A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



to over 1$ in the following year. 64 The next Pipe 

 Roll gives no details of the sheriff's account for Ports- 

 mouth, and in May 1201 only 5 is given as the 

 amount of ferm paid. 85 In the year ending May, 

 1202, the ferm was l%, m and so continued until 

 November, 1229, when it was raised to 20.*' This 

 ferm, which had been previously received by the 

 sheriff for the crown, was granted by Edward I to 

 his mother, Queen Eleanor, for life, in May, 1 28 1, 88 

 and confirmed to her five years later. 89 Later it 

 formed part of the dowers assigned successively to the 

 queens of Edward II and Edward III. 90 In 1403 

 Henry IV granted it for life to Eleanor widow of 

 Nicholas Dagworth, but the gift was almost immedi- 

 ately cancelled. 91 Henry VI gave the ferm of Ports- 

 mouth to his uncle Humphrey duke of Gloucester 

 for life in I442. 9 * In 1450, three years after the 

 duke's death, this ferm with many others was defi- 

 nitely assigned to the use of the royal honsehold, 93 

 and was partly employed on repairs in the Palace of 

 Westminster and the Tower of London. 91 The 

 former settlement was confirmed in I485, 94 but 

 Henry VIII granted 10 from the petty customs of 

 Portsmouth to Alice Davy in November, 1519, in 

 reward for her services as gentlewoman to Katharine 

 of Aragon and nurse to Margaret queen of Scotland. 96 

 12 odd rent from the town was granted to Queen 

 Anne by James I and to Queen Catherine by 

 Charles II, 97 and finally under an Act of Parliament 

 dated 1670 it was conveyed to the trustees for the 

 sale of fee-farm rents. 98 No record of its sale has 

 been found, and in 1835 the farm to the crown was 

 still included among the expenses of the corporations, 99 

 but it has since ceased to be paid. 



Portsmouth, therefore, has existed as a borough 

 since 1194.' The charter then granted to it by 

 Richard I recites that the king had retained in his 

 own hands the ' borough ' of Portsmouth, and that he 

 had established a fair to be held there annually to last 

 fifteen days, commencing on the feast of St. Peter 

 ad Vincula (l August), while all men who should come 

 to it from places within his kingdom should enjoy the 

 same liberties as those who attended the fairs at 

 Winchester and Hoyland. At the same time he 

 granted that his burgesses there should have a weekly 

 market to be held on Thursdays, with all such privileges 

 as were enjoyed by the citizens of Winchester and Ox- 

 ford ; that all the burgesses in the town, and holding of 

 the town, wherever they should go within his realms, 

 should be quit from toll, pontage, passage and pavage, 

 stallage and tallage, and from shires and hundreds, and 

 from summons and aids of the sheriff, and from all pleas, 

 including pleas of the forest ; and that his burgesses 



having houses and tenements within the town should 

 hold them with toll and theam infangtheof and 

 utfangtheof as freely as the citizens of Winchester 

 and Oxford held theirs. Finally, he forbad their 

 being impleaded touching any tenement in the town 

 save before himself. 101 In October, 1 200, soon after 

 his accession, King John confirmed his brother's 

 charter, at the same time extending the clause as to 

 pleas about tenements in the town so that they might 

 be heard either before him or the chief justice. 10 * 

 For this confirmation the men of Portsmouth paid 

 ten marks and a palfrey. 103 Henry III also in a 

 charter dated 1 8 November, 1229, renewed the for- 

 mer grant of his father and uncle, but omitted entirely 

 the phrase as to pleas before the king or his justice ; 

 on the previous day the ferm of the town had been 

 increased from iS to ^2O. 104 On 5 April, 1255, 

 the same king confirmed to the burgesses of Ports- 

 mouth all their liberties included in his own charter 

 and those of Richard I and John, 105 and in July 

 1256 he granted a gild merchant to the good men 

 of Portsmouth and freed them from caption of 

 person or goods for debt save where they were prin- 

 cipal debtors or securities or where the principal debtor 

 belonged to their community and was able to satisfy 

 the debt while the men of the gild had failed to do 

 justice ; at the same time he confirmed to them the 

 freedom from cheminage throughout the king's forest, 

 and other privileges which they had been wont to 

 enjoy. 106 Edward II, in February 131 213, inspected 

 and confirmed the charters of 1194, 1200, 1 8 Novem- 

 ber, 1229, and 5 April, I255, 107 and this confirma- 

 tion was itself confirmed in 1358 by Edward III. 108 

 In 1384 Richard II confirmed the charter of Edward 

 III, and also the grant of a gild merchant. 109 There 

 followed successive confirmations of the same charters 

 in 1401, 1423, 1461, 1484, 1489, 1511, 1550, and 

 1 56 1. 110 The town was thus practically governed by 

 the charters of Richard and John until the end of 

 the sixteenth century ; then, in February 1599-1600, 

 Queen Elizabeth reorganized the corporation of the 

 town. 111 In this its first definite charter of incorpora- 

 tion, after reciting the ancient constitution and privi- 

 leges of the borough, and referring to the ambiguities 

 in its former charters and to its important position as 

 a port and frontier town, she declared that, at the 

 petition of Lord Mountjoy, then captain there, the 

 borough of Portsmouth should henceforth be a free 

 borough, and its inhabitants a body corporate under 

 the name of the Mayor and Burgesses of Portsmouth, 

 with the usual ability to acquire lands and privileges, 

 to plead and be impleaded, and to possess a common 

 seal. The charter then recounts the details of the 



M Pipe R. 10 Ric. I. 



8S Ibid. 2 John. 



Ibid. 3 John. 



W Charter R. 14 Hen. Ill, pt. 1, m. 4. 

 Less an allowance of 351. \d, which had 

 been deducted for the rent of Kingston. 

 In Testa Je Nevill (Rec. Com.), 237, 

 Portsmouth is referred to as an escheat of 

 the king valued at 20. Probably the 

 ferm had already been granted out and 

 had escheated to the crown, by whom it 

 had been given to Gilbert de Kaunpiun. 



88 Cal. Pat. 1272-81, p. 439. 



89 Ibid. 1281-92, p. 2 1 8. 



90 Ibid. 1307-13, p. 2165 1327-30, 

 p. 69 ; Mins. Accts. bdle. 1092, No. 3. 



91 Cal. Pat. 1401-5, p. 266. 



92 Mins. Accts. bdle. 1280, No. 6. 



98 Parl.R. (Rec. Com.), v, 174*. 



94 Cal. Pat. 1476-85, p. 365. 



95 Parl. R. (Rec. Com.), vi, 302. 

 98 L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii, 524. 



'1 Pat. II Jas. I, pt. 13 ; ibid. 17 Chas. 

 II, pt. 9, m. i. 



98 Ibid. 22 Chas. II, pt. 2 (a), m. i. 



99 Parl. Accts. and Papers, 1835, xxiv. 

 817. 



100 The tradition that it was founded 

 by Henry I in the sixth year of his reign 

 is obviously mythical. It is based on a 

 statement signed by the mayor of Ports- 

 mouth in a heraldic visitation of Hamp- 

 shire, dated 1686; cf. Parl. Accts. and 

 Pafers, 1835, xxiv, 799. 



101 Liber Custumarium (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 655. 



I 7 6 



103 Cal. Rat. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 77. 

 108 Rot. Cancell. 3 John (Rec. Com.), 



104 Cal. Chart. R. i, 106. 



105 Pat. 39 Hen. Ill, m. 9. 



108 Ibid. 8 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 22. 

 W Chart. R. 6 Edw. II, 28. 

 > Sec Pat. 8 Ric. II, pt. I, m. 22. 

 I0 > Ibid. 



110 CW.Pa/.i399-i40i, p. 473; 1422-9, 

 p. 121 ; 1461-7, p. 145 ; Confirm. R. 



2 Ric. Ill, iii, 2 ; 4 Hen. VII, ii, 17 ; 



3 Hen. VIII, ii, 3 5 4 Edw. VI, i, 4 i 

 3 Eliz. i, ii. 



111 Orig. R. 42 Eliz. v, 43. A full 

 translation of this and other charters is 

 given in East's Extracts from the Ports- 

 mouth Records (cd. 1891), p. 578. 



