times, the tolls being assessed at the
time of Edward the Confessor at L25 and at the time of the Domesday survey
at L10. In 1239 Henry III. made a grant to John, son of Geoffrey FitzPeter
of an annual fair at the feast of St Osith (June 3rd), which was confirmed
by Henry VI. in 1440. Queen Mary's charter instituted a Wednesday market
and fairs at the feasts of the Annunciation and the Invention of the Holy
Cross. In 1579 John Pakington obtained a grant of two annual fairs to be
held on the day before Palm Sunday and on the feast of the Invention of the
Holy Cross, and a Monday market for the sale of horses and other animals,
grain and merchandise.

AYLESFORD, HENEAGE FINCH, 1st EARL OF (_c._ 1640-1719), 2nd son of Heneage
Finch, 1st earl of Nottingham, was educated at Westminster school and at
Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on the 18th of November 1664.
In 1673 he became a barrister of the Inner Temple; king's counsel and
bencher in 1677; and in 1679, during the chancellorship of his father, was
appointed solicitor-general, being returned to parliament for Oxford
University, and in 1685 for Guildford. In 1682 he represented the crown in
the attack upon the corporation of London, and next year in the prosecution
of Lord Russell, when, according to Burnet, "and in several other trials
afterwards, he showed more of a vicious eloquence in turning matters with
some subtlety against the prisoners than of strict or sincere
reasoning."[1] He does not, however, appear to have exceeded the duties of
prosecutor for the crown as they were then understood. In 1684, in the
trial of Algernon Sidney, he argued that the unpublished treatise of the
accused was an overt act, and supported the opinion of Jeffreys that
_scribere est agere_.[2] The same year he was counsel for James in his
successful action against Titus Oates for libel, and in 1685 prosecuted
Oates for the crown for perjury. Finch, however, though a Tory and a crown
lawyer, was a staunch churchman, and on his refusal in 1686 to defend the
royal dispensing power he was summarily dismissed by James, He was the
leading counsel in June 1688 for the seven bishops, when he "strangely
exposed and very boldly ran down"[3] the dispensing power, but his mistaken
tactics were nearly the cause of his clients losing their case.[4] He sat
again for Oxford University in the convention parliament, which
constituency he represented in all the following assemblies except that of