1503. William Kentte the younger, Clerk, by his will devised two booths in Sturbridge fair, and the reversion of a tenement called the Crown in the parish of St. Andrew in Cambridge, the mayor and burgesses entered into covenants with his executors to observe and keep a yearly dirge in the Church of St. Benedict, on the first Wednesday of the kalends of May, and other specified observances of a religious character.
1510. There was a suit between Kings Lynn and Cambridge regarding Toll at this fair. How the matter was then disposed of does not appear. See 1541.
1517. Misunderstandings having arisen between the Town of Cambridge and the Prior and Convent of Barnwell the matter was referred to arbitration, and the Award determined that the town for evermore should have hold and enjoy, keep and maintain the fair as well within the said town of Barnwell &c., as in all other lands and fields of the said prior and convent, lying on the east between the said monastery and town of Barnwell, and a bridge called Sturbridge, from the feast of St. Bartholomew unto the feast of St. Michael in Sept., and that they and their farmers might, without let or molestation of the said prior and convent, build stalls, shops, &c., the mayor &c. throwing down all banks, chimneys, &c. within four days after Michaelmas, and provided that all such farmers of any house or shop letten by the Prior and Convent should pay but one shilling by the year to the mayor &c. for his and their house and shop. “Hist. and Antiq. of Sturbridge Fair,” p. 77.
1519. A dispute which had arisen between the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of Cambridge and the mayor, burgesses, and comburgesses of Northampton, as to the claim of the freemen of the latter town to exemption from toll in Sturbridge Fair, was referred to the arbitrament of Sir Richard Elliot, and Sir Lewis Pollard, Justices of the Common Pleas, who on the 4th June awarded that the Corporation of Northampton should pay 10s. yearly to the Corporation of Cambridge in full satisfaction of all toll and custom due from the freemen of Northampton, for all manner of stuff, barrelled ware, and other merchandise, brought by them to Sturbridge fair, and all other passages and carriages through and by the town of Cambridge, at all times of the year, or and besides twopence for every cart laden with their stuff going out of the fair. A deed of Covenant founded on this award was entered into by the two Corporations on the 10th of July. “Corp. Cross. Book.”
1521. About this time there were proceedings in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster by the tenants of Hertford, against Richard Clark mayor of Cambridge, who was complained against for seizing for toll in this fair.
A little later there was a like suit pending between the tenants of the Duchy in Walden, and the bailiffs of Cambridge. A decree in favour of the Exemption was made in Easter term 1524.
1533-4. The Heads of the University claimed the following rights in the Fair:
1. The Proctor’s Commissary and other officers of the university keep a court in the fair, because it is within the suburbs of Cambridge, and the university are clerks of the market, and have the oversight and correction of weights and measures, and victuals in the fair.
2. They hold plea in the said court of contracts and trespasses made within the said fair as without, which was one of the things agreed upon in a composition with the town, viz. that the university should have the like privileges there as the mayor.
3. They hear and determine pleas personall as well between scholars, servants, as all foreigners and others of the kings subjects, if a scholar or scholars servant be one party by the commissary in the fair court by the order of the civil law by witness or otherwise, excepting in causes relating to victuals, wherein they determine according to the common or statute law.