ought to have as his ancestors, who held this manor before him, undoubtedly had, the arriving, discharging, and laden of ships, goods and merchandizes, and a free buying and selling for his tenants of Little Yarmouth and Gorleston, as had been the case till king Henry 3rd by his charter to the burgesses, granted that these things should belong solely to Great Yarmouth, and the aforesaid free buying and selling should be done there only; and as the burgesses of Yarmouth claimed all their restrictive power from this charter, the earl wisely considered, that without removing the cause, the effect must still subsist; therefore, in the same petition he attacked the charter itself, and represented to the king, that it had not been rightly granted king Henry not being timely apprized of the destructive tendency such a grant must necessarily have upon the fishing trade, how contrary its dictates were to the common rights of mankind, and, particularly, how injurious to the crown itself, as the original proprietor of the manor of Lothingland. So severe an attack upon the Yarmouth palladium, roused the burgesses from their wonted security, and they were summoned to appear personally before the king and his Council, to make their defence against the Earl and to produce their charters, records, and reasons to the contrary. The burgesses accordingly appeared, and urged in their behalf, that the claims demanded by the Earl were erroneous and ill-grounded: and exhibited several grants given them by preceding kings, as the charter of king John, that of Henry 3rd, the confirmation of the same by Edward 1st, and the decisions in favour of the burgh, in the 8th and 19th of Edward 2nd, in the Exchequer and other courts, all tending to confirm the rights they claimed, and to invalidate the earl’s assertions; in which they had ever been victorious. The burgesses of Yarmouth founded the merits of their cause on the charter which had incorporated them. The men of Lothingland, on ancient customs before those charters existed; alledging that the Manor was part of the ancient demesne of the crown, and that the customs and privileges claimed by the Earl of Richmond and his tenants, are the same as were demanded in the times of Canute and Harold, and the succeeding kings of England, being owners of the said Manor, and by many other pleadings, they asserted their lawful right to those privileges, both by prescription and long-continued possession; but, after hearing the controversy, the cause was determined in favour of Yarmouth, and the burgesses triumphed once more over their rival neighbours.