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In the Devon and Dorset surveys the cities and
towns or boroughs are placed in a special section at the beginning of the
entry for the county. At the head of the Somerset entry there is only a blank
space which may indicate that there were no towns in the county of the
importance of Exeter or Shaftesbury. The following are named in various places
in the text as boroughs or as being manors with burgesses. The largest was
Bath with 192 burgesses; Ilchester came next with 108, Milborne Port with 67,
Taunton with 64, Langport with 39, Axbridge with 32 and Bruton with 17. Other
places which can be regarded as towns, because they had markets, with an
income from tolls and hence of value to their lords, are Crewkerne, worth £4,
Frome, worth 46s 8d, Ilminster, worth 20s, and Milverton. worth 10s. If these
values are compared with the entry for Taunton where the market was worth 50s
some idea of their relative size and importance can be gained. Of the 11 mints
in Saxon towns only those at Bath and Taunton, valued at £5 and 50s
respectively, had survived the Conquest. Towns received comparatively little
attention from the commissioners, who were concerned chiefly with the ways in
which taxes were payable to the exchequer, so there is no information about
the activities of merchants or methods of town government.
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