  On August 14, 1880, the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the City Companies issued a circular addressed to all the Companies. This circular sought information on the various points as follows: Return A.—A statement of the date, ascertained or probable, of the foundation of the Company, and of the circumstances, so far as they can be discovered from its documents of foundation or archives, in which the Company had its origin. Return B.—A list of the charters, charters of inspeximus, and other instruments of a similar nature whether originals or copies, which have been at any time in the possession of the Company, together with an abstract of the purport of each, regard being specially had to any evidence which it may contain as to the object of the foundation of the Company. Return C.—A list of any trust deeds “founding, regulating, or affecting” the Company, with the date of each, the names of the parties thereto, and an abstract of the purport of each. Return D.—A list with dates of any “decrees of Court,” whether of the Courts of Common Law or of Chancery, or of any acts of the Courts of Aldermen or of Common Council, “regulating or affecting” the Company, with a statement of the effect of each decision. Return E.—A list of any other documents, not included in the descriptions in the preceding returns, which “found, regulate, or affect” the Company, with dates and an abstract of the effect of each. Return F.—A concise history of the Company from the time of its foundation to the present day, with special reference to the inquiry contained in the commission as to “the objects for which the Company was founded,” and “how far those objects are now being carried into effect.” Return G.—Has the Company a licence in mortmain? When was such licence granted (referring to the document by description)? What is its extent, and to what extent is it now unexhausted? Return H.—Is there vested in the Company and how, whether by charter, statute, order of the Court of Aldermen, act of Common Council, or otherwise, any right of exercising superintendence over or any duty or discretion to encourage in any way any and what art, trade, or business? State the nature and local limits of such control. In what manner and to what extent is such control now exercised? If such control is not now exercised, state the circumstances under which its exercise has fallen into desuetude. The returns of the twelve Great Companies have been published (1884) in a Blue Book. I had prepared at first to transcribe certain portions of these returns from each Company; but the information after all belongs to bodies which are private rather than public. One can understand that a Company may on the whole desire not to set forth all its sources of income, nor its methods of expenditure. The Company of Grocers indeed entered their protest against an inquiry by the Crown, “without the authority of Parliament, into what has been judicially declared to be private property,” as being “without precedent, arbitrary, and a breach of the liberties of the subject.” Moreover, the returns are so voluminous that even an abridgment of the figures would occupy far more space than it is possible to give. They may therefore remain in the Blue Book open for the examination of any person curious to read them, and competent to understand them. For the purpose of this work an epitome of the history of each Company, and of the privileges of a Liveryman will be quite sufficient. And for these I am indebted mainly to the Report of the Commission. The following is the chronological order in which the various Companies obtained their charters of Incorporation. It will be observed that the weavers claim to becoming a Corporate Body in 1154; that in the fourteenth century there are 6 Companies incorporated; in the fifteenth there are 19; in the sixteenth there are 15; in the seventeenth there are 37; and in the eighteenth, 2.
ORDER OF PRECEDENCEIn the year 1532, the Companies were placed at the Mayor’s Feast in the Guildhall in the following order:—
In Stow and Strype, 1755, there is a list of that date:—
(Stow, vol. ii. pp. 335-336.) If we compare the second list with that at the present time, we find that no new Companies have been formed, but that the following have disappeared from the list:—
Good service has been done to the history of City Gilds, Fraternities, and Associations by Hazlitt in his list of “Voluntary Associations which have disappeared.” The voluntary associations include, however, a great many which were gilds and even chartered companies, e.g. the Parish Clerks, incorporated as a Fraternity by Henry III., and as a Company by James I. I subjoin a mere list, referring the reader to Hazlitt for his historical notes.
In the body of the book are incorporated accounts of all those Companies which have Halls. These accounts are given as the Halls are met with in perambulation. Below there follows a complete list of all existing Companies, whether with or without Halls, page references being given to those already described.
This Company is interesting because it has no charter, but is a Fraternity “by Prescription,” as Maitland says. It is not one of those mentioned in Stow’s list as having been present at the Mayor’s Feast of the year 1532. And Strype, though he includes it among the Companies, gives no account of it. The association was recognised by the Mayor’s Court, 1569, and again in 1602-1603. It was also one of the Companies which subscribed to the Irish Estate in 1615. There is no Hall. The number of the Livery is limited to 30. The Company stated to the Commissioners that they have never been in possession of houses, lands, or other property. THE BLACKSMITHSThis craft, like that of the Basketmakers, is one of the earliest arts learned by man after the discovery of the metals. The Fraternity of the Blacksmiths must, therefore, have existed from the time when workmen first began to work together and to form associations. The trade is gregarious. It requires the collective labour of several to conduct the furnace, to beat and to mould the metal, to design, to shape the metal in the rough, to make the instruments, etc. As the Blacksmiths are not enumerated among the “adulterine” Gilds under Henry II., we may conclude that they were recognised as of long standing even then. In the year 1372 (Riley’s Memorials, p. 361) “the reputable men of the Trade” delivered to the mayor and aldermen their Articles. We learn from these that the places of sale or market for blacksmiths was Gracechurch Street, the Pavement by St. Nicholas Fleshambles (Newgate Street), or near the Tun upon Cornhill; that every Master should place his mark upon his work; and that no one was to be free of the trade till he could show that he was able to follow it. This Company is reputed to have been incorporated by prescription by King Edward III. in the year 1325. It was incorporated by charter, and united to the Spurriers by Queen Elizabeth in the year 1571, under which charter, confirmed by King Charles I. in the year 1639, power was given to make bye-laws; certain bye-laws so made were confirmed by the Lord Treasurer and by the Chief Justices of the King’s Bench, and the Common Pleas, December 1640, and under such charter and bye-laws the Company is now, as far as the usages of the present day permit, carried on. By the charter of King Charles I., “power to make reasonable laws and ordinances in writing for the good rule, governing, and correcting of the freemen of the said arts or mysteries within the City of London and four miles of the said City.” Maitland, writing in 1750, says: “They have a pleasant Hall in Lambeth Hill.” The Company has now no Hall; its Corporate Income is about £700; its Trust Income is £136; the number of its Livery is 98. The making of bows, like the use of the smithy, was so ancient that there must have been a Fraternity of Bowyers in very early times. They existed as a Company by prescription, and, which is strange, they received no charter of incorporation until the year 1620, when bows and arrows were quite superseded by firearms. Riley tells us that in the year 1871 (Memorials, p. 348) the Bowyers and the Fletchers (Makers of Arrows) entered into a friendly understanding that they would not meddle with the trade of each other, excepting four men named, who would not assent and stood out. These were brought before the mayor and explained that they had apprentices to both crafts; that they had orders in both kinds to execute; and that they asked for time, which was granted with a warning. If bows are useless without arrows they are equally so without strings. In the year 1416 (Riley, Memorials, p. 435) the “reputable men of the trade of Stringers,” i.e. Bowstring Makers, waited on the mayor; they represented the necessity of looking after the workmanship of bowstrings, and they prayed for leave to appoint Wardens of their own with power to inspect the trade, which was granted. By these examples we perceive that there were Companies which were recognised by the City, and continued working together with authority over the trade for centuries. It is not clear whether they had the right of holding property. But they could, and did, impose penalties and fines upon evildoers in their trade. The following is from the Royal Commission: The Company has a charter dated the 25th May 1621, which was confirmed by another dated the 17th November 1668. 1. The style of this Company is the Master, Wardens, and Society of the Mystery of Bowyers of the City of London. 2. James I. by his charter reciting that the Bowyers of the City of London using the art or mystery of making of long bows, were an ancient Fraternity in the City, but who had fallen into decay, and that the king being willing as much as in him did lie to restore the ancient and laudable exercise of archery with the long bow unto the end that the said Fraternity might with better encouragement practise their trade grants, that the Bowyers of London, and all and every person and persons then using or who shall thereafter use the mystery of making long bows in the City of London and liberties thereof, and being freemen of the said City, and then free of the said Fraternity, or hereafter to be made free, should be a body politic and corporate by the before-mentioned name or style. The charter grants that they shall be governed by one Master, two Wardens, and thirteen Assistants, and the first Master, Wardens, and ten of the first Assistants are thereby named and appointed the first Master and Wardens, to continue in office until the Thursday next after the feast of St. James the Apostle, 1622, and from thence until others should be elected pursuant to the charter; and the Assistants, during their natural lives, or until removed, and for the future election of these officers is granted that the Master, Wardens, and Assistants, or the greater part of them from time to time thereafter, upon Thursday next after the feast of St. James the Apostle, 1622, may nominate and choose one fit person of the Assistants to be Master and two to be Wardens, who are to execute their offices for two whole years thence next ensuing, and in case of death or removal otherwise to be chosen within fourteen days. The charter gives to the Wardens and Assistants power to elect a clerk and beadle to hold office during pleasure. The charter further declares that all freemen of the Company, and all persons of the Mystery within three miles of the City of London and the suburbs thereof, shall be contributory to the Company, and shall also pay a quarterage of 8d. per quarter or 2s. 8d. per year. This charter, or the enrolment thereof, was exemplified and confirmed by Charles II. The charter gives the power of making bye-laws to the Master, Wardens, and Assistants, or the greater part of them. The Bowyers are now a small Company with a Livery of 25; an Income of £550; property on Trust valued at £40 a year. It is interesting to note that so little was the decline in the use of the bow understood in the sixteenth century that in the year 1560 a fixed price was imposed on the bow, viz. of 6s. 8d. each for the best, 3s. 4d. for the second best, and for the inferior qualities 2s. The Company formerly had a Hall by “the corner of Monkswell Street,” according to Stow; but according to Strype it was upon St. Peter’s Hill, in the ward of Castle Baynard. After the Fire, he says, the Bowyers met in some public-house for the conduct of their affairs. The City Directory says their Hall formerly stood in Noble Street, and was destroyed in the Great Fire.
The first charter of the Broderers or Embroiderers was granted by Elizabeth in 1561. This was confirmed by James I., and the Company was re-incorporated by James II. in 1686. At one time during the reign of Charles I. the trade in embroidery was at so low an ebb that a “great part of the Company for want of employment are constrained to become porters, water-bearers, and the like.” The Company’s Hall was formerly in Gutter Lane.
THE CARDMAKERSThis Company was incorporated under Charles I., 1629, as the Master, Warden, and Commonalty of the Mystery of Makers of Playing-Cards of the City of London. It is governed by a Master, 2 Wardens, and 18 Assistants. The whole Income of the Company is £50; the number of the Livery is 100; there are no Trust monies or charitable endowments; and there is no Hall. The Carmen were made into a Fellowship by an Act of Common Council in 1665. They have no Hall.
The Company was incorporated by charter of King Charles I., dated August 22, 1631. This original charter is still possessed by the Company. By it all persons using the Art or Mystery of Clockmaking, freemen of London, or otherwise, within the City, its liberties or suburbs, or within ten miles thereof, are incorporated by the name of the Master, Wardens, and Fellowship of the Art or Mystery of Clockmaking of the City of London, with power to make bye-laws for the government of its own members and the regulation of the art, for the punishment of deceits and offences, to seek for, examine, and destroy faulty and deceitful work of clock- and watchmakers or mathematical instrument makers within the same limits. The Company has no Hall. The want of a Hall was constantly complained of from the beginning, but the omission was never repaired. The Livery consists of 71. Their property is about £930, with a Trust Income of about £172. The official history is as follows:— In consequence of the early records of the Company being destroyed by fire, the date of its foundation is not known, and from the existing documents in the Company’s possession its origin cannot be shown. By inspeximus charter of George III. it appears that King Edward IV., in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, granted unto his well-beloved subjects the honest and freemen of the Mystery of Cooks of the City of London, that they and all men of the same mystery should be in substance and name one body, and one commonalty perpetual, with power to make two Masters or Governors with the aid of two Wardens and Assistants to govern the affairs of the mystery, and to have a common seal, and to hold meetings, and to make laws and vary the same for the government of the mystery. By reference to the charter it will appear that power is given to the Masters or Governors to exercise superintendence and jurisdiction over every member of the mystery and the works of such; the local limits of the same are defined by the charter to be within the Cities of London and Westminster, their suburbs and liberties, and four miles’ compass thereof. Such control, owing to a late decision in a court of law, has fallen into abeyance. The Livery is now 69; the Corporate Income is £2380; the Trust Income is £180. There is now no Hall; their old Hall, which escaped the Great Fire “by the space of a few houses,” was burned down in 1711 and never rebuilt. It stood on the east side of Aldersgate Street, facing Little Britain. At that time there was a passage leading beneath the houses in Aldersgate Street to the Hall, which was “ancient
Incorporated by Charles I., 1638, for a Master, 3 Wardens, 19 Assistants, and 122 Liverymen. It is obvious that this is a comparatively modern Company. It has no Hall. The Livery numbers 55. There is no return of income by Whitaker. Hazlitt states that the Company possesses the freehold of a piece of land intended as a site for a Hall, together with certain accumulated funds. The Company refused to make any return to the Royal Commission. Incorporated by Queen Anne, 1709, for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 20 Assistants. The Fanmakers have neither Livery nor Hall. This Company, the youngest of all, is returned as having a Livery of about 120 members, with an Income of £150. The Farriers of London were erected into a mystery by the Court of Mayor and Aldermen in the year 1356. Among the City records is an entry made in this year (Libro G. Fol. XXX.), acknowledging the said Company or Fellowship by the name of the “Marshals of the City of London,” and giving them power to govern the said craft of Farriers. When we first hear of them thus, the mayor complains of them for “false work,” and appoints two Master Farriers with authority to oversee and govern the whole trade. They have therefore as yet no power of governing themselves, but are under the control of the mayor. The charter of the Company was granted by Charles II., January 17, 1684, investing the Company with power and jurisdiction for the well ordering and governing of the art and trade of the Brotherhood of Farriers, and all who use or should use the same, within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the liberties thereof, and within a radius of seven miles. Beyond the deeds and documents hereinbefore referred to, there are no trust deeds founding, regulating, or affecting the Company. Bye-laws, rules, orders, and ordinances were approved by the judges, January 29, 1676. Livery specially restored by Court of Aldermen, June 23, 1692. Regulated by Act of Common Council, December 12, 1758. In the Great Fire of 1666 most of the books and papers of the Company were destroyed. The object for which the Company was founded was rigorously exercised until very recent years, but latterly, owing to the alterations in the habits of society and the increase of population, the Company have not deemed it expedient to enforce their rights, although at the same time they have not abandoned any part of their controlling power. The Livery now numbers 101; the Corporate Income is £240; there is no Trust Income. THE FELT MAKERSIncorporated by James I. in 1604 for a Master, 4 Wardens, and 25 Assistants, with a Livery of 60. The Company was a branch of the Haberdashers. They were a separate association long before they received a charter. As a Company they have always been one of the least important. The Livery numbers 65. The Corporate Income “varies,” and the Trust Income is £126. There is no Hall. Incorporated by James II. in 1687. There is no history of the Company so far as I know. They were the Free Fishermen of the Thames. They had neither Hall nor a Livery. I suppose that the rights of the Thames Conservancy were such that the Fishermen had none left for them. In other words, their trade was regulated by the City authorities, which ordered times and seasons, the size of the nets, etc., while the Fishmongers Company regulated the sale of the fish. The reckless destruction of the young fry, for instance, the pulling up of weirs, and the use of narrow nets were practices denounced by the City on many occasions. In the ordinances of 1528 concerning the Thames fishery there is no mention of any Company or Fraternity of Fishermen. In 1698, eleven years after the Company was incorporated, an Act of Parliament ordered that these bye-laws should be submitted to the mayor and aldermen, that the water bailiff of the City should retain the power of granting licences for fishing in the river, and that he should have the right of being one of the Wardens of the Company. And in the year 1741, when other ordinances were made for the protection of the fishery, no mention is made of the Company at all.
The Fraternity of Fletchers or Arrowmakers (Fr. flÈche) must be of antiquity equal to that of the Bowyers, because bows and arrows are of little use without each other. The Company can show no charter or any early document. It is probable that the Company was founded in the fifteenth century, inasmuch as the grant of arms which is in its possession is dated in the seventh year of Edward IV. None of the circumstances connected with the foundation of the Company are known. It was founded by prescription and not by grant. In the year 1371 the Bowyers and the Fletchers came to an understanding that they would refrain from interfering with each other, that the Bowyers shall make bows and the Fletchers arrows. In 1403 the ordinance of the Fletchers was proclaimed in the name of the mayor and aldermen. This ordinance gave the Masters of the trade authority to oversee the trade and make search for bad work. Previously to the reign of Henry VII. it obtained a Livery, and in that reign obtained a crest to its then ancient coat-of-arms. In point of precedence it is the 39th Company of the City. No charter can now be discovered, and the ancient books of the Company are supposed to have been destroyed by fire. The oldest entry in connection with the cash accounts of the Company now in its possession is dated January 25, 1775; in connection with its proceedings, January 26, 1767; admission of freemen, February 6, 1732: all these accounts have since been regularly continued up to the present time. Numerous entries of very ancient dates respecting this Company are to be seen in the journals and repertories of the Corporation of London. They principally relate to differences between this Company and the Bowyers, returns of the number of the Livery, and the employment of foreigners. The Company has not a common seal. The Wardens and Court of Assistants are the ruling body, and they fill up their vacancies as they occur. The Company is now very small. There are only 16 in the Livery; their Corporate Income is no
The Framework-knitters made stockings of silk or other work in “a frame or engine.” They were therefore a modern craft incorporated first by a charter of Cromwell in 1657, and afterwards by Charles II., 1673, after about a hundred years of work at their trade without incorporation. The Company was to consist of a Master, 2 Wardens, 18 Assistants, and 82 Liverymen. The Company has no document in its possession which states this. The charter under which the Company is now constituted is dated August 19, 1663, and is the only charter or instrument of that nature which is now or has for the past fifty years been in the possession of the Company. At present the number of the Livery is 100; their Corporate Income is £310; their Trust Income is £130; they have no Hall. Their former Hall, which stood in Red Cross Street, was sold to the Corporation. The date of the foundation of the Company or Society of the Fruiterers is uncertain, but they were incorporated by charter, granted by King James I. in the third year of his reign “for the better order, government, and rule of them,” by the name of “Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of the Mystery of Fruiterers of London,” with perpetual succession and power “to purchase, have, receive, and enjoy manors, messuages, lands, tenements, liberties, privileges, jurisdictions, franchises, and other hereditaments” “to them and their successors in fee and perpetuity,” or for years or otherwise; “and also all manner of goods, chattels, and things whatsoever,” with power to grant, let, alien, assign, etc., and to sue and be sued, and to have a common seal. And that there should be a Master, and 2 Wardens, and 5 or more of the said Company, not exceeding 20, to be called the Assistants of the said Company, with power to make bye-laws for the good rule and government of the said Corporation. Bye-laws were afterwards made, and they were allowed by the Lord Keeper and Chief Justices in 1759. These bye-laws relate chiefly to the constitution of the Court of the Company. There are also regulations (long since obsolete) affecting the trade, and some rules as to apprentices. The present number of the Livery is 90; their Income is stated to be £90 a year; and they have no Hall. Strype, 1720, vol. i. bk. iii. p. 13, asserts that the Fruiterers had a Hall in premises rebuilt on the site of Worcester House; the Fruiterers Company, however, agree with Hatton, 1709, and Maitland, 1756, in stating that the Company had no Hall after the Fire. This little Company is chiefly known by their custom of presenting the Lord Mayor, on October 7 every year, with an offering of English fruit. The custom is said to have arisen in memory of the commutation of an old civic right to a toll on all fruit brought into the City. The Company also came forward some years ago in giving lectures on the culture of fruit. Incorporated by James I., 1606, for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 18 Assistants. There is no return of property; the Livery now consists of 44 members. They have no Hall. The gardens of London There are other references in Riley to gardens. There was one called the King’s Garden, near the Hermitage in London Wall. And in 1276 there is the case of a man who fell from a pear-tree in the garden of one Lawrence, in the parish of St. Michael, Paternoster Royal, then, as now, the most crowded part of the City. There is also given the lease of a “garden situate in Tower Ward, near London Wall.” Since there was an open space all along the wall in which houses were not allowed to be built, this space was without doubt mainly devoted to gardens, just as the north bank of the ditch became afterwards a row of what we should now call allotments, cultivated for vegetables and fruit.
Another little Company incorporated by Charles II., 1664, for a Master, 2 Wardens, 24 Assistants, and 44 Liverymen. The present number of Liverymen is 38; their Corporate Income is nil; and their Trust Income, the interest on a sum of £800. Founded by Royal Charter of King Charles I., 1631, dated November 6, after stating that the ancient Fraternity of the Mystery or Art of Glaziers, London, had theretofore made many good orders for the regulating themselves and their trade which had from time to time been improved and enlarged in the reigns of several princes, but that they were not sufficiently incorporated: The said charter incorporated the then present freemen of that trade within the City of London and five miles compassing the same, into one body corporate or politic by the name of the Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery or Art of Glaziers and Painters of Glass, with power to make rules and orders for the good government of their society, and to impose punishment by fine, or otherwise, upon offenders. The foregoing charter appears to have been surrendered in the first year of the reign of King James II., and thereupon a new charter was issued for the same purpose. The present Livery numbers 60; its Corporate Income is about £260; its Trust Income is £46. The Hall was situated before the Great Fire in Maiden Lane, then Kerion Lane. There is no difficulty in locating the site on the south side, next to the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Vintry, upon what is now in part the roadway of Queen Street. No. 11 Maiden Lane stands upon land once adjoining, if not actually part of, the old Hall site. The Glaziers did not rebuild their Hall after 1666, but met Incorporated by Charles I. in 1639 for a Master, 4 Wardens, and 30 Assistants, with a Livery of 130. The Company refused to give any return to the Royal Commission. The present Livery numbers 75. Hazlitt says that in 1881 the Income of the Company was derived from a small sum of £3800 in the stocks and the fines and fees of the freemen and the Livery. The Glovers presented their ordinances to the mayor and aldermen in 1349. It seems somewhat strange that a craft of such great importance as that of glove-making should have been always one of the poorest Companies in the City. The art or trade of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers is one of antiquity and importance. It appears that in the reign of James I., in consequence of a patent granted by the King, the Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers of that day attempted to bring over from France artizans to work the trade. The Goldsmiths, however, rose in arms, declaring the King was not doing what was conducive to the best interests of the kingdom, and the Lord Mayor and aldermen were called upon to act in the matter, and in the end the King withdrew the patent, and the trade continued undisturbed. The charter under which the Company now exists was granted by 5 William and Mary, 1693, for the better regulation, encouragement, and improvement of the said trade, and grants that the freemen of the trade, art, and mystery of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, and all others exercising, or who should thereafter exercise the trade, art, or mystery of drawing and flatting of gold and silver wyre, and making and spinning of gold and silver thread and stuff within the Cities of London and Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and all other places within three miles distant from the same, should be from thenceforth a body politic and corporate by the before-mentioned style. The governing body consists at present of a Master, 4 Wardens, and not more than 26 Assistants. Their Livery now numbers 143; their Corporate Income is £62; their Trust Income is £2. There is no Hall. The Gunmakers Company was founded in 1637. The circumstances under which the Company had its origin may be gathered from the preamble of the Company’s charter, which recites “That divers blacksmiths and others inexpert in the art of gun-making had taken upon them to make, try, and prove guns after their unskilful way, whereby the trade was not only much damnified, but much harm and danger through such unskilfulness had happened to His Majesty’s subjects,” and for the reformation of which evils the charter of incorporation was applied for and granted. As for and concerning said art, trade, and mystery of gun-making, and the well ordering and government thereof within the said City, and within four miles thereof. Also for the punishment of abuses in manufacture of guns or any other wrong or abuse. It recites that great deceits and abuses were frequently practised and committed by divers inexpert persons using the art and mystery of gun-making within the City of London and liberties and ten miles thereof who for the most part made the said guns slightly and deceitfully to the great endangering and prejudice of His Majesty’s subjects, and that hand-guns, dags, and pistols, and parts thereof unartificially and deceitfully made and wrought in foreign and other parts, and imported into said City of London and places adjacent and were then altered and sold to the danger of His Majesty’s subjects. To prevent such dangers and abuses the Master, Wardens, and Society should have power. To search, view, gauge, proof, trial, and marking of all manner of hand-guns whatsoever great and small dags and pistols, and all and every part and parcel of them as well those made in London, or the suburbs, or within ten miles thereof. And all such others as should from foreign parts, or otherwise, be brought thither to be sold for military service or other employment in any of His Majesty’s dominions or foreign parts. Such proof or trial to be with good and sufficient gun-powder and weight of bullet of lead sizeable to every several gun according to the bore and otherwise as therein mentioned. All persons using, making, or selling guns, dags, pistols, barrels, locks, or other parts thereof at their own costs to bring same to the common Hall or other meet place of said Society to be duly viewed, tried, stamped, and marked before the same be sold and delivered. All such guns to be brought within ten days after making and finishing thereof, and imported guns within ten days from the arrival thereof within London or ten miles thereof. The said Society and their successors to have stamps with the letters GP crowned to mark therewith all hand-guns, dags, and pistols, or parts thereof, when viewed and proved, and break up and destroy all improperly made. And no persons to counterfeit such stamps. That no persons exercise the art of gun-making but those who have served seven years’ apprenticeship to said art, and presented their proof-piece to said Master and Wardens, and approved by them. The Livery now consists of 28; their Corporate Income from all sources is £2400; they have no Trust Income; their Hall is at 46 Commercial Road (outside the City). The Company had the right to examine all guns made in London and within a ten miles’ radius. In the Proof House at Whitechapel the Company still carries on the work for which it was created.
This is one of the oldest of the Fraternities, for it is mentioned in the reign of King Henry III., 1268, when the King granted an annual fair to Charlton, in Kent, for three days, at the eve, the day, and morrow of the Trinity. The time for holding this fair was afterwards changed to St. Luke’s Day (October 18). Philpot, who wrote in 1659, speaks of this fair as kept yearly on that day, and called “horn fair” by reason of the great “plenty of all sorts of winding horns and cups and other vessels of horn there bought and sold.” In the reign of King Edward III. the horners of the City of London were classed among the forty-eight mysteries of the City. In the 50th year of that king’s reign a controversy arose between the King and the Corporation as to whether the Common Council of the City was to be elected by the wards or the mysteries of the City. This led to an ordinance being made by the City, with the consent of the King, that the election was to be by the mysteries, pursuant to which ordinance forty-eight mysteries deputed members to the Common Council; the horners, ranking in the third class or smaller mysteries, were deputed to send two members. By statute 4 Edward IV. c. 8, it was enacted that from the feast of Easter in the year 1466 no stranger (i.e. not a freeman of the Company) not alien should buy any English horns unwrought of any The Company obtained from King Charles I. a charter of incorporation dated the 12th January 1638. In the year 1604 the Company obtained a lease of a storehouse and sheds in Wentworth Street, Whitechapel, for 1000 years from Christmas 1604 at the yearly rent of £4, in which they carried on the trade. This property was sold for £2400 to the Metropolitan Board of Works for the purposes of the Artizans’ Dwellings Act. The control given by the charter of Charles I. to the Horners Company over the trade has never been actually abandoned, but it has ceased to be exercised. In the year 1836 the Company petitioned the Court of Aldermen for a Livery, which was granted to them on the 1st of December of that year, the number of Liverymen being limited to 60. At present the Livery numbers 48. Their Corporate Income is £89. They have no Hall. Incorporated by Elizabeth in 1569 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 24 Assistants, with a Livery of 323. The work for which the Fraternity existed was a branch of carpentry. They made cabinets and carved work, doors, window-frames, and other kinds of work which required special skill and training. The subdivisions of carpentry were naturally difficult to arrange. An agreement was made between the Carpenters and the Joiners, by which the latter were allowed to take over bedsteads, chairs, stools, cabinets, picture-frames, windows, doors, pews, pulpits, and all sorts of work. The overlapping of trades once, if not more than once, caused a riot. It was in the year 1327. On one side were the saddlers, and on the other side the joiners, loriners, and painters. They met in Chepe, and in the street of Cripplegate “strongly provided with an armed force, and manfully began to fight,” so that many were killed or mortally wounded, and the whole City was in alarm. The Livery is now 102; the Corporate Income is £1300; there is no Trust Income. Stow describes the Joiners’ Hall as one of several “fair houses” standing in Frier Lane. The Hall itself, but not the entrance into it from Joiners’ Hall Buildings, was in Dowgate Ward. It was destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt. The post-Fire building is described as a large edifice of brick, with four noble windows in elegant frames, covered with pediments, and supported by consoles. The great Hall was all wainscotted, and was very remarkable for a magnificent and curious screen at its lower end. Upon this screen were “demi-savages and other enrichments, well carved in right wainscot.” It is said to have cost £130. The parlour was wainscotted with cedar, “with more curious artifice and embellishments.” The ceiling was fretted with wainscot work. The great Hall was destroyed by a fire in 1694, but the parlour, though slightly damaged, was saved by the energy of the clerk, Mr. Burroughs, who brought engines to play upon it from a window. It had already been occupied as a dwelling and
Incorporated by Queen Anne, 1712, for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 24 Assistants, with a Livery of 69. It has now a Livery of 420, with a Corporate Income of £1200. It has no Trust Income, and no Hall. Formerly the Hall was at the north end of Basinghall Street. The Livery is the largest of all the Companies, the reason being the admission of members who merely wish to belong to a City Company for social purposes. The Loriners’ work was the making of spurs, stirrups, horses’ bits, etc. Their ordinances were passed and approved in 1245. They were then a Gild or Association, and as such continued till their incorporation under Queen Anne. This Company was incorporated in 1628. At present it has a Livery of 100, with a Corporate Income of £50; no Trust Income, and no Hall. Nearly the whole of the records of the Worshipful Company of Masons prior to the year 1666 appear to have been destroyed when the Hall of the Company was burned in the Fire of London. The only documents in existence of an earlier date are the grant of arms, dated the 12th Edward IV., by which Clarencieux granted to the Craft and Fellowship of Masons a coat-of-arms, which is the same as now used by the Company, and a volume of accounts, the earliest of which is dated 1620, being the accounts of the “Master and Wardens of the Company of Free Masons within the City of London.” In the heading of the accounts the Company is so styled until the year 1655-56, from which date to the present time the accounts are headed as the accounts of “The Master and Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Masons of the City of London.” The earliest charter now in their possession is the 29th Charles II., A.D. 1677, granted on a petition by the Master, Wardens, and Assistants of the Company of Masons in London, but there is nothing to show whether or not any earlier charter had been granted to them. The number of the Livery is now 48; the Corporate Income is £550; there is no Trust Income. They had a Hall in Basinghall Street, which no longer exists. In the year 1356 (Riley, Memorials, p. 280) ordinances were passed for the regulation of the trade of masons. The ordinances show that there had been dissension between the branches of “hewers” and “light masons and settlers.” The late date of the charter does not mean that the Fraternity began their existence at that date. They already had a Livery and a Gild; they returned members to the Common Council in 1376, and they were probably even at that date an ancient body. Instituted by charter granted on April 24, 9th Edward IV. (1473), and reconstituted by James I., 1604, for a Master, 2 Wardens, 20 Assistants, and 31 members. The present number of members is 50; the Corporate Income is £400; there is no Trust Income; there is no Hall. Incorporated by Cromwell in 1656 for a Master, 2 Wardens, 18 Assistants, and 48 Liverymen. The number of the Livery is now 66; their Corporate Income is £230; they have no Hall. Charles II. set aside Cromwell’s charter and gave one of his own. This also is one of the humbler Companies. Their charter is set out at length by Maitland. I do not know why, nor can I find in it any special clauses which should explain this selection. Incorporated by Charles II., 1670, for a Master, 2 Wardens, 22 Assistants, and 46 Liverymen. The Livery at present consists of 40; its Corporate Income is £50; its Trust Income is £13. It has no Hall. One of the smallest of the City Companies. The Pattenmakers are a branch of the Pouchmakers, who (Riley, Memorials, p. 554) petitioned the mayor and aldermen for powers to look after the trade of making galoches, i.e. pattens, as a thing invented or introduced by themselves. This power was duly granted to the pouchmakers. Very shortly after the Pattenmakers appear as a separate Fraternity. Probably the trade assumed large proportions. The protection of the feet from the mud, garbage, and filth, then lying about the streets, caused a great demand for the new kind of shoe. The quarter where the pattenmakers lived is marked, according to Stow, by the name of St. Margaret Pattens Church. There is no record of incorporation of this Company. Pavements are mentioned “within Newgate,” “hard by St. Nicholas Fleshameles,” “before the Friars Minors”—all apparently meaning the same place. The earliest record the Company possesses is a small book, dated 1597, called “The Booke of Stattutes of the Pavioures which is used soundryes Tymes.” The kind of pavement consisted probably of the round cobble-stones, afterwards used everywhere. Freestone pavements were ordered after the Fire of London, but the order was not obeyed. The Company has no Hall. The Company possesses no Livery, though a considerable number of freemen.
Incorporated by Charles I. in 1636. They had a Master, 2 Wardens, and 18 Assistants, but no Livery. The Pinners, before this incorporation, were united first with the Wire Makers, and then with the Girdlers. They had a Hall in St. Mary-at-Hill, whence they moved to Old Broad Street. Their Hall was for a long time a Nonconformist chapel. It was taken down in 1787. The Company no longer exists. They had also a Hall in Addle Street, which they sold to the Plaisterers before the time of Stow. By charter of 16 Henry VII., March 10, 1501, the King gave power to establish the Company as the Guild or Fraternity in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of men of the Mystery or Art of Pargettors The charter of Elizabeth, February 10, 1597, confirmed the privileges of the Company, and extended the authority of the Masters and Wardens to and over all persons exercising the Art of Plaisterers, as well English as aliens and denizens inhabiting and exercising the said art within the City and suburbs and liberties thereof, or within two miles of the said City. The charter of 19 Charles II., June 19, 1679, confirmed the privileges granted by the previous charters, and having in view the rebuilding of the City, forbade any person to carry on simultaneously the trades of a mason, bricklayer, or plaisterer, and also forbade any person to exercise or carry on the Art of a Plaisterer without having been apprenticed seven years to the mystery. And the jurisdiction of the Company was extended to three miles’ distance from the City. The present Livery consists of 52; they have a Corporate Income of £1062; a Trust Income of £33. In Stow’s time they had a Hall in Addle Street. This was burnt down in the Great Fire, rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, and again burnt in 1882. Riley gives an agreement (Memorials, p. 125), dated 1317, between one Adam a Plastrer and Sir John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond. The Fraternity probably existed at the same time. The Company had existence as a body from a very early period, as shown by ordinances passed in the reign of King Edward III. 1365. These ordinances may be found in Riley’s Memorials, p. 321. The earliest charter of the Company was that of King James I. in 1611, and it is believed to be the only charter in existence. The Company is incorporated as the “Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of the Freemen of the Mystery of Plumbing of the City of London,” for the better ordering, rule, and government of the men of the mystery and Company aforesaid, and of all those who then exercised and used or thereafter should exercise and use the art and mystery of plumbing, or the materials, works, merchandises, or things whatsoever to the said mystery relating, and for the utility, advantage, and relief of the good and honest, and for the terror and correction of the evil, deceitful, and dishonest. And also that they might have, make, and exercise the superior scrutiny, correction, and government of all and singular the freemen of the mystery, as also all other persons using or exercising the art or mystery in the limits aforesaid, and of their servants and apprentices. And also the supervision, scrutiny, correction, reformation, emendation, government, the assaye, touch, and the trial of all and singular workings, works, weights, beams and scales, lead, solder, materials, wares, matters, merchandises, and of all things whatsoever touching or concerning the aforesaid mystery in the limits aforesaid. And also to seize, take, and place in safe custody such materials, etc., aforesaid from time to time so found deceptive, false, insufficient, unapproved, and unlawful, there to remain until it should be determined thereof according to the laws of the realm of England. And further also that it should not be lawful for any person or persons of the art and mystery, or any other person or persons whomsoever using or who might use the art and mystery, to make work or expose for sale any solder or leaden weights within the limits aforesaid or within three miles thereof, unless the same be first proved and tried by the Master and Wardens whether they are good, sufficient, true, and lawful according to the laws of the realm and the customs of the City or not. And upon such trial to impress or mark with the impression, image, or sign of St. Michael the Archangel upon the same before their use or employ. The present Livery consists of 40. The Company has a Corporate Income of £880; a Trust Income of £20. The ancient market of the Poulters was around the place still called the Poultry (see p. 11); they also sold poultry in the stocks market in Gracechurch Street and in Newgate Street. Riley’s Memorials contain many regulations and ordinances for the sale of poultry. One remarks that the ordinances of the City in one respect, and in one only, were observed with the greatest care: those, namely, relating to the sale of food. The Poulters Company existed by prescription as early as 1345. It was, however, incorporated by Royal Charter in the nineteenth year of Henry VII., on February 23, 1504. The charter was renewed by Queen Elizabeth, February 22, in the thirtieth year of her reign, confirmed by Charles II., on June 13, in the sixth year of his reign, and also by James II. subsequently, but these charters, like those of many of the Companies, were destroyed in the Fire of London in 1666. The charter under which the Company now acts was granted by William and Mary, May 6, 1692. In the year 1763 the charter was supplemented by an Act of the Corporation of London and by another Act of the Corporation in 1820. The charter gives power to the Company to inspect the poultry brought to market, but that power has long since been suspended by the Acts of the Legislature. Their present Livery is 126; their Corporate Income is £1020; their Trust Income is £430; they have no Hall. The Company now known as the Scriveners Company had existed from a very early period as the Fraternity or Mystery of the Scriveners or Writers of the Court Letter of the City of London, and was “time out of mind” a society or Company by prescription. The Company has no document showing the probable date of the foundation of this society, but their records extend back to 47 Edward III., being the year 1374. The Company cannot say what were the exact circumstances in which it had its origin, but presumes that the Scriveners of London formed themselves into a society for the purpose of more effectually protecting their own interests and those of the occupation or craft which they carried on. In the year 1373 (Riley, Memorials, p. 372) the “Court Hand writers and scriveners obtained their Ordinances.” These were chiefly directed against “foreigners.” It was incorporated by James I. in 1616 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 24 Assistants, with a Livery of 53. At the time of the Great Fire of London all the archives of the Company were burnt except the ancient book called their common paper, and which book is still extant. Their present Livery is 50. Their Trust Income is £10. Their Corporate Income is about £440. They have no Hall. Formerly they had a Hall in Noble Street which they sold to the Coachmakers. The Scriveners’ work was much like that of solicitors of the present day. They made wills, drew up conveyances and other legal documents. They also wrote letters both of a business and a private nature. Some of them became financiers and bankers. In fact, the step from drawing up legal documents to advising on affairs of all kinds was easy and natural. The precise year of the foundation of the Company is unknown, but it is mentioned in 1428 in the City records, from which it appears that it existed as a Fraternity, having a trade guild or mystery and a religious guild in connection with it, with a presumption in favour of its having existed by prescription for some time before that period. In a parchment book belonging to the Company there are ordinances of the religious society, the earliest of which is dated in 1456. Additions were made thereto in 1483, beginning, “In Dei nomine, Amen. It is not unknown to all the brethren and sisters of the fraternitie of Saint Symon and Jude hath been holden in London by the crafte of shipwrights of tyme out of minde,” etc. After which follow various ordinances relating to the taking of apprentices, and other matters, and more especially enjoining its members “to viewe and serche that the brethren of that fraternitie doe use in their said trades good and seasonable timber, and doe their worke workmanlike as appertaineth.” The Company was incorporated by James I. in 1605 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 36 Assistants. In 1613 commenced a dispute between the Company and the foreign shipwrights who carried on their craft on the opposite side of the river, at Redrithe or Rotherhithe. The foreign shipwrights (so-called from being outside the liberties of the City) had, in the previous year, obtained a charter of incorporation, acting upon which they sought to exact fines from and impose duties upon the free shipwrights, at that time working hard by at Ratcliffe, having previously been compelled to leave the crowded part of the City by reason of the noise occasioned by exercising their trade and from fear of fire. The free shipwrights resented this treatment, and presented their case before the Court of Aldermen. The City upheld the free shipwrights, and in 1620 their ordinances were approved by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen. In 1631, from continued opposition, their funds were reduced so low that they were allowed to make twelve persons free of the City by redemption; and this number was from time to time increased. In 1638 another attempt was made to free themselves from their rivals by representing their case before the King in Council, which resulted in their being granted by the King exemption from the jurisdiction of the new Corporation. This order is dated Whitehall, March 17, 1638. In 1670 attacks were again renewed on the free shipwrights by the new Corporation, and, their cases having been laid before the High Court of Admiralty by Charles II., the Attorney-General, on March 18, 1684-85, decided in favour of the Company, which decision was approved by the King. In 1782 a Livery was granted to the Company by the Court of Aldermen, the number being limited to 100 and the fine to 15 guineas; in 1830 the number was increased to 200 and the fine to 20 guineas. Their members now number 200. Their Corporate Income is £830. They have now no Hall. The Company had formerly a Hall at Ratcliffe Cross, in Butcher Street, but it has long since disappeared.
Incorporated by Charles I., 1629, for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 15 Assistants. The Company is numerically very strong, the Livery numbering 356. They have a Corporate Income of £1100, and a Trust Income of £45. They have no Hall. THE TIN-PLATE WORKERSThis Company was incorporated by Charles II. in 1670 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 20 Assistants. At present it has 80 members. There are no particulars as to the Corporate Income, but there is a Trust Income of £7:7s. The history of the Company is obscure. Hazlitt thinks that it was a branch of the Girdlers, that it was originally the Wire Workers, and that it may also have been associated with the Wire Sellers and the Wire Drawers. It has no Hall. Incorporated by James I. in 1604 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 24 Assistants, with a Livery of 144. At present there is a Livery of 193; a Corporate Income of £700; but no Hall. The principal work of the Turners originally was to make wooden measures. It was therefore important that these measures should be true. In 1310 (Riley, Memorials, p. 78) six turners were sworn before the mayor and aldermen, that they would in future make no other measures than gallons, potells (pottles, then a measure of two quarts), and quarts, and that they would not make false measures such as “chopyns” (chopines) and “gylles” (gills). In 1347 (Riley, Memorials, p. 234) some turners were brought before the mayor and aldermen, charged with making false measures. Our earliest introduction, therefore, to the Fraternity of Turners is not much to their credit. It is, however, greatly to their credit that they now hold annual exhibitions of turnery work in the City with prizes for its encouragement. This Company was incorporated by Elizabeth in 1568 for a Master, 2 Wardens, 38 Assistants, and 103 Liverymen. At present there is a Livery of 73; a Corporate Income of £610; a Trust Income of £170; but no Hall. The Tylers were an ancient Fraternity dating from the time when tiles were first employed instead of thatch for roofing houses. As bricks were not used in English architecture before the end of the fifteenth century, there could have been no bricklayers. The connection of the men who put on the roof with the men who built the house was natural. This Company was incorporated by Charles I. in 1627 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 28 Assistants, with a Livery of 131 members. At present the Livery consists of 20 members; they have a Corporate Income of £284; a Trust Income of £20; but no Hall. The Fripperers, Philipers, or Upholders were the buyers and sellers of second-hand clothes, fur robes, furniture, and other things. There seems to have been a large trade of this kind, chiefly in the parish of St. Michael’s, Cornhill. This is certainly the oldest Gild of which we have historical information. The weavers included under one Fraternity, at first, all the trades which belong to the manufacture and use of textile stuffs. The history of the Gild is briefly but clearly told by Loftie in his History of London. “The weavers, again, by their superior wealth, and their superior organisation, were constantly exciting the envy, not only of other trades but also of the city guild itself. They had taken care to obtain “It was perhaps in consequence of this verdict that the old corporation of the weavers resolved itself or was divided by a higher power into its constituent elements, and we henceforth hear of the drapers, tailors, and others, but no more of the weavers till long after. There is, however, absolute silence on the subject in the works of London historians. The phenomena are altogether peculiar, and but few facts can be picked out as tolerably certain. The weavers touched on one side the trade in linen, on the other that in wool. The woollen drapers were naturally very much divided in their interests from the linen-armourers, and the tailors who constructed garments, as well from the vegetable as from the animal production, were distinct from those who wove the cloth. We find, therefore, not only great dissension at times among the weavers, but a strong tendency to establish separate interests. The drapers, under their Latin designation of panarii, very soon divided themselves from the tailors, cissores; and, though there is no evidence of their separate existence before 1299, when the tailors’ records commence, it is very probable that from time to time they both rebelled against the tyranny of the weavers. Certain it is, that this powerful guild, which had subsisted through all changes and chances from the time of Henry I. at least, now suddenly and unaccountably disappears; while from its ashes rise the tailors—to whom long after, in the reign of Henry VII. the title of ‘Merchant Taylors’ was conceded—the clothworkers, at first ‘shermen’ and fullers, and the drapers, all of which preserve, more or less dimly, a tradition of their previous united state of existence” (vol. i. pp. 168, 170). Was the old Gild of Weavers, that licensed by Henry I. and Henry II., entirely dissolved in consequence of the many branches which broke off from the parent trunk? It would appear that since the Craft of the Weavers was one thing and that of the Drapers was another, the Gild of the Weavers would still remain, in which case, though we cannot say that the Company is the most ancient, it would be quite true that the Company is descended from the most ancient Fraternity known. It has now a Livery of 106; a Corporate Income of £1067; and a Trust Income of £1087. It formerly had a Hall in Basinghall Street. This was destroyed in the Great Fire, and, though subsequently rebuilt, was pulled down in 1856, when offices were built on the site. The Company was founded by a charter granted by King Charles II., February 3, 1670, in compliance with a petition presented by divers wheelwrights, in and near the City of London, praying that, as “certain foreigners undertake the profession and trade of a wheelwright, notwithstanding they are ignorant and unskilful therein, and altogether incapable of making the works used in and about the said city, whereby much mischief happeneth to persons in the streets, by falling of carts and coaches, and great damage to merchants and others in their goods, as also loss and danger to gentlemen occasioned by the ignorance and ill work of the said foreigners, that never served to the said profession, and other great inconveniences and misdemeanours used and practised in the said art and trade,” they might, for the prevention thereof, be incorporated into a body politic. At present they have a Livery of 120; a Corporate Income of £300; no Trust Income, and no Hall. THE WOOLMENThe date of the foundation of the Company was probably about 1300. By the 27 Edward III. c. 23, the Company had the right of appointing licencemen to wind wools. The Company possesses a book of ordinances allowed and confirmed to the Company of Woolmen of the City of London by the Lord Chancellor of England and the two chief justices of either bench in the year 1587. Sixteen of the ordinances regulate the election of the governing body and the clerk, etc. The Company also possesses an order of the Court of Aldermen for granting a Livery to the Woolmen’s Company, and in the report made by the Committee of Privileges and subsequently approved and confirmed by the said court. The Company has existed under various names, such as Woolpackers, Woolwinders, and Woolmen; it was designated by all these titles in a proclamation of Charles II., but for the last three hundred years it has been known chiefly by the style of the Company of Woolmen. The right of the Company to appoint and license duly qualified persons, having previously examined them, to wind wools has long ceased to exist; the last person licensed was in the year 1779. By proclamations in the reign of Charles II., woolcombers were obliged to be licensed by the Company. The Master of the Woolmen’s Company has the right to nominate to the Court of Assistants of the Merchant Taylors Company two poor members of the Company as pensioners under Vernon’s Charity. The Company lost its charter and most of its documents in the Fire of London, when the Company’s Hall was burnt down. Their members number 20. Their Corporate Income is £376; they have no Trust Income, and no Hall. Considering that the staple trade of England for many centuries was that of wool, there can be little doubt of the extreme antiquity of this Company. |
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