1338-11-01, Kennington

Order to cause 47, 11s. 103d. to be levied of the men of the town of Westminster, and to answer for one moiety at the exchequer on the morrow of All Souls next, and for the other on the morrow of Hilary following, as the king appointed Henry, John de Cherleton and Edmund Flambard to assess that town afresh with a clerk whom they should choose for this, and for whom they should answer, for the tenth and fifteenth, and Henry and John taxed the goods of those men at the said sum, as 4s found by . Parr III. 553 a certificate sent into chancery, as the parliament: assembled at Westminster on Friday before Michaelmas, in the llth year of the reign, granted the king a tenth and fifteenth of all their moveable goods for the past year, and for the two years next following, in aid of his expenses for the defence of the realm against the incursions of the Scots and other alien enemies, and the king appointed Henry and William to seek and receive from all cities, boroughs and towns in co. Middlesex as much money and no more as had been levied by reason of the grant of the tenth and fifteenth in the great council held at Notingham on Monday after St. Matthew, in the 10th year of the reign; and afterwards at the suit of the men of Westminster, by their petition before the king and his council, beseeching him to do favour to them upon the portion of the fifteenth touching them or else to grant that their goods may be taxed afresh at the fifteenth, as the town is not a burgh or market town, and the men do not traffic or sell there, so that they are not able to live or maintain themselves except when the places of the exchequer and the Common Bench or others are staying there, and the men are much impoverished because the said places have not stayed there for a great while, and several who used to dwell in the town and bear the tallages and other charges thereon with the men living in the town, have departed therefrom by reason of want, so that the men in the town cannot live and maintain their estate unless they are favourably treated by the king the king appointed John de Pulteneye, John Bray and Walter Sallyng to take an inquisition upon the matter, by which it is found that the town is not a burgh or market town, and the men do not traffic or sell there except when the king's places are there, and that the substance of the town was wont to consist in rents, and that on acecunt of the absence of the said places, men have withdrawn from the town with their goods, and the men staying in the town are yearly impoverished by 707. By C.