1324-11-26, Cheshunt

To the treasurer and barons of the exchequer, and to the chamberlains. abbot of Westminster has shown by his petition before the king and council that whereas the king's progenitors granted to the abbots of a tenth of the ferm of the town of Droitwich (de Wychio), Worcester, for which tenth the present abbot and his predecessors have from time out of mind 82. yearly at the exchequer, as well when the was in the hands of the king's progenitors as when it was in the of others, as the abbot asserts that he can prove by the rolls and of the exchequer, until the late king granted the manor in dower Margaret, late queen of England, which queen paid the tenth fully for the time that she held the manor, and the abbot has received nothing of tenth from the time of her death, to wit in the eleventh year of the reign, because the present king granted the manor to queen Isabella, refused to pay the tenth for the time that she held the manor, and the king lately granted the manor to Edmund, earl of Kent, and to heirs of his body, as of the yearly value of 892. 5s. Od. yearly, who refused to pay the tenth to the abbot, asserting that he was not to pay it; wherefore the abbot has besought the king to pay him the of the said tenth and to order the same to be paid to him henceforth: king therefore orders the treasurer, barons, and chamberlains to take of the estate that queen Isabella had and that the earl now has the manor, and, if they find that the queen and the earl ought to be with the tenth, they are to cause them to be charged with the same their times, and if they find that the king ought to be charged therewith the time of the queen and now, they are then to pay to the abbot the of the said 8/. for the time that the king ought to pay that sum, and cause the same to be paid to the abbot henceforth, as has been usual or the treasurer and barons are to cause allowance to be made the arrears in the debts due from the abbot to the exchequer. By K. on the information of W. de Ayremynne.