No more
fitting place could be found for the storage of the antiquities of the
town, the relics of its old municipal life, sketches of its old
buildings that have vanished, and portraits of its worthies, than the
ancient building which has for so long kept watch and ward over its
destinies and been the scene of most of the chief events connected
with its history.
Happily several have been spared, and they speak to us of the old
methods of municipal government; of the merchant guilds, composed of
rich merchants and clothiers, who met therein to transact their common
business. The guild hall was the centre of the trade of the town and
of its social and commercial life. An amazing amount of business was
transacted therein. If you study the records of any ancient borough
you will discover that the pulse of life beat fast in the old guild
hall. There the merchants met to talk over their affairs and "drink
their guild." There the Mayor came with the Recorder or "Stiward" to
hold his courts and to issue all "processes as attachementes, summons,
distresses, precepts, warantes, subsideas, recognissaunces, etc." The
guild hall was like a living thing. It held property, had a treasury,
received the payments of freemen, levied fines on "foreigners" who
were "not of the guild," administered justice, settled quarrels
between the brethren of the guild, made loans to merchants, heard the
complaints of the aggrieved, held feasts, promoted loyalty to the
sovereign, and insisted strongly on every burgess that he should do
his best to promote the "comyn weele and prophite of ye saide gylde.
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