Note 561 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
Gross, i., 90-1. The number of burghers in the Guild seems to have been very small. In 1486, 28 burghers paid chepin gavell; in 1487, 22 burgesses; and in 1490-93, 31 burgesses. In 1510 there were 45 burgesses. (Coates’s Reading, 58.) There were many who paid fines and dues to the abbot who were of the town and not of the Guild, and this class was doubtless encouraged by the convent, following the same policy as the bishop in Lynn. (Hist. MSS. Com. xi. part 7, 172, 175-6.)