Goadby's History Of Loughborough Chatper 3, Part 1

We continue with the transcription of Goadby's History of Loughborough which was serialised in 1864. In his Chapter 3, Part 1, Goadby now reaches the time of the Despenser family. 

As with previous chapters, I’ve kept both the text and the layout as it appeared in the newspaper, but have added one or two notes, where I have found useful information. As mentioned last week, in the 160 years since the original publication, there have been many more discoveries and revelations about Loughborough’s history, hence some of the information contained in these serials will be wrong. I have not tried to amend these in any way.

For previous chapters relayed in this blog, please see the 'Links to all blogposts' page. 

THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH, FROM THE TIME OF THE BRITONS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Chapter 3, Pt 1 The family of the Dispensers

In: 'Loughborough Monitor' 11 August 1864, pg 5

Part 1 – How the town came into the hands of the Dispensers – Obscurity of their origin – Residence in the neighbourhood – Its likely effects – Rise of the burgh – Trading and military class – Grants of market and fair – erection of market cross – Old traditions.

Hugh Lupus, the first Norman Earl of Chester, was succeeded in his earldom and, as it would appear, in the possession of his other numerous and wide-lying territories by his son Richard, who was about nine years old at the time of his father’s death. For a little more than a hundred years, the manor of Loughboro’, with its several varying members, continued to be held by the successive earls of Chester, until it passed into the family of the Dispensers.

How it came into the hands of the Dispensers has generally been regarded as a mystery, which did not admit of being satisfactorily cleared up, but we are able, we think, to explain it in the easiest possible manner. A passage we have discovered in the Close Rolls of King John (so called from their being folded up, in contradistinction to the Patent Rolls, which were written upon open skins) and which has never been pointed out before, shows that this Hugh Dispenser, afterwards Earl of Winchester, came to certain lands by marriage with the widow of one of the Earls of Chester, and as we know that the manor belonged to them and was more likely to be apportioned to a widow than any integral part of the earldom itself, we may fairly conclude, in the absence of other evidence, that he came to it in this way, especially as no other hypothesis has anything like a historical basis, and those who image he came to the manor when he received a grant of a market and fair are very much mistaken, as will be presently seen. It may be true, as Dugdale [1] says, that he married Aliva, the daughter of Philip Bassett of Wycombe, without that fact at least affecting the authenticity of this an earlier or later marriage. The passage, besides disposing of a knotty question, is curious as showing in what unkingly affairs the feudal monarchs thought fit to intermeddle. A man could not trade as he chose, scarce marry whom he pleased, and not even pickle a few herrings without asking the king’s licence and protection, and paying him handsomely for them (See Hume, vol.ii, App.ii) [2] – The passage is as follows:

“Know ye that we give to Hugh Dispenser, the wife of Geoffrey of Chester, recently deceased, with the land and hereditament pertaining to her; and for that land and hereditament we receive his homage, or fealty. Whence we command you that you give full possession to him, without delay, as well as of the aforesaid wife, as of her lands. As witness me at Cliszon, the third day of August, in the eighth year of our reign.”

The date of this possession would therefore be 1206-7; and the homage required is further explained, as far as the manor of Loughborough is concerned, by an entry in the Testa de Neville, [3] compiled in the reign of Henry the 3rd and Edward the 1st, a record of the taxation whereby aid was granted the former king towards appropriately marrying his sister to Frederick the 2nd, Emperor of the Romans. From that entry we learn that Loughborough was a Knight’s Fee, [4] was held by Hugh Dispenser, and was taxed to the extent of two marks.

The origin of the family of the Dispensers is involved in much obscurity. Barke [5] conjectures that it was descended from Robert Dispensator, the steward of William the Conqueror, and it is plainly evident from the surname itself that some ancestor really filled that post in a royal household. According to evidence collected by Potter [6] in his ‘Charnwood Forest’, several persons bearing the name are mentioned in documents connected with different places in Leicestershire; the earliest mentioned one, Thomas le Dispenser, probably the great grandfather of Hugh Dispenser, granting lands at Barton to the monks of Garendon between 1168 and 1189, so that the connection of the family with the county was not determined solely by the marriage of Hugh Dispenser, although the fact of their connection may have had something to do in determining the marriage. It is also conjectured by Mr. Potter that the family had residences in the immediate neighbourhood of the town of Loughborough, and probably their intimate connection with it had a good effect upon it, since we find it now gradually passing from the ‘burne’ and ‘burh’ into the ‘burgh’, as evidenced by curious etymological changes, as Luteburg, Lughteburg, Loutherburgh. The new terminal implies an amalgamation of freemen for civil and political purposes of a more local and imposing character than the mere tithing. The tithings or gyldes [guilds] were, indeed, the foundation of the citizenal constitution of almost every important town. They contained, rudimentarily, the burgher’s club and the more modern corporation. They were a sort of Association for the Prosecution of Felons, combined with a Benefit Sick Club. Promoting peace, justice, and cordiality between man and man, they secured liberty for commercial, enterprise, and substantially for social life. At a periodical meeting of the manorial court, these Frank pledges, or guarantees of the freemen for each other, were examined and affirmed, and such a meeting was usually styled the View of Frankpledge. One of these pledges, either the oldest, most respectable, or elected one, was known as the Headborough or Chief Pledge, and had authority equivalent to our constable.  

Co-extensive with this gradual rise of a semi-corporate character in the constitution of the town, the details of which have not come down to us further than as they are enveloped in the terminal burgh, there was a general elevation of the trading, and a depression of the strictly agricultural classes. This was in a great measure due to the oppression of the feudal customs upon the latter, and a change of life created by the new wants of a military age. The labourer left team and furrow to toil in the deadlier fields, and the arm of the smith no longer beat the coulter [7] or bent the sickle, but welded the shining mail, pointed the spear, or shod the proud tramping war-horse. The glover worked at his habergeons [8] and gauntlets, and the doughty yeoman stored his salted meats for service. Besides furnishing one knight well armed and accoutred to serve the king at home or abroad for the space of forty days – Loughborough being a Knight’s fee – doubtless many of the inhabitants were compelled to attend upon their Lord. Even the home-keeping population had its homely wits disturbed by the agitations of war and sanguinary raids. In 1215 Saer de Quincy was Governor of Mountsorrel Castle, and he and his men made so many marauding excursions in the neighbourhood that the castle was called a ‘nest of the Devil’. The peasantry incessantly complained of these plundering raids, and Henry III at last commanded the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire to collect forces and demolish it. It underwent a siege of several days, and was relieved by forces sent from London by Lewis the Dauphin, to whom it then belonged. In a few years afterwards it came into the hands of the English King, and was razed to the ground, the neighbours no doubt gladly assisting in its demolition.

The elevation of the trading class and the needs of the rising place soon rendered a market necessary, and no doubt the inhabitants addressed Hugh Dispenser for that purpose, who communicated their wishes to the King. The market and fair were granted some six years earlier than is ordinarily supposed, as appears from two passages in the Close Rolls of Henry III. Both were really granted in 1221-2, but only temporarily. It is stated that Hugh Dispenser shall have during his lifetime (usque ad aetatem suam) one market every seven days, on the Thursday at his manor of Luteburg, and that he shall have ‘during the life of our Lord the King (quod habeat usque ad aetatem Domin Regis) one fair every year at his manor on the eve of the Feast of St Peter’s Chains (i.e. Nov. 13 and 14). These conditions are curious, and have never been pointed out before. Probably the benefits arising from the market and fair were considerable, as we find a special grant made upon the subject in 1227, with additional privileges, liberating the inhabitants from local taxations of a somewhat troublesome character. The translation of the grant is as follows:

“The King to the Sheriff of Leicester sends greeting. Know thou that we have granted by our Charter to our trusty and beloved Hugh Dispenser, that he and his heirs may have for ever one market in every week, on Thursday, at his manor in Lucteburgh; and that they may have at the same place one fair every year, to last for three days, namely on the eve and day and morrow (in Vigilia et in die et in crostino) of St Peter’s Chains.

We have also granted to the same Hugh that he and his people (or vassals) of Lucteburgh, Burton, Huklescote, Fritheby, and Ernesby, be for ever free from all suits of county and Hundred and Sheriff’s aids, and view of Frankpledge, as is more fully contained in the aforesaid charter to him thereon made. And therefore we command that you cause the aforesaid charter to be read in your full Court, and the aforesaid market and the aforesaid fair to be proclaimed and strictly observed in the whole of your Bailiwiek. Witness the King at Westminster, 28 of April 1227.”

On the sixth of February in the succeeding year another charter was granted to his beloved and trusty subject, whereby he received permission to hold another Fair upon the second day of November, and it was also expressly declared that neither he nor his heirs should be put upon the Assizes, Juries, and Recognizances.

The setting up of the market-cross, no small event in the history of any community, was usually attended by some special religious ceremonies.

Where some great deed had been achieved, or upon any spot sanctified by religion or custom, this sacred symbol was erected. It was particularly the case when a market or a fair had been instituted by Royal Charter, and upon the open surrounding space, the people usually met for both trade and pleasure. Thus amidst the clamour of the market, and the tumultuous din of the holyday, this elevated symbol might serve to remind them of their religious duties and privileges. It also served to fix in their memories, and grateful, the fleeting images of a former faith. Reverential old men. Gathering their children around them on that eventful day, would recount the familiar village story received from their fathers; how the inhabitants were once Pagans, and were one day surprised by seeing a dusky-vestured, wild-eyed pilgrim enter their streets, pause at the crossway, strike a few notes on a rude harp, and then pour forth to the hastily assembled people the good tidings of the great joy of a new salvation by Jesus Christ; and how following him to the river side they were buried beneath its waters as a sign of their newness of life. Such was the old story often told over the erection of the market-cross, and so the symbol had its significance for our forefathers. It was meant to be at once the centre of their religious and secular life. Here all public notices were proclaimed by the town crier, the banns of marriage were published, and royal proclamations declared. Shakespeare alluded to this when he makes Henry IV say to Worcester:

“These things, indeed, you have articulated,

Proclaimed at market-crosses, read in churches.”

It is right we should mention a tradition here that was once very much believed in the neighbourhood. It was to the effect that prior to the above grants, Barrow-upon-Soar was the market village for Loughborough, the one being called High Borough, the other Low-Borough!

An ancient road, it is also believed, connected the two places, passing through what was called the Catsick meadow [9], the stones in the river that constituted the ford being said to be observable at low water less than 20 years ago. On a site between the two places, now scarcely identified, the tradition goes on, and called gaol-bank in the memory of living persons, there was once a gaol for their mutual convenience. The legend is evidently based upon a rude etymological guess, and needs no serious consideration, although it may strengthen the indications of an early relationship between them such as may have survived the destruction of the Saxon Mark.

END OF CHAPTER 3 PART 1

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NOTES

[1] This is probably a reference to William Dugdale (1605-1868), an English historian who specialised in the study of Mediaeval history.

[2] This reference is probably to a ‘History of England’, a series of works written by philosopher, economist, and historian David Hume (1711-1776)

[3] The ‘Testa da Nevill’, originally called the ‘Book of Fiefs’ (Latin title ‘Liber Feodorum‘  was a listing of feudal landholdings. The edition likely to have been known to Goadby is from 1807, but a new edition was published in three volumes, between 1920 and 1931

[4] A knight’s fee was a unit of land measurement that was enough land to sustain a knight and his entourage. These varied across the country as soil variations had an effect on what and how much crop could be grown.  

[5] I cannot say for certain who Barke was, but perhaps he might be Edmund Barke who was Paymaster General of the Forces in 1782.  

[6] A reference to Thomas Rossell Potter (1799-1873), who wrote ‘History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest’, published in 1842.

[7] A coulter is a knife-like vertical blade on a plough

[8] A habergeon was a sleeveless jacket made from chain mail, that was worn under a hauberk (breast plate) in Mediaeval times.

[9] There is certainly evidence of an area called Catsick between Loughborough and Barrow, particularly in the name Catsick Hill which is located on the River Soar, adjacent to the Grand Union Canal, about midway between Top Bridge and Pillings Lock.

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Transcribed and presented here with the kind permission of the British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Dyer, Lynne (2024). Goadby’s History of Loughborough, Chapter 3, Part 1. Available from: [https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/06/goadbys-history-of-loughborough-chatper-3-Pt-1.html] [Accessed 23 June 2024]

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