Welsh Journals

A EWLOE BAILIFF'S ACCOUNT AND THE ORIGINS OF THE BUCKLEY POTTERY INDUSTRY By J. E. MESSHAM From the reign of Edward I into the seventeenth century, the manor of Ewloe was a lordship belonging to the crown, and was part of the county of Flint and of the royal earldom of Chester. Its records are to be found among those of the earldom, formerly kept in Chester Castle, now in the Public Record Office. Ewloe was one of the four 'villate anglicane' or English townships of Englefield. Like the English boroughs of Flint and Rhuddlan, these townships were com- munities of English settlers, but, unlike the boroughs, they were not exclusively English, being planted on demesne, assarted and escheat lands, alongside or amongst already established Welsh populations. They had no charters, but they enjoyed some of the same privileges as the boroughs.2 Thus, although Ewloe was said to be part of the commote of Coleshill,3 it was in fact outside the scope of commote courts and commote officials. The Raglot of Englefield and his ringilds had no entry there. Ewloe had its own court, with a competence on a par with the courts of boroughs and commotes, presided over by the steward of the lordship, who also supervised the administration there. It had its own bailiff, but appointed by the steward, not elected as in the boroughs. Indeed, the English community protested in 1391 against the appointment of a Welsh bailiff as being contrary to the custom of the manor.4 The bailiff, with the help of sub-bailiffs recruited by himself, not only pursued offenders, but also collected the earl's revenues from his manor. The accounts of Ewloe revenues appear in the extant records of the exchequer of the earldom from 1301, and from the middle of the fourteenth century these records run in almost unbroken sequence for more than two hundred years. Unfortunately, not one of the bailiff's rentals of Ewloe has survived and, what is more, the growing practice of farming revenues at fixed sums over terms of years, meant that the exchequer officials were interested only in the sum and 'Lay Subsidy Roll, 1292. PRO E 179/242/52. Gives Prestatyn and Mostyn. Bachegraig developed in the fourteenth century. 2 Court Roll, 33 Ed. I terms it a burgus, but there is no doubt about its true status. PRO SC6/ Portfolio 227. 3 Rotuli Parliamentorum, I, p. 39. 4 Indictment Roll. PRO, Chester 25/24, m.25.