Chapter L: Section I: Observations on the origin of our ancient Gilds. {411}

The author of a late publication, entitled _Caledonia_, gives it as his opinion, that the monks were the earliest Gild brethren, and had exclusive privileges of trade and of fishery when boroughs had scarcely an existence. To which the annual reviewer of that work objects, and affirms that the origin of Gilds lies hidden in obscurity inaccessible: and against the idea of their being of monkish origin, he urges, their being constructed so much on the principles of a purse club, that they can hardly not have been founded by married men. {412} The truth seems to be, that they originated among the Anglo-Saxons, long before the Conquest, if not also before their conversion to Christianity, and the commencement of English monkery. At first, they may be supposed to assume a simple and homely appearance, among the civil institutions of the Anglo-Saxon community; but afterwards to pass through different changes, and especially after the conquest, when the general state of society and the whole order of things experienced so considerable a revolution. They were then, at first, perhaps, put down or laid aside, and afterwards revived and resumed: at least, we hear little or nothing of them under the first Norman kings, or till about the 13th century.

The most common and prevailing opinion seems to be, that the gilds sprung from the Anglo-Saxons _tithings_: though it may, perhaps, be questioned, if the tithings themselves did not take their rise from them. Jacob, from Camden, informs us,—

“that the origin of gilds and fraternities is said to be from the
Saxon law, by which neighbours entered into an association, and
became bound for each other, to bring forth him who committed any
crime, or make satisfaction to the party injured; for which purpose
they raised a sum of money among themselves, and put it into a common
stock, whereout a pecuniary compensation was made according to the
quality of the offence committed. From hence came our fraternities
and gilds: and they were in use in this kingdom long before any
formal licences were granted for them: though at this day [that is,
in Camden’s time] they are a company combined together, with orders
and laws made by themselves, by the prince’s licence.” {413a}

Chambers, in his Cyclopædia, expresses himself much to the same purpose.—

“The original of Gilds, says he, is thus related: it being a law
among the Saxons, that every freeman {413b} of fourteen years old
should find sureties to keep the peace, or be committed to prison;
certain neighbours [therefore] entered into an association,
[consisting of ten families,] and became bound for each other, either
to produce him who committed an offence, or to make satisfaction to
the injured party. That they might the better do this, they raised a
sum of money among themselves, which they put into a common stock;
and when one of their pledges had committed an offence, and was fled,
then the other nine made satisfaction out of this stock, by payment
of money according to the offence. Because this association
consisted of ten families, it was called a _decennary_: hence came
our fraternities. In observance of the above law, or custom, as the
same writer informs us, the sheriffs at every county court did from
time to time take the oaths of young persons, as they arrived at the
age of fourteen, and see that they belonged to one _decennary_ or
another.” {413c}

Such is the account given by these writers of the ancient decennaries or tythings, from which the gilds are supposed to have sprung; but it seems uncertain, after all, whether the gilds sprung from the decennaries, or the decennaries from them, or which of the two is the most ancient. They might be coëval, and grow up together: and the gilds having survived the decennaries might occasion their being supposed to have sprung from them.

Turner, the ingenious historian of the Anglo-Saxons, seems also to ascribe to them the origination of Gilds: and he observes, that the gilds, or social confederations, in which many of those people chose to arrange themselves, deserve very particular attention. Among other things, he says, that their gilds are sometimes alluded to in the laws. If a man without paternal relations should fight and kill another, then his maternal kinsmen were ordered to pay one third of the Were, his gild a third, and for the other part his gild was to escape. In London there appears to have been free gilds. In a charter of Canterbury, the three companies of the Citizens within the walls, and those without, are mentioned. Domesday also mentions a Gild of the Clergy in that city. In short, Gilds appear to have been very common, and in great request among the Anglo-Saxons. They seem on the whole, as our author thinks, to be friendly associations, made for mutual aid and contribution, to meet the pecuniary exigencies which were perpetually arising, from burials, legal exactions, penal mulcts, and other payments, or compensations. That much good fellowship was connected with them, cannot be doubted. The fines of their own imposition imply that the materials of conviviality were not forgotten. In short, he thinks they may be called the Anglo-Saxon clubs.—Even the more uncommon species of those confederations, called _Gilda Mercatoria_, _or Merchant’s Gild_, seems to have existed among the same people. That in mercantile and Seaports, says the same author, there were also gilds and fraternities of men constituted for the purpose of carrying on more successful enterprizes in commerce, even in the Anglo-Saxon times, appears to be a fact. Domesday, (he adds,) mentions the Gihalla, or Guildhall of the burghers of Dover. {415}

The Gilds of Lynn, however, cannot be traced to so remote a period as that of the Anglo-Saxons. There may, indeed, have been gilds here at that period, and the fact can hardly be doubted, as they were then so much in vogue, but we have no traces of them now remaining. All the Lynn Gilds, whose names and remains have reached our time, seem to have sprung up long after the conquest. Of them we shall treat in the ensuing pages.