[5] The guild became wealthy as a result of extensive gifts received in the 14th and 15th centuries; an inventory shows that it held various items of gold, silver and gilt, as well as the sacred relics.

[7] As a result of the dissolution of the chantries and religious guilds, imposed by King Edward VI, the guildhall was confiscated by the Crown and passed to the Boston Corporation in 1555.

[6] In autumn 1607 a group of Puritans led by William Brewster, now known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were brought before the magistrates in the guildhall, accused of seeking to travel to Holland without the King's permission (which was required).

They were discharged by the magistrates and lived in Boston for several months before reaching Holland the following year by another route; they later sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower for the New World in 1620, settling in what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

[13] Works of art include a portrait, painted by Thomas Phillips, of Sir Joseph Banks, recorder of Boston in 1813, who sailed with Captain James Cook aboard the Endeavour on the first great voyage to discover Australia.