Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Many boroughs sought and obtained formal incorporation with the same
essential features as London. This tied up the loose language of their
early charters of liberties. Often, a borough would have its own
resident Justice of the Peace. Each incorporation involved a review by a
Justice of the Peace to make sure the charter of incorporation rule
didn't conflict with the law of the nation. A borough typically had a
mayor accompanied by his personal sword- bearer and serjeants-at-mace
bearing the borough regalia, bailiffs, a sheriff, and chamberlains or a
steward for financial assistance. At many boroughs, aldermen, assisted
by their constables, kept the peace in their separate wards. There might
be coroners, a recorder, and a town clerk, with a host of lesser
officials including beadles [a messenger of a court], aletasters,
sealers, searchers [inspectors], weighers and keepers of the market,
ferrymen and porters, clock-keepers and criers [cries out public
announcements through the streets], paviors [maintained the roads],
scavengers and other street cleaners, gatekeepers and watchmen of
several ranks and kinds. A wealthy borough would have a chaplain and two
or three minstrels. The mayor replaced the bailiffs as the chief
magistracy.
In all towns, the wealthiest and most influential guilds were the
merchant traders of mercers, drapers, grocers, and goldsmiths. From
their ranks came most of the mayors, and many began to intermarry with
the country knights and gentry. Next came the shopholders of skinners,
tailors, ironmongers, and corvisors [shoemakers]. Thirdly came the
humbler artisans, the sellers of victuals, small shopkeepers,
apprentices, and journeymen on the rise. Lastly came unskilled laborers,
who lived in crowded tenements and hired themselves out. The first three
groups were the free men who voted, paid scot and bore lot, and belonged
to guilds. Scot was a ratable proportion in the payments levied from the
town for local or national purposes. Merchant guilds in some towns
merged their existence into the town corporation, and their guild halls
became the common halls of the town, and their property became town
property.
In London, the Cutlers' Company was chartered in 1415, the
Haberdashers' Company in 1417, the Grocers' Company in 1428, the
Drapers' and Cordwainers' companies in 1429, the Vintners' and Brewers'
companies in 1437, the Leathersellers' Company in 1444, the Girdlers'
Company in 1448, the Armourers' and Brassiers' companies in 1453, the
Barbers' Company in 1461, the Tallow Chandlers' Company in 1462, the
Ironmongers' Company in 1464, the Dyers' Company in 1471, the Musicians'
Company in 1472, the Carpenters' Company in 1477, the Cooks' Company in
1481, and the Waxchandlers' Company in 1483. The Fishmongers, which had
been chartered in 1399, were incorporated in 1433, the Cordwainers in
1439, and the Pewterers in 1468.
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