106 
English MarTcets and Fairs. 
might be credible witnesses to the transfer of property. In the 
tenth century an 'effort appears to have been made to prevent 
all buying and selling, even of cattle, except in a market town. 
According to the laws attributed to William the Conqueror, 
sales were only allowed to take place in cities, walled towns, 
castles, and other safe places where there was sufficient good 
government and security to insure respect for the authority of 
the common law and the maintenance of the rights of the 
Crown. These reasons, however, say Messrs. Elton and Costelloe, 
may have been due to “ an after-thought of the Norman 
lawyers,” the principle of the English laws on the subject 
having been based on the expediency of having a special class 
of witnesses for the transfer of property. The notion that only 
a class of persons of exceptional credibility should be allowed to 
attest sales runs through the whole of the enactments. In 
most of the English towns there was a class of persons who 
were the “ good ” or “ credible ” or “ lawful ” men of the town. 
These were regarded as an official class, and were gradually 
organised into an official body. 
The chief officer of the trading town in Anglo-Saxon times 
was the “ port reeve,” — London, Canterbuiy, Bath, and Bodmin 
being instances of towns where records of such an official exist. 
All transactions in the market were made before the port reeve, 
or some person appointed by him, or in the presence of two or 
three “ credible witnesses.” Such a sale in “ market overt ” 
gave the buyer a title against all comers. Mr. G. Prior Goldney, 
the City Remembrancer, in evidence before the Market Rights 
and Tolls Commission, referred to this as one of the early advan- 
tages of the establishment of markets. Whereas, in the private 
sale of goods, the vendor could give no better title to the goods 
than he himself possessed, and therefore the purchaser would by 
law be compelled to restore them to anyone who could prove a 
better title, by sale in “ market overt ” the purchaser acquired a 
perfectly good title — of course, direct fraud being supposed to be 
absent. Thus, if a man stole a bullock and sold it in “ market 
overt,” the purchaser became the lawful proprietor, and could 
hold it against all claimants ; but there was a rather odd 
exception to this rule made in the case of horses, which did not 
come under the law of “ market overt.” To constitute a sale 
in “market overt,” the commodity sold must be actually in the 
market during the whole of the transaction from the making of 
the contract to the delivery. 
In close connection with these customs and regulations 
may be mentioned the Court of Pie Poudre, which is described 
in Blackstone’s Commentaries as being “ a court of record, inci- 
