1328.
There was enacted 2 Edwᵈ. III. c. 15. “No person shall keep a Fair longer than he ought to do,” which was as follows:
Item, it is established That it shall be commanded to all the sheriffs of England & elsewhere, where need shall require to cry and publish within Liberties & without, that all the Lords [of the soil] wʰ have Fairs, be it for yielding certain Ferm [Rent?] for the same to the King or otherwise, shall hold the same for the time that they ought to hold it, & no longer; that is to say, (1) such as have them by the King’s Charter granted them, for the time limited by the sᵈ Charters (2) and also they that have them without Charter, for the time that they ought to hold them of Right. (3) And that every Lord at the beginning of his Fair shall there do cry & 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 greviously punished towards the King (4) Nor the sᵈ Lords shall not hold them over the due Time upon pain to seize the Fairs into the King’s hands, there to remain till 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 cried & published. See 1331.
1331. The 5 Edw. III. c. 5—“The Penalty if any do sell Ware at a Fair after it is ended” was as follows:
Item, Where it is contained in the statute made at Northampton [1328] ... that the Lords wʰ have Fairs by Charters or otherwise, shall hold them during the Time that they ought to do, & no longer upon Pain to seize such Fairs into the King’s hands (2) & that every Lord at the Beginning of his Fair shall proclaim how long the fair shall endure; (3) and in the same Statute is no certain punishment ordained against the merchants if they sell after the time, (4) it is accorded, That the sᵈ merchants after the sᵈ time shall close their Booths & Stalls without putting any manner of Ware or Merchandise to sell there. (5) And if it be found, that any merchant from henceforth sell any Ware or merchandise at the sᵈ Fairs after the sᵈ Time, such Merchant shall forfeit to me Lord the King the double value of that wʰ is sold (6) and every Man that will sue for our Lord the King, shall be received, & shall have the fourth part of that wʰ shall be lost at his suit.
Macpherson [“Hist. of Commerce”] commenting upon this act says Fairs were “the seats of most of the inland trade of the kingdom.”
1448. The 27 Henry VI. c. 5 was directed against “the scandal of holding Fairs & markets on Sundays & upon High Feast Days.” This practice had in earlier times been very general.
Attempted Limitation of the Commerce of Fairs.—1487. The Common Council of London, in order to oblige the people to resort to the City for their purchases, had made an ordinance that no citizen should carry goods for sale to any fair or market out of the city. The assortment of goods in London (says Macpherson) appears to have been so commanding that those interested in fairs of Salisbury, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Ely, Coventry, and other places, and also the people of the country in general, were alarmed, and represented to Parliament the destruction of the fairs, and the great hardship of being obliged to travel to London to procure chalices, books, vestments, and other church ornaments, and also victuals for the time of Lent, linen cloth, woollen cloth, brass, pewter, bedding, osmond, iron, flax, wax, and other necessaries. The London ordinance was thereupon annulled by Parliament; and the citizens were permitted to go with their goods to the fairs and markets in every part of England. (“Hist. of Com.” i. p. 708.)
The act by which this was effected is 3 Hen. VII. c. 9—Freemen of London may carry their wares to any Fairs or Markets—which recites as follows:
“Humbly showen and prayen unto your Highness, your true & faithful Commons of this your Realm of England, That where the Citizens & Freemen of the City of London have used out of time & mind to go, carry & lede their merchandise & ware unto all Fairs & markets at their Liberty of the sᵈ City; now of late time the Mayor, Aldermen, & Citizens of the City of London have made & enacted an Ordinance within the same City, upon a great Pain, that no man that is a freeman or a Citizen of the sᵈ City shall go or come to any Fair or Market out of the same City of London, with any manner of ware or merchandise to sell or to barter, to this Intent, that all Buyers & merchants should resort to the sᵈ City to buy their ware & merchandises of the sᵈ Citizens & Freemen of London aforesaid, because of their singular Lucre & Avail; wʰ Ordinance, if it should hold as is before expressed, shall be to the utter destruction of all other Fairs & markets within this your Realm, wʰ God defend: for there be many fairs for the common weal of your said liege People, as at Salisbury, Bristol, Oxenforth, Cambrigge, Netyngham, Ely, Coventre, & at many other places where Lords Spiritual, & Temporal, Abbots, Priors, Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen, & your said Commons of Every Country hath their common resort, to buy & purvey many things that be good & profitable, as Ornaments of Holy Church, Chalice, Books, Vestments, & other ornaments of Holy Church aforesᵈ, & also for Household, as victual for the time of Lent, & other stuff, as Linnen Cloth, Woollen Cloth, Brass, Pewter, Bedding, Osmonde, Iron, Flax, & Wax, & many other necessary Things, the wʰ might not be forborn amongst your said liege People; but, by the sᵈ Ordinance every man willing to buy any of the premisses, shall be courted to come to the sᵈ City of London, to their importable Costs & Charges, wʰ if the sᵈ act should endure, shall grow great hurt & prejudice to the common weal of this your Realm, & shall cause many pernicious strifes & debates between your said liege people, & the said Mayor, Aldermen & Citizens in time to come, by the making the sᵈ Ordinance, the wʰ is thought may not continue & stand with good charity, the premisses considered, wherefore it may please your said Highness most noble & abundant Grace, in consideration of the Hurt likely to grow of & by the premises, that it may be enacted:
The King Lords and Commons therefore enacted that every freeman and citizen of London then or thereafter, might go with his victual ware or merchandise, at his or their liberty to any fair or market that should please him within the realm of England, any act, statute or ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding. Any disregard of the statute to incur a penalty of £10 to the king.
1496. The Company of Merchant-Adventurers of England which was said to have been in existence for nearly two centuries—although not actually chartered until 1505—took steps about this period calculated to interfere with the freedom of British merchants to attend fairs and marts in foreign countries.
The merchants who traded on their own individual account residing in various parts of England and of the City of London, sent up a petition to the House of Commons, (as against the claims of the said Company of Merchant-Adventurers) wherein it was set forth that they traded beyond the sea with their goods and merchandise, as well into Spain, Portugal, Bretagne, Ireland, Normandy, France, Seville, Venice, Dantzic, Eastland, Friseland and many other parts—the geography is often a little hazy in these early documents—there to buy and sell and make their exchanges, according to the laws and customs of those parts: every one trading as seemed most to his advantage, without sanction, fine, imposition or contribution, to be had or taken of them, or any of them, to for, or by, any English person or persons. And in like sort they, before this time had used, and of right ought to have and use the like commerce into the coasts of Flanders, Zealand, Holland, Brabant, and other adjacent parts, under the obedience of the Archduke of Burgundy; in which places are usually kept the universal marts or fairs, four times in the year; to which marts all Englishmen, and divers other nations in times past, have used to resort, there to sell their own commodities, and freely to buy such merchandise as they had occasion for: till now of late, the Fellowship of Mercers, and other merchants and adventurers, dwelling and being free within the City of London by confederacy amongst themselves, for their own singular profit, contrary to every Englishman’s liberty, to the liberty of the said mart there, and contrary to all law, reason, charity, right and conscience have made an ordinance among themselves to the prejudice of all other Englishmen, that no Englishman resorting to the said mart, shall either buy or sell any merchandise there, unless he shall first have compounded and made fine with the said Fellowship of Merchants of London, at their pleasure; upon pain of forfeiture to the said Fellowship of such their said merchandise. Which fine, imposition, and exaction, at the beginning, when first taken, was demanded by colour of the Fraternity of St. Thomas Becket; at which time it was only an old noble sterling. And so by colour of such feigned holiness, it hath been suffered to be taken of a few years past: it was afterwards increased to 100 shillings, Flemish; but now the said Fellowship of London take of every Englishman or young merchant, being there, at his first coming £40 sterling for a fine, to suffer him to buy, and sell his own goods. By reason whereof, all merchants not of the said Fellowship, do withdraw themselves from the said marts: whereby the woollen cloth of this realm, which is one of the greatest commodities of the same, as well as sundry other English commodities of the same, as well as sundry other English commodities, are not sold and got off as in times past, but are for want of sale thereof, in divers parts, where such clothes are made, conveyed to London, and there sold at an undervalued price, even below what they cost the makers. Moreover the merchandise of those foreign parts, imported by the said Fellowship, is sold to your complainants and other subjects at so high a price that the buyers cannot live thereupon; by reason whereof all the cities and towns of the realm are falling into great poverty, ruin and decay: and the King’s customs and subsidies, and the navy of the land greatly decreased.
It was therefore enacted (12 Hen. VII. c. 6) that all Englishmen from henceforth should and might freely resort to the Coasts of Flanders, Holland, Zealand, Brabant, and other parts adjoining, under the obedience of the Archduke; and at their marts or fairs there, sell their merchandise freely, without exaction, fine, imposition, or contribution taken or received of any of them by the said Fraternity or Fellowship, excepting only the sum of ten marks [£6 13s. 4d.] sterling, on pain of forfeiting £20 for every time they take more; and shall also forfeit to the person so imposed on ten times so much as contrary to this act was taken of him. See 1554.
Welsh Fairs.—1534. There was enacted 26 Hen. VIII. c. 6—The Bill concerning Councils in Wales—which recited: “Forasmuch as the people of Wales, & the marches of the same, not dreading the good & wholesome Laws & Statutes of this Realm, have of long time continued & persevered in Perpetration & Commission of divers & manifold Thefts, Murthers, Rebellions, wilful Burning of Houses & other scelerous Deeds & abominable malefacts, to the high displeasure of God, Inquietation of the Kings well-disposed subjects, & Disturbance of the Public Weal, wʰ malefacts & scelerous Deeds be so rooted & fixed in the same People, that they be not like to cease unless some sharp correction & Punishment for Redress & Amputation of the Premises be provided, according to the Demerits of the offenders.” Whereupon it was enacted (inter alia):
That no person or persons dwelling or resident within Wales or the Lordships marches of the same, of what Estate, Degree, or Condition soever he or they be of, coming, resorting, or repairing unto any Sessions or Court to be holden within Wales or any Lordships, marches, of the same shall bring or bear, or cause to be brought or born to the same Sessions or Court or to any place within the distance of two miles from the same Sessions or Court, nor to any Town, Church, Fair, Market or other congregation, except it be upon a Hute or Outcry made of any Felony or Robbery done or perpetrated, nor in the Highways in affray of the King’s Peace, or the Kings liege People, any Bill, Long-bow, Cross-bow, Hand-gun, Sword, Staff, Dagger, Halbert, More-spike, Spear, or any other manner of weapon, Proof-coat or Armour defensive, upon pain of forfeiture of the same and of imprisonment and fine, except permission by given by the proper authorities authorised thereto.
Robberies in Fairs.—1552. The 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 9—An Act for the taking away of the Benefit of Clergy for certain offenders recites: (3) “And where also it hath been in question & doubted, that if such Robberies & Felonies happen to be committed & done in any Booth or Booths, Tent or Tents in any Fair or market, the Owner of the same, his wife, Children or Servants happening to be within the same at the time of the committing of such Felonies, & put in fear & dread, the offenders therein being found guilty after the Laws of this Realm, should not lose the Benefit of Clergy.”
Whereupon it was enacted that persons so offending should not be entitled to benefit of Clergy, but should suffer death in such manner and form as was mentioned in the act 23 Hen. VIII. c. 1, for Robberies and Felonies committed and done in Dwelling houses and Dwelling places, the Owner and Dweller in the same, his wife children or servants being within the same, and put in fear and dread, without having any respect or consideration whether the owner or dweller in such booths and tents his wife, children or servants being in the same Booths or Tents at the time of such Robberies and Felonies committed, shall be sleeping or waking.
Restricting the dealing in Fairs.—1554. By the 1st and 2nd Philip and Mary, c. 7—An Act for that Persons dwelling in the Country shall not sell divers Wares in Cities or Towns Corporate by retail—it is recited: Where before this time the ancient Cities, Boroughs, Towns Corporate and market Towns (within this Realm of England) have been very populous, and chiefly inhabited with merchants, Artificers, and Handicraftsmen, during which time the Children in those Cities were civilly brought up and instructed, and also the said cities &c. kept in good order and obesience, and the inhabiters of the same well set on work and kept from idleness. (2) By reason whereof, the said Cities &c. did then prosper in riches and great wealth, and were as then not only able to serve and furnish the King and Queens majesties, and their noble progenitors, Kings of this Realm, as well with great numbers of good able persons and well furnished, meet for the wars, as also then charged, and yet chargeable with great fee-farms, Quindismes, Taxes, and divers other payments to the King and Queen’s Majesties, which at this present they be not able to pay and bear, but to their utter Undoing, being few in number to pay and bear the same; but also the same Cities &c. are likely to come very shortly to utter destruction, ruin and decay; (3) by reason whereof the occupiers, Linendrapers, woollen-drapers, Haberdashers and Grocers dwelling in the Counties out of the said Cities &c. do not only occupy the art and mystery of the said Sciences in the places where they dwell and inhabit, but also come into the said Cities &c. and there sell their wares, and take away the Relief of the inhabitants of the said Cities &c. to the great decay and utter undoing of the inhabitants of the same, if speedy reformation therein be not had in time convenient. (4) For remedy whereof and for the better amendment of the said Cities &c. to the end that the same Cities &c. may be better able to pay the said Fee-farms, and also to bear the other ordinary charges within the same Cities &c. and to furnish the King and Queen’s majesties with numbers of able persons, like as they have heretofore done in times past, in times of War.
It was enacted, That any person or persons which do now inhabit and dwell, or hereafter shall inhabit and dwell in the Country anywhere, or County within this Realm of England, out of any of the said Cities, Boroughs, Towns Corporate or Market Towns, from and after the Feast of St. Michael the archangel next coming, shall not sell or cause to be sold by retail, any woollen cloth, Linen Cloth, Haberdashery wares, Grocery wares, Mercery wares, at or within any of the said Cities &c., or within the Suburbs or Liberties of the said Cities, &c., within the said Realm of England (except it be in open Fairs) upon pain of forfeiting 6s. 8d. and the whole Wares so sold, proffered and offered to be sold contrary to the form and intent of this act as above is said. But all such persons might sell their products wholesale; and persons dwelling in the Country, but afterwards becoming free of any City &c. would be thus placed outside the operation of this act. And persons might sell by retail all manner of Cloth, Linen or Woollen of our making anywhere notwithstanding this act. “Provided alway that this act or anything therein contained shall not be prejudicial or hurtful to the Liberties and Privileges of the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, or either of them.”
Horse Fairs.—1555. The 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. 7 related to the facilities for dealing in stolen horses, which it was attempted to check by having duly appointed fairs for such dealings. This Act gave rise to the holding of “Horse Fairs” separately from other fairs. The Act 31 of Elizabeth c. 12 (1589) required a record to be kept of all horses sold at fairs.
Plague.—1625. The importance rightly attached from a sanitary point of view to the gathering of large multitudes together at fairs is manifested in a very ample degree in a Royal Proclamation issued by Charles I. from his Palace at Woodstock on the 4th August:
The Kings most excellent majesty, out of his Princely and Christian care of his loving subjects, that no good means of Providence may be neglected to stay the further spreading of the great infection of the Plague, doth find it necessary to prevent all occasions of public concourse of his people for the present, till it shall please Almighty God of His goodness, to cease the violence of the Contagion which is very dispersed into many parts of the Kingdom already; And therefore remembering that there are at hand two Fairs of special note and unto which there is usually extraordinary resort out of all parts of the Kingdom, the one kept in Smithfield, near the City of London, called Bartholomew Fair, and the other near Cambridge called Stourbridge Fair, the holding whereof at the usual times would in all likelihood be the occasion of further danger and infection in other parts of the land, which yet in Gods mercy stand clear and free, hath, with the advice of his Majesty’s Privy Council, thought good, by this open declaration of his pleasure and necessary commandment, not only to admonish and require all his loving subjects to forbear to resort for this time to either of the said two fairs, or to any other fairs within 50 miles of the said City of London, but also to enjoin the Lords of the said Fairs, and others interested in them, or any of them, that they all forbear to hold the said Fairs, or anything appertaining so them, at all times accustomed or at any time, till by God’s goodness and mercy the infection of the Plague shall cease, or be so much diminished, that his majesty shall give order for holding them; upon pain of such punishment as, for a contempt so much concerning the universal safety of his people, they shall be adjudged to deserve, which they must expect to be inflicted with all severity: His Majesty desire being so intentive for preventing the general Infection threatened, as he is resolved to spare no man that shall be the cause of dispersing the same. And to that purpose doth hereby further charge and enjoin, under like penalty, all citizens and inhabitants of the said City of London, that none of them shall repair to any fair held within any part of his kingdom, until it shall please God to cease the infection now reigning amongst them: His Majesty’s intention being, and so hereby declaring himself, that no Lord of any Fairs, or others interested in the profits thereof, shall by this necessary and temporary restraint, receive any prejudice in the right of his or their Fairs, or liberties thereunto belonging, anything before mentioned notwithstanding.
Earlier proclamations and orders had prevented the holding or had curtailed the period of St. Bartholomew fairs on several occasions viz. 1348, 1593, and 1603; and other fairs had likewise been stayed or postponed. These will be noticed in dealing with such fairs specifically.
1630. The Plague was prevailing in Cambridge, and a Royal Proclamation was issued, dated Aug. 1, prohibiting the holding of the “three great Fairs of special note, unto which there is an extraordinary resort from all parts of the Kingdom” viz. those of Bartholomew, Sturbridge, and Southwark.
Coinage.—1662. The preceding year was that of the Restoration, and it was by Proclamation ordered that the coinage of the Commonwealth should be no longer current than the last day of November. The “Kingdom’s Intelligencer” for Aug. 22-25 this year contained the following: “Whitehall Aug. 23. There hath been a discovery of divers persons who have coined both gold and silver, and of other persons who have vended the same in great quantities &c. intending to utter the same to Clothiers and at Fairs; which is published to an end that honest persons may not be deceived by receiving such monies.”
Sale of Printed Matter, &c.—1698. In the 9 and 10 William III. c. 27—An Act for Licensing Hawkers and Pedlars &c. section 9 is as follows: Provided always.... That this Act or anything contained shall not Extend to Prohibit any persons from selling of any Acts of Parliament, Forms of Prayer, Proclamations, Gazettes, licensed Almanacks or other Printed Papers, licensed by authority, or any Fish, Fruits or Victuals; nor to hinder any person or persons, who are the real workers or makers of any Goods or Wares within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or his her or their Children, Apprentices, Agents or Servants, to such real Workers and makers of such Goods or Wares only, from carrying abroad, exposing to Sale, or selling any of the said Goods and Wares of his, her, or their, own making in any Public Mart, Fairs, Markets, or Elsewhere; nor any Tinkers, Coopers, Glaziers, Plummers, Harness-menders, or other persons actually trading in mending kettles, Tubs, Household Goods or Harness whatsoever, from going about and carrying with them proper materials for mending the same.
And by Section 12 it is further enacted: That nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to hinder any person or persons from Selling or exposing to sale any sorts of Goods or Merchandises, in any public mart, Market, or Fair within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, but that such person or persons may do therein as they lawfully might have done before the making of this act; anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.
Altering the Calendar.—1751. Under 24 Geo. II. c. 23—An Act for Regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for correcting the Calendar now in use, it was provided Section 4 (inter alia) that the terms for holding and keeping of all markets, fairs and marts, “whether for the sale of Goods or Cattle, or for the hiring of Servants, or for any other purpose, wʰ are either fixed to certain nominal days of the month, or depending upon the beginning, or any certain day of any month, & all Courts incident & belonging to, or usually holden or kept with any such Fairs or Marts, should be holden & kept upon or according to the same natural days upon or according to wʰ the same shᵈ have been so kept or holden in case this act had not been made.”
This act was amended by 25 Geo. II. c. 30, which enacted that all such events as before enumerated were to take place “according to the new Calendar.”