Monument record 638/20 - Daventry Market

{1} It was claimed in 1329 that a market and fair at Daventry had been authorised by a charter of John (1199-1216); this claim was upheld. The earliest reference to a market at Daventry dates from an entry in the Assize Rolls for 1203, which recorded that ‘Emma Brunfustian who comes daily to the market of Daventry and Northampton is of the worst repute so that she has killed men and leads robbers to houses’. The market at Daventry was one of seven to which the burgesses of Northampton objected in 1275, when they claimed that no other markets should be held within ten leagues of their town. The burgesses did not name the markets at Fawsley and at Catesby, places which were close to Daventry and which might have posed a commercial threat.
The records of the Clerk of the Market allow tentative comparisons to be made between Northamptonshire’s market towns and villages. In 1327-8 Daventry was amerced to pay 40 shillings, as were Peterborough, Kettering and Higham Ferrers. Only Northampton, with an amercement of 100 shillings, paid more. The records of 1329 named only seven places in the county. Brackley headed the list, paying 20 shillings; next came Daventry and Towcester, each paying 13s 4d. The amercement of Long Buckby was 10 shillings and West Haddon, with a Thursday market granted to Daventry Priory, paid 6s 8d. In 1331-2 Daventry paid 13s 4d, far less than Northampton (£4), and behind Rothwell (26s 8d), Brackley (20 shillings) and Kettering (16 shillings). The amercement of Bulwick was 10 shillings, and Towcester, Brixworth and King’s Cliff each paid 8 shillings. Revenues from Daventry’s market and fair are known for three years in the early 1380s. In 1381-2 they amounted to £7 6s 8d, in 1382-3 to £10 3s 10d, and in 1383-4 to £16 4s 5½d The figures indicate that the trading rents and the proceeds of the market and fair in those years amounted to 17.3%, 24% and 23.6% of the total income of the manor, a significant proportion.
Some evidence for the goods available in Daventry in the first half of the 15th century survives in the account rolls of Catesby Priory, which lay some four miles to the south west of the town. Among the regular purchases made by the convent were meat (beef, veal and mutton), fresh and salted fish, honey, mustard, spices, figs, wax and wick for candles. Malt, cheese and bread were bought on occasion. Only in the case of a cow and calf bought in 1448 did the accounts specify that the purchase had been made in Daventry’s market. The priory appears to have used a number of Daventry traders on a very regular basis. The ironmonger William Russell, for instance, supplied large quantities of nails of all types and sizes, along with ironwork for agricultural implements and locks for the doors, plus a variety of other items including pack thread, sack cloth, pitch and cart saddletrees. Hoops for the mashing vat were bought from John Couper; Robert Roper supplied the ropes for the carts and the horses; Thomas Bayly provided cartsaddles, dishes, earthenware bowls, milking pails and cheese vats.
It should be noted, however, that many of these items were also purchased in other places, possibly because the quality was better, or the price more favourable, or the goods available in larger quantities. In November 1453, for example, wax for the feast of St Edmund in winter cost sixpence a pound in Daventry, while the following February wax for the Purification bought in Northampton cost seven pence a pound. When a new hall was built at the priory in 1453-4, William Russell of Daventry supplied all the stone nails and lath nails needed for the doors and windows, but the Warwick carpenter overseeing the project provided iron hinges and handles produced in his home town. Stores for Lent were commonly purchased at Banbury.
Certain commodities may not have been available at Daventry. Paper, brass for the mill spindle, and a fine quality saddle and bridle were purchased in Northampton, and although Welsh blanket cloth for horse collars was bought in Daventry russet cloth came from Coventry. Daventry traders had contacts with merchants operating in the large market centres at the top of the urban hierarchy. In 1491 a Northampton draper left several silver items and a quantity of fine linen to William Russell and his family. The Northampton man also traded in ironware and it is likely that Russell was related to the William Russell named so often in the Catesby accounts. Evidently the Daventry ironmongers obtained at least some of their supplies from the county town.
A little evidence for the goods sold in Daventry in the early 16th century can be found in the records of two views of frankpledge. In October 1502 the inspectors of hides presented five men who had sold badly tanned hides in the town. One was a local man, and the others came from Northampton, Coventry and Weedon. The men from Weedon and Coventry were named again in April 1503. Among the seven butchers accused at that session of overcharging were two from Buckby. The 12 fishsellers included three men from Northampton, and men from Coventry, Wellingborough, Weedon, Haddon and Hilmorton in Warwickshire.
Daventry was one of eight market towns in Northamptonshire depicted on Saxton’s map of 1576, and it was also marked on John Speed’s map published with the 1627 Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. The market flourished in the 17th century and became known as a specialist one for sheep and horses. In 1673 Blome noted that the Wednesday market was ‘well served with horses, cattle, sheep, corn and provisions’. The measures used at the market and fairs in 1717 included a one yard and a one ell measure, a pewter quart, two brass pints, a wooden gallon, half gallon and quarter gallon, and a brass strike for the measurement of grain.
In the medieval period the closest markets to Daventry were the Monday market at Flore, granted to William Trussell in 1333, and the market at Long Buckby granted to the earl of Lincoln in 1280, initially on a Thursday but changed to a Tuesday in 1281. Both markets lay some five miles from Daventry and thus within the distance considered prejudicial, but the days did not clash with the town’s Wednesday market and indeed may have formed part of a marketing cycle. (for further detail on Daventry market's relationship with surrounding trade see report).

{2} Brief synopsis of Market history:
1203 reference to market; Existed 1255-6; 1330 Wednesday market and fair S. Augustine; 1576 2 fairs; Still held 1820.

<1> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Daventry (Medieval/Post Medieval/ Industrial), 3.5.1& 3.5.4 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100501.

<2> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Overview, Appendix 2 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103118.

Record last edited

Apr 28 2008 9:51AM