Guilds

Guilds at Deopham – the evidence:-

Blomefield

Francis Blomefield records that there were four guilds (he uses the spelling “gild”) in Deopham church:-

St. Andrew
St. John
St. Thomas
The Assumption.

One qualification to Blomefield’s record is that it is not certain that all four guilds thrived at the same time. As with other organisations, they were dependent on local support and the death of key members of a guild could see it being absorbed by another guild.
Blomefield also states that:-

“The south chapel at the east end of the south isle was the Assumption chapel, in which that gild was kept.”

“The chapel at the east end of the north isle was St. John Baptist’s, and in it his gild was kept.”

Physical Remains

There is evidence for the existence of the two chapels as described by Blomefield at the east ends of the north and south aisles (see the page on screens). There are also signs that there was once a structure against the second pillar from the west on the north side of the nave. This could well have been the site of an image of St. Andrew: it would have been normal for there to have been a conspicuous reminder of the patron saint somewhere in the church.

A Fifteenth Century Will

The Norfolk Record Office holds a will of Richard Umfrey dated 1483 which mentions the guilds of St. Andrew, St. Mary and St. Thomas. (The NRO reference is Caston, fol 152). The St. Mary guild referred here is presumably that of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary referred to by Blomefield above.

Other East Anglian Parishes

Guilds were widespread in the middle ages so it is not unreasonable to assume that guilds in other parishes functioned in a similar manner to those at Deopham. The nearest guilds to Deopham were those of Wymondham, for which there is much surviving documentary evidence of its many guilds. There is also the former guild hall – Becket’s Chapel, now used as an arts centre. However, historians urge caution here because the organisation of guilds and other communal structures in Wymondham as a commercial town was different from that of Deopham as an agricultural village.
Hingham is said by Blomefield to have had seven guilds, but, as with Deopham, no documentary records remain of their activities.

Religious Guilds

There were trade guilds also known as trade companies (such as those for weavers, joiners, turners, upholsterers, masons etc). The medieval guilds at Deopham church however were religious guilds, and whilst the social functions overlapped, their functions were different.

The objectives of the religious guilds were generally to:-

Pray for the souls of deceased members as they passed through purgatory;
Provide support for members who had fallen on hard times through no fault of their own making;
Assist with the return of a body where a member had died outside the parish;
Organise an annual feast;
Organise an annual “drinking” – usually as a fund-raising event;
Commemorate the feast day of their patron saint;
Provide candles to ensure a continual light in the guild chapel or alongside the patron saint;
Lend money to guild members at advantageous interest rates;
Pay for musicians and music to support the liturgy¹;
Give general support support for the maintenance and enlargement of the fabric of the church;
Pay for additional clergy to ensure masses were said for deceased guild members.

Not all guilds supported all these activities.
The larger urban guilds funded hospitals and schools.

Membership of the guilds required an annual subscription; members were obliged to attend the funerals of fellow members, the annual patronal festival and the annual feast. Fines were levied on members who failed to do so. Membership was not limited to those resident in the parish so those who had to travel in the course of their commercial activities might belong to guilds in places they visited regularly. This could well have applied to Deopham with visiting wool traders, and could account for the extravagant design of the church in what has always been a small village. Membership was often open to women as well as men.

The leading figure in each guild was the alderman who was assisted by other elected officers in the management of the guild’s affairs.

The guilds were dissolved in 1547 without any plans having been prepared to replace the hospitals and other charitable activities which the guilds had supported. Whilst the ending of the guilds satisfied the objective of ending one particular form of “superstition and errors in the Christian religion”², it simultaneously destroyed the framework of medieval charity. In due course, the Elizabethan Poor Laws placed the responsibilities once carried out by the guilds onto the parishes.³

Other East Anglian Guilds with the same Patrons as Deopham

The following examples of guild descriptions were written in response to an instruction from Richard II in 1389. The guilds were uncertain as to why this information was being required of them although the general expectation was that it was the prelude to some form of taxation on their income and assets. Accordingly, the income and assets are probably understated, but nevertheless these documents give an insight into the purposes of the various guilds. These do not vary significantly according to the patron.

Guild of St. Andrew

Barton Bendish

This parish is referred to as “Bertonbindych” on the guild certificate.

First, all the brethren and sistren of the same guild have taken order for the finding of a wax candle annually, burning in honour of St. John on festival days;
Also they make a distribution to the poor of two bushels of Wheat and one quarter of barley, for bread and beer on the feast of the Nativity of St. John;
Also they hold a conference once a year on the feast of St. John, by summons of the beadle, in a proper place, and there choose, from among themselves, an alderman for the governing of the same guild; and
They have no other customs nor statutes than those before mentioned.⁴

Guild of St. John the Baptist

Banham

Founded 1361
that all the brethren and sisters of the said guild should meet in the aforesaid church at vespers on the vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and
each of them should say there one psalter of the Blessed Mary,
- for the good and healthful state of the king and queen, and
- for the peace and tranquillity of the whole kingdom, and
- for souls of the brethren and sisters of the said guild, and the souls of all the faithful departed.
On the said feast, and on the Sunday next before or next after the said feast, they should have a banquet among themselves, consisting of two repasts on each day at their own expenses, and that
on the said festival
- the alderman of the said guild should offer a penny for the celebration of a mass, and
- each brother and sister of the said guild should offer one farthing and
- give another for alms, and
- say one psalter of the Blessed Mary as above.
And when it shall happen that any brother or sister of the said guild shall die, all the brothers and sisters of the said guild shall meet at his exequies, and each of them to say there a psalter of the Blessed Mary as above; and at the burial of the said deceased all the brethren and sisters of the said guild should be present at the church. And the alderman of the said guild, and each brother and sister thereof, should offer, give, and say as on the aforesaid festival. And that the alderman of the said guild should find and sustain a candle to burn in the aforesaid church before the image of St. John the Baptist, at matins, mass, and vespers on each festival day.
Also Reginald Bynetheton, chaplain; Thomas Pyk, Richard Lytulman, Walter Colby, William Waleys, William Tailor, Robert Richer, and John Brythwyne, by their charter, gave and granted to William Bernad and William Smyth a messuage and eleven and a half acres of land in fee simple in the aforesaid town, without any condition. And, afterwards, the said feoffors⁵ declared, and before their deaths . . …… and in single and sound will, expressly ordained that the profits of the said messuage and lands should be received by the hands of the alderman of the said guild towards:
- the maintenance of the aforesaid light, and for
- finding ornaments for the altar of St. John the Baptist in the same church, and
- furthermore from the residue a distribution to be made among the poor brethren and sisters of the said guild, according to their necessity;
With a proviso, however, that if the said feoffees⁵ were unable to obtain licence from our lord the king and other mesne lords, for the said messuage and lands to be mortmained to the said guild and church; then the said messuage and land should be sold and (the proceeds) disposed of towards the emendation of the ornaments of the aforesaid church, and for distributions to the poor brothers and sisters of the said guild: which said messuage and land are worth yearly, after all reprisals, 4s 6d.⁶

Fincham

There is moreover a certain guild of St. John the Baptist in the church of St. Martin of Fincham, founded and continued through the devotion of the parishioners of the said church in honour of St. John Baptist of Fincham for ten years and more past, viz.,

that all and singular the brethren and sisters of the said guild shall meet on the feast of St. John Baptist at the said church, and have a festival mass, and
each of the said brothers and sisters shall offer a halfpenny at the said mass.
Also they shall find a candle burning before the image of St. John Baptist in the said church all the year.
And also when it shall happen that any of the said brothers or sisters depart from this light all the brothers and sisters shall offer for him, viz.,
- each a farthing, and
- shall give another to the said custodian to distribute to the poor for [the good of] his soul.
And when it shall happen that any of the said brothers and sisters shall depart from this light the said custodian shall spend 2s.5d. of the goods of the guild to celebrate masses.
And the brothers and sisters have in their hands goods and chattels to the value of 5s. belonging to the said guild, but they have no other things, lands or tenements, rents or possessions, belonging to the said guild, in mortmain⁷ or otherwise.⁸

Guild of St. Thomas

Wymondham

It was ordained that all the brethren and sisters of the aforesaid fraternity should meet annually at the Chapel of Blessed Thomas aforesaid on the Feast of the Translation [July 7th] of the same martyr, at the third [09:00 – 12:00] hour of the day,

solemnly and devoutly bearing a wax candle, and
there remain until the end of the mass, and each of the said brethren and sisters out of devotion shall
- offer a halfpenny and
- say the psalter of Blessed Mary.
Also, that all the brethren and sisters of the aforesaid fraternity should meet annually at the chapel aforesaid on the Monday next after the Feast of the Translation of St. Thomas the Martyr, about the third [09:00 – 12:00] hour,
- having there a mass for the dead, and
- each of the same fraternity devoutly offering one halfpenny.
Also, that whensoever any brother or sister shall happen to die,
- that all the brethren and sisters of the aforesaid fraternity shall be present at the exequies for the same, and
- in like manner at the morrow-mass celebrated for the same, having at their expense about the body of the deceased two wax candles, and
- each offering a halfpenny and each shall give a halfpenny in alms for the soul of the same deceased.
Also, if any brother or sister shall happen to come to want, then all the brethren and sisters of the fraternity aforesaid shall be bound to minister charitably to the same brother or sister.

Other goods or chattels they have not in hand, nor any oath beyond that of observing among them the aforesaid ordinances, nor was there ever any oath of confederation made. The brotherhood of the guild aforesaid was begun A.D. 1187.⁹

Guild of the Assumption

The Assumption of Mary is the belief that when Mary, the mother of Jesus, died, her body was “assumed” into heaven to be reunited with her soul, instead of going through the normal process of physical decay upon death.

Fincham

Founded 1386
in honour of the said Virgin Mary and of All Saints, and
for the health of the souls of all the brethren and sisters of the said fraternity, and of all the faithful departed, and
to the increase of the fabric of holy church, as occasion shall arise.
To no other end was the said guild begun nor continued.
They have no statutes: they have no lands, tenements, rents, nor possessions. The goods and chattels which belong to the said guild are worth in money 6s., viz., three quarters four bushels of barley at 20d. the quarter, and the said goods are in the hands of John Reve and John Tayllour of Fyncham aforesaid.¹⁰

Stoke Ferry

…the said guild was begun
in honour of the Assumption of our Lady two years since,
for the increase of divine service and
reparation of holy church;
and there are not any possessions belonging to the said guild, nor other goods nor … but only 20s. sterling, without any ordinances or statutes by them yet ordained.¹¹

Notes

Magnus Williamson, Liturgical Polyphony in the Pre-Reformation English Parish Church: A Provisional List and Commentary, 2005
Williamson quotes the Guild accounts recording that in 1556:
Item payd to the sayd Wylliam Suger for pryckeyng of .iiij. pryckesong bokes and for payntyng of .iij. images, vs…. Item for one quare of paper for the forsayd .iiij. bokes, iij d.
The preamble to the 1545 Chantries Act justified the King in his seizure of guild revenues: “the King’s most loving subjects … considering that a great part of the superstition and errors in the Christian religion hath been brought into the minds and estimations of men … by devising and sanctifying vain opinions of purgatory and masses satisfactory to be done for them which be departed.”
Virginia Bainbridge, Gilds in the Medieval Countryside, pg 122
Norfolk Archaeology, 1889, Vol 11(1) page 111, transcribed and translated by Walter Rye
A feoffment was a transfer of land ownership. The feoffor was therefore the one making the transfer, and the feoffee was the one acquiring ownership.
Norfolk Archaeology, 1889, Vol 11(1) page 107, transcribed and translated by Walter Rye
Mortmain is the perpetual, inalienable ownership of real estate by a corporation or legal institution (the church in this case).
Norfolk Archaeology, 1889, Vol 11(1) page 118, transcribed and translated by Walter Rye
Norfolk Archaeology, 1889, Vol 11(1) page 135, transcribed and translated by Walter Rye
Norfolk Archaeology, 1889, Vol 11(1) page 119, transcribed and translated by Walter Rye
Norfolk Archaeology, 1889, Vol 11(1) page 127, transcribed and translated by Walter Rye

Bibliography

Anne Hoare, Wymondham Parish Guilds, Pub Geo. R. Reeve, 2003.
Ken Farnhill, Guilds and the Parish Community in Late Medieval East Anglia c. 1470-1550, Pub York Medieval Press, 2001.
Virginia Bainbridge, Gilds in the Medieval Countryside Pub The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1996.
H.F. Westlake, The Parish Gilds of Mediaeval England, Pub SPCK, 1919.
Nicholas Orme, Going to Church in Medieval England, Pub 2021

Date	Change
16/6/23	Published