2 66 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Cowgate.
provided by the said charter, that each person commencing
business for himself shall be worth three
pairs of shear?, and of ability to pay for one stock
.of white cloth, whereby he may be in a condition
to make good any damages to those who employ
him.
In the same year (1500) the tailors were incorporated
on the 26th August, prior to which, as a
society, they possessed the altar of St. Anne in St.
Giles?s, and they only had their old rules and regulations
embodied in their charter from the Council.
Another seal of cause was issued to them thirty
years afterwards, in the reign of James V.
The Corporation of Candlemakers first appears
in 1517. They had no altar of their own in St.
Giles?s, but certain fines provided by their charter
wete to be paid towards the sustenance of any
?? misterfull alter within the College Kirk of Sanct
Geils.? The craftsmen were forbidden to send
boys or servants to sell candles in the streets, under
pain of forfeit, and paying ?ane pund of walx
to Our Lady altar, after the first fault p two
pounds of wax for the second, and such punishment
as the magistrates may award for the third. No
member was to take an apprentice for less than
four years, and all women were to be ?expellit the
said craft, bot freemennis wyffes of the craft
allanerlie.?
The above charter was confirmed by James VI.
in 1597, though the corporation lost the privilege
in 1582 of sending a member to the Common
Council, by failing to produce their charter, and
signing the reference made in that year to the
arbiters appointed by James, at the time the late
constitution of the burgh was established, and remained
unchanged till the passing of the Reform
Bill in 1832.
We may here mention that a manufactory for
soap is first mentioned, agrd November, 1554,
when the magistrates granted a I? license to Johnne
Gaittis, Inglisman, to brew saip within the fredome
of this burgh for the space of ane yeir nixt heirafter?
and to sell the same in lasts, halflasts,
barrels, half-barrels, and firkins. But after this, till
about 1621, it was chiefly imported from Flanders.
The Baxters (or bakers) obtained their charter
on the 20th of March, 1522, but the trade must
have possessed one before, as it sets forth that in
times of troublethe original document had been lost
By this seal of cause it appears that they had in
SL Gdes?s an altar dedicated to ?Sanct Cubart.?
But the chaplain thereof, instead of being supported
by fines, as the priests of the other corporations
were, obtained his food by going from house to
house among the members of the guild in rotation.
The sole privilege of baking bread within the city
was vested in its members, ,but bread baked without
the walls might be sold, the corporation having,
however, control over it, or the power of examining
the weight and quality of ?the flour baiks and
fadges that cumes fra landwart into this toune to
sell.?
The city records contain many references to the
Baxters before the date above given. Thus in
1443, the time when they might bake and sell
?(mayne breid,? was only at ?Whitsunday, St.
Giles?s Mass, Yule and Pasche.? In 1482, in buying
flour from beyond the sea they were to pay multure,
as if from the common mills. In 1503 Baxters
convicted of baking cakes that were under weight
were threatened with penalties. In 1510 there
was an agreement between the farmers of the
city mills and the Baxters as to grinding at the
mills, with reference to the quantities to be ground
when water was scarce. In 1523 the Baxters
were ordained to ?baik thair breid sufficientlie
and weill dryit ;? the twopenny loaf to weigh ten
ounces from thenceforward, ? under pain of tynsale
of their fredome,? and escheat of the bread, which
is to be marked with their irons as heretofore. In .
April, 1548, the city Baxters were ordered to hrnish
bread for the army in the field at a given rate,
and the corporation promised to do so, in the presence
of the Lords Dunkeld, Rothes, Galloway,
Dunfermline, and Seaton; but in July the troops
would seem to have declined to receive the bread
which the trade had on hand ; thus U outland Baxters
were charged not to bring any bread to market
for three days.?
We have elsewhere (Vol. I., 382-3) had occasion
to refer to the Corporation of Barber-surgeons,
whose charter, dated 1st July, 1505, binds them
to ?uphold ane altar in the College Kirk of Sanct
Geill, in honour of God and Sanct Mongow.? They
were bound to know something of anatomy, the
?nature and complexioun of every member of
humanis (sic) body,? and all the veins of the same,
and ? in quhilk member the srbe Am dominahim
for tk time,? &c.
In 1542 we read of four surgeons sent from the
city to the borders, for the care of those wounded by
the English. (? Pitcairn?s Trials,? I.) And in 1558
the corporation sent twenty-five of their number,
including apprentices, to join the force raised for
the defence of Edinburgh against ? our auld inemyes
of Ingland.? (? List of Fellows, R.C.S. Edin.?) By
Queen Mary they were exempted from serving on
assizes.
The arms of this corporation were azure, on a
fesse argent, a naked man fesse-ways, between a
