SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



inthecityofYork- JohndcGisburn, whohad beenmayor in 1372-J I3^^^^^^ 



re-elected in 1380." Upon his re-election some of the people of York '^'^'\ll]^Jl^^.^^ 



le A^cTbishlp of York, and in the San tiJne twenty-four of the -"/--^ ^^ f^^^^^^^^^^ 

 were commanded to appear before the king and h,s council m ^estmrnster The cornm, jers 

 forwarded to the Council the sworn deposition of witnesses drawn up ^f?[')?j2'^^^°'f 

 Quixley, who still retained his office, although after a period of hesitation he had J^rown himself 

 on to the side of the communitas. According to this evidence, John G.sburn t, ed or waging for 

 support from the Government, had with various armed followers attacked Qu.xley's chief adherents 

 at Bootham Bar. They had forced their way into York and continued to d.sturb the city 

 Various charges are brought against Gisburn, that he was a thief, a friend of thieves, a 

 coiner of false money." But counter-accusations were brought against Quixley, who was said to 

 have seized and imprisoned innocent men, not allowing them to be set at liberty until they had paid 

 considerable sums of money, and had given bond for debts they owed to various inhabitants of 

 York.i» A commission was issued to Quixley 3 March 1382 as mayor to compel these rioters, 

 who had broken down the closes, wall, and doors of the hospital of St. Leonard, York, and of the 

 King's Chantry near York Castle, and a wall within the habitation of the house of the Friar 

 Preachers, York, to repair their handiwork, and 120 people, principally mercers, butchers, 

 pinners, carpenters, coverlet weavers, drapers, tailors, armourers, saddlers, porters, sheathers, 

 goldsmiths, barbers, girdlers, shoemakers, glovers, were bound over on pain of a forfeiture of £100 

 each to keep the peace. Among them were two of Quixley's chief adherents, Thomas de Santon 

 and William de Hornby, who had been attacked by Gisburn and his followers at Bootham Bar." 

 The Council evidently recognized that Quixley was not a trustworthy tool, for he had to pledge 

 himself in Chancery at Westminster in ;£5,ooo of his lands and chattels to execute this commission.^ 

 On 18 October 1382 a general pardon was issued, for which the people of York had to pay 

 1,000 marks. 



Industrial matters in all the chief Yorkshire towns were rigidly supervised by the craft gilds for 

 many centuries. The ordinances of the Hull weavers for 1490 are still extant ^^ ; the records of 

 Beverley and Pontefract bear ample evidence of the supremacy of the power of these industrial 

 organizations. There seems to be very good grounds for thinking that the Towneley Mystery 

 plays were acted in Wakefield; if so, the gilds there must have been both numerous and influential. 

 Unfortunately, none of their ordinances or gild books have come to light, and it is therefore 

 impossible to write definitely on the subject as far as Wakefield is concerned.^^ As, however, there 

 is a general similarity in all gild ordinances, and as no town in England was more completely 

 controlled by highly organized gilds than York, the details of gild life that can be compiled from 

 the materials extant for that city will be approximately true of the other towns of Yorkshire. The 

 ordinances of the 14th-century craft gilds are enrolled in one of the earliest and most valuable 

 works in the possession of the city. It is entitled ' Liber diversorum memorandorum civitatera 

 Ebor' tangencium.' The first entry is dated 1376, the last 1490, but the contents are not in 

 strictly chronological order, and several of the memoranda are retrospective. The gild regulations 

 are often undated, but from internal evidence they belong chiefly to the last decade of the 14th and 

 the first half of the 15th century. It is, however, probable that the earlier ones are verbatim 

 copies of the first attempts made to reduce the customary regulations of the craftsmen into 

 written form. -The first reference to the gild occurs early in the volume ; in the year 1376 the 

 city rents are entered, among others a tenement paying an annual rent of 2s. is mentioned, and the 

 fact stated that three of the pageants of the Corpus Christi are placed there. The word * pagine ' 

 must refer to the stage and properties of the pageant. The first ordinances referred to are those of 

 ' the buklermakers and shethers,' the object of the regulation was restraining work on Sundays and 

 feast days. Neither these ordinances nor those immediately following, of the bakers, are dated, but it 



" R. Pari, iii, 96, 97. » F. Drake, op. cit. 361. " R. Pari, iii, 96. 



" The number is given as twenty. Close, 4 Ric. II, m. 27, in Rdville, op. cit. 174. 

 " Coram Rege R. Mich. 5 Ric. II, m. 11, 35, 35^ ; printed in Rfeville, op. cit. 178, 179. 

 " From this Mr. Oman deduces that Gisburn was Master of the Mint {Great Revolt, 146), but this is 

 improbable. is Close, 5 Ric. II, m. 25 ; R6ville, op. cit. 180. 



" Pat. ; Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 23 d. >» Pat. 6 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 6 ; cf. R. Pari. iii. i,? 



" J. M. Lambert, Ttvo Thousand Tears of Gild Life, 204-7. 



" H. M. Peacocl^ 'Towneley, Widkirk or Wakefield Plays,' rerks. Arth. Jeum. xv, 94-103. 



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