Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/485

 12 s. i JUNE 10, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Record* of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters. Vol. III. Court Book, 1533-1573. Transcribed and edited by Bower Marsh. (Printed for the Company.)

ON the 8th of May last year we noticed the second volume of the Records of the Carpenters' Company, and now we have to congratulate Mr. Marsh on giving us a transcription of the Court Book for 1533-73. The original consists of 268 paper folios. strongly bound in a modern leather binding, and contains the minutes of the meetings of the Court in the handwriting of the Beadle of the Company for the time being, whose duty it was to enter these records of the proceedings. The most important Beadle of this period was John Fitz John, who fills 100 pages spreading over nearly seven years ; he was a man of unusual clerical attainments, and during his later years styled himself Clerk. During the 30 years actually covered by this volume memoranda are given of the meetings of 360 Courts of the Company. The official year ran from September to September. The Court was composed of the Master and War- dens, assisted by some half-dozen members of the craft who had already held office. It is remarkable how scanty was the education of the leading men in the Company. Of eighteen Masters, seven only could write their names ; two probably could do no more, while of the other five, three held the position of Surveyor, for which ability to write and keep accounts would be absolutely necessary. Mr. Marsh suggests that in this want of education lay the main difference between the greater and the lesser Companies of this period, " and this consideration goes some way to reconcile opinion to the continued restriction of all high civic office to the members of the former."

The most important function of the Court was the framing of new ordinances. Among these was one directed against the dealing in timber between " forren and t'orren." The chief offenders seem to have been women, who bought for their husbands direct of the importers by river "at the water- side " Nearly 20 years earlier (March 8, 1546/7), "the Assistants had gone in a body to seek redress for this grievance at the Guildhall, and two days after had admonished five members of the Company with regard to their wives' conduct. At this period the fees received for allowing outsiders to buy timber formed an important item in the Company's income, and thus led to the framing of this ordi- nance."

Questions of precedence were regarded as of much importance in Elizabethan England* and of course figure among the business of the Company. Thus regulations were enacted as to the order in which the Assistants should take their places at dinner in the Hall, as to their going to burials, or waiting officially on the Lord Mayor ; and on the 6th of May, 1571, a special regulation was passed on the important matter of the supplying of napkins, " by which at quarter-days the Livery may be dis- tinguished from the mere Yeomanry ; the napkins are to be collected by the second Warden, and washed by the Beadle's wife." but the Livery them- selves were to pay for the luxury. The Company made sure that the dinners should be paid for, as on the dinner days the Livery had to pay " ij* vj rt

a man," whether their wives or they themselves were present or not. For financial reasons the dinners had to be suspended for four years, but not much economy resulted from the resolution passed in November, 1559, that there should be no meat served on quarter-days, and payment should be made of iiij d without meat, for the accounts show that the members received both the money r reduced it is true, and the meat.

The Company systematically once a year o " search day " viewed all their house property, serv- ing their tenants with notices as to repairs. One good lady was found to be troublesome, and we will' immortalize her in ' N. & Q.' Cicely Burden, widow of the Beadle Burdpn, who had occupied a tenement at "the Hall," still remained in it three years after her husband's death, arid refused to move. The Court was puzzled what to do. A promise of a large "reward" was made if she would quit by Christmas, but in the following February she was still there, and "the youngest Warden" was deputed to arrange for her de- parture at Lady Day. The "youngest Warden " was successful, and she received her " reward " on her departure.

Much of the time of the Court was taken up- with disciplining the members as well as settling disputes. During the years of servitude the con- duct of apprentices was mainly the affair of their masters, and only misconduct of a serious character would come before the Court. In August, 1572,. John Griffiths signed a confession that he had em- bezzled from his master to the amount of 51. Us. Qd. Punishment was long in coming, for it was not until the following February that the culprit " was whipped openly in this Hall in the presence of the- Master, Wardens, and Assistants, and of divert apprentices of this Company." John Griffiths was- twenty-two at the time of his whipping.

Some of the more prominent members of the- Company took part in public work, and Jupp and Pocock's 'Historical Account,' pp. 165-83, makes reference to James Nedam, who for a considerable- period was employed exclusively in the royal service, in which he acquired a large fortune. He founded a family that for many generations held its place amongst the landed proprietors of Hert- fordshire. His first public appointment was in November, 1526, as gunner at the Tower, from which he became one of the King's Carpenters, and on the 4th of October. 1532, Clerk and Surveyor of the King's Works. In 1539 Nedam was ap- pointed to plan the works for the defence of the Thames, and the same year was charged with the preparations for receiving Anne of Cleves at Dover. He died at Boulogne Sept. 22, 1544, and is- buried in Our Lady's Church there. There is a inscription to him in Little Wymondley Church.

During the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth the Company furnished its due number of soldiers. The great changes in religion leave but one faint trace "when, in the Protestant revival under Edward VI., part payment for the unexpired years of an apprentice takes the form of a * bible book of the best making.'" Another record of outside- interest is the "discord and debate" between William Sylvester, carpenter, and John Brayne. grocer (the father-in-law of James Bnrbage, and grandfather of Richard Burbage), over the erection of a stage for plays at the Red Lion in Stepney* July 15, 1567.