A somewhat different class from the _censarii_ of Winchester are mentioned in the statute 27 Henry VIII., cap. 7. From the preamble we can form a good idea of the lawlessness and confusion which prevailed on the borders of Wales at that period. It is related that in the Marches, where thick forests frequently fringe the roads, "certain unreasonable Customs and Exactions have been of long time unlawfully exacted and used, contrary both to the law of God and man, to the express wrong and great impoverishment of divers of the king's true subjects." The most crying of these evils was that the foresters were accustomed to plunder all passing along the roads (probably under the plea of taking toll), unless they bore "a Token delivered to them by the chief Foresters ... or else were yearly Tributors or Chensers." The statute offers no explanation of these terms, but it is most likely they applied to persons paying an annual sum, either to the king or the Lords Marchers, of the nature of Chief Rent, especially as Cowell, in giving his explanation of the word _chenser_ which will be noticed later, refers to this Act of Henry VIII. in support of his definition. If this be so we see that although the signification of the term had been extended so as to include distinctly personal and commercial tolls, it had, in some districts, also retained its original connection with land. This, censor, censer, gensor, chencer, and other variations, is the most usual form of the word, but occasionally it is found as tenser, tensor, tensur, and tensure. Tenser and tensor are used at Shrewsbury; at Worcester the same word appears as tensure or tensar (_English Gilds_, pp. 382, 394).
It is difficult to say whether or no _tenser_ is a confusion of _censer_. Etymologically the words seem akin, _cense_ being a tax or toll (cess), and _tensare_ meaning to lay under toll or tribute. In the Iter of 1164 enquiry is directed to be made "de prisis et tenseriis omnium ballivorum domini regis ... et quare prisæ illæ captæ fuerint, et per quem" etc. Another derivation of _tenser_ has been given. Owen and Blakeway (Vol. ii. p. 525) explain it to be a corruption of "tenancier," and apparently intend to imply that these non-gildated traders were considered as holding directly of the king. This view receives some confirmation from Cowell's definition of the "censure" and "censers" of Cornwall. He says (_A Law Dictionary: or the Interpreter_ etc., ed. 1727) "Censure, or _Custuma vocata_ censure, (from the Latin _Census_, which Hesychius expounds to be a kind of personal money, paid for every Poll) is, in divers Manors in _Cornwall_ and _Devon_, the calling of all Resiants therein above the age of sixteen, to swear Fealty to the Lord, to pay _ij{ d} per Poll, and j{ d} per an._ ever after; as _cert-money_ or _Common Fine_; and these thus sworn, are called _Censers_." "Chensers," he says again, "are such as pay Tribute or _cense_, Chief-rent or Quit-rent, for so the French _censier_ signifies." Whether or no we receive Owen and Blakeway's derivation of the word from _tenancier_, even with the support of Cowell's "censers" of Cornwall, we may press the latter authority into service in showing that the signification of _censer_ and _tenser_, however different the two words might be in origin, became very similar in actual use.