Burellers

   A Fraternity in Candelwykestrete in 1345 (Ct. H.W.I. 484).

   "Burel" is defined in the N.E.D. as a coarse kind of cloth, probably originally brown in colour. It seems to be derived from the French word "bureau," a term still in use in France for this kind of cloth, formerly extensively manufactured in Normandy.

   In the Liber de Antiquis Legibus the "burels" of Normandy are mentioned as being exempt from certain regulations made here as to the length and breadth of cloths (p. 125), although the exemption does not seem always to have been extended to the "burels" manufactured in London (Madox Hist. of the Exc. I. 509).

   The Burellers or Burillers were the makers of "burel," this coarse kind of cloth, and they seem also to have prepared yarn for the use of the weavers, although the two trades were quite distinct (Lib. Cust. 420, 789-90).

   In the 9th Ed. III. the Weavers made complaint against the Burellers of Candelwykstrete for exercising their craft without being members of the Weaver's Guild, and an inquiry was held into the matter, with the result that the Mayor and Aldermen and others finding that the Guild of Weavers was trying to monopolise the craft of weaving cloth in the City, ordained that all freemen of the City might set up their looms and weave and sell cloth at their pleasure (Cal. L. Book E. p. 296-8).