264 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. frhe Cowgate.
The skinners would seem to have been created
into a corporation in 1474, but references to the
trade occur in the Burgh Records at an earlier
date. Thus, in 1450, there is recorded an obligation
by the skinners, undertaken by William Skynner,
in the name of the whole, to support the
altar of St. Crispin in St. Giles?s Church, ?in the
fourth year of the pontificate of Nicholas the Fifth ;?
and a seal of cause was issued to the skinners
and furriers conjointly in 1533, wherein they were
bound to uphold the shrine of St Christopher in
. St. Giles?s, and several Acts of Parliament were
passed for their protection. One, in 1592, prohibits
?<all transporting and carrying forth the
realm, of calvesskinnes, huddrones, and kidskins,
packing and peilling thereof, in time coming,
tion of ? the goodwill and thankful service done to
us by our servitor, Alexander Crawford, present
deacon of the said cordiners and his brethren.?
We first hear of a kind of ?? strike,? in the trade in
1768, when the cordiners entered into a cornbination
not to work without an increase of wages,
and reduction of hours. The masters prosecuted
their men, many of whom were fined and imprisoned,
for ? entering into an unlawful combination,?
as the sheriff termed their trade union.
Charles I. In 1703, by decree of the Court of
Session, the bow-makers, plumbers, and glaziers,
were added to the masons; and to the wrights
were added the painters, slaters, sieve-wrights, and
coopers. These incorporated trades held their
meetings in St. Mary?s Chapel, Niddry?s Wynd, and
were known as ?The United Incorporation of St.
Mary?s Chapel?
In 1476 the websters were incorporated, and
bound to uphold the altar of St. Simon in St
Giles?s, and it was specially stipulated that ?(the
priest shall get his meat.? Cloth was made in
those days by the weavers much in the same
fashion that is followed in the remote Highland
districts, where the woo1 is carded and spun by the
females of the household j but Edinburgh was one
under the paine of confiscation of the same for His
Majesty?s use.? Edinburgh has always been the
chief seat of the leather trade in Scotland, and the
troops raised after the American War were entirely
supplied with shoes from there.
In 1475 the wrights and masons were granted
the aisleand chapel of St. John in the same church,
when their seal of cause was issued. Their charter
was confirmed in 15 17 by the Archbishop of St.
Andrews. in 1527 by James V., and in 1635 by
THE CHAPEL hND HOSPITAL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. (Aflcran EtckiqHlisrlim 1816.)
The Cowgate.] THE CORPORATIONS. 265
of the first places where woollen goods were made,
and had, at one time, the most important wool
market in Britain.
The hatmakers were formed into a corporation
in 1473, when ten masters of the craft presented
a petition to that effect; but the bonnet-makers
did not receive their seal of cause till 1530, prior to
which they had been united with the walkers and
shearers, with whom they were bound to uphold
the al+a of St Mark in St Giles?s Church. In
the articles and conditions it contained ; but it is
said that a seal was issued In 1508, Thomas
Greg, (? Kirk-master of the flescheour craft,? OD
behalf of the same, brought before the Council a
complaint, that certain persons, not? freemen of the
craft or the burgh, interfered with their privileges,
and had them forbidden to sell meat, except on
Sunday and Monday, the free market days, ? quhill
thai obtene thair fredome.?
The coopers were incorporated in 1489, binding
-
INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. -
1685 an Act of Parliament confirmed all their
privileges, together with those of the litsters, or
dyers. About the middle of the seventeenth century,
owing to the spread of the use of hats, instead of
the national bonnet, among the upper classes, this
society was reduced to so low a condition that
its members could neither support their families or
the expense of a society.
The fleshers were a very old corporation, but
the precise date of their charter is not very clear.
In 1483 regulations concerning the fleshers dealing
in fish in Lent, &c, were issued by the magistrates,
whom they petitioned in 1488 for a seal of
cause, which petition was taken into consideration by
the Council, who ratified and confirmed the whole of
83
themselves to uphold the altar of St. John in St.
Giles?s Church.
The walkers obtained their seal of cause in
August, 1500. They had an altar in the same
church dedicated to SS. Mark, Philip, and Jacob,
to which the following among other fees were
paid :-
Each master, on taking an apprentice paid ten
shillings Scots ; and on any master taking into his
service, either the apprentice or journeyman of any
other master, he paid twenty shillings Scots ; if any
craftsman was found working with cards in the
country, he was to forfeit the sum of fifteen shillings
Scots, to be equally divided between the work of
Si Giles?s, their altar, and the informer. It is also
