PARLIAMENTARY PETITIONS RELATING TO OXFORD. IN the Public Record Office in London is preserved a collection of documents of high interest, more than 16,500 in number, termed 'Ancient Petitions.' These documents, gathered together from the records of the Chancery and the Exchequer, where they have been anciently kept, have within recent years been arranged and indexed according to the name of the place or person preferring the petition, and are thus made available to the inquirer. They consist for the most part of narrow strips of parchment varying from two to six inches wide, and from twelve to fifteen inches long (though a small proportion fill large sheets), which are numbered and stitched into small books or 'files.' Some of them have suffered from damp, wear and tear, and other ill-usage, rendering them partly illegible, but the greater number of those here printed are in good condition. The Ancient Petitions' represent the link between the governed and the governors, between individuals or communities and their highest representatives, appealed to as the fountain of justice; for they are the very documents sent up by the people to the king, or to the king and his council in parliament, or to the chancellor, during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, preserved and handed down to our time. And thus from their origin they deal with all sorts of subjects of mediæval life, many of which might now seem too local or too personal to be treated in council or in parliament, which were settled at once, or directed into the |