FLITT HUNDRED 



LUTON 



in 1831, 5,693; in 1851, 12,787; in 1871, 

 20>733 ; and in 1891, 32,401.* Previous to this 

 extraordinary nineteenth-century expansion Luton 

 appears to have been a quiet market town with a 

 comparatively uneventful history. No mention of it 

 has been found before the Survey, when it already 

 possessed a market whose tolls were valued at 100/.' 



In 1 246 Luton was the scene of a great assembly 

 of lords and knights, who met there to keep a 

 ' martial just and triumphal tourney.' The celebra- 

 tion was stopped, however, by command of the king, 

 the real intention of the meeting having been to 

 organize resistance to the oppression of the pope, at 

 that time very grievous.' 



In 1336 Luton suffered severe damage by fire,' 

 from which the town had not recovered in 1340, 

 when about two hundred messuages in the parish were 

 uninhabited and 6 carucates of land uncultivated on 

 account of the impoverishment of the parish by the 

 recent fire.* 



Leland, writing in the early half of the sixteenth 

 century, mentions Luton as famous for its barley 

 market ; whilst Camden, a generation or so later, 

 says : ' As for Leighton Buzzard on the one side of 

 Dunstable and Luton on the other, neither have I 

 read nor seen anything memorable in them, unless I 

 should say that at Luton I saw a fair church, but the 

 choir there roofless, and overgrown with weeds." 

 This looks as though Luton had sunk into a state 

 of decay not uncommon amongst agricultural towns 

 in the sixteenth century, but with the introduction 

 of the manufacture of straw plait in the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century the town entered on a 

 new era of prosperity.'" Tradition assigns the intro- 

 duction of this industry to Mary queen of Scots, who 

 brought straw-plaiters from Lorraine to Scotland, and 

 whose son James I, when he acquired the English 

 crown, transferred the little colony to Bedfordshire 

 and the neighbouring districts, where the conditions, 

 owing to the abundance of good straw, were specially 

 adapted for this manufacture. So well did it take 

 root and flourish that in 1689, in a petition presented 

 to the House of Lords against the passing of a Woollen 

 Manufacture Wearing Bill (afterwards rejected), it 

 was estimated that if a clause in the bill enjoining 

 the wearing of woollen caps were to take effect, over 

 one thousand families, including 14,000 persons, in 

 Luton, Dunstable, and neighbouring towns would be 

 thrown out of employment." 



Francis Blomfield, writing of Luton between 

 1724 and 1734, says : * It hath a market house and 

 large Monday market for corn, with which this part 



much abounds, there being but little pasture ; firing 

 is very dear and scarce by reason of the small quantity 

 of wood, the county is chiefly champion, and the 

 long carriage of coal by land makes that also charge- 

 able.' " In the beginning of the nineteenth century 

 a further development of the straw-plait trade took 

 place when Thomas Waller obtained a patent for the 

 manufacture of Tuscan grass plait, and since then a 

 vast amount of raw material of foreign growth has 

 been imported to be prepared, plaited, and formed 

 into the finished article in Luton. 



From sixteenth-century court rolls it would appear 

 that the lord of Luton exercised a somewhat extended 

 jurisdiction over the town. Constables were elected 

 at the courts, not only for Luton, but also the hamlets 

 of Stopsley, Limbury, East and West Hyde, and Lea- 

 grave." As late as 1830 the town was governed by a 

 high constable, two day constables, and one night 

 constable, elected at the yearly court leet of the lord 

 of Luton manor. In a court roll of 1542 the fol- 

 lowing entry occurs : — ' A peyne put that every 

 householder shall gather or cause to be gathered stones 

 for the streets and high way in Luton one hole day in 

 peyne of ^d. . . . that all the rich men in Luton and 

 them that have carts shall carye one hole day the 

 seyde stones and lay them where there is most need in 

 peyne of 3/. ^d.' " 



Luton had a market at the time of the Survey, 

 which was valued at 100/." In 1203 this market, 

 hitherto held on a Sunday, was transferred to Mon- 

 day," but in a grant of 1338 to Hugh Mortimer, 

 a Thursday market is named," which at the present 

 day is held on a Monday. 



Leland mentions Luton market as famous for its 

 barley, and Blomfield, writing between 1724 and 

 1734, says it was noted for its corn.'* 



The introduction of the straw-plait industry into 

 Bedfordshire in the seventeenth century largely increased 

 the importance of Luton market, which at the present 

 day does a large trade in cattle, corn, and straw plait. 

 The rights of market tolls belong to Sir Julius 

 Wernher, lord of Luton manor, subject however to a 

 lease of the same to the corporation of Luton for 

 seventy-five years at ^^150 per annum rent from 

 25 March, 1866." During the nineteenth century 

 a second market has been established on Saturdays, 

 mainly for the sale of provisions. 



The right of a yearly fair on the feast of the As- 

 sumption (15 August) was early appurtenant to Luton 

 manor, and during Baldwin de Bethune's tenure of 

 the manor (1195-1212) was the subject of a contro- 

 versy which was finally settled by Baldwin allowing 



■• Chant. Cert. Beds. ; Population Ret. 

 Abstracts. It must be remembered that 

 1,500 houseling people does not represent 

 the full population (being those probably 

 over fourteen years of age) in 1546, so 

 that the increase between that date and 

 1801 is comparatively small. 



° y.C.H. Beds, i, 222a. Cobbe, in his 

 Hist, of Luton Church, brings forward various 

 proofs that Lygeanburh, taken from the 

 Brito-Welsh by Cuthwulf in 571 A.D., 

 and hitherto identified by Green and in 

 the Rolls Series as Lenbury (Bucks.) is 

 identical with Limbury, a hamlet of 

 Luton. He also identifies as Luton, 

 Lygtun, hitherto supposed to be Leigh- 

 ton, where the Danes suffered a great 

 defeat in 913 a.d. {Angl.-Sax. Chron. 

 (Rolls Sen), i, 30, 188). 



6 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), 

 iv, 633. 7 Cal. Close R, 1333-7, P- *9'' 

 ^ /«y. Nonarum (Rec. Com.), 14. 

 9 Camden, Mag. Brit. (ed. Gough), 



1" In 161 8 Sir Robert Napier and 

 Arthur Crawley complained that the town 

 of Luton was much injured by pulling 

 down fair dwelling houses with malting 

 houses, and erecting in their place cottages 

 for the poor for the profit of certain pri- 

 vate persona {Cat. S.P. Dom. 1611-18, 



P- 545)- 



" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. pt. 1, 

 264, Straw-plaiting appears to have been 

 introduced into England much earlier than 

 the date assigned by the tradition of the 

 Lorraine plaiters, for in 1500 letters of 

 denization were granted to Martin John- 



son, who came from Guelders, and is de- 

 scribed as a ' strawen hatmaker,' otherwise 

 * splyter hatmaker ' ; Page, Denization and 

 Naturalization (Huguenot Soc), 136. 



"AW. Topog. Brit. (ed. J. Nichols, 

 - 1783), iv, No. 8. 



1' MSS. in possession of marquess of 

 Bute. 



1" Ibid. 



" F.C.H. Beds, i, 222a. 



16 Ahhrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 36. 



V Chart. R. 12 Edw. Ill, No. 43. 



'8 Bihl. Top. Brit. (ed. J. Nichols). At 

 a view of frankpledge of Luton manor in 

 1535 John Crawley was fined for buying 

 sheep in Luton market to sell again in the 

 same market, contrary to statute (mar- 

 quess of Bute's MSS.). 



1^ Information supplied by Mr. Austin. 



