A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Fairs were held by custom at Whalley on the 

 feasts of the Conception and Annunciation of our 

 Lad)', but in I 5 19 Henry 

 V'lII transferred them to 

 Clitheroe.*^ In 1292, how- 

 ever, the lord claimed a 

 Saturday market at Clitheroe 

 by custom from the Conquest, 

 and a fair on the day and 

 morrow of St. Mary Magda- 

 lene by grant of King John.*^ 

 In 1825 the weekly market 

 was on Tuesday and the 

 annual fairs on 24-5 March, 

 1-2 August (Old St. Mary 

 Magdalene), Friday and Satur- 

 day after 29 September and 

 6-7 December.'* 



In 1593 the burgesses claimed the goods and 

 chattels of one John Lawson of Edisford who had 

 been convicted of felony at York but had saved his 

 life by ' the privilege and allowance of his clergy.' 

 The goods had been taken by the said Lawson and 

 another, and the burgesses petitioned Sir Francis 

 Walsingham as Chancellor of the Duchy to inter- 

 fere.'" 



The borough returned two members to Parlia- 

 ment from 1559.'' In 1694 it was decided by the 



Borough of Clithe- 

 Roi. A:^ur€ on a mount 

 •vert a casrie "with three 

 domed to'wers or. 



House of Commons that the right of election was 

 in the burgesses and freemen. The burgesses were 

 such as had in any land or houses in the borough an 

 estate of freehold or inheritance, and they were of 

 two sorts — out-burgesses, who lived out of the 

 borough, and in-burgesses who lived in the borough 

 and had such an estate in houses or land there ; and 

 both these had a right of electing. The freemen 

 were such as lived in the houses within the borough 

 as tenants, and they had the right of election when 

 the landlords did not vote for those houses ; but 

 when they did the tenants had no right of electing.*''' 

 In 1825 the burgage-holds were held by only 

 three proprietors. Earl Brownlow, Earl Howe and 

 Mr. Starkie of Huntroyde, and they returned the 

 members.^^ By the Reform Act of 1832 this abuse 

 was terminated, but only one member was allowed 

 to the borough ^^ ; while by the Redistribution Act 

 of 1885 Clitheroe ceased to be a parliamentary 

 borough, but gave its name to a division of the 

 county returning one member. 



The borough used to be governed by two bailiffs 

 chosen at the court leet, ^^ and three courts were 

 held — the court baron, court leet and court of 

 inquiry.^2 gy jj^g Municipal Act of 1835 four 

 aldermen and twelve councillors were elected and a 

 mayor replaced the two bailiffs. There is no division 

 into wards. The borough has a recorder, a com- 



wcrc held in 1343 as lo one messuage 

 held by a peppercorn rent, in 1 346 at to 

 a messuage, &c., held of Queen Isabel by 

 2j. %d. rent; in i36z as to thirteen 

 messuages, &c., held of the burgesses by 

 1 1 J. yearly; also as to ten messuages held 

 of the burgesses by js. %d, rent j the bur- 

 gesses held the borough of the earl by 10 

 marks yearly; Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. Ill 

 (2nd nos.), no. 4S ; 20 Edw. Ill (2nd 

 nos.), no. 62 ; 36 Edw, III, pt. ii (2nd 

 nos.), no. 39, 45. 



For a further purchase In 1429 sec 

 Dep, Keepers Rep. xxxiii, App. 30, 31. 

 This may be the same as that licensed in 

 1438 ; Cal. Pat. 1436-41, p. 178. 



The charters regarding the earliest of 

 these acquisitions arc in the fVhalley 

 Couch, iv, 1098-1135. Adam son of John 

 Brown of Clitheroe granted to Robert 

 Querderey in 1316a burgage and chamber- 

 place by Clitheroe Cross, between two 

 other burgages; ibid. 1100. Robert 

 Querderey in 1343 transferred the same 

 to trustees for the monks of Whalley, 

 who thereupon gave it to the abbey ; 

 ibid. 1101-2. The king's licence for the 

 acquisition is printed ibid. 1109, The 

 monks acquired in Malveysgate eight 

 messuages, in Wellgate two, in Kirkgate 

 three, in IMarketstreet three ; also lands 

 in the fields of Sydales, Withcns, Cross- 

 hill and Cokewell butts, in Ribblehill, in 

 Oldfield, under the castle, Lache Marsh, 

 and ail the lands and messuages which 

 had belonged to Sir Hugh de Clitheroe ; 

 ibid. 1 1 07. At the Suppression the abbey 

 had eighteen houses and various lands in 

 Clitheroe, yielding j^ 1 6 35. loi. a year; 

 ibid. 1215, 1236. 



One of the charters preserved shows 

 that a grantor had sold his land for 

 2 marks to help him to go on pilgrimage 

 towards Jerusalem J Ibid. 11 26. 



The reversion of messuages, &c., in 

 Clitheroe lately belonging to Whalley 

 Abbey was in 1560 sold by the Crown to 

 Giles and Brian Parker ; Pat. 2 Eliz. 



pt. iv. 



^ Harland, op. cit. 19-22, where the 

 date (from an old endorsement) 11 given 

 as Hen. IV. The official record, how- 

 ever, is 1 1 Hen. VIII ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Misc. Rks. xxii, 48, 48 d. The second 

 document gives the proclamation in 

 English which the sheriff was to recite : 

 * Whereas of late it has corned to the 

 knowledge of our sovereign lord Henry, 

 &c., that many and divers of his subjects 

 of his county palatine of Lancaster, 

 have had their assemblies and meeting at 

 his monastery of Whalley in his said 

 county, and there in the cemeteries and 

 place near unto his said monastery, with- 

 out any grant or other authority, have of 

 late made commutations and used buying 

 and selling of goods, catties, and merchan- 

 dises in semblable manner as there were 

 or had been lawlul fairs, whereby many 

 inconvcnientises have of late ensued to 

 great displeasure of our said sovereign 

 lord and contrary to his laws, and also to 

 the great inquleting of the religious 

 persons of the said monastery, which our 

 said sovereign lord may neither will not 

 in no wise any longer shall continue,' &c. 



The people of the district objected to 

 this arbitrary interference with their con- 

 venience, and in 1521 it was alleged that 

 the Earl of Derby and his men had 

 caused John Butler and others • in the 

 most riotous manner to keep the king's 

 fair at Whalley, notwithstanding the 

 king's command. . . The fair has 

 been kept at Whalley time out of mind, 

 but the earl has caused it to be laid 

 away ' ; L. and P, Hen. VllI^ iii (2), 

 1923 (2). There seems to be some self- 

 contradiction in this account. 



w Plac, de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 382. 

 These claims were allowed ; also the 

 right of assize of bread, &c., infangenthief, 

 waif, gallows, &c., in Clitheroe. 



A fair at Clitheroe is named in a grant 

 to Roger de Lacy in 1205 ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Royal Charters, class xxv, A 9. 



The right to hold fairs was questioned 

 by the attorney-general of the duchy in 



the time of Elizabeth ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Plead, ccviil, A 64. 



A decree concerning the market place 

 was made in the time of James I ; Lana. 

 and Ches. Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 240. 



^■^ Baines, Lanes. Dir. 1, 612. 



*'' Duchy of Lane, Plead. Eliz. cxlvii, 

 S I. 



8^ Pink and Beaven, ParL Repre. of 

 Lanes. 246, &c. A list of the members 

 is given. At the election in Sept. 1640 

 there was no contest, but fitty-seven 

 names were recorded of voters for Ralph 

 Assheton and fifty-two for Richard 

 Shut tie worth. They are printed in 

 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes^ i, 133-4, 

 In 1 714 the House of Commons de- 

 clared the election void and refused a 

 new writ on account of corruption ; 

 Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), v, 

 421, 428. 



^^ Pink and Beaven, op. cit. 247. There 

 had been earlier decisions in 1660 to the 

 effect that the election must be by the 

 free burghers and not the freemen at 

 large, and in 1662 that it must be by 

 freeholders for life or in fee. 



^^ Baines, Lanes. Dir. i, 610. Earl 

 Howe had his right by descent from 

 Assheton and Earl Brownlow by purchase 

 from Lister. The Starkie interest is 

 usually unnoticed. 



^ The boundaries were extended to 

 include several adjacent townships, Down- 

 ham, Whalley, &c. ; Pink and Beaven, 

 op. cit. 



^' Baines, Lanct. Dir. 1, 610. The 

 bailiffs jointly exercised the power of one 

 magistrate and were the returning officers 

 and coroners of the borough. 



*^ Ibid. The courts were in 1825 held 

 in the New Moot Hall, *a neat n.udcm 

 structure of the Gothic order, ornamented 

 with the borough arms cut in stone in the 

 front, and [having] a spire 62 ft. high.' 



James Nowell and Hugh Standen, late 

 bailiffs, in the name of the * whole com- 

 mons' of the town in 1542 complained 



368 



