The Company, subsequently known and chartered as the Clothworkers’, was first incorporated by letters-patent of Edw. IV. in 1482, as the ‘Fraternity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Shearmen of London.’ The fullers were taken into union in 1528, thereby constituting the Clothworkers’ Company.
A convincing proof of the connection of the gilds with companies, and the natural succession of the latter from the former, is seen in this case of the Clothworkers’ Company. It appears from a deed dated 15th July 1456 that John Badby did remise, etc., unto John Hungerford and others, citizens and sheremen of London, ‘a tenement and mansion-house, shops, cellars and other the appurtenances, lying in Minchin Lane, and their heirs for ever.’ This is the site of Clothworkers’ Hall, the Clothworkers’ Company being the natural heirs of the Gild of Shearmen.[321]
There is much interest connected with the occupation of the shearman, who sheared the nap of wool. Woollen clothes in the Middle Ages were expected to last a lifetime. When new the nap was very long, and as the clothes became shabby it was customary to have them shorn, a process which was repeated as long as the stuff would bear it. In the delightful old ballad reprinted in Percy’s Reliques, ‘Take thy old cloak about thee,’ the old cloak that had been in wear for forty-four years was likely to be a sorry clout at the end of that time, which would hold out neither wind nor rain. Well might the husband resolve:—
‘For once I’le new appareld bee,
To-morrow I’le to towne and spend,
For I’le have a new cloake about mee.’
But the wife’s plea for thrift, and her statement—
‘Itt’s pride that putts this countrye downe,’
succeeds in the end, and the ballad ends,—
‘As wee began wee now will leave,
And I’le take mine old cloake about mee.’
The aid of the shearman was not merely called in by the poor, for we learn that the Countess of Leicester (Eleanor, third daughter of King John, and wife of Simon de Montfort) in 1265 sent Hicque the tailor to London to get her robes re-shorn.[322]