NOTES

"maslin"
Mixed grains, particularly wheat with rye).

"multure"
A customary fee paid to the miller for his services.

"concerning shoemakers and tanners"
This chapter is found only in the Innes edition of the custumal, but is also in the Leges Burgorum. It specifies that shoemakers may not engage in tanning hides other than of animals whose horns and ears are of equal length; and that tanners may not salt hides. The problem of the overlap between different types of leather-workers' spheres of activity later became the subject of national legislation.

"cavel"
An old term with a similar meaning to lot; that is the drawing of lots, or apportioning out (among peers) shares in a commercial bargain, and perhaps by extension a right to share in commercial privileges of an enfranchised community. The word has some history in the Scottish language, but is rarely found in English usage; it has survived with this kind of meaning into modern times in one specific application in New Zealand.

"makes our coin available"
Skene read the text as exhibeat denarios, whereas Innes' reading is accipiat denarios; the latter is more likely, but the gist is much the same in either case, in terms of a partnership intended to deceive by misusing gild privileges. There are other differences between the two versions that indicate separate iterations of the same by-law.

"before the ship has docked"
In other words, forestalling the market. exiled from the town: Expulsion from the community was perhaps the most severe penalty a town government could impose, as it not only deprived the exile of social communion but also in effect removed both the privileges associated with burgess status and easy access to business contacts, both of which were important for earning a living. It was employed only for the worst offences harming the community or for repeat or recalcitrant offenders.

"exiled from the town"
Expulsion from the community was perhaps the most severe penalty a town government could impose, as it not only deprived the exile of social communion but also in effect removed both the privileges associated with burgess status and easy access to business contacts, both of which were important for earning a living. It was employed only for the worst offences harming the community or for repeat or recalcitrant offenders.

"or fish"
The Innes edition has pisas (peas) rather than pisces. Either is plausible. The later English version does not resolve the question, as it provides only a shorter list of sample wares.

"from ships"
Specified in the Innes edition.

"his neighbours"
This should be understood in the sense of those of his fellow gildsmen who are nearby at the time (i.e. when the bargain is struck).

"agreed on"
The Innes addition adds the phrase sine felling vel herlebreking, he identified both terms as meaning breaking the agreement between the parties; herlebreking refers to infringement of the earnest money, delivery of which sealed an oral agreement. The English version uses the phrase lessynge hys arlesse, the term erlest having been used for "earnest". arralis being that Latin adjectival form of 'earnest money'.

"more than twopence"
The fluctuation in ale prices was because barley prices, on which the assize of ale was based, rose during the summer and dropped at Michaelmas when a new harvest replenished supplies.

"give one tun"
That is, as a licence fee. Wine was such a common commodity of trade, less perishable than ale or foodstuffs, that at times it could serve as an unofficial currency. Various borough fees and fines were often payable in wine prior to the fifteenth century.

"regrater"
The English version uses huckster, which is not quite the same as regrator, but it is likely most regrators were female, and were regrating in order to retail at slightly higher price in, or outside of, the marketplace.

"bell-tower of Berefrid"
In 1337 a royal enquiry was underway stemming from a parliamentary petition of the mayor and townsmen requesting restoration to them of the Berfreyt. It was claimed, in the petition and subsequent investigation, that the town authorities had held it since long before the time of King Alexander III (1241-86) – though we may take that with a pinch of salt – having constructed on vacant land acquired from Simon Maunsel a building known as the Berfreyt to hold prisoners; however, control of it and its revenues had been seized by the royal chamberlain or the sheriff of Berwickshire appointed after the English had retaken Berwick (1333), apparently on the grounds the land was contributory to the fee farm. In the chamberlain's account of 1333/34 we hear of a "gaol called the Berfret", being farmed out to a custodian. An account of 1314, relating to repairs of defences, mentions a purchase of timbers for the berefrid. During Alexander's reign Maunsel had bequeathed the town the site of the Tolbooth, the base of local administration, which was on or near the site of the present town hall (eighteenth century). Maunsel is mentioned in 1227 as a deed witness, and as one of the town reeves in an undated Berwick deed of ca.1208-ca.1215. Judging from Speed's map of 1610, the Tolbooth was in the stretch of the High Street, at a crossroads, used as the marketplace, flanked by market crosses symbolizing the king's peace imposed over the market; at one end of the Tolbooth rises a tower, which may represent the Berfreyt. This Tolbooth was, however, the rebuild of the 1360s, whose site was adjacent to that of the earlier building (which had apparently been damaged in 1333, since repairs were covered in the chamberlain's account, and may have suffered again later), so the tower may originally have been more a stand-alone structure. One use of the bell in the tower was to summon gildsmen to assemblies. Boucher [Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1833] astutely speculated that in 'berfreyt' lay the roots of 'belfrey', though the term does not derive from a connection with bells, but from the Germanic (and Old English) bercfrith meaning a fortification protecting the peace, the first syllable having an etymological association with burh. By the twelfth century the term had come to be applied to a siege tower and in the thirteenth to belfries. The English version of the statutes substitutes for campanae in Berefrido the phrase the bell in the Barfut fryers, though I cannot say whether this is a misunderstanding by the translator or an indication the designated bell for sounding market hours had been changed to one of the friary bell-towers: the Franciscans in particular being described as barefoot, and their friary appears to have been near the town wall end of Marygate, which led to the marketplace.

"before they reach"
The Innes edition specifies other places where forestalling was wont to take place: on the bridge across the Tweed, in Briggate (Bridge Street, which led from the bridge and the port towards the marketplace), and outside the town gates.

"married woman"
In other words, it was permitted to spinsters, who supported themselves by spinning wool, to buy wherever they could.

"in the street"
It is tempting to think that in vico may in this case perhaps refer to the wick, meaning the borough marketplace. But since forum is used in the previous chapter, it is safer to opt for the most straightforward translation.

"more than one servant"
The gist of this chapter is to counter mechanisms a burgess might use to be able to buy up quantities of goods larger than he might obtain just through his burgess' share of bargains, with a view to cornering the market.

"the established place"
The Innes edition is a little more specific in stating this to be a designated market. This may mean the street known as Wool Market, which lay just beyond the main marketplace.

"he shall give"
The Innes edition threatens skinners and glovers with having to give up their occupation for a year and a day, and limits the fine of a cask of wine to other burgesses.

"convicted of doing the contrary"
The Innes edition adds a sentence imposing the same forfeit on any buyer who fails to pay the seller of the herring.

"Chapter 38"
The Innes edition and the English version both associate a date of enactment with this chapter, though they give different saint's days; the Innes edition is almost certainly correct in giving 23 April 1281. Chapter 39 is of the same year, and chapter 40 was enacted in October 1283. Chapter 43 is dated to 1284.

"full carriage"
This presumably refers to the (regulated?) fees for porters to transport containers. The Innes edition uses tractagium rather than cariagium. Both editions of the chapter also use the term berevagium, which (unlike Innes) I do not think here is a corruption of beveragium but refers to a fee for bearing goods, so I have translated it as porterage; this is despite the use of potum later in the chapter, which in the context is unlikely to have anything to do with drinking (as Innes thinks), but more probably refers to a cart (pottus or just possibly a storage pit puteus).

"Chapter 39"
The English version states that this ordinance was made in the church of St. Nicholas, which was one of the places used for communal assemblies (the Tolbooth being too small); the church may have been located close to the town walls, as one of the towers was named after that saint.

"chaldron"
A non-standardized dry measure of volume, used particularly for bulk goods of low value, notably coal – a coal cauldron still being a vessel in domestic use into the twentieth century. The medieval measure was, however, rather more capacious; in the nineteenth century one estimate for a chaldron used in southern England was that it might contain 36 bushels, although an estimate of the chaldron used in northern England in the fifteenth century was only two-thirds of that.

"or for brewing"
This phrase does not appear in the other Latin version nor the English version. It has the look of an afterthought tagged on somewhat awkwardly at the end of the chapter (I have moved it to earlier in the chapter, for grammatical sense).

"one-third"
The Innes edition specifies that one-third is to go to the bailiffs and the remainder to the gild.

"keep to himself"
The implication here seems to be hoarding, which was often the concern underlying forestalling.

"Chapter 42"
In the Innes edition the chapter heading indicates this rule applied to stones for hand-grinding; the intent was perhaps to stifle competition to millers. The chapter as omitted from the English version.

"Chapter 43"
Omitted from the English version.

"Chapter 44"
The Innes edition states that this chapter was enacted in 1294 by common consent of all the gild brethren, at a meeting in the hall of Trinitarian friars, believed to have established themselves at Berwick by the 1240s, possibly in the hospital of St. Edward located at one end of the bridge across the Tweed. This chapter was omitted from the English version.

"that is, at the Bray"
This phrase is transcribed in English and has the look of a later interpolation. Bray evidently refers to the quayside; although the Scottish "brae" means slope or hillside and could refer to the area descending to the sea, another possible derivation is the Norse term for broad, referring to a strip of land by the water, and Bray may point to the site of a fishing village that could have formed one of the pre-urban nuclei of Berwick.

"before sunrise"
Thus depriving other gildsmen of a chance to share in the bargain.

"without exception"
A possible interpretation of sine requie, which alternatively may mean that there was no pause (e.g. midday break) within the sunrise to sunset period when goods could not be transported.

"Chapter 45", Chapter 46"
Enacted on the same occasion as chapter 44.

"reserved to the gild"
That is, over which gildsmen have a monopoly on selling outside of market days.

"any victuals"
The Innes edition (and the English version) qualify this by allowing purchase of a quantity sufficient for household sustenance; the prohibition applied to purchase for purposes of retailing.

"waterside area"
It may be noted that North Berwick (so-called to distinguish it from Berwick-upon-Tweed, more usually referred to by the Scots as South Berwick) is another coastal settlement. Located not far from Edinburgh, on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, its name is recorded in 1250 although a harbour there is believed to have been built a century earlier; in 1373 it was made a royal burgh. Between the two Berwicks is the village of Innerwick, more inland, although its parish boundaries stretch to the coast. Between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Bamburgh are a string of Northumberland coastal villages with names like Cheswick, Goswick, Fenwick, and Elwick, while further south near Alnmouth Bay is another cluster of wicks. All this suggests that the use of 'wick' in place-names to denote a waterside settlement was far from unusual in this region. Although settlements with 'wick' in their name vary widely in size and character, the great majority share the characteristics of being situated on coastal or riverine frontiers and, in the few places where serious archaeology has been conducted, show evidence (notably pottery and coins) of international commerce.

"came to nothing"
In1302 Edward's charter to the town granted it liber burgus status, confirmed its merchant gild licensed a twice-weekly market (Mondays and Fridays) and a fair, and he ordered his warden to turn over the reins of borough government to a locally-elected mayor and bailiffs. But this did not go far enough to suit the English townsmen. Ca. 1306 they submitted a draft for a new charter of privileges for royal approval. The draft requested such things as greater self-government, freedom from tolls throughout England, burgess monopolies on sale of Berwickshire wool to outsider merchants, purchase of salt imported by outsiders, and retailing of cloth, prohibition of religious orders from participating in the fulling industry, and no forced prises by the castle garrison. However, the charter granted in March 1307 was much more modest, simply confirming privileges previously held in the time of Alexander III, in return for a fee farm of 500 marks.

"relationship with its hinterland"
C.M. Fraser [Northern Petitions illustrative of life in Berwick ..., Surtees Society, vol.194 (1981), p.9] points out that while the adjacent counties were under English domination Berwick's role in wool export could be maintained, but that as this domination was eroded in the late fourteenth century the amount of wool shipped through Berwick decreased and it became unable to compete with Edinburgh or Newcastle.

"other factors"
For example, in 1307 the townsmen were complaining to the king about a rival market at Tweedmouth, and they petitioned for shortening the period of the town's fair – originally granted (1302) by Edward I for May-June, it had ca.1305 been extended to last through the Easter to Michaelmas period, a ridiculously long duration which was evidently proving unprofitable, and the petitioners wished to revert to the original period. Also, problems between England and Flanders adversely impacted that important component of Berwick's overseas commerce.

"a portion of this"
A Latin transcription of the whole may be found in Joseph Stevenson, Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, Edinburgh: 1870, vol.2, pp. 152-56; according to Joseph Bain, Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland vol.2, Edinburgh, 1884, p.228, this document is in the Public Record Office in the Exchequer, Queen's Remembrancer group. This survey was used as a working document for renting out properties to new English settlers, whose names have been inserted in the margin of the original document, but are omitted in my translation.

"a certain nun"
Likely the prioress, on behalf of the convent.

"cellar", "solar"
Most solars were upper-storey rooms usually serving as living quarters, so named because higher rooms could be expected to have better access to sunlight than those at lower levels. It was not uncommon for shops to have solars above, perhaps accommodations for the shopkeepers, but solars could also be above other spaces, such as a hall or a cellar. Cellars, or undercrofts, by contrast, although they were perhaps even more common features of urban houses, were not so much family areas; they were mainly used either for storage or sometimes as shops or taverns accessed directly off the street and run by the householder or rented out independent of living quarters – street-accessed cellars were often vaulted, to make them more appealing, architecturally, to customers. Stone-built cellars were desirable components of mercantile houses not only because of their value in preserving perishable goods longer in a cool environment, but also because relatively fireproof (documents may have been stored there) and less susceptible to break-and-enter; examples survive in a number of English towns, since later rebuilding tended not to disturb them so much as it did above-ground features of houses (except, notably, where cellars were re-dug to adapt to changes in street level).

"Ravenesdene, Ness"
The Ness (meaning cape or headland) was a neighbourhood between the town proper (as per its twelfth century extent) and the waterfront. Modern Ness Street essentially continues the route of Silver Street, sloping down towards the shore, while Ravensdowne Street forms a crossroads with Silver Street and Ness Street. Claims made at an inquest of 1302 suggest that the northern part of the Ness may have been common pasture on which, in the time of Alexander III, streets were laid out and the land divided into lots, as a potential area for new settlement, although much remained undeveloped [See Bain, op.cit. vol.2, p.333; Fraser, op.cit., p.45].

"Jedworth"
Jedburgh.

"ten solars and nine solars"
Perhaps a clerical or transcription error for ten cellars and nine solars. The nature of the Roundele is unknown. It might have been a ring of shops that provided rental income for the abbey, or perhaps a conglomeration of storage facilities that the abbey and other religious houses of the countryside used to store the large quantities of wool they produced and were exporting, presumably with the services of local merchants as factors.