=They could be Free in other Boroughs.=—The female burgesses of Tamworth are recorded in Domesday Book as having been free before the conquest, and as being still free in later times. If they took it upon them to trade as _femes soles_, they made themselves liable to all the common burdens of the “mercheta,” over and above their proper borough duties of watch and ward. The Ipswich Domesday Book gives more than one instance of a woman having “hominal rights,” and as being liable to the “hominal duties” corresponding thereto. To any _feme sole_ the Franchise and even the Guild was open on the same terms as to the men of the place. There was no essoign of female burgesses whereby to decline attendance at the motes (30 Edward I.). Amongst liberi homines, liberi homines tenentes, or liberi homines sub regia, in every English shire, the Domesday Book records the names of _Freewomen_. (_See_ Chisholm Anstey’s “Supposed Restraints.”) I have personally searched the records of Stratford-upon-Avon. There women could be burgesses. One entry, noted for another purpose, I may here quote: “At a Hall holden in the Gildehall, 9th September, 1573, Adrian Queeney and John Shakespeare being present, the town council received of Christian White for her sisterhood, 6s. 8d.; Robert Wright for his brotherhood, 6s. 8d.” York. “Women being free of the city, on marrying a man who is not free, forfeit their freedom. Persons are entitled to become free by birth, by apprenticeship, or by gift or grant. Every person who has served an apprenticeship for seven years under a binding by indentures for that period to a freeman or freewoman inhabiting and carrying on trade in the city is entitled to become free. The indentures may be assigned to another master or mistress being free. The privileges of freemen are extended to the partners of freemen and to their widows.” (“Report of Municipal Corporation Committee, 1835,” p. 1741.) The customs of Doncaster seem somewhat similar. (_See_ same report, p. 1497.) The City of Chester followed the custom of London. (_See_ “The Mayor’s Book of Chester, 1597-8.”) Letter from Lord Burleigh to the officers of the Port of Chester, authorising them to enter without tax the Gascony wines of a city merchant’s widow:—