Merchants of Chester. Earl of Chester and council. The merchants of Chester state...

Petitioners

Merchants of Chester.

Addressees

Earl of Chester and council.

Nature of request

The merchants of Chester state that when ships coming with merchandise to Chester arrive in North Wales, they are seized and attached by Adam de Wetenhale, Chamberlain of North Wales, out of malevolence towards the people of Chester, and that his servants sometimes beat, wound and ill-treat merchants and sailors from these ships, on his orders. Because of this, merchants are unwilling to come to Chester, and trade is suffering. They ask the Earl to ask the King and council to ordain such a remedy than merchants can come, go and remain in those parts with their merchandise in safety.

Nature of endorsement

The Chamberlain is to be ordered by a writ containing the complaint in this petition to put right what has been done by him in this way without delay, and not to do such things in future, but to allow all merchants to travel to Chester peacefully, and to return from there etc., without hindering them in any way.

Places mentioned

Chester, [Cheshire]

Gascony, [France]

Normandy, [France]

Ireland

North Wales.

People mentioned

Adam de Wetenhale, Chamberlain of North Wales.

For transcript, see no.22 of PRO 31/7/102

• Calendar of Ancient Petitions Relating to Wales, Board of Celtic Studies, History and Law, (University of Wales, 1975), pp.157-8 (calendar of petitions)
• Irish Material in the Class of Ancient Petitions (SC 8) in the Public Record Office, Analecta Hibernica, vol. XXIV, P. Connolly, (Stationery Office of Ireland, 1987), p.34 (brief calendar of petition)
• Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, vol. I, Edw I and Edw II, (Record Commission, 1783), pp.413b-414a (no.154) (full edition of original petition)
• The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, Ed. Paul Brand, Anne Curry, Chris Given-Wilson, Rosemary Horrox, W.M. Ormrod and J.R.S. Phillips, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Appendix of Unedited Petitions, 1307-1337, Rotuli Parliamentorum I, pp. 387-415, no. 154 (summary of references)