1342-05-05, Edward Westminster

To the sheriff of Kent. Order to make diligent scrutiny throughout that county and cause all wool which he finds by such scrutiny in shearing or otherwise to be taken and arrested in whatever ships or places they are found, saving the ecclesiastical liberty, provided they are not fraudulently placed there, so that each man of the county who has not wool for the portion assessed upon him in the county shall be able to buy as much as he lacks of the wool so arrested, and the sheriff shall not permit any wool to be taken out of the county before all those who have no wool have satisfied the king for their portions, but shall cause all those who wish to buy wool so arrested for the fixed price to do so, if there be some who do not wish to sell their wool, and to cause the price to be paid to those from whom the wool is taken, so behaving in the matter that the taking of the wool be not delayed and that answer therefor may be made to the king before Midsummer next, so that the king may not have cause to punish him, informing the king of the quantity of wool so arrested and the owners thereof in chancery from time to time, as the parliament held at Westminster in the 15th year of the reign granted the king 30,000 sacks of wool, 20,000 in that year and 10,000 in the present year, and that all who had wool beyond the quantity touching them should be bound to sell it for a price ordained at Notingham according to the sort of the country, and now the king has appointed certain lieges to levy and collect a certain sum of the said 10,000 sacks for the present year in that county, so that they shall answer to the king for the same before the said feast. By K. and C, The like to all the sheriffs of England.