A Claim to "Royal Fish" stranded off Dungeness

( 103 ) A CLAIM TO " ROYAL FISH " STRANDED OFF DUNGENESS. BY OHARLES JOHNSON, F.S.A., F.B.A. THE cartulary of ·St. Leonard's, York, in the Cotton MSS. at the British Museum (Nero D. III), has bound up with it two leaves of parchment purporting to be copied from a "white book" marked 0V, and presumably a lost cartulary of Battle Abbey. They are bound up in the wrong order, and they appear to be a statement of the claim of the abbot of Battle to a share of all whales and other royal fish driven ashore on the borders of Dunge Marsh, which was appendant to the abbey's manor of Wye. The writing of these leaves appears to be of the late fourteenth or early :fifteenth century, but I have not been able to discover or even to guess on what occasion or before what court they were produced. The substance of the statement is as follows :- William the Conqueror founded Battle Abbey in memory of his victory on that spot and gave it, amongst other things, the manor of Wye in Kent, with all its customs and liberties as a royal manor. This included the whole of any " Craspeis " or royal fish coming ashore on any of the land of the manor, and the tongue and two thirds of the body of any such fish stranded within the boundaries of "Horsmede, Blakewase and Bradelle " as far as " Witheburne " whoever might own the land. Before the manor left the king's hands, while Richard of Dover was reeve, a fish was thus stranded on land held by Hugh de Montfort of the Archbishop. Richard claimed the king's share but was forcibly repulsed, and so, when making his account as reeve before the treasury at Winchester, claimed an allowance of £30 for the loss of this advantage. Hugh was compelled to make good the loss and fined £100. 104 A CLAIM TO " ROYAL FISH " This right was expressly transferred to Battle in the charter which gave Wye,1 as also the king's right to twopence a piece on all forfeitures and pleas pertaining to the summons of Wye. Under William Rufus a fish came ashore at " Blakewase ", and a royal serjeant called Alfred Nuspier claimed the king's share and took it by sea to Southampton. Abbot Gausbert, hearing this, waited on the king first at Charing, then " at the house of Croc the huntsman", 2 and lastly at Salisbury, and obtained a writ ordering the proper share to be given him. He reached Southampton at midnight, and found the fish had been taken to the king's larder at Winchester. As the writ only mentioned Southampton, a new writ was needed, and the abbot had to send to the king who was staying at the bishop of Winchester's manor of Taunton. The Iring sent Ivo Taillebois with a writ to Hugh the larderer ordering the fish to be given up. Copies of both writs are appended. In the reign of Henry I, Ramo dapifer being sheriff of Kent (c. 1100-1115), a fish came ashore at Romney, which the sheriff seized and ordered to be taken to Canterbury. Sired the priest, reeve of Wye, claimed the king's share as due to the manor, and the sheriff allowed the claim. Thomas, a monk of Battle was sent to Romney to take possession and found John de Tremmrede and Richard, son of Rabel, arranging to take away the whole fish, as previously ordered. They refused to listen to him and he went to Canterbury and complained to the sheriff of the conduct of his men. The sheriff sent to reprimand them, and the monk got his share. Another fish came ashore on the land of the abbey at " N esse " (Dungeness i), near the boundary between Dunge Marsh and Romney Marsh. The Archbishop's men of Romney and " Ledis " (Lydd i ) came down and attempted to carry off all or part of the fish on the pretext 1 Mon. Angl., III, 244. This Charter is marked as spurious by H. W. C. Davis in Regesta Reg. Anglo-Normann. I, No. 62. 2 Probably Crux Easton in Hampshire. STRANDED OFF DUNGENESS. 105 that it had come ashore on the Archbishop's land. A man of Dunge Marsh, Aliosicus ( 1) opposed them and the men of Battle secured the fish. Abbot Warner (1124-1138) sent his servants who put the whole fish in the abbey larder, and made the king (then in Normandy) a present of 20 loads (summas) from the tongue, and gave liberally of the rest to churches in England and Normandy. Here follows king Henry's charter confirming the liberties of the men of Dunge Marsh, which are the same as those of Hastings and repeating the provision as to royal fish. The precept being addressed to Hamo dapifer and attested by Robert, count of Meulan, cannot be later than A.D. 1118. We must assume that it issued on some occasion before the time of abbot Warner. In the same reign another :fish was stranded on the boundary between.Kent and Sussex, and was claimed simultaneously by William, son of Robert, son of Ralph of Hastings and by Reimbert de Berhe, abbot Warner's reeve of Wye. Four lawful men were chosen on each side and decided that the fish was half in Kent and half in Sussex. It was taken to Winchelsea and divided equally between William and the abbot. On Friday, February 9th, 1258, 1 a :fish forty feet long and about six feet thick was cast up at Dunge Marsh at daybreak and remained unperceived except by the bailiff and the abbot's men till nine o'clock, owing to snow and a violent wind. Then came burgesses of Romney and tried to get possession. The bailiff, fearing a breach of the peace, forbade them in the name of the king and of abbot Ralph (1235-c. 1261) to touch the fish or infringe the custom of the manor. The elder men obeyed, grumbling, but bargained to have part of the fish given or sold to them. The bailiff said that was beyond his power, but presumed so far on his master's liberality as to make presents to the more important men. The rabble, however, threatened force; and the bailiff, mfodful of the rough ways of sailors, to avoid bloodshed, made a speech in which he asked his " good friends and neighbours " to help him to cut up the fish, and told 1 The ninth was actually a Saturday. 106 .A CL.AIM TO " ROY.A L FISH " them they should be rewarded for their trouble. The men of Winchelsea arriving later were given the same terms as those of Romney. The constable of Dover and the sheriff claimed the fish for the king, but the bailiff pleaded the abbot's liberty and succeeded in keeping the peace for five or six days and in preventing anyone from carrying off portions of the fish without his leave. The bulk of the fish was sent to Battle, and the abbot sent a servant with part of it as a present to the king, half the tongue and four large pieces of blubber. The king lost his temper and said " By God's head I owe the abbot no thanks ! It is my right, and anyone who has laid hands on the fish without my knowledge has wronged me." He was informed that the abbot had charters, one of which had the king's own seal, and answered: "If the right is mine, I owe the abbot no thanks; if it is his, I thank him heartily for his handsome present, and will repay him on a suitable occasion." The abbot sent presents of parts of the fish to the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Chichester, the chancellor, the treasurer and others, to the number of 120. Notwithstanding this, the abbot was summoned before the king's court to answer for not giving up the fish. The charters were pleaded and pronounced good, but the court ordered an inquisition to prove user. Here follow the writ to the sheriff dated 16th March, 1258,1 and the inquisition, taken at Romney, 27th May, 1258, by which it was found that the abbot had used this liberty, and had acted correctly in taking away the :fish. Such is the case as stated, and like all such statements, it is on the face of it suspect. It is noticeable that none of the charters quoted at length appears in the "Royal Charters" section of the Battle Abbey cartulary now in the Huntington Library. On the other hand, except for the name of Waldric as chancellor of William Rufus, 2 and 1 The date is in the impossible form '' xvii. Kal. April", and, if genuine, is therefore probably 17 April, with which the date of the inquisition fits pretty well. 2 On which see Engl. Hist. Rev., XXVI, 84. STRANDED OFF DUNGENESS. 107 the reference to Abbot Warner, there are no obvious anachronisms, and the names of the sheriff and undersheriff in 1258 (Nicholas de Molls and Walter de Berstede) are correctly given. The lively details of the personal acts of the kings mentioned recall the picturesque style of the Battle Abbey chronicle, though they are obviously by a later hand. But to determine the exact degree of credit to be given to the several parts of the statement would require more local knowledge and a more thorough investigation of the Plea and Memorand􀁤 Rolls than the writer can claim credit for. COTTON MS. NERO D.3, ff. 225, 224. f. 225. [Rubric.] De quodam Grasso pisce, vulgariter a Craspeys, qui applicuit apud Deng[e] mar[eis] Postquam nobilis princeps Willelmus Anglicum regnum deo favente armis sibi subjugavit, in loco Belli quasi memoriam victorie ecclesiam sancti Martini construxit, eamque variis donis et diversis muneribus et libertatibus decoravit. Inter que quoddam manerium in Cancia Wy nominatum cum saca et soca et omnibus regalibus consuetudinibus et libertatibus quas ipse in eo habuit eidem ecclesie regia magni:ficencia contulit. Hujus manerii jus semper extitit, ut si in aliqua terra que ad ipsum manerium pertinet piscis qui vulgariter 'craspeis' vocatur appulerit, regis totus esset, si vero infra terminos de Horsmede et Blakewase et Bradelle usque Withiburne appulisset, linguam et dues partes ipsius piscis, regis videlicet porciones, possessor manerii de Wy haberet, ut subjectis exemplis lucide cognosci potest. Regnante glorioso rege Willelmo fundatore ecclesie Belli, Ricardo autem de Dover manerii de Wy preposito, nondum tamen ipso manerio ecclesie Belli a rege collato ; contigit hujusmodi piscem super terram Hugonis de Mundford quam de archiepiscopo tenebat appulisse. Mox Ricardus ad locum quo piscis devenerat festin.anter ivit, 108 A CLAIM TO " ROYAL FISH " Hugouemque ibi reperiens rogavit ut sibi partem p1sc1s, videlicet duas partes et linguam ejus regi debitam traderet. Set ille ejus dicta parvipendens vi atque armis totum sibi piscem vendicavit. Adveniente autem tempore quo Ricardus debitum censum illius mauerii reddere deberet ad locum thesauri Wint[ onie], cetera reddidit, x.x:xta vero libras super partem piscis injuste sibi ab Hugone ablatam, regios thesaurarios sibi debere uumerare edocuit. Asciscitur regis precepto [W]intoniam hicque agitatur de pisce percepto questio, ibique regalis curie judicio piscis restituitur. Et regis forisfacture Hu[go] adjudicatus, centum denariorum libras regi persolvere cogitur. Quin eciam omnes qui inde aliquid presumpserant regis forisfacture subjacere debere decernuntur. Oum autem ipsum Manerium de Wy cum omnibus membris suis ecclesie Sancti Martini de Bello gloriosus rex Willelmus dedisset, hanc consuetudinem de craspeis et omnes regales consuetudines et libertates quas in eodem manerio et in omnibus membris ejus in bosco et in plano ipse rex habuit, eidem ecclesie concessit et dedit. Inter quas consuetudines nominatim in Lingemareis (sio) quod est unum membrum de Wy, concessit et dedit omnes maritimas consuetudines quas illic habuit, cum omni warec quod illic contingeret, et ut piscis predictus si illic appulerit, abbatis et monachorum de Bello sit totus. Similiter et si infra terminos predictos craspeis quodcu[mque ad] terram de Wy appulerit, duas partes illius cum lingua illis dedit, et tarn libere semper habere concessit sicut ipse liberius possidere potuit. De omnibus eciam forisfacturis et placitis omnium hundredorum qui pertinent ad summoniciones de Wy, dedit idem rex eidem ecclesie duos denarios quos ipse semper habere solebat. Tempore vero regis Willelmi junioris, hujusmodi piscis qui vocatur craspeis in loco qui dicitur Blakewase appulsus est, de quo regis partem quidam regis serviens Aluredus nomine cognomento Nuspier u.na cum sociis suis, regis scilicet famulis sumens et navi imponens, ad Hantonam usque devexit. Quod cum Gausbertus, tune ecclesie Belli STRANDED OFF DUNGENESS. 109 abbas, comperisset, regum prius in Cancia apud Cerringes, deim in domo Croc venatoris, ad postremum Salesberie hac de causa requisivit, tandemque impetravit quod volebat. Cum breve regis pattern piscis ecclesie Belli reddi precipiente Hantonam profunda nocte pervenit, set piscem jam Wintonie delatum et in regis lardario illatum comperit. Itaque festinus Wintoniam Hushoni lardario regis breve ostendit, set illo abnuente nisi sibi missum, nee de Wintonia set de Hamtona precipientem (sic), abbas ad regem apud Tantuna manerium Wintoniensis episcopi denuo mittit. Statimque rex per lvonem Taileboys breve ad Hugonem lardarium fieri mandat, ut sine mora piseem de Caneia allatum abbati de Bello tradat. Hoe preeepto viso, Hugo de lardario e:x:traetum piseem abbati tradidit, quern ille continuo ad ecelesiam de Bello transmisit. Exemplar vero brevium regis Willelmi junioris de Craspeis reddendo hoe est, que Hugoni lardario misit : W.