THE FRUITERERS
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.