Be it enacted that all works and stuff with gold and silver broidery of Cyprus or Gold of Luke, or with laton of Spain, and sold to the deceit of the subjects of the King, be forfeited to the King, or to the Lords and to others having franchises of such forfeitures, in which franchise such works be found. And that this enactment endure only until the next parliament.
The valuable commodities sold at this fair are here in part indicated.
Same year the commonalty of Cambridge, on the Thursday after the Nativity of the Virgin made an Ordinance to this effect:
That the bailiff of the Bridge should not take toll for carriage, nor stall-pence nor custom, from the bridge, nor elsewhere (except in the fair) for merchandise coming to the fair of Sterbrigg, from the vigil of the nativity of the blessed Mary until the fair was ended.
1425. The accounts of Richard Parentyn prior of Burchester, in Oxfordshire, and Richard Albon canon and bursar of that house, for the year ending Michaelmas, contain several items which shew the varied and extensive trade of Sturbridge fair about this time: For the expense of Albon in going to and from Sterisbrugge fair for five days with three horses to buy victuals &c. 12s. 6d. is charged. The following articles are also stated to have been purchased here: “Three collars, one basse s 10½d;” “a bolt [long narrow piece] of red say [silk] for making a cope 4s 8d”; “Six estregbords [Eastern boards] viz Waynscots 2s 3d”; “100 halfwax-fyche [dried fish?] 21s.;” “324 lbs of Spanish iron, with the portage of the same 18s 5d”.
1459. Richard Andrewe, alias Spycer, burgess of Cambridge by his will dated 30 Aug. bequeathed to the mayor and bailiffs of that town 80 marks to be kept in a chest there provided, and portions thereof lent on loans from time to time in sums not exceeding 26s. 8d. To the keepers of this Chest he gave, three booths and certain booth-ground in Sturbridge Fair, and a house in St. Andrew’s parish abutting on Preachers’ lane, the profits to be applied to the celebration of his anniversary in Great St. Mary’s Church, to be distributed in various small charities there specified. See Cooper’s “Annals,” i., p. 210.
1464. By 4th Edward IV. c. 8 power is given to the Wardens of the Company of Horners to search for defective wares in London and twenty-four miles round, also in the fairs of Sturbridge and Ely, and to seize defective manufactures and bring the same before the Mayor of London or the Mayors or Bailiffs of the aforesaid fairs, for the time being. In 1609 this act was revived by 7 James I. c. 14, sec. 2. The act was repealed in 1856.
1487. The Corporation of London made an Ordinance prohibiting the freemen of that City to go to any fair out of the City with any manner of merchandise to sell or barter. This Ordinance was repealed by act of parliament in the preamble of which it is recited that there “be many fairs for the common Weal of your said liege people, as at Salisbury, Bristol, Oxenford, Cambridge &c.” If this order of enumeration had any reference to the relative importance of the fairs (which I suspect it had not) it puts this fair only fourth. This act has already been set out in detail in Chapter V.
This year Sir Wm. Littlebury alias Horn, citizen and salter, and also Lord Mayor of London, gave 500 marks towards repairing the highways between London and Cambridge. This was probably in view of benefiting those attending the fairs.