University Registry guard books

Court rolls, arranged and mounted by Registrary Luard in 1873; rebound in February 1954. List of contents by Luard. Contents as follows:

1-14: presentments: breaches of the assize of bread and drink; defective weights and measures; regrators of onions, garlic, butter, soap, mustard, cheese and corn; excessive mill-toll; sale of ale in unsigned house. The steward of the court presides, 1382-3, 1390-9, 1407-8, 1415-22; see especially at 2: orders given by ministerii cancellarii; at 4: presentments of events in Sturbridge Fair; at 13: announcement by Vice-Chancellor that those using balances will be prosecuted before the Chancellor and his Commissary; at 14: arrangement of entries by class of offence and amount of fine paid;

15-45: presentments: breaches of assize; illicit games (bowling alleys, lusum cum calculis, slide thrist); houses of luxury and incontinence; sheltering of strangers; public nuisances; illegal nets and traps; inn-signs; unsworn apprentices; illegal slaughtering, cooking and eating of meat on fast days; also occasional lists of the View of Frankpledge, 1568-87; see especially at 19: Proctors named as presidents, 20 Apr. 1571; this continues intermittently thereafter; at 24: unapprenticed workmen: William Sellendyn, dowchman, exercebat mysteria diversa in quibus non fuit edoctus apprenticius, videlicet vitreando pingendo et opera plumbea tractando, 1574; at 25: presentments of unlicensed surgeons; at 29: affrays; at 32: presentments of use of dripping by chandlers, unlicensed surgeons, including a woman; at 34: presentments of failure to carry weights to the Proctors for sealing and keeping shop windows open at time of divine service; at 37: Robert Laurence, alias Plomer, se male gerit infra hanc villam viz. est scortator et sagitat in bombo cum hayleshott, fined £20; at 42: John Kemer presented 'for that he did not send for Mr Proctures to taste his wine, nor brought in his pottes to be sealed'; at 43: Mr Burwell and Thomas Wylynson, bookbinder, for buying and selling books, not having been apprenticed; at 45: Hugh, the virginall maker, Thomas Hobson, carrier, for ingrossing wheat;

46: 1589-90;

47-48: illegal games (a bowling alley, fencing school, and dancing school); Hugh Burwell, bookbinder and unapprenticed stationer; unlicencsed surgeons, 1597-8;

49: 1601-2;

50: slide-groat boards and night vagabonds, 1611-12;

51: 1615-16.

Presentments of the leet are also recorded in the Vice-Chancellor's act books passim and in the Monday Court proceedings and Sturbridge Fair (Comm.Ct.V.13). There are also entries for 1817-54 in Comm.Ct.V.10, at the back of the volume.