Former reference "Weavers 2e".

PA 100/5

Former reference "Weavers 2e".

2nd Sept, 1668

Ordinances (approved by Sir Thomas Tirrell, Kt., C.P., and Sir William Morton, Kt., K.B., justices of assize and gaol-delivery), reciting Charles II's delivery (on 18th. May, 1665) of letters-patent to the company whereby it was to have one master, two wardens and 19 assistants, together with an assembly (for deliberation of ordinances and fines) consisting of the master and at least six non-officeholding freemen of the fellowship.

1. Yearly on 29th. Sept., the officers will elect a master and wardens for the coming year.

2. £10 fine for refusing to be master, £5 for refusing to be a warden.

3. The master will seal documents (except apprenticeship-indentures) in the present of a majority of the officers - fine, £500 [sic] per offence.

4. Assistants and ordinary members will attend the master and wardens when summoned by the beadle, upon pain of paying 3/4.

5. Officers will keep company secrets, suffering for the first offence a 10 /-, and for the second a 20/-, fine, and expulsion for the third.

6. Each member may speak only once upon a given subject when required to do so by the master - fine, 12d..

7. 6/8 fine for causing a breach of the peace in the present of Company members at an assembly.

8. 12d. fine (to the use of the poor members of the fellowship) for every oath sworn.

9. 3/4 fine for incivility or unseemly behaviour in the presence of officers.

10. Fellows will pay 8d. p.a. quarterage half-yearly, with a 12d. fine for every default.

11. Within two years of following the trade, each freeman must (upon warning) provide himself with the gown which he will wear when summoned to public meetings - fine, 3/4.

12. Every shopkeeper will attend assembly in the appropriate garb - fine, 3/4.

13. 3/4 fine for refusing to stand aside when told to leave the election-room.

14. Each assistant will remain at common hall until Company business shall have been fully completed, only leaving with the master's permission, upon pain of paying a 3/4 fine.

15. Ex-officers will sit according to their seniority as officials, and other members according to their seniority of membership - fine, 12d..

16. Every master elected after 28th. Sept., 1667 will gather all rents and arrears, discharge payments and make an account before retiring.

17. Within forty days of leaving office an ex-master will present his account to the current officers, transferring cash-in-hand and moveables to the current master - fine, £40.

18. No freeman may be admitted without the consent of the master, wardens and ten assistants; he must be aged 24, or at least 21 and worth £10 p.a..

19. The Book of Orders will be shown to members at request on quarter-days.

20. Each ex-master and -warden (clearing quarterage) shall be invited to dine with the officers on election-days: each rule-abiding shop-keeper who fulfils his payments shall, at the yearly feast, be given 12d. for dinner if not invited to dine with the officers.

21. A re-elected former master need not spend above 20/- of his own money in officiating.

22. Within fourteen days of election, incoming officers will provide a feast for ex-masters and -wardens and their wives and widows (the Company providing 4d. apiece, the rest of the charge being borne by the current master); each warden may invite four non-members; except under clause 23's provisions, a defaulting master will pay £5 and a warden, 50/-.

23. If officers agree to forego a feast, the master shall pay 40/- and the wardens 20/- each to their successor(s) for a feast.

24. Members will bear a fellow's corpse at the master's or wardens'command - fine, 6/8.

25. 2/6 will be paid for use of the company pall for a member or his immediate relative, but at least 5/- for a non-relative.

26. Apprentices must be bound in the presence of at least two of the ruling triumvirate plus ten others (most being assistants) - fine, 10/-.

27. The master and wardens will promote assisgnment of an apprentice whose master cannot keep him; such an apprentice may work with any member until assigned.

28. Members should not teach the unimpoverished not belonging to the fellowship - fine, £5.

29. Apprentices must (under pain of a £3 fine) be taught their masters' own trades unless they are a given master's sons destined for another trade.

30. Apprentices must not make broadcloth - penalty, 40/- fine and confiscation of the cloth.

31. Apprentices will not leave their masters' service (except to visit friends for a maximum period of one month) unless they are sick or otherwise specifically indulged by the company officers; indentures will be returned to the fellowship if this leave of absence shall have been exceeded - fine, 40/- per excess month.

32. 40/- fine for assignment of an apprentice without the consent of the master, wardens and four assistants.

33. No hired master will weave broadcloth for non-members so long as the company shall have enough work for him - fine, 40/-.

34. No apprentice will be set on work with another master unless the officers will consent - fine, 20/-.

35. No journeyman may make cloths until he shall fully have left his master's service - fine, 6/8.

36. Masters will give journeymen at least ten days' warning of the end of their period of service and let them then weave at least one cloth - penalty, 6/8.

37. Journeymen and apprentices may not be enticed .... (Document Faded)

38. If required, journeymen may be paid weekly .... (Document Faded)

39. A journeyman will compensate his master for unsatisfactory work to any sum decided by the company officers - fine, 6/8.

40. No hired master will keep in his house more work than he could expedite in two months - fine, 20/-.

41. No hired master will keep a journeyman who shall be indebted, either until discharged by the master, wardens and four assistants, or until they allow him to use the journeyman, or until the latter shall have paid his debt - fine, 6/8.

42. A journeyman must give his master ten days' warning of departure or weave one cloth (unless the company master and wardens shall allow earlier leaving) - fine, 6/8.

43. Hired masters may not let two apprentices work on the same loom unless one is competent and shall have worked at least five years of his term - fine, 6/8.

44. Freemen may only have apprentices if they shall have had their own shop for at least two years - fine, £3.

45. Each master may have only two apprentices - fine, 40/-.

46. Narrow-weaver members of the fellowship may only teach their own trade to apprentices.

47. Journeymen may complain to the company's senior officer if their masters hinder them, and the latter may be fined 3/4.

48. Before 1st. Oct., 1668 each member will provide himself with a clock-reel for trying his yarn (either encompassing 1 yd. 2 ft. 7½in. and turning eighty times between each hammer-knock, or encompassing 2 yd. and turning 75 times); every two hammer-knocks will make one skein of warp-yarn - for every such skein of second-warp yarn each master shall pay his spinner ½d. for spinning, and every such skein will weigh at most 2 oz. (the spinner's payment being in proportion to the yarn's weight-deviation from 2 oz.); 2½ knocks will make 1¼ skeins of woof-yarn, and every five knocks will produce 2½ such skeins weighing a maximum of 5 oz. - 2½ knocks of woof-yarn will be work ½d. (and 5 will yield 1d.) with other prices and quantities in proportion: 20/- will be forfeitted for breaking any of these stipulations.

49. Observing clause 50, everyone entering the Company will provide himself with a clock-reel - fine, 20/-.

50. 2/6 fine for forbidding spinners to try yarn by reel.

51. 6/8 fine for weaving cloths weighing less than 11½ qrs..

52. Fine of 2/- per lb. will be paid by any clothier working broadcloth which shall weigh less than 65 lb. after drying.

53. Fine of 2/6 will be paid by any clothier making broadcloth unfulled and more than an inch below six quarters broad.

54. 10/- fine for mixing cloth with "nayles".

55. 4d. fine for carding with a card used for more than thirty weights of wool.

56. 3/4 fine per parcel of yarn bought, after 1st. June, 1668, before 9.00.

57. 4d. fine per lb. of yarn bought after that date which shall not have been viewed in the wool hall; 3/4 fine per parcel of yarn pre-empted on the evening before market-day.

58. The company will nominate for a year searchers, who may view clothiers' works at any time for inspection of their stock and methods; faults will be reported within three days.

59. Searchers may try by reel any yarn found in a weaver's house.

60. Searchers may check for the dressing of cloths before colouring, which is liable to a 20/- fine.

61. The beadle will receive an extra 6d. fee for making a freeman outside the normal process.

62. Any fine may be doubled if the culprit refuses to pay, or he may be expelled.

63. The master, wardens and majority of assistants will decide how to use fines-money.

64. Each member will enter into a £12 penalty bond to observe these ordinances.

English

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