1) In early contexts a person described as ‘foreign’ could simply be from another district or anywhere beyond the speaker’s own parish or manor.
In the specialised language of the medieval guilds and the later Cutlers’ Company it was used of a non-freeman: c.1450 any man that dwellys with in the sayd Burgage, als wele a foraner as Burgess, by sommonyd, Malton. In 1625, a by-law threatened with a fine every person making blades … for any foreigner, or any other save such as have served a seven years apprenticeship or been instructed by their fathers. The language echoes that of the York guilds: in 1479-80 the cutlers there said that deceit was being practised aswel be denicens [freemen] as forauntes [outsiders]. The issue in a York dispute in 1477 was that dyers had been goyng to forent markets with their cloth
that is to any market outside the city. York protected its franchises and liberties and in 1498 it was ennacted that every foreyn and unfraunchest man should be charged for items weighed at the common crane. In 1531, the Civic Records list the sale of lead in the city by Charles Jonson of Rychemond, forrener .