BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



The street names of Northampton are a fairly clear 

 indication of the marketing centres of the medieval 

 town. Sheep Street, The Horse Market, and the 

 Hog Market lie in the north-western quarter ; Corn 

 Hill,^ Malt Hill and Wood Hill north and east of the 

 Market Square ; Mercers Row to the south and the 

 Drapery to the west of it, whilst W'oolmonger Street 

 runs to the south west, and Gold Street (once Gold- 

 smiths' Street) runs west from tlie centre of the town. 

 Henry Lee believed that the original market square 

 was in the open space known as the Mayorhold or 

 Marehold where the first Town Hall stood ;'"' but 

 the early description of All Saints' as (/^/ero** suggests 

 that in the 1 2th century the market was already held 

 where it is to-day. The market square itself, known 

 as the Chequer from the 14th century, has long been 

 held one of the chief distinctions of Northampton. 

 Morton in 17 1 2 says ' The Market Hill is lookt upon 

 as the finest in Europe ; a fair, spacious, open place.' " 

 Pennant calls it ' an ornament to the town ; few can 

 boast the hke,' *^ and the Chartist Gammage calls it 

 ' one of the prettiest in England.' ** The butchers' 

 stalls or shambles to which a number of early deeds 

 refer** were probably placed here, and it is supposed 

 that the rows mentioned in early deeds, such as 

 wimplers' row, mercers' row, cobblers' row, cooks' row 

 and malt row'* ran along the west side of the square, 

 where to-day a line of shops separates the Drapery 

 from the market place. A market cross is mentioned 

 in 14th and 15th century deeds, and the new one, 

 erected in 1535, a fine piece of Renaissance work, as 

 described by Henry Lee,** was destroyed in the fire 

 of 1675. The market place also contained the great 

 conduit, erected about 1481, a building of two or 

 three stories, with a l.all above the conduit which was 

 used for meetings of companies that had constitu- 

 tions for regulating trade," and with arches below 

 containing shops in the 17th and a bridewell in the 

 1 8th century. These, with all the buildings round the 

 market square, except the Town Hall and Dr. Danvers' 

 House in its north-east corner, were destroyed in the 

 fire of 1675.'* From an early date the market square 

 has been the centre of the civic no less than the 

 mercantile life of the borough, and has witnessed a 

 series of notable pubhc meetings such as the holding 

 of the forest eyre of 1637,** the disputed election ' by 

 the popularity ' in 1663,'" the great debate between 

 Fergus O'Connor and Richard Cobden in 1844,'^ 

 down to the public reception of the present King and 

 Queen on 23 September 191 3. ''^ 



The fair and market days were the only occasions 

 on which foreigners were allowed to sell their wares in 



Northampton, and the fair and market tolls made an 

 important part of the borough revenues. They were 

 levied by the town bailiffs or their deputies at a fixed 

 scale of rates, revised from time to time in the assem- 

 bly.'* Besides the market tolls, smaller tolls on the 

 sale of corn and wood in the town were leviable, and 

 the corn toll was collected in kind down to 1775.'* 

 The position of Northampton as the county market 

 town is well illustrated by the corn riots of 1693-4. 

 In November 1693 the 'mobile' cut sacks of corn 

 and threw the wagons into the river on several market 

 days in succession, whilst many came to the market 

 with knives in their girdles to force the sale of corn at 

 their own prices.'* In June 1694 again loads of corn 

 were seized and the mayor and his brethren defied 

 and knocked about ; and a free fight took place in 

 which two were killed and some sixty wounded." 

 The occasion of the riots was the dearth noted by 

 Lee, together with the sight of corn being sold in 

 large quantities out of the town — presumably for the 

 troops over sea." The market for beasts and sheep, 

 of little or no importance in the 1 8th century, was 

 revived in 1802 by the mayor of that time and 

 developed steadily thenceforward." 



Besides the tolls on sales, traverse tolls were col- 

 lected, from the 12th century if not earlier, from 

 beasts and burdens passing through the town. In 

 the oldest borough custumal (<-. 1 190) it is said that 

 these tolls are collected at certain fixed places." 

 According to the presentment of the jurors in the 

 eyre of 1329,*" they hai been collected since 1264, 

 when the town was in the king's hand, at points along 

 the roads leading to Northampton, distant, in some 

 cases, as much as fifteen miles from the town, so as to 

 prevent strangers evading the toll by going round the 

 town instead of through it. At this date the toll 

 places were at Slipton on the Kettering road, at 

 BiUing Bridge on the WeUingborough road, and at 

 Syresham Cross on the Brackley Road.*^ In the 

 reign of Elizabeth the tolls were collected at the en- 

 trance to the town, and it had become customary for 

 the baihffs to lease the right of collecting them to 

 private persons.*^ In 1 765 the market tolls and traverse 

 tolls together were let at a rent of ^^87 a year. The 

 system was continued to 1829, the rents falhng to 

 70 guineas in 1801 and rising to ;^2I9 in 1829, owing 

 probably to stricter exaction. This increased strin- 

 gency led to resistance, and finally to the great Toll 

 Cause of Lancum v. Lovellin 1831, when the corpora- 

 tion incurred expenses of over j^2,ooo in defending 

 its rights to levy the tolls.*' The test case was 

 fought on a claim for lid. toll upon oxen bought in 



" The Corn Cbrpinge is mentioned in 

 1265 (Ca/. Chart, ii, 53) and the Strau- 

 tcbepingeia 1301 {Hiil.MSS. Com. Ref. 15, 



^fP- ». P- 73)- 



" Lee, Coll. p. 91. " See above. 



" Morton, Nat. Hiit. oj Nortbanu. p. 23. 



•' Jottnuy from Cbeiter to London (1780), 

 p. 306. 



•• R. C. Gammage, Hiit. oj the Chartist 

 Movement, 1894, p. 1 17. The iron lamp 

 in the middle of the market tquare was 

 given in 1863 \>y Capt. Samuel Isaacs of 

 the Northants RiSe Volunteers. 



** Anct. D. (P.R.O.),B. 2466, 2467,2484, 

 e.g. * quoddam schamellum in rengo 

 schamellorum camificum,' cf. ' Butchers 

 Row,' in Anct. D. B. 3232 ; ' Kytstalles,' 

 Boro. Ret. ii, 283. 



•• Northampt. Corp. Deeds, Press C. I, 

 C. 6 ; Anct. D. (P.R.O.), 6444, 2549, 2764 ; 

 Add Ch. 6117. 



" Lee, Coll. pp. 94-5. •' Ibid. p. 132. 



" Hartshorne, Hist. Mem. of Northampt. 

 p. 234. The Riding, a small street in this 

 neighbourhood, is named after the Riding 

 School, where Methodism was first 

 preached in Northampton in 1766. 



" Bridges, op. cit. i, 431. 



" Lee, Coll. p. 113 



" Gammage, Hist, of Chartist Move- 

 ment, p. 254-5. 



" Noriiamfl. Independent, 2. 



" Boro. /J«.ii, 188-90. "Ibid. 191. 



" Cal. S. P. Dom. 1693, p. 397. 



" Ibid. Add. 1689-1695, p. 262. 



" Ibid. p. 263 ; 1694-5, p. 228. 



25 



" Report of the Trial for the Northampt. 

 Toll Cause (Northampt. 1833), pp. 241-2. 

 The receipts for tolls and rents at the 

 Cattle Market were in 1914 ,{[2,923, and in 

 1927 ^[4,462 and for the General Market 

 in 1914 ,(|2,ioo and in 1927 ^[7,035. 



'• Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 98, £0. 

 159 v- 



" Assize R. 635, m. 51, m. 70. 



"So in the Liber Custumarum of c. 

 1460, Boro. Rec. i, 222. See also Rot. 

 Hund. ii, 2, and Assize R. 619, m. 75, for 

 private persons who were trying in 1274 

 and 1285 to usurp the town's right of 

 collecting these toUs. 



" Boro. Rec. ii, 201-206. 



" Pari. Papers 1835, vol. xxv, pp. 1971, 

 ■973- 



