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in Calice". The men of London enjoyed a similar
freedom. For another explanation, see Archæologia Cantiana IX,
p. lxiv.
Denne and Strand. The right formerly exercised by
the fishermen of the Cinque Ports to land at Yarmouth to mend their nets
and sell their catch.
Tallage. A subsidy granted to the King by
Parliament. Faversham could claim exemption on two grounds --- as a
member of the Cinque Ports, who were exempt from the payment of
subsidies because of their duty to perform ship-service for the King,
and as a manor held in ancient demesne, i.e. a manor in the possession
of the Crown at the time of Edward the Confessor. The King however
claimed the right to tallage lands held in ancient demesne without the
intervention of Parliament.
Passage. Payments for passing to or fro of persons
or goods in common shores or landing places.
Kayage. Toll at common quays.
Pontage. Contributions collected for the repair of a
bridge.
Murage. A toll levied for the building or repair of
public walls.
Spissage, or sponsage. A payment for passing
over a bridge.
Tonnage. An imposition on goods carried out of or
brought into the country in tuns.
Horngilt. A tax payable within the King's Forest on
horned beasts.
Wreck. "Wreck ......... is, where a Ship is
perished on the Sea, and no man escapes alive out of it, and the Ship,
or part of it so perished, or the Goods of the Ship, come to the Land of
any Lord, the Lord shall have that as a |
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Wreck of the Sea. But if a Man, or a Dog, or a
Cat, escape alive, so that the party to whom the goods belong, come
within a year and a day, and prove the Goods to be his, he shall have
them again." (Rastell.)
Many of these privileges are referred to in Henry III's
charter granted to Faversham in 1252, and in the General Charter granted
by Edward I to the Cinque Ports in 1278, both of which will be found
reprinted in Miss Murray's The Constitutional History of the Cinque
Ports, at pages 236-8.
COMMON RECOVERY IN THE COURT OF
PORTMOTE.
Unfortunately the record of the Common Recovery suffered in
the Faversham Court of Portmote in 1708, during the Mayoralty of John
Bateman, is too long to be set out in extenso. The property which
is the subject of the Recovery is described as a messuage and garden
lying on the west side of Preston Street, Faversham, and the parties
are: William Peirce, demandant; John Tassell junior, gentleman, tenant
to the praecipe; and Lawrence Whatman, the common vouchee. (Perhaps
for the benefit of the "lay gents" it should be explained that
the Common Recovery was a fictitious compromised action at law, the
usual object of which was to enlarge an entailed estate into a fee
simple.)
Common Recoveries were usually suffered in the Court of
Common Pleas at Westminster, but Recoveries could be suffered and Fines
could be levied in various inferior courts, including courts of ancient |