Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/58

 60 THE END OF THE NORMAN January period his receipts were £975 odd (which did not include the items mentioned below as committed to the charge of Fulk de Orreby). His paym^ts for the time amounted to £286, and £704 odd went into the treasury. Some of the sources of revenues were the farm of the city of Chester (£200 a year), the farm of six city mills (£100), demesne and villeinage land in various places, farms of borough of Frodsham (£30) and of Northwich (£60) and Middlewich (£67), farm of bailiwick of sheriff (£35), and the pleas of the justiciar (£93). The maintenance and garrisoning of the inner and outer bails of the castle of Chester and of Beeston, the value of arms taken over from the earl's representatives, the upkeep of the parks of l)amhall and Macclesfield, the fees of the perambulatory Serjeants of the peace, and of those stationed in the city of Chester, with many similar items, occur in the expenses for the year. The new regime seems to have proceeded more or less smoothly. Very little change seems to have been made or required in the self-contained Cheshire organizations for justice and finance. The king's justiciar of Cheshire supersedes the earl's, but con- tinuity in administration of local law and custom is obtained by the maintenance in office of the assistant judges. The earl's local curia becomes the king's, while in the full county court at which the earl occasionally presided the royal justiciar sits in his seat. The king's writ still does not run within the coimty unless issued by the palatine justiciar, to whom, as before (and not to the sheriff as in other counties), all royal orders are still directed. A new custos of the castles is only to be expected. The local exchequer, headed by the chamberlain, still goes on, though its powers become subsidiary to those of the barons of the king's exchequer. We notice no changes as regards the sheriff, nor in the local forest organization which still excludes the forest justices. The heredi- tary office-bearers to the earl, his constable or marshal, his steward and others, continue their duties. The ' barons ', knights, and freemen merely move up a st«p in tenure to the king. The rolls are full of orders to the justiciar, John de Lexington, and his successors, John Lestrange, John de Grey, and Alan la Zuche, dealing with the provision of money and men for the Welsh wars, the repair of the castles, and preparations for the king's visits to Chester in 1241, and again in 1245 when conducting his ineffective campaign against the Welsh. From 1237 onwards there are many royal grants of liberties to local monastic bodies, with several confirmations of the charters of the citizens of Chester, and local customs and privileges seem to have been carefully preserved, at any rate on paper. Some innovations made in January 1248/9 were, we find, resented. De Grey, as justiciar, was granted a lease (for times of peace only) of