CHAPTER VIII.

CHRONOLOGY, THIRTEENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES—STURBRIDGE.

1278. The Commissioners of Edward I. (already referred to) returned upon inquest that King John had granted this Fair for the benefit of the Hospital for Lepers which stood there. “To the said Hospital belongs a certain Fair, held at the Feast of the raising and exaltation of the Cross, which continues to this eve of Holy Cross, within the meadow belonging to the said Hospital, which Fair our sovereign Lord King John, the predecessor of our present Lord the King, granted to the said Hospital, for the use and subsistence of the Lepers dwelling therein.”

1351. A writ was on 3rd Oct. directed to the Sheriff of Cambridgeshire requiring him to convey to the Keeper of the King’s Wardrobe in the Tower of London, thirty-seven strait cloths, and one cloth of colour, lately seized in the Fair of Steresbrigge to the King’s use, by his deputy Alnager, as not being of the assize and which were then in the custody of the Mayor of Cambridge.

1376. This year the Corporation of Cambridge made an Ordinance, prohibiting any burgess to take Sturbridge Chapel to farm, except to the use of the mayor and bailiffs, or to keep market there, under the penalty of 10 marks, or to make any booth there, or let any place for the building of a booth, under the penalty of 10s.; and any burgesses convicted of a breach of this Ordinance before the twenty-four [members of the Common Council] was to be deprived of his freedom at their discretion.

1382. The King being informed that many false weights and measures had been theretofore used in Steresbrigge Fair, to the deception of his subjects resorting thereto, issued a Writ on 3rd Sept. requiring the Chancellor of the University to be vigilant in exercising in that fair the powers conferred on him by the late Charter [1381] respecting weights and measures.

Two years later a dispute arose between the Corporation and the University regarding the exercise of this right. The King confirmed the privilege of the University.

1395. Richard II. made order that the sheriff was to apprehend all persons who broke the peace in Bernwell Fair, whether scholars or townsmen.

1397. On Hoch Tuesday the commonalty of Cambridge made Ordinances to the following effect: ...