Soon after the company lost their hall through the high-handed proceedings of Sir Robert Chester, they purchased or leased a new hall, which was situated at the north-east corner of Brode Lane, Vintry, where they lived from 1562, until the Great Fire in 1666 again made them homeless. The Sun Tavern in Leadenhall Street, the Green Dragon, Queenhythe, the Quest House, Cripplegate, the Gun, near Aldgate, and the Mitre in Fenchurch Street, afforded them temporary accommodation. In 1669 they began to arrange for a new hall to be built off Wood Street, which was completed in 1671, and has since been their home. Various sums of money have been voted at different times for its repair or embellishment. It has once been damaged by fire, and on another occasion severely threatened. In 1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked up and the entrance into Silver Street opened. The hall has been a favourite place of meeting for several other companies--the Fruiterers' Company, the Tinplate Workers' Company, the Society of Porters, and other private companies have been their tenants.
I had recently the privilege of visiting the Parish Clerks' Hall, and was kindly conducted there by Mr. William John Smith, the "Father" of the company, and a liberal benefactor, whose portrait hangs in the hall. He has been three times master, and his father and grandfather were members of the fraternity.
The premises consist of a ground floor with cellars, which are let for private purposes, and a first floor with two rooms of moderate size. The old courtyard is now covered with business offices. Over the court-room door stands a copy of the Clerks' Arms, which are thus described: "The feyld azur, a flower de lice goulde on chieffe gules, a leopard's head betwen two pricksonge bookes of the second, the laces that bind the books next, and to the creast upon the healme, on a wreathe gules and azur, an arm, from the elbow upwards, holding a pricking book, 30th March, 1582." These are the arms "purged of superstition" by Robert Cook, Clarencieux Herald, on the aforementioned date. The company's motto is, Unitas Societatis Stabilitas. The arms over the court-room door have the motto Pange lingua gloriosa, which is accounted for by the fact that this copy of the clerks' heraldic achievement formerly stood over the organ in the hall. This organ is a small but pleasant instrument, and was purchased in 1737 in order to enable the members to practise psalmody. Several portraits of worthy clerks adorn the walls. Amongst them we notice that of William Roper, a benefactor of the company, whose name has been already mentioned.
The portrait of John Clarke shows a firm, dignified old man, who was the parish clerk of St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1805, and wrote extracts from the minute-books of the company. The picture was presented to the company in 1827. There are other portraits of worthy clerks, of Richard Hust, who died in 1835, and was a great benefactor of the company and the restorer of the almshouses; of James Mayhew (1896), and of William John Smith (1903).
In one of the windows is the portrait, in stained glass, of John Clarke, parish clerk of Bartholomew-the-Less, London, master of the company, A.D. 1675, ætatis suæ 45. He is represented with a dark skull cap on his head, long hair, a moustache, and a large falling band or collar.
There are also portraits in stained glass of Stephen Penckhurst, parish clerk of St. Mary Magdalene, Fish Street, London, master in 1685; of James Maddox, parish clerk of St. Olive's, Jury, master in 1684; of Nicholas Hudles, parish clerk of St. Andrew's, Undershaft, twice master, in 1674 and 1682; of Thomas Williams, parish clerk of St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, master in 1680; of Robert Seal, parish clerk of St. Gregory, master in 1681; of William Disbrow, parish clerk of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, and of St. Michael Le Querne, master in 1674; and of William Hornbuck, parish clerk of St. James, Clerkenwell, master in 1679.