Lent
The period of forty weekdays lasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, observed as a time of penance and fasting commemorating Jesus's fasting in the wilderness
Butchers were prohibited from selling meat in Lent. This was not due to religious grounds but to promote the consumption of fish, and so to benefit the community. (See the preamble of Act passed in 1548. This Act was re-enacted at various dates during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.) The following entries occur in the Nottingham Records: -
On 11th. April 1605, Thomas Goddard of ffarndon, butcher, was charged with killing two calves in Lent without licence; and
Thomas Bagguley of ffarndon, victualler, was charged with "permitting meat to be eaten in his house during Lent."
On 22nd. April 1612, two butchers were presented "for killing a calf in Lent."
On 2nd. May 1614, a butcher was presented "because he killed meat in Lent without licence."
On 17th. April 1615, a butcher of Sneton was presented for "butchering (laniavit) meat in Lent."
On 12th. July 1615, three men of Farndon (one described as called "little Twopence") were presented "for eating hens in the house of Richard Bower," presumably during Lent. Richard Bower was fined 2/6 for "receiving these three."
On 12th. April 1616. a widow of Tuxford "ate meat in Lent."
On 29th. April 1622, an alehouse keeper was presented for "contempt in eating meat in Lent and was fined 6d."
On 5th April 1623, a butcher at Hucknall Torkard was presented for selling meat in Lent.
On 17th. April 1626, two butchers of Mansfield were presented for killing and selling in Lent.
No case are recorded after the year 1626.
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