[129] Ibid.
[130] The good work of the Gilds is expressly acknowledged in many charters of the time, e.g. the charter granted to Faversham (1616) recites that long experience had shown that the dividing of the government of towns into several companies had worked great good, and was the means of avoiding many inconveniences and preposterous disorders, in respect that the government of every artificer and tradesman being committed to men of gravity, best experienced in the same faculty and mystery, the particular grievances and deceits in every trade might be examined, reformed and ordered. Gross, II. 89.
[131] Cunningham, p. 181.
[132] Cf. especially, 3 Edw. IV. c. 4; 22 Edward IV. c.
[133] Gross, II. 1, 2, 55, 89, 186-7, 208, 250.
[134] Cf. infra, pp. [90-91]. The repealing statute (14 Eliz. c. 12) avowed that not only had the former Act been “supposed for the benefit of the said town” but had also been intended for the “advancing of the Corporation of Drapers, Cottoners and Friezers of the said town.”
[135] Gross, II. 87.
[136] Gross, II. 281. Cf. also pp. 12, 87, 199, 234, 247-8, 250, 281, 355, 360.
[137] Ibid., 12.
[138] Ibid., 56, 90, 91, 176, 186, 193, 199, 234, 247, 251, 264, 364, 385.