John de Usk, Abbot of Chertsey. de Usk John King and Parliament. Abbot of Chertsey...

Petitioners

John de Usk, Abbot of Chertsey.

Name(s)

de Usk, John

Addressees

King and Parliament.

Occupation

Abbot of Chertsey

Nature of request

The petitioner asks for consideration of various matters and an order for a remedy. He shows how his Abbey has manors appurtenant to its foundation by the king's ancestors, and conjointly the tenants of Chobham, Frimley, Thorpe and Egham, held along with others of villein blood, and other bondsmen held at the petitioner's will, rendering each year rents, customary payments and services etc., as they were established, and more made since the foundation of the Abbey, which was founded by Frithewold and St Erkenwold in the year AD 722, and these rents, payments etc., have been held without interruption ever since until recently, when they were bought by malicious council, alliance and conspiracy by persons who acquired a patent called an exemplification, by which they supposed to have their freedom etc., which would destroy the abbey forever. When the petitioner by his officials wished to charge the tenants with their services (in winter as in summer), they were resisted and menaced with staves and other weapons, and threatened with the burning of the abbey and the killing of the monks. The petitioner then purchased a writ direct to the sheriff to distrain them and took distress by virtue of the said writ, and then they broke the said seizure on their own authority and threatened that if they did not have their way then thousands of men in these lands would die.

Nature of endorsement

An answer is made to this petition among the general petitions of the commons.

Places mentioned

Chertsey, [Surrey]

Chobham, [Surrey]

Frimley, [Surrey]

Thorpe, [Surrey]

Egham, [Surrey]

London.

People mentioned

Frithewold

St Erkenwold.

For transcript, see no.15 of PRO 31/7/110

For a related petition see SC 8/103/5102