475 ' ^ 



Common Council held at Bath on the 17th February, 1752, there 

 attended Francis Bennett, Samuel Howse, James Terry, John Howse, 

 Richard Harford, John Richardson, John Bowden, William Clement, 

 Thomas Farr, James Crawford, Charles Harford, and William 

 Smith, Freemen, Linen Drapers, Woollen Drapers, Mercers, and 

 Haberdashers, and demanded of the Corporation that they and 

 others whom they represented should be formed into a Company 

 or Fraternity, and they proposed a set of Bye-laws for their 

 government. 



The Deed relates that the trading companies already existing 

 have been immemorially governed by laws and ordinances made or 

 sanctioned by the Corporation, and the order is made that the 

 drapers, &c., who are now free citizens, and all other such free 

 citizens inhabiting the city who shall hereafter exercise these 

 occupations therein, shall be of one Company, and subject to 

 certain laws, ordinances, and constitutions. 



The members, who are to be called by the name of Master, 

 Wardens and Company, shall have served apprenticeship and shall 

 be Freemen. They may make convenient bye-laws and present 

 them to the Corporation for approval They shall have a Common 

 Hall to be called Linen Drapers' Hall, and there they shall meet 

 to consult and advise. Mr. Francis Bennett is appointed the first 

 Master for a year, and Messrs. Samuel Howse and James TeiTy 

 are to be Wardens. The fifteenth of August is to be the annual 

 day for electing new officers. The Company shall, if required, 

 attend upon the Mayor and Corporation on all solemn occasions as 

 the other Companies do. The conclusion should be given entire, 

 " All which said Ordinances or Constitutions being conceived to be 

 for the Regulation and advancement of Trade by reducing the 

 said artificers into a Company to meet and consult on future and 

 further Regulations of themselves and their Trades, and for the 

 common good and publick utility. We the said Mayor, Aldermen, 

 and Common Council do (as far a,s we lawfully may or can) ordain 

 and establish, approve, ratify and confirm " the ordinances, reserving 

 power to revoke them. The deed is dated September 25, 1752, and 

 there is appended the first bye-law which orders the members to 

 subscribe 10s. per annum to the Company. Dr. Hunter observed 



