their way. Six years after he had ceased to be Mayor the town repaid him the large amount of £18, partly for old debts and partly for new. He then lent them further sums, and as these were not soon paid back, he invoked the assistance of the Earl. On October 19th, 1278, the community of the town were summoned by the Earl and his Steward to meet together in their new Guild Hall near St. Nicholas' Church, to consider Henry of Rodington's demands. He declared that he had lent the town numerous sums of money, the particulars of which were then read out, but the scribe adds that there was no proof of any one of them. The claim was finally settled at £15 of silver, "whereof the community made a tally for him, and if it happen that the said Henry brings forward any tally or writing or seeks by word of mouth henceforth to claim or prove any other debt touching the community, they shall in no wise be credited but shall be held for naught." Shortly afterwards Henry of Rodington came into the Guild Hall and brought his tally, bearing at the bottom £15, "and then and there he received from the community the said £15, and he broke the tally, per quod communitas quieta est versus dictum Henricum." When this pertinaceous old money-lover became Reeve of Leicester, after his Mayoralty, he went so far as to take gifts from many to conceal their felonies, as appears in verdicts. But he could always put his enemies to silence. When Roger Aldith — a notoriously quarrelsome fellow — attacked him in the early days of his Mayoralty he was at once forced to make satisfaction; and later, when one William Irving "scolded the Mayor in full Morning-speech, with base and gross words to the shame and despite of the Mayor and the Guild," he was condemned to pay one cask of ale.
The English families who lived in Leicester during the first two centuries after the Conquest, few of whom rose to any distinction, bore such names as Vinegar, Wade, Lewin, Ordriz, Aldwin, Baldwin, Abovetown, Saturday, Smallbone, and Six-and-twenty or Twentysixpence — a name given perhaps by the tax-collector. In the 14th century, however, burgesses of Anglo-Saxon descent began to make themselves more conspicuous.
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