HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 353 



Bishop Gibson, the editor of Camden, follows Dr. Plot in his 

 mistake, and he also asserts* that Newcastle was " built in Henry 

 3d's time by the Earl of Lancaster." 



The authorities which we shall cite fully justify our interpreta- 

 tion of Camden, and they prove, in contradiction to Plot and Gib- 

 son, that the town, as well as the castle, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, 

 existed not only before the creation of the Earldom of Lancaster, 

 but even before the reign of Henry the 3d. 



In the 5th of king John (1203) the town of Newcastle was amerced, 

 for having changed its market-day from Sunday to Saturday. f 



In the 17th of king John (1215) a grant was made from the 

 Crown to Ranulph de Blondeville Earl of Chester of New-Castle- 

 under-Line and its liberties,! including, in all probability, the Manor 

 as well as the Castle of that name. The Crown, however, appears 

 shortly to have regained possession of Newcastle and all its append- 

 ages. Amongst the inquisitions remaining in the Exchequer, there 

 is one of early/ though indeterminate, date in the reign of Henry the 

 3d, stating that our Lord the King held, as forfeited, the New Castle 

 with the Town and Manor, including by name most of the townships 

 which are now considered parcel of the Manor. The Manor appears 

 to have been granted in fee-farm by Henry the 3d, to Gilbert Lord Se- 

 grave in 1232,j| but the castle and town remained in the possession 

 of the Crown. During this period the castle was held for the King 

 under the government of a constable, ^[ which appears to have been 

 an office of considerable importance. In the 35th Henry 3d, the 

 constableship was held by one of the Audley family,** and after- 

 wards by William de Fenlon, who appears to have been constabl 

 in the 37th and 42d years of the same reign. f f 

 , Many of the freehold tenants of this manor were bound by their 

 tenures to perform the Castle guard at different periods of the 

 year. The Testa de Nevill, which is an ancient record preserved 

 in the Exchequer, and compiled by John Nevill, a justice in Eyre, 

 between the years 1234 and 1238, contains the following particu- 

 lars of tenures within this manor by knight's service and socage: 



* Camden' s Britannia, edition, 1695, p. 538. 



f From the Record of Assists et Placita Corona, taken at Lichfield on St. 

 Matthew's day, 5th King John. -See the Abbreviatio Placitorum. 



I Calendarium Rotulorum in the Exchequer, published 1803, p. 30. 



Calendarium Inquisit. post mort. vol. 1, p. 202. 



II Magna Britannia el Hibernia, vol. 5, p. 64. H Ibid. p. 64. ** Ibid. p. 64. 

 1 1" From old Grants. 



