Reference code: GB-0033-DCG
Title: Durham City Guild Records
Dates of creation: 16th-20th centuries
Extent: 4 metres
Held by: Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections
Origination: Deposited with Durham University Library and the Department of Palaeography and Diplomatic (since 1990 part of the Special Collections department of Durham University Library) from several sources over many
years. Many items have been deposited by successive wardens and members of various guilds or their families or by chairmen of the Wardens of the Durham City freemen at various dates from c. 1937 onwards. Others were deposited within accessions of
Durham City Records in November 1955, May and July 1959, and April 1967. Certain items have also been purchased by the University Library. Photocopies of some Durham guild records held in repositories outside Durham City are filed with the
collection.
Language: English; Latin
Records of Durham City guilds or trades associations formed to regulate and control the trades in the city date from the early 15th century. Such formal associations originated perhaps in the 14th century alongside a number of religious societies
or fraternities in the city, becoming particularly associated with the feast of Corpus Christi. Many of the earliest extant ordinaries, or founding ordinances, prescribe the maintenance of craft lights and the annual performance of a play at Corpus
Christi after a procession to the cathedral: such lights would have been maintained in St Nicholas' church and perhaps other city churches and were used in funerary and festial processions, and towards which certain fines were stipulated to be paid.
However, as early as 1243 Durham burgesses were claiming a monopoly on trading between the rivers Tyne and Tees, such that a complaint against a search for dyed wool at Brancepeth was presented to the eyre at Durham in that year: it is evident that
trades were active in the city long before formal associations were made and incorporations granted. The Skinners claim the earliest date of incorporation in 1327, followed by the Grocers', Mercers', Salters', Ironmongers', and Haberdashers'
companies - all later allied within the Mercers' company - in 1345, 1393 [New Style 1394], 1394, 1464 and 1467 respectively, but these dates all conform with foundation dates or grants of royal charters to their corresponding London companies: no
records of grants to Durham guilds have been traced in these years in the Chancery rolls or bishops' registers, and any incorporated guild active in Durham at such an early date as 1327 would be unexpected. In fact most of the arms of the Durham
companies still found hanging in the city's Guildhall reproduce both the arms and the foundation dates of London companies: a fuller description of these arms is published by Whiting (see below), and they are reproduced in Morris (1984).
Records of an interim stage in the formation of trade corporations do survive in the form of recognizances enrolled in the Chancery rolls: such for the Cordwainers and also the Fullers are found enrolled consecutively in 1447, but which are not
grants of incorporation as such. Recognizances from other Durham crafts of a similar or earlier date may remain as yet untraced in the records. The priory's sacrist's accounts record the offerings of the Smiths and the Carpenters from 1413 onwards,
and the Minstrels between 1414-1416; and several instances of the enforcement of company ordinances by guild wardens are found in the records of Crossgate borough court between 1502 and 1528. It is indicative of the incomplete state of the guilds'
records that these accounts and court records provide earlier dates of association for certain trades than their companies' records now evidence. The first extant copy of an Ordinary of a ‘company’ is that of the
Butchers in 1403. Within the palatinate, all such regulations required the approval and confirmation of the bishop, who also issued any charters of incorporation. Such regulations were variously called by the companies “ordinaries”, “charters”, “consents”, or “associations”: sadly, few of these survive in the original company copy, but the lack
is sometimes supplied by bishops' Chancery rolls, or Durham antiquarians' manuscripts. Evidences were consulted by Herald Richard St George during his 1615 visitation of Durham, from which he copied information on certain guilds' formation and arms,
details of which are noted at series level below: except in noting a 1576 incorporation of the Dyers company, the existence of the Drapers and Tailors guild before 1480, and overlooking the Barbers, Curriers, Plumbers guilds (all of which are
recorded as having been in existence by 1615), the information in this volume largely accords with what is known from other sources. In time, either as trade declined or the market changed, certain trades ceased to employ sufficient members to
sustain an independent guild, and such guilds either lapsed or formed alliances of related trades. Following several such amalgamations there remained sixteen trade guilds in Durham City by the end of the sixteenth century, and eight of these were
still in existence in 2012.
The first charter granting the city self-governance was issued by Bishop Pilkington only in 1565, long after the formal incorporation of several Durham companies, and, while the guilds' constitutional role in the governance of the city was not
explicitly defined until Bishop Matthew's charter of 1602, it seems likely the borough's government had long been drawn from the city's crafts or guildsmen, if not always on an exclusive or strictly proportional basis. The Freemen of Durham City,
many of whose records are also held by Durham University Library, have always thus been closely linked with the freemen of the city's guilds or trade companies: freemen of the guilds have always been freemen of Durham City, and indeed it is usually
essential for a man (and now woman) to be admitted as a freeman of a guild before the freedom of the city can be conferred, although honorary freemen of the city have been created from time to time without going through this process; the latter do
not enjoy the same privileges as ordinary freemen. Qualification for admission as a freeman of a trade company was generally achieved either by patrimony or by servitude, i.e. by being the son, formerly in most of the guilds the eldest son, of a
freeman, or by serving an apprenticeship, originally of seven years, then (from 1933, but in practice from the early 1940s) five years, to a freeman master working at the trade of his guild within the city. In recent years these criteria have been
somewhat relaxed to admit a wider selection of persons by patrimony and apprenticeship. Durham City Freemen are currently admitted under the provisions of the City of Durham Act 1985 and through the medium of recent equality legislation which makes
provision for the admission of women. Candidates over the age of eighteen can apply having completed a Durham full-time apprenticeship of not less than three years, or by patrimony being the son or daughter of a freeman. Prior to the 1835 Municipal
Corporations Act, s.202 prohibiting admissions by gift or purchase, companies sometimes also used to admit, by gift or redemption, non-trading gentlemen freemen and traders whose apprenticeships had been served elsewhere, though the latter is a rare
occurrence. This means of admission by the particular decision of the wardens was re-activated by the 1985 Act: these now are gentlemen and lady freemen whose rights thenceforward through patrimony are the same as with those regularly entitled. All
Freemen swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown and to the Bishop of Durham upon their admission. Most apprentices were drawn from the city and county, but many also originated from the wider north east and a few beyond, though in the early period
of the guilds' activity Scottish men were explicitly excluded from apprenticeships and company membership.
The city Freemen held rights of common on the moors bordering the north of the city, and upon the moors' enclosure in the early 19th century the Freemen were allotted land on Brasside Common, later called Freemen's Farm or Union Hall Farm, the
accounts of dividends from which appear in many of the guilds' later records. The guilds' exclusive rights to regulate trade and traders extended to Durham City and its suburbs, although disputes arose from time to time as to which parts of the
modern city in fact fell outside their jurisdiction, the castle area for example (comprising the cathedral, castle, College and Bailies). In the 17th century some guilds were “searching”, or inspecting, goods in other
boroughs and towns of the county, at Sunderland, Hartlepool, Stockton, Stanhope, Wolsingham, Auckland, and Darlington, and bringing prosecutions. It is not yet known how common such activity was, nor how it was viewed by the guildsmen of some of
these boroughs. Perhaps related to this is the farming of a dyehouse in Darlington by Durham dyers in the 15th century: the accounts of the Bishop's bailiff in Darlington include regular payments by the dyers of Durham for lytferme or liteferme, a
payment of 26s 8d for a dyehouse there, when occupied (CCB B/68).
Except for a brief period during the Commonwealth, when a member (a mercer) was returned in 1654 and 1656, the city did not secure parliamentary representation until 1678, from which date until 1832 the freemen formed the exclusive franchise for
the city's two seats. Records of the guilds' involvement in elections throughout this period can be traced in this records collection, and in the related collections listed below - the infamous 1761 by-election is particularly well represented. An
increasingly lax city freedom admissions regime weakened the guildsmen's commercial control in the city. This provoked a corporation by-law in 1728 which attempted to curb the fraudulent creation of freemen, a popular political tactic, and reassert
the guilds' monopoly on the city's trades by stipulating that applications for admission to the freedom or freelage of the trade companies and the city could only be accepted if called and approved at three different “guilds”. These were quarterly assemblies of the mayor and aldermen of the City of Durham and borough of Framwellgate together with the wardens and stewards of the city guilds, the records of which are held at the County
Record Office (DCRO Du 5): the modern procedure followed at such meetings is described in Morris (1984). The system of admission through guilds still prevails, although a freeman's admittance into a particular guild has long since ceased to indicate
any involvement in such a trade. In recent times women were admitted into the guilds for the first time, and the first admission of a female freeman of the city by this route took place on 6 February 2012, although several women had been admitted as
honorary freemen of the city before this date.
Records of the Durham City Guilds or trade companies, 16th-20th centuries. The chief categories of records to survive are: “ordinaries” [i.e. regulations] and founding charters of incorporation, orders, minutes,
apprenticeships records, admissions records, call rolls, accounts, fines, and miscellaneous correspondence and papers, including inventories and valuations, and, deposited with the Masons' company records but not strictly part of the Guild Records,
an election agent's book for the 1818 Durham City parliamentary election. The survival rate of material is patchy, however, and some companies are represented by only a few items. The largest groups of material are for the Barbers, Masons, and
Mercers' companies. The collection is a valuable source for researching the trading practices and evolving market economy within the city and its hinterland, as well as the social, civic and political lives of its inhabitants.
Accession details for each company's records are recorded at series level.
Guild records used to be the responsibility of each company's warden. Wardens were used to serve for a year, but in later years, as the number of active residential guildsmen declined, guild officers tended to serve in the same role for many
years. Companies usually stored such records and other valuables in a locked box kept in the private home of the warden, and later in the vaults of one of the city's banks. In time, particularly as certain guilds became defunct, such records came to
be deposited with the City Clerk, the Clerk of the Freemen's Trustees or the Chairman of the Wardens of the Durham City Freemen. From the 1930s many of these records were deposited with Durham University Library, and later its Department of
Palaeography and Diplomatic, now subsumed within the library and its Special Collections.
Open for consultation.
Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail pg.library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist
where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.
The material is grouped by guild in the following order (according to the pattern of guilds established by the late 16th century; guilds marked * are still in existence):
1
Barbers* (formerly Barber-surgeons,
Wax-makers, Ropers and Stringers), 17th-20th centuries.
2
Barkers and Tanners, 17th century.
3
Butchers* (formerly Butchers and Fleshers), 16th-19th centuries.
4
Cordwainers* [shoemakers], 16th-20th centuries.
5
Curriers* (formerly Curriers and Tallow-chandlers), 16th-20th centuries.
6
Drapers* (formerly Drapers and Tailors),
18th-19th centuries.
7
Dyers and Litsters (or Listers), 18th-19th centuries.
8
Fullers and Felt-makers, Cloth-workers and Walkers [no records of this company have yet been deposited, but
see related items elsewhere].
9
Joiners* (formerly Carpenters and Joiners, Wheelwrights, Sawyers and Coopers), 18th- 20th centuries.
10
Masons* (formerly Freemasons, Roughmasons, Wallers,
Slaters, Paviours, Plasterers and Bricklayers), 17th-20th centuries.
11
Mercers (formerly Mercers, Grocers, Haberdashers, Ironmongers and Salters; sometimes known as the Merchants' company), 17th-20th centuries and
photocopies of 16th-18th-century originals.
12
Plumbers* (formerly Goldsmiths, Plumbers, Pewterers, Potters, Glaziers and Painters), 17th-20th centuries.
13
Saddlers and Upholsterers,
1753 and 1800.
14
Skinners and Glovers [no records of this company have yet been deposited, but see related items elsewhere].
15
Smiths (formerly Whitesmiths, Lorimers, Locksmiths,
Cutlers and Blacksmiths), 18th-20th centuries.
16
Weavers and Websters, 18th-19th centuries.
Company records can be much disordered even within bound volumes, and different types of record are often entered from both ends of the same volume. In two instances (Barbers, Curriers), an original numbering of companies' records has been
evident and has been preserved; otherwise guilds' records are arranged in this catalogue in chronological order. To aid researchers, summaries of record types (orders, apprenticeships, admissions etc.) are provided: at series (company) level such
record summaries do not note gaps spanning less than ten years, while at item level such summaries, where necessary, are more comprehensive. An index of membership records is available (see Finding aids below). An interim finding aid using obsolete
reference numbers was for many years made available to researchers, while the records were as yet largely unsorted: where these have changed, former reference numbers are provided for each item. A file of photocopies of the guilds' earliest founding
documents (ordinances, recognizances etc.), such as survive, can be made available to researchers in the search room: copies of certain items held by other repositories are only available for consultation and may not be duplicated.
Records created by Durham guilds formerly filed within Additional Manuscripts (ADD) have been interpolated within the existing Durham City Guild Records (DCG) collection. Where an item has been moved from another collection this is indicated,
with its former reference, in the catalogue.
Those parts of the following Durham City Guild records which systematically record apprenticeships and admissions have been name indexed by volunteers working from 2011-2013: DCG 1/1-3, 7, 9-11; DCG 2/1; DCG 3/2, 4, 7-8; DCG 4/1-4, 6-7; DCG 5/2,
6; DCG 6/1-2, 5; DCG 7/1-2; DCG 9/1, 3, 6, 8; DCG 10/2, 4-5, 7-8; DCG 11/2, 7-8, 15-16; DCG 12/3; DCG 13/2; DCG 15/1-2; DCG 16/1. In addition, the indexed part of the Barkers' Company volume SANT/GUI/DUR/1 pp.1-220 (1656-1685) has also been included
within the Guilds index.
These indexes are available in our Search Room. Links to copies of indexes of apprentices and freemen in each guild can be found at the end of each guild collection summary within this catalogue. Links to complete
indexes of all apprentices and freemen of all Durham City guilds are provided below. In their present state, these indexes only cover those organised records - registers of apprentices and freemen etc. - listed above, held in Durham University
Library's Special Collections, and a Barkers' Company volume (SANT/GUI/DUR/1) held at Northumberland County Record Office. Additional apprentices' and particularly freemen's names might be drawn from surviving minutes and accounts etc., and from
which a researcher will also gain an appreciation of that person's and that guild's activities. Note also that for every guild many records have been lost, particularly for the earlier years, and in some cases no records survive at all. Additional
guild records are held at Durham County Record Office (see below) which will certainly contain records of apprenticeships and freemen not recorded in this Durham City Guild Records collection. In time an index of the apprenticeship indentures and
the Freemen's records at Durham County Record Office might be combined with those indexes below, but this has not yet been undertaken.
Index of Durham
City Guild Records apprenticesIndex of Durham City Guild Records freemen admissions
ADD 963: transcripts of Butchers' company records.
Additional Manuscripts (ADD)
ADD 1905: manuscripts for a history of each of the following Durham guilds by C.M. Carlton, containing transcripts and notes: Barbers, Butchers, Cordwainers, Curriers, Drapers, Joiners, Masons, Mercers, Plumbers, Saddlers, Skinners, Smiths,
Weavers. Deposited by W.A. Bramwell, 1937.
Baker Baker Papers (BAK)
Containing records of freemen and Durham City elections, 18th-19th centuries.
Church Commission deposit of Durham palatinate and bishopric records (CCB)
Papers concerning lawsuits (1433-1807) CCB B/192/41/3 (221093): draft deposition of John Richardson of Durham, steward of the Bishop of Durham, in Exchequer Court (King's Remembrancer) case of William James Bishop of Durham v. [Edward Wandless,
mayor of Durham, Robert Suerties,] William Hall, Thomas Pearson, Hugh Wright, [William Smythe, Hugh Hucheson, John Patteson, John Heighington, Mark Foster, John Lee], concerning rights and privileges in the Borough of Durham and Framwellgate, 1610.
Lists dates of guild charters etc. For other depositions in this case see TNA
E 134/8Jas1/East41.
Darlington Borough accounts (1476-1522) CCB B/68: the bailiff or approver of the bailiwick of Darlington borough collected a lytferme or liteferme from the dyers of Durham City, a payment of 26s 8d, for a dyehouse in Darlington, when
occupied.
Durham Cathedral Muniments (DCD)
York Book DCD/T/YB f.89: petition by the aldermen and burgesses of Durham to Bishop Pilkington for the renewal of their borough charters and for specified innovations, with the bishop's reply to each of the innovations requested, [1561 x 1576].
Durham City Freemen's Records (DCF)
See
collection level description.
Gibby Papers (GBY)
Section C. See
collection level description.
Small Gifts and Deposits (SGD)
Various accessions, including:
SGD.60/18.
Barbers (DCG 1)
Gibby Papers (GBY), Section C. See
collection level description.
Barkers and Tanners (DCG 2)
ADD 513 p.309-314: copy 1728 by-law concerning the qualifications and admission of Durham City freemen, with legal opinion concerning objections of the Tanners' company.
Butchers (DCG 3)
1. MSP MS 19 f.636v: copy legal extracts and notes, company v Mathew Robinson, [c.1672].
2. MSP MS 49 p.178-180: mid 17th-century copy of the Ordinary or ‘Corporac[i]on’ of the company, 14 June 1403; published
in
Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, vol. 11 (1958), 98-100.
Cordwainers (DCG 4)
1. DDR/EJ/CCA/1/1 f.79: perjury suit in the Consistory Court brought by the wardens of the souters or cordwainers, 1535.
2. MSP MS 19 f.635: copy legal extracts and notes, late 17th century.
Drapers (DCG 6)
1. MSP MS 19 f.637r: copy legal extracts in case, company v John White, [c.1673].
Dyers and Litsters (DCG 7)
MSP 91 f.35r-39fv: grant of Bishop John Cosin, at the petition of Anthony Emerson, Henry Wanles, John Gray, Richard Beckles, Cuthbert Bellamy, William Flemming and Ralph Wescott, to them to form a company of litsters and dyers in Durham city and
the parishes of St Oswald, St Giles, Little St Mary and St Mary Bow, 16 May 1664.
Fullers (DCG 8)
DCD/Off. bk: breach of faith case, fullers v Richard Smalwod and John Hugheson, for fulling contrary to the ‘ordinance of the art of the fullers’, August 1498.
Joiners (DCG 9)
1. DCD/Sacr. acs: offerings made to Durham Cathedral by the Carpenters at Pentecost, from 1413/1414.
2. MSP MS 19 f.639r: copy legal extracts in case, company v Thomas Cooke, journeyman, [c.1677].
Masons (DCG 10)
ADD 1659/1-25: bundle of deeds and papers relating to the Broad Close in Gilesgate, Durham, 1787-1930. Deposited with, but unrelated to, the Masons' records in November 1966.
Mercers (DCG 11)
1. DCD/B/BA 2 f.145-146r: Ordinary of the (unified) company (confirmed by Bishop Pilkington, 6 October 1561), confirmed by the Dean and Chapter [20] January 1562.
2. MSP 1 f.365v-366r: answers of Richard Hutton, [temporal chancellor], to
several questions put by the company concerning its rights and constitution, 1607.
3. GBV volume II (Durham Courts etc.), f.14-29: depositions, Dobson, Paxton and Mascal, wardens and searchers v. Hutchinson, Bowser, Newham, 1677.
4. BRA
833/15: articles for the apprenticeship of Thomas Hutchinson, son of Thomas Hutchinson of Whitton gentleman, deceased, to Thomas Dunn of the city of Durham, 17 June 1734.
5. DCF 3/9: file of correspondence (mainly with Charity Commission)
relating to the John Kirby Charity and its winding up in 1997, 1904-1997.
Plumbers (DCG 12)
1. MSP 91 f.154 no.53: ‘Questions to be inquired of among Tynners’ about tin-mining and the administration of tinners, undated.
2. SGD 60: correspondence and papers relating to the loss of the charter of the
Durham City Goldsmiths' company, 1929-1980.
3. Gibby Papers (GBY), Section C: see collection level description.
Skinners (DCG 14)
MSP MS 19 f.638v-639r: copy legal extracts in case, company v John Fairles[s], [c.1674].
Smiths (DCG 15)
1. DCD/Sacr. acs: offerings made to Durham Cathedral by the Smiths at the feast of St Eligius (1 December), from 1413/1414.
2. ADD 515, f.235v-240: 17th-century copy of the Ordinary of the Durham City company of Blacksmiths, Lorimers and
Locksmiths, approved by Bishop Tunstall, 1 July [1550].
3. MSP MS 19 f.635: copy legal extracts and notes in case, Cutlers and Bladesmiths' company v William Dixon, 1664.
Records of the City of Durham
Durham County Record Office (DCRO), Du 5/1-5: Durham City Freemen, with some material concerning specific guilds and their by-laws as relate to admissions to freedom. Transferred in 1981 from the custody of the University Library to Durham County
Record Office. The Library holds a microfilm of the indexes in Durham County Record Office Du 5/1/1-2, 4-7, six volumes recording minutes of guild meetings held to hear the “calls” of tradesmen prior to their being
admitted freemen of the guilds and city, 1728-1769, 1780-1908. Indexes of apprentices 1300-1900 (no.617; compiled from all DCRO collections) and freemen (no.716; compiled from DCRO Du 5/1/12-17) are available in the search room at the County Record
Office.
Durham Cathedral Library
Antiquarians' papers, for example Raine (RAI), Sharp (SHA) and Surtees (SUR), contain material relating to Durham City freemen and city elections, and particularly concerning freemen's (dis-)qualifications in the contested 1761 by-election. A
volume of Woodness' papers (ADD 201) contains notes on a dispute between the guilds and the mayor over the costs of Charles I's visit to the city in 1639.
Records of the College of Arms
Durham Visitation Book of Richard St George, C.32: made during the 1615 visitation, contains notes drawn from various evidences on the incorporation of Durham City and the founding and incorporation of twelve Durham guilds.
Records of the Boards of Stamps, Taxes, Excise, Stamps and Taxes, and Inland Revenue
TNA, Board of Stamps, Apprenticeship Books, IR 1/1-79: registers of the monies received in payment of the duty on apprentices' indentures, and of names, addresses and trades of the masters, and the names of the apprentices and the dates of the
articles, 1710-1811. Records of Durham apprenticeships may be found in the country registers (IR/41-72). Many of the microfilms of these volumes have been digitised and are available online via
TNA online catalogue.
Barbers (DCG 1)
1. Durham Dean and Chapter Library (DCL), RAI 129: includes transcript of Ordinary, [20 February 1469].
2. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of apprenticeship and admissions records, 17th-18th centuries, and 1468 Ordinary.
3. DCL, SUR
54: includes transcripts of apprenticeship and admissions records, 1665-1733.
4. DCRO, Records of the City of Durham, Du 5/3/4-5: extracts from by-laws relating to admissions to freedom, 1609-1766.
Barkers and Tanners (DCG 2)
1. Northumberland County Record Office (NCRO), Cookson (Meldon) MSS (ZCK 1/14): 17th-century copy on parchment of the Ordinary of the company, 7 April 1 Edward VI [1547].
2. NCRO, SANT/GUI/DUR/1 (formerly ZAN M.12/C.24): minutes, 25 March
1656-6 January 1724; accounts, 1667-1682, 1687, 1693-1698, 1703-1706, 1710, 1720, 1723. A bound set of photocopies of this item (ASCRef B1 FRE), the succeeding volume to DCG 2/1, is filed with DCG 2.
Butchers (DCG 3)
1. DCL, ADD 201: copy Ordinary, 22 June 1520; freeman's oath of Thomas Woodness, eldest son of Thomas, 7 March 1800.
2. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of minutes, apprenticeship and admissions records, 1621-1700.
3. Sections of volume
DCG 3/1 remain in the custody of the Butchers' company.
Cordwainers (DCG 4)
1. The National Archives (TNA), DURH 3/46 m.23d: recognizance made by 17 Durham cordwainers or leather dressers, dated 17 November 1447. The Library holds a microfilm copy of this item.
2. TNA, DURH 3/50.16 m.6d: Ordinary of the company, 31
January 1464, enrolled 28 November 1464. The Library holds a microfilm copy of this item.
3. DCL, HUN 37 f.10: transcript of DURH 3/50.16 m.6d.
4. DCL, RAI 129: includes a transcript of the by-laws of the company, 31 January 1463.
5.
DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of orders, minutes, admissions and pledges records, 1596-1775.
Curriers (DCG 5)
1. DCL, JJH 10/4: company call, 1772.
2. DCL, RAI 129: includes a copy of the by-laws of the company, 16 August 1568.
Drapers (DCG 6)
1. DCL, SHA 94: includes a copy Ordinary, confirmed by Bishop Tunstall, 7 November 1549; and an appeal to the freemen of the company to contribute to Anthony Smith's [Durham City M.P.] costs of £160 incurred obtaining a grant of a College for
Durham, [1654 x 1657].
2. DCL, SHA 79: includes a list of company members attending a quarterly meeting, 29 September 1699: members listed in order of and with dates of admission (1646-1699).
3. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of
admissions and apprenticeships records, 1563-19th centuries.
4. DCL, SUR 54: includes transcripts of admissions and apprenticeships, 1563-1781.
5. DCRO, Records of the City of Durham, Du 5/3/1-3: transcripts of by-laws of the company, 1549,
1628, 1696 and 1705.
Dyers and Litsters (DCG 7)
1. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of apprenticeship and admissions records, absences, minutes and accounts, 1710-1761; made from a volume [DCG 7/1] then in the possession of Wilkinson, Town Clerk.
2. DCL, SUR 54: includes transcripts of
apprenticeship and admissions records, 1650-1723, 1772.
3. DCRO, Records of the City of Durham, Du 5/1/25-78: surrenders of freedom, 1763.
Fullers and Felt-makers, Cloth-workers and Walkers (DCG 8)
1. TNA, DURH 3/46 m.23d: recognizance made by 15 Durham fullers, dated 12 February 1447. The Library holds a microfilm copy of this item.
2. TNA, DURH 3/108 m3d: inspeximus of Ordinary granted by Letters Patent, 3 March 1565, with additional
ordinances [1635], enrolled 25 October 1635. The Library holds a microfilm copy of this item.
3. TNA DURH 3/96.70: Ordinary issued under the great seal, incorporating the Clothworkers [alone], 29 March 1615. The Library holds a microfilm copy of
this item.
Joiners (DCG 9)
1. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of minutes, apprenticeship and admissions records, 1744.
2. DCRO Du 5/5/127: Draft demurrer re case in Durham Chancery, Attorney General at the relation of the mayor and aldermen of Durham v John Wray,
concerning the right of the company of carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, sawyers and coopers to make by-laws excluding foreigners from practising trade in Durham, 26 November 1734.
Masons (DCG 10)
1. TNA, DURH 3/109 m1d: Ordinary, incorporating the Freemasons, Roughmasons, Wallers, Slaytors, Pavers, Plaisterers and Bricklayers, 16 April 1638. The Library holds a microfilm copy of this item.
2. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of
absences, apprenticeship and admissions records, 1707-1739.
3. DCRO, Records of the City of Durham, Du 5/3/6-7: notes re company by-laws, 1766.
Mercers (DCG 11)
1. NCRO, SANT/GUI/DUR/2 (formerly ZAN M.17/65): minutes, 1590-1601; correspondence, orders etc., 1656-1750; bonds, freehold and birth certificates, 1664-c.1733/1764; accounts, miscellaneous receipts and papers, c.1631-1786; admissions records,
1702-1765; and call rolls, 1822-1825, 1834-1836. The Library holds photocopies of these items. These records passed from Robert Surtees, through the Surtees family, and thence to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Lists of wardens
(1590-1761), members (1590-1834), apprentices (1594-1786) and associated unqualified tradesmen (1664-1684) are published as appendices to A.H. Thompson's article (see bibliography). For this article Thompson drew upon the Mercers' papers at a time
when they were in the custody of Brigadier General Sir Herbert Conyers Surtees, who had inherited the remainder of the library of Robert Surtees: these papers are now grouped under the reference SANT/GUI/DUR/2 (formerly ZAN M.17/65).
2. NCRO,
SANT/GUI/DUR/2/1/3 (formerly ZAN M.13/F.4): minute book, 1652-1709; presented to William Longstaffe by J.R. Appleton in 1871. A bound set of photocopies of this item (ASCRef B1 MER) is filed with DCG 11.
3. DCL, SHA 21: includes copy 1632 call,
and apprenticeship and admissions records, 17th-18th centuries.
4. DCL, ADD 202: includes copy of Ordinary dated 1430.
Plumbers (DCG 12)
1. DCL, RAI 129: includes an incomplete copy of the Ordinary of the company, [22 May 1532], and 12 by-laws dated 3 May 1600; copy surrenders of franchises of freemen of the company and city by several members, 26 April 1764.
2. DCRO, Records
of the City of Durham, Du 5/1/79-184: surrenders of freedom in the company, 1763.
Saddlers and Upholsterers (DCG 13)
1. DCL, JJH 10/2: company call, 1772.
2. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of apprenticeship and admissions records, and minutes, 1659-1719.
Skinners and Glovers (DCG 14)
1. DCL, SHA 21: includes transcripts of apprenticeship records, 17th century.
2. DCL, SUR 54: includes transcripts of company records, 1675.
3. DCRO, Records of the City of Durham, Du 5/3/4-5: extracts re by-laws of various companies,
including the Skinners and Glovers, relating to admissions of freemen, 1609-1766.
Smiths (DCG 15)
DCL, ADD 200: includes extracts of Consent [Ordinary], 10 September 1610.
Weavers (DCG 16)
1. TNA DURH 3/44, 47: Ordinary, entered 24 July 1450, [post-dated and] enrolled (Close roll) 1 August 1450 (DURH 3/47 m.14d); inspeximus of the same enrolled (Patent roll), 20 September 1450 (DURH 3/44 m.10). The Library holds a microfilm copy of
these items.
2. TNA DURH 3/50.85: inquisition to enquire into a controversy between the ‘wolnewebsters’ and the ‘Chalon websters’, 10 May 1468. The Library holds a microfilm copy of
this item.
3. DCL, ADD 200: includes copy of 1450 Ordinary, and extracts from succeeding confirmations with additional ordinances, 25 April 1596 and 23 April 1600.
Anderson, J.J., “The Durham Corpus Christi play”,
Records of Early English Drama, (1981).
Beer, K., “Durham building craftsmen in the early seventeenth century”,
Durham County Local History Society Bulletin 66, (Spring 2003).
Bonney, M.,
Lordship and the urban community: Durham and its overlords 1250-1540, (1990).
Britnell, R., ed.,
Records of the borough of Crossgate, Durham, 1312-1531, Surtees Society 212 (2008).
[Carlton, C.M.], “The ancient guilds or fraternities of Durham”,
Durham Chronicle, a series of articles published from 6 September 1862, describing the history of the Durham
guilds, and then [intending to] present each company in turn: the history of the Barbers' company concludes with part 10 of the series on 14 February 1862; additional articles on the Smiths' company, among others, may follow. See
ADD 1905.
Colgrave, B.,
Durham freemen and the gilds, (1946).
Dodds, M.H., “The Bishops' boroughs”,
Archaeologia Aeliana, 3rd series, 12 (1915), 81-185.
Gibby, C.W., “Admission of freemen of the city of Durham”, [1968].
Gibby, C.W.,
Durham freemen and the guilds, (1971).
Harding, F.J.W., “The Company of Butchers and Fleshers of Durham”,
Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, vol. 11 (1958),
93-100.
Harvey, M.,
Lay religious life in late medieval Durham, (2006).
Hutchinson, W.,
The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, (1785-1794).
Longstaffe, W.H.D., ‘Is the cathedral within the city of Durham?’,
Archaeologia Aeliana, new series, vol. II (1858).
McKinnell, J.,
The sequence of the sacrament at Durham,
Paper in North Eastern History No. 8, (1998).
Morris, R.J.B.,
The City of Durham. Its town hall, guildhall and civic traditions, (1984).
Newby, “Forms of oath administered to the freemen of Durham”,
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 3rd series, vol. III (January 1097-December 1908).
Nicholson, G., “Tracing your family history in Northumberland and County Durham: apprenticeships”,
Northumberland and Durham Family History Society Journal, vol. 26, no. 2
(summer 2001).
Pegge, J.T., “Municipal history and works of a small city [Durham]”,
Journal of the Institution of Municipal Engineers, vol. 1, no. 3 (September 1909), 79-98.
Spearman, J.,
An enquiry into the ancient and present state of the county palatine of Durham, (1729).
Surtees, R.,
The history and antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 4 (1840).
Surtees Society,
Miscellanea. Vol. II. comprising I. - Two thirteenth-century assize rolls for the county of Durham, II. - North country deeds. III. - Documents relating to the visitations of the diocese and province
of York, 1407, 1423, vol. 127, (1916).
Thompson, A.H., “On a minute book and papers formerly belonging to the Mercers' company of the city of Durham”,
Archaeologia Aeliana, 3rd series, 19 (1922), 210-249.
Thompson, A.H., “The Durham Goldsmiths' Company”,
Archaeologia Aeliana, 3rd series, 19 (1922), appendix V, 249-253.
Todd, Mary, “Civic government of Durham 1780-1835” (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1924). A copy is held in Durham University Library.
Todd, Mary, “The civic government of Durham [1780-1835]”, being a collection of five articles published in the
Durham University Journal, 1931-1932.
Trueman, W., “The first mantua makers in Durham”,
Archaeologia Aeliana, new series, vol. II (1858).
Trueman, W., “The bladesmiths and cutlers of Durham”,
Archaeologia Aeliana, new series, vol. II (1858).
Whiting, C.E., “The Durham trade gilds”, parts I and II,
Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 9 part 2 (1941), 143-262, and
9 part 3 (1943), 265-416.
BarbersReference: DCG 1Dates of creation: [1600]-1962
Extent: 9 volumes; 6 files
Records of the Durham City Barbers' company, first incorporated as the Barber-surgeons and Wax-makers on 20 February 1469, and from before the mid 17th century also including the Ropers and Stringers, and known thereafter as the Barbers,
Stringers and Ropers.
The records DCG 1/1-12 were numbered by the company and this order has been preserved; DCG 1/13-15 are listed in chronological order. When the company's records were listed by C.E. Whiting in 1943 (following a lecture given to the Architectural
and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland on 14 March 1940, see bibliography), items DCG 1/1-14 were noted, and in addition, a half-bound (9" x 7") Guild Book for 1864, with only a few pages used. The location of this last volume is
unknown. In 1943 the company's records were still in the custody of the warden. In the same article Whiting also publishes a 1936 inventory of the plate of the company (Appendix III, p.395).
Records summary
Ordinary (17th-century copy), 1469.
Minutes: 1617-1627, 1647-1879, 1895-1896, 1914, 1925-1927, 1954, 1962.
Accounts: 1616-1917.
Apprenticeships: 1617-1858.
Admissions and freemen: 1615-1878.
Minutes of Freemen's Trustees: 1806-1808, 1897.
Union Hall Farm dividend accounts: 1808-1941.
Index of apprentice and freemen Barbers
Accession history
DCG 1/15: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 1/1-11, 13-14: deposited via J. Iley by T.T. Atkinson, [warden], 21 February 1952 (and see
DCG 1/12 f.107v).
DCG 1/12: deposited by L.E. Anderson, warden, 3 March 1967.
DCG 1/16: deposited as part of a larger accession from Durham Diocesan Registry (DDR 88/32), 31 March 1988.
DCG 1/1 1616-1654
Minutes with rough accounts, recording resolutions, fines, appointments of officers, admissions (1616-1620, 1623-1631, 1647-1648, 1643, 1651-1653; entered from both ends of the volume), and ordinances (1618-1627, 1647; entered from back,
reversed). Interspersed among these minutes and ordinances are a bond, an agreement, lists of freemen (1615-1642), admissions (1642-1654) and apprenticeships (1617-1650), and annual accounts (1633-1635, 1637), as listed below.
Records summaryAccounts: 1616-1620, 1624-1631, 1633-1635, 1637, 1647-1648.
Minutes: 1617-1619, 1621, 1624, 1627, 1647, 1651-1653.
Fines: 1623-1626, 1647-1648.
Admissions: 1615-1654.
Apprenticeships:
1617-1650.
Cover title
“1. 1621 October, November.”The book is written from both ends, with entries interpolated rather haphazardly. Foliation: I, [1], 2-5a, 22-27a, 40a, 60, 63-66, 67 stub, 68, 70-75, 78-79. Some leaves cut away. A
reference is made to ‘the bindinge of the boocke’ (f.78v rev.) in 1616-1617.
[Note: foliation altered subsequent to conservation. Note by MSM on inside back cover (?prior to conservation): ‘I, 79ff, really I, 37ff, as 27 (x2), 40 (x5), 5 (x7); and 6-21, 28-39, 41-59, 61-62, 69, 76-77 are
missing’. There are 30 blank stubs extant in volume post-conservation (i.e. 58 in total): the foliation does not (now) total 37. Bound into the case of the conserved volume are two melinex envelopes containing stitching and scraps.]
Paper 1 volume (58f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Limp vellum
f.4r
Bond for payment of a debt owing to the company by Andrew Corry and his son George Corry, 25 February 1620.
Agreement between Edward Cornfourth and his apprentice Jarrat Younge, concerning his terms of employment, 9 July 1624.
f.22
List of members of the company, headed ‘A not[e] of all the names of all the whole company as they weare agreade 1616’. Some names annotated with dates of admission and fines, 1615-1642. See also
f.70.
f.27a
List of admissions to freedom, with fines, 1642-1654.
f.40a
List of apprentices, with masters and dates of indentures, 1617-1650.
f.70-66 (rev.)
Ordinances, consented by ‘the whole companye’, 1617 (subscribed by 35 members); with additional ordinances made in 1618-1627, 1647. See also
f. 22.
f.65-63v (rev.)
Accounts, 1633-1635, 1637.
DCG 1/2 1655-1725, 1811, 1816
Minutes and accounts (1656, 1658-1707), naming wardens and stewards, and including resolutions, orders, fines, agreements, admissions and apprenticeship records, debts, bonds and loans. Volume also contains: ordinances (1655), lists of freemen
(1615-1673, 1698), apprenticeships (1653-1725), [gentleman freemen type] agreements prohibiting trading (1667, 1670, 1693), and vote tallies.
Records summaryAccounts: 1656, 1658-1670, 1675.
Minutes and fines: 1655-1656, 1658-1707.
Admissions: 1615-1695, 1698.
Apprenticeships: 1653-1725.
Foliation (modern): f.1-49, 50 stub, 51-84, 85 stub, 86-88, 89 stub, 90.
Paper 1 volume (90f)
Size: 29 x 20 cm
Binding: Limp vellum binding
f.1f.1
A book of orders for the Company of Chirurgeons Barbers Waxmakers Ropers and Stringers belonginge to the Citty of Durham. Title page, with later cancelled annotations by company officers, 1811 and 1816.
f.2-4
Twenty ordinances, agreed with the consent of the whole company, subscribed by 18 persons, 2 November 1655.
f.5
List of members, with dates of admission to freedom, 1615-1659; with marginal notes of consents and deaths.
f.6-13, 14v-61v, 66, 75v-82, 84
Minutes and accounts, 1656, 1658-1707.
f.13v-14
List of members, with dates of admission to freedom, some by ‘composition’, 1659-1673.
f.62-75
Apprenticeship records, and one admission to freedom (1698, f.70), usually enrolled in this book at company meetings some months after the dates of the indenture (in one instance more than a year later), 1653-1725. For continuation of these
apprenticeship records, see
DCG 1/3 f.128.
f.82v-83v
Copy agreements prohibiting the practising of any of the company's trades, or the employment of any journeyman for the same, made upon their admission, between the company and the following: Mr Thomas Ovington of Durham City, druggist (1667); Mr
William Dent of Durham City, apothecary (1670); Thomas Ovington son of Thomas Ovington, late of Durham City, druggist (1693). (A vote tally 13 to 8 against a ‘Mr Ovington's breakfast’ is recorded at f.90v).
f.90v-end-papers
Vote tallies, many undated and without recording the point at question.
DCG 1/3 1670-1808
Accounts, 1670-1807, and apprenticeship records, 1725-1751 (Part 1, reversed - ff.245v-115v). Minutes, 1690-1808, and admissions records, 1748-1808 (Part 2 - ff.1-115). Volume also contains: copy agreements, subscriptions, orders (1680,
1684-1685). Admissions, and to a lesser extent apprenticeships, are also recorded within the minutes and accounts between 1670 and 1808.
Records summaryAccounts: 1670-1807.
Minutes: 1676, 1680, 1684-85, 1690-1808.
Admissions: 1670-1808.
Apprenticeships: 1703-04, 1725-51.
Foliation (modern): f.1-37, 38b stub, 39-45, 46 stub, 47-101, 102c stub, 103, 104d, 105-111, 112b, 113-130, 131e, 132, 133b, 142, 143b, 144-147, 148b, 149-161, 162c, 163c, 164-166, 167d, 168-171, 172c, 173-178, 179 stub, 180-245. Some leaves cut
away.
[MSM note: 245f., really 268f. as 38, 112, 133, 143, and 148 (x2), 102, 162, 163, and 172 (x3), 104, and 167 (x4), and 131 (x5).]
Paper 1 volume (268f)
Size: 33 x 21 cm
Binding: Full-calf; brass fittings
Digitised material for Durham City Barbers Guild Records, 1670-1808 - DCG 1/3
f.245v (rev.)
Copy agreement prohibiting the practising of any of the company's trades, or the employment of any journeyman for the same, made upon his admission between the company and Mr Pexall Padman of Durham City, attorney-at-law, 13 March 1676.
‘PP’ seal of Pexall Padman.
f.244v-224v, 223v, 222v-218, 217v-130v (rev.)
Accounts, naming wardens, noting admissions to freedom, fines, interest and capital upon bonds, charitable gifts and loans, 1670-1807.
f.224 (rev.)
Records of apprenticeships: John Robson to John Maugham, 1704; James King to John Ladler, 1703.
f.223 (rev.)
Subscriptions for a new banner, 25 May 1788: 32 names.
f.218 (rev.)
Records of admissions in 1713: Nicholas Fenwicke esquire, Mr Robert Brass, Mr John Powell.
f.128-115v (rev.)
Records of apprenticeships, 1725-1751, with one admission record (see f.128 below), continuing on from
DCG 1/2 f.75.
End-papers facing f.1
Fragmentary list of (amended) charges incidental to the admittance of a freeman, including sums for the admittance and fine, stamp, banner, drink and officers, [eighteenth century].
f.1
Order prohibiting taking apprentices over twenty years of age, £20 fine, 6 February 1680 quarter meeting. Twenty-three signatories.
f.1v-2
Order that no trial employment period exceed one month, £3 19s 10d fine, unanimous consent, 6 May 1680 quarter meeting. 40 signatories.
f.2v-3
Order prohibiting practising trade on Sundays, excepting surgeons upon necessity, and reducing the existing fine for said offence from 20s to 13s 4d, 17 November 1684 quarter meeting. 32 signatories.
f.3v-4v
Order [re-]establishing tariff of fines for non-attendance at meetings (head, 6s 8d; quarter, 3s 4d; side, 12d), 2 November 1685 head meeting. 57 signatories.
f.4v-115v
Minutes and admissions records, noting evictions, fines, admissions to freedom, orders, subscriptions of [new] members to the ordinances, names of wardens and stewards, attendance, agreements etc., 1690-1808.
f.88-99, 103-105, 106v-115
Records of admissions. Subscriptions of newly admitted freemen to the orders of the company, 1748-1808; such subscriptions hitherto recorded within the minutes (see above).
f.100-102
Copy agreement prohibiting shaving and the dressing of wigs and hair on Sundays, (23 signatories), 19 November 1778; with requirement for future freemen to subscribe to the same. [Original deed] deposited with John Lambert of Durham St Giles,
gentleman.
DCG 1/4 [1801]
An act for dividing and inclosing certain moors commons, or waste lands, and two parcels of ground called The Intack or Cow Pasture and Shaw Wood, within the several townships of Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert, and in the
several manors of Chester and Lanchester, in the County Palatine of Durham; and for extinguishing all Right of Common on certain inclosed intercommon lands, within the same townships. Disbound copy (defective, lacking p.75-76) of Mr Thomas
Robson, warden. See SC+ 02215.
Paper 1 volume (incomplete) (74p)
Size: 35 x 22 cm
DCG 1/5 1801
An abstract of so much of an Act, as relates to the Resident Freemen of the City of Durham. Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert enclosure Act, see
DCG 1/4. Paper and string binding.
Paper 1 volume (24p)
Size: 24 x 16 cm
Binding: Brown paper wrappers
DCG 1/6 1754-1799
Orders, with copy 1469 Ordinary, and an abstract of the laws governing the city guilds.
Records summaryOrders: [1469, 1680], 1754, 1758, 1761, 1783, 1786, 1789-92, 1794, 1799.
Paper 9f
f.1-3
Twelve ordinances renewed and declared on 6 May 1680, [late 18th-century] copy.
f.3-5v
Orders, dated: 1754, 1758, 1761, 1783, 1786, 1789-92, 1794.
f.6
‘Abstract of the Laws of the Guilds’, 6 February 1783.
f.6v-7v
[Late 18th-century] copy of Ordinary, ‘from the Old Original’ dated 20 February 1469, concerning election of wardens, performance of craft play at Corpus Christi, fines on entry to the trade, rates for barbers,
bringing of disputes before wardens, etc. Subscribed by [?copyist], Roger Morris Archibold. For another copy, see
DCG 1/13.
f.8-9
Orders confirming resolutions first made by the Mercers' company; appointing Mr William Mather and Mr Michael Stoet (succeeded by Mr John Bland junior) committee men; establishing a fund for the purpose, with 19 subscribers, February 1799. See
also
DCG 1/3 f.138v, and
DCG 11/11 f.87.
DCG 1/7 1720-1836
Admissions records, 1720-1836, receipts, and minutes, 1798-1805. The minutes run (reversed) from f.64v-61.
Foliation (original on verso to f.43v, modern on recto throughout): I, 1-22, 23 stub, 24-43, 44 stub, 45-52, 55-65. Folia 47-60 are blank. Some leaves cut away.
Paper; parchment 1 volume (66f)
Size: 33 x 21 cm
Binding: Vellum
f.1v-46
Admissions records, 1720-1836. Several slips of stamped paper and parchment intermixed and pasted to the face and dorse of each page; some bear the signature of an inspecting officer, the last such inspection on 3 June 1856. Stamps: 1720-1784, 2s
(and 2s 3d);1784-1804, 4s; 1806-1836, £1. Comparison with the minutes (
DCG 1/3) indicates the stamped certificates have been pasted-in [probably after 1752] in an incorrect order, following new style dating, whereas the
certificates are in fact dated in the old style.
Facing f.65v
Two stamped receipts, for crimson lustring from William Shields, and for painting the banner from Robert Crozier junior, 1788. Pasted to inside back cover.
f.64v-61 (rev.)
Minutes, 1798-1805.
DCG 1/8 25 November 1806-31 January 1941
Company accounts (reversed), minutes, and tax correspondence (3 items). Durham City Freemen's Trust minutes, and Union Hall Farm dividend accounts. Cover title
“8. Barbers Company”
Records summaryMinutes: 1812.
Accounts: 1807-1917.
Union Hall Farm dividend accounts: 1808-1941.
Minutes of Freemen's Trustees: 1806-1808, 1897.
Foliation: f.1-54, 56-67, 68 paste-in, 73 paste-in, 74-101, 105-139. Folia 44v-67v, and 74r-84r are blank. Some leaves cut away.
Paper 1 volume (139f)
Size: 32 x 21 cm
Binding: Parchment-covered boards
End-papers facing f.1
Copy letter from Thomas Keogh, Inland Revenue, [to John Ward esquire], waiving stamp duties upon admissions into the Durham City companies, 12 January 1857. Subscribed by Thomas Atkinson, warden. See also
f.68 and
f.73.
f.1-6
Copy minutes of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, acting under the Act for the division of Framwellgate (and Witton Gilbert) Moor, and concerning Union Hall Farm, belonging to the resident freemen, 25 November 1806-1 February 1808: appointment
of new trustees; accounts of construction works, the tenant Robert Hodgson's reduced rent agreed by arbitration. Meetings held at ‘the Justice Room in Durham’.
f.7-10, 11-37v, 38v-43
Union Hall Farm biannual dividend statements, 1808-1809, 1811, 1814-1818, 1820-1826, 1828, 1833-1834, 1844, 1849, 1856-1858, 1869-1874, 1897-1899, 1926-1941: lists of the resident freemen of Durham City belonging to the company, with sums of
‘moor rent’, ‘moor money’ or ‘farm rent’ paid to each of them from the rent of Union Hall Farm, and some notes of other disbursements, up until the farm
was sold to the Government in 1941. After 1899 resident freemen of the company are numbered but not named. Freemen's addresses are recorded 1874, 1897-1898. Wardens, and some deaths, also noted.
f.10v
Minutes of company meeting, 25 July 1812: by unanimous consent (but not subscribed), company's share of rents issuing from Union Hall Farm will be used to defray, as the need arises, costs arising from defending the freemen’s right to the Sands,
the grassmen or other their representatives. For rents so allocated, see 1816-1817 (f.12-14); see also 1836 (f.25v-26).
f.25v-26
Account of subscriptions of resident freemen of the company towards establishing the freemen's claim to the Sands, 1 January 1836.
f.38
[Copy] minutes of meeting of the Freemen's Trustees and Wardens, at the mayor's chamber, 25 October 1897: herbage of the Sands leased to the mayor and Corporation of Durham, reserving to the freemen the right ‘to hold
their Easter races, and to let off ground for a temporary theatre, circus or other place of entertainment, at any time’.
f.68 (paste-in)
Letter from James Groves, Surveyor of Taxes, Durham, to Mr George Hopper, warden, stating that admissions to the company should be liable to stamp duty, unstamped since 1839, 28 November [18]56.
f.73 (paste-in)
Letter from Thomas [Keogh], Inland Revenue, Somerset House, to George Hopper, [warden], responding to report of Durham Surveyor of Taxes, requiring list of 21 admissions [?since 1839] (overleaf) be stamped, 3 December 1856. See also,
end-papers facing f.1.
End-papers facing f.139v (rev.)
Barbers & Ropers account book. Table of admission fees, 8 February 1830. Vote tally: White v Dixon. Rough account calculations.
f.139v (rev.)
Two tables of admission fees, undated.
f.139-84v (rev.)
Accounts, 1807-1917: naming wardens, noting admissions to freedom, fines; countersigned, 1832-1838; also with account and resolutions re Union Hall Farm, 1808 (f.138v).
DCG 1/9 1811-1878
Minutes of admissions; with undertakings by newly admitted freemen to abide by the rules of the company, until 1829, from which date the candidate's approval in three guilds is noted instead. Countersigned by [Durham] Tax Surveyors,
1813-1856.
Foliation: f.1-64. Folia 28-64 are blank. Folia 65-96 have been cut away. Rough calculations of admission fees on endpapers.
Paper 1 volume (96f)
Size: 34 x 21 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
DCG 1/10 1747-1818
Minutes, 1749-1818, vote tallies, and (reversed) apprenticeship records, 1747-1763.
Foliation: f.1-86, 90-100. Some leaves cut away.
Paper 1 volume (100f)
Size: 21 x 16 cm
Binding: Vellum
End-papers-f.2; and (rev.) end-papers-f.100
Vote tallies, 1751-1755, 1759-1772, 1774, 1780.
f.2-95
Minutes, 1749-1818, recording absences and attendances, appointment of wardens and stewards; sometimes noting fines, orders and resolutions, deaths. Receipt pasted in at f.93.
f.99v-95v (rev.)
Apprenticeship records, 1747-1763, occasionally noting fines due by masters for absences and taking such apprentices out of turn.
DCG 1/11 1766-1856
Apprentice book from 1766: recording apprenticeships, 1766-1856. Apprenticeship fees recorded in some detail for the period 1766-1769; cancellations, usually indicating curtailments, some annotated; some notices of
death; some records of resolutions or notes concerning turning over of apprentices.
Foliation: f.1-44. Folia 21v-44v are blank.
Paper 1 volume (44f)
Size: 21 x 17 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
End-papers-f.1
Vote tallies; rough undated accounts.
f.2-21
Apprenticeship records, 1766-1858.
DCG 1/11A [1927]
Note (loose, enclosed at f.10) recording two calls [at the guilds] of Lawrence Emmerson Anderson of 5 New Elvet, Durham, February and May 1927.
1f
End-papers facing f.44v (rev.)
Table of admission fees, undated.
DCG 1/12 1818-1962
Minutes, 1818-1879, 1895-1896, 1914, 1925, 1927, 1954, 1962; with printed notice of 1836 resolutions adopted by the Durham City freemen.
Foliation: f.1-108. Folia 67v-107r are blank.
Paper 1 volume (108f)
Size: 21 x 17 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
End-papers
Vote tallies. Rough calculations.
f.1-67, 108v
Minutes, 1818-1877, 1879, 1895-1896, 1914, 1925, 1927, 1954, 1962: recording absences and attendances, appointment of wardens and stewards; turn overs and exclusion of apprentices; fines, orders and resolutions, deaths.
DCG 1/12 f.23A [13 x 20] April 1836
Printed notice of resolutions adopted by the Durham City freemen concerning the Sands, 13 April 1836; the meeting of the different Trades consequent to ‘alterations made in the Municipal Corporation’.
Paper 1f
Binding: paste-in
f.107v
Note by T.T. Atkinson recording the deposit, via [H.C.] Ferens [clerk to the Freemen's Trustees], of 11 [other] books [of the company] at Durham University [Library], Friday 4 [January / April / July] 1952.
DCG 1/13 1600 x 1700
Language:
Latin
Seventeenth-century copy of company Ordinary, dated 20 February 1469, concerning election of wardens, performance of craft play at Corpus Christi, fines on entry to the trade, rates for barbers, bringing of disputes before wardens, etc. Fourteen
blank parchment tags; seals [never] applied. Illegible erasures at foot.
Parchment 1m
Other copies:
DCG 1/6 f.6v-7v: [late 18th-century] copy. Printed: Appendix VI, “The Durham Trade Guilds” by C.E. Whiting,
Transactions of the
Architectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, vol. IX (1943), p.408-410. A copy of this transcription is filed with the company's records.
2. DCL RAI 129 p.107: includes transcripts of the by-laws of the company, undated [1469].
3. DCL SHA 21: includes a transcript of 1469 Ordinary.
DCG 1/13A 20th-century
Language:
English
Incomplete manuscript translation of DCG 1/13.
Paper 2f
DCG 1/14 [6] August 1719
Order reviving an ancient ordinance of the company prohibiting barbering on Sundays. Signed and sealed by [46] freemen and widows of freemen. Text and signatures much worn, some illegible.
Parchment; textile tape 1m
DCG 1/15 1772
Company call, listing the names of the freemen, places of abode; a third column headed ‘whether signed or not’ has been used to record which are freeholders.
[Note: found, with a cache of 1771-1772 company calls, interpolated among the papers of C.M. Carlton deposited by W.A. Bramwell in 1937. Other company calls in the same cache explicitly describe non-signing freemen as freeholders: the inference
is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.]
Paper 2f
Found within ADD 1905.
DCG 1/16 1729
Wooden box with hinged lid, formerly with lock (the keyhole now filled); the lid is carved with the inscription: ‘T. Reede, H.W., 1729’.
Thomas Reede was head warden of the Barber's company in 1729. The box may have been commissioned for or then adopted by the Barbers as their company ‘box’ for safeguarding documents and money, a small fee for the
carrying of which on public occasions is frequently entered in the annual accounts.
1 item
Size: 40 x 26 x 27 cm
Former reference: DDR/EA/RGN/2 (part).
Barkers and TannersReference: DCG 2Dates of creation: 1612-1656
Extent: 1 volume
Records of the Barkers and Tanners company, or Barkers and Tanners of Leather.
The original Ordinary is lost, but its date is stated in a 1680 account ( ‘charter of ord[e]rs’, NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/1 p.182) to have been 7 April 1547; a 17th-century copy of this confirmation of the company's
ordinances is among the Cookson (Meldon) MSS at Northumberland Record Office (ZCK 1/14). Reference is also made to set of orders dated 17 April 1599, and a confirmation of the company orders by Bishop Cosin in 1669 (see below), also described as a
‘new incorporacion of the ... Society or inlarge of the priviledges thereof’ (NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/1 p.68).
A receipt for the company's muniments and stock, upon their delivery to the incoming wardens in 1680, lists: ‘[t]wo peices of plate, one burying cloth, eight escoutchions, three books of orders & other entryes, two
black boxes with sev[er]all writeings in them, vi[delice]t, a copy of the charter of ord[e]rs dated 7° April 1° Ed[war]dri sexti & the charter itselfe und[e]r seale, a copy of a decree dated 3° April 1637: a certificate from Carlisle, two
acquittances from Jo[hn] Hall maior, a [?sub poena] out o[f] th[e] sessions, a note of charges in 1637° vic[ecomitis] warr[ant] ser[ving an] attachm[en]t in Canc[ellaria], a petition of William Hutchinson, a confirmac[i]on of ord[e]rs und[e]r the
episcopal seale dated 20° Aug[us]ti 20° Car[olus] S[e]c[un]di, certaine ord[e]rs in p[ar]chm[en]t dated 17° April 1599, a petition of Lanclot Bainbrige & others, copy of a decree in Chancery 28° Martii 1670’. In 1681, 7s 2d was spent on
commissioning a ‘com[m]on seale for the publiq[u]e use’ of the company: ‘an oake tree proper fructed and the circumscripc[i]on following vi[delice]t Sigillu[m] co[rpor]e corarior[um]
civitat[is] Dunelm[ensis] &c.’ (NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/1 p.194). [Compare the arms of the Newcastle upon Tyne Barkers and Tanners company: argent on a mount in base an oak tree proper, on a chief azure a bull's face argent between two
fountains.]
The antiquarian Thomas Woodness, writing in the early 19th century, consulted a volume of the company's records commencing in 1603, but which is not now extant. He also transcribes a set of ordinances of the company dated 25 March 1656 (DCL ADD
202 p.160-168), which date coincides with commencement of a new volume of the company's records (NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/1; but not contained within). Whiting notes two books of this company [DCG 2/1] in the library's possession in 1943.
Records summaryMinutes: 1612-1656.
Accounts: 1630-1636.
Apprentices: 1617-1651.
Freemen and Admissions: 1612-1653.
Index of apprentice and freemen Barkers
Accession history
DCG 2/1: bought, Marks & Co., before 1943.
DCG 2/1 1612-1656
Minutes and accounts, 26 February 1612-18 March 1656. Formal accounts entered for the period 1630-1636 only. Apprenticeships are enrolled separately, while admissions are interspersed throughout (see below).
Foliation: formerly two discrete books, the edges of the pages of both books then cut down and bound into one volume: a note on f.31 records 1s 4d disbursed ‘for this booke’ in 1623.
Book 1 original ink
pagination: [1-2], 3, [4], 5-20, 21 (x2), 22-55. Modern foliation: 1 (flyleaf), 2-29.
Book 2 original ink pagination: 56-60, blank thereafter. Modern foliation: 30-82, 83 (flyleaf). Blank folia: 1, 3v, 5v, 24v, 41v, 57v, 59v, 67v, 68v, 73, 78r,
82v, 83.
Paper 1 volume (83f)
Size: 29 x 19 cm
Binding: Vellum
Former references: MS 942.81D9T2; ADD 203.
Printed:
Durham civic memorials, edited by C.E. Whiting (Surtees Society vol. 160, 1952), pp 71-175.
Digitised material for Durham Barkers and Tanners Guild Records, 1612-1656 - DCG 2/1 f.2-5
“The booke of all the meatinges of the occupacion and Traid of Tanners with certayn paynes and orders renewed allowed and agreed upon ... the xxvjth [26] day of Feabruarie A[nn]o D[omi]ni 1611”. 16 ordinances, agreed
by the majority; confirmed (f.4-5) at a meeting on the Sands, 49 signatories, 27 March 1612.
f.6-24, 26-27, 28v-29v
Minutes, 30 June 1614-28 September 1624, noting: presentments and fines; orders; jurymen and officers; receipts for Agreements and admissions; disbursements for charity, assessments, at meetings and social functions, administration, litigation
etc. Meetings are occasionally entered or bound out of chronological order.
f.9v, 17
Admission records, 1613, 1618-1619.
f.25r, 28r
Apprenticeship records, 1617-1629. Not in chronological order.
f.27v, 28v
Lists of company members: 1624, 49 names; 1612, 55 names, listed in order of admission. Some names cancelled [upon death].
f.30
Act book of the Tanners of the City of Durham, commencing 1623. The title, in Latin, written in two hands: the later insertion perhaps reproduces script lost when the folio was cut down to size.
f.31-75v, 77v, 82
Minutes, 29 December 1623-18 March 1656, and accounts, 1630-1636 only, noting: presentments and fines; orders; jurymen and officers; receipts for Agreements and admissions; disbursements for charity, assessments (with some lists of members), at
meetings and social functions, administration and litigation etc. Meetings are occasionally entered or bound out of chronological order.
f.32-36, 38-41r, 43, 45-46, 48, 51-53, 55, 58-63, 65v-67r, 69v-72
Admission records, 1624-1653.
f.76, 78v-81
Apprenticeship records, 1630-1643; 1646-1649; 1651.
f.78, 81v
Lists of company members: 5 January 1644, 54 names; c.1643, 46 names. Absences and deaths noted.
ButchersReference: DCG 3Dates of creation: 1579-1845, 1893
Extent: 7 volumes; 4 files (54f)
Records of the Butchers company, formerly known as the Butchers and Fleshers' company.
The first Ordinary for this company is dated 14 June 1403, the earliest extant for any Durham guild, and is found transcribed within Mickleton and Spearman MS 49 (p.179-180): the existence of an ordinary of this date is also recorded by Herald
Richard St George in his 1615 visitation. Records of company wardens active in the Crossgate borough court records can be found from 1503. A second Ordinary or ‘Association’ dated 22 June 1520, transcribed from a copy
then in the company's records by Thomas Woodness, survives in DCL ADD 201 (p.251). In its arms, hanging in the Guildhall, the company claims incorporation from 3 James I (1605-1606), but this date is probably derived from the royal charter of
incorporation granted by James I to the London Company of Butchers in 1605.
Records summary[Ordinaries, 1403, 1520]; Ordinances, 1579, 1660-1809.
Minutes, attendance and accounts: 1579, 1615-1717, 1733-1845.
(Formal) accounts: 1619-1630, 1641-1656, 1693-1707.
Apprenticeships:
1603-1839.
Freemen and admissions: undated, 1644-1839.
An index of freemen and apprentice Butchers is not yet available.
Accession history
DCG 3/1-8, 10-16: deposited by J. Nelson, warden, 26 November 1966.
DCG 3/9: found among manuscripts for a series of articles on each of the Durham guilds by C.M. Carlton, with records transcripts and notes; deposited by W.A. Bramwell, 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 3/1 1579, 1615-1701, 1714
Minutes and accounts.
Records summaryOrdinances: 1579.
Minutes and accounts: 1579, 1615-1630, 1634, 1637-1648, 1650-1690, 1692-1693, 1700-1701, 1714.
Accounts (formal): 1619, 1625-1627, 1630, 1641, 1643-1645, 1647-1649, 1651,
1653-1656, 1726-1841.
Apprenticeships: 1603-1660.
Freemen and admissions: undated, 1644, 1646-1647, 1650, 1652, 1659.
Foliation: f.17, 66, 68 (stubs); 75 blank.
Note: the disorder of the original sequence of recording of entries has been further disturbed by the removal of the volume from its binding, and subsequent jumbling of gatherings and damage to folia. Much of the original order has been restored,
using contextual evidence, sewing marks and water staining etc. However, as parts of this volume still remain in the possession of the depositors, (photocopies of which are available for consultation), until these original folia are reunited the
ordering of this volume must be considered as interim and necessarily incomplete. Some of the volume may have been bound reversed (‘the other side of the booke’ f.40). Surtees' mark is found on f.1.
Paper 1 volume
Size: 30 x 19.5 cm
Binding: Disbound
f.1-23
Minutes and accounts, 1615-1620, 1623, 1625-1627, 1629-1630, 1639, 1641-1648, 1650-1653: orders, officers, admissions, fines, receipts and disbursements.
2v
Assessment, July 1615, concerning certain suits [at law]: 17 names.
f.4v
List of members of the company, 28 June 1659: 49 names.
f.11
Assessment, 1639: 22 names.
f.16v
Assessment, 3 February 1654/5: 29 names.
f.23
Settlements of litigation re infractions and fines and London litigation ensuing, 1657, 1675.
f.24-25v
Apprenticeship records, 1653-1660.
f.26
Minutes, 1681-1682: fines, receipts.
f.27-67r
Minutes and accounts, 1653-1674: fines, officers, receipts and disbursements, orders, charity.
f.41v
List of 32 consenting members for the defence of a suit, Ralph Hopper and WIlliam Hopper v George Rewell, re payment of toll, [?1657].
f.67v-73, 76v-77r, 85r
Apprenticeship records, 1603-1653.
f.67v
Minutes, 4 October 1681: absences, fines.
f.74r
Minutes, 28 June 1642: fines.
f.74v
Minutes, 4 October 1654: absences.
f.77v-79r
Minutes, 1645-1646: fines, officers; with a renunciation of the trade by Robert Foster within the city and county of Durham, ‘[t]he w[hi]ch I doe for the good of William Foster my brother’.
f.79v-82v
Admissions records, 1646-1647, 1650, 1652, and undated.
f.83v-84r
Minutes, 1675-1676: absences, fines.
f.86r-87r
Account, 1645.
f.88r
Minutes, 1650: fines, absences.
f.89v-91r
Apprenticeship records, 1646-1649.
f.91v-115v
Minutes and accounts, 1617-1630, 1637-1640, 1642-1646: fines, officers, receipts and disbursements, orders, deaths, debts.
f.93v
List of company members, annotated re deaths, payments, and absences, the last eight names appear to have been added c. 2 April 1644: 48 names.
f.97v
Assessment, 2 January 1637: 19 names.
f.100r
Assessment towards a suit, Hugh Wright v the company, 29 August 1634: 20 names.
f.101v
Assessment towards supporting Thomas Wilyamson of York in a suit against Gabriel Clark, [1st] prebend of Durham, ‘for a mesel[t] swine not lawfull vittell’, 1 July 1628.
f.105v
Assessment for Mr Martyn for licence ‘for kiling no flesh this lent tyme’, 26 January 1623: 15 names, 12d. See also
f.111v.
f.105v
Minutes, 1714: fine, absence.
f.109v, 110v, 112
Assessments re Chancery suit against George Rowle[y], 2 April 1620 and 21 August 1620, and against George Rowle and William Dawson, 8 August 1619: 23 names.
f.111v
Assessments for Mr Martyn, 10 March 1620: 10 names, 12d. See also
f.105v.
f.116v
Order re fines for misuse, abuse or falsification of the trade, 13 January 1657: 30 names.
f.117v
Seven ordinances, 17 November 1579, annotated with revisions to fines in 17th-century hand.
f.119-140
Minutes, 1675-1681, 1683-1690, 1692-1693, 1700-1701: fines, orders, charitable disbursements.
DCG 3/2 1660-1809
Order book, also containing: minutes of fines and assessments, appointments and company annual account balances; apprenticeships and admissions records; a table of admissions fees; vote tallies. Cover title
“Book of Orders.”
Records summaryOrders: 1660-1809.
Minutes: 1675-1676, 1711, 1717.
Accounts (annual balances only): 1660-1707.
Appointments: 1660-1707.
Apprenticeships: 1660-1785.
Admissions:
1662-1787.
Corporation order: 1728.
Foliation (modern): f.2 stub; f.64-74, 119-128, 134, 178-193, 210-252, 261-263, 265 blank.
Paper 1 volume (266f)
Size: 30 x 19.5 cm
Binding: Full-calf; brass fittings
Digitised material for Durham City Butchers Guild Records, 1660-1809 - DCG 3/2
End-papers facing f.1
Vote tally, 3 October 1749.
f.1-3
Order, confirming all the orders and tariffs of fines recorded ‘in this booke’, signed and sealed by company members, 26 March 1661: (more than) 62 signatories. One of the last extant signatures and seals is that
of William Rippon, (admitted 7 March 1665), indicating new freemen continued to sign this order for some years after its entry; additional sheets of paper were perhaps cut from later in the book and pasted in as required. Order reiterated at
f.253.
[Note: the order is recorded on one of two loose folia bearing seals and signatures on both face and dorse; the folia can not be placed at any other point in this volume with any certainty. The preceding orders having been copied into this new
order book, the company then confirmed these orders, affixing their seals accordingly. Both folia were found together, in the bundle of papers that now, reconstituted, forms DCG 3/1. However, the watermark (‘P DA’) on
f.1 matches those of this volume. Folio 1 is a stub; fragments of paper still attached by binder's glue to the face and dorse of folio 3 indicate preceding and following folia are lacking; f.2 stub bears fragments of signatures, also suggesting a
further page of members' signatures and seals intervened between folia 1 and 3, and ink blotches on the face of f.2 correspond to those found on f.1v.]
f.5-63
‘The orders to be generally observed and kept by the whole Company upon the fines to be imposed’, dated 17 May 1660, with new orders continually entered until 1809: 66 orders, certain of which are numbered 1-49.
Some of the later orders are more of the character of administrative resolutions rather than company ordinances. Orders 1-38 (to 1699) are duplicated on the same page in a hand corresponding to that which begins to occur in this book in 1726. A
1673 order, prohibiting the turning over of apprentices to the widow of a company member, is cancelled and not duplicated in the later hand. Orders are annotated, amended, and supplemented in later hands (see f.29 for 1717 revision, for example),
with some cross references to subsequent ordinances; evidence on f.34 and 53v indicate such orders and revisions were put to a vote of the company.
f.23
Minute of a fine for an infraction of the 19th order re ‘unlawfull victuall or corrupt flesh, <or stoping>’, entered on this folio, 11 January 1676.
f.37
Minute of a fine for an infraction of the 33rd order prohibiting slaughtering within the city, [late 17th century].
f.41
Order [of the Corporation of the City of Durham] regulating funerals within the city and suburbs of Durham, to come into effect from 1 January 1697.
For other copies of this order in other Guilds' books, see
DCG 4/1
f.137, and
DCG 5/1 f.1.
f.61
Table of admission fees, [c. 1800].
f.75-118
Admissions records, 11 March 1662-2 October 1787.
The entry of Thomas Carlisle on 20 December 1765 is annotated, ‘N.B. this is the first entered in the New Book’.
f.129-133
Copy orders and by-laws of the Corporation of Durham concerning the Durham Guilds, 8 November 1728: regulating the admission of freemen to curb unfree trading within the city, instituting, among other ordinances, four guild meetings per annum
‘at the Guild-hall or Tool-booth’, on the first Mondays after the Martinmas, Candlemas, May day, Lamas; subscribed by 214 names. The last signature is that of Anthony Potts, (admitted, 4 October 1791).
f.135-177
Apprenticeship records, 8 March 1660-1 January 1785. Some entries annotated re deaths, curtailments, turnovers.
f.194-209
Minutes of appointments and wardens' accounts, 1660-1707, (1711), annually noting only the appointment of wardens and stewards, cash balances, and company property delivered over to the succeeding wardens.
For the full (loose) accounts for
1693-1694, 1697, 1699, 1704, 1707, see
DCG 3/3/1-6.
f.253-260
Order, confirming all the orders recorded ‘in this Booke’, signed and sealed by company members, 21 March 1721: 269 signatories. The last signature is that of Thomas Adams (admitted, 7 February 1820). Order
reiterates that at
f.1.
f.264
Minute of an assessment concerning a legal action brought by Mr Thomas Wright against several of the company for drawing blood [slaughtering] in the street, 28 April 1675. (No list of subscribers appended.)
f.266r
Memoranda noting the dates upon which four members opened shop, 1691-1692.
f.266v
[Attendance] list of 19 [company members], 13 November 1717.
End-papers facing f.266
Tallies of payments of 20s ( ‘C.S.’ ) and 6d ( ‘G.D.’ ).
DCG 3/3 1693-1707
Loose accounts, found bundled with DCG 3/1. The wardens' receipt therein for 1696 refers to ‘the Roule of the Accompts upon a file’ (f.207), which roll had been cited in receipts since 1694: these six surviving
accounts all show signs of having been pinned through at the top left corner, and their filing [on a string or wire] in such a way may account for their poor state of preservation.
Paper 11f
Formerly part of papers with reference: DCG 3/1.
DCG 3/3/1 [29 September] 1693
Account.
1f
DCG 3/3/2 [29 September] 1694
Account.
2f
DCG 3/3/3 [29 September 1697]
Account. Date drawn from
DCG 3/2.
2f
DCG 3/3/4 [29 September] 1699
Account.
2f
DCG 3/3/5 [27 December] 1704
Account. Date drawn from
DCG 3/2.
2f
DCG 3/3/6 [9 December 1707]
Account. Date drawn from
DCG 3/2.
2f
DCG 3/4/1-37 1700-1761
Admissions certificates, stamped, for the following persons, (where lacking, admission dates have been drawn from DCG 3/2): Marke Shafto esquire [1700 x 1702]; William Swalwell [1702]; Ralph Hutton [1702]; John Alle[n] [?Richard Allen, son of
John Allen] [1703]; John Cuthbert esquire [1703]; Samuel Ayton (1720); George Crow (1721); Peter Hastings (1721); Thomas Willson (1722); Fragment [1720s]; Thomas Harramond [1727]; Mr Mitford Henry (1727); Thomas Ovington (1728); Thomas Hutchinson
(1728); George Wheatley (1728); Bryan Norton (1733); William Lyn (1734); Edward Davison (1735); Thomas Pearson (1739); Thomas Woodness (1743); William Mowbray (1745); Mr Ralph Harrison (1747); William Jackson (1747); John Newton (1747); Robert
Shafto esquire (1754); William Pearson (1754); Philip Hazzard (1758); George Wheatley [1761]; William Wright (1761); Lancelot Salkeld (1761); Thomas Newby (1761); Thomas Wild (1761); John Lambton (1761); Hugh Hopper (1761); John Middleton (1761);
Thomas Chipchase [1761]; John Hobson [1761].
Paper; parchment 36f; 1m
Former reference: DCG 3/7.
DCG 3/5 1726-1841, 1893
Annual accounts.
Inscribed on front paste-down by Michael Forster, warden 1725-1726, and by George Neasham, [?warden] in 1893.
Foliation (modern): f.1-4 blank; f.64 cut down; f.76-77 loose.
Paper 1 volume (100f); 1f enclosed
Size: 16 x 39.5 cm
Binding: Vellum
Former reference: DCG 3/3.
DCG 3/5 f.48/A [c. 1771]
Slip of paper containing 27 names
Paper 1f
DCG 3/6 1733-1781, 1893
Absence book, recording company members absent from and tardily attending quarter and head meetings, and, between 13 January 1778 and 26 June 1781 noting only those members present: absentees number from about sixty to more than one hundred;
those present 1778-1781 number between four and nineteen. Also noted (throughout, unless otherwise stated): fines, receipts of fines, and presentments for infractions; appointments of officers; orders (f.40v, 42v); some members' abodes; turn-overs
of apprentices (f.75, 87v).
Absentees' names are usually ordered by date of admission to the company, newly admitted members's names appearing at the end of the list upon their first absence, and the decease of formerly perennial absentees
might be inferred from their disappearance from the list. cover title “Absent Book”
Paper 1 volume (92f)
Size: 21 x 32.5 cm
Binding: Vellum
Former reference: DCG 3/4.
End-papers facing f.1
Vote tallies, including a count for and against the Races, 18th-century.
Inscribed by G[eorge] N[easham], 1893.
f.1-2
Two lists of sixteen (2s) and twenty (1s) subscribers to the Races, each list subscribed with minutes, dated 27 June 1738 and 26 June 1739 respectively, ordering such monies to be returned to the subscribers when the warden has sufficient funds
at his disposal.
f.92v (rev.)
Order indicting Richard Peverley for selling flesh on Christmas Eve, and underwriting costs of litigation, 11 January 1742: subscribed by 27 names.
End-papers facing f.92v
List of ten names under the heading ‘Dividing’.
DCG 3/7 1 August 1765-18 November 1839
Apprentices enrolment book.
Foliation (modern): f.14-61 blank; f.55-58 stubs. For folio 55 (blank) see wrapper for
DCG 3/4.
Also contains loose items:
Paper 1 volume (61f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
Former reference: DCG 3/6.
Cover
‘Apprentices Enrolled’.
DCG 3/7 f.10/A [?before 2 November 1795]
Memorandum concerning the apprenticeship of Anthony Walker.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/7 f.12/A [after 14 September 1828]
[Extract from parish register] recording the birth of Miles Swinburn, son of George Swinburn, 21 September 1814.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 1765-1839
Admissions book. Cover title
“Double twelve [pence] stamps for ... [?freemen]”
Foliation: f.8, 13, 60 loose; f.36-60 blank.
Paper 1 volume (60f)
Size: 34 x 23 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
Former reference: DCG 3/9.
DCG 3/8 f.14/A [c. 1809]
Memorandum re 1792 admissions and stamps of John Harrison, Ralph Wright, and Thomas Brown.
Note: date drawn from next stamp inspector signature on f.24.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 f.20/A 2 May 1800
Parish register transcript recording the baptism of Robert Crow at Sunderland, 25 February 1777.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 f.22/A 10 May 1820
Certificate of baptism of James William Lawson, at St Dunstan in the West, London, 28 January 1800.
Note: page repaired with paste-in fragment of a [playbill] issued by Mr [Charles] Incledon of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, addressed to the ladies and gentlemen of Durham.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 f.26/A 12 January 1813
Parish register transcript recording the baptism of Thomas Clark, at Sedgefield, 5 August 1792.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 f.26/B 16 July 1805
Parish register transcript recording the birth and baptism of John Haswell, at the Protestant Dissenting Congregation in Robinson's Lane, Sunderland, 4 January and 6 February 1783.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 f.30/A 18 May 1819
Parish register transcript recording the baptism of Thomas Adams, at the Presbyterian Chapel, Claypath, Durham, 5 May 1798.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/8 f.34/A 10 December 1832
Side meeting minute recording the admission of William Charles Harland esquire, ‘at the Guild hall or Toll Booth’. Subscribed by 13 members, and the clerk. £3 stamp.
Parchment 1m
DCG 3/9 1772
Company call, listing the names of the freemen, places of abode, each annotated either ‘N.S.’ or ‘S.’ [not signed / signed], or ‘witness’.
[Note: found, with a cache of 1771-1772 company calls, interpolated among the papers of C.M. Carlton deposited by W.A. Bramwell in 1937. Other company calls in the same cache explicitly describe non-signing freemen as freeholders: the inference
is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.]
Paper 2f
Found within ADD 1905.
DCG 3/10 1785-1845
Absence book, in fact recording only the names of those company members present (“answering the [roll] call”) at, and tardily attending, quarter and head meetings, 1785-1790, 1794-1845. Also noted (throughout,
unless otherwise stated): fines and receipt of fines, appointments of officers, orders and resolutions (f.4v, 5r, 8v, 10v, 28v, 34-44), admission (f.39v), donations (f.43v, 45, 47v). Freemen's [Union Hall] Farm biannual dividend receipts, 1808-1811,
are entered (reversed) from the back of the volume. Cover title
“Absent Book”
Foliation (modern): f.1-5, 98 loose; f.37 section torn away; f.48, 56-58, 80-82, 95 stubs; f.50-103 blank; f.77-79 torn; f.107v-104v reversed.
Paper 108f
Size: 33 x 21 cm
Binding: Vellum
Former reference: DCG 3/5.
f.107v-104v (rev.)
Freemen's Farm biannual dividend receipts, 1808-1811, undersigned by company members.
DCG 3/11 3 October 1786
List of freemen of the company: 156 [recte 159] names.
Parchment 1m
Former reference: DCG 3/8.
DCG 3/12 1786, 1796
Order prohibiting members indebted to the company from voting or control therein, 10 January 1786. Endorsed with rough account, dated 12 January 1796.
Note: found loose within bundle of admissions, DCG 3/4.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/13 c. 1793-1794
Scrap containing rough accounts, some concerning receipts of fines in January 1794.
Note: found loose with sheaf of unrelated records in DCG 3/7 f.60.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/14 13 October 1806
Freeman's oath of Robert Dixon, [formerly] apprentice to John Nelson, sworn before Thomas Austin esquire, mayor of Durham, and Wilkinson, town clerk.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/15 1820-1821
Draft account of disbursements concerning the company's banner, 11 October 1820-12 February 1821.
Note: found loose with sheaf of unrelated records in DCG 3/7 f.60.
Paper 1f
DCG 3/16 4 September 1838
Minute of a special by-meeting, listing attendees.
Note: found loose with a small number of unrelated loose apprenticeship records within DCG 3/7 f.60.
Paper 1f
CordwainersReference: DCG 4Dates of creation: 1596-1923
Extent: 4 volumes; 4 files
Records of the Cordwainers' company, sometimes termed souters. The arms of the company, hanging in the Guildhall, are those of the London Cordwainers, first incorporated in 1410. A recognizance dated 17 November 1447 made by 17 Durham cordwainers
or leather dressers is found enrolled in the Chancery rolls (DURH 3/46 m.23d). A later Ordinary, the original no longer extant, is dated 31 January 1464 (enrolled 28 November 1464, DURH 3/50.16 m.6d). This was confirmed by Bishop Pilkington in
December 1562, and further confirmed by Letters Patent by Bishop James in September 1582, the wardens and searchers then being William Tripp, William Neulandes, Thomas Lakan, and Adam Johnson. This last charter was ‘much
mutilated’ when viewed by Thomas Woodness in the early 19th century: while Hutchinson dates this confirmation 27 September 1582, Woodness' transcriptions suggest both 13 and 17 September of that year.
In 1943 Whiting (see bibliography) noted only items DCG 4/1-2. However, both Whiting, and Surtees, in his
History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham (1840), refer to Cordwainers' ordinances and accounts from the 1560s forwards, and particularly to orders commencing in 1579: such records are no longer present.
[A reference by Whiting to an Ordinary dated 30 June 1458 appears based upon a mis-reading of the poorly-legible enrollment of the 1464 Ordinary]. Whiting cites a 1898 minute concerning Canon Greenwell and the loss of the company's original charter,
but this probably refers to the Glazier's charter (see
DCG 12/3 f.56). Whiting also publishes a 1936 inventory of the company's plate in the same article (Appendix III, p.395).
The company purchased in 1693 a commonable field named Broad Close, south of Gilesgate and east of Tinkler's Lane, noted in Forster's 1754 map of Durham City; in 1701-1702 lands [?in Gilesgate] were also purchased from Robert Cornforth (see DCG
4/1 f.95, 103-104). The Grassmen's accounts of Gilesgate manor note in 1704 a payment of 6d to the court by the “shewmakers” in compensation for their having enclosed the head of Broad Close for corn. This Broad Close
does not apparently relate to another Broad Close on the north side of the Gilesgate, deeds relating to which were deposited with Masons' Company records and are now catalogued as ADD 1659.
Records summaryOrders: 1463, [1596/1597]-1658, [1690s], c.1700-1820.
Minutes: 1634-1641, 1705, 1711, 1816, 1820, 1920.
Accounts: 1596-1598, 1611-1704.
Apprenticeships: 1599-1748, 1769-1840.
Hiremen
[Journeymen], 1599-1748.
Admissions and freemen, [?1699], 1760-1923.
Index of apprentice and freemen Cordwainers
Accession history
DCG 4/5: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 4/1-4,6-7: deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City freemen, 3 March 1967.
DCG 4/8: deposited by T. Heron, 3 August 1973.
A stray volume of accounts and membership records apparently unrelated to the Cordwainers' Company was found with the Company records deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City freemen, on 3 March 1967. This volume may
relate to an unidentified Durham Benefit Society, and is now Add.MS. 1980.
DCG 4/1 1596-1826
Order book; accounts; apprenticeship and hiremen pledges. Some minutes of meetings, vote tallies, lists of company members, and fines are recorded. A copy of a Corporation order concerning funerals is also copied into this volume.
Records summaryOrders: [1596/1597]-1658 (and confirmed until 1809), [1690s].
Minutes: 1634-1641, 1705, 1711, 1820.
Accounts: 1596-1598, 1611-1704.
Apprenticeships and Hiremen [Journeymen]:
1599-1748.
Freemen, [?1699], 1826.
Corporation order: [1690s].
Foliation: f.1, 3, 13, 111-112 stubs; f.12, 14-16, 113-115, 169-176, 178-179 blank; f.103-104 loose with paste-in repair; f.158 cut down.
Paper 1 volume (181f)
Size: 29 x 21 cm
Binding: Vellum
f.2v
Vote tally, electing under warden.
f.4
Presentments and fines, 12 August 1634-29 December 1641.
f.5-11, 116-139
Oath (upon admission) and ordinances, [1596/1597]-2 June 1656 (f.5-11), 6 June 1653-7 June 1658 (f.116-118r); with confirmatory signatures of newly admitted company members until c.1809.
In the first group at f.5-11 ordinances before 1628 are subscribed by up to 50 company members; later orders in this first group are more in the character of resolutions applying existing orders to individuals rather than company ordinances. The
initial (undated) ordinances in this group are prefaced by an oath to the King rather than the Queen [Elizabeth I], but which may cite a pre-1558 text (see below).
Orders from f.8 forwards are re-copied in a second group at f.116-117 (with some later orders interpolated among them), probably entered in 1647, and further ordinances then follow after this date: there is some indication that folia, perhaps
containing copies of the earlier orders from f.5-7, once preceded f.116, but which are no longer extant.
A confirmation (f.118v) of all the preceding orders, dated 29 December 1647, was signed and sealed by at least 22 members on that date (the following folio, f.119, and possibly others have been torn away). The first signature on the next folio is
that of Philip Brown, admitted c.1652 (apprenticed 1 August 1644, see f.148); newly admitted members continued to sign this 1647 confirmation until c.1809, the last name entered being that of John Bulmer (apprenticed on 10 December 1802, see
f.139v).
The date of the first orders (f.5-11) is inferred from palaeographic comparison with the 1596-1597 accounts (f.18-19), and an entry therein recording 14d paid to the clerk ‘for writting our orders’. However, this
may refer to a different set of orders which no longer survives; and the oath to the King on f.5 may thus date this set of the company's ordinances to the period after 1603. The volume was bound in 1672 (f.74), but folia continued to be bound into
the book after that date (f.101).
f.18-107
Accounts, 1596-1598, 1611-1704; with fines and minutes of orders and appointments of officers.
Between f.19/20 the accounts for 1599-1610 [?1f, 1 gathering (6f), 1f] have been torn from the volume. A note, made in 1823, on the verso of the folio preceding the accounts computes the time elapsed since the accounts began.
f.24
Order prohibiting the employment of boys by journeymen, 1619.
f.108r
Vote tally, 26 May 1801.
f.108v
[Jocular] order prohibiting apprenticeships, and promoting the employment of journeymen, undersigned by Richard Roe and John Doe, ‘His Majesties Secretaries of State’, 22 June 1802.
f.109v
List of attendees and absentees at the head meeting dinner, naming officers, bondsman and clerk, 22 May 1820.
f.110
List of the resident freemen of the company, in alphabetical order, 1 January 1826: 67 names; each receiving 6s 8d half year's rent [Freemen's or Union Hall Farm].
f.137-138
Order [of the Corporation of the City of Durham] regulating funerals within the city and suburbs of Durham, subscribed by 48 members of the company. Dated during the mayoralty of Dobson Wheatley, who held that office in 1692, 1693, 1696 and
1697.
Another copy of this order in a volume of the Butchers' company indicates the order is to come into force from 1 January 1697: see
DCG 3/2 f.41.
f.141-168
Lists of pledges [upon enrollment of apprentices, and hiremen], 18 November 1599-13 September 1748.
Six-penny pledges made by company members for named apprentices, hiremen, and upon turnovers of apprentices: in some instances fathers pledge
for sons, and masters for their apprentices, and former masters are occasionally named in the case of turnovers. Cancelled entries can be annotated, noting abscontions, offences, and consents of parents and / or masters. Turnovers 1708-1726 are
recorded separately at f.177.
f.177
‘A list and entrance of turnovers of the Cordwainers Trade’, 1707-1727: list of apprentices turned over to new masters, also noting date and payment of pledge money (6d).
f.180v
Minute of side meeting, 22 August 1705.
f.181v
‘[A list of the na]mes of the shopkeepers of the Company of Cordweyners within the Citty of Durham’, [?1669]: 71 names, with some deaths annotated, and some names added in later hands.
Note: date inferred from entry in 1669 account concerning the writing of such a list (f.101).
DCG 4/2 [c.1700]-1829
Order book, and ‘Admissions Stamps Booke’. Cover title
“Admitance”
Records summaryOrders: c.1700-1820.
Minutes: 1816.
Admissions: 1801-1829.
Foliation: f.1-6 (the first gathering) missing; f.18-19 pinned to f.20; f.21-22 pasted in; f.22 mutilated; f.23 blank; f.50 stub, with paste-in; 29 stubs between f.53 and 54, 4 stubs between f.54 and 55, 5 stubs between f.56 and 57, 6 stubs
between f.60 and 61; f.82 loose.
Paper 1 volume (82f)
Size: 30 x 20 cm
Binding: Full-calf
End-papers facing f.7
List of candidates for admission, 28 June 1826; with undated vote tally.
f.7-51
Orders, numbered 38-40 and unnumbered thereafter, [c.1700]-15 April 1820.
Orders 1-37 are presumed to have been recorded on f.1-6, now lost: an order dated 22 May 1780 re-confirms order 26 ‘of this book’ (f.32v); certain orders entered in DCG 4/1 are numbered in a similar hand to the
marginal order numbers recorded in this volume (f.7-8), and thus some of the orders [still active c.1700] once probably recorded on f.1-6 of this volume might be ascertained by consulting DCG 4/1.
f.48v-50
Order authorising use of company funds to defray legal costs defending the freemen's title to the Sands, 20 May 1813, with copy 1814-1817 related account of Mr McCaldcleugh to the Durham City freemen, and (pasted in) his receipt to the
Cordwainers' company, 1817.
f.51
Minute of head meeting, 3 June 1816, recording officers appointed.
f.76-51v (rev.)
Admissions records, 1801-1829.
Entries entered in chronological order, running from f.76 backwards to f.51v; paper certificates of admittance pasted in until 1823, 4s stamps from 1801 and £1 stamps from 1805.
f.82v-77 (rev.)
Incomplete copy order of the Corporation of the City of Durham regulating the guilds and admission of freemen, subscribed by company members, [?1728]. Company members continued to sign this order [upon their admission] until 1818.
End-papers facing f.82v (rev.)
‘Admission Stamps Booke, 1801, 1802 etc.’
DCG 4/3/1-69 1760-1789
Admissions certificates: stamped (2s to 1775; 4s thereafter).
Paper; filed on a string 69f
Former reference: DCG 4/4.
DCG 4/4 1769-1840
Apprentice Book: recording apprenticeship indentures, noting turnovers, deaths and disqualifications, and with cancellations.
Foliation: f.44 stub.
Paper 1 volume (44f)
Size: 20 x 17 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
Former reference: DCG 4/7.
f.32v-33 6 June 1828
Affidavit affirming the deaths of William Robert Dodds (a soldier, in India, 1821), and Martin Dodds, elder sons of Edward Dodd; his third son Edward, born 1807, still living [and being therefore eligible for admission]. Sworn before Robert
Ovington, mayor.
DCG 4/4A
Blotting paper.
Paper 1 fragment
DCG 4/5 18 March 1771
Call of freemen members, with columns listing names, places of abode, and whether ‘signed’ or not; with later additions noting deaths and disfranchisements.
Freemen explicitly stated not to have signed are usually qualified as freeholders: the inference is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of
Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.
Paper 4f
Found within ADD 1905.
DCG 4/6/1-38 1790, 1796, 1800
Admissions certificates: stamped (4s).
Paper; filed on a string 38f
Former reference: DCG 4/5.
DCG 4/7 1829-1923
Admissions records and stamped (£1) certificates, 3 August 1829-7 May 1923; with minutes, 1 September 1920-7 May 1923.
Foliation: f.1 loose; f.25-35 blank.
Paper 1 volume (35f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Front and rear boards not present
Former reference: DCG 4/6.
f.24
Minute, 1 September 1920: election of head warden; receipt of ‘six books relating to the [Cordwainers] trade & one Silver Tankard’.
DCG 4/8 1784-1859
Papers of the Melross family.
4f
DCG 4/8/1 5 January 1784
Freeman admission certificate of George Melross, eldest son of Andrew [Melross], cordwainer.
Paper 1f
DCG 4/8/2 11 February 1789
Freeman admission certificate of Henry Melross, apprentice to Robert Hall, cordwainer.
Paper 1f
DCG 4/8/3 28 June 1826
Freeman admission certificate of Henry Melross, eldest son of Henry [Melross], cordwainer.
Paper 1f
DCG 4/8/4 1 September 1859
Freeman admission certificate of Henry Melross the younger.
Paper 1f
CurriersReference: DCG 5Dates of creation: 1630-1937
Extent: 4 volumes; 5 files
Records of the Curriers' company, formerly known as the Curriers and Tallow Chandlers.
An Ordinary or charter, confirmed by the city's alderman and twelve assistant burgesses, is printed in Hutchinson (vol. 2, p.27-29; drawn from Randall's MSS), a copy of which in Raine's hand is dated 16 August 1568 (DCL RAI 129 p.111-116): the
location of original is not known. Thomas Woodness, writing in the early 19th century, states the original Ordinary was then extant, but defaced and its date unreadable (DCL ADD 202 p.158-159).
The records were ordered and stamped with reference numbers in the 19th or early-20th centuries, and this order has been preserved: orders; minutes; admissions records; followed by a receipt and an apprenticeship indenture. Whiting listed in 1943
only items DCG 5/1-6, all then in the care of the company warden. Whiting also publishes a transcript of the certificate of admission of William John Smith as a freeman of the company and of the City of Durham, 3 May 1869 (Appendix VIII, p.413).
Records SummaryOrdinances and orders: [1568]-1638, 1661-1824, 1873.
Minutes: 1630-1855, 1873, 1897-1903, 1933-1936.
Accounts: 1663-1901.
Apprenticeships: 1658-1870.
Admissions and freemen:
[1641]-1926.
Corporation orders: 1692 x 1697, 1728.
Index of apprentice and freemen Curriers
Accession history
DCG 5/1-9 were deposited in two accessions, the first was probably made by the Town Clerk some time between 1943 and 1962, the second was made by W. Booth, Deputy Town Clerk, 20 July 1962.
DCG 5/1 1630-1690
Ordinances, minutes, accounts and apprenticeship records.
Records summaryOrdinances and orders: [1568]-1630, 1638, 1661, 1665, 1669, 1672, 1674, 1683-1684.
Minutes: 1630-1632, 1638, 1641, 1646-1647, 1650, 1653, 1655, 1661-1686.
Accounts: 1663-1666, 1669-1674,
1676-1679, 1690.
Apprenticeships: 1658-1664, 1667-1677, 1682.
Admissions and freemen: [1641], [1647], 1650, 1653, 1655, 1663-1668, 1672, 1675-1678, 1680-1681, 1684-1685.
Foliation: f.58 torn in two, pinned, and now adhering to f.57. Folia are missing from the front of the volume. The volume was found disbound in a disordered state; original bound order of the gatherings has been restored.
Paper, edges coloured red 1 volume (82f)
Size: 14 x 18 cm
Binding: Parchment
Digitised material for Durham City Curriers Guild Records - DCG 5/1
DCG 5/1 cover and End-papers
Stamped in ink ‘1’. Reused parchment and paste-down paper pieces, in a fragmentary wormy condition. Rough accounts and vote tallies.
DCG 5/1 f.1-10
Ordinances, [1568]-20 July 1630, no. 16 explicitly dated 1589, copied into this volume c.1630 and subscribed on 20 July 1630 by six company [officers] ‘with the consent of all the Brethren of the said Craftes [of
Curryers and Chandlers]’. Ordinances are numbered 6-23.
Ordinances 1-5, missing from this volume, are recorded in the 1568 charter, printed in Hutchinson (vol. 2, p.21-22). See also 1568 by-laws in DCL RAI 129.
DCG 5/1 f.11-79v
Minutes, 1630-1632, 1638, 1641, 1646-1647, 1650, 1653, 1655, 1661-1686, noting: meeting dates, elections of officers, clerks' salaries, wardens' annual account balances, resolutions, orders (1638, 1661, 1665, 1669, 1672, 1674, 1683-1684),
admissions ([1641], [1647], 1650, 1653, 1655, 1663-1667, 1672, 1675-1678, 1680-1681, 1684), absences, fines, debts, charitable gifts, funerals.
DCG 5/1 f.17v-18, 23, 28, 38, 40r, 41v-43, 47v, 49, 50v, 53r, 57v-58r, 80v-82
Accounts, 1663-1666, 1669-1674, 1676-1679, 1690.
DCG 5/1 f.18, 30, 36, 74v-76r
Apprenticeship records, 1658-1664, 1667-1677, 1682.
DCG 5/1 f.50
‘A catalogue of the names of the freemen of the Curryers and Chandlers’, 21 December 1668: 34 names, some deaths annotated in later hands.
DCG 5/1 f.80
‘A catalogue of the freemans names of Curryers & Chandlers’, [1685]: 36 names, four in a different hand, with notes of some deaths. The signature of [Mr] John Church, named as an umpire in a 1683 dispute
(f.72), appears with a notarial device.
DCG 5/2 1687-1926
Company orders, minutes, accounts and apprenticeship and admissions records; with Corporation orders, [1690s] and 1728.
The volume contains groups of records from several different periods, bound together in the 20th century. There are signs of water damage throughout, and reference is made to a flood on 6 November 1886 (f.255v).
Records summaryOrders: 1689, 1692, 1702-1824.
Minutes: 1687-1696.
Accounts: 1679-1901.
Apprenticeships: 1661-1870.
Admissions and freemen: 1664-1926.
Corporation orders: 1692 x 1697,
1728.
Foliation: f.2-3 are paginated 16-19, f.4-62 are foliated 20-77 (f.8, 17, 20 stubs); fore edges cut down; f.22-61, 239-240, 245, 250-251, 257-265 blank.
Paper 1 volume (265f)
Size: 31 x 20 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
Digitised material for Durham City Curriers Guild Records, 1687-1926 - DCG 5/2 f.1
Incomplete order [of the Corporation of the City of Durham] regulating funerals within the city and suburbs of Durham, [1692 x 1697], subscribed by 8 members of the company.
[A complete copy of the order is transcribed in the Cordwainers' company records
DCG 4/1 f.137-138; and a further copy, dated to come into force from 1 January 1697 is entered in a Butchers' company volume,
DCG 3/2 f.41.]
f.2-8, 12-21
Orders, 1702-1824. A confirmation of a 1709 order and all preceding orders is subscribed [successively by members upon their admission] by 106 persons.
f.9-11
Copy orders and by-laws of the Corporation of Durham concerning the Durham Guilds, 8 November 1728: regulating the admission of freemen to curb unfree trading within the city, instituting, among other ordinances, four guild meetings per annum
‘at the Guild-hall or Tool-booth’, on the first Mondays after the Martinmas, Candlemas, May day, Lamas; subscribed by 87 names. The last signature is that of Richard Green.
f.62-133, 135-145, 252-256
Accounts, 1679-1901: includes entries recording fines, funerals, salaries, charitable donations, entertainment and legal expenses, admissions.
f.134
‘A catalogue of all the freemens names of Curriers & Tallow Chandlers’, late 17th century-18th century. Some 25 freemen were listed upon the creation of this ‘catalogue’, with
64 freemen subscribing [upon admission] subsequently.
f.146-178, 234, 237-238
Apprenticeships, 1661-1870: noting turnovers, and with cancellations upon abscontion, death, expulsion etc.
f.178-192
Minutes, 1687-1696: noting absences, fines, elections of officers, admissions (1687, 1689, 1692, 1694, 1695, 1696), resolutions, presentments, orders (1689, 1692).
f.193-233, 235-236, 241-244, 246-249
Admissions records, 1664-1926.
DCG 5/3 1697-1762
Minutes, recording: absences, fines, elections of officers, admissions (1698, 1700, 1707-1708, 1712, 1720-1721, 1728, 1736, 1743, 1745, 1751-1752), orders (1698, 1733), memoranda, resolutions, summary accounts (1717-1721, 1723-1747, 1750-1761),
charitable payments, annual dinner calls (1753-1761).
Foliation: f.46 stub; f.121v-122v reversed.
Paper 1 volume (123f)
Size: 21 x 17 cm
Binding: Parchment, paperboard
Digitised material for Durham City Curriers Guild Records, 1697-1762 - DCG 5/3 End-papers, f.121r; 122r (rev.); 123
Vote tallies, 1722-1761, and undated.
f.66
List of members contributing 6d towards an increase in the company stock, 1 October 1735: 20 names.
Such sixpence subscriptions continue irregularly until 1745 (f.95).
f.121v (rev.)
Undated list of company members, annotated.
f.122v (rev.)
‘A catalogue of all the Freemen's names of Curriers and Tallow Chandlers’, undated: 27 names, with a further 7 names added in a different hands; deaths annotated.
DCG 5/4 1762-1855, 1873, 1897, 1903, 1933, 1936
Minutes, 1762-1855, 1873, 1897, 1903, 1933, 1936, including: dinner calls (1762-1809, 1812, 1818-1821, 1823, 1826), absentees (1763-1784), attendees (1807-1903), fines, elections of officers, summary accounts (1763-1769, 1672), orders (1674,
1793, 1796, 1873).
Foliation: f.7 loose; f.48, 50, 53, 69 stubs; f.82-100 blank; f.79-100 bound-in nineteenth-century blue paper.
Vote tallies, 1763-1773 and rough accounts on endpapers.
Paper 1 volume (101f)
Size: 21 x 17 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf, marbled paperboard
Digitised material for Durham City Curriers Guild Records - DCG 5/4 DCG 5/5 1695-1727
Bonds in £100 to the alderman (and warden) of the company, entered into by newly admitted freemen entering by redemption, usually some days or weeks subsequent to their admission, and binding the obligor not to take any apprentice
‘whereby to make him free of the said Society’ nor to prejudice the company, but rather to assist it and abide by its rules and orders. DCG 5/5/7 is printed in C.E. Whiting "The Durham trade gilds", part II,
Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 9 part 2 (1943), appendix VII, p.411-412.
Each bond is stamped in ink ‘5’ on the face.
Paper 14f
DCG 5/5/1 21 June 1695
Abraham Ashworth of the City of Durham, bookseller. Michael Watson of the City of Durham, blacksmith, surety.
Former reference: DCG 5/5f.
DCG 5/5/2 31 March 1707
John Collinson of the City of Durham, tailor. John Johnson, tanner, and Thomas Vasey, currier, both of the City of Durham, sureties.
Former reference: DCG 5/5g.
DCG 5/5/3 6 March 1708
William Hood of the City of Durham, yeoman. William Lee of the City of Durham, cordwainer, surety.
Former reference: DCG 5/5d.
DCG 5/5/4 8 March 1708
William Randolph of the City of Durham, [rector of St Mary le Bow, North Bailey]. Ralph Wilkinson of the City of Durham, cordwainer [ ‘allutarius’ ].
Former reference: DCG 5/5e.
DCG 5/5/5 12 March 1708
John Clayton of the City of Durham, currier and tallow chandler. John Wilkinson of the City of Durham, currier and tallor chandler, surety.
Former reference: DCG 5/5a.
DCG 5/5/6 23 March 1708
Samuel Walker of Ferryhill, yeoman. John Walker of Elvet, gentleman, surety.
Former reference: DCG 5/5c.
DCG 5/5/7 7 August 1727
Christopher Collinson of Sunderland, tailor.
Printed in C.E. Whiting "The Durham trade gilds", part II,
Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 9 part 2 (1941), appendix VII, p.411-412.
Former reference: DCG 5/5b.
DCG 5/6 1707-1837
Admission certificates, persons named below.
Certificates were originally filed in a different manner, and order, but have since been re-filed on pieces of string (certain items in bundle 1 were numbered contemporaneously 3, 5-18, 20-22, 26-28); some bundles also remain sewn together. The
records are, in the main, filed in reverse chronological order, and in five bundles. One certificate, DCG 5/6/66, found loose at DCG 5/3 (f.109/110), has been re-filed here. Each record, with the exception of DCG 5/6/66 is stamped in ink
‘6’.
78f
DCG 5/6/1-37 1707-1721
Robert Hunter, John Havers, Robert Watson, George Hopper (1707); William Randolph, Peter Miller, Joseph Thompson, William Fawell, Robert Gibson, Samuel Walker, John Clayton, James Durants, William Musgrave, Francis Richardson, John Kemp, Martin
Nixon, Charles Nicolson (1708); Ralph Marshall, Marmaduke Trotter, Roger Heath (1710); Richard Banks, Jonathan Hayes (1711); Charles Ushaw, John Greenwell (1715); John Colli[n]son (1707) [sic]; Cuthbert Wilson, Thomas Brownbrigg (1717); William
Moore, John Harramund, Thomas Havers (1718); Richard Reed (1720); John Wilkinson, John Wilkinson, Francis Gamble (1721); John Johnson, Henry Havers, Robert Norman (1721).
Former reference: DCG 5/6a.
DCG 5/6/38-59 1727-1747
John Smith, George Smith, Matthew Richardson, Thomas Ellery (1727); Thomas Lax (1728); Jacob Rewcannon, William Smith (1730); Thomas Wilkinson, Thomas Green (1733); Robert Surtees (1736); George Wanless, Ralph Arrowsmith (1738); Thomas Robinson
(1742); Thomas Johnson, William Harbart (1743); Richard Reed, Ralph Darling, John Taylor (1745); Benjamin March (1746); James Gedling, John Havers, Thomas Havers (1747)
Former reference: DCG 5/6b.
DCG 5/6/60-65 1799-1807
James Berry (1799); Fenwick Brown, John Hall (1800); William Darling (1805); William Gray (1806); James Crozier (1807).
Former reference: DCG 5/6c.
DCG 5/6/66 1813
William Smith.
Former reference: DCG 5/3a.
DCG 5/6/67-71 1829-1830
John Taylor (1829); Emmanuel Silas Kelsey, Mark Story, George Fenwick Brown, George Wilson (1830).
Former reference: DCG 5/6d.
DCG 5/6/72-78 1833-1837
George Blagdon (1837); John Robert Darling (1836); James Carr (1836); Michael Ord (1833); Thomas Scott (1834); Robert Gray (1835); James Crozier (1836).
Former reference: DCG 5/6e.
DCG 5/7 6 November 1845
Receipt from A. W. Hutchinson, Treasurer, Durham Infirmary, to the Alderman of the company for its annual subscription of 1 guinea.
Stamped in ink ‘7’.
Paper 1f
DCG 5/8 17 June 1850
Apprenticeship indenture and £20 bond.
1. John Armour senior of [98 Back] Lane, Durham, carpet weaver; John Armour junior; William Alexander of the City of Durham, carpet weaver.
2. Henry James Darling of the City of Durham, currier; William Darling, currier.
John Armour junior to serve Henry James Darling from 17 June 1850 for 7 years; wages in lieu of board etc. 1s per week augmenting incrementally to 4s per week in year 4 and thereafter.
[In fact, Darling's trade declined, and his apprentices, John Johnston and John Armour, were offered to the trade on 5 November 1851. Johnston was turned over to Robert Grey, while Armour found no new master and consequently became entitled in
due course to his freedom, see DCG 5/2 f.177v-178. The indenture is poorly legible, and address details were supplemented from the 1851 census.]
Stamped in ink on dorse ‘8’.
1m
DCG 5/9 September 1937
Receipt of William R. Wilson, Durham City Education Committee [Secretary], [and warden of the Curriers company], recording the delivery by Henry Elliott, chairman of the wardens [Durham City freemen] of the ‘books and
papers’ of the Curriers company.
Paper 1f
DrapersReference: DCG 6Dates of creation: 1728-1880
Extent: 3 volumes; 2 files
Records of the Drapers' company, formerly known as the Drapers and Tailors' company. In his 1615 visitation of the city Herald Richard St George consulted ‘an ancient Gilde booke of the assumption of Mary the Virgin
bearing date 1480’ containing evidence that ‘then & longe before there was & is a fellowship & Companye of Drapers Taylors’: he also notes that upon ‘occation’ the
company has used the banner of St Cuthbert with the arms of the London guild of Merchant Tailors and Drapers. References in the Crossgate borough court records to wardens of the ‘tailyourcraft’ enforcing their control
of the trade in 1502, 1505 and 1509, corroborate the early existence of the guild. A company Ordinary was confirmed and the company incorporated by Bishop Tunstall, 7 November 1549 (see DCL SHA 94 p.325-328).
Surtees refers (vol. 4, p.20) to company records for the period 1588-1759, the source for which is not known; Sir Cuthbert Sharp also consulted these records. Bonds of freemen foreigners binding themselves not to trade within Durham City or
suburbs dating from 1614-1679 were produced as evidence in a 1706 Durham Chancery case, but are no longer extant (
Archaeologia Aeliana, n.s. vol. II, p.168). In 1943 Whiting listed only items DCG 6/2 and 3, all in the care of the company warden. A ‘Cash book’, commencing in 1881, was noted by
Whiting, but which has not been deposited. Whiting also publishes a 1936 inventory of the company plate (Appendix III, p.396).
Records summaryOrders: 1770-1818, 1853.
Accounts: 1822-1880.
Apprenticeships: 1830-1844.
Admissions: 1721-1727, 1751-1880.
Freemen Committee re division of Charlaw, Findon Hill and Potter
Moors, 1799; Freemen's Trustees minutes, 1806-1808.
Corporation orders: 1728.
Index of apprentice and freemen Drapers
Accession history
DCG 6/1-3: deposited by J. Iley, 21 February 1952.
Other Drapers records are thought to have been accessioned within large composite Durham City Guilds and Durham City Records accessions on 23 November 1955, 29 May 1959, 30 July 1959, and 11 April 1967.
DCG 6/2 1728-1852
Admissions records, 1751-1852; and company orders, 1770-1818. Also contains Corporation orders, 8 November 1728; resolutions of Guilds Committee formed to oppose a Bill for the division of Charlaw, Findon Hill and Potter Moors, 18 February 1799;
and minutes of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, 1806-1808.
Admissions records, entered chronologically from the front of the volume, are signed and sealed by the newly admitted freemen, until 1825, and signed unsealed thereafter; from 1829 stamped admission certificates are also pasted or pinned into the
volume. The orders and other records are entered from the back of the volume, reversed. There are several different watermarks throughout the volume, some reversed.
Foliation: f.16-17, 24-25, 28-29, 32-33, 42, 77, 214, 226 loose; f.90-211, 231 blank.
Paper 1 volume (243f)
Size: 33 x 21 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Former reference: DCG 6/1.
Digitised material for Drapers Guild admissions records, 1751-1852 and company orders, 1770-1818 - DCG 6/2
Front cover
‘The Addmittan[ces] For Freemen 175[0]’.
End-papers
Admission fees tables, 1818 and 1825; with rough accounts.
f.1-89
Admissions records, 1751-1852.
f.243-241 (rev.)
Copy orders and by-laws of the Corporation of Durham concerning the Durham Guilds, 8 November 1728: regulating the admission of freemen to curb unfree trading within the city, instituting, among other ordinances, four guild meetings per annum
‘at the Guild-hall or Tool-booth’, on the first Mondays after the Martinmas, Candlemas, May day, Lamas.
f.240- 212 (rev.)
Company orders and resolutions, 1770-1818.
£10 paid to Mr Benjamin Dunn, ‘one of the Treasurers for the Burghers or Freemen of the City and Borough, as the subscription of this company collectively towards defraying the charges and expenses of obtaining a new
charter of incorporation for this city and borough’.
f.220-215v (rev.)
Minutes of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, acting under the Act for the division of Framwellgate (and Witton Gilbert) Moor, and concerning Union Hall Farm, belonging to the resident freemen, 25 November 1806-1 February 1808: appointment of
new trustees; accounts of construction works, the tenant Robert Hodgson's reduced rent agreed by arbitration. Meetings held at ‘the Justice Room in Durham’.
Back cover (rev.)
‘Rules & Orders’.
DCG 6/3 1822-1880
Accounts: fines, admissions (1822, 1824-1828, 1830-1857, 1859-1880), apprenticeships (1830, 1833, 1835-1836, 1843-1844), fees (including funeral pall and cloaks hire), charitable gifts, administration, resolutions, orders (1853), with annual
lists of aldermen, wardens and stewards, and (1823-1835 only) committee men.
Paper 1 volume (97f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Digitised material for Drapers Guild, Accounts 1822-1880 - DCG 6/3 End-paper facing f.1
Table of admission fees, undated.
DCG 6/4 18 August 1829
Letter from Charles Presely, Stamp Office, London, to the Chief Clerk of the Drapers company, Durham: requiring restoration of the practice followed until 1823 of freemen paying stamp duty upon admission into the company, and impressing the stamp
in the company's books, rather than paying upon admittance to freedom of the city by the mayor. Forty-nine company members' names, each with assessments of between 2 and 6 shillings, are inscribed on f.2.
Paper 2f
Digitised material for Letter from Charles Presely to the Drapers company, Durham: regarding stamp duty - DCG 6/4
Dyers and LitstersReference: DCG 7Dates of creation: 1709-1842
Extent: 2 volumes
Records of the Dyers and Litsters company, sometimes referred to as Litsters and Dyers.
The ordinances and early records of the company are no longer extant. In his 1615 visitation, Herald Richard St George noted the incorporation of the company by William Wright, alderman, and his twelve assistant ‘bretheren’, on 7 June 1576, but there are references to earlier (perhaps informal) associations of dyers at Durham in the 15th century: the accounts of the Bishop's bailiff in Darlington include regular payments by the
dyers of Durham for lytferme or liteferme, a payment of 26s 8d for a dyehouse in Darlington, when occupied (CCB B/68). Extracts (DCRO Du 1/58/14) prepared (by the company itself) in the context of the contested 1761 by-election include a transcript
of a grant of incorporation by letters patent by Bishop John on 16 November 1674 [sic], authorising a common seal and appointing Henry Wanless as warden and John Gray as searcher, and also cite from a company book dating from 1623. The dating of the
1674 incorporation in the transcript raises some questions; however, extracts cited in the same document of city freedom admissions of company members dating from 1579, drawn from corporation books, support the 1576 association. In the Mickleton and
Spearman Manuscripts is found a transcript of a grant made by Bishop Cosin on 16 May 1664 to Anthony Emerson, Henry Wanles, John Gray, Richard Beckles, Cuthbert Bellamy, William Flemming and Ralph Wescott to form a company of litsters and dyers in
Durham city and the parishes of St Oswald, St Giles, Little St Mary and St Mary Bow (MSP 91 f.35r-39fv): this grant was probably the source of the extracts (mis)cited above. Further transcriptions of records covering dates 1650-1772 can be found
among the manuscripts of Robert Surtees and Thomas Woodness (DCL), and reference is made in the 1711-1712 accounts to a charter (DCG 7/1 p.31). In 1943 Whiting noted only DCG 7/1. From 1711 the company is consistently misspelled as
‘Lysters’ or ‘Listers’ in the records.
Records summaryOrders: 1710-1722, 1750, 1766-1775.
Minutes: 1709-1775.
Accounts: 1710-1774.
Apprenticeships: 1713-1727, 1737-1749, 1761.
Admissions and freemen: 1710-1787, 1800-1807, 1830, 1842.
Index of apprentice and freemen Dyers and Litsters
Accession history
DCG 7/3: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 7/1: purchased ?c.1940; in the library's custody by 1943; acquisition reported in H.M.C. 1951
Report, and
Philobiblon, vol. 1, no. 7, 1952.
The other Dyers records are thought to have been accessioned within large composite Durham City Guilds and Durham City Records accessions on 23 November 1955, 29 May 1959, 30 July 1959, and 11 April 1967.
DCG 7/1 1707-1842
Minutes (1709-1775), accounts (1710-1774), admissions records (1710-1787, 1800-1807, 1830, 1842) and apprenticeship records (1713-1727, 1737-1749, 1761), and including: orders (1710-1722, 1750, 1766-1775), appointments of officers, absentees and
attendees.
Pagination (original): p.1-65, [66-75 not used], 76-95, [96-99 not used], 100-199. Pagination (modern): p. [i-vi], 1-554. Blank: p.17, 206, 282-283, 290, 304, 325-326, 357-513, 524-549.
Original (discarded) binding: dark brown [full-]calf; back board missing; pulp front board loose; two line fillet round board and up board 1" from spine; book sewn on 5 white thongs; slips broken; pages with red sprinkled edges. Re-bound by D.
Cockerell, October 1951: binding note, see back paste-down.
Paper 1 volume (560p)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Quarter-goat; vellum tips; marbled paper covers
Former reference: DC 2050; MS. 942.81D9D9; ADD 202.
Digitised material for Durham City Guild of Dyers and Litsters Records, 1707-1842 - DCG 7/1
p.ii
[?Signature of] John Spearman esquire of S[outh] Hetton, dyer, 1707.
p.iv
Head warden vote tally, 1769.
p.333
Copy deed of Thomas Forster of Durham City, merchant, re £300 principal and interest lent by Forster to John Dixon of Aykley Heads gentleman and Christopher Johnson of Durham City, gentleman, empowering the company to recover any such moneys due
and consenting to [continue to] act as the company's trustee, 17 December 1762.
p.355-356, 518-514 (rev.)
Admissions records, 1766-1787, 1800-1807, 1830, 1842.
p.519-523
Apprenticeship records, 1713-1727, 1737-1749, 1761.
p.550
Company call, listing members, 29 December 1735: 45 names; annotated, noting deaths.
p.552-553
List of company members, divided into ‘the sheep’ and ‘the goats’, [1752 x 1760s]: supplemented with the names of subsequently admitted freemen, and annotated, noting deaths.
The deaths of four of the persons listed are also noted on p.iii: ‘with in the bills of mortallity. O Cruele death more subtil then muncks and friers that could have no more patience with these three dyers’.
DCG 7/3 1772
Calls of the Smiths' company, and the Dyers' company, listing the names of the freemen, places of abode; a third column is headed ‘signed or not’.
[Note: found, with a cache of 1771-1772 company calls, interpolated among the papers of C.M. Carlton deposited by W.A. Bramwell in 1937. Other company calls in the same cache explicitly describe non-signing freemen as freeholders: the inference
is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.]
Paper 2f
Found within ADD 1905.
Fullers and Felt-makers, Cloth-workers and WalkersReference: DCG 8
No records of this company have yet been deposited.
The Fullers were incorporated under the name of the Cloth-workers and Walkers by Letters Patent of Bishop Pilkington, 3 March 1565: an inspeximus of this is enrolled with the 1635 charter, quoted by Surtees (vol. 4, p.23-24). An earlier
recognizance of 15 Durham fullers, dated 12 February 1447 is found enrolled in the Chancery rolls (DURH 3/46 m.23d); and a breach of faith case was brought in the prior's archidiaconal court by the fullers against Richard Smalwod and John Hugheson
in August 1498 for fulling contrary to the ‘ordinance of the art of the fullers’, and wardens of the walkers guild were enforcing company ordinances in the Crossgate borough court in 1526: no ordinances from the
period 1447-1565 are known to be extant.
A charter incorporating the Cloth-workers [alone] in Durham was granted by Bishop James on 29 March 1615 (DURH 3/96.70), citing in its preamble the testamentary charitable gifts of Henry Smith gentleman (see DPRI/1/1599/S3), a plan to erect a
walk mill upon 12 acres of land on Brasside ‘nygh and upon the River Weare’ gifted by the bishop, and requiring the cloth-workers not to prejudice the three related trades of Weavers, Fullers and Dyers, of Drapers and
Tailors, and of Fullers and Walkers. Bishop Morton granted a new charter on 25 October 1635 (DURH 3/108 m.3d), to the Cloth-workers, Walkers, Cloth-fullers, and Cloth-dressers, Hat-makers, and Felt-makers, appending ordinances of that date to the
1565 Ordinary: Surtees noted that the company's [then surviving] records began from this date, but none of these were known to be extant when C.M. Carlton made a search for them in the 1860s. Reference is made in the records of the Dyers and
Litsters' company to a meeting in 1710 ‘concerning the Dyers and Walkers’ (DCG 7/1 p.7). Whiting also notes an undated record (without reference) of the fining of a man named Bell for contravening the company's trade
rights. The Durham company had only one member in 1830, and terminated upon his death.
An intervening (and untraced) charter of Bishop Tunstall to the Cloth-workers and Walkercraft is noted by Hutchinson (vol. 1, p.546), quoting from Rudd's MSS, who was in turn, probably misreading Spearman's
Enquiry p.19.
JoinersReference: DCG 9Dates of creation: 1712-1965
Extent: 5 volumes; 7 items
Records of the Joiners company, formerly the Carpenters and Joiners, Wheelwrights, Sawyers and Coopers. The company is stated by Spearman (
Enquiry, p.19) to have been first incorporated by Bishop Tunstall, his source perhaps a repertory of the close rolls made by John Richardson, clerk of the Chancery, c.1613 (now MSP MS 71), and which lists a grant
incorporating the company in the 19th year of Tunstall's pontificate (1549/1550). This also accords with information about the company recorded by Herald Richard St George in 1615, who also noted the company ‘have usually
borne the Banner of St Cuthbert with armes appropriating to there trades’. However, the accounts of the cathedral sacrist record offerings made by the Carpenters at Pentecost from 1413/1414. A charter granted by Tunstall to this company has
not been located, though a transcript of the trade's rules and orders, dated 7 May 1575 and certified 19 September 1693 by Robert Forster, secretary, survives in Thomas Woodness' hand (DCL ADD 200, p.312-314): the earliest records of the company are
otherwise untraced. The arms of the company, hanging in the Guildhall, claim incorporation from 13 Elizabeth I (1570/1571), but this date is thought to refer to a charter awarded to London guild of Joiners and Ceilers (14 April 1571).
In 1943 Whiting notes items DCG 9/1-5 were in the charge of the warden. Surtees records (vol. 4, p.23) the existence of ‘the oldest book’ beginning 1661, quoting entries from 1664, 1671 and 1699, but this volume is
not extant. Whiting also publishes a 1936 inventory of the company plate (Appendix III, p.395).
Records summaryOrders: 1717-1721, 1735-1743, 1754-1826, 1848.
Minutes: 1744-1895.
Accounts: 1749-1917.
Apprenticeships: 1712-1872, 1883.
Admissions: 1730-1731, 1750-1911, 1924, 1936-1938, 1957-1968.
Lists of freemen: 1726, 1743-1781, 1796-1869.
Minutes of Freemen's Trustees: 1806-1808.
Union Hall Farm dividend accounts: 1810-1889.
Index of apprentice and freemen Joiners
Accession history:
DCG 9/4: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 9/1-3, 5, 8: deposited, with an additional unidentified volume (6 in total) by J. Iley, 24 May 1952.
DCG 9/6: donated by Billy [Harold] Jopling to Tom Heron and then deposited via Roger Norris (DCL), 18 June 1990.
Other Joiners records are thought to have been accessioned within large composite Durham City Guilds and Durham City Records accessions on 23 November 1955, 29 May 1959, 30 July 1959, and 11 April 1967.
DCG 9/1 1712-1883
Orders, 1717-1848; apprenticeship records, 1712-1883; lists of freemen, 1726, 1743, 1765, 1796-1869. Also contains some minutes, 1796-1814, 1839, 1856; and admissions records, 1833, 1836.
Records summaryOrders: 1717-1718, 1721, 1735-1737, 1742-1743, 1757, 1759-1761, 1764-1766, 1770-1773, 1776, 1779, 1786, 1790, 1796, 1798, 1800, 1802, 1804, 1817, 1848.
Minutes: 1796, 1798, 1800, 1808, 1814,
1839, 1856.
Apprenticeships: 1712-1739, 1748-1872, 1883.
Admissions: 1833, 1836.
Lists of freemen: 1726, 1743, 1765, 1796-1869.
Cover title
“Joiners and Carpenters Apprentice Book”The volume is written from both the front (part A) and, reversed, the back (part B), and two sequences of folio numbers have been used. Foliation A (105f): f.1, 10, 20B stubs;
f.20A paste-in; f.69-86 blank; 4 un-numbered folia have been torn from volume following f.68, and 36 following f.105. Foliation B (28f): 1 un-numbered folio has been torn from the volume preceding f.1; f.28 torn.
Paper 1 volume (133f)
Size: 33 x 21 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard
Digitised material for Durham City Guild Joiners and Carpenters Apprentice Book 1712-1883 - DCG/9/1
Front paste-down, f.1, 2v
Vote tallies, 1800, 1805.
f.2r
Opinion of Mr [?Ralph] Gowland to John Brignal and Edward Hopper, wardens, concerning non-freemen working ‘within the Liberties’, or ‘the city or suburbs’ of Durham, and their
prosecution within the Town and Durham Chancery courts; also concerning the pursuit of country members [living outside Durham City] in arrears through the County and Town courts, [c.1712].
f.3-68, 96v
Apprenticeship records, 1712-1739, 1748-1872, 1883: also recording turnovers.
f.61
Order reducing apprenticeship fees, 1848.
f.65
Minutes, 9 and 16 January 1856: order requiring payment of customary fees by newly admitted freemen prior to their entry in the register.
f.91-87
Table of calls at Guild meetings, 1796-1869: listing (prospective) freemen's names, date [of first call], whether admitted by servitude or patrimony, name of father or master, number of calls.
f.91v-95v
Copy ‘[o]rders of the Company of the Corporation of Carpenters and Joyners &c. of the City Suburbs and within the County of Durham’: ‘[o]rders consented to by all them that occupy the
Carpenters Craft or any other Science belonging to the said Carpenters Craft, as Joyners, Wheelwrights, Sawers and Coopers within the City of Duresme or Suburbs of the same’. Twenty-five orders, copy made in 1737, with interpolated revision to
order 7 made in 1779.
f.95v-105r
Orders, 1757, 1759-1761, 1764-1766, 1770-1771, 1773, 1776, 1786.
f.99v-100r
Subscription list for a fund to commission a new banner for the Trade, 1765: 33 names, £6 15s.
f.1-26 (rev.)
Orders, 1717-1718, 1721, 1735-1737, 1742-1743, 1766, 1772, 1790, 1796, 1798, 1800, 1802, 1804, 1817.
f.3v (rev.)
Vote tallies, c.1730s-1741.
f.4 (rev.)
List of company members, 28 April 1726, to which list the names of freemen admitted until c.1740 have been added; annotated re deaths.
f.8 (rev.)
Minutes of turnovers of two apprentices, one being refused and one accepted, 1765.
f.9v-10v, f.11v-12r (rev.)
Lists of company members, 8 December 1743 and 21 December 1765, to which list the names of subsequently admitted freemen have been added; annotated [re deaths].
f.19v-20r, 24r, 25v-26r, 28v (rev.)
Minutes and resolutions, 1796, 1798, 1800, 1808, 1814, 1839.
f.27 (rev.)
Minutes of the elections of the Right Honourable the Earl Grey (1833) and Thomas Colpitts Granger (1836) as honorary freemen of the company.
DCG 9/2 1744-1917
Minutes, 1744-1895; accounts, 1749-1917; and attendance roll, 1744-1781, 1812-1814.
Records summaryOrders: 1754, 1762, 1797, 1801, 1803, 1809-1811, 1818, 1826.
Minutes: 1744-1839, 1840-1850, 1853-1869, 1871-1872, 1874-1895.
Accounts: 1749-1840; 1841-1912, 1914-1917.
Apprenticeships:
1842, 1844-1845, 1850, 1856, 1859, 1861, 1863-1864, 1867.
Admissions and freemen: 1744-1783, 1785-1787, 1789, 1791, 1795-1797, 1799-1802, 1804-1814, 1818, 1820, 1823, 1825-1826, 1828-1854, 1858-1859, 1861-1865, 1867-1878, 1880-1885, 1891, 1893,
1897, 1902-1903, 1905-1906, 1908, 1910-1911.
Cover title
“Receipts and Disbursements Book of the Joiners Company”The volume contains several sequences of folia, subsequently bound into one volume, with certain sections reversed. Folia are numbered from both the front
(part A) and the back (part B). Foliation A (205f): f.4-81 blank; f.116-117 stubs. Foliation B (178f): f.1-22 blank; f.24, 26-27, 33 stubs; two un-numbered folia cut out following f.23.
Paper 1 volume (383f)
Size: 32 x 21 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
f.1-3r
Accounts, 1914-1917.
f.94v-81v (rev.)
Minutes of head and (until 1859) half-year meetings, 1840-1850, 1853-1869, 1871-1872, 1874-1895: rarely noting more than appointments of officers.
f.92 (rev.)
Minutes of special general meeting, 11 October 1849: resolution to renew agreement with the Corporation of Durham supplemented with terms for compensation for damage to the Sands by the fairs.
f.89 (rev.)
Copy letter from Thomas Keogh, Inland Revenue, to John Ward esquire, waiving stamp duties upon admission into the companies in the Corporation of Durham, 12 January 1857.
f.95r-205r; 88r-23v (rev.)
Accounts, 1749-1840; 1841-1912: administration, entertainment, fines, admissions (1750-1754, 1756, 1758-1764, 1767, 1770, 1774-1780, 1782-1783, 1785-1787, 1789, 1791, 1795-1797, 1799-1802, 1804-1814, 1818, 1820, 1823, 1825-1826, 1828-1854,
1858-1859, 1861-1865, 1867-1878, 1880-1885, 1891, 1893, 1897, 1902-1903, 1905-1906, 1908, 1910-1911), charitable donations, officers, orders (1797), apprenticeships (1842, 1844-1845, 1850, 1856, 1859, 1861, 1863-1864, 1867).
f.81v 23 November 1846
Invoice and receipt from George Hopper to Joiners company, for 4 quarters of paper and for binding the Trades Book, 4s.
Paper 1f
f.95v
Admission account, 5 June 1828. Freeman unidentified. £2 16s 6d.
f.117r
Vote tally for a dinner, or a supper (2 to 17).
f.88r-23v
Accounts, 1841-1912: see above.
f.89-179 (rev.)
Minutes, 1744-1839: absentees (1744-1781), attendees (1767-1781, 1812-1814), appointments of officers, fines, orders (1754, 1762, 1797, 1801, 1803, 1809-1811, 1818, 1826). [Cancellations of absentees' names may roughly indicate the date of their
deaths.]
DCG 9/2 part B f.164A 3 February 1813
Receipt from John Hines to Mr John Willey, warden, for £2 2s, re the Sands.
Paper 1f
DCG 9/3 1766-1836
Admissions certificates, stamped (pasted in), 1766-1768, 1770, 1774-1780, 1782-1784, 1786-1787, 1789, 1791-1792, 1795-1797, 1799-1802, 1804-1814, 1818, 1820, 1823, 1825-1826, 1828-1836, ; with index (f.1-6, sewn-in). Cover title
“[Admissions] book. Book belonging to the Joiner Company”
Paper 1 volume (45f)
Size: 24 x 30 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
Former reference: DCG 9/4.
Digitised material for Durham City Guild of Joiners admissions book 1766-1836
DCG 9/4 1772
Calls for the Joiners and Carpenters company and the Saddlers' company, listing the names of the freemen, places of abode; a third column headed ‘whether signed or not’ has not been used [to record which are
freeholders].
[Note: found, with a cache of 1771-1772 company calls, interpolated among the papers of C.M. Carlton deposited by W.A. Bramwell in 1937. Other company calls in the same cache explicitly describe non-signing freemen as freeholders: the inference
is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.]
Paper 2f
Found within ADD 1905.
DCG 9/5 1782-1889
Attendance register, 1802-1832. Also contains: orders, 1782; minutes, 1799-1847; fines, 1785-1821.
Minutes of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, 1806-1808; and [Union Hall Farm] dividend accounts, 1810-1889.
Records summaryOrders: 1782.
Minutes: 1799, 1802, 1804, 1812, 1816, 1825, 1834, 1838, 1847.
Freemen: 1785-1832.
Minutes of Freemen's Trustees: 1806-1808, 1834, 1847.
Union Hall Farm accounts: 1810-1836, 1842-1849, 1856, 1875, 1889.
Cover title
“Roll Book”Part B of this volume is reversed, commencing at the back of the volume. Foliation: f.16-24r originally paginated p.2-17; f.15, 71-75 blank; f.79v stub.
Paper 1 volume (80f)
Size: 34 x 22 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard
Former reference: DCG 9/3.
f.2-14
Tabulated registers of members' attendance at meetings, 1802-1832: name [in order of date of admission], place of abode, fines, attendance by meeting, and sickness or death (date).
1. 1802-1812 (incomplete) (f.2-5r).
2. 1812-1823
(f.5v-9r).
3. 1823-1832 (f.9v-14v).
f.16-20v
Orders, 1782.
f.17v-21r, 53v
Minutes, 1799, 1802, 1804, 1812, 1838.
f.21v-25r
‘Union Hall Farm Account.’ Minutes of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, acting under the Act for the division of Framwellgate (and Witton Gilbert) Moor, and concerning Union Hall Farm, belonging to the resident
freemen, 25 November 1806-1 February 1808: appointment of new trustees; accounts of construction works, the tenant Robert Hodgson's reduced rent agreed by arbitration. Meetings held at ‘the Justice Room in
Durham’.
f.26r-70v
Bi-annual [Union Hall Farm] dividend statements, with lists of qualifying resident freemen of the City of Durham belonging to the Joiners' company, 1810-1836, 1842-1849, 1856, 1875, 1889. Subscribed by the warden; dividend not specified after
1834.
f.32 (paste-in)
Receipt from Thomas Caldcleugh to Peter Grievson, warden, for the company's share (£5 16s 2d) of legal expenses concerning the Sands, 20 February 1817.
f.80v (rev.)
Account of admittance fees for John Gibson, 10 February 1796: £3 14s ½d, admitted by patrimony.
f.79 (rev.)
List of fines, 1785-1821: date, offender, offence, fine.
f.79r-76 (rev.)
Minutes, 1802, 1816, 1825, 1834, 1847.
f.77r
Copy minutes of a special meeting of the Trustees of the resident freemen, re an application for a rent reduction by John Smith [?of Union Hall Farm], 31 October 1834: negatived by the Joiners' company, 3 November 1834.
f.76
Copy minutes of the wardens of the City Trades, re accounts, salary of Thomas Graham, and increase in rent for the shop and ropewalk of Joseph Graham senior, 6 December 1847: endorsed by the Joiners' company, 21 December 1847.
DCG 9/6 6 December 1809
Freeman's oath of Thomas Jopling, [formerly] apprentice to Joseph Addison, joiner, sworn before Martin Dunn esquire, mayor of Durham.
Paper 1f
Formerly numbered DCG 9/7.
DCG 9/7/1-2 28 May 1825
Invoice and receipt of John W. Hays to R.P.G. Ackroyd warden, for £3 14s, re opinion of counsel concerning whether the indentures of an apprentice ought to be enrolled in the Trade's books after the expiration of the apprenticeship term. See
DCG 9/5 f.78v (rev.).
Paper 2f
Formerly numbered DCG 9/6.
DCG 9/8 1836-1965
Admissions records (with stamped certificates pasted in 1836-1838), 1836-1854, 1857-1859, 1861-1865, 1867-1878, 1880-1882, 1885, 1891, 1893, 1899, 1902-1903, 1905-1906, 1908, 1910-1911, 1924, 1936, 1938, 1957, 1965.
Foliation: f.24-87 blank.
Paper 1 volume (87f)
Size: 32 x 21 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard
Former reference: DCG 9/5.
DCG 9/8 f.1A [20th century]
Compliment slip of [?Durham] Town Clerk.
Paper 1f
DCG 9/9 15 June 1854
Bond, un-executed, in £30 to William Hutchinson of Durham City trustee of the company of Joiners and Carpenters entered into by Robert Paxton Green Ackroyd of Durham City, surety James Shaw of Durham City.
Paper 2f
Formerly numbered DCG 9/6a.
DCG 9/10 3 December 1856
Letter from Thomas Keogh, Inland Revenue, Somerset House, to Henry Talbott, [?warden], responding to report of Durham Surveyor of Taxes, requiring list of 63 admissions (overleaf) be stamped.
Paper 2f
Formerly numbered DCG 9/6b.
DCG 9/11 31 January 1891
Bi-annual accounts of the Trustees of the resident freemen, July 1890-January 1891.
Paper 2f
Formerly numbered DCG 9/6c.
DCG 9/12 April 1916
Copy inventory and valuation of silver, made by Mr Reid of Newcastle: tankard, engraved ‘Geo. Wheler, knight D.D. Prebendary of Durham 1721’, [2nd prebend, 1684-1724], with Wheler arms; tankard, engraved with
‘masonic’ arms; half-pint mug, engraved ‘This belongs to the Company of Joiners on [sic] Durham’.
Paper 1f
Formerly numbered DCG 9/6d.
MasonsReference: DCG 10Dates of creation: 1606-1961
Extent: 7 volumes; 8 items
Records of the Masons' company, formerly the Freemasons, Rough masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviours, Plasterers and Bricklayers.
The arms of the company, hanging in the Guildhall, claim its incorporation from 12 Henry IV (1410/1411), but this may refer to the incorporation of the London guild. A charter, no longer extant, is recorded to have been granted in 1592 by Bishop
Hutton to the ‘Rough Masons, Wallers and Slaters’ (CCB B/192/41/3; MSP MS 71; Spearman, p.19; Hutchinson, vol. 2, p.29). However, some of the component trades may have been incorporated independently at earlier dates:
wardens of the slater craft, for example, enforced company ordinances in the Crossgate borough court in 1517 and 1528; and an order concerning ‘the Corporacion of Slaitors’ was made by the city corporation in October
1604 (DCRO Du 1/4/4). A confirmation of the ordinances of the company of ‘Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviours, Tylers and Plasterers’ was granted by Bishop James on 21 January 1609. A new charter (
DCG 10/1) was granted by Bishop Morton by Letters Patent on 16 April 1638 incorporating the Free Masons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviours, Plasterers and Bricklayers (DURH 3/109 m.1d), and which is quoted extensively
by Whiting (p.279-281).
A charter of Bishop Tunstall to the Masons is also noted by Hutchinson (vol. 1, p.546), quoting from Rudd's MSS, who was in turn, probably misreading Spearman's
Enquiry, p.19.
Whiting noted in 1943 (see bibliography) only DCG 10/1-4, 7, 9, 15, and a map of the freemen's property, which is no longer extant. Certain volumes have been numbered in blue crayon at a recent date. As this ordering appears random it has not
been retained; former reference numbers are noted as necessary.
Records summaryOrders: 1606-[1617], 1657-1777, 1793-1829.
Accounts: 1606-1658, 1776-1909.
Minutes: 1617-1648, 1670, 1769-1776, 1808, 1834-1836, 1847-1849, 1906-1925, 1955.
Apprenticeship records:
1617-1665, 1682-1902.
Admissions and freemen: 1636, 1657-1706, 1772, 1784-1814, 1829-1844, 1861, 1910-1934, 1961.
Orders, Corporation of the City of Durham, 1728.
Minutes and Union Hall Farm accounts, Durham City Freemen's Trustees:
1806-1814.
Index of apprentice and freemen Masons
Accession history
DCG 10/6: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 10/2: deposited by J. Iley, 21 February 1952.
DCG 10/1, 3-5, 7, 12-13: deposited by H. Elliott, warden, 26 November 1966.
DCG 10/10-11: deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of Durham City freemen, 3 March 1967.
DCG 10/8-9: donated by J. Palmer, April 1987.
DCG 10/1 16 April 1638
Charter of Bishop Morton incorporating the company of Free Masons, Rough Masons, Wallers, Slaters, Paviours, Plasterers and Bricklayers. Blank parchment tag.
Endorsed with contemporary notice of enrollment on the dorse of the Durham Chancery
rolls (DURH 3/109 m.1d); and with a further 20th-century endorsement in ink, ‘MASON'S CHART.’ [sic].
Parchment 1m
Size: 90 x 59 cm
DCG 10/2 1606-1665
Accounts, orders, apprenticeship records, minutes, and lists of company members.
Records summaryOrders: 1606, 1608, [1617].
Accounts: 1606-1658.
Minutes: 1617-1648.
Apprenticeship records: 1617-1632, 1635, 1639-1642, 1645-1665.
Admissions and freemen: 1636, [before 1637], [17th
century].
Foliation: f.30, 109 (pinned), 118 loose; f.89, 106 stub. Folio 117 formerly misplaced as f.88.
Paper 1 volume (121f)
Size: 30 x 20 cm
Binding: Parchment; stubs of 2 front leather ties remain
Former reference: DCG 10/7.
f.1-76r, 82
Accounts, 30 November 1606-30 November 1658: appointments of officers, orders (1606, 1608, 1617), charitable gifts, fines, resolutions.
f.1v, 41r, 121v
Orders, 1606, 1608, [1617].
f.77v-78r, 80-81, 112v-114
Apprenticeship records, 1617-1631, 1639-1642, 1645-1665.
f.78v, 86, 87v-107r, 108v-112r, 115r, 116-117, 119-120r, 121
Minutes, 1617-1648: registers of non-attendance at meetings, resolutions, fines, voting records, admissions (1636), apprenticeships (1627, 1630, 1632, 1635), assessments, loans, dispute arbitrations. Entries from 1617 to 1640 commence from f.121
and proceed backwards.
f.107v-108r
List of company members, [early 17th century]: 85 names, the first 61 of which were entered before 1637. The names are annotated with notes of sums of money, and ‘B’ [?burgage owner], and deaths.
f.115v
Copy bond in 40 shillings by John Birkheade of Houghton-le-Spring waller and Ralph Birkheade of the City of Durham slator, to William Lowson of the City of Durham roughmason, warden of the ‘fellowship of the
sclators’, 1 May 1620.
f.118
Articles of covenants between Robert Nicholson of Newcastle upon Tyne brickmaker and William Lowson of the City of Durham [warden], 29 December 1619.
f.120v
List of company members, [17th-century]: 50 names.
DCG 10/3 1657-1772
Volume containing orders ([before 1657]-1678, 1683-1770) and calls (1657-1706), with some minutes (1767), vote tallies and fines.
Cover title incised
“Old Seal Book. D[urham], 1784, B, [J]R”Foliation: f.5-6, 43 loose; f.37-42 blank; f.47, 53 stubs. Folio 43 found loose at DCG 10/6 f.6/7.
Paper 1 volume (53f)
Size: 31 x 21 cm
Binding: Parchment; 1 leather tie remains
Former reference: DCG 10/4.
f.1r, 2v
Vote tallies, undated.
f.2r
Absences ‘at the feast’, 1670.
f.3, 45v-51r
Lists of company members, 1657-1706. Each list is annotated with details of deaths, and, on occasion, infirmity, absences and dates of admission; lists were supplemented with the names of new freemen for some years until a new list was made: 1657
(f.3); 1670s (f.50v); [1680], (f.49v); [1687], (f.48v); 1693 (f.46v); 1706 (f.45v).
f.4-6r, 11v-36v, 43-44r
Orders, resolutions and fines [before 1657]-1678, 1683-1770, commencing with 17 orders ‘aunciently made and now continued and agreed’ by 47 named company members, 30 November 1657.
f.6v-11r
Signatures, with seals, of company members, entered in 1657 [confirming preceding orders, and thereafter by new members upon their admission], broadly in order of date of admission, [1657-18th century].
f.23-30r
[Incomplete] copy orders and by-laws of the Corporation of Durham concerning the Durham Guilds, 8 November 1728: regulating the admission of freemen to curb unfree trading within the city, instituting, among other ordinances, four guild meetings
per annum ‘at the Guild-hall or Tool-booth’, on the first Mondays after the Martinmas, Candlemas, May day, Lamas; subscribed and sealed by 149 members. The last signature is that of Matthew Woodifield.
A copy of the full text of these orders is published in Hutchinson (vol. 2, p.33-34); the same orders are transcribed into the books of most Durham Guilds.
f.32
Minutes, 1 May 1769; and fines 1769-1772.
f.52r
Assessment (6d), ‘that belongs to Mr More’, 29 September 1671: 45 names.
f.52v
Fines for ‘insufficient’ [sub-standard] work, with details of offending company member and client, 1650s-1662: fines paid ‘both ways’, to the Bishop and company (see f.12).
DCG 10/4 1682-1961
Register of apprenticeship (and turnover) records; with some 20th-century admissions records and minutes.
Foliation: ii, f.152. [?Six] folia preceding f.1 removed; f.7-105 numbered in ink [c.1837]; f.12, 52 stubs; f.47-48, 59 paste paper repairs; f.[76] torn away; f.11, 123, 128-149 blank; 4 folia preceding f.122 removed; 1 folio preceding f.127
removed.
Paper 1 volume (156f)
Size: 20 x 17 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; parchment over paperboards
Formerly numbered DCG 10/6.
Digitised material for Durham City Guild of Masons apprentice register 1682-1961 - DCG/10/4
f.1-124
Apprenticeship records, 1682-1902.
f.121, 125v, 127
Admissions records, 1861, 1934, 1961.
DCG 10/4 f.122A [November 1946]
Newspaper cutting, unidentified publication: “City's Guild of Freemen”.
Paper 1f
f.125v-126v
Minutes, 1955.
f.151v-152v
Vote tallies.
DCG 10/5 1766-1868
Orders, [before 1657]-1829; and records of admissions and freemen, 1829-1844 and 1766-1868.
The volume has been written from both ends, parts A, and B (reversed), are numbered f.1-43 and f.1-39 respectively.
Foliation. Part A: 6 un-numbered folia have been torn away between f.14/15, and 10 un-numbered folia between f.29/30; f.18 stub; f.31-43 blank.
Paper 1 volume
Size: 32 x 21 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Formerly numbered DCG 10/2.
Digitised material for Durham City Guild of Masons record of admissions and freemen, 1829-1844 and 1766-1868 - DCG/10/5
Front paste-down
Table of admission fees, [?mid 19th century]. [Compare Part B f.17 table of fees, dated 1826.]
f.1-14
Orders, [before 1657]-1777: copy orders 1-17 ‘anciently made’, confirmed and subscribed by 46 [recte 47] members on 30 November 1657 (f.1-4r); orders 18-36, 1664-1766 (f.4v-12v); orders, 1772-1777 (f.13r-14r).
Orders 1-36 entered in this volume in one hand in 1766 and subscribed by members, newly admitted members continuing to subscribe until 1868 (f.15-29r). Orders after 1766 were entered contemporaneously (Part A f.13r-14r and then Part B, reversed);
company orders continued to be amended or voided until 1823. Among the orders is transcribed the 1728 orders of the Corporation of the City of Durham regulating admission to the guilds (see
DCG 10/3 f.23).
f.15-29
Signatures and seals of company members, [confirming their adherence to the preceding orders]: the first 87 names, entered into the 1780s, bear the same seal, and thereafter wafer seals are used; signatures give way to clerical entries, with
dates of admission in the 19th century. [The list of freemen was originally compiled c.1766, and subscribed by newly admitted freemen thereafter, until 1868.]
f.1-22, 32, 33v-34r, 37r, 38r (rev.)
Orders, 1793-1829. Company orders continued to be amended or voided until 1811. Many of the orders are more in the nature of resolutions than constitutional ordinances.
f.10 (paste-in) (rev.)
Receipt from John Winter to Mr William Palmer, warden, for £2 7s 8d re [legal] expenses concerning the Sands, 2 February 1813.
f.22-33, 34v-35r, 36v, 37v-39v (rev.)
Admissions records, 1829-1844: [copy] minutes of orders directing the warden to certify to the mayor that candidates for admission to freedom are so entitled, recording the name of the freeman, and the name of his master or parent.
DCG 10/6 1772
Company call, listing the names of the freemen, places of abode; a third column headed ‘whether signed or not’ is blank.
[Note: found, with a cache of 1771-1772 company calls, interpolated among the papers of C.M. Carlton deposited by W.A. Bramwell in 1937. Other company calls in the same cache explicitly describe non-signing freemen as freeholders: the inference
is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.]
Paper 2f
Found within ADD 1905.
DCG 10/7 1776-1934
Accounts, 1776-1909; minutes, 1776, 1808, 1906-1915, 1924-1925; and admissions records, 1910-1934. Cover title
“Masons' Company 1776.”
Foliation: iii, 1-252. Folia iii, 1, 250 loose; f.1-37 numbered [c.1810] in ink; f.41v-42r, 77v-78r formerly pasted together; f.116-117 pasted in; f.129-250 blank. Folia removed: 1f at 10/11, 1f at 82/83, 1f at 99/100, 1f at 106/107, 1f at
112/113, 3f at 118/119, 1f at 119/120, 2f at 120/121, 2f at 126/127, 5f at 151/152, 2f at 167/168, 4f at 168/169, 2f at 169/170, 1f at 172/173, 2f at 174/175, 1f at 199/200, 1f at 200/201, 1f at 203/204, 2f at 211/222, 18f at 232/233, 1f at 234/235,
1f at 241/242, 1f at 244/245, 15f at 249/250.
Paper 1 volume (255f)
Size: 38 x 27 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Former reference: DCG 10/1.
Front paste-down
Vote tallies.
f.1-122v
Accounts, 1776-1888, 1891-1895, 1897-1905, 1909: appointments of officers.
See also cancelled copy 1776 account (f.252r-251v rev.).
f.1
List of ‘Books belonging the company of Masons’, 1810:
Old Book of Disbursements B.
New Book of Disbursements.
Stamp Book.
Old Guild Book.
New Guild Book.
Old Calls.
New Calls.
Apprentice Book.
Moor Act.
Resolutions & Accounts relating to Union Hall Farm.
Old Seal Book. [DCG 10/3]
Order & Seal Book.
Paul [Pall] Bags & Banners & Glazed Cover.
Silver Tankard & Cup.
Book of Opinions etc.
f.122v-127v
Minutes, 1906-1915, 1924-1925: appointments of officers, resolutions, turnover of apprentice (Henry Elliott, 1924).
f.127r, 128r
Admissions records, 1910-1934.
f.252v (rev.)
Minutes, 1776, 1808: appointments of officers.
DCG 10/8 1784-1856
Admissions certificates, pasted in, 1784, 1786, 1788, 1791-1792, 1794, 1796, 1802, 1804-1810, 1813-1814, 1831, 1835-1838.
Pagination: 2-3, [4], 5, 12-15, [16], 17, [18-31]; p.12-13 torn in two; p.16-17 stub; p.27-31 blank.
Paper 12f
Deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, 3 March 1967.
Digitised material for Durham City Guild of Masons admission certificates 1784-1856 - DCG/10/8
DCG 10/9 1806-1814
Minutes and accounts of Durham City Freemen's Trustees, chiefly concerning Union Hall Farm, 1806-1814; with some minutes of the Masons' company, 1834-1836, 1847-1849. Cover title
“1808. Resolutions & accounts relating Union Hall Farm. Jos[eph] Winter warden”
Foliation: a large number of folia have been removed from throughout the volume.
Paper 1 volume (18f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; parchment over paperboard
Formerly numbered DCG 10/3.
f.1-10
Minutes of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, acting under the Act for the division of Framwellgate (and Witton Gilbert) Moor, and accounts concerning Union Hall Farm, belonging to the resident freemen, 25 November 1806-1 February 1814:
appointment of new trustees; the tenant Robert Hodgson's reduced rent agreed by arbitration. Meetings held at ‘the Justice Room in Durham’.
The 1807-1808 account (f.4r) lacks the debit side: folio(s) removed. The same minutes and accounts are transcribed in the books of the Barbers (DCG 1/8 f.1), Drapers (DCG 6/2 f.220 rev.), and Joiners (DCG 9/5 f.21v).
f.11-13
Minutes of the Masons' company, 1834-1836, 1847, 1849: only the first of which relates to Union Hall Farm.
f.14-18
Bi-annual accounts of cash [Union Hall Farm dividend] paid by the Trustees of the Durham City freemen to the wardens of the several Guilds, 1808-1814.
DCG 10/10 20 January 1813
Copy assignment of Joseph Gilhespie, apprentice, to a new master. See
DCG 10/4 f.73r.
1. William Palmer of Framwellgate, Durham City, mason.
2. Nicholas Palmer late of Sunderland Bridge, County Durham, now of Elvet, Durham City, mason.
3. James Gilhespie of Crossgate, Durham City, bread-baker; William Metcalf of the Banks Mill near Durham City, miller; Joseph Gilhespie, son of James.
Assignment of Joseph Gilhespie by 1 to 2 for the remainder of his term of apprenticeship, 1 no longer having sufficient work to employ Gilhespie; reciting 10 July 1810 apprenticeship indenture. Consideration: 5s, paid by 2 to 1.
3f
Donated by J. Palmer, April 1987; formerly in the possession of Palmer of Rainton.
DCG 10/11 14 June 1820
Copy apprenticeship indenture, with bonds, and receipt.
1. Nicholas Palmer the elder of New Elvet, Durham City, mason; Daniel Bulmer of Saddler Street, Durham City, mason.
2. Joseph Dalton of Crossgate, mason; Joseph Gilhesphie of Gilesgate, Durham City, mason; Nicholas Palmer son of Nicholas.
3. Trustees of Lord Crewe's Charity for Apprenticing.
Nicholas Palmer [the younger] apprenticed to his father, Nicholas Palmer the elder, mason, for 7 years; he providing apparel, meat, drink, washing and lodging. Covenants: Nicholas Palmer the elder to Joseph Dalton, Joseph Gilhesphie and 3; 2
to 3 and Nicholas Palmer the elder. Consideration: £4, paid by 3 to Nicholas Palmer the elder. Penal bonds in £10: 1 to 3; 2 to 3; 1 to 1. Receipt for £4.
2f
Donated by J. Palmer, April 1987; formerly in the possession of Palmer of Rainton.
DCG 10/12 26 November 1823
Apprenticeship indenture, and bonds.
1. William Jopling, Hallgarth Street, Durham City, mason; Ralph Stockley of Hallgarth Street, currier.
2. Thomas Rutter Blagdon of Framwellgate, Durham City, labourer; John Judson of Hartlepool, labourer; Thomas Rutter Blagdon, son of Thomas.
Thomas Rutter Blagdon [the younger] apprenticed to William Jopling, for 7 years, he paying 3s / week years 2-3, 4s years 4-5, 5s years 6-7; meat, drink, washing, lodging and wearing apparel to be provided by Thomas Rutter Blagdon [the elder].
Penal bonds in £10: 1 to 2; 2 to 1.
Paper 1f
Deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, 3 March 1967.
Formerly numbered DCG 10/9.
DCG 10/13 15 March 1831
Freeman's oath of Thomas Rutter Blagdon, [formerly] apprentice to William Jopling, mason, sworn before Thomas Chipchase, mayor of Durham, and J. Hutchinson, town clerk.
Paper 1f
Deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, 3 March 1967.
Former reference: DCG 10/10.
DCG 10/14 April 1938
Durham Sands Races, and Old English Games. 18-19 April 1938. Poster.
Paper 1f
Size: 56 x 29.5 cm
Found loose within DCG 10/5.
DCG 10/15 May 1818-August 1819
Election agent's canvassing book for the Durham City election of 15-21 June 1818.
Members of the electorate are listed by place of residence (f.2), armed service (f.49), and alphabetically (f.51). The following information may be entered for each voter: name, residence, trade [guild], votes cast in previous elections, promised
vote in 1818, cast vote in 1818, whether an apprentice or an eldest son [i.e. admitted by servitude or patrimony], parentage, [controlling influence of ] local landowner, and with notes and queries re (dis)qualifications and deaths. Entered from the
back of the volume, reversed, are lists of runners and agents (f.86v rev.), carriers (f.96 rev.), and members of the band. A further list recording the guilds [i.e. enfranchisement by admission to freedom] of 48 persons, between 4 May 1818 and 2
August 1819 is also entered (f.94-92 rev.), with notes of objections and (dis)qualifications.
The candidates in the 1818 election were Michael Angelo Taylor, Richard Wharton and George Allan: Allan ceased to contest the election after two days, but it is not known for which of the remaining two candidates the volume was compiled. The
enfranchised freemen listed at f.94-92 (rev.) are not found to have voted consistently for either candidate; a cursory survey does not find that the Masons voted for one candidate in any consistent manner. The carriers and band bills are noted to
have been paid by a Mr Thompson, and each is subscribed with the initials ‘JH’.
The volume was deposited with the records of the Masons' company, but its connection with the company is still obscure.
Foliation: 18f removed at f.50/51; 22f removed at f.91/92; f.100 stub.
Paper 1 volume (100f)
Size: 26 x 23 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf
Former reference: DCG 10/5.
DCG 10/15 f.20A [1818]
Loose sheet from a different volume [?an earlier draft] containing notes of similarly political character.
Paper 1f
MercersReference: DCG 11Dates of creation: 1652-1939
Extent: 9 volumes; 16 files
Records of the Mercers' company, formerly the Merchants' company, uniting (with claimed dates of incorporation) the Grocers (1345), Mercers (1393), Salters (1394), Ironmongers (1464), and Haberdashers (1467), and known as the company of Mercers,
Grocers, Haberdashers, Ironmongers, and Salters.
An early 19th-century transcript made by Thomas Woodness of a Mercers' company Ordinary dated 1430 is bound within DCL ADD 202 (p.196-203). The original, now lost, appears to have then been with the company records: it is described as then
bearing fifteen parchment labels with three separate seals. Richard Hutton, temporal chancellor, and Herald Richard St George noted this Ordinary in 1607 and 1615 respectively, dating it 1429 rather than 1430. An Ordinary of the (unified) company
was confirmed by a charter from Bishop Pilkington dated 6 October 1561, confirmed by the Dean and Chapter [20] January 1562 (DCD/B/BA 2 f.145-146r), a transcript of which is published by Whiting (Appendix V, p.402-407). This charter is recorded as
having been in the possession of the company in 1887 (receipt,
DCG 11/6), but is no longer extant. The arms of the company, hanging in the Guildhall, claims incorporation of the various constituent companies from 1345,
1393 [1394 New Style], 1394, 1464, and 1467: these dates are thought to derive from the founding or first royal charters granted to the London Grocers', Mercers', Salters', and Ironmongers' companies, respectively, rather than indicating Durham
grants.
Records summaryOrders: 1561, 1632, 1709-1723, 1735, 1758-1773, 1783-1795, 1816, 1825, 1846, 1850.
Minutes: 1709-1905.
Accounts: 1652, 1668, 1722, 1740, 1750-1818, 1870.
Apprenticeships:
1709-1830.
Admissions and freemen: 1710-1905, 1928, 1937.
Union Hall Farm dividend accounts: 1808-1839.
Minutes and accounts of Freemen's Trustees: 1806-1808.
Index of apprentice and freemen Mercers
Accession history
DCG 11/3-4, 7, 11, 15-17 were explicitly recorded by C.E. Whiting as being in the custody of the Clerk to the Trustees of the Durham City Freemen in 1943; the records were then held at Barclays Bank in Durham, where they had been stored by the
last surviving warden of the Company. Various loose papers also recorded by Whiting are probably among those now found at DCG 11/1-2, 5-6, 8-10, 12-14, 20-23, 25. A receipt to the Freemen's Trustees for the (re-)deposit of 2 parcels of records (and
the Company plate) at Barclays on 7 July 1942 is filed with the Durham City Freemen's Records (DCF 3/9). The Freemen's Trustees agreed in January 1952 to transfer those Freemen's [in fact Guilds'] records in their custody at Barclays Bank to the
‘Muniments Room’ of Durham University, but the Mercers' records are not listed in the receipts returned to the Trustees' Clerk by J. Conway Davies, Reader in the Palaeography and Diplomatic, nor in the accession
records of that department or the University Library. A 1951 receipt signed by Conway Davies survives for “three parcels containing ten Minute and Account Books etc. of the Durham Freemen”, which may in fact refer to
the Mercers' records. Alternatively, these records may have been accessioned within large composite Durham City Guilds and Durham City Records deposits on 23 November 1955, 29 May 1959, 30 July 1959, and 11 April 1967, the first and largest of these
being the more likely: but these deposits were made by the Town Clerks rather than the Trustees' Clerk. In his inventory Whiting also includes a volume of accounts, 1816-1936, ‘[b]ound in parchment and leather
backed’, but which is not present in the collection.
DCG 11/24 deposited by the Clerk to the Trustees of Durham City freemen, 25 March 1975.
DCG 11/18-19 deposited by Thomas Heron, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City freemen, 5
August 1980.
A volume of Durham City Freemen minutes (1830-1878), listed by Whiting with the Mercers' records in 1943, has been transferred to the Durham City Freemen collection (DCF 1/1).
DCG 11/1 19th century
Incomplete copy inspeximus issued on 20 January 1562 by Dean Skinner of Bishop Pilkington's confirmation of the company Ordinary, granted 6 October 1561.
A photocopy of C.E. Whiting's 1943 complete transcription of the charter is also filed
at this location. A revision of these ordinances made in 1632 is entered in both NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/2/1/3 and DCG 11/3.
Paper 2f
Former reference: DCG 11/8a.
DCG 11/2/1-6 1652-1771, 1870
Annual accounts (loose); and 1870 draft account. Admissions are also recorded in the years 1668, 1722, and 1740.
Paper 10f
DCG 11/2/1 1652
Account of Anthony Daile, alderman.
Former reference: DCG 11/9a.
DCG 11/2/2 1668
Account of Oswald Comyns, alderman.
Former reference: DCG 11/9b.
DCG 11/2/3 1722
Account of William Burletson, alderman.
Former reference: DCG 11/9c.
DCG 11/2/4 1740
Account of George Reay, alderman.
Former reference: DCG 11/9d.
DCG 11/2/5 1771
Account (incomplete) of John Patrick, alderman.
Former reference: DCG 11/9f.
DCG 11/2/6 [March] 1870
Draft account.
DCG 11/3 1709-1782, 1802, 1813
Minutes, 14 November 1709-12 June 1782, containing: apprenticeships and turnovers, admissions records, appointments of officers, attendees and absentees, orders, charitable donations, resolutions, assessments and subscriptions (1710, 1725, 1730,
1755, 1762, 1780), summary wardens' accounts, and fines.
Records summaryMinutes: 1709-1782.
Orders: 1709, 1711, 1716, 1718-1720, 1723, 1735, 1758-1759, 1761-1762, 1765, 1768, 1770-1771, 1773.
Apprenticeships: 1709-1711, 1713-1725, 1728-1741, 1743-1744, 1746-1748,
1751-1752, 1755, 1758-1759, 1764-1769, 1771, 1774-1778, 1781-1782.
Admissions: 1710-1711, 1713-1731, 1733-1736, 1738-1743, 1746-1748, 1751-1757, 1759-1762, 1765-1769, 1771, 1775-1776, 1780, 1782.
Corporation orders and by-laws:
1728.
Foliation: f.1-19r and 175-178 paginated in ink p.1-39, 345-351; two folia numbered 202; f.1, 4-7, 130, 137, 265, 272-274, 279 loose; f.9-12, 278 blank; f.1 pasted to succeeding folio to mask cancellation.
Paper 1 volume (279f)
Size: 38 x 26 cm
Binding: Full-calf; textile ties lost
Former references: DCG 11/1; DCG 11/8(8) now restored to f.279.
f.1-8
Copy ordinances 1-20, [entered c.1709]: ordinances 1-19 agreed originally in 1632, [and also entered in the minute book NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/2/1/3 and confirmed therein 19 November 1652]; ordinance 20 is undated.
f.175-177r, 277r
Copy orders and by-laws of the Corporation of Durham concerning the Durham Guilds, 8 November 1728: regulating the admission of freemen to curb unfree trading within the city, instituting, among other ordinances, four guild meetings per annum
‘at the Guild-hall or Tool-booth’, on the first Mondays after the Martinmas, Candlemas, May day, Lammas; subscribed by the mayor and 194 company members. The last signature is that of Francis Wilson, (admitted 4 May
1813).
f.192
Order to admit the Right Honourable Richard [Lumley-Saunderson, 6th] Earl of Scarbrough, the Honourable and Right Reverend Richard [Trevor] Lord Bishop of Durham, and the Honourable James Lumley esquire as freemen of the company, citing a
Corporation order made on the same day sanctioning the same [contrary to the 1728 bylaws], 13 July 1759.
DCG 11/1 f.216A
Petition for charity out of company fund for ‘decayed freemen’ by Richard Taylor, addressed on dorse to ‘The Gentlemen Merchants at the Town Hall, Durham’, 12 November 1764. Endorsed
with rough accounts and tallies, and account of disbursement of 15s among four [decayed freemen], including one Mr Taylor.
f.219v
Order commissioning a book to contain all (2s) stamped ‘minutes or memorandums’ of admissions, according to a late Act of Parliament, 18 November 1765.
f.234v
Order transferring the company's records, plate and other goods into the custody of Mr Thomas Chipchase, 26 June 1770.
The order lists the company's goods as follows: ‘the banner, velvet pall, one guilded cup and cover, one silver cup the gift of Mr Gyll, one silver tankard the gift of Mr Kirby, one silver tankard the gift of Mountague,
a silver punch bowl the gift of George Bowes esquire, a silver punch ladle the gift of John Stephenson esquire, a parchment writing deed dated in the year 1729 purporting to be an agreement entered into by the Company at <that> time, a charter
granted by James Bishop of Durham dated the 3d year of the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, a decree dated the 26 April 1719 for the pew in Saint Nicholas church in Durham, a lot of brass measures from a gallon to a quarter of <a> gill being
five in number, a brass standard <broken>, two folio books, the aldermans accounts, admittances of freemen, as also all other papers in a bag’.
f.236v-237
Copy petition of all the several companies and Fraternities within the City of Durham for a new charter of incorporation for the city, presented to the Bishop of Durham at Auckland Castle by General Lambton M.P. and John Tempest junior esquire
M.P., November 1770.
f.277r
List of company members passing their Guilds, ‘continued from page 352’, 1802, 1813.
DCG 11/4 1750-1818
Accounts, containing: administration, fines, apprenticeships, admissions, charitable donations, legal expenses; Union Farm dividend accounts (1808-1812). Bck cover title
“Mercers”
Records SummaryAccounts: 1750-1818.
Minutes: meeting, [late 18th-19th century].
Apprenticeships: 1767, 1783.
Admissions: 1753-1757, 1760-1761, 1765-1769, 1771, 1774-1775, 1780-1781, 1783-1784, 1786,
1788-1792, [1795], 1799-1800, 1802, 1804, 1807, 1810, 1812-1814.
Freemen's Trustees Union Hall Farm accounts: 1808-1812.
Foliation: f.35-39, 70 loose; f.64-72, 75-76 blank.
Paper 1 volume (76f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Binding: Parchment; paperboard
Former reference: DCG 11/3.
DCG 11/4 f.42A [late 18th-19th century]
Draft minutes, with injunction to call the roll at 4 p.m., and recording resolution re transfer £200 [company funds] in 3% stock; re-used as blotting paper.
f.73v-74r
Union [Hall] Farm dividends accounts, 1808-1812: cancelled; most of the company's dividends were directed to charitable purposes.
DCG 11/5/1-24 [1759]-1902
Company calls, and printed lists of all resident freemen of Durham City.
In the manuscript company calls (DCG 11/5/1-16), freemen are listed in order of seniority, with absences tabulated for each of the five meetings in the year. Deaths, illnesses and locations of absent freemen are sometimes noted.
The outsize printed lists (DCG 11/5/17, 19-24) record those resident freemen entitled to a share of the annual rents of Union Hall Farm, and the tenants of the farm.
1 file (24 items)
Former reference: DCG 11/7.
DCG 11/5/1 [1758-1759]
Parchment
DCG 11/5/2 1762-1765
Parchment
DCG 11/5/3 1765-1769
Parchment
DCG 11/5/4 1769-1773
Parchment
DCG 11/5/5 [1784]-1787
Also lists non-resident freemen.
Parchment
DCG 11/5/6 [1788]-1791
Parchment
DCG 11/5/7 1794-1797
Parchment
DCG 11/5/8 1818-1822
Parchment
DCG 11/5/9 1825-1827
Parchment
DCG 11/5/10 1827-1829
Parchment
DCG 11/5/11 1838-1840
Parchment
DCG 11/5/12 1840-1842
Parchment
DCG 11/5/13 1842-1846
Parchment
DCG 11/5/14 1848-1853
Parchment
DCG 11/5/15 [mid-late 19th century]
Paper
Former reference: DCG 11/8f.
DCG 11/5/16 [mid-late 19th century]
Paper
DCG 11/5/17 1 January 1867
A list of freemen resident in Durham, on the 1st January 1867, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mr. Thomas Baines, due at Martinmas last, payable on the 31st January, 1867. Poster, printed by
William Ainsley, steam machine printer, lithographer, etc., 74, Sadler Street, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed. List of Mercers' company freemen amended in ink.
Paper
Size: 51 x 38 cm
DCG 11/5/18 February 1870
List of company members ‘living at this date as far as can be ascertained’, with their places of residence.
[Note: For a similar list drawn up in March 1870, see
DCG 11/11 f.247v.]
Paper
Former reference: DCG 11/6a.
DCG 11/5/19 1 January 1874
A list of freemen, resident in Durham, on the 1st January, 1874, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mr. Thomas Baines, due on the 23rd day of November last, payable on the 31st day of January, 1874.
Poster, printed by William Ainsley, Borough steam printing offices, Waddington Street, North Road, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed.
Paper
DCG 11/5/20 1 July 1875
List of freemen resident in Durham, on the 1st July, 1875, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mr. Thomas Baines, due on the 13th day of May last, payable on the 31st day of July, 1875. Poster, printed
by William Ainsley & Brother, Borough steam printing offices, Waddington Street, North Road, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed.
Paper
DCG 11/5/21 1 January 1876
List of freemen resident in Durham, on the 1st January, 1876, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mr. Thomas Baines, due on the 23rd day of November last, payable on the 31st day of January 1876.
Poster, printed by William Ainsley & Brother, Borough steam printing offices, Waddington Street, North Road, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed.
Paper
DCG 11/5/22 1 January 1877
List of freemen resident in Durham, on the 1st January, 1877, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mr. Thomas Baines, due on the 23rd day of November last, payable on the 31st day of January 1877.
Poster, printed by William Ainsley & Brother, Borough steam printing offices, Waddington Street, North Road, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed. List of Mercers' company freemen amended in ink.
Paper
DCG 11/5/23 1 January 1891
List of freemen resident in Durham on the 1st day of January, 1891, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mrs. Wallace and Mr. Forster, due on the 23rd day of November last, payable on the 31st day of January,
1891. Poster, printed by W[illia]m Ainsley & Bro., Waddington Street, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed.
Paper
DCG 11/5/24 1 January 1902
List of freemen resident in Durham on the 1st day of January, 1902, who are entitled to the rent of the farm occupied by Mr. Irwin and Mr. Forster, due on the 23rd day of November last, divisible on the 31st day of January,
1902. Poster, printed by W[illia]m Ainsley & Bro., Limited, Waddington Street, Durham.
Wardens of the companies also listed.
Paper
DCG 11/6 1762-1906
Bills and receipts, including: pew repair and renovation; interest payments on loans; subscription, 1781; costs re petition against the shop tax, 1786; textile swatch, [1820s]; charitable donations to the Blue Coat, Sunday, Infant and Ragged
Schools, Durham Infirmary; entertainments; John Kirby Charity.
DCG 11/6/20-31 sewn together; DCH 11/6/82-106 stapled together.
1 file (112 items)
Former references: DCG 11/9e now DCG 11/6/1; DCG 11/9m now DCG 11/6/8; DCG 11/9g now DCG 11/6/9; DCG 11/9h now DCG 11/6/15; DCG 11/6b now DCG 11/6/53; otherwise DCG 11/9i.
DCG 11/7 1765-1800
Admissions records. Stamped paper: 1765-1783, 2s; 1788-1800, 4s. Cover title
“Admission book of freemen in the Mercers Company within the City of Durham”. Label on front pastedown “John Anthony Brignal, Alderman, 1836”
Foliation: f.13-17 loose; 3 stamped records (A-C) pinned to f.17. Gatherings roughly sewn and pinned together, and bound into a later 19th-century binding.
Paper 1 volume (17f, 3 loose items)
Size: 35 x 25 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; paperboard
Former reference: DCG 11/4.
DCG 11/8/1-3 1767-1775
Certificates of Justices of the Peace, certifying that the following parents or guardians of apprentices possess the £2 annual estate of inheritance or freehold property qualification [required in An Act Containing Divers Orders for Artificers,
Labourers, Servants of Husbandry, and Apprentices, 5 Elizabeth, 1562, c.4, s.27]:
Paper 1 file (4 items)
Former reference: DCG 11/8c.
DCG 11/8/1 14 November 1767
Thomas Woodness of Durham City, butcher, father of Thomas Woodness apprenticed to John Hall of Durham City, mercer.
2f
DCG 11/8/2/1-2 22 June 1771
John Grey of Durham City, yeoman, father of John Grey apprenticed to John Lambe of Durham City, mercer. Certificate of property qualification, with Pittington Hall Garth baptism register transcript.
1f each
DCG 11/8/3 1 July 1775
Robert Levison of East Buttsfield, Lanchester, yeoman, father-in-law of John Ridley apprenticed to Thomas Dunn the younger of Durham City, mercer.
2f
DCG 11/9/1-10 1772-1888
Correspondence, chiefly with recipients of company funds, the Inland Revenue and the Stamp Office, also including:
Paper 1 file (10 items)
Former references: DCG 11/8(2) now DCG 11/9/1; DCG 11/8(3) now DCG 11/9/2; DCG 11/8w now DCG 11/9/3; DCG 11/8(4) now DCG 11/9/4; DCG 11/8y now DCG 11/9/5; DCG 11/8(6) now DCG 11/9/6; DCG 11/8x now DCG 11/9/7; DCG 11/8(1) now DCG 11/9/8; DCG
11/8(7) now DCG 11/9/9.
DCG 11/9/1 21 November 1772
Thomas Clavering [M.P.] at Axwell Park to William Hutchinson esquire, company clerk, acknowledging receipt of a grievance of London traders forwarded via the Durham Mercers' company with a proposed redress.
2f
DCG 11/9/2 10 September 1785
R. Alnwick at Felton to ...unn [a hawker, pedlar or chapman], at Durham, concerning dispatch of two foot licences, and, upon instructions of the Board, the modification of the published terms of the licence.
1f
DCG 11/9/4 15 January 1842
Edward Davison of Church Street, [Durham], to John Shields of Hallgarth Street, engaging to deliver a Sunday evening lecture to the company.
2f
DCG 11/9/6 25 July 1849
James Dix of Bristol to John Shields, ‘Draper’ [sic], Durham, marketing listed products of J.S. Fry & Sons, Fry's Patent Cocoa and J.W. Mackie, Edinburgh.
1f
DCG 11/10/1-15 1774-1871
Certified transcripts of baptism registers and oaths sworn before Justices of the Peace, to support the qualifications of apprentices and others applying for admission to freedom. Transcripts originating from outside County Durham: Manchester,
Kirkham in Lancaster, Ainderby Steeple in Yorkshire.
Paper 1 file (15 items)
Former references: DCG 11/8b now DCG 11/10/1-12, 14-15; DCG 11/3b, transferred from DCG 11/4 f.76, now DCG 11/10/13.
DCG 11/11 1782-1905
Minutes, 1 July 1782-1905; with 1632 copy company ordinances, and 1783 copy Corporation bylaws. Minutes contain: absences and attendees, appointments of officers, wardens' summary accounts, subscriptions (1782, 1790, 1810), debts, resolutions,
fines, apprenticeships and turnovers, admissions, orders, charitable donations. Cover title
“Mercer's Company, 1782. William Shields, Alderman”
Records SummaryMinutes: 1782-1905.
Orders: 1632 (copy), 1783, 1786, 1791, 1795, 1816, 1825, 1846, 1850.
Apprenticeships: 1783-1784, 1787-1788, 1790-1791, 1793, 1795-1796, 1800, 1802-1804, 1807, 1809,
1811-1814, 1816, 1819, 1821-1828, 1830.
Admissions: 1783-1784, 1786, 1788-1794, 1799-1800, 1802, 1804, 1807, 1810, 1812-1814, 1816, 1818, 1825, 1827, 1830-1832, 1834, 1838-1839, 1841, 1843, 1856, 1869, 1871, 1874, 1876, 1878-1880, 1882, 1885,
1889, 1892, 1895, 1905.
Corporation by-laws: 1783.
Foliation: iii, 315; f.1-7 paginated 1-14 in ink; f.8-17, 20-27, 264-315 blank; 279 used twice.
Paper 1 volume (318f)
Size: 39 x 26 cm
Binding: Full-calf; metal corner-pieces
Former reference: DCG 11/2.
f.1-7
Copy ordinances 1-20, [entered c.1781]: ordinances 1-19 agreed originally in 1632, [and also entered in the Minute book NCRO SANT/GUI/DUR/2/1/3 and confirmed 19 November 1652]; ordinance 20 is undated.
f.18-19 6 February 1783
Copy Corporation bylaws regulating admissions to freedom, citing Corporation bylaws of 11 November 1780.
f.87 18 February 1799
Transcript of minutes of a committee of representatives of all the Durham companies, formed to oppose a Bill to divide and enclose Charlaw Moor, Findon Hill Moor and Potter Moor, so preserving the freemen's rights upon the latter two moors.
Samuel Castle appointed solicitor.
DCG 11/11 f.197A 1831
Opinion concerning the age and provenance of the company banner, replaced in this year. Scrap of paper cut from [?company call].
f.230, 233r
Free evening school, for apprentices of Freemen, or sons of Freemen who are apprentices. Printed handbill (in 2 pieces), pasted-in.
List of applicants in 1844 and 1845, those selected indicated with a cross: name,
place of residence, paternity, master and master's occupation. See also
DCG 11/21.
f.247v
List of (all) 19 freemen of the company entitled to a share of £200 of the company funds deemed surplus to its requirements, 17 March 1870: five names annotated in pencil ‘d[ead]’; all resident in the north east,
excepting one in London, and William Dunn in Constantinople.
DCG 11/12 1784-1845
Printed circulars from fundraising public and charitable institutions, chiefly outside County Durham, inviting subscriptions.
Paper 1 file (24f)
Former references: DCG 11/8i-u.
DCG 11/12/1 [1784]
Durham Dispensary. Prospectus, with outline plan of its activities and regulation, and list of subscribers; Dr Blackburne, physician and temporary treasurer. Endorsed with offer of a Mr Wolf to present the plan before a committee of the company.
See company minutes, 25 November 1784 (
DCG 11/11).
1f
Former reference: DCG 11/8h.
DCG 11/12/2 after 1838
Indigent Refuge for Young Females of Good Character. 3a Princes Street, Red Lion Square, [London]. Prospectus.
2f
DCG 11/12/3 [1840s]
The Incorporated National Society for promoting the education of the poor in the principles of the established church throughout England and Wales. Prospectus.
2f
DCG 11/12/4 January 1843
Address of the London Association in aid of the Missions of the United Brethren. Commonly called 'Moravians.' 20 Charles Street, Parliament Street, [London].
1f
DCG 11/12/5 1844
Annual report of the Durham Compassionate Society.
2f
DCG 11/12/6/1-4 February 1844-April 1845
Infant Orphan Asylum, Wanstead: prospectus (February 1844); election list and ballot paper for 4 November 1844; letter and card promoting case of Latta family in November 1845 election.
2f; 2f; 2f; 1f
DCG 11/12/7/1-2 8 June 1844
Regulations for the admission of pupils to the National Society's Training-Institution for Schoolmistresses at Whitelands House, Chelsea (2 copies).
2f (x2)
DCG 11/12/8/1-2 July 1844
Society for the Suppression of Vice. 57 Lincoln's Inn Fields, [London]: letter of appeal, with abridged report of the Society's transactions, 1842-1844.
1f; 8p
DCG 11/12/9/1-2 18 October 1844
Shipwrecked Fishermen & Marines Benevolent Society. 26 Bucklersbury, London. Illustrated prospectus, with letter.
1f; 1f
DCG 11/12/10/1-4 28 October 1844
London Female Mission. 20 Red Lion Square, [London]: Statement and proposal, with notice of meeting (2 copies).
2f and 2f (x2)
DCG 11/12/11 29 July 1844
Hydropathic Establishment, Sudbrook Park, Petersham, Surrey. Illustrated prospectus.
2f
DCG 11/12/12/1-2 postmarked December 1844
Trinity College, Perthshire. Illustrated prospectus, with list of subscriptions received.
2f; 2f
DCG 11/12/13 10 December 1844
An urgent appeal to the promoters of national education in connexion with the established church in aid of a fund for building a school-house in the populous cotton manufacturing parish of Bollington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire.
2f
DCG 11/12/14/1-2 28 January 1845
London Society for the Protection of Young Females. Moira Chambers, Ironmonger Lane, Cheapside. Asylum, Tottenham. Prospectus, with letter.
2f; 2f
DCG 11/13 1790-after 1869
Loose records of individual freemen's membership.
Items DCG 11/13/2-3, 5 found loose at DCG 11/15 f.71 and 77.
Paper 1 file (6 items)
DCG 11/14/1-6 1799-1870
Records of the John Kirby Charity: 1799 petition, correspondence, Charity Commission accounts for 1868. See also DCG 11/24.
Receipts from beneficiaries for the following years may be found filed at
DCG 11/24: 1837, 1845, 1847-1850, 1854, 1869-1870, 1901, 1906. The Charity was wound up in 1997, see DCF 3/9.
Paper 1 file (8 items)
Former references: DCG 11/8(5) now DCG 11/14/1; DCG 11/8z now DCG 11/14/2-4; DCG 11/3c transferred from DCG 11/4 f.62 to DCG 11/14/5; DCG 11/8v now DCG 11/14/6.
DCG 11/15 1802-1928
Guilds book of candidate freemen, 1802-1859, 1868-1892, 1905, 1928: name, ‘title as son or apprentice’, father/master, and dates of the three guilds. Annotated concerning turnovers, objections, deaths, and
admission dates. Cover title
“Mercers Company, 1802. T. Chipchase jun[io]r, Alderman”
Paper 1 volume (94f)
Size: 21 x 28 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Former reference: DCG 11/6.
DCG 11/15 f.10A [c.1834]
Memorandum of a candidate freeman's date of apprenticeship indenture, in July 1827.
Paste-in affixed beside late 1870s guilds, but date of indenture would suggest a date c.1834.
Paper
DCG 11/15 f.10B [1834]
Memorandum noting William Scott's apprenticeship to William Shields.
Paste-in affixed beside late 1880s guilds, but see f.7.
f.90v
List of aldermen and wardens [of Durham City freemen], from fifteen guilds, May 1834.
f.92v, 93v
List of three ordinances [in force] ‘when Bernard Forster was made a freemen’, the first citing statute 28 Henry VIII [c.5].
DCG 11/16 1802-1850
Admissions certificates (1802-1850), and receipts (1805, 1832-1843). Part A: receipts (pasted-in), 1805-1843. Part B: admissions certificates, 1802-1850 (guarded). Cover title
“Mercers Company, 1802. T. Chipchase jun[io]r, Alderman”
Foliation: f.8-9 reversed; f.8-9 stubs; f.32 blank.
Paper; textile 1 volume (32f)
Size: 40 x 28 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard; textile ties
Former reference: DCG 11/5.
f.1-2
Receipts, 1805, 1832-1843, including: Durham Infirmary; Blue Coat and Sunday Schools; pew repairs.
f.3-31
Admissions certificates, stamped, 1802, 1804, 1807, 1810, 1812-1814, 1818, 1830-1832, 1834, 1838, 1850.
DCG 11/17 1806-1839
Minutes and accounts of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, 1806-1808; with minutes of the Mercers' company concerning the appointment of additional trustees, 1829. Company accounts of Union Hall Farm bi-annual dividends, 1812-1839. Cover title
“Respecting the Union Farm”
Foliation: f.1-2, 22-65, 67-74 blank; folio 76A stub.
Paper 1 volume (77f)
Size: 39 x 26 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard; parchment corner-pieces
Former reference: DCG 11/10.
f.3-8r, 76-75v (rev.)
Minutes and accounts of the Durham City Freemen's Trustees, acting under the Act for the division of Framwellgate (and Witton Gilbert) Moor, and concerning Union Hall Farm, belonging to the resident freemen, 25 November 1806-1 February 1808:
appointment of new trustees; accounts of construction works, the tenant Robert Hodgson's reduced rent agreed by arbitration. Meetings held at ‘the Justice Room in Durham’.
f.8v-9r
Minutes of the Mercers' company, 6 November-30 December 1829: appointment of eight additional trustees, bringing total to fourteen.
f.10v-21r
Company accounts of Union Hall Farm bi-annual dividends, 1812-1839.
f.66r
Account of cash paid to the wardens of the sixteen Durham companies by the trustees of the resident freemen, 1 February 1808.
f.77 (rev.)
Minutes of the Mercers' company concerning lease of Union Hall Farm by Messrs Smith, 6 November-3 December 1834.
f.77 (rev.) 16 January 1835
Receipt for 2 guineas annual subscription to Durham Infirmary. Ralph Hutchinson, Treasurer.
Foliation: f.1-41 loose.
1f
DCG 11/18 1820
The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the united Church of England and Ireland: together with the psalter or psalms of David,
pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches; and the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons. Clarendon Press. See library catalogue for full bibliographic description. Cover label
‘Mercers' Company’.
Paper 1 volume
Size: 27 x 22 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Former references: MB/Du 301; DCG 11/12.
DCG 11/19 1845
The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, according to the use of the united Church of England and Ireland: together with the psalter or psalms of David,
pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches; and the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons. The University Press, Oxford. See library catalogue for full bibliographic description.
Cover label: ‘Mercers' Company’
Paper 1 volume
Size: 28 x 23 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Former references: MB/Du 302; DCG 11/13.
DCG 11/20/1-2 1835-1838
Two schedules of deeds and writings, 1766-1835 and 1838, relating to the title of a freehold house and brewery in Framwellgate, Durham, belonging to Emerson Beckwith and mortgaged first to John Griffith for £400 (1835) and then to Anthony
Wilkinson, James Shaw and John Anthony Brignall as trustees of the ‘Company of Silk Mercers in the City of Durham’ (1838) for £200; each with undertakings by the mortgagees to deliver the said deeds out of their
possession upon redemption.
For a receipt for a valuation of a ‘Wear Brewery property situate in Millburngate’ made in 1855, see
DCG 11/6.
Paper 2f; 2f
Former reference: DCG 11/8d-e.
DCG 11/21/1-16 1844-1846
Records of a free winter evening school for apprentices, established by the company in 1844 and continuing until c.1846: applications and receipts of payment of schoolmasters W.H. Engledow (1844-1845) and J. Salter (1845-1846); printed handbill;
attendance records and pupil reports. See also
DCG 11/11 f.230.
Paper 1 file (16 items)
Former reference: DCG 11/8g.
DCG 11/22/1-2 1849-1870
Account book and cheque book (1870 only) for Mercers' company account with J[onathan] Backhouse & Company bank.
Paper 2 volumes (16f; 23f)
Size: 16 x 10 cm; 8 x 26 cm
Former references: DCG 11/9j and l.
DCG 11/23 December 1870
Agenda for company meeting (manuscript).
Paper 1f
DCG 11/24 1929-1939
Correspondence following the death of A. M. Hutchinson, the last resident Mercer and Warden of the company, relating to the Company and its assets and records and to the John Kirby Charity and its beneficiaries, as administered by G. A.
Carpenter, Durham Town Clerk and Clerk to the Trustees of the Freemen of Durham City, on behalf of the Company. See also DCG 11/14.
Two packets of Mercer records were loaned to C.E. Whiting for research purposes, and returned by him to A. M. Hutchinson before his death, one of which packets, on its return, was lodged by Whiting with Imrie [?a Mercer] in 1936. The records were
held by Barclays Bank on Hutchinson's death, and remained there after their transfer into the custody of the Freemen's Trustees' Clerk: a receipt from this bank dated 7 July 1942 to the four senior trustees of Durham Freemen for the Mercers' Company
is filed in the Durham City Freemen records collection, which itemises a chest containing plate and ‘[t]wo sealed parcels containing books & papers re Mercers Co’.
Paper 1 file (46 items)
Former reference: DDR/EA/RGN/3.
DCG 11/24/21 [1937 x 1939]
Copy opinion of H. J. Marshall concerning the status of funds of the Mercers' company, and whether such ‘might be considered to be held in perpetuity for the benefit of future Freemen’, 20 December 1869.
3f
DCG 11/24/45 [December 1937]
List of members of the Mercers' company, annotated in pencil concerning deaths and places of residence.
1f
DCG 11/25 1856-1857
Grocers' Commercial Association subscriptions receipt book. 12 receipts issued.
[Note: this is not strictly a Mercers' company record, although found filed with these records: nevertheless, subscribers are likely to have been members of the company.]
Paper 1 volume (50f)
Former reference: DCG 11/9k.
PlumbersReference: DCG 12Dates of creation: 1693-1913
Extent: 2 volumes; 1 file
Records of the Plumbers' company, formerly the Goldsmiths, Plumbers, Pewterers, Potters, Glaziers and Painters.
An Ordinary of the company was confirmed by Bishop Tunstall, 22 May 1532: the original, commonly called the Glazier's charter [
sic], is no longer present in the collection but a transcription is published by Whiting
(Appendix IV, p.397-401), a copy of which is filed with the company records. A second confirmation of a supplemented set of ordinances was made by Bishop Matthew, 3 May 1600. Extracts prepared in the context of the contested 1761 city by-election
(DCRO Du 1/58/14, 17-18) cite from a company volume of admissions from 1677, and accounts from 1685, and 24 call lists from 1699-1721; these records are not now found among the collection.
The meaning of the date 16 February 1831 appended to the company's arms in the Guildhall is unknown.
Records summaryOrders: 1532, 1706-1715, 1747.
Minutes: 1713, 1834, 1873-1913.
Accounts: 1699-1847.
Apprenticeships: 1764-1815, 1828, 1838-1888.
Admissions and freemen: 1699-1845.
Minutes of
Freemen's Trustees: 1834.
Index of apprentice Plumbers
Accession history
DCG 12/2: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 12/1, 3: deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City freemen, 21 April 1966. A receipt, dated 7 July 1924 and signed by the Company warden James Maguire, for ‘one book relating the
Plumbers' Company’ is filed with the Durham City Freemen's Records (DCF 3/2): it is likely therefore that Company records were deposited with the Clerk of the Freemen's Trustees long before 1966.
DCG 12/1 1693-1847
Accounts 1699-1847, also containing: orders; company calls; copy 1532 confirmation by Bishop Tunstall of the ordinances of the company (1787); and a copy of the bylaws of the Corporation of the City of Durham regulating the admission of freemen
(1728). Cover title
“Plumbers & Glaziers Account Book”, back cover “Plumbers”
Records summaryAccounts: 1699-1847.
Orders: 1706, 1708-1709, 1712, 1715, 1747.
Apprenticeships: 1764-1766, 1770, 1773, 1777, 1785-1786, 1789-1792, 1800-1802, 1807-1808, 1815, 1828, 1838-1840, 1842, 1844,
1846.
Admissions and freemen records: 1699, 1701, 1703-1705, 1707, 1709-1710, 1712-1716, 1718-1725, 1727-1728, 1732-1734, 1739-1741, 1743, 1746, 1751-1754, 1760-1763, 1765, 1769-1770, 1775-1776, 1783-1784, 1786-1788, 1790, 1792, 1794, 1796,
1799-1803, 1806-1812, 1814, 1818-1819, 1823, 1825, 1826-1834, 1836-1845.
Corporation by-laws: 1728.
Foliation: pages cut down; paginated in ink, f.2v-35v as p.1-67; f.36r-92v as p.70-184 (no p.76); f.228v-124v (rev.) as p.1-9; f.12, 116, 209 torn; folia removed at f.195/196, 197/198, and after 234; f.212v-229v reversed; f.214 blank; f.225
repaired with paper and sealing-wax.
Paper 1 volume (234f)
Size: 33 x 22 cm
Front paste-down
Receipt from Wheatley Dobson, mayor, for £1 paid by the company towards a [horse-race trophy] plate ‘to be run for upon High Brasside moore’, 4 May 1693. Pasted in.
Front paste-down, f.234
Tables of admission fees, [early-]19th century.
f.1
Company call, 13 April 1699, with later additions: 27 names (1699 hand); 49 further names added, in 18th-century hands.
f.2r
Order regulating freemen's qualifications and admissions to the company, to be read by the clerk at every meeting ‘immediately after the last call of the freemens names’, 8 April 1708. Cancelled.
f.4
Company call, 1 November 1710: 67 names.
f.5-212r
Accounts, 1699-1847: admissions, apprenticeships and turnovers, and enrolment fees, fines, appointments of officers, charitable donations, subscriptions (1708, 1710, 1724-1727), loans.
f.92v
Order widening the qualification for admission by patrimony to the company to include younger sons, they paying 5s in addition to the usual admission fees, 2 November 1747: 18 members' signatures subscribed.
f.229r-228r (rev.)
Minute of the appointment of John Dixon as clerk, 1713; and of the fines of Cuthbert Hilton for fraud, and of Phillip Stout ‘for doing insufficient work at the house of Mr William Sureties lately rebuilt in the market
place in Durham’, 1708.
f.227v (rev.)
Company call, 29 June 1715: 60 names in a contemporary hand, with 9 names and signatures added in later hands, the last dated 19 February 1722.
f.227r (rev.)
Order allowing non-trading freemen to attend only the annual head meeting on Easter Thursday, relaxing the former requirement for the attendance of all freemen at each of the quarterly meetings (St Peter's, All Saints, Candlemas), [24 April]
1712.
f.226v (rev.)
Minute ordering the prosecution of Robert Bailes for practising the trade of pewterer and plumber not being a freeman, and ‘making spoones of badd mettle’, 6 January 1713.
f.225v (rev.)
Order prohibiting company members from practising more than one of its allied trades, nor any other supplementary trade, 21 April 1715; endorsed with memorandum relating that this order was produced as evidence to Samuel Clarke gentleman in a
Durham Chancery case, George Bowes esquire, Attorney general, upon the information of William Brockett and others v John Swinburn.
f.225r-221v (rev.)
Fines for absences at head meetings of 29 [non-resident or non-trading] members, 1713-1728.
f.200r (rev.)
Company call, 6 December 1727: 48 names in a contemporary hand, with 9 names and signatures added in later hands.
f.199v (rev.)
Company call, 26 February 1722: 57 names in a contemporary hand, with 7 names and signatures added in later hands, the last dated 1737.
f.218v (rev.)
Subscription [‘for raising a fund to the box’, or company stock, (see f.45v)], 2 February 1725.
f.217v-215r (rev.)
Copy orders and by-laws of the Corporation of Durham concerning the Durham Guilds, 8 November 1728: regulating the admission of freemen to curb unfree trading within the city, instituting, among other ordinances, four guild meetings per annum
‘at the Guild-hall or Tool-booth’, on the first Mondays after the Martinmas, Candlemas, May day, Lammas; subscribed by 36 names, into the 1740s. The last signature is that of John Scott.
f.213v (rev.)
Company call, 5 April 1740: 38 names in a contemporary hand, with 20 names and signatures added in later hands, the last that of John Scott.
f.213r (rev.)
Company call, 1 July 1828 and 1 January 1829: 31 members.
f.212v (rev.)
Company call, 1 January 1825: 25 names in a contemporary hand, with 7 names and signatures added in later hands, the last that of Thomas Cooper.
f.229v
Index of orders, calls and accounts, 1698-1714.
f.230-234r
Copy 22 May 1532 Confirmation of Bishop Tunstall of the ordinances of the company, ‘commonly called the Glazier's Charter’ [sic], with seal illustrated in watercolour and ink by J. Lambert 1787, and with
certificate of the transcript's accuracy signed by John Lambert and George Kinderley.
DCG 12/2 1772
Company call, listing the names of the freemen and places of abode: members are chiefly from the North-east, with three from London and James Blades resident at [Île de] Gorée, Senegal.
Paper 1f
Found within ADD 1905.
DCG 12/3 1782-1913
Register of apprenticeships and turnovers, 1777-1888; with minutes, 1834, 1873-1913. The enrolments of apprenticeships record: apprentice name, paternity, master, apprenticeship term and date of indenture, with cancellations and annotations.
Cover title
“Plumbers. Apprentice Book.”
Foliation: f.9-10 loose; folia removed at f.48/49, 57/58, 59/60, and after 63; 62v-63r reversed.
Paper 1 volume (63f)
Size: 25 x 21 cm
Binding: Full-calf
Former reference: DCG 12/2.
Related material: see also correspondence (1929-1980) among the papers of Dr C.W. Gibby concerning the loss of the company's 1531 charter, as reported in the 1897-1898 minutes, SGD 60.
f.41v
List of admission fees, 16 April 1857.
f.42v-43r, 45v-50v, 52v-62r; 63r (rev.)
Minutes, 1834, 1873-1876, 1877-1888, 1889-1913: including appointments of officers.
f.63r (rev.)
Copy minutes of the Trustees of the Durham City freemen, reporting the appeal for a rent rebate by John Smith junior [tenant of Union Hall Farm], 31 October 1834; with Mercers' company minute of its rejection, 3 November 1834.
f.63v
Vote tally, [19th century].
End paste-down
Table of admission fees, [19th century].
Saddlers and UpholsterersReference: DCG 13Dates of creation: 1753, 1802
Extent: 1 file (3 items)
Records of the Saddlers and Upholsterers' company.
No charter or confirmation is known. The company's earliest orders were contained in a long roll commencing 28 February 1628, and confirmed by the whole trade on 4 February 1688: this roll was available to Rudd (MSS quoted extensively by other
antiquarians, but not known to survive), Hutchinson (vol. 2, p.21), Surtees (vol. 4, p.24) and Woodness; and later, in the early 20th century, Carlton describes an almost indecipherable ‘long roll’ of ordinances,
found ‘among some old papers’, from which he quotes. Carlton's notes (ADD 1905) also include excerpts from accounts and membership records. The location of these original records is not known. Whiting lists (p.298) an
intervening set of ordinances agreed on 2 February 1659, but states no [original] records of this company were known to him, and the source of his section on the history of this company, (‘papers in the University
Library’), is presumed to have been the notes of the antiquarian C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited in 1937 (
ADD 1905).
Records summaryAdmissions and freemen: 1753, 1772, 1802.
Index of freemen Saddlers and Upholsterers
Accessions history
DCG 13/2 deposited by L.E. Anderson, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City freemen, 16 November 1970.
DCG 13/1 deposited by Thomas Heron, chairman of the wardens of the Durham City freemen, 5 August 1980.
See DCG 9/4 1772
Company call.
DCG 13/3 [18th century-19th century]
Loose and much-folded [wrapper], with directions to Mr Lancaster on one side, and to ‘the Worshipful the Mayor of the Borough of Framwellgate and City of Durham in Northumberland’ on the other side: found filed
with DCG 13/2, to which it may once have acted as a cover.
Paper 1f
Former references: MB/Du 300; Durham City Box 20/5A.
Digitised material for Durham City Saddlers Guild Records - DCG 13/3
Skinners and GloversReference: DCG 14
No records of this company have yet been deposited.
The arms of the company, hanging in the Guildhall, claim incorporation of the Skinners and the Glovers from 1327 and 1638 respectively: these dates correspond with grants of royal charters to the London companies of the same name, and are not
thought to indicate particular Durham grants. In 1615 Herald Richard St George noted that the Glovers had been incorporated by Bishop Thomas temp. Henry VII, [sic], and which grant had been confirmed by Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall. The bishop's steward
John Richardson, in a 1610 Exchequer (King's Rembrancer) deposition reports the existence of a grant by Bishop Thomas in 1549 [sic], and “a like grant” made by Bishop Tunstall in 1548 x 1549. Surtees notes the loss of
an ‘ancient ordinary’, ‘with several of their early books’ (vol. 4, p.21); and he and Woodness record the survival of records dating from 1600, citing accounts of 1657, 1697 and 1701,
and an ordinance of 1507 (perhaps from a founding Ordinary). There is clearly confusion as to the date of the guild's first charter; no such grant is referenced in the calendars the chancery rolls of Bishops Ruthall and Wolsey (
Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, no. 36). References to glovers and an apprentice, Laurence Toller, are found in a 1511 Crossgate borough court record. The notes of C.M. Carlton (1832-1892) contain
excerpts from these accounts, commencing in 1627, and from a confirmation of their ordinances agreed on 2 June 1681 (
ADD 1905): Whiting in turn published
extracts from these (p.173). The location of these records is not known. The company's recorded history ends in 1841.
SmithsReference: DCG 15Dates of creation: 1710-[early 20th century]
Extent: 3 volumes
Records of the Smiths' company, formerly the Whitesmiths, Lorimers, Locksmiths, Cutlers and Blacksmiths' company.
The company was one of an alliance of related trades, the composition of which changed over time, and which changes are reflected in a series of confirmations of the company's ordinances, or “Consents” as such were
termed by the company. The earliest evidence of the independent existence of a Smiths' craft association of some kind is found from 1413/1414 in the cathedral sacrist's accounts of annual offerings made by the Smiths on the feast of their patron
saint St Eligius (1 December). However, the first known Ordinary, of those practising the ‘Blacksmith craft, lorimers and locksmyth craftes’, was confirmed by Bishop Tunstall, 1 July 1550, and is found transcribed in
a memorandum book (ADD 515) compiled c.1670 (but not found in the published calendars of Chancery rolls temp. Bishop Tunstall): an incorporation temp. Tunstall is corroborated by Herald Richard St George in his 1615 visitation. The bishop's steward
John Richardson, in a 1610 Exchequer (King's Rembrancer) deposition reports the existence of a grant by Bishop Pilkington to the Blacksmiths Lorimers and Locksmiths in July 1580. A Consent of the company of ‘Blacksmiths,
Lorimers, Locksmiths, Cutlers and Bladesmiths’, is dated 10 September 1610: now lost, it is described in the early 19th century by Woodness as having lost its seal (DCL ADD 200, p.325-327); extracts from this Consent [from Woodness] are
published by Whiting (p.289-290). A further general Consent of the company of Whitesmiths, Lorimers, Locksmiths, Cutlers, and Blacksmiths was made 25 June 1730, quoted by Whiting (p.291-292) and Surtees (vol. 4, p.24). The company was known as the
Smiths' company after that date. A 1730 Durham Chancery case relates that the Cutlers and Bladesmiths claimed their own separate incorporation from a confirmation made by Bishop Tunstall at the same date, but this is not extant.
In addition to the volumes DCG 15/1-2, Whiting also noted in 1943 the existence of ‘a few papers’ in Durham University Library: these may have been the notes of C.M. Carlton (ADD 1905); ADD 515 was not accessioned
until 1958.
Records summaryOrders: 1716, 1812.
Minutes: 1758-1759, 1770, 1775, 1786-1789, 1799-1815, 1839.
Accounts: 1710-1831.
Admissions and freemen: 1747-1878.
Index of freemen Smiths
Accession history
DCG 15/1: reported in an unsigned schedule of records transferred from the late G. A. Carpenter to C. Leatham, his successor as Clerk to the Freemen, January 1942; the only guilds record recorded in the said list. On 17 December 1943 the Trustees
of Durham Freemen deposited at Barclays Bank in Durham ‘one sealed parcel said to contain 1 minute book & 2 books (Smiths Co)’, for receipt see DCF 3/9.
DCG 15/2: deposited within a larger Durham Diocesan Records accession, 25 March 1975.
The Freemen's Trustees agreed in January 1952 to transfer those Freemen's [in fact Guilds'] records in their custody at Barclays Bank to the ‘Muniments Room’ of Durham University, but the Smiths' records then held
at the bank are not listed in the receipts returned to the Trustees' Clerk by J. Conway Davies, Reader in the Palaeography and Diplomatic, nor in the accession records of that department or the University Library. The other Smiths records may have
been accessioned within large composite Durham City Guilds and Durham City Records deposits made by the Town Clerk on 23 November 1955, 29 May 1959, 30 July 1959, and 11 April 1967.
DCG 15/1 1710-[early 20th century]
Accounts, 1710-1831, with minutes of resolutions, 1758-1806: appointments of officers, fines, journeymen fees, admissions, charitable donations, resolutions, and orders, warden vote tallies, polls and assessments (1712, 1720, 1743, 1758). The
first account, for 1710-1711, is noted to have been ‘coppyed out of the old booke’, no longer extant. Cover title
“Smiths Co.”. Back cover “1813. Smiths Account Book”“[This] book beg[a]n October 8 17[60]. Ended ...”.
Records summaryAccounts: 1710-1831.
Orders: 1716, 1812.
Minutes: 1758-1806.
Admissions: 1760.
Foliation: f.1-2 later additions; f.106 blank.
Paper 1 volume (155f)
Size: 31 x 20 cm
Binding: Parchment
Digitised material for Durham City Smith's Guild Records, 1710-1900 - DCG 15/1DCG 15/1 f.1A 30 September 1760
Admission certificate of William Boys, formerly apprentice to Richard Hutchinson.
Parchment 1m
DCG 15/1 f.1B [late 19th century-early 20th century]
Incomplete transcript of Letters Patent from Bishop Cosin concerning the Durham Guilds, 16 November 1664. [The handwriting is probably that of J.J. Howe (d.1937).]
Paper 1f
Paste-downs, f.1r, 2v
Tables of admission fees, undated, 1812, 1826.
f.1v
Account for the head meeting dinner, 25 June 1794.
f.68-69r
Protest against 1761 reform of the 1728 Durham Corporation bylaws regulating admissions to freedom, resolving the company will operate under the 1728 bylaws and boycott the Guild meetings, 22 October 1761.
f.107v-111r, 124v-125r, 127v
Minutes of resolutions, 1758-1806, concerning: protection of company members' rights and properties (1758); River Wear navigation (1759); freemen's common rights on [Findon Hill and Potter] Moors and their enclosure [under a 1801 Act to enclose
Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert moors], and the management of the allotted Union Hall Farm (1770, 1789, 1804-1806); admissions of gentlemen freemen (1775).
f.155v (rev.)
Head meeting dinner attendance list, 25 June 1802.
DCG 15/2 1751-1878
Admissions certificates. Cover title
“Smiths Co.”
Foliation: f.27-39 blank; folia removed at f.1, 16/17, 22/23, 28/29, 34/35, and after 39.
Paper 1 volume (39f)
Size: 38 x 25 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard
Digitised material for Durham City Guild Smiths' Records - DCG 15/2 f.11A [18th century]
Blank sheet of paper (companion watermark to DCG 15/2 f.12A).
Paper 1f
f.17A [1905]
Newspaper cutting, unidentified publication, serving as bookmark.
Paper 1f
f.20A 25 July 1829
Minute of the qualification of William Barkess, apprentice to John Grievson, for admission to freedom.
Paper 1f
f.24A 22 October 1839
Transcript of the baptism register of Durham St Nicholas, certified by Edward Davison, vicar: John Eskett Thwaites, son of John and Ann Thwaites of Saddler Street, 13 August 1819.
Paper 1f
DCG 15/3 1770-1856
Minutes, 31 December 1770-2 February 1815; and company calls, 1787-1847, registering attendances (and absences) at biannual meetings, June 1787-H[ilar]y 1839.
Foliation: order of folia restored from highly disordered state; f.32-34 interpolated in their current location after November 1839; f.30-38 reversed; f.32-33 blank.
Paper 1 volume (38f)
Size: 33 x 21 cm
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard
Digitised material for Durham City Smiths' Guild Records - DCG 15/3 f.1-2r
Minutes of resolutions concerning: the Smiths' company [freemen's] rights of common upon Findon Hill and Potter moors (part of Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert moors), 31 December 1770 and 27 December 1786.
f.2r
Minutes of resolution disannulling fines hitherto due from Journeymen, 25 June 1787.
f.3-24v
Company calls, 1787, 1793, 1802, 1813, 1824, 1831-1847, registering attendances (and absences) at biannual meetings, June 1787-H[ilar]y 1839 (non-attendance fines from 1781).
f.8
Minutes concurring with resolutions of the Mercers' company, and appointing two members [to a Committee of freemen to oppose a Bill to divide and inclose Charlaw, Findon Hill and Potter moors], 7 February 1799.
f.29v
List of resident freemen of the company, 2 May 18[56].
[Note: found loose at DCG 15/2 f.12/13.]
f.30A 1795-1814
Vote tallies, 1795, undated, and 1814.
Paper 1f
Back paste-down-f.38v (rev.)
Tables of admission fees, [late 18th-early 19th century].
f.37v (rev.)
Minutes of ordinance widening the qualification for admission to the company by patrimony to include younger sons, 28 May 1800.
f.36v-34v, 31v-30r (rev.)
Minutes, 1802-1815, 1839, including: resolution rejecting the proposed erection of a partition in the town hall during the election, ‘for the purpose of keeping separate the Freemen in the Interest of Mr Lambton and Mr
Taylor and those in the Interest of Mr Wharton’, 15 July 1802; resolution approving wayleave lease negotiated by the Trustees of the Freemen's Farm with [Headley-Hope Railway Company], 21 November 1839; resolutions concerning the legal defence
of the freemen's rights on The Sands, 1812-1815.
[Note: f.32-34 appear to have been interpolated at this location after 21 November 1839, f.31 and 35 having been contiguous at that date.]
Weavers and WebstersReference: DCG 16Dates of creation: 1750-1855
Extent: 1 volume
Records of the Weavers and Websters' company.
The company's first Ordinary, [post-]dated 1 August 1450, was entered in Chancery 24 July 1450 and enrolled 1 August 1450 (Close roll, DURH 3/47 m.14d), and subsequently approved and ratified by Bishop Neville by Letters Patent, 20 September 1450
(Patent roll, DURH 3/44 m.10): the first part of this Ordinary is published by Anderson (but there mis-dated 5 August). This first Ordinary, now lost, is described by Woodness in the early 19th century as ‘still bearing all
its ancient seals signatures and skin marks appendant’. An inquisition to enquire into a controversy between ‘wolnewebsters’ and ‘Chalon websters’ is enrolled in the close roll,
10 May 1468 (DURH 3/50.85); extracts from which are published by Hutchinson (vol. 2, p.21). A second Ordinary reiterating the first with additional ordinances was confirmed 25 April 1596: no longer extant, this charter was described in the early
19th century by Woodness as bearing 14 seals and the marks of all the company members (DCL, ADD 200 p.292 x 340; see also Surtees vol. 4, p.20). A further Ordinary, again with additional ordinances, was confirmed by Bishop Matthew, 23 April 1600.
References are found in the Crossgate borough court records to wardens of the ‘wevercraft’ enforcing their control of the trade in 1511 and 1524. Carlton describes the older records of the company as
‘long since disappeared’, noting only books ‘of a comparatively recent date’, and the Chancery rolls; while Whiting, writing in 1943, notes ‘one small
volume’ [DCG 16/1] to be in the hands of the warden of the Masons' company.
Records summaryApprenticeships: 1750-1829.
Admissions and freemen: 1772, 1781-1855.
Index of apprentice and freemen Weavers
Accession history
DCG 16/2: found among a parcel of historical notes on the Durham Guilds made by C.M. Carlton (1832-1892), deposited at Durham University Library by W.A. Bramwell in 1937 (Misc.2002/2003:8), see
ADD 1905.
DCG 16/1: deposited by J. Iley, 21 February 1952.
DCG 16/1 1750-1855
Register of apprenticeships and turnovers, 1750-1829 (rev.); and register of guilds [meeting attendances], 1781-1855. Cover title
“Apprentice Book.”
Numbered from front (Part A) f.1-50, and back (Part B) f.1-10. Foliation Part A: f.4 stub; f.9-50 blank; folia removed at f.17/18, 21/22, 22/23, 23/24, 25/26, 29/30, 39/40, 49/50. Part B: f.3-10 paginated in ink p.1-16; f.2 blank.
Paper 1 volume (60f)
Binding: Quarter-calf; marbled paperboard
Digitised material for Durham City Weavers Guild Records, 1772 - DCG 16/2Digitised material for Durham City Weavers' Guild Records - DCG 16/1 f.2-8r
Register of admission candidates' attendance at Guilds meetings, also recording master/father, 1781-1855.
f.1A [mid 19th century]
Record of [the admission of] William Edward Sanderson of Esh Winning, eldest son of William Sanderson, weaver.
[Note: numerous William Sandersons are recorded in this volume as having entered by admission, 1781-1855.]
Paper 1f
Back paste-down, f.3-10 (rev.)
Register of apprenticeships and turnovers, 1750-1825.
f.12 (rev.)
Table of admission fees, pasted in, 1829.
DCG 16/2 1772
Company call, listing the names of the freemen, places of abode, and with a third column headed ‘whether signed or not’ (see below).
[Note: found, with a cache of 1771-1772 company calls, interpolated among the papers of C.M. Carlton deposited by W.A. Bramwell in 1937. Other company calls in the same cache explicitly describe non-signing freemen as freeholders: the inference
is that the signatories were registering their opposition to an attempt, begun c.1770, by the owners of burgages in Durham City to obtain an Act of Parliament to enclose Framwellgate and Witton Gilbert commons, excluding the freemen's rights.]
Paper 2f
Found within ADD 1905.
