[79] Cf. the four Auditors to superintend the accounts of the London Grocers (1348) and the six members who were chosen "to aid the Wardens in the discharge of their duties" (1397), of whom Mr George Howell says: "_Other than these, no notice of the existence of a committee or of assistants, in England, appears earlier than the sixteenth Century_." _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, p. 40. Brentano, p. 62. Cf. the four Assistants in the Merchant Gild of Ipswich, Gross, I. 24. [80] The "Four Men of Counsel" of the Mercers were, by the Composition of 1480-81, chosen by the Wardens. [81] Mercers' Composition, 1480-81. Tailors' and Skinners', 1563. [82] Tailors' Composition, 1563. [83] Several of these are in the Town Museum at Shrewsbury. [84] A "Key-keeper" appears later in the lists of officers. [85] Their situation is given in _Some account of the Ancient and Present state of Shrewsbury_, published in 1808. [86] Barbers' Composition (1483 A.D.). [87] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 44. [88] _Select Charters_, p. 65. [89] _Elizabethan England_, p. 9. [90] Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, Vol. III., p. 607. [91] The writs issued in 1388 order returns of the "Charters and Letters Patent _si quas habent_": cf. Toulmin Smith, pp. 128, 130. The "Compositions" spoken of below were renewals and confirmations of previously enjoyed privileges. They usually assert that the Gild has been in existence "a tempore quo non extat memoria." [92] Charters were also necessary before lands could be acquired in mortmain. [93] Stubbs, ii. p. 504 and note 1. [94] Toulmin Smith. Introduction, p. xxiv. It is from these returns that Mr Toulmin Smith has compiled his collection of ordinances of "English Gilds," which however comprise but a small portion of the whole, and throw little or no light on the working of the Graft Gilds. The documents have not yet been calendared, but they do not appear to contain anything relating to Shrewsbury. [95] Cunningham, p. 210, 211. [96] Green, _Short History_, p. 192. [97] Cunningham, p. 214. [98] Brentano, 75: Riley, _Memorials_, 539, 565, 568, 570, 571, &c. [99] Pidgeon's _Gilds of Shrewsbury_; _S. A. S._, Vol. V. p. 265. [100] _S. A. S._, Vol. V. p. 266. [101] Pidgeon's _Gilds_. [102] Merewether and Stephens. Pidgeon's _Gilds_. [103] Pidgeon's _Gilds_; _S. A. S._ Vol. x. p. 33. [104] Those of Abbotsbury, Cambridge and Exeter. Cf. supra, p. 9. [105] Toulmin Smith, pp. 29, 42, &c. [106] _Ibid._, 7, 8, 11, &c. [107] The little that is known about it is given in Owen and Blakeway's _History of Shrewsbury_, II. 122. [108] It is printed in _S. A. S._, Vol. V. [109] _S. A. S._, Vol. VIII. [110] Bryce, _Holy Roman Empire_, p. 95. [111] "None that is of Frenshe, Flemmyshe, Irysh, Dowche, Walshe, or any other Nacyones borne not beyng at Truse w{t} our Sov'ayne Lorde the kynge, but onlye mere Englysshe borne."