May 2010
Accounts of the Guild of St George and St Mary in the church of St Peter, Nottingham, 1459-1541
Reference: PR 21,599
The Guild was an association of individuals who shared a common interest during the Middle Ages. Mediaeval England would have seen merchant and craft guilds, with traders and craftsmen working together. The most common type, however, was the religious guild.
These guilds would have formed through a sense of common neighbourship, as people looked to one another to provide alms and help in time of poverty. They would have supported each other by providing some kind of learning or education, and the money they collected would help to bury guild members when they had died.
Each religious guild would be dedicated to a saint. Devotion to the saint would be a major focus of the guild. Masses would be said regularly and chantry priests employed to say Mass for the souls of the dead.
Each year on the feast day of the patron saint a major meeting would take place at which officers were elected and finances assessed. A procession would take place to and from the parish church with the Blessed Sacrament displayed in a monstrance. There would often be a pageant, in which members dressed in colourful costumes as saints, angels and Biblical characters, minstrels would play music, and there would be feasting and merrymaking.
There were a number of guilds throughout Nottinghamshire:
- In Newark the most influential was the Guild of the Holy Trinity. This guild later developed into the town's administrative corporation
- In Nottingham the Guild of St Mary, based at St Mary's church, had a membership of 209 people in 1371, including many women
- Other Nottingham Guilds include All Saints and Holy Trinity.
Accounts survive for the Guild of St George and St Mary, based in St Peter's church in Nottingham. These show what sorts of things the guild was spending its money on. In addition for money for members of the guild, there were also expenses for the collecting of barley, making malt, and for candles. They also include references to angels' wings, dragons and banners for the annual pageant. The page above shows the accounts in 1518.
For a full translation of the accounts, see the Thoroton Society Records Series Volume 7 (1939).
See the guild accounts in more detail here [PDF 3517KB] 
Read a translation of the guild accounts here [PDF 23KB]
This document features in our new exhibition on Mediaeval Nottingham.
Do you have a comment or question about this image? Contact us for more information.
