FARNHAM HUNDRED 



No question of the rights of the corporation 

 thus constituted seems to have arisen till after the 

 Restoration. The extant accounts and court rolls 

 of the borough, preserved at Farnham Castle, date 

 only from the reign of Elizabeth, from September, 

 1566, and are fragmentary till James' reign, when 

 they are set out in English instead of as formerly 

 in Latin. In 1604 there is the following summary 

 of the regular receipts of the Bailiffs. 



" Dewes which hath bene payed accostomly paied 

 to the Baylleffs of the Borrough and Towne of 

 Farneham, beyond the memory of any man that 



now liveth as Aniale rents always as foUoweth : 



" For the Borough Rent, 41/. ^d. 

 " For the 4 Inns, 2Ss. That to saye, of the Georg, 

 p. ; of the Whit Hart, p. ; of the Anteolop, p. • 

 of the Crown, p. 



" Of every alhouse within the Borough, 2s. 

 " Of every alhouse out of the Borough, i2d. 

 " Of every alhouse at the chosing of the Bayleffs, 

 called knowledge money, id. 



" Of every alhouse as will unlisensed as licinsed at 

 every £Eayr day every on of them, id. 



" Of every inhabitant that hath standing 

 in the markett paying half yeerly izd. by 

 the year, 2/. 



" Of every fishmonger that selleth ffish 

 at his window in the lent to paye at good 

 flFriday a good lb. of samon or of the beast 

 ffish they have then leaft." 



It is to be noticed that there were prob- 

 ably then salmon in the Wey, and that 

 the Bush, though shortly afterwards claimed 

 as an ' inn by prescription,' was not one of 

 the four inns. 



The regular rent of the borough, always 

 received, was 41/. ^d. In 1594 the amounts 

 are specified. Sixty-five persons paid : of 

 these twenty-nine paid 4!^. each, twenty 

 gd.,one l$id., four iSd. The regular pay- 

 ment for a house was ^^d. John Bookham, 

 for his dwelling - house, ^^d. ; Robert 

 Compton, for three houses, i^id. ; and so 

 on. It seems to point to an ancient rent, 

 and if all paid equally, there would have 

 been no burgages in the place originally, a large 

 number, but not impossible. But earlier payments 

 seem to be unequal. 



Manners and customs are illustrated by entries 

 in the rolls. In 1574 a man was fined p. \d. for 

 killing a bull with dogs, an unexpected protest of 

 humanity. Men were forbidden to blow a horn 

 at night, or to whistle in the streets after nine 

 o'clock, or to make any sudden outcry in the night, 

 ' as making any aflfray, or beating his wife.' In 

 1625 many payments were suspended ' by reason 

 of the pestilence.' 



FARNHAM 

 The Farnham Borough accounts for the civil 

 war period" are very fragmentary until 1644. 

 With Sir William WaUer's departure in the Sep- 

 tember of that year they start again regularly. 



They give very definite evidence of the effects 

 of the war on the borough." But under the 

 Commonwealth the market recovered and business 

 was again brisk and brought in plenty of funds. 

 Thus at the Restoration the value of the market 

 had increased very much.*' The rights of bishops 

 and chapters had been in abeyance during the 

 Civil War and the Interregnum, and it was not 

 vvonderful that the restored prelates should some- 

 times try to recover more than that to which they 

 were legally entitled. 



Probably as far back as any semblance of a bor- 

 ough had existed, market had been held on Sunday 

 until 1 216. Then Peter des Roches obtained a 

 royal grant to hold it every Thursday.* 8 Fair day 

 was originally All Saints' Day, i November, but as 

 on the change of style it was held 13 November it 

 would seem that All Souls, 2 November, had been 



St. Andrew's, Farnham. 



adopted instead of All Saints. Toll from the fair 

 had always been a substantial item,*» and by 1660 

 must have become a valuable right. 



Bishop Brian Duppa was not satisfied that the 

 corporation of Farnham had any right to exist, or 

 take tolls, and reclaimed the profits of the market 

 for his see. In 1660, immediately after he had 

 obtained possession of the see, he granted a lease 

 of the tolls for twenty-one years to Mr. Thomas 

 Kilvert. In 1661 Kilvert appointed bailiffs of his 

 own to collect the tolls, but they were set upOn and 

 assaulted in the market by the inhabitants, their 



*5 In Farnham Castle. From Mich. 

 1641-43 no accounts, 1641-44 only 

 fragmentary. 



*« In 1 644 the bailiffs were £<) 8s. 7,d. 

 out of pocket. In 1646 %s. was paid 

 for replacing lead taken away from the 

 Town Hall by the soldiers. Further re- 

 pairs are noted in 1 646 and 1 647 of win- 

 dows and timber, and many distraints 



for rent due from the townspeople. 

 *' In 163 1 tolls brought in ^33 ys.id.; 

 by 1636 they were over ,f 94. In 1652, 

 when wheat was dear, they were 

 £iH 10s. 8d. In 1660 they were 

 £g6 135.61/., in 1671 ;£'i09 i8s. 6 J., 

 in 1681 ,^184 161. 8J</., in 1691 

 ,£■157 yj., in 1694 they reached 

 £S7o IS. id. In the eighteenth 



century they fell fast, but in 1729 

 they were still over yfm. The ac- 

 counts cease in 1778, when the 

 surviving burgesses enter that they 

 divided jf 3 los. 3 Ji/. between them. 



*s Pat. 17 John, m. nor 13. 



*9 The Rent Rolls of the thirteenth 

 century give it as about i8s. ; cf. Rent 

 Rolls of 1 245 and 46. 



