1840 - A History of Cheltenham - Ancient Customs of the Town.

1840 - A History of Cheltenham - Ancient Customs of the Town.

Published:1840 - A History of Cheltenham by John Goding

Published again: 1863 - Norman's History of Cheltenham by John Goding

https://archive.org/details/normanshistoryof00godi/page/62/mode/2up?q=norwood

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CHAPTER XIV.

ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF THE TOWN.

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Cheltenham anciently enjoyed rights and customs of a very important character. In the reigns of Henry III., Edward III., and IV., the Cheltenham manor was invested with chartered rights to a great extent; and it is an interesting fact, that not only our Manorial records, but also the Parliamentary Rolls, detail the whole of those privileges with minuteness at the time they were severally granted. The first endowment by charter was made by Henry III., six hundred years ago, who gave to the borough a market and a fair. In following years, successive grants were made, and ultimately, Cheltenham acquired privileges of greater importance than any place of its extent in Great Britain. A few of these ancient rights will be referred to with a view to demonstrate that Cheltenham was once as famous for its chartered liberties, as it now is for its Spa waters. The inhabitants of the manor were exempt after the thirteenth century, from the many heavy taxes paid by the country generally, and from the payment of all toll throughout England.

The goods of all felons, felo de sees, and outlaws, within the hundred, as well as all fines, which then and even at the present day, were the right of the crown in every part of Great Britain, the Lord of the Manor had the power to receive. The manorial steward was also a justice of the highest authority, having the power to try and commit offenders; a branch of this local jurisdiction was the holding of a " Three Weeks' Court" for the recovery of debts, and many minor objects. This valuable privilege has never been abrogated by any subsequent act, and it is only lost to us by disuse. After the Court had ceased to be summoned for about a century, an application was made to Parliament for its revival, but without success. The loss of this ancient right is now no longer felt. The New County Court Act gave to Cheltenham the privilege it much needed. The County Court Hall in Regent-street, is open weekly for the hearing of cases, and the presiding judge, J. Francillon, Esq., resides in the locality.

The trial and execution of criminals within the manor is also a tradition of long standing. Coltham-lane (now Hale's-road) was sometimes called "Hangman's-lane," and an oak which stood by its side was called " Gallows Oak," from a belief that the condemned criminals were executed upon it. This oakis yet remembered by many of the old inhabitants. Other privileges were the election of a Coroner, who acted only for the manor; exemption from supporting the eldest sons of Kings; the right of sending Parliamentary representatives, and also of choosing justices of the peace. Cheltenham, indeed, possessed rights to an immense extent; it formed an independent district uncontrolled by some statute laws of the realm, and so many and extended were its judicial privilege, that it had the power of erecting a pillory and a gallows for the punishment of prisoners tried at its own local court.

These interesting facts, we have before remarked, have been elicited both from manorial and national records. It is gratifying to be enabled to confirm their correctness by publishing their recapitulation from an invaluable M.S. John Prynne, Esq., an ancestor of the well known Prinn family, of Charlton Park, and whose family history will be found in the succeeding chapter, was one of the most indefatigable collectors of unpublished local records in the reign of Charles II. He filled the office of steward of this manor in 1690, and the careful mode in which he registered the manorial proceedings of his day, proves his ability and faithfulness. He left behind him a quantity of manuscript books; one of the number, written in a clear style, is now in the possession of J. S. Cox, Esq. This M.S. work recites the ancient rights of our manor, with the dates when some of them were first granted, and arranged in the following manner :-" Customs ofthe Manor. -Within this manor are sundry ffranchises and lybertys, which are very rarely found in any other mannor within the realme, viz.--To make justices of assize, justices of coram and of peace, custos rotulorum, sheriffs, high and low-stewards, high and low-bailiffs, high and low-bailiffs of the borough- escheater and coroner within the hundred and lyberty. And that no manner of out-officers shall have to do within the ffranchise or lyberty, but by a special commission from the Lord of the Manor and Hundred.' In the 31st of the reign of King Henry the Third, the abbey of Fescamp, in Normandy, exchanged the manors and hundreds of Cheltenham and Slaughter for Winchelsea and Rye.

The King granted the said manors to the said Abbeys, with all laws, liberties, customs, pleas, plaints, and causes, without diminution of any secular or judicial power or things thereto belonging, and that the same manors and hundreds might be quit from all earthly customs and from every gift and subjection to barons or princes; and that the abbot and monks might have all royal liberty and customs, and all justice of all things, and business that within the said manors and hundreds might arise; nor should any except themselves interfere, because the whole of this royal gift is from all service quit, as in the charters of Edw. (Confessor), William ( Conqueror), and Henry the First, Kings of England, more fully is contained- but if any one should presume any thing contrary to this gift and confirmation, he having been summoned before the Exchequer, shall pay one hundred pounds of gold. By 40, Edward III., the grant to the abbot and monks of Fescamp is confirmed of the manor and hundred of Cheltenham, and that they might have liberties, viz.—view of Frankpledge of all tenants and resiants, cognizance of all pleas whatsoever, as well of the crown as of common pleas—their own gaols to be delivered of whatever homicides and other criminals, by their own proper bailiffs; return and execution of writs, fines, amerciaments, &c.; neither the steward nor marshal shall enter in the same, and that they be quit of toll all over England.”

The 5th of Edward IV. states the terms of the grant to the abbess of Sion in Middlesex, to the abbess and nuns and their successors, and to all the men tenants residing and not residing, and all others residing in all and singular the manor and lordship of the said abbess and convent; to wit, " to be free of all toll, carriage of treasure, and to make kings' eldest sons knights, marriage of kings eldest daughters, aid to sheriffs, charges of knights and burgesses of parliament, fines to the sheriffs' torns, suit to the sheriffs' torns, views of frankpledge, leets, law days, &c., wapentakes, assize of wine, beer, and bread, tolls of the market, waifs, treasure trove, shipwrecks, deodands, felons ' goods, escapes of felons, and that they should erect and have gallows, pillory, and tumbrill for the punishment of malefactors; and all fines for license of concord, and all fines and forfeitures of bailers and sureties, free warren, courts from three weeks to three weeks of all actions before the stewards or bailiffs, ward, marriage, and reliefs, &c., and all pleas, as before stated, with power to attach by their bodies, and commit to prison; and that no sheriff or other officer of the crown shall have power in the said lordship."

In the same valuable M.S. work, is preserved an account of an event which strikingly demonstrates the past customs and privileges of Cheltenham from time immemorial. It is the relation of a trial which took place between Queen Elizabeth's Attorney General, and W. Norwood, Esq., of Leckhampton, the then Lord of the Manor, respecting the many claims and exceptions which he exercised.

The opening Speech of the Attorney General details the whole of the obsolete rights, as follows :-" Hilary Term, 32nd Elizabeth-Regina v. Norwood.-By a judgment of the Court of Exchequer, John Popham, the Queen's Attorney-General, gave the court to understand that Wm. Norwood, Esq., useth without any legal grant, within the lordship of Cheltenham, the liberties, privileges, and franchises following, therein fully set forth ' that all men, tenants, resiants and not resiants, and all others residing and not residing within the aforesaid lordship, &c., and all goods, chattels, and merchandizes of the same and every of them, may be quit throughout England from all pannage, &c., and from all other toll-from all soot and geld, &c.; and from conducting all treasure, and from all manner of custom, and from all aids to make knights of the eldest sons of kings and to marry eldest daughters of kings; and from the expence of sending knights and burgesses to Parliament, and from all fines and issues of the county and sheriffs ' torn and hundred, and from all tolls, &c., although the same men were tenants, officers, and ministers of our said lady the Queen, &c. And to have and hold within the said lordship, view of frankpledge, leets, law-days, and wapentakes, of all men, &c, in whatsoever places to be appointed by the said William Norwood, his heirs and assigns- by the stewards or officers to be holden, together with assize and assats; and the assize of bread, beer, and all other victuals, and measures and weights whatsoever, that to the officer or clerk of the market ofthe Queen's household, belong to do and execute, with all profits therefrom arising, and with soc, sac, &c., treasure trove, wreck of the sea, deodands, chattels of felons, outlaws, felo de se, escape of felons, year, day, and waste, within the lordship; and that the said William Norwood, his heirs and assigns, might erect and have gallows, pillory, and tumbrill, in any place within the said lordship, that to him may seem meet for the punishment and judgment of malefactors, which should happen to be apprehended within the liberties afore said; and to have all fines, as well for license of concord as other fines, and all amerciaments, redemptions and forfeitures, as well before the Queen, her heirs or successors, as before the chancellor, treasurer and barons of the Exchequer, her justices and commissioners, to be done, forfeited, and adjudged of all residents in the said manor-and also pledges and main-pernors of the same, although same residents, of the said Queen or others, lands and tenements, had held, and although they or any of them be officers or ministers of the Queen, her heirs or successors, or although the said pledges or main-pernors were or were not tenants of the said William Norwood, or residents or not residents within the said lordship, and to have free warren in the said lordship, and to have and hold before a steward and his bailiffs from three weeks to three weeks, courts for complaints, all manner of pleas, accounts, debts, detention of charters, writings, muniments, and chattels, of the taking and detention of cattle and chattels of transgressors by force of arms or otherwise in contempt of the said Queen, contrary to the form of the statute, and of agreements, contracts, and personal actions, within the said lordship, in like manner to hold for whatever sums, accounts, debts, chattels, or injuries, trangressions, or agreements, and of any pleas, &c., and persons against whom such like complaints in the court aforesaid should happen to be moved, by their bodies to be attached, and committed and detained in prison, and to hear all pleas, and those by like process, consideration, and judgment, execution of judgment, to be treated and terminated, as in pleas of like sort in the court of our said lady the Queen, and to have cognizance of all pleas of any contracts and actions, real, personal, and mixed, and all other pleas within said lordships; and all other complaints, as well pleas of assize as replevin within said lordship, happening, done, or arising, as well before our lady the Queen as before the chancellor, treasurer, and barons of the exchequer, justices to hold pleas, justices of the common bench, and justices of assize, as well general as special, and that the same pleas before the said steward or bailiffs in court aforesaid, should be had, held, discussed and terminated, and judgment given and executed upon the same in the manner aforesaid - and to have the return of all writs of every nature, &c., and that no sheriff or other officers or ministers of the crown should attach within said lordship, but it should be commanded that the said Willliam Norwood or his heirs or ministers do execution thereon, and that no escheator, minister or bailiff of the Queen in the said lordship, should enter to do or execute any thing; ' of which liberties, & c., the said William Norwood then and as yet doth usurp.

Whereupon the said Queen's attorney-general doth seek the advice of the court, and that the said William Norwood be required to show by what warrant he claimeth the said privilege.

Whereupon it was commanded that the said William Norwood do appear." Thus we see that Queen Elizabeth's Attorney General in framing the indictment specified the whole of the important privileges in use, or claimed to be used by the then Lord of our manor.

There are a few words employed which require explanation : -“ Tumbrill"—a cucking stool, or ducking stool; a machine used for the correction of scolds and unquiet women.-(Crabb's Technological Dictionary. ) " Cuck," " guck," or " duck," in Saxon, signified to scold or brawl; and " ing " in that language signified water; because a scolding woman was for her punishment soused in that water.-(Lord Coke. ) " Ducking stool." The woman was convicted upon an indictment for being a common and turbulent brawler and sower of discord amongst her honest and quiet neighbours.-(Burn's Justice. ) This was the ancient method of punishing scolding women :-A post was set up in a pond. Across this post was placed a transver e beam, turning on a swivel, with a chair at one end of it, in which, when the culprit was properly placed, that end was turned to the pond, and let down into the water.-(Manning's Surrey. ) " Pannage.”— The feeding of swine upon masts in woods; also the money paid for the license of having pannage, and a tax upon cloth.-( Stat. Westr. 2, 13 Edw. III. ) " Geld.” —The value or price of a man or beast slain; or a tribute for other customary things.- (Ibid. )

William Norwood obeyed the summons, and in person conducted his own defence, and in doing so detailed all the rights, as well as many of the manorial possessors.

There is not probably on record an instance of a similar case being so ably argued and explained. The defendant's address-which took some time in delivery -travelled through many centuries of history, and manifested the most laboured research, as will be seen from what follows :-" On the octaves of the purification of the Virgin Mary, the said William Norwood appeared, and said that he intendeth not that the said lady the Queen should be prejudiced, because he saith that long before the exhibiting of the said information, Elizabeth, late abbess of the late dissolved monastery of St. Saviour and the Saints Mary the Virgin, and Bridget of Sion, of the order of St. Augustin, in the county of Middlesex, was seised of the said lordship of Cheltenham in right of her said monastery, the said late abbess being seised, Lord Edward, late king of England the Fourth, on the 24th of March, in the fifth year of his reign, made the letters patent, to the effect hereinbefore stated, (vide charter 5th Edward 4th) and he thereby confirmed all privileges to the said abbess or any of her predecessors by any of his progenitors granted; and granted them powers to exchange the said lordships for others, and he granted them all said privileges, and that all the said charters and every of them should be expounded against the said king and his heirs, and applied to the best advantage, profit, and utility of the said abbess and her successors, without any revocation or resumption of the premises by authority of any parliament of the said king or his heirs, notwithstanding the order, foundation of the said monastery, or the annual value or certainty of the said lordships, or other gifts or grants to the said abbess or her predecessors, by the said king, or any of his predecessors, in any of their charters, should be defective, or stated incorrectly.

By pretext whereof the said abbess was seised of the liberties, &c. in the said information specified, and died so seised; after whose death, Agnes, late abbess of said dissolved monastery, was elected and presided, and was seised of said franchise, &c. &c.; and being so seised, she, with consent of her said monastery, on the 20th of May, in the 31st year of the reign of the lord, the late king Henry VIII., by a certain writing, sealed with the common seal, enrolled in Chancery, granted and surrendered to the said late king, as well the said monastery as the manors aforesaid, and liberties aforesaid, to hold to said king, his heirs and successors for ever. And afterwards by act of parliament of said late king, it was enacted that said late king should have and enjoy to him and his successors for ever, all such monasteries, &c., which, after the 4th of February, in the 27th year of his reign, were dissolved, &c.; or in any way came to his hands, in as ample and large a manner and form as the late abbots, abbesses, & c., previously held or enjoyed the same in right of their monasteries, &c.; and that the sites of the said monasteries, manors, lordships, &c., rights, privileges, &c., to the same belonging, should be fully and effectually vested in said king, his heirs and successors. And by a certain other act passed in the aforesaid parliament, on the 28th of April, in the 31st year above mentioned, and by divers prorogations continued to the 24th of July, in the 32d year, it was enacted, that all liberties which the aforesaid late proprietors had used or could by themselves, their officers, or ministers, have used, within three months next before the said sites, &c., came into possession of the said king, were, by said act, revived and vested in said king.

Norwood saith, that said abbess, within three months before the dissolution of said monastery, did lawfully use and exercise the liberties, &c., in said information stated; and that the said late king, by virtue of such surrender and acts of parliament, was seised of said manor and privileges, &c., and died so seised thereof; upon whose death the said lordship and liberties descended to Lord Edward the 6th, late king of England, who also died seised thereof, without heir of body issuing; upon whose death, the said lordship and liberties descended to Lady Mary, late queen of England, who married Philip, king of Spain, and the said king and queen became seised thereof; and on the 26th of October, in the first and second years of their reign, by their letters patent, bearing date the same day, granted to Roger Lygon, and Catherine Buckler, late wife of Sir Walter Buckler deceased, the said lordship and privileges aforesaid, to hold, to said Roger and Catherine, and their assigns, for their lives and the life of the longest liver, by virtue of which letters they became seised; and the said Roger and Catherine being so seised, and our lady the now queen, of the reversion being seised, on the 25th of June, in the 16th year of her reign, by her letters patent, now produced, reciting the demise and grant to said Roger and Catherine, granted the reversion of the said lordship, with all rights, liberties, &c., as before mentioned, to hold, to John Woolley, esquire, and his assigns, from the death of said Roger and Catherine, for the term of thirty one years, by virtue of which he became possessed thereof; and the aforesaid Roger and Catherine, before the usurpation above supposed to have been made, to wit, on the 20th of July, in the 28th year of our said now lady, the queen, died seised; upon whose death, the said John Woolley became seised, and being so seised, on the 1st of October, in the 31st year of the reign of our said queen, by his writing, sealed with his seal and now produced, granted to the same Wm. Norwood, all his estate, interest, and term of years, in said lordship, &c.; by virtue of which grant, the said William Norwood, entered, and was and is seised thereof, and of the liberties, & c., and yet useth the same; all and singular of which premises the said Wm. Norwood was prepared to verify, and prays judgment, and that he be dismissed."

The voluminous facts proved by Wm. Norwood, were incontrovertible; the suit was terminated in his favour, and our manor was confirmed in the use of its old charters, as the conclusion of Mr Prinn's manuscript clearly sets forth:- "And her Majesty's Attorney- General having seen the plea ofsaid Norwood, and examined the said letters patent, and that it was evident to him that said Norwood used such liberties according to the form of said letters patent &c., the same attorney acknowledges the plea aforesaid to be true, and that he will not prosecute farther; and judgment was. given for the said William Norwood. "