A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



muniments.' Indeed, it is not till the middle 

 of the seventeenth century that there is any 

 indication of Northampton specializing in the 

 manufacture of foot-wear so far as actual re- 

 cords are concerned. It is, however, rather 

 suggestive of a trade beyond mere local con- 

 sumption when we notice the elaborate regula- 

 tions framed to govern the sale of leather brought 

 for sale into the town market by tanners from 

 the neighbouring villages. Doubtless, owing to 

 the prevalence of oak-trees in the forests in 

 Northamptonshire the bark of which formed the 

 chief tanning agent in those days, the villages 

 throughout the county, or many of them, seemed 

 to have each its tanyard. On the other hand 

 the regulations and restrictions governing the 

 town tanners would lead one to suppose that 

 their industry was a not unimportant one, and 

 that its productions in the way of leather would 

 suffice for purely local needs. It is not unlikely 

 therefore, that there was some small outside trade 

 in boots and shoes, and if so it is probable that 

 their sale was effected by means of the fairs 

 which played such an important part in the dis- 

 tribution of goods in the middle ages. 



The Liber Custumarum of the town of 

 Northampton, compiled about the middle of the 

 fifteenth century, contains interesting details 

 concerning the regulations of the various trades 

 of the town, including bootmaking. 



ORDINANCE MADE FOR THE CRAFT OF 

 CORDWAINERS » 



' On the Monday next after the feast of S. Denys in 

 the third year of the reign of Henry IV after 

 the Conquest : For the advantage of the town by 

 John Londham, Mayor of the town of Northampton, 

 by the assent of 24. of his Council sworn, and with 

 the assent of the whole craft of the ' Coruysers 

 crafte ' in the same, it was ordained that every 

 man of the craft aforesaid, hereafter commen- 

 cing to hold a shop of the same craft, shall pay 

 a fine of 6s. Sd. at its commencement, as well 

 for time past as for time to come : excepting those 

 who have heretofore made a fine according to the 

 usual custom of the said craft in the said town of 

 Northampton. And that it shall be allowed to 

 Hugh Brixw-orth, William Stockton, William Pirye, 

 coruysers, and to Hugh Hikedon, now chosen masters 

 for the coming year, by the said Mayor, concerning 



' One, however, of the ancient deeds at the Record 

 Office, A 6444, mentions two shops ' in Rengo 

 Sutorum,' Northampton, 34 Edw. III. 



* The Latin term is j4rs ^llutariorum, and is an 

 example of the curious inconsequence of the time. 

 Although it obviously is used here to describe a cord- 

 wainer or cordyner, its literal meaning is a worker in 

 alum-dressed leather, which the shoemaker was for- 

 bidden to touch, he being ordered by the assize only 

 to use * good neat's leather thorough tanned and 

 curried.' See under 'Leather'; and assize of a cord- 

 wainer. — Borough Records, i, 348. The more obvious 

 way of rendering cordwainer into Latin would be 



the said craft, and to other masters who for the time 

 shall be hereafter chosen, to levy the said 6s. SJ. 

 from every man so commencing a shop for the same 

 craft, and to pay ^oJ. of it to the Mayor for the 

 time being for the use of the town, the masters to retain 

 the other 40</. of it themselves, and to dispose of it as 

 shall seem to be most expedient to them, viz., in torches' 

 and other lights about the Eucharist and at the 

 burial of the dead, to the honour of the town. And 

 further it was ordained by the said Mayor and twenty- 

 four, that it be allowed to the said masters, at the 

 end of their said year, by the assent of the whole of 

 the said craft, to choose for themselves other masters 

 of the said craft, and so from year to year to present 

 these masters so chosen to the Mayor for the time 

 being to take the oath appointed for them ; and the 

 said masters being sworn upon the Sacrament, and 

 other former masters shall supervise all shortcomings of 

 the said craft, and shall present to the Mayor for the time 

 being all transgressors of the same craft, together with 

 the shortcomings of the same, so that by the Mayor ■ 

 and his Council, according to the extent of their fault, 

 they can be duly punished and chastised : and if anyone 

 of the aforesaid craft dwelling in the aforesaid town of 

 Northampton shall not come at the summons of the 

 aforesaid masters or anyone of them, or any other 

 deputy of theirs, at the certain times, days, and places 

 assigned to him within the liberty of the same town, 

 then it may be lawful to the said masters, concerning 

 the man so summoned and not coming, as often as he 

 shall contravene this ordinance, to receive and levy 

 for his contempt one pound of wax, of which they 

 shall dispose one moiety to the torches aforesaid, and 

 the other moiety they shall deliver for the use of the 

 town to the Mayor for the time being, etc' ' 



An ordinance of a later date' (1452) is worth 

 notice as an illustration of the care with which 

 the interests not only of the craft but of the 



su/or cakearius. It is noteworthy that in Scotland, 

 instead of cordwainer, the term 'soutar' was used to 

 describe a shoemaker. The term cordwainer and its 

 variants, cordyner, corviser, corviner, etc., all come 

 from the same source. A Spanish leather made 

 origin.illy at Cordova, hence called Cordovan, was 

 held in repute for use in bootmaking. The leather 

 at first was made from goatskins, dressed with alum 

 and salt {aluta), but the same term was afterwards 

 applied to dressed horse hides, shaved to a suitable 

 substance for boot uppers. Cordovan came to be 

 called Cordewane (' In gilden buskins of costly corde- 

 wayne.' — Spenser, Faerie Queen, Book II, cant. 3, 

 stanza 27), and the user of it a cordewainer. In 

 slightly differing forms the word is found in Italian, 

 French, and Dutch as Cordovaniere, Cordonnier, 

 Kordewanier, etc. 



^ The lights and torches above mentioned were 

 probably for use in St. Catherine's Chapel, which 

 appears to have been attended by the craft. The 

 fullers, fishmongers, and tailors appear to have had 

 their special lights in the great church of All Saints, 

 Northampton, but not so the cordwainers. — R. M. 

 Serjeantson, j4U Saints\ Northampton, pp. 48, 61, etseq. 



* Liber Custumarum, fols. 30, 31. The original 

 is unpunctuated, but stops have been introduced for 

 convenience. 



' Ibid. fols. 59, 60. 



318 



