and having thus given them stability, he determined also to raise them in public estimation. As this could not be better done than by setting an example which would be followed by his courtiers, he became himself a brother of one of these societies. The Linen-armourers, now Merchant-tailors, were then great importers of woollen cloth, which the king sought to make the staple manufacture of England, and were the first company who had the honour to boast a sovereign amongst their members, in the person of this monarch. Richard II. afterwards became a brother of the same company; and the great, both clergy and laity, as well as principal citizens, dazzled with the splendor of such associates, hastened in both reigns to be enrolled as tradesmen in the fraternities. The skinners, the mercers, and the merchant-tailors, exhibit most princes and nobility in their lists near this time; other companies had a greater proportion of city dignitaries; the grocers, towards the close of Edward III.'s reign, enumerated no less than sixteen aldermen amongst their members.* The public records afford us the earliest notice of the companies on their being chartered. By a petition from the Commons in Parliament, printed amongst their Rolls,† we learn that, before the 36th of Edward III., certain wholesale merchants had formed themselves into a gild, which had become so great and monopolous, as to threaten ruin to the numerous other fraternities that had now sprung up. This gild, or company, was no other than the grocers', just mentioned, now the second of the great companies, and the etymon of whose name we find explained by this document. The petition complains

"That great mischiefs had newly arisen, as well to the king as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called grocers (grossers), who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who suddenly raised the prices of such merchandize within the realm; putting to sale by covin, and by ordinances made amongst themselves, in their own society,

The merchant-tailors' printed list of eminent members enumerates only two earls and one bishop in the reign of Edward III.; but in the reign of Richard II. they had no less than four royal dukes, ten earls, ten barons, and five bishops, members. The skinners boast an almost equally splendid list of names, near the same period, as see under those Companies.

Rot. Parl. 11, 278.

which they call the fraternity and gild of merchants (frat'nite et gilde merchant), such merchandizes as were most dear, and keeping in store the others until times of dearth and scarcity."*

The remedy suggested by the petitioners, Anderson observes, would be thought "a very unreasonable one in our day." It is, "that merchants shall deal in or use but one kind or sort of merchandize;" and that "every merchant hereafter shall choose which kind of wares or merchandize he will deal in, and shall deal in no other."+

The Act 37 Edward III. c. v., which passed in consequence of this petition, (and which was, as far as related to merchants, repealed the next year,) ordains

"That all artificers and people of mysteries shall each choose his own mystery before the next Candlemas; and that having so chosen it, he shall henceforth use no other: and that justices shall be assigned to inquire by process of Oyer and Terminer, and to punish trespassers by six months' imprisonment, or other penalty, according to the offence." Women artificers, who seem to have been numerous at this period, and amongst whom are mentioned "brewers, bakers, braceresses, textoresses, fileresses, and veveresses, as well of silk as of other materials," are exempted from the operation of the Act.

The next year we find amongst the city records the names, and other particulars, of all, or most of the companies then in existence. The document which furnishes this information is an account, in Latin, of sums received by John Cauntebrigg, the city chamberlain, from those companies, as gifts to the king, towards carrying on his French wars, and throws much additional light on the state and nature of the metro

• Rot. Parl. ii. 279.

+ Hist. of Commerce, 1, 459.

"This Act, as it related to 'men of mysteries,' was so strictly enforced afterwards, that, in 1385, Brembre, the mayor, is stated to have disfranchised severa freemen for following trades to which they had not been brought up, as John Lynne and Nicholas Merchant, for that being free of the haberdashers, they occupied merceries; and Geofry Presbury, for that he knew the said Nicholas Merchant to have so occupied mercery, and procured him to be made free of the haberdashers; William Southbrook, free of the weavers, for that he occupied drapery, or the selling of cloth; and Richard Skinner, for using drapery, he being a tailor; and along with the latter, six other tailors are named, who were at this time deprived of their freedom, for merely concealing their knowledge of the circumstance.-Northouck.

politan trade fraternities at this early period. It is dated 1355, (37 Edward III.) and enumerates the names and sums paid by thirty-two different companies. We observe in it two or three instances in which trades of the same denomination were then split into different fraternities, on account of their localities, and which paid separately as such. Thus we have the "tanners without Newgate," and the "tanners without Cripplegate," the "grossers," (simply,) and the "grossers in the Ropery," the two (companies) of the "cappers," and no less than three sets of butchers, distinguished by the different quarters they inhabited, (as was originally the case with the fresh, salt, and stock fishmongers,) viz. the "butchers of St. Nicholas," or of what is now called Newgate-market; the "butchers of the Stocks," or those who had retired from the ancient shambles at Eastcheap to the new market on the site of the present Mansion-house; and the butchers of Westchepe," or Cheapside. The sums subscribed by the different fraternities afford also an excellent criterion for judging of their comparative wealth and consequence at this period.

The order and names of the companies, and the sums paid by them, are (in English) as follows:

"Memorandum. That John de Cauntebrigg, Chamberlain, has received from divers Mysteries, for an offering to be presented to the lord the King of England, namely, in his 37th year.

"The Brasiers, 10 marks, (£3. 13s. 4d.); Sporiers, 40s. ; the Tanners without Newgate, 40s.; the Butchers of St. Nicholas, 91.; the Butchers of the Stocks, 177.; the Grossers, 261. 6s. 8d.; the Poulterers, 10 marks; the Curriers, 5 marks; the Butchers of West-cheap, 87.; the Bowyers, 60s.; the Ironmongers, 61. 18s. 4d.; the Chandlers, 87.; the Pewterers, 100s.; the Tailors, 20. the Wax-chandlers, 40s.; the Tanners without Cripplegate, 31s. ; the Pouchmakers, 5 marks; the two Cappers, 13s. 4d.; the Vintners, 331. 6s. 8d.; the Skinners, 407. the Leatherdressers, 10 marks; the Brewers, 147. 6s. 8d.; the Salters cs.; the Cutlers, 47.; the Fishmongers, 407.; the Mercers, 417.; the Girdlers, 67. 13s. 4d.; the Grossers in the Ropary, cs.; the Glovers, 20s.; the Armorers, 60s.; the Gold

smiths, 201.; the Drapers, 407.. Sum total, 4287. 9s. 4d. Besides which there were

"Presents sent to the lord the king to France, in further payment, during his 38th year.

In the first place, received of the Drapers, 10 marks; also of the Fishmongers, 10 marks; of the Mercers, 10 marks; of the Grossers, 41. 6s. 8d. The sum from these first parcels, 241. 6s. 8d. In the whole, 4527. 16s."*

"In 49 Edward III. an enactment passed the whole assembled commonalty of the city, by which the right of election of all city dignitaries and officers, including members of Parliament, was transferred from the ward representatives to the trading companies; a few members of which were directed to be selected by the masters or wardens to come to the Guildhall for election purposes; and in them it has continued to the present time; only that, by a subsequent Act of Common Council, it was opened to all the liverymen of companies generally; and that right, which indeed, without such sanction had no legal authority, was finally confirmed to such liverymen as being freemen of the Corporation of London, by stat. 11 Geo. I. c. 18."+

• "Md qd Joh'es de Cauntebrigg, Camer' recepto de div❜sis Mesteris per uno extremno miss d'no Regi Angl' videlt anno xxxvij°.

+ Commentaries on Lond. The Livery's exclusive right of returning members to Parliament is taken away, after a certain period, by the late Reform Act;

By a list, in Norman French, of the "number of persons chosen by the several mysteries to be the Common Council" the next year (50 Edw. III.) it appears the companies sending members in pursuance of this ordinance were increased from 32 to 48. This list (which is also amongst the City Records) names every company, with its proportion of members, and furnishes on other accounts matter of curious observation. The whole 48 companies returned exactly 148 members, or about an average of 3 each.* Of these the principal ones sent 6, the secondary 4, and the small companies 2. Few traces are to be observed of the present order of precedency. The Grocers stand first, next the Mercers, and then the Drapers, Fishmongers, and Goldsmiths; the Vintners follow sixth instead of eleventh, the Tailors (now Merchant Tailors) seventh, the Skinners twenty-first, Haberdashers twenty-fifth, Sadlers twenty-seventh, and the Ironmongers thirty-fifth. There were then no Clothworkers. Each of the first eight companies named returned 6 members; the Salters and Ironmongers 4 each; the Haberdashers and the Hurrers only 2; the Smiths, since ranked as a minor company, send 6 members; the eleven companies of Sadlers, Webbers or Weavers, Tapicers, Chandlers, Fullers, Braziers, Girdlers, Stainers, Masons, Shoemakers, and Butchers, each 4; and the remaining twenty-four companies 2 members each. Several companies are named in this catalogue whom Stow states to have been of much later foundation; and some of them here rank separately, which were afterwards merged in others; as the Hurrers in the Haberdashers; the Stainers in the Painters, under the name of "PainterStainers;" and the Freemasons in the Masons. A few, as the Fletchers, the Cappers, the Horners, and Spurriers, are extinct; the Barbers (subsequently Barber-Surgeons) are now separated from the latter, and in abeyance.

Act; which restores the elective franchise to the freemen of London, and further extends it to the inhabitant householders.

• This great number gave them an influence, the result of which may be seen in the following entries of the same records: "A meeting of Common Council, with the wardens of divers mysteries present," Jor. 7, fo. 6; Jor. 8 to 11 fo. 99. "The like; and the constables of the wards present." Jor. 7, 8, fo. 4, 171, and Jor. 9, 10, fo. 81, 2, 84, 7, et seq. The Common Council and wardens of mysteries summoned on extraordinary occasions," Rep. 12, fo. 401. "A congregation of the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and wardens of companies, held to receive an express from the king, touching the Coins," Jor. 16, fo. 118.

D