English Economic History: Select Documents

by Unknown

10. An Act Empowering Justices to Fix Minimum Rates of Payment [1 James I, c. 6. Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV, Part II, pp. 1022-24], 1603-04.

... And whereas the said act [i.e. 5 Eliz., c. iv] hath not, according to the true meaning thereof, been duly put in execution, whereby the rates of wages for poor artificers, labourers and other persons whose wages were meant to be rated by the said act, have not been rated and proportioned according to the plenty, scarcity, necessity, and respect of the time, which was politicly intended by the said act, by reason that ambiguity and question have risen and been made whether the rating of all manner artificers, workmen and workwomen, his and their wages, other than such as by some statute and law have been rated, or else such as did work about husbandry, should or might be rated by the said law; Forasmuch as the said law hath been found beneficial for the commonwealth, be it enacted by authority of this present parliament, that the said statute, and the authority by the same statute given to any person or persons for assessing and rating of wages, and the authority to them in the said act committed, shall be expounded and construed, and shall by force of this act give authority to all persons having any such authority to rate wages of any labourers, weavers, spinsters, and workmen or workwomen whatsoever, either working by the day, week, month, year, or taking any work at any person or persons' hands whatsoever, to be done in great or otherwise....

And furthermore be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any clothier or other shall refuse to obey the said order, rate or assessment of wages as aforesaid, and shall not pay so much or so great wages to their weavers, spinsters, workmen or workwomen as shall be so set down rated and appointed, according to the true meaning of this act, that then every clothier and other person and persons so offending shall forfeit and lose for every such offence, to the party aggrieved, ten shillings: and that if the said offence and offences of not paying so much or so great wages to their said workmen, workwomen and others shall be confessed by the offender, or that the same shall be proved by two sufficient and lawful witnesses before the justices of peace in their quarter sessions of the peace, the justices of assize in their sessions, or before any two justices of the peace, whereof one to be of the quorum; that then every such person shall forthwith stand and be in law convicted thereof; which said forfeiture of ten shillings shall be levied by distress and sale of the offenders goods, by warrant from the said justices before whom any such conviction shall be had; which sale shall be good in law against any such offender or offenders....

Provided nevertheless and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no clothier, being a justice of peace in any precinct or liberty, shall be any rater of any wages for any weaver, tucker, spinster, or other artizan that dependeth upon the making of cloth; and in case there be not above the number of two justices of peace within such precinct or liberty but such as are clothiers, that in such case the same wages shall be rated and assessed by the major part of the common council of such precinct or liberty, and such justice or justices of peace (if any there be) as are not clothiers.

11. Administration in Wiltshire of Acts Regulating the Manufacture of Cloth [Hist. MSS. Com., Vol. I, pp. 74-5], 1603.

Orders agreed upon for the occupation of weavers.[288]

First, that no person using the trade of weaving woollen cloth be suffered to keep more looms than that the statute made a^o v^to Elizabethae alloweth. 2. Item, that all such persons as are now permitted to be master weaver, and themselves have not served their full term of apprenticeship, whether he be above or under the age of xxxtie years and married or unmarried, shall not make or take any apprentice to serve him as apprentice hereafter, neither shall any serve him as an apprentice. 3. Item, that every such person permitted to be a master weaver which hath not served his full years of apprenticeship shall not keep above one loom going; and no apprentice to work with him but a journeyman or journeymen. 4. Item, none hereafter to be made apprentice to the art of weaving broad cloth but according to the form of the statute ut supra. 5. Item, that all such as are now allowed to be apprentices, their names to be registered, and none hereafter to be made apprentices but such persons as are appointed overseers of the said occupation to be first made acquainted thereof, to the end no abuse may be suffered, nor unlawful shift used to defraud the true meaning of the said statute. 6. Item, that no weaver shall sell his apprentice and take another before the first have served seven years. 7. Item, that none shall work as a journeyman except he bring certificate that he hath served full seven years, or his master to testify the same. 8. Item, that no clothman shall keep above one loom in his house, neither any weaver that hath a ploughland shall keep more than one loom in his house. 9. Item, that no weaver shall keep two apprentices in one loom working except one of them be in his last year. 10. Item, that no apprentice shall come forth of his covenant of apprenticeship before he be four and twenty years of age, to avoid young marriages and the increase of poor people. 11. Item, that no person or persons shall keep any loom or looms going in any other house or houses beside their own, or maintain any to do the same. 12. Item, that all those that have entered into the trade of broad weaving contrary to the statute within these two years may be expelled and put from the same trade, and all those that are journeyman (sic) and have not served their time, if they be not married, may return and serve their seven years out, or else to be put from their occupation. 13. Item, that all those that are entered in contrary to the statute, having other things to live upon, may be expelled, and put from the trade. 14. Item, that all weavers dwelling in any town corporate, borough, or market town, may call into their fellowship all weavers dwelling within three miles compass of any of the said towns, as well journeymen and [as?] masters, and that there may be so many overseers of these said companies as may be fit for the same. 15. Item, that every master weaver of these several companies may have a meeting once every quarter, whereby they may have the examination of those things that may be amiss amongst them, to the end no disorder rise amongst them as in time past hath been, and that every broad weaver keeping a loom may give quarterly ivd. towards the relief of their poor brethren that shall need. 16. Item, that the master of every several company may call before them every particular offender in matters pertaining to their occupation, whether it be master or journeyman or apprentice, to the end that drunkenness, idleness, or pilfering of their masters' stuff may be punished by laws fit for any of these offences. 17. Item, that any of those that shall disobey any of these good orders that are set down, that there may be such penalties inflicted upon any such persons as may be able to suffice them, and shall be agreeable with the laws of the realm, and by such persons as are thereunto authorised by the statutes and laws.

James Martin.
Henry Martyn.
G. Tooker.
Hen. Poole.
James Ley.
Thos. Hungerforde.
Edmund Lamberte.

[288] The original heading, for which that above was afterwards substituted, runs:—"A table to be presented for and concerning the occupation of weaving by the sworn men unto Henry Priour authorized for that purpose." It is probable that the "sworn men" were clothiers and weavers (see No. 9), and that Henry Priour was a justice.

12. Assessment made by the Justices of Wiltshire, Dealing Mainly with other than Textile Workers [Hist. MSS. Com., Vol. I, pp. 162-167, The Records of Quarter Sessions in the County of Wilts], 1604.