Page:Mediaevalleicest00billrich.djvu/90

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Leicester authorities attached to the premises thus conveyed. Certainly, the real meaning of the transaction was not allowed to appear on the surface of the deed. In any case it seems that the Conveyance must have included the whole of the old guild premises west of St. Martin's churchyard. This is shown by the endorsement written on the back of the Conveyance, which is much earlier than the other endorsement, and must have been made soon after the execution of the deed, the handwriting being contemporary. It is also proved by the general circumstances of the case, and especially by the corroboration of the Borough Records. In the Chamberlains' Accounts for the year 1562-3, there is an entry referring to wine drunk at the "possession-taking of the Hall," and it is also noted that a certain sum was paid to Mr. Manby, one of the attorneys mentioned in the Conveyance, "that he laid out for the purchase of the Hall," and that £2 13s. 4d. more was paid to Mr. Recorder for the same Hall, "that he laid out and for his pains." The sum then paid to Manby is stated by Kelly and North to have been £10. A further payment of £7 9s. 4d. was made to Manby in 1565-6, and also some "arrearages" of the Hall were paid, stated by Kelly to have amounted to £5 10s. 8d. The total amount of the purchase money cannot be exactly ascertained, but does not seem to have been large, and, if the figures given above are correct and exhaustive, did not exceed £25.

The title of the Corporation was further confirmed in 1589 by the Charter of Queen Elizabeth, wherein she granted to the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester, "the chantry of Corpus Christi Guild with its lands let to R. Hawkes and T. Bate," and the "guild called Corpus Christi Guild." The lease to Hawkes and Bate expired at Lady Day, 1595, and the lands and tenements comprised therein then fell into the possession of the Leicester Corporation, subject only, as appears from the Town Chamberlains' accounts, to a small yearly payment of 7s. 9d. The particulars of the lands and tenements are set out in the Corporation's Rental for the year ending Michaelmas, 1595.

It is said by Nichols that all the possessions of the Corpus Christi Guild were purchased from King Edward VI by Robert Catlyn, of Beby, in Leicestershire, afterwards Chief Justice of

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