[321] Though this body of Twelve appears first in the records in 1344, it is impossible to doubt that it was of earlier origin, in view of the custom of other boroughs. In the same way the notices in 1288, 1301, and later, of the electing jury do not by any means imply that these were its first appearances, and all analogy would point to an opposite conclusion.
[322] Freeman’s Exeter, 147, 149.
[323] Mr. Freeman seems to suggest that the Council of Exeter was formed by the habitual summoning of certain members of the Assembly to advise the mayor, and speaks of it as “a committee of the whole body.” (Ibid. p. 152.) It is, however, not yet certainly ascertained whether the evidence bears out this view as regards Exeter.
[324] The regular list of recorders or law officers begins in 1354. Freeman’s Exeter, 154.
[325] Freeman’s Exeter, 146-7. English Guilds, 303, 307, 308.
[326] Both these classes admitted “out-brothers,” probably “foreigners,” who paid half fees.
[327] English Guilds, 313-316.
[328] Ibid. 318, 324, 327.
[329] Ibid. 321-2.
[330] His first charter to the Tailors was in 1461 (Gross i. 124 n. 2); the second in 1466. A different instance occurs in Shrewsbury, when Edward the Fourth gave in 1461 a charter to the Fraternity of the Blessed Trinity making it into the company of the Drapers. (Hibbert’s Influence and Development of English Guilds, 59.)