Excerpt from The Assembly Books of Southampton, Vol. 1: Edited, With Introduction, Notes and Index; 1602-1608 The general run of householders would belong to the Class Of freemen or commoners. These had the liberty of engaging in their art, science, or occupation, but though they were subject to rates and taxes, and to watch and other duties, and were expected to maintain the Town's ordinances, they had no share in the actual government. Normally, in the established trades, a man was allowed to set up shop after apprenticeship to a freeman, and payment of a fine to the company and an enrol ment fee to the Town Clerk. When the requirement as to apprenticeship was waived, a far heavier fine, payable half to the Town and half to the company, was exacted. The extant book of formal admissions only dates back to 1614, but from the entries at that time we infer that there had been some negligence in the matter of swearing-ih. There were cases where men had used their trade, after due composition, for many years before they were regularly admitted. Thus one who had actually compounded in 1587-8, and another who had compounded in 1602-3, were not sworn till But those who carried on without the necessary composition were often subjected to summary interference with their activities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.