Name Index

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Some Account of the Ancient Guilds of the City of Exeter

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. 5 (1872), pp. 117-138.

by

W. Cotton

Prepared by Michael Steer

An 11th century Anglo-Saxon guild existed in Exeter but seems to have been social and religious in purpose, and unconnected with the city's economic life. The mayor, bailiffs and common council of Exeter exercised the privilege of licensing trade guilds from a very early period. The first, and so most ancient of these was the Tailor's Guild who were incorporated by Edward IV. From the 1160's onwards there are references to a Guildhall, almost certainly standing on its present site in the High Street, and evidence of an associated merchant guild confirmed by two deeds referring to the guild stewards In the reign of Henry I, the wording of the earliest charter to the city implies a grant of commercial privileges that could be purchased by a group of townsmen. This paper, delivered at the Association's July 1871 Exeter meeting explores the origins of Exeter's rich guild legacy. Google with the Archive Organization has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The Internet Archive makes available, in its Community Texts Collection (originally known as Open Source Books), books that have been digitised by Google from a number of libraries. These are books on which copyright has expired, and are available free for educational and research use. This rare book was produced from a copy held by the University of California Library, and is available from the Internet Archive.