The Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History: (Illustrated with over Fifty Quaint Cuts)Bickerdyke, John
History
The Curiosities of Ale & Beer: An Entertaining History: (Illustrated with over Fifty Quaint Cuts)
Bickerdyke, John
Drinking customs; Drinking songs
The persons employed in the malt liquor trade, whether as manufacturers
or retailers, are specified in an ordinance of the reign of Henry
IV. to be Brewers, Brewsters, Hostillers (_i.e._, Innkeepers),
Kewes (_i.e._, Cooks), Pyebakers, and Hucksters. The hucksters were
undoubtedly at one time accustomed to sell their ale in the streets of
London. In 1320 they were prohibited by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen
from selling ale on London Bridge. In the sixth year of Richard II.
Juliana atte Vane, huckster, was charged with selling her ale in
“hukkesterie;” she is asked from whom she bought the ale, and replies
that she bought the said ale, viz., one barrel of 30 gallons, from
Benedicta (brewster), who lived at “Crepulgate.” It was accordingly
adjudged that Juliana had broken the City regulations, and the ale was
forfeited. The brewers were forbidden at this time to sell to hucksters
under pain of forfeiture and imprisonment _at the will of the Mayor_,
the intention apparently being that only a brewer should be a vendor of
ale.
By the reign of Henry IV. the brewers, although they had as yet no
royal charter, had joined themselves together for purposes of mutual
protection and social intercourse. They are mentioned in an ordinance
of the seventh year of that reign as the Mystery (_i.e._, trade or
craft) of Free Brewers within the City, and a constitution is ordained
for them by the City Fathers. The freemen of the Mystery are yearly to
elect eight persons, four of the part of the City east of Walbrook,
viz., two masters and two wardens, and four like persons of the part
west of Walbrook. These eight are to make regulations for those using
the mystery of brewing, as to the hiring of servants, the sale of ale,
and such like matters, as they should be charged by the Mayor and
Aldermen; they are also to see “that the good men of the mystery may
{135} have a proper place to go to to transact their own business,”
and are called together upon the proper occasions “by summons of their
beadle in such a manner as other mysteries are;” they are to supervise
those who make and supply ale, and to see that “good, able and seyn
(sound) ale” is brewed according to the legal price, and to report
offenders to the Chamberlain of the City.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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