The Guild of the Merchant Taylors in Bath. By the 
Rev. C. W. SHICKLE, M.A. 
The patient labour of Toulmin Smith and Lugo Brentiano, of 
Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, are beyond all praise, while Mr. E. 
Bain’s “Merchant and Craft Guilds” and Mrs. Green’s more 
recent book on “Town Life in the 15th Century” seem to 
tell us everything concerning these Trading Associations that 
can be discovered. The history of one hundred guilds in 
various Towns is given or their existence referred to, but nothing 
is told us about Bath, and yet its Charter, granted by Richard I., 
is a counterpart of that of some of these places. 
In the reign of Richard II. the Bath Charter was investigated 
and the deed certifying this inspection and confirming the 
Charter is one of the City’s most cherished documents. 
Mention is made of Trading Guilds in the Records of the 
City, just as in those of other places. Leland, who visited 
the place in Henry VIII.’s reign, speaks of the Clothiers of Bath 
and their great trade, which even at the time of the Restoration 
found employment in St. Michael’s parish for 60 broad looms. 
The Weavers had a company. So, too, the Tailors and Shoe- 
makers, and in later times the Carpenters, Tilers, Bakers, 
_ Barbers, Grocers and Drapers, and that their history has not 
been included among those of other cities is only to be attributed 
to the muddling which having caused their overthrow hid away 
all the documents connected with their history. 
By the Charter 4 September 1590, 32 Eliz., the Bath Corpora- 
tion was empowered to make laws for trading bodies, and 
impose fines. The Charter, however, appeared to have been so 
little esteemed that the City took some years to pay Mr. Waley, 
the Attorney, his legal expenses and then only by instalments. 
But the Tailors lost no time in being legally constituted. Their 
s VoL. IX., No. 4. 

