A GREAT CITY COMPANY.*
AT a time when the great City Companies are threatened with extinction, it is well that the ancient career of one dis- tinguished among them should be recorded authentically from. the " Memorials " and other valid sources, and printed for reference and recreation. That is what Mr. Charles Clode has done for the Merchant Taylors, the Company of which be was Master fifteen years ago. There must be a similarity, with variants, in the story of all these civic institutions, as their relations to the Ward, the Corporation, and the State were nearly identical, and as the services they rendered to their respective crafts were more or less the same. The early history of the Taylors, therefore, in all matters common to the Guilds, may be taken as representative of the whole set, of like organisations, showing the framework and spirit, the developments and mutations, the scope and character of their attributes, which, of course, vary with the centuries. The origin of all these bodies lies far back in the recesses of civic life ; there is a period of root-growth having no written records, hardly traditions, and it is only after they have reached the light that they are found in the strength nurtured and conferred by unity of effort, and visibly clothed with power needed for governance and useful service. In fact, the thing is made before it is recognised by State sanctions, being not an invention, but a natural growth upward and outward, suiting itself gradually to the necessities, wants, and activities of men. Then, " the old order changeth, yielding. place to new ;" that which produced a harmony in one century becomes the mother of discord in the next ; and if the institu- tion lives on, it is because its range, methods, and objects are so modified as to fit in with the imperious demands of the ever- changeful years. The great Companies have survived because they were transformed from age to age, sometimes by internal, sometimes by external pressure ; and they will continue BO long as they satisfy the genuine exigencies of society, and no longer.
The story told by Mr. Clode illustrates the process of trans- formation in the remote past, and with that early period only we are now concerned. The Company, which had existed long before, emerges into what we may call official life at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when it obtained a charter from Richard II. Its functions were to distribute alms, perform religious observances, and govern the tailoring craft. Power from a very early time appears to have fallen into the hands of the wealthier persons who called themselves " merchants ;" while the "yeoman tailors," or Bachelor Com- pany, composed of the poorer masters and workmen, nearly the whole of whose history is obscure, were more or less in rebellion against the magnates of their order. Soon after the second charter was obtained, there arose a regular conflict, more or less settled by the intervention of the supreme autho- rity, the Corporation, yet continuing to smoulder many years. Bydegrees, however, the Merchants made good their asser- tion of superiority, the Company of actual handicraftsmen subsiding into a very inferior position, and only becoming discernible to the inquiring eye by dint of ingenious con-
* The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors. By Charles M. Clode. Part I., "The History." Printed for Private Circulation.
jectures, founded on odds and ends of records. The great and little men, it should be observed, were equally hostile to "foreigners "—that is, practitioners who had not become freemen—and all, in different degrees, co-operated in pro- viding and " purveying " the funds for the poor and sick brethren and sisters. Wealth followed power; the dominant Company became the trustee of estates conveyed by benefactors, and ruled over the whole Fraternity. In course of time, its scope was successfully enlarged by an intrusion on the domains of the Clothworkers. In fact, the hereditary principle could not be applied for long, if ever, to trades ; and it would seem that, if not from the outset, very soon the mercantile community and the workmen grew alive to the evils of restriction, at least as concerned themselves.
The Guilds governed their subjects, as the Lord Mayor governed them all ; but the magnates would not limit the area in which they could make profits. So in the last half of the sixteenth century, the Guild monopoly died of natural causes ; the so-called " tailors " exercised many trades, and practically the only condition precedent was that the worker or merchant should be a freeman. Even this was often invaded, especially when the religious persecutions on the Continent propelled numbers of artificers, as well as capitalists, into the City ; for the Crown, the Corporation, and the Companies were tender to the fugitive Protestants. From early times, we are told, the intrusive workmen pressed heavily on the natives—that is, the freemen—and strong measures had to be taken to keep the peace between them. The " foreigners " were not necessarily Continentals ; a man from anywhere outside the City jurisdiction, who had not regularly obtained a civic status, was an alien. In 1601, the Company moved against the invaders on the authority con- veyed by its charters. A strict search was ordered, offenders were to be summoned, and the Lord Mayor invoked. Among the resolutions adopted were these :—
"Those that are ancient dwellers and married, and have children born within this City, or otherwise thought fit, shall, upon con- sideration had, be admitted into this Company (but not made free of the City), and so suffered to work. Foreign Bachelors now come into the City, or otherwise thought fit to be removed, after warning given, by four at a time be committed to the counter, upon the Lord Mayor's commandment, no further fine to be taken of them than the Chamberlain takes for the garments found in their hands on Serch days."
It was of small avail ; the aliens continued their incursions with success, and restriction was broken down. The religious duties attached to the Companies had long gone, having been swept away when they were compelled to purchase, for large sums, the rents devoted to "superstitious uses," ownership in that kind of property having been acquired by the Crown, always in want of money. At the beginning of the seven- teenth century, the trade monopoly and the trusteeship of religious endowments had disappeared. But the charitable trusts remained, and remain. Among the devises were some for "coals," one as early as 1418; and another from one Candish, in 1460, who added to his gift these directions :—
"The recipients were to be poor,' but such who may have been honourable and discreet persons of the mysterie, and after- wards by the visitation of God come to poverty.' Then he desires that the alms should be paid to them in their dwellings and not in the Common Hall,' for so to receive their alms in the view of others oftentimes happening to be there,' would put these poor and needy persons to no small shame' which this worthy man would spare them."
The rule of the Company over its members was not at all perfunctory. They made awards in partnership quarrels ; sent to gaol and fined masters who ill-treated apprentices ; punished brethren who wore clothes "contrary to the ordi- nance of this house,"—one, for example, whose cloak was "too short, after the manner of gallants ;" another who wore fine cloth called " frizido," hosen lined with " taffatory," and a " shirte edged with sylvyr ;" while a third is admonished for wearing apparel "not thoughlie meet for his habilitie to weare." If he offended again, he was threatened with the fine prescribed "for them that mysorder them selves in apparell." Margaret Story complained that Thomas Taylor had made her a Cassock "to little;" and the Court ordered him to take back the garment and pay the lady forty shillings. The Master and Wardens were diligent. They helped to recover debts due between members ; obliged a Mrs. Holmes to apologise to "the apprentice of John Stow" for slander, and fined Mr. Holmes ; sent Miles Gilbee to prison because he committed a violent assault ; fined William Offiey ten pounds for his "unseemly speeches," and for striking the late Master Phillips in the face ; fined William Kympton for calling a Brother Taylor a " craftie hope," William Hector for styling another a " pratinge boy," and imprisoned Edward Aley because he said that a Warden, Mr. Browne, was a " shyfter," who "lived by making shifts," and would prove to be "not worth a grote." Even so great a man as John, afterwards Sir John, Swymaerton, was imprisoned until he submitted, for saying to the Court, in which he was a suitor, that there was "neither wysdom, reson, nor conscience in their doinge," a burst of temper which did not mar his career in the City.
These are among the curiosities of actions and manners contained in this book. Into the graver matters we do not enter, except to quote one passage, called forth by the Report of the Royal Commission. In that document it is asserted that the Companies were only allowed to redeem the lands held to superstitious uses because they represented that the rents were required to support almshouses, schools, and exhibi- tions. Mr. Clode certainly brings forward facts and argu- ments to show that the terms of redemption were not only
"imposed," but were extortionate, and that the transaction was set on foot by the Crown solely to raise money. In fact, that the "notable sums of money" were paid for " thexployte of your [the King's] watie affaire." Statutes confirmed the title, says Mr. Clode ; and he subsequently thus sets forth the
case as against the Report :—
"That the citizens of London, and notably those of the Merchant Taylors' Company, did—from pure motives previously unimpeached by the Crown—establish schools, promote University teaching, and provide for the poor, are matters of history ; nor is it less notorious that while so doing, they were harassed by false charges of concealment, promoted by the Crown for speculative gain. But Parliament, without absolving the Crown from its original trust for pious uses, and certainly not transferring such responsibility to others, has seen fit to conform the title of the Guilds to the rent charges and the hereditaments from which they accrue. If, therefore, such a title as the Guilds hold is to be questioned at the instance of the Crown, no dealings with the Crown, even after a Parliamentary confirmation has been given, can ever avail, and the highest title that the law knows will have been destroyed."
That is a nut for the Parliament to crack when it has got free from other and more imperative questions. Meanwhile,
those who may like to have, in detail, some idea of what the Guilds were like, how and why they have been transformed, what they were, in short, may find very considerable satisfac- tion in Mr. Clode's laborious compilation of the early history of one great and splendid Company which did enough to have its nature and functions placed on permanent record.
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