THE BURTON CHARTULARY. 139 
FOLIO go. 
On the authority of this writ, G. de Clifton, the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, 
directed his Bailiff of Wirkesworth to release the cattle, on the tenants giving 
security to prosecute their suit against the Abbot. 
MALIciA SYMONIS DE CLIFTON, (In red letters.) 
On the 25th July, Symon de Clifton, the Bailiff of Wirkesworth, gave up to 
the tenants seven oxen and twenty-nine cows which were at Huncedon, not- 
withstanding the protest of our serviens there that they belonged to the Abbot. 
The Sheriff of Nottinghamshire also wrote in similar terms to the Bailiff of 
Repindon, but when the Bailiff came to Caldewall to replevy the cattle of the 
tenants of Magna Quvra, on being informed that the cattle there belonged to 
the Abbot, he went away without delivering them up. 
The tenants also brought a writ to the Sheriff of Staffordshire ordering him 
to replevy their cattle, and the above-named Sheriff sent the same mandate to 
the Bailiff of Pirehull, who coming to Bromley was informed that all the cattle 
there belonged to the Abbot: no cattle were therefore given up at that place. 
Upon this the villains of Magna Uvera went with their wives and children 
(‘cum uxoribus et parvulis”) to the King, who was then at Nottingham, and 
laying before him a grievous complaint of robbery and expulsion from their 
houses, ‘‘querelam gravissimam de roberia et expulsione domorum detulerunt,” 
brought back with them new writs to the Sheriffs to replevy their cattle. 
But on the 7th August a Court was held at Finderne, where many of the 
tenants of Magna Uvera acknowledged themselves to be the Abbot’s villains, 
and prayed for the release of their cattle. They were told to present them- 
selves at the next County Court, when an answer would be given them. 
On the 8th August, in the presence of G. de Clifton, the Sheriff of Derby- 
shire, Sir William de Hondesacre, Sir Robert de Warda, Sir Robert de 
Staunton, Sir John Grim, Sir Alured de Suleney, Sir Ralph de Mungoy, Sir 
Henry de Braylesfort, and Sir Henry de Chaundoys, Knights, and many other 
freeholders, Nicholas, son of William (the Provost), and five other tenants, 
came and acknowledged themselves to be natives at the will of their lord 
_(“‘nativos ad voluntatem domini”), and pledged themselves not to sue out any 
writ against their lord ; and this was enrolled on the County Roll (‘‘in rotulo 
Comitatiis”). Henry Abbot of Uvera, and eleven other tenants, having 
appeared as plaintiffs against the Abbot, complaining that he and his men had 
come in the night to their houses at Uvera, and had unjustly taken away their 
goods and chattels, the Abbot defended the suit, stating he had taken none of 
their goods, because he had taken his own goods only, because being villains 
they held nothing ‘‘extra ventrem.” And the said Henry and the other 
tenants by John de Lokinton their speaker (‘‘narratorem suum”), said they 
were free men, and put themselves on the Country (¢.e., appealed to a jury), 
