Town’s link to Magna Carta

Oldham has its very own link to the Magna Carta.

Staff at Oldham Council’s Local Studies and Archives Centre have discovered that one of the signatories of the historic document owned land in what is now the borough.

June 15 marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the “Great Charter” by King John and a number of the leading barons of England.

According to the The Great Inquest of Service of 1212 compiled during the reign of King John, Roger de Montbegon held land in “Kaskenemore”, the area now covered by Oldham, Shaw and Crompton.

Also known as the Magna Carta Libertatum, or the “Great Charter of the Liberties”, the document promised protection from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on the right of the Crown with regard to taxation.

However, the document represented an agreement between King and barons rather than being concerned with ordinary people.

During the reigns of King James I and Charles I, in the 17th century, Magna Carta was used to protect the liberty of individuals and to make the monarch subject to the common law of the land.

It later inspired the American Constitution and Bill of Rights of 1791, while the Universal declaration of Human Rights published in 1948 was described as an “international Magna Carta” for all.

Most of its clauses were repealed in the 19th and 20th centuries and rights contained in the document enshrined in other statutes.

However, it remains an important symbol of liberty.