316 A. D. 1 102. 



The earlieft certain notice of a gild, fraternity, company, or corpora- 

 tion, of tradefmen in England occurs in the record of a payment of fix- 

 teen pounds into the exchequer, made by Robert the fon of Leueftan 

 for the gild of weavers of London in the reign of Henry I, the year 

 uncertain. In the reign of Henry II they paid annually two marks (fix- 

 teen ounces) of gold, or twelve pounds of filver, the value of the later 

 being to the former as nine to one. \_Madox.f Finna burgi, p. iC)i,for 

 the authorities. '\ 



1 108 King Henry I enaded fevere laws againft the frauds of coin- 

 ers. And becaufe the money, which was bent or broken, was general- 

 ly refufed, he ordered, that no perfon fhould refufe any penny, or half- 

 penny (which he alfo ordered to be made round, inftead of femicircu- 

 lar) or even a farthing, if it was entire. \^R. Hoveden,/. 270 a*.] He 

 alfo direded that the meafure of the eln or yard fhould be of uniform 

 length throughout his kingdom; and he made the length of his own 

 arm the llandard of itf. [Knig/jton, col. 2375.] 



nil — A vafh number of Flemings, driven out of their own country 

 by an extraordinary encroachment of the fea, had come to England in 

 the reign of William the Conqueror, hoping for fettlements and pro- 

 tedion from the influence of the queen, who was of their countiy. 

 William, glad of fuch an acceffion of foreigners, ftationed great num- 

 bers of them upon the northern frontier, chiefly about Carlile, and 

 others throughout the refl; of the country. King Henry, now finding 

 that the Flemings did not well agree with his other fubjeds, tranfplant- 

 cd the whole of them to a diflrid taken from the Wclfli, called Ros 

 (now a part of Pembroke-fliire) where their pofl:erity can be diflinguilh- 

 ed from their Welfli neighbours to this day. They were a brave and 

 hardy people, equally qualified to handle the plough and the fword; 

 and they were alfo ikilful in the woollen manufadure, the great ftaple 



are made of tlic flcins of various animals, of an centuries the largeft filvcr coin'in Britain, .tnd was 



Oriental plant (the papyrus), and ofyivvi/)i«^'is/c/i/ equivalent in real value to at leaft ten IhiUings of 



doli (' ex rafuris vcterum pannornm'), which, modern money. (See the prices of corn, &c. about 



Montfaucon fays, muft ajfiii-edty mean paper made this time in the Appendix.) It had on one fide a 



of linen rags ; a concluCon, which does not feem crofs fo deeply indented, that it could tliercby be 



necefTarily to follow from the words of that author, eafily broken into halves and quarters; and fuch 



Might not the rags of old cotton cloth be then broJccn pieces appear to have been the only money 



employed in the manufacture of paper, as well as fmaller than pennies, till now that Henry coined 



r.e w cotton ? The fame words of Mauricius are alfo halfpennies. The fii il coinage of round halfpennies 



quoted by Muratori [A//c/. V. ili, cr,l. 871] and and farthings of lilvcr is aferihed to Edward I; but 



others, and have led feveral writers to believe, that wc fee the coinage of round halfpennies by Henry I 



paper made of linen rags is as old as the twelfth related by Florence, Simeon, and Hoveden, who 



century, of which, I believe, no fatisfadlory proof all tlouriilicd before Edward was born. Copper 



has yet appeared. See below at the year 1 243. coins were not introduced till feveral centuries after 



• The older authors, Florence, Simeon, &c. as this time, 



publiihed, arc unintelligible upon this fubjeft, from f 'i'''e ftandard mull have been very uncertain, 



the want of two words, to be found only in Hove- even though there had been a mark on the king's 



den. The penny, containing the two-hundred-and- flioulder to afcertain the point from which the mca- 



fcitietb part of a pound of lilver, was for feveral fure Ihould commence. 



