knights whose names we meet with in the deeds of this period are Sir John de Comerwell and Sir John de Holte, the latter of whom was Sheriff for Wiltshire in the year 1314. The tomb on the north side may be that of some female benefactor to the church, or the founder of some one of the chapels that we now find existing in divers parts of the town or parish. We must not forget to mention, moreover, another evidence of the growing prosperity of our town in these early days. In the year 1295 (the 23rd of Edward I.) Bradford, then called a 'Burgus,' or borough, was called upon to send two members to Parliament. The names of our representatives, which occur several times in the earlier part of the series of deeds to which we have already alluded, were Thomas Dendans and William Wager. Though it does not appear that our town exercised this right more than once, it is something to know that the Parliament to which Bradford sent representatives was one of more than ordinary importance. In a writ of summons addressed with reference to this same Parliament to the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is recited that the King of France, "not satisfied with his treacherous invasion of Gascony, had prepared a mighty fleet for the purpose of invading England, and effacing the English language altogether from the face of the earth." By the English language the King meant the English nation, but what we have given, is a strictly literal translation of the words of the writ.' The Archbishop is commanded "in fide et dilectione" to appear in person at Westminster on Sunday next after the feast of St. Martin, 13th November, 1295, with the King and Prelates, the Nobles and other inhabitants of the realm, to deliberate upon, and ordain, in what manner the impending dangers might be obviated. Why Bradford discontinued to send members to Parliament we are not told, though a tolerable conjecture may be formed. In those early days the distinction of having representatives in the legislature, so far from being considered a privilege, was deemed a 1 Parliamentary Writs, vol. i. p. xlv. The words are "linguam Anglicanam, si conceptæ iniquitatis proposito detestabili potestas correspondeat, quod Deus avertat, omnino de terra delere proponit." D burden. The trading municipia had as yet acquired no weight in the national council, and all that they desired was to be let alone. With regard to all except chartered boroughs or towns which were the actual or ancient demesne of the Crown, it was left to the discretion of the sheriff to issue writs to such unincorporated places as could afford to defray the expense of their representatives, and had a notable interest in the public welfare. The wages of burgesses were two shillings a day—a sum which at that time, when a quarter of wheat sold for 4s., and a sheep was considered rather high at 1s., would be equivalent to about 16 times as much now;— and they were allowed a certain number of days for going and returning, about 35 miles being reckoned a day's journey. It was really rather a costly luxury to the good burghers of Bradford, and no doubt, here, as elsewhere, the necessary sum was raised with reluctance by men little solicitous about political franchise. Other towns in Wiltshire seem to have been of the same mind, and to have induced the sheriff to omit them from his list. Thus, in the 12th Edward III., the sheriff of Wiltshire, after returning two citizens for Salisbury, and burgesses for two boroughs, concludes with these words,-"There are no other cities or boroughs within my bailiwick;"—and yet, in fact, eight other towns had sent members to preceding parliaments.2 It was no doubt during this period that churches began to multiply in Bradford. There is still remaining a fragment of the chapel on Tory-(so termed, it is conceived, because the highest part of the town,3 from the Anglo-Saxon word Tor, which signifies a 1 John Halle and William Hore received for their services, as Burgesses for Salisbury, in Parliament for 163 days, the sum of £32 12s.—a sum equivalent now to £326!-See Duke's 'Prolusiones Historicæ,' p. 306. 2 See on this subject, Hallam's 'Europe in the Middle Ages,' iii., 113. 3 It is to this chapel Leland alludes when he says, "Ther is a chapelle on the highest place of the toune as I entered."-Leland entered Bradford from Wraxhall. His road lay through a part of Berrifield, then through the Conigre, and so down by the east end of Tory and Middle Rank into what is now called New Town. Mason's lane, now the chief thoroughfare, did not then exist. As he emerged from the Conigre his attention would be naturally attracted by 'the chapel' on Tory. In 1743, as appears from a map of the Methuen property at the time, there are represented only five houses on the east side, and two, which high hill or tower)-dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, just above the spring which supplies the town with water; the locality beneath it still being called Lady Well, and the adjoining premises Well-Close. There is still standing the east wall with its window, and also a niche of very chaste design. (Plate iv.) The tracery of the window seems to point it out as the work of the latter part of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century, though it is by no means impossible that the present building may itself have been originally a restoration, a previous chapel having stood on the same spot. The churches of Wraxhall and Holt, and (to judge from what remains of the original church have been left) of Winsley, are all to be traced to this period. Aubrey, moreover, tells us that the chancel window of the church at Atworth, as he saw it, seemed to be of the date of Edward III. In the town, moreover, we had a chapel dedicated to St. Olave, which stood at the corner of the lane leading up to White Hill, the street leading from that chapel to the river, or to Mull street, (now Mill street), being called Frog-mere street. By degrees St. Olave street became contracted into 't Olav street, and then corrupted into Tooley street, its name within the last seventy-five years. Since that time it has taken the name of the tything, and been called Woolley street. As a confirmation of the truth of this opinion, as to the origin of the name, it may be mentioned that the street in Southwark, in which St. Olave's church now stands, is still called TOOLEY street. It is probable, also, that there was a chapel dedicated to St. Catherine, and that it formed part of what is now called the Old Women's Almshouse, situated at the southern extremity of the town, at what used to be called Clay acre, now Clay farm. That there was a chapel at this spot we can have no doubt. Aubrey, in fact, who visited us 200 years ago, says expressly, "A little beyond the bridge is a chapel and almshouse of ancient date." When the comprised the buildings connected with the chapel, at the west end of Tory, or Top Rank as it is called. On the same map 'the chapel' is called 'the Hermitage. |