414 Incorporated Trades of Dumfries. 



rence of the Archbishop of Glasgow; and that the Cordiners (or 

 shoemakers) and Barkers (or tanners) had been incorporated 

 prior to 1460, in which year their regulations were confirmed by 

 the Council. These Seals of Cause provided that no person 

 should " set up booth to work within this city until he be first 

 made a burgess and freeman of the same, and be examined by 

 three or four masters of the said craft if he be a sufficient work- 

 man and able to work good and sufficient work to serve our 

 Sovereign Lord's lieges." The Shoemakers of Dumfries received 

 a Seal of Cause from the Town Council of date ist December, 

 1513, and no doubt others would be issued here, as in Glasgow 

 and other towns, during that century. In many cases, where no 

 formal charter was issued, trades enjoyed by prescription the 

 same rights of incorporation. That was pleaded in the case of 

 the Hammermen before the Town Council of Dumfries in con- 

 nection with a memorable civic dispute in 1759. ^ saddler had 

 in that year been chosen Deacon of the Hammermen. The 

 deacons had seats in the Town Council, and objection was taken 

 to his admission on the ground that the saddlers were only a 

 pendicle of the Hammermen incorporation, not being named in 

 the Seal of Cause constituting it, and were not eligible for elec- 

 tion to office. The reply, which prevailed, was that there was no 

 Seal of Cause, but that the incorporation rested upon prescrip- 

 tion, and the saddlers had all along been recognised as con- 

 stituent members entitled to the full privileges of the craft. 



The numbers of the trades varied in different towns, and 

 also the method in which they were grouped. In connection with 

 Dumfries we are accustomed to the mystic number seven, but it 

 had no special or universal significance. When the system was 

 at its height there were in Glasgow fourteen incorporated trades ; 

 in Edinburgh, twelve; in Dundee, nine; in Perth, eight; in 

 Aberdeen, seven ; and in addition three separate societies — the 

 Litsters or Dyers, the Masons, the Leechers (or barber-surgeons), 

 each of which elected its deacon ; and in Perth there were, in like 

 manner, seven incorporated crafts and three " tolerated com- 

 munities." In Dumfries the Wrights or Joiners Incorporation, 

 which came to adopt the more collective name of the Squaremen, 

 embraced all the building trades. We find, for example, mention 

 of "sclaiters," " glasenwrights " or painters, and "coupers," 

 as well as masons and joiners. The Weaver Trade compre- 



