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THE INFLUENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH GILDS.




  London: C. J. CLAY AND SONS,
  CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
  AVE MARIA LANE.

  CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO.
  LEIPZIG: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
  NEW YORK: MACMILLAN AND CO.




  Cambridge Historical Essays. No. V.


  THE INFLUENCE AND DEVELOPMENT
  OF ENGLISH GILDS:
  AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE HISTORY OF
  THE CRAFT GILDS OF SHREWSBURY.


  BY FRANCIS AIDAN HIBBERT, B.A.,
  OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
  ASSISTANT MASTER IN DENSTONE COLLEGE.


  _THIRLWALL DISSERTATION_, 1891.


  Cambridge:
  AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
  1891

  [_All Rights reserved._]




  Cambridge:
  PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS,
  AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.




  _TO THE REV. D. EDWARDES, M.A.,
  HEAD MASTER OF DENSTONE,
  IN REMEMBRANCE OF MUCH KINDNESS
  AND ENCOURAGEMENT._




PREFACE.


I should explain that, in the present Essay, I have restricted myself to
associations which had for their object the regulation of trade. Frith
Gilds and Religious or Social Gilds have received only passing notice.

The Merchant Gild is too wide a subject to be treated in an Essay such as
this. Moreover the records of the Shrewsbury Merchant Gild are too me