ABSTRACT
Edward, etc…to the venerable fathers in Christ John Bishop of Bath and Wells, William Bishop of Worcester (and the Abbots of Glastonbury and Cirencester and Edmund Clyvedon, Richard Acton, Theobald Gorges, Henry Percehay, Walter Clopton, and John Serjaunt) greeting. Know that since the 8th of August last past we have conceded to our beloved burgesses of our town of Bristol and to their heirs and successors in perpetuity that the town of Bristol with its suburbs and precincts shall henceforth be separate from the counties of Gloucester and Somerset, and be in all things exempt both by land and sea, and that it should be a county by itself, to be called the county of Bristol in perpetuity, and that the burgesses and their heirs and successors should have in perpetuity within the town of Bristol and its suburbs and precincts certain liberties and exemptions and enjoy them fully and use them as is more fully contained in the said charter. [The persons to whom the letters patent are addressed are to act as boundary commissioners to determine the boundaries between the shires of Gloucester, Somerset and Bristol.] In witness [whereof] we have caused these our letters patent to be made. Witnessed by [myself] at Westminster on the first day of September, in the 47th year of our reign in England and the 34th of our reign in France.
