Item, it is established That it shall be commanded to all the sheriffs of England & elsewhere, where need shall require to cry and publish within Liberties & without, that all the Lords [of the soil] wʰ have Fairs, be it for yielding certain Ferm [Rent?] for the same to the King or otherwise, shall hold the same for the time that they ought to hold it, & no longer; that is to say, (1) such as have them by the King’s Charter granted them, for the time limited by the sᵈ Charters (2) and also they that have them without Charter, for the time that they ought to hold them of Right. (3) And that every Lord at the beginning of his Fair shall there do cry & publish how long the fair shall endure, to the intent that merchants shall not be at the same Fairs over the time so published, upon pain to be greviously punished towards the King (4) Nor the sᵈ Lords shall not hold them over the due Time upon pain to seize the Fairs into the King’s hands, there to remain till they have made a fine to the King for the offence, after it be duly found, that the Lords held the same Fairs longer than they ought, or that the merchants have sitten above the time so cried & published. See 1331. 1331. The 5 Edw. III. c. 5—“The Penalty if any do sell Ware at a Fair after it is ended” was as follows: _Item_, Where it is contained in the statute made at Northampton [1328] ... that the Lords wʰ have Fairs by Charters or otherwise, shall hold them during the Time that they ought to do, & no longer upon Pain to seize such Fairs into the King’s hands (2) & that every Lord at the Beginning of his Fair _shall proclaim how long the fair shall endure_; (3) and in the same Statute is no certain punishment ordained against the merchants if they sell after the time, (4) it is accorded, That the sᵈ merchants after the sᵈ time shall close their Booths & Stalls without putting any manner of Ware or Merchandise to sell there. (5) And if it be found, that any merchant from henceforth sell any Ware or merchandise at the sᵈ Fairs after the sᵈ Time, such Merchant shall forfeit to me Lord the King the double value of that wʰ is sold (6) and every Man that will sue for our Lord the King, shall be received, & shall have the fourth part of that wʰ shall be lost at his suit. Macpherson [“Hist. of Commerce”] commenting upon this act says _Fairs were “the seats of most of the inland trade of the kingdom.”_ 1448. The 27 Henry VI. c. 5 was directed against “the scandal of holding Fairs & markets on Sundays & upon High Feast Days.” This practice had in earlier times been very general.