SECTION 3. ANCIENT GRANT TO THE BURGESSES BY GILBERT BASSET,-THE ORIGIN OF THE MARKET, &c.-THE BASSET FAMILY. Basset's Grant. The oldest existing document relating to the history of this town, if we except the one mentioned in chap. iii. sect. 1. is a grant made by Gilbert Basset, as lord of the Honor of Wallingford, to the burgesses of Uxbridge, to hold a Market every Thursday, and to collect and appropriate certain tolls. In this grant Basset expressly denominates the towns-men, his BURGESSES, a term which was then, both in England and France, equivalent to citizen; and by this instrument he gave them several important privileges, and allowed them to alien their houses and lands, a liberty which was not generally enjoyed till many years after. The reader will probably conceive the document itself a curiosity and worthy of preservation, we have therefore here given a perfect fac-simile. The following is the latin in words at length; the original being abbreviated and written in the court hand of that age. LATIN COPY. Gilbertus Basset, omnibus Baronibus de Honore Warengford, et Vicinis suis, et Amicis, Salutem. Sciatis quod Dominus noster Henricus Rex Angliæ, concessit mihi ad faciendum Forum in Villa mea de Wxebruge, cum omnibus consuetudinibus, quascunque ibi meliores posuero. Et volo et stabilio quod qui tenuerit unam acram in Villa, sit quietus de Teloneo, et de omnibus aliis consuetudinibus, dando per annum duos solidos; et qui dimidiam acram habeat eandem libertatem dando duodecim denarios: et constamentum quod ibi fecerit, in domibus aut in alio, suum sit; dandum filio suo, aut extraneo, cuicumque voluerit, et ubicumque voluerit, ponendum ut proprium Catallum suum, nisi in Elemosinam. Et si negotium ei evenerit, vendat domos suas cum terra, cuilibet, nisi in Elemosinam, salvo meo servicio, meo supernominato; aut domos per se removendas infra Burgum. Et stabilio Mercatum ad diem Jovis : et Burgenses mei habeant Telonea de Mercaturis quæ factæ fuerint infra domos suas, de super* ***. De forefactis etiam quæ facta fuerint infra domos suas, sint ipsi Justici, et inde habeant emendas. Has consuetudines, et Quietancias, et Libertates, et omnes alias quascunque poterint in alio Burgo meliores invenire, aut liberiores, eis concedo et confirmo; et volo quod firmè habeant et teneant. Forefactura facta die Mercati, mea sunt, ubicunque facta fuerint in Burgo meo. Gilbert Basset to all Barons of the Honor of Wallingford, and his Neighbours and Friends greeting. Know ye that our Lord Henry, King of England, hath granted to me [liberty] to make a Market in my town of Wxebruge with all Customs, which I may there lay down, as beneficial; and I will and establish, that, whosoever holds one Acre in the Town shall be quit of Toll, and of all other Customs, paying by year Two Shillings; and he who holdeth half an acre shall have the same Liberty; paying 124 and the tenement (constamentum) which he shall there make in Building, or in any other thing, shall be his own, to be given to his son, or to a stranger, whomsoever he will, and wheresoever he will, to be considered as his own proper Chattel, unless for Alms; and if he shall find it necessary, he may sell his Houses with the Land, but not for Alms, saving |