(I^n'ginnl Documents.

The annexed petition, hitherto unpubHshed, affords a ciu-ious illustration of provincial manners in the fourteenth century. It is addressed to the earl of Arundel by William Drake- lowe and Richard Ilorniiglowe, merchants of Lichfield, who state that on Friday, the feast of the Purification, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Edward the Third, A.D. 1342, they sent their servants, with two horses laden with fardels of spicery and mercery, worth forty pounds, to the market to be liolden at Stafford on the following Saturday. The men had ])roceeded on their journey as far as Cannock-wood, when they encountered Sir Robert de Rideware, knight, and two followers, by whom they were captured and taken to the priory of Lappeley ; one of the men however, contrived to esca])e. In the priory were several friends and accomplices of Sir Robert de Rideware as well knights as others, and amono- them Sir John de Oddyngeselesa; here a division of the plunder was made, each individual taking a share of the spicery and mercery " according to his estate." On Saturday the whole company rode from Lappeley to the priory of Blythebmy, where Rideware represented to the prioress that they were retainers of the king, sore travailed, and prayed house-room for his company. This would appear to have lieen refused, as they broke open the barns of the priory, had their will of the hay and oats, and stayed all night against the wish of the prioress. In the mean- while the serving man who had escaped, having followed them at a distance, went to the king's bailiff-errant for the county of Stafford, at Lichfield, and gave him to understand that the robbers with their booty were at Blythebuiy. Whereupon the bailiff, taking with him some of the towmsfolk of Lichfield, proceeded thither, and finding the malefactors, summoned them to surrender to the king's peace, which they would not do, but attacked the bailiff and his people, and wounded several of them ; being at length routed, they were hotly pur- " Sir .John dc Odyn^st'les, wlio held seems to have died in 27 Edw. IIT. In- lands in Herlaston luindred, co. Stafford, quis. post mortem, vol. ii. p. 182.