London City

by Walter Besant

THE SALTERS COMPANY

The first evidence of the existence of the Company is a Patent Roll of 17 Richard II., 1394; but from documents in their possession, there is every reason to believe that the Company had a much earlier existence.

In 1454 Thomas Beamond, citizen and salter (at one time sheriff in London), left to the wardens of the brotherhood and guild of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church of All Saints, Bread Street, London, and their successors for ever, land in Bread Street, whereon had recently been erected the “Salters’ Hall,” together with other property, out of the rents and profits of which he directed that the hall should be repaired or rebuilt as occasion might require. This will also gave directions for certain religious observances, and for the support of poor Salters in almshouses, etc.

At some time subsequently to 1454 an attempt was made to prove that the religious guild and the Company of Salters were distinct corporations, and that Mr. Beamond intended to bequeath the property mentioned in his will to the spiritual body exclusively, but the legal decision was that the religious guild and the Salters Company were identical.

In the reign of Edward IV., 1465, ordinances were made for the good government of the “Company of Salters”; and in a suit presented by Lord Arundel against the Company (about the same time) it was proved that the Company of Salters and the guild or fraternity mentioned in the Patent Roll of Richard II. were identical corporations.

1507.—Ordinances were confirmed by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Treasurer, and the two Lord Chief Justices, to the wardens and fellowship of the mystery and craft of Salters in the City of London, and keepers of the fraternity of Corpus Christi in the Church of Allhallows, Bread Street.

1530.—Arms were granted to the Company by Thomas Benolt, Clarencieux. This deed of grant is in the Company’s possession.

1539.—The hall in Bread Street was burnt down, and rebuilt by the Company.

1551.—In consideration of a large payment made by them King Edward VI. reconveyed to the Company of Salters the whole of the annual payments issuing out of their property in respect of superstitious uses, which had been held forfeited to the Crown at the time of the abolition of chantries in the reign of Henry VIII. (1545).

1559.—First charter of incorporation granted by Queen Elizabeth to the “Keepers or Wardens and Commonalty of the art or mystery of Salters, London.” About the same time some new ordinances were drawn up and doubtless sanctioned by the proper authorities, which make provision for the government of the guild, and prescribe oaths for its various members and officers; and also conferred the right of search in the premises of persons using the art or mystery of Salters in the City of London and suburbs thereof, for unwholesome merchandise and false weights and measures.

1607-1609.—Acts of Parliament passed in the reign of James I., confirming to the Company all their property.

In these years a fresh charter and statutes were granted by the King.

1613 to 1619.—The Company’s Irish estate was acquired by payment to the Crown of the sum of £5000 (being the twelfth part of £60,000 raised by the twelve chief companies) with the object of planting an English and Scotch Protestant colony there.

1641.—Oxford House (with gardens), which formerly stood on the present site of the Company’s hall and offices, was purchased with corporate funds of the Company, and used as their hall: this was the third, that left by Mr. Beamond (1454) having been destroyed by fire and rebuilt about 1539.

1666.—The whole of the Company’s estate in London and the greater part of their archives were destroyed by the “great fire,” whereby heavy losses were entailed on them.

1684, 1685.—King James II. granted the Company another charter, but the whole of these proceedings were rendered void by an Act passed in the following reign, William and Mary, under which the Salters Company, amongst others, were restored to their ancient rights, privileges, and franchises.

1821, 1827.—The hall of the Company, erected after the Fire in 1666, was taken down, and the existing building was erected, being the fifth hall of the Company.

The application of salt to the preservation of food, and particularly of fish for consumption in winter, must have given rise to a distinct trade for that purpose in the earliest times; and, as civilization advanced, the term “Salter” no doubt became more extended in its commercial interpretation, until it included, as in the present day, all persons trading wholly or partially in salt, such as oilmen, drysalters, and druggists.

Salt manufacturers and merchants, oilmen, druggists, and grocers (who made salt one of their trading commodities) have been and are largely represented on the guild.

The number of liverymen is given as 183; the Corporate Income is £20,000; the Trust Income is £2000.

The only advantage incident to the position of a freeman is a claim for relief, if in pecuniary distress.

Liverymen are entitled to vote at the election for the office of renter warden, of assistant, of master and of wardens; and, if free of the City of London, for candidates for the office of Lord Mayor, and for some officers of the corporation; also, if free of the City, and resident within a radius of twenty-five miles, for members of Parliament for the said City. All liverymen not in receipt of pecuniary assistance are invited to entertainments of the Company, and have a claim for relief should they fall into misfortune.

The present Salters’ Hall and garden, with some adjoining land, occupies the site of the “fair and large built house” which Sir Robert Aguylum devised in 1285-86 to the priors of Tortington in Sussex for their town inn or mansion. The Dissolution brought it to the Crown, and Henry VIII., in 1540, gave it to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. Then it became known as Oxford Place or House. Mary probably restored it; at all events Elizabeth regranted it in 1573 to the Earldom of Oxford, then held by Edward, grandson of John de Vere above named. The new tenant apparently resided here in good style. Stow quaintly tells of his pomp. “He hath been noted within these forty years to have ridden into this City, and so to his house by London Stone, with 80 gentlemen in a livery of Reading tawny, and chains of gold about their necks, before him, and one hundred tall yeomen in the like livery to follow him, without chains but all having his cognisance of the blue boat embroidered on their left shoulder.” He appears not to have remained here long, for Sir Ambrose Nicholas, salter, kept his mayoralty here in 1575, and Sir John Hart dwelt here as Lord Mayor in 1589. Hart bought the place from the Earl, who was then dissipating his great estates from motives of pique and indignation against his father-in-law, Cecil, Lord Burleigh.

Drawn by Thos. H. Shepherd.
SALTERS’ HALL, 1822

The house was sold to the feofees of the Salters Company in 1641. The Great Fire of 1666 probably destroyed only a part of the great house (Wilkinson in Londina Illustrata goes too far in maintaining that the building wholly escaped, but is probably nearer right than those who say it was quite destroyed), statements to the contrary notwithstanding, for, at the request of the Bishop of London, the parishioners of St. Swithin’s assembled in the long parlour for worship whilst their church was building, and several of the companies held their courts here until their halls had risen from the ashes. The destroyed portion, perhaps indeed the whole, and the wall of the great garden, and some adjoining houses, were rebuilt about this time by the Company and their tenants. The history of the Salters’ Hall has already been told.

In 1687 a congregation of “protestant dissenters” took from the Company, on moderate terms, a lease of certain ground on which part of Oxford House had stood before the Fire. Here they built their meeting-house, where Mr. Mayo preached until his death in 1695, drawing, by his eloquence, congregations so large that it is said even the windows were crowded when he preached. William Long, writer for Matthew Henry’s Commentary, was minister in 1702. In 1716 he and Mr. John Newman, popular with the congregation, became co-pastors. In 1719 the general body of dissenting ministers met here to discuss means for stopping the spread of Arianism. “You that are against subscribing to a declaration as a test of orthodoxy, come upstairs,” cried the Arians and the private-judgment men of a stormy synod. “And you that are for declaring your faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, stay below,” replied Mr. Bradbury of New Court. A count showed fifty-seven to have gone up, and fifty-three to have remained down, giving the “scandalous majority” of four. Arianism meanwhile had become the coffee-house topic of the town. In March 1726 Long died, and Newman became sole pastor till his death in 1741. In the reign of William III., Robert Bragge started a “Lord’s Day evening lecture,” popular for many years, but afterwards removed by the originator to his meeting-house in Lime Street. The celebrated Thomas Bradbury shortly afterwards revived it at Salters’ Hall Chapel, and for more than twenty years delivered it to crowded audiences. Samuel Baker continued it on Bradbury’s resignation in 1725. Presbyterians of some eminence followed him, as Dr. William Prior, Dr. Abraham Rees, Dr. Philip Furneaux, and Hugh Farmer (1761), the writer of an exposition on demonology and miracles, which aroused sharp controversy. When the Salters determined to rebuild their hall, they gave the congregation notice to quit by Lady Day 1821. Whereupon the congregation acquired premises in Oxford Court, upon the site of which they erected a handsome new meeting-house completed in 1822. But the glory of the place as a dissenting centre was departing, and the Presbyterians abandoned it. Then came some erratic fanatics who called themselves “The Christian Evidence Society,” and their meeting-house was “Areopagus.” Their leader went bankrupt and the experiment collapsed. In 1827 the Baptists reopened the place, and remained there for some years, but, shortly before 1870, removed to Islington, where to this day the “Salters’ Hall” Chapel in the Baxter Road preserves the memory of the struggles, quarrels, and triumphs of the old City meeting-house. In Tom Brown’s Laconics (1709) is this allusion: “A man that keeps steady to one party, though he happens to be in the wrong, is still an honest man. He that goes to a Cathedral in the morning, and Salters’ Hall in the afternoon, is a rascal by his own confession.”

In Hudibras Redivivus (1706) this is found:

I thumb’d o’er many factious Reams,

Of canting Lies, and Poets’ Dreams,

All stuffed as full of Low-Church Manners,

As e’er was Salters’ Hall with Sinners.

On the south side of St. Swithin’s Lane is Founders’ Hall. The hall is on the first floor, and there are shops below. The building is of stone with pilasters running up the front, and the coat-of-arms is over the door, which has a very projecting cornice. The hall was rebuilt 1877. On the north side of Salters’ Hall is New Court showing through behind a covered entry. The opposite side of St. Swithin’s Lane seems to contain the offices of an absolutely unlimited number of companies. The court, opening out of it, consists of uninteresting earth brick houses shut in by an iron gate. The City Carlton Club is in Nos. 28 and 29. It is a Conservative Club, with fifteen-guinea entrance fee, and eight-guinea subscription. The building is of stone with a porch over the door. There are bay windows with polished granite columns. Richard Roberts was the architect.