POLITICAL HISTORY rights as the rest of his barony in Kent ; and very wide powers were appurtenant to the abbey of Battle, the proceedings against whom are also wanting ; the manors of each of these formed a peculiar jurisdiction possessing its own courts ; prisoners taken on the archbishop's lands were sent to Maidstone gaol, though this removal to another county was subsequently considered to be contrary to the laws of the realm,' while the Abbot had his own gaol at Battle, and the justices in eyre had to come to Battle to try cases touching men of the Abbot's liberty/ There was also the peculiar jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports and their members, with the court of Shipweye. In the case of Pevensey, which was a member of Hastings, this led to much confusion, the barons claiming that the franchises of the Cinque Ports extended to all living within the Lowey — a district roughly including all the land within three miles of Pevensey castle — while the royal and county officers wished to limit them to the actual town and port. There was the further complication that Pevensey was the seat of the baronial court of the honor of Aquila, which was held at the castle gate for all tenants of the honor. The castle of Pevensey was the only place in the county where felons might be imprisoned for more than three days^ ; at Lewes the Earl had the right to keep them in the castle for three days, but must then send them to the castle of Guildford, which was the county gaol for Sussex and Surrey ; and the same applied to Arundel castle, though in this latter case all felons arrested within the honor had to be brought to Arundel and delivered to the constable of the castle, who should then, after three days, send them on to Guildford. The Hundred Rolls mention that the constables of Petworth and Midhurst were fined for neglecting this custom and sending prisoners direct to Guildford. The absence of a gaol within the county was a cause of great inconvenience and expense and led not unfrequently to the escape of prisoners ; an instance in which the sheriff was assaulted and a woman in his charge rescued — or abducted — is recorded. Similar cases appear to have been not unfrequent, the dense woods affording at once opportunity of escape and refuge for the fugitive, so that the borders of Sussex and Surrey were long infested with outlaws and robbers. It was not, however, until 1487 that the constant requests of the county were granted and a gaol established at Lewes.* The jurisdiction exercised by the lords of the great honors was almost royal in its far-reaching extent. In several cases the rights of the lesser lords had been encroached upon by the greater ; Peter of Savoy, when he held the honor of Aquila, established a monopoly of warren throughout a tract of country extending from Pevensey to the Ouse and from Glynde to the sea, and Earl Warenne had done the same for his whole barony, claiming warren in seventy vills and keeping armed retainers to prevent Robert Aguillon and other of his neighbours from hunting, and not even allowing his poor tenants to drive the wild • Assize R. 921, m. 8. = Ibid. m. id. 3 Ibid. m. 25.
- Rot. Pari. (Rec. Com.), vi. 388.
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