PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



In the reign of Charles I the action of the feoffees 

 seems to have excited criticism, and a 'commission of 

 pious and charitable uses in Peterborough ' sat in 

 1633. As a result the feoffees weredirected to spend 

 their funds on the maintenance of the parish church 

 and on the highways to the north of the river. 

 From the same period comes an undated order for the 

 repayment by the feoffees or their heirs of certain sums 

 misappropriated by the town bailiffs 1612-27. In 

 1635 the feoffees and other inhabitants got an opinion 

 from Sir John Finch, Lord Chief Justice of Common 

 Pleas, favourable to the use of the trust funds for the 

 repair of the bridge. 



In 165; Cromwell directed another commission of 

 inquiry, by inquest, as to what moneys were spent on 

 the poor, the sick, or scholars, on bridges, roads, etc. 

 in Peterborough and Bainton,' to discover abuses and 

 make order accordingly. In 1657 the commissioners 

 ordered the feoffees (or governors, as they were called 

 in the Cromwellian period), to offer the town lands 

 publicly in an annual meeting at the gildhall, on 

 the best and most beneficial leases. In 1683 a list of 

 the feoffees' lands was made as the result of an inquest, 

 and the lands are stated to be held for the relief of 

 the poor, to put out apprentices (being 6therless 

 children, as appears from another source), and to 

 repair the church, bridges, streets, etc. 



In 1668 the municipal character of the feoffees' 

 powers is shown by the expenditure of j^io on 

 a metal stamp, and the coinage of half-pence bearing 

 two swords in saltire between four crosses pattee 

 fitchee.' 



Once more, in 1778, abuses were complained of, 

 and the dean and chapter ordered the feoffees to 

 show their papers, but the fact that the dean's bailiff 

 was himself a feoffee seems generally to have secured 

 harmonious relations. 



By an Act of 30 George III, for the paving and 

 improving of the city and township, the feoffees were 

 relieved of their care of the paving and lighting in 

 certain parts of the city on a payment of ;^5oo, and 

 their duties devolved on a body of improvement 

 commissioners, who were empowered to le\'y a rate 

 and to appoint the watchmen. The Minster Close 

 and the Boongate Ward, lying east of Swanspool, as 

 also the Westgate, were not included in the sphere 

 of the commissioners' power, these parts being reserved 

 for the control of the dean and chapter. This Act 

 was repealed 13-14 Victoria, c. 93, and improvement 

 commissioners were again appointed, and excluded 

 from operations only in Boongate and Boonfield, 

 unless the inclusion of this area should be asked. 

 The incorporation of the borough 17 March, 1874, 

 brought this arrangement to an end. The government 

 of the borough was vested in a mayor, six aldermen 

 and eighteen councillors, and the town was divided 

 into three wards, north, south and east. A west 

 ward has since been added. The charter of incor- 

 poration was obtained ' after a long and costly op- 

 position on the part of the lord paramount, the custot 

 rotulorum, and the justices of the liberty.' The 

 powers of the feoffees are now those of a charitable 

 trust only ; they control certain almshouses and 

 charities, and share in the control of Deacon's School. 



The corporation owns the electric lighting and the 

 waterworks, and since 1 892 has owned the cattle- 

 market, till then in the the hands of a company. In 

 1874 the town first obtained a borough seal and 

 municipal insignia.' 



From 154.8 to 1885 the town returned two 

 members of parliament. Before the Reform Bill 

 (1832) the electors were all housekeepers in the 

 town, paying scot and lot, and all inhabitants in the 

 precincts of the minster.* In 1727 a curious con- 

 flict arose owing to the fact that the writ had been 

 addressed by the sheriff sometimes to the bailiff of 

 the dean and chapter and sometimes to the bailiff of 

 Lord Exeter. The dean and chapter having neglected 

 to contest the matter, which was one of little im- 

 portance to them, a conflict was postponed, till in 

 1727 each bailiff returned a different member, and 

 the matter was decided in fevour of the dean and 

 chapter's bailiff. 



The nature of the trades chiefly practised in 

 Peterborough in mediaeval times is indicated by the 

 names of the streets ; Combengate (now Cumbergate) 

 was the quarter of the wool-combers. In Webster gate 

 was a settlement of Brabant weavers in Richard II's 

 time, as the early records show, and from the trades 

 also come the names Saltersgate, Cook Row, and 

 Souter Row (the shoemakers' quarter). In modern 

 times the trade has been principally in agricultural 

 stock, corn, malt, coal, timber and bricks, and latterly 

 elastic web and boot and shoe factories have been 

 established. There are two important fairs, one on 

 the second Tuesday and Wednesday in July for wood, 

 wool, cattle and horses, held in the market-place and 

 the cattle-market, and the other on the first Tuesday 

 to Thursday in October for stock and general goods. 

 This fair is held on the south side of the river in 

 the fields near the river, and represents the old 

 St. Matthew's fair. 



The town hall,* on the west side of the market- 

 place, is a pretty building of two stories, with a hipped 

 roof of grey slates and an east gable, in which is a 

 panel with the royal arms. It was built by the 

 feoffees, aided by a grant from Lord Exeter in 167 1. 

 The ground story is open on three sides, with 

 moulded serai-circular arches. 



The church of St. John the Baptist stands due 

 west of the west gateway of the cathedral precincts, 

 separated from it by the market-place and town hall. 

 The level of its floor is some feet below that of the 

 adjoining streets, and the churchyard lies at some 

 distance to the west. 



It was built on a new site in 1402 as a successor 

 to the former parish church of Peterborough, which 

 stood to the east of the abbey, in an inconvenient 

 position, as the town had in course of time grown up 

 on the west side of the monastic precincts, and w.is 

 consequently separated from its church. The materials 

 of the old church, and those of the nave of the 

 chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury, near the west 

 gate of the abbey precinct, were used up in the new 

 building. It has a chancel of three bays, with north 

 and south chapels a little shorter than the chancel ; 

 a n.ive of seven bays, with north and south aisles and 

 porches, and a west tower overlapped by the aisles on 



1 The reason of the association of 

 Bainton with Peterborough in this con- 

 nexion is unknown. 



' Cf. Sweeting, loc. cit. p. 26, and 

 Boyne-WiUiamson, Toktm, ii, 894, on the 



overseer*! halfpenny (octagonal) 1666, and 



the town bailitTs halfpenny, 1670. 



^ For a full description, see Jewitt and 

 Hope, Cirf>oraUiin Plate. 



* Bridges, Nortiants, ii, 559. Mere- 



429 



wether and Stephens' Hittory cf Boroughs, 

 p. 1764. 



* The hall is figured by Loftic in Anhit. 

 Rev. (1903), xiii, 219. 



