In the English context it was common for guilds to have both male and female
members, often married couples (sometimes with a 2 for the price of 1 entry
fee), but also single women. See Toulmin-Smith (ed) English guilds EETS 40,
(1870). In York, the Merchant Adventurers still exist and do not have women
(I think) as members, or possibly not on the board) but did in the Middle
Ages, however this is almost certainly a post-medieval development.
Re: your earlier post. Wealthier English guilds quite often sustained what
were effectively chantries for members, and even poorer ones had an
established obit.
See above and also http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/cms/resources/gilds
<http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/cms/resources/gilds>
for information about Yorkshire guilds.
Pat Cullum
-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Jacobus [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 February 2001 13:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: mixed and single-sex confraternities
I got no joy from any of you regarding my earlier query about
confraternities and chantry foundations, but undaunted, here's another.
How usual was it/does anyone know of examples, for a confraternity which
was founded as a brotherhood, to admit sisters at a later point in its
history? Thinking of the British experience of Oxbridge Colleges and
Gentlemen's Clubs I would assume it's unusual, but would be interested to
test this out. The confraternity I'm working on was mixed-sex by the
seventeenth century, but I'd like to know whether it's likely to have
started that way back in the fourteenth.
Laura
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