ded the abbot as lords
of the manor, appointed a high bailiff and the constables and other borough
officers were elected at their court leet; but this ended when the municipal
borough was incorporated in 1874 under the government of a mayor, six aldermen
and eighteen councillors. Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as
the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the Soke of
Peterborough. In 1576 Bishop Edmund Scambler sold the lordship of the hundred
of
Nassaburgh, which was
coextensive with the Soke, to Queen Elizabeth I, who gave it to Lord Burghley,
and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, the Earls and
Marquesses of Exeter, had a separate gaol for prisoners arrested in the Soke.
The abbot formerly held four fairs, of which two, St. Peter's Fair, granted in
1189 and later held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday in July, and the Brigge
Fair, granted in 1439 and later held on the first Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday in October, were purchased by the corporation from the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners in 1876. The Bridge Fair, as it is now known, granted to the
abbey by King Henry VI, survives. Prayers for the opening of the fair were once
said at the morning service in the cathedral, followed by a civic proclamation
and a sausage lunch at the town hall which still takes place. The mayor
traditionally leads a procession from the town hall to the fair where the
proclamation is read, asking all persons to
"behave soberly and civilly, and to pay their just dues and
demands according to the laws of the realm and the rights of the City of
Peterborough."
Modern history
Railway lines began operating locally during the 1840s, but it was the 1850
opening of the Great Northern Railway's main
