HERTFORD HUNDRED 



the two fairs brought in £z lor. yearly. 32 One of 

 these fairs seems to have been a horse fair held out- 

 side the town in the 15th century. 33 



The Master of the hospital of the Holy Trinity 

 held a fair on 22 July and paid half the tolls to the 

 king's bailiff; he did so at least from the last quarter 

 of the 14th century. 34 The amount was always small. a6 



These three fairs continued until the end of the 

 15th century, suffering a gradual decay. The bailiff 

 was compelled to admit that the merchants had given 

 up the Hertford round. The proof lay in the dis- 

 appearing tolls. In 1437-8 the October fair brought 

 in 6s. id. instead of 11/. Sd. as it had done forty 

 years before !a ; the July fair made no profits at all. 37 

 In 1444—5 the farmer of the market and fairs 

 obtained a respite of payment, possibly in consequence 

 of the paucity of his takings. 28 



Without some improvement in the 1 6th century 

 the burgesses would hardly have troubled to obtain 

 the three fairs granted by Queen Mary. One was 

 to be held in the parish of St. Andrew from 23 to 

 25 June ; the other two in the town on 27 to 29 

 October and on Passion Sunday with the Saturday 

 and Monday. 33 The local distinction was probably 

 derived from the three extinct fairs. Elizabeth re- 

 granted these three fairs and added another, to be 

 held in the parish of St. Andrew from 7 September 

 to 9 September. 30 But the dates seem to have been 

 changed and the duration shortened very soon, as in 

 1598 the fairs took place on 24 October, 4 Sep- 

 tember, 24 June, and the Friday before Passion 

 Sunday. 31 Seven years later a fair lasting from 

 30 April to 2 May was substituted for that in Sep- 

 tember. 33 The charter of Charles II re-granted this 

 fair and confirmed the others. 33 At the present day 

 the dates of the fairs are 12 May, ; July, 8 Novem- 

 ber, and the third Saturday before Easter. 



Courts of pie-powder appear in the accounts of 

 the town for the first time in 1384-5, 31 although 

 they were probably held earlier. They were granted 

 to the burgesses by the charter of Queen Mary with 

 stallage and picage. 35 Charles II re-granted these 

 rights for all the fairs. 38 



Besides the tolls of the market and fair 37 there 

 were the more interesting forinsec tolls. They are 

 first mentioned in the reign of Henry III as existing 

 under King John. 38 The tax was 2d. on carts of 

 merchants, \d. on pack-horses, and \d. on pedlars. 39 

 In 1296 the account is fuller. The 'through toll ' 

 was taken at the bridges of Ware, Hertford and 

 Thele, at the ' Barre ' of Hatfield and Barnet, 40 and 

 at the two ' heads ' of St. Albans. 41 The Abbot of 

 St. Albans acquired the tolls of his own town and of 



13 Extent of 1331 printed in Chauncy, 

 op.cit. 238. 



53 Htrtf. Corp. Papers, i, no. c. 



u D11ch70fLaQC.Mins.Accts.bdle. 53, 

 no. 998. 



!S Ibid. Wlbid.bdle.42.no. S25. 



"Ibid. 



**Ibid. bdle. 733, no. 1204.3. 



®Pat. 1 Mary, pt. i*, m. 1. 



■Mi. 31 Bliz.pt. *£*. 3. 



* FaT. 3 >°s p, i;'; t . iii, m . s. 



33 Ibid. 32 Chas. II, pt. iii, m. 22. 



3i Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. S3, 



19 H*> 



BOROUGH OF 

 HERTFORD 



Barnet « but the tolls of Ware, Hatfield and Thele 

 remained in the king's hands and were generally 

 accounted for as part of the farm of the town, 43 

 although occasionally during the 14th and 15th 

 centuries they were leased apart. 44 



This arrangement of tolls may be one for the 

 sheriff's convenience, or a survival from the time 

 when Hertford was the shire market with a monopoly 

 over buying and selling and passage. The lowey or 

 kucata, the district outside a town over which the 

 borough officers had certain rights, existed in varying 

 degrees of importance around many towns. It occurred 

 at London and Durham, and there is an excellent 

 if it in the confirmation by Henry II of the 

 if Nottingham. By this the burgesses of 

 Nottingham were to have the tolls from all those who 

 crossed the Trent as far as Newark, as fully as in the 

 borough of Nottingham. The charter continues : 

 'The men of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire ought 

 to come to the borough on Friday and Saturday with 

 their carts and loads, nor ought anyone to work dyed 

 cloths for 10 leagues round, save in the borough.' 

 Similar rights evidently occurred at Hertford, where the 

 king claimed the tolls for merchandise carried through 

 places within 7 miles of Hertford. 48 This liberty 

 was apparently one of the rights which belonged to 

 the pre-Conquest king's reeve at a time when Hert- 

 ford as a villa regalis was the administrative centre for 

 the district. 



The right to have a common seal was first given 

 to the bailiff and burgesses by the charter of Mary, 10 

 and was confirmed by the subsequent charters.'" 

 The British Museum has one specimen of an early 

 date, presumably that made under the Jacobean charter. 

 It shows a rosette of five double leaves, barbed and 

 seeded, within a border. The legend is ' Burgus de 

 Hertford, 1608.' 48 A later type (probably that 

 used after 1680) shows the hart in the ford with a 

 cross between the antlers ; behind to the right a 



astle 



/ith thre 



. the left a 





CASTLE, HONOUR 

 AND MANOR 



Thevill ormanoroftf-EKr- 

 FORD was demesne of the 

 Crown and was granted by 

 William I as the ' lordship of 

 Hertford,' 50 together with the mills of Hertford and 

 the manor of Bayford, to Peter de Valognes, Sheriff 

 of Hertfordshire. 61 A confirmation of the two mills 

 of Hertford cum sua alio feodo with multure and 

 works (pferatione) of the burgesses, was made to 

 Valognes by Henry I, 63 and the Empress Maud con- 

 firmed the manors of Essendon and Bayford and the 

 mills of Hertford to Roger de Valognes, son of Peter. 63 



l 6d. 



id, R. (Rec. Com.),- 

 ■ 1*1- 



'94* i 



. 1 Mary, pt. is, m. 

 I. 31 Chas. II, pt. ii 



nch. Q.R. no. 45 ; 



Duchy of Lane. Misc. bdle. 11, no. 2; ; 

 Pipe R. 2? Edw. t, m. 23. 



41 Anct. Ext. Exch. Q.R. no. 45. 



« r.CM.Htrti. ii, 331. 



H Chauncy, op. cit. 238 ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 53, no. 998- 



" Abbre-v. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 

 256 ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bits. xiK, 

 9 ; Mini. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 1094, 

 no. 10 j Duchy of Lane. Dec. Lib. 2, 

 Hen. VI, fol. 740 ; Duchy of Lane. Mins. 

 Accta. bdle. 733, no. 12043 i Cnssans, 

 Hist, of Her!,. HirtfordHund, 55. 



50I 



1 Document quoted by Cus 

 $; n. The tolls must hav 

 nderable value, as the rent rt 

 lease wis £33 6s. 8J. 



Pat. . Mary, pt. in, m. I. 



Ibid. 31 Elis. pt. xi, m. 

 8. II, pt. iii, no. 22 ; 3 J". 



ns, op. 



« Cat. ofSeah, no. 4998. 



19 Ibid. 4999. 



s °The lotdship evidently includ- 

 borough, which was farmed by Pel 

 Valognes in 1086 {F.C.H. Hern, i, 



" Cart. Antiq. K 10,22. Theg 

 is Willelmus Rex Anglorum, the wit 

 S. bishop and H. sheriff, probably S 



d Hai 



« Ibid. 23. 



13 Ibid. 



