LIST OF CHARTERS AND LETTERS PATENT. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... : ... ... ... ... ... *The originals of these Charters are in the possession of the Corporation. The Corporation have Office Copies, obtained from the Record Office, of the other Charters, excepting that of 1 Richard I. Introductory. HE Charters of Colchester take us back to the year 1189, and prove also that before that date Colchester was a self-contained borough, with its own Courts, with power to appoint its own rulers and justices, with immunity from outside exactions, levies, penalties, and obligations, with freedom from the restrictions of the forest laws which affected other parts of the county and the country, with the cherished liberty of hunting the fox, the hare, and the polecat, and with the immemorial right of the river and the fishery in the Colne and its creeks, from bank to bank, from North Bridge in the middle of the borough to West Ness at the river's mouth about three miles below Brightlingsea. The Charter of 1189 tells us that these rights were then "confirmed" to the Burgesses of the royal borough by their lord the King. Other ancient documents in the great collection of the Borough muniments prove that the town's liberties had been in existence long before 1189, and had been confirmed by previous Charters. In Saxon times the same rights and immunities no doubt existed, though possibly not defined with pen and ink and parchment, but maintained by tradition and custom. The way in which these rights of Colchester were gradually defined and extended and brought into conformity with the gradually developing life of the country may be traced in the following translations of the twenty-six known Charters of the Borough, which take us by stepping stones, not too far apart, through eight centuries of English history. The Charters have been treasured with considerable care by the successive rulers of the town. The annotations upon them by various Town Clerks, and the references made in the Borough Records to their production |