Help!

[Ryohei56]

Hi. I was wondering if someone could kindly get me started with deciphering a piece of text. This comes from the Minute Book of a trade guild, circa 1600, and is part of a larger section that I'm working on. I believe it contains some "stock" phrases, which recur elsewhere, and which might help me develop a key alphabet.

Thanks in advance

Alan Stewart

[horselydown86]

ITem yat no man tak anie oyir [mais] calland to wirk

to him quhill ye first wirkar and brothir be payit of

ye laubor(es) wro^t be him under siclik payne


yat = that

oyir = other

quhill = while

ye = the

wro^t = wrought

siclik = possibly suchlike

Not sure about mais.  It seems to have a contraction mark above.  Contextually men or more would fit.

Someone with better knowledge of Scotland may be able to shed more light.

[goldie61]

siclik(e) - indeed, 'similar', 'of the same kind' HD.
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/results/siclike

'Calland' means a 'customer' or a 'youth'
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/calland

Perhaps 'mais' is an abbreviation for 'mailes' - ie 'males?
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/male_adj

As you can see Ryohe, this is a great site for all those particularly Scottish words.

[horselydown86]

Interesting, thanks goldie.

Perhaps a male youth is an apprentice - who is unpaid apart from clothing and board.

So it could be saying; don't lay off your paid adult workers to put on apprentices in their place?

[Ryohei56]

Thank you, that's very helpful indeed.

Looking at the literal transcript, I think it might be saying "Let no man take any other youth to work for him until the first worker and brother has been paid for the work done by him under suchlike pain (penalty?). Not sure that makes total sense, but I'll try fitting it into the context of the page once I get to work on that. At least now I have a better insight into the lettering style being used here.

Again, many thsnks

[horselydown86]

Yes, the payne is a penalty.

Presumably, siclik payne means the same penalty as mentioned in a previous article.