi.

2 Cf. Gal. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, p. 102. A writ de intendendo is directed to
the tenants of the castle. The constable accounts for the rents of the castle
demesne up to 1399. See above, p. 51.

3 /&., 1313-17, pp. 322-3, 325.

4 Exchqr. T. of E. Misc. Bk., 144, f. 1446.

5 Rec. of Cam., p. 177. The burgesses previously petitioned that the
constable of Beaumaris should act as mayor of their borough. In reply
Edward n., then Prince of Wales, ordained that the constable of Carnarvon
for the time being should be their mayor, with a proviso that he should
appoint a deputy in case the duties were too onerous. This request on the
part of the burgesses is due perhaps to the fact that they were affiliated to
Rhuddlan, a castellated borough (ib., p. 218).

8 Les etablissements de Rouen (A. Giry, Paris, 1883). M. Giry in this
work gives a detailed account of the 'establishments,' their origin, source,
character, propagation, influence, and history. The communes studied are
for the most part those founded by English sovereigns in France. The
type of the Anglo-French commune is well presented. The extension of
some of its institutional traits to British municipalities is perhaps worth
seeking for. The Welsh instances mentioned below afford some striking
parallels.

7 Histoire Critique du Pouvoir Municipal (C. Leber, 1828), pp. 386-7.

158 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

of Overton1 in the Marches of North Wales, and also in the
borough of Neath 2 in South Wales. It has also been remarked
(upon what evidence is not noted) that this eclectic policy was
prevalent in the towns of the districts of Arwystli and Cyveiliog
in Upper Montgomeryshire.3

Apparently mayors were regularly elected in the manorial
boroughs during the Middle Ages. At Nevin and Pwllheli,
where the local conditions never perhaps favoured an elaborate
municipal administration, the office became the monopoly of
local magnates. Though Newborough nominally surrendered
its charter, 15 Henry vm., the burgesses elected a mayor as late
as 1811. The mayoralty of Bala was extinguished early in the
nineteenth century, and then presumably through some religious
dispute.

Upon election, the mayor both of the castle and of the manorial
borough took a twofold oath. Firstly, to the King, to preserve
all rights of the Crown ; and secondly, to the burgesses, to
preserve all liberties conceded them by the Crown, and to per-
form faithfully all that pertained to the office of mayor in the
borough. There is no evidence to show whether the ex-officio
mayor took this same oath yearly, or only at the time of his
election, but the foundation charters presume his presence at
the Michaelmas Assembly of the burgesses in each year, when,
as mayor, he received the oaths of the newly elected bailiffs.

The mayor of the North Welsh boroughs, as elsewhere, per-
formed the normal functions pertaining to the office. He
presided over the general assemblies of the burgesses, and sat
as chief magistrate in conjunction with the town bailiffs in the
borough courts. He also supervised the local regulation of
trade, by examining the measures used and testing the weights
employed. The borough seal was affixed by his command to all
apparatus of trade that met with his approval. In conjunction
with six lawful men of the borough, the mayor surveyed the
town measures twice a year.

(iii) Alderman. — Before the Act of Union, extant notices of
the office of alderman appear only in the boroughs of Conway,
Carnarvon, Beaumaris, and Newborough. Among the borough
officers of the Principality of North Wales swearing fealty to

1 Overton in Days Gone, By (G. J. Howson), p. 63.

1 G. G. Francis, Neath Charters (borough charter), p. 3.

3 Cymru Fu, 1888, p. 142.

ADMINISTRATION OK GOVERNMENT 159

Edward, the Black Prince, on his creation in 1344, only one
alderman is mentioned, namely, one John Kokeye of Beaumaris.1
That the office of alderman continued to exist in this borough is
to some extent certain from an incidental reference to the alder-
man of Beaumaris about a century later. The influence of the
gild merchant on municipal development in North Wales, and
indeed in Wales generally, during the period 1284-1536, lacks
materials for its elucidation. It would appear from the action
of Con way in a subsequent period, that there must have been
some movement on the part of the community, instigated
perhaps by the gild merchant, to elect their own representative
to the chief magistracy, rather than the mayor-elect of the Crown.
There was an alderman at Conway in 1527.2 Thomas Dankinson
was the acting alderman at Carnarvon in 1430,3 and four years
previous to this date Meredith ap Ken[wrig] occupied a similar
position in Newborough.4

(iv) The Bailiffs of the Borough. — In boroughs, like those of
North Wales, which long retained a democratic constitution, the
office of bailiff was a most important and responsible position.
The foundation charters stipulated for the election of two
bailiffs by the borough community out of their own number, at
Michaelmas in each year. Immediately on their election, they
were sworn before the mayor rightly to execute all pertaining to
the office of bailiff. There was apparently no new election in the
case of the death of one bailiff in the course of the year.5 The
comprehensive duties of the bailiffs extended to the entire
activity of the borough. They may be considered from the
fiscal, judicial, and executive points of view.

(a) Their Fiscal Functions. — The bailiffs were the administrators
of the royal and private revenue of the borough. As far as the
royal issues were concerned this function was rather elastic.
The Crown had no scruple in delegating the collection of any
royal profits issuing in or near by a borough to the town bailiffs.
We find the bailiffs of Beaumaris answering for the castle
demesnes, though the constable had done so for nearly a century.

1 Orig. Docts. (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877), p. clii.

2 Hist, of Aberconway (Williams), p. 97.

3 See Appendix, p. 298. 4 Ib., p. 297.

5 E.g. Min. Ace. 1171/9. Account of Hugh James, one of the bailiffs,
for himself and Peter de Arare (deceased). Instances of this are rare in
municipal history (Brossand, Ville de Bourg, 1883, p. 179). Cf. Arch.
Jour., xxvii. p. 484.

160 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

At the dissolution of the monasteries, the same bailiffs of Beau-
maris append the rents of the lands of the old dissolved friary
of Llanvaes in their account.1 Upon any irregularity in the
presentment of their returns at the local exchequer, the bailiffs
were subjected to a small penalty or fine.2 They were held
responsible for the arrears of their year. In case of default
their goods were distrained.3

(b) Their Judicial Duties. — Together with the mayor they
presided over the borough courts. They, too, issued writs for
all actions tryable at the borough courts, and moved cases of
arrest and distraint, and were attendant to the precepts of the
sheriff and Justice touching the pleas of the Crown.

(c) Their Executive Work.— Here we may include the duties
of the bailiffs in their relation to the public business of the
municipality, such as the summoning of the general assemblies,
the convening of local courts, and the proclaiming of the fairs.
In all their duties the bailiffs found the posse of their function
in the town courts, where acts of deforcement, refusal to carry
out instructions, and other trespasses against the bailiffs were
amenable.4

(v) Sub-Bailiffs (sub-ballivi). — Officers of this description
appear at Conway and Carnarvon, and are frequently mentioned
in the early and later plea rolls. They were apparently as-
sistants attending the bailiffs in the execution of the subsidiary
business of the borough courts. Pleas of debt between the
bailiffs and the sub-bailiffs given on the plea roll of Richard n.,
point in this direction.5

(vi) The Affeerers. See above, s. Borough Courts.

(vii) The Borough Coroner and the County Escheator. — Under
this title, it is proposed to give a rough outline of the adminis-
tration of the casual and incidental profits of the Crown, issuing
out of the Principality of North Wales during the period 1284-
1536. This may be conveniently treated by considering the

1 Min. Ace. 30-1 Henry viii. (Anglesea), No. 46 (12s. 4d. yearly).

2 16., 1170/19, 1171/5.

3 Arch. Camb., iv. xiii. p. 310. Cf. Min. Ace. 1305/16 for an actual
instance. The mayor of the borough had only a formal connection with
the yearly account. On the close roll of 1342 (Col. Close Rolls, 1341-3,
p. 425) appears an order to the mayor and bailiffs of Bala and Harlech to
be answerable to Walter de Manny for the farms of their boroughs. We
also find the mayor of Conway formally despatching an early account of the
borough to the exchequer at Carnarvon (Min. Ace. 1170/3).

« /&., 1170/3. • Plea Roll (Carnarvon), No. 1, mm. 8, 24d, 31.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 161

offices of coroner and escheator, as well as the ultra-municipal
functions of the town bailiffs in their capacity of royal rather
than private servants.

We find coroners in the boroughs of Carnarvon, Conway,
Criccieth, Harlech, Beaumaris, and Newborough during the first
half of the fourteenth century. Bala never had such an officer,
and the name coroner is lost to the contemporary records before
the maenors of Nevin and Pwllheli were enfranchised. The
original charters of the North Welsh boroughs sanctioned no
election of town coroners by the burgesses. Were these
early borough coroners, as were those of the hundreds of the
county, nominees of the Crown, and elected by the King's writ ? *

The Statute of Wales (1284) enacted that ordinary coroners
should be elected in every hundred or commote of the county.
This was perhaps never actually done, as the few coroners'
accounts that survive seem to prove. Two or three commotes
were frequently put under the jurisdiction of one coroner. The
county of Anglesea, consisting of six commotes, had but two
coroners in 1329. Two coroners, likewise, did duty for the shire
of Carnarvon, one in Lleyn and Eivionydd, and one in the
district of Arvon.2

Usually there were two coroners in every borough, though one
sometimes fulfilled the office.3 The same coroner or coroners
often did duty for more than one year.4 The evidence of their
few extant returns shows their function to have been like to that
of the ordinary county coroner, whose duties were carefully de-
scribed in the statute.5 They account chiefly for the casual
profits realised to the Crown from the lands and goods of persons
dying intestate, the forfeited property of felons, wrecca maris,
and treasure-trove. One or two examples may be quoted.
Robert Fot and John de London, coroners of Conway, account
for 21d., the value of the goods and chattels of one John the
shepherd (Robert Fot's servant), who abjured the realm in 1316. 6
John returned in the following year, and suffered the inevitable
penalty ; his surcoat was sold for 8d.7 The coroners of Beau-
maris, four years later, found 3d. in the pocket of one Hugh

1 See note 5 below. 2 Min. Ace. 1170/19.

3 E.g., ib. 1170/7-8. * E.g., ib. 1170/13-16.

5 Statutes of the Realm (Rec. Com.), pp. 58-9. 6 Min. Ace. 1170/10.

7 Ib., 1170/11. 'Idem coronatores (as in 1170/10) respondunt de viiijd
de nno courcepi Johannis Bercarii qui nuper regnum abjuravit et postea
rediit et decolatus fuit infra dictum tempus.'

162 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Swyper, who was accidentally drowned at sea.1 A sword, knife,
and chest, the joint property of two brothers (tailors by trade
but robbers by reputation), who died in the prison of Con way
whilst awaiting their trial, realised nearly 2s. 6d.2 The executor
of Ralph le Geyte, coroner of Criccieth in 1321, answers for 5s.,
the value of the horse of one Kevenerth, who died intestate,
murdered by one Madoc the Crooked.3 The only instance in the
available accounts of a coroner answering for the issues of
escheated borough lands, is that of the coroner of Carnarvon in
1317.4

In boroughs, like those of North Wales, where the royal
interest was so predominant, it is not surprising to find occa-
sional overlapping of functions. The regalia of the Crown
accounted for in the coroners' account was often included in
the bailiffs' return. One of the bailiffs sometimes acted as town
coroner. This was the state of affairs at Harlech in 1343.5 The
profits of wrecca maris were commonly returned by the bailiffs.
The bailiffs of Harlech render 6d., the price of an empty wine
cask thrown on to their liberties in 131 1.6 The previous year
the bailiffs of Criccieth sold the skin of a drowned calf.7 In
1323, the remnants of wreckage in the form of an old rope,
a small anchor, and a torn sail were sold for 6s., and
accounted for not by the bailiffs, but by the coroners of
Conway.8

The occasional profits derived from ' waifs and strays,' some-
times notified in the court rolls, are almost always included in
the bailiffs' account, as were invariably the profits of animals
forfeited in the borough fairs. The bailiffs of Beaumaris sell a
forfeited ox for 8s. in 131 2. 9 A horse was similarly forfeited
during the spring fair at Criccieth in the following year, and
sold for 3s. 4d.10

From about the middle of the fourteenth century to the middle
of the sixteenth, we find no mention of coroners as such in North
Wales. The last mention of town coroners appears in the
Conway account for 1345. They were, no doubt, superseded
by the county escheator, an official who became prominent in
North Wales directly after the ravages of the Black Death.11

1 Min. Ace. 1171/4. * 76., 1170/12. « 76., 1170/13.

4 76., 1170/12. 6 Orig. Docts. (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877), p. civ.

• Min. Ace. 1211/3. ' Ib., 1170/6. • 76., 1170/15. • 76. 1211/4.

10 76., 1211/5. u Trans. Cym. Soc., 1902-3, pp. 44-7.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 163

County escheators appear in the North Welsh counties as early
as 1348 ; l the profits of escheated lands as well as of forfeited
goods and chattels 2 in county and borough, fall under their
cognisance for centuries from this date.3 The borough bailiffs,
however, continued to answer for wrecca maris, waifs and strays,
and often played an auxiliary role in the finding of treasure-
trove and the goods of felons taken within their liberties. A piece
of gold was found in Beaumaris in 1473 by Richard Comyn, one
of the burgesses. The inquest upon it was taken by the county
escheator.4 The bailiffs of Beaumaris, in 1523, again hold an
inquest touching a sum of money (£4. 4s.) found in the purse
of a felon within their liberties. The county escheator, not the
bailiffs, answers for the profits.5

(viii) Mace-Bearers. — The office of porter and mace-bearer in
the town of Carnarvon was held by the King's janitor there, who
was appointed by letters patent.6 Similar janitorships existed
at Beaumaris and Conway, but the office of mace-bearer is not
distinguished as in the case of Carnarvon.

(ix) Keepers of the Borough Prison (Gustos prisonce). — See
above, s.n. Constable of the Castle (3. Keeper of the Castle
Gaol).

(x) Town Crier. — One of the burgesses of Conway is termed
le criour in the early rental of the borough. Every borough
apparently had its ' crier ' for the summoning of the general
assemblies, and particularly for the proclamation of the local
fairs. At the present day the practice of tolling the borough
bell before each meeting of the town council is carried on at
Carnarvon.

(xi) Officers of the Town Mills. — (a) At Conway two stewards
were annually appointed to supervise the profits and repairs
of the town mills. A typical account of theirs is printed in
Williams' Aberconway.7 (b) A miller was usually chosen to
superintend the grinding operations.8 The oath of the miller of
Conway, solemnly binding him to honest and prompt execution
of his duty, is given at length in the above work.8

1 Exchqr. T. of R. Misc. Bk., 144, f. 144.

2 Min. Ace. 1152/9; 1154/6 (Newborough) ; 1155/2 (Beaumaris).

3 Ib., 1152/7 (Beaumaris); 1153/4 (Newborough); 1203/13 (Bala) ;
1204/3, 5 (Harlech) ; 1175/8 (Conway and Carnarvon) ; 18-19 Henry viz.,
No. 163 (Criccieth) ; 11742 (Pwllheli).

4 Ib., 1158/3. 6 Ib., 13-14 Henry vm., No. 86.

6 See p. 145 above, n. 3. 7 Pp. 101-2 and appendix x. 8 Ib., p. 102.

164 THE MEDI/EVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

V. MUNICIPAL PARAPHERNALIA1

(a) Borough Seals. — Six mediaeval specimens have survived.
(1) Newborough : an ancient seal of bronze belonging to the
late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, bearing the legend,
Sigillum communitatis de Newburgh. (2) Pwllheli : at the
time of the Municipal Corporation Inquiry in 1835 a modern
seal (made of steel), about sixty or seventy years old, was
produced. The recorder of the borough then stated that
he had seen an impression of an older one with the Virgin
and Child upon it. This was probably the early fifteenth-cen-
tury seal of Pwllheli, which bore the legend, Sigillum communi-
tatis ville de Porthely. (3) Harlech : the old seal, dating from
the time of Edward i., represents a castle triple-towered, and
bears the inscription, Sigillum communce de Hardlagh. (4)
Carnarvon : the seal used by the community during the Middle
Ages dates from about 1291 ; the device is a shield of the arms
of England with a label of five points, with a conventional plant
on either side and an eagle displayed in chief. The eagle above
the shield is derived from the arms of Otto of Grandison, con-
stable of Carnarvon, 20 Edward I. The marginal legend is,
S9 communitatis villce D'Karnarvon. There are two other seals
of a modern date, one of which is in present use. (5) Beaumaris :
the original seal of Beaumaris, dating from 1295, bears a castle
with three lions passant. It is inscribed with the legend, Sigillum
Communce Communitatis villce de Beaumaris. (6) Conway : the
mediaeval seal (still in use) of the borough of Conway has upon
it the castle with the river beneath, and the somewhat unusual
legend, Sigillum Provestrice de Coneway.

It may be noted that the seals of the North Welsh boroughs,
like those of the generality of English boroughs during the Middle
Ages, represent a fortress or a walled town.

Comparatively little is known of the insignia of the three
boroughs of Criccieth, Nevin, and Bala. It is, however, certain
that a modern seal of silver was produced for the corporation of
Nevin in 1835.

(b) Maces. — There is seemingly no trace of the ancient maces

1 The following notes on the municipal paraphernalia have been drawn
chiefly from the following authorities : — Corporation Plate and Insignia
(1895), by W. H. St. John Hope ; Arch. Camb., in. vi. p. 281 ; Mediaeval
Architecture (G. T. Clark), ii. p. 22 ; Old Kamarvon (W. H. Jones), p. 132. ;
Lewis's Top. Die. of Wales ; Town Life (A. S. Green), i. p. 225 ; and the
reports quoted.

ADMINISTRATION OR GOVERNMENT 165

used in these boroughs. The governing charter granted by
Elizabeth to the burgesses of Beaumaris in 1592, contains minute
directions to the two sergeants-at-mace of the borough as to
the carrying of the overgilt or silver-graven maces, decked with
the sign of arms of the realm of England. There is some tradition
of an old silver mace which was once used at Newborough. No
maces of either mediaeval or modern date were found at Conway
by the municipal commissioners in 1835, and the two silver maces
of Carnarvon, described by the record commissioners in 1837, were
the gift of Colonel Twisleton to the corporation in 1718.

(c) Old Weights and Measures. — There are several incidental
references in the current records to the apparatus used for local
trading purposes, but the surviving instances are very few.
The municipal commissioners refer only to the old bronze
measures and scales that were once used in the borough of
Newborough.

166 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

THE NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS AS ECONOMIC UNITS

THIS chapter treats of the most practical side of burghal life
in North Wales during the Middle Ages, and for the sake of
clearness, is split up into three convenient sections. In the first
section, the commercial status of the North Welsh boroughs is
considered with special reference to the acquisition and defini-
tion of their privileges, and their relations with other economic
organisations in the Principality of North Wales, during the
period of settlement. In the remaining sections, the actual
as opposed to the theoretical side of their economic activity, is
roughly sketched with the object of illustrating the everyday
life of the burgesses, and the respective importance of the several
boroughs as factors of internal and external trade.

In the first place, let us consider the acquisition and defini-
tion of the commercial privileges enjoyed by the North Welsh
boroughs. The most prized of these was the gild merchant.
The foundation charters grant the gild merchant with hanse
and its pertaining liberties and customs, to each of the North
Welsh boroughs. The burgesses supply their own interpretation
of the privilege, in their replies to quo warranto proceedings
during the reign of Edward m.1 They claimed that all those
within the borough who wished to enjoy its liberties, should
be sworn before the burgesses justly to maintain the rights
and liberties of the same town, and also to contribute a certain
custom, called 'hanse,' towards the common weal of the
borough. Having done this, and having paid lot and scot, they
were recognised as fully-pledged free burgesses, with right to
enjoy all the privileges of the town without any contradiction.

1 Rec. of Cam., pp. 161, 163, 173, 180, 187, 194, 198.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 167

In boroughs more elaborate, and of larger dimensions than
those of North Wales, the gild merchant assumed an organic
existence apart from that of the town community, exerting a
considerable influence in matters of burghal government, in
addition to exercising a general monopoly of the town's trade.
There is nothing in the mediaeval muniments of the North Welsh
boroughs to show that the gild merchant ever flourished as a
potent organisation, distinct from that of the borough. Through-
out the Middle Ages it seems to enjoy a merely formal existence
— a sort of machinery, as it were, for the admission of freemen
into the full privileges of the borough. The fact that the hanse,
or the gild entrance fee, was payable to the common coffer of the
borough, suggests that burgess-ship and gildship were apparently
co-extensive in the smaller boroughs of North Wales. There
are no extant gild rolls to show the contrary.

The whole point of the gild privilege amounted to this. It
gave the borough community a monopoly of trade regulation
within the borough, the several burgesses paying hanse being
allowed to trade freely therein. All those not paying hanse
traded with the consent of the burgesses. It is probable that
the majority of the North Welsh burgesses paid hanse. The
fact that the privilege is associated with the payment of scot and
lot, duties which generally fell upon resident burgesses, would
seem to point to this. The famous customs of Hereford put
some emphasis on the payment of lot and scot as a qualification
of gildship. The citizens of Hereford were permitted to receive
French, Welsh, Scottish, and all other loyal subjects of the English
King into the membership of the city gild, on the condition that
they dwelt in the city or its suburbs, and paid lot and scot with
the citizens.1 The proportion of non-resident burgesses in the
North Welsh boroughs was never considerable. Towards the
end of the reign of Edward I. , a speculating merchant of Chester
held some burgages by attorney in Beaumaris,2 and a foreign
merchant of Bordeaux in 1295 is termed a burgess of Conway.3
Whether burgess in this latter instance implies an actual burgess
of the borough, or a member of the local gild, it is futile to surmise.
Residence in the same town was not generally a qualification
for membership,4 but there were special reasons why residence
should be insisted upon in North Wales during the fourteenth and

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 130. 2 P. 67 above.

» Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 156. 4 Gross, Gild Merchant, i. p. 29.

168 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

early fifteenth centuries. The attractions of the gild, like the
importance of the borough, were of a political rather than of a
commercial character.

The North Welsh boroughs are particularly free from disputes
between the representatives of different gilds concerning the
regulation and conduct of trade. The commercial conflict
they experienced was of a different character, arising not so
much from the monopoly of one or more gilds within a borough,
as from the monopoly of a borough within a market district.
Ever since the English conquest, one of the hopes most
cherished by the local Welshman was for the dawn of the day
when he (like the gildsman of the borough) could trade freely
within the borough, as he had been wont among his native
mountains. The North Welshmen were not altogether sub-
missive to the order that their commercial traffic should be
at the mercy of the English burgesses. The remission of the
royal tolls and customs, from which the burgesses were exempt,
was not the least interesting item in their political programme
during the later Middle Ages.

In addition to the gild merchant the North Welsh burgesses
acquired several other commercial immunities. Those of a
jurisdictional bearing have been described in a previous chapter.1
A further clause in the foundation charters made the burgesses
quit of numerous commercial and feudal tolls, such as toll
(tolnetum), lastage, passage, murage, pontage, stallage, leve,
danegeld, gaywite, and other customs and exactions. An
additional custom, pavage, specified only in the Bala charter,
is evidently implied by the rest. This quittance covered an
extensive area, holding good, in the words of the royal letters
sanctioning the grant, ' in England as in all our other lands.'

The burgesses supply the meaning of these terms in the
quo warranto returns quoted above. Tolnetum 2 freed them
from toll on merchandise or wares bought and sold by them

1 Ch. v. above.

2 The enjoyment of this privilege was sometimes the outcome of
a special charter. In the very next year after the issue of their original
charters special letters, sanctioning the privilege of freedom from toll
throughout the land, were granted to the burgesses of Conway and Carnar-
von (see Welsh Roll, 13 Edward I., m. 2). This was done more particularly
with the view of strengthening the commercial footing of the new burgesses
in Ireland, where seemingly new-comers were extended a sparing welcome.
Dr. Gross has some interesting remarks upon the modification of these
general grants of freedom from toll (Gild Merchant, i. p. 44, n. 6).

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 169

in any fairs and markets in Wales or elsewhere. The right of
passage (passagium) assured them the free transit of their goods,
stock, and other merchandise over all royal ferries and bridges.
Muragium exempted them from contributing to the maintenance
of the town walls of the boroughs which they visited for purposes
of trade. By virtue of the privilege of pontage they escaped
the liability of bridge tolls at towns through which they passed ;
stallage, pavage, and several other immunities exonerated them
from the duties levied in different boroughs for the repairing of
streets and roads. Through the privilege of leve (they say)
they paid nothing in any market or fair to certain officers called
leave-lookers.1 The grant of lastagium enabled the burgesses
to carry their purchased goods wheresoever they would. A toll
under this name was levied in some boroughs before such privilege
was obtained.

As far as commercial status went, the North Welsh boroughs,
by their original charters, were nominally brought into line with
the rest of the royal boroughs within the King's dominion. The
trading section of the inhabitants was allowed immunity in
several important details. In the hands of flourishing com-
munities with rosy commercial prospects and signs of industrial
wealth, this general exemption proved an asset of considerable
value. It was only of casual or occasional importance to the
North Welsh burgesses during the Middle Ages. To them, the
most practical and useful of their commercial privileges was the
right of holding local markets and fairs in their own boroughs.

The market and fair franchises were separate from those of
the borough, and usually had distinct charters behind them.2
Altogether, twenty-two yearly fairs and nine weekly markets
were held in the boroughs of the North Welsh Principality.
Of these, there is extant charter authority for ten fairs and three
markets, the rest being either based on charters noAV lost, or
else established by prescriptive right.

1 The leave-lookers seem to have been officers of considerable im-
portance. At the time of the Municipal Corporation Inquiry in 1835,
leave-lookers appear in four boroughs situated in the adjacent counties of
Lancashire, Cheshire, and Denbigh (e.g. at Chester, Denbigh, Ruthin, and
Liverpool). See Hemingway's History of Chester, i. p. 244, where it
appears that the leave-lookers were accustomed to go round the city in
order to preserve its privileges, and took small sums from non-freemen for
leave to sell wares by retail. It is stated that officers of this character
were appointed as early as 1297 under the title custodes gildce mercatorice.

2 Eng. Hist. Review, xi. p. 15.

170 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Fairs and markets were held in the manorial vills of Nevin and
Pwllheli long before they were made free boroughs. They were
consequently confirmed by the foundation charters. A royal
ordinance seemingly sanctioned the continuance of the old mart
of Llanvaes in the new borough of Beaumaris. The latter
borough has no market and fair charter of an early date. The
same may be said of Criccieth, where trading transactions of
some kind had taken place before the conquest. Bala, by virtue
of a clause contained in its original charter, monopolised the
market and fairs previously held at Llanvawr. The boroughs
of Harlech and Carnarvon have no charters warranting their
early markets and fairs, but for the grant of additional fairs
at a later date they possess express charters. The market
and fairs of Conway were apparently a new creation. The
borough, moreover, included the vill of Deganwy, where a mart
had flourished, with some intermission, since the days of
Henry m.

The following is a complete list of the markets and fairs held
in the North Welsh boroughs during the years 1284-1536. The
table also includes notices of pre-conquest trading in the
Principality, together with the respective market districts
within which each borough enjoyed a monopoly of the usual
trade.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

171

Name of
Borough.

Trading references
before English
Conquest and
before
Enfranchisement.

1284-1530.

District.

Authority.

Markets.

Fairs.

Conway, . .

Market held at

Friday

St. Bartholomew

Issaph.

Min. Ace.

Gannow every
Tuesday, and a

(Conway).
Monday

(Aug. 24).
St. Simon and

Ughaph.
Nantconway.

1170/3.
Add. MS.,

six days' fair

(Gannow).

St. Jude (Oct.

Creuddyn.

33,352, f. 8.

on the morrow

28).

Williams' Con-

of St. Martin

way, p. 48.

(E.H.R., vol.

xvii. p. 287).

Carnarvon, .

Port dues taken

Saturday.

St. James (July

Tsgwyrvai. Min. Ace.

before the Con-

25).

1170/5,1171/8.

quest (Min.

St. Michael

Ace. 1171/8).

(Sept. 29).

St. John ante

Uwchgwyrvai. Harl. MS.,

portam Latin-

1954, f. 496.

am (May 6).

St. Katherine's

(Nov. 25).

Criccietb, . .

Tolnet' villae de
Cruket (Min.

Thursday,
Wednesday1

St. Mark (April
25).

Eivionydd.

Min. Ace.
Court Roll,

Ace. 1171/7,

(1684).

St. Luke (Oct.

255/54.

1351).

18).

Nevin, .

Forum, fair, and

Saturday.

Whitsuntide.

Dynllaen.

Orig. Chart.

port dues be-
fore its en-

Assumption
(Aug. 15).

franchisement

(Min. Ace.

1171/7).

Pwllheli, . .

Fair and bor-

Sunday,

Exaltationofthe

Gafflogion.

Orig. Chart.

ough tolls be-

Wednesday

Holy Cross

fore its en-

(1684).:

(Sept. 14).

franchisement

Feast of All

(Min. Ace.

Saints (No v.l).

1171/7).

Bala, . . .

Fairs held at

Saturday.

Apostles Peter

Penllyn.

Orig. Chart.

Llanvawr up

and Paul (Jan.

to about 1310

29).

(Min. Ace.

Founding of the

1231/5).

Holy Cross

(May 3).

Harlech, . .

Saturday.

St. Martin (Nov.

Ardudwy.

Min. Ace,

11).

1170/3, 4.

MaryMagdalena

Rec. of Cam.,

(July 20, 22).

p. 192.

Whitsuntide.

St. Lawrence

(Aug. 10).

Beaumaris, .

Fairs held at

Saturday.

Ascension Day

Twrcelyn.

Min. Ace.

Llanvaes (Ex-

(Mar. or April).

Dyndaethwy.

1170/5.

tent of Angle-

Nativity of St.

Talybolion.

sea, temp. Ed-

Mary (Sept. 8).

ward L).

Newborough,

Tuesday.

St. Martin (Nov.

Meney.

Min. ' Ace.

11).

1170/3.

Apostles Peter

and Paul (June

29).

Beaufort Progress, Dineley MS. (ed. C. W. Banks, 1888), p. 103.

172 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The above table concludes our enumeration of the chartered
privileges enjoyed by the North Welsh burgesses for purposes
of trade. All told, they included (1) the gilda mercaloria
privilege ; (2) special immunity from certain commercial tolls
and feudal customs ; (3) the right of holding local markets and
fairs.

The acquisition of privileges was one thing, their exercise
was another. Edward I. was alive to the importance of this in a
newly subjected district like that of North Wales. He not only
established the commercial borough in theory, but also imposed
some new conditions that were calculated to further its success
in practice. His commercial policy in the Principality bears
the stamp of his political object. It shows his grim determination
to subdue as well as to civilise the native Welsh. He established
the borough to be a living factor in his plan of political and
economic conquest. He improved the physical conditions of
trade by clearing thick forests and erecting convenient quays * ;
he extended and introduced the commercial privileges, and also
laid down fixed and definite ordinances for the double pur-
pose of perpetuating the English method of trading, and of
gradually extinguishing the old tribal civilisation of the North
Welshmen.

The introduction of a new civilisation was no small matter.
It gave rise to a period of closer and intenser conflict — no longer
one of swords and battlefields, but of economic methods and
social customs. Henceforth the cause of political unrest was as
much one of economics as of politics. The endowment of the
new boroughs with commercial privileges, inevitably traversed
the old prescriptive and charter rights enjoyed by ecclesiastical
and other bodies dufing the pre-conquest period. The intro-
duction of novel trading methods, a central mart with fixed
tolls, new measures, etc., was a task that required con-
siderable tact and care. The adjustment of the rights of a
conquered race, always a difficult problem, was certainly doubly
so in North Wales during a period when the central government,
through circumstances of distance and communication, was
necessarily slow in enforcing the integrity of its provincial
officials.

The civilising process was protracted and irregular. The
1 See Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. pp. 139, 168.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 173

prime necessity of maintaining a strong political hold on the
country, to some extent subordinated economic to political
considerations. Edward's commercial policy in North Wales
exhibits very forcibly his avowed regard for the munition of the
castles, the prosperity of the boroughs, and the detribalising of
the native economy. He made the local markets contribute
to the wants of the castle, and forced the rural hamlets into
commercial allegiance to the new English boroughs. The
towns in this way assumed a political significance peculiarly
obnoxious to the bent of the national populace. They were
attached to the boroughs by all methods that were likely to
complete the work of English subjection, and were likewise for-
bidden residence in the same boroughs on account of circum-
stances likely to weaken the English hold. The Edwardian
legislation imposing these conditions was, moreover, of a
tentative character. It possessed the elasticity of the ordin-
ance rather than the fixity of the statute, and was evidently
formed to cope with the varying conditions of a people under-
going a gradual change of political opinion. The new laws
were rigidly enforced during periods of exceptional unrest, and
laxly administered again at times of comparative quiet.

Edward's regard for the munition of the castles comes out
very clearly in one of his many arrangements for the sufficient
victualling of the garrisons. Comparing the districts subjected
to each castle with the districts whence each borough market
drew its supplies, it will be seen that they agree in the main.
The right of purveyance was largely exercised in North Wales
soon after the conquest.1 The constable of the castle enjoyed
these rights, when necessary, for the purposes of the castle
garrison, and the same privilege was extended to the local
justiciar for the maintenance of the royal officers throughout
the whole of North Wales.2 Early in the fourteenth century, we
have a petition from the free tenants of the latter district pro-
testing against the wrongful use of this right by local officials.
The tenants asserted that they were deprived even of their store
or improving stock, and that at trifling prices. They implored
that their goods should be purchased at their proper value in
the local markets and fairs.3 A table of fixed prices at which
cattle and other commodities were to be purveyed for the royal

1 Cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1340-3, p. 63. 2 Harl. MS., 1954, ff. 49-51.

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 3925.

174 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

use, was compiled about this time, namely, for every : — fat ox 5s.,
cow 3s. 4d., mutton 6d., goose 3d., capon 2d., duck Id., small
pork 2d., load of hay Id., load of butter Jd., hoppet of oats Jd.,
load of fuel wood Jd., load of turf Jd. These details are preserved
in a series of valuable inquisitions taken towards the end of the
reign of Edward m., touching the victualling of the castles of
Criccieth, Conway , andCarnarvon. From these it also appearsthat
the constable of the castle enjoyed a right of pre-emption over
all saleable goods brought to the local borough. The constable,
before all others, had the privilege of buying what was necessary
for the castle, at a price agreed upon between him and the owners
of the goods. At Carnarvon, the porter of the castle took part
of his stipend in the way of minor tolls from merchandise brought
into the town for sale, namely, an armful of fuel from every load,
two turves out of every load of turf, and a handful of hay out of
every load of hay. He also received one halfpenny a day for
each distrained animal kept in his custody, but out of this he
had to provision them with fodder.1

Edward's concern for the prosperity of the English burgesses
whom he had induced to reside in North Wales is shown in his
attempt to secure for them a complete monopoly of the trade
there. The market districts of the boroughs (some of date
anterior to the conquest) were definitely established, and special
injunctions encouraged the attendance of buyers and sellers. One
enactment stipulated that one person from each house should
visit the weekly market of his district for the purpose of buying
and selling. This was hardly practicable, and after a few years
was modified by Prince Edward of Carnarvon, who ordained the
presence only of those having business to transact.2

Another ordinance, framed ostensibly for the maintenance and
protection of the boroughs founded by the Conqueror for the
habitation of Englishmen only, proclaimed that no Welshman
should trade outside the mercatorial towns (villas mercatorias) .3
This dealt a blow at the old-time practice of the tribal Welsh ;
and a subsequent ordinance, similar in character, aimed at secur-
ing a monopoly of trade for the free boroughs only, irrespective
of the commercial immunities then enjoyed by other towns in
North Wales. The ordinance was to the following effect : — * No
markets, no fairs, nor any other places of trade forsooth, for

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 202. * 76., p. 212. 3 /&., p. 132.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 175

the buying and selling of oxen, cows, horses, etc., excepting
small articles of food such as butter, milk, and cheese, shall be
held elsewhere in North Wales than in the towns of Conway,
Beaumaris, Newborough, Carnarvon, Criccieth, Harlech, and
Bala.' i

These Edwardian ordinances formed the transitional links
between the old and new economy. They brought the boroughs
into immediate contact with the old conditions of trade in North
Wales. The result was a two fold conflict. On the economic
side, it resolved itself into a struggle with the North Welshmen,
who reluctantly submitted themselves to the idea of centralised
trade as represented by the market districts assigned to the
several boroughs. On the political side, it was a conflict between
the free boroughs and the smaller towns of North Wales that
were gradually developing their commercial side. The attempt
to confine the trade of the North Welsh territory to the free
boroughs was prejudicial to the smaller market towns.2

The North Welshmen, prior to the innovations of the borough
system, had been accustomed to buy and sell articles of food,
horses, oxen, cows, etc., in patria in neighbourly fashion, one
from the other at will according to the common law of the land.
They petitioned Prince Edward of Carnarvon that they should
continue to do so without being liable to amercement. The re-
quest, of course, was not entirely granted, but Edward permitted
to travellers and others far removed from market, the privilege of
trading in patria for such necessaries of life as milk, butter, and
cheese.3 All infringements of this rule were to be precisely
recorded in the court rolls of the local commotes.

Several refractory Welshmen persisted in making their pur-
chases in patria, thus depriving both the Crown of its toll, and
the borough communities of their incidental customs. The
Anglesea men, pioneers of one of the early post-conquest revolts,
were slow to patronise the new borough market of Beaumaris.
Edward I. had strictly ordained that the men of the three ad-
joining commotes were to trade there.4 The burgesses, in one
of the Kennington petitions to Prince Edward of Carnarvon,

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 137. North Wales (tota Northwallia), in the Kenning-
ton series of petitions, represents the district of the three shires of Anglesea,
Carnarvon, and Merioneth (less the commote of Mawddwy).

2 E.g. Bangor, Trefriw, Aber, Towyn, Dolgelly, and Aberffraw.

3 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 135, n. 1.

4 Rec. of Cam., p. 223.

176 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

complained that the inhabitants of these commotes withheld
themselves from Beaumaris and, more or less out of racial spite,
betook themselves and their saleable goods to the town of New-
borough, because the burgesses there were all from South Wales.
Most of the burgesses of Newborough, we know, were Welshmen
from the old town of Llanvaes. In a subsequent petition to
Edward of Carnarvon, when King, the burgesses of Beaumaris
assert that the Welshmen of the county of Anglesea continued
to merchandise with one another in patria, which custom was
much to the damage of our lord the King and his burgesses.1

The court rolls, covering some of the later years of the earlier
half of the fourteenth century, show many instances of country
trading by Welshmen of the three counties of North Wales.2 A
number of inquisitions and other documents towards the close
of the reign of Edward in., almost suggest an organised boycott
of the borough markets on the part of the Welsh. In 1366 the
burgesses of Beaumaris found it necessary to procure especial
letters patent sanctioning the old ordinances of Edward i.3 A
similar request was subsequently made by the burgesses of Beau-
maris, Conway, Criccieth, and Carnarvon. The men of the
latter town stated that two hundred or more had withdrawn from
their market, to the loss of the King and the community of about
five hundred marks. Accordingly, charters enjoining the strict
observance of the old ordinances as to trading in the English
boroughs were granted to these boroughs in 1372. Similar
complaints were made again in 1374.4 This grievance of declin-
ing markets was probably due in great part to the depopulating
influence of the Black Death. The poverty 5 that followed made
the payment of commercial tolls, at best of times irksome to the
Welsh, a legitimate grievance. This was one of the silent forces
that led up to and fostered the national insurrection under
Glyndwr.

Until the conquest in 1282 the North Welsh apparently never
paid market tolls. At least one of their requests to Edward of
Carnarvon in 1305, was that they should be required to pay tolls
as they were accustomed in the time of their own princes — to wit,
in fairs only. The royal answer to the petition brought no

1 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,936.

2 See Trans. Cym. Soc., 1902-3, appendix iv.

3 Harl. MS., 1954, f. 536. 4 /&., ff. 49-51, 53a, 546. "
6 Cf. Trans. Cym. Soc., as above, pp. 44-6.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 177

respite. Tolls were to be levied in all markets and fairs, as was
usual in mercatorial towns and boroughs.1

These tolls were obviously regarded by the old Welsh free
traders as one of the objectionable features of the new civilisation.
There is no authentic table of the actual tolls taken in the
boroughs, but incidental notices of the tolls charged in the con-
temporary market towns of Dolgelly and Towyn (co. Merioneth),
Bangor and Aber (co. Carnarvon), have survived. They are as
follows : — of every horse, 4d. ; of every cow or ox, 2d. ; of every
sheep and pig, Jd. ; of every ox or cow hide, Jd. (Id. at Bangor) ;
of every sack of wool, 4d. ; of every entire cloth, Jd. ; of every
horse-load of honey, butter, and corn, jd. ; and of other small
merchandise according to bulk.2

On an early Anglesea court roll we find a Welshman amerced
40d. for selling a horse outside the forum of Beaumaris. The toll
lost to the Crown in consequence is said to be 4d.3 It would thus
appear that the tolls chargeable in the markets of North Wales
were all based on an uniform scale. The later history of the
mediaeval toll agitation is considered below.

Another grievance of the native inhabitants arose from the
importation of new-fangled measures. The borough was again
the pioneer in this direction. The ordinances of the Conqueror
stipulated that no measures were to be used in the English
boroughs unless agreeing with those of the lord the King, and
sealed with the sign of the communities of the several towns.
All weights and measures had to be subjected to official scrutiny
twice a year, and any one found with two measures, a large one
to buy and a small one to sell, was liable to serious punishment.4
The extension of the use of these English measures to the rural
districts was not immediate. In 1305, the Welsh inhabitants of
North Wales begged to be exempted from the distraints and
amercements to which they were liable at the sheriff's tourn for
not having bushels, gallons, and such measures. Their request
was considerately granted on condition that all buying and
selling should be transacted in the local fairs and markets.5
The use of weights and measures, in agreement with the English
standards such as bushels, gallons, ells, and the like, was not
legally enforced in the rural districts of North Wales until
the year 1339. Among the general ordinances drawn up by

i Bee. of Cam., p. 213. » Ib., pp. 136, 142.

3 Court Rotts, 215/6. 4 Bee. of Cam., pp. 242-4. 6 Ib., p. 213.

178 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Edward in. at this date for the better government of North
Wales, one refers to the introduction of new weights and
measures.1 One Richard de Kymberle was appointed to the
office of the market there, with power to ensure the actual
observance of the order.2 Nothing very tangible resulted, the
office of the market soon disappeared, and the old Welsh measures
lingered in the mountainous districts down to a comparatively
modern date.

The second or political phase of the economic and commercial
conflict waged by the North Welsh burgesses is connected with
their efforts to secure an entire monopoly of trade despite the
prescriptive and other commercial rights vested in the Church
and other bodies. The bishops of Bangor, and the representa-
tives of the local monasteries, were not allowed to enjoy their pre-
scriptive rights without undergoing the ordeal of a legal contest.

The conflict with the Bishop of Bangor lasted well into the
fourteenth century. The commonalty of English burgesses in
North Wales endeavoured to enforce the strict letter of the
ordinances made by Edward I. They maintained that all
tenants, of the Bishop as of the King, should attend their borough
markets; and further, that the Bishop's tenants, as others,
were not on any account to brew for purposes of sale and profit
within a radius of eight miles of a free borough.3 It was the
opinion of the burgesses that the privileges extended to ecclesi-
astics and other persons by princes of Welsh blood had lapsed
with the conquest. From one point of view this was true, but
the burgesses forgot what the Bishop and others remembered,
namely, the promise of a regrant or confirmation of old-time
privileges on coming to the King's peace.

A general proclamation was made throughout Wales at the
time of the conquest, to the effect that all Welshmen and others,
of whatsoever condition, coming to the King's peace should be
allowed to enjoy their possessions and liberties as heretofore.4
Anian, then Bishop of Bangor, came to the King's peace, and by
a charter dated 12th October 1284, he was permitted to exercise
his usual Jurisdictional privileges qua bishop, and both he and
his men by virtue of the same letters were freed from toll

1 Gal. Close Rolls, 1339-41, pp. 199, 249-64.

2 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1338-40, p. 322.

3 Cf. Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 135, n. 5.

4 Rec. of Cam., p. 137.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 179

throughout the realm. Anian also continued to enjoy his
prescriptive right of holding Sunday markets at Bangor and a
four days' fair there at the feast of St. Trillo. Anian's successor,
Matthew, by virtue of a charter 10th August 1311, was allowed
to hold an additional four days' fair during the feast of St. Luke
in each year. The tenants of the bishopric continued throughout
to exercise their old right of free trade amongst themselves,
within the pale of the episcopal territory.1

The burgesses of the English boroughs protested strongly
against the continuance of this latter usage in districts within
an eight-mile radius of their towns. Early in the reign of
Edward m. we have an interesting suit, showing at once the
vigour of the struggle and the consequences it had for the
borough. In the Bishop's town of Llanwnda, situated on the
foreshore three miles to the south of Carnarvon borough, two
bond tenants, named leuan ap Eignon ap Heilyn and David
ap Jenkyn, persisted in selling beer, cattle, mead, skins, fish, and
other merchandise, much to the detriment of the royal borough
of Carnarvon. John de Hampton and Roger de Diton, pro-
secutors for the community in a plea of trespass brought against
the above persons before William de Shaldeford, the deputy
justice, estimated the damage to the Crown in respect of
toll, and to the community in respect of customs, at about
£20. The result of the suit is not given in the part of the
proceedings now remaining.2 The Bishop's tenants were
evidently exercising their old prescriptive rights. Moreover,
it seems probable that William de Shaldeford decided in favour
of the burgesses. About this time we find the Bishop complaining
to the Crown that the sheriffs and bailiffs of the counties of
Anglesea and Carnarvon prevented his burgesses from selling
corn and other merchandise where they wished. In reply, the
privilege of free trading was conditionally extended to the
Bishop's men.3 Moreover, it was the quo warranto proceedings
of 1353 that finally settled the status of the Bishop and his
tenants. As the result of these proceedings the Bishop was
allowed to enjoy all commercial privileges held by charter grant,
but for all his prescriptive privileges he was put in mercy, and
their renewal postponed to a subsequent court. An agreement
favourable to the tenants of the bishopric was arrived at in a

1 Rec of Cam., p. 133 et seq. 2 A.O. Misc. Bk., No. 166, ff. xxvii.

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,683.

180 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

parley between Richard de Stafford and the other justices in Eyre
in North Wales and Bishop Matthew, which was embodied in a
patent of Edward in. These letters, dated 8th October 1352,
confirmed the above agreement, made in the time of the Black
Prince (circa 17-25 Edward m.), namely, that the Bishop's tenants
should buy and sell all kinds of victuals in North Wales, within,
as well as eight miles outside of the English towns, and this
notwithstanding proclamations to the contrary.1 It was the
lack of this non-obstante clause that threw a glare of suspicion
on the Bishop's rights up to this, but the preceding letters brought
the conflict to a close.

The result weakened the trade monopoly of the boroughs.
Representatives of the religious houses of Conway, Cymmer,
and Bardsey, and of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem, likewise successfully maintained their prescriptive
right of freedom from toll in local fairs, markets, ports, and
ferries throughout North Wales.2

The North Welsh burgesses found their nominal monopoly
further encroached upon by the continued practice of holding
immemorial fairs, and the Crown did not scruple to grant
commercial privileges to other royal vills in the Principality.
For instance, Bala and Harlech by no means enjoyed the
monopoly of trading rights in Merionethshire. The usual fairs
were continued at Dolgelly and Towyn,3 the respective marts
of Talybont and Estimanner — two commotes that contained
no boroughs. The burgesses of Conway, too, were reluctant
witnesses of the establishment of markets and fairs in the
manorial town of Aber.4 The vill of Trefriw, higher up the
Conway, somewhat later monopolised the trade of the commote
of Nantconway. Both operations affected their local mart.
In Anglesea, again,6 the maenor of Aberffraw held markets and
fairs of its own since the year 1330, and the old prescriptive fair
of Llanerchymedd, in the same county, provided a flourishing
mart for the Welsh cloths produced in the island.6 The general
plea made by the Crown attorneys in proceedings of quo warranto
against grants of this character, is that they were made un-
wittingly of the ordinances of Edward I., and unmindful of the

See Rec. of Cam., pp. 254-7, and Col. Pat. Rotts, 1377-81, p 291.

Rec. of Cam., pp. 144, 146, 147, 199, 203.

76., pp. 141-2. * 16., pp. 141-2.

76., pp. 190-1. Cf. Cal. Close Rolls, 1341-3, p. 633.

Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 169.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 181

prejudice accordingly occasioned to the English boroughs.
The holders were on this score nominally amerced and their
privileges restored.

After this date, the commercial position of the North Welsh
boroughs fluctuated with the gradual progress of the English
policy of settlement. There was no theoretical change of status
until the Tudor period. The position of the English boroughs
was henceforth revolutionised not so much by the diminution or
modification of their existing privileges, as by their extension
to the native Welsh. The Edwardian policy, from the moment
of its introduction, imposed comparative limitations on the
commercial freedom of the Welsh people. This was the con-
sistent policy of English kings in their pacification of Wales.
A commercial significance was read into the political yoke.
During the period of settlement, the North Welshmen were
placed in the same handicapped position as their ancestors were
under Henry ni. and Edward I., before the political conquest
was an accomplished fact. They therefore persistently strove
for the rights of citizenship, which in their eyes was tanta-
mount to being raised to the level of the English burgesses there.

In the commercial sense, this is perceptible in their persistent
struggle against the payment of tolls, from which the burgesses
were exempt. The stronger and more purely English boroughs
were evidently (and perhaps necessarily) averse to this particular
aspect of Welsh progress, whilst the smaller boroughs, more
Welsh in sympathy, seemed to have welcomed the change.
During the disturbed and demoralising period following the
national rebellion under Glyndwr, the Welsh laboured under the
disabilities imposed by the penal statutes of Henry TV. There
are no indications that the North Welshmen materially improved
their commercial status, though the comparative insignificance
of the toll returns in the boroughs of little political importance
would seem to show that royal tolls were carelessly collected
under the Lancastrian kings.

It is not until the Tudor period that we have any definite
pronouncement upon this point. The inhabitants, partaking
of the general awakening infused into the national life by the
accession of Henry vn., made a final attempt to release their
internal trade from its feudal and political restrictions. A
clause in the great charter granted by Henry to the inhabitants
of North Wales towards the close of his reign, exempted them,

182 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

as well as strangers of whatsoever condition coming into the
three counties of North Wales for the purpose of buying and
selling, from toll, stallage, passage, and other customs throughout
the above counties, as well (note) within the towns of the
Englishmen there as without. This put the ' foreign inhabitants '
of the North Welsh Principality on the same commercial footing
as the men of the borough. The latter, moreover, particularly
those of Carnarvon, Conway,andBeaumaris, immediately resented
the grant. Two years later they succeeded in getting articles
of injunction against the inhabitants of the three shires effecting
a nominal reversion to their status as of old.

To what extent the tenor of these injunctions was carried
into actual practice is not very clear. It is certain that many
of the exemptions warranted in Henry's charter held good.
Several of the borough communities, however, continued to
pay nominal sums in respect of the royal tolls taken in the
borough throughout the Tudor period. The tendency was for
the royal revenue to become more and more confined to the
issues of the borough lands, while the new corporation derived
its income largely from the purely commercial dues. The rents
and farms payable to the Crown by boroughs at the present
day represent the old returns of the Tudor period less the
amount paid in respect of trading tolls due to the Crown during
the Middle Ages.

North Welshmen do not appear to have regarded the ques-
tion of tolls as a burning grievance after the acquisition of
Henry vn.'s charter. At last a death-blow had been given to the
old political monopoly of trade enjoyed by the English burgesses.
The commerce of the North Welsh Principality was in this way
rid of many of its mediaeval and feudal impediments. The
English burgesses and the native populace were being gradually
transplanted into a political environment, in which considerations
of race were no longer to affect the economic and commercial
development of the country.

We now come to the consideration of the actual as opposed
to the theoretical side of the economic activity of the boroughs
of North Wales during the Middle Ages. It will be convenient
in the' first place, to treat of the internal activity of the several
boroughs as economic units and distributive centres of local

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 183

trade. The more purely commercial activity of the boroughs
is left over to a general section on the external trade of the
Principality of North Wales during the years 1284-1536.

Taking the North Welsh boroughs as local economic units,
we treat of the ways and means of burghal life, the occupa-
tions of the respective communities, and their reciprocal rela-
tions with the inhabitants of their town districts. Incidental
notices of their mediaeval condition are somewhat rare. The
following notes hardly reveal a continuous development, they
merely present a bald narrative of the facts gleaned here and
there, bearing upon the predominant features of their economic
life, namely, agriculture, industry, and trade*

1. CARNARVON

(a) Agriculture. — The lands of the borough, covering an
extent of 1464J acres, were of unequal agricultural value. The
better lands were severally arrented to the burgesses at two pence
per acre, the poorer lands of marshy and stony soil being let
at a penny an acre.1 From the evidence of a rental compiled
in 1298,2 it appears that the majority of the inhabitants were
actively engaged in agriculture. Ten out of a total of sixty-one
held burgages only. Local artisans, such as carpenters, smiths,
tailors, bakers, and butchers, possessed their little allotted
tenements. The burgesses, the same document informs us,
safely deposited the produce of their outlying fields in spacious
granaries within the walls of the town. Cow sheds and other
shelters for the live stock were erected outside the walls.

Some of the town lands, despoiled by the revolt of Madoc ap
Llywelyn in 1294, remained uncultivated for many years.3
The town was so ravaged by the insurgents at this date, that
the burgesses were forced to borrow a sum of £100 from the Crown
to amend their state, and they were at the same time excused
from paying any rents for a period of ten years.4 The burgesses
undertook to repay the loan by instalments of £20. The fact
that the sum was not paid back until the year 1352,5 nearly
sixty years later, reflects somewhat on the economic condition
of the borough during the early half of the fourteenth century.
Some entries in the local court rolls throw an interesting

1 See above, pp. 47-8.

2 Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), 17/86. 3 Min. Ace. 1170/5.
4 /&., 1211/2 and 1171/8. 6 /&., 1171/8.

184 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

light upon the rural atmosphere of town life in mediaeval
Carnarvon. One Julian Sturdi (a burgess) is at one time amerced
for stealing three sheaves of corn, the property of a co-burgess
named William de Atteford.1 Another defaulter in the person
of Alice, the wife of William de Derbi, is characterised as a breaker
of hedges outside the walls during the night.2

The borough lands yielded a supply of corn insufficient for
the use of the town inhabitants. In 1316 the burgesses com-
plained of the barrenness, marshiness, and smallness of their
lands, and upon request 3 were allowed to seek corn elsewhere,
in Anglesea, Chester, and Ireland.4 Men of the town of Car-
narvon were again specially deputed to buy corn in Ireland
in 1331.5 Small quantities of corn from this and other sources
were periodically drafted into Carnarvon during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries for the adequate sustenance of the castle
and town populace. Forestallers of corn brought to the local
port were heavily amerced in the borough courts.6

During the progress of the revolt of Owen Glyndwr the town
was almost reduced to famine. The Welsh, according to the
report of the burgesses, were so proud and malicious towards
the English folk of that district, that they dared not shift for fear
of death, nor could they venture to plough and sow through
fear of the rebellion.7 During the last siege of the town by
Owen and his followers, the poor of the town were supplied with
food from the castle store.8 The hard lot of the burgesses, as of
the soldiers of the garrison, was further relieved by the generosity
of a local tradesman named Thomas Walton, who placed a pipe
of wine and other of his victuals at their disposal. Somewhat
later, Thomas made good use of this action when seeking the
grant of certain lands in the county of Carnarvon.9

An interesting contemporary account of the damages and losses
sustained by the burgesses of the town during the above revolt,
further indicates the agricultural character of the town com-
munity. It gives the names of nineteen English burgesses, the
total value of whose losses is roughly estimated at £1275. 2s. 3d.
This amount included the value of about a thousand beasts,

1 Court Rolls, 215/46. a Ibid.

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 12,920.

4 Gal. Pat. Rolls, 1313-17, p. 387. 6 /&., 1330-4, p. 180.
• Court Rolls (P.R.O.), 215/46.

7 Ancient Correspondence (P.R.O.), vol. ii., No. 41.

8 Excliqr. K.R. Ace. 43/39. • Min. Ace. 1216/2.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 185

chiefly cattle. The barbican of the town gate was also seriously
damaged by the insurgents, and sixty houses in the suburbs of
the town were demolished, to the loss of the Crown and com-
munity of the borough of JE100.1 This is the earliest known
reference to the suburbs of the town of Carnarvon as such. They
were situated outside the East Gate towards Old Segontium.
The inhabitants apparently through poverty, or owing to the
nature of their occupation, did not care, or were forbidden, to
reside within the borough. In the reign of Henry vm. these
same suburbs, consisting of several houses and gardens, were
wholly occupied by Welshmen.2

There were two water mills at Carnarvon, one on the Cadnant
stream within the walls, and one outside the walls near Forth
Mawr. The former was the older, but both are said to have been
repaired in 1307.3 They were seldom farmed by the town
community. Mary Maunsel, Edward of Carnarvon's first nurse,
received in 1312 an annuity of £5 out of the yearly issues of the
King's mills at Carnarvon.4 The pool of the King's mill (?) was
repaired in 1316 after a petition from the burgesses that their
corn was improperly ground.5 Both mills were subsequently
farmed by Edmund de Dyneton (1318), Hugh de Foston (1319),
and by Thomas Cary (1334-52). The profits of the fisheries
of the mill pond were generally included with those of the mills.
During the years 1353-8 the mills and piscary were leased to
individual farmers at £3 per annum. William de Hampton
and Thomas Middleton farm the same profits for six years in
1351, the rent for the first year being £10, and £14 for each of
the remaining five years. They were again farmed at this latter
amount during the first eleven years of Richard n.'s reign ; for
the remainder of the reign no one wished to arrent them. They
were consequently approved ; the approver (appruator) , after
deducting the tithes due to the parson of Carnarvon, his own
stipend, and other incidental expenses, returned the net profits
to the local exchequer. These ranged in amount from 36s. 8d.
to £10. 12s. Towards the close of Richard's reign, on the
17th of December 1398, one John Parry leased the issues of the
town mills, together with the piscary of the mill pond, for ten

1 Exchgr. Miacell. 6/38.

2 Min. Ace., 24-5 Henry vin. (Carnarvon), No. 14.

3 Ib., 1170/5. * Gal. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, p. 448.
5 Cal. Close Rolls, 1313-8, p. 265.

186 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

years at an annual rent of sixteen marks, but owing to the
national revolt he did not enjoy the full term of his lease. During
the early years of Henry rv.'s reign the mills were approved by
Thomas Walton, the profits in one year amounting to £6. 12s. OJd.;
and no more, it is said, because the mills were robbed of their
grain by the Welsh rebels. Both mills were burnt and destroyed
by the fifth year of Henry's rule. In the ninth year the mill
near the gate began to return profits anew, the other mill in the
meantime being in decay. Both mills in the very next year,
in conjunction with two fishing weirs on the Seiont, were leased
for a term of twenty years to Thomas Holwell and Thomas
Barneby for the small sum of 30s. yearly. In the second year
of Henry v. the same mills and weirs were arrented at £2. 13s. 4d.,
and at double this amount during the years 1419-38. In 1439
the farm of the same premises was about £12, and continued
at this figure until 1474. From this date to the close of the
reign of Edward iv. the royal profits were generally about
£3 less. During the reign of Henry vn. the farm of the
mills, with three (instead of two) weirs, varies from £10 to
£10. 13s. 4d. up to the year 1505, from which date to the close
of the following reign the same premises were leased, usually
for twenty-one years, at an annual rent of £11. 15s.1

The fluctuating farms of the local mills show how the economic
condition of the borough was affected by the political disturb-
ances of the time. There was evidently more stability during
the Tudor period.2 Throughout, the mills remained the pro-
perty of the Crown, and were constantly repaired at the royal
expense, except when this responsibility was undertaken by the
lessees.

(b) Industry. — Almost all the inhabitants of Carnarvon during
the Middle Ages were engaged in composite occupations. A
considerable proportion of the artisan class were of the manorial
type common to almost every mediaeval village, such as the
smith, carpenter, tailor, and cobbler. In addition to supplying
the ordinary necessities of their fellow-townsmen, these artisans
were themselves engaged in agriculture. The same is also true

1 For these details see Min. Ace. (co. Carnarvon), s.a.c. ; Col. Pat. Rolls,
1422-9, p. 57 ; Rec. of Cam., p. 152.

2 The burgesses were in considerable arrears with their rents during the
reigns of Henry v., Henry vi., and Edward iv. With two minor exceptions
they returned their full complement under Henry vn. and Henry vin.
(Min. Ace.).

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 187

of the bakers, brewers, butchers, and fishermen who cared for
articles of food and drink for the town inhabitants. The com-
mercial class is best represented by the occasional mercers dealing
in divers articles of small merchandise, and also by an incon-
siderable number of merchants proper, who sprang into promin-
ence later in connection with the transmarine trade in wine,
iron, and other staple commodities. Tanned hides were ex-
ported in small quantities from the port of Carnarvon in
the reign of Henry vm. This fact, and the existence of a
' Skinner's Lane ' 1 of great antiquity at Carnarvon, are all that
is known of the early tanning industry there. A perusal of the
names of the borough bailiffs during the years 1284-1536 shows
a very small percentage of artisan representatives, and the
descriptive nomenclature of other documents produces nothing
beyond saddler, swineherd, shepherd, plumber, porter, and glover,
in addition to those already mentioned. There is nothing in the
available evidence to warrant the existence of any system of
organised industry such as a craft gild.

The only existing notices of successful industry occur in con-
nection with the fisheries. The local fisheries of the Seiont and
Cadnant streams come in for early, and with few exceptions,
continued attention during the mediaeval period. The only weir
in actual use up to 1352 (25 Edward in.) was ' the weir under
the castle' (a). Soon after the conquest it realised a royal
profit of £2 yearly, but by the beginning of the reign of
Edward n. the issues fall to 26s. 8d., and throughout the first
half of the reign of Edward in. its profits were insignificant,
varying from Is. to 4s. yearly. During the years 25-34
Edward ni. the old rent of 40s. is paid. A second weir, called
'the weir under Moiloncoyl' (6), destroyed by a storm late in
the reign of Edward I., was rebuilt in 1353 at the sole
expense of one Thomas de Petryngham, who farmed the old site
for fifteen years at 20s. per annum. This weir was entirely
destroyed about forty years later, not to be built again. A third
weir, termed ' the weir under the castle to the south near Moilon-
coyl ' (c), was erected for the first time in 1361, and was arrented
for a period of twenty years to three of the local townsmen at
a sum of 10s. yearly. The same townsmen farm the same weir
(c) together with the ' weir under the castle ' (a) during the years
1380-95 at a yearly rent of 50s., and further during the years
1 W. H. Jones, Old Karnarvon, p. 47.

188 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

1396-1409 at 26s. 8d. The profits of these two weirs were subse-
quently let with the issues of the town mills (q.v.). A fourth
weir, called the ' weir near to Blakestone,' was constructed in
1385, and was held by the well-known Richard Ince for term of
life at the small sum of four pence yearly. The weir became
vacant at Richard's death ten years later, and it remained so, as
late as 1409. A new fishery, extending * from the bank of the
Cadnant near the castle to " Haberhovek " near the culverhouse,'
is arrented for the first time to Rowland Stanley in 1438. An-
other weir was again built in 1454 in a place called * Weyke
Patrik,' within the town of Carnarvon, * from the black rock
opposite the land of Thomas del Holte to the land of Holy Mary
the Virgin.' It was first demised to Nicholas Stodart for a term
of twenty years at six pence per annum.1

This persistent erection and arrenting of weirs points to a
somewhat thriving fishing industry at Carnarvon during the
fifteenth century. During the Tudor period the Crown con-
tinued to take the nominal rents of three weirs or ' kiddallau '
(as they were termed in the vernacular) and of the piscary of
' Wele (sic) Patrik.' There is nothing to indicate the exact part
played by the local fishermen hi the herring trade, save that
herring-boats occasionally called at the port of the town.

(c) The Local Ferry. — The burgesses of Carnarvon showed no
great inclination to farm the royal boat that plied on the local
ferry of Tal y Foel, one of the three main ferries connecting the
county of Carnarvon with the island of Anglesea. The boat
was sometimes utilised for the conveyance of stone and other
material for the garrison works. As a rule, it was farmed by
individuals who were occasionally prominent burgesses of
Carnarvon.2 Curiously it was never farmed by the community
of the burgesses, in strange contrast to the municipal enterprise
shown at Conway and Beaumaris.

(d) Markets and Fairs. — The weekly market for the surround-
ing commotes of Isgwyrvai and Uwchgwyrvai was by ordinance
held at Carnarvon every Saturday. Two fairs, one in July and
one in September, were usually held until the year 1352, when the
Black Prince established two additional fairs there for the months
of May and November in each year. The toll returns during the
first half of the fourteenth century are somewhat irregular, those

1 Min. Ace. (town of Carnarvon), s.a.c.

8 See ib. (co. Carnarvon) passim. Cf. Col. Pat. Rolls, 1422-9, p. 48.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 189

of the market varying from as little as 8Jd. to as much as 16s.
This is perhaps what we should naturally expect during a period
of unsettled political conditions, when the Welsh, as we know,
were unwillingly apprentices to the new system of trading.

Endorsed on the town rental of 1298 are several important
provisions relating to the early trading economy of Carnarvon.
They apparently represent the special counterpart of the general
ordinances drawn up by English officials soon after the conquest
for the regulation of the boroughs. From these ordinances it
appears that the burgesses were allowed to trade with their
co-burgesses, and also with other English merchants. Each
burgess, too, had the privilege of erecting shops or sheds for
the custody of his saleable goods, and foreign merchants were
entitled to hire stalls for the display of their merchandise. The
local butchers and fishmongers were especially forbidden to sell
any of their goods to foreign comers. This rule was evidently
framed with the object of securing adequate sustenance for the
inhabitants of the town.

The forum of Carnarvon is conjectured to have been in the
Old Castle Square.2 Here the country folk displayed the produce
of their holdings, which consisted of butter, cheese, skins, corn,
peat, together with their live stock of cattle, horses, sheep, goats,
and pigs. Small quantities of cloth and wool were also sold in
the market.3 The exchange trade comprised wine, salt, iron,
and articles of small merchandise. Merchants of Chester and
other towns made it a special point to attend the local fairs
with necessaries for the administrative offices that were located
there.4

(e) The Local Port. — The port of Carnarvon flourished as an
avenue for trade in the time of the old Welsh princes. With the
conquest it underwent vast alterations, a new quay being con-
structed to ensure the safety of the castle. A small custom called
kiltoll was taken of every ship (eight pence) and boat (four pence)
entering the port. This is apparently what is referred to as the
custuma porlus 5 of the maenor of Carnarvon, which was collected
primarily from the local herring-boats calling at the port, and
later from other ships and boats engaged in the maritime trade of

1 For authorities see tabular list of markets and fairs above. A
complete list of the available toll returns for each borough is given in the
Appendix.

2 W. H. Jones, op. cit., p. 88. 3 Court Rolls, 215/46, 49-52.
4 Min. Ace. (chamberlains'), North Wales. 6 76. , 1171/7.

190 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

North Wales. The town bailiffs collected the local kiltoll returns
for the Crown up to 1352,1 when the community take them
at farm along with the profits of the borough courts and
markets (q.v.).

The rural economy of the adjoining commotes was too entirely
self-sufficing to afford much scope for purely commercial traffic
in the borough port. During the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries its activity was mostly connected with the adequate
supply of the castle and town garrisons. Some of the townsmen
found occasional employment in removing and carrying goods
from the harbour to the castle. A striking feature of the port
of Carnarvon during the Middle Ages is its political importance ;
its commercial activity as such was inconsiderable. It was not
until the development of the slate quarries within its market
district that the port made rapid strides as a factor in British
commerce. During the mediaeval period the commercial wealth
of the Carnarvonshire quarries was little exploited. The old
borough retained its mediaeval traits until this became a realised
fact.

2. CONWAY

(a) Agriculture. — The lands allotted to the borough of Conway,
though less considerable than those of Carnarvon, were evidently
better fitted for the practice of agriculture. The burgages of
the borough covered a ground area nearly double that of
Carnarvon, and much of the intra-mural territory was taken up
with extensive gardens. The average rents of the town lands
ranged from two pence to three pence per acre. On an adjoin-
ing mountain, called ' Mynydd Dra,' the inhabitants enjoyed
common grazing rights for their live stock.2

The town mills at Giffyn were unfortunately burnt by Madoc
ap Llywelyn and his followers in 1294. They were still in a
ruinous state in 1307,3 but some time before 1316 they had been
rebuilt. Two mills at Giffyn, with the site of another mill near
the castle, were included among the premises granted to the
burgesses at a fee-farm rent in this year. These mills proved
the most important and profitable asset of their burghal
prosperity. A late account of the local milling industry, the
only one of its kind, shows the total profits for the twenty-third
year of Henry vrn. to have been £35. 7s. 4d.4 One of the mills

1 For details see Appendix (list of tolls). 2 Parl, Papers, 1838, vol. xxxv.
» M in. Ace. 1 170/5. * History of Aberconway (R. Williams), pp. 193-6.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 191

had a malt-house attached to it,1 the malting items being by far
the most numerous in the returns of this year.

As at Carnarvon, corn was frequently imported into Conway
during the Middle Ages. The burgesses were so impoverished
in 1343 that they were unable to grant an aid to the Black
Prince.2 The town apparently suffered from the ravages of the
Black Death. Owing to pestilences and other misfortunes, the
church of Conway became so much decayed that the abbot and
convent successfully petitioned to be released from their duty
of furnishing two chaplains there.3 The town again came in
for severe treatment at the hands of the Welsh rebels in 1400.
It was actually occupied by the Welsh for some time. A con-
temporary syllabus detailing the damage done at this time is,
albeit, too sweeping. It is said that the rebels entirely burnt
all the houses of the town of Conway, together with the bridges,
gates, the local exchequer-house, and other offices of the King's
ministers there. The total loss in this respect was estimated
at about £500 sterling.4 The borough made no returns during
the first ten years of the reign of Henry iv., but in the next
year only six burgages, said to have been destroyed by the
rebels, lay vacant in the hands of the royal escheator. Two
years later the borough had so far recovered that the bailiffs
began to pay the full complement of their ordinary fee-farm
rent.5 During the revolt, individual burgesses were deprived
of cattle, sheep, corn, and other personal property to the value
of £1481, making the sum-total loss to the borough about
£2000. The aggregate head of stock lost was somewhat less than
that at Carnarvon. It is interesting to note that one English
burgess had been deprived of three hundred good English sheep.

The Conway accounts during the reign of Henry v. show an
almost complete recovery from the devastations of the previous
reign. The town continued to prosper under the later
Lancastrian and early Tudor kings. Some insignificant arrears
appear during the earlier and later years of Henry vi.'s rule.
From this point to the reign of Edward vi. the town bailiffs
almost invariably presented a quit balance sheet.6

(b) Industry. — That Conway, like Carnarvon, contained a

1 History of Aberconway (R. Williams), pp. 101-2.

2 Orig. Docts. (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877), p. cli.

3 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1385-9, p. 237. 4 Exchqr. Miscellanea 6/38.

5 Min. Ace. 1175/6-9. 6 Ib. (Conway), temp. Henry v. to Henry vui.

192 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

promiscuous class of tradesmen, is evident from the following
list of * industrial men ' appearing in the existing muniments l
of the mediaeval borough, namely, mercer, spicer, shearman,
comber, skinner, glover, saddler, cobbler, tailor, smith, carpenter,
gardener, shepherd, cornmonger, brewer, taverner, fisherman,
baker, cooper, cantour, goldsmith, and porter. The bailiff
list for this period contains but a very few representatives of the
minor artisan class. The bailiffs were drawn chiefly from the
territorial and merchant class, a class described later as * the
gentlemen of Conway.' 2

The tanning industry, as may be inferred from the occasional
references to Conway skinners and others engaged in the
occupation, evidently prospered on a small scale in tho suburbs
of the borough. One leuan, described as of ' ye wall of Conway,'
in addition to losing a hundred beasts at the time of Glyndwr's
rebellion, was also robbed of two thousand four hundred rabbit
skins that were stored in a bark-house there.3

The famous pearl fishery of the river Conway is said later 4 to
have occupied the attention of several of the poor fishermen
of the town with remunerative results. We lack authentic
data for its mediaeval condition.

Brewing was carried on to a larger extent at Conway than
perhaps at any of the other North Welsh boroughs. Aberconway
beer became notorious for its badness. An old Welsh adage
has it : ' Cwrw Aberconwy gorau pei bellaf ' — the ale of
Aberconway the farther the better.6

(c) The Local Ferry. — The local passage across the Conway
near the town, as well as another passage at Tal y Cavn, four
miles up the same river, produced good profits. Both remained
royal property up to a modern date. The issues were generally
farmed of the Crown by different individuals, often burgesses
of the town of Conway.6 They were seldom farmed by the com-
munity of the town, as a statement in Williams's History of the
Aberconway 7 would lead us to suppose. We have one instance

1 Rentals and Surveys (temp. Edward i.); Court Rotta (Edward m.);
Min. Ace. (passim Edward i. to Henry vui.).

1 History of the Qwydir Family (Wynne, 1878 edition), p. 72.

8 Exchqr. Miscellanea 6/38. * S. Lewis, Top. Die., s.n.

5 Williams, op. cit., p. 50.

• See Col. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, p. 45; Exchqr. Miscellanea 7/11, 8/28 ;
Min. Ace. (co. Carnarvon passim), s.v. Fenlassok.

7 P. 49. The burgesses once sought a grant of the ferry at fee-farm,
but never received it.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 193

of this in 1475, when the above ferries were farmed to the
community for a term of ten years.1 On the expiration of the
lease the ferries were again farmed to an individual.

The particulars of a law-suit 2 in the reign of Richard n.,
touching the right to the issues of the ferry of Conway, supply
a brief table of the actual tolls charged there. They are as
follows : — for each person crossing, Jd. ; for every man and
horse, Jd. ; for every man, horse, and load, Id. The amount
of the farm derived by the Crown from the amalgamated issues
of both ferries varied from £7 to £13.

The town ferry thus, at very rare intervals, formed a source
of revenue to the local corporation. Its importance ceased with
the erection of the modern bridge. The fermor at the date of
its construction was indemnified for the loss sustained.3

(d) Markets and Fairs. — There are no extant charters warrant-
ing the holding of markets and fairs at Conway. Yet the
burgesses maintained that Edward i. solemnly enjoined the men
of the surrounding commotes of Creuddyn, Issaph, Ughaph,
and Nantconway to bring their corn and other victuals, together
with their live stock, to the established markets and fairs of
Conway. The inhabitants of these districts were to contract
bargains on the mountains no longer.4

A weekly market, every Tuesday, and an annual fair on the
morrow of St. Martin's, had been established at Deganwy
(Gannow) by Henry in.4 On the demolition of the castle of
Deganwy by Llywelyn in 1260, the borough, of which the above
were the chief commercial features, apparently ceased to flourish.
The old town was included within the liberties of the new
borough of Conway, several of the inhabitants taking up burgages

1 Min. Ace. 1181/6.

2 Plea Rolls (Carnarvon), No. 1, m. 28. Alexander de Salbury v. Richard
Godynegh. Thomas Benesheph received a grant of the ferry for term of
life of Edward, Prince of Wales (i.e. the Black Prince), and transferred
his interest to one John de Scolehall, who in turn vested the same in
Henry de Salbury, the plaintiff's father. Alexander de Salbury was
ejected m et armis by Richard Godynegh 4th October 1388, who continued
to take the profits of the ferry up to 24th March 1395, when the suit was
commenced. Alexander estimated his damages at £40. Godynegh
based his right of entry upon a lease (six years) of the ferry to him by one
Mathew de Swetenham, who held the same of Anne, Queen of England,
as parcel of the commote of Issaph (see Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1381-5, p. 159).
It was also submitted that the exchanges from Benesheph to Salbury were
without the Prince's licence. Verdict given for Alexander de Salbury with
£12 damages, and Richard Godynegh fined 3s. 4d. for trespass.

3 Williams, op. cit., pp. Ill, 135.

4 For authorities see tabular list of markets and fairs above.

194 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

there. Though dependent on the borough of Conway, the
vill of Gannow maintained a separate existence, with its own
inhabitants, and distinct markets and fairs. Early in the
reign of Edward n. there were twenty-nine inhabited ' places '
there, each realising a yearly rent of six pence.1 A weekly
market was held every Monday, which, judging from the toll re-
turns of the years 1300-14, was as prosperous as that of Conway,
if not, indeed, more so.2 One of the two yearly fairs of the
borough of Conway was held at Gannow, namely, that of the
feast of St. Simon and St. Jude (29th October). The average tolls
amounted to somewhat less than a third of those taken at Conway
during the fair of St. Bartholomew. The local bailiffs return
separate details of the markets of Conway and Gannow, until
all particulars are finally lost in the fee-farm rent. An incidental
reference late in the fifteenth century to the ' market of the
ferry ' there, referring presumably to Gannow, points to the
late continuance of a dual mart-.3

The early accounts of Conway supply some details concerning
the methods of trading within the town. As early as 1306 there
were nine hired shops in the forum. Two more were built in
1310, together with several shambles or stalls for the convenience
of traders. Beyond the walls of the town, as at Carnarvon, were
situated a score or more ' places,' and a few houses on ' Twthill.'
Some of these were inhabited, others were employed as store-
houses. In conjunction with additional ' places on the ferry '
these seemingly constituted the nucleus of the borough suburbs.4

The particular issues of the local mart are, of course, not known
after 1316, the year of its fee-farm charter. Its success was
obviously affected by the extension of market privileges to the
vill of Aber in the commote of Ughaph . Its nominal monopoly
of the market district as mapped out by Edward I. was further
diminished by the growing importance of the little town- villages
of Trefriw and Llanrwst, where the inhabitants of the commote
of Nantconway found it most convenient to transact their ordin-
ary business. The trading tolls of the latter district are separately
farmed during the reigns of Henry vi. and Edward iv. at a rent
of about eleven shillings per annum.6

The general character of the trading activity of Conway,

i Min. Ace. 1170/4. * See list of tolls, Appendix, below,

a Min. Ace. 1181/8. * /&., 1170/4-9.

* Exchqr. Miscellanea 7/17, 8/28.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 195

with due prominence to its market for corn, was much the same
as that of the other North Welsh boroughs. Corn tolls continued
to be collected by the local sergeants-at-mace to a very late date.
The September fair there became noted for its supply of honey,
drawn from the neighbouring glens.1

(e) The Local Port. — The port of Conway as an avenue of
external trade was of little importance during the Middle Ages.
Its local activity was concerned with the native coasting trade
and the occasional call of fishing-boats engaged in the herring
fisheries. Kiltoll customs were collected there, as at Carnarvon
and Beaumaris.2 These issues were apparently parallel to the
anchorage dues taken by the water-bailiff there during the
modern corporation period.3

3. CRICCIETH

The borough of Criccieth was the smallest of the Carnarvon-
shire boroughs, and possessed no port to facilitate its victualling.
The burgesses were mostly dependent on local resources for
their sustenance. Their borough lands, scanty at best, were
moreover of a pastoral character, the rent per acre being a
penny. The number of the town inhabitants during the Middle
Ages never perhaps reached three figures, except when the
castle was abnormally garrisoned. In 1294 the castle garrison
comprised the majority of the inhabitants. A contemporary
census return 4 gives the number of soldiers at twenty-eight,
besides the constable. The burgesses proper numbered nine
only, three of whom subsequently left. There were also thirteen
women and nineteen children (pueri), making a sum- total of
seventy-one. The unusually large garrison is explained by the
revolt of Madoc ap Llywelyn, which reached its climax during
the year 1294. On the fall of Madoc most of the garrison
soldiers withdrew, but some stayed on as burgesses of the town
of Criccieth. The number of burgages at Criccieth, all told,
amounted to less than twenty-six, and more than one burgage
frequently fell into the same hands. The burgesses proper of
mediaeval Criccieth would number about a round score.

1 Williams, op. cit., p. 89. English and Spanish honey was also imported
there.

2 See list of tolls, Appendix, below.

3 Parl. Papers, 1838, vol. xxxv. « Exchqr. K.B. Ace. 5/18, m. 15.

196 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

A grist mill was situated within the borough franchise, but
the burgesses never farmed it.1 The weekly market of the
borough was held every Thursday, to which the men of the
adjoining commote of Eivionydd were constrained to come by
ordinance. Until the reign of Henry iv. the constable of the
castle, for the purposes of his garrison, exercised a right of
pre-emption over all goods and merchandise brought there.
The market tolls in 1310 were a little over seven shillings ; in
1326 they only amounted to ten pence ! The great fluctuations
in the market issues of English boroughs in Wales during the
reigns of the first three Edwards are explicable only on political
grounds. Two annual fairs were held at Criccieth during the
evangelical feasts of St. Mark and St. Luke respectively. A
chronological table of the available toll issues is appended below.
It is somewhat noteworthy that no tolls were returned during
the fair of St. Mark in 1339, for the reason that a fair was
held at Bangor on the same day.2 The bailiffs evidently made
a special point of this, in order to remind the Crown of its
departure from the tenor of its ancient institutes confining
trade to the English vills.

The reign of Richard n. was a comparatively prosperous one
for Criccieth, the farm of the incidental profits of the local mart
and courts reaching its highest point during this time.3 The
troubles of the succeeding reign, however, reduced it to the
position of an ordinary Welsh village. It no longer ranked as
a typical garrison vill, but continued to exercise, though
irregularly, the customs and privileges of a free borough. The
native Welsh of the peculiarly lawless district of Eivionydd,
even as early as 1337, had usurped many of the English liberties.4
Welsh interests, here as elsewhere, gradually gained the upper
hand with the decay of the borough as a factor in the English
policy of defence.

There is nothing distinctively English about Criccieth after
the reign of Henry iv. Under Henry v. the town gradually
recovered from the devastation of the Welsh rebels,6 and enjoyed

1 A.O. Misc. Bk. (P.R.O.), No. 166, f. xix.

2 Min. Ace. 1171/4: 'nil eo quod dominus Rex concessit de novo
Episcopo Bangorensi nundinas apud Bangor' eodem die ! '

3 See Appendix.

4 E.g. mandate to Richard de Holland, constable of the castle of Criccieth,
to take into the King's hand three burgages held by Kevenerth ap Partha,
Madoc Gogh, and leuan Gogh, because they are Welshmen (Add. MS.,
33,372, f. 6a). 6 No returns were made for the borough temp. Henry rv.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 197

a precarious existence under Henry vi. and Edward iv. During
these reigns the borough courts were irregularly held, the
market and fair tolls were carelessly collected, and arrears in
the payment of the royal rent frequently appear — all symptoms
of a struggle, and sufficient to show that the inhabitants, like
their descendants of the early nineteenth century, were not
very well off. There were practically no toll returns made
after the reign of Edward iv., due perhaps in part to the
racial sympathy that existed between the inhabitants of town
and country. Under Henry vn. and Henry vni. the bailiffs
are quit every year for the rents of the town lands, and a com-
pound fee of eight shillings in respect of court and market issues.
In one account during this period the perquisites of the court
are estimated at 7s. 6d., and the tolls as nil.1

Obviously the inhabitants were mainly engaged in agricultural
operations. There are no indications of any industrial and
commercial activity beyond what may be inferred from the
occasional mention of mercers, tailors, bakers, and smiths among
the town populace. In the early part of the nineteenth century
Criccieth is described as a pleasant fishing village, with no
commerce except the herring fishery.2 It evidently maintained
its mediaeval economic character until its comparatively modern
development as a little avenue of external trade and a popular
seaside resort.

4. NEVIN

The lands pertaining to the maenor of Nevin have been
already described. A return 3 made to an early subsidy levied
in 1287 throws interesting light on the social status of the
inhabitants of Nevin before the enfranchisement of the vill.
It contains a list of about ninety-three persons, whose wealth,
as might be expected, consisted chiefly of agricultural stock.
To take a typical entry, we find the goods and chattels of one
David ap Madoc to be : 5 oxen (valued at 25s.), 1 horse (5s.),
8 cows (26s. 8d.), 10 sheep (5s.), 4 crannocks of mancorn (8s.),
2 nets (4s.), other articles (in mercaturiis 10s.). Total £4. 3s. 8d.
The document bears out the recognised character of Nevin as a
fishing village of old repute. Forty of the tenants mentioned

1 Min. Ace. (co. Carnarvon), s.n. Criccieth, temp. tit.

2 Lewis, Top. Diet, of Wales, s.n.

3 Lay Subsidies (P;R.O.), No. 242/50.

198 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

in the return possessed a total of sixty-three fishing nets, all
valued at two shillings each. Some tenants were furnished with
skiffs (scaphce) and boats for fishing purposes. Three of the
inhabitants appear with nets only. The good times at Nevin
at this period were evidently concurrent with the successful
fishing seasons. The professional and artisan elements of the
town populace in 1287 are represented by a smith, goldsmith,
clerk, dealer (porthmon), and a gwestwr or taverner.

The borough remained typically the same throughout our
period. No drastic change took place, except that the vill was
much decayed during Glyndwr's revolt.1 The predominant
occupation was a composite one. The burgess shared the
duties of farmer and fisherman. The larger farmers had an
interest in boats, and the smaller fishermen were dependent
upon the town lands. It was on the borough common that the
latter grazed their paltry flocks of sheep and found most of
their fuel.2 The commercial activity of the borough included a
weekly market, held every Saturday, for the inhabitants of the
commote of Dynllaen. Two yearly fairs were also held at Whit-
suntide and the feast of the Assumption of Holy Mary (15th
August) respectively.3 The town was fortunate in possessing
a good natural harbour, invaluable to the prosperity of the
local fishing industry, and also attractive to merchant-ships
that occasionally called with shop goods.

The economic condition of Nevin in the time of Charles I.
presents no great contrast to what it was in the reign of the
first Edward. One of the witnesses in the well-known inquiry
instituted in 1635,4 touching the fee-farm charter of the
borough, deposed that most of the freeholders of Nevin got the
greatest part of their living by fishing, but if they lost their
houses and lands (as was then threatened), he verily believed
that they could have no means to subsist or maintain them-
selves, but would be forced to go a-begging. At this particular
date the number of the Nevin freeholders was about sixty,
twenty-six residing in the town and the rest within the
franchise.

1 The borough paid no rent during the reign of Henry iv. (Min. Ace.
1175/7-9).

2 Cf. Part. Papers, 1838, vol. xxxv.

3 See tabular analysis of markets and fairs above for authorities, and
Appendix below for toll returns.

4 Exchqr. Depositions, 11, Car. i.f No. 31.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 199

5. PWLLHELI

The mediseval borough of Pwllheli bears a striking resemblance
to that of Nevin. A parallel and contemporary subsidy re-
turn l shows the economic status of Pwllheli to be that of Nevin
on a smaller scale. The community were primarily engaged in
agriculture, and some of the inhabitants were engaged in the
fishing industry. The town at a later date became celebrated
for its whiting,2 but at the particular date of the above subsidy
the local fisheries were not considerably developed, only eight
of the twenty-one inhabitants mentioned possessing fishing
nets. The town maintained its purely agricultural character
right down to the later Tudor period (32 Elizabeth). At this
time the town lands are described as being of direct concern
to the living of men, women, and children there, to the number
of two or three hundred.3

Weekly markets were held every Sunday for the use of the
inhabitants of the commote of Gafflogion, and two fairs were
annually kept there in the months of September and November
respectively.4 The holding of two autumn fairs was perhaps
consonant with the pastoral economy of the immediate vicinity.
The port served the townsmen in their herring and whiting
fisheries, and was comparatively a more popular port of call for
merchant ships than Nevin.

In conjunction with the other smaller boroughs of North
Wales, the bailiffs of Pwllheli made no return during the reign
of Henry iv. and the early years of Henry v.'s rule. The accounts
of the town fermors under Henry vi. and Edward iv. show
considerable arrears for several years. Arrears are exceptional
in the subsequent and more settled reigns of Henry vn. and
Henry vm.5

6. BALA

The inhabitants of mediseval Bala were few. They were
chiefly occupied in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Some
of the townsmen concurrently farmed the grinding mills of
Pennaran and Bala. The latter mill was entirely destroyed by
a storm towards the end of the fourteenth century (circa 17-19
Richard n.). It next appears in the reign of Henry v. pro-

1 Lay Subsidy 242/50. 2 ParL Papers, 1838, vol. xxxv.

3 Exchqr. Special Commissions, 32 Elizabeth, No. 3381.

4 For authorities and tolls see preceding page, n. 3.

6 Min. Ace. (co. Carnarvon), a.n. Pwllheli, temp. tit.

200 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

during a yearly rent of £4. It continued to realise this amount
until 1446, when one Meredith ap Hoell ap Tudor farmed the
issues at 11s. 8d. The mill returns no profits after the year
1473, when it apparently fell into decay. The mill is described
in 1532 as being in decay for many years past.1

One looks in vain for the early origins of the knitting and
woollen industry for which the town became famous during the
sixteenth and following centuries.

The mediaeval town, like its modern prototype, furnished the
central mart for the district of Penllyn. Markets were held
every Saturday, and very successful fairs were kept in the
early May and late June of each year.2 The district surrounding
the borough consisted chiefly of pastoral lands. Cattle, sheep,
cheeses, and butter were the prime productions.3 It was from
the tolls issuing from the sale of these articles that the burgesses
made the most considerable portion of their fee-farm. Bala
was one of the foremost marts in North Wales. It paid more
to the Crown in respect of commercial tolls than it did for rents
of land. When Henry vn. generously remitted the payment
of tolls to his North Welsh subjects, the burgesses of Bala re-
presented to the King that the bulk of their farm was made up
of tolls, stallage, and other customs taken from persons trading
there.4 They were subsequently pardoned more than half
their usual farm in respect of the concession.

As far as the general condition of the borough is concerned,
Bala exhibits the same symptoms of decay during the period
intervening between the reigns of Henry v, and Richard m.
as Nevin ; it likewise presents similar indications of success as
does Pwllheli during the Tudor period.5

7. HABLECH

Early in the nineteenth century Harlech is described as a
very poor town, remarkable only for its castle. This was its
general character throughout the Middle Ages. Mediaeval
Harlech, like Criccieth, was comparatively small. The
inhabitants occupied themselves with the cultivation of their
lands, and the direction of the trading transactions of the

1 Min. Ace., s.a.c. 2 Pp. 171, 198 (n. 3) above.

3 Cf. Court Rolls (P.R.O.), portf. 227/28, 33. See Beaufort's Progress,
1684 (ed. C. W. Banks), p. 152, for a view of Bala at this date.

4 Ancient Petitions (P.B.O.), No. 9093.

8 Min. Ace. (cos. Carnarvon and Merioneth).

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 201

extensive commote of Ardudwy. They also supplemented the
amount of their fee-farm rent by the profits of the royal mills
situated in the same commote.

A contemporary list 1 of the inhabitants of Harlech during the
eventful year of 1294 supplies valuable details of the local
populace at this time. Twenty soldiers had been stationed there
at Michaelmas under Robert de Staundon, and seven more were
brought there by John de Havering during the feast of St. Luke.
The castle, in addition, contained seven women, four infants, and
three ' boys ' (garciones). The men or inhabitants of the town
numbered eleven men (three bearing Welsh names), twelve
women, and twenty-one children (pueri). Harlech during the
year of Madoc's revolt would thus appear to have contained a
population of a little more than eighty souls, the castle claiming
about half the number. The service which they rendered to
the English cause during this year has been already told in a
previous chapter.

The weekly market was held on Saturday, and two yearly fairs
were held at Midsummer and Martinmas respectively.2 It was
on the issues of these that the burgesses mainly depended for
the realisation of any surplus profits over and above the fixed
amount of their fee-farm rent. The early townsmen experi-
enced some difficulty in making both ends meet. In 1329 they
emphasised the hardness of their position by stating that they
were situated on a rock, whence no material advantage accrued
either to the town or castle inhabitants. In extenuation of
their poverty, the poor burgesses at this time sought a grant of
two additional fairs every year, one to be held on Thursday in
Trinity week, and one in the middle of August.3 This request
was granted them six years later (1335). 4

Throughout the reigns of Edward in. and Richard n. the
borough maintained its normal condition,5 though it is said that
the castle garrison suffered from the ravages of the Black Death.6
The reign of Henry iv. proved disastrous to the borough of
Harlech. Forty-six houses in the town were burnt down by the
rebels, and household goods, bed-clothes, vessels, etc., to the
value of five hundred marks were destroyed. It is evident from

1 Exchqr. K.B. Ace. 5/18, m. 16. a Pp. 171, 198 (n. 3) above.

3 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 8001. Cf. Rot. Part., ii. p. 286.

4 Rec. oj Cam., pp. 292-3. 6 Min. Ace., temp. cit.
6 Williams's Aberconway, p. 38 (? authority).

202 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

other items of losses sustained, that the wealth of the inhabitants
lay chiefly in the number of their several herds and flocks.
Several burgesses, all bearing English names, suffered consider- .
ably in respect of loss of stock. One John Collier, a member of
a most prominent family at Harlech during its early history, was
deprived of 165 head of cattle, 40 horses, 100 sheep, and 100 goats,
together with other goods to the value of £40. John's brother,
Vivian, was deprived of 40 cattle, and five other burgesses of a
total of more than 150 beasts. The total loss to Harlech, in
respect of property burnt and goods destroyed, amounted to
about £540.*

The bailiffs' returns for the su bsequent reigns of Henry v. and
Henry vi. show the gradual recovery of the borough to its normal
condition as during the greater part of the fourteenth century.
The town comes to be charged with its orignal rent of £22 in 1446,
the first time since the close of the reign of Richard n. The
closing years of the reign of Henry vi. and that of Edward rv.
were fraught with further trouble for Harlech, but from the
twentieth year of Edward iv. to the first year of Edward vi.
the burgesses invariably return the full complement of their
farm. This latter fact seemingly points to a period of com-
parative prosperity.2

Beyond its being the centre of local trade in the commote
of Ardudwy, there is nothing to show that Harlech ever
became, or even aspired to be, a centre of commercial
importance. Some entries in the early Close Rolls of the
fourteenth century point to Harlech as being a port of
some note. On May the 10th, 1324, the mayor and bailiffs of
Harlech (Hardelawe), among others, were formally ordered to
arrest all ships of forty tons and upwards in their port for
the King's use.3 Similar orders appear on the same rolls for
the years 1326, 1321, and 1331, Hardelawe in these particular
instances being the only North Welsh port mentioned.4

1 Exchqr. Miscellanea 6/38. 2 Min. Ace. (co. Merioneth), temp. cit.

3 Col. Close Rolls, 1323-7, p. 183.

4 Ib., s.a.c. The absence of the more important ports of North Wales,
and the close connection of Hardelawe with the port of Poole (co. Dorset)
in these instances, lends some suspicion to the identification of Hardelawe j
with Harlech. The fact that the Close Rolls' lists of ports, etc., have no
pretence to geographical order, and that the form Hardelawe, in one in-
stance at least, is used to represent the castle of Harlech, confirms the
identification. It is, however, curious that we have no incidental notices
to merchant-ships calling at the port during the Middle Ages.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 203

In 1342 the port is again specified as a possible port of passage
to lands beyond the sea.1

8. BEAUMABIS

(a) Agriculture. — The extensive lands allotted to the use of the
burgesses were admirably adapted for the purposes of agriculture,
as are almost all Anglesea lands by common repute. The bur-
gesses, as we have already seen from their attempts to secure a
compact territory, were particularly interested in their crops.
Out of a total of eighty-three tenants enumerated in the earliest
rental of the town, as many as fifty-two held plots of land in
addition to their burgage tenements.2

It is strange, in view of its agricultural possibilities, that the
community of Beaumaris, like that of Conway, did not farm the
mills that were situated within their franchise. There were three
mills within the liberty of the town. One was a private one,
erected by Anian ap leuan, a prominent burgess there during
the first half of the fourteenth century. He obtained a licence
(10th December 1327) to erect a windmill on the ' Milnehill ' by
Beaumaris, paying to the Crown as heretofore six pence yearly as
ground rent.3 The royal mills of Llanvaes and Kevencogh,
sometimes described as being situate within the lordship of
Beaumaris, were generally leased to divers individuals at a rent
amounting to a little less than £5 yearly.4 They never fell into
the hands of the town community, as was the case at Conway,
with profitable results. Three millers appear in the oldest list
of Beaumaris burgesses.

The town retained its agricultural character in gradually
diminishing proportions to a comparatively late date. There
were twenty-seven families wholly occupied in agriculture at
the beginning of the last century.5 The decay was the inevitable
result of the gradual rise of Beaumaris as a place of trade. During
the Middle Ages the change is not very noticeable, but the ex-
pansion of commerce during the Tudor period and later, together
with the policy of the close corporation, established under
Elizabeth, soon revolutionised the economic character of the
town. There are no noteworthy incidents in its agricultural
history during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, save the

1 Cal. Close Rolls, 1341-3, p. 485.

2 For authorities see above, ch. iv., s.n. Beaumaris.

3 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1327-30, p. 194. 4 Cf. *&., 1461-7, p. 382.
5 Parl. Papers, 1835 (26), s.n.

204 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

temporary destruction of the houses and lands during the revolt
of Glyndwr, and other occasional depredations caused by the sea
on the foreshore lands of the liberty.1 Glyndwr and his associates
set fire to ten or more houses in the borough, entirely destroying
them, and agricultural lands to the yearly value of nearly
£7 were rendered unfit for cultivation for many years. The
rebels also captured goods and chattels of the local burgesses in
large quantities, making the total damage to the borough about
two thousand marks.2 The town did not recover from the blow
it then received until the early years of the reign of Henry vi.,
when the decayed lands were again arrented. Though occasion-
ally disturbed and menaced by pirates during the late fifteenth
century, the state of the borough accounts down to the Act of
Union points to a period of increasing prosperity.3

(b) Industry. — The names of the industrial and professional
burgesses comprise the usual mixed lot — mercers, skinners,
bakers, tailors, butchers, and smiths.

There are no indications of any typical industry flourishing
on an elaborate scale. Some prominence was, however, given to
the development of the local fisheries towards the middle of the
fifteenth century. The local port had been closely associated
with the herring trade from a very early date, but in the year
1439 one Thomas Norreys for the first time farmed a piscary,
extending from the ' lymeculne ' below the town of Beaumaris to
the ' Fferyman Warth,' for a term of twenty years at a rent of six
pence per annum. Nine years later another Thomas, surnamed
Shirewyn, farmed a fishery on the seashore, extending from
Thomas Norreys' weir to the house of the Friars Minor of
Llanvaes, on exactly similar terms. In 1460 both these fisheries
were. vacant; no one, it is said, wished to arrent them. In the
meantime, about 1451, one David ap leuan Tutwhele leased a
certain piece of land on the foreshore, extending from ' Osemond-
seir ' to ' Acrevaile below the Britarye ' (one ' mere ' of the
liberty of Beaumaris), for a term of forty years at the small rent
of four pence per annum. The ' limekiln ' fishery was arrented to
William Bulkeley in 1473 for twenty-four years at six pence, and
remained in the hands of the Bulkeley family to the close of the
reign of Henry vm. at a slightly increased rate. The terms of
a twenty-one years' lease of the same piscary granted to Richard

1 E.g. Min. Ace. 1150/8, 1161/2. • Exchqr. Miscellanea 6/38.

3 Min. Ace., Henry vi. to vm.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 205

Bulkeley in 1518, stipulated the payment of an annual rent of
twelve pence. The fishery extending to the house of the Friars
Minor remained vacant until the year 1514, when William
Hardyn and others began to arrent it for six pence yearly, and so
on to the close of Henry vm.'s rule. The ' Osemondseir ' fishery
produced a rent of five pence yearly during the years 1493-1545 ;
in the latter year it was let at six pence.1 There is nothing to
illustrate what profits were made by the private individuals who
periodically farmed these Beaumaris fisheries. The continued
payment of the royal rents points to the existence of a re-
munerative industry.

(c) The Local Ferry. — The royal boat plying on the local ferry
across the Lavan Sands between Beaumaris and Aber was
usually farmed either by the town community or by individual
burgesses during the reign of Edward n. The boat was damaged
by a storm in 1306, and during the next four years the burgesses
took on the responsibility of repairing it at their own cost. Up
to Easter 1325 they paid an annual rent of thirty shillings, at
which date the boat was again shattered by a fierce gale.
Another royal boat was provided in the next year,2 which the
burgesses farmed at the old rate. During the years 25-30 Edward
in. the farm of the passage falls to 20s., ' because no more
could be got,' and in the next year (31 Edward ni.) it actually
fell to sixteen shillings. One Griffith Bron subsequently rented
it at a farm of 26s. 8d. for a few years up to 34 Edward m.,
when the town community compounded with the Crown to pay
a round sum in lieu of the profits of the passage and other royal
issues of the borough.3 After this the burgesses had to provide
and maintain their own ferry-boat, and by virtue of their
charter of incorporation in the time of Elizabeth, the legal
ownership of the ferry was vested in the corporation.

(d) Markets and Fairs. — The local market, held every Wednes-
day, was established for the wide district covered by the neigh-
bouring commotes of Dyndaethwy, Twrcelyn, and Talybolion.
Spring and autumn fairs were also held every year. The details
of the market and fair tolls taken there during the early years of
Edward ii.'s reign, and again for some years towards the close
of Edward ni.'s reign, are extant.4 The market tolls in 1305

1 Min. Ace. (Anglesea), s.a.c. z Cf. Col. Close Rolls, 1323-7, p. 304.

3 Min. Ace. (Anglesea), s.a.c., and p. 133 above.

4 Pp. 171, 198 (n. 3) above.

206 THE MEDLEVAL BOKOUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

amounted to fourteen shillings, and during the period 1339-58 they
varied from Is. 6d. to 4s. 4d. Evidently, as the contemporary
court rolls 1 attest, several of the rural folk persisted in selling
their corn, cattle, sheep, pigs, cloth, butter, and cheese outside
the forum (extra forum) of Beaumaris. It was about this time
that the Black Prince ordered a more strict observance of the
trade ordinances drawn up by his ancestor, Edward I. The toll
returns from 1360 onwards are coupled with the issues of the
borough courts (q.v.) in a general farm. In all the specified
instances, the tolls of the September fair are from four to six
times the amount of those taken in the spring fair. This appar-
ently points to the selling of the surplus stock before the winter
keep — one of the essential features of good farming during the
Middle Ages. It was during the progress of this fair for three
days in each year, that the Crown overruled the rights of the
Bishop of Bangor to the ferry tolls of the passage of Porthesgob.2

(e) The Local Port. — The port of Beaumaris was by far the
most active of the North Welsh ports during the Middle Ages.
It afforded good anchorage and safe shelter during the severest
gales, and in addition to being a favourite port of call in the
local fishing and coasting trade, it was a port of considerable
importance in the external trade of the North Welsh Principality.
There were more merchants at Beaumaris than in any other
borough of North Wales.

The burgesses took a special interest in their commercial
prospects. Edward i. enacted that all ships nearing the coast-
line of Anglesea should call at Beaumaris, and there display
their goods and merchandise for sale, and not elsewhere.3 Early
in the next reign the burgesses informed the Crown that, owing
to the want of a good quay, several merchants withdrew from
their port,4 and called in preference at the minor ports of Matha-
varn and Dulas in the same island.5 Improvements were subse-
quently made for the accommodation of merchant and other
ships, with the result that the port gradually developed into a
commercial centre of more than ordinary importance. Its local
activity was connected in one instance with the distribution of
provisions and other stores for the sufficient victualling of the

1 Court Rolls, 215/4, 5. * See Min. Ace. 1227/3.

8 Rec. of Cam., p. 223.

4 Ib., and Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,991.

6 Min. Ace. 1227/3-8, 1229/1-3.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 207

North Welsh castles. Goods left at Beaumaris by Chester mer-
chants and others were despatched by local carriers to Carnarvon,
Conway, and other castles.1 An early table of the tolls charge-
able in the port of Beaumaris further shows the importance of
the town to the native fishermen. Beaumaris was evidently the
favourite port of call. The earliest account in which the detailed
customs appear belongs to the year 1355.2 Of every five meases
of herrings brought into the port, the King received a penny toll.
The royal revenue issuing from this source averaged about ten
shillings per annum. Of every herring fishing-boat entering or
going out of the port of Beaumaris the King took a custom of one
mease of herrings. Each mease was valued at two shillings, and
the royal profits in this respect amounted to about seventeen
shillings a year. Among other customs charged was a kiltoll or
anchorage toll of four pence on every boat, and eight pence on
every ship, calling at the port. Some merchants claimed exemp-
tion from these dues by virtue of their town charters. In 1355
the bailiffs of Beaumaris were ordered to make transcripts of all
charters presented by merchants claiming this privilege. The
detailed customs arising from these sources in the local port
between the years 1332-58 are available.3 They were subsequently
amalgamated with other incidental profits of the borough.4

The commercial importance of the port in its relation to the
external trade of the Principality is examined below. Pennant,
writing of Beaumaris in the eighteenth century, states, ' the town
has no trading of any kind, yet has its custom-house.' It was
at Beaumaris that the royal customs were mostly collected
during the Middle Ages.

9. NEWBOROTTGH

Newborough remains a typical manorial borough throughout
its history. The low-lying lands of the Meney were most suitable
for the growing of corn and the feeding of cattle. The fact of
their situation, however, on the border of the extensive sea-
marshes of Malldraeth often proved a source of danger. The in-
habitants experienced a permanent loss in this respect in the
fatal year of 1331, when a considerable extent of their lands
was overrun by the moving sands.5 In the reign of Elizabeth

1 E.g. Min. Ace. 1211/7, 1213/10. 2 /&., 1149/1.

3 For list see Appendix below. 4 P. 133 above.

6 See above, ch. iv., s.n. Newborough.

208 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the Crown countenanced similar complaints from the burgesses
of Newborough. By way of respite, it had been the custom to
forbid the cutting of ' moreske ' rushes within two miles of the
borough.1 These sea-reeds afforded some protection to the town,
and also furnished material for such industry as thrived there.

The peaty character of the surrounding marshes supplied the
inhabitants with plenty of turf for fuel. The sea-rushes (cupce
marinos) found there were also turned to good purpose, being
utilised in the local industry of mat, net, rope, and cord making.2
Newborough reeds were sometimes strewn (in place of carpet) on
the floors of the local exchequer at Carnarvon at the coming of
the justice and the auditors.3

The borough posed as the central mart for the local tenants
of the commote of Meney. The market was held on Tuesday
in each week, and the two yearly fairs took place at Midsummer
and Martinmas. The market tolls during the year 1 304 amounted
to 59s. 3d. The annual fair tolls generally averaged about £2.
Newborough attained some degree of distinction in respect of its
ox market,4 being almost first among all the fairs of Wales for
the number and breed of its cattle. In 1460 the total market
and fair tolls realised only 14s. 8d. Apparently the Welsh were
partially exercising what they received later as a privilege from
Henry vn., namely, exemption from the payment of tolls.

The borough seems to have reached the hey-day of its pro-
sperity during the fourteenth century, when the Crown almost
invariably enjoyed an annual rent varying from £30 to £36.
Early in the reign of Henry iv. several tenements and divers
lands of the borough were burnt by the Welsh rebels. Even
as late as 1410 there were lands to the yearly value of
£1. 12s. vacant in the hands of the Crown, and some burgages
continued unoccupied during the reign of Henry v. The total
rent during this latter reign varied from £20 to £27. 2s. It
remained at the latter figure until 1468. In 1473, owing to some
circumstance, it suddenly falls to £11. 13s. 4d., at which sum it
remained to the end of the Tudor period. The apparent reason
for the decline is the decay of the commercial and jurisdictional
revenues of the borough. The quit balances of the lessees during
the reigns of Henry vn. and Henry vm. show the comparative

1 Rec. of Cam., p. 298. 2 Part. Papers, 1835, vol. xxvi:

8 Min. Ace. (North Wales), 26 and 28 Henry vin.
4 Arch. Carrib., i. i. p. 307.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 209

prosperity of the borough during this period, though on a smaller
and less elaborate scale.1

There can be no doubt but that the bulk of the Anglesea
people preferred the more purely Welsh borough of Newborough
to its English rival at Beaumaris. This may explain the large
profits of its early fairs, as also the equally rapid decline of the
later ones. During the reign of Henry vn., when things Welsh
begin to flourish for the first time, the inhabitants of Anglesea
were gratified with that clause of Henry's great charter, provid-
ing for the holding of all county courts in the town of Newborough.
These courts were held here for a period of forty-five years, when
they were again restored to Beaumaris as formerly. At the same-
time Newborough released itself from the joint liability of sup-
porting a parliamentary representative for the Anglesea boroughs.
After this date (2 Edward vi.) Newborough continued to exist
as a kind of village, irregularly exercising some of its ancient
privileges. A writer describes it in 1841 as the most miserable
spot in Anglesea !

This concludes our particular survey of the local activities
and occupations of the North Welsh boroughs. It now remains
to see what part the same boroughs played in the external
or exchange trade of the North Welsh Principality during the
Middle Ages.

The conquest of Wales by Edward i. changed the material
character of Welsh commerce only in so far as the new inno-
vations led to the creation of new wants. The erection of
castles and the foundation of boroughs gave a new impetus
to the national trade. The immediate effects were perceptible
in matters connected with the general administration of trade,
such as the building of new quays and the election of customs
officials. The prevailing character of North Welsh trade re-
mained much the same throughout the Middle Ages. The port
customs and harbour dues of the local ports are typically those
of an agricultural society gradually emerging from a shell of
a more primitive type. The exports of the purely pastoral
district of Snowdon, as we should expect, were not great. The
borough ports of North Wales during the Middle Ages knew
nothing of the industrial impulse from which the commerce of

1 Min. Ace. (Anglesea), s.a.c.
O

210 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Modern Wales derives its importance. Their trade was actuated
more by political than by economic considerations.1

The general features of the external trade of Wales during
the mediaeval period have been analysed elsewhere.2 The extant
facts illustrating the part played by the North Welsh boroughs
are mostly preserved in the customs returns of the local ports.
These afford figures giving some idea of the approximate bulk of
the trade, and also contain some details as to the agents engaged.
The patent and close rolls supply other useful information on
these points.

Taking first the agents engaged, we find that these comprised
local, English, Irish, and foreign merchants.

The founding of the North Welsh municipalities, with their
gild merchant organisation, must naturally have given some
impetus to the rise of a merchant class in North Wales. It is,
however, only in the three towns of Conway, Carnarvon, and
Beaumaris, especially in the latter, that merchants flourished to
any extent. The ports of these boroughs constituted the chief
avenue of external trade in North Wales during the period
1284-1536. Their quays, as we have already remarked above,
were frequently repaired by the Crown, and it is to them alone
that trade legislation in North WTales 3 generally applied.

Native shipping developed very slowly. Royal boats and ships
were often placed at the disposal of the burgesses to facilitate
the victualling of their boroughs. For instance, two burgesses
of Conway employed one of the King's barges for this purpose
in 1284.4 Again, in 1308 letters of protection were granted to a
royal ship, called Coga Sanctce Marice de Coneweye, to be employed
on the King's business in home and foreign waters.5 Three years
later the burgesses of Conway were asked to supply a ship for
the expedition that was then being formed against Robert Bruce,
the same to be fully armed and provisioned for seven weeks.6
Apparently some of the merchant burgesses of Conway possessed
private ships of their own by this time. In 1316 letters of safe
conduct were granted to Robert de Lughteburgh, a burgess of
the town of Aberconway, going in his little ship, called Le Mariot
de Conwei, to Ireland to buy corn for the King's towns and castles

1 See p. 274 below.

2 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. pp. 166-8.

» Cf. Letters and Papers Henry VIII., vol. xiv., No. 802.

« Col. Pat. Rolls, 1281-92, p. 131. * Ib., 1307-13, p. 93.

• Ib.t pp. 352-3.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 211

of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris.1 Ships from the ports
of Conway, Chester, and Beaumaris were frequently requisitioned
by the Crown during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for
the safe passage of the justiciar of Ireland.2 Such orders
seldom extended to Carnarvon, though in 1315 we read of the
destruction of a ship, called La James of Carnarvon, by Scottish
' rebels ' off Holyhead.3 It is not until late in the reign of
Henry vin. that we can be sure that local ships were engaged in
transmarine trade ; the local merchants usually freighted their
goods in foreign and other boats. Local merchants, except-
ing those of Beaumaris, played an insignificant part in the
trade.

Up to the middle of the fifteenth century the merchant trade of
North Wales was mostly the monopoly of Chester merchants.
They often went with their merchandise and victuals to Ireland
for purposes of sale, and returned with divers goods for the
victualling of Chester and North Wales.4 They also made it a
custom to call periodically at the North Welsh ports on their
return journeys from Gascony and other foreign ports.5 A good
sprinkling of Chester merchants almost invariably attended the
more important fairs in North Wales. Their names frequently
appear among those supplying necessaries for the local chancery
and exchequer at Carnarvon.6

Liverpool merchants are said to have traded in Wales as early
as 13 17,7 and those of Bristol and of other English ports, such
as Fowey and Plymouth, we know, occasionally called with
articles of food (corn and peas) grown in the western districts of
England.

Irish merchants made periodical calls with their fish and corn.8
The burgesses of Conway include Dublin and Drogheda among
the towns, whence merchants were wont to visit their borough.9
The burgesses of Beaumaris in one of their early petitions

1 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1313-17, p. 439.

2 E.g. ib., s.a., 1377-81, p. 385; 1467-77, p. 524.

3 Ib., 1313-17, p. 421.

4 See Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 1888. They express the object of
their trading thus : ' Pour vitailler les chasteux leur dit seigneur le Prince
comme pour le profit de la commune.'

5 Cf. Cal. Close RolU, 1318-23, p. 453.

6 Min. Ace. (chamberlain, North Wales), passim.

7 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1317-21, p. 8. For other Lancashire merchants see
Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 6507 ; Min. Ace. 1211/17.

8 Ib., 1214/9. 9 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 9365.

212 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

vaguely describe the merchants visiting their town as being of
* diverse lands.' l

Foreign ships (carrying wine and iron), mostly Breton, called
at Beaumaris during the reign of Edward rv., and in increasing
numbers during the Tudor period. These were mostly freighted
by Beaumaris and Chester merchants, but sometimes foreign
merchants brought ships and cargoes of their own.2

A general idea of the extent and administration of the trading
activity carried on in North Wales by these different agencies
may be gleaned from the scattered notices of the custom revenues
during this period.

Butlers and gaugers of wine were appointed for North Wales
early in the fourteenth century. The following appointments
are recorded on the patent rolls (s.a.c.) during the early half
of the fourteenth century : —

1308. Bernard de Fer, to be gauger of wines in the whole

of Wales.
1316. Eynon Bagh, William Salmon of Beaumaris, to be

Bernard's deputies in North Wales.
1316. William de Doncaster, to be deputy-butler of Henry de

Say in Chester, Conway, Beaumaris, and Carnarvon.
1320. Anian ap Yevan of Beaumaris, to be deputy-butler of

Stephen de Abyndon in Conway, Carnarvon, and

Beaumaris.
1327. John de Totenham, to be deputy of Richard de la Pole

in Chester and all ports of Wales.
1329. Nicholas de Acton, to be deputy-butler of the above

Richard in all the ports of North Wales.
1331. John de Housom, to be deputy- butler of Andrew Nicol

in Chester, Carnarvon, and other ports of North Wales.
1339. Thomas de Upton, to be controller of customs in

Carnarvon.
- Nicholas de Ellerker, to hold the office of tronage of

wools in the same town.
1343. Henry de Shaldeford, to be deputy- butler of Thomas

de Colleye in North Wales.

A few customs returns for the closing years of the reign of
Edward I. appear on the account of the local chamberlain of
North Wales. During the period covered by the deputy-butlers

1 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 13,991. * See p. 214 below, n. 4.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 213

mentioned above, no extant particulars of the custom revenues
are available. The customs taken in the North Welsh ports
do not come under the purview of the local chamberlain until
the latter half of the fourteenth century. After this, the customs
were taken by special collectors, and made payable to the
exchequer at Carnarvon. The chamberlain accounts of North
Wales from this time to the close of the Tudor period give the
custom revenues of the North W'elsh ports. The original
custom accounts have survived only in a few l instances during
the reign of Henry vni. They contain some details supple-
mentary to the particulars given on the chamberlain's roll.

Prisage and gauge of wines were the only royal customs levied
in North Wales up to the year 1339. Yet an inconsiderable
trade in wool and other customable merchandise had been carried
on there ever since the conquest, but there was apparently no
fixed place for the collection of customs. In 1339, among other
royal ordinances for the better regulation of North Wales, one
stipulated that customs should henceforth be collected at
Carnarvon. Coket seals were ordered, and special collectors
were appointed. Thomas de Upton was nominally the first
controller of the customs there.2 It is known that the
apparatus necessary for the exercise of this office never reached
Carnarvon. About sixty years later the chamberlain states that
a pair of balances, a beam, and six weights, destined for
Carnarvon, still remained at Rhuddlan. The port of Carnarvon
shows no profits from this source until the reign of Henry vn.
Such North Welsh wools as were exported were mostly stapled
at Rhuddlan. A few shipments of Welsh wool, subject to the
conditions of the staple of Rhuddlan, were also made from the
port of Beaumaris late in the fifteenth century, namely, two
sacks and eight pounds, yielding a custom of fifteen shillings,
in 1457, five sacks in 1466, and three sacks in 1468. The issues
of the Rhuddlan staple were payable to the exchequer at
Carnarvon.3

An analysis of the royal customs taken in the North Welsh
ports shows them to be similar in character to those levied in

1 This statement is no longer true. Thirty-one accounts detailing the
custom revenues in North Wales were recently found in the Public Record
Office. The contents of these are incorporated in my tabular analysis of
the Welsh custom revenues during the Middle Ages.

2 Cal Pat. Rolls, 1338-40, pp. 321-2.

3 Trans. E.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 151, n. 8.

214 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

other ports of the realm during the Middle Ages.1 In tabular 2
form they run thus : —

(a) Prise of Wines.

(1) Of every ship, calling in the ports of North Wales

laden with twenty tuns (dolia) and over — two
tuns.

(2) Of every ship, do., laden with less than twenty tuns

a custom of two shillings per tun.
(6) Customs on Wool, Woolfells, Hides, Skins, Cloth, Iron, and

other Merchandise. s. d.

(1) Of every sack of Welsh wool, . . . .68

(2) Of every ship laden with wool (coket), . .20

(3) Of every last of hides (tanned and untanned, and

salted)3, . . . . . 13 4

(4) Of every 15 woolfells, . ..04

(5) Of every 7 goat skins, . . . . .03

(6) Of every 100 lamb skins, 03

(7) Of every entire Welsh cloth, . . .20

(8) Of every English cloth, . ... 2 6

(9) Of every ' Pack of russets ' (containing 20 doz.

'cloths'), 10 0

(10) Of every piece of * kersey ' cloth, . . . .08

(11) Of every piece of 'Northern' cloth, . . 4d. or 3d.

(12) Of every pack of Manchester cottons, . . .26

(13) Of every dole of iron, 20

(14) Of every pound of small merchandise, . . .03

A complete statistical summary of the customs taken in North
Wales, from the earliest times to the close of the reign of Henry
vin., has been compiled for the purposes of this essay.4 The
trading activity, as illustrated by the accounts ranging from
the reign of Edward I. to that of Richard in., was spasmodic
and small, especially during and after the reign of Henry rv.

1 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 153, n. 2. Cf. Rec. of Cam., p. xxii.

1 This table is compiled from the evidence contained in the chamber-
lain and customer accounts of North Wales (temp. Edward i. to Henry
vin.).

3 Of every 5 ox-, cow-, or horse-skins four pence, i.e. for every ' diker ' of
hides eight pence.

4 The subsequent remarks are based on this. In consideration of their
bulk, and the advisability of publishing them along with the contemporary
returns of the remaining Welsh ports, the statistical summary is not
included in the Appendix to this thesis.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 215

Beaumaris stands out clearly as the predominant port of call
during this period.

The returns during the reigns of Henry vii. and Henry vm.
show signs of appreciable increase both in the import and
export trade. Foreign traders visited the North Welsh ports
in larger numbers. During the reign of Henry vn., Breton ships,
sometimes as many as seven in one year, made frequent calls at
Beaumaris, bringing French wines, Spanish iron, and other
miscellaneous merchandise such as fruit, pitch, woollen cards,
household furniture, and toilet apparatus of continental manu-
facture. These foreign ships rarely visited Carnarvon.
Beaumaris, during the early Tudor period, more fully asserted
the prominence which it undoubtedly enjoyed during the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries. The enterprise of the local
merchants, particularly members of the Thikness. Sparrow, and
Johnson families, largely accounted for this.

Towards the close of the reign of Henry VIT. and during the
first nine years of Henry vin.'s rule, Richard Bulkeley, and his
successor in the constableship of the castle of Beaumaris, Rowland
Viellvile, farmed the customs of the port of Beaumaris for an
annual sum of £13. 6s. 8d. This seems to show that Beaumaris
had already established for itself a firm and secure footing in
the national commerce of the time. The issues of the port of
Carnarvon during this period were practically of no importance.
Beaumaris rapidly developed into a port of exchange for
Northern cloths and Manchester cottons, and an entry in the
account of 13 Henry vm. suggests that Carnarvon had some
commercial footing of its own. Clynnog Bay is regarded as a
creek of the port of Carnarvon in this year, a Breton ship leaving
three tuns of wine there.

From the tenth to the thirtieth year of Henry's reign the
customs returns are complete, excepting one or two years. On
the average, they show that three or four trading-ships called at
the North Welsh ports every year. There were, however, some
important exceptions. In one year as many as fifteen ships
called at the port of Beaumaris.

Eighty per cent, of the ships so calling were Breton, many of
which were freighted by local merchants. The remaining twenty
per cent, consisted mostly of Spanish and Portuguese ships, with
a few belonging to Chester, and towards the end of the reign a few
native trading-ships from Milford, Beaumaris, and Carnarvon.

216 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The commercial predominance of Beaumaris is further indicated
by the fact that its port monopolised more than nine-tenths of
the international trade carried on by the above ships. A
frequent return for the port of Carnarvon during the reign
of Henry vn. and Henry vni. was the laconic reply that no ships
had called there. Of the ships enumerated in the accounts of
these reigns only three per cent, called at Carnarvon. Excepting
the instance of a Breton ship loading * northern cloth ' at
Pwllheli, and another unloading wine at Clynnog, all the
remaining goods and merchandise were customed at the port
of Beaumaris.

The administration of the custom revenues in North Wales
underwent a change with the reign of Henry vm. The returns
were no longer made by the local chamberlain, but were placed
under the control of the royal butler at Chester. On this score,
the ports of Conway. Carnarvon, and Beaumaris were reputed
to have been creeks of the port of Chester — a view that was
strongly contested at a subsequent date, especially by Beaumaris.
The most potent argument, apart from the obvious adminis-
trative independence of the port of Beaumaris during the later
Middle Ages, was the mistaken plea that the custom rights of
the port of Beaumaris appertained to the constableship of the
castle. The evidence, detailing the legal wrangling that ensued
on this and other points during the late Tudor and early Stuart
period, yields interesting and curious information concerning the
method of collecting the customs at Beaumaris during the
earlier periods.

In 15931 a deposition was taken touching the prise of wines
in the ports of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris. The chief
point in dispute was as to whether the ports were creeks of
Chester or not. The right of Chester butlers to appoint deputy-
collectors in the port of Beaumaris was apparently challenged
by the constables of the local castle, who entertained some hazy
recollections of their forefathers exercising the right. Several
witnesses, on the constable's side, relate vivid stories of the
collection of prise by the constables of the castle, and all invari-
ably labour under the delusion that they did this qua constables.
They all seemingly agreed to forget that the particular constables
mentioned as doing this were lessees of the custom revenues
there at the time. This gave a new interest to the dispute.
1 Exchqr. Depositions, 35 Elizabeth, No. 9.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 217

TVere the custom rights vested in the local constable or in the
prerogative of the Crown ?

One Roger Ady, a Beaumaris burgess of more than ninety
summers, related an interesting anecdote touching the taking
of prise at Beaumaris by Sir Rowland Viellvile, Kt. The latter,
he says, as constable of the castle (not, notice, as lessee of the
customs revenues there), sent Sir Hugh Goch, his chaplain, to
a strange ship to demand prise. Roger (the witness) accom-
panied Sir Hugh, and goes on to say that when they came
aboard, a part of the upper deck was lifted up and opened, and
the said Sir Hugh was permitted to go below amongst the wine
casks. Roger, in the meantime reluctantly standing above,
saw Sir Hugh tasting the said wines severally, and selecting
one tun before and another abaft the mast. When these were
removed on to the upper deck, Sir Hugh found that the chosen
casks were not full, so he proceeded to taste other wines, and
caused the casks to be filled up. Roger supervised the stowing
away of these two tuns in the castle cellar for the use of Sir
Rowland Viellvile. This event, concluded Roger, took place
seventy- two years ago (i.e. in 1521), he being then eighteen
years old.

A deposition l was again taken in 1613, touching the question
as to whether the prisage of wines in the haven of Beaumaris
appertained to the office of the constableship of the castle and
captaincy of the town. The acting constable at this time was
Richard Bulkeley, grandson of one Richard Bulkeley who leased
the custom revenues in the time of Henry vn.

The first witness, William Griffith (58), cousin-german to
Richard Bulkeley 's father, with whom William had attended
the school of the town of Beaumaris, deposed that the
Bulkeley family enjoyed the prise of wines for forty years past,
the right being appurtenant to the constableship of the castle.
' The port of Beaumaris,' he says, ' is a good haven, able to receive
the greatest navy.' Another witness, named Thomas ap William
ap Rees, related how his father, William ap Rees, had accom-
panied Sir Thomas Gronow, parson of Llaniestyn and chaplain
to Sir Rowland Viellvile, for the purpose of taking prise of wine
in the port of Beaumaris. ' Once,' he says, ' a hogshead was given
to the parson.' Subsequent witnesses made similar statements.
'One seaman said that his boat was once hired to carry the prise
1 Exckqr. Depositions, 10 James i., No. 2.

218 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

wines from a ship that anchored at the ' orosse roode ' near
Priestholme. Incidentally, the same witness made a statement
of note, namely, that the taking of the prise out at sea had been
the custom at Beaumaris for centuries. This is the apparent
explanation of the entries in the late fourteenth-century returns
which refer to ships calling near the port of Beaumaris.

The dispute with the constable seems to have originated about
the year 1548, when Elize Wynne, then controller of Chester,
appointed a deputy in the port of Beaumaris. Hugh Goodman,
a witness in the earlier deposition, who knew Beaumaris ' this
last forty years,' states in 1593 that Bretons, Frenchmen, and
other strangers trafficked there, of whom prise was taken for
Her Majesty (Queen Elizabeth). He also says that the port of
Beaumaris is reputed a port or creek belonging to the port of
Chester, because the customs controller and other officers of the
port of Chester, nominated and appointed deputies for the execu-
tion of their respective offices there. The Beaumaris deputies
rendered their accounts to the butler at Chester. The same
witness also verily believed that the ports and creeks of Conway
and Carnarvon did in like manner belong to the port of Chester.
William Spicer of Carnarvon, Elice Barlow of Beaumaris, and
other merchant witnesses were of this same opinion.

It is clear from the point of view of the administration of the
royal customs after the reign of Henry vni., that the controller
of Chester's charge included the North Welsh ports, the issues
of which are not entered, as during the early half of the four-
teenth century, in the accounts of the local chamberlain at
Carnarvon. Was this sufficient to make the North Welsh ports
creeks of the port of Chester ? A contemporary witness was in
doubt on this point. ' Beaumaris,' he says, ' was either a creek of
or appurtenant to the port of Chester.' It is also clear that the
prise of wines was never ipso facto vested in the constableship
of the castle of Beaumaris. Some witnesses who favoured this
view, claimed that the deputy-controllers of the port were subject
to the constable of the castle, a plea as improbable as it was
untenable.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 219

VII

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE NORTH WELSH
BOROUGHS, 1284-1536

IN a previous chapter 1 we found the castles and boroughs to
be the appointed mainstays of English interests in North Wales.
Their political history during the later Middle Ages is in con-
sequence peculiarly a relative one. Its right comprehension
demands a careful consideration of the respective positions of the
Crown, of the English burgesses, and of the North Welsh populace.

The avowed object of the English kings from Edward I. to
Henry vm. was the pacification of Wales. To facilitate the
accomplishment of this, they founded the English garrison
boroughs. One aspect of their political history consists of a con-
sideration of their function in the political administration of the
immediate Principality of North Wales. Moreover, in common
with other boroughs, they were regarded as valuable assets in the
hands of the Crown for the safeguard and protection of the realm
of England and the land of Wales. There is also the more purely
municipal politics of the borough which we have already noticed
in our earlier chapters (in., iv., v., vi.), namely, the acquisition
and maintenance of their territorial, institutional, and commer-
cial privileges. Both these external and internal aspects of the
borough politics were being continually modified and shaped by
the political efforts and social aims of the native inhabitants.

The predominant atmosphere of North Welsh politics during
the period of settlement was one of conflict and compromise.
The earlier half is essentially a period of temporary revolts —
some of them mere affrays, and others assuming wider propor-
tions. In the later half the symptoms of reconciliation appear,
and ultimately find actual and legal expression. The period
witnessed a change of political sentiment and of economic condi-
tion, which is gradually evidenced in three directions, namely, in
1 See above, p. 23.

220 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

(1) the policy of the English Crown, and (2) in the political and
social status of both the English burgesses and (3) the North
Welsh tenants.

The policy of the Crown gradually changed during the period.
At the outset we have the punitive ordinances attached to
the Statute of Rhuddlan setting forth the determined pre-
cautions of a conqueror for the pacification of a rebel race ; at
the close, we have the Act of Union setting forth the considerate
answer of a reconciler to the wishes of his loyal subjects. The
ordinances of Rhuddlan were the product of the defiance of English
laws ; the Act of Union took the form of a reply to a quest on
the part of the Welsh to be governed by the laws of England.
The policy of the Crown during the period of this transition was
a temporizing one. It varied with the attitude of the Welsh,
which fluctuated from a strong tendency to revolt to a weak
desire for union. At times when repression was necessary, the
Crown acted in the spirit of the Rhuddlan ordinances, treating
the native populace with a strong hand. But in cases where
points of justice and fairness in respect of the illegal and unjust
actions of English officials were at stake, the Welsh generally
received sympathetic treatment at the hands of the Crown,
reminding us of the Act of Union.

Concurrent with this change of political sentiment we have
to consider the gradual transition in the position of the English
burgess and the Welsh tenant. From the point of view of the
Welshman, the period of settlement was a period of progress
from the position of a subordinate tenant of a subjected district,
to that of a responsible citizen of the English realm. It was a
period of progress to the English burgess also, although during
the process he suffered much through the gradual decline of his
old political monopoly. This twofold change was the result of
a long conflict. The three North Welsh counties, during the
period of settlement, witnessed a strenuous struggle for liberty
in the form of a racial conflict between the commonalty of the
English burgesses and the commonalty of North Welshmen.
Upon the introduction of the English municipalities into North
Wales, the local inhabitants at once became conscious of the
existence of a new liberty, the provisions of which they were
unable to enjoy through the nominal barrier of race, or rather
the real barrier of suspected loyalty. A persistent struggle
naturally ensued. On the one side, the English burgesses strove

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 221

not to lose the monopoly of privileges which their political status
assured them. On the other side, the North Welshmen strove
to acquire the privileges which their political antipathy to the
English authorities at first denied to them . The equal enjoyment
of the rights and privileges of law and commerce forms a con-
sistent item in the political programme of the mediaeval Welsh.

The acquisition by Welshmen of the right to enjoy the
commercial and other privileges introduced into Wales at the
time of the English conquest is one important consummation
of the period of settlement. For political reasons, the process
was vigorously checked at various points by the combined
action of the English Government and of the boroughs. The
latter were favoured in the conflict by their political dependence
on the Crown, and also by the fact that they were in line with
the advancing civilisation of the period.

The Welshmen persistently clung to the old tribal habits of
their ancestors, with the result that their admission into the
full privileges of the English borough, as of the English realm,
was slow and protracted. In doing this, however, the Welsh
at once stimulated and preserved a strong sense of national
honour.

The necessity of struggling -for the acquisition of the new
liberty and of maintaining their old-time customs from undue
encroachment — a duty that devolved upon the shoulders of the
Welsh tenants upon the disappearance of their princes — seems to
have kindled a sense of national honour which gathered strength
with the course of the centuries. The gross and high-handed
treatment extended to the Welsh peasants by alien and native
officials, gave them ample opportunity to vent their grievances.
They no longer possessed local princes to champion their rights,
and they had not yet acquired the right to elect county members
to voice their grievances in the Parliament of the English realm.
The elements of Welsh nationalism during the period of settle-
ment are most evident in the local petitions of various com-
monalties for the redress of widespread abuses brought about
by an unfair and unpopular administration. The most compre-
hensive expression of Welsh nationalism in the language of the
mediaeval documents is the phrase, ' Commonalty of North and
South Wales,' or the less definite appellation, ' The People of
Wales.' Common union and national sympathy with the
redress of local grievances were fostered in Welsh circles by the

222 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

vague bardic assertion that a descendant of Cadwallader the
Blessed would soon regain and ascend to the sovereignty of
Britain. The popularity of this old prophecy, and its vivid
reality to the Welsh mind of the time, proved a source of strength
to the national leaders, and oftentimes made the political environ-
ment of the English borough a most threatening one.

The mediaeval Welsh, in their petitions, attribute most of their
grievances to the deviations of strange officials from the so-called
good ways of the old princes. The peasantry, as a whole, seem
to have been strongly imbued with the idea that local prosperity
could only be associated with the just government of a native
prince. There was apparently something very real in the
association of their future millennium with the accession to the
British throne of one of their own blood. The prevailing public
opinion is voiced by the national bard : —

' Oftentimes have I wished
To have a Lord of ability — glorious portent
From among us ourselves.'

The Welsh people of this period were much bent on having a
prince of their own. Even the creation of Edward of Carnarvon
to be the first English Prince of Wales was popularly received
throughout the Principality. Whenever the rule of created
princes of this type, or the administration of their represen-
tatives erred on the side of tyranny and extortion, the Welsh
peasantry either attempted to make princes of their own, or
extended ready welcome to any local chieftain having lineal
claims to the position.

The sounding of the old prophecy (associated in the pre-
conquest days with the extermination of the Saxons at the
hands of the militant Welsh princes) during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries came to be used as a vehicle of social pro-
gress rather than of political aggrandisement. Prophecy proved
a considerable incentive to patriotic effort during the Middle
Ages, and the English authorities, both at Carnarvon and West-
minster, made persistent attempts to stay its influence. During
the period several statutes and ordinances were passed dealing
severely with the rhymester and minstrel classes — the nourishers
of revolt and unrest. Welsh bards had little or nothing to do
with the North Welsh boroughs except to drink their wine:

The theory of redemption at the hands of a descendant of

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 223

Oadwallader was apparently abandoned by the Welsh upon the
accession of Henry Tudor to the British throne. His success
was locally regarded as the consummation of what had appeared
to most as idle prophecy. Henry himself took great pains to
possess himself of the alleged facts, and the careful clerks
who set forth his title in the columns of the Rolls of Parliament
made more than passing reference to the old theory of Brutian
descent.

One thing is clear. The battle of Bosworth is a landmark
in the political history of Wales, as in the political status of
the North Welsh boroughs. It marks the point at which a
gradual change in the attitude of the Crown towards English
burgess and Welsh tenant becomes perceptible. The external
symptoms of an union, in which the factor of race as a condition
for the enjoyment of State privilege was to be obliterated for
ever, come to sight. After this, the English boroughs of North
Wales, as of Wales, are gradually relieved from their political
responsibility, and the Welsh community by degrees throws off
the political impediments of the Middle Ages. In less than
fifty years the native populace clamour for the Act of Union.
This, for the first time, gave both Welshmen and Englishmen
residing in Wales the citizen privileges of the realm of England.

Side by side with the progress of this political drama, there
were silent economic forces at work gradually revolutionising
the conditions of borough and country life, making the primary
condition of burghal life one of wealth rather than of race, and
transplanting the importance of the borough to a commercial
rather than a political sphere as heretofore.

Bearing in mind these general features of North Welsh
politics during the period of settlement, the following narrative
of the most important incidents in the political story of the
English boroughs may appear to be more intelligible, both in
its relation to the wider history of the nation, and to the
narrower interest of the respective boroughs.

During the years immediately following the conquest, Edward i.
was busily engaged in laying the foundation of his policy
in North Wales. The conquest of Wales was celebrated with
great pomp at the little sea village of Nevin on the first day of
August 1284. According to the version of the English chronicler,
native earls and foreign knights in large numbers joined in the
congratulations extended to the Conqueror on the downfall of

224 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Welsh independence.1 More gratifying to the Welsh was the
event that took place a few months previously in the English
borough of Carnarvon,2 namely, the birth of Edward of Car-
narvon, who at the age of seventeen, was to become the first
English Prince of Wales.

The decade following the Statute of Rhuddlan was naturally
an anxious one to English authorities throughout Wales. The
introduction of the changes instituted by the legal and con-
stitutional dictates of the Conqueror brought into relief the
salient points of political moment in Wales during the period.
The English authorities became alive to the responsibilities of
the task they had undertaken. The Welsh on their side,
though somewhat inactive through the inevitable torpor that
set in with the abolition of their independence, gradually divined
what was the practical meaning of the elaborate arrangements
made for their admission into the benefits and conditions of a new
political organism. The work of castle-building and borough-
making went on apace during these first ten years. Progress
was not yet seriously interrupted, but a racial conflict was at
hand.

The Welsh populace exhibited discomforting signs throughout,
and made several abortive attempts to throw off the English
yoke. The uneasiness arose partly from the dissatisfaction of
the representatives of the old princely chieftains with their
treatment by the Conqueror, and partly from the exorbitant
policy of the new officials towards the local peasantry. Rhys
ap Meredith's duel with Robert de Tibetot, the King's justice in
South Wales, came to naught in 1291, after a struggle of four
years' duration.3 In North Wales everything was outwardly
quiet until the year 1294. In this particular year the Welsh
outbreak4 took the form of a national outburst against the
tyrannical conduct of the English officials in Wales since the
annexation. The North Wales episode of this revolt lasted
nearly a year, extending roughly from Michaelmas 1294 to
Michaelmas of the next year.

The condition of Welsh politics was somewhat aggravated at
this time, by the imposition of an imperial tax of a fifteenth on
all movables, for the carrying on of Edward's Gascon wars.

1 Flores Hist. (Rolls), vol. iii. p. 62. 2 76. , p. 61.

» The Welsh Wars of Edward I. (Morris), pp. 204-18.
* Ann. Wig. (Rolls), p. 517.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 225

This innovation was not favourably received by the Welsh
tenantry, despite the King's pledge that it should not be taken
as a precedent for future grants.1 There was also strong objection
on the part of the Welsh to acquiesce to the compulsory levy
of Welsh soldiers for service in Gascony.2 The fact that the
King himself was at Portsmouth, awaiting favourable winds to
embark his forces for the struggle with France, made the autumn
of 1294 a particularly opportune time for a revolt against these
innovations of the new civilisation. The circumstances flattered
the Welsh people so much that they set up princes of their own,
whose appeal to the native military in the cause of domestic
reform was likely to be more telling than the compulsory
order of a conqueror to further his schemes of aggrandisement
abroad.

The men of Anglesea were the pioneers of the revolt in the
north under the leadership of one Madoc, reputed to be a natural
son of Llywelyn the Last.3 The notorious Roger de Pulesdon
had been exercising his tyrannical rule in this island ever since
1284, the date of his appointment to the first shrievalty of the
county. The tenants of the native cantreds at a later date
coupled his name with the compilation of ' false ' extents as the
best recollection of his rule.4 His unpopularity was further
intensified in the eyes of the Welsh populace by his connection
with the levying of the new and odious tax.5 The actual out-
break of the North Welsh rising centres round the strained
relations of Roger de Pulesdon and the people of Anglesea.
There is but very little evidence for the Welsh side of the
struggle ; the extant details relate mostly to the attempts at its
suppression on the part of the English.

The onslaught of the Welsh appears to have been as un-
expected as it was successful, and as soon as the English King
had been apprised of its serious proportions, he abandoned
his projected French campaign, and hastened to support the
English boroughs that were being threatened with premature
destruction at the hands of the Welsh insurgents.6

The rebels, after ransacking the district of Anglesea, when
the church of the Welsh town of Llanvaes was burnt and

1 Cf. Wales, p. 211. 8 Morris, op. cit., pp. 241-3.

3 Contemporary authorities style him " Madoc ap Llywelvn ' (see
Diet. Nat. Biog., s.n., and p. 228 below).

4 Cf. Rec. of Cam., p. 216. 6 Floras Hist. (Rolls), iii. p. 91.
6 Ann. de Oseneia (Rolls), pp. 338-9.

226 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDON1A

destroyed,1 made a sudden raid on the borough of Carnarvon
during the progress of the Michaelmas fair of 1294. The
English townsmen were put to the sword, and Roger de Pulesdon,
the hated sheriff, is said to have suffered a cruel death at the
hands of the Anglesea Welshmen.2 The town and the castle, then
in course of erection, were plundered and burnt,3 and the new
English colonists, to their great disappointment, were deprived
of a coveted charter.4

A simultaneous attack was made on English interests in the
vales of the Clwyd and the Dee by the unruly tenants of the Earl
of Denbigh. The boroughs of Denbigh and Overton, on the
northern March, were continually harassed.5

On the destruction of Carnarvon, the main body of the
revolters withdrew for safety, some to Anglesea, and some to
the parts of Snowdon.6 The castle of Bere in Merioneth, being
insufficiently garnished, was in a precarious state, but the
castles of Criccieth and Harlech, thanks to the inestimable aid
of the borough men, were equal to the emergency, and successfully
held their own against the attacks of the Welsh.7

Whilst the preparations of Edward I. for the complete sub-
jugation of the rising were maturing, the castle of Bere became
irrecoverably lost to the English cause. Edward was apparently
much concerned over the safety of Bere, the more, perhaps,
owing to the absence of its custodian, Robert Fitz- Walter,
whom he had enlisted for service abroad. On the 27th of October
he directed the Earl of Arundel, Fulk Fitz Waryn, Roger
L'Estrange, Bogo de Knoville, and Peter Corbet to organise an
expedition for its speedy relief.8 The subsequent silence of
documents and chronicles, according to the careful and minute
author of The Welsh Wars of Edward I., argues that the relief
was effected, but the fact that the place is now lost to history
seems to suggest the opposite. The last we hear of the castle
and borough of Bere is that it was attacked by the Welsh.9
Only four castles remained (virtually three), now that Carnarvon
was destroyed, to maintain the English hold.

Col. Close Rolls, 1318-23, p. 71. 2 Trans. Gym. Soc., 1902-3, p. 36.

Hemingburgh (E.H.S.), ii. pp. 57-8.

Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 6507.

Morris, op. cit., p. 253, and Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 10,081.

Ann. de Dunstaplia (Rolls), pp. 385-7. 7 See ch. iv. above, s.n.

Morris, op. cit., pp. 252-3 et ref.

Cf. ch. iii. above, s.n.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 227

The King, after spending some time in quelling the insurgents
in the district of the Four Cantreds, arrived at Conway towards
the close of the year 1294, where he made his headquarters for
the next three months. The unfortunate division of his army
by the sudden rising of the river Conway upon his entrance into
the town, and the subsequent straits to which he and his garrison
were put in consequence, are well known. The Welsh forces
concentrated their attention on Conway, and from the 10th to
the 24th of January 1295 the King had to suffer the indignity
of a siege. Considerable damage was done to the town property
before relief was afforded by the decisive defeat of the Welsh
in the battle of Conway, better known as the battle of the Two
Groves. This victory so dismayed the Welsh that they took
no concerted action against English arms again. Marauding
troops, moreover, wandered here and there, and during the
following months the garrisons of Harlech and Criccieth were
strengthened with men and victual.1

Towards the end of April the English king proceeded west-
ward from Conway, accompanied by a small field army, and
after a stay of two days at Bangor advanced to Anglesea, making
his headquarters at Llanvaes until the sixth day of May.2
According to the figures of a contemporary annalist, island
revolters to the number of eleven thousand came to the King's
peace there.3 In the following month the inhabitants of
Merioneth swore homage to the King at Dolgelly. Edward
subsequently paid a short and cursory visit to the district of
Cardigan and the Marcher lands of Brecon and Montgomery, in
connection with kindred episodes of the revolt there, and made
another hasty visit to Carnarvon and Anglesea before his return
to England.4 Arrangements were made for the erection of a
strong castle and the foundation of an English borough on the
site of the old town of Llanvaes, with the object of overawing
the rebellious island. Minute instructions were also given for
the renewal of operations at Carnarvon.

The King left North Wales for England about the 10th of
July 1295.5 He had nominally assured himself of the loyalty
of the North Welsh by receiving their oath of fealty, and he
took care that the local hostages, numbering about one hundred

1 Morris, op. cit., pp. 254-5. 2 Itin. oj Edward I. (Gough's),p. 129.

3 Ann. Wig. (Rolls), p. 520. 4 Morris, op. cit., p. 264.

6 Itin. of Edward L, p. 131.

228 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

and seventy, were safely despatched to Chester, Nottingham,
and other English castles.1 He solemnly warned the Welsh
that he would exterminate the entire nation if they again
presumed to resist his authority.2 These, of course, were the
usual threats.

The King left the reduction of Madoc and his paltry band in
the hands of John de Havering. After the memorable battle
of the Two Groves, near Conway, the whereabouts of Madoc
were little known. It is, however, certain that Madoc had not
submitted before Edward's departure for England,3 and that
ultimately John de Havering was instrumental in negotiating
his capture. The facts are these : the King offered a reward
of five hundred marks to any one who brought to him alive
or dead the ' Madok ap Lewelin qui se fist prince? On the 10th
of July 12954 he also delegated the keeping of North Wales
to John de Havering. Havering, on account of the recent
disturbances, found it necessary to have a large number of
followers at increased wages, for the peace was uncertain owing to
the fact that ' celui qui se fist Prince se tint as hois' In a petition 5
to this effect John de Havering claims expenses in this regard
extending from 10 July to 3 September next following ; moreover
in a parallel petition 6 he demands the five hundred marks, since
* il lui mena meismes celui Madok a sa volunte sauns condicion
de covenaunt et grauntz coustages mist et defere le venir et del
mener.' This points to the unconditional surrender of Madoc
about the beginning of September 1295. On p. 220 of the
Record of Carnarvon we have the statement that one Enyr
Vychan, of the commote of Talybont in the county of Merioneth,
had been of some use in capturing Madoc ap Llywelyn, who
made himself Prince of Wales. The consensus of opinion is
that Madoc spent the remainder of his days in the Tower.7

His revolt was rather significant from the point of view
of borough history. It was the first occasion upon which the
English authorities in North Wales were called upon to cope
with any serious opposition on the part of the native inhabitants

1 Col. Close Rolls, 1288-96, pp. 425, 466.

1 Ann. de Dunataplia (Rolls), p. 387. 3 Ann. Wig. (Rolls), p. 522.

4 This explains the apparent anomaly into which the author of The
Welsh Wars of Edward I. leads his reader on p. 265. Havering was
appointed justice in the following September.

6 Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. E, 83. • Ib., E, 69.

7 Trivet (E.H.S.), p. 338.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 229

since the conquest. The castellated boroughs had a varied
experience. Bere finally disappeared upon the success of the
Welsh. Conway remains memorable for the peculiar experiences
of the English sovereign there, and for the novel tactics l adopted
in the battle of the Two Groves which resulted in the raising
of its siege. The burgesses of the town, too, for a long time
to come, attributed the destruction of their mills to the doings
of Madoc.2 The most considerable damage was perpetrated
at Carnarvon. The Crown expended more than £1000 on the
subsequent reparation of the houses and walls of the town.3
The burning of a valued charter and the devastation of crop-
growing lands were other causes of local lament associated with
the rising of Madoc. One thing above all else had been revealed
during the progress of the revolt, and that was the necessity
of keeping careful patrol over the island of Anglesea. The
creation both of the borough of Beaumaris, and later of the
borough of Newborough, were the direct results of this.4

The circumstances attending the revolt, too, afforded con-
siderable insight into many of the problems of local government
in North Wales at this time. It has been said that the Crown,
in consequence of this rising, changed its attitude towards its
North Welsh subjects, and that mainly in the interests of the
English boroughs. Carnhuanawc, the well-known author of
the standard history of Wales in the vernacular, has suggested,
and with some degree of probability, that it was in connection
with Madoc's revolt that the ordinances forbidding to Welsh-
men the privileges of the English in North Wales originated.5
A reference in the Rolls of Parliament late in the reign of
Henry vi., attributes the origin of these ordinances to the time
of Edward I. after the conquest ' upon the rebell of Walssh men in
his tyme' 6 The rising of Madoc was certainly the first formid-
able rebellion of the North Welshmen in the time of Edward I.
after the conquest. Furthermore, the original charters and the
Statutes of Rhuddlan, all drawn up after the conquest, contain
no actual prohibition against Welshmen becoming burgesses of
the English walled towns. These latter were obviously in-
tended to be of English sympathy from the beginning. The sad
experience of many of them during the progress of the revolt

1 Cf. Morris, op. cit., pp. 256-7. 2 Min. Ace. 1170/5.

3 Morris, op. cit., p. 270. 4 See above, p. 31.

6 Hanes Cymru (J. Price), pp. 751-2. 6 Rot. Part., v. p. 104a.

230 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

seems to have revealed the importance of further assuring their
integrity by the factor of race.

The Edwardian ordinances, usually appended to the Statutes
of Rhuddlan, thus construed, would appear to have been the
necessary antidote to a preponderating Welsh sympathy in the
boroughs. The Cymricising of the burgess-ship was nominally
checked by law. The boroughs were further protected by
parallel ordinances rendering the rural Welsh defenceless, and
forbidding all future congregations of Welshmen without the
express licence of the English Crown.1 The strengthening of
the English boroughs at the expense of weakening the Welsh
opposition is the key to the English legislative policy in North
Wales during the Middle Ages.

The revolt also brought the Crown face to face with the
possible defects of its administrative government in North
Wales. It emphasised the dangers imminent to the English
cause there, through the irresponsibility and arbitrary action of
its officers, who often, through ignorance and wanton ambition,
subjected the native populace to severe treatment. Edward I.,
in connection with this rebellion, pursued his usual policy of
investigation after suppression. When the revolt had subsided,
John de Havering, justiciar of North Wales, and William de
Sikun, constable of Conway castle, were commissioned to inquire
into the complaints of the commonalty of North Wales touching
the trespasses, injuries, extortions, and oppressions inflicted
upon them, since the land came into the King's hands, by the
sheriffs, bailiffs, and other ministers of the King in those parts.2
The findings of this inquest revealed the customary evils of a
harsh administration. Several of the most glaring irregularities
were amended. After this it became a common policy of the
English Crown to institute periodical inquiries into the condition
of Wales.

It is also worthy to note that the rising of Madoc, from
the fact of its cause being connected with the levying of
troops and the collection of subsidies, introduces yet another
phase of the English policy in Wales during the period of settle-
ment, which we must learn to appreciate. The country was
frequently drained of its people and money for the purposes of
foreign expeditions. An event of more than ordinary occurrence

1 Rec. of Cam., pp. 131-2. 2 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 165.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 231

was the selection of one or other of the North Welsh boroughs
as the common meeting-place of local troops for preliminary
equipment, and embarkation for parts beyond the sea. The
Welsh sometimes distorted the objects of such meetings into a
rebellious assertion of their local wrongs.

Favoured by the new legislation and other immunities, the
boroughs improved their general condition during the next ten
years (1294-1304). During this time all the burgesses, as we
have seen, were allowed to hold their lands rent free. The
North Welshmen, on the other hand, continued to be somewhat
suspicious of the regard in which they were held by the English
King. In the year next following the revolt of Madoc, when
several Scottish prisoners captured in the battle of Dunbar were
drafted in small groups into the castles of Conway, Criccieth,
and Harlech for safe custody,1 it was rumoured amongst the
Welsh that the English King held them in great suspicion.
Before the end of the year, however, Edward made haste to
assure the Abbot of Conway, Thomas Daunvers, Tudor ap
Gronow, and Howel ap Kenwryk — delegates specially deputed
to him by the commonalty of Snowdon and Anglesea in this
behalf — that he entertained no such suspicion towards them,
but held them for his faithful and devoted subjects.2

In the documents of the next few years, the North Welshmen
are described as subjects loving the King's honour and advantage.
On the express understanding that moneys granted by them
should not be to their prejudice or construed as a precedent for
future exactions, the North Welsh commonalty made a lavish
subsidy grant to support Edward I. in his campaigns against the
Scots.3 North Welshmen, too, filled the ranks of the large
armies that were raised in Wales for the prosecution of the same
war.4 A little before 1297, Welshmen of North Wales (among
others), under their leader Griffin ap Rees, served the King in
Flanders.5 Foot-soldiers from the district of Snowdon also
served willingly under the new ' Prince of Wales,' 6 whose
assumption of this title in 1301 caused universal satisfaction
to the Welsh people.

1 Gal. Close Bolls, 1288-96, p. 482.

2 Gal. Pat. Rolls, 1292-1301, p. 223. 3 Ib., p. 534.

4 Ib., pp. 342, 598. 6 Ib., 1301-7, p. 85.

6 Ib., p. 335. Cf. The Political History of England, 1216-1377, by T. F.
Tout, p. 210, n. 1.

232 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

The fact of Edward ii.'s birth at Carnarvon kindled among the
Welsh an affection for him that was not obliterated by the later
actions of his life. His principate of some half a dozen years
was in many respects an important one to both English and
Welsh interests in the Principality of North Wales. He remedied
many of the local grievances to which his father could afford
but hasty notice. He somewhat modified the restrictions
imposed on the native populace by the Edwardian ordinances,
and paid considerable regard to the old Welsh customs and
practices. His careful replies to the famous series of Kennington
petitions are a lasting monument of his vigorous attempt to
cope with the miscellaneous problems of local government in
North Wales at the beginning of the fourteenth century. All
told, these extend to more than ten printed folio pages of the
Record of Carnarvon,1 and formed the basis of the later ordinances,
enacted by him as King in 1316, for the regulation of North
Wales.

In the aforesaid replies, we find Edward of Carnarvon posing
as the protector of the Welsh peasant, and as the upholder of the
hereditary rights of the tribesman. Rents were reduced, and
old-time customs relating to the erection of grist mills and
the incidence of tribal dues, with due regard to exceptional
privileges, were retained. Ejected tenants were replaced in
their tenements, and great regard was shown for the rights of
the local clergy.

In the formulation "of his Welsh policy, Edward did not let
his affection outrun his discretion. The Statute of Rhuddlan
was not changed in effect. He simply reformed the gross
injustices which accompanied its administration at the hands
of his father's officials. The English burgess, as much as the
Welshman, found him a willing supporter. Most of his con-
cessions to the North Welsh boroughs have been already detailed
in earlier chapters. He gave Newborough its first charter,
and during his rule as King he founded the free borough of
Bala, and also granted the valuable privilege of a fee-farm to
both Harlech and Conway. Several of the boroughs, too, as we
have seen, took advantage of his generous spirit in their efforts
to expand their territorial areas.

As King, Edward of Carnarvon never visited North Wales in
person, the district being, for the most part, under the control of
1 Rec. of Cam., pp. 212-25.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 233

Roger Mortimer of Chirk, and other officials of questionable
bearing. The story of his reign in North Wales is the story
•of ministerial misrule, which was to some extent inevitable,
owing to the political troubles in which the King found himself
embroiled.

As early as 1308 complaints of Mortimer's despotic rule in
North Wales began to reach the King. He openly defied the
control of the local chamberlain, issuing writs and other instru-
ments not returnable to or remediable at the chancery of
^Carnarvon. He also ignored the solemn decree of the Council,
by extending the privileges of office to Welshmen, and that in
his own interests. Bailiffs, reeves, and other ministers were
•elected irregularly, with the result that the affairs of the King,
.as of the. North Welsh people, were going to utter ruin. Local
officers became intendant to the justiciar rather than to the
•chamberlain.1 The Parliament of 1309 2 made some effort to
define more clearly the administrative functions and relations
of the royal ministers in North Wales, but with no good results.
Five years later, we find the King himself appointing a com-
mission to inquire into the complaints of his men of North Wales,
to the effect that his bailiffs and ministers there had for a long
time harassed and molested them on divers occasions. Con-
temporary complaints reached the King in wholesale fashion
from South Wales. During the years 1315 and 1316 he was
again besieged with Welsh petitions of a . similar character.
The King was at this time particularly anxious to do Wales
justice, as it was rumoured that the country was about to be
invaded by the rebel Scots who had lately attacked Ireland.
He did what he could by promulgating ordinances enjoining a
;strict observance of the Kennington policy laid down by him as
Prince.3

The preceding injunctions brought no apparent respite.
Ministerial and other differences in South v Wales at this time
came to a head in the revolt of Llywelyn Bren and his
.accomplices. This ' Nine Weeks' War ' wrought havoc to many
of the southern boroughs. Special precautions were taken by the
-authorities to prevent a similar outbreak in North Wales. The
King despatched urgent orders from Lincoln to John de Grey,
the acting justiciar of North Wales, to victual and munify

1 Cal. Close Rolls, 1307-13, pp. 88-9. 2 Rot. ParL, i. p. 273.

3 Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1313-17, pp. 229, 394-5, 406, 433-4, 469-70.

234 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the local castles. Personal custody was at the same time
enjoined on all the constables.1 At Beaumaris the castle
garrison was increased above its normal numbers, for which
provision John de Sapy was paid over and above his usual stipend
at a later date.2 This special garnishment of Beaumaris seems
to point to some particular fear or doubt as to the loyalty of the
isle of Anglesea. There was, however, no actual outbreak
during the revolt in South Wales, but it transpires that some-
thing like an organised revolt was being contemplated at this
time by the inhabitants of North Wales. It was rumoured that
the English castles and boroughs were to be razed to the
ground.

The North Welshmen seem to have regained some of their
old national pride under the moderate policy of Edward n.
At any rate they appear to have got hold of the notion that
political subjection did not necessarily imply social stagnation.
Their rising hopes found some organic expression in the alleged
revolt of Sir Gruffydd Llwyd of Trefgarnedd, a distinguished
Welsh chieftain, who swore homage to Edward I. at Chester,
and received the honour of knighthood on conveying the joyful
news of the birth of Edward of Carnarvon to the King at
Rhuddlan.

The exact date of Llwyd's revolt is not known. There is no
certainty that it took place at all. Authentic evidence points
to active preparations on the part of Grufiydd before 1318, and
the year 1322 is generally assumed to be the correct date of his
death. Some historians have assigned Llwyd's rising to the
year 1317,3 which date tallies very well with the fact that two
of Llwyd's letters, contemplating joint action with Edward
Bruce and his rebel Scots, then in Ireland, must have been
sent before 1318.4 As these negotiations, however, are known
to have fallen through, it may be reasonably surmised that the
intended revolt was postponed. There can be no doubt that
the local peasantry expected much at Llwyd's hands. Tradi-
tional story mentions 1322 5 as the actual year of the revolt,
when Sir Gruffydd Llwyd is represented as overrunning the
North Welsh castles and raiding the Marcher districts. We

1 Col. Close Rolls, 1313-18, p. 267. • Ib., p. 392.

3 E.g. R. W. Morgan, Cathrall.

4 Die. Nat. Biog., s.n. Edward Bruce.
6 Hanes Cymru (as above), pp. 767-8.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 235

have found little that is authentic to substantiate this. The
boroughs seem to have successfully resisted his efforts when-
ever these took place, and the contemporary tone of the national
poetry suggests failure. Moreover, late in the year 1322 we
find an order on the close roll1 commanding the immediate
release and adequate compensation of one Anian ap leuan, a
distinguished Welsh burgess of Beaumaris, who had been
wrongfully imprisoned on the plea that he adhered to the King's
contrarients in North Wales and elsewhere. It may be sub-
mitted that Anian would be likely to join Llwyd of Anglesea in
the attempt to relieve his countrymen of the hardships under
which they suffered. In February and March of the previous
year,2 Edward H. sent special injunctions to the local authorities
in North Wales owing to its disturbed condition.

On the testimony of a contemporary bard, who bewailed
the capture and imprisonment of Sir Gruffydd, it is generally
accepted that he was beheaded at Rhuddlan. It would appear
from his version that something akin to a national panic had
seized the North Welsh inhabitants upon his downfall. ' It was
a sad year,' says the bard, * for the vigorous patriot.' His failure
cast Gwynedd (i.e. the district of North Wales) into a heavy and
melancholy mood. The great strength of Mona had become
an empty shadow, and the country mourned and wore the
aspect of Lent.3 Llwyd is popularly regarded as the Welsh
Wallace. His letters 4 to Bruce in Ireland are interesting and
important for the light which they throw upon the social con-
dition and the current political thought of the time. The over-
throw of the English yoke is carefully connected with the
traditional story that the line of Brutus was to be again restored
to the kingship of Britain.

Sir Gruffydd Llwyd's attempt, however, did not succeed in-
removing the abuses of English administrators in North Wales.
The district for years to come simmered with dissatisfaction and
complaint. The conduct of the King's ministers in North Wales
was a question that troubled Edward in. at many points during
his reign. Almost contemporary with the attempted rising of
Sir Gruffydd in the north occurred the Barons' War (Rhyfel y

1 Cal. Close Rolls, 1318-23, p. 619.

2 /&., 1318-23, pp. 290-1. Cf. Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1321-4, p. 136.

3 Lit. of the Kymry (Stephens), pp. 465-7.

4 Hist, of North Wales (Cathrall), i. pp. 200-1.

236 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Barwniaid) in South Wales. The native populace seem to have
dissociated themselves from the sinister actions of the King's
ministers in this episode. Whilst the North Welsh footmen
were prepared to set out in the King's name to Scotland,1 John
de Sapy, the constable of Beaumaris, John Cam, and others of
Mortimer's household in North Wales, added to the domestic
discontent by joining the Bohun and Despenser duel in
Glamorgan.2 The King's most trusted minister in North Wales
during the subsequent machinations of the Mortimer family,
in conjunction with Queen Isabella to remove the Kong from
the throne, was Robert Power, the local chamberlain. During
the progress of the Queen's War (Rhyfel y Frenhines) the King's
peace is said to have been much disturbed in North Wales.
Robert Power was put to expense much beyond the amount
of his appointed allowance. In the next reign he was in some
fashion compensated for his expenditure.8 One item of these
costs related to one John de Middulhope, who was sent from
Carnarvon to London to certify to the lord King of the state
of North Wales in 1326. The envoy was allowed two pence per
day for thirteen days in respect of the journey.4

Between the conquest and the Act of Union, Edward n. was
the only sovereign who summoned Welsh members to the English
Parliament. There are no returns for the writs issued in 1322
to the effect that twenty-four members should appear for
North and South Wales respectively. In the Parliament held in
January 1327, nominally summoned in Edward n.'s name, the
counties of Carnarvon, Merioneth, and Anglesea were represented
by eighteen Welshmen, and three of the English boroughs by
six Englishmen, viz. Peter Russel and William Saleman for
Beaumaris ; Richard de Montgomery and Richard de Middelton
for Carnarvon ; and Henry Somer and Richard de Heyewood
for Conway.5

The North Welsh mourned their sovereign's fateful end at
Berkeley castle. His sympathetic treatment of their reasonable

1 Col. Close Rolls, 1318-23, p. 421.

2 Ib., 1323-7, pp. 2, 85, 228. Cf. Min. Ace. 1212/4, where Sapy, et«.,
aro said to have adhered to enemies of the King in the parts of Glamorgan
before Easter 1322.

3 Cal. Close. Rolls, 1327-30, p. 494. * Min. Ace. 1212/12.

5 Part. Writs, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 184 (of. Cal. Close Rolls, 1318-23,
•p. 539) ; ib., part ii. p. 364. Vid. Returns of Members of Parliament
{Parl. Papers, 1878), part i. p. 77 ; Parl. Hist, of Wales (Williams), p. 1 ;
Story of Wales, pp. 223-4. Cf. Hist, of Alnwick (G. Tate), i. p. 45.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 237

demands was a decided stimulus to them in their long march
towards political freedom. Edward's popularity was in no small
part due to the fact that he originated no punitive ordinances
against them.

Edward m. never visited Wales in person. Though his reign
was not marred by any serious revolts in North Wales, it was
a reign of political tension throughout. The district literally
simmered with domestic disaffection, and, in view of the pro-
longed war with France and periodic troubles in Scotland and
Ireland, required continued and intelligent supervision. Con-
certed action on the part of the King's enemies by way of
Wales called for assiduous attention, and the Welsh, through the
obvious tyranny of the English administration and the indirect
advantage afforded through England's Continental troubles,
developed their sense of hatred towards the English burgesses
and everything English in North Wales. The constant levies
of North Welshmen for foreign service, the widespread devasta-
tions of the Black Death, together with the firm Welsh policy
of Edward in. and his son, the Black Prince, did much to
minimise local differences, and in some part prevented the
smaller feuds from assuming national proportions.

On the whole, Edward m.'s attitude towards the North Welsh
was one of suspicion, and he was apparently justified in this.
He had all to fear from a confederacy of his various political
foes. He was also sufficiently acquainted with the social
grievances of Welshmen to know the sweet glamour to them of
any scheme that promised permanent or even temporary respite.
Up to the time when the Black Prince took the government of
the Principality into his hands, Edward left no stone unturned
in order to remove ministerial abuses, and to check all racial
presumption on the part of the English and Welsh populace
there.

The complaints during the earlier years of his kingship were
mostly the result of the ministerial misrule of the previous
reign. Suits and services contrary to law and custom had been
forced in wholesale fashion. Sessions were irregularly held
and justice inadequately administered, with the result that
within a few months after his accession, Edward in. was put
to understand that many malefactors and disturbers of his
peace were wandering through North and South Wales, mak-
ing confederacies, committing felonies, and indulging freely in

238 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

like excesses.1 Later petitions reached him during the years
1330 and 1331 from individual officers, setting forth their personal
troubles and the general lack of obedience to the Crown. The
local constables and sheriffs showed an unwillingness to obey the
Justiciar and chamberlain. The commonalty of North Wales,
too, complained of the evils attending the system of attorney,
and of the excessive exaction of ancient customary dues such as
potura stalonum. They earnestly asked for the exercise of their
customs and usages as in the time of the old princes of Wales?
Contemporary petitions were also framed by Englishmen
dwelling in North Wales, in which they show the peril of their
position. Felonies and kindred oppressions perpetrated by
Welshmen on the poor English inhabitants were much too
common. About this time one Griffin ap Bees, Kt., and David
ap Ada are said to have been particular offenders in this respect.8
Edward in.'s policy of pacifying Wales was a twofold one.
Like Edward n., he instituted careful inquiry, enjoining officers
to the strict observance of their respective charges, and, like
Edward n., he rid the country of as many obnoxious Welshmen
as was possible. On one occasion he despatched Edward de
Bohun to North Wales to inquire into the state of the land and
the acts of the ministers there, and also to hold regular sessions.4
He also took advantage of his strained relations with Ireland,
whither he commissioned six hundred North Welshmen for
service in 1332,5 the local boroughs supplying suitable ships
for their transport.6 In 1334 North Welshmen were again levied
for the King's service in Scotland.7 Edward's anxiety at this
time to get troops from every quarter brought him into conflict
with the burgesses of Newborough, whom he all but enforced
for service in Scotland contrary to the tenor of their original
charter.8 The Welsh were willing fighters during the Middle
Ages. They preferred the glories of battle on foreign soil
to living under servile conditions in their native land. They
were, however, somewhat loth to perform their duties as
defenders of the realm. In 1336 a number of Welshmen in the
principal parts of North and South Wales absolutely refused to

Col. Close Rolls, 1327-30, pp. 217-8.

Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), Nos. 7289, 10,058 ; Col. Pat. Rolls, 1330-4,
61. Cf. Cal. Close Rolls, 1337-9, pp. 91-2.

Col. Pat. Rolls, 1330-4, p. 143. 4 Cal. Close Rolls, 1333-7, p. 350.

Ib., p. 321. • Ib., p. 323. ' Ib., p. 354.

Ancient Petitions (P.R.O.), No. 566 (Rot. ParL, ii. p. 92a).

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 239

set out on the King's service unless wages were paid to them
beforehand. Such payments were not generally made to those
about to set out on a defensive expedition, all being compelled,
as a duty, to assist in the defence of the realm against foreign
invasions. With a view to inducing the Welshmen to set
out, the local Justices of North and South Wales were ordered to
pay them part of their wages.1

The doings of mediaeval Welshmen in foreign lands excited
considerable interest at home, and in a sense intensified the
racial hatred that existed in the immediate neighbourhood of
the English boroughs. The Welsh gradually became conscious
of the possibilities of their martial prowess. It is a matter of no
surprise that they became proverbial for their tendency to rebel.
Edward took precautions that as little incentive to revolt as
possible should take place in the land. Baseless rumours were
at once quashed, and the rebel barons were severely reprimanded.
In 1337 2 Roger Le Straunge came in for such treatment at his
hands for an attack on the lands of Charlton of Powys, who was
then absent on the King's service in Scotland. ' The Welsh,'
says the King, ' from their lightness of head may rise in war on
such pretexts.' In the very next year (1338) special injunctions
were sent to the acting officials of all the castles and boroughs in
North and South Wales to be on their guard, ' as certain galleys
have invaded the realm, and propose to go to Wales and do all
possible harm.'

At this date Wales appears to have been in a state of general
unrest. In the Westminster Parliament of 1339 North Wales
is represented as being infested with evil-doers and disturbers
of the peace. Edward in. was fully alive to the dangers of the
situation, and in this year enacted a famous code of ' twenty
Articles,' with the express object of amending the state of North
Wales.3 The purport of these articles, so far as they related to
the boroughs, has been already considered in previous sections.
They pointed to general apathy and neglect on the part of local
officials, and inaugurated many reforms in the administrative,
judicial, and commercial system of the district.

The ameliorating effect of these elaborate ordinances was to
some extent checked at the outset by the financial strain of
the prolonged French wars. Ministerial returns fell into arrears,

1 Cal. Close Rolls, 1333-7, p. 593. 2 /&., 1337-9, p. 136.

3 Ib., 1339-41, pp. 249-54.

240 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

with the result that administrative troubles were as rife as
before.1 In 1343 the Justice of North Wales was commissioned
to inquire into the state of Wales, with power to arrest all those
suspected of rebellion.2 At this critical juncture the government
of the Principality was vested in the hands of the Black Prince
and his Council. The young Prince had hardly realised the
character of his new task, when his presence at the head of a
large host of fighting Welshmen was required in the impending
French campaigns.3

There is nothing to show that the Black Prince ever entered
North Wales. His interest therein is, however, sufficiently
attested by the large number of valuable documents relating to
North Wales associated with his name. Two-thirds of the
contents of the Record of Carnarvon, a folio publication of the
record commissioners in 1838, extending to more than three
hundred pages, was compiled at his instance. It was seemingly
this portion that was known to surveyors of the Elizabethan
and Stuart periods as The Prince's Book. The fealty roll 4 of
the entire Principality, taken on his accession to the title, is
one of the most valuable documents that exist for the adminis-
trative and social history of the Principality of the Middle
Ages. Several of his letters are preserved among the Ancient
Correspondence at the Public Record Office, where also exists the
celebrated White Book of Cornwall (three hundred and six pages);5
this contains a register of all letters issued under the Great and
Privy Seals by the Black Prince from July 1346 to January 1347
touching lands, offices, franchises, revenues, and various trans-
actions of a private and public character in the Principality of
Wales, the Duchy of Cornwall, and the County Palatinate of
Chester.

The Black Prince was unfortunate in the selection of one of
his first deputies in North Wales. He was one Henry de
Shaldeford, who had somewhat abused his position as a sub-
officer in one of the Anglesea commotes under Edward m.6
On his way to Carnarvon to exercise the duties of his new office
Henry was suddenly attacked and killed by a band of Welsh

Cal. Close Rolls, 1341-3, pp. 394, 422, 660.
Cat. Pat. Rolls, 1343-5, p. 66.

Ib., s.a., 1343-5, p. 494 ; Foedera (1825), iii. pt. 1, p. 60.
Printed in Original Documents (Arch. Camb., suppl. vol., 1877), pp.
ex viii.-clxxv.

Treasury of Receipt Misc. Book, No. 144.
Orig. Docts. (Arch. Camb., 1877), p. clxvii.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 241

conspirators, said to have been led by direct representatives
of Sir Gruffydd Llwyd, the hero of a previous protest against
official tyranny. On hearing the news, the Prince immediately
despatched John de Pirye and Richard de Stafford to inquire
into the matter.1

The English populace of North Wales were evidently in a
bad state. The burgesses of Carnarvon hastened to acquaint the
Prince and his Council of the sadness of their case, and in so
doing took care to recall the vilest actions of the Welsh,
forgetting for the moment the complaints set forth by the com-
monalty of North Wales. In their petition,2 the burgesses
recorded the great damage done by the Welsh, to the utter
destruction of his English ministers and burgesses in North
Wales. They recalled the felonious attack on John de
Huntyngdon, sometime sheriff of Merioneth, and the base robbery
of his records and other personal chattels, and detailed the similar
treatment of other bailiffs and English burgesses there. ' The
Welsh,' they say, * are so proud and malicious against your
English people that they dare not move for fear of death ; and
now, good Lord, show their malice against Henry de Shaldeford,
your attorney in those parts, as he was walking towards
Carnarvon on Monday, the feast of St. Valentine last past, to
fulfil the duties of his office, at the particular instigation of
Tudor ap Gronow, and his brother Howel ap Gronow.' The
Carnarvon burgesses go on to say : * For the salvation of your
castles, towns, and English burgesses, be pleased, sovereign Lord,
to order immediate remedy, or else we shall be forced to quit
the country.' The said Tudor and Howel, they further suggest,
are so powerful that no Welshman dare indict them of the death
of the said Henry, nor of any trespasses which they daily commit
to the disturbance of the peace. Accordingly, the burgesses
naively ask the Black Prince to supply an inquest of Englishmen
to find the truth of the matter. Contemporary petitions from
the burgesses of Conway 3 and Rhuddlan 4 relate the circum-
stances of the same event with more or less detail.

Henry Shaldeford was apparently making his way from the
direction of Denbigh accompanied by six horsemen. Near the
house of Howel ap Gronow, one of the celebrated stock of
Penmynydd in Anglesea, Shaldeford was attacked by Tudor,

1 Ancient Correspondence (P.R.O.), vol. liv., No. 36.

e Ib., No. 41. 3 Ib., No. 46. 4 Ib., No. 42.

242 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

HowePs brother, and eighty armed Welshmen. He was robbed
of £100 and killed, and several of his companions were either
slain or badly wounded. An almost simultaneous attack was
made upon the English burgesses of Rhuddlan returning from the
bishop's fair at St. Asaph. The general tone of the three petitions
shows that the English burgesses in North Wales had never been
in such a sorry plight.

A long list of the suspected conspirators was drawn up,1
and a writ of aid was issued to William de Welham and Thomas
de Missyngden to arrest Howel ap Gronow wherever found.
Similar writs 2 were issued for the capture of all his accomplices,
who were understood to be at large in England.3 The burgesses
do not seem to have gained much in answer to their petitions
beyond a searching inquiry on the part of the English officials.
There is no record that the North Welshmen were ever brought
to book.

Richard de Stafford and John de Pirye made a prolonged pro-
gress through the Principality, holding inquests touching all the
manors, fees, bailiwicks, lands, and tenements whatsoever in the
Principality, and taking the oaths of fealty and attendance of
all the subject populace and their ministers. The officers and
burgesses of each borough swore homage to the Prince during
the month of August 1343. In the boroughs of Beaumaris,
Carnarvon, and Harlech the fealty of the officers and men of the
counties of Anglesea, Carnarvon, and Merioneth was taken
respectively. On this occasion, the attention of the constables
was specially drawn to the condition of their castle garrisons,
and the military position of the burgesses was carefully
defined.4

The Prince's officers were most minute in their survey of the
regalia of the Principality. Even the rights of the English
burgesses were challenged, and were only allowed by the
justices on the production of their charters and after a strenuous
assertion of their privileges. This was a new experience for the
boroughs. The details of the quo warranto proceedings of this
date form part of the documents preserved in the Record of
Carnarvon. The Black Prince was, of course, favourably
disposed towards the boroughs, and gave extended privileges

1 Ancient Correspondence (P.R.O.), vol. liv., Nos. 37-8.

« Col. Pat. Rolls, 1343-5, p. 492. » /&., p. 600.

4 See above, p. 108.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 243

to more than one of them. He was the founder of the boroughs
of Nevin and Pwllheli.

The racial antipathy, which appeared to be so pronounced at
the beginning of his principate, seems to have gradually subsided
with the progress of his rule. Public attention was apparently
centred on the doings of the Black Prince and his Welsh soldiers
abroad.1 The Black Death, too, with its widespread devastation,
exercised a quietening influence. On the whole, his principate
was a comparatively peaceful one, but towards its close there
were occasional rumours of foreign invasion by way of Wales.
The prevailing causes of discontent during the latter half of the
fourteenth century are social rather than political.

The rural districts of North Wales suffered considerably from
the effects of the Black Death. Several townships were de-
populated, and Welshmen, ill at ease, followed the Black Prince
to his Continental campaigns. A general revolution now began
in favour of the North Welsh bondmen, which tended gradually
to revolutionise both the political character and the economic
setting of the mediaeval boroughs. The temporary respite of
castle and other dues, granted for eleven years to the villein
tenants of North Wales by the Black Prince, was to become a
permanent one in the reign of Henry vii.2

The North Welsh boroughs present no symptoms of extra-
ordinary depopulation in consequence of the Black Death.
Unfortunately there is no direct evidence for the English
boroughs. The effects resulting to them are, however, indicated
in several directions. A readjustment of the former conditions of
urban and rural life was inevitable. The changing relations of
Capital and Labour made the adoption of town life more feasible
to the local populace. The way was paved for the undoing of
the old mediaeval boroughs. The Black Prince, for political
reasons, found it necessary to safeguard the interests of his
castles and boroughs in North Wales by a renewal of the old
Edwardian ordinances. The sustenance of the castle garrisons
was placed upon its old footing, and the North Welshman was
strictly enjoined to buy and sell in the borough mart of his
district as formerly.3

During the period of gradual economic recovery following

1 E.g. see Oweithiau lolo Qoch (C. Ashton), pp. 112-120, for a poem
reviewing the military exploits of Edward in.'s reign.

2 Trans. Gym. Soc., 1902-3, p. 45. 3 See pp. 174-5 above.

244 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the Black Death and the brilliant exploits of the Black Prince
abroad, the North Welsh showed a great aversion to attend the
local English markets. This action was possibly incident to the
wider movement, which at a later date, through the renewed
activity of the bards, assumed national proportions.

During the later years of the Black Prince's rule, the English
authorities in Wales were face to face with the danger of con-
certed action on the part of the French and a noted Welshman
named Owen ap Thomas ap Rhodri. The latter, a descendant
of the royal line of the old Welsh princes, subordinated his
domestic troubles to questions of national importance. He
was to some extent favoured in this by the current and popular
hope, entertained by the Welsh people, of expected relief from
their social and political discontent by a chieftain from over
the seas. There being no deliverer at home, the mediaeval Welsh
found it convenient, and not altogether dispiriting, to speak and
think of one as coming from abroad.1

As early as 1360, we find special bowmen sent from Chester
to the castle of Beaumaris with a view to thwarting the sinister
movements of the * enemies from France.' 2 The position was
aggravated by the outbreak of war between France and England
in 1369. Early in the May of this year, the castles of North
Wales were strongly fortified, and on the 10th of November,
a special survey was made of the respective garrisons on the
pretext that * our enemies from France and other adherents ' 3
were about to invade the kingdom of England. A similar
invasion was apprehended in 1370, but none took place.4 Two
years later, Owen of \Vales (who was engaged in fighting English
forces in France) issued his famous proclamation, coupling the
redress of his personal grievances with a proposed restoration
of the kingship of Wales. Propositions of this kind were apt
to be popularly received in Wales at this time, when the native
bards began to revive their military song, but Owen's attempt
(as may be seen in the detailed account of the doings of Owen
Lawgoch) came to nothing. Some of his North Welsh adherents
suffered for their loyalty to his cause by losing their lands.5
Dangers from the parts of France were again feared in 1377,6

1 See ref. 1 on next page. 2 Min. Ace. 1 149/9.

« Fcedera, iii. pt. 2, p. 867. 4 76., p. 901. Cf. Harl. Roll, E 7.

6 Trans. Cym. Soc., 1899-1900, pp. 1-105. Cf. *&., 1902-3, p. 37, n. 4.
• Foedera, iii. pt. 2, p. 1075.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 245

but Owen's tragic death in the next year, at once gave a per-
manent check to his personal efforts, and a temporary blow to
the practical expression of that national sentiment which was
being gradually imbued into the Welsh peasantry through the
teaching of the local bards.

The doings of Owen ap Thomas ap Rhodri or Owen Lawgoch
in foreign lands, flattered the oppressed tenantry of North Wales
into the belief that he was their long-expected deliverer. Owen's
shameful murder gave rise to many poems of lament by the
national bards. Racial hatred in local circles was seemingly
intensified by the fact that the perpetrator of this infamous
deed was an Englishman. A spirit of hatred towards the Saxon
enters the native poetry of the period at this point. The
contemporary poems of lolo Goch, the national bard, breathe a
military strain hitherto unknown since the fall of Llywelyn the
Last. Another bard, one Llywelyn ap Kynfrig Ddu of Anglesea,
the island nursery of Welsh nationalism during this period,
whilst deploring Owen's murder, inspired the people with the
hopes of another Owen, a deliverer who was biding his time.
When he really came there was to be war throughout Wales.1

The lively time thus promised for the English authorities did
not come during the rule of Richard n., who, out of regard for
the respect in which the Welsh people held his father, the Black
Prince, was very popular in Wales.2 His reign was attended
with no extraordinary domestic troubles in North Wales. Some
apprehension was caused at times through his strained relations
with Scotland and Ireland.3

Richard, during his reign, instituted several important commis-
sions of the peace to survey the condition of Wales and its people.
The most notable of these belongs to the momentous year 138 1.4
From the first year of his reign, the North Welsh coast laboured
under the fear of a possible Scottish invasion. In 1381 a band of
Scots landed hi Anglesea, and committed considerable damage
to some of the houses of Beaumaris.5 Additional precau-
tions for defence were subsequently taken, particularly at
Carnarvon, where special watchmen were told off for a period of
nearly ten years, to ward the town by night as well as by day.6
In 1386 a band of North Welshmen, about three hundred strong,

1 Trans. Gym. Soc., 1899-1900, p. 93. 2 Wales, p. 257.

» Cf. Morris's Chester, pp. 399-400. 4 Col. Pat. Rolls, 1381-5, p. 17.

* Min. Ace. 1151/1-2. 6 See above, pp. 117-18.

246 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

was levied for service in Scotland.1 In the June of the same
year, a muster was held in the borough of Conway of men-at-
arms, archers, and others who had congregated there for service
in Ireland. The ships of the North Welsh boroughs were
requisitioned for the passage.2

Richard also made good use of the North Welsh castles for
keeping some of his undesirable subjects. He despatched
thirteen Lollards to the castle of Beaumaris in 1396.3 John
Claydon, skinner, a Lollard of London, was confined in the castle
of Conway for two years, when Robert de Braybroke was Bishop
of London.4 The castles and boroughs of the district were
destined later to witness the humiliating scenes connected with
his deposition.

Towards the end of his kingship, Richard is said to have
wandered like a hunted hare among the North Welsh castles.
His varied experiences in North Wales have been graphically
described, by a metrical writer of French extraction,5 who shared
the vicissitudes of his wanderings. The narrative gives note-
worthy glimpses of the English boroughs.

Richard's expedition into Ireland in 1399 to avenge the death
of Mortimer, paved the way for the return of Henry Bolingbroke,
who aspired to the throne. The King, staying himself in Ireland,
sent the Earl of Salisbury to Wales, with the object of raising
troops to check Henry's successful progress. The Earl, accord-
ing to the French chronicler, landed at Conway, which was then
reputed to be the strongest and fairest town in Wales.6 He
found no difficulty in gathering together an enormous host of
Welsh and Cheshire men, with whom Richard was very popular.
This army soon became impatient at the King's protracted
stay in Ireland, and taking him for dead, dispersed to their
mountain homes, leaving the Earl of Salisbury with a small
bodyguard of only about a hundred men. This sad news was
communicated to Richard on his arrival at Conway with a
small retinue, after a forced march, in the disguise of a friar, from
Milford Haven.7

From Conway, where the houses are said to have been covered

1 Min. Ace. 1214/11. 2 Col. Pat. Rolls, 1385-9, p. 163.

8 Min. Ace. 1216/7. * Archaeologia, xx. p. 169, n. (a).

8 Cretan's 'Metrical History,' printed in Archaeologia, xx., translation and
notes, pp. 13-242; text, pp. 295-433 (ed. Webb). Cf. Parry's Royal
Progresses, etc., pp. 189-214, for portion relating to North Wales.

• Archaeologia, xx. p. 315. 7 Ib., p. 321.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 247

with tiles,1 Richard entered into negotiations with Henry
Bolingbroke, whose unchecked progress had now brought him
to Chester. John Holland, Earl of Exeter, and Thomas Holland,
Earl of Surrey, were entrusted with the commission. In the
meantime, Richard was acquainted of the dismemberment of
his army in South Wales, and was almost overcome by the hope-
lessness of his case. He remained at Conway, all sorrowful,
sad, and distressed, with two or three of his intimate friends.2
After a while he betook himself for safety to the castle of
Beaumaris, which, when provided with sufficient food and a
capable garrison, was calculated to be equal to a siege of ten
years.3 He soon relinquished this stronghold again, and pro-
ceeded to the town of Carnarvon, which, says the French writer,
had a noble castle, and was a place of strength. On one side
stood an abundance of woods suitable for the chase, whilst the
other side was surrounded by the sea. The castle was unfortun-
ately badly furnished, there being not a farthing's worth of
victuals within, and nothing better than straw for the ill-starred
King to lie upon. After enduring this state of poverty for five
or six days, Richard departed for Conway,4 to await his
treacherous betrayal by Northumberland into the hands of his
enemy and rival to the throne, and his subsequent dethronement
by Henry Bolingbroke, who succeeded him as King.

Upon Henry's succession to the throne Welsh politics take a
new turn. Richard's reign had been one of comparative pro-
gress for the North Welsh boroughs. The bailiffs' returns show
no signs of excessive depression. During the reign of Henry iv.
they were called upon to defend the English cause in an un-
precedented manner. This occurred, of course, in connection with
the national revolt of Glyndwr. During the whole of Henry's
reign the English boroughs in Wales were kept in a state of
continued tension. The actual conflict, however, only lasted
about five years in North Wales.

The Welsh, as we have already seen, had made several efforts
to secure princes of their own during the course of the thirteenth
century, and that with the ostensible object of improving their
political and social condition. So long as the old political
ideal was cherished by the native bards, and so long as there
were burning grievances to be remedied, this remained the

1 Archaeologia, xx. p. 323. 2 Ib., pp. 332-7.

8 Ib., p. 338. 4 Ib., p. 340.

248 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

favourite mode of expressing the united political effort of the
Welsh. lolo Goch, at the dawn of the revolt, voiced the general
feeling of his race during the previous century when he sang : —

' Many a time have I desired
To see a lord of our kin.' l

His couplet supplied the keynote to the widespread revolt of
Wales, which had its beginning in an unsatisfactory ending to
one of those little duels of rights (so common to the Middle
Ages) to lands in the Marches of North Wales, between Owen
Glyndwr and Reginald de Grey.2

It is evident from what was going on in North Wales that the
Welsh peasants were preparing for some great event. The old
Edwardian ordinances were entirely set aside. Congregations
and secret meetings in desolate and mountainous places were
frequent. The Welsh populace were arming themselves in
the hope of help from Scotland,3 and also from the conviction
that the Owen of their expectation had arrived. The position,
in the eyes of the local chamberlain, was a most critical one.
The North Welsh castles were ill-equipped and under-manned,
and, much to the disgust of the English townsmen, the local
farmers made a promiscuous sale of their cattle in order to buy
arms.4 The object of the revolt, in Owen's words, was ' to deliver
the offspring of Wales out of the captivity of our English
foes, who have for a long time past oppressed us and our
ancestors.' 5

The initial stages of the actual outbreak took place late in the
summer of 1400.6 By the January of 1401, we find the English
Parliament, alive to the importance of checking it in its infancy,
taking care to promulgate ordinances of the Edwardian type
for the future government of the Principality . 7 The first incident
of burghal interest was the fall of Conway in the early spring of
1401. The Welsh insurgents, under the dual leadership of
William and Rhys ap Tudor, descendants of the ever famous
stock of Penmynydd, took advantage of the garrison's absence
in church, and possessed themselves of the castle on the morning

Gweithiau lolo Goch (C. Ashton, 1896), p. 194.

Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), p. 111.

Elite's Orig. Letters (Second Series), i. pp. 8-9.

Ib., p. 48, n. 3. 6 Parry, op. cit., p. 220.

Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1399-1401, p. 357 ; Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), p. 125.

Rot. Parl, p. 457.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 249

of Good Friday 1401. l The castle remained in the occupation
of the Welsh for some time. The early efforts of Hotspur at
its reduction by arms proved futile. The Welsh occupants were
then subjected to a prolonged siege by the English forces. As
early as the 13th of April, Hotspur was commissioned to treat
with the rebels in the castle, but the proffered conditions were
not acceptable to the Welsh.2 Towards the end of the month,
the Welsh, owing to lack of supplies, made overtures for peace
on condition of a free pardon, which the royal authorities, now
stationed at Chester, rightly refused to grant. An agreement
was finally arrived at early in July, on the ground of the un-
conditional surrender of a number of the garrison to Hotspur's
troops, by whom they were slaughtered after the brutal fashion
of the time. The rest of the garrison had their lives and a free
pardon. The capitulation at this date was unexpected by the
English authorities, who contemplated employing a force of
more than four hundred men until the Michaelmas following,
with the view of extracting more favourable terms for the
English.3

The local justiciar, Henry Percy, the famous Hotspur, under-
estimated the seriousness of the Welsh rising. After the
recapture of Conway, and a hurried march to the neighbourhood
of Cader Idris, he abandoned all his appointments in Wales.4
Owen Glyndwr was very active in South Wales 5 at this time,
and with the departure of Hotspur his cause gathered strength.
The district of North Wales was in a particularly turbulent
state, and Scottish cruisers in the Menai Straits were threatening
the towns of Carnarvon and Beaumaris.6 In the autumn the
King entered Wales with a large army, which on the 9th of
October was stationed at Carnarvon, where Bolde and a
hundred men were prepared for any emergency. The King
encountered no enemy on the journey, the Welsh, according
to their custom, having withdrawn to their mountain fastnesses.
He disbanded his army before the end of October.7

Lord Rutland was now appointed to the office of governor of

1 For particulars see Chronicon Adae de Usk (ed. E. Maunde Thompson),
p. 61.

Gal Pat. Rolls, 1399-1401, pp. 470, 475.

Royal Letters of Henry IV. (ed. Hingeston), I., Introduction, pp. xxiv.-
xxvi., and pp. 69-72.

Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), p. 141. 6 /&., p. 142.

Chester in the Plantagenet and Tudor Period (R. H. Morris), p. 43.

Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), p. 151.

250 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

North Wales. Favoured by the approaching winter, Glyndwr,
about this time, made a sudden dash for the north, and laid
siege to the castle and town of Carnarvon. His attack was
repulsed with considerable loss. Bolde, with the aid of the
townsmen, easily held the upper hand. Adam of Usk describes
the episode thus : * On the morrow of All Hallows (Nov. 2),
Owen, seeking to lay siege to Carnarvon, there in the midst of a
great host unfurled his standard, a golden dragon on a white
field, but being attacked by those within he was put to flight
losing 300 men.' x It was during this winter campaign of
Owen that the English cause in North Wales found the political
value of its castellated boroughs. Outside Criccieth, Harlech,
Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris, the North Welsh counties
were entirely at the command of Owen. The inhabitants of
the royal bond vills had fled into the Marches for protection,2
and the burgesses of Bala, Newborough, Nevin, and Pwllheli,
were unequal to the task of repelling his onslaughts. Adam of
Usk makes a special note of Owen's prominent position in the
north during the winter of 1401-2, and he is represented as
exercising sovereign jurisdiction over the shires of Carnarvon
and Merioneth.3 Harlech almost fell into his hands in the
month of December, but the timely appearance of four
hundred archers with one hundred men-at-arms from Chester
effected a speedy relief.4

Throughout the spring of 1402 Owen was having things
pretty much his own way in the rural districts of North Wales.
In a letter dated the 30th of May 1402, Prince Henry reports that
the castle of Harlech was being hotly besieged.5 Some respite
was gained by Owen's temporary withdrawal to the Marches.
As soon as he succeeded in capturing Edmund Mortimer and
alluring him over to his side, he returned again to the
investment of the castles on the Merioneth and Carnarvon
coasts.6

The year 1403 saw Glyndwr's star in the ascendant, but, do
what he could, the stubborn garrisons of North Wales, gaining
strength from their sea connections, held their charge. Towards
the close of this year Owen endeavoured to surmount this

1 Chronicon Adae de Usk, p. 61.
8 Trans. R.H.S. (New Series), xvii. p. 138, n. 1.

a Chronicon, p. 70. * Morris's Chester, p. 43.

6 Acts of the Privy Council (ed. Nicolas), ii. p. 63. (The date of letter is
doubtful.) • Owen Qlyndwr (Bradley), p. 176.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 251

difficulty, by co-operating with the Breton and French fleet
that appeared in Carmarthen Bay.1 The first combined attack
on Carnarvon in November 1403 proved a failure. During this
assault both of the men-at-arms in the town garrison fell.2 One
of these was the celebrated leuan ap Meredith, whose brother
was at the same time engaged with the opposing forces. The
exact date of his death was the 4th of November 1403. Cathrall,
the late historian of North Wales,3 is wrong in assigning this
event to 1402. The other man-at-arms, Richard de Pykenvere,
was killed on the walls of the town of Carnarvon on the 10th of
November 1403,4 at the time when the assault was made on the
town by the French and the Welsh. The second attack took
place early in the next year.

In the meantime, between the first and second assaults on
the town of Carnarvon, the Welsh and their French allies betook
themselves in great force to the island of Anglesea, and carried
off, by day as by night, all manner of beasts, corn, goods, and
chattels to their national granary in the recesses of the Snowdon
hills. On the morrow of St. Hilary, the Welsh and French to
the number of two hundred, made a sally upon the Welsh sheriff
of Anglesea, who, with a retinue of fifty persons, was proceeding
from Beaumaris castle to levy debts and perform other duties
pertaining to his office. Meredith ap Kenwrig, the sheriff, was
killed, and several of his followers, including ten expert bowmen
of the local garrison, were carried away to Owen, who, after the
failure of his recent attempt at Carnarvon, had apparently with-
drawn to the district of Snowdon.5

About the middle of January 1404,6 Owen and the French
threw themselves with all their force against the town of
Carnarvon. The garrison, through want of men and victuals,
was in a precarious position. The besiegers were well equipped
with engines, saws, and scaling-ladders of great length, and
succeeded in doing considerable damage to the town property.
Their attempt at reducing the town turned out a dismal failure,
the plucky garrison under its sub-constable, Parry, thwarting
all their efforts. So necessary was the service of every available
man during the progress of the siege, that a woman had perforce

1 Henry IV. (Wylie), i. p. 377. 2 Exchqr. KM. Ace. 43/24.

3 Hist, of North Wales, i. p. 210. 4 Exchqr. K.R. Ace. 43/24.

6 Royal and Hist. Letters (ed. Hingeston), ii. p. 15.

6 Ellis's Orig. Letters (Second Series), i. p. 33.

252 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

to be despatched to Chester to inform the governor of their
distressed condition.

Straightway after his failure at Carnarvon, Owen proceeded
to complete his investment of Harlech. William Hunt, the
local constable, with two of his servants, had already been
captured and carried away by the Welsh early in the year. On
the 15th of January the castle was said to be in great jeopardy.
There were serious misunderstandings between the members
of the garrison, the majority of whom were Welshmen. By
the time of Owen's arrival from Carnarvon, the number of the
garrison was reduced to sixteen.1 Owen successfully negotiated
with these, and took possession of the castle. This success
marked the hey-day of his revolt. He made Harlech his capital
for the next three years, and held one of his national Parliaments
there.2 Welsh courtiers, lords, and priests visited his house-
hold, which also included members of the Mortimer family, on
several occasions. The celebrated lolo Goch, the nation's
contemporary bard, is said to have had a personal interview
with Owen at Harlech during this juncture.3

During 1405, the year of Welsh reverses, no incident of note
took place in North Wales. The active campaign was confined
to the southern districts of Wales, as they were again during
the next year. The men of Anglesea, to the number of two
thousand and more, came to the King's peace at Beaumaris
on the 10th of November 1406. They paid pardon fines
amounting to £537. 7s.4 The inhabitants of Carnarvon and
Merioneth still remained faithful to Owen. Special efforts were
made during the year 1407 to reduce Harlech. Small field armies
were stationed in North Wales, and a considerable fleet patrolled
the coast.5 The castle ultimately fell into the hands of Gilbert
and John Talbot, who with a force of a thousand strong and a
long siege train effected the surrender.6 During the progress of
the siege a naval duel took place between the English and the
Welsh. A London fishmonger, carrying goods for victualling
the besiegers, was captured and robbed by the Welsh seamen.7

Elite's Orig. Letters (Second Series), vol. i. pp. 31, 33, 35.

Wylie, op. cit., ii. p. 297.

Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), p. 234 (? evidence).

Hist, of North Wales (Cathrall), pp. 221-2.

Min Ace. 1216/2 ; D.K. Report, xxxvi., Appendix ii., p. 14.

Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), pp. 295-6.

Acts of the Privy Council (ed. Nicolas), ii. p. 139.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 253

Edmund Mortimer died during or soon after the siege, and
Glyndwr's wife and children were conveyed to London.

After the restoration of Harlech into the hands of the English
Crown, Owen gave no considerable trouble to the English
authorities in North Wales. The local inhabitants soon came
to the King's peace, paying large fines to secure the free
pardon offered them. After 1408, the boroughs exhibit signs
of gradual recovery from their vicissitudes during the actual
revolt, and the Crown begins to receive some of its normal revenue
that had been practically withheld during the first ten years of
the reign.1

The varying experiences of the North Welsh castles and
boroughs during the progress of the actual conflict have now been
told. The eminently successful stand which they made on
behalf of the English cause is obvious. The real damages
sustained to borough properties, and the personal losses involved
to individual burgesses in the venture, are outlined in a previous
chapter.2 It now remains to see how far the revolt affected the
political status of the English burgesses and that of the North
Welsh populace.

The English boroughs were nominally reinstated in their
old environment of 1294, as were the people of North Wales.
The restrictive or penal statutes of Henry iv., enacted in con-
nection with Glyndwr's revolt, were in a sense an up-to-date
edition of the old-time ordinances of Edward I. In the midst
of the political excitement of 1401, the English Commons 3
showed an intense desire to enact repressive laws against the
Welsh.

The severity of these Lancastrian statutes, apart from a
consideration of their origin, and of the particular circumstances
under which they were promulgated, is apt to be overrated.
That due prominence should be given to the coercive ordinances
of Edward I. on the outbreak of any serious political trouble in
the Principality, was almost inevitable. The fact that the
English sovereign renewed them at a time when Owen's revolt
had not yet reached its zenith, rather than after it, is significant.
It reveals the political and temporizing character of these
ordinances, which must be borne in mind when estimating
their effect. The temporary and ad hoc character of the

1 Min. Ace. 1261/2, and Acts of the Privy Council (ed. Nicolas), ii. p. 90.

2 Ch. vi. above. 3 Rot. Parl., iii. pp. 457, 476.

254 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

majority of them is unmistakable. They were deemed valuable
weapons for the successful suppression of the Welsh rebellions.
And with the cessation of hostilities, it was probable that the
worst of the penal statutes of Henry iv. had been seen. True
they remained on the Statute Book in theory long after the
Act of Union,1 but it is tolerably certain that they had ceased
in practice long before the latter Act became law. It is difficult
to associate the fifteenth-century progress 2 of the Welsh with a
rigid enforcement of the Lancastrian statutes. The evidence
of their actual application is somewhat meagre. In view of
this general dearth of evidence, one author has expressed a doubt
as to whether they were really enforced at all.3 The considera-
tion of this point in its relation to the English boroughs of North
Wales, brings us to the interesting question of their population.

The gradual Cymricising of the burghal privilege forms one
important phase in the political evolution of the English boroughs
in Mediaeval Wales. By this process of Cymricising we do not
mean that the whole or even a part of any borough populace
became entirely Welsh, but rather we imply the extension to
Welshmen of the right of municipal privileges in the English
boroughs of North Wales in particular, and of Wales in general.
The process, being one of law and fact, was neither regular nor
symmetrical. We find Welshmen admitted to some boroughs and
at the same time excluded from others. The political Judgment
of the local English authority generally determined the admission.

The commonalty of North Wales, by virtue of the Edwardian
ordinances, was denied the legal right of admission into the
English boroughs of Conway, Carnarvon, Criccieth, Beaumaris,
Newborough, Harlech, and Bala.4 The boroughs of Nevin and
Pwllheli, founded later by the Black Prince, were thoroughly
Welsh, the inhabitants throughout being primarily the
descendants of the native tenants of the old maenors. The
Cymricising process here was merely one of law. In the parallel
manorial boroughs of Newborough and Bala the case was
somewhat different. Bala was throughout more English than
Newborough. Both contained the nucleus of a Welsh sympathy
(Newborough being almost entirely Welsh) from the start,

1 The majority were repealed by Stat. 21 James. I., s. 11.
8 Hist, of the Welsh Church (E. J. Newell), p. 385 ; Little England
beyond Wales (Laws), p. 209.
'• See Laws, op. cit., pp. 208-9. * Bee. of Cam., p. 137.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 255

which, by the fact of their comparative unimportance as military
and political centres, was not likely to decrease. They ceased
to rank as English boroughs from about the end of the fourteenth
century. The Cymricising was naturally slower and more liable
to official interruption in the castellated boroughs, especially in
those of such paramount importance as Conway, Carnarvon,
and Beaumaris. For all political purposes, the latter were the
only real English towns after the revolt of Glyndwr.

Generally speaking, the manorial boroughs were more in sym-
pathy with the country people than were the castellated towns.
This sentiment is to some extent illustrated in the native literature
of the period. Davydd ap Gwilym has every praise for the
manorial borough of Newborough in the latter half of the
fourteenth century,1 whilst Lewis Glyn Cothi has nothing but
satire for the castellated borough of Flint a century later.2
The Edwardian ordinances evidently varied in the degree and
extent of their application, which was apparently determined
by the political atmosphere of the period, and in some part
modified by the character of the borough.

The political fluctuations of the period are revealed in the
statutory conditions. The strict ordinances of Edward I. after
the revolt of 1294, subsiding during the later fourteenth century,
were temporarily revived by Henry iv. in thwarting the insur-
rection of Glyndwr, and again by Henry vi. in quelling a local
riot. The ordinances, from the point of view of their exercise,
partook of the character of temporary coercion acts for the
purpose of coping with the Welsh nation at times of political
trouble. Excepting the cases of the more important castel-
lated boroughs, they do not appear to have actually debarred
many mediaeval Welshmen from the amenities of burghal
life.

The intention which may be legitimately read into the original
ordinances, is that the specified boroughs were to be English
rather than Welsh in sympathy. At the time of the conquest,
when racial feeling was intense, this was tantamount to enacting
that they should be inhabited solely by pure Englishmen. During
periods of political tension, when differences of race became
accentuated, this ordinance was put into literal effect; but
during the intervals of comparative quiet, the intention of the

1 Barddoniaeth Dafydd ah Owilym, 1873 (ed. Cynddelw), p. 193.

2 Hist, of Lit. of Wales (C. Wilkins), pp. 122-4.

256 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

ordinance, namely, the creation of loyal boroughs irrespective of
race, came into operation.

During these periods of apparent tranquillity there were
social and other forces at work silently welding Welsh and
English into common sympathy. The disappearance of racial
animosity was concomitant with the development of Welsh
loyalty. We may enumerate some of the attenuating forces
that gradually assimilated the urban and rural peoples of North
Wales.

Among the many points upon which the North Welsh coroners
were to institute regular and strict inquiry, there appear
two which indicate the means by which the English boroughs
became Welsh. The coroners were to inquire of lands and tene-
ments held by Englishwomen, who, being free burgesses, had
married Welshmen, and further, of lands held by Englishmen,
who, being free burgesses, had married Welshwomen. The
same officers were also instructed to keep a strict eye on all
borough lands held by persons of Welsh extraction.1 It is
worthy of note here, that we have one interesting instance
of a Welsh bondman marrying an English widow-burgess at
Pwllheli, who, on paying a fine of a florin was allowed to enjoy
the full complement of burghal privileges.2 The North Welsh
boroughs were hardly of sufficient economic importance to
countenance the incoming of a considerable Welsh influence, by
virtue of the exercise of a clause in their original charters
sanctioning the freedom of villeins upon residence of a year and
a day. Intermarriage, and the acquisition of borough lands by
the Welsh, appear to have been the chief factors that under-
mined the hard and fast decrees of Edward's political ordinances.

The foreign wars of the period are said to have exercised some
influence in this direction.3 Welsh and English fought side by
side at Dunbar and Crecy, at Bannockburn and Poitiers.
Several fighting Welshmen brought their foreign loyalty back
with them into North Wales. An early ordinance stipulated
that the castle garrisons should contain pure Englishmen only,4
but from the middle of the fourteenth century it is very common
to find Welshmen among the garrisons. We can only surmise
the indirect result of this upon the racial populace of the

1 Rec. of Cam., pp. 241-2. * Min. Ace. 1175/3.

* E.g. Owen Glyndwr (Bradley), p. 81.

« Cf. Hist. ofAberconway (Williams), p. 152.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 257

boroughs. If Welsh and English were taught common fighting
for a time, it is but natural to expect some progress in the
direction of common working for term of life. The fact, how-
ever, that Welshmen entered the garrisons of the English castles
seems to show that it was no longer so much a case of English
against Welsh, as of loyal versus disloyal subjects. Differentia-
tion of race was not so entirely tantamount to a corresponding
differentiation in sympathy.

The Welsh, so far as the acquisition of burghal privileges was
concerned, were evidently welcomed by the Crown in propor-
tion to the loyalty shown by them. This, however, was not
the sole determinant of the growth of Welsh interests. We have
also to bear in mind the opposition of the English burgesses qua
burgesses to the progress of the movement, and the desire on
the part of Welshmen to participate in town life during the
Middle Ages.

The English burgesses naturally endeavoured to preserve the
integrity of their privileges. The inhabitants of the castellated
boroughs were particularly keen on this point. They were
loth to suffer any diminution of their economic and commercial
status, and literally shuddered at the thought of their Leet juries
being packed with Welshmen. Boroughs of political import,
as we relate below, persisted in this objection to a late date.1

As to the Welshmen, it cannot be said that they earnestly
applied themselves to settle in towns and engage in commerce,
until the Tudor period.2 Up to this time, the North Welsh
boroughs had no overwhelming advantages to offer the Welsh
peasant above what was afforded him in rural pursuits. The
burning desire of the North Welshmen throughout, particularly
during the latter half of the fifteenth century, was not so much
to enter the boroughs, as to partake of the privileges of the
English burgesses in North Wales. They desired to hold lands in
the boroughs as Englishmen did ; they wished to be eligible for
offices of charge as were Englishmen ; they aspired to the right
of becoming burgesses anywhere ; they required an equal system
of judicial remedy, and above all, craved for exemption, like
the burgesses, from commercial and feudal tolls.3 The acquisi-

1 See below, p. 265 et seq.

2 Humphrey Llwyd, Commentarioli Britannicae Descriptions Fragmcn-
tum (1572), pp. 49-50.

3 See above, chs. iv.-vi., and p. 270 below.

258 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

tion of these privileges was apparently regarded as a provisional
satisfaction of their longing for denizen privileges of the English
realm.

Having surveyed the general conditions, we may now add a
brief summary of the more important statistical and other data
relating to the peopling of the English boroughs in North Wales
during the period of settlement.

There was but a very small proportion of the native populace
among the early inhabitants of the castellated boroughs, most of
them being adventitious families from divers towns in England
and the Welsh Marches.1 With the exception of Criccieth,
the documents of the castle boroughs show an insignificant
number of Welshmen throughout the fourteenth century. As
many as eight of the local jury at Criccieth in 1374 bear Welsh
names.2 In the same reign it was found necessary to have some
Welshmen removed.3

A similar difficulty was experienced at Beaumaris, which
borough, in its earlier years, was being continually threatened
with a Welsh immigration. The Crown made persistent efforts
to stay the danger. Out of ninety names given in the earliest
rental 4 of the town in the time of Edward i., only five can be
said to be distinctively Welsh. By the reign of Edward m.,
the racial proportion of the town populace had undergone a
considerable change, and that apparently through the alienation
of lands within the borough liberty by English burgesses to
Welshmen. Edward in., early in his reign, found it necessary
through his local justiciar, Edward de Bohun, to issue a special
injunction forbidding the English burgesses of Beaumaris to
demise burgages and lands to Welshmen, without first obtaining
the King's licence. All lands hitherto misappropriated in this
fashion were to be immediately restored into the hands of the
Crown. The local community seemingly ignored the tenor of
this order, with the result that by the time of the Black Prince,
it is generally stated that the greater part of the burgesses of
Beaumaris were Welshmen. The W^elsh element predominated
to such an extent as to threaten the utter undoing of the town
liberty. The Crown was on many scores deprived of its revenue.

1 For names see Appendices below.

2 HarL MS., 1954, £.61. The Leet jurors during the reign of Edward n.
were mostly Englishmen (Court Rolls).

» Add. MS., 33,372, f. 6a. « Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), Roll 767.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 259

The deputy- justice of North Wales, understanding this, sum-
moned a general assembly of the local burgesses, who at once
admitted the irregular use of their privileges, which were
accordingly temporarily suspended. They were all summoned
to the next sessions to know the Prince's will in this behalf.
John de Cokey and other burgesses, including the noted Welsh
burgess Anian ap leuan, represented the borough in the Prince's
court at Carnarvon, and on the payment of a fine of twenty
shillings, were allowed to enjoy their privileges until the following
session.1 The details of subsequent proceedings are now lost.
The ultimate verdict apparently effected a restitution of the usual
privileges, with a proviso enjoining strict attention to English
interests. It is certain that the English element held the upper
hand during the latter half of the fourteenth century 2 and sub-
sequently. After the revolt of Glyndwr the borough is classified
as one of the three English walled towns of the North Welsh
Principality.

At Carnarvon and Conway, the two remaining English walled
towns, Welsh names are exceedingly few throughout, as is
the case at Bala for some time. The mediaeval documents of
Carnarvon and Conway contain a slight sprinkling of Welsh
names ; the town bailiffs are almost invariably Englishmen.
The original burgesses of Bala were mostly Englishmen of
Mortimer's following. During the fifteenth century the local
names show an increasing Welsh tendency, though the old
Holland, Broughton, and Collier families continue to have
several prominent representatives during the reign of Edward iv.
The parallel manorial borough of Newborough (whither a colony
of Welshmen had been transferred at the outset), as far as the
actual names of burgesses go, was almost Welsh to a man from
the commencement.

The preceding remarks represent the general impression left
with us by the names met with in documents relating to the
respective boroughs, during the periods mentioned. One thing
is evident. The literal purport of the Edwardian ordinances was
defeated at many points between the conquest and the enactment
of the Lancastrian statutes. It was to this practice that the
English commons, in part, assigned the Welsh troubles that
called for their immediate attention on the accession of Henry rv.

1 Exchqr. A.O. Misc, Book, No. 166, f. 16.

2 Cf. Beaumaris Bay, etc. (by R. Llwyd), p. 19 n.

260 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Welshmen were laxly allowed by the authorities to hold offices
that would have been more secure in the hands of Englishmen,
and in a similar manner, some kind of Welsh sympathy had
crept into the life of several English boroughs in Wales. The
Welsh, from about the middle of the fourteenth century, seem
as a nation to have become more attached to town life. By
1380 Welsh immigration to boroughs had assumed such pro-
portions as to render it a serious menace to the prospects of
the Englishry in Wales.

It would appear that several Welshmen, with the economic
changes accompanying the Black Death, betook themselves
across the English border, some setting up as burgesses in the
Marcher boroughs, and some taking employment as labourers
on English manors. There was no legal obstruction to Welsh-
men settling in English boroughs in England provided they
found sufficient security for their good behaviour. This was
the royal will in 1380.1 The Welsh element was proportion-
ately larger in the Marcher boroughs than what it was in the
walled towns of the Principality. The native inhabitants were
attracted more to the larger towns on the English March than
to the small garrison vills of the North Welsh Principality.
The latter were, of course, more rigidly guarded, and offered
a less fruitful field for commerce and plunder. The Commons,
in 1380,2 by way of remedial check to the Welsh colonisation of
the English Marcher boroughs, make the strange plea that the
Edwardian ordinances were still in force. Nominally, these
only extended to English boroughs in the Principality ; it was
not until the issue of the Lancastrian statutes that they really
extended to English boroughs in England.

Reviewing the racial position of the North Welsh boroughs
at the beginning of the fifteenth century, it will be observed that
the manorial boroughs of Nevin, Pwllheli, and Newborough,
were to all intents and purposes thoroughly Welsh, and Bala
was about to become more so. The minor castellated boroughs
of Criccieth and Harlech, too, contained a considerable Celtic
element, which, with the destruction of the castle of Criccieth
during the progress of the revolt, and the discontinuance of
Harlech as a paramount garrison town, was likely to increase
with the progress of the century. Conway, Carnarvon, and
Beaumaris, from political considerations, were more entirely
1 Rot. ParL, in. p. 81. 2 Ibid.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 261

English in character, only harbouring an occasional loyal Welsh-
man. These three boroughs presented a closed door to the North
Welshman at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and very
unwillingly acquiesced in the admittance of Welshmen into the
neighbouring boroughs. Soon after the close of the century,
these same boroughs voluntarily agreed to the acquisition of
burghal privileges by North Welshmen in English boroughs
situated in localities other than their own. About the same time
they were reluctantly obliged, through the grant of a charter to
the men of North Wales, to open their own liberties. This last
phase of the Cymricising process may be conveniently related
in connection with the general political story of the boroughs,
from the cessation of the revolt of Glyndwr to the promulgation
of the Act of Union.

The century following the revolt of Glyndwr is one of gradual
political progress for the Welsh. This does not imply that it
was a century of domestic peace. The national rebellion
inevitably intensified racial differences. An eminent authority
states that the anti-Saxon character of Welsh poetry during
the years 1415-85 is unmatched by that of any other period.1
The circumstances of the revolt bequeathed many new disturbing
elements to the local conditions of life in North Wales. A re-
vengeful attitude, hitherto less noticeable, comes into immediate
prominence. The Welsh, we are told, inflicted their vengeance
upon such of the English as had slain or had in some way injured
their friends and relations in the late war. The Englishry were
subjected to arbitrary treatment by various kinds of distress
and imprisonment. The Welsh, relying on their superior
numbers, found their old legal custom of assache to be a useful
instrument of torture. One of the first Welsh .acts of Henry v.
was the abolition of this feature of Welsh law in the interests of
his faithful liege people of Wales, both Welshmen as well as
Englishmen.2

The North Welsh boroughs were not subjected to any serious
political troubles during the reign of Henry v. The King himself
was mostly engaged with his foreign campaigns. The adminis-
tration of North Wales was in the good hands of Gilbert, Lord
Talbot, who, more than any other man, did most to pacify the
district after Owen's rebellion. Talbot reorganised the manorial
boroughs, and placed the castellated towns on a firmer footing.
1 Trans. Gym. Soc., 1899-1900, p. 83. 2 Stat. 1 Henry v., c. 6. .

262 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

He subjected the inhabitants of the three counties of Carnarvon,
Merioneth, and Anglesea to double fines in respect of their ab-
solute pardon for participation in the revolt, and for the restora-
tion to them of their lands as completely as if the rebellion of
Wales had not taken place. A transmarine interest was infused
into local politics by Henry's call upon the North Welshmen to
support his expedition into the parts of Normandy. Altogether
they contributed a sum amounting to nearly four thousand marks.
French prisoners, taken in the celebrated battle of Agincourt,
were drafted in parties of four to the castles of Conway and
Carnarvon.1

The Welsh people took full advantage of the civil and political
disturbances of the reign of Henry vi. to improve their social
and political condition. The central government was too much
engrossed with English affairs, at home and abroad, to pay
effective attention to Wales. The Welsh villein made strenuous
efforts to bring himself in line with parallel movements across
the border, and the persistent struggle of the Welsh populace
to acquire denizen privileges went on apace. The English
boroughs, however, were put to no considerable inconvenience
until wellnigh the end of the reign, when circumstances attend-
ing local discontent, and the wider discord of the houses of York
and Lancaster, made their position somewhat critical.

In 1436, an important dispute occurred between the royal
tenants of Merioneth and their baronial neighbours in the
Marcher lands of Powys. It occasioned considerable anxiety
to the English officials at Carnarvon and Harlech. The local
accounts for the year (1436) 2 detail the costs preliminary to the
convocation of a general assembly of the rival tenants for The
Day of Redress, which was fixed to take place on a well-known
Merionethshire mountain called Carnedd Howell. The
negotiations that took place on this Day of Redress seemingly
came to nothing. Representatives of the rival tenantry were
summoned to appear in London in the autumn of 1443. On
the 12th of August in this year, a parley took place at Harlech
between Henry Norres, then deputy-chamberlain at Carnarvon,
and the gentry of Merioneth, with a view to arranging peace
between the tenants of the King and the tenants of Richard,
Duke of York. The Merioneth representatives were chosen at
Harlech in October, and were forthwith conducted by Henry

i Min. Ace. 1216/3. 2 Ibid.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 263

Norres and a retinue of six soldiers to London, to appear before
the King's council on the Octave of St. Martin. On the llth of
January in the next year, Henry Norres again Journeyed from
Carnarvon to Harlech to issue a proclamation against one John
Turburville.1 Further research may result in placing these
facts in their proper setting. One should like to know more
about this John Turburville. About the same time, the maritime
boroughs of North Wales were being threatened by the restless
Scots. A special patrol of horsemen reconnoitred the coast
during these years.2

Favoured by the strained circumstances of Henry's position,
the Welsh made renewed efforts to improve their position. In
the very hour of their last defeat, the native bards still held out
the hopes of the coming of yet another deliverer of the line of
Brutus. Until this prophecy was satisfactorily fulfilled, there
was always a wavering in Welsh loyalty, and a corresponding
uncertainty in the politics of the local English boroughs. The
vast social and economic revolution that was going on gave
an additional impulse, as well as a somewhat changed character
to the old conflict of the fourteenth century. The movement in
the direction of the equalisation of classes,3 by becoming involved
with the struggle for the equalisation of citizen privileges, must
have minimised the racial character of the conflict. Matters of
economic rather than of racial moment explain the predominant
politics of North Wales during the later fifteenth century.

Towards the middle of that century, the English Commons
had to confront a wholesale desire on the part of Welshmen to
become denizen subjects, or in their own words, to be of the same
liberty as Englishmen in Wales. The North Welsh tenants were
especially bent on acquiring the liberties of the English towns-
men in North Wales. Indeed, something like an organised
revolt on the part of the commonalty of North Wales was
feared. The local authorities were of the opinion that the
Welsh were more riotous than ever before. In consequence, the
English castles in North Wales were furnished with additional
soldiers.4

The chief opposition to this Cymric emancipation, as we should
expect, came from the side of the English burgesses, and that,
perhaps, with adequate cause. The Welshmen of Anglesea and

1 Min. Ace. 1216/7. 2 /&., 1216/4.

3 Wales, p. 243. 4 See pp. 109-12 above.

264 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

the burgesses of Beaumaris had been on particularly bad terms
for a very long time. Common incidents on local market and
fair days were persistent affrays between the English and the
Welsh. The most notable of these local squabbles is known
to contemporary literature as the Black Affray of Beaumaris —
Y Ffrae Ddu yn y Bewmares. During this remarkable out-
burst, a famous Welshman, David ap leuan ap Howel of the
neighbouring mansion of Llwydiarth, who championed the
Welsh cause, was slain.1

The general position had become aggravated by 1442. In a
petition of this date, the English burgesses of the North Welsh
towns beg a renewal of the old restrictive ordinances, with the
view of staying the Cymricising of their burghal privileges.
The Privy Council 2 immediately acceded to their request.
The petition is interesting as illustrating the gradual exercise by
the Welsh of the privileges of office and borough, despite the
so-called harsh enactments of Henry iv. It appears from this,
that it had become the usual custom for Welshmen to sue for
letters patent 3 making them denizen subjects, thereby legally
exempting them from the inconveniences of the penal statutes.
It is also gratifying to find in a parallel petition, a plea of
exception on the part of the English burgesses, in favour of two
eminent Welshmen, William Bulkeley and Griffith ap Nicholas.
WTe have here the possibility, at least, of a wider and more
comprehensive reconciliation.4

In their preamble to the preceding petition, the burgesses
preface a general resume of their position since the days of
Henry iv. The Welsh, they say, incensed at Henry v.'s unwise
policy of granting forfeited lands to Englishmen rather than
to Welshmen, truly menaced them throughout for the slaughter
and destruction of their ancestors in the last rebellion. The
custom of admitting natives to equal privileges with the
burgesses further led to sorry results both in the constitution
and verdicts of local juries. To English burgesses of the time,
there was a no more evident injustice than that Welshmen,
with whom they had no favour, but great dispute of heart,

1 Llwyd, Beaumaris Bay, as on p. 259 above.

2 Acts of the Privy Council (ed. Nicolas), v. p. 211. Cf. Rot. Part.,
v. pp. 53:4.

3 See Calendar of MSS. relating to Wales in the British Museum (E. Owen),
ii. pp. 145, 151.

* Hot. ParL, v. p. 104.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 265

countenance, and mind, should be allowed to adjudge on their
bodies and lives.

With the express object of allaying the proverbial pomp and
pride exercised by the mediaeval Welsh in this connection, the
Commons, in 1444,1 ordered a strict observance, in all points, of
every ordinance previously enacted against the Welsh. The
situation was not much improved. Three years later (1447),2
the Commons again sanctioned this order, and added a further
ordinance, to the effect that all franchises, markets, fairs, liberties
to buy and sell within the towns of North Wales, made to any
Welshman before this date, should be void and of no value.
The same statute contained a section which perhaps more than
.any other, shows the chief cause of unrest in North Wales at
this time. It specially refers to the North Welsh villeins,
who were no longer so obedient to the commands of the
royal stewards in the performance of their labour and service
dues.

. These statutes of Henry vi., though against the Welsh,
undoubtedly point to W^elsh progress. The very necessity for
renewing the old ordinances shows that their literal content
was not rigidly adhered to. The Welsh were apparently allowed
to exercise, either by sufferance or by force, privileges that
were legally forbidden them. The walled towns of Conway,
Carnarvon, and Beaumaris succeeded in keeping their privileges
fairly well intact, by reason of their strong military position, and
perhaps, too, by the moral and legal support of the old Edwardian
ordinances. The latter, however, were becoming more fictional
and effete in purpose and effect with the progress of the fifteenth
century.

Circumstances attending the Wars of the Roses ultimately
turned this negative tide of restrictive law in favour of Wales,
to the special advantage of the North Welshmen. There
were two reasons why the Welsh people revelled in the Wars of
the Roses. The struggle, except in its later stages, was not
confined to Welsh soil, and the opportunity afforded for fighting
near home gave new vent to their warlike spirit. Welshmen
fought for York and for Lancaster. The three North Welsh
counties had a decided leaning towards the Lancastrian side. By
October 1461, the progress of the civil war had been so favour-
able to Edward iv., that he was master of all England and Wales
1 Rot. Part, v. p. 104. 2 Ib., v. pp. 138-9.

266 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

except Harlech castle,1 which was strenuously held by Welsh-
men in the Lancastrian interest. The magnificent stand made
by the Welsh captain, David ap Eignon, on behalf of the Red
Rose, and the celebrated siege that led to the fall of the castle on
the fourteenth day of August 1468, are well known to history.2
So far as North Wales is concerned, this temporary occupation of
Harlech by the Welsh is the only respite from a monotonous tale
of increased precautions by the North Welsh authorities in aid
of the Yorkist cause. The local garrisons were replenished with
men and victual,3 and the burgesses generally experienced some
difficulty in paying their ordinary rents.4

In the subsequent turn of affairs in favour of Lancaster, the
North Welsh found themselves supporting a famous personage
of the old Anglesea stock, which had already provided so many
champions of the Welsh cause against the oppression of the
post-conquest period.5 They made ready response to Jasper's
rally on behalf of Henry, Earl of Richmond. The ultimate
success of their combined efforts at Bosworth in 1485, gave rise
to a period of new legislation, which in more senses than one
affected the political position of the North Welsh boroughs.

The contemporary bards were loud in their acclamation that
the long-expected deliverer had verily come. On Henry Tudor's
accession, there was wholesale expectation for Taliessin's promised
'deliverance of exalted power.' The North Welshmen, who
played so significant a part in Henry's memorable victory,
awaited recognition in the form of the benefits of a long-sought
liberty. A celebrated North Welsh bard, Sion Tudyr, in a
congratulatory ode to Queen Elizabeth, associates the beginning
of the era of Welsh freedom with the accession of Henry vn.

' Harri l&n hir lawenydd
Ywr hwn an rhoes ninnau'n rhydd
I Gymru da vu hyd vedd
Goroni gwr o Wynedd.' 6

The annals of Henry's reign are somewhat disappointing to
Welsh readers, who look for a drastic repeal of the oppressive

1 Ramsay, Lancaster and York, ii. p. 278.

1 See Wales, p. 296; Parry, op. cit., pp. 267-8; Bradley, op. cit., p. 312 ;
Hist, of the Qwydir Family (Sir John Wynne), 1827, p. 63.

3 See ch. v. above. * Ib., ch. vi. above.

6 E.g. Sir Gruffydd Llwyd and Howel and Tudor ap Gronow.
6 Royal Visits and Progresses to Wales (Parry), p. 293, n. 3.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 267

statutes of Edward I. and subsequent English sovereigns. The
benefits of the Tudor regime were rather those of acquisition.
The old conditions became effete by reason of the extension of
old privileges and the enactment of new laws. Henry vn.
accomplished little during his reign beyond roughly indicating
the policy that ultimately led to the happy consummation
achieved under his illustrious son, Henry vm.1

Towards the close of his reign (1507), Henry vn. issued a
remarkable charter to the bondmen and other inhabitants of
North Wales.2 It affected the position of the North Welsh
boroughs in several directions. We have already referred to
some of these in earlier chapters. The wholesale manumission
of the bondmen undermined their old economic setting, and
other clauses, as we have seen, led to noteworthy changes in the
commercial and judicial status of the English boroughs. We
are more specially concerned here with the two political clauses
extending to North Welshmen the right of holding offices of
charge in Wales, and also the right of acquiring lands in England,
and in any English borough or vill in Wales. The English
boroughs were thus thrown entirely open to the North Welshmen.

The concession naturally caused deep indignation among the
inhabitants of the English boroughs in North Wales. An
advanced aspect of the old conflict of the fourteenth century
ensued. The particulars of the contest are interesting, in so
far as they reveal gradual transition in political sentiment as
well as gratifying progress in economic condition. It is some-
what significant that Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris
supplied the most prominent resisters.

As we have already stated, these three boroughs, after the
revolt of Glyndwr (possibly before), appear to have become
estranged from the larger family of English boroughs of the
fourteenth century ; or rather, may we say that the fifteenth-
century family of English boroughs in North Wales consisted of
three members, namely, Conway, Carnarvon, and Beaumaris,
known as the three English Walled Towns of North Wales.
They were most exclusively English throughout, and it was on
them that the English Government chiefly relied for political

1 Cf. Hist, of Wales (J. Jones), p. 119.

2 Patent Roll, 22 Henry vn., p. 3, m. 2. For printed text see Parl.
Papers, 1896, vol. xxv. p. 383 ; for ditto with translation, Arch. Camb.,
}. ii. pp. 215-222. Exchqr. Miscellanea 10/1 gives an English analysis of
its contents.

268 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

defence during the later half of the period of settlement.1 In
view of the nature of their services in the past, it occasions no
surprise to find the inhabitants of these distinctive boroughs
enraged at the opening of their liberties to their old foes, the
North Welshmen. In a weak moment the burgesses decided to
oppose the inevitable.

In a combined petition to the King, they suggested that the
Welshmen of Merioneth should be satisfied with the boroughs
of Rhuddlan, Denbigh, Harlech, and Bala, those of Carnarvon-
shire with Bangor, Pwllheli, Criccieth, and Nevin, and those of
Anglesea with Newborough — all and each of which boroughs,
they say, are of as great a liberty as any of the three English
towns.2 This outspoken statement affords an admirable
illustration of the fact of Welsh progress during the fifteenth
century. What the commonalty of English burgesses in Wales
offer to two Welshmen in 1444, the commonalty of English
burgesses in North Wales are now prepared to extend to Welsh-
men of three whole counties. This must perhaps be taken as
the reluctant acknowledgment of what was more or less an
actual fact. Racial qualification for burgess-ship had been
practically done away with in the eight boroughs mentioned.
The distinct commonalty of English burgesses in North Wales
became more and more confined in meaning, in inverse ratio
to the increasing significance of the commonalty of North
Welshmen. By virtue of Henry's charter, the latter were
privileged to enter all the North Welsh boroughs for the first
time. But the commonalty of English burgesses in North
Wales, now confined to three boroughs, were not going to submit
without a struggle.

The English burgesses of Conway, for instance, at once made
known to the King what the actual consequences of the great
charter had been to them. In their petition of complaint they
preface the questionable statement that they had peaceably
enjoyed their privileges since the time of Edward I., until now
of lat,e certain inhabitants within the said town of Conway,
and also of the commotes adjacent, by colour and misrepre-
sentation of a Charter of Liberties granted to the Welshery
of the county of North Wales, usurped their ancient liberties.
The burgesses, too, challenge the authenticity of the charter,

1 Cf. Ancient and Modern Denbigh (J. Williams), pp. 91 n., 107.
* Hist, of Aberconway (R. Williams), pp. 45-6.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 269

intimating that it was craftily obtained by a certain Spanish
ambassador. As yet we have found nothing to substantiate
this. That the charter was strictly adhered to in several of its
clauses during the Tudor period is certain. The burgesses of Con-
way also testify to its actual operation. It was on this pretext,
they say, that the Welsh entered into the privileges of Conway
as largely as any English burgesses had done in the previous
centuries, and that, much to the disgust of the old burgesses,
and to the general undoing of the three English walled towns
in North Wales.1 Conway's plea was not entirely ignored.
Articles of injunction were issued on the 20th of February 1509,
hardly a month before Henry vn.'s decease, by the Bishop of
Winchester, the Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Lovell, and others
of the King's council, dealing with the variances between the
foreign inhabitants of the three shires of Carnarvon, Merioneth,
and Anglesea and the burgesses of the King's English walled
towns and garrisons in North Wales. Nominal respite was
assured to the burgesses (1) by restoring the North Welshmen
to their old position as before the issue of the great charter ;
(2) by forbidding them the right of inquiry or indictment in
matters touching English burgesses ; and (3) by withholding
from them the right to bear arms in the English walled towns.
A proviso was appended, to the effect that an inquiry was to be
held immediately for a strict examination of the charters hitherto
granted to the English burgesses and to the North Welshmen.2
This was the state of the conflict when Henry Tudor, from whom
the Welsh had expected so much, breathed his last.

Despite the above stipulation, the actual position was
apparently unchanged. The North Welshmen evidently made
the most of their charter, such as it was. Affrays, misde-
meanours, and assaults formed common incidents in the civic
administration of the garrison towns during the early years of
the reign of Henry vm. On the 9th of March 1518, the King
commissioned the local Justice and chamberlain of North
Wales, together with the constable of the castle of Carnarvon,
to make inquiries into the hardships inflicted by Welshmen
on the burgesses of the town of Carnarvon.3 It transpired that
several English bailiffs had recently been murdered there during
the execution of their municipal duties, and the borough juries

1 Hist, of Aberconway (R. Williams), pp. 43-4.

2 Exchqr. Miscellanea 9/13. 3 Ibid.

270 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

were so packed by Welshmen in cases touching the English
commonalty, that the ends of justice were almost always defeated.
These were the usual points of inquiry during this critical period
of perjured inquests and bloody affrays. The local conflict was
now civil rather than political. The Wales of the future wanted
efficient courts rather than strong castles.

Throughout the reign of Henry vm., North Wales continued
to be the scene of much civil dissatisfaction on the part both of
the English burgesses and of the native populace. In the
boroughs, from the circumstance of the improved position of the
North Welshmen by virtue of Henry vii.'s charter ; among the
commonalty of North Wales, through the high-handed treat-
ment and arbitrary action of the sheriffs and other of the King's
ministers there. About the year 1530 we have simultaneous
complaints from the commonalty of the English burgesses in
North Wales and from the commonalty of the three shires,
illustrating the consequences of the changed conditions to the
English boroughs, and also the changing attitude and grievances
of the North Welsh people.

The occasion for the presentation of complaints by the
inhabitants of the three shires was the promulgation of a
general Act of Pardon l in 1530, to all subjects of the realm of
England, for all manner of felonies under the sum of twenty
shillings, and also of divers other offences. The local prisons
in North Wales at this time were literally crammed with
felonious Welshmen and their sureties, yet the privileges of this
Act wrere not extended to them, because they were specified
to ' our subjects of the realm of England.' The North Welsh
put forth a claim to the benefits of the Act, on the ground that
the three shires formed parcel of the realm of England, and that
their ancestors had been accustomed to enjoy the content of
such Acts ever since the conquest,2 and of all until this time,
when the royal officers there, for the covetousness of their
fees more than for the King's advantage, had been very extreme
against them, and would not allow them to enjoy the said
pardon. The petitioners go on to impress the King with other
obvious disadvantages to which they were subject and liable,
through not enjoying the privileges of the realm. They lost not
only the benefit of pardons, but also the Probate of Testaments,

1 Stat. 21 Henry vm., c. 1.

* This statement suggests an interesting field for historical inquiry.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 271

in addition to the uncertainty after what law or order they
should hereafter live, as they were now ordered according to the
officer's pleasure to their great unquietness. They accordingly
begged the King to grant them the laws of England as was their
wont before ; also the full effect of the last pardon as well for
the redeeming of seven hundred of their countrymen that
remained in prison, as for the relief of those that were fleeing
out of the country. As an alternative, in case of refusal, they
begged that an inquest should be taken touching the premises.1

This petition affords valuable insight into some of the salient
defects of the administrative system of Mediaeval Wales. It
also possesses the additional interest of illustrating a pleasing
change in the political attitude of the North Welshmen, during
the period of settlement. In the Kennington petitions at the
outset of our period, we found them clamouring for a strict
observance of the Old Welsh Laws. Here, after a lapse of more
than two centuries, they are unanimous in their assent to the
introduction of the laws of England, under which they had been
governed at the discretion and pleasure of royal officers since
the conquest. In the preamble to the Act of Union 2 the King
states that some rude and ignorant people had made distinction
and diversity between the King's subjects of the realm, and his
subjects of the Dominion and Principality of Wales (referring
probably in part to the indiscretion of royal officials deputed to
Wales), whereby great discord, variance, debates, division, mur-
der, and sedition hath grown up between the said subjects. To
assure future concord and unity, Parliament, in 1536, sanctioned
the Act of Union incorporating Wales with the realm of England.
Among other things it stipulated that all persons born in Wales
should enjoy all liberties as other subjects of England did, a
strange contrast to the racial enactments of previous sovereigns.

The burgesses of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris formu-
lated their grievances in a petition presented to Cardinal Wolsey
in 1529.3 The North Welsh, in virtue of Henry vii.'s charter,
made considerable encroachment upon liberties which, up to
now, had been their precious monopoly. Trial by comburgesses
was being continually overruled to their great cost and damage.
The amercements of Welshmen in their civil courts were greatly

1 Exchqr. Miscellanea 9/30.

2 Cf. Letters and Papers Henry VIII., vol. v., No. 682.

3 Arch. Camb., iv. xiii. pp. 309-10.

272 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

reduced, and mixed juries added to their further peril. Welsh-
men gradually crept into offices of charge and places of municipal
importance ; they also settled in the boroughs in larger numbers,
and carried arms contrary to the tenor of the old statutes. The
burgesses also reflect upon the irregular actions of the local
sheriffs, who were not altogether successful in bringing Welsh
felons to book ; and make a final and albeit a reasonable plea
that something should be done to secure the good bearing of
all ' foreigners ' (i.e. native Welshmen), as of late they murdered
bailiffs and other English burgesses. The burgesses in this
petition practically seek a more adequate system of justice
rather than a revival of the old penal statutes as heretofore.

The Act of Union in 1536, dealt impartially with the grievances
of both North Welshman and English burgess as represented
in the petitions of 1529-30. Other things equal, they were
placed on a common footing in relation to the privileges of the
realm. The readiness of the Welsh to accept English law,
and the desire of the English burgesses that the Welsh should be
of good bearing and nothing more, were sure tokens that the
close of the period of political settlement was at hand. In the
eyes of the Crown it was sufficient to warrant the permanent
union of Wales and England. In this way closed the political
history of Mediaeval Wales, and its mediaeval boroughs.

During the Tudor period the Welsh boroughs, like Wales
itself, were being gradually transferred from a mediaeval to a
modern setting. From Mediaeval Wales, the country of war,1
we pass to the law-abiding Wales of the modern age. This
transition is instanced in the story of the Welsh boroughs, by
the fact that at this time the majority practically cease to be
garrison towns. Fortified boroughs of the ville anglaise type
were more or less doomed in Wales with the invention of gun-
powder, and the subsequent revolutions in the art of war. »
Castles and town walls, no longer impregnable, lost their ancient
importance. This was of no small moment to several of the
mediaeval boroughs of the Principality.

With the decay of the castle during the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries, many of the Welsh boroughs fall to a
second-rate importance. The castellated boroughs witnessed
their golden age during the feudal era. In Wales, they owed
their paramount importance to their position as military bul-
1 Cf. Y Cymmrodor., vol. xiii. p. 147.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 273

warks of the English Crown, or as the vantage ground for the
pleasure and profit of the Marcher lord. They flourished in an
economy that depended chiefly on the relation of persons, which
in Wales, was somewhat embittered by the consideration of
race. They formed an integral part of the feudal and semi-
military shell within which Welsh society thrived during the
later Middle Ages.

One aspect of the decay of this feudal society, or better, one
feature of the progress of Welsh civilisation during the early
Tudor period, is the gradual divorce of the towns from the control
of the castles.1 Welsh boroughs, generally, begin to show the
symptoms of a new independence at this time, as the result of
their transition from the dependent atmosphere of mediaeval
society to the comparatively independent and more enterprising
environment of the modern age. The boroughs lose their old
feudality. The private will of the town community comes into
prominence, the towns rely more and more upon their own
resources, and act in a spirit more in unison with our notion of
a modern municipal corporation. We have already enumerated
the particular evidences of these general political changes in the
status of the North Welsh boroughs.

One other result of the gradual elimination of the mediaevalism
of our Welsh boroughs was the extension to them of the rights
of Parliamentary representation. The Welsh municipalities
were brought into line with the rest of the boroughs of the realm,
and began to enjoy the privileges of fully-fledged boroughs
for the first time. This change was not altogether a welcome
one. Three of the North Welsh boroughs had on one occasion
appointed representatives before,2 but their Parliamentary his-
tory as such dates from the Act of Union.3 A new importance
and a changed character are given to their political history from
this date ; it is no longer a struggle of arms, as during the Middle
Ages, but a conflict of votes more in conformity with modern
disputes. Their political history in the future becomes involved
with the influence and intrigue of powerful town families, whose
origins we have incidentally touched upon in the preceding
chapters.

Further, the Welsh boroughs, during the Tudor period, were
introduced into a new economic setting, in the sense that

1 Cf. Hist, of Lit. in Wales (C. Wilkins), p. 139.

2 See above, p. 236. 3 Stat. 27 Henry vm.f c. 29.

274 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

commerce rather than war was to be the chief determinant of
their future greatness and usefulness. Up to this time it had
been a question of politics rather than economics, a question
of the relation of persons rather than the exchange of things.
Henry vni. was fully alive to the importance of this change to
the Welsh boroughs. In 1542 l he reserved to himself the right
for seven years of annulling the little corporate towns of Wales,
that were reduced to mediocre rank through the loss of their
political prestige as units of royal and baronial government
in Wales. Several of the political towns of the Middle Ages
were ill at ease in the changing environment of Welsh society
during the Tudor age. Only those that were suitably adapted
to the conditions of modern economy continued to flourish
with any municipal elaborateness. Beaumaris, Carnarvon,
and Conway are perhaps the only North Welsh boroughs that
profited from the commercial impulse of the Tudor and later
periods, up to the days of the municipal reform. The remaining
North Welsh boroughs sink (and indeed had been sinking since
the middle of the fifteenth century) to the rank of unimportant
market towns with a glorious past, exercising their old corporate
privileges in languid fashion. Their purely municipal history,
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is mainly con-
nected with Parliamentary elections, but strong corporate
recollections were revived when threats were made to interfere
with their landed status.

The North Welsh boroughs contain no monumental remains
predicating the existence of great civic wealth during the Middle
Ages. There are no elaborate churches, no expensive insignia ;
only the old castles and town walls. As we have seen, there
were no great centres of industry, art, and learning, though
Carnarvon must have exercised some considerable influence in
the latter respect. On the whole, the mediaeval towns of Wales,
as industrial and commercial centres, were relatively of less
importance than even those of Mediaeval England. The land
of Snowdon, in the immediate vicinity of the North Welsh
boroughs, was eminently a pastoral one. The more important
of the maritime boroughs, however, gradually lose their old
manorial character from the Tudor period onwards. The
dissolution of the Welsh monasteries gave great impetus to
the economic revolution that was taking place in the agrarian
1 Stat. 34-5 Henry vin., c. 27.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOROUGHS 275

and commercial conditions of the mediaeval borough. Through-
out the fifteenth century, the more important boroughs showed
signs of development on the lines of a national rather than
a natural economy. A sense of commercial enterprise was
gradually developed by the burgesses of Beaumaris, Conway,
and Carnarvon, at the expense of the older conditions of a
self-sufficing economy. During the Tudor period, from being
handicapped by the impediments of political and feudal control,
these same boroughs among others of the realm, were ushered
into a mercantile atmosphere where men of the character of a
Drake and a Raleigh flourished. Burghal life in all its aspects
became more a matter of wealth and less a matter of tenure.
In the days of municipal reform, the boroughs of Newborough,
Nevin, Pwllheli, Criccieth, Harlech, and Bala exhibit the influ-
ence of this change in much smaller proportions than the
boroughs of Beaumaris, Conway, and Carnarvon.

With these general remarks on the changing character of
Welsh municipal history during the early Tudor period, and on
the later story of the North Welsh boroughs, we bring to a
close our study of the growth and development of the municipal
element in the three shires of North Wales during the period of
settlement.

To the keen nationalist of Modern Wales the story, at first
sight, reveals a negative interest. Why should he trouble
himself with the story of boroughs in which his ancestors had
no legal right of residence ? Why should he turn over pages
showing the activity of burgesses who actually dared to hamper
his forefathers with offensive tolls ? Of much greater interest
to him is the story of the little contemporary Welsh towns of
Machynlleth, Aberdaron, and Dolgelly, where plans were care-
fully prepared for the overthrow of these symbols of the English
yoke. The racial associations of the minor mediaeval towns of
North Wales must not blind our eyes to the deeper significance
of the English boroughs. The story of the North Welsh boroughs
is something more than the story of a conflict between English
and Welsh ; it is also the story of Welsh progress. Every Welsh-
man should read the story of boroughs that gave to his ancestors
a higher instinct of civic liberty, and gradually developed in
them a sense of patriotic duty in spheres other than the battle-
field. North Welsh liberty, as depicted in the great charter
of Henry Tudor, found its oasis in the liber burgus of the late

276 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

thirteenth century. The free boroughs, too, were the pioneers
of an advancing civilisation. They fostered commerce, and
instilled into the rural hamlets that surrounded them, both
higher possibilities and also more refined methods of life. The
small Welsh ports of Barmouth and Aberdovey have national
associations of the best during this period, but it is in the story
of the borough ports of Carnarvon, Conway, and Beaumaris
that we have the origin and development of the economic
and commercial interchange, which educated the Welsh nation
in the ways and means of an enlightened civilisation.

We may sum up the general contribution of the North Welsh
boroughs to the cause of Welsh progress during the Middle Ages,
by saying that they were the apostles of a new liberty and the
avenues of economic development.

APPENDIX

277

CONTENTS OF APPENDICES

A. TEXTS OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
I. CHARTERS AND LETTERS PATENT

(a) Original Charters of the North Welsh Boroughs.

Edward I. ,

Edward of Carnarvon,
Edward n. ,

1. Conway. Complete text.

2. Carnarvon. Text compared with (1),

noting differences.

3. Criccieth. ,,

4. Harlech. ,,

5. Bere. ,,

6. Beaumaris. ,,

7. Newborough. Complete text.

8. Bala.

Edward, the Black Prince, 9. Nevin.

,, ,, 10. Pwllheli. ,,

(6) Fee-Farm Charters.

1. Conway. Complete text.

2. Harlech.

3. Bala.

town of Conway.

(ii) Charter of the Black Prince gran ting two additional fairs, etc., to
the burgesses of Carnarvon.

II. SELECT DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATING SALIENT POINTS
IN THE HISTORY OF THE MUNICIPAL ELEMENT IN
NORTH WALES

1. Ancient Petitions ( P. R.O.), . No. 2803.

2. „ „ „ No. 1981.

3. „ „ „ No. 3925.

4. „ „ „ No. 13,029.

5. „ „ „ No. 13,936.

6. Additional Charter (Brit. Mus.), No. 8642.

7. Carnarvon Deed of 1430.

8. Ancient Petitions (P. R.O.), . No. 9093.

278 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

B. LISTS AND TABLES COMPILED FROM
ORIGINAL SOURCES

(a) Tabular Analysis of the Court, Market, and Kiltoll Profits of each
Borough, 1284-1536.

(6) A Chronological List of the extant Court Rolls of the North
Welsh Boroughs, 1284- 1536. l

1 A complete translation of the texts of these rolls has been compiled, but this,
together with lists of the constables, bailiffs, and other officers of the several castles
and boroughs (1284-1536), owing to consideration of space, have been omitted from
the present Appendices.

APPENDIX 279

A. TEXTS .OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS

I. CHARTERS AND LETTERS PATENT

(a) Original Charters of the North Welsh Boroughs.
WELSH ROLL 12 EDWARD L, No. 5, m. 2.

Burgensibus de Aberconwey de libertatibus suis.

ET eisdem1 salutem. Sciatis quod volumus et concedimus pro nobis et
heredibus nostris quod villa nostra de Aberconewey de cetero liber burgus
sit et homines nostri eiusdem villae liberi sint burgenses et quod constabu-
larius castri nostri de Aberconewey qui pro tempore fuerit sit maior burgi Conway.
illius iuratus tarn nobis quam eisdem burgensibus qui prius prsestito sacra-
mento de iuribus nostris conservandis eisdem burgensibus iuret super sancta
dei ewangelia quod ipse libertates eisdem burgensibus a nobis concessas
conservabit et faciet fideliter ea quie ad officium maiorise pertinet in eodem
burgo. Concedimus eciam quod ipsi burgenses singulis annis in festo sancti
Michselis duos ballivos idoneos et sufficientes de semetipsis eligant et dicto
constabulario tanquam maiori suo prsesentent qui in prsesencia dictorum
maioris et burgensium iurent quod officium ballivse suae fideliter facient et
exequentur. Volumus eciam et concedimus quod dicti burgenses habeant
liberam prisonam suam in burgo preedicto de omnibus transgressoribus
ibidem exceptis casibus vitse et membrorum in quibus casibus omnes tarn
burgenses quam alii imprisonentur in castro nostro ibidem verumptamen
si aliqui dictorum burgensium rectati accusati vel indictati fuerint super
aliqua transgressione in huiusmodi casibus Tolumus quod ea occasione
imprisonentur quamdiu bonam et sufficientem manucapcionem invenerint
ad standum inde recto coram capitali justiciario nostro vel aliis justiciariis
nostris ad hoc deputatis.

Concedimus insuper eisdem burgensibus quod omnes terrse eidem burgo
iam assignatse dewarrennatse et deafforestatae sint omnino et quod Judsei in
eodem burgo aliquibus temporibus non morentur.

Concedimus eciam pro nobis et heredibus nostris eisdem burgensibus
libertates subscriptas videlicet quod nullus vicecomitum nostrorum in
aliquo se intromittat super eos de aliquo placito vel querela vel occasione
vel aliqua re alia ad pradictam villain pertinente salvis tamen nobis et
heredibus nostris placitis coronse nostrse sicut praedictum est et quod ipsi
habeant gildam mercatoriam cum hansa et aliis consuetudinibus et liberta-

i Hex Archiepiscopis et cetera salutem (as recited in the superscription of the
charter of Flint, which precedes that of Conway on the same membrane).

280 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

tibus ad gildam illam pertinentibus ita quod nullus qui non sit de gildailla
mercandisam aliquam faciat in eadem villa nisi de voluntate burgensium
pnedictorum.

Concedimus eciam eisdem quod si aliquis nativiis alicuius in praefata
villa manserit et terram in ea tenuerit et fuerit in prsefata gilda et hansa et
loth et shot cum eisdem hominibus nostris per unum annum et unum diem
sine calumpnia deinceps non possit repeti a domino suo set in eadem villa
liber permaneat.

Pneterea concedimus eisdem burgensibus nostris quod habeant sok et sak
thol et theam et infangenetheof et quod quieti sint per totam terrain
nostram de theolonio, lestagio, passagio, muragio, pontagio et stallagio et de
leue danegeld et gaywyte et omnibus aliis consuetudinibus et exactionibus
per totam potestatem nostram tarn in Anglia quam in omnibus aliis terris
nostris et quod ipsi vel eorum bona ubicunque locorum in terra vel potestate
nostra inventa non arestentur pro aliquo debito de quo fideiussores aut
principals debitores non extiterint, nisi forte ipsi debitores de eorum sint
communa et potestate habentes unde de debitis suis in toto vel in parte
satisfacere possint, et dicti burgenses nostri creditoribus eorundem de-
bitorum in justicia defuerint et de hoc racionabiliter constare possit. Et
quod iidem burgenses nostri pro transgressione seu forisfactura servient
suorum catalla et bona sua in manibus ipsorum inventa aut alicubi locorum
per ipsos servientes deposita quatenus sua esse sufficienter probare poterint
non amittant, et eciam quod si iidem burgenses aut eorum aliqui infra
terram aut potestatem nostram testati decesserint vel intestati nos vel
heredes nostri bona ipsorum confiscari non faciemus quin eorum heredes ea
integre habeant quatenus dicta catalla dictorum defunctoruin fuisse
constiterint dumtamen de dictis heredibus notitia aut fides sufficienter
habeatur. Et quod burgenses nostri prsedicti non convincantur per aliquos
forinsecos super aliquibus appellationibus rectis iniuriis transgressionibus
criminibus calumpniis demandis eis impositis aut imponendis a Kaernarvan
usque ad aquam de Cloyt set solummodo per burgenses nostros praedictos
nisi de aliqua re tangente communitatem burgi prsedicti et tune in casu illo
deducantur secundum libertates approbatas et hactenus racionabiliter
usitatas in civitate nostra Herefordise.

Quare volumus et firmiter praecipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod
villa nostra de Aberconewey decetero liber burgus sit et homines nostri
eiusdem villas liberi sint burgenses. Et quod constabularius castri nostri
de Aberconewey pro tempore fuerit sit maior burgi illius iuratus tain nobis
quam eisdem burgensibus qui prius praestito sacramento de iuribus nostris
conservandis eisdem burgensibus iuret super sancti dei Ewangelia quod
ipse libertates eisdem burgensibus a nobis concessas conservabit et fideliter
faciet ea que ad officium maioriae pertinent in eodem burgo.

Concedimus eciam quod ipsi burgenses singulis annis in festo sancti
Michaelis duos ballivos idoneos et sufficientes de semetipsis eligant et
dicto constabulario tanquam maiori suo prsesentent qui in praesencia
dictorum maioris et burgensium iurent quod officium ballivae suae fideliter
fjicient et exequentur.

APPENDIX 281

Volumus eciam et concedimus quod dicti burgenses habeant liberara
prisonam suam in burgo prsedicto de omnibus transgressionibus ibidem
exceptis casibus vitae et membrorum in quibus casibus omnes tarn burgenses
quam alii imprisonentur in castro nostro ibidem verumptamen si aliqui
dictorum burgensium rectati accusati vel iudictati fuerint super aliqua
transgessione in huiusmodi casibus volumus quod ea occasione imprisonen-
tur quamdiu bonam et sufficientem manucapcionem invenerint ad standum
inde recto coram capitali justiciario nostro vel aliis justiciariis nostris ad hoc
deputatis.

Concedimus insuper eisdem burgensibus quod omnes terras eidem burgo
iam assignatae dewarrenatae et deafforestatse sint omnino et quod Judaei
•in eodem burgo aliquibus temporibus non morentur.

Volumus eciam et concedimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod prse-
dicti burgenses habeant omnes alias libertates et liberas consuetudines
superius expressas bene et pacifice absque occasione vel impedimento nostri
vel heredum nostrorum justiciariorum vicecomitum et aliorum ballivorum
seu ministrorum quorumcumque imperpetuum sicut prsedictum est.
Testibus ut supra.1

WELSH EOLL, 12 EDWARD i., No. 5, m. 3.
Burgensibus de Karnarvan de libertatibus suis.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. Sciatis quod volumus et concedimus pro nobis Carnarvoi
et heredibus nostris quod villa nostra de Karnarvan de cetero liber burgus 128*«
sit — etc. etc. as Conway above mutatis mutandis. . . . — Et quod burgenses
nostri preedicti non convincantur per aliquos forinsecos super aliquibus
appellis — etc. etc. . . . irapositis aut imponendis infra comitatum de
Karnarvan et ripam de Devy videlicet ab aqua de Aberconewey usque
aquam de Devy set solummodo per burgenses nostros praedictos nisi — etc.
etc. . . in civitate nostra Herefordiae. Quare, etc. etc. . . . Testibus ut
supra 2 Datum ut supra.2

WELSH KOLL, 13 EDWARD i., No. 6, in. 4.
Pro burgensibus de Crukyth de libertatibus eis concessis.

Rex Archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis quod volumus et concedimus Crjccieth,
pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod villa nostra de Crukyth de cetero liber 1285«
burgus.. sit — etc. etc. as Conway above mutatis mutandis. . . . — Et quod
burgenses nostri praedicti non convincantur per aliquos forinsecos super
aliquibus appellis— etc. etc. . . . impositis aut imponendis a rypa de Kaer-
narvan quae vocatur Seyntes usque ad rypam de Devy set solummodo per
burgenses nostros praedictos nisi — etc. etc. — in civitate nostra Herefordiae.
Quare etc. ut supra.3 Hiis testibus ut supra.3 Datum ut supra.3

1 The attestation clause of Flint runs thus : — Hiis testibus venerabili patre
Roberto Bathoniensi et Wellensi episcopo cancellario nostro, Thoma de Clare,
Eicardo de Burgo comite Ultonise, Ricardo de Brus, Eeginaldo de Grey, Nicholao
•de Segrave, Petro de Chaumpnent, Johanne de Monte Alto et aliis. Datum per
manum nostram apud Flynt octavo die Septembris.

2 I.e. as. Con way. 3 I.e. as Harlech.

282 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

WELSH ROLL, 13 EDWARD i., No. 6, m. 4.
Pro burgensibus Hardelagh de libertatibus eis concessis.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis quod volumus et concedimus
pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod villa nostra de Hardelagh de cetero
liber burgus sit — etc. etc. as Conway above mutatis mutandis. . . . — Et
quod burgenses nostri praedicti non convincantur per aliquos forinsecos
super aliquibus appellis— etc. etc. impositis aut imponendis a ripa de
Karnarvan quae vocatur Seyntes usque ad ripam de Devy set solumodo l
per burgenses nostros prsedictos nisi— etc. etc. in civitate nostra Herefordi£e.
Quare volumus 2 etc. ut supra. Testibus ut supra.3 Datum ut supra.3

WELSH ROLL, 13 EDWARD L, No. 6, m. 4.
Pro burgensibus de Bere de libertatibus eis concessis.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis quod volumus et concedimus
pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod villa nostra de Bere de cetero liber
burgus sit — etc. etc. as Conway above mutatis mutandis. . . . Et quod
burgenses nostri prsedicti non convincantur per aliquos forinsecos super
aliquibus appellis — etc. etc. . . . impositis aut imponendis a ripa de
Abermati usque ad ripam de Devy set solummodo per burgenses nostros
praedictos nisi — etc. etc. — in civitate nostra Herefordiae. Quare, etc. Hiis
testibus, venerabili patre Roberto Bathoniensi et Wellensi episcopo, cancel-
lario nostro ; Willelmo de Valencia avunculo nostro ; Ricardo de Burgo,
comite Ultoniae ; Johanne de Vescy, Ottone de Grandisono, Roberto
Tibotot, Ricardo de Brus, Roberto filio Johannis, Johanne de Monte Alto,
et aliis. Datum per manum nostram apud Kardigan xxij die Novembris.

CHARTER ROLL, 24 EDWARD i., mm. 1-2.
Pro burgensibus villce de Bella Marisco.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis quod volumus et concedimus
pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod villa nostra de Bello Marisci de cetero
liber burgus sit — &c. &c.— as Conway above mutatis mutandis. . . . Et
quod burgenses nostri praedicti non convincantur per aliquos forinsecos
super aliquibus appellis — &c. &c. . . . impositis aut imponendis infra comi-
tatum de Angleseye set solummodo per burgenses nostros prsedictos nisi
— &c. <£c. in civitate nostra Herefordiae. Quare, etc. Hiis testibus vene-
rabili patre Antonio Dunolmensi episcopo, Johanne de Warrenna comite
Sunfeiae], Hugone de Despenser, Johanne de Hasting[es], Waltero de
Bello Campo, senescallo hospicii nostri, Petro de Chaumpnent, Johanne de
Merk, Petro de Tadington, et aliis. Datum per manum nostram apud
Berwyk super Twedam quinto decimo die Septembris.

1 Sic in MS. 2 The quare clause is not recited in the MS. 3 I.e. as Bere.

APPENDIX 283

PATENT ROLL, 17 EDWARD n., p. 2, m. 19.
Pro hominibus villa Regis de Neuburgh in Anglesia.

Rex omnibus ad quos etc. salutem. Inspeximus cartam quam nos
anteqnam regni nostri gubernacula suscepimus dum eramus princeps
Walliae hominibus villae de Neuburgh in Angleseia fecimus in hsec verba.
Edwardus illustris Regis Anglise filius Princeps Walliae comes Cestrise
Pontiui et Montis Trolii universis ad quos praesentes litterae pervenerint Newboroi
salutem. Sciatis nos concessisse et hac carta nostra confirmasse hominibus 1303.
villae nostrae de Neuburgh' in Anglesia quod villa ilia decetero liber
burgus sit et quod homines eundem burgum inhabitantes liberi sint
burgenses et quod habeant gildam mercatoriam cum hansa et cum omnibus
libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus ad liberum burgum pertinentibus
quales videlicet habent liberi burgenses nostri de Rothelan in burgo suo.
Quare volumus et firmiter praecipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod
villa praedicta liber burgus sit et quod homines eundein burgum inhabi-
tantes liberi sunt burgenses et quod habeant gildam mercatoriam cum
hansa et cum omnibus libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus ad liberum
burgum pertinentibus quales videlicet habent liberi burgenses nostri de
Rothelan in burgo suo sicut prsedictum est. Hiis testibus venerabili patre
suo Antonio Dunolrnensi episcopo, dominiis, Johanne de Brytannia
consanguineo nostro, Roberto de Clifford, Petro de Malo Lacu, Johanne
de Haverying, Rogero Brabazon, Willelmo Inge, et aliis. Datum per manum
nostram apud Dunolmiam tercio die Maii anno regni domini Regis patris
nostri tricesimo primo. Nos autem concessioner)! et confirmacionem
praedictas ratas habentes et gratas eas pro nobis et heredibus nostris
burgensibus dicti burgi de Neuburgh et eorum heredibus et successoribus
concedimus et confirmamus sicut carta prsedicta rationabiliter testatur.
In cuius etc. Teste Rege apud Ffulmere vicesimo septimo die Aprilis.

per ipsum Regem.

PATENT ROLL, 2 RICHARD n., p. 2, m. 7.

De confirmacione pro burgensibus de Bala.

Rex omnibus ad quos etc. salutem. Inspeximus cartam domini Edwardi
nuper Regis Angliae proavi nostri in hsec verba. Edwardus dei gratia
Rex Angliae dominus Hiberniae et dux Aquitanniae archiepiscopis episcopis Bala, 13S
abbatibus prioribus comitibus baronibus justiciariis vicecomitibus prsepositis
ministris et omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis salutem. Sciatis quod cum
dudum dato nobis intelligi quod in quodam loco vocato Penthlyn in
Northwallia congregaciones et conventicula malefactorum et prsedonum
fieri consueverant et hominibus per locum ilium transeuntibus facinora ac
alia dampna innumera fuerant irrogata villam de Bala in loco praedicto per
tune Justiciarium nostrum Wallise pro securitate parcium illarum et ad

284 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

maliciam malefactorum et prredonum huius[raodi] in partibus illis refre-
nandam ordinassemus, et quod villa prredicta esset liber burgus et quod
omnes et singuli dictam villain inhabitantes et imposterum inhabitaturi et
eoruin heredes et successores liberi burgenses nostri essent, et quibusdam
lihertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus uterentur in eodem burgo, ac iam per
inquisicionem per dilectum et fidelem nostrum Edmundum comitem
Arimdelli Justiciarium nostrum Wallia3 de mandate nostro factam, et in
cancellaria nostra retornatam, sit compertum quod villa prsedicta ordinata
fuit pro commodo nostro et pro securitate parcium illarum et ad maliciam
malefactorum et prrcdonum in eisdem partibus refrenandam, et quod non est
ad dampnuin sen prajudicium nostrum aut aliorum si concedamus per
cartam nostram hominibus et tenentibus nostris Anglicis in eadem villa de
Bala habitantibus quod villa ilia liber burgus nostri et heredum nostrorum
sit imperpetuum et quod ipsi homines et tenentes imperpetuum habeant
unum marcatum 3 singulis septimanis per diem sabbati apud villam prsedic-
tam et duas fiberias iidem singulis annis per sex dies duraturas videlicet
unam in vigilia in die et in crastino apostolorum Petri et Pauli et aliam in
vigilia in die et in crastino Invencionis Sancta? Crucis l cum libertatibus et
liberis consuetudinibus ad huius[modi] mercatum et feriam pertinentibus,
et quod habeant omnes alias libertates et liberas consuetudines hominibus
nostris de Kaernarvan per cartam domini Edwardi quondam Regis Anglise
patris nostri concessas. Nos volentes hominibus et burgensibus nostris
Anglicis pra?dictse villas nostrae de Bala gratiam in hac parte facere
specialem, concessinius eis et hac carta nostra confirmavimus pro nobis et
heredibus nostris quod dicta villa nostra de Bala de cetero liber burgus sit
et quod homines et 2 burgenses nostri Anglici eiusdem villae in eadem habi-
tantes et imposterum habitaturi et eorum heredes et successores sint liberi
burgenses nostri, et quod ipsi burgum ilium fossato et muro de petra et calce
includere possint, et quod singulis annis in festo sancti Michaelis de semet-
ipsis elegant unum maiorem qui statim cum electus fuerit prius juret nobis
ad sancta Dei Evangelia de iuribus nostris conservandis et postea eisdem
burgensibus quod ipse libertates eis a nobis concessas conservabit et faciet
fideliter ea qua? ad officium maioriaB pertinent in eodem burgo, et similiter
duos ballivos idoneos et sufficientes qui in pra3sencia Maioris et burgensium
praedictornm iurent ad sancta Dei Evangelia quod oracium balliva? su« fideli-
ter facient et exequentur, et quod dicti homines et burgenses et eorum here-
des et successores imperpetuum habeant unam3 mercatum singulis septimanis
per diem sabbati apud villam praedictam et duas ferias ibidem singulis
annis per sex dies duraturas videlicet unam in vigilia in die et in crastino
Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et aliam in vigilia in die et in crastino Inven-
cionis Sancta3 Crucis nisi mercatum illud et feriae ilia? sint ad nocumen-
tum vicinorum mercatorum et vicinarum feriarum, et quod habeant liberam
prisonam suam in burgo pra?dicto de omnibus transgressoribus ibidem
cxceptis casibus vita3 et membronun in quibus casibus omnes tarn burgenses

i Interlined in MS. 2 Interlined in MS.

3 Sic in MS.

APPENDIX 285

quam alii in prisona nostra de Hardelagh imprisonentur, verumptamen si
aliqui burgensium praedictorum rectati accusati seu indicati fuerint super
aliqua transgressione vitam vel membrum non tangente nolumus quod ea
occasione imprisonentur quamdiu bonam et sufficientem manucapcionem
invenerint ad standum inde recto coram capitali Justiciario vel aliis
iusticiariis nostris ad hoc deputatis, et quod omnes terrae eidem burgo iam
assignatae extra warennam et forestam nostram sint omnino, et quod ipsi
et eorum heredes et successores imperpetuum habeant libertates subscriptas,
videlicet, quod nullus vicecomites seu alius ballivus noster in aliquo se
intromittat super eos de aliquo placito querela vel occasione seu de aliqua
alia re ad prsedictam villam pertinente salvis tamen nobis et heredibus
nostris et justiciariis nostris Walliae placitis coronae nostrae ibidem, et
quod ipsi habeant gildam mercatoriam cum hansa et aliis consuetudinibus
et libertatibus ad gildam prsedictam pertinentibus, ita quod nullus qui
non sit de gilda ilia moretur in eadem villa ad mercandisandum ibidem nisi
de voluntate burgensium praedictorum, et quod si aliquis nativus alicuius
in praefato burgo manserit et terrain vel tenementum in eodem tenuerit et
fuerit in praefata gilda et hansa et lot et scot cum eisdem hominibus nostris
per unum annum et unum diem sine calumpnia deinceps non possit repeti
a domino suo set in eodem burgo liber permaneat, et quod dicti homines et
bugenses nostri et eorum heredes et successores habeant sok et sak Tol et
Theam et Infangenethef, et quod quieti sint per totam terram nostram de
theolonio lestagio passagio muragio pontagio pavagio stallagio et de leue
Danegeld et gaywite et omnibus aliis consuetudinibus et exactionibus per
totam potestatem nostram tarn in Anglia quam in omnibus aliis terris
nostris, et quod ipsi vel eorum bona quocumque locorum in terra vel
potestate nostra inventa non arestentur pro aliquo debito de quo fide-
iussores aut principales delitores non extiterint nisi forte ipsi debitores de
eorum sint communa et potestate habentes unde de debitis suis in toto vel
in parte satisfacere possint et dicti burgenses nostri creditoribus eorundem
debitorum in iusticia defuerint et de hoc rationabiliter constare possint,
et quod iidem burgenses nostri pro transgressione seu pro forisfactura
servientum suorum catalla et bona sua in manibus ipsorum inventa aut
alicubi locorum per ipsos servientes deposita quatenus sua esse sufficientes
probare poterint non amittant, et eciam quod si iidem burgenses aut
eorum aliqui infra terram et potestatem nostram testati decesserunt vel
intestati nos vel heredes nostri1 bona ipsorum confiscari non faciemus quin
eorum heredes ea integre habeant quatenus dicta catalla dictorum
defunctorum fuisse constiterit dum tamen de dictis heredibus noticia aut
fides sufficienter habeatur, et quod burgenses nostri praedicti non convin-
cantur per aliquos forinsecos super aliquibus appellis rectis iniuriis trans-
gressionibus criminibus calumpniis demandis eis impositis aut imponendis
infra comitatum de Meryonyth set solummodo per burgenses nostros
praedictos nisi de aliqua se tangente comunitatatem burgi praedicti et tune
in casu illo deducantur secundum libertates approbatas et hactenus rationa-
biliter usitatas in die to burgo nostro de Kaernarvan imperpetuum. Quare

i Nns in MS.

286 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

volumus et firmiter praecipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod
pnedicta villa nostra de Bala decetero liber burgus sit et quod homines et
burgenses nostri Anglici eiusdem villae in eadeni habitantes et imposterum
habitaturi et eorum heredes et successores sint liberi burgenses nostri. Et
quod ipsi burgum ilium fossato et muro de petra et calce includere possint
et quod singulis annis in festo sancti Michaelis de semetipsis eligant ununi
maiorem qui statiui cum electus fuerit prius iuret nobis ad sancta Dei
Evangelia de iuribus nostris conservandis et postea eisdem burgensibus
quod ipse libertates eis a nobis concessas conservabit et faciet fideliter ea
quae ad officium maioriae pertinent in eodem burgo et similiter duos
ballivos idoneos et sufficientes qui in praesencia maioris et burgensium
praedictorum iurent ad sancta Dei Evangelia quod omciuni ballivae suae
fideliter facient et exequentur et quod dicti homines et burgenses et eorum
heredes et successores imperpetuum habeant unuin mercatum singulis
septimanis per diem Sabati apud villam praedictam et duas ferias ibidem
singulis annis per sex dies duraturas videlicet unam in vigilia in die et in
crastino apostolorum Petri et Pauli et aliam in vigilia in die et in crastino
Invencionis Sanctae Crucis nisi mercatum illud et feriae illae sint ad
nocumentum vicinorum inercatorum et vicinarum feriarum. Et quod
habeant liberam prisonani suam in Burgo praedicto de omnibus transgres-
soribus ibidem exceptis casibus vitae et membrorum in quibus casibus
omnes tarn burgenses quarn alii in prisona nostra de Hardelagh im-
prisonentur, verumptamen si aliqui dictorum burgensium rectati accusati
vel iudicati fuerint super aliqua transgressione vitam vel membrum non
tangente ea occasione non imprisonentur quamdiu bonam et sumcientein
manucapcionem invenerint ad standum inde recto coram capitali justiciario
nostro vel aliis justiciariis nostris ad hoc deputatis, et quod omnes terrae
eidein burgo iain assignatae extra warrennam et forestam sint omnino, et
quod ipsi et eorum heredes et successores imperpetuum habeant libertates
subscriptas, videlicet, quod nullus vicecomes seu alius ballivus noster in
aliquo se intromittat super eos de aliquo placito querela vel occasione seu
de aliqua alia re ad praedictam villam pertinente salvis tamen nobis et
heredibus nostris et Justiciariis nostris Walliae placitis coronse nostrae
ibidem, et quod ipsi habeant gildam mercatoriam cum hansa et aliis con-
suetudinibus et libertatibus ad gildam praedictam pertinentibus, ita quod
nullus qui non sit de gilda ilia moretur in eadem villa ad mercandissandum
ibidem nisi de voluntate burgensium praedictorum, et quod si aliquis
nativus alicuius in praefato burgo manserit et terrain vel tenementum in
eodem tenuerit et fuerit in praefata gilda et hansa et lot et Scot cum
eisdem hominibus nostris per unum annum et unum diem sine calumpnia
deinceps non possit repeti a domino suo set in eodem burgo liber per-
maneat, et quod dicti homines et burgenses nostri et eorum heredes et
successores habeant sok et sak tol et theam et Infangenethef et quod quieti
sint per totam terrain nostram de theolonio lestagio passagio muragio
pontagio pavagio stallagio et de leue Danegeld et Gay wite et omnibus aliis
consuetudinibus et exactionibus per totam potestatem nostram tarn in
Anglia quam in omnibus aliis terris nostris. Et quod ipsi vel eorum bona

APPENDIX 287

quocumque locorum in terra vel potestate nostra inventa non arestentur
pro aliquo debito de quo fideiussores aut principales debitores non exti-
terint nisi forte ipsi debitores de eorum sint communa et potestate
habentes unde de debitis suis in toto vel in parte satisfacere possint, et
dicti burgenses nostri creditoribus eorumdem debitorum in iusticia defuerint
et de hoc rationabiliter constare possit, et quod iidem burgenses nostri pro
transgressione seu forisfactura servientum suorum catalla et bona sua in
manibus ipsorum inventa aut alicubi locorum per ipsos servientes deposita
quatenus sua esse sufficienter probare poterint non amittant. Et eciam
quod si 1 iidem burgenses aut eorum aliqui infra terram vel potestatem
nostram testati decesserint vel intestati nos vel heredes nostri bona
ipsorum confiscari non faciemus quin eorum ^heredes ea integre habeant
quatenus dicta catalla dictorum defunctorum fuisse constiterit dumtamen
de dictis heredibus noticia aut fides sufficienter habeatur. Et quod
burgenses nostri praedicti non convincantur per aliquos forinsecos super
aliquibus appellis rectis iniuriis transgressionibus criminibus calumpniis
demandis eis impositis aut imponendis infra comitatum de Merionyth set
solummodo per burgenses nostros praedictos nisi de aliqua re tangente
communitatem burgi prsedicti et tune in casu illo deducantur secundum
libertates approbatas et hactenus rationabiliter usitatas in dicto burgo
nostro de Kaernarvan imperpetuum sicut praedictum est. Hiis testibus
venerabilibus patribus Walteri archiepiscopo Cantuarensi tocius Angliae
primate ; Walteri Exoniensi thesaurario nostro et Johanne Norwycensi,
episcopis ; Adomaro de Valencia comite Pembrochiae. Edmundo co-
mite Arundelli, Hugo[ne] le Despenser comite Wyntonise, Hugone de
Courtenay, Roberto de Monte Alto, Ricardo Damory senescallo hospicii
nostri, et aliis. Datum per manum nostram apud Westmonasterium primo
die Junii anno regni nostri decimo septimo. Nos autem donacionem et
concessionem praedictam ratas habentes et gratas eas pro nobis et heredibus
nostris quantum in nobis est nunc burgensibus burgi praedicti et eorum
heredibus et successoribus burgensibus eiusdem burgi concedimus et con-
firmamus sicut carta praedicta rationabiliter testatur et prout eidem
burgenses et homines burgi illius et eorum antecessores libertatibus et
immunitatibus praedictis a tempore confectionis cartae praedictee semper
hactenus rationabiliter usi sunt et gavisi in cuius etc. Teste Rege apud
Westmonasterium tercio die Junii.

pro quinque marcis solutis in hanaperio.

PATENT ROLL, 6 RICHARD u., p. 3, m. 14.
De confirmacione pro hominibus de Nevyn.

Rex omnibus ad quos etc. salutem. Inspeximus litteras patentes carissimi
domini et patris nostri domini Edwardi illustris Regis Angliae et Ffrancise
primogeniti nuper principis Walliae ducis Cornubiae et comitis Cestrise in
haec verba. Edwardus illustris Regis Angliae et Ffranciae primogenitus Nevin, 1J
Princeps Walliae dux Cornubiae et Comes Cestriae archiepiscopis episcopis

i Interlined in MS.

288 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

abbatibus prioribus comitibus baronibus justiciariis vicecomitibus pr»-
positis ministris et omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis ad quos pra?sentes
litteras pervenerint salutem. Sciatis quod nos voluntate et assensu dilecti
et fidelis nostri Nigelli de Lohareyn militis camerarii nostri cui nuper dedi-
mus et concessimus villas de Nevyn et Purthely in North Wallia cum
omnibus pertinentiis suis ad terminuni vita) suas et per finem triginta et
sex librarum nobis per commimitatem hominum prasdictas villas de Nevyn
factam dedimus et concessimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris hominibus
prasdictee villse de Nevyn quod dicta villa de Nevyn1 decetero liber
burgus sit et quod homines dictum burgum inhabitantes decetero liberi
sint burgenses et quod habeant gildain mercatoriam cum hansa et omnibus
libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus libero burgo qualitercumque per-
tinentibus tales scilicet libertates et consuetudines quales burgenses nostri
villas de Neuburgh in coniitatu Angleseias habent in burgo suo ibidem.
Et quod dicti burgenses et eorum successores imperpetuum habeant et
teneant ad feodi firmam de dicto Nigello ad terminum vitas suas et post
ipsius decessum de nobis et heredibus nostris dictam villam cum omnibus
libertatibus prasdictis et aliis proficiis et pertinentiis universis salvis
semper dicto Nigello ad terminum vitas suse et nobis et heredibus nostris
post ipsius decessum molendinis nostris de Geyr et Goun[us] cum exitibus
et pertinentiis et quadraginta solidis annui redditus debitis loco et nomine
reparacionis manerii nostri ibidem annuatim. Dedimus eciam et concessimus
pro nobis et heredibus nostris dictis burgensibus et successoribus suis
imperpetuum quod habeant et teneant in dicta villa duas nundinas per
annum unam videlicet in vigilia et festo Pentecostes et aliam in vigilia et
festo Assumpcionis beatas Marias. Et quod habeant mercatum ibidem die
sabbati qualibet septimana imperpetuum sicut ante hasc teinpora habuerimt
ad quod mercatum concedimus quod gentes commoti nostri de Dynthlayn
venire solebant ad mercatum supradictuni. Keddendo dicto Nigello ad
terminum vitas suas et nobis et heredibus nostris post ipsius decessum
triginta et duas libras annuatim ad festa Paschas et sancti Michaelis
equaliter pro feodi firma prasdicta et pro omnibus libertatibus et proficuis
praasdictis dictis duobus molendinis et annuo redditu quadraginta solidorum
dicto Nigello ad terminum vitas suas et nobis et heredibus nostris post
ipsius decessum ut prasmittitur reservatis. Qiiare volumus et firmiter
prascipimus et concedimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod dicta villa
de Neuyn decetero liber burgus sit et quod homines dictum burgum
inhabitantes decetero liberi sint burgenses. Et quod habeant gildam
mercatoriam cum hansa et omnibus libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus
libero burgo qualitercumque pertinentibus tales scilicet libertates et con-
suetudines quales burgenses nostri villas de Newburgh' in comitatu
Angleseias habent in burgo suo ibidem. Et quod dicti burgenses et eorum
successores imperpetuum habeant et teneant ad feodi firmam dictam villam
cum omnibus libertatibus proficuis et pertinentiis prasdictis pro triginta et
duabus libris solvendis annuatim dicto videlicet Nigello ad terminum vitas
suae et post ipsius decessum nobis et heredibus nostris imperpetuum in
i Interlined in MS.

APPENDIX 289

in festum Paschae et sancti Michaelis equaliter pra.>dictis molendinis et
ammo redditu dicto Nigello ad terminum vitas suas et post ipsius decessum
nobis et heredibus nostris ut praedicitur reservatis. Et quod habeant et
teneant in dicta villa duas nundinas per annum unam scilicet in vigilia et
in festo Pentecostes et aliam in vigilia et festo Assumpcionis beatas Maria?.
Et quod habeant mercatum ibidem die Sabbati qualibet septimana sicut
antea habuerunt ad quod venire teneantur gentes commoti nostri de
Dynthlayn et alii qui ad dictum mercatum ante haec tempora venire
consueverunt ut prasdictum est. In cuius rei testimonium prassenti cartae
nostrae sigillum nostrum prassentibus est appensum. Datum apud
Caernarvon] primo die ffebruarii anno principatus nostri duodecimo.
Hiis testibus Johanne de Delves, locumtenente Justiciarii nostri North-
walliae, Eoberto de Parys, camerario nostro ibidem, et aliis. Nos autem
litteras prasdictas et omnia contenta in eisdem rata habentes et grata ea
pro nobis et heredibus nostris quantum in nobis est acceptamus approba-
mus et ratificamus ac prasfatis hominibus de Nevyn et successoribus suis
libertates et consuetudines prasdictas tenore prassencium concedimus et con-
firmavimus prout ipsi et prasdecessores sui libertatibus et consuetudinibus
prasdictis a tempore confectionis litterarum ipsius Principis prasdictarum
hucusque rationabiliter uti et gaudere consueverunt in cuius etc. Teste
Kege apud Westmonasterium decimo die Marcii.

Pro viginti solidis solutis in
hanaperio.

PATENT KOLL, 6 RICHARD n., p. 2, m. 12,
De confirmacione Purthely.

Rex omnibus ad quos etc. salutem. Inspeximus litteras patentes domini
Edwardi illustris Regis Anglias et Ffrauncias primogeniti nuper Principis
Walliae ducis Cornubias et comitis Cestrias in hasc verba. Edwardus
illustris Regis Angliae et Ffrancias Primogenitus Princeps Wallias dux
Cornubias et Comes Cestrias archiepiscopis episcopis abbatibus prioribus 1355.
justiciariis vicecomitibus praspositis ministris et omnibus ballivis et fidelibus
suis ad quos praesentes litterae pervenerint salutem. Sciatis quod nos
voluntate et assensu dilecti et fidelis nostri Nigelli de Lohareyn militis
camerarii nostri cui nuper dedimus et concessimus villas de Nevyn et
Purthely cum pertinentiis in North Wallia ad terminum vitaa suas et
per finem viginti et quatuor librarum nobis per communitatem hominum
praedictae villas de Purthely factam dedimus et concessimus pro nobis
et heredibus nostris dictaa villas de Purthely quod dicta villa de Purthely
de cetero liber burgus sit et quod homines dictum burgum inhabitantes
de cetero liberi sint burgenses et quod habeant gildam mercatoriam
cum hansa et omnibus libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus libero
burgo qualitercumque pertinentibus tales scilicet libertates et con-
suetudines quales burgenses nostri villas de Neuburgh' in comitatu
Angles[eiae] habent in burgo suo ibidem. Et quod praedicti burgenses et
eorum successores imperpetuum habeant et teneant ad feodi firmani de

290 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

dicto Nigello ad terminum vitae sui et post ipsius decessum de nobis et
heredibus nostris dictam villam cum omnibus libertatibus praedictis et
aliis proficuis et pertinentiis universis salvis semper dicto Nigello ad
terminum vitae sure et nobis et heredibus nostris post ipsius decessum
quadraginta solidis annui redditus debitis loco et nomine reparacionis
nianerii nostri ibidem annuatim. Dedimus eciam et concessimus pro
nobis et heredibus nostris dictis burgensibus de Purthely et successoribus
suis imperpetuum quod habeant et teneant in dicta villa duas nundinas per
annum unam videlicet in vigilia et in festo Exaltacionis sanctae Crucis et
aliarn in vigilia et in festo omnium sanctorum et quod habeant mercatum
ibidem die dominica qualibet septimana imperpetuum sicut ante haec
tempora habuerunt ad quod mercatum concedhnus quod gentes commoti
nostri de Cafflogion venire teneantur et alii qui ante hsec tempora venire
solebant ad mercatum supradictum. Reddendo dicto Nigello ad terminum
vitae suse et nobis et heredibus nostris post ipsius decessum quatuordecim
libras annuatim ad festa Paschae et sancti Michaelis equaliter pro feodi
finna praedicta et pro omnibus libertatibus et proficuis prsedictis dicto
annuo redditu quadraginta solidorum dicto Nigello ad terminum vitae suae
et nobis et heredibus nostris post ipsius decessum ut praedicitur reservato.
Quare volumus et firmiter praecepimus et concedimus pro nobis et heredibus
nostris quod dicta villa de Purthely decetero liber burgus sit et quod
homines dictum burgum inhabitantes decetero liberi sint burgenses et
quod habeant gildam mercatoriam cum hansa et omnibus libertatibus et
liberis consuetudinibus libero burgo qualitercumque pertinentibus tales
sicilicetlibertatesetconsuetudines quales burgenses nostraevillaede Neuburgh
in comitatu Angleseiae habent in burgo suo ibidem. Et quod dicti
burgenses et eorum successores imperpetuum habeant et teneant ad feodi
firmam dictam villam cum omnibus libertatibus proficuis et pertinentiis
prsedictis pro quatuordecim libris solvendis annuatim dicto videlicet
Nigello ad terminum vitae suae et post ipsius decessum nobis et heredibus
nostris imperpetuum ad festa Paschse et sancti Michaelis equaliter dicto
annno redditu quadraginta solidorum dicto Nigello ad terminum vitae suse
et nobis et heredibus nostris post ipsius decessum ut praedicitur reservato.
Et quod habeant et teneant in dicta villa duas nundinas per annum unam
videlicet in vigilia et in festo Exaltacionis sanctse Crucis et aliam in vigilia
et in festo omnium sanctorum et quod habeant mercatum ibidem die
dominica qualibet septimana sicut antea habuerunt ad quod venire
teneantur gentes commoti nostri de Cafflogion et alii qui ad dictum
mercatum venire consueverunt ante hsec tempora ut prsedictum est. In
cuius rei testimonium prsesenti cartae nostrae sigillum nostrum est appensum.
Datum apud Caernarvan quarto decimo die Ffebruarii anno principatus
nostri duodecimo hiis testibus Johanne de Delves locum tenente justiciarii
nostri North wallise, Roberto de Parys camerario nostro ibidem, et nrnltis
aliis. Nos auteni litteras praedictas et omnia contenta in eisdem rata
habentes et grata ea pro nobis et heredibus nostris quantum in nobis est
acceptamus approbamus et ratificanms et libertates et consuetudines
praedictas prsefatis hominibus de Purthely et successoribus suis tenore

APPENDIX 291

praasencium concedimus et contirmamus prout ipsi et prsedecessores sui
libertatibus et consuetudinibus proedictis a tempore confeccionis litterarum
prredictaruni hucusque rationabiliter uti et gaudere consueverunt. In
cuius etc. Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium vicesimo sexto die
Ffeburarii.

Pro viginti solidis solutis in hanaperio.

(&) Fee- Farm Charters.

ORIGINALIA BOLL, 9 EDWARD n., m 18.

Pro burgensibus de Aberconwey.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis nos concessisse et hac carta
nostra confirmasse burgensibus nostris de Aberconwey villam illam de
Aberconwey duo molendina terras et unam placeam cuiusdam molendini
iuxta castrum nostrum villse prsedictse quse prius tenuerunt ad voluntatem
nostram pro triginta et una libris tribus solidis novem denariis uno obolo
et uno quadrante nobis ad scaccarium nostrum de Kaernarvan annuatim
reddendis. habendum et tenendum eisdem burgensibus heredibus et
successoribus suis burgensibus eiusdem villae cum firmis redditibus et
omnibus aliis exitibus proficuis et aisiamentis ad eandem villam molendina
terras et placeam quoquo spectantibus de nobis et heredibus nostris ad feodi
firmam imperpetuum reddendo nobis et heredibus nostris pro prsedictis
villa molendinis terris et placea singulis annis ad dictum scaccarium quin-
quaginta marcas ad duos anni terminos unam videlicet medietatem ad
festum sancti Michaelis et aliam medietatem ad festum Paschae. Quare
volumus et firmiter praecipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod
preedicti burgenses heredes et successores sui imperpetuum habeant et
teneant prsedicta villam molendina terras et placeam cum firmis redditibus
et omnibus aliis exitibus proficuis et aisiamentis ad eandem villam molen-
dina terras placeam quoquo modo spectantibus de nobis et heredibus nostris
ad feodi firmam. Reddendo nobis et heredibus nostris pro prsedictis villa
molendinis terris et placea singulis annis ad dictum scaccarium quinqua-
ginta marcas ad duos anni terminos unam videlicet medietatem ad festum
sancti Michaelis et aliam medietatem ad festum Paschae sicut prasdictum
est. Hiis testibus venerabilibus patribus Walteri Cantuarensi archiepiscopo
tocius Anglise primate, Johanne Norwycensi et Walteri Exonensi episcopis,
Johanne de Britannia Comite Richemond', Hugone le Despenser seniore,
Rogero de Mortuo Mari de Wygemor, Johanne de Crumbwell senescallo
hospicii nostri et aliis. Datum per rnanum nostram apud Westmonasterium l
duodecimo die Maii.

per consilium.
1 Interlined in MS.

292 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

OKIOINALIA ROLL, 10 EDWARD u., m. 8.
Pro burgensibus villa de Hardelagh'.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis nos concessisse et hac carta
uostra confirmasse burgensibus nostris villae nostrae de Hardelagh' in
Wallia villam ipsam de Hardelagh' necnon omnia molendina nostra in
comtnoto de Ardedou et omnia terras et tenementa in eodem commoto in
manu nostra tanquam escaetam nostram existencia quae prius tenuerunt ad
voluntatem nostram pro decem et novem libris decem et octo solidis et uno
obolo nobis ad scaccarium nostrum de Kaernarvan annuatim reddendis.
Habendum et tenendum eisdem burgensibus heredibus1 et successoribus suis
burgensibus eiusdem villas cum firmis redditibus et omnibus aliis
exitibus proficuis et aisiamentis ad eadem villam molendina terras et
tenementa quoquomodo spectantibus adeo plene sicut ea hactenus ad
voluntatem nostram tenuerunt de nobis et heredibus nostris ad feodi
firmam iinperpetuum. Reddendo nobis et heredibus nostris per annum
ad dictum scaccarium pro praedictis villa molendinis terris et tenementis
viginti et duas libras unam videlicet medietatem ad festum Paschaa et
aliam medietatem ad festum Sancti Michaelis. Quare volunius et firmiter
prsecipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod praedicti burgenses et
heredes et successores sui imperpetuum habeant et teneant praedicta
villam molendina terras et tenementa cum firmis redditibus et omnibus
aliis exitibus proficuis et aisiamentis ad eadem villam molendina terras et
tenementa quoquo modo spectantibus adeo plene sicut ea hactenus ad
voluntatem nostram tenuerunt de nobis et heredibus nostris ad feodi
Hrmam imperpetuum. Reddendo inde nobis et heredibus nostris per
annum ad dictum scaccarium pro praedictis villa molendinis terris et
tenementis viginti et duas libras unam videlicet medietatem ad festum
Puschae et aliam medietatem ad festum sancti Michaelis sicut praedictum
est. Hiis testibus venerabili patre Johanne Eliensi Episcopo, Johanne
de Warrena comite Surreiae, Edmundo comite Arundelli, Rogero de Mortuo
Mari de Wygemore, Hugone le Despenser Juniore, Bartholomeo de
Badelesmere, Johanne de Crumbwella senescallo hospicii nostri et aliis.
Datum per manum nostram apud Neuburgh' octavo die Novenibris.

per ipsum Regein et consilium.

CHARTER ROLL, 5 EDWARD in., m. 29.
Pro burgensibus villce de Bala in Penthlin.

Rex archiepiscopis etc. salutem. Sciatis nos de gratia nostra especiali
dedisse concessisse et hac carta nostra confirmasse dilectis nobis burgensi-
bus villae nostra? deBala in Penthlin in comitatu de Merionnyth in North-
wallia villam pr;t-dictam habendimi et tenendum eisdem burgensibus et

i Interlined in MS.

APPENDIX 293

eorum heredibus et successoribus burgensibus villae praedictae de nobis et
heredibus nostris ad feodi firmam imperpetuum Reddendo inde nobis et
heredibus nostris per annum ad scaccarium nostrum de Kaernarvan decetn
libras duodecim solidos unam videlicet medietatem ad dictum scaccarium
nostrum Paschae et aliam medietatem ad dictum l scaccarium nostrum sancti
Michaelis. Quare volumus et firmiter praecipimus pro nobis et heredibus
nostris quod preedicti burgenses ac eorum heredes et successores sui
praedicti habeant et teneant villain praedictam cum pertinentiis de nobis
et heredibus nostris ad feodi firmam imperpetuum Reddendo nobis ad
dictum scaccarium nostrum decem libras et duodecim solidos unam
videlicet medietatem ad dictum scaccarium nostrum Paschae et aliam
medietatem ad dictum scaccarium nostrum1 sancti Michaelis. sicut
prsedictum est. Hiis testibus venerabilibus patribus Willelmo archiepiscopo
Eboracensi Angliae primate, thesaurario nostro, Johanne Wyntoniensi
Episcopo, cancellario nostro, Johanne de Eltham comite Cornubiae fratre
nostro carissimo, Antonio de Lucy, Radulfo de Neville, senescallo
hospicii nostri, et aliis. Datum per manum nostram apud Wyndesore
decimo octavo die ffebruarii.

per ipsum Regem.

CARTA BURGENSIUM DE ABERCONWEY :*LEGHAN (MINISTERS'
ACCOUNT, General Series, Bundle 1171, No. 11, m. Id}.

Edwardus et cetera. Archiepiscopis abbatibus comitibus baronibus
justiciariis vicecomitibus praepositis ministris et ballivis suis ad quos
praesentes litterse pervenirent salutem. Sciatis quod dedimus et concessi-
mus et hac praesenti carta nostra confirmavimus pro nobis et heredibus
nostris burgensibus nostris villae nostrae de Aberconwey omnes terras
villenagias 2 in villa de Leghan in commoto de Issaph, habendum et tenendum
eisdem burgensibus heredibus et successoribus suis burgensibus eiusdem
villae dictas terras tenentibus cum pratis pascuis et pasturis boscis turbariis
et cum omnibus aliis pertinentiis suis proficuis et aysiamentis quibus-
cunque adeo libere sicut iidem burgenses nostri terras seu tenementa sua
in villa nostra de Aberconwey prsedicta de nobis et heredibus nostris ad
feodi firmam imperpetuum reddendo inde nobis et heredibus nostris
quolibet anno imperpetuum ad scaccarium nostrum de Caernarvon centum
et decem et octo solidos ad festa Paschse et sancti Michaelis equaliter pro
omnimodis serviciis exactionibus et demandis. Quare volumus et firmiter
prsecipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quod praedicti burgenses
nostri heredes et successores sui imperpetuum habeant et teneant omnes
terras villinagias 3 in villa de Thleghan in commoto de Issaph cum pratis
pascuis pasturis boscis turbariis et omnibus aliis pertinentiis suis pro-

1 Interlined in MS. 2 MS. mlniag. 3 Sic in MS.

294 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

ficuis et aysiamentis quibuscunque adeo libere sicut iidem burgenses nostri
terras sen tenementa sua in villa nostra de Aberconwey prsedicta tenent de
nobis et heredibus nostris ad feodi firmam imperpetuum. Reddendo
nobis et heredibus nostris quolibet anno imperpetuum ad scaccarium
nostrum de Caernarvon centum et decem et octo solidos ad festa Paschae
et sancti Michaelis equaliter pro omnimodis serviciis exactionibus
demandis ut praedictum est. In cuius rei testimoniuni has litteras nostras
fieri fecimus patentes. Datum apud Caernarvon vicesirno die Martis anno
Principatus duodecimo. Hiis testibus Johanne de Delves, locumtenente
Justiciarii Northwalliae, Nicholas Pynnok uno auditore compoti minis-
trorum nostrorum, Roberto de Parys camerario nostro Northwalliae et
multis aliis.

Per breve de private sigillo.

MINISTERS' ACCOUNT 1171, No. 8.

Grant, dated 28th October 1351, by the Black Prince to the burgesses of
Carnarvon of an attermination for a debt of ,£100, also of two new
fairs yearly.

Pro hominibus villa de Caernarvan de atterminacione centum librarum
et duabus novis nundinis. Edward eisnz filz etc. A notre cher vadlet
Johan de Delves lieutenant nostre Justice de Northgales et a notre cher
clerc mestre Robard Pollard chamberlein illeoques saluz. Por ce que nous
de nostre grace et par avis de nostre conseil avons grauntez a nos burgeis de
la ville de Caernarvan estalleinent de les cent livers que vous demandes de
eux en nostre noun, la quele suinme monsieur Edward iadys Roi Dengle-
terre nostre Besaiel, qi deux lassoille, lour apresta pur la dite ville reedifier
au temps qele estoit arse. A paier eut a nous vint marcs par an en nostre
Escheqer de Carnarvan a les festes del Annunciacion nostre dame et de
seynt Michel par oweles porcions tantqe la dite suinme de cent livers nous
soit purpaiee. Vous mandons qe eel esballement lour seoffrez avoir en la
manere avandite. Dautre part parce qe noz ditz Burgeis nous ount requis
qe nous lours voilleiens graunter qils puissent avoir dieux feires par an a
la dite ville, ceste assavoir a les festes de Seynt Johan ante portam Latinam
et de seinte Katerine, quele requeste nous lour avons, par avis de nostre
conseil, tantbien pur notre profite come en avantage de eux, octroies. Vous
mandons qe souz nostre seal, quel vous nostre dit chamberlein avez en
garde, lour facetz faire sur cele notre graunt lettres patentes en due fourme.
Et ce ne lessez. Done sous nostre prive seal a Londres le xxvij jour
Doctobre Ian du regne nostre Trescher seignur et piere le Roi Dengleterre
vintisme quint et de Ff ranee duszime.

APPENDIX 295

II. SELECT DOCUMENTS

ANCIENT PETITIONS (P.R.O.), No. 2803. (Temp. EDWARD i.)

The poor burgesses of Llanvaes refer Edward I. to the liberties granted
them by the charters of the Welsh princes.

Regiae majestati demonstrant fideles sui nunc pauperes burgenses de
Lanmaes universi quod ad prsesens multis gravaminibus sunt opressi nam
libertatibus eis per "cartas principum concessis et postmodum per regiam
clemenciam suam gratiam confirmatis nunc penitus sunt privati. Ita quod
emere nee vendere possunt modo consueto nee naves portum dictse villa)
applicare permittuntur nee pro domibus suis ad villam de Bello Marisco
asportatis est aliquod eis adhuc persolutum mandato Regis pro hoc faciendo
non obstante. Eciam de pascuis et aliis necessariis eis et animalibus suis
penitus sunt exclusi. Ideo regise clemencise ac eius misericordise ineffabili
supplicant dicti pauperes ut super preemissis dei amore ac pro animee suse
remedio sic aliquod duxerit ordinandum quod aliis infringere non liceat et
ipsi possint vivere quiete dictis gravaminibus cessantibus sint et alii ubi
nunc sunt vel alibi secundum quod Regise discretion! videatur expedire.

[ENDORSED]

Scribatur justiciario quod certificet Regi quare non est eis satisfactum
pro domibus suis.

ANCIENT PETITIONS (P.R.O.), No. 1981. (Temp, circa 1316.)

The burgesses of Conway ask to farm their town and the mills of Giffyn
at a round sum.

A nostre seignur le Roi, qi Dieu gard, e a son consail prient ses burges
de Coneweye quil voelle grauntier a eaux la dite vile ode les molyns de
Gyffyn a ferme, rendant par an ij marz de encres, outre ceo quil ount rendu
au Roi jusques en ceo, si nostre dit seignur le Roi ne les pleise retenier en
sa mien demeigne.

Si sit ad dampnum Justiciarii North Walliae, si Rex dimittat petita,
simul cum incremento in peticione oblato, et certificet et interim
tradat, etc.

ANCIENT PETITIONS (P.R.O.), No. 3925. (Temp. EDWARD in.)

The free tenants of North Wales complain of the extortion. of the King's
ministers there, and ask that the castle stores be purchased at a fair price
in the local markets.

Petunt liberi tenentes vestri Northwalliae et pauperes quod non capiantur
eorum bona non venalia contra eorum voluntates ad instaurandum castra
vestra nee ad sustentacionem Justiciarii seu aliorum ministrorum vestrorum
sicut nee fieri consuevit temporibus prmcipum Wallise nee patris vestri

296 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

cuius animae propicietur deus. Sed in communibus nundinis et aliis
mercatis parcium illarum de bonis vestris et wagiis ministrorum vestrorum
pnedictorum iidem ministri vestri blada animalia et alia necessaria pro
ipsis et castris vestris emant pro iusto precio et ibidem aliis proferantur
quia talis extorcio galensibus est minus onerosa et omnino intollerabilis de
qua petunt remedium.

[ENDORSED]

Mandetur justiciario Northwallise quod non permittat prisas fieri aliter
quam fieri consueverunt temporibus retroactis et secundum quod de hire et
consuetudine partium illarum fieri consueverunt et si qui de huiusmodi
prisis conqueri voluerint illos audiat et eis faciat debitum et festinum
iusticiae complementurn.

ANCIENT PETITIONS (P.RO.), No. 13,029. (Temp. EDWARD in.
post 1343, ante 1376.)

The English burgesses in North Wales beg that their liberties be observed,
and point out the danger of Welsh juries.

A nostre seignur le Eoi et a son sage conseil monstrent les Burgeis Engleis
de les villes burghes engleis en Northgales qe come le tresnoble seignur le
Hoi Edward ael nostre seignur le Roi qorest frechement sur sa conquest du
Gales ordeigna par son sage conseil villes burghes en Northgales cest
assavoir Caernarvon Conewey Beomarreis Cruckuth Hardelagh Bala
Rothelan et Flynt et Burgeis engleis denhabiter les dits villes graunte
diverses franchises et libertes a les dits Burgeis illeoqes pardiverses chartres
eut faits severalinent a chescune ville par lui des villes susdit en meinte-
naunce et relevacione des dits villes et Burgeis entre queux il lour granta
qils neo serreint convicts par nuls gents foreins sur ascunz appelles rettes
injuries trespases crimes chalangs et demands a eux surmys en a surmettrez
estre faits deinz certeinz bunds contenuz en les dits chartres les queux
chartres le roi Edward pier nostre seignur le roi qorest et nostre seignur le
Roi qorest et son trescher filz le Prince leur seignur par les chartres eut
confermez a chescune ville severalment, nepurqant les ministres lour
treshonore seignur le Prince, devant ces hures la ou ascune des dits Burgeis
ont este enditez des choses supposez estre faits deinz les bunds contenuz en
les dits chartres ont sursis d'aler 1 a deliveraunce dascunne de eux par lours
coraburgeis solunt la tenure les dits chartres et conferments et unquore
sursessent a la foiez por ceo qe ascune de eux estoit ministre lour sit seignur
le Prince as temps des points susditz supposez par acusements ou endite-
ments estre faits deinz les dits bunds, et alafoiez par autre cause a graunte
arerisment de les ditz gents engleis pur qi plese a nostre seigneur le Roi en
meintenance et relevacione et eide des villes et Burgeis susdits comandier
briefs a son treshonore filz le Prince lour seignur as Justices de Northgajes
et Cestre ou a les lieutenants des dits Justices qeu cas qe ascun des dits
i Interlined in MS.

APPENDIX 297

Burgeis soit il ministre leur dit seignur le Prince ou noun soit endite ou
arette sur ascuns appelles rettes injuries ou autre point contenu deinz lour
dits chartres quelle est suppose estre fait deinz les bounds contenuz deinz
les dits chartres 1 qe chescune de eux soit delivres par ses comburgeis de
quelle des villes susdits il soit et qe touz les franchises et libertes en les
dits chartres soient alowez solunt la tenure des dites chartres et confer-
ments. Sachant qe si les Burgeis avant ditz fusent areinez des ascunz des
points avant ditz et dusent passer par les bouches et serments des galeis
il neo . . . 2rreit nulle engleis en Gales en vie deinz brief temps ou il
coviendreit voider le paies, quelle chose neo serroit profite . . . 2 neo a sa
coronne.

[ENDORSED]
Sort fait.

ANCIENT PETITIONS (P.K.O.), No. 13,936. (Temp. EDWARD in.)

The burgesses of Beaumaris complain that the Welshmen of Anglesea
persist in trading outside the market of their town.

A nostre seignur le Roi et a son conseil mustrent ses Burgeys de la
ville de Beaumareys qe les gentz galeys du conte Dangleseye vendent
et achatent et tiegnent leur marches entre eux et sustreent du marche de
la dite ville en despit et damage du Roi et de ses Burgeys susditz car le
Roi pert son tonou et les ditz burgeys ne poent marchander ne faire lour
acatz des choses necessaries pur sustenance deux et de la dite ville auxi
come il soleient et prient pur dieu qe cieux ventes et acatz de hors la ville
.soient defendutz issint qe les ditz galeys veignent ove lour choses
vendables a la dite ville et que le marche illoeques soit tenutz et meyn-
tenutz auxi come soleit estre et auncienement 3 fust ardine.

[ENDORSED]

Mandetur Justiciario quod non homines partiuin Ang. . . . 4 ere
mercatum alibi . . . 4 prsedicta et eis pr. . . . 4 cum bonis et rebus . . . 4
veniant ad i[dem mere 4]atum et non alibi n . . . 4 edictis.

ADDITIONAL CHARTER (BRIT. Mus.), No. 8642. 5

Certificate of burgess-ship in the town of Newborough to one
Madoc ap Hoell ap Madoc. 1426.

Universis et singulis ad quos praesentes litterse pervenerunt Mered' ap
Ken Aldermon Gruff ap Jokes et Teg' Porthwys' ballivi et tota com-
munitas burgensium villee de Newburgh in comitatu Anglesiee salutem

1 Interlined in MS. 2 Indenture in MS. 3 Interlined in MS.

4 The writing on the dorse is partially covered by the repairs done to the
document,
s [Endorsed : Purchased at Faussett's Sale 25 Feb. 1854. Lot 220.]

298 THE MEDIEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

aeternam in domino. Noverit universitas vestra quod nos ex unanimi
consensu et assensu concessimus et recepimus ex fideli industria et anricitia
speciali Mad' ap Hoell' ap Mad' in comburgens[iam] nostram villae prae-
dictrc concede ntes eidem Mad' et heredibus suis de corpore suo legitime
procreatis et procreandis omnia privilegia eb libertates nostra quse nos
habuimos habernus vel in futuro habuerimus imperpetuum concedentes et
eciam admittentes praedicto Mad' et heredibus suis de corpore suo legitime
procreatis et procreandis huius privilegia et libertates quantum in nobis
est gaudere et uti imperpetuum ita quod pro comburgensibus nostris villas
praedictoe et in gilda nostra receptis de cetero quocumque loco reputentur
et accept entur. In cuius rei testimonium sigillum commune villae prae-
dictae praesentibus fecimus apponi. Datum apud Neuburgh vicessimo die
March anno regni regis Henrici sexti 1 quarto etc.
[Seal pendant.]2

THE CARNARVON DEED OF 1430.3

We, John de Stanley Kt. constable of the castle of Carnarvon, and Mayor
of the same town, Thomas Darikinson alderman, Eichard Brodhede
and John Hulkyn, bailiffs of the Liberty of the same town, and the
whole community of the aforesaid town, grant, at fee farm, to Thomas
Bowman, his heirs and assigns, one burgage and its appurtenances.

Sciant prsesentes et futuri quod nos Johannes de Stanley armiger con-
stabularius castri de Caernarvan et maior eiusdem villae Thomas
Dankinson aldermanus4 eiusdem villae Kicardus Brodhede et Johannes
Hulkyn ballivi libertatis eiusdem villae et tota coinnmnitas villae prae-
dictae dedimus et hac praesenti carta nostra ad feodi firmain concessimus
Thomas Bowmon' heredibus et assignatis suis unum burgagium cum
pertinentiis situatum inter burgagium capellae beatae Mariae quod Ricardus
Broun modo tenet ex parte orientali et aliam stratam que ducitur versus
capellam maiorem in longitudine ex parte occidentali habendum et
tenendum praedictum burgagium cum pertinentiis praefato Thomae Bowmon'
heredibus et assignatis suis imperpetuum tenendum de capitalibus
dominis feodi illius per servicia inde debita et de iure consueta reddendo
annuatim coinmunitati eiusdem villae quinque solidos argenti ad festa
Paschae et sancti Michaelis per equales porciones. Et si contingat prae-
dictum redditum quinque solidorum aretro esse in parte vel in toto non
solutuin ad festa supradicta tune bene liceat praefatae communitati in

1 '4 H. 7.' appears in a modern hand on the dorse of the document. On first
reading the MS. sexf* looks very much like setf*, but on closer examination the p
bears no resemblance to the normal p form of the document.

2 Red: injured by pressure, and the edge imperfect. 1$ inches. On the sea
a ship with one mast, mainsail set, high at each end, castles, crow's nest, and split
flag at the masthead. SIGILLU : COMUNITATIS : DE : NEUBURGH : Beaded
borders (Catalogue of Seals in British Museum, vol. ii. p. 135).

3 Taken from a facsimile in Breeze's Kalendars of Owynedd. * Sic in MS.

APPENDIX 299

praedicto burgagio cum pertinentiis distringere et districtiones sic captas
abducere asportare et penes se retinere quousque de praedicto redditu
simul cum arreragiis siquae fuerint praefatae communitati plena rie fuerit
satisfactum. Et si contingat praedictum redditum quinque solidorum
aretro esse in parte vel in toto ad aliquod festum praedictum non solutum
et nulla districtio in praedicto burgagio inveniri contigerit tune bene liceat
praefatae communitati in praedicto burgagio cum pertinentiis intrare et
rehabere et in pristine statu suo retinere hac dimissione et concessione in
aliquibus non obstantibus. In cuius rei testimonium huic praesenti cartae
nostrae sigillum nostrum commune apposuimus. Datum apud Caernarvan
vicesimo die Aprilis anno regni Regis Henrici sexti post conquestum
Angliae octavo.

ANCIENT PETITIONS (P.R.O.), No. 9093. (Temp. 1507-9.)

The results of Henry FJl.'s great charter to the burgesses of Bala.
To THE KYXG OURE soverAiN LORDE.

In the moost humble wise sheweth unto youre highnes your humble
tenawntz and Subgiettes the Burges of your Towne of Bala withy nne yo-ur
Shyre of Meryonnyth in Northwalles that where as heretofore there hath
beene yerely charged of ffee ferme upone your seide tenemntz paiable
by the handes of the Baillis there for the tyme beyng unto your

xiijL xiijs. iijd.

escheyquyer of Carnervane whereof there is due upon the landes there
iijZ. vjdL as by the Rentals there in tymes past appereth more at large the
residue of the seide ffeeferne whereof greter parte is levied1 of the Tolle
Stallage and other customes granted unto thayme and used heretofore. So
it is moost gracious lorde that youre grace nowe of late hath pardoned the
seid Tolle and Stallage and other customes levied l withyn the seid Shire of
Meryonnyth whereupon the residue of the said ferme 1 was wont to
be leveyed in tymes past1 and thereof clerely discharged thenhabi-
tantes there as by the grete charter by your highnes to the Comonaltie
of Walsshemen in those parties late graunted -asi [sic] more playnly
it may appere wherfor it may pleas jour noble grace graciously
consideryng the premissis eyther to see that your said Subgiettes may
peasebly levy the seid Tolle Stallage and other customes levable in tymes
past without interupcione or lett or elles that they may pay yerely the said

anuell rent dewe

iijZ. vjd. for the said lands as apperes in the patent1 and to be dis-
charged of the residue and aforeytmes levable of the seid casuelties
as ryght and goode conscience requireth and as other be entreted being
in like caas in thees portes. And they shall pray for youre moost
noble grace theire lives enduryng.

i Interlined in MS.

300 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

35
D

D5
O

Q
W
^

Mg
g-

NAR

uthority.

1
a

i-i

" a

i..4....

^ §

^ ^* O rH t~ O O ** O O O ••»• O OO O <O

•^<

•S . 0 I- 50 •* _ 0 0 000 0 rHOO 0 •* l--<r t~ OirHO

<o eo d o o •* oo o I-H <n CN o I-H o o> co o» t- «o eo o CM o» o t^ oo TT o -* t- I-H
eoo o o e»o> c^ ,-iot-

n wards (135

View of

- a.

COO CO rH OS rH rH I] ?] O

i^ rH t— CO CO C^^ OO^J* O^n OO^WrH^^ClJ ^. -..' - 4 ^.' OOtD

CjJOOOO OrHC-JOOrH OOOO OO OFHFH

i this year o

Three Weeks'

*tS oooo^^o^irt oo^-o o I-HO rH o I-HO rH ooeerH
^ . ~r -r i~ ,~ i- -jz i- >.- . «O «O rt . w • -COW • •<*< . I-H . • CO ri • O • • • co r-c O
«£ OOOOrHrHrHO OOO O OO O O OO 0 OrHCtt

e round sum fron

•
1

^ CN O 'T CO O •>* 30 O -f »1< O •«*< •* T* o O Tf< O 00 TJ< 00 00 00 O O t~
£ C* CO <M O rH rH lO rH rH O rH ' ' ' rH rH CN rH * rH rH rH O O O O O rH O O

armed at on

,
J

i
t
i

•
)

:.::::::::: =*:: ••: • c! ••: ••: •••• ••: ••: • •• ••::

n MI rs are f

(2) Sept. 29.

^ 0*0 o"-* oo c^co o o>

•»''''rHrH>''C'0'0,rH''' °° :O •• • OO--
«ft rHr- IM<MIN»« OrHOOO O*rH O t- t- 11 CO O O
00 t- 00 Of- 00 Nt-0

Tolls and perq

Jj.

'QCNOCOCMOOrHOO Ot^rH O !M CO CM O O t I • .1 —

""rr^r^ ~°~ s °° s s s osj

^M^ssssssssss^wtt*?***;*.

-i<

lIiilc?^Sc?s§Sc?§Sc^li§S8SliiisSllc?icl§s

CO »O

3 3

APPENDIX

301

CRICCIETH.

Date.

TOLLS.

PERQUISITES.

Authority.
Min. Ace.

Fairs.

AT A 1 - t

Three View of
Weeks' Frank-
Court, pledge.

Market
and Fair
Courts.

JVliirK6b.

Apr. 25. Oct. 18.

1309-10

s. d. s. d. s. d.
£099 72}

s. d. : s. d. \
4 0 ; 8 6

.<?. d.

1170/6

1310-11

0 14 2| 4 1^

£0 5 1

1211/3

1311-12

0 19 7J 3 10J

0 13 3

1211/4

1312-13

170 0 5*

0 4

1211/5

1313-14

0 14 4 30

6 10

4 0

. Nil.

1170/8

1314-15

30 5$ (total)

1170/9

1316-17

35 5J „

1170/10

1317-18

• •

35 0 „

1170/11, 12

1319-20 (i)

18 0 ,,

1170/1

1320-21

36 0 „

1170/2

1321-22

£0 19 3|

£0 20

1170/13

1322-23

0 12 5J

, 0 15

1170/14

1 1323-24

..69

0 3

1170/15

1324-25

4 3i 3 li 21*

3 4

2 6

1 2

1170/16

1325-26

2 2| 2 2J 0 10

2 9

2 0

0 3

1170/17

1327-28

£0 4 3

£0 6

1213/3

1328-29

£0 10 0 12

2 1

2 3

0 6

1170/19

1329-30

1 7

2 3

0 6

Ct. Roll 285/54

1330-31

£0 1 6

£0 4

1171/1

1331-32

1 3

2 0

0 3

Ct. Roll 255/53

1332-33

14 4 (total

1213/10

1333-34

£055

£0 3

1213/5

1334-35

£029 1 1J

0 4

1171/2

1335-36

0 6 Hi 15

3 6

8 8

1171/3

1337-38

18 7 (total

1213/11

1338-39

Nil. 28 16}

£0 5

1171/4

1339-40 (<

£0 4 2H«*c)

0 5

5 (sic)

1213/13

1344.45

• •

6 7|(total

1214/1

1345-46

0 3 7J 0 7J

£0 2

1214/3

1346-47 (1

0 1 9}

0 3

1171/6--

1351-52

14 7} 68 1 1}

3 4

2 2

1171/7

1352-53

60 21 0 12

4 6

1 6

."...

1171/8

1353-1536

The tolls and perquisites are arrented.1 1171/9 — Henry viu.

See chap, v., sec. 2, as to their value.

302 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

CON WAY.

Date.

TOLLS.

PERQUISITES.

Authority.
Min. Ace.

Fairs. Market.

Port.

Three

Weeks-
Court.

View of p.

sati*56*

Market
and
Fair
Courts.

Aug. 24. Oct. 28. Conway.

Gannock.

1301 (i)
1804-5

£ s. d.
1 8 8

1 10 01

s. d.
5 6

s. d.

3 7

9 If

s. d.
5 1

9 6J

s. rf.
2 8

£ s. d.
0 10 6

0 13 0

.. ^

5 0

£ s. d.
0 6 10

s. d.

Court Roll
215/48
Min. Ace.
1170/3

1305-6

191

6 9}

9 OJ

11 7J

1 4

0 15 6

6 0

3 1 0

1170/3

1306-7 (*)

1 13 2

10 10

4 3

1 9 1

5 0

1 15 6

1170/4

1307-8

168

10 0 j 6 8

5 0

6 8

0 16 6

5 0

1 11 6

3 6

1170/5

1309-10

1 10 31

7 Of

10 5i

4 SJ

7 4

190

10 6

110

4 0

117

0/6

1310-11

£0 19

10*

5 0

9 1

12 6

£0

61 2

1211/3

1311-12

1 0

£0 24

13 4

S-

3 4

1211/4

1312-13

1 0 2} | 5 7J

6 4J

5 2J

7 4

1- 7 7

8 0

0 17 10

5 10

1170/7

1313-14

0 16 1$

7 7J

7 91

8 4J

7 S

1 8 3

6 6

0 16 5

5 10 1170/8

1314-15

••

6 4

£4 9

1170/9

1315-16
1536

The Conway burgesses hold their borough at fee-farm.

Henr

yvm.

NEVIN.l

Date.

TOLLS.

PERQUISITES.

Authority.
Min. Ace.

Three Weeks'
Court.

View of
Frank-pledge.

s. d.

s. d. s.

d. s'.' d.

1468-9

17 9

7 4

3 0

1181/1

1472-3

2 0

1181/2

1473-4

2 2

1181/4

1474-5

2 2

1181/5

1 See chap, v., sec. 2, as to the general character of the Nevin accounts.
PWLLHELI.l

Date.

TOLLS.

PERQUISITES.

Authority.

Min. Arc.

«. d.

£ s. d.

1448-9

13 4

2 1 10

1179/1

See chap, v., sec. 2.

APPENDIX

303

HARLECH.

Date.

TOLLS.

Perquisites.

Authority.
Min. Ace.

Fairs.

Market.

July.

November.

1304-5

£ s. d.

£4

£ s. d.
14 0

a. d.
5 0

s. d.
18 3

1211/2

1305-6

2 15 0

1 19 0

5 0

1170/3

1310-11

£5

14 10

5 6

8 0

1211/3

1311-12

14 6

5 6£

1211/4

1312-13

16 5J

8 6

1211/5

1313-14

2 3 Of

2 10 2f

10 1

Nil.

1170/8

1314-15

•

(Total) £2 19 If

1170/9

1315-16

(Total) £616

1170/10

1316-1536

The

burgesses

hold their

borough at fee-farm.2

1170/11
Henry vm.

Account incomplete.

See chap, v., sec. 2.

BALA.i

Date.

Perquisites.

Authority.

1322

2 Great Tourns (5s. 6d.)

Court Roll 227/22

1323

1 Great Tourn (4s. 8d.)

Court Roll 227/23

1 See chap. v. , sec. 2.

304 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

BEAU MA HIS.

Dat*.

TOLLS.

PKRQUISITES.

Authority.
Min. Ace.

Fairs.

Market.

Port.

Three View of p. Market
Weeks' Frank- ™Jlr and Fair
Court, pledge. * ' Courts.

April.

Sept.

1303-4

£ s. d.
£3

£ a. d.
14 4

s. </.
14 0

s. d.

£ s. d. £ s. d. a. d. *. d.
.. ; £2 15 10 (total)

1211/2

1306-7

1 2 2

303

10 11

2 2 10 1 14 4'| 4 0

1170/5

1309-10

0 10 0

302

10 3

1 18 9 0 8 10 60

1170/6

1810-11

£3

1 3

11 3

£296

1211/3

1311-12

4 8J

10 0

1 18 4

1211/4

1312-13

0 10 0

2 13 0

10 5

19406010 5 25

1170/7

1313-14

084

•2 5 SJ

6 9

1 11 8059 .. 39

1170/8

1314-15

.. ; £5 13 1} (total)

1170/9

1316-35

••

7 16 8} „

(1170/10-19;
J 1171/1-2

1335-36

£4

0 6*

15 Sf

0 12 2 0 4 « £0 10 0

1171/3

1338-39

1 0

4 4

0 10 3076 48

1171/4

1339-40 (})

.. i £4 9 7 (total)

1213/13

1344-45

51 11 „

1214/1

1845-46 (i)

Nil

0 11 6 „ 1214/3

134(5-47 (J)

£1

13 8

1 2

049 1171/5

1351-52

1 0

2 1

Nil.

0136141027 42 1149/1

135253

5 8

1 6

4 2

0 15 2 0 11 0 2 11 .. 1149/2

1353-57

£534 ; 1149/3

1357-58

19 0

2 6

S 0

0 19 0078 27 59' 1149/7

1358-59
1359-1536

6 0

2 4

••

0 18 10 0 7 10 09 16

1149/8

1150/1—
Henry viii.

The tolls and perquisites are farmed. *

See chap, v., sec. 2, for the divers variations of the yearly farm.

NEWBOROUGH. (See chap, v., sec. 2, re profits of this borough.)

Date.

TOLLS.

PERQUISITES.

Authority.
Min. Ace.

Fairs.

Market.

Three
Weeks'
Court.

View of
Frank-
pledge.

£ $. d.

0 15 8

Pie-

powder.

Market
and Fair
Courts.

June 29. I Nov. 11.

1303-4

£ «. d. £ «. d.
2 1 6J

£ «. d.
2 19 8

£ ». d.

215

«. d.
1 6

s. d.
1 0

1170/3

1804-5

£4 4 9}

0 10 10

089

••

/ „ &

\ 1211/2

1408-0

204

Nil.

2 17 7

429

1152/4

1459-60

014 8

1 0 8

0 4 0 j

1154/4

APPENDIX

305

(6) A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE EXTANT COURT ROLLS
OF THE NORTH WELSH BOROUGHS, 1284-1536.

Official Reference
(P.R.O.).

Date.

Name of
Borough.

NUMBER OF COURTS RECORDED.

Three
Weeks-
Court.

Great
Tourns
and
View of
Frank-
pledge.

Fair

Courts.

Pie-
powder.

Assize
of
Bread.

Court Rolls, Portf.
215/48

1301

Conway

••

Min. Ace. 1170/3

1304

Conway

••

Number
not
specified

Min. Ace. 1170/3

1305

Conway

Court Rolls, Portf.
215/46

1322

Carnarvon

Court Rolls, Portf.
215/53

1322

Criccieth

••

Court Rolls, Portf.
227/22

1322

Bala

Court Rolls, Portf.
227/23

1324

Bala

Min. Ace. 1170/16

1325

Carnarvon

Min. Ace. 1170/16

1325

Criccieth

••

Court Rolls, Portf.

215/47

1326

Carnarvon

••

Court Rolls, Portf.
215/53

1326-7

Criccieth

••

Court Rolls, Portf.

215/54

1329

Criccieth

••

Court Rolls, Portf.
215/53

1332

Criccieth

••

INDEX TO MEDIEVAL WORDS AND PHRASES

QUOTED AND PARTLY EXPLAINED IN THE FOREGOING PAGES

alnetum, 47.
appruamentum, 95.
appruator, 145 n., 185.
arreragia, 146.
assache, 261.
assessores, 132, 160.
attiliator, 25, 113.

balistarii, 25.

bastides, 30.

bourg, 6.

burgagium, 63, 69.

burgagium defensabile, 120.

burgum, extra, 80.

bur gum, infra, 80.

burgus, 9, 10, 12, 15 n., 16 nn. 3-6,

46, 56-7, 63.
6w&, 6.

caer, 5.

campus, 70.

capellanus, 25.

carpentarius, 25.

castellaria, 29.

chatellenie, 28.

cementarius, 25, 114.

censarii, 8.

cir conscription, 29.

communio, 75.

communitas, 71, 76, 84.

courcepi, 161 n. 7.

croftum, 69 n. 2.

cw£»cB marince, 208.

cwHa depede pulverizato, 131.

cwn'a de ponderacione panis, 131.

cwn'a rfe tribus septimanis ad tres

septimanas, 130.
curtilagium, 68.
custodes victualium, 25, 113.

custos gildce mercatoriw, 169.
custos prisonce, 163.
custuma portus, 189.

dawiibwyd, 26-7.
dea/orestatce, 72.
debent, et, 76, 146.
decasw, MI, 65, 78, 95, 146.
dewarrennatce, 72.
dinas, 1.
dolium, 214.
dominicum, 56.

empcio garnesturce, 29.
egwoe, ei sic, 76, 146.
exitus sigilli, 138.

/after, 25.

Jlrma burgi, 74-5.

/orwm, 62, 69, 177, 189, 194, 206.

franchise, 43.

gar ciones, 201.
gardinum, 68-9.
garnestura, 118.
garnesturi, 146.
gaywite, 39, 146-7, 168.

mercatoria, 40, 172.

, 43.
gwestwr, 198.

Aawsa, 40, 166.
heibote, 64.

homines defensabiles, 25.
hospitce, 153.
housebote, 64.

infangenethef, 39, 123, 129-30.
inspeximus, 148.
intendendo, breve de, 157 n. 2.
307

308 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

janitor, 25, 114, 116.

kiddallan, 188.
ki/toll, 189, 195, 207.
kuarres, 48.

la stag him, 169.
/ere, 168-9, 169 n. 1.
liber burgu*, 9, 38-40, 122.
libertas, 43.
lot, 121, 166-7.

maenor, 7 n. 2.
maerdredum burgi, 9.
maerdrev, 7.
mediate, 52.
mercatura, 197.
were, 59, 204.
moreske, 208.
morosa, terra, 48.
muragium, 169.

non-intromittat, 39, 123, 137.
non-obstante, 180.

redditm, 94-5.

?', 106.

passagium, 169.
patria, in, 175-6.
pavagium, 169.
placea, 63, 68-9.
placitnm conspirationis, 141.
pontagium, 169.
porthmon, 198.
potura stalonum, 238.
proprietas, 78.
/men', 195, 201.
puncto ad punctum, in, 40.
i nativi, 53.

gwt'eli *?«?/, e<, 76, 146.
guo ivarranto, 123, 141, 166, 168, 179-
80, 242.

redditm assist, 60 n. 2, 94-5.
rej/o/ia, 162, 242.

respectu, in, 65, 95, 146.
rhingyll, 26-8.
rhyfel y barwniaid, 235-6.
rhyfel yfrenhines, 236.
placitorum, 126.
i Wallice, 25.
rotidus dimissionum, 93.

sak, 123.

scapha, 198.

schoppa, 69, 194.

sco*, 121, 140, 144, 166-7.

seunta, 97.

sok, 123.

solum domini, 85.

solum regis, 85.

, 120.

stallagium, 168, 182, 299.
staurum castrorum, 27.
staurum domini, 26.
staurum principis, 27-8.
stor vawr, 7, 27.
superpha, 76.

taxatores, 132.

^eam, 123.

tolbothe, 131 n. 3. .. , .

Zo#, 123.

tolnetum, 168-9, 168 n. 2.

tolnetum patrice, 8.

tumbrellum, 144.

transitum, 8.

trefydd, 7.

vaccarius, 57.
vadia qfficiariorum, 113.
vastum domini, 71.
vigilator, 25, 117.

mercatoria, 174.

vt'^e anglaise, 61, 157, 272.

30.

ivarnester, 116.

fe, 48.
t^recca maris, 161-3.

GENERAL INDEX

ABER, 175 n. 2, 177, 180, 194, 205.

Aberavon, 15.

Aberconway, abbey of, 44 ; abbot of,
231.

Aberdaron, 275.

Aberdovey, 276.

Aberffraw, 175 n. 2, 180.

Abergavenny, 15, 103.

Abergele, 16.

Aberpwll, 105.

Aberystwyth. See Llanbadarn-vawr.

Act of Union (1536), 20, 88, 106, 137,
140, 149 n., 153, 158, 220, 236, 254,
273 ; demand for, 223, 270-2 ; pre-
amble and purport of, 271-2; effects
on the North Welsh boroughs, 135,
272.

Acton, Nicholas de, 212.

Affeerers, function of, 132.

Affiliation of Welsh boroughs, process
of, 14-15 ; tabular illustrations of,
17, 40 ; exercise of affiliative rights,
40-1, 97-8, 157 n. 5.

Agincourt, battle of, 262.

Agriculture in North Wales. See
under each borough.

Alderman, office and election of, 155,

158-9.

Amercements, fixing of, 15, 132-5.
Anglesea, county of, 19, 102, 136-7,
139, 180, 227, 235 ; extent of, 149 ;
dangerous situation of, 100-1 ; in-
surgents of, 107, 225-6 ; ferries to,
188, 205; people of, 209, 242, 252,
268 ; parliamentary representatives,
236 ; devastated by Owen Glyndwr
and the French, 251.
Anian, bishop of Bangor, 178-9.

ap leuan, 203, 212, 235, 249.

Ardudwy, 27, 54, 171, 202.

Arms, forbidden to Welshmen, 1 1 9, 269.

| Arwystli, 29 n., 158.
Assize of Bread and Beer, 129, 131.

BAILIFFS, of the borough, election
and functions of, 159-60; instance
of death during office, 159 n.
Bala, Roman fort near, 3 ; origin of,
16, 31 ; founder of, 55 ; list of
charters, 35 ; text of original char-
ter, 283-7 ; text of fee-farm char-
ter, 292-3; affiliation of, 40; unique
preamble of charter, 41 ; English
character of, 41, 254-5, 259; fee-
farm rent, 73-4 ; economy of, 55-6,
66, 160 n., 199-200, 268, 275 ; trade
and industry of, 175, 200; market
district of, 171 ; market and fairs
of, 171, 200 ; jurisdictional district
of, 125; court rolls of, 126, 305;
tolls and perquisites of, 134, 145
n. 6, 303 ; insignia of, 164 ; garrison
place at, in the time of Glyndwr,
118 ; text of important petition to
Henry vn. , 299.

Bangor, bishops of, 147, 178-9 ; mar-
ket tolls there, 177 ; commercial
conflict with the new boroughs,
175 n. 2, 178-80, 196.

Bannockburn, Welsh soldiers at,
256.

Bards, prophecies and influence of,
119, 222-3, 244-5, 247-8,263, 266-7.

Bardsey, 180.

Barmouth, 7, 276.

Beauchamp> William (constable of
Beaumaris), 111.

Beaumaris, Castle, foundation of, 24,

30-1; constables, garrisons, and

works of, 25, 101, 107-8, 110-11,

148-9, 149 n. 4, 151, 154, 215, 234,

309

310 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

236, 244, 247; castelry of, 27;
English Lollards placed there, 246;
Richard n. at, 247.
Beaumaris, Borough, origin of, 16,
30-1, 229 ; list of charters, 34 ; text
of original charter, 282 ; governing
charter of, 165; affiliation of, 40 ; j
territory or franchise of, 44, 50,
59-60 ; structural features of, 62 ; !
walls of, 61, 102-3; gates of, 117 ; j
economy of, 49-53, 63, 66, 68-70,
73-4, 78, 96-7, 167, 203-5, 274-5 ;
summary of rents from 1305 to
1536, 51 ; mills of, 50, 82, 203 ;
common lands in, 70, 90 ; Penrhyn
interest in, 81-3 ; fisheries of, 204-5 ;
market district of, 171 ; market
and fairs of, 170-1, 175-7, 205-6;
jurisdictional district of, 125; tolls
and perquisites of, 133, 205-6, 304 ;
port of, 105, 204, 206-7, 210, 212,
215-18, 276; custom-house at, 207 ;
local merchants and shipping of,
206-7, 210-11 ; visited by foreign
merchants, 211-12, 215; export of
wool from, 212; local ferry, 205;
dangerous position of, 100-1, 105;
attacked by pirates, 204, 249;
English character of, 30, 41, 142,
147, 176, 182, 209, 254, 258-9, 261,
263-5, 267-8, 271-2; relations with
Owen Glyndwr, 102, 111, 204, 249-
50, 252 ; town garrison and captain
of, 115-16; the Black Affray at,
264 ; burgesses of, do fealty to the
Black Prince, 242 ; grants of money
to Edward in. and Henry viu.,
147 ; insignia of, 164-5 ; names of
burgesses of, 67, 69-70, 77, 81-2,
85, 217-18 ; mayor, alderman, and
coroners of, 155, 158-63 ; close cor-
poration of, 83; notable burgesses
of, see Peter Rusiell and Anian
ap leuan ; Welsh element in, 258 ;
text of petition by the burgesses of,
against the Welshmen of Anglesea,
297 ; school in, 217 ; Chantry of
Our Lady Mary in, 77-8 ; members
of Parliament for, 236.
Bere, the castle and borough of, 23,

31, 34, 36 and n., 226; text of
original charter of, 282.
Black Death in North Wales, 162 n.

11, 176, 191, 201, 237, 243-4.
Black Prince, 42, 46, 50, 108, 116,
157-9, 206, 237, 240-4, 258-9;
founder of two North Welsh bor-
oughs, 35 ; Welsh records of,
240; text of original grants by,
293-4.

Bodenvewe, 50, 58, 60, 71.

Bolde, Henry (constable of Con way),
110.

Bondmen. See Villeinage.

Bordeaux, 167.

Boroughs, Welsh, Roman influence,
3-4 ; stimulated by the Norman
Conquest, 5-6, 11-20; position of
the Welsh princes, 10-12; relation
to Hereford, 17. See Marches of
Wales.

— (burgi), 9, 10, 12, 15 n., 16 nn.
3-6, 46, 56-7, 63.

North Welsh, origin and func-
tion of, 21-3, 29-32 ; number and
situation of, 36; general features
of, 37-42.

Bosworth, battle of, Welsh import-
ance of, 223, 266.

Boundaries, perambulation of bor-
ough, 59-60, 128.

Braybroke, Robert de, bishop of
London, 246.

Brecon, 15, 17-19, 227.

Bren, Llywelyn, revolt of, 233.

Breteuil, laws of, 14-15, 15 n. 1, 132,
143 n. 2.

Bristol, 101, 215.

Brittany, 101, 212, 215-16.

Broughton, family of, 259.

Bruce, Edward, Welsh designs of,
234-5.

Bryan, Francis (constable of Bar-
lech), 112.

Builth, 8n., 15, 17, 19.

Bulkeley family, members of, in
North Wales, 100-1, 112-13, 117,
149, 204-5, 215, 264.

Burgage, definition and economy 'of,
63-6 ; doubtful origin of, in Medi-

INDEX

311

seval Wales, 10-11, 63; fixed rent
of, 68, 97.

Burgage tenure, nature of, 71-2, 72
n. ; privilege of attorney allowed,
67-8, 167; dower and inheritance,
etc., 77-8, 77 n. ; later develop-
ment of, 78-9.

Burgess-ship in Snowdonia, admission
to, 128, 221 ; conditions of, 43, 63-4,
67, 80, 167-8; duties of, 120-1;
nominal exclusion of Welshmen,
96, 119, 196 n., 258-9; gradual
admission of Welshmen to, 254-5,
257, 261, 264; decay of racial
qualifications for, 268.

Butler, John (constable of Beau-
maris), 111.

CADNANT, 185, 187-8.

Cadwallader the Blessed, 222-3.

Caerberllan. See Bere.

Caerleon-on-Usk, 2-4, 15.

Caerphilly, 15 n. 3.

Caerwent, 2-4, 15.

Caerwys, 16-17.

Cambridge, fee-farm grant to, 84.

Cardiff, 15, 17.

Cardigan, borough of, 11, 15, 17, 19.

- — county of, 8-9, 11, 227.

Carmarthen, borough of, 15, 17, 19,
103 n. ; Roman remains at, 2-4.

county of, 8-9.

Carnarvon, Castle, origin of, 23;
constables, garrisons, and works
of, 23-5, 37, 89, 107-10, 113, 116,
149, 151, 227, 229, 249-51 ; towers
of, 61, 117 ; castelry of, 27-8.

Borough, Roman fort in, 2-4 ;

foundation of, 16, 31 ; list of
charters, 33 ; text and analysis of
original charter, 39, 281 ; affiliation
of, 40 ; territory or franchise of,
44, 46-8, 69; plans and structural
features of, 59-62 ; walls of, 60 n.
3, 61, 69, 102-3, 107, 117, 131, 251,
259, 265, 267; gates of, 104, 116,
131 ; janitor of, 116-17, 174; royal
watchmen of, 117-18, 245; captain
and garrison of, 114-16, 115 n. 5;

economy of, 46, 58, 61, 63, 65, 68-9;
183-4, 189 ; text of important deed
of, 298-9 ; mills of, 185-6 ; fisheries
and weirs of, 185-8 ; common lands
of, 92 ; suburbs of, 185 ; Penrhyn
interest in, 84 ; commercial privi-
leges of, struggle for, 179-80, 182 j
futile request for fee-farm, 74 ;
market district of, 171 ; market
and fairs of, 170-1, 175, 188-9, 294 ;
tanning industry in, 187 ; trading
in, 189 ; jurisdictional district of,
124; tolbothe of, 131; courts of,'
131-2 ; court rolls of, 97, 120, 126-
7, 183, 305; tolls and perquisites
of, 133, 300; port of, 189-90, 210-16,
276 ; local and royal customs levied
in, 189-90, 213 ; local ferry, 188 ;
merchants and shipping of, 210-11,
215, 218 ; repair of quay, 104-5 ;
names of burgesses of, 65, 70, 79,
85, 97, 134, 179, 184, 218 ; mayor,
alderman, and other officers of, 89,
145, 156, 159-63; administrative
importance of (local chancery and
exchequer), 93 n. 1, 94, 114, 118,
135-41, 145-6, 151, 160 n., 213-14;
insignia of, 164-5 ; Edward i. at,
227 ; birth of Edward of Carnarvon
in, 224, 232 ; English character of,
41,241, 254,259, 262, 267-9, 271-
2, 296-7; damaged during the
revolt of Madoc ap Llywelyn, 183,
225-6, 229 ; grants of money to
Edward in. and Henry viu., 147 ;
affray near, 241 ; Richard n. at,
247 ; besieged by Owen Glyndwr
and the French : estimate of local
damage, 114, 120, 184-5, 191, 249-
52 ; Chapel of St. Mary in, 68, 77 ;
members of Parliament for, 236.

Carnedd Howell (co. Merioneth), 262.

Castles, place of, in Welsh history,
12; stimulated rise of boroughs, 13,
21,29-30; economy and function of
Edwardian castles, 23-9 ; decay of,
101-2, 112, 272; question of castle
demesnes, 29, 157 ; history of, see
under name of each castle.

Cefnllys, 15.

312 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Cerrigygwyddyl (co. Angleseaf; 49-
50.

Charles L, 86-7, 91.

Charters, municipal value of, 32;
process and profits of the confirma-
tion of, 32 ; royal and baronial, 37 ;
land charters, 44 n. ; original texts
of, 277-94.

Chepstow, 15, 18.

Chester, Roman fort at, 2-4; town,
merchants, and port of, 144, 169,
211-18,228.

Cilgerran, 15.

Cloth, Welsh, 180, 216.

Clun, 103.

Clynnog Bay, creek of, 215.

Colleye, Thomas de, 212.

Collier, family of, 259.

Commerce in Wales, early history
of, 7-11 ; development under Ed-
ward i. and later, 166-82, 209-22.
See also s.n. each borough.

Common lands, 70, 72 n., 89-92.

Commote, trading centre of, 7-8.

Constable of the castle, election and
fees of, 147-51 ; ordinary and ex-
traordinary duties of, 152-7.

Conway, Roman fort near, 3 ; river,
9, 19, 124, 125 ; abbey of, 180, 191 ;
treaty of, 91.

Castle, origin of , 23 ; constables,

garrisons, and works of, 23-5, 101,
107, 108, 110-13, 151, 174, 207, 211 ;
demesne lands of, 157 ; castelry of,
27 ; distinguished prisoners in, 231,
246.

Borough, foundation of, 16, 31 ;

list of charters, 33 ; text of original
charter, 279-81 ; texts of petition
for a grant of fee-farm, 291, 295 ;
affiliation of, 40 ; territory or
franchise of, 44-6, 190, 193; text
of a grant of Lleghan, 293-4 ; a
typical fortified town, 62 ; walls of,
61, 102-3; gates of, 117; janitor
of, 116, 163; captain and garrison
of, 115; a place called 'TwthilP
at, 194 ; economy of, 44-6, 65, 69,
190-5; mills of, 74, 163, 190, 229;
Penrhyn interest in, 81 ; pearl

fishery of, 192; common lands of,
90; suburbs of, 194; market
district of, 193 ; market and fairs,
170-1, 193-4; trading activity of,
175, 195, 275 ; local commercial
disputes, 180, 182 ; local industries,
191-2; local ferries, 192-4; pros-
perity of in fifteenth century, 191 ;
jurisdictional district of, 124 ; courts
of, 126-7 ; court rolls of, 126, 305 ;
tolls and perquisites of , 134, 168n.,
302 ; administrative importance of,
139 n. 6, 140 ; prison of, 162 ; names
of burgesses of, 77, 84, 154, 161,
193, 210 ; mayor, alderman, and
other officers of, 71, 84, 131 n.,
155-60, 161, 163 ; common chest of,
76, 146 ; common house at, 127 ;
mediaeval seal of, 164; request for
murage, 103; port and quay of,
104-5, 195, 210, 212, 216, 276;
merchants and shipping of, 210-11 ;
Edward I. and his army at, 227-9 ;
English character of, 41, 182, 254-
5, 259-61, 264-9, 271 ; grants of
money to Edward in. and Henry
viii., 147; relations with the
Black Prince, 108, 146, 293;
Richard n. at, 246-7 ; muster held
at, 246 ; experiences of, during
revolt of Glyndwr, 110, 115, 191,
248-50 ; Church of, 191 ; members
of Parliament for, 236.

Conwil Elvet, 8.

Coroner, office of, in North Wales,
160-3, 256.

Courts of the borough in North
Wales, 122-36.

Cowbridge, 15 n., 154-5.

Cradoc, David (constable of Beau-
maris), 149 n. 4.

Crafts, 186-7, 191-2, 194, 200, 204.

Cranewell, William de, 51, 82.

Crecy, battle of, 256.

Creuddyn, 27, 44, 193.

Criccieth, Castle, constables, garri-
sons, and works of, 23, 25, 101,
107-8, 151, 195-6 ; castelry of, 27-8 ;
distinguished prisoners at, 154, 231.

Borough, origin of, 16, 31 ; list of

INDEX

313

charters, 33-4 ; text of original
charter, 281 ; affiliation of, 40 ;
territory of, 41, 48-9, 63 ; economic
activity of, 195-7; mill at, 196;
not walled, 62 ; situation of, 100-1 ;
styled a ' commote,' 122 n. 2 ; juris-
dictional district of, 124-5 ; courts
of, 126-7, 134 ; court rolls of, 126,
305 ; market district of, 171 ;
market and fairs of, 171, 175, 176,
196; tolls and perquisites of, 133-4,
301 ; trading rivalry with Bangor,
196 ; number and occupation of
the inhabitants, 195, 197 ; adminis-
trative importance of, 140 ; names
of burgesses of, 49 n. 2, 196 n. 4 ;
mayor and other officers, 49, 154,
156, 161-2; insignia of, 164;
English character of, 41, 195, 254,
260 ; successful resistance to Madoc
ap Llywelyn, 226; destroyed by
Owen Glyndwr, 101, 260.

Crickhowell, 16.

Crofte, Richard (constable of Beau-
mar is), 111, 116.

Cromwell, Thomas, 100, 112.

Custom revenue in North Wales,
administration of, 212-18.

Cyfeiliog, 29 n., 158.

Cymmer, 180.

DANEGELD, 168.

Danes, influence in Wales, 5-6.

Dankynson, Thomas, 78, 159.

David ap Ada, rebel, 238.

David ap leuan ap Howell of Llwy-

diarth, 264.
Davydd ap leuan ap Eignon, defender

of Harlech, 149 n. 4, 266.
Defence of boroughs in North Wales,

100-22.

Deganwy. See Gannock.
Denbigh, 15, 17, 19, 44 n., 169 n.,

226.
Deneio (co. Carnarvon), parish of,

59 n.

Dinas Mawddwy, 16 and n.
Dolbadarn, 36 n.
Dolgelly, 177, 180, 227, 275.
Dovey, 9, 19, 124.

Dower, right of, 78.
Drogheda, 211.
Drysllwyn, 9, 15, 17, 44 n.
Dublin, 24, 211.
Dulas, port of, 206.
Dunbar, battle of, 231, 256.
Dunstalt, Thomas (constable of Con-
way), 110.

Dyndaethwy, 27, 117.
Dynenyor (co. Carnarvon), 57-
Dynllaen, 27-8, 56, 171, 198.
Dyvyniok (co. Carnarvon), 57.

EDWARD i., Welsh settlement policy
of, 22-3, 30-1, 106, 219 ; founder
of six North Welsh boroughs, 33-5 ;
his judicial policy in North Wales,
137-8; his economic policy in
Snowdonia, 172-4 ; suppresses the
rising of Madoc ap Llywelyn, 227-8.
See also Castle, Ordinances, and
Town.

Edward n. of Carnarvon, birth of,
224, 232, 234; nurse of, 185;
Welsh policy of, 174-5, 232-6;
founder of two North Welsh
boroughs, 35 ; popularity of, 222,
236-7.

Edward in., Welsh policy of, 237-8 ;
important ordinances for the
government of North Wales, 239-
40.

Edward, son of Edward in. See
s.n. Black Prince.

Eivionydd, 27, 140, 161, 171, 196.

Eleanor, Queen, 10.

Elizabeth, Queen, 208, 218, 266.

Ellerker, Nicholas de, 212.

Ellerton, Henry de, master-mason,
77, 104.

Elsefeld, Gilbert de (constable of
Beaumaris), 148.

Elvael, 19.

Enclosures. See Common Lands.

Escheats in North Welsh boroughs,
77-8, 84-5, 94, 160-3.

Estimanner, 27, 180.

Estingwern (co. Merioneth), 44, 53.

Ewloe, 16 n.

Eynon Bagh, 212.

314 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

FAIRS. See Markets and Fairs.

Fee-farm privilege, municipal im-
portance and significance of, 71-7,
83-9?.

Fer, Bernard de, 212.

Ferries or passages in North Wales.
See North Welsh Boroughs, s.n.

Festiniog, 55.

Feudalism in Wales, 6, 22-31, 156,
182, 272-4.

Fifteenth, imposition of a, 147, 224-5.

Finance of the borough in North
Wales, 73, 143-7.

Fisheries. See North Welsh Boroughs,
a. n.

Fishguard, 16 n.

Fitz-Osbern, William, 14.

Flemings in Wales, 19.

Flint, 15, 19, 72 n. 3, 154, 279 n.

Foreatallers, 184.

Fowey, 211.

France, relations of Wales with, 100,
113, 150, 153, 157, 225, 237, 244,
251.

Franchise of the borough, 43-4, 58-
60, 123.

Free borough (liber burgus), 9 ; con-
stitution of, 39-41, 122; political
importance of, 275.

French wars, 148, 239-40, 244, 256-7,
261-2.

Fulbrok (co. Anglesea), 50.

GAFFLOGION, 27-8, 57, 171, 199.
Gannock,y8? 15, 17, 134, 140, 170-1,

193-4.

Gannow. See Gannock.
Gascony, Welsh soldiers levied for

war in, 225.

Gerald the Welshman, evidence of, 4.
Geyr (co. Carnarvon), 56.
Giffyn, mills at, 190.
Gild merchant, privilege of, 17 n. 1,

39-40; significance and influence

of in Wales, 159, 166-8, 169 n.
Girw, 19.

Goch, Sir Henry, 217.
Glamorgan, 236.
Glasenys (co. Merioneth), 55.
Glyndwr, Owen, revolt of, 36 n.,

67, 75 n., 100-2, 109-12, 114-15,
117-18, 120, 150-1, 176, 181-2, 184-
5, 191-2, 204, 247-55, 259, 260-1.

Grey, John de, 233.

Griffith ap Nicholas, 264.

Rees, 231, 238.

Sir William, Kt., 81-2, 181.

Gronow, Sir Thomas, 217.

Grosmont, 15.

Gwynedd. See North Wales.

HAMPDEN, EDWARD (constable of
Harlech), 112.

Harlech, Castle, works and garrisons
of, 23-5, 101, 111-13, 151, 201 ; cas-
telry of, 27 ; Scottish prisoners at,
231 ; Welsh sieges of, 54, 118, 250,.
252 ; English sieges of, 252-3, 264.

Borough, origin of, 16, 31 ; list

of charters, 34 ; text of original
charter, 282; affiliation of, 40 -r
text of fee-farm charter, 292 ;
market district of, 171 ; market
and fairs of, 171, 201; juris-
dictional district of, 125 ; tolls
and perquisites of, 134, 303 ; im-
portance as administrative centrer
136, 139, 262-3; economy of, 44,
53-5, 66, 68, 200-3 ; damaged by
Owen Glyndwr, 201-2; English
character and number of inhabit-
ants, 41, 141, 201-2, 254, 258, 296 ;
coroners of, 161-2; insignia of,
164; rise of Welsh element in,
258, 260, 268 ; later development
of, 275.

Haverfordwest, 5, 15, 17.

Havering, John de, 201, 228, 230.

Henry iv. (Bolingbroke), 246-7 ; re-
pressive Welsh policy of, 253-4.

Henry v., 250, 261-2, 264-5.

Henry vi., disturbed condition of
Wales under, 263-5; statutes of,
relating to Welsh matters, 265.

Henry vu. , Welsh importance of the
reign of, 122, 209 ; Welsh descent
of, 222-3, 266 ; charter of, to men
of North Wales, 112-13,142,267-71.

Henry viii., discontent in North
Wales during the reign of, 269-72 ;

INDEX

315

his treatment of the Welsh

boroughs, 274.
Hereford, relation to Welsh boroughs,

14, 17, 40; customs of, 15, 71-2,

78 n. 2, 97-8, 132, 167.
Heriots, 78.

Heton, Thomas (constable of Car-
narvon), 110.
Holland, family of, 259.
Holt, 16.
Holy head, 211.
Hope, 16-17, 154.
Housom, John de, 51, 77, 212.
Howel ap Gronow, 241-2.

Kenwryk, 231.

Huddlestone, Richard (constable of

Beaumaris), 111.
Hue and cry, 128.
Hughes, William (modern mayor of

Carnarvon), 155.
Hunt, William (constable of Harlech),

252.

IEUAN AP MEREDITH, distinguished

soldier, 251.

Ince, Richard, of Carnarvon, 117, 188.
Incorporation of boroughs, 11, 12

n. 1, 86-92, 155. See also Free

Borough and Borough.
Insignia of North Welsh boroughs,

144, 164-5, 274.

Intermarriage, importance of, 256.
Ireland, Welsh relations with, 7,

1*3, 184, 210-12, 234, 238, 245-6.
Irish Sea, ravages of, 68.
Isabella, Queen, war of, 236.
Isgwyrvai, 27, 171, 188.
Issaph, 27, 171, 193.

JAMES i. , 96.

Judicial system of North Wales,

136-43.
Jurisdictional privileges of the

borough in North Wales, 123-5.

See also s.v. Courts.
Jury, composition and election of,

127, 141-2, 258-9, 271-2.
Justiciar of North Wales, some of the

duties of, 72, 93-4, 106 n. 3, 123,

136, 138-41.

KEDEWAIN, 29 n.
Kemettmaen, 27.
Kenfig, 15, 17, 37-8, 37 n.
Kennington, petitions of, 46, 50,

175-6, 232-3, 271.
Kerry, 29 n.

Kevencogh (co. Anglesea), 50, 203.
Kidwelly, 15, 19.
Kingston-on-Hull, 62.
Kington, 103.
Knighton, 8 n., 15, 62 n.
Knights Hospitallers of St. John,

180.

Knoville, Bogo de, 226.
Knucklas, 15.
Kyghley, family of, 81-2.

LAMPETER, 9, 16.

Lancashire, boroughs of, 169 n. 1 ;

merchants of, 211 n. 7.
Lancaster, House of, Welsh policy

of, 149, 259-66.
Laugharne, 15, 17.
Lavan Sands, 205.
Lawgoch, Owen, 244-5.
Laws, old Welsh, 7, 261, 271.
Leases, corporate, 88-92.
Leave-lookers, 169 and n.
Legislation in North Welsh boroughs,

97.
Lewis Glyn Cothi, poet, 36 n. 1,

255.
Lewis, Hugh (constable of Harlech),

112.

Liberty of borough. See Franchise.
Liverpool, 169, 211.
Llanaber, 55.
Llanbadarn-vawr, castle and borough

of, 15, 17, 19, 24 n.
Llanbeblig, 46.

Llanbedr-talpont-Steven. See Lam-
peter.

Llanberis, 36 n.
Llanddwywe, 55.
Llandecwyn, 55. ,
Llandovery, 9, 16, 19.
Llanelly, 5 n., 16.
Llanerchymedd, 180.
Llanfyllin, 11, 15, 17.
Llanidloes, 16, 64 n.

316 THE MEDIAEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Llaniestyn, 217.

Llanrwst, 11, 16, 194.

Llantrisant, 15, 17, 155.

Llanvaes, early history of, 7, 10, 164 ;
confiscation of, 49, 52 ; extent of,
49-50 ; St. Katherine's Church and
Friars Minor at, 50; mill of, 50,
203 ; market and fairs of, 170-1 ;
burnt by Madoc ap Lly welyn, 225 ;
Edward i. at, 227; dissolved
friary of, 160.

Llanvawr, 53, 170-1.

Llanvihangel-y- Pennant, 36 n.

Llanwnda, 179.

Lleghan, 46, 60.

Lleyn, 140, 161.

Llivon, 27.

Llwyd, Sir Gruffydd, 234-6, 241,
266 n.

Lly welyn ap Gruffydd, 19, 21, 193,
245.

Llywetyn ap lorwerth, 44, 50.

Llywelyn ap Kynfrig Ddu, bard, 245.

Lohereyn, Sir Nigel de, 31, 56.

Lollards, 153, 246.

Loughor, 15.

Ludlow, 103.

MACE, 145, 163.

Machynlleth, 8, 16 n., 275.

Madoc ap Llywelyn, revolt of, 24,

31, 48, 54, 101, 107, 183, 190, 195,

225-31, 297-8.
Maentwrog, 55.
Maltraith, 27, 207.
Manchester cottons, 215.
Manny, Walter de, 160 n. 3.
Marches of Wales, rise and general

history of boroughs in, 6-7, 12-15,

18-19, 37-8, 101, 103, 119, 154-5,

158, 260-1, 273-4.
Market, clerk of, 131 n. 5, 178.
Markets and fairs, rise of, in North

Wales, 169-71 ; ordinances relating

to, 174-5; Welsh aversion to,

175-7, 244 ; history of. See each

borough, s.n.
Mascy, John (constable of Con way),

151.
Mathavarn, port of, 206.

Matthew, bishop of Bangor, 180.

Maunsel, Mary, nurse of Edward of
Carnarvon, 68, 183.

Mawddwy, lordship of, 20, 175 n.

Mayor, election and duties of, 130,
152-8, 160 n.

Meney, 28, 157, 171, 207-8.

Mercenaries, Welsh, 225, 238-9, 256.

Merchants trading in North Wales.
See Commerce.

Meredith ap Kenwrig, murder of,
251.

Merioneth, shire of, 19, 36, 44, 118,
125, 175, 227, 250; Nescheator of,
84; sessions of, 139, 142; sheriff
of, 241 ; fealty to Black Prince,
242 ; important land dispute in,
262-3.

Milford, 215, 246.

Moiloncoyl (Carnarvon), 187-8.

Monasteries, Welsh, economic influ-
ence of, 44, 274.

Monmouth, 15, 17 n.

Montgomery, 15, 17, 19, 227.

Thomas (constable of Carnar-
von), 110.

Mori d' ancestor, pleas of, 138.

Mortimer, Roger de, of Chirk, 49,
55, 149, 149 n. 1, 233, 236, 259.

Mortimer, Edmund, 250, 253.

Mortmain, alienations of borough
lands in, 77.

Municipalities. See Boroughs.

Municipal Corporation Inquiry of
1835, 164, 169.

Municipal Reform Commission, 127,
136.

Murage, 103, 168-9.

Mynydd Dra (co. Carnarvon), 190.

NANCOYL (co. Merioneth), 55.
Nantconway, 27, 171, 180, 193, 195.
National feeling in Wales, 22, 119,

181, 221-4, 237, 245, 247-8, 263.

See Bards.

Neath, 4, 15, 17, 37-8, 150.
Neufmarche", Bernard de, 19.
Nevin, foundation of, 16, 31, 243;

list of charters, 35 ; text of original

charter, 287-9 ; affiliation of, 40 ;

INDEX

317

economy of, 7, 44, 56-8, 62-3, 66
68, 74, 87, 90, 197-8; notabl
assembly in the churchyard of, 87
127 ; loss of common rights at
91-2; market district of, 171
market and fairs at, 171, 198
jurisdictional district of, 125
courts held at, 135, 140 ; tolls and
perquisites of, 134, 302 ; grants o
money to Edward I. and Henry
viii., 147 ; insignia of, 164; granc
tournament at, 223-4; WeM
character of, 254, 260, 268 ; de
stroyed during Glyndwr's revolt,
198 ; later history of, 275.
Newborough, origin of, 16, 31, 52:
list of charters, 35 ; text of origina'
charter, 283 ; text of a certificate
of burgess-ship in, 297-8; affilia-
tion of, 40 ; franchise of, 44 ;
economy of, 52-3, 63, 66, 68-9, 73,
90-1, 207-9 ; names of burgesses of,
81 ; dangerous situation of, 100,
207 ; refusal of burgesses to serve
in Scotland, 72 ; market district
of, 171 ; market and fairs at, 171 ;
jurisdictional district of, 125 ;
tolls and perquisites of, 135, 145 n.,
208, 304; mayoralty of, 157-8;
alderman of, 159 ; coroner of, 161 ;
insignia of, 164-5 ; grant of a
benevolence to Henry viii., 147 ;
destroyed by Glyndwr's supporters,
208, 250 ; Welsh character of, 42,
52, 208-9, 254, 260, 268 ; poem by
Davydd ap Gwilym to, 255 ; later
development of, 275.
Newcastle-Emlyn, 16.
Newport (Hon.), 15, 17 n., 130 n.

(Pern.), 15.

Newton (near Dynevor), 16.
Newtown (co. Montgomery), 16 and n.
Norman conquest of Wales, 6, 12,

18, 21-2.
Normandy, North Welsh support

expedition to, 262.
Norres, Henry (constable of Beau-

maris), 111, 263.

North Wales (Gwynedd), Principality
of, 9, 43, 50, 89 n., 149 n., 219;

map and definition of, 18-21 ; Welsh
shires of, 22-3; government and seal
of, 23, 26-94; problems of local
government in, 229-30, 233-41, 295.

Norton, 15.

Norwich, 128 n.

Nottingham, Welsh hostages at, 228.

OFFICERS, castle and borough, in
North Wales, 113-14, 147-65.

Ordinances, Welsh, of Edward i.,
origin of, 229-30; purport of, 41, 64,
67, 96-7, 119, 125, 129, 174, 176,
253-5 ; real object of, 255-6 ; modi-
fied and renewed by subsequent
sovereigns, 67, 96, 113, 220, 232,
258-9 ; operation of, 96, 255, 259.
60 ; extended to England, 260.

• of Edward in., 177-8.

Oswestry, 103.

Overton, 16-17, 157-8.

Owen, George, author, 10.

Owen ap Thomas ap Rhodri. See
Lawgoch.

PAINSCASTLE, 15, 62 n.

Parliament, representation of Wales

and the boroughs in, 236, 273-4.
Peckham, Archbishop, Welsh policy

of, 22.
Pembroke, 15.
Penllan (co. Carnarvon), 46.
Penllyn, 27, 31, 44, 55, 171, 200.
Pennaran, 55, 199.
?entemogh (co. Merioneth), 84.
Penygelly (Carnarvon), 46.
Percy, Henry (Hotspur), 249.
Perveddwlad, 19, 46.
Piepowder, Court of, 126, 130-1, 135.
Pirye, John de, 241-2.
Poitiers, battle of, 256.
}ole, Richard (constable of Carnarvon
and Conway), 112, 115.
ole, Richard de la, 212.
oole (co. Dorset), 202 n. 4.
opulace of the North Welsh bor-
oughs, Welsh element in, 254-61.
For English element, see under each
borough.

318 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Porthesgob (co. Carnarvon), ferry of,
206.

Ports in North Wales. See Custom
Revenue and each borough of, s.n.

Portsmouth, 225.

Portugal, trade with, 215.

Power, Robert, 236.

Powys, 19, 239, 262-3.

Plymouth, 211.

Presteign, 15, 62 n.

Prices, agricultural, 173-4.

Priestholme, 218.

Prince of Wales, title of, 21 and n. 1,
37 ; first English Prince of Wales,
222, 224. See Edward of Carnar-
von and Black Prince.

Prise of wines. See Custom Revenue.

Prisoners, custody of, 113, 143, 153-4 ;
liberty of free prison, 124 ; borough
prison, 154.

Probate of Testaments, 270-1.

Prophecies, Welsh. See Bards.

Pulesdon, Roger de, 225-6.

Puleston, John (constable of Carnar-
von), 110.

Purveyance, right of, exercised in
North Wales, 173-4.

Pwllheli, origin of, 7, 16, 31, 243;
list of charters, 35 ; text of original
charter, 289-90; affiliation of, 40;
boundary of, 59 ; economy of, 44,
56-7, 62-3, 66, 68, 73-4, 80, 199;
market district of, 171 ; market
and fairs of, 171, 199; jurisdictional
district of, 125; courts held at,
135, 140; tolls and perquisites of,
134, 302 ; Welsh character of, 254,
260, 268 ; grant of money to Ed-
ward i., 147 ; loss of common at,
91-2 ; decay during revolt of Glyn-
dwr, 57; names of burgesses of,
80 ; insignia of, 164 ; Breton ship
calls at, 216 ; later development of,
275.

RACIAL antipathy in Welsh munici-
pal history, 13, 41-2, 123, 141-76
passim, 244-5, 260-1, 268-9; decay
of, 122, 237, 243, 275; causes of
decay of, 256-7.

Radington, Baldwin (constable of

Beaumaris), 149 n. 4.
Radnor, 6, 15, 19, 62 n., 103.
Radnorshire, 15 n., 17 n.
Raths, 6.

Residence a condition of burgess-
ship, 67.
Revenue, sources of borough, 143-4 ;

administration of, 146. See s.v.

Finance.
Revolts in Wales. * See s.n. Madoc

ap Llywelyn, Bren, Llwyd, Law-

goch, Tudor, Glyndwr, and Tur-

burville.

Rhaglotries, 148.
Rhayader, 15, 72.
Rhingildries, 148.
Rhosfair, 10, 40, 49, 52-3.
Rhoshir. See Rhosfair.
Rhuddlan, 6, 15, 17, 40-1, 72 n. 3, 125,

157 n., 213, 234-5, 242.

- statute of, 19, 22-3, 137-8, 140 n.,

161, 220, 232.
Rhys, Lord, 10.
Richard n. in North Wales, 245-7 ;

charters by, 33-5.
Richard in., 57, 112.
Roman influences in Wales, and map,

2-4, 62.
Rouen, the establishments of, 157 and

n. 6.

Russell, Peter, 77.
Ruthin, 16, 17, 169 n.
Rutland, Lord, 249.

ST. ASAPH, 242.

St. Clears, 16.

St. David's, 11, 36.

Salmon, William, 212.

Salysbury, John and Edward (con-
stables of Conway), 110, 115.

Sancto Petro, John de (constable of
Beaumaris), 51.

Sapy, John de, 234.

Say, Henry de, 212.

Scotland, Welsh relations with, 72,
100, 150, 211, 231, 233-4, 237-9,
245-6, 248.

Seiont, 61, 187.

Sessions in North Wales, 136, 139-41.

INDEX

319

Shaldeford, Henry de, 212 ; murder
of, 240-2.

William de, 179.

Sheriff, function of, in North Wales,
123, 126, 136, 143, 153, 156.

Shipping in North Wales. See Com-
merce.

Shrewsbury, 103.

Sikun, William de (constable of Con-
way), 230.

Slate quarries in North Wales, de-
velopment of, 104-5, 190.

Snowdon, forest of, 64, 104 ; district
of, 137, 226, 274 ; justice of, 137 ;
commonalty of, 231.

South Wales, 37-8, 176, 234-7.

Spain, 215.

Stafford, Richard de, 241-2.

Stanley, family of, 149.
- Eleanor de, 82.

Peter (constable of Harlech),

112.

William (constable of Carnar-
von), 110, 116.

Staple centres in North Wales, 213.

Staundon, Robert de (constable of
Harlech), 201.

Straunge, Roger le, 226, 239.

Stymllyn (co. Carnarvon), 48.

Sutton, William de, 67.

Swansea, 5, 14 n., 37 n.

TALBOT, GILBERT, LORD, 67, 102, 252,
261.
John, 252.

Talgarth, 16.

Talybolion,-27, 171, 205.

Talybont (co. Merioneth), commote
of, 27, 180.

Taverners, 8.

Taxation, liability of North Welsh
boroughs, 146-7 ; grants by com-
monalty of North Wales, 224,
231.

Tenby, 15, 60 n.

Territory of the borough. See
Liberty.

Tibetot, Robert de, 224.

Tolls "in North Wales, market, 117;
ferry, 193 ; exemption from, 168-9,

180-2; port tolls, 189, 195, 207, 209;

profits of. See under each borough
Totenham, John de, 212. ,
Tourn courts. See Sheriff.
Tower (of London), 228.
Town, the Edwardian type of, 30,

61-2, 157-8.

Towyn, 7, 11, 175 n., 177, 180.
Towyndresselethe (co. Merioneth), 54.
Trade in North Wales. See Commerce.
Trawsvynydd, 55.
Trefgarnedd (co. Anglesea), 234.
Trefriw, 140, 175 n., 180, 194.
Trellech, 15.
Trevilan, 9, 11.
Tribalism, Welsh, features and decay

of, 7 n., 9 n., 23, 58, 58 n., 172,

174-6, 221, 232-3, 238, 243.
Trussel, William (constable of Beau-

maris), 150.

Tudor ap Gronow, 231, 241.
Tudor period, Welsh political and

social changes during, 266-75.
Tudyr, Sion, ode by, 266.
Turburville, John, a rebel, 263.
Twrcelyn, 27, 171, 205.
Twthill, 194.

UGHAPH, 27, 171, 193-4.
Upton, Thomas de, 212-13.
Usk, 15.

— Adam of, 250.
Uwchgwyrvai, 26-7, 140, 171.

VIELLVILE, SIR ROWLAND, 111, 215,

217.
Villeinage in Wales, 7, 9, 26-7, 52-3,

58, 243, 262, 267, 280.

WALES, mediaeval and modern, 100,
270-2. See also North and South
Wales, and Marches of Wales.

Walls, town, in Wales, 13 n., 60-1,
102-7.

Wars of the Roses, Welsh interest of,
109, 265-6.

Waste lands in borough, 68, 71, 84-5,
91-2.

Watch and ward, duty of, 119, 121.

320 THE MEDLEVAL BOROUGHS OF SNOWDONIA

Watchmen, special, in North Wales,
117-18.

Weight* and measures, 129, 144, 165 ;
opposition to new system, 177-8.

Welshmen, media-val, warlike nature
of, 100, 239, 263. See also Mercen-
aries and Revolts ; civic disabilities
of, 41, 149, 181, 221, 253; attitude
towards town life and English civi-
lisation, 175-6, 257-8, 260; political
and economic progress of, 168,
181-2, 261-72 pa**im.

WeUhpool, 11, 15, 17.

Wenneys (co. Carnarvon), 56.

Wcnlros (co. Carnarvon), 46.

Wig Patrik (Carnarvon), 188.

Winchelsea, 62.
; Winchester, statute of, 201.

Wodehouse, John de, 108.
i Wokingham, 62.

Wolsey, Cardinal, Welsh petition to,
271.

Wood wardships, 148.

Wool, export of, 212-13.

Wynn, John, a burgess of Nevin, 87.

YORK, revenues of archbishopric of,

24 n.
- House of, Welsh policy of,

262-6 patsim.
Ystym Cegid (co. Carnarvon), 156.

Primed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press

*f0
S6IA

Lewie, Edward Arthur

The mediaeval boroughs
of Snowdonia

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