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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43667 ***
+
+Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
+without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
+been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
+underscores: _italics_.
+
+
+SOURCE BOOKS OF ENGLISH HISTORY FOR USE IN SCHOOLS
+
+EDITED BY K. H. VICKERS, M.A.
+
+EXTRACTS RELATING TO MEDIAEVAL
+MARKETS AND FAIRS IN ENGLAND
+
+
+
+
+EXTRACTS RELATING TO MEDIAEVAL MARKETS AND FAIRS IN ENGLAND
+
+
+BY
+
+HELEN DOUGLAS-IRVINE
+
+M.A. ST. ANDREWS
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE ROYAL PALACES OF SCOTLAND," "THE HISTORY OF LONDON"
+
+
+LONDON
+MACDONALD & EVANS
+4, ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.
+1912
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+INTRODUCTION 9
+
+ANGLO-SAXON MARKETS 11
+
+EFFECT OF THE CONQUEST 14
+
+NEW CREATIONS 16
+
+MARKET-PLACES 19
+
+SMITHFIELD MARKET UNDER HENRY II. 24
+
+SPECIAL PRIVILEGES 25
+
+PIED POUDRE COURTS 26
+
+PROFITS 30
+
+PRE-EMPTION AND PRISAGE 36
+
+MARKET HOUSES 39
+
+ENFORCEMENT OF REGULARITY 40
+
+SUPERVISION OF SALES 44
+
+FOREIGN MERCHANTS 48
+
+MISCELLANEOUS POINTS OF INTEREST 51
+
+DEGENERATION OF FAIRS 54
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S GENERAL PREFACE.
+
+
+This series of source-books aims at providing illustrations of various
+aspects of English history at a price that will enable the teacher to
+place them in the hands of the pupils themselves. All teachers of
+history are agreed as to the value of using the "original documents" in
+their work as a means of making their pupils realise that they are
+studying human life in past ages, but hitherto the consideration of
+price has confined the use of them almost entirely to the teachers
+themselves. In the series here prepared for the use of scholars and
+teachers alike the volumes are each devoted to one aspect of history,
+so that the teacher can select that one which will illustrate the
+particular line taken. Thus, one will be on "Markets and Fairs," for
+use when the teaching has an economic basis, another will deal with
+political events, and another with the social side of history. Great
+care has been taken to secure extracts from contemporary and reliable
+authorities.
+
+K. H. V.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Fairs and markets are not different institutions--a fair is a market of
+a particular kind, an important market held not once or several times a
+week, but once or several times a year. The customs, the rights, and
+the law of markets are therefore relevant to fairs; and generalisations
+as to markets apply to fairs.
+
+There is no direct evidence as to the origin of markets and fairs in
+England. Early Oriental and classical literature indicate that they
+have served all peoples whose development has reached a certain stage.
+As communities cease to be entirely self-supporting trade arises
+naturally; and trade is obviously facilitated by a concentration in
+particular places at particular times of sellers and buyers. Certain of
+these gatherings had in the ninth century already been regularised in
+England as markets. The king or other lord had become responsible for
+the validity of sales in them, and suffered them to take place within
+the territory over which he had power. In return he received from the
+market people tolls, fines for transgressions, and other dues, which
+were a considerable source of profit, sufficient to make the tenancy of
+a market an object of desire. It was frequently acquired by a religious
+house.
+
+It is noteworthy that the king was regarded as the original holder of
+all market right in England. The lord who had a market on his manor,
+whether in virtue of a royal charter or by force of a custom of which
+the beginning had been forgotten, was considered to exercise a right
+which initially had been derived from the king. In historic times the
+establishment of new markets has been, until recently, only possible by
+means of a royal grant.
+
+
+
+
+ANGLO-SAXON MARKETS.
+
+
+873-99. _Grant to the church of St. Peter, Worcester, of half the
+rights of Worcester Market._
+
+To Almighty God, true Unity and holy Trinity in heaven, be praise and
+glory and rendering of thanks, for all his benefits bestowed upon us.
+Firstly for whose love and for St. Peter's and the church at Worcester,
+and at the request of Werfrith the bishop, their friend, Aethelraed the
+ealdorman, and Aethelflaed commanded the burh at Worcester to be built,
+and eke God's praise to be there upraised. And now they make known by
+this charter that of all the rights which appertain to their lordship,
+both in market and in street, within the byrg and without, they grant
+half to God and St. Peter and the lord of the church; that those who
+are in the place may be the better provided, that they may thereby in
+some sort easier aid the brotherhood, and that this remembrance may be
+the firmer kept in mind, in the place, as long as God's service is done
+within the minster. And Werfrith, the bishop, and his flock have
+appointed this service before the daily one, both during their lives
+and after, to sing at matins, vespers, and undernsong the psalm _De
+Profundis_, during their lives, and after their death _Laudate
+Dominum_; and a mass for them whether alive or dead. Aethelraed and
+Aethelflaed proclaim that they have thus granted with goodwill to God
+and St. Peter, under witness of Aelfred the king and all the witan in
+Mercia; ... as for ... wohcéapung,[1] and all the customs from which
+any fine may arise, let the lord of the church have half of it, for
+God's sake and St. Peter's, as it was arranged about the markets and
+the streets; and without the market-place let the bishop enjoy his
+rights, as of old our predecessors decreed and privileged. Aethelread
+and Aethelflaed did this by witness of Aelfred the king, and by witness
+of those witan of the Mercians whose names stand written hereafter, and
+in the name of God Almighty they abjure all their successors never to
+diminish these alms which they have granted to the church for God's
+love and St. Peter's.
+
+ Kemble, _Codex Diplomaticus_, No. 1075. _Saxons in England_, I.
+ 328.
+
+ [1] Fine for buying or selling contrary to the rules of the
+ market.
+
+
+904. _Grant by Edward of Wessex, son of King Alfred, to the church of
+Winchester of Taunton Market._
+
+I Edward, who by divine and indulgent clemency am king of the Anglo-Saxons,
+... consent of my magnates whose names are written below, ... grant for
+ever the market of the town of Taunton, which in English is called
+_thaes tunes cyping_, ... to the holy church of God in the city of
+Winchester, ... without limitation or impediment and with all
+easements.[2]
+
+ Kemble, _Codex Diplomaticus_, No. 1084.
+
+ [2] Services or conveniences, yielding no direct profit,
+ which a holder of property rights had in respect of his
+ neighbours, _e.g._, right of way, lights.
+
+
+968. _Confirmation of Edward's grant by Edgar._
+
+Here is made known in this writing how King Edgar renewed the liberty
+of Taunton, for the Holy Trinity and St. Peter and St. Paul, to the
+episcopal see of Winchester, as King Edward had before freed it, ...;
+and let the town's market and the produce of the town-dues go to the
+holy place, as they did before, in the days of my forefathers, and were
+levied for Bishop Aelfeah and every one of those who enjoyed the land.
+Whoever will increase this liberty, may God increase his prosperity in
+a long life here and in eternity. But if any, through audacity and the
+instigation of the devil and his limbs, will violate this liberty or
+pervert it to another, unless ere his departure hence he make
+reparation, be he with malediction cut off from the communion of our
+Lord and all his saints, and ever be tormented in hell torture, with
+Judas who was Christ's betrayer.
+
+ Thorpe, _Diplomatarium Anglicium Aevi Saxonici_, 235.
+
+
+_Circa 901-21. Law of Edward and Guthrum._
+
+If any man engage in Sunday marketing, let him forfeit the chattel, and
+twelve ores among the Danes, and thirty shillings among the English.
+
+ Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes_, 73.
+
+
+_Circa 1020. Charter of Canute._
+
+We admonish that men keep Sunday's festival with all their might, and
+observe it from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawning; and no man be so
+bold that he either go to market or seek any court on that holy day.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 76.
+
+_N.B.--These latter enactments were chiefly distinguished by their
+breach, for throughout the middle ages English markets were frequently
+held on Sunday. They were probably abortive attempts on the part of
+pious legislators to end a custom which seemed to them ungodly._
+
+
+
+
+EFFECT OF THE CONQUEST.
+
+
+In Domesday Book there is evidence of a considerable number of markets
+which had existed in England under Edward the Confessor, and which
+usually yielded to their holders an annual profit of from 20s. to 40s.,
+in those days large sums of money. New markets were in some cases
+established by the Norman lords who acquired English lands, and they
+tended to disorganise the market economy.
+
+
+1087. _The ruin of the bishop's market at St. Germans._
+
+The bishop has a lordship called St. Germans. In that lordship, on the
+day on which King Edward lived and died, there was a market held on
+Sunday. And now it is made nothing by the market set up close at hand
+by the count of Mortain in his castle, on the same day.
+
+ _Exon. Domesday_ (Rec. Com.), 182, 470.
+
+
+1087. _Necessity to change the day of the market at Hoxne in Suffolk._
+
+Ailmarus, the bishop, held Hoxne in the time of King Edward.... In this
+manor there was a market in the time of King Edward and afterwards.
+William the king came, and the market was held on Sunday. And William
+Malet made his castle at Eye; and on the same day on which there was a
+market in the bishop's manor, William Malet made another market in his
+castle, and that so much to the detriment of the bishop's market that
+this was of little worth. Now therefore it is held on Friday, but the
+market of Eye still takes place on Sunday.
+
+ _Domesday_ (Rec. Com.), II. 379.
+
+
+1087. _Abolition of Launceston Market._
+
+The canons of St. Stephen hold Launceston. Thence the count of Mortain
+has now taken a market, which was situated there in the days of King
+Edward, and which was worth 20s.
+
+ _Domesday_ (Rec. Com.), I. 120b.
+
+
+It appears always to have been the intention of the Government that
+markets and fairs should be held only in the stronger places of the
+country, where the just and peaceful transaction of business could be
+secured. Such a situation was in the later middle ages the rule, but
+that in an early period it was not universal appears from the existence
+of legislation on the subject.
+
+
+1066-87. _Law of William the Conqueror._
+
+We forbid that any market or fair be held or suffered except in the
+cities of our realm and in the walled boroughs and in castles and in
+the safest places, where the customs of our realm, and our common
+right, and the dues of our crown, which were constituted by our good
+predecessors, cannot suffer loss nor fraud nor violation; for we will
+that all things be done with right forms and openly, and in accordance
+with judgment and with justice.
+
+ Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes_, 212.
+
+
+
+
+NEW CREATIONS.
+
+
+1214. _Grant of a market and fair to William of Lancaster._
+
+ THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF WESTMORELAND GREETING.
+
+Know that we have granted to our beloved and faithful William of
+Lancaster that we have every week a market at his manor of Barton on
+Thursday, and that he have a fair there every year to last two days,
+the vigil and the feastday of All Saints. And therefore we command you
+to cause that the said William have the market and fair according to
+the tenor of our charter which he has.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 173.
+
+
+1215. _Grant of a market to the men of Beer Hackett._
+
+ THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF DORSET GREETING.
+
+Know that we have granted to our men of Beer that they have a market at
+Beer every week on Wednesday, so that it be not to the injury of
+neighbouring markets. And therefore we command you to cause them thus
+to have that market.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 220.
+
+
+1205. _Creation of a royal fair having for three years special
+privileges._
+
+Mandate to the sheriff of Oxford that he cause a fair to be at
+Wallingford every year to last for four days, for Friday in Pentecost
+week and the three following days, and that that fair be free and quit
+of toll and all customs which pertain to such fairs for three years.
+
+ Given by the Lord King at Oxford on the 28th day of March.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 24.
+
+
+A fair or market was sometimes bought from the crown.
+
+
+1221. _Remission of the price of the right to hold a market and fair._
+
+ THE KING TO THE BARONS OF THE EXCHEQUER GREETING.
+
+Know that for God's sake we have pardoned the abbot of Hale the palfrey
+by which he made fine to us for having a market every week on Wednesday
+at Hale, and a fair every year lasting for two days, the eve and the
+feastday of St. Dennis, that thus he may make two chalices in his abbey.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), 477.
+
+
+1298. _To the Sheriff of Hereford._
+
+Order to supersede entirely the levying of 11 marks from Miles Pychard,
+for the fee of a charter of fair and market granted in the twenty-third
+year of the reign, as Miles paid this sum into the wardrobe by the
+hands of John de Drokenesforde, keeper thereof.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1296-1302, 171.
+
+
+ _A Fair which was Farmed._
+
+
+1331. TO THE TREASURER AND BARONS OF THE EXCHEQUER.
+
+Order to cause William de Pynlande, clerk, to be discharged of 50s.
+yearly for the fair of Lopen in Somerset, ... the king having committed
+the fair to Gilbert Talebot for the term of twenty years.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1330-3, 265.
+
+
+Some precautions were taken that new markets and fairs should not be
+established where they would damage those which already existed. A
+saving clause to this end was usually inserted in the grants.
+
+
+1205. _Grant of a market at Wilton._
+
+ THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF HEREFORD GREETING.
+
+Know that we have granted to Henry de Longchamp that he have a market
+at Wilton every Tuesday, so that it be not to the injury of
+neighbouring markets. And therefore we command you to cause that he
+hold it, and to cause this to be proclaimed throughout your bailiwick.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 50.
+
+
+ _Provision against Encroaching Markets._
+
+
+1205. THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF LINCOLN GREETING.
+
+Because we granted to our beloved Thomas of Muleton a market to be held
+at Flete every week on Sunday, before we granted to Fulk of Oyri his
+market at Gedney on the same day: we will that the said Thomas stand
+and hold as we granted to him, and that Fulk's market be on another
+day. And therefore we command you that you cause this to be done.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 20.
+
+
+1214. THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF OXFORD GREETING.
+
+We command you that the market of Crowmarsh, which is held to the
+injury of our market at Wallingford, and which by our precept was
+forbidden to be held for one turn, be prohibited and entirely
+abolished.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 175.
+
+
+1222. THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF SOMERSET GREETING.
+
+We have heard that a market has been newly established without warrant
+at Wechat to the detriment of the market of Dunster. And therefore we
+command you that if so it be, then without delay you cause such market
+to be forbidden, so that for the future no market be there held to the
+detriment of the market of Dunster.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 527b.
+
+
+
+
+MARKET-PLACES.
+
+
+Markets and fairs were held sometimes in open and outlying places, as
+at Smithfield; but more frequently in central parts of their towns--in
+graveyards, in the market-places of which many survive, and in the
+streets. The last case has named streets in many English towns "Cheap"
+or "Cheapside," for "cheap" meant "market."
+
+
+1223. THE KING TO THE MAYOR AND BAILIFFS OF LINCOLN GREETING.
+
+We command you that on our behalf you cause to be forbidden that any
+market be held in future at Lincoln in the graveyards, but that the
+markets be held in the streets of that city, where best and most
+adequately you shall provide that they be.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 547.
+
+
+1233. The king has granted to Hamo de Crevecquer that the market, which
+has been used to be held every week on Sunday at Brenchley in the
+graveyard of the church, be held henceforth on the land of Hamo of
+Brenchley, and that he and his heirs have there every year a fair to
+last three days, the vigil, the day and the morrow of the feast of All
+Saints. And the sheriff of Kent is commanded to cause that market and
+the fair to be proclaimed, and to be held as aforesaid.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1231-4, 234.
+
+
+1234. The king has granted to the prior and the brethren of the bridge
+of Lechlade that they have for ever at Lechlade bridge every year a
+fair, to last for five days, the eve and the feastday of the
+Decollation of St. John the Baptist and the three following days.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1231-4, 398.
+
+
+1235. The king has conceded to Henry, Abbot of St. Edmund, that he and
+his successors have yearly for ever two fairs in the suburb of the town
+of (Bury) St. Edmunds, namely one outside the north gate, outside the
+town, beside the hospital of St. Saviour, to last for three days, the
+eve, the day, and the morrow of the feast of the Transfiguration of the
+Lord; and another outside the south gate of the town, likewise to last
+for three days, the eve, the day, and the morrow of the feast of the
+Translation of St. Edmund: unless such fairs be to the injury of
+neighbouring fairs. And the sheriff is commanded to cause this charter
+to be read in full county court, and these fairs to be proclaimed and
+held.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1234-7, 61.
+
+
+Encroachments on market-places were not lawful without special licence.
+
+
+1123. _Foundation of the Priory of St. Bartholomew on part of
+Smithfield market-place by Rahere, first prior._
+
+Since the place godly to him (Rahere) shown was contained within the
+king's market, of the which it was not lawful to princes or other
+lords, of their proper authority, anything to diminish, neither yet to
+so solemn an obsequy to depute: therefore, using ... men's counsel, in
+opportune time he addressed him to the king, and before him, and the
+Bishop Richard (de Belmeis, Bishop of London) being present, the which
+he had made to him favourable before, effectually expressed his
+business, and that he might lawfully bring his purpose to effect meekly
+besought. And nigh him was he (St. Bartholomew) in whose hand it was,
+to what he would the king's heart to incline, and ineffectual these
+prayers might not be, whose author is the apostle, whose gracious
+hearer was God: his word therefore was pleasant and acceptable in the
+king's eye. And when he had weighed the good will of the man prudently,
+as he was witty, he granted to the petitioner his kingly favour,
+benignly giving authority to execute his purpose. And he, having the
+title of the desired possession, of the king's majesty, was right glad.
+
+ _Book of the Foundation of the Church of St. Bartholomew, London._
+ Original Latin version (Cotton MS., Vesp., B. IX., fols. 41-3),
+ written 1174-89. Old English version written about 1400 and edited
+ by Norman Page.
+
+
+In the greater markets particular places were assigned to the sellers
+of particular wares.
+
+ _Ancient Regulation of Oxford market renewed in 1319._
+
+The sellers of straw, with their horses and carts that bring it, shall
+stand between East Gate and All Saints' church, in the middle of the
+king's highway.
+
+The sellers of wood in carts shall stand between Shydyerd Street and
+the tenement sometime of John Maidstone....
+
+The sellers of timber shall stand between the tenement which is called
+St. George's Hall and St. Edward's Lane....
+
+The sellers of hogs and pigs shall stand between the churches of St.
+Mary and All Saints and on the north side of the street.
+
+The ale or beer shall stand between St. Edward's Lane and the tenement
+sometime of Alice de Lewbury on the south side of the king's highway.
+
+The sellers of earthen pots and coals shall stand between the said lane
+of St. Edward and the tenement sometime of John Hampton ... and from
+that place upward.
+
+The sellers of gloves and whittawyers shall stand between All Saints'
+church and the tenement which was sometime John the Goldsmith's....
+
+The sellers of furs (? monianiorum) and linendrapers and langdrapers
+shall stand from the tenement which was John the Goldsmith's to the
+tenement of the abbot of Osney, in the corner, which John Smith
+sometime inhabited.
+
+The bakers selling bread called Tutesyn shall stand between the shop
+which Nicholas the Spicer now holdeth and the tenement which John
+Coyntroyer holdeth.
+
+The foreign[3] sellers of fish and those that are not free or of the
+Gild shall stand on market days behind the said sellers of bread,
+towards the middle of the street.
+
+The foreign or country poulterers shall stand between Mauger Hall and
+the tenement called Somenois Inn....
+
+The sellers of white bread shall stand on each side of Quatervois, from
+the north head thereof toward the south.
+
+The tanners shall stand between Somenois Inn and Quatervois.
+
+The sellers of cheese, eggs, milk, beans, new peas, and butter, shall
+stand on Quatervois Corner on each side of the way towards the Bailly.
+
+The sellers of hay and grass at the pillory.
+
+The sellers of rushes and brooms opposite to the Old Drapery.
+
+The sellers of corn shall stand between North Gate and Mauger Hall.
+
+The fruiterers ... shall stand from Guildhall down towards Knap Hall.
+
+The sellers of herbs ... shall stand from Knap Hall towards Quatervois.
+
+The sellers of dishes ... between Baptys Inn and Stokenrow, near to the
+Palace.
+
+The sellers of fresh fish which are of the Gild shall stand as they
+were formerly wont to do, under the palace of Nicholas the Spicer.
+
+The sellers of wood from the great Jewry to the tables where fish is
+sold.
+
+The carts with thorns and bushes shall stand between North Gate and
+Drapery Hall on the west side of the street.
+
+ Oxford Hist. Soc., _Collectanea_, II. 13 (reprint of MS. of Anthony
+ Wood).
+
+ [3] Foreign here denotes all persons not inhabitants of
+ Oxford.
+
+
+
+
+SMITHFIELD HORSE AND CATTLE MARKET UNDER HENRY II.
+
+
+Outside one of the gates there (in London), immediately in the suburb,
+is a certain field, smooth (Smith) field in fact and name. Every
+Friday, unless it be a higher day of appointed solemnity, there is in
+it a famous show of noble horses for sale. Earls, barons, and many
+citizens who are in town, come to see or buy. It is pleasant to see the
+steppers in quick trot going gently up and down, their feet on each
+side alternately rising and falling. On this side are the horses most
+fit for esquires, moving with harder pace yet swiftly, that lift and
+set down together, as it were, the opposite fore and hind feet; on that
+side colts of fine breed who, not yet well used to the bit,
+
+ "Altius incedunt, et mollia crura reponunt."[4]
+
+In that part are the sumpter horses, powerful and spirited; here costly
+chargers elegant of form, noble of stature, with ears quickly
+tremulous, necks lifted, haunches plump. In their stepping the buyers
+first try for the gentler, then for the quicker pace, which is by the
+fore and the hind feet moving in pairs together. When a race is ready
+for such thunderers, and perhaps for others of like kind, powerful to
+carry, quick to run, a shout is raised, orders are given that the
+common horses stand apart. The boys who mount the wing-footed, by twos
+or threes, according to the match, prepare themselves for contest;
+skilled to rule horses, they restrain the mouths of the untrained with
+bitted bridles. For this chiefly they care, that no one should get
+before another in the course. The horses rise too in their own way to
+the struggle of the race; their limbs tremble, impatient of delay they
+cannot keep still in their place; at the sign given their limbs are
+stretched, they hurry on their course, are borne with stubborn speed.
+The riders contend for the love of praise and hope of victory, plunge
+spurs into the loose-reined horses, and urge them none the less with
+whips and shouts. You would think with Heraclitus everything to be in
+motion, and the opinion to be wholly false of Zeno, who said that there
+was no motion and no goal to be reached. In another part of the field
+stand by themselves the goods proper to rustics, implements of
+husbandry, swine with long flanks, cows with full udders, oxen of bulk
+immense, and woolly flocks. There stand the mares fit for plough, dray
+and cart, some big with foal, and others with their young colts closely
+following.
+
+ William Fitzstephen, _Description of the Most Noble City of
+ London_, prefixed to his _Life of Thomas à Becket_. (Translation by
+ H. Morley, prefatory to his edition of Stow's _Survey of London_.)
+
+ [4] "Prance high, and rear their supple necks."
+
+ From Virgil's _Georgics_.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL PRIVILEGES.
+
+
+In some cases the king gave his special protection to markets and
+fairs.
+
+
+1133. _Charter of Henry I. to the Priory of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield._
+
+I give my firm peace to those who come to the fair which is wont to be
+held on the feast of St. Bartholomew in that place (Smithfield), and to
+those who go thence; and I command that no royal servant implead them,
+nor exact from those who come customs, without the consent of the
+canons, on these three days, on the eve of the feast, on the feastday,
+and on its morrow.
+
+ Printed in Dugdale, _Monasticon_, VI. 296.
+
+
+ _Charter of Henry II. to the burghers of Nottingham._
+
+... Moreover all who come to the market of Nottingham shall not suffer
+distraint, from Friday evening until Sunday evening, except for the
+king's farm.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 167.
+
+
+
+
+PIED POUDRE COURTS.
+
+
+The term "Pied Poudre" or "Pie Poudre" is generally held to be derived
+from the French _pieds poudrés_, that is, dusty feet, and perhaps
+arose from the fact that the courts so called were frequented by
+chapmen with dusty feet, or less probably from the celerity of the
+judgments which were pronounced while the dust was on the feet of the
+litigants. The existence of such courts, in connection with fairs, was
+common to England and the continent. It is possible that in some cases
+and in an early period the business of fairs was not transacted in a
+special court. On the other hand, the distinctive feature of Pied
+Poudre Courts, the method of trial by the persons best qualified to
+judge, the merchants, was akin to the spirit of English law. Therefore
+it is probable that they were very early introduced into England.
+
+
+ _Definition of Pied Poudre Courts._
+
+Divers fairs be holden and kept in this realm, some by prescription
+allowed before justices in eyre, and some by the grant of our lord the
+king that now is, and some by the grant of his progenitors and
+predecessors;
+
+And to every of the same fairs is of right pertaining courts of
+pipowders, to minister in the same due justice in his behalf;
+
+In which court it hath been all times accustomed, that every person
+coming to the same fairs, should have lawful remedy of all manner of
+contracts, trespasses, covenants, debts, and other deeds made or done
+within any of the same fair, and within the jurisdiction of the same,
+and to be tried by merchants being of the same fair.
+
+ _Statute, 17 Edward IV._, cap. 2.
+
+
+The manner of holding a Pied Poudre Court, sometimes called _riding
+the fair_.
+
+
+1277. _Award between the barons of the (Cinque) Ports and the men of
+Great Yarmouth._
+
+With regard to the claim of the said barons to have at Yarmouth royal
+justice and the keeping of the king's peace in time of the fair lasting
+for forty days, they are to have the keeping of the king's peace and to
+do royal justice, namely during the fair they are to have four
+serjeants, of whom one shall carry the king's banner, and another sound
+a horn to assemble the people and to be better heard, and two shall
+carry wands for keeping the king's peace, and this office they shall do
+on horse-back if they so wish. The bailiffs of the Ports together with
+the provost of Yarmouth are to make attachments and plead pleas and
+determine plaints during the fair, according to law merchant, and the
+amercements and the profits of the people of the Ports are to remain to
+the barons of the Ports, at the time of the fair, and the profits and
+amercements of all others who are not of the Ports to remain to the
+king by the bailiffs of Yarmouth. The aforesaid bailiffs of the barons
+of the Ports together with the provost of Yarmouth are to have the
+keeping of the prison of Yarmouth during the fair, and if any prisoner
+be taken for so grave a trespass that it cannot be determined by them
+in time of fair, by merchant law, nor the prisons delivered, such
+persons to remain in the prison of Yarmouth until the coming of the
+justices.
+
+ _Cal. of Pat._, 1272-81, 203.
+
+
+The court of Pied Poudre is specified in later grants of fairs.
+
+
+1462. _Charter of Edward IV. to the city of London._
+
+We have ... granted to the ... mayor and commonalty and citizens, and
+their successors for ever, that they shall and may have yearly one fair
+in the town aforesaid (Southwark) for three days, that is to say the
+seventh, eighth and ninth days of September; to be holden together with
+a court of pie-powder, and with all liberties and free customs to such
+fair appertaining; and that they may have and hold there at their said
+courts, before their said ministers or deputy, the said three days,
+from day to day and hour to hour, from time to time, all occasions,
+plaints and pleas of a court of pie-powder, together with all summons,
+attachments, arrests, issues, fines, redemptions and commodities, and
+other rights whatsoever, to the same court of pie-powder any way
+pertaining.
+
+ Birch, _Charters of City of London_, 82.
+
+
+The Londoners could hold their own Pied Poudre Courts in all fairs of
+England.
+
+
+1327. _Charter of Edward III. to the city of London._
+
+And forasmuch as the citizens, in all good fairs of England, were wont
+to have among themselves keepers to hold the pleas touching the
+citizens of the said city assembling at the said fairs: we will and
+grant, as much as in us is, that the same citizens may have suchlike
+keepers, to hold such pleas of their covenants, as of ancient time they
+had, except the pleas of land and crown.
+
+ Birch, _Charters of City of London_, 55.
+
+
+1298. To all stewards, bailiffs, and officers of the fair of St.
+Botolph and other faithful of Christ to whom the present letters shall
+come, Henry le Galeys, mayor of the city of London, as well as the
+whole commune send greeting. Know ye that we have made and constituted
+our beloved in Christ Elyas Russel, John de Armenters, William de Paris
+and William de Mareys, our wardens and attorneys at the present fair of
+St. Botolph, to demand and claim and exact all our citizens who are for
+any cause arrested or impleaded in any of your courts, and for
+executing full justice in all plaints against them according to the law
+merchant, ratifying and holding good anything they or any one of them
+may do in the premises, and in all other things which they or any one
+of them shall deem to affect in any way the liberties of the city and
+our citizens. In witness whereof we have set our common seal to these
+presents.
+
+ London, Sunday the Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin, 26 Edward I.
+
+ Sharpe, _Cal. Letter Books of Corporation_, B. 219.
+
+
+
+
+PROFITS.
+
+
+Besides fines the _tolls_ were the most general source of profit. They
+were duties which the tenant of a market might exact on goods brought
+into the market and sold there.
+
+
+1275. _Statute against exorbitant tolls._
+
+Touching them that take outrageous toll, contrary to the common custom
+of the realm, in market towns, it is provided that if any do so in the
+king's town, which is let in fee-farm, the king shall seize into his
+own hand the franchise of the market; and if it be another's town, and
+the same be done by the lord of the town, the king shall do in like
+manner; and if it be done by a bailiff or any mean officer, without the
+commandment of his lord, he shall restore to the plaintiff as much more
+for the outrageous taking as he had of him, if he had carried away his
+toll, and shall have forty days' imprisonment.
+
+ _Statute, 3 Edward I._, cap. 31.
+
+
+Tolls were not necessarily levied. In later mediæval times it was held
+illegal for the holder of a market to exact them unless he could prove
+his prescriptive right to do so, or unless, in the case of a market
+erected by a charter, such right had been explicitly granted.
+
+
+1233. Because it has been certified to the king, by an enquiry made in
+accordance with his precept, that in the fair of Shalford, which is
+held there every year on the feast of the Assumption of Blessed Mary,
+it has never been customary to take toll or custom, except at the time
+when John of Gatesden was sheriff of Surrey, who of his own will ruled
+that toll should there be taken: therefore the sheriff of Surrey is
+commanded that he take no custom in that fair nor suffer it to be
+taken, and that he cause public proclamation and prohibition to be
+made, that in future none take toll on the occasion of that fair.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1231-5, 245.
+
+
+Stallkeepers made payments called _stallage_ for the sites they
+occupied to the holder of the market or fair.
+
+
+1331. The profits of the bailey of Lincoln, to wit of vacant plots...,
+and stallage in the said vacant plots in the times of fairs and
+markets.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1330-3, 255.
+
+
+The analogous payment of _piccage_ was for the breaking of the ground
+in order to erect stalls.
+
+
+1550. _Grant of Southwark Fair to the city of London._
+
+... The mayor and commonalty and citizens, and their successors, shall
+and may, from henceforth for ever, have, hold, enjoy and use ... tolls,
+stallages, piccages.
+
+ Birch, _Charters of City of London_, 122.
+
+
+A duty called _scavage_ or _shewage_ was exacted from strangers who
+sold in the fairs.
+
+
+I have heard also that our townsmen (of Oxford) in their fair, which
+they keep at Allhallowtide, do exact of strangers a custom for opening
+and shewing their wares, vendible, &c., which is called scavage or
+shewage.
+
+ Oxford Historical Society, _Charter of Henry II. to the citizens of
+ Oxford._, II. 2 (from Twyne's MSS. in the Bodleian).
+
+
+In 1503 it was rendered illegal, except in the case of London, to take
+scavage from denizens, otherwise from subjects of the king who were of
+alien birth, so long as they sold goods on which due customs had
+already been paid.
+
+
+1503. Be it therefore ordained ... that if any mayor, sheriff, bailiff,
+or other officer in any city, borough or town within this realm, take
+or levy any custom called Scavage, otherwise called Shewage, of any
+merchant denizen, or of any other of the King's subjects denizens, of
+or for any manner of merchandise to our Sovereign lord the King before
+truly customed, that is brought or conveyed by land or water, to be
+uttered and sold in any city, borough, or town in this land, ... that
+then every mayor, sheriff, bailiff, or other officer, distraining,
+levying, or taking any such Scavage, shall forfeit for every time he so
+offendeth £20, the one moiety thereof to our Sovereign lord the King,
+and the other moiety thereof to the party in that behalf aggrieved, or
+to any other that first sueth in that party by action of debt in any
+shire within this realm to be sued.... Provided always that the mayor,
+sheriffs, and commonalty of the city of London, and every of them,
+shall have and take all such sums of money for the said Scavage, and of
+every person denizen, as by our Sovereign lord the King and his
+honourable council shall be determined to be the right and title of the
+said mayor, sheriffs, and commonalty of the said city of London, or any
+of them.
+
+ _Statute, 19 Henry VII._, cap. 8.
+
+
+Certain citizens and burghers, who had the privilege of free trade in
+England or throughout the king's dominions, were exempt from paying
+tolls or other customs.
+
+
+ _Charter of Henry I. to the citizens of London._
+
+... Let all the men of London be quit and free, and their goods, both
+throughout England and in the seaports, of toll and passage[5] and
+lastage[6] and all other customs.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 108.
+
+ [5] Passage was probably the due payable for the use of
+ ferries.
+
+ [6] The most probable explanation of lastage is that it was
+ the due payable for the right of freely carrying away goods
+ bought in a market.
+
+
+1384. The Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London to the Abbot and
+Bailiffs and Good Folk of the Town of Colchester.
+
+Desiring them to restore to William Dykeman, Roger Streit, William
+Fromond, and Henry Loughton, citizens of London, the distress they had
+taken from their merchandise for piccage at Colchester fair; and to
+cease in future to take custom of citizens of London, inasmuch as they
+are and ought to be quit of piccage, and of all manner of custom
+throughout the King's dominion, by charter granted to them by the
+King's ancestors. The Lord have them ever in his keeping.
+
+ London. 8th June, 38 Edward III.
+
+ Sharpe, _Cal. Letters of City of London_, 105.
+
+
+ _Charter of Henry II. to the citizens of Oxford._
+
+... I have granted to them moreover that they be quit of toll and
+passage and every custom throughout England and Normandy, on earth, on
+water and on the seashore, by land and by strand.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 167.
+
+
+1190. _Charter of Richard I. to the citizens of Winchester._
+
+... This also we have granted that the citizens of Winchester of the
+Merchant Gild be quit of toll and lastage and pontage[7] in fairs and
+outside them, and in the seaports of all our lands, on this side the
+seas and beyond them.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 266.
+
+ [7] Pontage was a due payable for crossing bridges.
+
+
+1194. _Charter of Richard I. to the citizens of Lincoln._
+
+... This too we have granted that all citizens of Lincoln be quit of
+toll and lastage throughout all England and in the seaports.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 266.
+
+
+1200. _Charter of John to the citizens of York confirming a grant by
+Richard I._
+
+... Know moreover that we have granted and by this charter have
+confirmed to our citizens of York quittance of any toll, lastage,
+wrec,[8] pontage, passage, or trespass, and of all customs, throughout
+England and Normandy and Aquitaine and Anjou and Poitou. Wherefore we
+will and straitly command that they be thereof quit, and we forbid that
+any disturb them in the matter, on pain of the forfeiture of £10, as is
+reasonably testified in the charter of our brother Richard.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 312.
+
+ [8] The liability of shipwrecked goods to be forfeit to the
+ king, or the local holder, other than the king, of the right
+ of wreck.
+
+
+ _The Great Value of the Market of Retford._
+
+
+1329. THE KING TO THE JUSTICES IN EYRE IN COUNTY NOTTINGHAM.
+
+Order not to molest or aggrieve the men of the town of Retford before
+them in eyre for holding a market on Saturday in every week in that
+town, as the king has granted that they may hold a market there every
+week on the said day during the eyre aforesaid, notwithstanding the
+proclamation made by the justices according to custom that no market
+shall be held in the county during the eyre, the men having shewn to
+the king that they hold the town of him at fee-ferm, and he has
+assigned the ferm to Queen Isabella for her life, and the greatest aid
+they have towards levying the ferm comes from the profit of the said
+market, and they have prayed the king that they may hold the fair
+notwithstanding the said proclamation, and the king accedes to their
+supplication for the reason aforesaid, and because of the distance of
+the town of Nottingham.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1327-30, 585.
+
+
+
+
+PRE-EMPTION AND PRISAGE.
+
+
+The king exercised certain rights of pre-emption, of buying articles
+before they were offered for sale in the open market, and of prisage,
+of taking from the sellers without payment certain articles for his own
+use.
+
+
+1207. THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF LINCOLN.
+
+We command you that you acquit in the fair of St. Botolph all the great
+falcons which Henry de Hauvill and Hugh de Hauvill bought for our use
+in that fair, ... and moreover five hawks which they bought there for
+our use.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 85.
+
+
+1218. THE KING TO THE MAYOR OF LYNN GREETING.
+
+We command you that you satisfy the merchants of the fair of Lynn as to
+the merchandise, namely, wax and pepper and cumin, which our bailiffs
+took in that fair for our use, and we shall cause payment to be made to
+you in London after the close of the said fair.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 365.
+
+
+1237. It was provided at Kennington before the king and his council,
+and granted by the king, that his bailiffs who are sent to fairs and
+elsewhere to buy wine and cloths and other merchandise for the king's
+use, shall take for his use no more than he have need of, and no more
+than shall be stated in the king's letters made for them as to the
+matter, nor anything for which they have not as warrant a royal brief.
+And when they come to fairs they shall take the wares and merchandise
+for which they have been sent at once and without long delay, lest any
+merchants be unjustly burdened by them, as formerly they have been
+burdened. And such bailiffs shall have letters so that four legal
+merchants of each fair, in the faith which binds them to God and the
+king, reasonably impose prices on the merchandise, in accordance with
+the diverse kinds of merchandise which the bailiffs have to buy.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1234-7, 522.
+
+
+1257. _Petition of the barons in the parliament at Oxford._
+
+The earls and barons petition ... as to the prises of the lord king in
+fairs and markets and cities, that those who are assigned to take the
+said prises take them reasonably, as much, that is to say, as pertains
+to the uses of the lord king; in which matter they complain that the
+said takers seize twice or thrice the amount which they deliver to the
+king's uses, and keep the rest, forsooth, for their own needs and the
+needs of their friends, and sell thereof a portion.
+
+ Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 385.
+
+
+1417. A Court of our Lord the King, holden before Henry Bartone, Mayor,
+and the Aldermen, in the Guild-hall of London, on Tuesday, the 16th day
+of February....
+
+William Redhede of Barnet was taken and attached, for that when one
+Hugh Morys, maltman, on Monday the 15th day of February, ... brought
+here to the city of London four bushels of wheat, and exposed them for
+sale in common and open market, at the market of Graschurch
+(Gracechurch) in the parish of St. Benedict Graschurch in the city
+aforesaid, the said William there falsely and fraudulently pretended
+that he was a taker and purveyor of such victuals, as well for the
+household of our said lord the king as for the victualling of his town
+of Harfleur; and so, under feigned colour of his alleged office, would
+have had the wheat aforesaid taken and carried away, had he not been
+warily prevented from so doing by the constables and reputable men of
+the parish aforesaid, and other persons then in the market; in contempt
+of our lord the king, and to the grievous loss and in deceit of the
+commonalty of the city aforesaid; and especially of the said market and
+of other markets in the city, seeing that poor persons, who bring wheat
+and other victuals to the city aforesaid, do not dare to come, by land
+or by water, through fear of the multitude of pretended purveyors and
+takers who resort thither from every side.
+
+... And thereupon, by the said mayor and aldermen, to the end that
+others might in future have a dread of committing such crimes, it was
+adjudged that the same William Redhede should, upon the three market
+days then next ensuing, be taken each day from the prison of Newgate to
+the market called Le Cornmarket opposite to the Friars Minors
+(Greyfriars, whose house was on the site of Christ's Hospital), and
+there the course of the judgement aforesaid was to be proclaimed; and
+after that he was to be taken through the middle of the high street of
+Cheap to the pillory on Cornhill, and upon that he was to be placed on
+each of those three days, there to stand for one hour each day, the
+reason for such sentence being then and there publicly proclaimed. And
+after that he was to be taken from thence through the middle of the
+high street of Cornhill to the market of Graschurch aforesaid, where
+like proclamation was to be made, and from thence back again to prison.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 645.
+
+
+
+
+MARKET HOUSES.
+
+
+Already in the early thirteenth century the greater markets and fairs
+were held partly under cover.
+
+
+1222. THE KING TO THE SHERIFF OF GLOUCESTER GREETING.
+
+We command you that you do not suffer the market which hitherto has
+been held at Maurice de Gant's manor of Randwick, and which is to the
+injury of our town and market of Bristol, and of other neighbouring
+markets, as we have surely learnt. And that you cause the houses built
+there on account of the market to be removed without delay. So that
+neither ships come thither nor a market is there held otherwise than
+was done in the time of the Lord John, King, our father.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 499.
+
+
+1303. TO THE BAILIFF OF SANDWICH.
+
+Order to cause a house of the king in that town constructed for the
+king's fair there ... to be repaired by the view and testimony of John
+de Hoo and Thomas de Shelvyng.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1302-7, 55.
+
+
+1345. At a congregation of the mayor and aldermen, holden on the Friday
+next before the feast of St. George the Martyr in the 19th year of the
+reign of King Edward III., it was ordered for the common advantage of
+all the citizens dwelling in the city (of London), and of others
+resorting to the same ... that all foreign[9] poulterers bringing
+poultry to the city should take it to the Leaden Hall, and sell it
+there, between Matins and the hour of Prime, to the reputable men of
+the city and their servants for their own eating; and after the hour of
+Prime the rest of their poultry that should remain unsold they might
+sell to cooks, regratresses (retail saleswomen), and such other persons
+as they might please; it being understood that they were to take no
+portion of their poultry out of the market to their hostels (lodgings)
+on pain of losing the same.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 221.
+
+ [9] Poulterers other than Londoners.
+
+
+
+
+ENFORCEMENT OF REGULARITY.
+
+
+1233. Mandate to the sheriff of Hampshire that he cause strict
+proclamation and prohibition to be made in the town of Winchester, that
+no merchant of wool, cloths, and hides, do any business in wool, hides
+and cloths in the said town of Winchester, after the established term
+beyond which the fair of St. Giles is not wont to last.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1231-4, 253.
+
+
+1233. Mandate to the bailiffs of Worcester that they do not permit the
+fair and drapery of Worcester to be held on the feast of the Nativity
+of Blessed Mary elsewhere than in that place in which it was held in
+the time of the Lord John, father of the Lord Henry, King.
+
+ _Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus._ (Rec. Com.), I. 555.
+
+
+1297. On Thursday next before the feast of Pentecost, in the 25th year
+of the reign of King Edward, it was ordered in the presence of Sir John
+le Bretun, warden of the city of London, and certain of the aldermen,
+that by reason of the murders and strifes arising therefrom between
+persons known and unknown, the gathering together of thieves in the
+market, and of cutpurses and other misdoers against the peace of our
+lord the king, in a certain market which had been lately held after
+dinner in Soper Lane (on the site of Queen Street, Cheapside), and
+which was called _The Neue Faire_; the same should from thenceforth be
+abolished, and not again be held, on pain of losing the wares both
+bought and sold there; the same market having been established by
+strangers, foreigners and beggars, dwelling three or four leagues from
+London.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 33.
+
+
+1317. TO THE SHERIFF OF LINCOLN.
+
+Order to cause proclamation to be made that all persons having fairs by
+charters of the king or of his progenitors or otherwise, shall cause
+the fairs to be held in the manner and form and on the days and times
+according to the tenor of the charters, or as they ought to do
+according to the title, to wit from time out of mind, and upon no other
+days and times, and to summon all persons claiming to have fairs to be
+before the king's council at Westminster.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1317-18, 456.
+
+
+1328. It is established that it shall be commanded to all the sheriffs
+of England and elsewhere, where need shall require, to cry and publish
+within liberties and without that all lords which have fairs, be it for
+yielding certain farm to the king for the same or otherwise, shall hold
+the same for the time that they ought to hold them and no longer: that
+is to say such as have them by the king's charter granted them, for the
+time limited by the said charters; and also they that have them without
+charter, for the time that they ought to hold them of right.
+
+And that every lord at the beginning of his fair shall there do, cry
+and publish how long the fair shall endure, to the intent that
+merchants shall not be at the same fairs over the time so published,
+upon pain to be grievously punished before the king. Nor the said lords
+shall not hold them over the due time upon pain to seize the fairs into
+the king's hands, there to remain until they have made a fine to the
+king for the offence, after it be duly found that the lords held the
+same fairs longer than they ought, or that the merchants have sitten
+above the time so published.
+
+ _Statute, 2 Edward III._, cap. 15.
+
+
+1393. The ordinance underwritten was publicly proclaimed in full market
+in Westchepe (Cheapside), and Cornhulle (Cornhill) in London, on
+Thursday the 20th day of March in the 16th year.
+
+As from of old it has been the custom to hold in the city on every
+feastday two markets, called _Evechepynges_, one in Westchepe and
+the other on Cornhulle; that is to say the one in Westchepe between the
+corner of the lane called St. Lawrence Lane and a house called the
+Cage. So always that the said lane be not obstructed by the people of
+the said market, who are not to stand near to the shops there for the
+sale of divers wares that in such shops are wont to be sold. And that
+too by daylight only, between the first bell rung and the second, for
+the said markets ordained. And now on the 10th day of March ... William
+Staundone, the mayor, and the aldermen of the said city, have been
+given to understand that divers persons at night and by candlelight do
+sell in the common hostels there and in other places, in secret, divers
+wares that have been larcenously pilfered and some falsely wrought and
+some that are old as being new; and that other persons do there
+practise the sin of harlotry, under colour of the sale of their said
+wares, to the very great damage and scandal of good and honest folks of
+the said city.
+
+Therefore the said mayor and aldermen by wise counsel and with good
+deliberation between them had, for the honour of the city and in order
+to put the said markets under good control and governance, have
+ordained that from henceforth on every such market night each of the
+said two bells shall be rung by the beadle of the ward where it is
+hung, one hour before sunset and then again half an hour after sunset.
+At which second ringing all the people shall depart from the market
+with their wares, on pain of forfeiture to the chamber of all such
+wares as shall, after the second bell rung, be found in the same; as to
+the which the beadle if he be acting, or officer by the chamber of the
+Guildhall thereunto assigned, shall have twopence in every shilling for
+his trouble in taking them. And that no one shall sell in common
+hostels any wares that in the said market are wont to be sold, or
+anywhere else within the said city or in the suburbs thereof, but only
+in their own shops and in the places and at the days and hours
+aforesaid, on pain of forfeiture to the use of the said chamber of all
+the wares that shall otherwise be sold.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 532.
+
+
+1320. Be it remembered that on the Monday next before the feast of St.
+Katherine the Virgin in the 14th year, the pork and beef of John Perer,
+John Esmar, and Reynald ate Watre, alleged to be foreign[10] butchers,
+were seized because that they against the custom of the city (of
+London), had exposed the said meat for sale at Les Stokkes (the Stocks
+Market on the site of the Mansion House), after curfew rung at St.
+Martin's-le-Grand: whereas it is enacted that no foreign butcher
+standing with his meat at the stalls aforesaid shall cut any meat after
+None rung at St. Paul's; and that as to all the meat which he has cut
+before None rung he is to expose the same for sale up to the hour of
+Vespers, and to sell it without keeping any back or carrying any away.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 142.
+
+ [10] See previous footnote.
+
+
+
+
+SUPERVISION OF SALES.
+
+
+The quality of wares and the prices asked for them were supervised, and
+fair dealing was enforced, by officers. Sometimes, as at Oxford, these
+were specially appointed for the discharge of their duties. In London
+they were the masters or wardens of the crafts, otherwise the
+associations of members of one trade. When many of the crafts had
+developed into the livery companies the officials of the latter
+inherited the inspectorial functions of the wardens.
+
+
+1393. Ordinance by the mayor and aldermen of London as to markets of
+West Cheap and Cornhill.
+
+... That the masters or those assigned thereto of each trade of which
+the wares are brought to the said markets shall have power, together
+with the beadle of the ward or other officer thereto assigned, to
+survey, assay and stop all false and defective wares, in the markets
+aforesaid or elsewhere exposed for sale, and to present the same to the
+chamberlain to be there adjudged upon as to whether they are
+forfeitable or not; and further to arrest to the use of the said
+chamber all other things and wares in hostels or other places exposed
+for sale against the form.... Of the which forfeitures so by the said
+masters, or others thereto assigned, taken and adjudged as forfeited,
+the said masters or persons thereto assigned shall have one third part
+for their trouble.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 532.
+
+
+1556. _Of the clerks of the market of Oxford and of the fixing of
+prices._
+
+The clerks of the market should be chosen of such as have experience of
+the prices which, for necessity or convenience, pertain to food and
+clothing, and of such as have knowledge, power and will faithfully and
+diligently to fill the office enjoined on them. Especially it behoves
+them to see that no fraud is committed as regards the measures and
+weights and quality of all foodstuffs and of all things which belong to
+clothing, and to observe the statutes and ordinances issued in this
+behoof; and since, for the most part, among these commodities, high
+prices greatly flourish, the clerk should summon to his aid the
+presidents of colleges and such others of the university as he knows to
+be fit for the business, and should consult with them as to what course
+can be taken to render the prices lower.
+
+ Oxford Hist. Soc., _Collectanea_, II. 104.
+
+
+1468. The assize[11] of a tallowchandler is that he selleth salt,
+oatmeal, soap and other divers chaffer, that his weights and measures
+be assized[12] and sealed and true beam. For when he buyeth a pound of
+tallow for an halfpenny, he shall sell a pound of candle for a penny,
+that is a farthing for the wick and the wax and another farthing for
+the workmanship. And right as tallow higheth and loweth, so he for to
+sell his candle. And if his stuff be not good, or any he lack of his
+weight, or any he sell not after the price of tallow, he to be amerced,
+the first time twelvepence, the second time twentypence, the third time
+fortypence, and to forfeit all that is forfeitable; and he to be judged
+according to the form of statutes.
+
+ Printed in Strype's edition of Stow's _Cal. of Close_, Book V. 344.
+
+ [11] Regulation.
+
+ [12] According to regulation.
+
+
+1327. John de Causton, citizen of London, has shown the king, by
+petition before him and his council, that John Dergayn, the late king's
+ulnager, in the eighth year of his reign, took five pieces of John's
+striped cloth of Gaunt (Ghent) outside his shop in Boston Fair,
+asserting that they were not of the assize, and that they were
+therefore forfeited to the late king, and delivered to Ralph de Stokes,
+then keeper of the king's wardrobe, and that it was afterward found, by
+enquiry made by the said king's order before the treasurer and barons
+of the Exchequer, that the cloth was of the assize and ought not thus
+to be forfeited, and that the cloth was worth 22-1/2 marks; ... and he
+has prayed the king to cause that sum to be allowed to him.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1327-30, 86.
+
+
+1366. On the 14th day of October ... John Edmond of Esthamme (East
+Ham), cornmonger, of the county of Essex, was brought before John
+Lovekyn, mayor, and the aldermen at the Guildhall, for that he had
+exposed for sale at Grascherche (Gracechurch) one quarter of oats in a
+sack, and had put a bushel of good oats at the mouth of the sack, all
+the rest therein being corn of worse quality and of no value, in deceit
+of the common people.
+
+Being questioned as to which falsity, how he would acquit himself
+thereof, the same John did not gainsay the same. Therefore it was
+adjudged that he should have the punishment of the pillory, to stand
+upon the same for one hour of the day.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 333.
+
+
+1363. On the 9th day of the month of November ... William Cokke of Hees
+(Hayes) was taken because that on the same day he, the same William,
+carrying a sample of wheat in his hand, in the market within Newgate in
+London followed one William, servant of Robert de la Launde, goldsmith,
+who wanted to buy wheat, from sack to sack, and said that such wheat as
+that he would not be able to buy at a lower price than 21 pence;
+whereas on the same day and at that hour the same servant could have
+bought such wheat for 21 pence.
+
+Upon which the same William Cokke being questioned, before the mayor,
+recorder, and certain of the aldermen, he acknowledged that he had done
+this to enhance the price of wheat, to the prejudice of all the people.
+It was therefore awarded by the said mayor and aldermen that the said
+William Cokke should have the punishment of the pillory.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 314.
+
+
+1362-90.
+
+ To Wye and to Wychestre I went to the faire,
+ With many menere marchandise as my Maistre me hight,[13]
+ Ne had the grace of guile ygo[14] amonge my ware,
+ It had be unsolde this sevene yeare, so me god helpe!
+
+ _The Vision of Piers the Plowman_, Lines 205 _et seq._
+
+ [13] Told.
+
+ [14] Gone.
+
+
+
+
+FOREIGN MERCHANTS.
+
+
+1233. Mandate to the bailiffs of Peter de Dreux, count of Brittany, in
+the fair of St. Botolph, that every week, for so long as the fair
+lasts, they shall cause thrice to be proclaimed throughout that fair
+that no merchant bringing wine for sale to England, whether wine of
+Gascony, of Anjou, of Oblenc (Le Blanc on the Creuse), of Auxerre, or
+of other place, shall after this fair of St. Botolph bring to England
+any dolium of wine which contains less than it was wont to hold in the
+time of Henry, Richard and John, kings.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1231-4, 223.
+
+
+1235. THE KING TO HIS BAILIFFS OF YARMOUTH GREETING.
+
+Know that we have granted by our charter for us and our heirs to our
+beloved citizens of Cologne that they may go freely to the fairs
+throughout our land, and buy and sell in the town of London and
+elsewhere, save for the liberty of our city of London.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1234-7, 216.
+
+
+1279. TO WILLIAM DE BRAYBOEF, KEEPER OF THE PRIORY OF WINCHESTER.
+
+Order to send to the king the 310 marks which Reyner de Luk and his
+fellows, merchants of Lucca, lent to William at the last fair of St.
+Giles at Winchester.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1272-9, 519.
+
+
+1327. The bailiffs of Boston Fair ... have arrested wool and other
+goods of Taldus Valoris and his fellows, merchants of the society of
+the Bardi of Florence, in the said fair.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1327-30, 221.
+
+
+1276. TO JOHN BEK AND PHILIP DE WYLBY.
+
+Order to restore upon this present occasion to the merchants of Douay
+in Flanders their goods arrested by John and Philip; for the king
+lately ordered John and Philip to arrest the wool and goods of
+merchants of Flanders in Boston Fair and at Lynn and Lincoln, yet it
+was not his intention that the goods of certain persons should be
+arrested, but that all goods and wares of Flemings should be arrested
+at one and the same time everywhere in the realm, by reason of the debt
+which the countess of Flanders owes to him and the merchants of the
+realm; and by reason of the neglect of the agreement between the king
+and countess; and the king did not then recollect his grant to the
+Flemish merchants that they might safely come into the realm and stay
+until the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula last past.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1272-9, 308.
+
+
+1293. TO THE STEWARD OF THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, LATE KEEPER OF
+THE FAIR OF WINCHESTER.
+
+Order to cause to be delivered to Robert de Basing, citizen of London,
+two bales of cloth, which Robert lately bought from the merchants of
+St. Omer in the fair aforesaid, and which the steward caused to be
+arrested under pretext of the king's order to arrest the goods and
+wares of merchants of the power and lordship of the count d'Artois; as
+Robert de Tybetot has become surety before the king for the said Robert
+that he will answer to the king for the bales in the next parliament.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1288-96, 302.
+
+
+1328. TO THE SHERIFF OF HUNTINGDON.
+
+Order not to arrest the goods of the men or merchants of Mechlin in
+Brabant, and not to molest them by virtue of any order to arrest goods
+of the men and merchants of the power of the duke of Brabant, in the
+fair of St. Ives or in his bailiwick, as the king learns that Mechlin
+belongs to the count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland, and not to the
+duke of Brabant.
+
+The like to the abbot of Ramsey's bailiff of the fair of St. Ives.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1313-18, 408.
+
+
+1364. TO THE BAILIFFS OF GREAT YARMOUTH AND THE COLLECTORS OF
+CUSTOMS THERE.
+
+Order to suffer fishermen from Flanders and elsewhere over sea, who
+shall come within the realm for taking herring of the present season
+and bringing them to Yarmouth Fair, to take with them to their own
+parts or elsewhere, without let, at their will, all the money they
+shall receive for the price of herrings brought thither and sold at the
+said fair, after paying the customs due thereupon, ... although lately
+the king caused proclamation to be made throughout the realm forbidding
+any man, under pain of forfeiture, to take or cause to be taken out of
+the realm gold or silver in money or otherwise: as, willing to shew
+favour to the said fishermen, the king has given them license under his
+protection to come within the realm, and take at sea what herring they
+may, receive money in gold for what they shall sell, and take the same
+with them whither they will, as they shall deem for their best
+advantage.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1364-8, 30.
+
+
+
+
+MISCELLANEOUS POINTS OF INTEREST.
+
+
+_Special Organisation of Citizens of York in Boston Fair._
+
+
+1275. TO THE BAILIFFS OF BOSTON.
+
+Order to permit the citizens of York to have, until otherwise ordered,
+their hanse[15] and gild merchant in Boston Fair, as they ought to have
+them there and in times past have been wont to have them.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1272-9, 65.
+
+ [15] Another word for gild. _Cf._ the German Hanseatic
+ League.
+
+
+ _Dress of London Women._
+
+
+1281. It is provided and commanded that no woman of the city (of
+London) shall from henceforth go to market or in the king's highway,
+out of her house, with a hood furred with other than lambskin or
+rabbitskin, on pain of losing her hood to the use of the sheriffs;
+save only those ladies who wear furred capes, the hoods of which may
+have such linings as they may think proper. And this because that
+regratresses, nurses and other servants, and women of loose life,
+bedizen themselves and wear hoods furred with gros vair and minever,
+in guise of good ladies.
+
+ Riley, _Memorials of London_, 20.
+
+
+ _Unlawfulness of Bearing Arms at Fairs._
+
+
+1328. It is shewn to the king on behalf of John Wynter of Norwich and
+Thomas Wynter of Norwich, merchants, that they lately went with their
+goods and wares to the abbot's fair at Reading, to trade there with the
+same and for no other purpose. And although they wore no armour save
+two single aketons, to wit one each, and that only by reason of the
+dangers of the road and not for the purpose of committing evil, the
+bailiffs nevertheless took and imprisoned them with their goods, and
+still detain them and their goods, by virtue of the ordinance of the
+late parliament at Northampton that no one shall go armed in fairs or
+markets or elsewhere, under pain of imprisonment and loss of their
+arms, wherefore they have prayed the king to provide a remedy. The king
+therefore orders the bailiffs to release the said John and Thomas and
+goods, upon their finding surety to have them before the king in three
+weeks from Michaelmas.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1327-30, 314.
+
+
+ _Misadventure of some Shrewsbury Merchants travelling to a Fair._
+
+
+1332. TO RICHARD EARL OF ARUNDEL.
+
+Whereas the king lately took into his protection the burgesses of
+Shrewsbury so that they might be free to intend their affairs and to
+exercise their merchandise more safely, forbidding any to do them harm;
+and they have shewn to the king that whereas John de Weston, Richard
+Biget, William son of Roger de Wythiford, and John son of Yarvord le
+Walssh, their fellow burgesses, lately wished to go to the town of La
+Pole (Welshpool) in Wales to a fair there, to ply their merchandise,
+Yevan ap Griffith, the earl's yeoman, with other armed Welshmen of the
+earl, took without cause the said John, Richard, William and John, at
+Cause in the Welsh marches, without the earl's lordship, as they were
+going to La Pole, and took them with their horses and other goods and
+chattels, to the value of £200, and brought them to the earl's castle
+of Osewaldestre (Oswestry), where they imprisoned them and where they
+are still detained. And although the burgesses have repeatedly
+requested the earl to deliver the aforesaid men and to restore their
+said goods and chattels, the earl has neglected to do anything in the
+matter; wherefore the burgesses have besought the king to provide a
+remedy. The king therefore orders the earl to deliver from prison the
+said John, Richard, William and John without delay and to restore to
+them their horses, goods and chattels, or, if there be any reasonable
+cause why he should not do this, to be before the king and his council
+at the octaves of Holy Trinity to inform the king.
+
+ _Cal. of Close_, 1330-3, 572.
+
+
+
+
+DEGENERATION OF FAIRS.
+
+
+In the seventeenth century and afterwards, certain fairs, notably those
+in and near London, had come to be little more than places of
+amusement, more or less disreputable.
+
+
+ _Bartholomew Fair_ (in 1641).
+
+Bartholomew Fair begins on the twenty-fourth day of _August_, and is
+then of so vast an extent that it is contained in no less than four
+several parishes, namely Christ Church, Great and Little Saint
+Bartholomews, and Saint Sepulchres. Hither resort people of all sorts,
+High and Low, Rich and Poor, from cities, towns and countries; and of
+all sects, Papists, Atheists, Anabaptists, and Brownists, and of all
+conditions, good and bad, virtuous and vicious, Knaves and fools,
+Rogues and Rascals.
+
+And now that we may the better take an exact survey of the whole Fair,
+first let us enter into Christ Church cloisters, which are now hung so
+full of pictures that you would take that place, or rather mistake it,
+for Saint _Peters_ in _Rome_; only this is the difference, those there
+are set up for worship, these here for sale....
+
+Let us now make a progress through Smithfield which is the heart of the
+Fair, where in my heart I think there are more motions in a day to be
+seen than are in a term in Westminster to be heard. But whilst you take
+notice of the several motions there, take this caution along with you,
+let one eye watch narrowly that no one's hand makes a motion in your
+pocket, which is the next way to move you to impatience.
+
+The Fair is full of gold and silver-drawers. Just as Lent is to the
+Fishmonger so is Bartholomew Fair to the Pickpocket; it is his high
+harvest which is never bad but when his cart goes up Holborn.[16] ...
+Some of your cutpurses are in fee with cheating costermongers, who have
+a trick now and then to throw down a basket of refuse pears, which
+prove cloak-pears to those that shall lose their hats and cloaks in
+striving who shall gather fastest. They have many dainty baits to draw
+a bit, and if you be not vigilant you shall hardly escape their nets.
+Fine fowlers they are, for every finger of theirs is a lime twig with
+which they catch dotterels.[17] They are excellently well read in
+Physiognomy; for they will know how strong you are in the purse by
+looking in your face, and for more certainty thereof they will follow
+you close, and never leave you till you draw your purse, or they for
+you, which they'll be sure to have if you look not to it though they
+kiss Newgate for it.
+
+ [16] _I.e._, from Newgate prison to Tyburn gallows.
+
+ [17] Literally a bird said to mimic gestures, idiomatically a
+ foolish person.
+
+It is remarkable and worthy your observation to behold and hear the
+strange sights and confused noise in the Fair. Here a Knave in a fool's
+coat with a trumpet sounding, or on a drum beating, invites you and
+would fain persuade you to see his puppets. There a Rogue like a wild
+woodman, or in an Antic-shape like an Incubus, desires your company to
+view his motion; on the other side Hocus Pocus with three yards of tape
+or ribbon in's hand, shewing his art of Legerdemain to the admiration
+and astonishment of a company of cockloaches.[18] Amongst these you
+shall see a gray goose-cap, as wise as the rest, with a "what do ye
+lack" in his mouth, stand in his booth shaking a rattle or scraping on
+a fiddle, with which children are so taken that they presently cry out
+for these fopperies. And all these together make such a distracted
+noise that you would think Babel were not comparable to it. Here there
+are also your gamesters in action: some turning of a whimsey, others
+throwing for Pewter, who can quickly dissolve a round shilling into a
+three halfpenny saucer. Long lane at this time looks very fair and
+puts out her best clothes with the wrong side outward, so turned for
+their better turning off. And Cloth Fair is now in great request; well
+fare the ale-houses there. Yet better may a man fare, but at a dearer
+rate, in the pig-market, alias Pasty-nook or Pie-corner, where pigs are
+all hours of the day on the stalls piping hot, and would cry, if they
+could speak, "come eat me." ... Unconscionable exactions, and excessive
+inflammations of reckonings, made that corner of the Fair too hot for
+my company; therefore I resolved by myself to steer my course another
+way, and having once got out, not to come again in haste.
+
+ [18] Simple fellows.
+
+ Now farewell to the Fair, you who are wise,
+ Preserve your purses while you please your eyes.
+
+ Reprinted in Hindley, _The Old Book Collector's Miscellany_, Vol.
+ III.
+
+
+1702-14.
+
+ By Her Majesties Permission.
+
+_This is to give Notice to all Gentlemen, Ladies and Others, that
+coming into_ May-Fair,[19] _the first_ Booth _on the Left Hand, over
+against_ Mr. Pinckeman's Booth; _During the usual time of the_ Fair,
+_is to be seen a great Collection of strange and wonderful Rareties,
+all A-live from several parts of the World._
+
+ [19] The London district of Mayfair includes the site of this
+ fair, and was named after it.
+
+ _Vivat Regina._
+
+
+ _Advertisement in a collection at the British Museum._
+
+
+1734.
+
+_At the Great_ THEATRICAL BOOTH ON the Bowling-Green behind the
+Marshalsea, down Mermaid-Court next the Queens Arms Tavern, during the
+Time of Southwark Fair (which began the 8th instant and ends the 21st),
+will be presented that diverting droll, call'd
+
+ _The True and Ancient History of_
+
+ MAUDLIN, _the Merchants Daughter of_ BRISTOL,
+
+ AND
+
+ _Her constant Lover_ ANTONIO,
+
+who she followed into Italy, disguising herself in Man's Habit; shewing
+the Hardships she underwent by being Shipwrecked on the Coast of
+Algier, where she met her Lover, who was doom'd to be burnt at a Stake
+by the King of that Country, who fell in Love with her and proffered
+her his Crown, which she dispised, and chose rather to share the fate
+of her Antonio than renounce the Christian Religion to embrace that of
+their Imposter Prophet Mahomet.
+
+ With the comical Humours of
+
+ ROGER, ANTONIO'S MAN.
+
+And Variety of Singing and Dancing between the Acts, by Mr. Sandham
+Mrs. Woodward and Miss Sandham.
+
+Particularly, A new Dialogue to be sung by Mr. Excell and Mrs.
+Fitzgerald. Written by the Author of _Bacchus one Day gaily striding_,
+etc., and a Hornpipe by Mr. Taylor. To which will be added a new
+Entertainment (never performed before) called
+
+ The INTRIGUING HARLEQUIN,
+
+ Or
+
+ Any Wife better than none.
+
+With Scenes, Machines, and other Decorations proper to the
+Entertainment.
+
+ _Advertisement in a collection at the British Museum._
+
+
+ GREENWICH FAIR (in 1835-6).
+
+... Imagine yourself in an extremely dense crowd which swings you to
+and fro and in and out, and every way but the right one; add to this
+the screams of women, the shouts of boys, the clanging of gongs, the
+firing of pistols, the ringing of bells, the bellowing of
+speaking-trumpets, the squeaking of penny dittoes, the noise of a dozen
+bands with three drums in each, all playing different tunes at the same
+time, the hallooing of showmen, and an occasional roar from the wild
+beast shows; and you are in the very centre and heart of the fair.
+
+This immense booth, with the large stage in front, so brightly
+illuminated with variegated lamps and pots of burning fat, is
+"Richardson's," where you have a melodrama (with three murders and a
+ghost), a pantomime, a comic song, an overture, and some incidental
+music, all done in five-and-twenty minutes. The company are now
+promenading outside in all the dignity of wigs, spangles, red ochre,
+and whitening.... The exhibitions next in popularity to these itinerant
+theatres are the travelling menageries, or, to speak more intelligibly,
+the "Wild beast shows," where a military band in beef-eater's costume,
+with leopardskin caps, play incessantly, and where large highly
+coloured representations of tigers tearing men's heads open, and a lion
+being burnt with red hot irons to induce him to drop his victim, are
+hung up outside, by way of attracting visitors.
+
+... The grandest and most numerously frequented booth in the whole
+fair however is "The Crown and Anchor," a temporary ballroom--we
+forget how many feet long--the price of admission to which is one
+shilling.... The dancing itself beggars description--every figure
+lasts about an hour, and the ladies bounce up and down the middle
+with a degree of spirit which is quite indescribable. As to the
+gentlemen they stamp their feet upon the ground every time "hands
+four round" begins, go down the middle and up again with cigars in
+their mouths and silk handkerchiefs in their hands, and whirl their
+partners round, nothing loth, scrambling and falling and knocking
+up against the other couples, until they are fairly tired out and
+can move no longer.
+
+ Dickens, _Sketches by Boz_.
+
+
+UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Extracts Relating to Mediaeval Markets
+and Fairs in England, by Helen Douglas-Irvine
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43667 ***
generated by cgit v1.2.3 (git 2.25.1) at 2026-06-12 12:11:04 +0000