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About the 12th century the enlightened sovereigns of feudal countries began to see the policy of throwing their protection around free burghs; and the leading churchmen, the most cultivated class of society, and who were exempt from the exclusive prejudices of a feudal nobility, went along with that movement which ultimately raised a Third Estate based on Industry. Bishop Jocelyn, having adopted this policy, made use of the great interest he had with William the Lyon, and succeeded in procuring from that king, in 1174, a charter conferring on Glasgow the rank of a bishop's burgh. This charter, with another obtained in 1176, and a third in 1190, all granted by William, conferred on the inhabitants of Glasgow many privileges tending to encourage them in the cultivation of trade and commerce. The inhabitants at that time appear to have been governed by a provost and bailies, appointed or approved of by the bishop.

By charters in 1449 and 1450 King James the Second granted to William, Bishop of Glasgow, and his successors, the City of Glasgow, Barony of Glasgow, and lands called Bishopforest, to be holden of the crown, in fee and heritage, as a Burgh of Regality, with power to elect their magistrates. By Act 1476, cap. 8, ratification is made of the City and Barony to the Bishop and See of Glasgow in free regality-granting to the bishop the power of appointing and removing the provost and magistrates, and the privilege of electing a serjeant to bear a silver rod with the royal arms at one end and those of the bishop at the other, for executing arrestments, mandates, and precepts. The power to appoint magistrates therefore remained in the hands of the ecclesiastics, who, to

overawe the inhabitants, elected powerful nobles to the magistracy.

After this period Glasgow gradually emerged from a long reign of ecclesiastical influence. After protracted struggles against the combination of the Clyde burghs, and the nearer tyranny of the royal burgh of Rutherglen, and after suffering indignities from the Lennoxes, she was destined, when thoroughly emancipated, to become the greatest commercial city of Scotland. It may be safely said that nearly all the crafts within the burgh were then or soon afterwards in existence, although in most instances not yet associated under the authority of seals of cause, containing rules and regulations for their guidance and government, and conferring powers and privileges on the crafts which enabled them to act with beneficial effect, not only for the craftsmen in particular, but for the citizens of Glasgow generally.

CHAPTER II.

CRAFTSMEN ASSOCIATED AND INCORPORATED-EXPLANATION OF ORIGIN OF DEACONS, ETC.

IN 1431 King James the First found it necessary to import craftsmen into Scotland from France and Flanders, in consequence of the great slaughter of Scotch craftsmen during the preceding wars with England. "The Cronikils of Scotland," page 565, state that "King James, to agment the common weil, and to cause his liegis incres in mair virtew, brocht mony nobill Craftsmen out of France, Flandeirs, and other partis-for the Scottis were exercit in contineuall wars, frae the time of King Alexander the Third to thay dayis. Thus were all Craftsmen slane be the wars."

There appears to have speedily sprung up among the craftsmen within the royal burghs a desire to be associated under rules enacted by the Magistrates and Town Council, who had the power to regulate trades and incorporate tradesmen and guilds under seals of cause granted by them. The regulations issued by the magistrates were styled Letters of Deaconry-latterly Seals of Cause-which regulated the manner of conducting trades within the burgh, and of providing funds for the support of decayed brethren and widows and children of craftsmen.

Prior to the Reformation period, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, as superior of the burgh of

regality, either himself enacted regulations, or confirmed those proposed by the Magistrates and Town Council, associating several classes of the craftsmen of Glasgow, and conferring upon them the right to elect deacons, collectors, and masters.

There are fourteen Incorporated Trades in Glasgow, and the following are the dates of their incorporation, viz.: The Hammermen, about 1536; the Tailors, about 1546; the Cordiners, in 1558; the Maltmen, date unknown, but their privileges are supposed to have been fixed by the Letter of Guildry; the Weavers, in 1528; the Bakers, exact date unknown, owing to the destruction of their charters by fire; the Skinners, in 1516; the Wrights, about 1567; the Coopers, about 1569; the Fleshers, about 1580; the Masons, about 1057; the Gardeners, about 1690; the Barbers, about 1559, and the Dyers and Bonnetmakers, about 1597.

There are also fourteen Incorporated Trades in Edinburgh, and they appear to have been incorporated about much the same period as the craftsmen of Glasgow.

Why the number of the incorporated trades should amount to fourteen only, when there were other trades existing at the time to increase the number, is a somewhat difficult question to answer, and opens up a wide field of inquiry. For instance, in the Edinburgh Incorporated Trades there are Trades there are the Goldsmiths, the Chirurgeons, and the Hatters and Waulkers, who do not find a place in the Glasgow Incorporated Trades ; while these, on the other hand, include the Barbers, the Coopers, and the Gardeners, who find no place amongst those of Edinburgh. At the period when the trades were

incorporated the community was imbued with deep religious principles and sentiments; and this being so, one can easily conceive that the authorities granting and confirming the deeds incorporating the trades had prominently in their minds the scriptural number seven, or a multiple thereof. Whether or not this accounts for the number of fourteen being that to which the crafts were limited in the two chief cities, it is a curious coincidence that the number should have been restricted to the scriptural one when there were other trades to incorporate, as is seen by the incorporation of trades in Glasgow which are not incorporated in Edinburgh, and vice versa. It adds some weight to this view when we find that nearly all the crafts have mottoes on their coats of arms of a religious character; and when we take into account the fact that the bishops were the leading or governing men of those days, it is natural to suppose that they would model everything they had to do with upon scriptural ideas.

For the same reason, no doubt, the chief men of the crafts were called deacons, in accordance with the New Testament dispensation, which provided for the election of deacons to serve the Church, and whose special duty it was to see that the widows and other poor people were not neglected. As will be afterwards shown, the Church, in the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, exercised the power of commanding the Magistrates and Council, as well as the deacons of crafts in Glasgow, to perform certain duties connected with the conduct of the citizens and craftsmen; and no doubt this power was exercised with even greater zeal before the 17th century, when the

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