REVIEWS: The Register of Daniel Rough, Common Clerk of Romney, 1353-1380 - Archaeologia Cantiana

in the library of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge until probably in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Romney was fortunate in having the service as Common Clerk of such a shrewd and capable man as Daniel Rough. He was a fishmonger who carried on a large business trading to London, Hertford, Dover, Bury, St. Albans, Cambridge, Newmarket, Wallingford, Kirkby and Uxbridge, as was discovered from a fragment of his accounts in the binding of a later Court Book of the town. The Register consists of three parts. Rough began with the custumal in Anglo-French containing the rules by which the town was governed, those for legal procedure, and details concerning the Cinque Ports Court of Shepway. The custumal was drawn up for presentation to the Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1356, and Miss Murray suggests that possibly many of the customs had not previously been put in writing. Next to the custumal, Rough entered the table of Maletolts, a general tax paid on all goods, bought or sold in the town. This was followed by the general charter of the Cinque Ports of 1278 by which Edward I granted them jointly the liberties hitherto enjoyed under individual charters. Next to the General Charter, Rough transcribed Edward II's Inspexmus of the charters granted to Lydd and Dengemarsh by Henry II in 1155 and Edward I in 1290. The importance to Romney of these charters was that Lydd was bound to provide one of the five ships due from Romney and therefore

enjoyed all the liberties of the Cinque Ports. The Lydd charter of 1290 throws light on the reason for the excommunication in June 1298 of fifteen leading men of Lydd by their overlord, the Archbishop of Canterbury.¹ He charged them with procuring the renewal of a charter which deprived the church of Canterbury of rights and privileges. The men made submission and were absolved, but as they refused to seal a bond to make no use of the charter, the sentence of excommunication was renewed four months later. Nevertheless it failed of its purpose. The relations of Romney with the Archbishops of Canterbury were uneasy; as overlord the Archbishop appointed the bailiff who was the official head of the town, and Romney was unable to elect a Mayor until late in the sixteenth century. In 1298 Archbishop Winchelsey told his men and tenants of Romney when they quarrelled with each other and with the men of Winchelsea that they were not merely subject to him as their spiritual lord, as they admitted, but as their temporal overlord.² On behalf of the barons of the Cinque Ports, on October 30th, 1298, he wrote to Edward I asking for speedy justice against the men of Yarmouth who had deprived them of their long enjoyed liberties at the recent Michaelmas fair.³
¹ Register of Archbishop Winchelsey, pp. 256, 288 (Canterbury and York Society).
² Ibid., p. 277.
³ Ibid., p. 289.