Holy Trinity Guild Accounts

Wisbech and Fenland Museum: Guild of the Holy Trinity in Wisbech 1379–1547 & Corporation Records 1564–1566

p 30 (5 June–27 May)

...

Thomas ffoster alias harper admissus in fraternite habebit pro stipendio omni anno ij s. ...

p 31 (For the principal day)

...

In primis pro ad exequias, pane seruisia & caseo pelinctori & clericis x d. Ad diem principalem In vj dussenis ij kilderkins ceruisie viij s. viij d. ij kilderkins tenuis ceruisie iij d. Item viij busshells ffrumenti ij s. Item in grydyng vj d. Item in xviij aucis iij s. Item in auenis ordeis xviij d. Item ij calvys iiij s. Item ij shepe iiij s. Item pro xli pipionum pullis iij s. iiij d. Item pro butiro ij d. onyons j d. In aceto j d. Item pro v porcellis xx d. Item pro ovis vj d. In creem & lacte x d. xiij d. In terrecidijs & focalibus xij d. Item pro melle & speciebus ij s. v d. Item turners & squyllers vj d. Item pro vergeows & sale ij d. pro iantaculo coci & locione mapparum iij d. pro stipendio coci xvj d. pro stipendio Thome ffoster ij s. pro stipendio Willelmi Minsstralli ij s.

Summa expensorum xlj s. v d.

(Inquiry)

...

Item ordinant quod habeant ij mynystralls Thomas ffoster & Willelmus mynstrall & quod vterque eorum habeat ij s....

...

  • Record Translation

    p 30 (5 June–27 May)

    ...

    Thomas Foster, also known as the harper (or Harper), on being admitted into the fraternity, shall 2s have for a stipend every year.

    ...

    p 31 (For the principal day)

    ...

    First for the obsequies, on bread, ale, and cheese, for the undertaker and clergy, 10d. On the principal day: On six dozen (and) two kilderkins of ale, 8s 8d; two kilderkins of weak ale, 3d; likewise eight bushels of grain, 2s. Likewise, on grinding, 6d. Likewise, on eighteen geese, 3s; likewise on oats, barley, 18d. Likewise, two calves, 4s. Likewise, two sheep, 4s; likewise for forty-one pigeon squabs, 3s 4d; likewise for butter, 2d; onions, 1d; on vinegar, 1d; likewise for five piglets, 20d; likewise for eggs, 6d; on cream and milk, 13d; on peat and fuel, 12d; likewise for honey and spices, 2s 5d; likewise turners and squillers, 6d; likewise for verjuice and salt, 2d; for the cook's breakfast (or lunch) and the washing of the tablecloths (or other cloths), 3d; for the cook's stipend, 16d; for Thomas Foster's stipend, 2s; for William Minsstrall's stipend, 2s.

    Total of the expenses 41s 5d.

    ...

    (Inquiry)

    ...

    Likewise they (the jurors) order that they shall have two minstrels, Thomas Foster and William Mynstrall, and that each of them shall have 2s....

    ...

  • Glossed Terms
    • veriows n verjuice; vegews; vergeous; vergeows; verious; veriouse; verius
  • Endnote

    The accounts record payments for the guild dinner, 5 June 1463; the 'inquisicio' was likely held the same day.

  • Document Description

    Record title: Holy Trinity Guild Accounts
    Repository: Wisbech and Fenland Museum
    Shelfmark: Guild of the Holy Trinity in Wisbech 1379–1547 & Corporation Records 1564–1566
    Repository location: Wisbech

    The guild of the Holy Trinity of Wisbech was one of three guilds with a presence in the village of Leverington; the other two were the guilds of St Mary and of St John. Holy Trinity was the largest and most important of the guilds, with a consistent membership of fifty-six to sixty-seven members, both men and women; it first appears in accounts in 1379, but entries there indicate it had existed for some time prior (VCH: Cambridgeshire, vol 4, pp 186–97, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp186-197). Holy Trinity was incorporated in 1453; after its dissolution in 1566, the guild's estates were taken over by the Corporation and thus preserved (VCH: Cambridgeshire, vol 4, pp 255-6, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp255-256). Records of the guildhall begin in 1423, but it is likely that it was in existence before then; its site cannot be definitively identified (VCH: Cambridgeshire, vol 4, pp 255–6, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp255-256). As Frederic Gardiner observes, 'the Trinity Guild is believed to have met in a primitive building, with thatched roof, supposed to have stood on the site of the present Grammar School, but its locality is not known with certainty' (Frederic John Gardiner, History of Wisbech and Neighbourhood, During the Fifty Years – 1848–1898 (London, 1898), 90–1).

    1379–1547, 1564–6; Latin and English; paper; iv + 139 + i; 414 mm x 301 mm; 18th-c. pagination; leaves extensively reconstructed, mounted into paper frames with some gauze reinforcement; late 18th-c. marbled paper binding with leather spine and front label and corner reinforcements, title on spine: 'Guld of Holy Trinity Wisbech 1379 – Annis Multis Intermissis – 1547, Records of the Corporation 1564 – 1566.'

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