94 A SKETCH OF OLD NEWCASTLE. 



form service of guard at stated times. The first constable 

 was Henry de Audley, founder of the Audley family, of 

 Helegh Castle, which he built. The tenants of Cnocton 

 (Knutton), Fenton, Hanle (or Hanley), Longeton (Longton), 

 Selton (Shelton), and several others had to keep guard 

 for 40 days as part of the tenure of their vills. The 

 holder of Normanecot (Normacot) held his vill "by the 

 sergearity of serving on foot with a bow and arrows 

 within the said castle for eight days in time of war, at 

 his own cost." All this appears from an old record of 

 the Exchequer, Testa de Nevill. The Constable of New- 

 castle, Henry de Audley, was a man of great possessions, 

 and, it would seem, of considerable popularity, Old Fuller 

 in writing of him says "What man of men was this 

 Henry, that so many of both sexes should centre their 

 bounty upon him ? Was it for fear, or love, or a mix- 

 ture of both?" 



In the year 1235, in the reign of Henry III., that king 

 granted a charter to Newcastle, and made it a free borough, 

 giving it a merchants' guild, or body corporate. But at 

 this time the town does not appear to have been very 

 extensive, for the number of burgesses was only 28, who 

 paid twelve pence a year to the king in quarterly pay- 

 ments. Whether at this time it first acquired the privi- 

 lege of sending two members to parliament is uncertain, 

 but since the year 1352, at least, it has done so. 



Some twenty-eight years after the granting of the charter 

 in question, Henry was induced, or perhaps forced, to 

 grant the castle and borough to the renowned and power- 

 ful Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester (his brother-in- 

 law), but his tenure was only short, for two years after, 

 in 1265, he lost his life at the famous battle of Evesham. 



