CLXXIV ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



We have in Bristol a beautifully designed gothic doorway, with pan- 

 elled side posts and carved spandrels, which is a relic of the fourteenth 

 century. It is not only interesting as a fine specimen of the work of that 

 distant period, but also on account of its associations, and when these are 

 remembered, it becomes suggestive of man}* facts connected with the 

 trade of Bristol about the fifteenth century. This doorway was origin- 

 ally the entrance to what is known as Spicer's hall, a building which stood 

 on the " back," which has been frequently referred to, or, as we now know 

 it, the Welsh back. The building, of which this was the entrance, was 

 named after the Spicers, who were among the principal merchants of the 

 period, and here in the middle of the fifteenth century Eichard Spicer 

 had his imposing residence, his warehouses and his cellars. Here, too, at 

 that period, or a few years later, the Merchant Venturers' Society had its 

 headquarters. The Spicers were notable people for several generations, 

 and Eichard Spicer takes his place with Canynge, Jay, Mead, Sturmys 

 and others, who founded the greatness of the town by the energy and 

 enterprise with which they developed its trade and commerce. The 

 position of one of the earlier Spicers may be judged from the fact that 

 the king, Richard II., was not above borrowing forty-five pounds 

 from him. The mention of the name of Sturmys reminds one of the well- 

 known story, which will bear repetition here, because it illustrates better 

 than anything else could the position of power and influence to which 

 the Bristol merchants had attained at this period. It appears that in 1457 

 a ship belonging to Eobert Sturmj's had been what is called " spoiled " by 

 the Genoese, while prosecuting its business in the Levant and other 

 parts of the east. Sturmys was on board, which made matters worse. Jt 

 appears that the outrage of lying in wait for the ship and destroying it 

 was owing to a false rumour as to the nature of the cargo on board, and 

 it was followed by consequences little reckoned on by the guilty parties. 

 Philip Mead, the mayor, went off to the king and his council, and sued all 

 the Genoese merchants in London, and they were condemned to pay the 

 enormous sum of six thousand marks (money of the period) as damages ; 

 one authority says nine thousand. It is evident that the Bristol merchant 

 was not to be trifled with in those days. When Eichard Spicer died he 

 left the city the reversion of his property under certam conditions, and 

 consequently Spicer's hall, or Back hall, passed into the possession of the 

 authorities, and under the power of a grant from the king it was made 

 '' for ever a convenient place for keeping, selling, and weighing merchant- 

 strangers' goods." This was at the time when the goods of the merchant- 

 strangers could only be dealt with under the severe restrictions imposed 

 by the merchants' guild. This Spicer's hall was evidently constituted the 

 common hall, or public place, in which the goods were deposited when 

 awaiting sale, the residence of the foreign merchants themselves being 

 limited to forty days, and their proceedings jealously watched by the 

 home merchants and their agents. 



