170 BRIDPORT HARBOUR. 



vessels belonging to the town may have come to grief on the 

 western beach when making for shelter. The abbot apparently 

 wished to fight a test action, as the defendants represented 

 the chief families of the neighbourhood, including at least 

 five persons who were Bailiffs in the time of Edward I. The 

 mention of the " fief " claimed for Bridport goes to show that 

 some description of easement or privilege was owned by the 

 borough, although it had been overstepped on that occasion. 

 We may now return to the east cliff and take note of another 

 fragment of information relative to the triangular encounters 

 between the king, the prior, and the town. These differences 

 had temporarily been set at rest by the judgment based upon 

 the verdict of the knights in the eighth year of Edward I., 

 as previously mentioned, but in his sixteenth year (1287-8) 

 the same trouble broke out afresh and the aid of the law was 

 again sought at Sherborne, in the Octave of the Trinity in 

 that year. 



The jury present that the prior of Frompton obstructs the 

 burgesses of the King's town of Bry deport in taking toll and 

 keelage of ships coming to land (applico) in Bry deport, between the 

 cliff of the abbot of Cerne and the cliff of the abbot of Cadomum, 

 just as he had been formerly accustomed to take them. Therefore 

 the sheriff was ordered to cause the prior to attend. Afterwards 

 the prior comes and says that the same presentment was made 

 before the treasurer of the King at his last coming to this county. 

 Accordingly the precept to the sheriff was that he should take 

 the said customs into the hands of our lord the King until [the case 

 was decided]. And the treasurer appointed a day in the King's 

 exchequer at Westminster within three weeks of the day of St. 

 John Baptist. Therefore it stands adjourned to that day. 

 Assize roll 213, m. 49. 



A similar presentment is on roll 215 (also 16 Edw. I.), when the 

 case is further adjourned until Michaelmas. 



I had hoped to trace the course of the suit after it was thus 

 transferred to the Court of Exchequer, but having failed in 

 that quest I am unable to complete the series of extracts in a 

 fitting manner by citing the final solution of the dispute. 

 It is not impossible, however, that the proceedings had no 



