Index

to

Letters and Papers of John Shillingford, Mayor of Exeter, 1447-50

by

Stuart A Moore, FSA. (Ed.)

Westminster: Printed for the Camden Society (1871) by J B Nicholls & Son, pp. xxvi, 161.

Prepared by Michael Steer

Exeter was the third English city to appoint a Mayor in 1205, making its Mayor the third longest serving in England. The Mayor, with his portreeves, controlled the city - everything from the locking of the city gates at night, the regulation of trades such as brewing and baking, and the control of the markets, falling under his authority. Literacy was widespread among Exeter's ruling and merchant classes, and this is seen by the extensive series of medieval records that survive, probably the best for any town outside London. The records were heavily used in legal disputes and there is remarkable evidence for this in the collection of letters written by John Shillingford in the course of a dispute over the areas of jurisdiction of the city and the cathedral. The dispute involved repeated visits to London. This rare book was produced from a digital copy held by the Stanford University Library that can be downloaded from Google Books. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. Those on which copyright has expired are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.