1921 THE ETYMOLOGY OF 'BAY-SALT' 215 whereabouts unexpressed. Thus in 1317 Edward II requested the duke of Brittany to obtain satisfaction for a Southampton merchant who had bought from three merchants of ' Burcnef ', in the parish of St. Ciry in Roys, a consignment of salt, and had paid for it, but was unable to obtain delivery. 1 The earliest reference in the rolls to the importation of salt from ' La Baye ' appears to be contained in a request by Edward II to the duke of Brittany in 1319 to restore a ship and its cargo belonging to a merchant of Southampton, who ' lately sent a ship ... to La Baye for the purpose of buying salt for his use and of bringing the same to this realm 2 But the fact that La Baye is in Brittany is not explicitly stated until we reach the Patent Rolls of the year 1364, already mentioned. Another licence of the same year for a vintner of Sandwich to ship money and cloth to Gascony for the purchase of wine mentions a recent licence granted to him to ship money to ' La Baye in Brittany to buy salt with 3 Twice at least, on the other hand, the place appears to be described in the rolls as in Poitou. Thus in 1323 the sheriff of Norfolk and other officers wdre ordered to make reprisals until satisfaction had been made. by the count of Zeeland in respect of a Newcastle ship which had been captured by Zeeland pirates off Sandwich on its way to ' Le Bay in Poitou 4 Again, in 1349, proclamation was ordered to be made in London that no mer- chant or other of the king's subjects should ' buy salt at La Bay or elsewhere in Poitou ', from any one except Henry earl of Lancaster, appointed the king's captain in those parts, or his lieutenant or ministers. 5 1 Cal. of Close Rolls, 1313-18 (1893), p. 455. The name of the place is printed in the text of the volume as ' Burtnef ', but this is corrected to ' Burcnef ' in the index. 2 Cal. of Close Rolls, 1318-23 (1895), p. 209. The ship and its cargo had been seized and carried away by Breton pirates, when it lay at anchor near the duke's town of ' St. Matthieu '. The index does not identify ' La Baye ' and ' St. Matthieu ' more precisely than to locate them in Brittany. The latter is evidently the port of Saint-Mathieu, dep. Finistere, cne. Plougonvelin, con. Saint-Renan, arr. Brest. 3 Cal. of Patent Rolls, 1364-7 (1912), p. 13. 4 Cal. of Close Rolls, 1323-7 (1898), p. 21. 5 Ibid. 1349-54 (1906), p. 140 ; Foedera (6 November 1349), Record ed., m. i. 190 : ' . . . Ne quivis mercator, aut alius qui de ligeancia nostra fuerit, salem apud la Bay, vel alibi in partibus Pictaviae ab aliquo, nisi a . . . Henrico comite Lancastr', quern capitaneum nostrum in eisdem partibus constituimus, aut ab eiusdem capitanei locum tenente, vel ministris suis ibidem . . .,' the heading of the order being : ' Ne quis salem apud la Bay ab aliquo, nisi a comite Lancastriae, emere audeat.' ' La Bay ' is indexed in the calendar as ' Bourgneuf, la Baie de, France ', without mention of the department. The appointment of the earl as ' capitaneus et locum regis tenens in partibus Pictaviae ' had been made on the preceding 18 October (Foedera). In this case the placing of ' La Bay ' in Poitou may be explained by the circumstance that since the outbreak of the dispute between the houses of Blois and Montfort for the succession of Brittany, consequent on the death of Duke John III without heirs in 1341, Edward had k«pt in his own hands this southern corner of the duchy. See Sir James Ramsay, Genesis of Lancaster, ii (1913), p. 20 n.
