of huge blocks of dressed stone, these grim portals of fortified towns were usually protected on each side by towers, from which depended the chains which served to lower or raise the drawbridge. Here, day and night, watch and ward was kept by the municipal guard, composed exclusively of members of the bourgeoisie. The gates were closed every night, and each burgess was called upon to take his turn in the safeguard of his native city.1

Jehan Houbelon the younger, on entering his apprenticeship in the early dawn of the sixteenth century, did not go far, for in the parish of St. Sauveur, that most contiguous to Fives, the youth found his home. There he remained during the rest of his life, and there also his children married and settled down, as may be seen in the early registers and archives in which Lille is rich.

'Jehan Houbelon, natif de Fives,' as he is designated, became probably what was called a forain or bourgeoisforain, that is to say, a foreigner or outside burgess.2 This title of forain was applied to those country proprietors or yeomen throughout the Chatellenie who, though not possessing the full privileges attendant on the freedom of a city, yet enjoyed rights of bourgeoisie, which distinguished them from the rest of the country population. Indeed, had he not been 'free born,' Jehan's son would have been ineligible for apprenticeship within

1 A Florentine gentleman, in a work published in 1567, says that 'Pour le trafic des marchandises et les mestiers exercés en Lille on la tient pour la principale, apres Anvers et Amsterdam, entre toutes les Villes des PaysBas sujet au roy Catholique' (Traduction contemporaine de Louis Guiccardin. Anvers, 1567).

All who lived within the walls of a Flemish city were collectively entitled intranes (? interned). They were divided into two distinct groups: that of the bourgeois or freeman, and that of the manant, a name which comprised every individual who paid taxes without possessing the freedom of the city. The term extranes included the population extraneous to the city (see Van Hende, Lille et ses Institutions Communales, p. 8). In England these groups were termed respectively forenseci and intrinseci, while strangers were called extranei (Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 67). In the sixteenth century Stow speaks of 'forains' in his Survey of London.

2

the city.1 It is probable that after his settlement in the country he became a cultivator of those plants which were largely grown throughout the Chatellenie for the purpose of dyeing the wools and silks of which the splendid tapestries and woven cloths were made. The skill of the dyers of Lille contributed greatly to the fame of these stuffs, and immense pains were bestowed on the cultivation of the wedde and garance (woad and madder) and other plants then most used as dyes. So important was it to maintain the high reputation of the Lille dyes, that strict regulations were enforced as to their production and use, while heavy penalties were attached to any infringement of these rules.

3

It would appear that in Lille itself Jehan Houbelon of Fives was well known. Indeed, if our conjecture is correct as to his occupation, he would have been in constant communication with those craft-gilds which he supplied with the plants from which they produced their dyes. Although it is possible that Houbelon apprenticed his son to some master-craftsman in the gild of the teinturiers or dyers, it is more probable that young Jehan's master belonged to one of the gilds specially concerned in the making of the stuffs. These fine cloths were largely exported, and it was by this trade that the family at a later date waxed rich.

Young Jehan Houbelon then, with all the world before

1 On the Continent only the sons of freeborn forains were admitted to apprenticeships in the towns, while in England, so stringent were the laws against emigration off the land into the towns, that no one was allowed to become an apprentice in a town unless he had property qualifications equivalent to £200, modern value (see Denton, England in the Fifteenth Century, p. 223).

* Van Hende, Lille et ses Institutions Communales, p. 158.

3 Cochineal was also much used, but indigo was not yet known in the Netherlands (Ibid., p. 150).

4 Mr. Gross says that burgesses possessed of country property who were not merchants, found it advisable to join the gild of a town in order that they might dispose of the produce of their lands and the manufactures of their villeins, viz. labourers. The same would be true,' he adds, 'though to a less degree, of the humble agricultural Burgher' (see Gross, Gild Merchant, v. 74).

him, entered on his new life as apprentice to some prosperous bourgeois of Lille about the year 1502, when he must have been fifteen or sixteen years old. He would serve his indentures under his master's roof, and the length of service varied according to the rules of the gild. At the end of his apprenticeship he would probably continue in his master's workshop as journeyman or handicraftsman, until such time as he had acquired sufficient experience to admit of his establishing an atelier or a comptoir, as was the privilege of a master-craftsman. Once a master, employing journeymen of his own,' he would possess the right of exposing the draperies woven on his looms, for sale in the open market or on the quays of the river Deûle, in that place which was allotted for the merchandise of his particular gild. But whether he sold his goods there or at home, all that was produced under his auspices was subject to the inspection of the égards, or examiners of merchandise,

and it could not be sold until the plummet or leaden seal (called the Plomb de Commerce) bearing the arms of Lille had been attached to each bale.

The tradition was held by their descendants that early in the sixteenth century the Houbelons of Lille were flourishing merchants in that city; and Jehan, Houbelon, before his death in 1555, appears to have reached a position of prosperity in the town, having carried on during the latter part of his life an extended commerce in conjunction with his sons. From the character for rectitude combined with business capacity borne by many of his descendants, we may perhaps

It was a rule among the gilds that any craftsman desirous of setting up as a master, and as such employing others, should first submit to an examination, and produce evidence of his skill in his craft, so as to satisfy the Echevins and Conseil of his town-that is to say the governing body-as to his fitness to employ others.

VOL. I.

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