PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



borough forms no hundred of itself, but is an 

 integral part of the hundred of Upton Green.' But a 

 change in the name of the hundred was made not 

 long after this time — a change due, we may suspect, 

 to the creation of a new borough. In an early 

 1 2th century survey' the hundred of Upton Green 

 has disappeared, and is represented by a district called 

 indifferently the two hundreds ' de Nasso ' ' (namely 

 of the nose or nessof Burgh, later called Nassaburgh) * 

 or the two hundreds of the wapentake of Burgh.' 

 The change may be due to the fact that Peterborough 

 had become a borough, and a hundred of itself. 



The creation of the borough may not impossibly 

 have been the work of Abbot Ernulf, 1 1 07-1 114; 

 he it was who arranged a system by which the 

 newly founded parish churches should contribute 

 certain 'pensions' to the abbey;' these pensions 

 were paid by the vills of the hundred of Nassaburgh 

 up to the dissolution and are entered in the bailiff's 

 accounts,' generally in association with payments 

 charged on the vills of the same hundred for ' Burgh- 

 work,' ' perhaps to be traced to the same organizer. 

 The destruction of the vill by fire in 11 16,' when 

 John de Seez was abbot, may, however, be a safer date 

 to choose, for of Ernulf's borough-making no explicit 

 record is forthcoming and some reference is to be 

 expected in the case of one whose work is so fully re- 

 ported. Be this as it may, in 1125—6 we get the 

 statement that '" Alsward holds eighteen burgesses, and 

 the toll de hordesoca for 1 1 5/. " apparently as a farmer 

 under the abbot." To this number we may perhaps 

 add 55 men who pay 71/. zd., and are differentiated 

 from the villeins, and ' the pleas ' of the same 

 record are presumably the pleas of the burgesses' 

 court. 



The town itself was never walled, and for this 

 reason was easily moved. Between 1 1 3 3 and I I 5 5 the 

 Abbot Martin changed the site of the town,'^ and 

 later of the market." Between 1 155 and 1 175 the 

 rent of the market and vill was largely increased." 



The historians of Peterborough make no mention 

 of the existence of any mediaeval borough charter, 

 but one is extant, and is specially interesting as a 

 specimen of the class of borough charters which 

 offer release from seignorial exploitation, but on 

 the most restricted term:. In the ' Liber Niger,' 

 fol. X'jfb^^ there is a charter from an Abbot Robert 

 to his men of Burgh and their heirs, occupying 

 154 tenements, which are individually specified. 

 Of the two abbots named Robert to whom the 



charter may be ascribed, Robert of Lindsey 1214-22, 

 and Robert of Sutton 1262-73, the second is 

 most probably the author of the charter." His 

 need for money was great," and his concessions 

 were made with a view to immediate profit. At 

 the request of his men of Peterborough he freed them 

 for ever from all tallage, which is paid yearly by 

 custom ; " and from merchet for their daughters, so 

 that they may marry them as they choose with- 

 out licence ; and from carrying hay and reaping 

 grain;'" and from pannages or payments for feeding 

 their swine ; but he specially saves the pleas of 

 the Portmanmoot (it is mentioned by name here 

 for the first time) and the rent of ovens, and all 

 customs due and accustomed at the river bank, and 

 belonging to the market of Burgh. For this charter 

 of relief the grantees, who had paid together a yearly 

 rental of £"] zs. o\d. at four terms, agreed to pay 

 j^i8 9/. dd. yearly at the same terms. The rentals 

 are then particularly specified, the name of the holder, 

 the nature of the holding, whether he or she holds 

 only a toft, or some acres of arable or meadow in 

 addition, and whether the rental is in addition to a 

 farm due to one of the monastic offices, to the 

 fraterer, almoner, sacrist, infirmarian, or to some 

 other person named. In the case of tenements 

 belonging to the monastic officers the tenant is not 

 named, but whoever shall hereafter hold it is made 

 the recipient of the grant. The rents average over 

 izd. for each toft. These tenements are granted to 

 the abbot and convent's men and their heirs ' saving 

 the right of each of them, in such a way that none 

 may give or sell or alienate any part thereof, or do 

 aught therewith by which the grantors may lose 

 any of the said rents and services and customs.' It 

 is a borough charter conferring privileged condition 

 but of a very humble kind. 



The recipients of the charter are not styled bur- 

 gesses in the charter, but the Liber Niger, fol. 18 id, 

 goes on to make a further statement : * In Burgh 

 there are burgesses who pay ^^18 {sic) yearly at four 

 terms, according to the charter which they have of 

 the Abbot Robert and the convent.'" On fol. xixb 

 the writer describes in detail the customs ren- 

 dered by the virgaters of Dogsthorpe (Dodistorp), 

 Eastfield, and Newark, hamlets appurtenant to Peter- 

 borough, and then follow the customs rendered by 

 the thirteen full virgaters in Burgh, services which 

 mark the contrast between villein tenants and burges 

 tenants. The virgaters rendered heavy ploughing 



^ This fact is obscured by the false 

 rubric of D.B.I, fol. 221, but see V.C.H. 

 NorthanttXy 268, 297. The assessment of 

 Burgh and Thorpe must be added to the 

 figures for Upton Groen to make them 

 complete. 



' On the date see Round, Feudal 

 England, 221. ' Ibid. p. 217. 



* See above, i, 268, 



* Chronicon, p. 167. 



^ See Gunton, Pererhorou^h, 11, 267; 

 Hugo Candidus, ed. Sparlce, 65-7. 



<■ In the keeping of the chapter clerk ; 

 there are also some rolls in the cathedral 

 chapter library. 



8 Some houses in Peterborough itself 

 contributed a quarterly rent in the name 

 of burghwork, see Liber Niger, fol. 255^. 



' Hugo Candidus, ed. Sparke, 71,256. 



^^ Chronicon, App. J>. 161. 



11 Cf. the 'hcrpsac' of the poetical 



English version of Athelstan's grant to 



Ripon (? herd-sac), see Mon.Ang, ii, 133 ; 



Birch, Cart. Sax. 647 n. and K.. C. D. 

 ccclx. 



1^ The bull of Pope Eugenius, 1 146, 

 names the land of Alswart of Burgh as 

 part of the abbey's possessions. Sparke, 



^^ Sparke, 76, "viham mutu'vit. It is 

 supposed from the east of the monastery 

 to the west, for the name of * St. John's 

 Close* on the east of the monastery is 

 believed to mark the site of the old parish 

 church. The church (as will appear 

 below) was far from the town until, in the 

 15th century, it was removed to the 

 market-place. 



l-* Sparke, %%^ forum mutavit, 



1* Ibid. p. 93, 



1® There is another copy of the charter 

 in the register marked * a volume of 

 ancient charters ' in the chapter library, 

 fol. 2 28 J. 



1^ The witnesses* names are Rob. de 

 Thorpel, Rob. fil. Galfridi, Ric, de 



Waterville, Calf, de le Halm, Hugo de 

 le Halm, Rad. fil. Reginaldi de Pokebroc, 

 Magister Will, de Scotere, Ric. fil. Hum- 

 fridi, Rob. de Partenay tunc decanus 

 Burgi, Joh. Fauvel, Hugo de Bernak, 

 Will, de Thorp, Tho. de Thorp. Richard 

 de Waterville and Hugo de Bernak are in 

 the list of the abbot's knights of 1212, 

 but some of the other names, and perhaps 

 also these two, can be found in Edwardian 

 documents. 



13 If alter of Whittlesea, ed. Sparke, 141, 



599- , , 



li* Probably the Michaelmas aid, which 

 in 1322 was £iz, paid by the customar)- 

 tenants only. Sparke, i8i. 



"I Ploughing services, which are not 

 named, had probably been released by an 

 earlier grant. 



*• This is followed by the further state- 

 ment 'There are franklins francolaini) 

 who render yearly,' and the rest of the 

 page stands empty. 



54 



