Edmund, Erle of Rutland.
Richard, Erle of Salesbury.
John, Lord Faunhope.
And others of less distinction, several of whom are described as “clerk,” nearly 600 in all.
Then follows a list of names of sisters of the fraternity, rather more than 100 in all. The membership of the Skinners’ Company is still open to females, but only through patrimony; and as a female member can only become a freewoman, and is not eligible for the Livery, only few take advantage of the opportunity.
So far as the records of the Company show, there is no evidence to support the idea that membership of the Company was ever confined to skinners or furriers. A list of 1446 contains the names of persons variously described as “doctour,” “bocher,” “dier,” “joyner,” “groser,” “skynner,” and so on. So again, in a list of members admitted to the Livery in 1738, there were only six skinners out of twenty-seven, the remainder of whom are described as engaged in other occupations.
The working or “Artesan” Skinners, however, made attempts on various occasions to obtain admission as such into the governing body of the Company, but such attempts invariably proved unsuccessful. In 1606, the “Artesan” Skinners applied for and obtained the grant of a new charter to the Company, providing for the election of a certain proportion of working skinners, and the admission to the Court of certain persons named; but the Company brought the matter before the Privy Council, and they after report made by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, ordered the improperly-obtained charter to be cancelled.
Again, in 1744, the “Artesan” Skinners proceeded in the Court of King’s Bench for a mandamus, to compel the Court to choose certain of the “Artesans” as members of the Court, but such proceedings failed. In 1747–8, a similar further attempt was made without success; and since then the Company has had no further annoyance of this description.
The constitution and government of the Company are as follows:—At the head comes the Court, consisting of the Master, four Wardens (known respectively as First or Upper Warden, Second Warden, Third Warden, and Renter Warden, of whom the Renter Warden, though possessing the privileges of a member of the Court, is not one technically until elected to membership at the end of his year of office), and Assistants, all of whom but one (the last-preceding Renter Warden) are usually Past-Masters. The above form the governing body of the Company. The total number of the Court is fixed at not exceeding thirty. At one time the Assistants were termed the XVI., and apparently did not exceed that number. The members of the Court are all members of the Livery, and next to them come the other members of the Livery, who are without seats in the governing body. Below them come the Freemen, and after them the Apprentices.
To trace the career of a member up to the Chair—if he is not the son of a freeman, born after the date of his father’s freedom, so as himself to be entitled to the freedom by patrimony, he must be apprenticed to a freeman while between the ages of 14 and 21. After seven years of apprenticeship he is entitled to the freedom, and it is usual to take up the freedom of the City of London at the same time as the freedom of the Company. Those entitled by patrimony are able to take up the freedom on attaining 21. The Livery are elected by the Court from the freemen. The practice has fluctuated. Sometimes the Court have elected practically all qualified candidates free from objection. At other times, when the numbers appeared to be growing too fast, limits have been imposed. At the present time, the rule is to restrict the number of Liverymen elected after apprenticeship to not exceeding three a year. This is in addition to patrimonial candidates.