Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/569

 1920 " WESTERN BOROUGHS IN 1256 561 contains clauses 1, 2, 3, 4.^ It is to be noticed that in the grant to Worcester of February 1256 clause 2 was wanting as in the Here- ford charter. Then follows clause 4, which was also absent from the earlier charter ; the confirmation ends with the phrase, ' as is contained in other charters of the king's '. The new grant of 1264 opens with the phrase ' for the good service rendered by the said citizens to the king and Edward his son ', and bestows clause 5 ^ upon the burgesses. From this arrangement of clauses on the charter roll it is evident that between February 1256 and March 1264 Worcester obtained an extension of its charter of the former year, adding clauses 2 and 4 after the example of Shrews- bury, Hereford, and Gloucester, It is possible that this extension of the borough's privileges was gained in those August days of 40 Henry III when its three neighbours were purchasing liberties from the king in the city itself or at the adjacent hunting lodge of Feckenham. Thus, then, it appears that in the same month these boroughs were procuring several identical privileges. It is not suggested that they obtained any unique concessions or that the existence of common privileges is by itself evidence of organic connexion between the charters of the boroughs. It was a well-known medieval practice for one borough to petition for the privileges of a selected exemplar, Cambridge fining for the privileges of Gloucester in 1200 being a case in point. ^ From an examination of the Calendar of the charter rolls it becpmes apparent that some of these clauses, arranged in sets of 1-3, 4-6, or 4 alone, were granted to various boroughs shortly before the charter to Here- ford. An attempt to trace as far as is possible the history of the distribution of these clauses will bring into relief the solidarity of the group of charters belonging to the boroughs under considera- tion. The first appearance of the opening clauses that I have been able to find is in the grant to Worcester * on 23 February 1256. On 25 March of the same year clauses 1, 2, 3, were granted to Yar- mouth, and on 20 April the same three were given to Dunwich. It may be noticed also that a charter consisting of clauses 2 and 7 was given to York on 17 May. The three clauses, with the addition of clause 11, were granted to Southampton in a charter dated at Bristol 14 July 40 Henry III.^ Their bestowal on Bath will be mentioned later. ' The text for clause 3 conforms to the ingrediafur of Hereford and Shrewsbury. The confirmation has distrivgatur for the arestenlur of Hereford and Shrewsbury in clause 4. ^ Clause 5 is found in an abbreviated form. * Gross, i. 245. Cal. of the Charter Rolls is 20 April 1230 (i. 121). confirmation. VOL. XXXV. — NO. CXL
 * The first instance of return of writs being granted which is preserved on the
 * Confirmed 4 June 1317. All these 1256 charters are given from subsequent