(396 PEWTER AND THE REVIVAL OF ITS USE. 



our money. " Great revenues," says the foregoing authority, " were 

 drawn from the same source by the Dukes of (Jornwall (beginning 

 with the Black Prince) ; the royalty in the Middle Ages being as 

 much as 40s. (equal to over £30 of our money), for every thousand 

 pounds weight of dressed tin brought into the market," All tin had 

 to be brought to certain specified towns to pass the Stannary courts, 

 and there be stamped with the mark of the Duchy and the dues paid 

 After which, according to Mr. Welch, the guilds of the mines coidd 

 sell to whom they pleased, except that the King or the duke had the 

 j-ight of preemption at the market price. Later the Pewterers' Com- 

 pany of London obtained the right to purchase one- fourth of all the 

 tin brought to London for sale. The tin miners and, in fact, all con- 

 nected with the industry at the mines were subject only to their own 

 stannary courts of law (except in capital cases), and had even their 

 own prison at their headquarters at Lostwithiel. Generally speak- 

 ing, the royalties and dues Avere farmed. It must be understood, too, 

 that Avhereas in other parts of the United Kingdom only the gold and 

 silver were reserA'ed to the CroAvn, the tin of Cornwall and Devon 

 has always been the property of the King whoever may have been 

 the owner of the soil. It is a peculiar institution, therefore, of Corn- 

 wall and Devon that, on lands not tinder cultivation, anyone on com- 

 plying with the necessary formalities can mine for tin on condition 

 of paying the royal dues and one-fifteenth to the landowner. The 

 last assembl}^ of the stannaries was held in 1752. 



In common with all the other crafts carried on in the towns, that of 

 the pewterer was doubtless boinid by some sort of fraternity or asso- 

 ciation in the early middle ages, but the first formal institution of a 

 guild was in the reign of Edward III, A. D. 1348. The ordinances 

 for the government of this body were drawi:i up by its members and 

 submitted to the lord mayor and aldermen, and by them approved. 

 The records of the Craft of Pewterers thus commenced are more or 

 less continuous froui the establishment of the still existing Pewterers' 

 Company in the reign of Edward IV, A. D. 1473, and are the material 

 from which Mr. Welch has compiled his interesting history of the 

 Pewterers' Company, published two years ago. These records, too, 

 are not only interesting as a history of the guild, but aiford a mass 

 of information as to its relations to the general body of the citizens 

 and tlie government of London in medieval times. The earliest rules 

 for controlling the craft ])rovide for the assay of all wares antl for 

 experts superintending the same. Anyone selling pewter before it 

 passed the proper test, Avas condemned to forfeit the goods. Still, 

 contrary to the general belief as to custom in such matters, the regula- 

 tions do not appear to limit the ranks of the workmen to those who 

 duly passed through a formal apjjrenticoship. l)u< stipulated that 

 either such (or otherwise compt'tent men) should be employed. An 



