Part 10

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 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.

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.