The Incorporation of Hammermen of Edinburgh

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Early minutes of the trade

The earliest manuscript volume possessed by the Hammermen is one containing the Kirkmaster’s Accounts covering the years 1494 to 1585. It is the oldest such record of any incorporated trade in Scotland as far as the Craft is aware and is of the primary importance in the study of pre-Reformation Edinburgh.

Over a number of years, the minute books of the Craft have been transcribed from the hand written minute books into electronic form, but are still in the dialect of the day. The origional minute books are held by the City Archivist and can be viewed with the approval of the Craft.

Scholars may apply to the Craft for access to the digital transcripts of the minute books via the Boxmaster. The Contact / About Us page provides details of the email addresses. The first series of links below provide six page samples of the minute book transcriptions. In the second set of links, encrypted and protected PDFs of the complete archive are available. Also, for approved users, who have provided appropriate assurances on the use of the data and have acknowledged ownership of the documents by the craft, passwords can be given to Microsoft Word versions of single documents in the archive.