Richard Wyatt tax-gatherer, £1; and others. The total amount of the losses being £63,618. This town again suffered from fire to the extent of £600 in 1679-and to the extent of £2000 more in April, 1690, after which an Act of Parliament was obtained, making it an indictable offence to have a house thatched in Marlborough, and at present there is only one thatched house in the town, the Coach and Horses Inn, near the college. The Act of Parliament has not been quite a dead letter, as about the year 1772, Mr. Colman, a currier, was indicted for having a house thatched in Marlborough, and the indictment is printed in Wentworth's Special Pleadings.1 THE POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS. At the end of the military muster book at Marlborough, is "A note of the Counsell's Ires (privy council's Letters)," touching post horses, dated 1597, it is as follows: : "A convenient number of able horses, mares, geldings and naggs, wth their convenient furniture, as the necessitie of the service shall require, to be kept in redines from VI dayes to VI dayes at the charges of the owners, by the assistance of the L. Lieuten❜nts, and their Deputies Justices of the peace, and head officers, in townes corporat, as by the posts appointed should be thought meet for the spedy and p'sent horsinge away of posts &c., that there be no p'cialitie but that the country e'ry where do serve and be charged alike. If Constables and Officers refuze to take upp suche horses, then the posts to take them where they are to be had fro VI dayes to VI dayes to be kept in readynes to serve and the country nere not to be more charged than those further of, but the s'vice equally to be supplyed wherein they are, (as they shall nede the same,) to have th assistance of the L. Lieuten'nts, his Deputies Justices of peace, and other head officers, who are required to yield their best and spediest furtherance." Much information as to the ancient state of the Post-office and the arrangements which preceded it, will be found in the Appendix to the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons on the Post-office, in the year 1835.2 THE CORN TRADE. In the reigns of the house of Tudor, persons who bought corn at one place and carried it to another to sell and made profit by it, were termed badgers, and were liable to be indicted as forestallers, ingrossers and regrators, unless they were licensed by the magistrates at the Quarter Sessions. On this subject the Corporation books at Marlborough contain the following entries: "XXXth of Aprill A°. XXXIX Elizabeth &c. At the quarter sessions holden at the Devizes, the daie and yere above written, Wm. Brouncker Richard Modie and Wm. Rede, Esquires, have licensed Robte. Miller of Malmesbury, to be a badgar for one whole yere according to the fourme of the statutes Ao. 6th. Eliz. "6h, die Mar. Ao. Dmi. 1587. Md that this daie Edward White of Brinkewothe in the county of Wilts Baker is licensed by Wm. Daniell, Esquire, and Richarde Hearste, Maior of this boroughe, to buy in this markett wekely, untill the next quarter sessions to be holden, a large iiij bz. (bushels) of Wheate and six busshells of Barlie." "XII. die Januarii Ao. XXIX Elizabeth Reg. At the Sessions holden at Newe Sar., Gyles Escourte, Jasper More, and Thomas Mompesson, Esquires, have licensed Gyles Masemore of Eastcott, in couy. Wilts, laborer, to be a badger of corne, graine, butter and cheese, as is above mencioned." "In the XXVIth of Aprill Anno supa dict―Thomas Watton, John Warnaforde and Richard Mody, Esquiers, have licensed John Lovelock of Pirton to be a badger wth iij horses for xj bushells of barley, wekeley at Highworthe, Marlebroughe and Wotton Basset, and to be solde in Malmesbury Markett." THE INNS. The Castle was opened as an Inn in 1752, the Angel was an Inn in 15481. The following Advertisement appeared in the Salisbury Journal, and Devizes Mercury, of Monday, Aug. 17th, 1752, printed by Benjamin Collins, on the New Canal at Salisbury, and also published by T. Burrough, Bookseller in Devizes. "I beg leave to inform the publick, that I have fitted up the CASTLE at Marlborough in the most genteel and commodious manner, and opened it as an Inn, where the Nobility, Gentry, &c., may depend on the best accommodation and Treatment. The Favour of whose Company will be always greatefully acknowledged by Their most obedient Servant, GEORGE SMITH, late of the Artillery-Ground, London. *Neat Post-Chaises." THE STAGE COACHES, The following advertisement of a Coach proprietor, appears in the Commonwealth Mercury, for the week commencing 18 Nov, 1658. 1 See ante, p. 5. "All persons that have occasion to travel from London to Marlborough in the County of Wilts, or any place on that road, as Newbury, Hungerford, &c., or thereabouts or from thence to London, may conveniently go by Coach every Munday at the Post-house in Marlborough, and every Thursday at the Red Lion in Fleet Street. By Onesiphorus Tap, Post Master at Marlborough." In the 2nd. vol. of the reports of Sir Bartholomew Shower there is a case of Lovett against Hobbs, [p. 127,] it is as follows: "CASE. Plaintiff declares for that Richard Hobbs 1 Nov., 31 Car. 2, [1679,] and long before and after was and yet is a common Hackney Coachman, and a common Carrier, as well of mens persons as of their goods and chattels in his coach from the Boroughe of Marlborough to the city of London, and thence to Marlborough pro mercede et stipendio, [for hire and reward,] to be paid for persons and their goods; and whereas the Plaintiff the day and year aforesaid at Marlborough aforesaid had delivered to the Defendant one box in which were several goods and chattels of the Plaintiffs to be carried from Marlborough to the city of London, and safely to be delivered to the Plaintiff there, that the Defendant afterwards viz. Nov. 1, aforesaid took his journey towards London, and the 2nd of November performed his journey and came to London, but lost the goods to the value of £60, and lays it to her damage of £100. Upon not guilty pleaded, it came to the Salisbury Assizes before the then Mr. Justice Jones* where upon evidence the case appeared that the Plaintiff was a passenger in the Defendants coach, which is a stage coach, between London and Marlborough, and the goods carried with him; upon which I being of counsel with the Defendant, urged that this action lay not, for that a common coachman is but a new invention, and not within the common law or custom concerning common carriers.— That this is not for the conveyance of goods but of persons, and whatsoever goods of passengers are by them carried, are still in the passengers custody, and they remove them to their own chambers at nights in their Inns, and if this should hold where would it end. It might as well be brought for the rings on their fingers or money in their pockets, which Highwaymen rob the passengers of. But the Judge was of opinion that if a coachman commonly carry goods and takes money for so doing, he will be in the same case with a common carrier, and is a carrier for that purpose, whether the goods are a passenger's or a stranger's. The like of a waterman or Gravesend Boat which carries both men and goods. Then we were obliged to give evidence of our coach's being full, our refusal to carry them, that without our knowledge at first the Porter put up the box behind the coach, which when we perceived we denied to take the charge of it. Which the Judge agreed to be a good answer, for if an hostler refuse a guest his house being full, and yet the party says he will shift, &c., if he be robbed the hostler is discharged." In conclusion I will refer to the ancient punishments in Marlborough. * Sir Thomas Jones a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. I. Hanging. In ancient times this was practised in Wiltshire on a much more extended scale than at present. Lord Chief Baron Comyns, who died in the year 1740, in his digest of the Laws of England, a work of high legal authority "Tit. Tumbrel," (A). says," A man may have a pillory, tumbrel, furcas (gallows), by grant or prescription, which is ancient usage from which a lost grant is presumed." In the 3rd year of Edward 1st (1275), commissions were issued by the king into the various counties of England directing the Commissioners to summon a Jury for each hundred who were to find on their oaths what private individuals habent furcas, and at or for what places they existed.1 From the presentments of these Juries I have prepared a List of these private hanging establishments in the County of Wilts, with the names of the Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen who had them, and no doubt exercised the right of using them, as in each instance the Jury find on their oaths that the individual habet furcas (has a gallows) and not merely that he or she claims the right of having one. The following is a List of the places in the County of Wilts, at or for which there was a gallows in 1275, and the name of the Lord, Lady, or Gentleman who was the owner of it. Extracted from the Hundred Rolls published by the Record Commissioners in the year 1818 (Vol. 2, p. 230, et seq:) 1 The Commissioners for Wiltshire were William de Braybeof (afterwards one of the Justices in Eyre) and William Gereberd. |