Revealing the secrets of Merchant Adventurers’ Hall's archive

SUNBEAMS of gold and stars for the host of heaven, lists the Mystery Plays inventory.

This is not for next year's production, but for the one performed during the feast of Corpus Christi in 1433.

And, come to think of it, for the next 140 years, because until the plays were suppressed in 1569, this scrap of parchment was used to check in and out the props at Toft Green.

It is the only surviving inventory of the original Mystery Plays, but the wavy top edge proves it originally to be one of a pair.

Such indents were used as a safeguard against counterfeiting in formal documents. Matching the halves identified authenticity and gave us the legal term indenture.

Along with those sunbeams of gold, the list includes angel's wings – naturally – devils with two faces, array for good souls, array for evil souls, not to mention an iron swing "for God to sit upon" and his golden mask.

The inventory is one of thousands of medieval documents held in the archive at York's Merchant Adventurers' Hall.

But if you think that's impressive, how about an account roll from the century before, that records when the trees used to support the hall were felled, the name of the man who fashioned them; even how much he was paid.

"We know one of the chief carpenters was John Colwyk," says archivist Jill Redford.

"He had four other carpenters working under him. In May 1357, the fraternity paid John three shillings and his four servants six shillings between them."

Another impressive document in the archive is the original sealed charter issued by Sir William Percehay granting land for the hall.

It was "given at York the Friday next after the feast of St Lucy the Virgin in the year of the lord 1356 and the reign of the King Edward III after the conquest of England in the 30th year of his reign".

Which dates the document to December 16.

The charter describes the land as "in Fossgate between Trichour Lane and the River Foss and from Fossgate in front as far as the land of Henry de Haxiholme at the back".

At the time there was a Norman building on the site.

The charter of December 1356 which was issued by Sir William Percehay to grant land for the hall

Apart from the Mystery Plays inventory, which saw plenty of action, most of the archive has survived with barely a mark.

Partly, this is down to their safe storage away from light and damp in an oak coffer bought by the guild in the early 1400s. Jill says it was secondhand even then, but this 'evidence chest' served the hall well, ever since.

Nowadays the documents are wrapped and boxed as they should be, but once a year she and honorary archivist Rita Freedman painstakingly audit them to check if any need restoring.

The other reason for their good condition is the documents are written on parchment, which Jill calls "fantastic stuff". So fantastic the pair don't wear gloves while holding them.

"Ah yes, well there's two schools of thought," says Rita.

"Gloves scuff, trying to turn pages is a problem, and you're handling a bit more heavily because it's difficult. There are good pages but others that are much harder to read, mainly due to accidents where people in the past have spilled wine on them."

Jill inspects a pristine roll of accounts which lists the building costs of the hall. But that she says it tells only part of what happened.

"Actually I get the impression people also donated so many pounds of nails and roof tiles," she says.

"Somebody gave trees and we have records of wall tiles, (bricks).

"The records also talk about other buildings which must have been owned by the Guild, so it's a bit mixed. A story but not a coherent story."

And perhaps the most important one told concerns the annual accounts.

"These were kept from Lady Day one year (March 25) to the day before Lady Day the next," says Jill.

"The reason the tax year now runs from April 6 was the calendar moving forward in the 18th century."

It came about when Britain switched from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar, in 1752, to bring the country back into line with the solar year. At the same time New Year’s Day was changed from March 25 to January 1, but the tax year continued to run from the equivalent of Lady Day.

Although the archive has an incredibly complete collection of the guild's accounts there are a few gaps, notably between the Civil War and the restoration in 1660. Life after the Parliamentarian victory was austere and what was seen as the excesses of the previous regime were frowned on. So were the documents from this period hidden?

"It's all a bit suspicious really," says Rita. "After all, the accounts must have gone on."

One of the most valuable items to disappear was a Cartulary, a medieval volume containing transcriptions of original documents. Fortunately the tome turned up in 1917, in Derbyshire. Just as as well, it's a sort of medieval hard drive, jokes Stephen Upright, Clerk to the Company Captain.

"A lot of charters were copied into this," says Jill. "It's a sort of security copy of the originals. They made notes as well and that makes it much easier to use as a reference."

Merchant Adventurers’ archivist Jill Redford pictured in the Great Hall

Another early account relates to a 15th century feast that would have been similar to the one offered to Richard III when he was a guest of York. It is on loan to the Yorkshire Museum as part of an exhibition to mark this week's re-interment of the King in Leicester.

The list of supplies includes six dozen sparrows, six pigs, seven lots of animal feet, 21 gallons of wine and four dozen and four gallons of ale. It also logs: "Paid to a woman for scouring out pewter vessels and for swilling: 9 1/2 d" and "Paid to Daystarn for bringing the spits 9d".

The hall itself is as fascinating as the accounts and treaties held within. A living archive, manager Lauren Marshall calls it.

"We can point to the majority of beams knowing they were felled in 1357 and where," she says. "We can also put a name to the people who worked on site which is fantastic."

And see their marks. The Great Hall is like a giant flat pack, having joining beams marked with the same Roman numeral when laid out, off-site. This was an important job; not one to be entrusted to apprentices, so were they scored by John Colwyk?

For once, the infallible archive fails to provide an answer.

The Merchant Adventurers Hall is one of the country's finest examples of a semi-timbered medieval guild hall. As well as a communal meeting place for the Fellowship of Mercers – dealers in textiles – there is a chapel dating from 1411 and an undercroft hospital which cared for 13 sick or infirm people, one for each disciple, plus Jesus.

This was a very early example of an alms house and remained one until about 1900. Indeed York has a long record of caring for the poor. England's first recorded almshouse was founded here by King Athelstan in the 10th century.

The hall has been altered over the centuries. A two-storey annexe on the Fossgate side was added in Elizabethan times. The floor of the undercroft was raised because of flooding and the large windows added in the 18th century. Before then there would have had much smaller windows, high up the walls.

The guild's standing eventually grew to match its formidable home thanks to a Royal Charter given by Queen Elizabeth I in 1581, naming the members the 'Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City in York'

"This was a high status building, probably larger than it needed to be, but what a brilliant way to advertise to potential members," says Lauren. "We know from the archives that big feasts took place on Saint's days and that really would have made the hall a sight to behold."

Even without festivals, it still is.
 

The Merchant Adventurers Hall is open Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday to Saturday 9am to 3.30pm, Sunday 11am to 4pm.