&6 
PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1919 
Accordingly, at Westminster, in July, 1189, the Abbot 
obtained a Charter granting the Abbey the whole of the Manor 
of Cirencester with all its appurtenances, and the Vill of Minety, 
and also the jurisdiction of the Seven Hundreds belonging to 
this Royal Manor, in perpetuity, for £30 annually, with all 
manorial rights, and powers of life and death, and Ordeal. 
The consequences of this momentous transaction are not 
difficult to apprehend. 
At a stroke the tenants of the Crown in Cirencester and its 
members, and Minety, became tenants of the Abbot. From 
being a town on Royal Demesne, it -became a town on Church 
Property with a Feudal Priest for its lord instead of the 
absentee Kings. All local authority henceforward was settled 
in the Abbot of St. Mary. He was bound, it is true, to continue 
to administer the ancient customs and usages, and also in his 
own interests to encourage profitable trade in wool and leather 
and stone and com ; but he was, first and last, the trustee of 
the vast spiritual Corporation called the Church, and, as such, 
he could be no friend to aspiring municipalities. He could not 
only refuse to discuss or bargain with suitors for privileges and 
liberties, but he could wield a greater power than any mere 
King or Baron ; he could threaten excommunication, body and 
soul. Against such a pow-er, it is manifest, a tovm might v r ell 
struggle in vain and for centuries, as Cirencester did. His 
Steward and Bailiff v-ould administer justice, collect taxes, 
exact fines, overav r e the Market-place, nip the aspiring “ guilds ” 
and “ fraternities ” in the bud like a frost, and on his gallow-s 
offenders would hang. Moreover, he could and did insist 
that all com must be ground at the Abbey Mill. Presently, 
under King John, the Abbot made further gift of £100 and a 
palfrey to gain quittance of all interference by the Sheriffs. 
In all probability, as at Gloucester, at the time v-hen King 
Richard sold Cirencester to the Abbot, the townsfolk w r ere 
nearly ripe for borough rights and charters. Guild it may 
have had. The local name Gildinebridge occurs before 1309, 
but probably it v r as a small bridge built from ‘ geld ’ of 
some kind. It seems a pity that the old historic names of 
streets should be allowed to give w-ay unduly to modern ones 
often of far less significance. Painsvick has wisely reverted 
