Crafts Guilds and Trades

Craft guilds or incorporations were formed in the Middle Ages and were an important part of burgh life then and in later centuries. Each craft jealously guarded its own monopolies and standards of workmanship, acquired property to raise funds, provided for its own poor, shared the patronage of an altar to its patron saint in pre-Reformation times and a seat in the parish church after the Reformation. Where records survive they are likely to include lists of members, accounts and minutes dealing with regulations, donations to poor members, apprenticeships and elections of officeholders and actions against outsiders trying to trade in the burgh.

Friendly societies, in England and Scotland, were formed in the 18th and 19th centuries for the mutual benefit of the members. There were diverse rules and regulations of trade associations, friendly societies, unions, co-operative and building societies.

• History of Trade Unions
• Crafts and Trades Code

• The Scottish Association of Family History Societies, ‘Scottish Trades and Professions’, compiled by D R Torrance (1991).
• Brechin tailors minutebook, 1660-1775
• Edinburgh Hammermen charters, 1501-1686
• Inverness Hammermen minutebook, 1690

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

History of Trade Unions.