Page 2 - WS The Wokingham Charters

Contents Page

Four Charters of Wokingham:

King Henry III Charter of 1227 4

Queen Elizabeth I Charter of 1583 8

Glossary for Elizabeth I Charter 11

King James I Charter of 1612 12
Glossary for James I Charter 26

Queen Victoria Charter of 1885 27

Introduction

These four Charters have been collated and, in the case of the last three, transcribed, on
behalf of the Executive Committee of the Wokingham Society for the information and use of
the local community of Wokingham, and of any other interested readers.

On 2 January 1219 the Bishop of Salisbury gave one palfrey (horse) for a Tuesday market in
Wokingham to Henry III until he came of age. This was formalised in a Charter of 1227
which itself was confirmed in a Patent from King Edward III on 11 August 1338 (Ref
Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516).

On 17 April 1258 Henry III granted a charter to the Bishop of Salisbury to hold fairs in his
manor of Sonning (including Wokingham) on the feast days of St Barnabas (in June) and All
Saints (in November). (Gazetteer op. cit.)

The copyright of the translation from Latin of the 1227 Charter of Henry III, and the
accompanying footnotes, belongs to Pat Egerton, who we thank for allowing us to include her
text, and her copyright should be acknowledged if any extracts are used.

Extracts may be freely taken from the other three Charters, which are not subject to
copyright. It would be appreciated, however, if the Wokingham Society’s provision of the
relevant texts could be acknowledged.
The text for the 1583 Elizabeth I Charter comes from an 18thC translation found among the
manorial, estate and family documents of the Neville and Aldworth families of Billingbear
and Stanlake, held by the Berkshire Record Office (Ref D/EN/018). It is similar to a hand-
written transcript by Rev. W.C. Penny, one-time Senior Tutor and Bursar at Wellington
College, which was among papers given by Rev. Penny’s daughter to Mr Arthur Heelas soon
after her father’s death in 1898. The papers were bound and are now in Wokingham Library
under the title Notes of Wokingham by C.W. Penny. The transcript can be found at pp. 91-96.
The former version is preferred since it is signed as a true copy in 1722.
The English translation of the 1612 James I Charter, written in Latin, appears in truncated
form in the above book by Rev. Penny, pp.63-90, but can be found in full in an 18thC
manuscript handbook of Wokingham Charters and Ordinances, donated to the Borough of
Wokingham in the 1940s by Canon Bertram Long, former Rector of All Saints Church
Wokingham, and now held in the Berkshire Record Office (Ref WO/D1/1/1).

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