Accounts of the Constables of Bristol Castle
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BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS General Editor: PROFESSOR PATRICK MCGRATH, M.A., Assistant General Editor: MISS ELIZABETH RALPH, M .A., F.S.A. VOL. XXXIV ACCOUNTS OF THE CONSTABLES OF BRISTOL CASTLE IN 1HE THIRTEENTH AND EARLY FOURTEENTH CENTURIES ACCOUNTS OF THE CONSTABLES OF BRISTOL CASTLE IN THE THIR1EENTH AND EARLY FOUR1EENTH CENTURIES EDITED BY MARGARET SHARP Printed for the BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY 1982 ISSN 0305-8730 © Margaret Sharp Produced for the Society by A1an Sutton Publishing Limited, Gloucester Printed in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Limited Trowbridge CONTENTS Page Abbreviations VI Preface XI Introduction Xlll Pandulf- 1221-24 1 Ralph de Wiliton - 1224-25 5 Burgesses of Bristol - 1224-25 8 Peter de la Mare - 1282-84 10 Peter de la Mare - 1289-91 22 Nicholas Fermbaud - 1294-96 28 Nicholas Fermbaud- 1300-1303 47 Appendix 1 - Lists of Lords of Castle 69 Appendix 2 - Lists of Constables 77 Appendix 3 - Dating 94 Bibliography 97 Index 111 ABBREVIATIONS Abbrev. Plac. Placitorum in domo Capitulari Westmon asteriensi asservatorum abbrevatio ... Ed. W. Dlingworth. Rec. Comm. London, 1811. Ann. Mon. Annales monastici Ed. H.R. Luard. 5v. (R S xxxvi) London, 1864-69. BBC British Borough Charters, 1216-1307. Ed. A. Ballard and J. Tait. 3v. Cambridge 1913-43. BOAS Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Transactions (Author's name and the volume number quoted. Full details in bibliography). BIHR Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. BM British Museum - Now British Library. Book of Fees Liber Feodorum: the Book of Fees com monly called Testa de Nevill 3v. HMSO 1920-31. Book of Seals Sir Christopher Hatton's Book of Seals Ed. L.C. Lloyd and D.M. Stenton. Oxford 1950. BRS Bristol Record Society (Author's name and volume number quoted. Full details in bibliography). CCR Calendar of Close Rolls (HMSO 1902- ). C.Ch.R. Calendar of Charter Rolls (HMSO 1903- ). CFR Calendar of Fine Rolls (HMSO 1911- ). C.l.Misc. Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery) (HMSO 1916- ). CIPM Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem (HMSO 1904- ). C.Lib.R. Calendar of Liberate Rolls (HMSO 1916- ). CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls (HMSO 1901- ). Cal. Inquis. Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem Abbreviations vii sive Escaetarum Ed. J. Caley & J. Bayley 4v. (Rec. Comm.) London (1806-28). CRR Curia Regis Rolls (HMSO 1923- ). CS Camden Society publications (Royal His torical Soc.). Cart. Mon. Gloucs. Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae Ed. W.H. Hart 3v. (RS xxxiii) 1863-87. Chart. privileg. Chartae, privilegia, et immunitates being transcripts of charters and privileges to cities, towns, abbeys and other bodies cor porate (in Ireland) 1171-1395 Irish Rec. Comm. 1889. Cole, Sir H. Documents illustrative of English history in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (Rec. Comm.) London 1844. Comp. peer GEC, Complete Peerage. DNB Dictionary of National Biography. DWB Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Ducange Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis 7 vols. Paris 1840. Econ. HR Economic History Review. EHD English Historical D9cuments. EHR English Historical Review. EPNS English Place Name Society. Gl.Inq. Abstracts of Inquisitions Post Mortem for Gloucestershire pt. iv ed. S.J. Madge, (British R.S. Index Lib. xxx) 1903. pt. v ed. E.A. Fry, (British R.S. Index Lib. xi) ed. E. Stokes, (British R.S. Index Lib. lxvii) 1914. HBC Handbook of British Chronology Ed. F.M. Powicke and E.B. Fryde. 2nd edn. (Roy. Hist. Soc.) London 1961. Jones, Acta Preen, M. (aft. Mrs. Jones) 'The Acta of John, Lord of Ireland and Count of Mortain' (See bibliography). King's Works See bibliography under Brown, R.A., Colvin, H.M. and Taylor, A.J. Litt. Wall. Edwards, Sir J.G., Littere Wallie preserved in Liber A in the Public Record Office (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Stud.) Cardiff 1940. Niermeyer Niermeyer, J.F., Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus Leiden 1976. viii Accounts of the Constables of Bristol Castle Pari. Writs. Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons with records and muniments re lating to suit and service to Parliament Ed. Sir F. Palgrave 2v. (Rec. Comm). London 1827-34. Patterson Patterson, R.B., Earldom of Gloucester Charters. Oxford 1973. Potter Gesta Stephani Ed. K.R. Potter (Nelson's Medieval Texts) Edinburgh 1955. William of Malmesbury Historia Novella, Ed. K.R. Potter (Nelson's Medieval Texts) Edinburgh 1955. PRO Land I Public Record Office Lists and indexes. PRS Pipe Roll Society. Rec. Comm. Publications of the Record Commissioners. Regesta Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum Ed. H.W.C. Davis, continued by R.H.C. Davis, H.A. Cronne etc. Rigg Rigg, J .M., Calendar of the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews London 1905-10. Roles Gascons France. Ministere de !'Instruction Publique. Roles Gascons (des rois d'Angleterre) Ed. by F. Michel and C. Bemont. 4v. in 5 (Coli. des doe. inedits sur l'hist. de France). Paris 1885-1962. RS Rolls Series. Rot. Cur. Reg. Rotuli Curiae Regis Ed. Sir F. Palgrave. 2v. (Rec. Comm.) London 1835. Rot. Hund. Rotuli Hundredorum. Ed. W. Illingworth and J. Caley. 2v. (Rec. Comm.) London 1812-18. Rot. Lit. Cl. Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi asservati Accurante T.D. Hardy :iv. (Rec. Comm.) London 1833-44. Rot. Lit. Pat. Rotuli Litterarum Patentium in Turri Londinensi asservati Accurante T.D. Hardy (Rec. Comm.) London 1835. ss Selden Society. SRS Somerset Record Society. Suss. RS Sussex Record Society. TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. VCH Victoria History of the Counties of England. Abbreviations ix WHR Welsh History Review. WRS Wiltshire Record Society (The Records Branch of the Wilts. Archaeological & Natural History Society). Wo. RS Worcestershire Record Society. PREFACE It was about 30 years .ago that I began my work on the constables of Bristol castle in the thirteenth century. Since that time there have been a number of changes of plan which I need not set out here. The result has been that I have done a good deal of work towards a more comprehensive publication of accounts and a more comprehensive introduction than is now possible. In the event, I am publishing here a selection of the constables' accounts studied and some of the material collected with a view to a full introduction. The edited version of the other accounts has, however, been made available to the general editor (and is available for reference at the Bristol Record Office) and should form the basis of a later volume in this series. As a result, there is some inevitable lack of balance between the parts of the introduction on the castle and the barton which I have discussed fairly fully and the earlier more summary sections. I have these debts to acknowledge: the Colston Research Committee, whose grant in 1950 enabled me to embark on the work; the general editor, Professor McGrath, who has been unstinting in encouragement and help over the years; Marjorie Kennedy, latterly my research assistant, a real collaborator in the work; my son Tom, also a collaborator in it; Antonia Parker Jones for typing; and numerous other colleagues, fellow scholars, friends and family, who by encouraging me, and being forbear ing, have helped keep me at it. Needless to say, while I happily give credit to all of these, the responsibility is mine. Margaret Sharp March 1981 INTRODUCTION A. The Texts Studied and Published The accounts studied cover a short period, 1221-1225, during Henry Ill's minority, and the whole of the period 1275-1307; accounts for the intermediate period do not appear to survive. In choosing the texts to be published I have had in mind the desirability of providing some comparative evidence both within the two main periods for which accounts have been studied and between them. I have therefore taken two of the three early accounts (together with an account, complementary to one of these, submitted by the burgesses of Bristol), and two well separated accounts from each of the constables in Edward I's reign who held the office for a long period of years, namely Peter de la Mare and Nicholas Fermbaud. These accounts, with the material in the footnotes, give a fair indication as to what the accounts taken as a whole contain. The first three of the accounts are published in the original ""Latin; the others in calendared form. For each account there is a brief description, a heading (in the original, or translated), and then the text. I also publish as appendices detailed lists on the succession of the lords of the castle, and of the constables, together with a short note on the methods of dating used by the constables' clerks in their accounts. B. The Accounts The accounts published here are taken from the Pipe Rolls or Great Rolls of the Exchequer.' Note is taken of any variant reading in the counter roll made at the same time by the Chancellor's clerk2 as a check, and later used by the Chancery to issue the twice yearly summons of the pipe. I PRO E372. 2 PRO E352. xiv Accounts of the Constables of Bristol Castle The constables' accounts published are these: Pandulf 1221-24 Ralph de Wiliton 1224-25 Peter de la Mare 1282-84 Peter de la Mare 1289-91 Nicholas Fermbaud 1294-96 Nicholas Fermbaud 1300-03 Immediately after the account of Ralph de Wiliton there is published a complementary account of the burgesses of Bristol. In March 1224 the burgesses had made the first of a series of fines with Henry Ill (then still a minor) to have the farm of their town for one year, rendering a payment of £245 in two instalments, 3 and at the end of that year, in March 1225, they rendered their account of sums paid by them out of the farm in response to orders delivered to them by royal writ.