Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/255

 1920 THE BRIDGNORTH COMPANY OF SMITHS 247 be procured at the company's expense, and in August of the same year it is noted that the composition is by law now established at an expense of £10. Unfortunately no details of the changes are recorded. Under 1692 there is a memorandum that one Richard Bolton who had infringed the privileges of the company should be sued in the town court of Bridgnorth. The convivial aspect of the company's life has left some traces in its records. In 1659 the clerk received 6d. at the feast : under date 25 May 1665 the words ' and the company is willinge to giue drink ' are crossed through. It appears from an entry dated 7 June 1666 that a dinner was usually held on Corpus Christi Day. The company's resources were apparently small, but its gifts, at all events in the seventeenth century, were fairly numerous. They include small sums (usually under 2s. 6rf. but sometimes as much as 10s. or 20s.) to old, sick, and distressed persons, e. g. a poor workman for his lodging, a traveller, a member who had lost his house and shop through fire. In the summer of 1666 the company agreed to give 40s. ' for and towards the buying of an engine to the use of the Towne of Bridgenorth for squenchinge of fire '. In 1671 a contribution of 405. was made to the repair of St. Leonard's church. A point of some interest is the evidence of the guild-book as to literacy or the reverse. ' Marks ' occur fairly often : in a list for 1615, including the two wardens, two assistants, and twenty-three other members, there are nine who make their marks ; in a list for 1691 (two wardens, two assistants, and eight other members) marks are made by five members. No allusion to the company of smiths or to any other guild or company occurs in the Report of the Historical Commission on the Bridgnorth MSS. However, a writer in Shropshire Notes and Queries (30 January 1885, p. 20) asked for information as to the trade companies of Bridgnorth, and added : In an old London newspaper for the year 1784 I find the following curious paragraph : ' On Thursday last came on at Shrewsbury Assizes a cause wherein the wardens of a company or fellowship of the crafts, mysteries and occupations of mercers, drapers, haberdashers, grocers, salters and iron mongers of the borough of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, were plaintiffs and Mr, Daniel MacMichael defendant. The action was brought against the defendant for exercising the trade of a grocer and haberdasher in the said borough, not being free of the said company, when after two witnesses only on the part of the defendant being examined, the judge directed the jury to find a verdict for the defendant, who, without hesita- tion, found the same accordingly.' No Bridgnorth guild appears in the list in the Public Ilecord Office of certificates pursuant to statute 12 Ric. II, nor is any mentioned, so far as I can find, by the local historians of Bridgnorth or