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A Day in the life of Robert Ireland, a mercer (afternoon)
Mercer (Image courtesy of J.Bryan)
“The sheep provides for us all” –that’s true enough. One shopkeeper has had sheep carved into the very timbers of his house on the street we call High Pavements. We merchants are proud men and don’t mind displaying our wealth for other men to wonder at. I know - “Pride comes before a fall” - as the Bible says – but ours is just pride in making something that clothes men’s backs. Some, like those lawyers we seem to see more and more of, seem happy to take men’s clothes from off their backs with their greedy ways. Take Richard Prynce; excuse me whilst I spit -there’s bad blood between us. He thinks too much of himself – King of Abbey Foregate I shouldn’t wonder. Walking side by side with him during a funeral through Dogpole the street narrowing right here in Ox Lane in front of the almshouses, he leapt ahead of me forcing me into the gutter – an insult seen by all. Worth the 6s 8d to draw blood from the man with my knife. He won’t cross me again…
In front of these almshouses is where Prynce the lawyer forced me off the pavement and into the gutter.
How true is "Days in the Life..."?
These dramatised accounts have been created by the Discovering Shropshire's History team. We used information taken from biographies of these individuals as researched by Bill Champion, author of "Everyday Life in Tudor Shrewsbury". These biographies, with the sources he used, can be seen in full by clicking on the "in depth" buttons on each page.