A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



districts. In 1561 the civic authorities dwelt with great bitterness on this fact, in the report on the 

 sute of trade given to the Lord President and Council of the North. 



Morover one Richard MarshaU of the said citie Marchant did latley sett up drapyng in this citie 

 and had one woollen loome there of his owne but because he found no gaynes at it he hath left of. 

 And the cause of the decay of the said weavers and loomes for woollen within the sayd cite as I doo 

 understand and leame is the lak of cloth makyng in the said citie as was in old tyme accustomed 

 whiche is nowe encreased and used in the townes of Halyfax Leedes and Wakefield, for that not onely 

 the comoditie of the water mylns is ther nigh hande but also the poore folke as speynners, carders, and 

 other necessary work folkes for the said webbyng may ther bysyde ther hand labo' have Rye, fyre, and 

 other releif good cheape which is in this citie very deare and wantyng." 



The gilds that drove the workers from the towns, where they were working under unsatisfactory 

 conditions, into the open country, where a mechanical power ran past their doors, where food was 

 cheap and firewood plentiful, certainly hastened indirectly the development of the barren West 

 Riding regions into the most highly industrial and densely populated part of England. 



But not only did the gild officials drive away the workers impatient of control, they maintained 

 the policy they had adopted in the early days of their organization, and continued to enforce regu- 

 lations against the settlement of strangers and aliens in the co-operate towns. The barber-surgeons 

 revised their ordinances in 1592 and 1679," the alien clause remained unaltered,"" a fee of 6s, 8d. was 

 exacted from all strangers wishing to practise. Whether from the superior education of the members, 

 or from the absence of competition, it is difficult to say, but there was always a considerable foreign 

 element amongst the York medical men. Other gilds had more stringent rules. The York 

 minstrels were not so widely known as the minstrels of Beverley, who claimed to have originated in 

 the time of Athelstan. The well-known pillar erected by the Beverley Gild is one of the 

 many interesting features of the church of St. Mary. On the capital are the figures in stone of 

 four minstrels clad in short coats, painted blue, with red stockings and yellow girdles. They carry 

 various instruments, a treble and bass flute, a side drum and a tabor. The Beverley men, although 

 they objected to a foreigner or stranger minstrel remaining longer than one fortnight in their midst," 

 were not so determined in their opposition as the York Minstrels, who had a rule that 



No maner of forryner of what condition he be occupie any minstrells singinge or plaieing upon 

 anie instrument within anie parishe within this cittie or franches thereof where anie churche holidaeis 

 or dedicaton daes halowed or kept within the same parishe or annie Brotherheads or freemans dinner 

 made or kept within the same cittie or franchesse thereof upon payne that everie such forayne minstrell 

 after monyton to him geven by the maister or searchers to pay for every time that he shalbe founde so 

 doinge contrarie to this Acte 3/. 44'." 



The gilds of the metal-workers had extremely rigid rules dealing with the alien question, 

 the pinners and wiredrawers re-enacted their ordinances in 1592. They carefully distinguish 

 between the ' forreyners ' who might be Englishmen from another part of the country and the alien. 



And whereas the 23 October 1425 it was ordeyned that none of the sayd Crafte should take anye 

 Alyen of anye Naton to worke he should teache him in the said Crafte upon payne of xxf. to the 

 Chamber and xxj. to the sayd crafte to be paid by the Maister that should putt him to the same Crafte 

 as oftc tyme as he doth it — which order being perused It is now agreed that the same shalbe continued 

 and remain in force." 



The pewterers had a similar clause, ' that no Master of the said Crafte shall take anie alien not 

 borne within the realme to be or serve him as his apprentice upon payne of forfeiture of x".' The 

 most ardent tariff reformers could not wish for more stringent rule than one enjoyned on the foun- 

 derers in 1574," ' That none of the said crafte shall buye anie waires of any man out of this realme 

 as candlestyck, chawfyndissis under payne to forfayte for every pece that he shall so buye as afForesaid.' 

 As well as these enactments against aliens, sometimes the gilds drew up special clauses against 

 individual bodies of men, whom they regarded as antagonistic to themselves. The tailors and drapers 



" York Munic. Rec. xxiii, fol. loa, 8 June 1 561. 



" Merchant Taylors' MSS. These 16th-century regulations were transcribed some years ago from a MS. 

 containing a miscellaneous collection of gild ordinances at that time in the possession of the Merchant Taylors' 

 Company. 



" See above. 



" G. Oliver, op. cit. 557-9 ; R. C. Hope, 'Notes on the Minstrels' Pillar,' East Ridmz Antlq Soc 

 Trans. I S95, pp. 67, 68. ' 



" The seventh clause of their new enactments, Merchant Taylors' MSS. 'The Ancient Ordynances of the 

 Muscycyons comonlie called the Minstrelles', I 578. 



" Merchant Taylors' MSS. Pinners and Wiredrawers, 1592. " Ibid. fol. 246. 



450 



