Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
As economic activity in London became more complex and on a
larger scale in the 1200s, some craftsmen were brought under the
control of other crafts or merchants. The bakers fell under the control
of the wholesale grain dealers; the weavers became pieceworkers for
rich cloth merchants; the blademakers and shearers were employed by
cutlers; coppersmiths were controlled by girdlers; fullers were
controlled by entrepreneurial dyers; and the painters, joiners, and
lorimers were controlled by the saddlers. Guilds moved their meeting
places from churches, which were now too small, to guild halls. The
controlling officers of the large guilds met at the Guildhall, which
became the seat of mayoral authority. London streets in existence by
this time include Cordwainer, Silver, Cannon (Candlewick), and Roper.
Lanes included Ironmonger, Soper, Spurrier, Lad (ladles), Distaff,
Needles, Mede, Limeburner, and Hosier. Fighting among groups was common
in London. There was a street fight on a large scale in 1327 between
the saddlers and a coalition of joiners, painters, and lorimers (makers
of metal work of saddles). Much blood was shed in the street battle
between the skinners and the fishmongers in 1340. There was a city
ordinance that no one except royal attendants, baronial valets, and
city officials were to go about armed. Disputes among neighbors that
were brought to court included the use and upkeep of party walls,
blocked and overflowing gutters, cesspits too close to a neighbor's
property, noisy tenants, loss of light, and dangerous or overhanging
structures.
In 1275, a goldsmith was chief assay-master of the King's mint
and keeper of the exchange at London. The king gave the Goldsmiths'
Company the right of assay [determination of the quantity of gold or
silver in an object] and required that no vessels of gold or silver
should leave the maker's hands until they had been tested by the
wardens and stamped appropriately. In 1279, goldsmith William
Farrington bought the soke of the ward containing the goldsmiths'
shops. It remained in his family for 80 years. A patent of 1327
empowered the guild to elect a properly qualified governing body to
superintend its affairs, and reform subjects of just complaint. It also
prescribed, as a safeguard against a prevailing fraud and abuse, that
all members of the trade should have their standing in Cheapside or in
the King's exchange, and that no gold or silver should be manufactured
for export, except that which had been bought at the exchange or of the
trade openly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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