The Washington times., 1901-09-22
ENGLAND'S OLDEST TRUST.
A Powerful Guild That L. Now
Over 900 Years Old.
"Purbeck Marbiersv n Combination
Stronger Than Any Trade Union
Chartered PriviicSe.-only Quar-
rymen's Sons Permitted to Work

| rymcn'x sons Permitted to work
How many people In England have ever
dreamed that for possibly nine centuri.
| we have had in one corner OF our little
| country the oldest and strongest trust in
the worid7 A trust stronger even than
| Mr.. Pierpont Morgan's billion dollar
trust because there can never be any
| strikes.
| How many people have ever dreamed
| that for this time we have had the oldest
! and strongest trades union In the world?
| And for the simple reason that this trust
| and trades union forms a single combina-
! tion-it Is. and during all these centuries
| has been, the safest and most carefully
guarded monopoly in the world.
/ Very few people have ever heard of it,
| and yet this combined trust and trades
union. known as the Ancient Guild OF
! Purbeck Marblers," and situated in the
little corner on the south coast of Dorset.
| known the Isle of Purbeck. comes
nearer to realizing the tenets of the So
cialism we hear preached 50 much today
than anything else that ever has or does
| exist.
just how it came into existence is cloud
! ed in The mystery of time and lost rec
ords. but there are many legends as to
highly colored. The most probable is that
it was first granted its charter by Edward
the Confessor. or Harold ii. prior to the
| coming of William the Conqueror, for
! repulsins tine Danes. who several times
| tried to invade England along their
| shores. The earliest record extant, how
| ever. is the ratification of this charter by
Edward vi in 1851.
The peculiar rights this charter grants
the Isle of Purbeck quarrymen. or Mar
biers." as the ancient parchments cali
them. are: That. for services rendered.
| all the stone or marble to be found in the
Isle of Purbeck is theirs and their de-
| scendants rightfuI heritage: that none
but members Of their Guild may take
stone from the Isle of Purbeck: and that
| none may join this guild but the original
quarrymen and their descendants In per-
| petuity-
This Is only roughly stated. as the
parchment charters are most jealously
| guarded and may not be seen by profane
| eyes. that is, by anyone not belonging to
the guild; but it is sufficient to show that
| the Isle of Purbeck quarrymen of today.
are and must be. the direct descendants of
the men who first took the rock from the
| hillsides in their section of the country
before the dawn of the Norman conquest.
| Though again ratified in the reigns of
| Elizabeth and Charles 1, the charter has
| never received the royal signature since
| the time of James II: yet by virtue of its
| never having been annuIled It holds as
good today as when il first came into op-
| Grafton.
| At the age of fourteen a quarryman's
| son or sons begin to serve their appren-
ticeship. either under their father or some
other quarryman until they are twenty
! one. for not until they have obtained their
majority can they become freemen of
| the guild. Then they must buy their free
dom. for which. by ancient custom,
meeting is held every Shrove Tuesday at
| the town hall. Corfe Castle, and the price
| they have to pay for their freedom is six
shillings and eight pence about sl6O).
quart of beer and penny loaf.
! Having once obtained this freedom, the
| freeman can begin on his own. and he is
| privileged thenceforward to take stone or
marble from anywhere beneath the soil in
| the Isle of Purbeck. 50 long as he pays
| for what he takes the nominal royalty
| originally assessed. 1t does not matter
upon whose estate he works: he can even
begin to undermine. If he so chooses, any
! of the towns in the Isle of Purbeck, and
he cannot be stopped For until the origi-
| nal character or its ratificatiors, is an
| nulled or revoked, he has the right of law
on his side. That this is so has been
| proved on several occasions.
| OF course for the general convenience
of the community, no such extreme meas
ure as the last is ever taken, but in some
| instances the guild and town councils
| have come into conflict, and, on the quar-
rymen asserting their privilege, the coun-
| cils have had to give way As, for in
stance, in the town of Swanage, some
| little time ago, Tor convenience, some OF
| the quarrymen began to work their
| stone-that is, to chisel it to the propor-
| tions required-on the foreshore within
| the town. Objections were raised but the
| quarrymen carried their point, and are
| working there today as unconcernedly as
men can when they know they have the
| strongest granted monopoly in the world
| at their back
| Nor when these monopolists wish to
| open quarry on aryone's estate do they
| have to, or ever think to, ask permission
They just set to work.
Landowners, naturally. do not always
relish this, as the undermining. of course.
units the land for building purposes But
they have no redress. An attempt to find
out whether this was so was made some
years ago The owner of the land sent
notices to all the quarrymen taking stone
from his estate to quit by such and such
a time. But the quarrymen simply paid
no heed to them on went the landowner
to London. took counsel and spent hun
dreds of dollars in having old records
searched But when ne at last returned
home he said no more about it And the
quarrymen are still there
Every year the agents of the Iandown-
ers make their rounds among the men
taking stone from their estates and collect
their royalties according to the quarry
mems books,
In crder to transport their stone the
quarrymen are also allowed to make
roads through any estate to the main
turnpike.
About twenty or thirty years ago 1t was
attempted to bring strangers to work in
the quarIies. The effort succeeded for 4
time. but only a short time Ancient
rights and privileges were asserted, and
the strangers had to go. 1t is the right
OF only quarrymen's sons to work in the
quarries, and this must remain so until
it is legislated by Parliament otherwise.
The guild has several quaint old Gus
toms they still conform to annually. When
a freeman marries he must also buy his
wife's freedom. This costs them each a
shilling (24c), except the last one married
in the east of the isle and the last one
married in the west each year. These two
have 20 furnish footballs that cost SIM
liar amount The local shoemakers make
these out of old leather and leather fill
ings-
One of these is kicked about by the men
who have INST finished their aDDrentfce-