"
Stow also knew of the "services and franchises," and it is thought that
he had seen a copy of them in the "Liber Custumarum." The latter is
accessible in print in Riley's edition of the "Munimenta Gildhallae
Londiniensis," and corresponds in all or most respects with what we have
found in Blount.
So much for the antecedents of the story.
The Fitzwalters are said to have come over with the Conqueror, and to
have been invested with the soke before mentioned by his favour and in
requital of their services. That the family had at one time
extraordinary rights in the City of London is shown by the evidence of
the Patent Rolls, from which we learn that in the third year of Edward
I. (1275) Robert Fitzwalter received licence from the Crown to transfer
Baynard Castle, "adjoining the wall of the City, with all walls and
fosses thereunto pertaining, as also the Tourelle called Montfichet," to
Robert Kilwardley, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the purpose of founding
the House and Church of the Friars Preachers--"provided always that by
reason of this grant nothing shall be extinguished to him and his heirs
which to his Barony did belong, but that whatsoever relating thereto, as
well in rents, landing of vessels, and other franchises and privileges
in the City of London or elsewhere, without diminution unto him the said
Robert, or to that Barony, have recently belonged, shall henceforth be
reserved.
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