[122] The Statute 14 Eliz. c. 14 was enacted "For the assurance of gifts, grants etc. made and to be made to and for the relief of the poor in the Hospitals etc."
[123] _Memorials_, Vol. II. Part I. page 100.
[124] Against this were to be set the "enclosing" and "non-residence" grievances.
[130] The good work of the Gilds is expressly acknowledged in many charters of the time, e.g. the charter granted to Faversham (1616) recites that long experience had shown that the dividing of the government of towns into several companies had worked great good, and was the means of avoiding many inconveniences and preposterous disorders, in respect that the government of every artificer and tradesman being committed to men of gravity, best experienced in the same faculty and mystery, the particular grievances and deceits in every trade might be examined, reformed and ordered. Gross, II. 89.
[132] Cf. especially, 3 Edw. IV. c. 4; 22 Edward IV. c.
[133] Gross, II. 1, 2, 55, 89, 186-7, 208, 250.
[134] Cf. infra, pp. 90-91. The repealing statute (14 Eliz. c. 12) avowed that not only had the former Act been "supposed for the benefit of the said town" but had also been intended for the "advancing of the Corporation of Drapers, Cottoners and Friezers of the said town."
[136] Gross, II. 281. Cf. also pp. 12, 87, 199, 234, 247-8, 250, 281, 355, 360.
[138] _Ibid._, 56, 90, 91, 176, 186, 193, 199, 234, 247, 251, 264, 364, 385.
[140] Cromwell's Charter to Swansea. Gross, II. 234.
[141] Cf. the ordinance which appears in the Tailors' records, A.D. 1711, April 11. "No combrother shall at any one time have more than two apprentices, one having served 3-1/2 years before the other apprentice be bound, and no apprentice above 17 years taken, and he must be unmarried."
[142] It was also directed against the paying of the Shearmen in kind.
[143] Cf. also 18 Eliz. cap. 15 (Goldsmiths): 8 Eliz. cap. 11 (Haberdashers).
[144] In 1570-1 when Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales, passed through Shrewsbury.
[146] State Papers, Domestic, 1566? (p. 285).
[147] State Papers, Domestic, 1619, Oct. ?
[149] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ? (There are several petitions against other intruders also, by the countenance of the City of London, "who wish to engross all markets.")