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http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/seth/ordinance -labourers.asp
Ordinance of Laborers, 1349
A vain attempt by the king to freeze wages paid to laborers at their pre -plague levels, the
ordinance is indicative of the labor shortage caused by the Black Death. It also shows the
beginnings of the redefinition of societal roles.
The king to the sheriff of Kent, greeting. Because a great part of the people, and especially of
workmen and servants, late died of the pestilence, many seeing the necessity of masters, and
great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they may receive excessive wages, and some
rather willing to beg in idleness, than by labor to get their living; we, considering the grievous
incommodities, which of the lack especially of ploughmen and such laborers may hereafter
come, have upon delibera tion and treaty with the prelates and the nobles, and learned men
assisting us, of their mutual counsel ordained:
That every man and woman of our realm of England, of what condition he be, free or bond, able
in body, and within the age of threescore years, not living in merchandise, nor exercising any
craft, nor having of his own whereof he may live, nor proper land, about whose tillage he may
himself occupy, and not serving any other, if he in convenient service, his estate considered, be
required to serve , he shall be bounden to serve him which so shall him require; and take only the
wages, livery, meed, or salary, which were accustomed to be given in the places where he oweth
to serve, the twentieth year of our reign of England, or five or six other commo ne years next
before. Provided always, that the lords be preferred before other in their bondmen or their land
tenants, so in their service to be retained; so that nevertheless the said lords shall retain no more
than be necessary for them; and if any such man or woman, being so required to serve, will not
the same do, that proved by two true men before the sheriff or the constables of the town where
the same shall happen to be done, he shall anon be taken by them or any of them, and committed
to the next g aol, there to remain under strait keeping, till he find surety to serve in the form
aforesaid.
Item, if any reaper, mower, or other workman or servant, of what estate or condition that he be,
retained in any man's service, do depart from the said service w ithout reasonable cause or
license, before the term agreed, he shall have pain of imprisonment. And that none under the
same pain presume to receive or to retain any such in his service.
Item, that no man pay, or promise to pay, any servant any more wages, liveries, meed, or salary
than was wont, as afore is said; nor that any in other manner shall demand or receive the same,
upon pain of doubling of that, that so shall be paid, promised, required, or received, to him which
thereof shall feel himself grieve d, pursuing for the same; and if none such will pursue, then the
same to be applied to any of the people that will pursue; and such pursuit shall be in the court of
the lord of the place where such case shall happen.
Item, if the lords of the towns or mano rs presume in any point to come against this present
ordinance either by them, or by their servants, then pursuit shall be made against them in the
counties, wapentakes, tithings, or such other courts, for the treble pain paid or promised by them http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/seth/ordinance -labourers.asp
or their servants in the form aforesaid; and if any before this present ordinance hath covenanted
with any so to serve for more wages, he shall not be bound by reason of the same covenant, to
pay more than at any other time was wont to be paid to such person; nor u pon the said pain shall
presume any more to pay.
Item, that saddlers, skinners, white -tawers, cordwainers, tailors, smiths, carpenters, masons,
tilers, [shipwrights], carters, and all other artificers and workmen, shall not take for their labor
and workman ship above the same that was wont to be paid to such persons the said twentieth
year, and other common years next before, as afore is said, in the place where they shall happen
to work; and if any man take more, he shall be committed to the next gaol, in m anner as afore is
said.
Item, that butchers, fishmongers, hostelers, breweres, bakers, puters, and all other sellers of all
manner of victual, shall be bound to sell the same victual for a reasonable price, having respect
to the price that such victual be sold at in the places adjoining, so that the same sellers have
moderate gains, and not excessive, reasonably to be required according to the distance of the
place from whence the said victuals be carried; and if any sell such victuals in any other manner,
and thereof be convict in the manner and form aforesaid, he shalll pay the double of the same
that he so received, to the party damnified, or, in default of him, to any other that will pursue in
this behalf: and the mayors and bailiffs of cities, boroughs, merchant -towns, and others, and of
the ports and places of the sea, shall have power to inquire of all and singular which shall in any
thing offend the same, and to levy the said pain to the use of them at whose suit such offenders
shall be convict; and i n case that the same mayors or bailiffs be negligent in doing execution of
the premises, and thereof be convict before our justices, by us to be assigned, then the same
mayors and bailiffs shall be compelled by the same justices to pay the treble of the th ing so sold
to the party damnified, or to any other in default of him that will pursue; and nevertheless toward
us they shall be grievously punished.
Item, because that many valiant beggars, as long as they may live of begging, do refuse to labor,
giving t hemselves to idleness and vice, and sometime to theft and other abominations; none upon
the said pain of imprisonment shall, under the color of pity or alms, give any thing to such,
which may labor, or presume to favor them toward their desires, so that th ereby they may be
compelled to labor for their necessary living.
We command you, firmly enjoining, that all and singular the premises in the cities, boroughs,
market towns, seaports, and other places in your bailiwick, where you shall think expedient, as
well within liberties as without, you do cause to be publicly proclaimed, and to be observed and
duly put in execution aforesaid; and this by no means omit, as you regard us and the common
weal of our realm, and would save yourself harmless. Witness the kin g at Westminster, the 18th
day of June. By the king himself and the whole council.
Like writs are directed to the sheriffs throughout England.
The king to the reverend father in Christ W. by the same grace bishop of Winchester, greeting.
"Because a great p art of the people," as before, until "for their necessary living," and then thus:
And therefore we entreat you that the premises in every of the churches, and other places of your http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/seth/ordinance -labourers.asp
diocese, which you shall think expedient, you do cause to be published; dire cting the parsons,
vicars, ministers of such churches, and others under you, to exhort and invite their parishioners
by salutary admonitions, to labor, and to observe the ordinances aforesaid, as the present
necessity requireth: and that you do likewise mo derate the stipendiary chaplains of your said
diocese, who, as it is said, do now in like manner refuse to serve without an excessive salary; and
compel them to serve for the accustomed salary, as it behooveth them, under the pain of
suspension and interdi ct. And this by no means omit, as you regard us and the common weal of
our said realm. Witness, etc. as above. By the king himself and the whole council.
Like letters of request are directed to the serveral bishops of England, and to the keeper of the
spir itualities of the archbishopric of Canterbury, during the vacancy of the see, under the same
date.
The text for this document was taken from:
White, Albert Beebe and Wallace Notestein, eds. Source Problems in English History . New
York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1915.