dilapidated building which they could buy cheaply, and afterwards make suitable for their purpose, as soon as they should have funds to spare. And so, about the year 1251, they bargained with one William Ordriz for the purchase of a house, formerly belonging to his father Stephen, the son of Ivo, which stood at a certain corner opposite the churchyard of St. Nicholas. This house was conveyed to "the Mayor and Burgesses and Commune of Leicester and their successors," in consideration of the payment of 612 marks of silver (£4 6s. 8d.), and a yearly rent of 16 pence and two capons, "to wit, at Candlemas five pence, at Whitsuntide five pence, at Michaelmas six pence, at Christmas two capons." By subsequent deeds these annual services were released, and in consideration of 2 marks (£1 6s. 8d.) the mother of William Ordriz released her right of dower.
The new Guild Hall lay in what is now called Blue Boar Lane, opposite to the Eastern end of the Church of St. Nicholas, where Simon's Almshouse afterwards stood. For some years after its purchase by the Guild there is no indication of their occupying it. On the other hand, in the year 1258 they paid a shilling to one Robert Griffin for hire of a house to hold the Morning-speeches in. It seems to have been in a somewhat ruinous and neglected condition, for three years later Robert of the Dovecote was fined a shilling for taking freestones without license from the hall of the Guild, and "carrying them to his own house to do with them what he liked to the damage and dishonour of the Guild and of the Community of Leicester." Thirty years later we find this same Robert of the Dovecote selling stones illegally taken from the town wall to a Canon of Leicester Abbey, who confessed that he bought the stone "foreknowing that it was from the town wall." There seems to be no record of the Guild meeting in their new hall until March, 1276, but the building had been restored a year or two before. In 1274, Alexander le Debonair, who was Mayor of Leicester from 1270 to 1275, "rendered an account of the Guild-hall of £6 9s. 3d. in the presence of the Community." "Tantum aula
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