BRACKLEY  , a

market town and municipal borough in the southern parliamentary division of Northamptonshire, England, 59 m . N.W. by W. from London by the Great Central railway; served also by a branch of the London & North-Western railway . Pop . (1901) 2467 . The church of St Peter, the body of which is Decorated and Perpendicular, has a beautiful Early English tower . Magdalen College school was founded in 1447 by William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester, bearing the name of his great college at Oxford . Of a previous foundation of the 12th century, called the Hospital of St John, the transitional Norman and Early English chapel remains . Brewing is carried on . The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors., Area, 3489 acres . Brackley (Brachelai, Brackele) was held in 1o86 by Earl Alberie, from whom it passed to the earl of Leicester and thence to the families of De Quinci and Roland . Brilliant tournaments were held in 1249 and 1267, and others were prohibited in 1222 and 1244 . The market, formerly held on Sunday, was changed in 1218 to Wednesday, and in answer to a writ of Quo Warranto Maud de Holand claimed in 1330 that her family had held a fair on St Andrew's day from time immemorial .

In 1553

Mary granted two fairs to the earl of Derby . By charter of 1686 6 Judgment on the Post Nati . ' Speech to the parliament, 24th of October 1597 . 8 Harleian MS . 231o, f. i.; Gardiner's Hist. of England, ix 56 . James II. incorporated the town under a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 26 burgesses, granted three new fairs and confirmed the old fair and market . In 1708 Anne granted four fairs to the earl of Bridgewater, and in 1886 the borough had a new charter of incorporation under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882 . Camden (Brit. p . 430) says that Brackley was formerly a famous staple for wool . It first sent members to parliament in 1547, and continued to send two representatives till disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832 . The town formerly had a considerable woollen and lace-making trade .