1341-04-27, Westminster

for the abbot of Rameseye of records and processes (1) Pleas of the forest at Huntingdon the octave of Midsummer, 14 Edward [I], before Roger Lestraunge, Peter de Lenche and John son of Nigel, justices appointed to hear and determine the same. Rameseye. A presentment was made that the abbot of Rameseye claims in the forest a baniteu round the abbey, to hunt with dogs and that he and his men are quit of clawing of their dogs. Cartulartum Monasters. de Rameseta, vol. 1, pp. 213, 214. (2) The bishop of Ely claims the liberty of starting, following and taking deer in all woods and places between Somersham, and the highway from Huntingdon to Kamesey through the town of Ripton. And a monk of the priory of Ely produces charters of the king's progenitors granting to the bishops of Ely that the wood of Somersham shall be quit of wastes and assarts, regards, pleas and plaints, and actions and all other things pertaining to foresters, so that they should freely hunt deer throughout the whole forest of Somersham, to wit as the highway passes from Huntingdon to RKameseye through Ripton. And besides it is granted to them by king John that they may freely follow and take in the king's forest deer started by their dogs in, the bishop's liberty, but their huntsmen shall swear before the chief forester of the king to chace none of the deer in following through his forest deer started in the liberty of the forest of the bishop in Huntyngdonshire. And the foresters, verderers and regarders with the other jurors say that there is a division between the free chace of the bishop of Ely of Someresham and the king's forest by these metes, to wit it begins at the great bank at three willow trees, passing thence to entonlonde, and thence to the new dyke, and thence to the Cross of Fenton, and thence to Wardeboys mill, and thence to Pidelmare, und thence to Pideledam, and thence to Ivemede, and thence to Cobbelangeleye, and thence to Le Hangre of Blontesham, and thence again to the great bank, so that the woods and lands which are without those metes as far as the highway from Huntyngdon towards Rameseye through Ripton in no way pertain to the said chace except for following in them deer started in the chace, but they are entirely within the king's forest and the regard and always have been, and the bishop never was in seisin of the liberty which he claims of starting and taking deer in these, as appears in the rolls of other pleas of the forest. But they say that after the last eyre of Alan de la Souche, a forester in the county of Huntingdon, Walter de Tyngewyk by name, permitted the bishop and his men to start and take deer in Wardeboys wood and the said lands between the chace and the highway, and on this account the bishop gave him two robes yearly and by agreement between them when he retired from his bailiwick of forester he stayed with the bishop for the bishop's life, with food and clothing and two horses. They say also that neither William de Teversham nor any of the bishop's huntamen have been sworn before the justice to act faithfully in following deer through the forest from the time when Walter de Tyngewyk was first a forester in the forest, but they afterwards started and hunted deer in the woods of Wardeboys and St. Ives and elsewhere without the chace, and did great damage to the king's venison with dogs and with nets and dogs, whereof they are indicted in the roll of venison. And because the bishop in like manner claims a great part of the marsh to be of his liberty, inquisition is made by the jury and it is found in the rolls of ancient pleas of the forest in the county of Huntingdon before Robert de Passelewe and his fellows, 29 Henry III, that the marsh between Oldehee and Kyngesdelf is of the county of Huntingdon and not Cambridge, and of the king's forest, and does not pertain to the Isle of Ely. (3) The metes and bounds of the forest of Huntingdon. [Cartulartum Monasteru: de Ramesera, vol. i, pp. 211, 212.] (4) An assize of novel disseisin taken before Ralph de Hengham and John Ruseel, justices, on Thursday after Michaelmas, 9 Edward I, at Weresle, co. Huntingdon, touching a disseisin by the abbot of Thorneye, the prior of Ely, John le Mareschal, Stephen le Fotour, Roger Childyng, John his brother, Henry le Plaunter, Elias de Cassaundre, Richard Buche, John Benereth, Richard Cassaundre, Henry Cassaundre, Hugh Etem, Richard Surkil, Peter Staf, John son of Walter, Alan son of Walter, William la Rede of Westfen, Henry de Lilleford, William de Hauvill, Robert Clarice, William son of Stephen Freman, Stephen Freman, Richard de Hokkeleye, Stephen Raven, William Colt, John son of Geoffrey, Richard Whytehenne, John Brodeheved, Walter de Sutton, William his son, John Cleyre, John Hungwalot, John Tevernan, David his son and Walter le Couper, of the abbot of Rameseye from his holding of 3,800 acres of marsh in Rameseye. The bailiff of the bishop of Ely says that the holding is in the county of Cambridge in the Isle of Ely, and the abbot of Thorneye says that itisin the county of Cambridge in the town of Witteleseye, and not in the county of Huntingdon, therefore the assize ought not to be taken in the county of Huntingdon, but that if the holding be in Huntingdon he has done no injury because on the day on which he was created abbot he found his church of Thorneye in seisin of the holding. And the jury find that the holding whereof they have made view is in the county of Huntingdon of the appurtenances of the manor of Rameseye and not of Witteleseye, co. Cambridge, because the bounds thereof are from Gangested to Shiremere, and from Shiremere to Hindeslake, whereof the abbot of Rameseye and his predecessors time out of mind have been in seisin. Therefore judgment is for the abbot of Rameseye and the others are in mercy. IlJ. Parr I. 171