LONDON
1400-1650
Vanessa King FSA
Education! Education! Education!
Aims
– Examine the evidence for schooling in
London
– Assess the employment opportunities
and the impact of the Guilds on London
By 1500 there were 5 licensed schools
St Paul’s
St Martin Le Grand
St Anthony’s
St Mary Arches
St Dunstan in the East
SCHOOLS IN 15TH CENTURY LONDON
Outside the city, Westminster Abbey (from 14th
c) had a song school and a grammar school
housed in the almonry.
By 1530s - 6 boys in the song school and about
30 in the grammar school.
From late 14th c. the schoolmasters at
Westminster appear to have been married men.
Impact of Black Death
Rise in per capita wealth - Increased literacy
- Inventories, chronicles, wills, letters,
commonplace books, inscriptions, prayers and
accounts
- Printing press – paper
- English
The pressure from below contributed to the
increasing use of English as a literary, legal and
business and governmental language.
First English mayoral proclamation 1383
First surviving English will 1389.*
In 1415, John Holand from Walsoken, Norfolk
complained to the Mayor of London that the
barber to whom he had been apprenticed was
so poor that he could not feed and clothe him
properly, nor keep him at school till he could
read and write, as had been agreed.
Coroner Roll 1301 – Richard Le Mazon
By 1422 the craft of brewers decided to
keep their records in English because:
“there are so many of our craft of Brewers
who have the knowledge of writing and
reading in the same English idiom, but in
others, to wit the Latin and French, before
these times used, they do not in anywise
understand”
Tomb of Giovanni da Legnano
Prof of Civil & Canon Law at Bologna (d.1383)
St Anne teaching
the Virgin to read
(early 15th c.)
Abelard and
Heloise
(14th c. ms of
The Romance
of the Rose)
Employment in Medieval London
Servants made up 20% - 30% of urban polltax payers.
175 occupations practised in London.
‘guild’ - Saxon ‘gilden’ meaning ‘to pay’ and refers to the
subscription paid by the members. There were two
main kinds of guilds Merchant guilds and Craft guilds
Apprentice
5 - 9 years depending on the trade.
Journeyman.
Was paid for his labour. In his own time he could create
his ‘masterpiece’ for presentation at the guild as
evidence of his craftsmanship in the hope of being
accepted as a Master
Objectives
• Protection of members from outside
competition
• Ensuring fair competition between members
• Maintaining standards
Services provided to members
• Funeral expenses for poorer members and aid to
survivors
• Dowries for poor girls
• A type of health insurance and care for the sick
• Built chapels and donated windows to local
churches or cathedrals;
• Frequently helped in the actual construction of
the churches
• Watched over the morals of members
• Contributed to emergence of Western lay
education
• Mercers
• Grocers
• Drapers
• Fishmongers
• Goldsmiths
• Merchant Taylors (alternates with the Skinners)
• Skinners (fur traders)
• Haberdashers
• Salters
• Ironmongers
• Vintners
• Clothworkers
Origin & Apprenticeship Rates
1600-25
The age of City apprentices
Girdlers’ Hall
Curriers’ Hall
Brewers’ Hall
Coopers’ Hall
Weavers’ Hall
Masons’ Hall
Preparing & selling meat (late 15th c.)
Edward
London Bridge