2 Village Clubs and Associations. 



of altai" cloths or other utensils for these special celebrations, 

 and for burial. As the guild spirit grew other objects were 

 added, and the guilds developed into associations for mutual 

 assistance and protection, providing funds for apprenticeships, 

 for dowries, for aid in sickness, disability, in case of loss by 

 robbery, storm or fire, and for assistance in lawsuits. Many 

 gradually collected capital in money, cattle, land, and houses, 

 with which to pursue these objects, with the provision of a 

 loan fund for members. Few guilds, if any, pursued all these 

 objects, but most of them gave donations in time of sickness or 

 distress and provided loans for unfortunate members. Thus, 

 at East Wyck, in Norfolk, the existence of a guild in the time 

 of Richard II. is recorded which, besides providing wax for the 

 light of St. John in the church, made gifts of bread, beer, and 

 meat to sick members. Another Norfolk guild, at Cranbourne, 

 which undertook similar duties in the church, was also a burial 

 club, providing burial for its deceased members, at which all 

 those living were required to assist under penalty of a fine 

 of a penny to the funds of the guild, for absence.' 



Funds were collected by means of small subscriptions, but 

 mostly by gift and bequest (vide wills of the period), and once 

 obtained, they were carefully husbanded. One of the most 

 common investments among guilds was in cattle. Sometimes 

 these were grazed on the guild lands (vide Archceologia Can- 

 tiaiia III., 249), which were in common, amongst those of other 

 owners, or they were put out with farmers on agreement. It 

 appears, too, that occasionally the guild provided the parish bull, 

 in fact, wherever the manorial system failed to reach complete- 

 ness, as it did in many parishes, the villagers were still organised 

 for economic purposes. At Aston and Cote, Oxfordshire, there 

 existed a corporation known as The Si.rteens, a body of small 

 landowners, who constituted the executive of the village 

 government in the absence of manorial organisation, and who 

 wei-e bound to provide four two-year-old bulls every season to 

 run on the common pasture. In several other parishes there is 

 evidence of the provision of parish bulls by officials acting 

 under the parish vestry. In fact, there is good reason to believe 

 that as the manorial system became disorganised during the 

 fifteenth century, the guilds played much the same part in 

 village o-overnment as that borne by the merchant guilds in 

 the towns. 



One of the most beneficial results of guild activities was the 

 provision of meeting places and the organisation of parish 

 feasts. In early days all parishes held their meetings, and 

 often their feasts, in the church or in the vestry, and some 



> Toulniin Smith. Early English Guilda. (^E. E. Text Society.) 



