Chambers, in his Cyclopædia, expresses himself much to the same purpose.—
“The original of Gilds, says he, is thus related: it being a law among the Saxons, that every freeman [413b] of fourteen years old should find sureties to keep the peace, or be committed to prison; certain neighbours [therefore] entered into an association, [consisting of ten families,] and became bound for each other, either to produce him who committed an offence, or to make satisfaction to the injured party. That they might the better do this, they raised a sum of money among themselves, which they put into a common stock; and when one of their pledges had committed an offence, and was fled, then the other nine made satisfaction out of this stock, by payment of money according to the offence. Because this association consisted of ten families, it was called a decennary: hence came our fraternities. In observance of the above law, or custom, as the same writer informs us, the sheriffs at every county court did from time to time take the oaths of young persons, as they arrived at the age of fourteen, and see that they belonged to one decennary or another.” [413c]
Such is the account given by these writers of the ancient decennaries or tythings, from which the gilds are supposed to have sprung; but it seems uncertain, after all, whether the gilds sprung from the decennaries, or the decennaries from them, or which of the two is the most ancient. They might be coëval, and grow up together: and the gilds having survived the decennaries might occasion their being supposed to have sprung from them.
Turner, the ingenious historian of the Anglo-Saxons, seems also to ascribe to them the origination of Gilds: and he observes, that the gilds, or social confederations, in which many of those people chose to arrange themselves, deserve very particular attention. Among other things, he says, that their gilds are sometimes alluded to in the laws. If a man without paternal relations should fight and kill another, then his maternal kinsmen were ordered to pay one third of the Were, his gild a third, and for the other part his gild was to escape. In London there appears to have been free gilds. In a charter of Canterbury, the three companies of the Citizens within the walls, and those without, are mentioned. Domesday also mentions a Gild of the Clergy in that city. In short, Gilds appear to have been very common, and in great request among the Anglo-Saxons. They seem on the whole, as our author thinks, to be friendly associations, made for mutual aid and contribution, to meet the pecuniary exigencies which were perpetually arising, from burials, legal exactions, penal mulcts, and other payments, or compensations. That much good fellowship was connected with them, cannot be doubted. The fines of their own imposition imply that the materials of conviviality were not forgotten. In short, he thinks they may be called the Anglo-Saxon clubs.—Even the more uncommon species of those confederations, called Gilda Mercatoria, or Merchant’s Gild, seems to have existed among the same people. That in mercantile and Seaports, says the same author, there were also gilds and fraternities of men constituted for the purpose of carrying on more successful enterprizes in commerce, even in the Anglo-Saxon times, appears to be a fact. Domesday, (he adds,) mentions the Gihalla, or Guildhall of the burghers of Dover. [415]
The Gilds of Lynn, however, cannot be traced to so remote a period as that of the Anglo-Saxons. There may, indeed, have been gilds here at that period, and the fact can hardly be doubted, as they were then so much in vogue, but we have no traces of them now remaining. All the Lynn Gilds, whose names and remains have reached our time, seem to have sprung up long after the conquest. Of them we shall treat in the ensuing pages.
Section II.
Names and Number of our ancient Gilds; with some additional observations.
Of the Lynn Gilds our printed books give but a very imperfect and wretched account. Their list of names is extremely defective, and the idea which they give of those institutions is equally so. For a more correct and ample information on this subject we are chiefly indebted to Mr. King’s MS. volume, before mentioned, which was compiled about a hundred years ago, by some unknown hand, or hands, from certain ancient and authentic documents, which seem no longer to exist. Both Mackerell and Parkin appear to have seen this volume, but they have not availed themselves of it to the extent they might have done. Even its most curious and interesting parts they have left unnoticed. In the latter part of this volume is inserted the following “Catalogue of the Gildes in the Towne of Lynn”—amounting in all to thirty one. They stand in the following order: 1. The Gild of St. George. 2. The Gild of St. Erasmus. 3. The Gild of St. John Baptist. 4. The Gild of St. Gyles and St. Julian. 5. The Gild of St. Ethelerede. 6. The Gild of St. Margarett. 7. The Gild of St. Anne. The Gild of the 12 Apostles. 9. The Gild of St. Christopher. 10. The Gild of our Lady. 11. The Gild of St. Micheal the Archangel. 12. The Gild of St. Nicholas. 13. The Gild of St. Awdreys. 14. The Gild of St. Michael and King Henry. 15. The Gild of St. Cyprian. 16. The Gild of St. Fabian and St. Sabestian. 17. The Gild of St. Lawrence. 18. The Gild of St. Agnes. 19. The Gild of Corpus Christi. 20. The Gild of the Trinity. 21. The gild of St. Andrew. 22. The Gild of Holy Rood. 23. The Gild of St. Lovis. 24. The Gild of St. Austin. 25. The Gild of St. Barbara. 26. The Gild of St. Antony. 27. The Gild of St. Stephen. 28. The Gild of St. Francis. 29. The Gild of the Shoemakers. 30. The Red Gild. 31. The Gild of St. William, trading to North Bern.
Such a large number of these fraternities, in such a place as Lynn, and at such a period, must appear not a little extraordinary, and what seems very difficult, if not impossible, to account for, but on the supposition, that there existed here, in the mean time, a very respectable degree of public and social virtue, or in other words a prevailing disposition among the inhabitants to promote each other’s interest and happiness. Upon that idea they must be thought very highly as nothing could well be more creditable or honourable to their memory. A tribute of respect, which seems to be so fairly and justly their due, ought not to be here withheld from them.—Nor should it here pass unnoticed, that Lynn is still distinguished for a respectable number of similar institutions; that is to say, for its purse-clubs, or benefit societies, the gilds of the 18th and 19th centuries. Their number is about twenty; and their members, altogether, may amount to 700, or more; but, as most of them have families, the benefit or advantage of these useful associations may be supposed to extend, perhaps, to more than three times that number. Of the real and important utility of these social institutions no doubt can be entertained. The fact is universally admitted. They are certainly beneficial, not only to the individuals more immediately concerned, but even to the community at large, by keeping a great many honest and industrious people from becoming burdensome to the parishes to which they belong.—It ought also to be remarked that the benefits resulting from these estimable institutions are to be attributed neither to the wisdom of government, nor yet to the fostering care of the corporation, but merely to the very commendable thoughtfulness and virtue of the individuals that compose them. But here is not the place to enlarge upon this topic: we shall therefore drop it for this time, and resume the former subject.
Of these thirty one Gilds, above named, several seem to have been of the higher order of those associations, or of the mercantile sort, consisting of trading or commercial adventurers, who enjoyed certain privileges by grants from the crown. This appears to have been the case with the 1st the 4th, the 19th the 20th, and 31st in the above catalogue; that is, the Gild of St. George, that of St. Gyles and St. Julian, that of Corpus Christi, that of the Trinity, and that of St. William, trading to north Bern. There might probably be some few more of the same description. All the rest, it is supposed, were friendly associations, formed for the benefit of the lower orders of freemen, that is, of those who were not in a state of villanage, for none of the latter appear to have been admitted into those fraternities. Poor creatures! they were debarred from all such advantages and comforts! In further considering the Lynn gilds, we shall take them in the order in which they stand in the catalogue, though it does not seem to be the most regular and natural order, that of seniority.