A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and caps were used on Sundays and holydays" ; but 

 these special officers were not appointed every year. 



The juries of the courts leet were constantly occu- 

 pied with the sanitary conditions of the town." The 

 water supply was regulated." OiFensive trades were 

 checked.** The streets were kept clear,*' householders 

 being required to repair the pavements, and encroach- 

 ments by steps, porches or horsing-stones forbidden.™ 

 The markets and traders needed constant supervision "; 

 regrators and forestallers were punished," standards 

 for weights and measures provided and enforced," 



improper qualities of provisions and goods noticed. 

 The morals and amusements of the inhabitants re- 

 ceived attention ; " rules were made for alehouses," 

 for the residence of unmarried women in the town, 

 for limiting the expenses of wedding-feasts " ; for 

 stocks, dungeon, pillory and cucking stools '^ ; also for 

 the public waits,"" the practice of archery," and the 

 games of tip-cat and football.*' An endeavour was 

 made to prevent fires by ordering the stock of fuel to 

 be kept at a distance from the dwelling.^ A special 

 night watch was appointed for the winter." Swine 



■"^ Ct. Leet Rec. i, 199, 200. Butter 

 and suet were forbidden to be put into 

 bread or cakes ; ibid, i, 69, 259. Later, 

 butter and eggs were forbidden in ginger- 

 bread ; ibid, iii, 320. Breadmakers in 

 1639 were ordered to sell to innkeepers 

 and others at thirteen to the dozen, not 

 at sixteen as they had begun to do. Ibid, 

 iii, 289. 



■IS In the 1 6th century, judging from 

 the regulations for dunghills, privies, pig- 

 sties and gutters, the town was unsavoury. 

 Casting carrion and other oiFensive matter 

 into the Irwell and Irk was forbidden ; 

 ibid, i, 67, 80, 12Z ; iii, 60. 



*^ In 1573 collectors were appointed to 

 father money for the repair of the con- 

 duit, a ' special ornament of the town,* 

 and bring water to it from fresh springs ; 

 ibid, i, 160. The conduit was in Ij86 

 ordered to be unlocked in the winter 

 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and in the summer 

 from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and from 3 p.m. 

 to 6 p.m.; this was the revival of an order 

 made in 1536 ; ibid, i, 259, Washing at 

 the conduit was forbidden in 1586 ; ibid. 

 i, 257. 



^^ See, for example, the order to a skin- 

 <lresser, ibid, i, 117. 



^3 In 1461 it was allowed that each 

 burgage plot should have a clear space of 

 ground from the house front to the middle 

 of the channel ; to this the lord had no 

 claim, but the burgess could lot build 

 upon it or close it up, and had ro keep it 

 clean ; De Trafford D. no. 49. 



50 The first presentment recorded is 

 ' that Lawrence Langley hath encroached 

 upon the king's highway with building of 

 a house ' ; Cr. Leet Rec. i, 4 ; see also 118, 

 185. Erecting a porch in front of a house 

 Tvas a favourite practice, but was often 

 forbidden as obstructing the pathway ; i, 

 185. Stiles were ordered to be erected at 

 the ends of byways ; ibid, i, 22. Leaving 

 baulks of timber about the streets appears 

 to have been a common oifence ; e.g. i, 

 103. 



" See the regulations made in 1568 for 

 keeping the market-place dean. Horses 

 were not to be tied there to be fed ; 

 coopers and apple dealers were to pay a 

 small fee to the scavenger ; iish-dealers at 

 Smithy Door must fix their boards over the 

 channel ; ibid, i, 121. The standing 

 place of dealers in turnips, besoms, and 

 straw hats was regulated in 1578 ; ibid. 



i, 20I, 



By 1593 a second weekly market had 

 grown up, so that Saturday and Monday 

 were market days ; and ten years later a 

 smallwares market on Friday was forbid- 

 <len, but had at last to be allowed ; ibid, 

 ii, 78, 189, 295. 



^2 The law in this matter was kept in 

 force. In 1582 John Birch alias Crook, 

 miller, was forbidden to buy any malt, 

 grain, or com within the market, and sell 

 it again in the said market ; ibid, i, 232, 

 The offences were guarded against as late 



as 1 771; Mancb. Constables' Accts, iii, 

 206. 



^ An order was made in 1566 that 

 lawful weights of brass should be provided 

 and sealed with the town seal ; Ct, 

 Leet Rec. i, 104. The lord of the manor 

 was requested to provide a standard set for 

 use in Manchester; ibid, i, 126, 154. 

 The market-lookers had charge of them ; 

 ibid, i, 256. In later volumes of the 

 Records will be found numerous lists of 

 persons lined for using wrong measures. 



^ See the injunctions to tanners ; ibid, 

 i, 1 84, &c., and as to wet rug or cotton 

 in the streets ; i, 129. 



'5 Thus, an angry woman was punished 

 for calling someone ' no honest man ' and 

 'a recetter (receiver) of thieves.' Two 

 women who had stolen ' chips ' from a 

 house ' contrary to honesty and civil order, 

 and to the evil example of all good peo- 

 ple,' were sent to condign punishment ; 

 afterwards they were to kneel down and 

 ask mercy from God and the person de- 

 frauded. An eaves-dropper was expelled 

 from the town in 1573 j ibid, i, 24, 70, 



•55- 



''The jury ini573 expressed the opinion 

 that thirty alehouses and inns were enough 

 for Manchester; ibid, i, 153. In 1588 

 complaint was made of the number of 

 alehouses and bakers in the town ; Local 

 Glean. Lanes, and Ches. i, 127. It had 

 been ordered in 1560 that no one should 

 brew or sell unless he had * two honest 

 beds ' for travellers ; in which case he 

 must hang out a hand as a sign. Those 

 who had a larger number of beds were also 

 to show * a fair and commendable sign ' 

 for the benefit of strangers ; Ct. Leet 

 Rec. i, 60. Further regulations were made 

 from time to time ; no drink or food was 

 to be sold, except to passengers, during 

 time of divine service ; drunken men were 

 to be punished by a night in the dungeon ; 

 ibid, i, 151, 161, 185. 



^1 Single women were not to be ' at 

 their own hands ' and bake, brew or 

 otherwise trade for themselves ; nor might 

 they keep any house or chamber in the 

 town; ibid, i, 241. 'Inmakes' and 

 strangers were not to be received as lodgers 

 unless they had appeared before the con- 

 stables of the town and given an account 

 of themselves : this was to prevent the 

 settling of beggars and idle persons ; ibid, 

 i, 226. 



** No one was to pay more than 4//. at 

 a wedding dinner ; ibid, i, 84. This order 

 was frequently renewed. 



*' In 1569 the lord of the manor was 

 requested to make ' a pair of stocks ' ; 

 ibid, i, 126. 



The dungeon was the old chapel on the 

 bridge. It appears to have had an upper 

 and a lower chamber ; ibid. It remained 

 in use until 1778, when on the bridge 

 being widened it was removed. A cage, 

 or temporary place of confinement, was 

 also in use in 1590; ibid, ii, 47. The 



cross, stocks, and cage are mentioned ai 

 standing near each other in the market 

 place in 1600; ibid, ii, 163. A House 

 of Correction existed in 1615 ; ibid, ii, 

 335. The Cucking-stool Pool is named 

 in 1586, and the cuckstool was 'in great 

 decay' in 1590; ibid, ii, 6, 47, 178. 

 This instrument of punishment remained 

 in use till 1775 or later. The pillory or 

 gallows ordered in 1625 were in use in 

 the Civil War ; ibid, iii, 80, 93, ; iv, 64. 

 Whipping was a punishment used for both 

 men and women; ibid, ii, 333, 334. 



™ Two waits were appointed in 1563 ; 

 ibid, i, 83. They were to 'do theirduties 

 in playing morning and evening together, 

 according as others have been heretofore 

 accustomed to do ' ; ibid, i, X15. There 

 were four waits in all, and in 1588 and 

 later it was found necessary to protect 

 them from the competition of 'strange 

 pipers and other minstrels ' who came to 

 play at weddings, &c.; ibid, ii, 29, 163, 

 164. 



'' The butts were erected at different 

 times in Marketstead Lane, and at Colly- 

 hurst, also at Alport and in Garrett Lane ; 

 ibid, i, 55, 177, 196; iii, 142. Each 

 burgess was in 1566 ordered to provide an 

 ' able man ' armed with bill, halberd or 

 other weapon to attend the steward upon 

 fair days ; ibid, i, 100. This entry was 

 marked out. There is an essay on Man- 

 chester Archery in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq, 

 Soc. xviii, 61. 



'" No one over twelve years of age was 

 allowed to play 'giddy-gaddy or the cat's 

 pallet '; Ct. Leet Rec. i, 205. Football in the 

 streets was forbidden in 1608 because of 

 the ' great disorder ' it caused, and the 

 charges incurred by the inhabitants in 

 'making and amending of their glass 

 windows, broken yearly and spoiled by a 

 company of lewd and disordered persons ' ; 

 ibid, ii, 239. The word 'yearly' should 

 be noticed. 



''Stocks of firewood, gorse and 'kids,' 

 or bundles of brushwood, were in 1590 

 ordered to be removed to a distance from 

 each dwelling-house ; ibid, ii, ;o, 51 ; see 

 also 83, 288. A dangerous fire led the 

 jury in 1616 to order a lay for providing 

 ladders, buckets, hooks, and ropes to be 

 ready in case of any like casualty; ibid, ii, 

 308. In 1636 the watchmen were en- 

 gaged to walk the town from 10 p.m. to 

 4 a.m. in order to discover or prevent out- 

 breaks of fire ; ibid, iii, 248. 



" The watchman of 1568 had to pro- 

 vide himself with a jack, a sallet, and a 

 bill at least ; ibid, i, 123. It was suspected 

 in 1578 that the watchmen had been 

 bribed by gamesters and other evil-doers, 

 and the constables were exhorted to 

 appoint none but 'honest, discreet and 

 sober men . . . favourers to virtue and 

 enemies to vice' ; ibid, i, 195. 



The night-watch for protection against 

 fire and burglary was appointed in 1636 ; 

 ibid, iii, 248. 



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