town, and those customs that be good to allow them, and those that be evil to damn them." Some years later the duty of considering and approving, or condemning, fresh additions to any Ordinal was given to a Common Hall "or at least to the Mayor and two Justices of the Peace." It was afterwards required by Statute that every Ordinal should be confirmed by the Judges of Assize.
According to Thompson, the companies which were in existence and recognized as semi-independent organizations in the early part of the 16th century, were the Tailors, the Smiths, the Shoemakers, the Bakers and the Butchers. The Tailors' Occupation was undoubtedly one of the earliest. Thompson gives the date of its establishment as 1450; and it was certainly existing in the time of the mayoralty of John Fresley (1466), when it was agreed "by the Wardens and all the Occupation of the craft of Tailors that there shall no tailor set up his craft as a master within the town of Leicester but the Wardens of the said craft shall bring in l0s. in money and pay it to the Chamberlains for his duty to the Chapman's Guild, a fortnight before the Chamberlains enter into their account, upon pain of forfeiting 20s. of the guild of Tailors' money to be levied by the Chamberlains."
The Occupations that are referred to in the published Records of the Borough number seventeen, and a list of them is subjoined, together with the dates at which they were first mentioned. The date, as a rule, shows only that the Occupation was then existing; it may have been established, in some cases, long before. And it must be borne in mind that the town records are entirely missing from 1380 to 1465.
Occupation |
Date of first mention |
Reference in the Borough Records | ||||
| 1. | Tailors | . . | 1466 | Vol. | II. | 363. |
| 2. | Bakers | . . | 1488 | Vol. | II. | 318. |
| 3. | Shoemakers | . . | 1531 | Vol. | III. | 31. |
| 4. | Butchers | . . | 1540 | Vol. | III. | 45. |
| 5. | Smiths | . . | 1540 | Vol. | III. | 44. |
| 6. | Barbers | . . | 1553 | Vol. | III. | 78. |
| 7. | Glovers | . . | 1553 | Vol. | III. | 78. |
| 8. | Coopers | . . | 1553 | Vol. | III. | 78. |
| 9. | Fullers, or Walkers | . . | 1557 | Vol. | III. | 91. |
| 10. | Chandlers | . . | 1558 | Vol. | III. | 89. |
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