London City

by Walter Besant

THE SKINNERS COMPANY

It is probable that, like other traders who came to London in early times, men following the trade of Skinners were assigned some separate locality in the town and associated together for the purposes of a guild.

In course of time, as the guild grew in importance, the Skinners seem to have absorbed or affiliated unto themselves two other trades, the Upholders and the Tawyers.

It is clear that as long ago as the reign of Henry VI. the guild included among its members other than those who exercised the trades of Skinner, Tawyer, and Upholder, for in one of the Company’s books, dated 25th July, 23 Henry VI., there is a list of names of the brethren and sistren of the guild at that time. They amount to twenty in all, and include one doctor, three gentlemen, nine of no trade or description, two butchers, one dyer, one joiner, one skinner, one grocer, as brethren, and one sister as silkwife.

The Company has a copy of the charter of Henry VI., but none of that of Philip and Mary. They are Inspeximus charters, as also is that of 22nd March, 2 Elizabeth.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth differences arose between the working “artesans” of the guild and the rest of the fraternity, especially the governing body, which continued for many years and culminated in a surreptitious application in 1606 by the Artisan Skinners for new Letters Patent from the Crown without the consent or privity of the master and wardens of the guild, and in December 1606 (4 James I.) a charter was issued. Full inquiry was made. The Lord Mayor and aldermen made their report to the lords of the Privy Council, who thereupon ordered (March 22, 1606) that the privy seal that had been procured by the Artisan Skinners for this new charter appertaining to the Company of Skinners should be cancelled.

The charters and title deeds of the Skinners Company were surrendered in 1625 like those of the other City Companies, but in 1641 their privileges were restored.

After the restoration of King Charles II. the Skinners Company obtained the charter dated 20th June, 19 Charles II. It grants nothing new, but merely confirms to the master and wardens of the guild or fraternity all they had under any of their previous charters.

Passing to 1744, the Artisan Skinners appear to have thought that if they could only be more fully represented on the governing body of the Company, their trade grievances would be redressed, and they accordingly, in October 1744, presented a remonstrance to the Court.

The result of this was that in three months the master and three wardens were served with a copy of a rule for a mandamus commanding them to choose a number of Artisan Skinners to be wardens and assistants. The governing body, in reply, set out the whole of the proceedings of 1606, but the mandamus was ultimately issued and a return made to the writ. At the hearing, counsel for the prosecutors, the artisans, informed the Court of King’s Bench that he had perused the return and could not find any fault with it, and accordingly the judges ordered the return of the master and wardens to be affirmed.

In December 1747 similar hostile proceedings were renewed, and led finally to an information for a false return being filed against the master and wardens in June 1748. The cause came on for trial at the King’s Bench bar on the 24th April following, and the jurors, without going out of court, brought in a verdict of not guilty.

The number of liverymen is 200; the Corporate Income is £27,500; the Trust Income is £17,500.

A freeman of the Skinners Company is eligible, as vacancies from time to time occur, to a presentation for his child to Christ’s Hospital, ten such presentations being given to the Company under the benefaction of Mr. William Stoddart. Besides being eligible for certain almshouses and pensions, poor freemen who have fallen into straitened circumstances obtain charitable assistance from the Company at the discretion of the governing body, as also do the widows and children of such poor freemen. Freemen are entitled to a preference among applicants for loans under trusts administered by the Company. They are also with their sons and apprentices eligible under certain conditions for exhibitions founded by the Company, and their sons will have a preference for admission into the Company’s Middle School, referred to in another part of this return, if there should not be room for all the candidates. Liverymen have similar claims. They also attend at dinners given to the livery at the Company’s Hall, and have the privilege of occasionally introducing friends at such dinners. The master and wardens and other members of the court have similar rights and privileges. They also receive fees as members of the governing body in respect of their attendance at courts and committees as already stated.

Assistance is granted by the Company to members if it appears upon inquiry that from misfortune or by reason of sickness, infirmity, or from other good cause they are in need.

Stow describes Skinners’ Hall as “a fair house, which was sometime called Copped Hall by Downgate.” Copped Hall was purchased by the Skinners, together with several small tenements adjacent, in the reign of Henry III. (about 1260-62). The Company afterwards held it under a licence of mortmain granted by that king. It was subsequently alienated, though by what means is uncertain, and in 1326, according to Stow, it was possessed by Ralph de Cobham, the brave Kentish warrior, who made Edward III. his heir. Edward III. restored the hall to the Skinners at about the time of the Company’s legal incorporation (1327).

Of Copped Hall no plan exists, but it is probable that four small tenements occupied the Dowgate Hill frontage (50 feet), and it is known that there was a court or quadrangle somewhat like the present one with an entrance from it direct into the hall. It perished in the Great Fire of 1666, soon after which the rubbish and lead were sold. There still remain, however, some of the old walls, and the great stone fireplace of the kitchen was discovered when excavating in the present cellars about 1870. On October 15, 1668, a committee, of which Sir George Waterman, Master of the Skinners, and Sir Thomas Pilkington were members, was appointed to carry out the rebuilding, the Company meanwhile holding their courts in various places as at Salters’ Hall, the Red Bull Inn, Bishopsgate, and in the church of St. Helen.

In November 1688 “the front houses at Skinners’ Hall” were ordered to be rebuilt; in the February following the Renter was empowered to make a gateway of stone or timber as he thought fit; and the quadrangle was ordered to be 40 feet square. By 1672 the rebuilding must have been practically finished, for Sir George Waterman kept his mayoralty here in 1672-73, renting the hall for £160.

The Dowgate Hill front was rebuilt under the Company’s surveyor in 1777, and Mr. Jupp, afterwards surveyor to the Company, also made some alterations. This front is somewhat like that of Old Covent Garden Theatre in the time of Garrick. It is a regular three-storied building of the Ionic order. The basement part to the level of the first story is of stone, and rusticated; from this rise six pilasters supporting an entablature and pediment all of the same material. In the tympanum are the Company’s arms. In the facade are two doorways, one leading to the quadrangle before the great hall, the other to the clerks’ offices. Across the quadrangle is a carved doorway, the principal entrance to the lobby in front of the great hall. This hall is a very handsome apartment. It was rebuilt 1849-50 under the direction of Mr. G. B. Moore, and was restored and decorated in 1891 at much expense. Up to that time the walls had been wainscotted; they are now panelled in light oak to a higher level, the panelling being crowned by a fine frieze decorated with raised shields, and a cornice. The carved roof is richly decorated and contains a wagon-headed skylight. The entrance to the hall is at the north end through a splendid carved oak screen, which in 1891 supplanted the original Ionic screen ordered for the hall in 1760. Behind the hall is a small Committee room with a good fireplace, above which is a carved panel in the style of Grinling Gibbons. Beyond is the court room. On the floor above is the great cedar parlour or withdrawing room. It is a magnificent chamber, redolent with the scent of the red cedar, in which material the whole of the interior is executed. The cedar wood is said to have been presented by the East India Company. The walls are wainscotted up to the frieze and cornice, the former of which is carved both in light and dark wood, the whole being richly gilt. From the cornice springs the coved ceiling, which is panelled and painted, and which, some years ago, when the room was redecorated under the mastership of Mr. Charles Barry, architect, was substituted for the old ceiling. The doors are handsomely carved and pedimented. Over the fireplace is a panel carved in Grinling Gibbon’s best style, displaying the Company’s arms wreathed about with festoons of dark wood on the light cedar panel.

At one end, in glass cases, are two curious coloured statuettes, one representing Edward III., the other Sir Andrew Judd, both neat pieces of work.

The grand staircase is well designed, and displays some of the massy carving and rich ornaments in vogue just after the Great Fire. Attached to the hall is a small garden, in which are a tree and several flower-beds, also a curiously embossed cistern dated 1768. The original cost of the Skinners’ Hall was, according to the New View of London (1708), £18,000, but much has since been spent upon it. Several Lord Mayors and sheriffs have kept their year of office here, and in 1691 the new East India Company, before their incorporation with the old Company, began to hold their meetings here, paying an annual rent of £300. In consequence of these meetings the new Company afterwards presented to the hall a carved mahogany court-table and silver candlesticks.