Grants of markets and fairs appear to have been made by kings in former times by way of favour to the holders of manors, rather than from a wish to accommodate the people who shared the privileges. Madeley market was granted by the necesstous king, Henry III., to the Prior of Wenlock, July 6, 1269. He also granted an annual fair, to be held on three days; namely, on the vigil, the day, and the morrow of St. Matthew the apostle. The market was to be held on Tuesdays, but it fell into disuetude, and was either removed to or revived in another portion of the same manor; and the inhabitants of the village for many years, had no market nearer than Ironbridge or Dawley. The old market was at one time held at Cross Hill, in an open space where a group of cottages now divide the roads. It was also held at one time in a building which served as a market hall, now the property of Mr. Legge, adjoining the barn in which king Charles was lodged. Subsequently it was removed to Madeley Wood; and afterwards to Ironbridge, which was at that time a rising place. Ineffectual attempts were made in 1857 to re-establish a market, but nothing effectual was done till 1869, when an energetic committee was appointed, of which Mr. Legge was Treasurer and the writer of this article was Sec., which succeeded in establishing the market, first in the open street and secondly in treating with the lord of the manor, through his agent, W. R. Anstice, Esq., for the erection of a suitable building, on condition that a scale of tolls was adopted sufficient to cover the outlay. The market has proved of great advantage to the town; not only to purchasers but to tradesmen, by causing more ready money to be spent in the town than formerly.
Madeley as a part of the Franchise of Wenlock.
Madeley for the last 900 years has been associated with Wenlock. It formed part of the possessions of the Church of St. Milburgh in the time of King Edward (son of the Great Alfred) at the commencement of the tenth century, and is mentioned as such in Domesday. It shared the privileges which the many franchises obtained by the Prior of Wenlock conferred. These privileges and exemptions from taxation gave, Mr. Eyton observes, to each acre of land a two-fold value. On the other hand it suffered from the occasional extortions of the Priors, and inconveniences from being subject, as all lands of the Borough were, to the Mother Church of Holy Trinity, Wenlock. It was subject to the Courts of Wenlock, and as early as 1267 a case is mentioned in which the Provost of Wenlock and the Prior were engaged in disseizen one of the tenants of the Prior at Madeley.
The Bailiff and his peers, together with the Recorder, were Justice of the Peace, with a Jurisdiction co-extensive with the Borough.
These officers had Constables in the several divisions of the Borough, termed Allotments, sometimes Constablewicks. The men selected for the office appear to have been men of substance, standing, and integrity; and upon them devolved the duties of maintaining the laws, of collecting monies for the king &c.
Here, for instance, are the “Articles which the constables” of Madeley and Little Wenlock were called upon “to present upon oath.”
1.—What felonies have been committed and what default . and by and in-whom.
2.—What vagrant p’sns. and sturdy beggars have passed through yo’r. limitts unpunished, and whether the same and impotent poor of yo’r. p’ share provided for, and poor children bound apprentices according to Law.
3.—What Recusants of about the age of sixteen are in yo:e limitts, and who absent themselves from church on ye Lord’s Day, and how many sabbaths.
4.—Who have profaned the Sabbath by swearing, labouring or otherwise.
5.—What Ingrossers, forestalled, or . . . of the market, of cow or cattle, or other dead victuals are within yo’r limitts, or any Badgers or Drovers of cow or cattle.
6.—Who make mault to sell of corn or grain or tythe or tylth not being their own . and are not licensed thereunto.
7.—What Masters or Servants give or take greater wages than is appointed by Justices of the Peace according to Law.
8.—What cottagers or inmates are evicted, removed or maintained, and by whom, and how long.
9.—What unlawful games, drunkenness, tipling other evil rule or disorder hath been in Inns, ale houses &c. and by whom.
10.—What Servants have departed from their masters, and what masters have put away their servants within the compass of their time.
11.—Who use gunns, or take or destroy hawks or hawk’s eggs, of pheasants, partridges, younge deer, hares, snipes, fish, or fowl, with snares or other engines whatsoever for that purpose against the Law.
12.—Who use unlawful weights or measures or buy by a greater and sell by a lesser weight or measure.
13.—Whether watch and ward be duly observed and kept according to ye statute; that is to say, between Ascension Day and Michaelmas in convenient places, and who has made default therein.
14.—What highways have been repaired and what have been neglected.
15.—Who have sold beer, or syder, or perry, &c. unlicensed, or who hath evaded ye assize of bread and drink unlawfully, either the bakers or assizers.
16.—What butchers have killed or sold meate on the Lord’s Day, or sold any unwholesome flesh at any other time.
17.—Who have any assault, battery, or bloodshed.
18.—Who have profanely sworn or cursed, and how often.
19.—What common brawlers, drunkards, scoulds, eavesdroppers, talebearers, and such disordered p’sns are within y’re limits.
20.—Who have sold ale or beer on the Sabbath day, or who have been drinking or tipling in any alehouse on that day.
As the reader may surmise, from references to recusants and others who refused or neglected to attend church, or to acknowledge the supremacy of the King as the head, these instructions were drawn up and submitted by the Bailiff to the Constables of Madeley, Little Wenlock, Beckbury, and Badger, in the early part of reign of William and Mary.
Vagrants and sturdy beggars, it appears, were to be strictly looked after; they swarmed through the country, giving themselves up to pilfering; the women breeding children whom they brought up to the same idle way of living, so that, according to a writer about that period, (1677) there were 100,000 paupers in England. Harsh measures were therefore resorted to: the law of Settlement was passed, and once more the poor were reduced to bondage to the soil from which they had been emancipated a century or two before. By this law, which remained in force 130 years, and which was not repealed till the close of the last century, the poor were imprisoned within their allotments; and upon the complaints of the Churchwardens or Overseers, any two Justices of the Peace had power to lay hold of the new comer and within forty days remove him to the Parish in which he was last settled, unless he could prove that he was neither a pauper nor a vagabond, or that he rented a tenement of the value of £10 per annum.
Here, for instance, is a copy of a letter addressed to the constables of Madeley.