HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 355 



thelonio passagio pontmjio stallagio et lestagio et omnibus aliis consuetudini- 

 bus salvis in omnibus libertatibus Civitatis nostrce London Quare volumus et 

 firmiter precipimus pro nobis et heredibus nostris quodpredicta Villa nostra 

 de Novo Castro sit liber Burgus et quod Burgenses ejusdem Villa habeant Gil" 

 dam Mercatoriam in eodem Burgo cum omnibus libertatibus et liberis con- 

 suetudiiiibus ad hujusmodi Gildam pertinentibus et quod e ant per totam ter- 

 ram nostram cum omnibus mercandisis suis emendo et vendendo et negociando 

 bene et in pace libere et quiete et honorifice et quod quieti sint de thelonio 

 passagio pontagio stallagio et lestagio et omnibus aliis consuetudinibus salvis 

 in omnibus libertatibus Civitatis nostra London sicut predictum est. Hit's 

 Testibus, Gulielmo de Ferrariis, Gulielmo de Cantilupo, Radulpho filio Nicho- 

 lai, Almarico de Sancto Amando, Galfrido Despensatore, Radulpho Tyrel et 

 aliis, Datum per manum venerabilis Patris Radulphi Cicestrensis Episcopi 

 Cancellarii nostri apud Feckeham decimo octavo die Septembris anno regni 

 nostri decimo nono" 



The Borough appears to have been at this time a place of very 

 inconsiderable size and population ; for in the said record called 

 Testa de Nevill, which was compiled at the same period, appears 

 the following entry of the number of its burgages : 



" In the Town of Newcastle are twenty-eight burgages, each of 

 which pays twelve pence per annum, at the four quarter-days." 



The Castle and Borough appear to have continued in the imme- 

 diate possession of the Crown until the 49th Henry 3d, (1263) 

 when the King was compelled to transfer them by grant to his 

 brother-in-law Simon de Montfort* Earl of Leicester and Chester. 

 The period during which they were in the hands of that rapacious 

 and aspiring nobleman was very short, as he lost his life at the 

 head of the rebellious barons who fought the battle of Evesham,f 

 against Prince Edward, in 1265. All the possessions of Simon de 

 Montfort were forfeited to the Crown ; and a great part of them, 

 including this Castle and Borough, was granted by Henry the 3d,| 

 in the 51st year of his reign (1265) to his younger son Edmund 

 Plantagenet (surnamed Crouchback) who was created Earl of 

 Leicester in 1265, Earl of Derby in 1266, and in the following 

 year Earl of Lancaster, which was the earliest creation of the 

 latter dignity. 



Among the Barons whose estates were confiscated in consequence 

 of the battle of Evesham was Nicholas Lord Segrave,)] who had pro- 



* Calendarium Rotulorum in the Tower, published 1802. 

 + Life of Simon de Montfort, written by George, second Marquis Towns~ 

 hend, in Longmate's Supplement to Collins's Peerage, p. 312. 



I Calendarium Rotulorum in the Exchequer, published in 1803, p. 94. 

 Heylyn's Help to English History, ed. IT73, p. 271. 

 I Magna Britann. et Hibern, vol. 5, p. 64. 



