No resident of the city may engage in commerce here unless he is at scot and lot and contributes to the aids imposed on the community. All who are to be accepted as a peer of the city is to be of free status and not the anyone's serf – careful enquiry is to be made about this before they are admitted [to the franchise]. Those who are admitted are to undergo the entrance ceremony before at least 12 of those assigned by the community each year to this task, at one of the four set dates each year; if a lesser number is present, applicants may not be admitted (or, if they are, their entrance shall be null and void). All applicants are to be carefully questioned under oath, in private, as to the quantity of their goods; if the 12 have any doubt that he is telling the truth, they may inquire further from those who have knowledge of him and his means. If the applicant is a foreigner and has not been apprenticed in the city, he must pay at least 20s. [as entrance fine] to the community, and more if his wealth allows it. No apprentice is to be admitted as a peer unless his master and his neighbours speak well of him, and for no less than 13s.4d – more, if the 12 decide he can afford it. An indented and duplicated roll is to be kept recording the names of the 12, the name of each entrant, his fine, the names of his pledges, the terms of payment of his fine and of the year and a day, and the name of the clerk making the record; one copy of the roll shall remain in the possession of the clerk, the other shall be placed in the common chest. No-one except the sworn clerk may make such enrollments. Each entrant shall pay the clerk 6d. for that service. The new peer shall provide security for his having, within a year of his entrance, a fixed residence (unless he already has one) for him and his family and for bringing his moveable possessions into the city; if he has not accomplished this after a full year, he shall be considered as an outsider. No entrant is required to contribute to any [local] taxes in the city during the year following his entrance, except an aid towards construction or repair of the city walls; however, he will be liable to contribute to any aid or tallage imposed by the king (from which no-one can excuse himself). If a serf wishes to enter [the franchise], he must first obtain letters from his lord granting permission.

[The "12" referred to are almost certainly a quorum of the council of 24, to whom it would naturally have fallen to make the decision on whom to admit to the franchise. Since freemen had to be able to contribute to common financial burdens, it was necessary to ensure they had the material means to do so. The clause "if the 12 have any doubt..." was omitted from the Book of Pleas version.]