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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
RECORDS INFORMATION Leaflet No: 45
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[Note: this and all other PRO Records Information leaflets are (c)
Crown Copyright, but may be freely reproduced except for sale or
advertising purposes. Copies should always include this Copyright
notice -- please respect this.] Crown Copyright, January 1986.
----------------------------- start of text --------------------------
MARKETS AND FAIRS
Many markets and fairs were already flourishing before the date of the
earliest surviving records mentioning them. They were held either by
virtue of a specific royal grant, usually embodied in a charter, or by
prescriptive right based on immemorial custom. In the case of a manor held
by the king in demesne, the initiation of a market or fair would not
normally be recorded in a charter. Works on local history, particularly
the topographical volumes of the Victoria County History, may be used to
establish whether a particular manor was royal demesne at a given date.
There is no simple register, at the Public Record Office or elsewhere, of
persons now entitled to hold markets and fairs. And whilst records may be
traced here* showing an early royal grant of such rights, they may have no
bearing whatever on present day market rights, which have been much
affected by modifications or revocations of earlier charters, by grants of
new rights (for example in borough charters), by the demise of old
jurisdictions (as at the dissolution of the monasteries) and by modern
local government reorganisation and boundary changes. The Public Record
Office is unable to offer any advice on the legality or otherwise of
present day markets, though it can supply photocopies of earlier grants
where the place of the market or fair and date of the grant is specified
or can be ascertained. It should be remembered that most grants before
1733 were in Latin and no translations are available. And it is rare to
find details of the exact site or regulations governing the market or fair.
A list of charters conferring rights over markets and fairs in the period
1 John to 22 Edward IV (1199-1483) was published as Appendix XIX to the
"First Report of the Royal Commission on Market Rights and Tolls" (1889),
from which a card index has been compiled by the Public Record Office
giving the precise modern references to the grants cited. Summaries of
these grants (but not complete translations) can be found in the printed
Calendars of Charter Rolls, Close Rolls and Patent Rolls, which are
available in major reference libraries as well as in the search rooms at
the Public Record Office. The above list, however, is not a complete
record of all grants of markets and fairs in the period, because it omits
grants made by special jurisdictions (notably the Duchy of Lancaster and
the Palatinates of Chester, Durham and Lancaster) and enrolled among their
distinct records also preserved at the PRO. Such of these latter grants
as have been noted in surviving repertories have been included in the PRO
card index, but others no doubt remain to be identified.
For the period since 1483 there is no comprehensive list of grants.
Enrolments noted in the Calendars of Charter Rolls (to 1516), Close Rolls
(to 1509) and Patent Rolls (to 1575) have been included in the PRO card
index. Grants that could be traced through lists of Inquisitions ad quod
damnum and the Brevia Regia and verified from the indexes to the patent
rolls, were tabulated in the Appendix to the Final Report of the Royal
Commission (1891), and these are also in the card index.
CLERK OF THE MARKET
The control of weights and measures and of market prices - initially for
the benefit of the king's household at Westminster or on progress, but by
extension also throughout the kingdom - by the Clerk of the Market of the
King's Household may be traced in the Various Accounts of the Exchequer
(E 101: Marshalsea) and the Estreats (E 137, especially bundle 144/2).
This officer's functions in the reigns of Edward IV and Henry VIII are set
out in Household Ordinances and Regulations (Society of Antiquaries, 1790)
pp. 53 and 150, of which there is a copy in the Round Room. Further
information is contained in N. J. Williams, 'Sessions of the Clerk of the
Market of the Household in Middlesex' (Trans. London & Midd. Arch. Soc.,
xix pt.2, pp.1-14). Passing mention is also made in the Calendars of
Chancery Rolls and State Papers Domestic, and among the papers of the Lord
Steward's Department (for example in the Entry Books of Records, LS13/168
et seq.). By Statute 16 Charles I c.19 this officer's function was more
firmly restricted to the verge of the household, and henceforth all owners
of market rights - lords of manors, mayors and bailiffs, feoffees etc. -
were fully liable for maintaining their own correct weights and measures.
This remained the case after the Restoration. A few sample indentures of
receipts for standard weights and measures from the Exchequer; in the late
17th and late 18th centuries are to be found among the Exchequer of Receipt
Miscellanea (E 407/88).
MODERN RECORDS
Lists of the places and dates of markets and fairs held in the 18th and
19th centuries were printed in Owen's Book of Fairs, which ran to many
editions. Tables of those held in 1792 and 1888 were printed as Appendix
XXI to the First Report of the Royal Commission mentioned above. From the
mid 19th century, commissions, licences and correspondence may be sought
in various classes of Home Office papers in the Public Record Office at Kew
(HO 141, HO 152, HO 45), whilst orders to discontinue fairs or alter their
appointed days are printed in the London Gazette.
OTHER RECORDS IN THE PRO
In addition to the enrolments of grants of charters, there are many other
documents in the PRO which shed light on the history of market and fairs,
but since there is no general index to the records it is not possible to
identify quickly all papers relating to any particular market or fair.
Most royal grants from the reign of Henry III were preceded by Inquisitions
ad quod damnum (C 143) to determine whether they would be prejudicial to
any owners of existing rights. From about 1200 a clause protecting such
existing rights was inserted in market charters. Alleged abuses of market
rights could be investigated in Quo Warranto proceedings (for the period
1278 to 1330, see Placita de Quo Warranto, Record Commission, 1818), but
also became the basis of many cases in the centra' courts at Westminster:
not only the Exchequer, King's Bench and Common Pleas, but o prerogative
courts such as Star Chamber and the Court of Requests.
A useful introduction to the records of litigation, both at Westminster and
in the many courts held at markets and fairs themselves, is contained in
C. Gross and H. Hall, Select Cases Concerning the Law Merchant (Selden
Society vols. 23, 46 and 49 for the years 1908, 1929 and 1932). Some
surviving records of local courts are among the Court Rolls (SC 6) listed
in PRO Lists and Indexes VI; others are deposited in the appropriate local
record office. Many incidental references may be found through the indexes
in the published Calendars of Chancery Rolls and State Papers Domestic.
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* Except when otherwise stated, all documents referred to in this leaflet
may be seen only at the PRO, Chancery Lane.
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Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR.
Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU.
Tel: +44 (0) 181 876-3444
Opening hours: 9.30am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. Closed on public
holidays and for annual Stocktaking (normally the first two full weeks
in October).
Admission is by reader's ticket which will be issued on p