GRANT OF LAND IN FOSSGATE (1356)

iii

secrecy, bring the ecclesiastical element under its own domination, and boldly demand constitutional recognition; though the cloak of religion still appears in the demand for a charter, possibly both petitioners and grantor regarded it as a mere stage trapping. The same device appears as late as the Elizabethan charter of 1580. The third period, from 1580 to the present day, is a dreary story of retrogression; the substitution of privilege for efficiency, state help for individualistic effort, restriction for expansion hastened the downfall of a society, that was out of touch with the spirit of a progressive age.

FIRST PHASE, 1356-1420.

Although the deed, which in 13562 conveyed a piece of land in Fossgate to John Freeboys, John Crome, and Robert Smeton, citizens and merchants of York, does not mark the inauguration of a new society of merchants, it undoubtedly emphasises a new and important phase in the existence of the fraternity from which the mistery sprang. To the medieval mind an organisation without a religious side would have been as alien a conception as a stock exchange with rules framed in the spirit of the sermon on the mount would be to a modern 1 Text, pp. 244, 245.

2 Sir William Percehay, knight, grants to John Freeboys, John Crome, and Robert Smeton, citizens and merchants, York, all that piece of ground with the buildings, etc., in Fossgate, lying in breadth between Trichour lane on one side and the river Foss on the other, and in length from Fossgate in front to the land of Henry Haxiholme at the back, the whole of which he lately acquired of Robert Lisle and Thomas Duffeld, co-executors of the will of Henry Belton, late merchant, York. Witnesses, John Langeton, mayor, John Scareby, Richard Wateby and John Ripon, bailiffs, Robert Skelton, William Burton, draper, John Haunsard, John Neuton, cook, John Staunton, clerk. Friday next after the feast of St. Lucy the Virgin, 30 Ed. III (16 Dec., 1356). Translation of deed in possession of the company. Possibly the William Percehay mentioned is the second son of Henry Percy, first lord Percy of Alnwick, and Eleanor, daughter of John Fitzalan, lord of Arundel. Annals of the House of Percy, vol. i, p. 70. I have searched many old leases of Fossgate property in the hopes of identifying the boundaries of the original estate of the merchants, but without success. I am, however, inclined on general grounds to think that the passage at the end of Lady Peckett's yard, having an entrance into Fossgate, immediately above and parallel to the entry into the courtyard of the hall, follows the line of Trichour lane. Skaife, who by his indefatigable industry had accumulated an extensive knowledge of medieval York, only states it is on the west side of Fossgate. R. H. Skaife, Plan of Roman, Medieval, and Modern York (1864).

mind. The conveyance, however, contains no allusion to any co-operate religious society in the background. But one of the merchants to whom the land is granted appears the following year as the master of the fraternity, another as one of the thirteen members to whom the licence which legalised the fraternity is granted; these two facts seem to prove beyond controversy that the grant of land was the preliminary step in the organisation of the fraternity, the next step being obviously the erection of a building where the members could hold their meetings. Fortunately the licence renders the story of the development of the institution perfectly clear. A body of successful York merchants, possibly with some latent idea of reviving the glories of the gilda mercatoria granted in 1200,1 approached the king with a request for power to form themselves into a gild. Although the grant of land was made in 1356, the licence to incorporate was not granted until 1357: the merchants probably had been in touch with the king before they bought the land, and knew their incorporation was assured, though the chariot wheels of legal incorporation tarried long. Shorn of verbiage the licence is simple: the merchants, representatives chiefly of the woollen industry, mercers, drapers, hosiers, dyers, were granted a licence to organise a gild for men and women, “in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ and the blessed Mary." They were empowered to choose a master, in whose hands the management of the gild property was to be vested. Chaplains were to be paid to celebrate service in the church of St. Crux, to pray for the royal family, and the brothers and sisters of the gild. On the surface this gild is simply a fortuitous grouping of men and women for purely religious and social purposes. The essential nature of the bond of association only becomes clear, when research has individualised the committee from whom the request for the licence came. Then the second side, the mistery, the practical organisation, emerges. The thirteen brethren appear as thirteen merchants, the sisters as their wives, sisters, or daughters. The spiritual bond of brotherhood

1 Charter Rolls, p. 40. C. Gross, Gild Merchant, vol. i, p. 197; vol. ii, pp. 279, 280. C. Gross, Gilds in Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xii, passim. 2 Text, pp. 1-3.

ACCOUNT ROLLS (1357-1368)

weakens, the practical bond of similarity of worldly interest strengthens. Nor is the reason for this subterfuge far to seek.1 The government was used to individuals forming religious groups, but looked with suspicion on association for other purposes. On the other hand the merchants themselves did not court publicity, they wished to accumulate wealth without the harassing fear of a rapacious government in the background. The words of the statute of Henry VII, framed at a time when the embryo mistery of the fourteenth century had developed into the great trading monopoly of the sixteenth century, throws light on the subject. After bitter complaints of the excessive fines levied by the merchant adventurers, the preamble to the statute states that the delinquents sheltered themselves under colour of the fraternity of Thomas Becket, bishop of Canterbury, and by colour of such feigned holiness2 gained their covetous ends.

The conveyance of land and the licence of incorporation renders the early history of the fraternity clear; additional details are supplied by the accounts for the eight years from 1357 to 1364.3 These are found in an oblong, rough, tattered paper book, very badly written in grotesque Latin, interspersed with English and Norman French. They differ materially from the elaborate vellum rolls on which similar institutions inscribed their accounts; in fact, it is difficult to avoid suspecting that these are not the final accounts, but only the notes from which the rolls would be compiled. This surmise would explain the absence of much information that we should expect to find in them.

In the grant of land from Sir William Percy, reference is made to the buildings already on it, and these accounts read as if they represented repairs rather than an entirely new building. There is no certain indication that they refer to one single building, but even assuming they do, then the conclusion is forced on us that it was a timber building. The timber in 1 York Memorandum Book, vol. ii, p. xxxi. Surtees Soc., cxxv.

2 Statutes of the Realm, xii Hen. VII, c. 6.

3 Text, pp. 6-16. In printing this document I have not put (sic) after variations in spelling or mistakes in grammar, but have corrected silently where an obscurity of meaning would result from lack of alteration.

comparatively large quantities, joists, boards, laths, plaster, sand and tiles, and the fact that of the labour, the carpenters are the largest item, points to this conclusion; the items for the masons' labour are comparatively insignificant, and seem to contradict the idea that the timber building had a ground storey of stone. Nor does it seem likely that the accounts refer to a building that had been partly erected before the accounts begin, for the purchase and sawing of the timber would occur at a very early stage of the work. But whatever view may be taken of the details of the work the fact is incontestable, that in the year 1356 the gild acquired land, and in the year 1357 the land was in the hands of workpeople. Nearly ninety pounds was expended on it that year; the expenditure fell in 1358, but rose in 1359 to £123 11s. 6d.2 A voluminous vellum roll for the year 13683 contains many interesting items. During the intervening four years the gild had evidently become so popular that it had attracted members from Newcastle, Whitby, and Hull. Butchers, spicers, potters figure among the members and benefactors. Building must have gone on rapidly during this period; a certain house within the “mansum on the pavement pays a considerable rent; the entry points to some dwelling possibly on the site, where the shops still belonging to the company stand, on either side of the entrance to the courtyard.5 Bricks and plaster in increasing quantities are being delivered. There are three references to the erection of a great hall in a garden. The evidence with regard to the existence of a chapel is not absolutely conclusive'; the allusion may be to the chapel in the church of St. Crux, though against this theory there is the evidence of the licence, which proves

6

1 This paragraph is founded on a report made by Mr. John Bilson, F.S.A., of Hull. He very kindly went over the hall with me, then studied the account roll, and gave me the inestimable advantage of his expert opinion.

2 Deferring to the judgment of better scholars than myself, I have not translated the money items into terms of modern money, but I may point out that approximately £90 in 1357 would be equivalent at the lowest calculation to £350 in modern times.

3 Text, pp. 16–26.

▲ Ibid., pp. 16, 17, 23.

5 Ibid., p. 17.

• Ibid., p. 24.

7 Ibid., pp. 20, 22, 25.

REORGANISATION BY THE ARCHBISHOP (1373)

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that the chapel had been an ancient ruin for years previous to 1411. A chaplain had been appointed and paid forty-six shillings. All the building operations were in charge of John Craneby, carpenter, and John Bolton, plasterer, who received salaries, the rest of the workpeople were paid by piece. The master carpenter received twelve pounds a year,1 the master plasterer only a third of that sum. The gild had already availed itself of the right of acquiring property given by the incorporation deed of 1357; houses in Walmgate, Castlegate, Fishergate, and the parish of St. Denis are mentioned as being in its possession. Both the religious and social side of the members' aspirations had been satisfied; there was a hall for feasts, a church for devotion. The roll gives glimpses of a healthy rollicking people, who shared alike their joys and sorrows. Members entertain each other periodically; the brother and sisters living at Whitby are given a feast2; but the darker side of life also appears, side by side with payments for provisions for the junketings, fees to the priests who sing mass, to those who bid to funerals, are entered; money, too, is paid for candles to burn round the hearses of the dead brothers and sisters. The easy interdependence of the social and religious life forms an attractive picture.

3

4

Three years later the gild obtained from the king a second deed of incorporation, which enabled it to enlarge the scope of its work and found a hospital. John Rouclyffe was the principal mover in this new development, but in 1373 Archbishop Thoresby appears as the reorganiser of the whole scheme.5 The document which deals with the matter is long and verbose. The dual nature of the institution is proved by the fact that the deed is enrolled both in the archiepiscopal and municipal register. The main provisions are that a hospital should be

6

1 In modern money this is equivalent to about £3 58. 6d. weekly wage. 2 Text, p. 23.

3 Text, pp. 21, 24, 25.

4 Ibid., pp. 27-30. Surtees Soc., vol. xci, p. 76.

5 Ibid., p. 28.

6 Archiepis. Reg. Thoresby, fo. 169. Munic. Rec. fos. 113, 114.

Doubt

less, however, both enrolments were made primarily from the point of view of an ecclesiastical benefice, the object being to safeguard the respective rights of the archbishop and corporation to presentation in case of lapse.