^{Page 25 note *} John's charter, which has no date, but was probably granted between 1183 and 1190, was confirmed in 36 Hen. III. (1252), and again in 28 Edw. I. (1300). The power to choose their own coroner was first declared by the charter of 40 Hen. III. (See after, Quintiim Principale.)

^{Page 25 note †} There is no title in the original to this Part.

^{Page 26 note *} The picture of Henry III, is placed here, on fo. 59b.

^{Page 27 note *} This account seems to have been taken from the same source as that used by Fabyan, as it mentions Walter Bokerell and the King's intention to throw down the walls, points which other writers do not allude to.

^{Page 28 note *} See this place mentioned after, under date 1574.

^{Page 28 note †} The covenant made between the two parties is given from the original by Sever (Mem. Bristol, ii. p. 19; it is contained in the Great Red Book, fo. 1), who has a long account of this important undertaking of the early engineers. The “trench” then made runs along the place now known as the Broad Quay, continued by the Narrow Quay : the old course of the river Frome was filled up, and its waters made to fall into the Avon lower down near the present bridge at Prince's Street. At the present time the name of “Floating Harbour” is given to what is really the old course of the Avon ; what is now called the “river Avon,” near the City, is the modern cut, finished in 1809.

There was a close connection between the men of Bristol and their neighbours of the Marsh, afterwards called Redcliff. This is shown in several charters, of which one was from Henry II., and another from Robert son of Harding (who died in 1170; see before, p. 22). Transcripts of these charters are in the Little Red Book, fo. 12b, which must be where Barrett found them, though, as Seyer complains, he does not give either the originals or his authority. They are as follow:—

“Henricus Rex Angliæ, Dux Normaniæ et Aquitanniæ, Comes Andegavia;, omnibus baronibus justiciariis vicecomitibus et omnibus ministris suis Angliæ et Walliæ, salutem. Concedo quod homines mei qui manent in feodo meo in Marisco juxta pontem de Bristollia habeant suas rectas consuetudines et libertates et quietancias per totam Angliam et Walliam, sicut mei burgenses, et nominatim in Bristollia ct per totam terrain comitis Glouc', sicut carta mca testatur, et prohibito ne super hoc aliquis eis faciat aliquam injuriam vel contumeliam.”

“[Robert] Filius Hardingus omnibus amicis suis et hominibus projsentibus et futuris salutem. Notum sit vobis, quod ego concessi et confirmavi quod homines mei qui manent in feodo meo in marisco juxta pontem de Bristollia, habeant suas consuetudines et libertates et quietancias quas homines do Bristollia habent, sicut rex dominus noster eis concessit et carta sua confirmavit; et volo quod ita integras et plenarias eis maneant tempore moo et heredum meorum omnium. Teste Ricardo Abbate Sancti Augustini,” &c.

The “men who dwell in the marsh” of these charters are spoken of as “men of Rodclive” in a charter granted by Maurice the son of Robert. Maurice's charter, together with a mandamus of 24 Hen. III. to the men of Redcliff to join in the expense of making the trench, and the charter of 31 Hen. III. A.D. 1247, are all contained on fo. 12 of the Little lied Book. The last of these drew the connection still closer, if they were not already incorporated with Bristol, as stated in the text. (See Seyer's Mem. Bristol, ii. pp. 30, 31, 45; Charters of Bristol, No. v.)

^{Page 32 note *} This note is not in Ricart's hand, but in one of much later date, and appears to have been added in about the beginning or middle of the seventeenth century. The same hand wrote the note under the date 1376, after.

^{Page 36 note *} The picture of the first Sheriff is inserted after this year.

^{Page 36 note †} See before, under 1294, note.

^{Page 36 note ‡} In the “Little Red Book” this name is written Tydstyll.

^{Page 36 note §} Brytt in “Little Red Book.”

^{Page 39 note *} Thomas Bagod in the “Little Red Book.”

^{Page 40 note *} The Back is a river-side street extending along the Avon southwards from Bristol Bridge. Back is a name of several streets in Bristol, as Augustine's Back, Bedcliff Back, St. James's Back, Hollow Back (see under date 1484), and appears to mean the street at the back of the water, not to be the word beck, as has been suggested, which would be applied to the water itself, not to the street.

^{Page 40 note †} The pursuit of the Duke of Suffolk by the vessel Nicholas of the Tower, and his murder, were recent enough to have been within Ricart's own ken, yet he misplaces the date; 1450, not 1453, was the year in which they took place. See Stowe's Annals (Howes), p. 388; Fenn's Paston Letters, vol. i. pp. 39, 40.

^{Page 41 note *} The Irish were evidently in bad odour in Bristol, for a few years before, in 17 Hen. VI., two severe ordinances were passed by the Common Council, under which no Irishman born might be admitted into the Common Council by the mayor, on penalty of 20l. each from the mayor and from the Irishman.—“Little Red Book,” fol. 31.

^{Page 42 note *} There is so little mention of this affair with the Genoese, that it is worth transcribing Fabyan's account of it here. “In this yere, after some auctours, a marchaunt of Brystowe, named Sturmyn, whiche with his shyp had trauaylyd in dyuerse partyes of Leuaunt and other partyes of the Eest, for so moche as the fame ranne vpon hym that he hadde gotten grene pepyr and other spycys, to haue sette and sowen in Englonde, as the fame went, therefore the Jannays wayted hym ypon the see, and spoylyd his shyp and other. But this is fnll lyke to be vntrewe that the Januays shulde spoyle hym for any suche cause: for there is no nacion in Englonde that delyth, so lytle with spicis. But were it for this cause or other, trouth it is that by that nacion an offence was done, for the which all the marchauntys Januays in London were areysted and commyttyd to the Flete, tyll they had founden suffycyent suretye to answere to the premysses. And fynally, for the harmys which theyr uacion had done to the sayde Sturmyn and to this realme, VjM marke was sette to theyr payne to paye ; but howe it was payed no mencion I fynde.”—Chronicles, Ellis ed. 1811, p. 633. See also Seyer's Mem. Brist. ii. p. 189.

^{Page 43 note *} Otherwise the battle of Towton.

^{Page 43 note †} In 1460 “Sir Baudwine Fulforde undertooke on paine of loosing his head that he would destroy the Earle of Warwicke.” He then kept his head notwithstanding his failure, but now lost it at the hands of the other side.—Stow's Annals, p. 406 b.

^{Page 43 note ‡} This name is Brown in the “Little Red Book.”

^{Page 43 note §} The citizens, anxious to make sure of their liberties under the new order of affairs, obtained three charters, the first to confirm the charter of Ric. II., dated 14 Dec. 1461; the second to secure their peculiar privileges with regard to the Admiralty, 22 Oct. 1461; the third to affirm certain fresh privileges to the city, 12 Feb. 1461.—See Seyer's Charters of Bristol, pp. 96—120.

^{Page 44 note *} Spoiled, undone, Cotgraxe.

^{Page 46 note *} This is written by Ricart in the margin, as though he had gone on and forgotten it.

^{Page 47 note *} Holinshed places this event in 1488, Fabyan in 1486.

^{Page 47 note †} In 1 Hen. VII. a proclamation had been issued providing a remedy for the complaints that were made against the silver money coined in Ireland, which was henceforth only to be coined in Dublin and Waterford. Irish money was frequently however a source of difference.—See Letters and Papers of Rich. III. and Hen. VII. (Rolls Series,) ed. Gairdner, vol. ii. pp. 286, 372, 377.

^{Page 48 note *} The Private Act 3 Hen. VII. c. 9 (1488–9), was passed “for the Mayor, Sheriffs, Bailiffs, and Commonalty of the Town of Bristol, for paving of the streets there.”—See Rolls of Parliament, vol. vi. pp. 390, 391.

^{Page 48 note †} This is left blank in the MS.

^{Page 49 note *} The names of officers for the remaining thirteen years of Henry the Seventh's reign seem to be in Eicart's hand, and there he laid down the pen ; no further events, save the death of the sheriff in 1506, were recorded by him for those years.

^{Page 49 note †} The writing here changes to an extremely minute, though tolerably clear hand.

^{Page 50 note *} In 11 Hen. VIII. a dispute between a late sheriff and the Corporation was carried before the Star Chamber, as to the yearly charges to be borne by the Sheriffs, a record of which is kept in “The Great White Book of Records,” fos. 48–58. Three lists of charges are entered, in the earliest of which there is allowed for the “costes of the parliament,” “by estymacion,” £16 16s.; in the second, being the schedule appended to the complaint, “To the knyghts of the shore, £10;” and in the third, contained in the Ordinance of Common Council of 4 Oct. above cited, which settled what future charges should be, “The sherifs shall here and pay yerely to the Chambre of Bristowe, towardes the charges and expens of the knyghtes of the shere and burgeises of the parlyament, agaynst suche tyme as any parlyament shall be holden, xls.” (fo. 57.) The sums paid above were thus the arrears for three years. There had been two Sheriffs since 16 Hen. VII.

^{Page 50 note †} By 19 Hen. VII. c. viii. it was enacted that mayors and officers of cities, boroughs, and towns, must not take the custom called skavage or shewage (payable by strangers) from merchants denizen for their merchandize, under the penalty of £20. Scavage was a toll taken by cities, towns, and boroughs, of merchant strangers, for wares shewed or offered for sale within their liberties.—Blount's Law Dict.

^{Page 51 note *} I have searched for this record, but without success.

^{Page 51 note †} The Court of the President and Council of Wales and the Marches held its sittings at Ludlow; the Princess Mary (there being no Prince of Wales) was now at its head. It claimed to have jurisdiction over four English counties, of which Gloucestershire was one. But under the charter of Edward III. Bristol had been made into a county of itself, with its own officers of justice and jurisdiction.

^{Page 51 note ‡} An entry is here made of the death of one of the sheriffs, and the choice of another to fill the vacancy.

^{Page 52 note *} The following items for work done on this occasion are taken from the “Audit Book” of the Corporation for 1532 (the earliest of those books in existence), being part of the account for the “ix^th weke of the iiij^th quarter,” that is, about the fourth week in August. The Tolsill or Tolsey, otherwise the Counter or Comptoir, was where the Mayor held his court; the View of Frankpledge, and other public business, took place at the Guildhall (see after, Quartum Principale):

“Item, p^d for bordde nailys, cawfoote nailys, and hache nailys, for the werke at the tolsill

Item, p^d for ix bewdeley borddes for the crestes, after iij the bordde

Item, paied for tacke nailys, and racke hookes to f astyn the staynyd clothes at the tolsill

Item, p^d to W. Kelke for V yardes for to be stayned for the tolsill

Item, p^d for ij new payre of gymmewys for bothe the new dorrys at the tolsill

Item prt for a lache and a cache w^t avise

Item, pd for another lache w^t a ryng apon it

^{Page 54 note *} See after, p. 65; and the Petition to Henrietta Maria as to the Castle, where Bristol is called the “Queen's Chamber, as London is called the King's Chamber.” The citizens of London made use of that title in their address to Richard II. on his succession to the throne. Stowe's Annals, ed. 1614, p. 277. The gift mentioned above as given to Anna Bulleyn seems to have been of the nature of Queen-Gold, an ancient revenue accruing to every Queen Consort. See Prynne's elaborate treatise, Aurum Reginæ, 1668, especially pp. 2, 122–126.

^{Page 54 note †} A full account of the christening of Edward VI. is to be found in the British Museum, Add. MS. 6113, fo. 81. In explanation of Ricart's date of the birth, 1538, instead of 1537 as usually given, see Introduction, touching dates of mayors.

^{Page 55 note *} This incident in the life of the martyr Wishart is mentioned in R. Chambers' Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. The fact that he preached at Bristol is referred to in the sketch of his life given in Rose's Biographical Dictionary, but among a great number of accounts these are the only two that refer to it.

^{Page 55 note †} In the “Suppression of the Monasteries,” Camd. Soc. pp. 196, 210, are two Letters from the Bishop of Dover to Cromwell, relating, among others, to the surrender of the religious houses of Bristol.

^{Page 55 note ‡} By letters patent, dated i June, 34 Hen. VIII. (1542) Bristol was made a bishopric, with St. Augustine's church for a cathedral, and the town erected to the dignity of a city. Fo. 226 of the MS. contains a copy of the first and the last or operative parts of this document: it does not occupy quite the whole of the page, but it appears to haye been an official copy, as after the words “per breve de privato sigillo, data prsedicta, aucthoritate parliamenti” is the autograph signature “Martyn.” Another copy of the same length, and with the same signature, is in the “Great White Book of Records,” fo. 299b.

The entire document is in Rymer's Fcedera.

^{Page 56 note *} According to Tanner (Notitia, Bristol, No. 11) the founder of this house, Maurice de Gaunt, put it under the management of the canons of St. Augustine's, but afterwards his nephew made it into a separate house, with a master and three chaplains. Not quite fifty years before the surrender in 1540, there had been a great “variance” between the abbot of St. Augustine's and the mayor and sheriffs of Bristol, in which some of the principal matters in dispute concerned the “house of Seint Marke of Billeswyk, and the precincte of same called the Gauntes, adjoyning unto [Seint Austyn's] grene,” touching (among other things) the right to hold a leet or law-day within the precincts of the monastery of St. Augustine's, and also to whom suit was owing from the precincts of the Gaunts or Gauntis-side. The records of the “bills” and “replications,” &c. in this “variance,” which was settled by mediation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1496 (11 Hen. VII.), are contained in the first several leaves of the “Great White Book of Records,” belonging to the Corporation of Bristol.

In later days a hospital was founded “at the Gaunts” for “poore fatherless children,” by Win. Bird, Mayor, out of money left in 1586 for that purpose by John Carr, merchant of Bristol (see after, p. 62). See as to the family of the founder, and further as to the history of the house, Barrett's History of Bristol, pp. 352–376.

^{Page 57 note *} See before, p. 53.

^{Page 57 note †} i. e. pitched, the local word for paved.

^{Page 57 note ‡} A Decree, dated 17 Sept. 9 Eliz., in the matter of these Sewers is recorded in the Great White Book of Records, fo. 318b. Another old MS., copying this entry, has “Sea-walles” instead of “Sewars.” (Seyer's Mem. Bristol, ii. 240.) The word is here used in its true and original sense, and this orthography carries it back to its derivation. (See Toulmin Smith's “Laws of England relating to Public Health,” 1848, pp. 67, 80.)

^{Page 57 note §} Sheriff of the counties of Somerset and Dorset in 1562 (Harl. MS. 1385, fo. 1). His son, George Speke, esq. was Sheriff of Dorset in 1592. For an interesting sketch of the Speko family see “Trotandot's Rambles” by Mr. G. P. R. Pulman, 1870, p. 95.

^{Page 59 note *} A longer account of this entertainment is quoted in Nichols' “Progresses of Elizabeth,” i. 393—406, from “Churchyard's Chips” published in 1575. A prayer by the Queen on this occasion, “giving thanks for her preservation on that long and dangerous journey,” is also extant. (See Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, sub. 1574, p. 486, No. 13.)

^{Page 59 note †} i. e. between July 25 and January 25.

^{Page 59 note ‡} Seeks, or sack, and bastard, a kind of sweet muscadel, coming, as is here said, from Spain, may be both found noticed among other mediaeval wines in “The Babees Book: Manners and Meals of the Olden Time,” ed. by F. J. Furnivall for the Early English Text Society, 1868, p. 205. “These hote wynes, as Malmsey, wyne corse, wyne greke, Eomanyke, Eomney, Secke, Alygaune, Basterde,” &c. Andrew Borde, quoted ib.

^{Page 60 note *} See note, p. 59.

^{Page 60 note †} This refers to one of Frobisher's voyages. (See State Papers, Domestic, Eliz. vol. 126, Nos. 20, 21, 22.) Two of his ships had unladed at Bristol the year before, and many curious details as to the ore and its trial are preserved in the State Paper Office. (See Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547—1580, pp. 556, 602, &c.)

^{Page 62 note *} The rest of the sentence is in a different hand to that of the foregoing.

^{Page 64 note *} A long contemporary account of this inundation is quoted by Seyer, Mem. Bristol, ii. 261. See also Cal. State Papers, Domestic, 1607, p. 348, No. 51.

^{Page 65 note *} Mention is made of a projected visit to Bath in a letter of Feb. 12. Mrs Green's Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, sub. 1612, p. 119, No. 62. See also Wood's Fasti Oxon. (edit. Bliss,) i. 270, and Nichols's Progresses, &c, of King James I. vol. ii. p. 643.

^{Page 65 note †} The unit or unite was a gold coin which was coined in 2nd of James I., and took the place of the sorereign. It seems to haye been named to commemorate the union between England and Scotland, as it bore the legend: “Faciam eos in gentem unam.” It was raised in value from 20s. to 22s. by Proclamation dated May 18, 1611.