I took a wander around the castle rock in Stirling the other day, following a path called “The Back Walk”. I took my camera of course, and here’s something I saw which captured me.
Why did this capture me? Well, my father’s father was a shoemaker, as was his father before him, and back through the generations. In Stirling, where my ancestors lived and worked, as far back as the 16th century there were “seven incorporated trades” – hammermen, weavers, tailors, shoemakers, skinners, bakers, and fleshers. I’ve heard my dad talk about his father belonging to the “seven incorporated trades”.
This plaque raised many questions for me.
Here’s my first question……what were the incorporated trades? Well, I found this succinct description –
The power to grant incorporated status to trades rested with the magistrates of royal burghs. An incorporated trade was granted the right to monopolise and control their trade within the burgh. Trade incorporations were usually constituted by a seal of cause granted by the magistrates but some were constituted by use and consuetude. A strict monopoly was enforced within the burgh and non-members of an incorporation were not allowed to trade within the bounds of the town. The Incorporation set strict guidelines controlling the quality of workmanship and protected work for the craft within the burghs against outsiders. It prevented apprentices from being drawn away from their masters and controlled standards of craftsmanship amongst its members. An entry fee had to be paid to gain admission. The son of a burgess paid the lowest fee, the son-in-law of a burgess paid more and a stranger paid the highest fee. Trades incorporations were usually governed by a deacon with the aid of a boxmaster and a council of craftsmen who were elected annually. They held a court which could fine craftsmen for contravening the rules and held the ultimate penalty of expulsion. The trades often incorporated with others to form united trades who had a right to representation in the council of the burgh along with representatives from the merchant guild. The representation on the council by trades and merchants was abolished in 1833 by the Royal Burghs (Scotland) Act (3 & 4 Will. IV, c.76) which provided for an elected town council. The exclusive privileges of trade were in decline towards the latter half of the eighteenth century and were finally abolished in 1846 by the Abolition of Exclusive Privilege of Trading in Burghs in Scotland Act (9 & 10 Vict., c.17). Thereafter the functions of the Incorporation were purely charitable: many incorporations were already providing assistance and financial relief to their members
And here’s my second question…..that quotation about liberal men devising liberal things….I find that incredibly appealing, but when I searched for the source, I discovered it was from Isaiah 32:8 and only in the King James translation is it written as “liberal” (which I took to mean “generous“). In other translations it’s “noble” (which actually doesn’t seem so appealing to me!) Can anyone explain this difference? Because, to me, “liberal” and “noble” don’t mean the same thing at all.
I’ve got a third question. Do you know what “Tempori parendum” means? I do. It was sewn into the top pocket of our blazers at Stirling High School. It means “We must move with the times”.
This simple inscription touched me. Here it is, erected by the seven incorporated trades, of which my ancestors were members. It’s placed on the wall of the old High School, which my mother went to (the later one being the school I attended). It commemorates the building of a hospital to care for the infirm and sick members of the trades, and here I am several generations later, a doctor who cares for the sick and the infirm.
Wow! I stood below this plaque for a while and felt a deep sense of awe at the threads and roots I could feel tugging at me, from the long distant past, connecting me, in so many different ways, through history, geography and blood.
