A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Henry and Michael had a counterplea pending against the abbot, his 

 steward and others for breaking into their houses and carrying off from 

 Michael a bowl and the upper stone of a hand-mill, and from Henry a russet 

 cloth worth 30J., and doing damage to the value of ^100.'' The steward 

 claimed the bowl and justified the stone as a distraint ; to which Michael 

 answered that he and his ancestors were of such condition that they could 

 grind where they pleased. Henry's plea was similar ; but both men lost 

 their case, the jury saying that Henry had himself had the abbot's fulling- 

 mill at farm and had taken fines from those who fulled privately.*' 



For one or more generations the quarrel between the abbot and his men 

 rested on the question of suit at the abbot's mill, which being an incident of 

 unfree tenure meant much to them. Time after time judgement seems to 

 have been given against the townsmen. In 13 12 the abbot sued Simon dc 

 Ickleford and Luke de Nedham '* and in the following year he sued Robert 

 de Limbury " and Benedict Spichfat," who were supported by Richard de 

 Tring, Geoffrey le Dyestre and Henry Spichfat. All these were apparently 

 men of substance and leading townsmen. Benedict Spichfat was undoubtedly 

 well off and paid 3J. to the subsidy of 1322— 3." But the question of 

 the hand-mills was not the sole point of dispute. In 13 13 Peter le Keu, 

 Benedict Spichfat and others were indicted for entering the abbot's close and 

 cutting down his timber to the value of jr6o," which indicates probably an 

 organized demonstration in claim of common rights. In this dispute the 

 name of Henry Grindecobbe, which later became so prominent, occurs as a 

 pledge." 



Soon after the abdication of Edward II, in October 1326, the men of 

 St. Albans began to bind themselves together with oaths, and after Epiphany 

 rose against the abbey." On 23 January some of the townsmen met the 

 citizens of London, and entered into a solemn compact of mutual help.*' 

 The upper class in St. Albans are said by the monastic chronicler to have 

 connived at this embassy *^ rather than joined in it ; but this is hardly consistent 

 with what we know of Benedict Spichfat and what we suspect of Gilbert 

 de Hertford, one of the richest men in the town." Although the richer 

 inhabitants were probably slower in action than the others, the townsmen 

 seem to have shown great solidarity at this time. The only case of inde- 

 pendent action was on 25 January, when twelve' of the richest' went to the 

 abbot and begged him not to mention his difficulties to the Earl of Lancas- 

 ter, who was passing through and resting at the abbey on the way to 

 London.*' This was so obvious a precaution that the twelve may well have 

 acted for all." On 28 January the villeins presented their supplication to the 

 abbot. They asked, first, that the abbot should deliver to them the charters 

 of their liberties, by which they were made as free as any borough and 

 burgesses might be ; liberties which they had enjoyed from the Conquest, 

 until debarred by the abbot and his predecessors, as the charters themselves 

 and Domesday Book testified. Further, they sought the right to elect two 



" Chan. Misc. bdle. 62, file I, no. 15. 83 jbid. 



^ Walsingham, Geit. Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 154-5. " Chan. Misc. bdle. 62, file i, no. 15. 



'^ Ibid. '^ Lay Subs. R. Herts. 120, no. 11. '' Assize R. 331, m. i. 



83 Ibid. m. 3 d. ^ Walsingham, op. cit. ii, 155 et seq. ■" Ibid. " Ibid. 



■•' Lay Subs R. Herts, bdle. 120, no. II. •" Walsingham, op. cit. ii, 156. 



'^ Ibid. The chronicler puts another colour on the matter. 



176 



