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noted artificer, as when in Walcot Strete, John Gregory is 

 returned as a " webbe artificer." With our customs this seems 

 at first to read as John Gregory Webbe, artificer, but as no third 

 names were given in these early days the " webbe " must be 

 taken here as in conjunction with the general working designation. 

 Other so called artificers too must have been men of fair status, 

 as in the case of Walter Webbe, in Brade Strete, who paid as 

 much as two shillings and had three servants ; Thomas Barber, 

 Thomas Webbe, and Eoger Glover in Walcote Strete, all had 

 three servants ; and others it will be seen had one. Thus 

 without much imagination Bath can be discovered as an industrial 

 city depending on the woollen trade, neither the waters nor the 

 baths in any way contributing. 



The servants are seen as divided into three classes. The 

 famulus I take to be the household or domestic servant ; the 

 serviens was probably a bond servant of some sort, perhaps an 

 apprentice ; then there were the servaunts, so called, whose status 

 I cannot suggest, except that they did the out-door work. 



There is one other question which must not be omitted, one 

 not easily realised, one extremely difficult, perhaps impossible to 

 decide certainly : viz. — what was the relative value of money 

 between then and now ; what was the purchasing power of the 

 silver tokens then and now called shillings and pence. Omitting 

 all questions about the standard of living, without saying more, 

 let it be roughly assumed that the 3d. a day of the mechanic in 

 Elizabeth's time, say 1580, was equivalent for all purposes of life 

 to the 5s. a day of the mechanic of our own time, a difi"erence of 

 20 times. But the diflFerence of two centuries before 1580 — 

 in the time of this Eoll — would be again very great, as the 

 increase of wealth after the freedom which came with the 

 Reformation was both rapid and widely diff"used. If we say that 

 between now and the time of the Roll, the diff'erence was 40 

 times, it would not be too great. The 4d. of the Poll Tax at 40 

 times would then be our 13s. 4d. : and the £10 Os. 2d. received 



