A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



the tavern under the Council House,' 45. 8d. 

 rent being paid for the same. 18 There was a 

 Tanners' Hall in Newark in 1577, no other 

 crafts having apparently a corresponding posses- 

 sion. In the reign of Henry VIII there were 

 five tanners, six corvisers, one saddler, and 

 two glovers, members of the Trinity Gild of 

 Newark. 13 In the following reign, the tanners 

 of this town claimed the right to carry leather, 

 rough and tanned, from Nottingham to Grantham 

 and back free of toll, acknowledging however 

 their liability to pay toll on bark. 14 



The anonymous author of a description of 

 Nottingham in the i yth century 16 says that he 

 ' knows of no trade like to breed offence ' in the 

 town ' but the tanners, fellmongers, and whitta- 

 wers, 16 all of whom dwelling in a row on the 

 bank of the River Leen, all the refuse of the 

 trades are by that river daily swept away and 

 cleansed.' 17 In 1605, among the chief rents due 

 to Richard Lord Burghley at Newark, we read 

 of \id. received from Christopher Jenneson for 

 the tanners and all. 18 The rent of the Leather 

 Hall at Nottingham had risen in 1627-8 to 8*., 

 which was duly paid by the wardens to the town 

 authorities. 19 In 1641 there were thirty-six 

 tanners in the town, 20 besides nine master fell- 

 mongers and six curriers. 21 



In 1646 Mr. John James, alderman, after- 

 wards mayor, was chosen master of the tanners' 

 trade of Nottingham, John Townrow and 

 Thomas Truman being wardens for the year. 

 Meeting on the Monday after St. Andrew's Day 

 in that year, the company ordered that all appren- 

 tices who were not freeborn should pay to the 

 wardens of the trade for their recording 5*., and 

 for their upset los. 6d., also that such as were 

 freeborn should pay for their recording 2*., and 

 for their upset 6s. 8d. On 5 December 1664, 

 forty-seven master tanners subscribed to an order 

 declaring that if any person duly elected master 

 should refuse to accept office he should pay a fine 

 of 2os. William Fillingham paid this fine in 

 1716. On 8 September 1668, at a meeting of 

 twenty-five master tanners at the house of 

 Thomas Hardement, it was agreed and concluded 

 that the particular persons whose names were 

 underwritten should buy such proportion of hides 

 affixed to their names underneath for one month 

 next ensuing, under penalty of forfeiting to the 

 wardens 6d. for every hide neglected to be 

 bought, and it was intended that such hides 

 should be bought of the butchers of Nottingham. 



14 Ibid. 

 67. 



11 Stevenson, op. cit. iv, 156. 

 13 Brown, op. cit. I 90. 



15 Printed in Thoroton Sac. Trans. 



16 Tanners of white leather ; ibid. 46. 



17 Op. cit. 



18 Shilton, Hiit. Newark, 488. 



19 Stevenson, Rec. Bora. Note. 132. 

 K Brit. Dir. 1793, p. 45. 



" Blackner, Hist. Nott. ziz. 



No tanner, journeyman, or apprentice was to buy 

 any hide, kep, or calfskin above <)d., nor tan 

 them at any rate for themselves or the fellmongers. 

 In 1672 the company agreed that any one buying 

 hides within 6 miles of Nottingham, except in 

 open market, should be fined 5*. No journey- 

 man was allowed to be employed who had not 

 served his apprenticeship to a master belonging 

 to some company, and no master not belonging 

 to the Nottingham company could set up or keep 

 a stall in the town. 22 The company paid the 

 corporation 2Os. yearly until 1747, when the 

 refusal of a master shoemaker named Hancock to 

 enter the company involved the latter in a law- 

 suit which was given against them, the company 

 thereupon deciding to withhold their annual 

 tribute, ' because the Corporation did not protect 

 their interests.' The company had previously 

 comprised four masters, two stewards, and two 

 wardens, to whom all fees were paid, and who 

 also remitted all payments to the corporation ; 

 in order, however, that there should be no official 

 on whom to levy after the Hancock incident, no 

 wardens were afterwards elected. 23 



During a visitation of the plague in 1667, the 

 immunity of the lower part of the town, where 

 the tanners' quarter was situated, was ascribed to 

 the forty-seven tanyards, the odours from which 

 were popularly supposed to be an antidote to the 

 disease. 24 



The leather sellers and glovers sold together 

 in their appointed place in the market. The 

 tanners, ' when they had made their markets in 

 the morning for buying hides, stood all day after 

 to sell bend leather.' 26 The buying and selling 

 of hides was strictly regulated by the company. 

 He that brought a hide to the hill (which, 

 Blackner suggests, was the hill near the Timber 

 Market) had the privilege of buying it. If any 

 other, he should pay the first chapman is. Any 

 tanner buying hides of butchers at shops or 

 slaughterhouses in the week-day was fined 

 2s. 6d., any hides so bought being forfeited to 

 the wardens for promoting the feast. 26 



Caleb Wilkinson, leather-seller, was presented 

 in 1686 for following his trade, not being 

 apprenticed. 27 Among burgesses enrolled 16934, 

 the following appear 22 May 1694 : Thomas 

 Shaw Robinson and James Robinson, tanners. 28 

 In 1 707 there were twenty-one master tanners 

 in the town; 29 in 1739 two fellmongers and four 

 curriers were included in the trade. 30 In this 

 year Ralph Peet paid the last fee for recording 

 apprentices. 31 In 1766 William Haigh paid the 

 last fee for an upset. This master tanner was 



338 



" Curtis, Hut. Notts, p. xv. 

 " Blackner, Hist. Nott. 208-9. 

 t!> Thoroton Soc. Trans. \\, 37. 

 * 6 Blackner, Hist. Nott. 2 1 o. 

 17 Rec. Bon. Nott. v, 331. 

 "Brit. Dir. 1793, p. 45. 

 M Blackner, Hist. Nott. 212 



"Ibid. 212. 



18 Ibid. 97. 

 31 Ibid. 210. 



