The above extract, with all its uncouthness of style and orthography, will yet, it is presumed and hoped, add to the value of this work, at least, in the estimation of its most curious and enlightened readers, who will be able to draw from it many useful inferences, which are here necessarily omitted, in order to avoid being too tiresome to others whom the author would wish to gratify, and who probably constitute by far, the most numerous part of the encouragers of this undertaking.—Dry and insipid, as many, perhaps, will deem these old documents relating to our gilds, they seem nevertheless to cast a greater light on the state of society in this town, during the period now under consideration, than any other materials that have fallen in the way of the present writer, or whose existence lie within the compass of his knowledge.
What now remains, before we dismiss this tedious subject, is to say a few words respecting the three remaining gilds mentioned in the catalogue. The next, or 29th in that list, is the gild of the Shoemakers, which consisted, probably, of persons of that occupation, or the brethren of the gentle craft, as it has been sometimes called. They might be pretty numerous then at Lynn; and yet it would seem rather odd if they were so, when most of the inhabitants, those of the better sort as well as others, seem to have been pretty much in the habit of going about barefooted; unless it might be supposed that shoes were then made here for exportation, as is now the case in many places, where a great many more hands are employed, of course, than is necessary for furnishing the population of those places with that article. This point, however, must be left undetermined: all we know is, that, among the numerous Lynn Gilds, one was called the gild of the Shoemakers, who, whether very numerous or otherwise, seem to have been then a thoughtful, provident, and brotherly set of people.
The 30th Gild was called the Red Gild. The reason for giving it that name we are utterly unable to discover, or even to conjecture. Nor do we know whether it was rich or poor—consisted of many, or of but few members—managed its affairs wisely or unwisely:—We just learn, that it was called the red gild; and there our knowledge of it begins and ends.—Some may, perhaps, be apt to suspect, that both this and the preceding gild were no better than they ought to be, in point of piety, or what in those days was so denominated, as they did not assume the name of any saint, or angel, or sacred object, like the other gilds, but went each of them, by a plain, simple name, that had nothing in it sanctimonious, venerable, or prepossessing. As the times went, it cannot be thought that these two gilds could be in favour with the friars and the other orders of religious functionaries: nor are we sure that they were at all solicitous about it, or thought proper to employ a single chaplain in their service. They might, however, not be the worse for that, if they were duly attentive to those moral obligations which they owed to one another, and to the rest of their fellow-citizens.
The 31st Gild, and the last in the catalogue, had also, like most of the others, a saint in its belly; and that saint was the poor lad whom the Jews were said to have crucified at Norwich in the 12th century, (as was before noted, at page [352],) and whom the pope sometime after canonized, under the name of saint William. [485] His patronage, no doubt, was as effectual a guard to those good folks who chose to put themselves under his protection as that of any other dead saint would have been. This gild, as we are told, traded to North Bern, which plainly implies, that it was another mercantile fraternity, or gild of merchants. By North Bern is probably meant North Bergen, or Bergen in Norway, with which country Lynn appears to have carried on a considerable trade from a very remote period. The connection between this town and those parts was then so great that Lynn merchants usually resided there: and there is to be seen in Mr. Day’s MS. volume, p. 55, the copy of a Latin letter, of the date of 1305, from Bartholomew, the king of Norway’s chancellor, to the mayor of Lynn, in behalf of Thurkill and other merchants resident there. It was also customary for our merchants to have a consul of their own, or alderman, as they called him, appointed for Norway: for which purpose or appointment it was necessary, it seems, to obtain a royal warrant. There is in Mackerell the copy of such a warrant from Henry V. which runs thus—
“Henry, by the grace of God, king of England and of France, and lord of Ireland; to our trusty and well beloved the mayor, aldermen, and other merchants inhabiting within our town of Lynn, shewed unto us, that by the old privilege among you, used in exercising the sale of your merchandizes in the lands and countries of Denmark and Norway, ye have an ancient custom to have an alderman chosen by election among you to be ruler and governor of your company in the said countries, and to see good rule and order kept among you there, which we woll be content to help and see to be holden for the increasing and augmentation of the common weal and prosperity of you and all other our true subjects; we having the same in our good remembrance, be content and woll, that ye gadre and assemble toguider, and among you chuse such oon to be your said alderman, as ye shall think convenient, good, honest, and sufficient for the premisses; and to use, have, enjoy, and occupy the liberties and franchises in this cause heretofore accustomed. Yeven under our Signet at our Manor of Greenwich, the 18th. day of July, the fifth year of our reign.”
As to our Gild of St. William, that seems to have consisted of mercantile adventurers who traded only to Bergen, which was probably at that time the capital of Norway. It was perhaps an opulent gild, but as none of its records are known now to remain, we must here close our account of it, and so dismiss the subject. [486]
CHAP. VI.
Account of the Monasteries and Religious Houses that were formerly at Lynn.
From the fraternities called gilds the transition is pretty short and natural to the monasteries and religious houses. Of these there were here formerly a great many, the account of some of which is so imperfect and confused, that it is difficult to fix their exact number, or point out the places where they all stood. The following were probably the chief of them—1. A Nunnery, or Convent of Nuns: the site unknown. 2. A Priory of Benedictins; situated in Priory Lane. 3. A monastery or Convent of the Carmelites, or White Friars; situated in South Lynn. 4. Another of the Grey-friars, Friars minors, or Franciscans; situated in Fuller’s Row, now St. James’s Street. 5. Another of the Black Friars, preaching friars, or Dominicans; situated in Clough Lane, or rather between that and Spinner Lane. 6. Another of Austin Friars, or Hermits of the order of St Augustin; situated in Hogman’s Lane, alias Hopman’s Way, now St. Austin’s Street. 7. Another of Friars de Penitentia Jesu; its site now unknown. 8. A College; situated near the Town Hall; now inhabited by Mr. Toosey. 9. St. John’s Hospital; the site not known. 10. St. Mary Magdalen’s Hospital; its site where the Gaywood Almshouse now stands. 11. Four Lazar Houses; sites, it seems, at West Lynn, Cowgate, Hardwick, and Gaywood.—To these may be added divers other religious houses and chapels, such as those of St. James’s, our Lady’s on the Mount, our Lady’s on the Bridge, St. Anne’s, St. Catherine’s, &c. the sites of some of which appear not very easy now to mark out. They seem, all of them, to have been laid by at the reformation, when the dissolution of the monasteries and gilds took place: except the Nunnery first above-mentioned; which had long before been removed hence to Thetford. Concerning which removal we are informed, that a certain priory of monks at Thetford being, in 1176, reduced to two, the Abbot of Bury persuaded them to resign; upon which he placed in their stead a convent of nuns who had previously resided at Lynn. [488] But it is not said how long their residence here had been, or for what reason they were removed hence. Of the other convents, &c. we propose giving a further account, under the several following subdivisions or sections.