The story of Coventry

by Mary Dormer Harris

"And this serche to be made also this fourme,[459] that is to sey ij days in the weke, Tewesday & Saturday, and ij of the serchers to be ther from viij of the clok to a xi, and frome on to iiij of the clok; and a sealer to be ordeyned & sworne to stryke the cloth and seale hit, and wrete hit, and fynde leed, & to have a peny for his labour; and the sealles to be put in a cofre with ij keys, the master of the vj drapers to have the on, and the serchers the other, and for the serche of every cloth to the serchers to have j d. and it is to be thought every good man schal be gladde of that payment."

The person who consistently reaped the greatest benefit from this activity was the draper, the merchant of cloth. Within the city his fellowship ranked next to that of the mercers, or merchants proper, who traded in wool as members of the Staple of Calais, or trafficked in wine and wax, which they brought in barges from Bristol.[460] None but the well-to-do could enter into the ranks of the drapers' craft.[461] Some of its more fortunate brethren were able to purchase estates and take rank among the county gentry. Thus John Bristowe, draper, sometime mayor and justice of the peace in Coventry, became possessed of land at Whitley; and his son William spoke of his "manor" in those parts, and frequently described himself as a "gentleman." And John, grandson of Julian Nethermill, a city dignitary of the same craft, held lands in Exhall, and had his arms blazoned among those of the great county folk.[462] Many members of this fellowship have left a name showing the great power for good or ill that they possessed within the city. There was John Bristowe, mayor in the early fifteenth century, who, as the oldest inhabitants declared, "after he had boron office within the cite of Couentre thynkyng that the common people of the seid cite durst nor wolde contrarie his doyng, claymed unlawfully" to have certain rights over the common pasture. John Haddon, another draper-mayor, has left a better reputation; it was he who came to the rescue of the poverty-stricken clothiers of the city in 1518,[463] and by a timely loan enabled them to continue work. While John Bond, who, as his epitaph declares, gave "divers lands and tenements for the maintenance of ten poore men, as long as the world shall endure," is yet remembered as the founder of the Bablake hospital.

The near connection between these great cloth merchants and the corporation is one of the most striking features of municipal life in Coventry during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The marks of the drapers' influence in civic affairs are continually before our eyes. It was in a draper's mayoralty that ordinances were first made respecting the searching of cloth.[464] And when the system of overlooking was perfected in 1518, a few years later, it was to six men of this craft, that the task of superintending the searchers' investigations was assigned. Just as, about a hundred years before that time, when an unsuccessful attempt was made by the town rulers to exercise complete control over the dyers' craft, it was suggested that two drapers as well as two dyers, in either case nominees of the corporation, should keep watch over the dyers' movements, and "present" them for any "fault or confederacy" at the court of the mayor.[465]

Measures framed by this body in the interest of any particular craft or class were doubtless found oppressive by those who had no lot or part in their enactment. Thus while the yea or nay of the fullers had little weight in municipal councils, the wealth of the drapers gave them a control over the local trade to an extent which we can hardly realise. The reason of this supremacy is not far to seek. The mercers and drapers in their character of wealthy men usually occupied the principal official posts in the city.[466] No one, unless he were possessed of a certain amount of wealth, could rise to a high place in the corporation. Men were ranked according to the amount of property in their possession, and to speak of a citizen as "of the degree of a mayor" or "bailiff," conveyed as definite an idea as the assertion that "So-and-so has a fortune of £20,000 or £30,000," would convey to our minds at the present date.

This body of wealthy merchants, in whose hands was vested all control over the city trade, could and did make and unmake regulations of the deepest significance to the various crafts. By an ordinance of the city leet they could completely alter the conditions regulating the work of salesmen or artificers, as they had an absolute control over all workers, since by the craft system all who practised the same calling were compelled to obey the same regulations. Nominally the regulations were drawn up by the crafts. In reality, as certain members of the corporation overlooked them, amending and annulling at their pleasure, this power of the crafts was held at the will of the municipal rulers.[467] And the corporation did not let their power lie idle. In the interests of the general public they forced the crafts to embody in their rules the ordinances framed by the court leet. Thus the cloth-workers were compelled to bring the cloth they had woven to be measured and examined by the searcher,[468] the fullers to adopt the custom of using a special mark whereby the work of every individual craftsman could be recognised and known,[469] the dyers to abstain from using a certain French dye of inferior consistency,[470] and, much against the wills of this community, to admit another member into their craft.[471] It was not only as regards the working of their cloth, but in all other matters the crafts had to bow before the will of the corporation. Appeals to courts spiritual to punish for oath-breach any who disobeyed the ordinances of the fellowship were looked coldly on by the municipal rulers, and the practice suppressed. In 1518 the mysteries were compelled to make the mayor the arbiter of all cases of dispute between offenders and the wardens of their respective fellowships. If anyone committed a fault against the fellowship, he must be asked to pay a "reasonable" penalty, and "if he deny and will not pay ... according to the ordinance ... within three or four days, let the master ask it of him again ... and if he deny it eftsoons and will not pay it, let the master of the craft and three or four honest men of the craft come to master mayor and show unto him the dealing of that person." Whereupon the mayor and justices, should he refuse to pay double the original sum to the craft, were bound to commit him to ward until he promised obedience. The offender on his release was to make submission to the master entreating him to be "good master" to him during his year of office, and "his good lover" in time to come.[472]

We may follow in detail the dealings of the corporation with several of the crafts. The fullers seem to have combined with the tailors to form the guild of the Nativity some time in the reign of Richard II., but were prevented from acting under the terms of their charter. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Henry VI. the royal licence was renewed.[473] But the guild was a singularly ineffective body, holding little if any property, and soon after, possibly at municipal instigation, the two crafts who formed it were separated, though the tailors obtained a third renewal of their licence in the twenty-eighth year of Henry VIII. The dyers appear to have been more stubborn. Early in the reign of Henry V. they combined together to increase the price of dyeing of cloth by one-half, and to have the flower of the woad for their own use.[474] In 1475 they attempted, perhaps, to renew their old combinations of sixty years back; and five years later Laurence Saunders, a member of their calling, became the leader of the opposition which prevailed during the close of the century within the city.[475] In 1496 all the thunders of the leet ordinances launched against those who, of their "froward wills," refused to contribute to the furnishing of the pageants played on Corpus Christi day, failed to make the dyers join with the other crafts in paying their share.[476] When the municipality desired to thrust a new member into their craft, the dyers forbade the journeymen to work for him, and it was only by circumventing their tactics that the town rulers could compel the admission of the new candidate into their ranks.

Not only the workers in cloth, but all the fraternities were forced to bow to the corporation's will. In 1436 the attention of the leet was drawn to certain malpractices which had arisen among the workers in iron. A bill, drawn up no doubt by some member of the ruling class and presented by him to the court, shows the full extent of the evil and suggests certain measures of reform. Certain workers in iron, we are told, by employing labourers of the four allied crafts of smiths, brakemen, girdlers, and card-wiredrawers, had acquired entire control over the trade, and were able to pass off ill-wrought iron upon their customers. It was suggested that labourers of but two occupations should be employed by one master instead of those of four occupations as had been the custom hitherto.

"Be hit known to you," the bill runs, "but yif certen ordenaunses of craftes withe in this cite ... be takon good hede to, hit is like myche of the kynges pepull, and in speciall poor chapmen and clothemakers, in tyme comeng shullen be gretely hyndered, and as hit may be supposed the principall cause is like to be amonges hem that han all the craft in her own hondes, that is to sey, smythiers, brakemen, gurdelmen, and card-wire drawers, for he that hathe all thes craftes may, offendying his conscience, do myche harme." A negligent smith, the bill continues, might heat the iron by "onkynd hetes," so that it became unfit for future use. "Never the later for his own eese he will com to his brakemon and sey to hym: 'Here is a ston of rough iron the whiche must be tendurly cherysshet.'" When the brakeman has done his task, the metal comes to be sold for making fish hooks. "And when hit is made in hokes and shulde serve the ffissher to take fisshe, when hit comythe to distresse then for febulnes hit all-to brekithe, and thus is the ffisher foule disseyved and to him grete harme." And if the iron be used for making girdles, the master passes it to the girdleman with these words: "'Lo, here is a stryng or ij (two) that hathe ben misgouerned atte herthe, my brakemon hathe don his dever; I prey the, do now thyne.' And so he dothe as his maister biddethe hym." Or it may be passed on to the cardmaker, who finds that it "crachithe and farithe foule; so the cardmaker is right hevy therof, but neverthelater he sethe be cause hit is cutte he must nedes helpe hym self in eschueing his losse, [so] he makithe cardes[477] ther of as well as he may, and when the cardes ben solde to the clothemaker and shuldon be ocupied, anon the tethe brekon and fallon out, so the clothemaker is foule disseyved. Wherefore, sirs," is the conclusion of the bill, "atte reverens of God in fortheryng of the kynges true lege peapull, and in eschueng of all disseytes, weithe (weigh) this mater wysely, and ther as ye see disseyte is like to be, therto settithe remedy be your wyse discressions." For, as the petitioner suggested, if the two crafts of smiths and brakemen, and these only, were united on the one hand, and the two crafts of girdlers and card-wiredrawers, and these only, on the other, "then hit were to suppose that ther shuld not so myche disseyvabull wire be wrought and sold as ther is." For if the crafts were severed in this manner, it was argued, then the girdlers and cardmakers would buy their wire from the smiths, and look well to their bargain. "And if the card-wiredrawer," the petitioner proceeds, "were ones or thies disseyved withe ontrewe wire, he wolde be warre, and then wold he sey vnto the smythier, that he bought that wire of: 'Sir, I hadde of you late badde wire, sir, amend your honde, or in feithe I will no more bye of you.' And then the smythier, lest he lost his custemers, wold make true goode; and then withe the grase of godd (God) the craft shuld amend and the kinges peapull not disseyved with eontrewe goode."[478]

The mayor, we learn, on this important occasion sent round to all the worthy men of the leet to take their advice upon the matter. Either the corporation sought an occasion of humbling the workers in iron, or the common sense expressed in this bill was irresistible; for the leet fell in with the arrangement of severing the crafts. A number of master smiths agreed to employ only journeymen of this occupation and brakemen, while the cardmakers on the other hand undertook to find occupation for girdlers and cardmakers only. Furthermore, the leet decreed that their two last-named crafts should by "no colour ne sotell imagynacion 'sell or buy' no cardwyre ne mystermannes wyre, the whiche may be hynderying or grevying to the kinges lege pepull 'under pain of £20.'"

The craftspeople, however, occasionally resented municipal interference, and endeavoured by all means within their power to get the control of the industry in which they were engaged into their own hands. Any temporary weakness or disorganisation on the part of the corporation was taken advantage of by these fraternities. It was in 1456, when the finances of the city were in some disorder, owing to the expense of entertaining the Court and the active support given by the city to the Lancastrian cause, that the craftspeople took occasion to sue in spiritual courts offenders who had broken the rules observed by members of fellowships.