THE EARLY COMMERCE OF PLYMOUTH. 29] 
Richard Bowchyn, sheriff of Devon, 11th Edward II. (1318), it 
was found that the kings of England, before the foundation of the 
town of Sutton, had a piece of unoccupied ground “juxta” the 
port of Plymouth, five land-yards long and one land-yard wide ; 
and another piece “in retracte maris” within the circuits and — 
precincts of the ville of Sutton, six acres in extent, whereon was 
a certain house of the town at the time of the inquisition, and to 
which place the people of the town, fishermen and others, were 
accustomed to resort with their boats to dry their nets and sails, 
and to expose their fish for sale, paying the king 12d. a year and 
id. on each basket of fish sold. 
The object of this inquisition is made clear in a record of the 
ensuing year. Therein the king recites this finding, and declares 
his intention of making Sutton a free borough, and its inhabitants 
free burgesses. However, as the Prior of Plympton, with John de 
Vautort of Modeton, and John de Vautort of Clyst, object to this, 
the king directs enquiry to be made into their objections. And 
they declare, in the quaint Norman-French of the record, that our 
lord the king “ ne dott graunte a lez gents resseaunis en la ville de 
Sutton par sa charter que euz soient ffrankeis burgeis”—-that the 
king ought not to make the inhabitants of the town of Sutton free 
burgesses by his charter; that the fair and market by royal charter 
belong to the Prior; and that the king has no property in the town. 
Furthermore, they aver that while the Prior is lord of two parts 
of the town, the Valletorts are lords of the other third ; and that 
the Abbot of Buckland holds the hundred of Roborough, within 
which the town is. So they unite in praying the king and his 
Council neither to grant franchise nor any other thing in the said 
town. 
But we are not hence to assume that the residents of Sutton 
were entirely without municipal rights. Much earlier than this 
there is evidence that something of a corporate character had arisen 
within the ville, probably a development of one of the guilds 
which played so important a part in the municipal history of the 
middle ages. In 1310 Richard the Tanner, without doubt an 
eminent tradesman of his day, was prepositus, or head-man of 
Sutton, a title correspondent in fact to that of the Saxon portreeve, 
or its Norman equivalent—mayor. He is the first mentioned as 
holding that high and honourable post, but it is unlikely that he 
had no predecessors in office. Plympton possessed mayors under 
