[79] Cf. the four Auditors to superintend the accounts of the London Grocers (1348) and the six members who were chosen “to aid the Wardens in the discharge of their duties” (1397), of whom Mr George Howell says: “Other than these, no notice of the existence of a committee or of assistants, in England, appears earlier than the sixteenth Century.” Conflicts of Capital and Labour, p. 40. Brentano, p. 62. Cf. the four Assistants in the Merchant Gild of Ipswich, Gross, I. 24.
[80] The “Four Men of Counsel” of the Mercers were, by the Composition of 1480-81, chosen by the Wardens.
[81] Mercers’ Composition, 1480-81. Tailors’ and Skinners’, 1563.
[82] Tailors’ Composition, 1563.
[83] Several of these are in the Town Museum at Shrewsbury.
[84] A “Key-keeper” appears later in the lists of officers.
[85] Their situation is given in Some account of the Ancient and Present state of Shrewsbury, published in 1808.
[86] Barbers’ Composition (1483 A.D.).
[87] Quarterly Review, Vol. 159, p. 44.
[88] Select Charters, p. 65.