|
There had been a Cutlers' Gild in London from some period of the thirteenth century. Stow, in his Survey, gives some particulars of it. "In Horsebridge Street” he says, "is the Cutlers' Hall… They of this company were of old time divided into three arts or sorts of workmen: to wit, the first were smiths, forgers of blades, and therefore called bladers, and divers of them proved wealthy men, as namely Walter Nele, blader, one of the sheriffs, the twelfth of Edward III., deceased 1352, and buried in St. James, Garlick Hithe… The second were makers of hafts, and otherwise garnishers of blades. The third sort were sheathmakers, for swords, daggers, and knives.” This proves that by the middle of the fourteenth century the London Cutlers were so prosperous, having such a good trade, that one of them was a rich man, able to fill the important post of sheriff in what had long been the most important city in England. Now, about 1400, these London Cutlers began to complain strongly of competition, coming from other parts of the country, and that some of that competition arose in Sheffield seems to be evidenced by the fact that in an inventory of goods issued in London about that time one of the articles specified is a Sheffield knife. In the sixteenth century records of the trade and references to it in contemporary documents begin to be more frequent. There are accounts of the bringing of iron from countries as far distant as Spain in one direction and Sweden in another. These imports came by way of the Humber, and were unloaded at Bawtry, then a small river-port, connected with the Trent by the little river Idle - obviously nothing but very small craft could come there. In an account book of the Earl of Shrewsbury's steward, 1574, there is an entry referring to the arrival of six; parcels or barrels of steel from Bawtry. The sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, Mary Queen of Scots' custodian, sent a case of Sheffield knives to Cecil, and in an accompanying letter speaks of them as being famed ”throughout the realm." Forty years previously, Leland the intinerant, who travelled a good deal in South Yorkshire about the years 1536-40, wrote of the coal-pits and forges, and of the smiths and cutlers, and the cutting tools which he observed about Rotherham and in Hallamshire. Frequent references to the keen edges of the Sheffield knives are found in the literature of this century.
But perhaps the best proof of the way in which the town's chief trade was growing in the hundred years immediately previous to the establishment of the Cutlers' Company is found in certain facts connected with the trade itself. Before the Talbot lordship came to an end there were no fewer than twenty-eight dams and water-wheels on the streams in Sheffield, a sure proof, in those days, when water was the chief motive power, of the existence of many grinding wheels. Then there is the proof afforded by that highly important thing the trade-mark. In 1565 and again in 1590 the Sheffield cutlers banded themselves together, under certain rules and regulations and penalties, having for their common object the exclusion of strangers from the craft, the proper apprenticing of learners, and the keeping-up of prices. There were provisions for the stoppage of all work for two periods - four weeks each - during the year and for the payment of fines by delinquents. But two regulations were of special note: one enacted that all knives must be made throughout in Sheffield ("blade and haft"); the other most important of all that every cutler must have his trade-mark, and one only, and that it must be approved by the Lord's Court, which consisted of twelve selected men "of the science and mystery of cutlers." Now, these trade-marks afford an idea of how cutlery stood, as a trade, about the year 1600, twenty-four years before the Bill for incorporation was introduced by Sir John Savile. The mere fact that such a "Fellowship" was formed shows that the cutlers of the last fifty years of the sixteenth century were numerous - in those days a dozen, or two dozen, or even two score of men would not have dared to combine. But there is in the possession of the Cutlers' Company an old book which was kept about 1614 by one James Creswick, who was clerk to the men appointed as jury by the Lord's Court, wherein he set down the trade-marks which had been registered. There are facsimiles of some of these in Mr. Leader's "History," and in this book of Creswick's there are no fewer than 182. These, of course, were masters - each would have his apprentice. At the least, then, there would be 364 men making cutlery in Sheffield in 1614. Ten years later, when the Cutlers' Company was incorporated, there were, as we have seen, over three hundred first members. But thereafter the number of marks registered rose prodigiously. In 1646 there were 979 trade-marks on the books; in 1679, 1982 of these 1562 were the marks of the knife-makers; 136 those of the shear-smiths; and 284 those of men who made scissors. With the formation of the Cutlers' Company, the payment of dues to the lord died out. Under the regulations of the "Fellowship" of 1565-1590 all fines, with one exception, had been paid to the Lord's Court - in 1614 the Lord got £26 5s. in this way, and in 1615, £19 - his jury got dinners for themselves each year, and the "cutlers of the poorest sort" got 6s. 6d. one year and nothing at all the other. Whether there had been any dissatisfaction or not under the old regime does not appear, but some arose in the town after the all-powerful Company came into existence. The workers began to chafe at the fact that they had no voice in matters; that the thirty-three autocrats elected themselves - and so forth. In 1791 and later, in 1814, Parliament was asked to step in, and since the last date the Cutlers' Company's authority has been confined to the matter of trademarks. At first the Cutlers' Company had no funds wherewith to erect a suitable house for itself, but by 1638 it had accumulated sufficient money to build its first Hall. Nearly a hundred years later in 1725 it built a second; in 1832 it erected a third. Here are preserved the records of the Company, with portraits, busts, and similar memorials of principal members of the past. To be Master Cutler of this proud body is one of the highest honours a Sheffield man may have conferred upon him. Before he attains to it he has passed through every grade, from election as an Assistant to that of Searcher - thence to Junior Warden - thence to Senior Warden. When once in the chair, he is first man in Sheffield next to the Lord Mayor, who, as Chief Magistrate, takes precedence, of course, of everybody. And as Master Cutler, he presides over a feast which ranks with the Lord Mayor's banquet in London, and the Colston Dinner at Bristol. At this, which has been celebrated, with only three breaks, ever since 1648, some principal Minister of the existing Government invariably attends and delivers a weighty speech. There are several references to the Cutlers' Feast in the Burgery Accounts Sir John Reresby, the famous Governor of York, mentions, too, in his Diary that he attended that of 1677: "I was received," he says, "by the Master and his Assistants in the Streets, with loud music, the shouts of the rabble, and the ringing of bells… and was entertained with a very good dinner and great plenty of wine." The Burgesses evidently made contributions to these feasts - in the Accounts for 1683 there is an entry, "To Mr. Pegg for Wyne for the Gentlemen who came to the Cutlers' Feast £4 6s. 8d." Two years later, when John Winter was Master Cutler, there was a famous assemblage of guests, including the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Clifford, Lord Conyers, Lord Castleton, Sir William Wyvill, and Sir Henry Marwood - the Burgery accounts record that £6 l0s. was given towards John Winter's expenses in this. According to Professor Lloyd, sometime Lecturer on Economics in Sheffield University, whose work, "The Cutlery Trades” is of singular interest and value in studying the industrial history of the city, the cutlery trade as carried on in Sheffield until comparatively very recent times, was the most notable example, amongst trades, of what he distinguishes as "small scale production." In Sheffield the craftsman, working on his own behalf, and at his own will and pleasure as regards hours of labour, has remained in evidence perhaps longer than in any other industrial centre of England. The practice was - and is still, to a decreasing extent to let out work to handicraftsmen, who, either in their own homes, or in a workshop, in alliance with others, working under a “little master” did the work under something of the old conditions which existed before the factory system began. But this system is disappearing, not only before the tendency to uniformity, but before Government regulations. The Sheffield "nicker-peck" (file-cutter) no longer does as he likes in his little shop - the shadow of the Government inspector is always falling across his threshold. Hence a Sheffield poet voices his lament:
The Story Of The English Towns - Sheffield by J. S. Fletcher, 1919
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
