[89] Elizabethan England, p. 9.
[90] Stubbs, Constitutional History, Vol. III., p. 607.
[91] The writs issued in 1388 order returns of the “Charters and Letters Patent si quas habent”: cf. Toulmin Smith, pp. 128, 130. The “Compositions” spoken of below were renewals and confirmations of previously enjoyed privileges. They usually assert that the Gild has been in existence “a tempore quo non extat memoria.”
[92] Charters were also necessary before lands could be acquired in mortmain.
[93] Stubbs, ii. p. 504 and note 1.
[94] Toulmin Smith. Introduction, p. xxiv. It is from these returns that Mr Toulmin Smith has compiled his collection of ordinances of “English Gilds,” which however comprise but a small portion of the whole, and throw little or no light on the working of the Graft Gilds. The documents have not yet been calendared, but they do not appear to contain anything relating to Shrewsbury.
[95] Cunningham, p. 210, 211.
[96] Green, Short History, p. 192.
[97] Cunningham, p. 214.
[98] Brentano, 75: Riley, Memorials, 539, 565, 568, 570, 571, &c.