The fullers too had to be fined soon afterwards for holding an independent meeting. In the next century the Mayor and Community appointed two Wardens to look after defaulting fullers and "to present their short-comings when they find any." And when the weavers again became troublesome, two men were chosen "by all the town of Leicester" to rule their craft. Both in England and on the Continent, Weavers were the earliest craftsmen to form Guilds, and their unions had been recognised in many other towns long before this is known to have been the case at Leicester. At London and Oxford they received charters as early as the reign of Henry I, and the Weavers' Guild at Nottingham was acknowledged by Henry II. But Doering suggests (Studien zur Verfassungsgeschichte von Leicester, Hanau, 1908, p. 68.) that the Leicester Guild did not admit working Weavers, because there was an outside Weavers' Company as early as the first Guild-rolls where only one Weaver is mentioned (a guildsman's father.)
In the 14th century an attempt was made by the Leicester Water-men to organize themselves into a Company, but the Guild Merchant suppressed it immediately by ordering proclamation to be made that "henceforth the lochel-men, called water-men, shall be separated, and shall serve the commune well and loyally according to the custom before used, and if any association be found among them, and they shall be attainted of this, that the Chamberlains cause 3s. 4d. to be levied from each of them at the first default, to the use and profit of the community, and at the second default, 6s. 8d., and so on increasing 3s. 4d. at each default, until they will submit to this ordinance."
In spite of these occasional differences between particular classes of tradesmen and the general body of merchants, a number of Leicester trades became organized into distinct unions, which were commonly known, in the 15th and i6th centuries, as " Occupations." They were not independent of the Guild Merchant; in fact all their regulations were subject to the approval of the Mayor and his brethren. Thus, in the year 1521, it was ordained by the Guild that "Mr. Mayor and his brethren 4 or 5 or 8 shall accept and prove all Ordinals of all the Occupations, within this
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