28 • Beginningswho divided their time between the court and the country.^34 There were
scriveners (notaries) and goldsmiths (the bankers of the era), grocers and
vintners, fishmongers and ironmongers, and haberdashers and merchant tai-
lors like Sir William Turner.
Turner embodied a characteristic overlap of economic power and civic
leadership. He was both a past master of the prestigious Merchant Taylor’s
Guild and a lifetime member of the executive city court of aldermen. The city
government at the Guildhall gave legal protection to his guild and the many
other “worshipful companies” of trade and crafts in the city, as they were fan-
cifully called, against competition from unincorporated businesses in the sub-
urbs. The guilds, in turn, funded a large measure of civic undertakings. They
also supplemented the philanthropic actions of the city’s parishes, the main
source of help for the poor. The guilds maintained regular supplies of grain for
the bread and beer consumed by the poor and of coal for heating their mod-
est homes, as well as providing almshouses and educational endowments for
their own pensioners and members’ widows and orphans. In good times and
bad, members of guilds often contributed individually or collectively to excep-
tional hardship cases—enough to keep the “deserving poor” from starving.
A confirmed bachelor without Pepys’ carefree ways, Sir William had
amassed a small fortune while participating actively in civic affairs. He was
not yet fifty and stood out among his peers. At the Guildhall he kept his eye
on public health and the moral behavior of the poor. At the Golden Fleece,
his success in trade was evident in his working motto, “Keep to your shop
and it will keep you,” and his meticulous ledgers, headed by a joyous paean to
business and religion:“Laus Deo”—Praise to God.^35
In January, Sir William imported rare silks and other colored cloths from
Florence, Milan, Genoa, and Lucca worth thousands of pounds. One ship-
ment alone cost him £ 1 , 515 plus £ 16 in customs dues at Dover and London.
But what a shipment it was! Taffetas in rose, scarlet, pearl, green, yellow,
gray, and silver poured forth from cartons filled to the brim. His usual
wholesale buyers, Smith and Company and Howard and Company, pur-
chased part of one shipment within a fortnight. They expected another ship-
ment to arrive around the same time, with others to follow right through the
winter and into the spring. On February 23 , Mr. Taylor the milliner bought a
small consignment. On March 23 , the king came through with an order for
3 ¾yards of rich brocade at £ 8 a yard, to be made up into royal robes. As
usual, the price was marked up for His Majesty, who could afford it and did
not mind. (Besides, Sir William had loaned the king £ 1 , 600 in 1664 when the
royal treasury was in dire straits.) Noble ladies stood in line for his rare silks,