Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
10) And I assure to my citizens their lands and the property
mortgaged to them and the debts due to them both within the City and
without.
11) And with regard to lands about which they have pled in suit
before me, I shall maintain justice on their behalf, according to the
law of the City.
12) And if anyone has exacted toll or tax from citizens of London,
the citizens of London within the city shall [have the right to] seize
[by process of law] from the town or village where the toll or tax was
exacted a sum equivalent to that which the citizen of London gave as
toll and hence sustained as loss.
13) And all those who owe debts to citizens shall pay them or shall
clear themselves in London from the charge of being in debt to them.
14) But if they have refused to pay or to come to clear themselves,
then the citizens to whom they are in debt shall [have the right to]
seize [by process of law] their goods [including those in the hands of a
third party, and bring them] into the city from the [town, village or]
county in which the debtor lives [as pledges to compel appearance in
court].
15) And the citizens shall enjoy as good and full hunting rights as
their ancestors ever did, namely, in the Chilterns, in Middlesex, and in
Surrey.
Witnessed at Westminster."
The above right not to take part in any case outside the city relieved
London citizens from the burden of traveling to wherever the King's
court happened to be, the disadvantage of not knowing local customs, and
the difficulty of speaking in the language of the King's court rather
than in English. The right of redress for tolls exacted was new because
the state of the law was that the property of the inhabitants was liable
to the king or superior lord for the common debt.
Newcastle-on-Tyne was recognized by the king as having certain customs,
so the following was not called a grant:
"These are the laws and customs which the burgesses of Newcastle upon
Tyne had in the time of Henry King of England and ought to have.
[1] Burgesses can distrain [take property of another until the other
performs his obligation] upon foreigners within, or without their own
market, within or without their own houses, and within or without their
own borough without the leave of the reeve, unless the county court is
being held in the borough, and unless [the foreigners are] on military
service or guarding the castle.
[2] A burgess cannot distrain upon a burgess without the leave of the
reeve.
[3] If a burgess have lent anything of his to a foreigner, let the
debtor restore it in the borough if he admits the debt, if he denies it,
let him justify himself in the borough.
[4] Pleas which arise in the borough shall be held and concluded
there, except pleas of the Crown.
[5] If any burgess be appealed [sued] of any plaint, he shall not plead
without the borough, unless for default of [the borough] court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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