In the Quarter Sessions money was allotted for the upkeep of roads and repair of bridges, and the local vestry supervised the expenditure of the money and work involved. The vestry further had a vast amount of business which was concerned with both national and local politics. It arranged, for example, for the payment of ship money in 1637; and at the end of the eighteenth century it had charge of local schemes for resisting French invasion. As for local matters, it saw to the upkeep of a fire engine; it paid a small sum for every fox that was caught; it dealt with gleaning after harvest; the town crier had to proclaim the orders of the vestry, which included miscellaneous rules such as prohibiting fireworks in the street and forbidding bathing in the river.
Many of the leading inhabitants of Clare were clothiers, to whom reference is made below. An outstanding personality was Roger Barrow, who lived at the end of the sixteenth century. He seems to have been a newcomer to the place and is described variously as grocer and yeoman; possibly he was also an innkeeper, for he bequeathed the Green Dragon to his wife. He was a churchwarden and was probably over-zealous in carrying out the manifold duties of that office, for he was opposed by a party of townsmen. As a result, in 1597 he instituted a suit in chancery against thirteen of the chief inhabitants, alleging that he had personally spent large sums of money on the town and had been unable to recover his costs. On the other hand his opponents declared that many of his actions had been highhanded and unnecessary. The old market house, they said, only needed repair, whereas Barrow had pulled it down, but had not completed a new one. He had obtained large quantities of timber for the repair of the town bridges; but they declared that he had sold part of the timber and only repaired the Baybridge on the Cavendish road. The result of the case is not known, but it seems likely that Barrow had overreached himself; we cannot substantiate his claim that he had spent £240 on the town, for the churchwardens' account-book begins only in 1602; but he was certainly exaggerating when he said that he had expended large sums on the repair of the church, for in 1602 the chancel was said to have needed repair for the past twelve years and the whole church was in poor state.
The town itself had altered little from medieval times. The names of some of the streets had changed. The road north of the church was now called Callis Street (a name most probably derived from Calais and it association with the woollen industry). Houses were being built towards Chilton, along the road still called Gosford Street. A bridewell is first mentioned in 1700 but the name Bridewell Street alias "Gosworth" only occurs in the later nineteenth century. The name of Common Street is found in a will of 1727, and we know that encroachments were being made on the common lands. East of the church the name of Rotten Row was replaced by Church Street. More houses were being built in Cavendish Lane; and there was a turnpike at the Baybridge, earlier called Pysenebregge, over the Chilton stream. In the market the small houses separating Market Street and Rotten Row were often in the possession of out-of-town traders. The market cross begun by Roger Barrow was probably a small timbered building standing on strong uprights; he claimed that it was a convenient shelter for trades in bad weather.
For the greater part of the seventeenth century Nethergate House was owned by the Crosse family. Francis Cross, clothier, who succeeded his father Francis in 1644, probably made important alterations in the dwelling, such as a small staircase and gable at the rear and an oriel window nearby, for the initials of Francis and his wife Elizabeth with the date (F.C.E.1644), are carved on the outside tiebeam. There is a fine Caroline staircase made of oak with turned banisters and elaborate carving. From the hall there is another staircase, of the date of William III, at which time the frontage of the house was altered, the roof of the middle portion raised, the wall plastered over, and two dormer windows built; but the two timbered ends retained their original features, with sixteenth century pattern carved on the horizontal beams. The plan of the house can be compared with that of Paycocke's house in Coggeshall, save that in Nethergate House the east wing which served for weaving sheds has been demolished.
One of the most notable houses from an architectural point of view is the Cliftons, at the west end of Nethergate Street. It is a late eighteenth century adaptation of an earlier building whose origin is not known. Its front elevation, not quite symmetrical, is beautifully proportioned. Its most decorative feature is a fine cut and moulded brick chimney stack of early sixteenth century date; and one of the rooms had Jacobean panelling. In the eighteenth century the house was in the possession of a branch of the Ruggles-Brise family.
