SECTION VII - TOWN LIFE

Summary

The large majority of the following extracts are taken from London records, which are fuller, more interesting, and more accessible than those of any other British town: moreover, such concentration gives much more unity to the general picture. Readers who wish to pursue the subject further should read Dr R. R. Sharpe's Calendars of London Letterbooks, Wills and Inquests; Prof. G. Unwin's London Gilds and Companies; Miss Bateson's editions (with translations) of the Leicester and Northampton Borough Records; and Miss Maud Sellers's York Memorandum Book (Surtees Soc, 2 vols.).

LONDON FOLK-MOTE

From Liber de Antiquis Legibus, in Chronicles of Old London, tr. Riley, 1863, pp. 34, 38, 48. (A very useful translation of the Liber de Antiquis Legibus, written about 1274, with later additions, and of the French Chronicle of London, written about 1360.) For a description of the medieval mote see F. W. Maitland's article in Chapter III. of H. D. Traill's Social England.

[a.d. 1257.] Afterwards on the Vigil of the Purification, the Mayor and a countless multitude meeting in the Guildhall, Michael Tovy and Adam de Basing were sent thither by his lordship the King, to say that the King was willing to preserve all their franchises unimpaired; but that, for the benefit of the City, he was wishful that inquisition should be made, and that too upon oath, by what persons his commons had been so aggrieved in reference to tallages and other instances of transgression; as also, that no one should be punished unless he had offended, and that too, without detriment to the community.