[142] Ib., 681.
[143] We learn in 1384 that the annual ferm of £10, due to the prior according to the terms of the Tripartite, was drawn from the coffers of the guild (Leet Book, 2-6). Directly the guild lands were confiscated in 1545 the corporation made a great outcry concerning their poverty. They had, they declared, no lands whence they might derive an income to meet the yearly ferm of £50, and in trying to discharge it one or two of the citizens were yearly ruined (Vol. of Correspondence, f. 63, Corp. MS. A. 79).
[144] Leet Book, 295.
[145] Gross, Gild Merchant, ii. 49; Toulmin Smith, Eng. Gilds, 231. In the return of 1389 it is stated that several messuages worth £37, 12s. 4d. a year are waiting for the licence of the King and the mesne lords to be given to the guild. No doubt the Statute of Mortmain was often evaded. The corporation records show that the guild held house property as early as 1353 (Corp. MS. C. 148).
[146] The foundation of the guild has evidently a municipal reason, since the statute of 1335, by declaring that all merchants might traffic with whomsoever they would, and in what vendibles they chose, effectually did away with this monopoly of the merchant guild (Ashley, Econ. Hist., i. pt. i. 84).
[147] Many early mayors were masters of the guild merchant; the cases of Jordan de Shepey and Walter Whitweb have been noted. In William Holm, master in 1356 (Corp. MS. C. 153), we have undoubtedly William Horn of the mayor-lists.
[148] Sharp, Antiq., 211. The guild hall was used for municipal purposes as early as 1388.
[149] Ib., 212.
[150] In Mantes the guild "aux marchands" was one with the "confrèrie de l'assomption de la Vierge" (Luchaire, Communes Françaises, 34).
[151] Vict. County Hist., ii. 120.