SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



office. In 1399 Roger Cook, when summoned to cart wheat, at first 

 would not come, and when he did, flung his first load on the tithe heap 

 and his second on the ground, so that all the sheaves were broken, and 

 the carts had to pass over them to get into the grange ; but the proceed- 

 ings against him were stayed by the homage finding he ' had done all 

 things well.' And so it goes on until in the fifteenth century the 

 unquiet annals of the manor settle down, except for occasional defaults 

 and troubles about the heriots. There are always long lists of defaulters 

 from suit of court, and in 1462 they were called before the steward 

 and allowed their obligation to render all dues, customs and services 

 owing to the lord, promising faithfully to observe them in future and 

 placing themselves in mercy for their past faults ; which did not prevent 

 most of them being in default again at the next court. 89 



As to the effects of the Peasants' Revolt on the economic conditions 

 of Middlesex, it is difficult to see that they were great, though this con- 

 clusion may partly be due to the paucity of our information. The granting 

 of leases was more advanced by the Black Death than by the revolt, and 

 as for the extinction of base services, commutations had begun on some 

 manors long before, and in others only commenced long after the 

 rebellion. 



The Middlesex markets and fairs are not of any great importance 

 or special interest. Henry III and the three Edwards granted charters 

 founding or confirming grants of seven markets and nine fairs, with all the 

 liberties and free customs usually appertaining to them. Norden, in the 

 Speculum, only mentions four market towns, Brentford, Staines, Uxbridge, 

 and Harrow, but Middleton in rygS 90 gives ten fairs and nine weekly 

 markets, namely, Barnet, Southall, Finchley, Uxbridge, Brentford, 

 Hounslow, Edgeware, Staines and Enfield. 



Henry III, in 1228, granted an annual fair at Staines to the abbot 

 of Westminster to last for four days at Ascensiontide. 91 But in his reply 

 to a Quo Warranto inquisition of 12934, the abbot claimed by grant of 

 Henry III a four days' fair at the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin 

 (8 September), as well as a weekly market which he had had time out 

 of mind and which was altered from Sunday to Friday by Henry III in 

 1218. 9S The grants were inspected and confirmed by Edward I. 



Henry III also granted to the archbishop of Canterbury a Monday 

 market at his manor of Harrow, and a three days' fair at the Nativity of 

 the Virgin. 93 Edward IPs only grant of a market in Middlesex was to 

 the archbishop, of a Wednesday market and of a two days' fair at the 

 Feast of the Nativity; 94 and finally the archbishop obtained from 

 Edward III in 1336 a Wednesday market and two fairs at Pinner for 

 three days at the Nativity and for two at the Decollation of St. John 

 Baptist (24 June and 29 August.) 9 



\9S 



89 P.R.O. Ct. R. Ric. II, bdle. 191, Nos. 14-17, 22. 



90 Agric. In Mldd. M Chart. R. 12 Hen. Ill, m. 7. 



91 Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 476 ; Close, 2 Hen. Ill ; P.R.O. Cal. 381. 



93 Cal. of Chan. R. ii, 38. M P.R.O. Chart. R. 8 Edw. II, No. 10. 



"Chart. R. 10 Edw. Ill, No. 31. 



85 



