Page:Mediaevalleicest00billrich.djvu/196

 which license he paid the King 100 shillings, 20s. for each last. The management of the Guild Merchant soon passed into his hands. "In the year next after the death of William Pepin, Abbot of Leicester" (which took place in 1224), Simon Curlevache was acting as Alderman in conjunction with John Warin. Shortly afterwards his name appears on the Guild Roll as the one "Alderman of Leicester." During his sole tenure of this office — which corresponded with the later Mayoralty — the election of the Council of the Guild was for the first time placed on record. The names of 24 burgesses are given in the roll, who were chosen by the Guild to come to all summonses of the Alderman "ad consulendam villam et ad eum sequendum in negotiis villæ pro posse suo si sint in villa sub pena de vid." It may also be said that Simon Curlevache is the first recorded Treasurer of the Borough Funds. It appears from the Guild Roll that in or about the year 1225 he had the receipts of the Guild paid over to him, out of which he disbursed the wages of clerks and Serjeants, and accounted for expenses incurred on the North Bridge, with a small balance over. No one else seems to have been associated with him in the chief office of the Guild until the 27th day of February, 1234, when William de St. Lo was appointed to act as Alderman with him. In a deed executed about 1240 the attestation clause begins thus:— "Hiis testibus Simone Curle&#865;u et Willelmo de Sein Lo tunc aldermannis Leircestriæ." These men were still the two Aldermen of the Guild in 1241–42. For some unknown reason Curlevache had the misfortune to fall under the displeasure of Simon de Montfort, who, in the year 1239, extorted from him a sum of 500 marks (£333 6s. 8d.) — a very large amount in those times. The affair is known only from a letter in which Robert Grosseteste, the Bishop of Lincoln, took the Earl to task for his harsh and impolitic conduct. The punishment, he told him, was too heavy, and quite out of proportion to the offence. Notwithstanding this remonstrance, Simon de Montfort was obdurate. His namesake was wealthy enough to pay the fine, but we hear nothing of him after 1242; and, as he cannot then have been far short of 70 years old, he may have died soon after receiving this severe imposition. 150