Virtual Grub Street: Medieval Scavagers: First, what they were not.

In his 1899 book The Commune of London, and other studies, a Mr. J. H. Round challenged Henry Thomas Riley the editor of the highly respected Munimenta Gildhallae Londoniensis Liber albus, Liber custumarum,[1] etc. ...:

In his introduction to the 'Liber Albus' (1859) Mr. Riley held that —

The City Scavagers, it appears, were originally public officers, whose duty it was to attend at the Hythes and Quays for the purpose of taking custom upon the Scavage (i.e. Showage) or opening out of imported goods.[2]

Professor Skeat adopts this view in his etymological Dictionary, and develops it at some length,… But no evidence whatever is adduced by Mr. Riley for his assertion that the "Scavagers " originally performed the above duty or had anything to do with it.[3]

Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary was the most respected in its kind, at the time, the Oxford English Dictionary only being in its infancy. The fact that the professor quoted Riley — regardless that neither he nor Riley were able to give a single citation to support their claim — began a now venerated commonplace that Medieval “Scavagers” began by collecting the English tax called the “Scavage”.

The next edition (1902) of Skeat’s Dictionary dropped the claim, in respect of Mr. Round’s challenge, but did not replace it with any clarification or retraction. While Mr. Round was correct — the Liber Albus did not, in fact, provide any citation to support Riley’s claim — the exact match between the terms surely suggested to Skeat that Riley’s conjecture could well have been correct.

As it turns out, over 100 years later, still no one seems to have found any reference to the scavagers as tax collectors. The Liber Albus does provide oaths of various city of London officials, including the office of “Scavager”, but it does so in Norman French, so I will quote them as translated in Arnold’s English language Chronicle of 1502.[4]

The oath of the London “Scavagers” is as follows:

Ye shall swere that ye shal wel and dilige[n]tly ouersee that the paueme[n]t in eueri warde be wele and rightfulli repayred and not [en]hau[n]sed to ye [an]noyaunce of the neybourghs and that ye weis stretis and lanes be kepid clene fro dong and other filthe for honeste of the cyte, and that alle the chemenis redossis[5] and furnessis[6] be made of stone for desente of fyr, and if ye knowe ani such ye shal shewe it to the Aldirman y he may make dew redresse therfore, and this ye shal not leue so helpe you God, &c[7]

Few other cities had them and those that did put them to the same uses. In the Norman French original they are called “scawageours,” from the Old French escawer (“to inspect”). They were city inspectors.

The scavage tax, on the other hand, was called “Seawenge” in the original Norman French. The word was probably borrowed from the original Anglo-Saxon population. It was a “shewenge” tax. A fee charged before the city would allow a foreign trader to show or display his wares in the city market.

As for who collected the scavage tax, another oath helps clarify:

Also al maner mercymentys and fynes that ye shall ressayue ye shall well and truly brings theym to ye cou[n]ter, and there to delyuer theim to the Sherefs or to hys depute.[8]

This is from the oath of the “Sherefs Sergaunts”. It was they who were charged with collecting fines and customs. This makes sense as half the original scavage was granted to the Sheriffs (there were two to four at any given time) by the original charter establishing London scavage rights. What later law suits are available to me uniformly refer to members of the sheriff’s office collecting the tax.

Note: In a disconcerting apparent coincidence, the scavager of Dublin, Ireland, was granted certain market tolls in lieu of a salary in about the year 1634.[9] [10] The oath of the Dublin “Scavenger” makes no mention whatsoever of collecting either “scavage” or tolls of any sort.[11] Her constituents complained bitterly that she neglected her duties entirely while vigorously collecting the tolls and more that weren’t due to her.[12]

Her successor, a Mr. William Harvey[13] proved a marked improvement in both diligently applying himself to the cleanliness and repair of the city and collecting only the prescribed tolls. The toll arrangement being without legal establishment, a Mr. Henry Steele, maltser of Oxmanton, had Harvey arrested (apparently by the Royal authorities) in 1661. Legal proceedings were initiated. The city provided its scavager a lawyer. Collection of the tolls by the city scavager was temporarily interdicted by court injunction until the matter could be considered.

Some two years later, the Irish Parliament ordered that the Dublin tolls be thenceforth collected only by direct, lawful representatives of the Mayor and Sheriffs’ offices. This would bring all very much in line with the medieval precedent regarding the scavage tax which had already been ended in England itself for some 200 years. At no point, however, did the Dublin authorities refer to the tolls in their records as a “scavage” tax. That the ancient scavage was known to them, and the inspiration for the means of payment they had arranged, cannot be perfectly disproven.

[1] Riley, Henry Thomas. Munimenta Gildhallae Londoniensis Liber albus, Liber custumarum… (1859). The Liber Albus is a compilation of London customs collected in 1419.

[2] Ibid., xli.

[3] Round, J. H. The commune of London, and other studies (1899). 256-7.

[4] The Customs of London Otherwise Called Arnold's Chronicle (Second Edition, 1811). 96. The first edition of the Chronicle by “one Arnold, a citizen of London” was published around 1502.

[5] grounds, yards

[6] hearths, ovens

[7] Arnold’s, 96.

[8] Ibid., 94. The Norman French original of this oath does not appear in Riley’s Liber Albus.

[9] Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin..., Volume 3 (1892). xxii.

[10] Ibid., 221. Water Bailiffs and Marshalls were also paid by grants to collect city tolls at this time.

[11] Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin..., Volume 1 (1889). 262.

[12] Ibid., xxiii.

[13] Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin..., Volume 3 (1892). 118, 318. Her immediate successor was Walter Sedgrave whose neglect also was bitterly complained of. He was followed by Thomas Jones who was granted a small yearly cash fee from the owners of every shop, house and market stall.

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