To my brother Ironmongers, “root and branch,” I dedicate this “brief history” of our ancient Guild. Notwithstanding the innumerable facts printed in the following pages, the work must only be considered as an historical essay upon the tenth of the twelve “great” Livery Companies of the City of London. A more elaborate compilation is in progress, and if my life is spared to complete it that work will contain the labour of love collections during the past quarter of a century of an extensive—I may say unique—assortment of manuscripts and other papers relating to the City, its Companies, and its Institutions, which will prove, I have every reason to believe, a most interesting and valuable civic record.

The present publication has taken place now for several reasons, some of which I may as well explain. Before J. P. Malcolm printed the interesting extracts from the Ironmongers’ records in the second volume of his “Londinium Redivivum,” 1803, very little was known by the general public about this ancient City Guild. He was followed by William Herbert, the Guildhall Librarian, in 1834-36, who published a “History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies,” with a most valuable introductory essay. Both of these works are now scarce. In 1851 John Nicholl, Esq, F.S.A., a Member of the Court of the Ironmongers’ Company, compiled his “Some Account” of the Guild, taken from their own records, and this choice volume he enlarged and printed in 1866. There were, however, only 150 copies circulated among the Livery and their friends, consequently this history is more scarce than those issued by Malcolm and Herbert.

When I was elected Yeomanry Warden at Easter, 1888, in commemoration of the fact that I was one of the Committee of the Spanish Armada Tercentenary (Plymouth and London) Commemoration, about which Armada I had published an essay in 1886, and that the Ironmongers’ Company had contributed towards the defence of the kingdom exactly three centuries previous; that the year 1889 was by a curious coincidence the 700th anniversary of the City Mayoralty; that several eminent Lord Mayors had been citizens and Ironmongers; that from my own personal knowledge a large percentage of the present members of the Yeomanry know very little of the history of their Guild, or about their ancient predecessors; and last, but not least, that the facilities afforded to me by the Editor of the well-known trade journal, The Ironmonger, for the publication in its columns during the past three months of this “brief history,” which has had a circulation not second to any other weekly throughout the world, prompted me to forward a long-cherished project of compiling for my brethren a short history, and thus commemorate their kindness for electing me their representative. The unexpected opportunity of holding a most enthusiastic meeting on St. Luke’s Day, 1888, at the London Tavern, opposite Ironmongers’ Hall (our Hall being temporarily closed), enabled me, as their Warden, to give to my brother Ironmongers the first historical discourse relating to the Company (see Chapter VI.), and it helped to comfort their disappointment in being unable to meet in their own Hall upon the anniversary of the day they had assembled therein for nearly three hundred years.

Then, again, there are some personal reasons worth mentioning. A citizen born, the great-grandson of an eighteenth-century engineer and ironfounder, the grandson of a ship-owner, newspaper proprietor, and possessor of the historical property in the district which he named King’s Cross, and where to this day several of the great “iron roads” of England meet, and the son of a publisher and bookseller of Fleet Street, whose memory and that of my birthplace I commemorated in 1869 in the “Memorials” of the neighbourhood—in which year, too, by another remarkable coincidence, I was honoured by being admitted a member of the Ironmongers’ Company without the payment of fees—an honour only conferred on those who perform their duty to their fellow-citizens.

When the then member for Cork City asked Parliament twenty years ago to seize the estates of the Companies in Ireland, I was fortunately enabled by my knowledge of the subject to assist in the defeat of this wild, revolutionary scheme of seizing property personally paid for by the ancestors of the citizens of London. It was the Hon. the Irish Society and the Companies who voted me their thanks, and it was my two ever-revered friends, John Nicholl, our historian, and S. Adams Beck, our then clerk (the father of our present zealous official)—the memory of whom will long remain dear, for their portraits hang side by side in our Court-room—it was their kind notice of my humble efforts, and their repeated good advice, which helped me to the honour I so highly valued, and led me to be ever watchful of our rights and privileges.

Thirty years ago my said dear friend John Nicholl was Master of the Company (he died in 1871), and this year his son is our Senior Warden, and (I trust) our next Master. We wish him every best wish, we heartily pray that the Almighty will bless us all, and that “the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, root and branch,” may be permitted to “flourish for ever.”

Dalston, London, March, 1889.

T. C. Noble,
Warden of the Yeomanry,
1888-1889.