292 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
charter of the Redverses from 1241, and Plymouth was now 
rapidly shooting ahead of its elder sister. Indeed the bailiffs and 
commonalty of Plymouth are mentioned as preparing a ship for 
the king’s service as early as 1289. 
Be this as it may, in the year 1311 (a market having been first 
granted circa 1253), Matthew, the Prior of Plympton, let to the 
burgesses of Sutton eighteen market stalls, which were in a certain 
place in the said ville adjoining a stone cross, at the rent of one 
penny per stall per year. Richard the Tanner acted for the 
burgesses, and affixed his seal to the deed, the commonalty not 
possessing any. From then until now, five centuries and a-half, 
in one form or another, market jurisdiction has been exercised in 
Plymouth by the municipal authorities, 
The growth of Plymouth during the early years of the fourteenth 
century, must have been marvellously rapid; and I question 
whether any port in the kingdom made such enormous strides. 
The evidence of this progress is most conclusive, and of every possible 
kind. In 1311 an Act of Parliament declared Plympton, Modbury 
(representing the trade of the Erme), Newton Ferrers, and Yale- 
mouth, to be members of the port of Sutton. But for many years 
afterwards, certainly down through the reign of Edward IIL, the 
customer of the “river of Tamar” had his residence at Saltash, 
whereof Plymouth was originally a member. Fowey was then the 
head port of Cornwall, a position which Plymouth subsequently 
took ; and in the closing years of the fourteenth, and opening years 
of the fifteenth centuries, we find Plymouth and Fowey most 
intimately associated, the same controllers and customers commonly 
acting for both, the latter chiefly selected from the merchants of 
the ports. There are among our fifteenth-century collectors— 
William Bentley, Richard Denzell, John Cory, John Cokworthy, 
John Serle, Thomas Pilkyngton, T. Treffry, John Scott, Vincent 
Pittelesden, William Spenser, Dionis Bampton, W. Hertiside, 
Thomas Tregaye, Walter Copleston, Peter Carseweller ; and among 
the controllers William Santon, Richard Weye, and John Pylle. 
Of the great importance of the commerce of both ports in these 
early days there is the strongest evidence in the contingents which 
each furnished to the famous siege of Calais, in 1346. Fowey sent 
more ships than any other port in the kingdom—47, with 770 
men; Yarmouth came next; then Dartmouth, with 31 ships, and 
757 men; and then Plymouth, with 26 ships, and 603 men; 
