142 THE DERBY COMPANY OF MERCERS. 



She was admitted into the Company, and "is and shall be 

 accounted a member of y' said Company, with full & free liberty 

 to exercise & follow y* trade of a milliner within y^ said Borough, 

 without any molestacon or disturbance whatsoever from this 

 Company." Her sister Mary Gretton, who was apprenticed to 

 her as a milliner, and who had " about two yeares of her time to 

 serve," was to be admitted to the Company as soon as she had 

 served her apprenticeship, or as soon as Dorothy Gretton should 

 die, or leave the trade of a milliner, " with full freedome and 

 liberty to follow and exercise y^ said trade of a Milliner, as fully, 

 in all respects, as y* said Dorothy Gretton may, can, might, or 

 could have done if liveing." 



A foreigner could not, without the license of the Company, 

 carry on one of the said trades, even if he married a freewoman 

 engaged in the same trade.* On November 15th, 1700, it was 

 ordered, " that in consideration of the sume of fifive pounds, then 

 paid & rec"^ of Mr John Gates of Rypley, marrying the widdow of 

 Mr Tho Parker, Grocer, in Derby late deceased, we do hereby 

 oblige ourselves, that the said Mr John Gates & Elisabeth his 

 intended wife shall & may occupye the said trade of Grocer in 

 Derby, w""" she now useth, during the Terme of their naturall 

 lives, without any Let or MoUestation whatsoever." 



Various other people were to be proceeded against, but we are 

 not told the results of the prosecutions. Sometimes a deputa- 

 tion was sent to the offender, as in the case of Mr. Sore and 

 Mr. Wilson. OnApriliath, 1726, it was " ordered, that the Steward 

 & Wardens, or two of them, do speak to Thomas Sore & 

 Cliambers Willson to enquire into their write to the Trade 



* Similar customs were in force in other towns. For example, in 1614, the 

 Company of Mercers and Ironmongers of Chester ordered T. Addersey (who 

 had married the niece of an ironmonger), to shut up his shop. He refused ; 

 "see dale by daie, two others [of their company] walked all daie before the 

 said shop, & did forbidd & inhibit all that came to the said shopp, for buyinge 

 any wares there, & stopped such as came to buy wares there." — Gross. "Gild 

 Merchant," p. 36 note. 



And, in 1641, a Mr. Johnson joined the Merchants' Company at Alnwick, 

 and was allowed to trade during his life, and his wife after him during her 

 widowhood. She married again, and they made her husband enter into a 

 bond of £^0 not to trade in Alnwick. — Tate's " History of Alnwick." 



