WILTSHIRE – SWINDON FAIR AND MARKET Letters Patent issued by Charles I under the Great Seal, and embellished with an initial letter portrait of the King, granting Thomas Goddard 'to have & to hold within the town of Swindon one Markett every Monday in the week' for ever '& two Faires there yearly' for ever, the fairs to be held on the second Monday in May and December respectively, 'Together with the Court of Piepowder to be helde & kept & to be continued the whole day at the said Markettes & Faires with all Liberties, Free Customs Tollage Stallage Pickage Fines Amerciments, And all other proffitts or any other profit whatsoever belonging hapning & arriseing to the Said Markett or Court of Piepowder', the grant itself in Latin, together with a late seventeenth century legal transcript in English (quoted); bearing a good clear intact impression of the Great Seal in brown wax, suspended by plaited red and white silk cords; the initial letter portrait of the King executed in plumbago over brown pen-and ink, the crowned Charles I shewn half length, holding orb and sceptre, with historiated first line, decorated with a lion holding the flag of St George and unicorn holding that of St Andrew, crowned Tudor rose at centre, the whole enlivened with floral sprays; contemporary docket 'A Perpetuity graunted to Thomas Goddard Esq.r/ Wolseley' [Robert Wolseley, Clerk of the Patents in Chancery], plus later seventeenth century docket 'The Charter for Swindon' (expanded into 'The Charter for the Marketts & Fairs att Swindon in Com. Wilts.'); with the original leather-clad wooden box and cover, lined with printed law reports, eighteenth century tag attached 'Faiers & Marketts A Charter with Lease', and further early transcript, the deed on one skin of vellum, dust-stained, with other minor signs of use, but overall in fine, sound and attractive condition, 450 x 740mm., Westminster, 20 July in the second year of the King's reign [1626] Footnotes: THE CHARTER GRANTED BY CHARLES I IN 1626 FOR THE MARKET AND FAIR IN SWINDON, BEARING THE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND. Much of the prosperity of Swindon had, until the coming of the Great Western Railway and the new town, depended on its livestock markets; the town referred to as 'Chepyng Swindon' in 1289 and 'Market Swindon' in 1336 (Mark Child, Swindon: An Illustrated History, 2002). The Manor of Swindon was acquired by Goddard's father in 1563 and, after an uncertain start, by 1672 was flourishing, when John Aubrey noted that 'Here on Munday every weeke a gallant Markett for Cattle, which increased to its new greatnese upon the plague at Highworth' (Child). The Goddard family were to play a prominent part in local affairs until the twentieth century, supplying town and county with high sheriffs and members of parliament; their manor house, latterly known as the Lawns, surviving until 1952. Goddard's charter was inherited by the present owner and his family from the company that acquired the market site in 1990: a note of provenance is included with the lot. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com