Furthermore,
whatever merchants they have brought with them for the improvement
of the town, I command that they have peace, and that none do them
injury or unjustly send them into court. But if any foreign
merchant shall have done anything improper in the town that same
may be regulated in the portimoot before the aforesaid justice
without a suit at law."
Henry confirmed this charter of the earl's by 1189 as follows: I
have confirmed all the liberties and free customs the earl of
Chester granted to them, namely, that the same burgesses may well
and honorably hold in free burgage, as ever in the time of the
father of the beforesaid earl, or other of his ancestors, they may
have better or more firmly held; and they may have all the laws
and customs which the citizens of Lincoln have better and freer
[e.g. their merchant guilds; all men brought to trade may be
subject to the guild customs and assize of the town; those who
lawfully hold land in the town for a year and a day without
question and are able to prove that an accuser has been in the
kingdom within the year without finding fault with them, from
thence may hold the land well and in peace without pleading; those
who have remained in the town a year and a day without question,
and have submitted to the customs of the town and the citizens of
the town are able to show through the laws and customs of the town
that the accuser stood forth in the kingdom, and not a fault is
found of them, then they may remain in peace in the town without
question]; and that the constable of the aforesaid earl shall not
bring them into the castle to plead in any case.
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