THE IRONMONGERS' COMPANY.

UILDS, or communities of persons associated together for purposes of mutual protection and support, have probably been common in all ages, and under every form of government. Such communities we are certain existed in this country during the times of our AngloSaxon ancestors; and several of the laws and ordinances by which they were regulated have come down to us in the vernacular language of that period.

A cursory review of their laws will enable us at once to perceive that these ancient institutions sprang out of the necessities of the age; and, being founded on principles of piety and benevolence, they tended materially to improve the moral and social condition of the people at a time when the framework of society was imperfect, and no remedial provision existed for many of the wants and contingencies of life.

The close resemblance between the laws of the AngloSaxon guilds and the rules and observances followed by the trading companies of London at a subsequent period

B*

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THE IRONMONGERS' COMPANY.

seem to indicate a common origin. By comparing them together we are forcibly led to the conclusion that they were essentially the same institutions; and that on these friendly brotherhoods were engrafted the interests of commerce, which in the process of time so grew and expanded that, towards the close of the thirteenth century, the principal towns in the kingdom had been enabled to obtain important privileges, and were for the most part constituted bodies corporate.

From this period the freedom and elevation of the burgher population advanced rapidly. Many events conduced to this result; but the confirmation of the guilds by the authority of royal charters gave a degree of protection and stability to the operations of trade, which tended more than any other circumstance to its increase. The example of the monarch * in the latter half of the fifteenth century rendered the pursuits of trade honourable. By becoming himself an extensive merchant he imparted a noble impulse to commercial enterprise, encouraged the industry of his people, and laid the foundation of the future wealth and power of England.

ANGLO-SAXON GUILDS.-Mention is made in the Domesday survey of the gihalla or guildhall of the burghers of Dovor, "In quibus erat gihalla burgensium."-Domesday Book, f. i.

Guilds are found amongst the classical ancients, and imply fraternities which contributed certain sums for common uses. Societies of this description, called Hetarias, from èrapia, a company or fraternity, existed in the Roman empire in the time of Trajan, who endeavoured to suppress them, under the suspicion that they were seminaries of faction and disaffection. "There seems to be," observes Sharon Turner, "a tendency of mankind in all civilised nations to form secret

* Edward the Fourth, who has been called the Merchant King. See the 34.

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societies of the Hetaria kind in every age, though under varying appellations, and with popular exterior pretensions suited to the feelings of the day."-Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii. p. 102; Fosbroke's Encyclopædia of Antiquities, i. 401.

Sir Francis Palgrave, in noticing these ancient communities, says, that religion was at the foundation of the guilds; and that, however imperfect these institutions may have been, they were much better calculated than our own to ameliorate the condition of the lower orders of the community. In the old time the workman was the brother and companion of his employer, poorer in purse, inferior in station, younger in age, but united by the most kind and social bonds. They repeated the same creed, met at the same church, lighted their lamps before the same altar, feasted at the same board, and thus constituted the elements of that burgher aristocracy which equally, without the levelling anarchy of the peasantry, assisted in destroying the abuses that had sprung out of the servitude of the soil. After the scattering of the Roman Empire, and until the thirteenth century, these societies, subsequently so influential, had subsisted with very few exceptions by usage and prescription, rarely deriving any protection from the government. Indeed, we find that attempts were occasionally made to suppress the trade societies, whose growing power excited the vigilance, and possibly the jealousy, of the sovereign. These efforts did not succeed. Not only did the guilds baffle all the adverse edicts and denunciations, but they continued steadily to advance, obtaining ultimately not merely the toleration but the favour of the state.-Palgrave's Merchant and Friar, 159, &c.

On crister naman Ses Petpur Aportolur and zildrcipe is zezaderod on Wudeburg-lande 7 se ₺ Oƒ₺n × þa canonicar innan Sẽs petrus minstre on Excestre, &c.

Hickes's Thesaurus, vol. iii. p. 18. One of these Anglo-Saxon guilds purports, in the name of Christ and Saint Peter the Apostle, to have been instituted at Exeter. Bishop Osbern and the Canons of St. Peter had joined it in common brotherly charity. The brethren stipulated to pay annually at Easter one penny for each house, and on the death of any member, whether husband or wife, also one penny each; which death-pennies were given to the canons who performed the funeral rites.

The guild consisted of eighteen members whose names are recorded:

Brihtpi. Wilno. Caldpine. Leopric. Brihtmæɲ. Alfɲic. Edmæɲ. Espine. Alzan. Єdpi. Wlpond. Alpond. Espine. Lodpi. Orzod. Adeleoue. Brihtmær. Godric.

Deor geramnung is zeramnod on Exanceartɲe for godes lufun. Foɲ urre raule peapre. æzpen ze be urrer lifes gesundfulnesse ze eac he þæm æfteran dæzum þe pe to goder dome for ur sýlfe beon pillap. ponne habbap pe zecpeden þær une Mýtting rie pripa on x11 monðum, &c.

Hickes's Thesaurus, vol. iii. p. 21.

Another guild at Exeter is stated to have been formed for the sake of God and their own souls. It was arranged that there should be held annually three assemblies: the first at the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, the second at the feast of Saint Mary next following the winter solstice, and the third at the holydays after Easter. At these meetings each member was to bring two sextaria of flour, and each servant (cniht) one, with his share of honey. The priest sang two masses, one for their living friends, and the other for the dead, and every lay brother chanted two psalms, and in their turn provided for the singing of six masses or psalms. When any member went abroad or away from home, the others contributed five pence each; and when a house was burnt, one penny. If any brother neglected the appointed times of meeting, he was fined the first time in the expense of three masses; the second time, in five masses; and if, being warned, he absented himself a third time, he was not excused unless he was labouring under sickness or prevented by the business of the lord. And if any one of the brotherhood accused another harshly or uncivilly, he was to compensate him in a fine of thirty pence.

her is on pir Leppite fiu zespitelung pæne zeɲædnisse þe þius zeferræden zeræd hæfþ on þezna Lilde on Grantabrýcze. þir þonne æpert þælc opnun ap on halızdome realde ropne heldɲædenne foɲ Lode 7 for poɲulde, &c. &c. Hickes's Thesaurus, vol. iii. p. 20.

A third guild, instituted at Cambridge, enacts, that all the members shall swear, holding the sacred reliques, that they will be faithful to all