253 
there were fourteen subscribers whose donations varied from 3d. 
to Mr. Baber’s 2s. 6d. 
At the Michaelmas Meeting £1 3s. 8d. was collected, in 1709 
£5 10s. and in December, 1735, Mr. Elkington, the then Junior 
Master put into the chest £7 7s. collected by subscription to be 
used as the subscribers think proper. The chest must have 
actually been a box which was in the care of the Feoffees, as one 
member is paid 4d. for bringing the chest to the meeting, and in 
A.D. 1728 1s. was spent in mending the lock. 
FEOFFEES, 
_ The Feoffees, four in number, were annually chosen from 
among the most important of the members, the ex-Senior Master 
being always the senior. Their duties could not have been very 
onerous as the Bath Tailors do not appear to have possessed any 
landed property, and money belonging to the Company was 
loaned to the Master. 
The privileges of a Freeman did not end with his life, nor was 
the connection closed with the spiced ale after the funeral, for his 
widow was allowed during her widowhood to carry on the trade 
and to keep one apprentice and one journeyman. 
APPRENTICES. 
The books of the Taylors’ Company contain several entries of 
apprentices being bound. In many towns Masters were compelled 
to enrol their apprentices in open Court, and at the end of the 
15th century the Town Councils of many cities made strenuous 
efforts to enforce the law. 
One of the most interesting and valuable books belonging to 
the Bristol Corporation is the Apprentice Roll, especially useful 
to the compiler of local pedigrees as the name of the parent of 
the apprentice and that of the Master and his wife are always 
given. All apprentices were required to be instructed for seven 
_ years in their especial trades, and suitable clothing, shoes, medi- 
_ ine board and chastisement were bargained for in return for 

