Thus in 1292 one Adam--the reader will observe that the records do not
give the actual names, Adam being chosen as beginning with the first
letter of the alphabet--brought the Replegiare against B., &c., stating
that B., &c., had tortiously taken his chattels in the High Street of
the Town of Gloucester and conveyed them to their toll booth in the same
town. B. and C., the bailiffs, defended the seizure, asserting that by
the custom of the town of Gloucester only freemen might cut cloth
there--strangers might sell cloth by the piece, but not cut it.
Adam was not a freeman of the town, but, in opposition to the custom, he
had come and cut his cloth. As against this Adam produced a charter
witnessing that the King had granted him the right of cutting cloth in
the same way as other freemen, and, by virtue of the charter, he
maintained that he had been seised from time whereof, &c. The bailiffs
repudiated this claim. We do not learn what the judgment was in this
case, but the phrase "other freemen" is suspicious. It suggests that the
charter had been granted in ignorance of the custom of this particular
town, not out of disrespect for it, since the tendency of all the
evidence is to show that local autonomy and local privileges in such
matters were treated with infinite care. It almost appears as if Adam
had taken advantage of an ambiguity. As regards ordinary civil rights
Adam was doubtless a freeman--otherwise he could not have brought this
action--but he was not a freeman in the sense that he paid scot and lot
in the town of Gloucester.
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