f 164 (21 November)
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Iohan par la grace &c a nostre bien ame Monsire Godefrey ffoliaumbe. nostre Seneschal de la ville de noef Chastel souz lyme. ou a son lieutenant illeoques saluz. Pource que troue est par enquest pris deuant vous de nostre mandement & retourne en nostre chauncellerie que William de Brompton Burgeys de nostre dit ville & Margerie sa femme & touz les auncestres du dit Margerie soleient et deuoient auoir de temps dont memoire ne court de chescun Ministral venant a la dite ville en la feste de saint Gile labbe pur faire leur ministralcie iiij d. ob. et de chescun ours venant a meisme la ville pur estre chace vn cours Voulons & vous mandons que pris de les William & Margerie seurtee de faire a nous tant a nostre shastel come al sainte esglise deinz la dite ville ce qad este & soleit estre fait en celle cas deuant ces heures leur faites liuree de les choses & liberteez auantditz & ycelles les soeffrez auoir & enioier pesiblement sanz empeschement Et cestes &c Donne &c. a la Sauoye le xxvj. iour de Nouembre lan &c xlvj.
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pur
William de Brompton For William de Brompton
f 164 (21 November)
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John by the grace, etc, to our much loved Sir Godfrey Foliaumbe, our steward of the town of Newcastle under Lyme or to his deputy there, greetings. Because it was found by inquest taken before you by our command and returned to our chancellery that William de Brompton, burgess of our said town, and Margerie, his wife, and all the ancestors of the said Margerie are accustomed and are supposed to have since time immemorial 4 1/2d for each minstrel coming to the said town on the feast of St Giles the Abbot to make their minstrelsy, and for each bear coming to the same town to be chased a course, we wish and command that, the assurance having been taken from them, William and Margerie, to treat us both as regards our castle and as regards the holy church in the said town, as has been and is accustomed to be done heretofore in this case, that you hand over to them the things and liberties aforesaid and suffer them to have and enjoy them peaceably without hindrance. And these, etc, given, etc, at The Savoy, 26 November, in the 46th year, etc.
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Record title: Letter from John of Gaunt's Register
Book
Repository:
TNA
Shelfmark: DL 42/13
Repository location: Kew
John of Gaunt's two register books contain various orders, including orders for payments, letters, and many other types of official records concerning the running of the vast duchy of Lancaster. Some of the orders are addressed to borough and other local officials within the duchy, and deal with local arrangements. The register books also contain a vast amount of material about the running of Gaunt's various households in England, as far-flung as Bamburgh, Leicester, Kenilworth, Kingston Lacy, Hertford, and the Savoy, as well as others in Europe. Records of his payments for minstrels and other entertainers have been transcribed, wherever activities or payments for them may have occurred, because the administrative centres of the duchy appear to have been Tutbury and Kenilworth. The register books have been published as John of Gaunt's Register, Part I (1371-1375), Sydney Armitage-Smith (ed), Camden Society, 3rd ser, 20–1, 2 vols (London, 1911); John of Gaunt's Register, Part II (1379–83), Eleanor C. Lodge and Robert Somerville (eds), Camden Society, 3rd ser, 56–7, 2 vols (London, 1937).
1372–6; Anglo-Norman and Latin; parchment with paper fly-leaves; ii + 235 + ii; 330mm x 230mm; ink foliation; bound in brown cloth boards with leather corners and spine, title on spine: 'Duchy of Lancaster. Miscell. Books.'