Scottish Towns in the Middle Ages
We have just seen what an old Scottish town was like, and now let us see how the town people lived and went about their daily business. And it is…
From: 1249 C.E. To: 1286 C.E.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The Dwellers in the Towns
From A Short History of Scotland by Peter Hume Brown, 1908.
We have just seen what an old Scottish town was like, and now let us see how the town people lived and went about their daily business. And it is to be remembered that long after the time of Alexander III. they lived almost exactly in the same way. The dwellers in the towns were divided into two classes, called freemen and unfreemen.
The freemen were also called burgesses, and they were the only persons who had all the privileges which the king gave to his Royal Burghs. Before a man could become a burgess he had to pay a sum of money, and he had to possess armour and weapons so that he should be ready to fight the enemies of the king if he were called upon. He had also to take his turn in watching and guarding the burgh, and this went on always, as the town was never sure when it might be attacked by some enemy.
Images from book, by P. Hume Brown.
Altogether, the duties of the burgess were so heavy that he often wished he had never become one. Still, he was much better off than the unfreemen, who had a very hard time of it, and who did not at all like the burgesses, with whom they were constantly quarrelling. An unfreeman could not keep a shop or booth, he could not follow any trade, he could not be an artisan or craftsman. And what must have been very disagreeable, on market-days in the town he had to stand on the opposite side of the street from the freeman, to show that he was an unfreeman.
So it will be seen that the unfreemen were what the Bible calls "hewers of wood and drawers of water," that is, they had to do all the hardest work in the town and got very little for it. Of course, the unfreemen were not slaves, and they could leave the town when they pleased, but they would have been no better off wherever they went.
But the freemen or burgesses were also divided into two classes, who did not live very happily together. The one class was made up of the merchants and the other of the craftsmen The merchants were the great people of the town, and they wished to have all the power in their own hands.
To keep themselves apart from the craftsmen they had a guild or society, to which nobody but a merchant could belong. Indeed, if any merchant took up a craft, he had to leave the guild and was looked down upon by all the other merchants. Now, there were a great many craftsmen of different kinds in the towns, and they did not like the merchants to have it all their own way and to carry their heads so high. But, as the craftsmen were a very important class of people, something more should be mentioned of them.
As was just said, there were many different kinds of craftsmen. There were smiths, armourers, shoemakers, butchers, potters, saddlers, glovers, bonnet-makers, dyers, masons, tailors, and others. Each craft had a different dress, which nobody else was allowed to wear. If a poor unfreeman put on the dress of any craft, he was treated like the jackdaw who appeared among the peacocks in peacock's feathers. Each craft lived in a separate part of the town, and so today we have streets called Candlemaker Row and Potterrow, which means that candle-makers and potters lived in that part of the town.
Every craft had a flag of its own, and a patron-saint to whom they gave offerings and for whom they kept an altar in the church. To see that the members of the craft did their work properly, an officer, called a deacon, was chosen, who could punish anyone who broke the rules of the craft.
To get into a craft you had to become an apprentice to a master, and bind yourself to serve him for a number of years. The apprentice lived in the house of his master, who gave him food and clothes, and could flog him if he misbehaved. When the boys of Paris became apprentices, they made a bargain that their master's wife should not be allowed to beat them.
When the apprentice had finished his time of service, he was shut up in a room by himself, and had to make a boot or a saddle or a coat of mail, according to his trade, which had to be examined by the deacon of the trade. If the article were well made, then the apprentice became a journeyman, but, if it were not well made, he had to serve for some time longer.
With all these craftsmen at work in different parts of it, the town must have been a busy place, and, indeed, rather a lively one, as every now and then there were quarrels between the craftsmen and the merchants as to which of them should have the power in managing the business of the town.
And how was the business of the town managed? In a very different way from what is the case now.
Every year a town council was chosen, and at first only merchants could be councillors, but in course of time craftsmen also were chosen. The councillors did many things which seem very strange to us nowadays. For instance, they fixed the prices of everything that was sold in the town, so that a shoemaker, or a glover, or a butcher could not charge what he liked for his goods. And they not only fixed the prices of things, but they had to see that all the things that were sold were good. To make sure that this was the case, officials were appointed to look after the tradespeople and the craftsmen. There were ale-tasters who went into the breweries and tasted the ale before it was sold, to make sure that it was good; and so with bread and flesh, and boots and gloves, and everything that was made and sold in the town.
Then the councillors had to see that no one broke the laws of the town. The unfreemen frequently gave them a great deal of trouble by selling or making things which they were not allowed to do.
The great events in the life of the town were the markets that were held every week and the fairs that were held every year, and the councillors had to look after these also. On the morning of the market-day, the people in the country round about brought into the town whatever they had to sell, but before they got in they had to pay a tax at the gates. Then their goods were taken to the town cross, where the officials examined them and fixed the prices at which they were to be sold. Before the market began, a bell was rung, and all the sellers had to be in their right places. But what seems curious to us is that the unfreemen were not allowed to buy before the freemen had got what they wanted.
It was the fair, however, that made the greatest stir in the town, for then traders and merchants came in crowds from long distances, and brought things which were not to be had in the town itself. The magistrates had then a busy time of it, as they had to see that "the peace of the fair" was kept.
To try and punish those who broke the peace of the fair, a court was held which had a curious name. It was called the "Court of the Piepoudres," or the "Court of the Dusty-feet," the dusty-feet being the traders who had come from a distance to sell their wares.
Another business of the magistrates was to look after the beggars and sick people, of whom there were always a great number. In every town there was a class of people of whom we know nothing nowadays, but who are still known in Eastern countries. These were the lepers, of whom there were then very many in every country, owing to the dirty habits of the people.
As the disease of leprosy was then thought to be very infectious, the lepers were not allowed to live in the town, and a hospital had to be built some distance off, where they might be shut up. Edinburgh, for instance, had a hospital at Liberton, which just means Lepertown. The lepers were only allowed to come into the town on certain days and to stand at certain places, where they received alms from the passers-by, and the rule was that bad butcher-meat, which other people could not eat, was given to them. Of course they were not allowed into the church, but sometimes a hole was made in the wall through which they could see the altar, and the priest going through the service.
From this account of an old Scottish town and its inhabitants we may think that it could not have been very pleasant to live in those days. Perhaps, however, people lived just as happily then as now. At all events, they had far more holidays than we have, for besides the Sundays there were as many as fifty Saints' Days, on which they were not allowed to do any work. On these idle days there were all sorts of amusements, of which something will have to be said farther on.
Then in Alexander III.'s reign, at least, the most of the people had plenty to eat and drink. The poorer people drank ale, and ate oatmeal and pease porridge, and we have seen that the magistrates of the burghs took care that both the ale and the bread should be good. As for the richer people, they could even afford to buy luxuries that were brought from other countries, for among the things sold in the town booths were pepper, ginger, almonds, rice, figs, raisins, and wines. But we have now come to a time in the history of Scotland when the people had other things to think of than amusements, for they had to fight for the independence of their country.
Brown, Peter Hume. A Short History of Scotland. Oliver and Boyd, 1908.
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