A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Northampton market, and led. traverse toll upon 

 laden waggons going through the town, and a great 

 body of legal precedents was cited — and misinter- 

 preted — by counsel for and against the corporation.** 

 Judgment was given for Lancum, the lessee of the 

 corporation, in February 1832, but an application for 

 a new trial was granted, on the ground of the rejection 

 of legal evidence, in January 1833.*^ However, the 

 defendant, an old countryman, died in July 1833 

 before the fresh trial could be held.*' The case 

 revealed a good deal of ill feeling between the corpora- 

 tion and the agriculturists of the surrounding district, 

 though a declaration signed by 244 farmers and graziers 

 of the neighbouriiood expressed their appreciation 

 of the value of the Northampton fairs.*' One of 

 the first acts of the reformed corporation was 

 to discontinue the traverse toUs, as contrary to 

 the spirit of the time and the freedom of trade, 

 in i836.8« 



The fact that leather clippings were 

 TRADES found with a coin of Edward the Con- 

 fessor at the bottom of a well covered by 

 the Norman earthworks of the castle*' has been 

 adduced in proof of the existence of a pre-Conquest 

 leather trade. There is, however, no early evidence 

 of any outside market for Northampton leather goods 

 and all the medieval sources suggest that textile 

 industries took the first place in the days of the 

 town's early prosperity. The earliest custumal 

 (c. 1 1 90) mentions no craft but that of the weaver, 

 who is classed with the nurse as a domestic servant not 

 to be enticed away by a rival employer.^ It also refers 

 to the sale of wool, thread, fresh hides, honey, tallow, 

 cheese and flesh by the burgesses at the fair. In 1202 

 Northampton was one of eleven towns which pur- 

 chased the right to buy and sell dyed cloth as they 

 were wont to do under King Henry, that is, without 

 keeping the assize of 1 197.'^ VVe have seen that the 

 Northampton fairs were noteworthy for the sale of 

 cloth and of furs in the reigns of John and Henry HI, 

 and the petition of the burgesses to Parhament in 

 1334 indicates that some of this cloth at least was 

 home made. ' In the time of King Henry . . . when 

 the staple of wool was at divers places in England . . . 

 there were at Northampton 300 workers of cloths, 

 who paid on every cloth a fixed sum towards the 

 farm of the town, as well as a fixed rent from their 

 houses where they used to dweU in the said town, 

 which are now fallen to the ground.'*^ The 13th cen- 

 tury custumal contains regulations as to dyeing, and 

 regulations as to the weaving of cloth, dated 1 251, 

 which bear out the other evidence as to the impor- 

 tance of the trade. 



Clause 23. Consideratum est quod nullus operarius 

 pannorum ponat in panno suo, sc. imperiali, brasil 



nee tinctum de verme, nee in albo stragulato scorthe 

 neque aiiam falsam tincturam. . . . 



24. Si pannus inueniatur terra tinctus, et proprius 

 pannus fuerit tinctoris, amittatur, et si alienus et 

 ex consensu ipsius fecerit, similiter amittatur. Et 

 sinon de consensu ipsius tinctor abjuret oificium 

 suum per annum et diem. . . . 



25. Nullus tinctor menstruet aliquem pannum 

 cake. . . . 



26. Nullus operatur pannos nisi pannus sit de 

 rationabili sequela sc. peior ulna in panno tincto non 

 valeat minus unum denarium ad plus et imperiale 

 unum obolum. 



34. Consideratur quod si aUquis textor alicuius 

 pannum male texerit et super hoc convictus fuerit 

 amittat laborem suum (et) duos denarios ad commo- 

 dum ville. 



35. Operatores pannorum qui textores sunt non 

 sedeant super utensiUa'^ ad pannos suos proprios nee 

 aUenos texandos.'* . . . 



36. Provisum est quod quihbet pannus albus sit de 

 triginta et triginta porteriis et imperiale de viginti et sex 

 et viginti septem. Albus stragulatus eius latitudinis.** 



These regulations indicate advanced development 

 both in technique and in organisation ; both dyers 

 and weavers are represented as working with other 

 men's material. Other regulations provide that 

 woaders from outside the town may only bring in 

 woad and sell it by Ucence of inspectors,^ and forbid 

 dyers to throw their waste products into the streets." 

 Scarlet Well is mentioned as early as 1239,** and local 

 tradition, according to Morton, asserted that London 

 cloth had formerly been sent to Northampton to be 

 dyed," and that cloth miscoloured at Nottingham 

 was brought to a good scarlet here. ^ The eyre roll 

 of 1247 records the death of a dyer, scalded by falHng 

 into a vat of his own dye.^ The Fullers' Street is 

 mentioned in a deed of 1250-60,^ the Drapery 1202- 

 1220,* the VVimplers' Row as early as 1189-94.^ 

 Northampton burgesses were employed as experts by 

 Henry III to buy cloth for him at Ljmn and Stamford.* 

 In 1274 the jurors giving a list of the craftsmen 

 {menestralli) who have left the town to escape the 

 heavy tallages, mention fullers, weavers, dyers, 

 drapers, glovers and skinners,' and mention burgesses 

 with the surnames VVaydour (or woader) Mercer, 

 Comber, Tinctor, as well as a lituirius. The estreats 

 of the town court, c. 1290, mention a taverncr, a 

 carpenter, a baker, a fisher, a maltmongcre, a miller, 

 a knyfsmith, a carter, a peyntour, a skynnere, a woman 

 maker of cords, a catour, a laver, a latoner, a tailor, 

 and a plomer.* Pentecost de Kershalton, mayor of 

 Northampton in 1297, 1301, 1302, 1304, 1307 and 

 probably some other years also, was a ' deyster.' ' 



The petition of 1334 testifies to a decline in cloth 



" Report oj the Trial of tbt Norlbampt. 

 Toll CauiCy Lancum v. Lowell, NorthampC. 

 1833. 



•* Ibid. pp. 313-455. " Ibid. p. 461. 



•' lloro. Kec. ii, 2C7. " Ibid, ii, io8. 



•• Alloc. Arch. Soc. Rcpl. xv, pt. ii, 

 p. 205. 



•• nate«on, Boro. CuiUmt (S.S.) i, 215. 



•' Pipe R. 48, m. II d. 



•> Pari. R. ii, 85. 



" Thii would appear to forbid the uje 

 o{ a loom in which the warp wai kept 

 light by meant of a bar on which the 

 weaver lat, initcad of hit uiual teparate 



leat. This would produce an uneven 

 •train, .nnd »o bad cloth. (Information 

 from Mr. L. F. Salzman.) 



•• The last two clauses arc dated 25 

 March, 35 Henry III. 



" Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.), 98, fl. 161 v, 

 162. 



»• Ibid. fo. 162 V. ; c.f. Batcion, Rec. of 

 Boro. of Lticei. i, 250. 



•' Douce MS. (Bodl. Lib.),98,fo. 161 v. 



" Boro. Rec. ii, 256. 



" Morton, Nat. Hiit. of Northanit. 

 (1712), p. 270. Not as stated in V.C.U. 

 Nortbants. ii, 336, in Morton's own time. 



26 



' Boro. Rec. ii, 256. 



' Assize R, 614 B. m. 48 d. This seemt 

 to be the meaning of ' cecidit in uno 

 plurnbo buUicnti de jalcis* (weld ?). 



' Anct. D. (I'.R.O.) A. 9876. 



•Cott. MS. Tib. E. 5,fo. 181 b. 



• Northampt. Corp. Deeds, Press 

 Ci. 



• Cat. Pat. 1232-47, pp. 300, 449. 

 ' Rol. Hund. ii, 3. 



' Northantt. Notes and Queries (New 

 Ser.\ V, 203-211. 



• Boro. Rec. ii, 549 ; Memoranda Rolls ; 

 Northampt. Corp. Deeds, Press C. 43. 



