Blackwell Hall Act 1696

Governors of Blackwell Hall to observe the Rules hereby limited.

When the Market is to be held,; to be known by Market Bell ringing in the Hall.; Keepers permitting selling, &c. of Cloth in the Hall on other Days or Hours ; Penalty £100.

Forasmuch as of late Yeares by the great increase of the Factors of Blackwell-Hall in the City of London & by the Advantages given them by the Governors of the said Hall not onely in assigning them the most convenient Lights but permitting them to hire Ware houses in the said Hall to their own Uses into which they enter upon those Days that are no Markett-Days and carry the Clothiers Cloths thence and expose them to sale in a clandestine Manner in their own Houses whereby great Inconvenience and Discouragement hath accrued to the Clothing Trade on which the Welfare of this Nation very much depends For Remedy hereof be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Co[m]mons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from and after the First Day of May which shall be in the Yeare of our Lord One thousand six hundred ninety seven the Governors of Blackwell Hall and their Deputies shall strictly performe observe and keep the sett Times and Rules herein after limitted & appointed for the exact keeping and Government of the publick Markett of Blackwell-Hall that is to say The said Markett shall begin and be held on every Thursday Friday and Saturday from Eight of the Clock in the Forenoon until Twelve a Clock in the same Forenoon and from Two of the Clock in the Afternoon until Five of the Clock in the same Afternoon and that the said Hours for the begining & ending of the said Marketts shall be knowne by the ringing of the Markett Bell in the Hall aforesaid appointed for that Use and Purpose and the same to be held and continued weekly throughout the whole Yeare except Days of Humiliation or Thanksgiving appointed to be otherways sett apart by Act of Parliament or publick Authority and the Keepers of the said Hall shall not permitt or suffer any buying or selling of any Woollen Cloth att the said Hall in or upon any other Days or Hours than upon the Markett-Days and Hours appointed as aforesaid upon the Penalty of One hundred Pounds.