List of Wiltshiremen, &c. 573 



Midlands: bub many from other counties. The only neighbour- 

 hoods which provided very few were the immediate surroundings 

 of Salisbury, Bristol, and Exeter. I suppose that this is to be 

 accounted for by the fact that those cities were themselves pro- 

 vided with a complete set of trade guilds. I append a transcript 

 of the entries relating to the County of Wilts. I must premise 

 that the original document has suffered a good deal from water; 

 and there is one name which, unfortunately, always occurs in a 

 damp place, and is almost impossible to decipher. It might be 

 "Malmesbury" or "Marlborough." Possibly someone familiar 

 with family names in those places can say which is right. The 

 letters " C & W " throughout mean " Citizen & Weaver of London." 



Mention will be found occasionally of a "foreign" master or 

 journeyman. This does not mean an alien, but simply a class of 

 men who had served their articles of apprenticeship with people 

 who were not freemen of the Company. 



The Weavers of London, from a very early date, waged an 

 unremitting war against anyone being allowed to carry on the 

 trade of a weaver in London who was not a freeman of the guild. 

 Eventually, largely under pressure from the Plantagenet kings, who 

 were always introducing alien weavers, some kind of compromise 

 was arrived at under which a man who had duly served his articles 

 to a weaver at home or abroad, although his master was not a 

 member of the guild, might be admitted, on payment of a fine, a 

 " foreign " master, journeyman, or brother : and thenceforward was 

 allowed to exercise his trade in London and to take apprentices, 

 who were duly enrolled in the books of the Company. What, 

 exactly, the rights of these " foreigners " were, and whether they 

 could ever pass into the other class of "citizen and weaver of 

 London," I have not yet been able to discover. The early minute 

 books of the Company teem with them, especially with alien 

 refugees coming from France and Elanders, usually by way of 

 Canterbury or Nor with. 



Freedoms. 



1653 9. May— William Whitlocke son of John, of Filedon (? Figheldean) 

 ;co: Wilts, Taylor— appr: to Thomas Wilkin, C. & W., made free. 



