Old Undated Masonic Mss.

lence , * many seeing the necessity of masters , and great scarcity of servants , will not serve unless they receive excessive Avages , and some rather Avilling to beg in idleness , than by labor to get their living . Weconsidering the grievious discomodity

, Avhich of the lack , especially of ploughmen and such laborers may hereafter come , have upon deliberation and treaty Avith the Prelates ancl the Nobles , ancl learned men assisting Us , of their mutual counsel ordained . "

The gist of the statutes Avere , old Avages ancl no more shall be given , ancl offenders shall be punished by imprisonment . In 1350 , the folloAviug preamble ushers in a neAV badge of laws : "Whereas , late against the malice of servants which Avere idleand not Avilling

, to serve after the pestilence Avithout taking excessive wages . It Avas ordained by our Lord the King , and by the assent of the Prelates , Earls , Barons , ancl other of his council , that such manner of servants , as well as men as Avomen , should be bound

to serve , receiving salary and Avages accustomed in the places where they ought to serve , in the 20 th year of the reign of the King that UOAV is , or five or six years before , and that the same servants refusing to SCITC in such manner should be punished by imprisonment of their

bodies as in the said statute is more plainly contained ; whereupon commissions were made to clivers people to every county to enquire and punish all them which offend against the same , And now , forasmuch as it is given the King to understand in this present parliamentby the petition of the

, commonalty , that the said servants having no regard for the said Ordinance , but to their ease and singular covetise , do withdraAV themselves to serve great men and other , unless they have livery and Avages to the double or treble of that they Avere

Avont to take the said 20 th year before , to the great damage of the great men , and impoverishment of all the said commonalty , Avhereof the said commonalty prayeth remedy . Wherefore in the same Parliament , by the assent of the said Prelates , Earls , Barons , and other great men

of the same commonalty there assembled to restrain the malice of the said servants , be ordained and established the things underwritten . " Cap . I . The year and day ' s Avages of servants and labourers in husbandry . Cap . II . HOAV much shall be given for

threshing all sorts of corn by the quarter . None shall depart from the toAvn in summer Avhere they chvell in Avinter . Cap . III . The Avages of the several sorts of artizens and labourers . Cap . IV . Shoesetc . shall be sold as in

, , the 20 th year of King Edward III . Artificers sworn to use their crafts as they did in the 20 th year of the said king . Cap . V . The several punishments of persons offending against this statute . Cap . VI . Sheriffs , constables , bailiffs ,

jailors , etc ., shall exact nothing from the said seiwants , but the forfeitures- of servants shall be employed to the aid of the clismes ancl quinzaine granted to the king by the Commons . Cap . VII . The justices shall hold their sessions four times a year , and at all times needful . Servants Avhich flee from one county to another shall be committed to

prison . As Cap . III . concerns our ancient brethren , I shall cave it in full . " Item . That carpenters , masons , tilers , and other Avorkmen of houses shall not

take by tbe day for their Avork , but in manner as they Avere wont , that is to say , a master carpenter 3 d . and another 2 d ., a master Freemason' * 4 cl , ancl other masons 3 d ., ancl their servants Id ., tilers , 3 d ., ancl their knaves Id ., and other coverers of fern ancl straw 3 d . and their knaves lcb ,

, , p lasterers and other workers in mud-Avails and their knaves , by the same manner without meat or drink Is ., from Easter to St . Michael , ancl from that time less , according to the rate and discretion of the justices which should be there assigned . ' '

In 1360 the following laAV Avas enacted : " Punishment of refractory laborers should be by imprisonment only . And that they as well as carpenters ancl masons be