1336-12-03, Bothwell

To the treasurer and barons of the exchequer. Whereas lately at the prosecution of the abbess of Elnestowe by her petition before the kivg and his council in the last parliament at Westminster, showing the king that Malcolm, sometime king of Scotland and lord of the town of Bedeford, long before that town came into the hands of the king's progenitors, granted by his charter, which the king's progenitors confirmed to the then abbess, the third penny of his rent of the town of Bedeford, to be received yearly, and the predecessors of the abbess were seised of that rent for a great time, from the time of the said grant, and the mayor and bailiffs of Bedeford detained the rent from the abbess, the king ordered the treasurer and barons to hear the plaint of the abbess in this respect, calling before them the said mayor and bailiffs, hearing their reasons, and to cause due and speedy complement of justice to be done to the abbess in the premises; and the mayor and bailiffs, pleading before the treasurer and barons in the exchequer, alleged that the said plea touches their free tenement, and by statute such pleas ought not to be taken elsewhere than in a certain place deputed for this, and they sought for judgment if they ought to answer in the exchequer concerning that plea; by reason of which allegation the treasurer and barons delayed to proceed further as the king has learned from the plaint of the abbess, the king therefore orders the treasurer aud barons to proceed further in that plea and to cause justice to be done to the abbess, netwithstanding the said allegation. By C.