[Footnote 72: The recovery of goods equivalent in value to goods wrongfully seized by way of distraint.] [Footnote 73: For a curious instance of this liberty, _see_ No. 22.] [Footnote 74: Encroachments.] [Footnote 75: A criminal who turns King's evidence.] [Footnote 76: To bring an action for treason or felony.] [Footnote 77: Surety or pledge.] [Footnote 78: Surveyed.] [Footnote 79: The results of this enquiry were embodied in the Hundred Rolls and served as a basis for the _Placita de quo warranto_; these records are as important for the thirteenth century as is Domesday Book for the eleventh.] 22. WRECK OF SEA [_Fine Roll, 10 Edward III, m._ 1], 1337. The King to the sheriff of Kent, greeting. Because we have been given to understand that a great mass of a whale lately cast ashore by the coast of the river Thames between Greenwich and Northfleet in your county, which should pertain to us as our wreck, and whereof a great part has been carried away by certain evildoers in contempt of us, remains still in your keeping, to be delivered to us or others at our command, as is fitting: We order you, straitly enjoining on you, that you cause all of the whale aforesaid, which is thus in your keeping, to be entirely delivered without any delay to our beloved and trusty Nicholas de la Beche, constable of our Tower of London, to be kept to our use, as has been more fully enjoined on him by us; and that you in no wise neglect so to do; for we have commanded the same Nicholas to receive from you that mass, to be kept in the form aforesaid. Witness the King at Westminster 14 January. By the King himself. SECTION III THE JEWS 1. Charter of liberties to the Jews, 1201--2. Ordinances of 1253--3. Expulsion of a Jew, 1253--4. Punishment for non-residence in a Jewry, 1270--5. Grant of a Jew, 1271--6. Ordinances of 1271--7. Removal of Jewish communities from certain towns to others, 1275--8. Disposition of debts due to Jews after their expulsion, 1290. The documents in the following section illustrate the anomalous position of the Jews in England, the nature of the royal protection, which accorded them a security due to them as the king's personal property (No. 1), the restrictions put upon their religious and social life (No. 2) and upon their possession of land (No. 6), the summary treatment dealt out to them if they failed to fulfil their function (No. 3), or dwelt outside the narrow range of a Jewry-town (No. 4), the arbitrary manner in which they were transferred from person to person, or uprooted from one town and transplanted (Nos. 5 and 7), and the manner of their expulsion (No. 8).