This fair, which is still held, and another on Palm Tuesday, are mentioned in the Quo Warranto roll of 1330.
No charter has been found, but a judgment given under a writ of quo warranto in 1578 confirms to the burgesses freedom from toll, passage and pontage, the tolls and stallage of the quay and the right to hold two fairs - privileges which they claimed under charters of Baldwin de Redvers and Isabel de Fortibus, countess of Albemarle, in the 13th century, and Edward Courtenay, earl of Devon, in 1405.
Charles directed a writ quo warranto against the corporation of London in 1683, and the Court of King's Bench declared its charter forfeited.
The motion was lost but the House resolved to bring in a bill for repealing the Corporation Act, and ten years later (March 5) the Grand Committee of Grievances reported to the House its opinion (I) that the rights of the City of London in the election of sheriffs in the year 1682 were invaded and that such invasion was illegal and a grievance, and (2) that the judgment given upon the Quo Warranto against the city was illegal and a grievance.
The first existing grant of a market and fairs to Bridport is dated 1593, but it appears from the Quo Warranto Rolls that Edward I.
