The maces belonging to sergeants-at-mace are generally small, from six to eighteen inches long, and the reason of their being of this small size comes from the use they were put to. The sergeants-at-mace were the officers of the mayor’s court; they served the processes of the court, which were not in the form of written summonses, but were actually delivered verbally, and by a sergeant-at-mace, who produced the mace and showed it as his authority. For convenience, he carried it in his pocket, and at Carlisle, prior to 1837, the gowns of the sergeants-at-mace had pockets in them for this purpose. At Scarborough, the sergeants-at-mace wore their maces in their official gowns, and at Stafford they carried them in their girdles. Hence convenience necessitated that the sergeants’ maces should be of small size; for the same reason they are generally without the open crowns, surmounted by orb and cross, which were added to most great maces after the Restoration. It would be difficult to pocket and unpocket a mace with a crowned head. Of course, there are exceptions to all rules. Yarmouth has a mayor’s mace of very small size, but the reason applies: it is called the pocket mace, and is intended to be carried in the mayor’s pocket, so that he always may have evidence of his authority about him. There was no such reason for making the other maces of small size; nay, the bigger they are, the grander, and the great mace of the City of London is 5 ft. 3 in. long. My own great mace at Carlisle is 4 ft. 2 in., while the maces carried by my sergeants are only about 9 in.
It is quite certain that a municipality cannot have sergeants-at-mace (and therefore cannot have their maces) without a special authorisation by charter. The sergeants-at-mace were originally the peculiar body-guard of the king, and the granting permission to a municipality to have sergeants-at-mace is a high mark of honour. In the case of old corporations, the right to a great mace will originally have been acquired in the same way, or else by a royal present of a mace, but a great mace has now come to be an essential which every place that has a mayor can with propriety adopt.
Even during the Commonwealth much importance was attached to maces; in 1649, Parliament ordered the royal arms to be taken off them, and those of the Commonwealth substituted. This was not done at Carlisle; but, in 1650, three new maces were bought for the sergeants at a charge of £12. After the Restoration the royal arms were again restored, and the Carlisle maces were sent to Newcastle to be altered.
(To be continued.)
The History of Gilds.
By Cornelius Walford, F.S.S., Barrister-at-Law.
PART IV.
Chapter XXXIII.—The Gilds of Lincolnshire—(Continued).
LINCOLN.—The Gilds of this ancient ecclesiastical city are of much interest: some of them present a combination of the Social and the Craft Gilds.
Gild of the Fullers of Lincoln.—“This Gild was founded on the Sunday before the feast of the Apostles Philip and James, A.D. 1297, by all the bretheren and sisteren of the Fullers in Lincoln.” A wax light to be burnt before the cross on procession days. Directions as to who shall work at certain operations. Half-holidays on Saturdays; and no work on festivals. Outsiders may work at the trade on making small payments. A payment to be made before learning the trade. No thief shall stay in the Gild. On death of any member, bread to be given to the poor. “If any brother or sister is going on a pilgrimage to Sts. Peter and Paul [Rome], if it is a Sunday or other festival day, all the bretheren and sisteren shall go in company with him outside the city as far as the Queen’s Cross, and each shall give him a halfpenny or more; and when he comes back, if, as before said, it is a Sunday or other festival day, and he has let them know of his coming, all the bretheren and sisteren shall meet at the same cross, and go with him to the monastery.” Penalty for not keeping Ordinances. Help shall be given to those in want; but the money must be repaid before death or after. Lights and offerings on death. There were some new Ordinances added later, viz., allowances to officers; allowance for collecting moneys. Officers not serving to be fined. New members to pay to the Dean a penny.