The pinners' and wiresellers' book, 1462-1511

Covers the accounts of the medieval craft of the Pinners between 1462 and 1511, prior to and following their merger with the Wiremongers to form the Wiresellers Company in 1497. No other administrative records survive from such a lowly craft in medieval London. The volume reveals how a small craft (some thirty members) struggled to maintain a hall, control working practices, license alien craftsmen and secure prayers for themselves and their families at the houses of the Carmelite Friars in Fleet Street and St. John's hospital in Westminster. On occasion the Pinners joined forces with other crafts, such as the Girdlers in searching in the City to confiscate defective goods, or with the Cutlers to petition Parliament against the import of manufactured goods from abroad. However, the Pinners were not able to remain an independent craft. They joined the Wiresellers in 1497, and this amalgamated craft itself went on to merge with the Girdlers in the sixteenth century. The London Record Society edition is enhanced by the inclusion of the wills of some thirty medieval pinners and wiresellers, most of which were registered in the Court of the Bishop of London's Commissary (whose records are now in Guildhall Library).