ANCIENT MARKETS AND FAIRS.—HAMPSHIRE.
To the Editor of the Hampshire Advertiser.
That the series of volumes published some years since under the authority of the Record Commission, with the sanction of Parliament, and of which some of the volumes are in the Southampton Free Library, contain matter relating to our own locality is perhaps known only to a few; but having frequently consulted the works I can assure your readers that Hampshire comes in for its fair share of notice. From one of them, the Valor Ecclesiasticus, I have satisfied myself and others that the founder of the Southampton Grammar School, Dr. capon, was rector of St. Mary’s to which he was presented by Cardinal Wolsey, having been the first master of the grammar school which the Cardinal had founded in his native town, Ipswich; and also Rector of North Stoneham, to which benefice he was presented by his brother, the last Abbot of Hyde.
From another of the publications of the Record Commission, namely— the Calendarum Rotulorum Chartarum, or Calendar of the Charter Rolls, which extends from the first year of the reign of King John, 1199, to the twenty-second of Edward IV., 1483, I have extracted the following notices of Royal grants of markets and fairs to places in Hampshire.
To obtain leave of the King to establish a market or fair in any place was a great boon to its proprietor, and eagerly sought for, or else they would have been sought and obtained for insignificant villages; thus, Netley Abbey had not been founded and endowed more than ten years when the Abbot obtained the grant of a fair for his manor of Wellow, and another for his manor of Hound; and two years afterwards he obtained another grant to establish a market at Wellow.
The following is a list, in chronological order, of the other Royal grants for establishing markets and fairs in this county:— (I have added the reigns of each King)
| Year of reign | King | Royal grant to | Place | Market / Fair |
| 2 | John (1199-1216) | to the Bishop of Winchester for the vill of | Havant | a market |
| 2 | John (1199-1216) | to the Bishop of Winchester for his manor of | Alresford | a fair |
| 6 | John (1199-1216) | to the Men of | Andover | a market |
| 11 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Abbey of Rotherham for | Kingsclere | a fair |
| 14 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Men of | Portsmouth | a market |
| 23 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Hubert de Burgh for | Emelsworth (Emsworth) | a market & fair |
| 24 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Emeritus de Sacy for his manor of | Berton (Barton Stacey) | a market & fair |
| 31 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Bishop of Winchester for | Overton | a market & fair |
| 32 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to William de Clare for | Petersfield | two fairs |
| 33 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to John de Mancell for his manor of | Meonstoke | a market & fair |
| 33 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Prior of St. Within, Winchester for | Whitchurch | a market & fair |
| 39 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Bishop of Winchester for his manor of | Swainston, I.W. | a market & fair |
| 41 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Bishop of Winchester for | Hambledon | a market & fair |
| 44 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Baldwin de Insula for | Carisbrook, I.W. | a fair |
| 41 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Baldwin de Insula for | Lymington | a fair |
| 42 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Baldwin de Insula for | Christchurch | a fair |
| 44 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Abbess of Wherwell for | Wherwell | a fair |
| 51 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Abbess of Wherwell for | Wherwell | a market |
| 51 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to John de Botley for | Botley | a market & fair |
| 53 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Roger de Scurries for | Wickham | a market & fair |
| 54 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Prior of Selbourn for | Selbourn | a market & fair |
| 56 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to the Abbess of Romsey for | Romsey | a fair |
| 56 | Henry III (1216-1272) | to Mathew de Colunbar for | Lockerley | a market & fair |
| 6 | Edward I (1272-1307) | to the Bishop of Bath & Wells for | Dogmersfield | a market & fair |
| 32 | Edward I (1272-1307) | to John Cormelies for | Thruxton | a market & fair |
| 33 | Edward I (1272-1307) | to Richard de Boarhunt for | Boarhunt | a market & fair |
| 33 | Edward I (1272-1307) | to Richard Carbonel for | Brading | a market & fair |
| 11 | Edward II (1307-1327) | to the Earl of Chester for | Newton | a market & fair |
| 14 | Edward II (1307-1327) | to Edmund, Earl of Kent, for | Alton | a fair |
| 10 | Edward III (1327-1377) | to Thomas Bradenton for | Eversley | a market & fair |
| 11 | Edward III (1327-1377) | to William, Earl of Salisbury, for | Ringwood | a fair |
| 11 | Edward III (1327-1377) | to the Bishop of Winchester, to extend the fair on | St Gile’s Hill, Winchester | |
| 20 | Edward III (1327-1377) | to Edmund de Cleresden for | Cleresden | a market & fair |
| 25 | Edward III (1327-1377) | to the Treasurer of York Cathedral for | Mottisfont | a market & fair |
| 28 | Edward III (1327-1377) | to Roger, Earl of March, for | Hamble | a market & fair |
| 11 | Richard II (1377-1399) | to the Abbess of Romsey, for | Romsey | a fair |
| 25 | Henry VI (1422-1461) | to the Abbot of Titchfield, for | Titchfield | a fair |
| Henry VI (1422-1461) | to the Men of | Basingstoke | a fair |
Yours respectfully,
HENRY MOODY.
The Museum, Winchester, March 12th, 1861.