Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/571

 1920 WESTERN BOROUGHS IN 1256 563 Public Record Office.* The order and wording of the clauses are identical with those foUnd in the charters to the border boroughs, and the charter would seem to be the model for the Hereford charter (ii) granted five days later. To sum up, the earlier grants show that though the clauses themselves were the common property of many boroughs, yet no one of them secured the same combination of clauses as Hereford and Shrewsbury. The nearness of the dates of the grants to Hereford, Shrewsbury, Gloucester, Bridgnorth, and in some measure to Worcester, the identity in purport, wording, and sequence of the clauses, are noteworthy. It may be said that the five boroughs obtained one charter with individual omissions and additions to suit their respective cases. ^ From such data the hypothesis may be submitted that an organic connexion existed between these various documents. This supposition receives some confirmation from the local origin of the grants ; in corroboration may be cited the granting of clauses 1, 2, 3, 11, to Southampton at Bristol and of clauses 1, 3, 5, 6, 11, to Bath at Gloucester, as well as the final case of the grant to Monmouth at Hereford itself. To avoid generalization from one instance, the existence of similar parallel- ism in date, purport, order, and phrasing in 1 1 Henry III ^ may be mentioned ; and the like for Shrewsbury and Hereford in the reign of Richard II.* A stronger argument for organic connexion is to be found when parallelism again appears in the letters patent to Worcester on 29 March 19 Richard II, to Gloucester on 21 March 21 Richard II, and to Hereford on 23 June 23 Richard 11.^ Here the evidence of the collection of ancient petitions and files 1 Ancient Deeds, C, no. 9843. town of Wales ; of the boroughs which entered the Hereford affiliation the following received clauses 4, 5, 6, 7 : Aberconway, Ruthin, Flint, Carnarvon on 8 September 12 Edward I ; Bere, Harlech, Criccieth, 22 November 13 Edward I ; Beaumaris, 15 September 24 Edward I. They were included in the Bala charter of 1324, and conveyed to New borough, which received the liberties of Rhuddlan in 1303, and to Nevin and Pwllheli, which received those of Newborough in 1355. See Cal. of Charter Rolls, vol. ii, and A. E. Lewis, Mediaeval Boroughs of Snoivdonia, pp. 279-91. Denbigh received clauses 6, 7, 4, 5, in a charter of 22 FebruE^ry 2 Richard II ; see J. Williams, Ancient and Modern Denbigh. Oswestry, the daughter town of Shrewsbury, received clauses 5, 6, 8, 4, in a composite grant of Shrewsbury charters in 1398. ^ The grant to Hereford was earlier, in 1215 ; to Worcester 17 March; to Shrews- bury 20 March ; to Gloucester, 6 April ; to Bridgnorth 20 June 1 1 Henry III. It was passed to the towns of the Hereford affiliation, to Montgomery 13 February 11 Henry III ; to Llanbadam Vawr 28 December 1 1 Henry III ; to Builth and Rhuddlan in Wales 4 November 1278. 18 Richard II and Shrewsbury 19 Richard II. The petition sent up by the burgesses of Shrewsbury probably proves that they were asking for the same grant as had been given to Hereford, but there is not space to go into the matter here. See Ancient Petitions, no. 12585. 7 June 23 Henry VI. ■^ OO 2
 * The charter was widely distributed. Dr. Gross has called Hereford the mother
 * Identical privileges for counter reprisal on the Welsh were received by Hereford
 * Shrewsbury received tho ame privileges phrased in more elaborate language on