IdRONTO LIBRARY BINDING .L!?T JAN 1- 1925 THE GILD MERCHANT GKOSS VOL. I. HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE AMEN CORNER, E.C. THE GILD MERCHANT A CONTRIBUTION TO ffiritisb Municipal CHARLES GROSS, PH. D. INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOLUME I AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1890 [ All rights reserved ] PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY HO v,; PREFACE. THIS book arose to some extent from the author's German ' doctoral dissertation, entitled Gilda Mercatoria' (Gottingen, 1883). The latter was based mainly on printed sources, and did not aim at exhausting the subject. The present work is based mainly on manuscript materials, and in it the author aspires to throw light on the development not merely of gilds but also of the municipal constitution. Much fresh and clas- sified material illustrating general municipal history will be found in the text and footnotes. " The shortcomings of many of the ordinary authorities on the history of gilds and boroughs are touched on in Vol. I. p. I, and in Appendix A. Appendix B (Anglo-Saxon Gilds) could not be dispensed with, inasmuch as many writers confuse Anglo-Saxon gilds with the Gild Merchant. The Scotch Gild Merchant and the Continental Gild Merchant (App. D and F) require separate treatment, because their development was different from that of the corresponding English institution, although most writers fail to notice this distinction. Appendix C (The English Hanse) and Appendix E (Affiliation of Boroughs) will, it is hoped, be as welcome to Continental as to English historians. The list of authorities at the end of Vol. I. may be helpful to future investigators. I have almost ready for the press a compre- hensive bibliography of British municipal history, comprising about 4000 titles, with a critical survey of the whole literature. Whether it will ever be printed, must probably depend upon the success of the present work. The student of municipal vi Ipreface. labours under months of history now great disadvantages ; arduous labour are necessary before one can obtain a com- prehensive knowledge of the local authorities. A good guide to the literature of the subject would tend to stimulate re- search in a much-neglected field of study. Vol. II. is made up mainly of documents never before printed, some of them of considerable value for the study of general municipal history (for example, pp. 115-123). They are taken from the collections of manuscripts in the British Museum, the Public Record Office, the Inner Temple Library, the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Bodleian Library, and the municipal archives of the City of London, Andover, Bristol, Chichester, Exeter, Guildford, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Leicester, Southampton, and Totnes. The author has made no attempt to exhaust the materials contained in these local archives. Those of Leicester, King's Lynn, Andover, and Totnes are particularly rich in Gild Rolls. It is not necessary to explain in detail the difficulties attending the use of manuscripts scattered about in so many different repositories. Stress of circumstances obliged the author to limit his researches in some of these archives to a very few days. In reproducing documents I have adhered closely to the of the I these foot- orthography originals ; have corrected (in notes or by insertions in brackets) only in cases where it is necessary to prevent obscurity; obvious mistakes are generally left uncorrected. The charters of confirmation referred to under the separate towns in Vol. II. are only such as I have happened to meet with in ; most cases there were probably more such con- firmations of the Gild Merchant. Vol. I. furnishes much material relating to particular boroughs not contained in Vol. II. Hence the reader who is particularly interested in the history of a single borough, should make use of the Index. Preface, vii My thanks are due to the custodians of the various archives mentioned above. The town clerks in charge of the local records were, with a single exception, exceedingly courteous. My thanks are especially due to Rev. R. H. Clutterbuck of Andover and Dr. R. R. Sharpe, Records Clerk of the City of London. Mr. F. T. Barrett of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and Mr. George Stronach of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, facilitated my work while I was in Scotland searching for books relating to burghal history. Mr. Stronach has frequently furnished me with extracts from works in- accessible in the British Museum. My friend, Mr. F. York has me with and his Powell, helped suggestions ; encourage- ment has stimulated me to greater effort throughout the progress of this work. The author has attempted to furnish certain new facts relating to the history of municipalities. The great need in this branch of study at present is the production of facts or fundamental data. Such data are scattered in profusion throughout the heaps of dusty records in the local archives. Investigators ought to make more use of these rich veins of precious ore. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., Jan. i, 1890. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INCEPTION AND DISTRIBUTION. PAGE Importance of the subject i Errors regarding it i ' Origin and earliest mention of the Gild Merchant . 2-5 Its place among the privileges in town Charters 5-8 Lists of towns having this Gild . 9-20 in . Its absence London and the Cinque Ports . 20-21 Its prevalence 22 CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION AND CONSTITUTION. Its establishment at Ipswich ........ 23-26 Its officers 26-1 , Entrance-fees oath Membership. ; ; qualifications .... 29-3,) Its constitution at Andover 31-32 at etc. 2 Proceedings meetings ; feasting, ...... 3 ~34 Good works and devotional exercises . 34~35 CHAPTER III. FUNCTIONS OF THE GILD. PRIVILEGES OF GILDSMEN. Its functions illustrated by extracts from the sources .... 36-43 Its regulation of the town's trade monopoly 43 Exemption of gildsmen from town tolls ...... 43~44 Their exclusive right to sell by retail 45 46 And to purchase certain wares ........ 46-47 Restrictions placed on non-gildsmen 47-4^ Gildsmen's right of pre-emption 48 49 Monopoly of dealing in mill-stones 49 Gildsmen's right to share in purchases ...... 49 Payments by non-gildsmen ... ..... 49~5 Influence of the Gild's restrictive system 5-5 r A cause of the decay of towns 5 1 5 a Contents. CHAPTER IV. DUTIES OF GILDSMEN. PAGE Scot and lot theit chief obligation 53 Errors concerning the meaning of scot and lot 53 = ' ' = Scot and lot ad geldam participation in town assessments . 54~57 Merchants supplied the town with money 57 Collections or assessments at Gild meetings 57~58 ' ' = ' In gilda et hansa in lot et scot '....... 59 Etymology of Gild 60 CHAPTER V. DISTINCTION BETWEEN GILD AND BOROUGH, GILDSMEN AND - BURGESSES. Prevalent errors 61 The Gild a distinct part of the civic polity with separate Gild officers . 62-63 Gild judicature distinct from civic judicature ..... 64-65 Gildsmen not identical with burgesses 65 66 . 66 68 Non-resident gildsmen (' forinseci ') who were not burgesses Resident burgesses who were not gildsmen 68-69 Inhabitants who were neither burgesses nor gildsmen ... 70 Town charters prove the non-identity of burgesses and gildsmen . 70-71 Qualifications and duties of burgesses and gildsmen distinguished , 71-72 of and . I^ater tendency toward amalgamation burgesses gildsmen 72 76 CHAPTER VI. INFLUENCE OF THE GILD UPON THE MUNICIPAL CONSTITUTION. 1. Origin of Borough Government. The theory that the Gild is the germ of the borough constitution . 77-78 The history of the London Cnihten Gild does not prove this . 78-80 Nor does the identity of gild-hall and town-hall ..... 80-83 The subsidiary position of the Gild inconsistent with this theory . 84-85 The real germ of the borough constitution 85-86 2. The Free Borough. Erroneous views concerning the relations of the Gild Merchant to the free borough ........... 86-88 The former was only one of the privileges constituting the latter . 89 Prominence of this Gild in small boroughs 9092 Its absence in villages 92 Contents. xi 3. Municipal Incorporation. PAGE Municipal incorporation began in the thirteenth century . 93 96 The Gild an element in the corporate growth of the borough . 96 98 ' Gilda Mercatoria' was not the grant of municipal incorporation . 98-102 ' Non-identity of Gilda' and the civic Communa' in Glanvill . 102 103 ' ' ' Fictions of legal writers regarding Gilda Mercatoria and Firma Burgi' 103-105 Summary of the whole chapter . 105 CHAPTER VII. THE GILD MERCHANT AND CRAFT GILDS, t Analogies and contrasts between England and the Continent . 106 Craftsmen freely admitted to the Gild Merchant and the borough community ........... 107-109 No struggle between the Gild Merchant and the crafts . 109-110 Representation of crafts in town councils in-ii2 ' Crafts had little political influence 113 History of their formation and growth 114-115 They supersede the Gild Merchant 115 117 The name of the latter vaguely applied to the totality of the crafts . 118-120 Their union in some towns into a Company exercising the functions of the old Gild Merchant 120-123 ' The ' freemen were the earlier brethren of the Gild Merchant and the later craftsmen 123-124 Civic freedom intimately connected with that of the crafts . 124 Causes of this change : growth of commerce and the 'select body' . 125-126 ; Later importance of the crafts the result of an economic revolution . 126 CHAPTER VIII. LATER MERCANTILE COMPANIES. 1. Later Company of Merchants. Differences between it and the old Gild Merchant .... 127-129 Its organization : (1) Alnwick ^o-i-^i a - x (2) Carlisle I3 34 (3) Dublin 134-138 . 'Common bargains' : cargoes bought by the town or a Company 135 139 XII Contents 2.