SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



and Bedford three times a week, through Brickhill and Ampthill, the post- 

 house at Bedford being the Swan Inn, and letters at Ampthill were left at 

 the ' White Hart.' "' In the same year, on the cover of a letter sent post- 

 haste, are memoranda showing the letter to have been at St. Albans at 

 lo a.m., Dunstable about 5 p.m., Brickhill 8 p.m., reaching Daventry at 

 I a.m."^ Highway robberies were frequent. In 1684 a coach was stopped 

 between Dunstable and Markyate Street by six highwaymen, who carried 

 off with them a black gelding. About the same date a gentleman was 

 robbed near Dunstable by three highwaymen, who took away his brown 

 bay mare."* In 1692 an Act was passed encouraging the apprehension of 

 highwaymen. In 1 694 a William Herbert, of Markyate Street, shoemaker, 

 petitioned to the lords of their Majesties' Treasury for the payment of £,j^o 

 for having apprehended a notorious highwayman, Thomas Knowles, in 

 pursuance of a proclamation. He petitioned the Treasury because ' the 

 profits of the county were not sufficient for the sheriff's ordinary accounts.' 

 In 1696 Francis Johnson, collector of excise in Bedfordshire and Hertford- 

 shire, was robbed of £jj6 on his way from Biggleswade to Hoddesdon."' 

 In 1696 there was a robbery from a wagon at the Cock Inn, Woburn, 

 which throws a little light upon the merchandise carried about at that date 

 by commercial travellers. Among the things stolen were a truss of ^165 

 of old money ; other parcels of money (3 1 guineas, one broad piece of gold 

 — a coin issued first in 16 19 by James I, worth 20J.) ; piece of broad 

 alamode (a thin glossy black silk) ; piece of narrow alamode ; two pieces 

 of black silk crape ; J lb. fine white thread ; pieces of linen cloth, &c. 

 Also out of a box, a plain muslin head-dress, and a striped muslin head-dress; 

 out of a bag, six pair of roll stockings and eighteen pairs of short stockings."" 

 Highway robberies continued to be frequently perpetrated throughout the 

 greater part of the first half of the following century. In 172 1 a stage- 

 coach was robbed within four miles of Bedford by a highwayman, who 

 afterwards committed other robberies. In 1730 three footpads robbed three 

 passengers in a Bedford wagon of some money and of some valuable lace. 

 In 1 74 1 a Manchester carrier was stopped near Dunstable by a man on foot 

 who carried off 40 guineas, the carrier's watch, and his horse.^" 



Before passing definitely to the i8th century one more reference may 

 be made to the rent of agricultural lands, and extracts given from another 

 inventory. At the close of the 17th century the rent derivable from an 

 estate at Cranfield, with an area of 4,000 acres, was ^317. The land tax 

 was then 4J. A farm of 84 acres, in the same parish, let at ^^58 ; another, 

 of the same area, but of better land, let at ^^74 ; and another of 40 acres, 

 let at ^^4 1 ."' An inventory of the ' goods, chattells, and credits ' of 

 John Girton, late of Cranfield, made in 1707, gives a picture of what 

 existed at the close of the 17th century. The contents of the several rooms 

 offer few fresh features, when compared with the details of inventories 

 given above. We find the 'parlour' a fully-furnished bedroom. Among 

 the kitchen appointments we find as fresh features an elbow chair and a 



'" Beds. N. and Q. i, 4. '" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 297. 



™ Beds. N. and Q. i, 6. ''' Cal. ofTreas. Papers, 162. 



"" Beds. N. and g. i, 35. "' Ibid. 



"' These figures, as well as the quotations that follow from an inventory, are taken from documents 

 kindly lent us by Dr. Milligan of Bedford. 



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