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rules were submitted to the new Mayor, and the Chamberlain’s 
accounts show that on 15th December, 35 Eliz. the Tailors paid 
for their constitution 6s. 8d. 
On Ist July, 1629, the Rules of the Tailors Company, with 
which we are now specially concerned, and which had been a 
second time submitted to the Mayor and Corporation were 
confirmed by Lords Chief Justice Hyde and Richardson, and 
thus they received the same authority as those of other cities. 
The Rules were almost identical with those of the Merchant 
‘Tailors’ Company in London and Bristol, and probably had 
already been observed for many years. No proof anywhere 
-exists of any connection between the Tailors’ Guilds in the other 
Cities of the West, but the same arms, rules, feast day and 
‘customs appears to warrant such an assumption. An entry in 
the Treasury accounts of the London Company, 1496, proves 
that some intercourse took place between London and Bristol at 
a very early period, and we can hardly imagine that Bath, lying 
between the two, did not share in the friendship. 
“1496. Be it had in Mynde that the 7th day of December in 
the 12th year of the reigne of King Henry VII. there was taken 
out of the Treasury by the said Nicholas now Master for the 
-costes of William Pooey late Master when he rode with the 
Drapers to Bristol accordyng unto the agreement of the counseil 
of the craft.” 
But let us return to the Articles of Association and History of 
the Bath Company preserved to us in two account books and 
various other documents lately returned to the possession of the 
Corporation of Bath, and study them by the aid of what we 
know about other places. 
THE MASTER. 
The head of the company was the Master, in whom all power 
for the time being was vested, and who also had charge of the 
Money of the Corporation, but for this trust he was expected to 
pay interest. 

