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The people of the liberties of Durham and Norhamshire. King and council The petitioners...

Catalogue reference: SC 8/44/2165

What’s it about?

This record is about the The people of the liberties of Durham and Norhamshire. King and council The petitioners... dating from [c. 1320-c. 1350] in the series Special Collections: Ancient Petitions. It is held at The National Archives, Kew.

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Full description and record details

Reference
SC 8/44/2165
Date
[c. 1320-c. 1350]
Description
Petitioners
The people of the liberties of Durham and Norhamshire.
Addressees
King and council
Nature of request
The petitioners show that the bishop refuses to grant certain writs to those seeking justice at his chancery as they have not been pleaded there before, and eyres which offered speedy justice are no longer held so that the petitioners request that the bishop be ordered to do justice to those in his liberty through whatever writ they require, so justice is not lacking there more than elsewhere.
Nature of endorsement
Coram rege et magno consilio.The request requires a change in the law which cannot be done without the request of the bishop of Durham and the commonalty of the bishopric, and by the assent of the king, prelates, earls and barons and other great people of the realm in parliament, so that nothing can be done now.
Places mentioned
Franchise de Duresme (Liberty of Durham)
Franchise de Norhamshire (Liberty of Norhamshire).
People mentioned
Bishop of Durham.
Note
Fraser (Northern Petitions, p. 239) dates this petition to after 1345. Notional dates have been fixed here encompassing the latter part of Edward II's reign but confining the petition to the period before the mid-fourteenth century; the assumption is that the petition is related to SC 8/43/2148. The notes of the guard provide spurious references.
Related material

For another petition concerning the inability to use certain writs in Durham see SC 8/39/1935

For a petition by the bishop on the same matter, with an identical endorsement, see SC 8/43/2148

A related petition is SC 8/107/5334

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference
Parliamentary Petition 2571
Legal status
Public Record(s)
Language
French
Closure status
Open Document, Open Description
Publication note(s)
Northern Petitions Illustrative of Life in Berwick, Cumbria and Durham in the Fourteenth Century, Ed. C.M. Fraser, (Surtees Society, vol. CXCIV, 1981), pp.237-9 (no.175) (full edition of petition)
Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C9062375/

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Series information

SC 8

Special Collections: Ancient Petitions

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Special Collections: Ancient Petitions

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The people of the liberties of Durham and Norhamshire. King and council The petitioners...

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