THE MASONS
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.