the mantelpiece above it, a partition
in the kitchen, two doors and other partitions, of a total value
of 21s. four pounds, 1s. 8d., and to his damage, 400s. [20
pounds]. The defendant denied the trespass and put himself on the
country. Afterwards a jury [panel]... found the defendant guilty
of the aforesaid trespass to the plaintiff's damage, 40d. Judgment
was given for that amount and a fine of 1s. to the King, which the
defendant paid immediately in court."

The innkeeper's duty to safeguard the person and property of his
lodgers was applied in this case:

"John Trentedeus of Southwark was summoned to answer William
Latymer touching a plea why, whereas according to the law and
custom of the realm of England, innkeepers who keep a common inn
are bound to keep safely by day and by night without reduction or
loss men who are passing through the parts where such inns are and
lodging their goods within those inns, so that, by default of the
innkeepers or their servants, no damage should in any way happen
to such their guests ...

On Monday after the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary
in the fourth year of the now King by default of the said John,
certain malefactors took and carried away two small portable
chests with 533s. and also with charters and writings, to wit two
writings obligatory, in the one of which is contained that a
certain Robert Bour is bound to the said William in 2,000s. and in
the other that a certain John Pusele is bound to the same William
in 800s. 40 pounds ... and with other muniments [writings
defending claims or rights] of the same William, to wit his return
of all the writs of the lord King for the counties of Somerset and
Dorset, whereof the same William was then sheriff, for the morrow
of the Purification of the Blessed Mary the Virgin in the year
aforesaid, as well before the same lord the King in his Chancery
and in his Bench as before the justices of the King's Common Bench
and his barons of his Exchequer, returnable at Westminster on the
said morrow, and likewise the rolls of the court of Cranestock for
all the courts held there from the first year of the reign of the
said lord the King until the said Monday, contained in the same
chests being lodged within the inn of the same John at Southwark

And the said John ... says that on the said Monday about the
second hour after noon the said William entered his inn to be
lodged there, and at once when he entered, the same John