The burgesses of Yarmouth founded the merits of their cause on the charter which had incorporated them. The men of Lothingland, on ancient customs before those charters existed; alledging that the Manor was part of the ancient demesne of the crown, and that the customs and privileges claimed by the Earl of Richmond and his tenants, are the same as were demanded in the times of Canute and Harold, and the succeeding kings of England, being owners of the said Manor, and by many other pleadings, they asserted their lawful right to those privileges, both by prescription and long-continued possession; but, after hearing the controversy, the cause was determined in favour of Yarmouth, and the burgesses triumphed once more over their rival neighbours.
The ill success of this application did not deter the Earl from making another, which had the same great end in view, the wresting from the burgesses their great Charter of Incorporation; but, after many pleadings and decisions, before the king and council, the parliament and the judges, the Earl had no better success than before; for in the end it only served to strengthen the designs of the men of Yarmouth, by the entire overthrow of the adverse party; the affair being at length finally determined in favour of the burgesses, 5th Edward 3rd, anno 1332.
The men of Lothingland, who had, probably, formed the highest expectations of success, from the great power and credit of their patron, the Earl of Richmond now saw themselves left entirely to the mercy of the elated burgesses, who, on all occasions, exerted their power over them with a malevolence considerably inflamed by the late dissensions; they had also the mortification to see that power fixed upon the strongest and most unalterable basis, by an extensive charter, confirming all their former rights, and adding many valuable liberties to those they already enjoyed.
Thus ended this litigious and destructive controversy, in which the inhabitants of Lothingland had been engaged for more than one hundred years. The motives which actuated each party were strictly the same; the one strove for the continuance of those liberties which Henry’s charter had deprived them of; the other, to retain the rights they had acquired, so beneficial to themselves, at the expense of their neighbours. It is not to be doubted, that this was considered by the men of Yarmouth as an object of the highest importance. A grant which gave a restrictive trading power to one place, in prejudice to another, must, of course, draw within its gates all those who wished to advance their interest, or enlarge their property.