Fairs, past and present

by Cornelius Walford

The result of the reference above ordered to the Barons of the Exchequer &c. was unfavourable to the claim of the City, the Charter of the Hospital was again confirmed. The question of the Tolls was not indeed finally disposed of; but as it sleeps for a century or so, we must not now depart from the course of our record—see 1445.

1305. Another and special incident arose at the fair of this year. I will quote the eloquent description of Mr. Morley. On the eve of St. Bartholomew, the first day of the fair in the year 1305, the traders and pleasure-seekers, the friars and the jesters, clothiers, tumblers, walkers upon stilts, hurried across the grass of Smithfield from the side on which the fair was being held, to the Gallows under the Elms, where officers of state and a great concourse of men awaited a most welcome spectacle. The priory was indeed built on the site of the gallows; but in that suburban gathering-place of the people—place of executions, place of tournaments, place of markets, place of daily sport, place of the great annual fair—one gallows-tree was not enough to satisfy a justice that loved vengeance and had slight regard for life. Under the Elms of which already mention has been made (Cow Lane now represents their site)—under the Elms we read in a close roll, so early as the fourth year of Henry III., gallows were built “where they had stood before.” An execution during fair time on that ancient exhibition ground, was entertainment rarely furnished to the public: for the Church forbade, among other work, fulfilment of the sentence of the law on any holiday of festival; and a fair was a Saint’s Holiday. But on this occasion, law was eager to assure the execution of its vengeance. The redoubtable Wallace, hero of the Scottish people, had been taken. The rugged patriot, strong of heart and strong of hand, had been brought to London in his chains the day before the fair was opened, and on the day of the opening of the fair was arraigned and condemned at Westminster as a traitor, and without even a day’s respite, at once sent on to his death. Under the Elms, therefore, in Smithfield, stood all the concourse of Bartholomew fair, when William Wallace was dragged thither in chains at the tails of horses, bruised, bleeding, and polluted with the filth of London. The days had not yet come when that first part of the barbarous sentence on high treason was softened by the placing of a hurdle between the condemned man and the mud and flint over which he was dragged. Trade in the fair was forgotten while the patriot was hanged, but not to death; cut down, yet breathing, and disembowelled, mummers and merchants saw the bowels burnt before the dying hero’s face, then saw the executioner strike off his head, quarter his body, and dispatch from the ground five basket-loads of quivering flesh, destined for London, Berwick, Newcastle, Aberdeen and Perth. Then, all being over, the stilt-walkers strode back across the field, the woman again balanced herself head downwards on the points of swords; there was mirth again round the guitar and tambourine, the clothiers went back into the Churchyard, and the priest perhaps went through a last rehearsal with the man who was to be miraculously healed in church on the succeeding day!—“Memorials of Bartholomew Fair,” pp. 71-2.

1321. In this, the 14th Edward II. there was issued a writ inquiring by what warrant the Priory held its rights over Bartholomew Fair. This writ was part of the machinery of a general inquisition into the rights claimed by subjects, which had in many cases been alienated without license from the crown, and often gave rise to private oppression of the people. The Prior pleaded the Royal Charters of his house and testified upon oath that his predecessors had held such a three-day fair since times beyond the reach of memory. The justification satisfied the King’s Exchequer.

1334. In this, the 7th Edward III. a new Charter of the fair was granted to the Hospital of St. Bartholomew confirming the old rights and reassuring the King’s firm peace to all persons travelling towards, staying in, or returning from the fair; also forbidding any servants of a royal or episcopal court to implead any of their persons “or without the consent of the prior and canons on those three days ... to exact tolls either without the City or within it, whether in the passage of roads or bridges, but let all proceeds that arise according to the usage of fairs belong to the canons of the aforesaid church.” This latter provision clearly had reference to the claims of the City. See 1376.

It was a review of these and similar facts which induced Mr. Morley to remark that in early times, if not from the beginning, there were practically two fairs held in Smithfield—one within and one without the Priory bounds. The outer fair, he adds, “was possibly composed of the mere pleasure givers and pleasure seekers, who attended on the company of worshippers and traders then attracted to the priory, and whose tents were pitched in the open market of Smithfield, outside the gates, not [? but] free from toll to the Church. Within the gates, and in the Priory churchyard, the substantial Fair was held” (pp. 61-2).

1348. In the preceding century license had been given by Edward I. to the brethren of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield to cover with stone and wood the stream running through the midst of the hospital to Holborn Bridge, “on account of the too great stench proceeding from it.” The large influx of persons at the Fair must have made matters worse. In the year 1348 the pestilence broke out in London at the time of the fair, and ended about fair-time in the following year. During the interval between fair and fair, so great had been the mortality that, in addition to the burials in churches and other churchyards, fifty thousand bodies had been buried in the graveyard of the Carthusians, adjoining the fair ground. Mr. Morley may well assume that it must have been the great object of interest and terror to the slender throng of men who hardly dared assemble; and who—missing from the annual crowd so many familiar faces—spoke to each other with a feeble hope of the apparent lifting of the plague. “What mirth was there in that handful of the living camped so near the silent congregation of the dead?” See 1593.

New Charter.—Edward III. under date August 1, 1376, granted to the Prior, &c., the following charter, which has heretofore escaped observation, probably because in the records of the City it had been endorsed as a “Writ to proclaim the Fair of the Prior of Saint Bartholomew in Smethefelde,” whereas it is seen to be a most important grant or confirmation of previous charters. I give a full translation, marking certain passages with italics:—Edward by the grace of God King of England and of France, and Duke of Ireland, to the Mayor and sheriffs of London and Middlesex, Greeting. Whereas among other liberties and quittances granted to our beloved in Christ the Prior and Convent of the church of Saint Bartholomew of Smethefelde, London, by charters of our progenitors, former Kings of England, which we have confirmed, it is granted to the same—That they may have all manner of freedom for ever, and that the church aforesaid shall be as free as any church in the whole of England that is most free, and as free as our demesne chapel, which church also our said progenitors granted to will, maintain and defend in manner like as our very crown; and, moreover, they gave firm peace to those coming to the Fair that is much frequented at the feast of Saint Bartholomew in the said place of Smethefelde, So that in those three days’ space, namely, the eve of the feast, or the day itself, or the day following, from such comers, whether without the City or within, or in passing along the ways or over the bridges, no one shall require any customs, but that all things which arise out of the right of fairs shall be to the said church and the Canons serving God there, and that is any one shall presume in any thing to contravene this Royal privilege, or shall offend the Prior Canons or laymen of that place, he and his men, and all that he has, shall devolve into our Royal right: and also lord Richard, formerly King of England, our progenitor, by his letters ordered the then sheriffs of London and Middlesex, and all their bailiffs, that they should neither vex nor allow to be vexed the foresaid Canons of the church of saint Bartholomew (which is our demesne chapel) concerning their fair which they have at the feast of the same church, nor require from those coming to the Fair of saint Bartholomew for the purpose of selling or buying, whether without the City or within, or also in passing along the ways or over the bridges, customs or services, or anything that may diminish the liberty of the said church of saint Bartholomew—as in the charters, letters and our confirmation aforesaid more fully is contained: and now we have understood that some by sinister covin and conspiracy previously had between them have knavishly designed to hinder merchants and others who wish to come and have been wont to come to the said fair with their merchandise, so that they cannot come thither and do their business therein, as well to the loss of them the Prior and Convent and overthrow and weakening of their right as to the manifest letting and hindrance of our common people: We, duly heeding the fervent devotion and affection which our foresaid progenitors had towards the said church, as by the charters and letters aforesaid more fully doth appear, and willing (as we are bounden) to maintain and defend the said fair, which for so long time hath endured and was granted by our said progenitors to the honour of God in subvention of Holy Church, and all other rights and privileges, lest in our time they perish, have taken into our special protection and defence the said Prior and Canons, and their men and servants, and merchants whomsoever and others wishing to come with their goods and things to the said fair, there tarrying and therefrom returning whither they will; and so we command you to maintain, protect and defend the said Prior and Canons, their men and servants, merchants and others whomsoever coming to the said fair with their goods and things, there tarrying and therefrom returning, and to permit the Prior and Convent to hold their said fair in form aforesaid, and to receive and have freely and without any hindrance, from those coming to the said fair and returning therefrom, the customs and all other the profits which pertain to them in right of the said fair according to the form of the charters, letters and confirmation aforesaid, and as they ought to hold the same fair and to have and receive the customs and other things which pertain to that fair, and as they and their predecessors have until now held that fair and have been wont to have and receive the customs and other things which to that fair pertain. And, concerning any pleas or other things to the said fair for the said three days appertaining, do you in no wise intermeddle, neither requiring any thing for customs and other things to that fair appertaining, nor hindering, molesting, nor in any way aggrieving the Prior and Canons of the said place as to the receiving of the customs and profits aforesaid, nor, as much in you lies, permitting them to be molested or aggrieved. And if any shall presume to diminish the customs and rights of the said fair, then be you in aid to the said Prior and Canons, or their bailiffs of the said fair, when hereupon you shall be requested by them or any one of them, by such ways and methods as shall seem to you the more expedient, to compel and distrain those who would diminish the said customs and rights to yield and pay the said customs and rights to the said Prior and Convent: and this do you in no wise omit. And, that those all and every the premises may come to the knowledge of all, and that no one, of what state or condition soever he be, under grave forfeiture to us, and under the peril incumbent thereon, may presume in any manner to practise any covin or any other acts calculated to disturb in any way that fair or the profit of the fair, or the merchants or others, so that they cannot lawfully, without damage and in peace come to that fair with their merchandise, and do their business there, and return therefrom, do you cause the same to be publicly proclaimed, observed and held within your bailiwick and districts, where it shall seem to you most expedient, as often as and when hereupon by the said Prior and Convent, or any one of them, you shall on our behalf be requested. Witness Ourself at Westminster the first day of August in the fiftieth year of our reign of England, but of our reign of France the thirty-seventh. Faryngton.

¶ This proclamation was made.

Miracle Plays.—This Fair of St. Bartholomew was long the scene of “miracle plays.” The Company of Parish Clerks—an incorporated company or gild who had charge of the records, the burials, and afterwards of the births in London, during a very long period—played at Skinners’ Well (near Smithfield) before Richard II. and his Queen and Court, towards the close of the fourteenth century; and early in the following they played before Henry IV. at the same place, during eight days, “Matter from the Creation of the world.” The early plays at this fair are believed to have been representations of great miracles ascribed to St. Bartholomew. Later came the “mysteries,” and finally the “moralities,” out of which our modern drama has been developed. All these in their turns were presented at this once famous fair.