In this year, the Prior and Canons of St. Bartholomew’s, ... set up a new tron, on the vigil of St. Bartholomew, refusing to allow anyone to weigh except with that tron; and this, in contravention of the liberties and customs of the City. Wherefore the principal men of the City, together with their Mayor, Peter Fitz-Alan and a multitude of the citizens, on the morrow went to the Priory of St. Bartholomew, and advised the Prior and Canons of that place to make amends for that act of presumption, and to desist therefrom; whereupon they forthwith gave up the practice, and by the Mayor and Sheriffs of London it was published that every man was to sell, buy and weigh in that market, just as they previously had been wont to do.
In the same year ... a Justiciar sent by his lordship the King, came to St. Martin’s le Grand, to hear the record which had been given upon the plaint of Margery Vyel, ... in the previous year ...; as to which judgment the said Margery had made complaint to his lordship the King, and had found pledges to prove that the same was false.
Whereupon, the Mayor and citizens meeting there, the record having been read through, and all the writs of his lordship the King which the said Margery had obtained, having been read and heard, the Justiciar said: “I do not say that this judgment is false, but the process therein is faulty, as there is no mention made in this record of summons of the opponents of the said Margery, and, seeing that John Vyel, her husband, made a will, it did not pertain to your Court to determine such a plea as this.” To which the citizens made answer: “There was no necessity to summon those who had possession of the property of the deceased, for they were always ready, and proffered to stand trial at suit of the said Margery in our Court; and besides, we were fully able to entertain such plea by assent of the two parties, who did not at all claim or demand the Ecclesiastical Court, and seeing that his lordship the King by his writ commanded us to determine the same.”
At length, after much altercation ... the Justiciar said that they must shew all this to the King and his Council, and so they withdrew. Afterwards, however, and solely for this cause, his lordship the King took the City into his hand, and by his writ entrusted it to the custody of William de Haverille and Edward de Westminster, namely, on the Vigil of St. Bartholomew (24 August); whereupon, the Mayor and citizens went to the King at Wudestok, and shewed him that they had done no wrong; but they could not regain his favour....