The University and Stourbridge Fair

Summary

The connection between the University and Stourbridge Fair was, of old, very intimate; the academic authorities claiming great power in the management and the tolls of the Fair.

In the late Professor John Mayor's Life of Ambrose Bonwicke, there is a characteristic mass of notes illustrating this claim (see pp. 153 to 165), including a summary of the numerous references in Cooper's Annals. Here may be seen records of the frequent conflicts between the town and the University as to their respective jurisdiction; also various accounts (includeing Defoe's) of the Fair itself. The proceedings of the proctors and the taxors are detailed; and how the Vice-Chancellor and the doctors rode to the Fair, and made proclamation on horseback. In 1534, the King's Councial decreed that “Styrbridge faire was in the suburbes of Cambridge, and that the Vice-Chancellor or his commyssary might kepe courte cyvyll ther for plees wheare a scholar was one party. Item that in the same faire the university had the oversight, correction and punyshemente of all weightes and mesures, of all maner of victayll, of all regraters and forestallers,” etc.

The “lord of the taps” in his red coat is described; and the sale of books in Cook's row is mentioned.