So much for the antecedents of the story.
The Fitzwalters are said to have come over with the Conqueror, and to have been invested with the soke before mentioned by his favour and in requital of their services. That the family had at one time extraordinary rights in the City of London is shown by the evidence of the Patent Rolls, from which we learn that in the third year of Edward I. (1275) Robert Fitzwalter received licence from the Crown to transfer Baynard Castle, "adjoining the wall of the City, with all walls and fosses thereunto pertaining, as also the Tourelle called Montfichet," to Robert Kilwardley, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the purpose of founding the House and Church of the Friars Preachers--"provided always that by reason of this grant nothing shall be extinguished to him and his heirs which to his Barony did belong, but that whatsoever relating thereto, as well in rents, landing of vessels, and other franchises and privileges in the City of London or elsewhere, without diminution unto him the said Robert, or to that Barony, have recently belonged, shall henceforth be reserved."
This Robert was the son of Walter Fitzwalter and grandson of his more illustrious namesake, the Marshal of the Army of God and Captain of the Barons in the days of King John; and it may be noted in passing that either to the last-named or his son Walter, as lord of Dunmow in Essex, has been ascribed the institution of the Flitch. Thirty years after the sale of his patrimonial estate Robert Fitzwalter, in 1303, recited and claimed his services "and franchises" before Sir John le Blount, Warden of the City; and as late as 1321, as shown by the "Placita de Quo Warranto," the Justiciars of the Iter were inquiring into the claims of Fitzwalter in relation to the City of London. One of his rights he was prepared to waive--namely, that of drowning traitors at Wood-wharf. The Justiciars refused to take cognizance of the matter, but the Fitzwalters did not soon or easily abandon their demands, which were renewed by John, grandson of Robert Fitzwalter, in 1347. On the feast of St. Matthew in that year it was announced to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens in Common Council "that John, Lord Fitzwalter, claims to have franchises in the Ward of Castle Baynard wholly repugnant to the liberties of the City, and to the prejudice of the estate of his lordship the King, and of the liberties of the City aforesaid. For now of late he has made stocks for imprisonment of persons in the said Ward and [has claimed] to make deliverance of persons imprisoned." Thereupon it was agreed "that the said John had no franchise within the liberties of the City aforesaid, nor was he in future to intermeddle with any pleas holden in the Guildhall of London or with any matters touching the liberties of the City."