The Minor Companies
The Apothecaries have a charming little hall in Blackfriars, and have for centuries waged war against unsound medicines and ignorant quacks. They would not allow anyone to "use or exercise any drugs, simples, or compounds, or any kynde or sorte of poticarie wares, but such as shall be pure and perfyt good." Their good work continues. The Armourers' and Braziers' Company performed useful duties in the days when the lives of knights and warriors depended on the good and true work of the makers of armour. They have an interesting modern hall containing a good collection of their wares. The Bakers' Company is an ancient corporation, and received its charter in 1307. The Barbers, or Barber Surgeons, were incorporated in 1461, but they existed at least a century earlier. They combined the skill of "healing wounds, blows, and other infirmities, as in letting of blood and drawing teeth," with that of shaving, and no one was allowed to perform these duties unless he were a member of the company. In their hall they have the well-known picture of King Henry VIII. granting a charter to Barber Surgeons in 1512, but more probably it represents the union of the Barbers' Company with the Guild of Surgeons in 1540. The Blacksmiths have a long history, dating back to their incorporation by Edward III. in 1325. They combined the trade of makers of ironwork with that of Dentists and Clockmakers, and were by Queen Elizabeth united with the Spurriers, or makers of spurs. The motto of the Bowyers' Company, "Creçy, Poictiers, Agincourt," tells of the prowess of our English archers when archery was the national pastime of Englishmen, as well as their support in war. Other allied crafts were connected with the bowyers' art, including the Stringers, or long-bow string makers, and the Fletchers, who made the arrows. The guild of the latter still exists, and forms one of our minor companies. The Brewers were in existence in 1418, and were incorporated by Henry VI. The Broderers, or makers of embroidery, flourished in the fourteenth century, and with them were united the Tapissers, or tapestry makers; their artistic skill was remarkable, and the funeral palls, still in the possession of the Merchant Taylors, the Vintners, and Fishmongers, are evidences of their excellent workmanship.
The Carpenters' Company ranks high among its fellows, and has a very interesting history. Its first charter was granted by Edward IV. in 1477, but it existed years before, as Chaucer witnesses—
"An Haberdasher and a Carpenter,
A Webbe, a Deyer and a Tapiser,
Were alle y clothed in a livere
Of a solempne and grete fraternitie."
In the days of half-timbered houses their skill was in great request, and they had a large and flourishing guild, which failed not to take part in all the pageants, processions, and "ridings in the Chepe," and in all the State functions of the city. They have a noble modern hall, but one rather regrets the disappearance in 1876 of the old mansion house of the Carpenters, which survived the Great Fire and recalled many memories of the past. In order to "seek for and destroy faulty and deceitful work of clock and watchmakers or mathematical instrument makers," the Clockmakers' Company was formed in 1631. Some of the members wanted a hall, and objected to meet "in alehouses and taverns to the great disparagement of them all"; but this dream has not been realised, and the company use the halls of other guilds. The Coach and Coach-Harness makers have a hall in Noble Street, noteworthy as being the place where the Gordon riots were organized. The company was formed in 1677, and performed useful functions in examining defective wheels and axle-trees and in the construction of coaches. The Cooks, formerly known as pastelers or piebakers, are a very ancient fraternity, but most of their documents were destroyed in the Great Fire. An inspeximus charter of George III., however, informs us that it was incorporated by Edward IV., but their history has been uneventful. The Coopers can date back their existence to the reign of Edward II., but were not incorporated until 1501, one of their duties being to pray for the health of King Henry VII. and his Royal consort Elizabeth while they lived, and for their souls when they shall have "migrated from this light." The wardens had power to gauge all casks in the city of London, and to mark such barrels when gauged. Brewers were not allowed to use vessels which did not bear the Coopers' marks. They have a hall, and a very interesting history, upon which we should like to dwell if space permitted.
The Cordwainers, or Allutarii, regulated the trades connected with the leather industry, and included the flaying, tanning, and currying of hides, and the making and sale of shoes, boots, goloshes, and other articles of leather. The Curriers have a hall, and at one time were associated with the Cordwainers. Their documents were burnt in the Great Fire, but their records are complete since that date. Their ranks were greatly thinned at the close of the sixteenth century, as we gather from the record, "the journeymen free of the company are altogether dead of the late plague." The Cutlers date back to the time of Edward III., and their trade embraced all manner of swords, daggers, rapiers, hangers, wood-knives, pen-knives, razors, surgeons' instruments, skeynes, hilts, pommels, battle-axes, halberds, and many other weapons. They have a modern hall in Warwick Lane, their former home having been destroyed by the erection of the Cannon Street railway station.
The Distillers' Company was founded by Sir Theodore de Mayerne, Court physician to Charles I., for the regulation of the trade of distillers and vinegar makers, and of those engaged in the preparation of artificial and strong waters, and of making beeregar and alegar. The Dyers have an ancient and honourable company, which once ranked among the first twelve. Theirs was a very flourishing industry in mediæval and later times, when the coloured liveries of guilds and the brilliant hues of the garments of both male and female city-folk testified to the extent of the Dyers' industry. A charter was granted to them by Edward IV., and they have taken their share in the great events of civic and national history. They, with the Vintners, have the right to keep a "game of swans" on the Thames. The Dyers' mark was formerly four bars and one nick; now it has been simplified, and one nick denotes the ownership of the swan by the company.
The Fanmakers obtained a charter from good Queen Anne, their company being the youngest of all the guilds. They encourage the production of a female weapon, which is often used with much effect in the warfare of courtly fashion and intrigue. The Farriers were incorporated by the Merry Monarch, in order to prevent unexpert and unskilful persons destroying horses by bad shoeing, and have extended their good work to the present day by devising an admirable system of examination and national registration of shoeing smiths. The trade is naturally an ancient one, and a guild existed as early as 1356, and we read of one Walter de Brun, farrier, in the Strand, in the time of Edward I., who had a forge in the parish of St. Clement on the peculiar tenure of paying to the King six horse-shoes.
The Feltmakers, incorporated by James I., regulated the manufacture of felt hats. Of the Fletchers, or arrow makers, whose motto is "True and sure" we have already written. The Founders extended their jurisdiction over the manufacture of candlesticks, buckles, spurs, stirrups, straps, lavers, pots, ewers and basins made of brass, latten, or pewter, and have an interesting history. They had a guild in 1472, when they began their career with "twenty-four poor, honest men." Their ancient ordinances contain directions about masses, burials, and almsgiving, the carrying of wares to fairs, hawking them, and the governing of apprentices. Their young men caused much difficulty. They loved riots and sport, and one of the ordinances of 1608 prohibited the playing of bowls, betting at cards, dice, table and shovel-board. One of the principal duties of the company was the approving and signing of all brass weights within the city, which were ordered to be brought to Founders' Hall and there "sized and made lawful according to our standard of England," and then marked with the common mark of the mystery, "being the form of a ewer," the company taking the ancient allowance for sizing. This was a very important public trust, which the Founders continue to discharge.
The Framework Knitters' Company owes its existence to an ingenious curate, one William Lee, of Calverton, who invented the stocking-loom in 1589. We should like, if space permitted, to dwell on his romantic story, but in this brief sketch it is impossible. The company of Framework Knitters sprang into being in the time of Charles II., and was then extremely prosperous, indulging in expensive pomp and pageantries. A gilded barge, a large band of musicians, a master's carriage, attendants resplendent in gold-lace liveries, and banners emblazoned with their arms, were some of the luxuries in which they indulged. But their glory waned and their trade passed from London to the Midlands, and little of their ancient state remains.
The Fruiterers have an active little company incorporated by James I., and still do useful work in promoting the cultivation of home-grown fruit by cottagers and small holders of land. The Girdlers' Company is an ancient fraternity, once styled the "Zonars," and formerly had the regulation of the manufacture of girdles of silk or wool, or linen and garters. Though the use of girdles has died out more than two centuries, the company remains, and has a charming hall and some valuable property. It owed its origin to a lay brotherhood of the Order of St. Laurence, the members of which maintained themselves by the making of girdles, and the guild was in existence in the days of Edward III., who addressed them as "Les ceincturiers de notre Citée de Loundres."
The Glass-sellers have a charter granted by Charles II. to his "well-beloved subjects the glass-sellers and looking-glass makers, which authorised them to search in all places where glasses, looking-glasses, hour-glasses and stone pots, or bottles, shall be made, showed, or put to sale." The ordinances are very severe on apprentices, who, if guilty of haunting taverns, alehouses, bowling alleys, or other misdemeanour, were brought to the hall and stripped and whipped by persons appointed for that purpose. Another company connected with the same substance, the Glaziers, has little history, and we pass on to the Glovers, who existed in 1349, and have had an honourable career. Gloves have played such a notable part in our national life, that it would be a pleasant task to record their history, but we must confine ourselves to their makers. These had many allies and were united with the Pursers, and later on with the Leather-sellers. In 1638 they recovered their independence, and their charter states that 400 families were engaged in the trade, and were impoverished by the confluence of persons of the same art, a disordered multitude, working in chambers and corners, and making naughty and deceitful gloves. Queen Victoria confirmed the charter of the Glovers, whose corporation was the only guild so honoured during her late Majesty's long reign.
The Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers have an ancient guild incorporated by James I., though existing in 1461. They were concerned in fashioning the gold and silver embroidered finery of our forefathers, who loved to make themselves, their pages, and their horse-gear resplendent with gold and silver. The Gunmakers perform the useful work of protecting our countrymen from the dangers of defective guns, and their company was incorporated by Charles I., on the ground that divers blacksmiths and others inexpert in the art of gunmaking had taken upon them to make, try, and prove guns after their unskilful way, whereby the trade was not only damnified, but much harm and danger through such unskilfulness had happened to his Majesty's subjects. They had the power of destroying all false hand-guns, dogs, and pistols—to stamp all sound goods with the letters G P crowned. This good work is still carried on by the company. The Horners, in the days of horn cups and winding horns, were a prosperous community, and their company existed in the days of Edward III., exercising the right of search at the fairs of "Stirbridge and Elie," their fortunes declining when glass vessels were used instead of the old horn cups. The Innholders remind us of the old-time inns of London, which Mr. Philip Norman in these volumes so well describes. At one time they were styled hostelers or herbergeours, and objected to the former title, inasmuch as their servants were really called hostillers, the hostlers or ostlers of modern time. St. Julian was their patron saint, for he made a hospital or inn by a river where men passed oft in great peril. Very curious regulations were ordained for their government, and no one was allowed to remain at an inn more than one day and a night unless the innholder was willing to answer for him. They have a hall, which has been newly erected, and some good portraits.
In no work was the amazing subdivision of labour so marked as in that which related to wood. Carpenters, joiners, sawyers, and planers had each their own separate work and organization. The joiners' work was concerned with cupboards, bedsteads, tables and chairs, and "rayles, sealinge boards, wainscott, chappboards and bedd timber" were their raw materials. Their company was in existence in 1309, and they have a hall in the Vintry. The Leather-sellers have an active and flourishing guild, which is first mentioned in 1372, when their probi homines or bonz gentz petitioned for some regulations for the prevention of the sale of fraudulent leather. By the charter of James I. they have the full oversight of "skins and felts called buff leather, shamoy leather, Spanish leather, and that of stags, bucks, calves, sheep, lambs, kids frized or grained, dressed in oil, allum, shoemack, or bark or rawed." All proper leather was stamped with the arms of the company. They have a fine modern hall, and can show a good record of useful work.
The ancient Loriner made bits, spurs, and all the smaller trinkets of a horse's harness, and the guild dates back to the days of Henry III., but its history is uneventful. The Masons have few records. By their charter of Elizabeth they had power to view stones intended for building—as to whether these were of proper length and measure, and well and sufficiently wrought. The Musicians have recently celebrated their tercentenary, commemorating the granting of their charter by James I. in 1604. They might have claimed a longer period of existence, as their first charter was granted by Edward IV. Their bye-laws are particularly interesting, and give minute directions with regard to their profession. They tested the skill of music and dancing masters, forbade the singing of ribald, wanton, or lascivious songs, or the playing of any instrument under any knight or gentleman's window without the company's licence. The Needlemakers existed in the time of Henry VIII., but have little history. The Painters' or Painter-stainers' Company suggests many reflections on their art and skill, and its history would require many pages. Their guild existed in the time of Edward III., and received its first charter from Edward IV. Their bye-laws order that if any member be found rebel or contrariwise to the wardens he shall pay one pound of wax for certain altar-lights. No tin-foil might be used, but only oil colours. They derive their name Painter-stainers from the custom of calling a picture a "stained cloth." The principal artists in England were members of the guild, and in their hall are numerous examples of the work of its members. The Pattenmakers' Company suggests a picture of the condition of the streets of London in mediæval times, when garbage and refuse were thrown into them, when drains and watercourses were things unknown, and pattens were invented as a useful foot-gear, and clogs and goloshes were sorely needed. The company appears on the scene in the fifteenth century, and the name of the city church of St. Margaret Pattens, Rood Lane, points out that locality as the seat of the industry. The Pewterers, a company of "friendly and neighbouring men," existed in 1348, and did much to make English pewter famous and highly esteemed in other lands. They visited markets and fairs throughout England, and seized and condemned base pewter ware, brass goods, and false scales. They furnished men with arms for the defence of the city, and kept in their hall corselets, calyvers, bill pikes, and other weapons, and paid an armourer to keep them in good order. Their history, written by Mr. Charles Welch in two large volumes, abounds in interesting facts, and we can only here refer our readers to those records.
The Plaisterers, formerly known as Pargetters, were skilful in contriving curious elaborate and beautiful ceilings, which form such an attractive feature in many old houses. They were incorporated by a charter of Henry VII. The Playing-card Makers' Company was founded in 1628, with the object of counteracting the deceits and abuses practised by the inexpert in the art and trade of making playing-cards, and by the importation of foreign cards into this country. It has no records and little history. The Plumbers' Company stands high in public estimation, and has been in existence several centuries, though not incorporated until 1611, when a charter was granted for "the utility, advantage, and relief of the good and honest, and for the terror and correction of the evil, deceitful, and dishonest." Their modern efforts to initiate a national registration and training of plumbers are worthy of the highest praise.
Every citizen knows the Poultry in the city—the locality where the Poulters anciently carried on their trade, selling "rabbits, fowls, and other poultry." The trade was not without its dangers. Unsound poultry doomed the seller to the pillory, the articles being burnt under him—a peculiarly disagreeable penalty. The company existed in 1345, but was not incorporated until 1504, and its history has been uneventful. The Saddlers' Company is a very honourable and wealthy corporation, and possesses records of unusual importance, dating back to Saxon times. The early colony of saddlers settled near the church of St. Martin-le-Grand, and they have never strayed far from there, their present hall being in Foster Lane. They can boast of having received many charters, the earliest having been granted by Edward I. In early days they were associated with a collegiate brotherhood, the house of which was situated where the General Post Office now stands. This religious fraternity offered masses for the souls of deceased saddlers, and shared with them a common graveyard. They disputed much with the joiners, painters, and loriners, who were always trying to trespass upon the rights of the saddlers. The introduction of coaches alarmed them as much as the invention of railways frightened the coachmen, but with less cause. The saddle trade prospered. The Civil War caused many saddles to be made and many emptied. Their records tell of much old-time civic life and customs. They had a barge on the river; they buried their deceased members with much ceremony, and their old hearse-cloth still remains; they can boast of having a Royal master, Frederick Prince of Wales, in 1751.
The Scriveners formerly discharged many of the duties now performed by solicitors, such as making wills, drawing up charters, deeds relating to lands, tenements, and inheritances, and other documents. They were known as the "Scriveners, or writers of the Court Letter of the city of London." Their earliest set of ordinances was granted to them in the time of Adam de Bury, mayor, in the 38th year of Edward III., a document couched in old law French. They complained bitterly against certain chaplains and other men out of divers countries who called themselves Scriveners, and took upon themselves to make testaments, charters, and other things belonging to the mystery, to the great damage and slander of all honest and true scriveners. Their apprentices caused them trouble, because they had not their "perfect congruity of grammar, which is the thing most necessary and expedient to every person exercising the science and faculty of the mystery." Every apprentice found deficient was ordered to be sent to a grammar school until "he be erudite in the books of genders, declensions, preterites and supines, equivox and sinonimes." Their first charter was granted in 1617. John Milton, the father of the poet, was a member of the company.
The Shipwrights have had a corporate life of four centuries, originally known as the Brethren and Sisters of the Fraternity of SS. Simon and Jude, and were established on the river side at Southwark or Bermondsey. The use of "good and seasonable timber" in the building of ships was enjoined by their ordinances. Their well-stored yards of timber were, however, considered dangerous to the city, and the constant noise of hammering offended the ears of the citizens; hence the shipwrights migrated to Radcliffe, and they had much trouble with a colony of "foreigners," who dared to set up their yards at Rotherhithe, and actually obtained a charter from King James. A long and bitter struggle for supremacy ensued, and was not settled until 1684. The art of shipbuilding has been revolutionized by the advent of steam and the use of iron; the Thames side is no longer the great centre of the industry, and the importance of the company has waned, though it still exercises some useful functions.
The Spectacle-makers' Company has no great history, though their first charter dates back to the time of Charles I. Its membership is large, including many illustrious names, and no less than twenty lord mayors. It does much good in modern times by improving the skill of opticians. The Stationers have a noteworthy history, which has been graphically told by Mr. C. R. Rivington, and celebrated their five-hundredth birthday four years ago. For an account of their powers, privileges, and the story of their copyright register, I must refer the curious reader to Mr. Rivington's book, or to my larger history of The City Companies of London and their Good Works.
The Tallow Chandlers can boast of great antiquity, and possess several charters and documents of much interest, and also the Tin-plate Workers, alias Wire Workers' Company. The Tylers and Bricklayers formed a fraternity in 1356, and have received charters from Queen Elizabeth and subsequent monarchs, which contain no remarkable provisions. The Turners or "Wood-potters" showed their skill in mediæval times in the manufacture of household furniture, and their fellowship was recognised in 1310. They received a charter from James I., and in modern times have shown much activity, and have enrolled many distinguished men in their rank of Freemen. The Upholder is really an upholster, or upholsterer, who now supplies furniture, beds, and such-like goods. His company was founded in 1460, and received a grant of arms from Edward IV. Cornhill was the original home of the upholder, or fripperer, as he was sometimes called, and he used to deal in old clothes, old beds, old armour, old combs, and his shop must have been a combination of old curiosity shop and a store-dealer's warehouse. Later on, he concentrated his attention on furniture; his status improved, and his guild became an important association, though never very wealthy or remarkable.
The Wax Chandlers lived in palmy days, when they furnished the great halls of the nobles with the produce of their skill, and innumerable lights burned before every altar in our churches. Their guild existed in 1371, and was qualified to make "torches, cierges, prikits, great candles, or any other manner of wax chandlery." They still possess a hall in Gresham Street and Gutter Lane. The Weavers claim to possess the oldest company of all the city guilds. It certainly existed in the time of Henry I., and they have a charter of Henry II. which is signed by St. Thomas of Canterbury, and no less than eleven others. In the palmy days of the cloth industry they were very prosperous, but unfortunately few records of their former greatness remain. The Wheelwrights' Company suggests the fascinating study of the introduction of coaches and cars, upon which we cannot now embark, nor listen to the wails of the Thames watermen, who complained against new-fangled ways. This guild received a charter from Charles II., and did good service in protecting the lives of his Majesty's subjects from "the falling of carts and coaches through the ignorance and ill-work" of foreign craftsmen. Last, but not least, on the list stands the Woolmen's Company, founded in 1300, when the trade in wool was at its zenith. It has borne several names, and was identical with the guild of the wool-packers or wool-winders. Wool-combers were also licensed by the company. A noted member of this ancient fraternity was Sir John Crosby, the founder of Crosby Hall, "Grocer and Woolman," alderman of the city in the reign of Edward IV., whose noble house London has at length declined to spare.