Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The butchers of the “Stokkes” gave £17 to Edward III. for the carrying
on of the French Wars. This was a large contribution, showing their
prosperous condition. Their brethren, St. Nicholas Shambles, gave only
£9, those of West Cheap only £8; the greater Companies £20 to £40, the
lesser mostly below £7. This old market was under strict supervision. In
1319 the market wardens cited one William Sperlyng for offering two
putrid beef carcases for sale. A jury of twelve pronouncing the carcases
putrid as alleged, the unhappy man was ordered to be put in the pillory
and to have the two carcases burned beneath him (Riley), as in the case
of the pork butcher already mentioned. In 1351 one Henry de Passelewe,
cook, was cited before the commonalty on a charge of selling at the
Stocks a pasty in which the two capons baked therein were “putrid and
stinking, and an abomination to mankind: to the scandal, contempt and
disgrace of all the City,” and the manifest peril of the life of the
purchaser. Passelewe contended that when sold the capons were “good,
well-flavoured, fitting and proper.” However, eight good and trusty
cooks pronounced them “stinking and rotten, and baneful to the health of
man.” So poor Passelewe was sentenced to the pillory, the offensive
pasty to be carried before him, and a proclamation to be made as to the
reason of his punishment.
Considerable prejudice existed against non-freemen using the market. In
1382 Adam Carlelle, late alderman of Aldgate, approached the places of
the “foreign fishmongers” and “in a haughty and spiteful manner cursed
the said strangers, saying that he did not care who heard it or knew of
it, but that it was a great mockery and badly ordained than such ribalds
as those should sell their fish in the City, and further that he would
rather a fishmonger who was his neighbour in the City should make 20s.
by him, than such a ribald barlelle was adjudged to have thus expressed
contempt for the command of the king and the ordinance of the City, and
was excluded from ever holding any offices of dignity in the City”
(Riley, _Memorials_).
In 1410 (2 Henry IV.) it was found necessary to rebuild the market, and
the work was completed in the next year. The annual rents were valued at
£56 : 19 : 6 in 1507, an increase of £10 on 185 years. In 1543, only 36
years later, the sum reached £82 : 3s. per annum. The market must have
been fully let at that time: fishmongers had 25 stalls, producing £34 :
13 : 4 in rent; the butchers rented 18 stalls at £41 : 16 : 4; there
were also 16 upper chambers rented at £5 : 13 : 4—total £82 : 3s. per
annum (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 243, 1754).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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