Note 431 — Chapter VII

In 1299 the amercements ordered by the Leet Court of Norwich amounted to £72 18s. 10d.; the amount accounted for by the collectors was £17 0s. 2d. (Hudson’s Leet Jurisd. of Norwich, Selden Soc. xl.) Where there was profit to be made the King was, however, always on the alert. In Piers Ploughman, Passus v., 169, he complains bitterly of the lawyers; “through your law I believe I lose my escheats!”; and it was often late before he made the mayor escheator. In 1492 two Scotch priests were arrested in Ipswich for treasonable talk, and the King granted their chattels to one of his own serjeants. The bailiffs sent the Town Clerk to Henry to represent that the forfeited goods of felons rightly belonged to the town; to which the King answered that he would not for a thousand pounds infringe in the least degree their charters, but that the community had really no right to these particular chattels, since the priests, being Scotch and not the King’s subjects, could not fairly be accused of treason, and had a perfect right to talk as they chose. On this plea he kept the goods. (Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 247.)