Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
To talk about a London gild is to talk under the shadow of Unwin's learning. To stand in that shadow is inevitably to be overshadowed. My hope to-day is to avoid such comparison and, instead, by drawing on the records of a gild not used at first hand by him, to add something to the picture he drew.
page 49 note 2 Aa, p. 19.
page 50 note 1 c[alendar of] C[lose] R[olls], 1237–42, pp. 85, 322; C.C.R., 1247–51, p. 107.
page 50 note 2 The reform of coinage and the mint in 1279 had seen a goldsmith, Gregory de Rokesley, made Assay Master of all the King's Mints, warden of the London Mint and keeper of the King's Exchange at London.
page 51 note 1 Register of Deeds, i, fo. x.
page 51 note 2 Register of Deeds, i, fos. xiiiv–xvr.
page 51 note 3 The remark was made in 1514 (C, p. 170), but Shefford had been caught and fined in earlier years, at fairs at Bristol and Stourbridge (B, p. 145).
page 51 note 4 A, p. 441. Sir, Charles James Jackson, English Goldsmiths and their Marks (London, 1921), lists those whose names are known. The revision of his work, now in progress, will add a number, but the 35 years to 1500 show 36 at York and 12 at Norwich. Most towns can only have had one or two, if they had any. The Company's searches were, at this date, confined to southern England. At a guess, there may have been 100 goldsmiths there, outside London, and the probability is that the figure is inflated by fines levied at the searches.Google Scholar
page 52 note 1 At 5 per household, plus 129 apprentices named as taken in the years 1491–99, and 4 lowys and foreyns.
page 53 note 1 A, p. 320.
page 53 note 2 Russell, J. C., British Medieval Population (Albuquerque, 1948), p. 298.Google Scholar
page 53 note 3 The greatest number of goldsmith-aldermen in these years, five, was in 1515.
page 54 note 1 The term used by the Company for those of its apprentices who had completed their term and were sworn as freemen of the Company.
page 54 note 2 E, p.73.
page 55 note 1 I.e. drinking cups.
page 56 note 1 A, pp. 137–38.
page 56 note 2 C, pp. 93–94.
page 56 note 3 C, pp. 149–50.
page 56 note 4 A, p. 444; C, pp. 1, 70, 131, 149.
page 57 note 1 C, p. 93.
page 57 note 2 B, p. 149.
page 58 note 1 Ordinances and Statutes, i, fos. xiiv–xiiir.
page 58 note 2 F, pp. 127–28.
page 58 note 3 Aa, p. 77.
page 59 note 1 A, p. 326. In 1493 the pledges of 84 aliens, now dead and gone, were disposed of. The records do not show how many of these were dead.
page 59 note 2 A, pp. 39, 40. Corporation of the City of London, Guildhall Library, Commissary Court, More, fos. 190, 288; Lichfield, fo. 38.
page 59 note 3 Ordinances and Statutes, i, fos. xxxviiv–xxxviiir.
page 59 note 4 The number who became liverymen was small and most for some special reason. John Swerder, warden six times between 1472 and 1495, may have been a Dutchman, but was more probably the son of one. Thomas Vandernak, 1467, is also doubtful. It is difficult to tell whether such men were first or second generation in this country.
page 59 note 5 Ab, p. 64.
page 60 note 1 B, p. 310. Foreyn meant, broadly speaking, English-born provincials who had not been apprenticed in London.
page 61 note 1 P.C.C. Holgrave 40, 41.
page 61 note 2 Sir, John Craig, The Mint (Cambridge, 1953), p. 89. TRANS. 5TH S.—VOL. 12—EGoogle Scholar
page 62 note 1 F, p. 74.
page 62 note 2 K, pp. 164, 291.
page 62 note 3 A, p. 279.
page 62 note 4 K, p. 35.