Goadby's History of Loughborough Chapter 6

Continuing with the story of Loughborough as presented by journalist Edwin Goadby back in 1864. In this chapter, Goadby discusses the mediaeval guilds. 

I've tried to keep the text and the layout as it appeared in the original newspaper serialisation, although have split some of the text into separate paragraphs to aid reading. I've added a few explanatory notes at the end, if I think these might be useful. In the 160 years since the original publication appeared, there have been many more discoveries and revelations about Loughborough's history, and some terminology will have changed, so some of the information contained in this article will be wrong: I have not tried to amend these in any way, so reader, beware!  

THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH FROM THE TIME OF THE BRITONS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

In: ‘Loughborough Monitor’, 19 January 1865, pg. 5

CHAPTER VI. THE GUILD OF JESUS AND ST. GEORGE.

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Chapter VI Probable date of the Formation of these Guilds - Origin of Guilds - Their Three Classes - The Social and Religious Guild, its primary uses and organization - The Loughborough Guilds of this character - Their Salutary Moral Influence, as shewn by the rules of a similar Fraternity in London - Place of Meeting, etc. - The Riding of the George - Unfortunate destruction of their Documents.

Before continuing our account of the several noble members of the family of the Beaumonts who were successively manorial Lords of Loughborough, it is right we should pause for a time to notice an important feature in the religion and trade of the town which was developed sometime during the seigneuralty of the family, although at what precise date there exists no means of determining. We refer to the guilds established in the town sometime in the fourteenth century, most likely during the reign of Edward III (1327-99), when the system of guilds was greatly extended all over England, and playing an important part in the life and energy of the place during their continuance.

The origin of the guild-system in England and Germany has been the subject of many able and learned investigations, into which we regret that our space forbids us to enter. It must suffice, therefore, if we state, upon the high authority of Dr. Wilda [1], that the guild was originally a heathen banquet, and that the word still retains its significance as such in the Danish language. With the Anglo-Saxons it had also some-what of a similar meaning, although the word guild itself (from gyldan, to pay, to make good) was understood by them to mean a mutual contribution in food and drink, or in money, for some common social or religious purpose.

The early guild, as we have already stated in an earlier part of the history, was the foundation of most corporations or boroughs, and so was a political union; it was at first the voluntary and afterwards the compulsory association of different persons of the same trade or craft, and so became a species of Trade-union; and it was also a religious, charitable, and social fraternity. The religion of the time enforced the custom of masses and obits for the souls of departed persons, and while the wealthy endowed their chantries, as we have already seen that Hugh Dispenser did at Searlesthorpe [2], and bequeathed lands and money for the support of a private priest, the poorer classes were left to support each other by voluntary associations very much resembling our modern benefit sick-clubs [3]. Each individual of the locality, upon entering the guild, paid a given sum of money to the common fund, and made occasional and quarterly contributions as well.

The mass-priest elected by the guild sung a mass at every meeting for the living friends, and each brother two psalms. Psalms and masses were also sung at the death of a member of the guild, and fixed contributions were levied from each member for the benefit of his survivors and to defray the expenses of his funeral. If a man suffered losses in other ways, a similar method of relief was adopted. The guild was dedicated to some patron saint, and festivals were held upon his natal day. If a member absented himself from the meetings, unless by reason of sickness, he was fined so many masses, according to the statutes of the guild.

The Loughborough guilds were mainly of this social and religious character, although in the course of time they assumed the character of trade associations. The early Saxon gyld had lost its political functions in the manorial court, and the inhabitants appear to have been contented with that government for some considerable period. The establishment of the Guild of Jesus and the Guild of St. George was an evidence of the want of a closer and more reciprocal union for social and religious purposes. Besides the uses already enumerated, the guilds exercised a salutary influence over the general behaviour of their members. This is well seen in the rules of the Jesus Guild of London, from which we shall make an extract or two.

The officers of a guild we may premise were called wardens. Here is one that speaks for itself:

"If any of the company be of wicked fame of his body, and take other wives than his own, or if he be a single man, and be held a common lecheur, or contekour (a quarrelsome person), or rebel of his tongue, he shall be warned of the warden three times, and if he will not himself amend, he shall pay to the wardens all his arrearages that he oweth to the company, and he shall be put off for evermore. So that the good men of the company be not slandered by cause of him".

Provision was also made for such as "fel [fell] in mischief by sickness of body, or by robbery by land or by water, or by fire brennyng (burning), or by elde of body, or by contek (strife) he leese [lose] hand, finger, or other member of his body; wherefore he may not work and live of his craft; so that it be not at his assault, ne at his desert, but at his defence, by record of his neighbours. And if he have well and truly paid his quarte ridges [coins] and other things, as the good men of the company doen, he shall have of the silver of the quarte ridges of the Box every week, for terme of his life x pence halfpenny, in helpinge of his sustenance, he praying for all the company. And at his dying shall have the light and masses, as is beforesaid".

The discipline of the guild usually extended even further than the investigations which must always have determined these grants, and the exclusion of a notorious evil liver. The following rule of the same guild completes the picture of their social power and importance.

"And if any man be of good state, and use hym to ly long in bed, and at rising of (off) his bed, nay woll not work, but wyn (query—wane, or destroy) his sustenance, and keep his house, or go to the tavern, to the wyne, to the ale, to wrastling, to schetyng (shooting), and in this maner falleth poor, and left (i.e leaveth) his cattel (chattels) in his default for succour, and trust to be holpen by the fraternity, that man shall never have good, no helpe of companie, neither in his lyfe no at his dethe, but he shall be put off (out) for evermore of the companie".

These facts will show, we think, that we do not exaggerate when we ascribe considerable importance in every point of view to the establishment of these guilds. Each guild appears to have had its common hall. The one belonging to the Guild of Jesus stood, about where the premises of Messrs. Aslett and Dawson now stand at the bottom, or Cheapside, of the Market-place; whilst the one belonging to the Guild of St. George occupied the site of the now disused Assembly Room in the George Yard, which owes its name to the fact. We know nothing about the character of these buildings, but it was here the various members of the guilds assembled and transacted their special business. Hence too they sallied in procession to perambulate the principal streets of the town on their way to church upon the feast-day they especially commemorated. Various devices and banners, which the insignia of modern sick clubs are the representatives, were carried aloft in these yearly festivals.

The festival of the Jesus Guild was probably held on or soon after August 7, the feast-day of the name of Jesus, and would be a fine sight in those days. The church of St. Peters [4], as we have seen, contained various images around its walls, and these were pressed into service, along with such special ones as would always be prominent in the small side chapel set apart for the express service of the guild priest; and these formed the leading feature in the procession. Upon a moveable platform or car there was a large full-sized image of the Christ upon the cross surrounded by other figures, dramatised into a resemblance of the crucifixion. After the procession, the church-going and the special religious service, there would sometimes be the performance of a Mystery or miracle-play in the open Market-place. This was rude drama in which various scriptural characters conspiciously figured, and hell and heaven, devils and angels were grotesque represented. They were, in fact, nothing less than a sort of spiritual Punch and Judy Show, and many of the specimen mysteries that have come down to us are full of bad theology, bad versification, and execrable argument. However, they drew an audience much better than a long church-service, and no doubt many a by-stander got some kind of spiritual insight and help from them.

In honour of St. George, a similar custom was observed, called the "Riding of the George," which was usually observed on or about his saint-day, April 23. A large wooden image of the saint on horseback, clad in armour, with the dragon writhing and mouthing at his feet, was fixed upon a car, and form the prominent object in the procession. Occasionally a living personage on a living horse represented the saint. A long procession followed, the church-bells rang loudly, men, women, and priests gave picturesqueness to the throng, and the joy and gratulation of all made this one of the greatest holidays in the year. It was always a red-letter day in the local calendar, and observed as a public holiday long after the guilds had ceased to exist. In the middle of the seventeenth century St. George and the Dragon figures on the tradesmen' tokens of Robert Bannys [5], an important inhabitant of the town, and yearly payments were made by the churchwardens for ringing the church-bells upon April 23.

It is singular, and shows the carelessness and absorption of the men of the time in their daily round of duties and pleasures, that so little information should have come down to us respecting these two guilds. A considerable quantity of documents, of some importance from a social and religious point of view, must have been collected during their existence; rolls of payments, levies and fines; names of members, wardens, and chaplains, and numerous other facts that would have served to spice our papers with such quaintnesses and realities as would have reproduced the men, the customs, and the time, much more vividly than any description we can give, however eloquent, or any mass of facts our research might gather from the most scattered sources. Our readers will regret it, but not more than we do ourselves.

What has become of these documents we cannot conceive. They might be destroyed as useless by an incurious lot of vandals, sold to the bookbinders to be cut up for covers and backslips, or perhaps have contributed their quota of flame and heat to boil the kettle of some thirsty thief. All we can say is, they are not to be found, and a romantic and interesting chapter of local history must remain unwritten, or at best but blindly groped after by a hungry reader and a disappointed writer. We shall have to refer to these guilds again further on in our history.

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NOTES

[1] Dr Wilda refers to Wilhelm Eduard Wilda (1800-1856) who wrote a book called ‘Das Gildewesen im Mittelalter’ (‘The Guild system in the Middle Ages’)

[2] Searlesthorpe refers to a Mediaeval hamlet and church, long since deserted, but which gives its name to the current Shelthorpe

[3] Benefit sick clubs - mutual aid societies that provided financial support to members during sickness.

[4] Church of St Peter’s is what we today call All Saints with Holy Trinity

[5] I have been unable to positively identify Robert Bannys: the closest I have come is someone called Robert Banis, baptised in Melton Mowbray in 1650, who was the son of Robert Banis

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Links to earlier parts of the History of Loughborough

Chapter 1, Part 1 - Loughborough in the time of the Britons, Romans, and Saxons

Chapter 1, Part 2 - continuing Loughborough in the time of the Britons, Romans, and Saxons

Chapter 2, Part 1 - Loughborough in the time of the Normans

Chapter 2, Part 2 - Loughborough in the time of the Normans

Chapter 3, Part 1 - the family of the Dispensers

Chapter 3, Part 2 - the family of the Dispensers

Chapter 3, Part 3 - the family of the Dispensers

Chapter 4

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Transcribed and presented here with the kind permission of the British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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