********************************** PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE RECORDS INFORMATION Leaflet No: 45 ********************************** [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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Except when otherwise stated, all documents referred to in this leaflet may be seen only at the PRO, Chancery Lane. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 production of proof of identity, such as a (UK) driving licence or passport. ----------------------------- end of text ------------------------------