PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



granted to them their Eight Hundreds ' so freely that neither king nor bishop 

 nor earl nor shirereeve have any command there, nor any one save the abbot 

 only and him whom he shall appoint thereto,' and ' with sac and soc, toll and 

 theam and infangenthef.' ' These immunities are even more fully stated in 

 a charter of Richard I, who confirmed the lands to Peterborough free from 

 scot, geld, etc., ' from shires and suits of shires, hundreds, wapentakes and 

 tithings,' with sac and soc, toll and theam, infangenthef and outfangenthef. ' 

 From John in 1 2 1 5 the abbot obtained leave to disafforest the soke of Peter- 

 borough,' and from Henry III in 1228 the privilege of collecting the king's 

 dues throughout his hundreds and demesnes in Northamptonshire without 

 the interference of the sheriff.* He obtained in 1253 another charter, 

 granting to him the chattels of felons and fugitives, pleas of namii vetiti, 

 and the return of writs in all his hundreds and demesnes.^ Early in the reign 

 of Edward I he claimed by prescription a right to have a prison at Peter- 

 borough for felons taken within the liberty. ' At this time the amerce- 

 ments were saved to the king, but by 1329 these also belonged to the abbot. ^ 

 Henry VI further extended the privileges of the abbey in 1460 by granting 

 licence to the abbot to constitute at will justices, one of whom was to be of 

 the quorum for the county of Northamptonshire, to deliver the gaol of Peter- 

 borough, and also to have a court of pleas in Peterborough.^ This was 

 confirmed by Edward IV, with the restriction that one of the justices must 

 either be of the quorum or at least a person skilled in the law.' Henry VII 

 enlarged the same in 1493, ^"^ granted that the abbot's bailiff should have 

 all the rights pertaining to the office of sheriff, and that the abbot might 

 appoint a sufficient person as coroner. ^° In this reign the abbot recovered 

 from Margaret, countess of Richmond, lady of the manors of Torpel and 

 Maxey, with the knights' fees pertaining to them, his right of view of frank- 

 pledge, and certain rents and dues of which the abbey had been defrauded 

 since the reign of Richard II, ' through the power and influence of the lords 

 of these manors, against whom the abbot could not enforce his rights.' " 

 Henry VIII resumed the right of appointing the justices of gaol delivery, ^^ 

 but the other large powers of the abbot passed intact to the first bishop of 

 Peterborough, with the lordship of the hundred of Nassaburgh." In 1576 

 Bishop Scambler sold the latter with all its privileges to Queen Elizabeth, 

 who immediately granted it in fee to her treasurer, Lord Burghley, whose 

 descendant, the marquis of Exeter, now holds it." 



There were two hundred courts in the ' two hundreds of Nass,' one in 

 Peterborough for the vill and its wards,^^ and the other for the hundred of 

 Nassaburgh, at which the hamlets of the vill of Peterborough, as w^ell as all 

 the other places in the soke, did suit, except the abbot's ' liberty of Stamford,' 

 for which a separate view of frank-pledge was held.^'' The Nassaburgh court 



' J. S. Chnm. (Rolls Ser.), i, 220. ' Cart. Antiq. DD. 16, 17. 



' Charter printed in Gunton, App. p. 154. * Fine R. 12 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 4. 



' Chart. R. 28 Edw. I, m. $, No. 21, inspecting charter of 37 Hen. III. 



* Chron. Petrob. (Camden Soc), 124. ' Ibid. ; Quo fTarr. R. (Rec. Com.}, p. 553. 



^ Pat. 38 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 8. » Ibid. 2 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 10. 



'° Ibid. 8 Hen. V'll, pt. ii, m.15. Printed in L. B. Caches, Hist, of the Lib. of Pcterlorough (1905), p. 23. 

 " Ibid. 3 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 20. Inspeximus of an indenture dated 19 Hen. \'II. 

 " Stat. 27 Hen. VIII, cap. 24. " Pat. 33 Hen. \'II, pt. iii, m.13. 



" Close 19 Eliz. pt. xxi, m. 1,13. 

 " See below, p. 427, for date of creation of this court. 

 " Ct. R. in custody of the dean and chapter of Peterborough. 



423 



