From Payne’s “English Medicine in Anglo-Saxon Times” we ascertain that during the tenth and eleventh centuries, at least, the Horners’ trade was called into use by the apothecary. The author relates that in “cupping” operations and the administration of clysters, horns were used, indicating a nicety of manufacture which must have placed the trade on a high level.
Importance in Saxon times.
To such a pitch of development had the trade of a Horner attained at least 250 years before the Norman Conquest, that even the patens and chalices used at the Church services were made of this substance, as may be evidenced from the fact that at the Council of Chelsea, held A.D. 789, after careful discussion, it was decided that the chalices and patens used for ecclesiastical purposes should no longer be made of horn, but of metal, no doubt to distinguish them from similar articles which had already come into general use for common and domestic purposes.
At this time glass was probably almost, if not entirely, unknown in England, and, in consequence, thin sheets of horn had to be manufactured to serve many of the purposes to which glass is now applied.
These facts, and the general tendency of town life in this country, make it practically certain that long before the tenth century the Horner’s trade, in common with some others, was in full swing, and with it that which we may deem inseparable from any considerable trade at that time, something in the nature of what we now call a Trade or Craft Gild.
Horners’ probably the oldest City Gild.
Both tradition and documentary evidence are agreed that the Horners’ Gild dates back to the far off ages of antiquity, and we may justly claim that its foundation is as early as, if not anterior to, any of the existing City Companies.
Old book of the Worshipful Company of Horners.
Considerable light has been thrown on the vicissitudes of the Horners’ Gild by the recent discovery, as well as recovery, of the most interesting and ancient MSS. book already alluded to. The existence of this book, which formerly belonged to the Company, and was, in fact, its official record, was brought to the notice of the Clerk of the Company by Dr. Warner, of the British Museum. After many negotiations between Mr. Howard Deighton and the then owners of the volume, it was purchased for the sum of £40.
A detailed account of this precious possession has been given in the form of a publication entitled “Some Notes on the Old Book of the Worshipful Company of Horners,” which was distributed to the members of the Company and their guests at their last Livery Dinner, by the late Master, Mr. J. T. Edmonds.