In 1715 it was ordered "that Richard Carwardine, of Castle Morton,
have a licence to be a comon badger of corne for one year;" and in
1732, "that Thomas Wadley, of Hanley Castle, have a licence granted
him to be a common badger, buyer, seller, and carrier, of all sorts of
corn and grain in any fair or market within this kingdom of England,
so that the same continue in force but for one year from the date
hereof and no longer." These badgers of corn were persons who bought
corn to sell again. By the statute 5th Elizabeth, chap. 12, they were
compelled to take out an annual licence from the Quarter Sessions. At
the present time, persons who go round to the farms and cottages in the
neighbourhood of Monmouth to buy poultry and bring it for sale to the
market at Monmouth are called "badgers."
In pursuance of an act passed in 1769, weekly returns of the prices
of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and beans, were ordered from Bewdley,
Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Dudley, and Bromsgrove; and the following
persons were instructed to furnish such returns: Timothy Clare,
stationer, Bewdley; John Fawcett, weaver, Kidderminster; Robert West,
stationer, Stourbridge; Oliver Dixon, mercer, Dudley; and George Wall,
skinner, Bromsgrove.
Towards the close of the same century many convictions took place "for
selling loaves of bread without imprinting on them the letter W in
Roman capital, the said loaves not being rasped either before or after
the bespeaking or purchasing thereof, against the form of the statute."
Ordered (in 1710) "that Wm. Dimock, of Bishampton, have a licence for
a comon higler, lader, kedder, carrier, buyer, and seller, of hens,
chickens, capons, eggs, butter, cheese, ffish, and all other dead
vittualls, except pheasants, hares, and partridges." The Clerk of the
Peace was instructed in 1730 "to give notice by public advertisement in
the Worcester newspaper for all carriers in the said county to attend
this Court at the adjourned Sessions, in order to settle the price of
carriages, according to the form of the statute in that case made and
provided." It was likewise ordered "that no common waggoner or carrier
shall take for carrying any goods to or from Bewdley to London the sum
of more than 7s. per cwt. till further order." And in 1752, "that every
waggon or other carriage drawn up from the signe of the White Hart,
Broadway, to the top of the hill, so far as in the county of Worcester,
may be drawn with ten horses if the owner shall think proper." Ditto,
up the Malvern Hill, with seven. Tolerably suggestive this of queer
roads and stiff gradients. The rates of carriage to be charged by
carriers were fixed by the Quarter Sessions under the statute 3rd
William and Mary, chap. 12, sec. 24, and the number of horses by which
carts and waggons were to be drawn was regulated by the statute 5th
George I, chap. 12.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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