A recent letter to the Kildare Nationalist from the President of the
local Chamber of Commerce regarding the Tuesday market in Athy came to mind
when a few days ago I came across a translation of Athy’s Charter of 1515. It was extracted from a manuscript volume of
the Leinster family over 171 years ago by a person who signed his name at the end
of the copperplate writing of the translation as M.J. McInerney. The manuscript volume from which it was
extracted contained details of the estates of the Earls of Kildare and the
Charter was one of two such documents still in existence.
Henry VIII granted the Charter in 1515 and it represents the first
such Charter granted to Athy which is still available to historians. However, it is believed that a Murage Charter
may have issued previously permitting the town’s inhabitants to levy taxes to
fund the building of the towns defensive walls but no record of that Charter
has been found. Henry’s Charter was
followed 98 years later by the granting of another Charter by King James I,
under which the borough of Athy was incorporated. Another Charter was subsequently granted by
James II, but it was founded on a supposed forfeiture by a judgment of the Exchequer
and as far as is known was not acted upon.
The Charter granted by Henry VIII created the office of Provost who
was to be elected annually ‘on the feast
of St. Michaels, the Archangel’ from amongst the local people. Significantly the opening lines of the
Charter indicate that it was granted by the King at the ‘special request of our well beloved cousin Gerald Fitz, Earl of
Kildare, in consideration of his agreeable and fruitful service to us
exhibited.’ The people of Athy were
also given licence to erect ‘walls of
stone and lime’ and later in the Charter it is stated ‘we do give and grant to the aforesaid provost and his successors
forever for enclosing and paving the aforesaid town in opposition to the malice
of our Irish enemies that they by themselves or their deputies may take and receive
all the customs herein under written.’
There then follows a list of the customs payable within the town, for
instance one penny for every horse or cow sold, one penny for every horse load
of board sold and half a penny for every sack of corn sold. The Provost was also empowered to levy such other
levies or customs as were required, but in all instances was to account each
year for the monies collected and spent to Gerald, Earl of Kildare, his heirs
and successors. Thus on the one hand,
while the inhabitants elected the Provost to look after the towns affairs, he
was accountable to the Earl of Kildare.
Was this, I wonder, an early example of the modern day county management
versus elected representative scenario found today in Irish local government?
In terms of the market right, the Charter contains the following
provisions ‘and also that the aforesaid
Provost and his successors for the time being and the inhabitants of the said
town may have one market weekly within the town aforesaid in a place deputed or
ordained thereof by the aforesaid Gerald, Earl of Kildare Videlict (namely) on
or throughout Tuesday.’ The Provost
and his successors were also given the right of monitoring ‘all kinds of weights and measures within the town’ which gave the
Provost control not only over the market traders, but also the shopkeepers of
the town.
The second Charter of 1613 replaced the Provost with an annually
elected sovereign for which the electorate was confined to the burgesses of
Athy. This group of men (for no women
ever held the position) were nominated by the Earl of Kildare (later the Duke
of Leinster) and those nominated held the position for life or presumably until
removed by the Earl. The ‘rotten borough’ thus created and so
called because it was controlled not by the townspeople but by the local
landlord, the Earl of Kildare, would continue to administer the towns affairs
until it was abolished in 1840.
Tolls or customs were collected on goods sold in the market and the
level of those charges were reviewed each year by the members of the Borough
Council. That part of the report of the
Commissioners on Municipal Corporations in Ireland relating to Athy and based
on a public enquiry held in the town on the 3rd and 4th
of October 1833 claimed ‘Tuesday and
Saturday in each week are now market days.’
It did not give the authority for claiming Saturday as a second market
day, but recent research confirms that Athy Town Commissioners at it’s meeting
on the 2nd of August 1852 agreed that ‘a second market be established in Athy on every Saturday to commence
on the first Saturday of September 1852.’
As early as 1813 Athy Borough Council was concerned at the falloff
in market business and proposed to the Duke of Leinster the abolition of market
tolls, other than for fair days, of which six were held every year in the
town. The Duke appears to have acceded
to the Corporation’s request as by 1833 the earlier mentioned report confirmed
that market tolls were imposed on fair days only. The reason for the Corporation’s concern was
that farmers who normally came to Athy market travelled to the nearby Carlow
market to avoid turnpike charges which were payable at the entrance to the town
of Athy. While turnpike charges (an
example of early 19th century road tolls!) existed in addition to
market tolls, Athy’s market was in serious difficulty. The market tolls were first to go, other than
fair days, and some years later the turnpike tolls were also abolished.
Interestingly, in the light of the Chamber of Commerce letter
calling on the Town Council to make
byelaws regulating the market, it seems that the local Council has forgotten
that it’s predecessors made market byelaws in 1907 for this very purpose. These byelaws were published in local
newspapers on 1st July 1907 and in addition to setting out
regulations for the operation of the market they also reimposed market tolls on
goods sold in the market and reaffirmed Tuesday as the towns market day. There was no mention of the Saturday
market.
The history of Athy market goes back to 1515 and the market
tradition continues to this day 493 years after the youthful King Henry VIII
first granted the market right to the people of Athy at the request of Gerald
Earl of Kildare.
No comments:
Post a Comment