Item 1

From Anglia Sacra - Pars Prima
Cum autem saepedictus Pater venerabilis Johannes de Hotham, episcopus annos ferme xx ecclesiam elyensem strenuissime rexisset, paralisi percussus, ex quibus duobus annis aegotavit. Et apud Somersham xviii Kalends Febr. nocte praedente Festum S. mauri Abbatis anno dom. MDCCCXXXVI.


Item 2
The Bishop of Ely claims the liberty of starting, following and taking deer in all the woods and places between Somersham and the highway that runs from Huntingdon to Ramsey through the town of Ripton. And a monk of the priory of Ely produces charters of the king’s progenitors granting to the bishops of Ely that the wood of Somersham shall be quit of all wastes and assarts, regards, pleas and plaints and actions and all other things pertaining to foresters, so that they should freely hunt deer throughout the whole forest of Somersham, to wit as far as the highway which passes from Huntingdon to Ramseye through Ripton. And besides it is granted to them by King John that they may freely follow and take in the king’s forest, deer started by their dogs in the bishop’s liberty, but their huntsmen shall swear before the chief forester of the king to chace none of the deer in following through his forest, deer started in the liberty of the bishop in Huntingdonshire.

And the foresters, verderers and regarders with the other jurors say that there is a division between the free chace of the Bishop of Ely of Somersham and the king’s forests by these metes, to wit it begins at the great bank at three willow trees, passing thence to Fentonlonde, and thence to the new dyke, and thence to the cross at Fenton and thence to Wardeboys mill and thence to Pidelmare and thence to Pideledam and thence to Ivemede and thence to Cobbelangeleye and thence to Le hanger of Bluntesham and thence to the great bank; so that the woods and lands which are without those metes as far as the highway from Huntingdon towards Ramseye through Ripton in no way pertain to the said chace except for following in them deer started in the chace but they are entirely within the king’s forest and the regard and always have been, and the bishop never was in seisen of the liberty which he claims of starting and taking deer in these, as appears in the rolls of other pleas of the forest. But they say in the last eyreof Alan de la Souche, a forester in the county of Huntingdon, Walter de Tyngewyk by name permitted the bishop and his men to start and take deer in Wardeboys wood and the said lands between the chace and the highway and on this account the bishop gave him two robes yearly and by agreement between them when he retired from his bailiwick of forester he stayed with the bishop for the bishop’s life, with food and clothing and two horses. They also say that neither William de Teversham nor any of the bishop’s h8untsmen have been sworn before the justice to act faithfully in following deer through the forest from the time when Walter de Tyngewyk was first a forester in the forest but they afterwards started and hunted deer in the woods of Wardeboys and St Ives and elsewhere without the chace and did great damage to the king’s venison with dogs and with nets and dogs whereof they are indicted in the roll of venison.

And because the bishop in like manner claims a great part of the marsh to be of his liberty inquisition is made by the jury and it is found in the rolls of ancient pleas of the forest in the county of Huntingdon before Robert de passelewe and his fellows, 29 Henry III, that the marsh between Oldehee and Kyngesdelf is of the county of Huntingdon and not Cambridge and is of the king’s forest and does not pertain to the Isle of Ely.


From the patent Rolls of year 15 Edward III