DECLINE
The outstanding feature of the later medieval
history of Wilton is the rapid decline of the borough
between the 13th and 15th centuries; all the evidence
goes to show that while Wilton of the 12th century
was still a prosperous and flourishing borough, by
the 15th century the importance of the town had
dwindled so much that it was in a state of decay and
amounted to little more than an unimportant suburb
of New Salisbury. The decay was gradual, but
certain landmarks point to significant stages in the
progress of the decline.
Twelfth-century evidence, such as it is, all points
to the importance of Wilton, (fn. 1) and it is noteworthy
that this century witnessed the foundation of the
hospitals of St. Giles and St. John. (fn. 2) In the early
13th century there must have been a considerable
urban population, for as late as 1245 the Black
Friars thought it worth while to establish a community in Wilton; (fn. 3) indeed only a populous borough
could have supported the eight parish churches
which certainly survived up to the 13th century. (fn. 4)
Wilton remained the seat of the county court
throughout the Middle Ages, and the justices of the
eyre always sat first in the county court at Wilton. (fn. 5)
In addition to its purely administrative importance,
Wilton remained the seat of a mint until the mid13th century. (fn. 6) The economic importance of the
mint together with the annual fair and thrice-weekly
markets undoubtedly maintained conditions of
prosperity, which were further enhanced as long as
the men of Wilton held the monopoly of the routes
from the west of Salisbury.
Despite these advantages, and indeed at the very
period when the municipal liberties of Wilton were
so markedly expanding, there is evidence of serious
economic decline, which became very rapid from
the mid-13th century onwards. It may even be that
the root of the decline lay further back in the 12th
century itself, for we know that the prosperity of
Wilton received a serious, if temporary, check during
the civil wars of the reign of Stephen; most of the
warfare up to 1148 took place in an area likely to
affect Wilton, (fn. 7) and in 1143 Stephen is said to have
fortified the town and built a castle there. Later
Wilton itself was burnt and the nunnery violated. (fn. 8)
But it is evident that a decline of a more permanent
nature must slowly have been developing towards
the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th
century, for in 1230 the farm of the town was
reduced from £40 to £30, more particularly because
of the poverty of the men of Wilton. (fn. 9) A state of
poverty must therefore have existed for many years
before the Crown was convinced of the necessity for
a permanent reduction of the farm; but this is the
first concrete evidence we possess of such poverty.
Events in the 13th century undoubtedly accelerated this decline, whatever were its remoter causes.
The building of Harnham Bridge in 1244 (fn. 10) to give
direct access from the west to New Salisbury
destroyed the long monopoly of Wilton over the
route, and seriously affected the prosperity of the
Wilton markets; six years later the final closing of
the Wilton mint robbed the town of yet another
commercial advantage. The building of Harnham
Bridge was undoubtedly a cause of decline, for it
was built to attract trade to New Salisbury. But its
very success was also a symptom of something more
profound, for if Wilton had been the pre-eminent
market of the district the loss of the monopoly of the
route might have affected the town less seriously
than it did; it seems, however, that Wilton had for
some time been enjoying only a false monopoly.
The heart of the problem lay in the rapid growth
of New Salisbury whose striking economic development (fn. 11) was at variance with the privileges enjoyed
by the royal borough of Wilton; there was no
development in Wilton comparable to the growth of
the great cloth industry of Salisbury, and no evidence of any growth at all in the older town. It was
highly significant that in 1280 the Friars Preachers
moved from Wilton where they had settled only 35
years before and, leaving only a small church and
cell there, took up new quarters in Fisherton Anger,
a growing suburb of Salisbury, where they found a
more populous industrial district in which to work. (fn. 12)
In these circumstances the men of Salisbury found
the monopolies of Wilton insupportable. The building of Harnham Bridge resolved one point in their
favour, but there remained the question of markets.
As will be shown below, (fn. 13) Wilton had the exclusive
right of holding markets on three days a week,
during which time no market was to be held within
three miles of the borough. This stipulation affected
Salisbury as lying within that orbit, (fn. 14) and, indeed,
the charter of Henry III to Salisbury (fn. 15) bestowed
the right of only one weekly market, for the king
would grant nothing detrimental to his own borough
of Wilton. But in spite of this it is evident that when
markets were held in both places on the same day
it was Salisbury which was able to capture the trade,
and merchants were prepared to risk a heavy penalty
provided that they could trade their goods in a better
market; thus royal action was powerless to cut across
the natural line of economic development, and the
decline of Wilton as a trading centre took place very
rapidly in the course of the next two centuries.
In the early years of Edward I's reign the transfer
of the county court from Wilton to either Devizes
or Marlborough was seriously considered, and in
1280 a jury was empanelled to determine which of
these towns would suit the king's interests best as
the seat of the county court. Two-thirds of the jury
maintained that either Marlborough or Devizes
would suit the king better, since they were both in
the king's hands; but the remaining third argued
that if the court left Wilton, the royal gaol and castle
of Old Salisbury would suffer in the absence of
nearby court business. (fn. 16) In fact the court remained
at Wilton, never to leave it except for a few years in
the 17th century when, through the influence of the
high sheriff, it was removed to Devizes. (fn. 17)
Of each Wiltshire eyre, until the last in 1289, the
chief session was held in the county court at Wilton,
though for much of the 13th century New Salisbury
and Marlborough were also visited. (fn. 18) The 'four
knights', or 'justices', commissioned from 1220 to
try possessory assizes, at first always sat at Wilton.
After 1226 other towns were also chosen, though to
the end of the comparatively short period during
which 'four knights' were thus commissioned,
Wilton remained one of the commoner meetingplaces of the commissioners. The 'knights' disappeared about 1242 and in the ensuing fifty years
the professional justices, who heard civil pleas
within the county, did not sit at fixed places. (fn. 19) When
in the 1290s a regular circuit system covering the
whole of England began to be evolved, the Wiltshire
justices met preponderantly at Salisbury. Wilton
was not cut out, but between 1274 and 1291 was, as
far as is known, visited only twice, and between 1292
and 1340 more than eight times less often than New
Salisbury. It was last visited in 1331. (fn. 20)
When in 1236 'four knights' began to be commissioned for the delivery of Old Salisbury gaol
they were ordered to meet at Wilton. (fn. 21) The next
two appointed places were 'Salisbury', presumably
Old Salisbury itself. (fn. 22) The meeting-places throughout the rest of the 13th century have not been
ascertained, if indeed they are ascertainable, but
after 1302, from which time our evidence seems
tolerably complete, Wilton was chosen only once. (fn. 23)
The fact is that by the time the circuit system was
perfected New Salisbury was a more populous and
comfortable place than Wilton, and therefore a more
convenient one at which to hear civil pleas. With
criminal pleas it was rather different. Until Old
Salisbury was depopulated that city was perhaps as
good a place as any other for the trial of suspected
felons. When however the old city began to decay
in the middle of the 14th century it was natural to
try the prisoners in the New Salisbury. The new
city was nearer to Salisbury castle than Wilton, and
was also the favoured resort of civil litigants. It was
therefore Salisbury and not Wilton that became the
assize town when that phrase begins to bear its
modern meaning. The county court, on the other
hand, required the presence of neither the king's
justices nor of suspected felons and it was natural
to allow Wilton to remain as its meeting-place.
Wilton did not submit to its exclusion without a
struggle. At the sessions at Salisbury in 1337 the
burgesses argued that the royal injunction to the
justices to allow them their 'liberties' as expressed
in Edward III's confirmation of Henry I's charter
meant not merely that the burgesses should be quit
of external pleas, but that the assizes should be held
at Wilton and not elsewhere. The first argument
seems to have been accepted, for the justices were
ordered to try pleas affecting the burgesses of Wilton
at Wilton, though there is no evidence that such
trials occurred. The matter was re-opened at the
Salisbury assizes of 1356, when the arguments of
1337 were unsuccessfully repeated. (fn. 24) In 1363,
perhaps in response to a further petition, the burgesses did persuade the Crown to insert in a new
charter a clause expressly granting freedom from
external pleas. (fn. 25) While the dispute was thus closed
to the satisfaction of the burgesses, the new declaratory clause was never interpreted in such a way as to
secure the convocation of an assize in Wilton.
By the mid-15th century continued economic
decline had brought the fortunes of Wilton to a new
low level, and the successful competition of Salisbury was more than ever marked. In 1414 an
attempt had been made to revive the prosperity of
the town by the grant of a fair, the duration of which
was extended the next year. (fn. 26) But the many
symptoms of decay evident in the 15th century point
to the failure of these efforts. By the 15th century
nearly all the churches of the borough were in decay
or total ruin; everywhere bridges were in need of
repair, guild rents were falling and vacant, and
decaying tenements told the same story of decline.
Eight shops under the Guildhall, which up to 1410
had been rented each at 9s. a year, fell vacant so
many times that by 1429 their rent was permanently
lowered to 7s. a year; the stalls in the market place,
originally rented at 4s. a year, were first reduced to a
rent of 2s. and finally fell into total decay; a guild
tenement in West Street, which in 1410 brought in
6s. a year was reduced to a rent of 5s. in 1436, and
the annual rent of another tenement at the end of
Frog Lane was reduced from 12s. to 5s. (fn. 27) The
topography of Wilton in the 16th century shows the
effect of this decline with the disappearance of the
many churches and buildings which had symbolized
its former prosperity. It is thus incorrect to attribute
the decline of Wilton in any way to the dissolution
of the abbey in 1539, for the decay of the town had
been in progress for some three hundred years before,
although the rate of decline had been accelerated
in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries.