CHAPTER XVII.
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
1603.
The plague was again threatening the City, and James I. issued a proclamation, dated from Hampton Court, 8th August, ordaining that for the “desire of preventing an universal contagion among our people,” that (inter alia) Bartholomew Fair should not be holden, “nor anything appertaining unto them, at the times accustomed, nor any time till they shall be licensed by us.” These last words might have been held to imply more than was directly understood.
Proclamation by City of London.—1604. The arrangement of 1596 prepared the way for the Corporation taking the active control of the fair. Hence among the Orders of my Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Sheriffs for their meetings and wearing of their apparel through this year, was the following:—
“On Saint Bartholomew’s Even for the Fair in Smithfield.—The Aldermen meet my Lord and the Sheriffs at the Guildhall Chapel, at two of the Clock after dinner, in their violet gowns lined, and their horses, without cloaks, and there hear Evening Prayer; which being done, they take their horses and ride to Newgate, and so forth to the gate entering in at the Cloth Fair, and there make a Proclamation,” which was as follows:—
Proclamation.—The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of the City of London, and his right worshipful Bretheren the Aldermen of the said City, streightly charge and command, on the behalf of our Sovereign Lord the King, that all manner of persons, of whatsoever estate, degree, or condition they be, having recourse to this fair, keep the Peace of our said Sovereign Lord the King.
That no manner of persons make any congregation, conventicle, or affrays, by the which the same peace may be broken or disturbed, upon pain of imprisonment and fine, to be made after the discretion of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen.
Also, that all manner of sellers of wine, ale, or beer, sell by measures ensealed, as by gallon, pottle, quart and pint, upon pain that will fall thereof.
And that no person sell any bread, but if it keep the assize, and that it be good and wholesome for man’s body, upon pain that will fall thereof.