“_Nantwich._--In King Edward’s time there was a Wich in Warmundestron hundred, in which there was a well for making salt, and between the King and Earl Edwin there were 8 salt-houses, so divided that of all their issues and rents the King had two parts and the Earl the third. But besides these, the Earl had one salt-house adjoining his manor of Acatone (Acton) which was his own. From this salt-house the Earl had sufficient salt for his house throughout the year. But if he sold any from thence, the King had twopence, and the Earl a third penny, for the toll. In the same Wich many men from the country had salt-houses, of which this was the custom-- “From our Lord’s Ascension to Martinmas, anyone having a salt-house might carry home salt for his own house. But if he sold any of it either there, or elsewhere in the county of Chester, he paid toll to the King and the Earl. Whoever after Martinmas carried away salt from any salt-house except the Earl’s, under his custom aforesaid, paid toll, whether the salt was his own or purchased. These aforesaid 8 salt-houses of the King and the Earl, in every week that salt was boiled or they were used on a Friday, rendered 16 boilings of salt, of which 15 made a horse-load. From our Lord’s Ascension to Martinmas, the salt-houses of the other men did not give these Friday’s boilings. But from Martinmas to our Lord’s Ascension, these boilings were given according to custom, as from the salt-houses of the King and the Earl. All these salt-houses, both of the lord and other people, were surrounded on one part by a certain river, and on the other part by a ditch. Whosoever committed a forfeiture within these bounds, might make amends, either by the payment of 2 shillings, or by 30 boilings of salt, except in the case of homicide, or of a theft, for which the thief was adjudged to die. These last, if done here, were dealt with as in the rest of the shire. If out of the prescribed circuit of the salt-houses, any person within the county withheld the toll, and was convicted thereof, he brought it back and was fined 40 shillings, if a free man; or if not free, 4 shillings. But if he carried the toll into another shire, where it was demanded the fine was the same. In King Edward’s time, this Wich, with all pleas in the same hundred, rendered 21 pounds in farm. When Earl Hugh received it, except only one salt-house, it was waste. William Maldebeng now holds of the Earl the same Wich, with all the customs thereto belonging, and all the same hundred, which is rated at 40 shillings, of which 30 shillings are put on the land of the said William, and 10 shillings on the land of the Bishop, and the lands of Richard and Gilbert which they have in the same hundred, and the Wich is let to farm at 10 pounds.”