Cambridge Antiquarian Society
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 126
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ...Edward III. created William, Marquis of Juliers, Earl of Cambridge, and granted to him the castle and the reversion of the town, saving to the king the gaol and the escheats pertaining to the castle and town. From this time we hear of the castle as a prison rather than as a fortress, though it would appear from the next extract that the gaol was a distinct building at the gate of the castle. On 15 December, 1341, Edward III. commanded the above earl of Cambridge to deliver up the gaol to the sheriff of the county, and to permit the said sheriff to have free ingress to and egress from the said gaol at the gate of the castle3. In 1359 (24 September) the sheriff of Nottingham is required to remove Sir John de Molyns, knight, to the castle of Cambridge, there to be confined with Egida his wife, under the custody of the constable of the said castle. One would be inclined to think that compulsory residence within the castle walls in order to keep them out of mischief, and not confinement in the gaol by way of punishment, was all that was imposed on prisoners of this class4. In a charter granted to the University by Richard II., 13 December, 1383, it is provided that the Chancellor and his successors or their vicegerents, may imprison all persons convicted before them in the castle of Cambridge, or elsewhere in the town at their discretion; and that the Sheriff of the county or the keeper of the castle, and the mayor and bailiffs of the town, should be bound to receive, keep, and deliver, all such transgressors, at the command of the Chancellor and his successors or their vicegerents1. 1 Cooper, ut upra, i. 93, quoting a valuation of moveable property in the town made 1340. Ibid. i. 92. 8 Rot. Claus. 15 Bdw. III. p. 3, m. 6. MSS. Baker xxv. 47....