John Salman of Great Livermere, clerk. Salman John King and lords of parliament....

Petitioners

John Salman of Great Livermere, clerk.

Name(s)

Salman, John

Addressees

King and lords of parliament.

Occupation

clerk

Nature of request

John Salman of Great Livermere states that he was impleaded in the court of Bury St Edmunds before the Bailiffs of Bury St Edmunds [in a suit of debt] by Roger Drury, knight, Nicholas Drury and Richard Alfrede, and that the case was held before one bailiff in the absence of the other, contrary to the custom of the town, and the jury were charged to tell the truth on the fealty they owed to the lord of the fee, although they had never done fealty to him. And a suit of debt against him by Richard Alfrede and John Alfrede was again tried with one bailiff absent, so that he was adjudged to remain in prison until he had paid the sums owed and damages, and was held in prison until a writ of the King came to send the record and process to King's Bench because of the error the bailiffs had made; but they have sent a forged record, so that he is on the point of being ruined. He asks the King to summon the bailiffs before him on a certain day in the present parliament to answer for their wrongdoing, and also to have [some of the jurymen] before the King on a certain date to inform him of the charge given to them; or otherwise that the Chancellor might have power, by authority of parliament, to call the aforesaid parties before him, and to do justice according to what can be found before him by due examination.

Nature of endorsement

This petition is to be sent to Chancery, and the Chancellor of England is to have power, by authority of parliament, to summon before him, on a certain day, the parties named in this petition, and when the Chancellor has called to him the justices he wishes, from both Benches, and when the matters contained in this petition, and the arguments made on them by both parties, have been heard and understood, the same Chancellor is to do justice to the parties. And the complainant in this petition is to have a writ of supersedeas addressed to the justices of King's Bench, to stay proceedings in the matter contained in this petition, by authority of the aforesaid parliament.

Places mentioned

Great Livermere, [Suffolk]

Bury St Edmunds, [Suffolk].

People mentioned

Roger Drury, knight

Nicholas Drury

Richard Alfrede

Laurence Trussebut, Bailiff of Bury St Edmunds

Robert Somerton, Bailiff of Bury St Edmunds

John Alfrede.

For a memorandum of evidence given by Laurence Trussebut, Bailiff of Bury St Edmunds, on this, see SC 8/198/9877

For a near-duplicate of this petition, see SC 8/71/3549

For a memorandum of evidence given by Robert Somerton, Bailiff of Bury St Edmunds, on this, see SC 8/198/9878