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Edward by the grace of God, King of England and France and lord of Ireland, To the archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, dukes, earls, barons, justices, sheriffs, mayors, seneschals, sovereigns, provosts, bailiffs, ministers, and other his subjects greeting. Considering not only the various costs, charges and expenses which the mayor, sheriffs and commonalty of our town of Drogheda, in the maintenance, repair and fortification, as well of the walls, towers and pavements, and the ruinous bridge and quay, as of other works of our said town, have daily been at, and supported, but also the expenses and dangers to which they have, for us and ours, always, when occasion required, submitted themselves with active promptitude, in preservation and defence of our town aforesaid, and the border parts of our counties of Meath and Louth against hostile attacks of our Irish enemies; and principally now of late in resisting John Orailly, captain of his nation, who when with an army of such our Irish enemies of no small number he had entered into the said county of Louth, to depopulate, ravage, burn and destroy the same, by manfully resisting him and his army, they slew him and some of his accomplices of the same army to the number of three hundred. Considering also the acceptable services to us in our wars in our land of Ireland in the train of our very dear cousin, John, Earl of Worcester, deputy of our very dear brother, George, Duke of Clarence, our lieutenant of our land of Ireland, by the mayor, sheriffs and commonalty of our town aforesaid, not without laborious expenses, in many ways performed, and also the high estimation which they are daily held in by us, by so frequently and perseveringly engaging in our services and wars, and hoping that the addition of honour and our grateful remembrance of services received and useful to us by them heretofore performed, may add as well to their probity as their attachment a grateful augmentation. And whereas mayors have long presided successively in our town of Drogheda aforesaid, We, at the request of the Commons of our land of Ireland, in our Parliament at Dublin on Friday next after the feast of Saint Nicholas the Bishop last past, held before the aforesaid Deputy, and from thence adjourned to our town of Drogheda aforesaid, and there at divers times prorogued and continued, by assent of the said Deputy and the lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons of our land aforesaid, in our Parliament aforesaid by authority thereof, by delivering to William Davy, now mayor of the said town, a sword to be borne before him and his successors, mayors of the town aforesaid for ever, have graciously invested him therewith in the usual manner, freely granting to him and his successors, mayors of the said town, the sword, honour and dignity thereof within the franchise there, to have hold and possess the sword, honour and dignity aforesaid to the aforesaid mayor and his successors, mayors of the town aforesaid, for ever, as the mayor of our city of London for the time being now has, enjoys and uses his sword. And that he, the mayor of our town of Drogheda aforesaid, and his successors, may the more honourably and better be enabled to support the burden incumbent upon them according to the decorum of so great an honour, we have given and granted, by the assent and authority aforesaid, and by the tenor of these presents, do give, grant and confirm to the said mayor, sheriff and commonalty, and their successors for ever, twenty pounds, to have and receive yearly of the issues, profits and benefits of the feefarm of our town of Drogheda aforesaid by their own hands, at the feasts of Saint Michael and Easter by equal portions, although express mention of any other [gifts] or grants by us, our progenitors or predecessors aforesaid to the aforesaid mayor, sheriffs and commonalty, or their predecessors, or any of them heretofore, according to the tenor and form of divers statutes, acts and ordinances in such case made, be not made in these presents, or any gift or grant of the said twenty pounds made to any other person or persons whomsoever, or any other statute, act, ordinance, restriction, usage, custom, privilege, thing or matter whatsoever in any respect, notwithstanding. And that the said mayor, sheriffs and commonalty and their successors, and every of them, be acquitted and discharged for ever of such twenty pounds yearly upon and in their account to us at our Exchequer of Ireland every year to be rendered thereof, against us, our heirs, officers and ministers whomsoever, and the officers and ministers of our heirs or successors whomsoever. Wherefore we will and firmly command, for us and our heirs, that the aforesaid mayor, sheriffs and commonalty, and their successors, have and receive for ever, as aforesaid, the said twenty pounds yearly, of the issues, profits and benefits of the said fee-farm of the town aforesaid by their own hands, in every year at the feasts aforesaid. Witness the venerable fathers, John, archbishop of Armagh, primate of Ireland, William of Meath and Richard of Kildare, Bishops, Robert Preston, knight, lord of Gormanston, Richard Nugent, knight, baron of Delvin, Robert Saint Laurence, knight, lord of Howth, Thomas Bath, knight, lord and baron of Louth, John Chevir, our Chief Justice at the Pleas to be held before us in our land of Ireland, John Cornewalshe, Chief Baron of our Exchequer of our land of Ireland, Edward Dudley and Hugh Calveley, knights, and many others. Given by the hand of the Deputy himself at Drogheda on the twelfth day of July in the eighth year of our reign.
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