Fairs, past and present

by Cornelius Walford

ENGLAND

CHAPTER II.
ORIGIN AND LAWS—ENGLAND.

In the preceding survey I have intentionally omitted any mention of England. Historians of the ordinary type have thought it beneath their dignity to refer to anything so common-place as fairs. The real mainsprings of our commerce seem in fact very generally to have escaped them. The greatest commercial nation of the world has found no historian willing to record the true causes of its greatness. The intrigues of sovereigns, the machinations of ecclesiastics; the trickeries of statesmen and diplomatists, have alone commanded their attention and absorbed their limited energies. The Statute-book, the one great storehouse of our national history, has escaped their observation. I propose to devote a special chapter to the origin and development of fairs in England.

It has been claimed that the Anglo-Saxons founded alike fairs and markets in England. To Alfred the Great the honour is usually assigned. I have no doubt whatever that the Romans first introduced the practice of holding markets and fairs in England. I find very distinct traces of fairs of Roman origin at Helston (Cornwall), at Barnwell (by Cambridge), at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and at several places along the line of the Roman wall in Northumberland. But assuming that the institutions of the country were largely recast during the Anglo-Saxon period, we may take note of the supposed re-institution of markets and fairs in the ninth century. The tithings held their sittings in their tithing or free-borough once a week, and many people coming thither to have their matters adjudicated upon, brought also their garden produce, corn, beasts, and id genus omne, for sale: because there they could meet one another, and buy and sell as their needs required, hence the commencement of a market weekly. From the Courts just mentioned there lay an appeal, if either plaintiff or defendant were not satisfied, to a County Court, held about Easter and Michaelmas, and over these a bishop and ealderman presided. To this superior Court also came numbers who, at the various intermediate Court-leets were not satisfied. And as large numbers came together, a greater and better opportunity was afforded for selling their wares and goods, corn, beasts, stuffs, linens. “In this we can trace the origin of fairs, which were generally held twice a year, on or about the times mentioned.” This is the dictum of Mr. G. Lambert, F.S.A., in a paper read before the London and Middlesex Archæological Society in 1880, the substance of which is published in the “Antiquary,” ii., pp. 102-3. The fairs here are seen to be purely secular institutions.

It was by the Normans that the fairs of England were moulded into the shape with which we are most familiar. The Norman kings placed themselves largely under the influence of the Papal throne; and it was to the Church, or in the interest of the Church, that nearly all fairs were granted after the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century. It was under John, early in the thirteenth century, that the power of the Church became most pronounced in England, and it is during this reign that most of the existing charters of fairs date.

Trying to harmonize these somewhat conflicting views, it may be supposed that some of our fairs at least were established during the Roman occupation. These were probably largely added to during the Anglo-Saxon period. The Normans admittedly encouraged fairs in the interest of the Church. The fairs of the first and second category were mostly fairs established by prescription, the latter were chiefly established by charter. But in the course of centuries the identity of origin becomes lost. Shepheard, in his “Corporations, Fraternities, and Guilds” (published 1659), says: “It is very usual in these Charters to confirm the old markets and fairs, and to grant new markets and Fairs. Or to change the dayes of the old markets or Fairs. And to grant to the Corporation the Py-powder Court and Incidents and profits of the Fair.” (P. 69.)

I am disposed to believe that many of the early fairs associated with religious observances and ceremonies, were in their inception fairs of prescription only: that is to say, fairs which took their origin in passing events, without any special authority, and that upon later occasions charters were obtained. Bailey says that in ancient times amongst Christians, upon any extraordinary solemnity, particularly the anniversary dedication of a church, tradesmen used to bring and sell their wares even in the churchyards, especially upon the festival of the dedication; as at Westminster, on St. Peter’s Day; at London, on St. Bartholomew’s; at Durham, on St. Cuthbert’s Day, &c.; but riots and disturbances often happening, by reason of the numbers assembled together, privileges were by royal charter granted, for various causes, to particular places, towns, and places of strength, where magistrates presided, to keep the people in order. (“Pop. Antiq.,” Brand.)