CHAPTER VIII.

THE END OF THE COMPANIES.

[Sidenote: _Failure of efforts to restrict trade._]

The system of elaborate organisation by which men had regulated trade in the past had given way to an equally complete system of individualism. Confused philosophical reasoning, combined with the decay of old means of regulation, had produced this anti-social state of things. Individual competition, in uncontrolled energy, reigned supreme amid almost incredible suffering and squalor. Everything which might tend to check the progress of the devastation was looked upon with suspicion and swept swiftly out of the way. All the old restraints were wanting, and self-interest alone formed the mainspring of action. To this fetish everything was sacrificed--men's bodies and men's principles. Commercial dealings took the most questionable forms: adulteration of products went on unchecked by any qualms of honesty. The companies had long ago ceased to make any attempts in the direction of industrial regulation. The whole efforts of their members were concentrated on the vain endeavour to restrict trade to the chartered towns.

Yet even the apologist for the companies, quoted at the end of the sixth chapter, was obliged to allow that in this they had failed. The result of the action of the "oppressive oligarchies" was the "excluding or discouraging the English Subjects from Trading in our greatest and best situated towns, where the markets are[208]." Shrewsbury saw the free towns around growing up to importance and outstripping her in the race for prosperity. Birmingham, not far distant, was already famous. Another free town which rose rapidly was Manchester, where most of the new industries did not come under the Apprenticeship Act, and were consequently free and unshackled. Such formidable rivals drew away trade from the old privileged boroughs. The companies were quite unable to retain their monopolies.

But more than this. Even the measure of commercial prosperity which Shrewsbury possessed--it was not small--cannot be in any appreciable degree ascribed to the companies. A writer of 1825[209] who considers the trade of the town at that date by no means "inconsiderable[210]" attributes the fact to anything rather than the "Chartered Companies[211]." "Here are two very large linen factories, besides several manufactories for starch, soap, flannels, cotton goods, an extensive iron and brass foundry, two ale and porter breweries, a spirit distillery, etc.[212]" "Its fabrication of threads, linen cloths etc. etc. stands unrivalled; whilst the more common articles of domestic life are executed in a stile of neatness, certainly equal, if not superior, to those of any other place of similar size[213]." The various causes which he looks upon as conducing to this prosperity he sets forth with considerable detail: "its contiguity to the Principality, the facility which it possesses for the importation and exportation of goods, by means of its noble river and canals, and its situation as the capital of an extensive and populous county, combine to give it many advantages over a variety of places equally insular[214]." That the companies had any hand in ministering to this prosperity, or even served any useful purpose, seems never to have so much as occurred to him.

[Sidenote: _Struggle against intruders_]

Yet they were putting their charters to the utmost use. They used every means in their power to hold the trade. They obtained the assistance of the municipal officers in seeking out and expelling intruders, even hawkers and pedlars. Actions at law became rapidly more frequent, until at last the life of the companies becomes one long effort to compel intruders to take up their freedom by paying the necessary fines. The Barbers even went so far as to prosecute men and women-servants for presuming to dress their masters' and mistresses' hair.

Though these measures were unsuccessful in attaining their object they were not without most important results.

[Sidenote: _impoverishes the companies,_]

In the first place the companies saw their stock become rapidly impoverished, and themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. So early as 1692 the Mercers were obliged to raise £50 by means of mortgage, and in the next year they were twice forced to sell some of their property. The Grocers had, half a century previously[215], noted with sorrow how "the Stock of the Company yearly decreaseth." The Barbers so early as 1744 resolve to spend no more money at Show time "except the third part of the Weavers' Bill." The Saddlers' stock in the three per cents. has to be sold to defray the charges of actions against intruders in 1810, and about the same time the Bakers' arbour was seized "on account of sustained charges against the company in an action for supposed infringement of their rights." Even the wealthy company of the Drapers had been compelled to relinquish their annual holiday, at which open house was kept for town and neighbourhood, in 1781.

[Sidenote: _and calls down public odium on them._]

But worse perhaps than this was the public odium they brought upon themselves. That this was so was acknowledged in formal meeting at the close of their public life, yet it had existed long before and grew daily stronger.

[Sidenote: _Other signs of decay._]

[Sidenote: _Internal disorder._]

[Sidenote: _Accounts carelessly kept._]

[Sidenote: _Trade leaves them._]

These two causes would have been alone sufficient to bring about the downfall of the companies. But there were other signs of decay in plenty. Internal disorder was adding to the degradation into which the once honourable associations were falling. Even in 1668 the Glovers are compelled to take into account "the disorderly manner of making wardens." So late as 1832 the Saddlers inflict a fine on their steward for attending meetings in a state of intoxication. The books are much less carefully kept. The Glovers' company came to an untimely end in 1810 through maladministration and carelessness in dealing with the yearly balance sheet[216]. In 1822 so great a company as the Mercers' is found appointing a committee to search for the charter, which is ultimately found in the hands of a private individual whose magnanimity in surrendering what did not belong to him is highly praised by a formal resolution[217]. We have seen already how trade had fallen off. In 1770 a member of the Saddlers' company paid five guineas "to be for ever excused from serving the office of Steward or Warden." Private interest alone formed the motive of action in commercial dealings. The individual knew nothing of obligations due to society.

[Sidenote: _General demoralisation._]

Society was indeed in a state of rottenness. Outwardly there was plentiful decorum; really there was sufficient sham with its usual concomitant, laxity of morals, in a very marked degree[218]. It could hardly be expected that this should be otherwise in the general disregard which prevailed of all finer instincts: questionable commercial dealings and adulteration of products, on the one hand, were naturally accompanied by brutality and squalor on the other. Commercial success was the only criterion, and as the companies could not stand the test of this touchstone of merit they were doomed.

[Sidenote: _Efforts to delay the end._]

The Gilds of workmen in building trades had been seriously affected, if not destroyed, long before by the Statute 2 and 3 Edward VI. cap. 15, which allowed "any Freemason, roughmason, carpenter, bricklayer, plasterer," etc. "borne in this realme or made Denizon, to work in any of the saide Crafts in anye cittie Boroughe or Towne Corporate ... albeit the saide p'son or p'sons ... doe not inhabyte or dwell in the cittee Borough or Towne Corporate ... nor be free of the same." But in all other trades the law had upheld the companies, and associations strong as these were in antiquity were not to be destroyed without a struggle. In the early years of the nineteenth century they began to think about internal reformation, which, had it been accomplished with singleness of purpose, might perhaps have secured their further usefulness and life. The expenses connected with the annual feasts were regulated[219]. We have seen in the foregoing chapter how the senior members began to withdraw from the dissoluteness of the Show. The actions against intruders, which had long become chronic, were pushed on with new vigour. In the hopes apparently of deciding the question once for all the Mercers' company instituted a great suit against a Mr Hart in the year 1823 which was looked upon by all parties as a test case. Two years previously a committee had been appointed to search for the charter and other documents which might be serviceable to the company in the great struggle they were apparently then meditating. The opinion of counsel was taken, and it being favourable to the company a full meeting unanimously resolved to act upon it. The first thing to be done was to retrench the expenses. It was decided that no dinner could be held that year (1823), and the annual subscriptions to the Infirmary, the Lancaster School, and other charitable objects were suspended. The costs of the actions were to be borne by all the combrethren "rateably and in proportion agreeable to the ancient custom and usage of the Company." But several resignations and withdrawals took place, which show that there was some doubt, if not as to the exact legality, at any rate as to the expediency of the step which was being taken. But the great majority were resolved to press the matter to the issue. Actions against several intruders were consolidated, and that against Mr Hart came on for trial. Important counsel were engaged, and everything was done on both sides to discover the actual state of the law. The result was a verdict entirely in favour of the company. But the assessment of damages at a farthing (while the expenses incurred by the company were between six and seven hundred pounds) showed how strongly public opinion ran in a direction contrary to the mere letter of the law[220].

The defendants however in the present case submitted at once, and the company soon recovered its former financial prosperity. Its subscriptions were again paid after a brief interval. But it is noticeable that actions against intruders went on precisely as before. The effect of this great verdict, which was hailed with public dinners and illuminations, was absolutely _nil_.

It however stimulated the efforts of the companies in the direction of reform. In consequence of the action the Mercers resolved that the enrolment of apprentices (which they confessed had been "criminally neglected") should be better carried out in future, and that a _bona fide_ indenture for seven years should be required in all cases before any claim to the freedom of the company could be admitted. As a tangible result a new book of apprenticeship was commenced, which continued to be carefully and neatly kept to the end. Its first entry is dated August 1, 1823, though there are several records of earlier indentures. Its last is July 2, 1835. A new book for recording the petitions of foreigners to be admitted was also provided. These were comparatively few in number. They extend from July 31, 1823, to June 2, 1834.

[Sidenote: _The Municipal Corporations Act._]

Such was the condition of the companies when the Municipal Corporations Act[221] was passed. No detailed description of this measure, albeit it was "second in importance to the Reform Act alone[222]," is needed here. As far as the companies were concerned its provisions were simple. It took away from them wholly and entirely all their exclusive privileges of trading.

"Whereas in divers cities, towns, and boroughs a certain custom hath prevailed, and certain bye-laws have been made, that no person, not being free of a city, town, or borough, or of certain guilds, mysteries, or trading companies within the same or some or one of them, shall keep any shop or place for putting to show or sale any or certain wares or merchandize by way of retail or otherwise, or use any or certain trades, occupations, mysteries, or handicrafts for hire, gain, or sale within the same: Be it enacted that, notwithstanding any such custom or bye-law, every person in any borough may keep any shop for the sale of all lawful wares and merchandizes by wholesale or retail, and use every lawful trade, occupation, mystery, and handicraft, for hire, gain, sale or otherwise, within any borough." In these words, which might seem the echo of Magna Carta[223] through the centuries, liberty of trading was made a fact throughout England.

[Sidenote: _End of the companies._]

It is interesting that we have recorded for us the way in which this sweeping change was received by those most concerned. The Mercers had foreseen (July 31, 1835) that it would be advisable to drop all pending actions against foreigners until the result of the Act then before Parliament should be decided. After it had become law the company met, for the last time under the old conditions, on March 25, 1836, to consider their position and to take steps for the future. It was apparently a stormy meeting. An influential minority proposed to divide the property among the members there and then, and so have done with the company. It was however carried "That the chief rents ... be not disposed of, but reserved to meet the payments to be made to the Alms people of St. Chad's Almshouses[224], and for other purposes." The fire engine, the company's weights and measures etc., were sold. The other companies acted in a similar manner. The Saddlers divided at once the funds which remained in the treasurer's hands, and which amounted to £1. 7_s._ 0_d._ for each member[225]. Their arbour was however retained, and the rent from it expended on the annual feast on Show Monday. This arrangement was to continue so long as any of the freemen should be living: on the decease of the last survivor the arbour was to devolve to the town council. Lastly, all books, and whatever else remained to the company, were to be deposited with the wardens for the time being.

[Sidenote: _Partial continuation of the companies._]

For attempts were made, even in the desperate pass to which the companies seemed to be brought, to prolong the end. A few patriotic members kept up the shadows of the old fraternities. The ancient custom of electing officers was maintained; the Mercers' records bring the lists complete down to 1876. The arbours were repaired, mostly at the cost of private individuals, and at spasmodic intervals, while the Show still continued to afford opportunities for dissolute revelry to the lowest of the town and neighbourhood. The companies themselves fell back into their original condition of voluntary associations of individuals united for purposes partly benevolent but mainly social, and of which the state took no cognisance. "No one can give much attention to the subject without coming to the conclusion that feasting was one of the essential and most valued features of the companies in their early days[226]:" it became so again in their later. As they had existed long before external circumstances brought them into prominence, so they continued long after they had ceased to influence public affairs, and so they lingered on even after the nation had plainly signified that their existence was not only superfluous but injurious. For their endeavours to restrict trade had been, so far as they had been successful, detrimental to the prosperity of the town, while they had allowed the duty of succouring needy workmen to slip entirely from their hands.

The Friendly Societies which had long taken up this very important part of the functions which the mediæval Gilds had performed rose meanwhile into public favour. Their excellent work was so apparent that an Act of Parliament was passed for their encouragement in 1793, and it was even urged that they should be made compulsory.

[Sidenote: _Their property gives them life._]

The companies had to all intents and purposes long forgotten their duty in this respect, and they could not take it up again now, though had this course been possible they might have commended themselves to public favour. There was only one means which kept them alive. The secret of their vitality was their possession of property[227], and as that melted away the companies were found dropping out of existence. For being deprived of their real essence they had nothing to recommend them. Even the Show degenerated into a public scandal, and the companies, like their annual pageant, at length died, one by one, unnoticed and unregretted[228].

[Sidenote: _Return to organisation._]

Yet there was arising, even at the time when the old companies were being destroyed, a movement in favour of some return to organisation and regulation. Organisation indeed seems to have been a characteristic of the English people at all stages of their history. The Saxons had their Frith Gilds and their Monks' Gilds; the English of the Middle Ages had their Merchant, Religious, Social, and Craft Gilds; in the sixteenth century they had their Trade Societies, the direct and in many cases the little-altered successors of the Craft Gilds. Then came the larger Regulated Companies, which also had some features in common with the mediæval Gilds, more with the sixteenth century societies. The main differences between the earlier associations and those of a later date lay in the avowed motive of confederacy and in the nature of the influence they exercised. The ostensible motive of the Gilds was the general welfare: in the case of the companies it was individual gain. The influence of the Gilds may be called a healthy social and moral influence[229]; that of the post-reformation companies in the towns was in the main directed to selfish and political ends[230].

New organisations, adapted to altered conditions of life and new modes of thought, resembling and yet differing from the Gilds, were now to arise and take the place of the companies as these had taken the place of the mediæval fraternities. The growth of these however will be beyond the scope of the present essay.

It was doubtless necessary that the companies should be pulled down from the lofty heights which they once had occupied. It was requisite that all relics of the detailed system of trade-organisation which the Middle Ages had handed down to us should be broken up, to make room for a _régime_ more conformable to modern conditions of industry. The anarchic reign of individualism through which trade passed at the beginning of this century was an unavoidable step in economic development.

But it was a step attended with infinite loss and inestimable suffering, and it is well that proofs are not wanting of the approaching end of unrestrained competition and anti-social individualism. Signs of change are not wanting. Experience is continually demonstrating that organisation can accomplish vastly more than individual enterprise; that combination is immeasurably more powerful than competition. It is indeed the tracing out of this reaction in favour of combination for common ends, which lends to the economic history of the last hundred years its chief, perhaps its only, human interest.

[Sidenote: _Socialists and other forms of organisation._]

The reaction has manifested itself in various ways. The _Socialists_ have always made State-organisation of labour one of the strongest planks of their platform[231]. At the same time Englishmen have looked with peculiar jealousy on any attempts by the state to extend its sphere of action. Nevertheless a steady development has been witnessed in this direction; the various Civil Services show a uniform increase with the numbers and requirements of the nation. The Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, the Charity and Ecclesiastical Commissioners, are further indications of the same tendency towards organisation.

[Sidenote: _Trades Unions;_]

The Gilds cannot, as we have seen, be censured for low aims; moreover their endeavours to reach the level they set themselves were constant and sincere. And the latter half of the nineteenth century has seen a repetition of somewhat similar attempts.

[Sidenote: _their achievements._]

[Sidenote: _Improvement in status of labour._]

The Trades Union movement[232] is one pregnant with promise for the future[233]. Though the Unions were formed in the first instances for the purpose of resistance to the masters, it may be hoped that as the need for this grows weaker the analogy which their promoters love to institute between them and the old Craft Gilds may become more and more real. They have already done much to raise the condition of labour, and as Friendly Societies they are of the highest value to the workmen[234]. There are signs too that we may even obtain organisations which, with due allowance for altered conditions, may accomplish much of the other good work which Gilds performed for mediæval industry.

[Sidenote: _Attempts at regulation of trade._]

The Unions already aim at ensuring stability of employment through deliberate regulation of trade. By this means they hope to strike a death-blow at that root-evil of our present industrial system, irregularity of employment and uncertainty of wages.

[Sidenote: _Further necessary approximation to Gilds._]

But they yet fall short of the Gilds in two important particulars, and until these deficiencies are made good Trades Unions can only be considered as insufficient means to a highly desirable end.

[Sidenote: _Appreciation of the common interests of masters and men,_]

In the first place there must be no association of men against masters, or masters against men, but union of men with masters for the common good of the craft. Fifty years ago it was pointed out[235] that "the recent destruction of the old Gilds was a purely negative policy, which required to be followed up by a reconstruction on similar, but modified, lines[236]." But of course nothing was attempted, though it is for their care in seeing that the public was well served that the Gilds are chiefly praised to-day.

[Sidenote: _and of the necessity of ensuring a higher standard of work._]

In the second direction much less advance has been made[237]. Yet it cannot be expected that a high standard of wages is to be maintained unless a high standard of workmanship is also ensured. Improvement in pay can only with justice accompany improvement in skill and application. Something of the sentiment and tradition of good work which so strongly characterised the Middle Ages must be brought back. As yet it is wofully lacking. Up to the present the Trades Unions have made no real attempt to grapple with this evil, though its removal is a necessary preliminary to anything like completeness in our industrial reformation. Until they can show their ability to direct trade in this respect in a manner more beneficial to the community than competing capitalists have done during the past, the student will find their analogy to the mediæval Gilds incomplete (and that in a point where the latter might be followed with benefit), and the public will consider their usefulness to society unsatisfactory.

APPENDIX I

NON-GILDATED TRADESMEN[238].

The ordinary authorities on Economic history say little or nothing of the non-gildated tradesmen in the towns, though these formed an important portion of the commercial community. To understand fully the conditions under which trade was carried on in mediæval England the existence of such unfree merchants must be taken into account and their importance appreciated.

Within the commercial class the enforcement of the Gild regulations doubtless depended very largely on circumstances and individual temperament. Moreover their reiteration evidences their futility in attaining the objects they had in view. There must have been much greater freedom and elasticity of thought and action during the Middle Ages than is generally recognised.

It must be remembered too that there were important exceptions to the regulations of the Gilds. The king's servants, when exercising the royal privileges of purveyance and pre-emption, were naturally unrestricted. In Fair-time--and the Fairs were a very important feature in mediæval life--there was unrestrained freedom of trade. But more important than these was another. It was quite possible for ungildated tradesmen to purchase temporary or partial exemption from the local restrictions.

It will be observed that the royal charters which authorise the Gilds and grant exclusive privileges of trading differ somewhat in later years from those of the earliest date. In the earliest grants the words simply allude to the Gild only. Henry II.'s Charter to Lincoln is "Sciatis me concessisse civibus meis Lincolniæ ... gildam suam mercatoriam." There is no hint of any tradesmen external to the Gild. But early in the thirteenth century it becomes evident that such stringent exclusiveness could not be enforced. The charter which Henry III. granted to Shrewsbury in 1227 confirmed the Gild in the following terms:--"Concessimus etiam eisdem Burgensibus et heredibus eorum quod habeant Gildam Mercatoriam cum Hansa et aliis consuetudinibus et libertatibus ad Gildam illam pertinentibus, et quod nullus qui non sit in Gilda ilia mercandisam aliquam faciat in predicto Burgo _nisi de voluntate eorundem Burgensium_." At about the same time the Earl of Chester and Huntingdon gave a charter to Chester forbidding trade in the town "nisi ipsi cives mei Cestrie et eorum heredes _vel per eorum gratum_." The phrase "nisi de voluntate eorundem Burgensium (or Civium)" now became usual in the charters. In those granted by Edward I. to the towns which he founded in Wales, and which may be looked upon in some measure as model town constitutions, the provision appears in each. Thus it may be said that by the end of the thirteenth century it had become customary for the town authorities to grant exemptions from the Gild restrictions by their own authority. They practically gave over to the Gilds the supervision of trade, but at the same time retained in their own hands the power of admitting traders without obliging them to join the mercantile fraternities.

This power of granting exemptions from the restrictions of the Gilds seems to have been exercised in various towns in different degrees. In some it extended no further than the permitting "foreigners" to come to casual markets on payment of a toll upon each occasion. In others however it was more largely and generally used, merchants being allowed to be resident and to trade continually and regularly by payment of an annual fine.

In the latter case the effect was to create two distinct classes of traders within the town. The burgesses may be divided into two classes, those of them who were gildsmen and those who were not. We now see that the tradesmen dwelling in the towns may similarly be divided into two classes, (i) those who were free of the town or of one of the Gilds (or free both of the town and one of its Gilds), and (ii) those who were neither burgesses nor gildsmen. Thus another has been added to the classes into which the inhabitants of towns are usually divided. Mention of these _unfree_ tradesmen is found in the records of many towns in England and Wales: in Norwich, Winchester, Lincoln, Leicester, Andover, Yarmouth, Canterbury, Henley-on-Thames, Malmesbury, Bury S. Edmunds, Totnes, Wigan, Chester, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Clun, Brecknock, Neath, Bishops' Castle, and others.

The designation of these unfree tradesmen varies. At Andover they were known as _custumarii_ (in opposition to the _hansarii_--the full members of the Gild). At Canterbury a similar body appears under the name of _intrants_. In Scotland and the north of England they were called _stallingers_. The most usual name for them is however _censer_, _chencer_, _tenser_, and variations of these.

_Censer_ is apparently the name applied to one who pays a _cense_ or _cess_. In Domesday mention is made of _censarius_--"Ibi sunt nunc 14 censarii habentes septem carucatas"--and the _censarius_ is described as "qui terram ad censum annuum tenet." The connection of the word is here purely territorial. It becomes more personal later in the history as is seen in the "Compotus Civitatis Wyntoniæ" of the third year of Edward I., which contains the following entry:--"Et de xliiij_s._ ij_d._ _ob._ de hominibus habitacionibus in civitate Wynton' qui non sunt de libertate, qui dicuntur Censarii, per idem tempus." Here the _censarii_ are evidently considered in their capacity not as possible landowners, but solely as tradesmen. The _census_ has changed from the land rent of Domesday to a distinctly personal payment.

A somewhat different class from the _censarii_ of Winchester are mentioned in the statute 27 Henry VIII., cap. 7. From the preamble we can form a good idea of the lawlessness and confusion which prevailed on the borders of Wales at that period. It is related that in the Marches, where thick forests frequently fringe the roads, "certain unreasonable Customs and Exactions have been of long time unlawfully exacted and used, contrary both to the law of God and man, to the express wrong and great impoverishment of divers of the king's true subjects." The most crying of these evils was that the foresters were accustomed to plunder all passing along the roads (probably under the plea of taking toll), unless they bore "a Token delivered to them by the chief Foresters ... or else were yearly Tributors or Chensers." The statute offers no explanation of these terms, but it is most likely they applied to persons paying an annual sum, either to the king or the Lords Marchers, of the nature of Chief Rent, especially as Cowell, in giving his explanation of the word _chenser_ which will be noticed later, refers to this Act of Henry VIII. in support of his definition. If this be so we see that although the signification of the term had been extended so as to include distinctly personal and commercial tolls, it had, in some districts, also retained its original connection with land. This, censor, censer, gensor, chencer, and other variations, is the most usual form of the word, but occasionally it is found as tenser, tensor, tensur, and tensure. Tenser and tensor are used at Shrewsbury; at Worcester the same word appears as tensure or tensar (_English Gilds_, pp. 382, 394).

It is difficult to say whether or no _tenser_ is a confusion of _censer_. Etymologically the words seem akin, _cense_ being a tax or toll (cess), and _tensare_ meaning to lay under toll or tribute. In the Iter of 1164 enquiry is directed to be made "de prisis et tenseriis omnium ballivorum domini regis ... et quare prisæ illæ captæ fuerint, et per quem" etc. Another derivation of _tenser_ has been given. Owen and Blakeway (Vol. ii. p. 525) explain it to be a corruption of "tenancier," and apparently intend to imply that these non-gildated traders were considered as holding directly of the king. This view receives some confirmation from Cowell's definition of the "censure" and "censers" of Cornwall. He says (_A Law Dictionary: or the Interpreter_ etc., ed. 1727) "Censure, or _Custuma vocata_ censure, (from the Latin _Census_, which Hesychius expounds to be a kind of personal money, paid for every Poll) is, in divers Manors in _Cornwall_ and _Devon_, the calling of all Resiants therein above the age of sixteen, to swear Fealty to the Lord, to pay _ij{d} per Poll, and j{d} per an._ ever after; as _cert-money_ or _Common Fine_; and these thus sworn, are called _Censers_." "Chensers," he says again, "are such as pay Tribute or _cense_, Chief-rent or Quit-rent, for so the French _censier_ signifies." Whether or no we receive Owen and Blakeway's derivation of the word from _tenancier_, even with the support of Cowell's "censers" of Cornwall, we may press the latter authority into service in showing that the signification of _censer_ and _tenser_, however different the two words might be in origin, became very similar in actual use.

The fines which the tensers or censers paid were imposed in the Court Leet. On the Court Leet Rolls at Shrewsbury are entered lists of names and fines headed "Nomina eorum qui merchandizant infra villam Salopie et Suburbia eiusdem, et non Burgenses, ergo sunt in misericordia." In the first year of the reign of Henry IV. (A.D. 1399) it was ordered that these fines should be levied before the feast of S. Katharine (November 25) in each year. The Court Leet also decided the amount of the fines, but in later times when the select body of magnates had deprived the popular courts of so many of their powers and privileges we find that the apportioning of the tensers' fines had also passed to the close corporation. In 1519 the corporation fixed the tolls at 6_d._ quarterly. The statute 35 Henry VIII., cap. 18, gave the control of the unfree tradesmen in Canterbury to the Mayor and Aldermen of the City. "No foreigner, not being free of the said City, shall buy or sell any Merchandize (saving Victual) to another foreigner; nor shall keep any shop nor use any mystery within the said City or the liberties thereof, without the License of the Mayor and Aldermen, or the major part of them, in writing under their Seal." At Winchester in 1650 the rates were revised by the Mayor and Aldermen. The highest limit was fixed at £5, but the fees actually paid were generally sums varying from 6_d._ to 3/4 only (Gross, II. 264).

When such a privilege was exercised by a select body it was certain to give rise to abuses. Such was found to be the case in early years when the fines were imposed by an authority other than the general assembly of burgesses. In the county court held at Lincoln in 1272 it was alleged that the late Mayor had taken pledges from the burgesses of Grimsby unjustly under the plea of exacting _gildwite_ (as the fine or toll was sometimes called). We learn that at Shrewsbury in 1449-50 "this yeare the Burgesses and Tenssaars ... did varye." What the cause of contention was, or how the dispute was settled, we do not know, but it could hardly arise over anything other than the question concerning the tolls to be paid by the tensers.

In some towns special civic officials were appointed to supervise the tensers. At Chester the "leave-lookers" were among the most important of the borough officers. The word _leve_ or _leave_ has very much the same signification as the word _cense_ or cess. It is the English "levy," and was the fee or toll for permission to trade. The "leve-lookers" were the officials who exacted the levy or toll which unfree tradesmen were obliged to pay. At Chester they were "appointed annually by the Mayor for the purpose of collecting the duty of 2_s._ 6_d._ claimed by the corporation to be levied yearly upon all non-freemen who exercise any trade within the liberties of the City." Their duties are described as having been "to give Licence and compound with any that came either to buy or sell within these liberties contrary to our grants;" "if any did dwell within the city that were not free, if they did ever buy or sell within the liberties, they did likewise compound with the _Custos_ and _Mercator_ [Custos Gilde Mercatorie] by the year ... the Leave-lookers do gather two pence halfpenny upon the pound, of all Wares sold by Forraigners within the City." (Gross, II. 42.) The same name is found at Wigan, where the duty of the "gate-waiters or leave-lookers" was to see that all "foreigners" paid their fines for licence to reside and trade in the town. (Sinclair, _Wigan_, _passim_.)

It is not easy to define the exact status of the tensers. They were certainly considered as an inferior body of burgesses, and might comprise three classes. Firstly, those not willing or not able to enter one of the gilds; secondly, traders waiting to be admitted burgesses; thirdly ex-burgesses fallen from the higher state through misfortune.

1. As an inferior class of tradesmen they could only purchase their stock from townsmen (Gross, II. 177); they were incapable of bearing municipal office (_Ibid._ II. 190) and they were liable to be called upon "to be contributorie to alle the comone charges of the Citie, whan it falleth" (_Ibid._ II. 190). In the general course of trade but little difference might be perceptible between the tensers and the Gildsmen, but attempts to fuse or to confuse the two classes were jealously resented whenever they were discovered. Naturally these attempts to minimise the distinctions between Gildsmen and non-gildsmen were generally prompted, in later times, by political reasons. Only freemen of the town and members of the companies had the privilege of voting in Parliamentary elections, and great was the desire to obtain a position on the list of voters. In "An Account of the Poll for Members of Parliament for the Borough of Shrewsbury taken June 29 and 30, 1747" etc., information is supplied concerning certain townsmen who had claimed to be freemen but were rejected on account of having proved themselves to be otherwise by payment, in times past, of the tensers' fines. Of John Bromhall, baker, we read "It was objected to his vote that he was no Burgess, in support of which it was proved that he had paid Tensership several years, and that his ffather had paid toll. This Tensership is a ffine or acknowledgement commonly paid by persons following trade in the town that are no Burgesses, but it being insisted that it was paid through ignorance or mistake, his ffather was called and admitted to prove that he had voted at a former election for this Borough, whereupon the Mayor admitted his vote, but upon examining a copy of the Poll for the year 1676 it appears that all the ffamily of this Bromhall were upon a scrutiny rejected as not Burgesses."

2. They comprised also among their number many tradesmen waiting to be made burgesses. We learn this distinctly from an ordinance of the corporation of Leicester passed in the year 1467, to the effect that every person opening a shop in the town should pay yearly 3/4 _till he enter into the Chapman Gild_. (Nichols, _County of Leicester_, I. 376.) There were several causes which would account for the existence of this class. The towns grew increasingly jealous of extending their privileges, as these became valuable. The Gildsmen would also desire to learn somewhat of the character of the new-comer before admitting him to full membership with themselves; while on the other hand the latter would wish to see whether the trade of the town were sufficiently prosperous to warrant him settling in the borough permanently. This cause would specially operate in the case of the Welsh boroughs which grew up after Edward I.'s conquest of the principality.

The townsmen however did not approve of the growth of a wealthy class of traders, sharing almost equal commercial privileges with themselves and at the same time not liable to the burdens which were the necessary accompaniment of those privileges. They therefore made it incumbent upon every tenser who evidently was sufficiently satisfied with the trade of the town to make the borough his permanent home, and who had attained to a fair competency, that he should throw in his lot fully and completely with them. He must become in fact a full burgess. This is carefully explained in the _Ordinances of the City of Worcester_--regulations concerning the trade of the town dating from the reign of Edward IV. No. XLVII. says "Also, that euery Tensure be sett a resonable fyne, aft{r} the discression of the Aldermen, and that euery tensure that hath ben w{t}yn the cyte a yere or more dwellynge, and hath sufficiaunt to the valo{r} of XL_s._ or more, be warned to be made citezen, by resonable tyme to hym lymitted, and iff he refuse that, that he shalle yerly pay to the comyn cofre XL_d._, ouer that summe that he shalle yerly pay to the Baillies or any other officers; and so yerly to contynue tylle he be made citezen" (_English Gilds_, p. 394).

3. There were, thirdly, those who had fallen from a higher state through misfortune or other cause. We read of individuals surrendering their freedom and paying the tenser's fine. "He withdrew and surrendered the freedom to the Commonalty, and now pays toll" (Gross, II. 240).

As regarded their dealings other than commercial in nature the tendency was to assimilate the tensers and the townsmen. In a grant made to Shrewsbury by Henry VI. and confirmed by Parliament in 1445 the same privileges are extended to the tensers as are possessed by the burgesses in the matter of exemption from the necessity of finding bail in certain cases. Similarly at Worcester the "tensures" shared with the citizens the right to the assistance of the afferors in cases of wrongful or excessive amercement. (_English Gilds_, 394.)

Nevertheless where commercial privileges were at stake the distinction was rigidly preserved by every means in the possession of the townsmen. The tenser's fine was maintained up to the present century, though not without considerable difficulty. On every hand there were evidences that the companies had outlived their usefulness. Friction was everywhere injuring the social machine. Competition and individualism had taken the place of custom and co-operation. At Winchester there were grievous complaints of intruders who did "use Arts, Trades, Misteries and manual occupations ... without making any agreement or composition for soe doing, contrary to the said antient usage and custome, tending to the utter undoeing of the freemen ... and decay of the same City." Everywhere the records of the companies detail little else than summonses to intruders to take up their freedom and notices of actions at law against them for refusing to do so. General demoralisation prevailed, and the existence of a class holding such an equivocal position as that of the unfree tradesmen did not help to mend matters. The case of John Bromhall which has been mentioned above illustrates the general looseness which prevailed in all departments of municipal administration. A ludicrous incident which happened at Shrewsbury in connection with the tensers in later years is recorded by Gough in his _Antiquities of Myddle_, published in 1834. "This Richard Muckleston was of a bold and daring spirit, and could not brook an injury offered to him. He commenced a suit against the town of Shrewsbury for exacting an imposition on him which they call tentorshipp, and did endeavor to make void their charter, but they gave him his burgess-ship to be quiet."

The companies were preserved from repetitions of this strange indignity by the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, in consequence of which there could no longer be any invidious distinction between freemen and non-freemen, hansarii and custumarii, gildsmen and tensers.

APPENDIX II.

AUTHORITIES CITED.

Abram, W. A.--Memorials of the Preston Guilds.

An Account of the Poll for Members of Parliament for the Borough of Shrewsbury etc. (1747).

Boeckh, A.--Public Economy of Athens, translated by George Cornewall Lewis (1842).

Brentano, Lujo--On the history and development of Gilds and Origin of Trade-Unions.

"Britannia Languens, or a discourse of trade." (1680.)

Bryce, J.--The Holy Roman Empire (1887).

Cowell--A Law Dictionary: or the Interpreter etc. (1727).

Cunningham, W.--The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1885).

Dugdale, W.--Antiquities of Warwickshire.

Ebner, Dr Adalbert--Die klösterlichen Gebets-Verbrüderungen bis zum Ausgange des Karolingischen Zeitalters (1891).

Eden, Sir F. M.--The State of the Poor.

Eyton, W.--Antiquities of Shropshire.

Farquhar--The Recruiting Officer.

Foucart--Les Associations réligieuses chez les Grecs.

Foxwell, H. S.--Irregularity of Employment and Fluctuations of Prices (1886).

Froude, J. A.--History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth (12 vols., 1862-70).

Gneist--Geschichte des Self-Government in England.

Gneist--Das heutige Englische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht.

Gough--The Antiquities of Myddle (1834).

Green, J. R.--A Short History of the English People (1886).

Gross, Charles--The Gild Merchant (1891).

Grote, George--History of Greece (1888).

Hallam, H.--View of Europe during the Middle Ages. 1 vol.

Harrison, W.--A description of England (in "Elizabethan England," Camelot Series).

Hatch, E.--The Organisation of the Early Christian Churches (Bampton Lectures, 1881).

Howell, G.--Conflicts of Capital and Labour (1890).

Howell, Thomas--The Stranger in Shrewsbury (1825).

Kemble, J. M.--The Saxons in England.

Longfellow--The Golden Legend.

Macaulay, Lord--History of England from the Accession of James II. (1889).

May, Erskine--Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. (1887).

Merewether and Stephens--History of the Boroughs.

Nichols, J.--The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (1795-1815).

Ordericus Vitalis--Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy (Bohn's Series).

Owen and Blakeway--History of Shrewsbury.

[Owen, Hugh]--Some Account of the Ancient and Present State of Shrewsbury (1808).

Perry, C. G.--A History of the English Church (Vol. II.) (1878).

Pidgeon's Memorials of Shrewsbury (old Ed.).

Pidgeon's Some Account of the Ancient Gilds, Trading Companies, and the origin of Shrewsbury Show (1862).

Poynter, E. J.--Ten Lectures on Art (1880).

Quarterly Review, Vol. 159.

Riley, H. T.--Memorials of London ... in the XIII, XIV, and XV Centuries.

Rogers, Thorold--Six Centuries of Work and Wages (1889).

Rogers, Thorold--The Economic Interpretation of History (1888).

Scott, Sir Walter--Marmion.

Sinclair, D.--The History of Wigan.

Smith, Toulmin--English Gilds (E. E. T. S.).

State Papers, Domestic (Elizabeth).

Statutes at Large (6 vols, 1758).

Stow, John--A Survey of London (Carisbrooke Library).

Strype--Ecclesiastical Memorials (1821).

Stubbs, W.--Constitutional History of England (1883).

Stubbs, W.--Select Charters (1884).

Stubbs, W.--Lectures on Mediæval History.

Taylor MS. in Library of Shrewsbury School (Reprinted in S. A. S. Vol. III.).

Thackeray, W. M.--The Four Georges.

Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary, being the Diary of Celia Fiennes.

Transactions of the Shropshire Archæological Society (cited as S. A. S.), Vols. I-XI.

Wordsworth, W.--The Happy Warrior.

INDEX.

Abbey at Shrewsbury, 11, 31, 60

Aberystwith, 26

Adventurers, Merchant, of Exeter, 84, 87

Aliens not to be taken as apprentices, 64, 82

Almshouses, 73, 109, 137

Altrincham, 26

Amalgamation natural in Middle Ages, 31 and at all times, 140

Anager, 83

Andover, 25, 35, 147

Anglo-Saxons, gilds of, 12 municipal organisation of, 13

Apothecary, 28

Apprentices, 39, 40, 46, 47, 52, 64, 66, 81

Arthur, son of Henry VII., 79

Arundel, Earl of, 27

Ashton, Thomas, 79, 119

Assistants, 5, 41

Assize of Arms, 11

Axbridge, 27, 85

Bailiffs, assist gilds, 37 assisted by gilds, 36 supervise gilds, 37, 40

Bakers, 28, 59

Bala, 27

Bamborough, 27

Barbers, 28, 45, 58-9, 62, 83-4, 87, 89, 100, 102, 130

Bargains, common, 14, 15

Barnstaple, 27

Bath, 25

Beadle, duties of, 42

Beaumaris, 27

Bedesmen, 63

Bedford, 25

Benefit Clubs, 106, 110

Berwick on Tweed, 26

Beverley, 24, 115

Birmingham, 111, 129

Bishops' Castle, 147

Black Death, 56

Board of Trade, 141

Bodmin, 25

Borough, distinction between Merchant Gild and, 18, 19 rise and development of, 10 incorporation of, 14 position of Merchant Gild in, 14, 16 select body in, 19, 105 classes of inhabitants, 147

Boroughs, list of, possessing Merchant Gilds, 24-28

Boston, 26

Brasier, 53

Brecknock, 147

Brentano, Dr, 7, 9, 104, 105

Bricks, revival of use of, 80

Bricklayers, 118

Bridgenorth, 26

Bridgewater, 26

Bristol, 25, 87, 111

Bromhall, John, 153, 155

Builder, 29

Builth, 26

Burford, 24

Burgesses, 3 charters granted to, 14 small share in work of Parliament, 49

Burgess-ship, qualifications of, 18, 106 not identical with gildship, 18 villains, women, and ecclesiastics excluded from, 18

Burnet, 67

Bury S. Edmund's, 25, 147

Butchers, 28, 57, 59

Byt-fylling, 13

Caerswys, 26

Cambridge, 25, 56, 60, 74

Camden, 79

Canterbury, 12, 24, 147, 148, 150

Cappers, 53

Cardiff, 27

Cardigan, 26, 69

Carlisle, 25

Carnarvon, 26

Carpenters, 28, 59

Carrier, 28

Castle at Shrewsbury, 12

Censers or Tensers, see Shrewsbury

Chantries, 32, 63, 67, 74, 86, 92

Charity Commissioners, 141

Charles II., 87

Charters did not necessarily create the gilds, 55 to burgesses, 14

Chelmicke, Mr, 89

Chepgauel, 18 n.

Chester, 25, 92, 119, 146, 147, 151 Earl of, 25, 146

Chesterfield, 27

Chichester, 24

Cirencester, 27

Civil Services, 141

Clerk, 28, 43

Cloth Trade, 78-9 cloth-workers, 29, 117 cloth-merchant, 57

Clun, 147

Collier, 28

Commissioners for plundering gilds, 73

Commonwealth, 122

Communa, 14, 16

Companies, commercial, 6, 47, 86, 88, 98 et seq., 140

Compositions, 37-8, 55 n.

Conflicts between Merchant Gild and Craft Gilds, 5, 9, 20, 21

Congleton, 26

Conquest, Norman, 10

Continent, commerce with, 10 merchant gilds of, 5, 9, 20, 21

Conviviality, 13, 44, 111

Conway, 26

Cooks, 28, 59

Coopers, 28

Cordwainers, 35

Corn-dealer, 28

Cornwall, 149 Earl of, 26, 27

Corporations, municipal, 14, 16, 105, 109, 127

_Corps-de-métier_, 8

Corpus Christi, gilds and Feast, 33, 43, 59, 63, 115, 118

Cottoners, 90

County Towns, their former importance, 3, 122-3

Coventry, 26, 115

Craft Gilds, earliest mention of, 34 become numerous, 35 favoured by Merchant Gild, 20, 22, 34, 36 take over work of Merchant Gild, 20, 35 motives for forming, religious, 31-2 social, 33 commercial, 34 police, 36 incorporated, 38, 55 at Shrewsbury, 10 favoured by municipal authorities, 36, 38, 43 composition of, 39 officers, election unrestricted, 40 wardens, 41 assistants, 41 stewards, 42 beadle, 42 searcher, 43, 46, 87 clerk, 43 treasurer, 43 key-keeper, 44 take oath before bailiffs, 37, 40 meetings, 43 importance of, commercial, 45 social, 33, 34, 47-50 constitutional, 48-9 as benefit clubs, 50 specially interesting at present time, 49-51 development of trade introduces abuses, 56-7 policy of reform, 58 demoralisation, 65-7 robbed by government, 67 et seq. effects of this, 75 et seq. reorganisation, 81, 84-97 its effects on gilds, 82 intimate connection of later companies with corporation, 85-6, 99, 105, 120-22 they retain many of old gild characteristics, 87-8, 108-9 though altered conditions make their work difficult, 88, 98 and companies themselves are unsatisfactory, 98-102, 105 they change to capitalist companies, 103-5 from which journeymen are excluded, 106 difficulties of reform, 107-8 contemporaneous opinion of, at end of 18th century, 109-12 destruction of, 136-137 return to organisation partly on gild principles, 141-144

Craftsman of middle ages, 49 degraded by Reformation, 75

Cranmer, 68

Criccieth, 26

Crispin and Crispianus, 118, 125

Custumarii, 147

Cyveiliog, Earl of, 26

Davies, Thomas, 92

Denbigh, 27

Derby, 25

Despenser, le, 27

Devizes, 26

Devon, 150

Dixon, Canon, 71

Domesday Book, 11, 148

Doncaster, 28

Dover, 12

Drapers, 29, 32-3, 59, 73, 83-4, 90-7, 99, 101, 108-9, 126, 131

Dugdale, 116

Dunheved or Launceston, 26

Dunwich, 25

Durham, 25 Bp of, 26

Dutch, 82

Dyer, 38

Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 141

Edward the Confessor, 12

Edward I., 16, 26, 27, 35, 58 his conquest of Wales, 2, 146, 154

Edward II., 27

Edward III., 27, 35, 59

Edward IV., 28, 38, 42, 58, 59, 62, 65, 79, 82, 117, 154

Edward VI.'s confiscation of gild property, 33, 62, 67, 118

Elizabeth, 35, 76-79, 81, 84, 86, 117, 118

Enclosures, 78

"England the birthplace of Gilds", 9

English Gilds differ from continental, 5, 9, 20, 21

Ethelred, 13

Exchequer, 11

Exeter, 84

Fairs, freedom of trading at, 15, 146

Family sometimes considered the germ of the Gild, 7

Farquhar, 123

Faversham, 81 n.

Feasts of Gilds, 13, 44, 111

Fee Farm or firma burgi, 17, 18, 19, 22

Fellmongers, 39

Feltmakers, 99

Fire-engine supported by gilds, 106, 137

Fishmongers, 29, 59

Flemings, 82

Fletchers, 59

Flint, 26

Fordwich, 25

"Foreigners," Forinseci, 19, 20, 98, 110, 147

Foresters, 68

Four Men, 41-2, 104

France, _corps-de-métier_ in, 8 French, 82 French company, 94

Freemen of companies, 39, 53, 106

Friendly Societies, 68, 116, 139, 142

Frith bot, 13

Frith gilds, 8, 13, 46, 140

Frizers, 90

Fullers, 35

Funerals attended by brethren, 43

Fusion of races shown in Shrewsbury gild records, 16

Gainsborough, 27

Garnisher, 28

George IV., 126

German Merchants, 82

Gildhall, at Dover, 12 becomes town hall, 17-18

Gild Merchant, see Merchant Gild

Gilds, see Companies, Craft Gilds, Frith Gilds, Merchant Gilds, Monks' Gilds, Religious Gilds, Yeoman Gilds differences between English and foreign, 5, 9, 20, 21 universality of gild feeling, 7 earliest gild statutes, 9

Glanvill, 17

Gloucester, 25 Earl of, 24

Glovers, 28, 39, 59, 83, 87, 101, 118

Godiva, 116

Goldsmith, 28, 53, 109

Grammar Schools, 74

Grampound, 27

Grantham, 28

Great Yarmouth, see Yarmouth

Greeks, gilds among, 7

Griffith, Earl of Cyveiliog, 26

Grimsby, 151

Grocers, 109, 131

Groom, 28

Guildford, 26

Haberdashers, 100

Halls of Gilds, see Gild Hall, 42, 44

Hansarii, 147

Harlech, 26

Harper, 29

Harrison, 78, 80

Hart, Mr, 134

Hartlepool, 26

Haverfordwest, 25

Hawkers, 29 repressed by companies, 130

Hedon, 27

Helston, 25

Henley-on-Thames, 27, 147

Henry I., 10, 11, 14, 24-34

Henry II., 10, 11, 14, 17, 25, 146

Henry III., 26, 146

Henry IV., 2, 27, 59, 65, 150

Henry V., 27

Henry VI., 28, 57, 58, 59, 62, 66, 155

Henry VII., 65, 66, 79

Henry VIII., 66, 67, 73, 79, 118, 150

Henry de Lacy, 26

Hereford, 25

Historical attitude essential in studying history of gilds, 44

Hope, 27

Hugh le Despenser, 27

Huntingdon, 35

Incorporation, municipal, 14, 16

Indentures of apprenticeship, 46, 52, 64

Infirmary, 109

Inns of Court, 119

Intrants, 148

Intruders and Interlopers, 89, 98 cf. also Foreigners

Ipswich, 18, 25

Irish not to be taken as apprentices, 82

Iron Trade, 78

Ironmongers, 53, 109

James I., 84, 95

Jews, 78

John, 14, 18, 25

Journeymen, 39, 40, 106

Judge, a member of Merchant Gild, 29

Justices Itinerant, 11

Justices of the peace, 81

S. Katharine, 118, 150

Kenfig, 27

Kinaston, Mr, 95

King's Bench, 11

Kingsland, 125, 127

Kingston-on-Thames, 26

Kirkham, 27

Lampeter, 27

Lancaster, 27

Launceston, 26

Leather-sellers, 39

Leech, 29

Leet assesses Tensers' fines, 150 loses its powers, 105, 150

Leicester, 24, 147, 153

Leve-lookers or leave-lookers, 151, 152

Lever, Thomas, 74

Lewes, 24

Lincoln, 25, 35, 146, 147

Liskeard, 26

Liverpool, 111

Livery, 43, 65

Llanfyllin, 27

Llantrissaint, 27

Lloyd, John, 80

Local Government Board, 141

Local history, value of, 10

Local life, always varied in England, 1

Locksmith, 29

London, 111 its "laws", 13 its Anglo-Saxon Gilds, 12 its Craft Gilds, 35 its rivalry with provincial towns, 92, 124 its modern pre-eminence, 1, 3, 123

Lostwithiel, 26

Ludlow, 28, 79, 109

Lyme Regis, 26

Lynn Regis, 25, 69

Macclesfield, 26

Machinery, introduction of, 4

Magna Carta, 136

Malmesbury, 25, 147

Marches, of Wales, 2, 148 Lords of, 2 Court of, 2, 89 President of, 2

Markets, 13, 15

Marlborough, 25

S. Mary, Chantry in Church of, 53

Mary, 118

Mason, 29

Masters, 40-41, 67, 75-76, 103, 105

May Day, 5, 98, 120

Mayor administers oath of admission, 99

Mellent, Robert, Earl of, 24

Mercers, 33, 44, 53, 59, 62, 63, 64, 73, 82, 83, 84, 88, 101, 103, 108, 126, 131, 135, 137, 138, of York, 84

Merchant, 14, 29, 38, 48

Merchant Gilds, the chief difference between town and country, 12, 21 originated to preserve peace, 12, 21 compared with Frith Gilds, 13, 46 trade regulations follow, 13 earliest mention, 14 royal authorisation, 14, 21 at Shrewsbury, 10, 14 effects, 16, 22 chronological list of, 24-8 relations with communa, 10, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 34 with Craft Gilds, 20 compared with Trades Unions, 46 functions and privileges of, 14-16, 18-19, 21 duties of gildsmen, 17 comprised majority of householders, 15, 22 all branches of trade, 16, 19, 30 and professions, 18 and women, 18 and ecclesiastics, 18 a rallying point for burgesses, 16, 22 all burgesses are gildsmen, 16 but all gildsmen are not burgesses, 18 efforts towards municipal objects, 20 gild hall becomes town hall, 17 in later years delegates its mercantile functions to Craft Gilds, 20, 22, 30, 34, 36 who sometimes in aggregate receive name of "Merchant Gild", 35 subsequent history, 35

S. Michael, patron of Mercers' Company, 53, 63

Militia, national, 11

Miller, 29, 59

Monasteries, 8, 67, 77

Monks' Gilds, 8 (and n. 2), 59, 140

Monks excluded from burgess-ship, 18

Montgomery, 26

Mornspeche, 43-44

Mortmain Acts, 55 (n. 2), 61

Much Wenlock, see Wenlock

Municipal Corporations Act, 127, 136, 156

Municipalities, see Boroughs

Mynde, Abbot, 61

Neath, 27, 147

Nevin, 27

Newborough, 27

Newcastle-on-Tyne, 25

Newcastle-under-Lyme, 26

Newport (Salop), 26

Newport, 27

Newton, 27

Norfolk, 69

Norman Conquest, 10 favours trade, 13, 21

Norwich, 147

Nottingham, 25

Oaths, 39, 53

Odd Fellows, 68 see Friendly Societies

Oswestry, 27, 89 rivalry with Shrewsbury, 91-96

Overton, 26

Oxford, 25, 35

Pageants, 4, 33, 42, 63, 113-127

Painters, 118

Palmer, 29

Parchment-makers, 39

Paul's Cross, 74

Peasant Revolt, 56

Pelterer, 29

Pembroke, Earl of, 27

Petersfield, 24

Pewterer, 53

Plasterer, 28

Plymouth, 28

Pointmaker, 39

Police regulations aided by gilds, 65, 108

Pontefract, 28

Poor maintained by Craft Gilds, 33, 47, 80

Portsmouth, 26

Potter, 29

Pre-emption, gildmen's right of, 15 royal right of, 145

Preston, 25

Priest, 29

Privileges of gildsmen, 15, 17, 63, 64, 65

Processions, see Pageants

Puritans, 120, 125

Pursers, 39

Pwllheli, 27

Reading, 26, 35

_Recruiting Officer_, 123-4

Reformation, its shock to industry, 3, 6, 77 to gilds, 67

Reform movement fatal to companies, 6, 127 and Show, 127

Religion and trade, 5, 107, 125

Religious Gilds, 60 of Holy Trinity, 59 of S. Winifred, 31, 59-62 frequently connected with trade, 60

Residence not requisite for membership of Merchant Gild, 18

Restoration, 122, 125

Rhuddlan, 27

Richard I., 14, 16, 25

Richard II., 27, 65, 82

Richard III., 28

Richard, Earl of Cornwall, 26

Robert de Belesme, 11

Rochester, 26

Roger de Montgomery, 11, 12

Romans, gilds of, 7

Rowley's Mansion, 80

Rubens, 118

Ruyton, 27

Saddlers, 29, 59, 131

Saffron Walden, 27

Salisbury, 25

_Salopian Journal_, 109

Scarborough, 26

Schools maintained by Gilds, 33 Lancaster, 109

Searcher's duties, 43

Severn, 123

Shearmen, 5, 32, 59, 79, 83, 90, 103, 117, 120-2

Shoemakers, 28, 32, 57, 58

Shrewsbury, its strong individuality, 1 its geographical position, 2 early growth, 2, 3 in Domesday, 11 depressed by Conquest, 11 taken by Henry II., 11 later prosperity, 3 streets and houses, 4 its abbey, 11, 31, 60 castle, 12 peculiarities of its gild history, 5, 40-42 its gild-records, 10, 16 gilds, 4, 36, 58-9 gild hall, 17 gild-chantries, 32, 63, 74, 92 religious gilds, 31, 59-62 Merchant Gild confirmed, 14, 25, 146 incorporation of Craft Gilds, 58-9 early history of, 55-76 Reformation changes, 77-97 obtains monopoly of Welsh cloth trade, 3, 91-7 rivalry with Coventry, 63 in 16th century, 76, 79 with Oswestry in the 17th century, 89-96 with Chester, 92 with London, 92, 124 typical of the 17th century, 4, 122-5 influence of machinery upon, 4 later degeneracy of its companies, 98-112, 129-139 Shrewsbury Show, 113-127, 137 Tensers of, (Appendix 155) and other towns, 147 etymology, 149-150 their fines, 150 status, 152-154 privileges, 147, 155 relations with burgesses, 155 later history, 155

Skinners, 36, 38, 41, 59, 83, 89, 118

Skins, seller of, 29

Smiths, 84, 88, 118

Social Gilds, see Religious Gilds

Socialists, 141

Social life changed by newer conditions, 1, 123

Somerset, 67

Southampton, 25

Stafford, Earl of, 27

Stallingers, 148

Stamford, 28, 115

Steen, Widow, 101

Stephen, 24

Stewards, duties of, 42

Stow, 120

Strype, 74

Suffolk, Earl of, 95

Sunderland, 26

Sword Cutler, 28

Tailors, 28, 32, 36, 38, 41, 44, 57, 59, 83, 84, 88, 89, 101, 117

Tanners, 28, 57, 59, 98-9

Tavern-keeper, 29

Tensers, see Shrewsbury

Teynterer, 29

Thegn-right obtained by three voyages, 48

Thurstan, Abp of York, 24

Tolls paid by ungildated merchants, 146-156

Totnes, 18 (n. 6), 25, 147

Town bargains, common, 15

Townhall, 17-18

Towns, growth of, in twelfth century, 10, 21 differed little from country, 12, 21 trade their _raison-d'être_, 13 town gild, 13, 31 struggle of classes in continental, 9 but not in English, 9 growth of select body, 19, 105

Trade favoured by Conquest, 10, 13, 35 expansion of, 20 localisation of, 31

Trade Unions, 47, 68, 141-144

Treasurer of gild, 43

Tudor, Owen, 79

Universities, 119

Usury, 33, 78, 80

Villain enfranchised by joining Merchant Gild, 16, 22, 30

Vintners, 59

Vulcan, 118

Wake, John, 27

Wales, 2, 30, 146, 154 incorporated with England, 79 cloth trade of, 3, 89-97, 99 Prince of, 27, 38, 79

Wallingford, 25

Walsall, 28

Wardens' Oath, 39

Warenne, Reginald de, 24

Warwick, 69

Warwickshire, 116

Weavers, 29, 32, 34, 44, 59, 131

Weddings, 43

Welshpool, 26

Wenlock, 28

Weymouth, 28

Wigan, 147 leve-lookers or gate-waiters at, 152

William I., 10

Wilton, 24

Winchester, 16, 25, 35, 85, 147, 148, 155

Windsor, 26

S. Winifred, 31, 59, 61

Witan, 13

Wite, 60

Women, members of gilds, 39, 40 but not burgesses, 18

Woodman, 29

Woodstock, 28

Wool-comber, 28 wool-buyer, 29 woollen-trade, 78

Worcester, 26, 147, 149, 154, 155

Working men, of middle ages, 49 degraded by Reformation, 75 and by subsequent policy, 106 hopes for their future, 142-144

Worsted Trade, 78

Wrekin, 124

Wycombe, 27

Yarmouth, 25, 147

Yeomen gilds, 5

York, 24, 84, 115 Abp Thurstan of, 24

CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I speak of the old edition. I have not had the advantage of using the newer work.

[2] That the land did not contain a population adequate for its cultivation is evident from a Statute of 1350 which allows the people of the Marches of Wales (and Scotland) to go about in search of work at harvest-time, as they had been accustomed to do aforetime. (_Rot. Parl._ II. 234.) _Work and Wages_, pp. 131-2.

[3] Cf. Thackeray, _The Four Georges_, p. 320, "decayed provincial capitals, out of which the great wen of London has sucked all the life."

[4] Macaulay. _History of Eng._, Vol. I. pp. 165-6. Infra, Chap. VII.

[5] Cf. infra, Chap. VII.

[6] Brentano, 44, 52, 54, 58. Green, _Short Hist._, 193. G. Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, 22-25, 29, 31.

[7] Cunningham, _Growth of Industry_, 212. Brentano, 90, 95.

[8] Cf. infra, Chap. V.

[9] Cf. especially Chap. VII.

[10] _The Hist. and Development of Gilds._ Cf. especially Note 1.

[11] _Ibid._ 8. "The objects of the [Greek: eranoi] were of the most varied description; ... associations of this kind were very common in the democratic states of Greece, and to this class the numberless political and religious societies, corporations, unions for commerce and shipping, belonged." Boeckh, _Public Economy of Athens_, p. 243.

[12] Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, Vol. VI. p. 247, n. 1, where several interesting parallels with the Mediæval Gilds will be found. (Cf. also infra, p. 34, note 2.)

[13] E. Hatch, Bampton Lectures, Lect. II. notes.

[14] Cunningham, p. 124.

[15] Cf. _Die klösterlichen Gebets Verbrüderungen bis zum Ausgange des Karolingischen Zeitalters_, von Dr Adalbert Ebner. Similar spiritual confederations are found in Italy in the second quarter of the eighth century, and in the ninth they become common in southern Europe. Alcuin speaks of them by the terms _pacta caritatis_, _fraternitas_, _familiaritas_. The monks of the allied houses were termed _familiares_. Dr Brentano (p. 20) says that at later times "conventions like that between the Fraternity of London Saddlers and the neighbouring Canons of St Martin-le-Grand, by which the saddlers were admitted into brotherhood and partnership of masses, orisons, and other good deeds with the canons, were common."

[16] Brentano, pages 1, 2. They are printed in Kemble's _The Saxons in England_, Vol. I. Appendix D.

[17] Brentano, 49.

[18] Gneist, _Self Government_, Vol. I. p. 110; _Verwaltungsrecht_, Vol. I. p. 139.

[19] Stubbs, III. 576, 578.

[20] _Work and Wages_, p. 126.

[21] Stubbs, I. 452.

[22] Stubbs, I. 449: _Select Charters_, 63, cap. 27, 28: 67, cap. iii., viii., 1., etc.

[23] _Select Charters_, 66, 12: 72, 6.

[24] Stubbs, I. 450.

[25] _Select Charters_, 67, iii., viii., 1.

[26] _Ibid._ 72, ii. cap. 6.

[27] Cunningham, 129, Stubbs, I. 452, Brentano, 42.

[28] Gross, I. 5; II. 28, 37. See note 1 to this Chapter.

[29] Cf. note 1 to this Chapter.

[30] _Ibid._

[31] _Select Charters_, 167 etc.; Stubbs, I. 452, and n. 1; Eyton's _Shropshire_, XI. 134.

[32] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159.

[33] Gross, I. 135, 136 and notes; II. 133, 149.

[34] _Ibid._ I. 42.

[35] Cf. note 2 to this Chapter.

[36] _Select Charters_, 265.

[37] _Select Charters_, 162, "Communam scilicet gildam."

[38] Gross, I. 83 and note 1.

[39] Stubbs, I. 451.

[40] _Select Charters_ (Helston), 314.

[41] Gross, I. 54. The Rolls of the Shrewsbury Merchant Gild contain a large number of names of "foreigners." For instance in 1209 there were apparently 56 foreigners; in 1252 these had increased to 234.

[42] Printed in Gross, II. 114-123.

[43] _Select Charters_, 166 (Charter of Henry II. to Lincoln).

[44] Gross, II. 235, and cf. note 2 to this Chapter.

[45] Cf. the "Chepgauel" at Totnes. Gross, II. 236.

[46] Gross, I. 57.

[47] Owen and Blakeway, I. 169-174. Erskine May, _Const. Hist._ III. 276-77.

[48] This close relationship of, and actual difference between, the two bodies is very distinctly seen at Bristol in the reign of Edward IV., when it was the custom for the Mayor and Council of the town to choose the chief officers of the Merchant Gild, and to pass ordinances for its regulation. Gross, II. 25.

[49] On the early use of coal, cf. _Work and Wages_, p. 124.

[50] The Statutes of Labourers first gave a recognised position to the "men who neither held land, nor were free burgesses," but who had a dwelling, and paid the rates of some town. Cf. Cunningham, 193-4. Supra, p. 19.

[51] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159; _Economic Interpretation_, p. 298.

[52] Cf. "Butchers' Row" at Shrewsbury, where also the High Street was formerly called Bakers' Row (Pidgeon's _Handbook_, old Ed. p. 37). The Street which was afterwards known as Single Butcher Row had been earlier called "Shoemakers' Row" (Phillips, p. 200).

[53] Cf. the Monks' Gilds alluded to above, p. 8 and n. 2.

[54] "Which is now the only fragment left to the incumbent of the Church's income before the Reformation." S. A. S. x. 223.

[55] Longfellow expresses this well in _The Golden Legend_:

"The Architect Built his great heart into these sculptured stones, And with him toiled his children, _and their lives Were builded, with his own, into the walls, As offerings unto God_."

[56] At Worcester a Gild School educated 100 scholars. The substitute which the Government provided at the Reformation was for less than half that number. Toulmin Smith's Collection, p. 203 and note.

[57] Ordinances of the City of London, framed in 1363.

[58] The Greeks had private Societies called [Greek: thiasoi] and [Greek: orgeônes] which also presented this feature. Cf. Foucart, _Les Associations réligieuses chez les Grecs_.

[59] Brentano, 54. Cunningham, 203, n. 2.

[60] Cf. supra, p. 20. In writing thus I have not forgotten that an opposite view is taken by Dr Brentano, Mr J. R. Green, Mr Geo. Howell, and in fact most of the writers who have touched on the subject.

[61] Gross, I. 114.

[62] Hartlepool, 1673. "It is ordered at a general guild ... that whosoever ... shall presume to come in and within the liberty of this corporation, to trade or occupye ... to the prejudice of the free trades and companyes within the corporation" etc. Gross, II. 106-7.

[63] Cunningham, 209, n. 1.

[64] Tailors' Composition, of 1478.

[65] The Bailiffs are to apprehend on the third day any person coming to the town "suspitiouslie w{th}oute anie lawfull errand or occasion," and to detain him in prison "till he have found suertie of his good bearing or els to avoide the towne." "And if anie man be comitted to their warde by the wardens w{th} the fower men ordeigned to the said wardens to be assistaunt in counsell in good counsell giving of anie crafte w{th}in the said Towne and Frauncheses that then that person that is so comitted to warde ... be not deliv'ed out of warde by the Bailiffs w{th}out assent and agreement of the said wardens and fower men." "Item ... that no manne of their Crafte journeyman or other be attendant nor at the calling of anie gentleman, nor to noe other person otherwise than the lawe will but onlie to the wardens of their Crafte for the good rule of the same and assisting of the Bailiffs for keeping of the peace and for good rule of the Towne."

Mercers' Composition, 1480-81. The searcher is "to make serche and espye all suche p'sones as frawdelentlye abbrygg, w{t}draw or cownceyle the payments of theyre dewties" (such as Toll, Murage, etc.).

No livery is to be worn except that of the Gild or Corporation. When the town bell rings the alarum members of the Gild are to go to the help of the Bailiffs only.

[66] Tailors' Composition, of 1478. Cf. _Eng. Gilds_, pp. 286, 385, 407, 420, etc.

[67] There are examples of the town drawing up trading ordinances to which the Gildsmen conformed. Cf. The Usages of Winchester and the Ordinances of Worcester in _Eng. Gilds_, pp. 349, 370. Cf. also pp. 334-337.

[68] Also before they could hold land in mortmain it would be necessary to obtain a charter.

[69] The Oath of the Freemen of the Mercers' Company is given as a note to this Chapter.

[70] Cf. Appendix.

[71] "The position of master and journeyman was not that of capitalist and labourer, so much as that of two fellow-workers, one of whom, from his superior status, was responsible to the town for the conduct of both." Cunningham, 211. As showing the position of an apprentice in the 15th century a Shrewsbury Indenture is given as a note to this Chapter.

[72] Cunningham, 211, n. 1. Brentano, 40, 68.

[73] "The Stock in Trade required to set up in business was not great and an apprentice when his term of service was over, became a master almost as a matter of course. Journeymen were scarce, or at any rate not plentiful enough to have much influence on Trade.... Thus Capital and Labour were united." _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 53.

[74] Brentano, 40.

[75] Merewether and Stephens.

[76] For interference with Free Election on the Continent cf. Brentano.

[77] Tailors' Composition, 1563.

[78] Cf. infra, Chap. VI.

[79] Cf. the four Auditors to superintend the accounts of the London Grocers (1348) and the six members who were chosen "to aid the Wardens in the discharge of their duties" (1397), of whom Mr George Howell says: "_Other than these, no notice of the existence of a committee or of assistants, in England, appears earlier than the sixteenth Century_." _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, p. 40. Brentano, p. 62. Cf. the four Assistants in the Merchant Gild of Ipswich, Gross, I. 24.

[80] The "Four Men of Counsel" of the Mercers were, by the Composition of 1480-81, chosen by the Wardens.

[81] Mercers' Composition, 1480-81. Tailors' and Skinners', 1563.

[82] Tailors' Composition, 1563.

[83] Several of these are in the Town Museum at Shrewsbury.

[84] A "Key-keeper" appears later in the lists of officers.

[85] Their situation is given in _Some account of the Ancient and Present state of Shrewsbury_, published in 1808.

[86] Barbers' Composition (1483 A.D.).

[87] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 44.

[88] _Select Charters_, p. 65.

[89] _Elizabethan England_, p. 9.

[90] Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, Vol. III., p. 607.

[91] The writs issued in 1388 order returns of the "Charters and Letters Patent _si quas habent_": cf. Toulmin Smith, pp. 128, 130. The "Compositions" spoken of below were renewals and confirmations of previously enjoyed privileges. They usually assert that the Gild has been in existence "a tempore quo non extat memoria."

[92] Charters were also necessary before lands could be acquired in mortmain.

[93] Stubbs, ii. p. 504 and note 1.

[94] Toulmin Smith. Introduction, p. xxiv. It is from these returns that Mr Toulmin Smith has compiled his collection of ordinances of "English Gilds," which however comprise but a small portion of the whole, and throw little or no light on the working of the Graft Gilds. The documents have not yet been calendared, but they do not appear to contain anything relating to Shrewsbury.

[95] Cunningham, p. 210, 211.

[96] Green, _Short History_, p. 192.

[97] Cunningham, p. 214.

[98] Brentano, 75: Riley, _Memorials_, 539, 565, 568, 570, 571, &c.

[99] Pidgeon's _Gilds of Shrewsbury_; _S. A. S._, Vol. V. p. 265.

[100] _S. A. S._, Vol. V. p. 266.

[101] Pidgeon's _Gilds_.

[102] Merewether and Stephens. Pidgeon's _Gilds_.

[103] Pidgeon's _Gilds_; _S. A. S._ Vol. x. p. 33.

[104] Those of Abbotsbury, Cambridge and Exeter. Cf. supra, p. 9.

[105] Toulmin Smith, pp. 29, 42, &c.

[106] _Ibid._, 7, 8, 11, &c.

[107] The little that is known about it is given in Owen and Blakeway's _History of Shrewsbury_, II. 122.

[108] It is printed in _S. A. S._, Vol. V.

[109] _S. A. S._, Vol. VIII.

[110] Bryce, _Holy Roman Empire_, p. 95.

[111] "None that is of Frenshe, Flemmyshe, Irysh, Dowche, Walshe, or any other Nacyones borne not beyng at Truse w{t} our Sov'ayne Lorde the kynge, but onlye mere Englysshe borne."

[112] Such Articles against the wearing of Liveries were common in the Gild Statutes. Cf. Toulmin Smith, _passim_.

[113] Except by the Nobility to their personal dependents. Cf. Stubbs, III. 552.

[114] 8 Edw. IV. c. 2.

[115] 22 Hen. VIII. c. 4. The Entrance Fees for Apprentices had been raised in some cases to 30/- and 40/-. They are now reduced to 2/6 Entrance Fee, and 3/4 Fee on taking up freedom.

[116] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 5.

[117] 1 Edw. VI. cap. 14.

[118] _Hist. of Reformation_, II. 72.

[119] May, 1548; Council Book MS. in the Privy Council Office. Cf. Dixon, _Hist. of Church of Eng._ Vol. II. page 462, note.

[120] Burnet, _Hist. of Reformation_, IV. 281.

[121] Cf. Gross, I. 162, II. 14, 170, 279.

[122] The Statute 14 Eliz. c. 14 was enacted "For the assurance of gifts, grants etc. made and to be made to and for the relief of the poor in the Hospitals etc."

[123] _Memorials_, Vol. II. Part I. page 100.

[124] Against this were to be set the "enclosing" and "non-residence" grievances.

[125] _Elizabethan England_, p. 11.

[126] _Ibid._, p. 121.

[127] _Ibid._, p. 117.

[128] _Elizabethan England_, p. 117.

[129] _Ibid._

[130] The good work of the Gilds is expressly acknowledged in many charters of the time, e.g. the charter granted to Faversham (1616) recites that long experience had shown that the dividing of the government of towns into several companies had worked great good, and was the means of avoiding many inconveniences and preposterous disorders, in respect that the government of every artificer and tradesman being committed to men of gravity, best experienced in the same faculty and mystery, the particular grievances and deceits in every trade might be examined, reformed and ordered. Gross, II. 89.

[131] Cunningham, p. 181.

[132] Cf. especially, 3 Edw. IV. c. 4; 22 Edward IV. c.

[133] Gross, II. 1, 2, 55, 89, 186-7, 208, 250.

[134] Cf. infra, pp. 90-91. The repealing statute (14 Eliz. c. 12) avowed that not only had the former Act been "supposed for the benefit of the said town" but had also been intended for the "advancing of the Corporation of Drapers, Cottoners and Friezers of the said town."

[135] Gross, II. 87.

[136] Gross, II. 281. Cf. also pp. 12, 87, 199, 234, 247-8, 250, 281, 355, 360.

[137] _Ibid._, 12.

[138] _Ibid._, 56, 90, 91, 176, 186, 193, 199, 234, 247, 251, 264, 364, 385.

[139] Merewether and Stephens, 1408.

[140] Cromwell's Charter to Swansea. Gross, II. 234.

[141] Cf. the ordinance which appears in the Tailors' records, A.D. 1711, April 11. "No combrother shall at any one time have more than two apprentices, one having served 3-1/2 years before the other apprentice be bound, and no apprentice above 17 years taken, and he must be unmarried."

[142] It was also directed against the paying of the Shearmen in kind.

[143] Cf. also 18 Eliz. cap. 15 (Goldsmiths): 8 Eliz. cap. 11 (Haberdashers).

[144] In 1570-1 when Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales, passed through Shrewsbury.

[145] Shrewsbury Corporation Records.

[146] State Papers, Domestic, 1566? (p. 285).

[147] State Papers, Domestic, 1619, Oct. ?

[148] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ?

[149] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ? (There are several petitions against other intruders also, by the countenance of the City of London, "who wish to engross all markets.")

[150] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ?

[151] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. 28.

[152] _Ibid._, 1620, Feb. 21.

[153] State Papers, Domestic, 1622. Several petitions from North Wales against the Proclamation.

[154] _Ibid._, 1621. Petition of Drapers of Shrewsbury.

[155] _Ibid._, 1621, May 21. Petition of Clothiers of North Wales: the Drapers of Shrewsbury are trying to draw all trade to Shrewsbury, which will be their ruin.

[156] State Papers, Domestic; Oswestry Corporation Records, printed in _S. A. S._ Vol. III.

[157] In 1622 the Bailiffs had requested a loan from the Mercers towards the establishing of a market for Welsh cloth in Shrewsbury.

[158] The traders of Liverpool seem to have been the first to do this, so far as the Welsh trade of Shrewsbury was concerned. Cf. Owen's _Shrewsbury_.

[159] Orders of Corporation (collected by Godolphin Edwardes, Mayor in 1729). _S. A. S._ Vol XI.

[160] _Ibid._

[161] _Ibid._

[162] Orders of Corporation (1689).

[163] _Ibid._ (1729).

[164] _Ibid._

[165] "1619. That the Corporation endeavour to compel the wardens of the Bakers' Company to pay their old annuity of £4. 6_s._ 8_d._ (sic) to the Corporation." Orders of Corporation printed in Phillips' _History of Shrewsbury_, p. 170.

[166] Orders of Corporation printed in Phillips' _History of Shrewsbury_.

[167] Cf. supra, p. 44.

[168] Glovers' records, 1681.

[169] 1782. Two members were called upon to show cause why they practise a profession contrary to that they have sworn to follow.

[170] _Britannia Languens_, p. 355.

[171] p. 88.

[172] Consisting however of masters only.

[173] Macaulay, _History of England_, Vol I. p. 204, n.

[174] Cf. Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, pp. 16, 62, 79, 103, 109, 472.

[175] Resolution of Saddlers in 1798, voting £50.

[176] This sentiment finds expression even in some of the compositions.

[177] That is, masters only, not workmen.

[178] _The Happy Warrior_ of Wordsworth gives us probably a very true idea of the mediæval conception of the perfect knight.

[179] Cf. Stubbs' _Lectures on Constitutional History_.

[180] Cf. supra, p. 47.

[181] Scott's _Marmion_.

[182] Brentano, p. 21.

[183] _Ibid._ p. 21.

[184] Toulmin Smith, p. 192.

[185] It is a curious coincidence that these two towns which earlier evinced such jealousy towards one another's procession (cf. supra, p. 63) should have maintained it longest.

[186] The festivities of the Preston Gild were held at intervals of twenty years. The last took place in 1882 (cf. Abram, _Memorials_), but many features place the Preston pageants in a different class from that to which those of Shrewsbury and Coventry belong.

[187] i.e. Coventry.

[188] Though there is no doubt that the Quarry was used for the performance of plays by other actors. Cf. infra, p. 119.

[189] Phillips (p. 201) gives the titles of two of these plays: "Julian the Apostate" (at which Elizabeth intended to be present, but was misinformed as to the date: when she arrived at Coventry tidings reached her that it was already performed) in 1565, and "The Passion of Christ" in 1567.

[190] Cf. supra, pp. 5, 36, 85, 92, 98-9.

[191] Cf. supra, p. 90.

[192] Stow's _Survey_, p. 124.

[193] Shearmen's records.

[194] _Ibid._

[195] Taylor MS.

[196] Shearmen's records.

[197] _Ibid._

[198] (1594.) Owen and Blakeway, Vol. I. p. 396.

[199] Macaulay, _History of England_, Vol. I. p. 164.

[200] _Through England on a Side Saddle in the time of William and Mary, being the Diary of Celia Fiennes._

[201] From the dedication to _The Recruiting Officer_.

[202] Thackeray, _The Four Georges_, p. 320.

[203] Perry, _Church History_, Vol. II. p. 512.

[204] Glovers' records, 1781. "Item, 1/- for carrying the Flag to Church on Show Day."

[205] Saddlers' records, 1810. "Treasurer to pay 2 guineas to the apprentices to go to Kingsland on Show Monday, and that they may have the use of the Cloth, Flag and Streamers belonging to the Company."

[206] Saddlers' records, 1812. "That £10 be allowed to dine the company instead of going to Kingsland."

[207] Cf. infra, p. 138.

[208] _Britannia Languens_, p. 355.

[209] _The Stranger in Shrewsbury._

[210] _Ibid._ p. 24.

[211] _Ibid._ On p. 28 they are described as being 16 in number. They appear to have varied considerably in number at different periods.

[212] _The Stranger in Shrewsbury_, p. 24.

[213] _Ibid._ p. 97.

[214] _Ibid._ p. 97.

[215] In 1637.

[216] Though a few patriotic members kept the arbours etc. in repair a few years longer.

[217] "1822. Thomas Frances Dukes made a Combrother free of all expense, for his handsome conduct in giving up the Charter." (Mercers' Records.)

[218] Cf. _The Stranger in Shrewsbury_, p. 28.

[219] The Mercers decide that their dinner shall not cost above £25.

[220] A similar case was tried at Ludlow in 1831 when the Hammer-men obtained a verdict in their favour and a farthing damages.

[221] 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 76.

[222] _Constitutional History of England_, Erskine May, Vol. III. p. 285.

[223] Section 41. Omnes mercatores habeant salvum et securum exire de Anglia, et venire in Angliam, et morari et ire per Angliam, tam per terram quam per aquam, ad emendum et venendum, sine omnibus malis toltis.

[224] These were finally pulled down in 1859.

[225] The Mercers followed this example in 1878.

[226] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 50.

[227] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 56. The Drapers' company at Shrewsbury still survives to manage S. Mary's Almshouses.

[228] In 1835 there appear to have been companies in at least the following other towns in England, Alnwick, Bristol, Carlisle, Chester, Coventry, Durham, Gateshead, Haverfordwest, Kendal, Kingston-on-Thames, Lichfield, London, Ludlow, Morpeth, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oxford, Preston, Richmond, Ruthin, Sheffield, Southampton, Wells, and York.

[229] Cf. supra, pp. 47-51.

[230] Cf. supra, pp. 105-106.

[231] Howell, _Conflicts of Capital_ etc., p. 494.

[232] The story of the rise of Trades Unions has been told with much detail by Mr G. Howell in his _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, and by Dr Brentano in the last portion of his Essay on Gilds.

[233] It is to be hoped that the development of the "New Unionism" will not frustrate this hope.

[234] Mr John Burns has recently been urging on Trades Unions the advisability of surrendering this feature, so that the funds may the more completely be devoted to militant purposes.

[235] By Henry Lytton Bulwer, M.P., in a letter to the Handloom weavers when they petitioned for the creation of gilds of trade.

[236] Foxwell, _Irregularity of Employment_, p. 72.

[237] "There is of late a partial revival of good workmanship in many trades ... but it will require years of toil to recover our lost ground in the markets of the world." G. Howell, _Conflicts of Capital_ etc., p. 225. Prof. Foxwell points out that "the master cutlers of Sheffield have done something in [the] direction lately of exposing and punishing falsification" etc., _Irregularity of Employment_ etc., p. 80 and note. Mr E. J. Poynter notices that "the firm of which Mr William Morris is the head, of which indeed he is the sole member, started the idea, now well understood, that the only possible means of producing work which shall be satisfactory from every side is to return to the principles on which all works of art and art-manufacture were executed, not only in the Middle Ages, but at all epochs up to the beginning of this century." _Ten Lectures on Art_, p. 274.

[238] This paper was written for the Shropshire Archæological and Natural History Society, and was printed in substance in their _Transactions_, 2nd Series, Vol. III., Part ii., p. 253.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

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The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

Footnote 118 appears on page 67 of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page.

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