Community of Berkshire. King and council. The community of Berkshire state that the...

Petitioners

Community of Berkshire.

Addressees

King and council.

Nature of request

The community of Berkshire state that the common gaol of their county used to be at Wallingford, until, by the negligence of the Sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, it was allowed to fall into decay and was removed to Oxford castle; and then, by the procurement of certain people, a writ was issued that all prisoners were to be sent to Windsor, which is highly unsuitable for a variety of reasons which they list. They ask that the gaol might be returned to Wallingford.

Nature of endorsement

Michael de Meldon and John de Stonor are to be appointed justices to inquire, by the oath both of knights and of others etc., into the removal of the prison etc., and into the time and cause of its removal, and whether it is more advantageous and less dangerous to the county that the prison remain there or in the place where it used to be, and into all the other circumstances touching this business, and they are to inform the King of all their actions in Chancery etc.

Places mentioned

Wallingford, Berkshire

Oxford, Oxfordshire

Windsor, Berkshire

Buckinghamshire.

People mentioned

Sheriffs of Oxfordshire and Berkshire

Michael de Meldon, justice

John de Stonor, justice.

For another petition on this matter see SC 8/218/10889

• Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edw II, vol. II, 1313-1317, (Public Record Office, 1898), pp.328-9 (commission of enquiry into this matter)
• Documents Illustrative of English History in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, selected from the Records of the Department of the Queen's Remembrancer of the Exchequer, Ed. H. Cole, (Record Commission, 1844), p.40 (enrolment of Latin summary of petition on parliament roll)
• Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et Petitiones, et Placita in Parliamento, vol. I, Edw I and Edw II, (Record Commission, 1783), p.300a (no.44) (full edition of earlier related petition and response)
• 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), Parliament of 1315, no.57 (edition and translation of earlier related petition and response) & Parliament of October 1318, SC 9/21, no.218 (edition and translation of Latin summary of petition on parliament roll)