In a message dated 1/21/02 10:34:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> 5.  Are there any records which give names of members
>     of the guilds going back to the 17th century?
>

Netti,

This is the only part of your query I can followup on and my only answer is
that Yes, there are records for some of the guilds and in particular for the
"worshipful company of drapers", though I'm not exactly sure if that is a
guild or merchant association.

In following up with a contact in the UK on my Faulkner/Filmer connection
speculation, I have received a number of research hints.  Since I am probably
dealing with London records, it would take me about ten years to go through
all the possibilities I'm told are out there -- Freemen records, guild
records and parish records.  Many of which are in abundance, with the
exception of the period of the Civil War/Cromwell, when apparently little
attention was paid to recordkeeping, particularly to parish records.

About a year ago I did a google search for something like "guild England 17th
century records" and came up with quite a bit.

I know this doesn't really answer your overall question, about which I do
have a general comment in that your comment that first son inherits the
family estate, second goes to university and third in the military, might
also read first son inherits the family estate, second goes to university OR
the military.  I think it depended upon relative ages of sons, and also what
was going on in the world that made the military attractive.  I'd imagine the
during the peninsula wars/Waterloo etcl in the first part of the 1800s then
colonial expansion in the 1800s, the military might have seemed more
attractive to second sons than the university.  Second sons who it might be
thought were unsuited for university or needed "shaping up" might have been
encouraged to join the military.

Janet

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