The second Ironmongers’ Hall was not burnt in the great fire of 1666, although it was surrounded by the destructive demon. A certain William Christmas, shipwright, did some good service to the Company upon the occasion, so that in March, 1667, he received a gratuity. In 1677 the Corporation ordered all public buildings to keep leather buckets, hand-squirts, &c., to be ready in case of fire, and the Ironmongers provided themselves with thirty buckets, one engine, six pickaxes, three ladders, and two squirts, the latter being of brass, 3 feet long and 9 inches diameter. To this day may be seen some, if not the, buckets, hanging in the vestibule of the Hall. In 1699 the music-room was repaired; in 1707 a lion and unicorn was put up in the court-room.
The third, and present, Ironmongers’ Hall was erected from the designs of T. Holden, and at a cost of about 5,000l., about 1748. It was not completed until 1750, when, on February 13 that year, a ball was given at the opening, and a hogshead of port wine, half a chest of oranges, and other good things were consumed at the feast. A full description of the Hall and its interesting contents will be found in Malcolm’s “Londinium Redivivum,” vol. ii. 1803, pp. 32-62. The Hall was repaired in 1817, and in 1827 a light corridor connecting the grand staircase with the drawing-room was erected, and two years later the four handsome columns and pilasters were put up in the drawing-room. Just about a century after the erection of the present Hall it underwent an entire redecoration, and was reopened once more with a ball on June 8, 1847. The banqueting-room is 70 feet long and 29 feet wide. A carved panelled dado, 8 feet high, is carried round the room, having in the upper compartments the arms in proper colours of the past masters from the recognised foundation in 1351. The windows, as seen from the street, are curious as presenting seven different styles, and only equalled, we believe, by a house in Berkeley Square, where, out of eleven windows, seven are of different kinds. Mr. Nicholl gives a full description of the Hall and its contents as existing in 1866 in his “Some Account,” pp. 421-467. The portraits of eminent members hang on the walls of the banqueting-room and in the court-room, two of the latest in the latter room being those of Mr. John Nicholl, F.S.A., the Company’s historian, and Mr. S. Adams Beck, who for nearly fifty years was the clerk and sincere friend of the Company, as mentioned in our last chapter.
From Ironmongers’ Hall were conducted the last remains of many a notable member or citizen in the olden time. The funeral pall or hearse cloth used on these occasions was the gift of John Gyva, ironmonger, in 1515, and Elizabeth, his wife. It is of crimson velvet and cloth of gold tissue, and is described and illustrated at pages 454-7 of Mr. French’s “Catalogue.” Notes of the sixteenth century funerals are given in “The Diary of Henry Machyn” (Camden Society), 1848. In the “Diary of Samuel Pepys” he tells us of the funeral from the Hall in November, 1662, of Sir Richard Stayner, where “good rings” were distributed and the mourners had “a four-horse coach,” in which he by mistake took a place.
There have been many meetings at the Hall, some of national and others of great civic interest, especially in the making free and entertainments to distinguished men like Lords Hood and Exmouth. In 1694 the Company let the Hall for a lottery, which was called “the best and fairest chance at last,” and five years later the whole of the old armour then standing in and about the premises was sold to Mr. Thomas Saunders for eight guineas, “the musketts 2s. 6d. apiece!” It is not generally known that the national anthem of “God Save the King,” so repeatedly sung at the old City feasts and all over the world, was the composition of Dr. John Bull, who, with the children of the King’s Chapel, sung and played it before James I. and Prince Henry at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall feast, July 16, 1607. In Ironmongers’ Hall have dined Dr. Livingstone, Admiral Dawes, and Sir Garnet Wolseley, the latter just before leaving England for the Gold Coast. An interesting article, entitled “Banqueting with the Ironmongers,” and giving a good picture of these modern entertainments, appeared in the City Press, August 21, 1875. The Company’s plate is not so extensive as that possessed by some of the City Guilds. The collection will be found described by Mr. French in his “Catalogue,” pp. 616-624. There are two mazer bowls (thirteenth to sixteenth century drinking-vessels), of which only fifty are supposed to be extant, and therefore curious and interesting. They are described by Mr. St. John Hope in “Archæologia,” vol. 50, 1887, pp. 129-193. In the old views of the exterior of the Hall are shown the houses on the east side adjoining Billiter Street. These were pulled down and rebuilt some twenty years ago. Finally, in bringing our description of the Hall to a close, we cannot forbear mentioning a curious fact. In the first report of the City Livery Companies’ Commission, 1884, p. 36, there is a list given of all the existing halls of the City Guilds, thirty-four in number, and yet the Ironmongers’ (one of the twelve) has been omitted!
We shall conclude this chapter by noticing the Irish estate of the Ironmongers’ Company, called “The Manor of Lizard,” about seven miles from Coleraine, and skirting the river Bann, in the province of Ulster, the total area of which is between 12,000 and 13,000 acres, occupied as 550 holdings, with a population of about 2,800 persons all told. The net receipts from rents come to about 4,000l. a year. The estate is scattered over five parishes, and until recent years has been a great anxiety to the Company, who, having, like other Guilds, in former times let their lands as a whole to certain responsible persons, receiving a yearly rent, found out too late then that these persons, some of whom were resident, grossly neglected the well-being of both the property and the people. In 1766 the Company leased the estate to Josias du Pre, Esq., for sixty-one years and three lives. In 1813 he sold the remainder of his lease to the Beresford family. The last life mentioned in the lease was that of the Bishop of Meath, who died in his eighty-third year in 1840. The Hon. the Irish Society reported that year:—“The present holders seem only to have used the property for the purpose of making the most of it during the term of their lease,” consequently when the Company took possession they found it no easy matter to put the estate in that order which they so long desired to do. Through their energetic agents they have at last succeeded, after terribly uphill work, and we believe the tenantry now find out the truth of the Irish Society’s report in 1838, which stated, “This estate upon the death of the Bishop of Meath passes into the hands of the Company, and we have no doubt that it will prove a source of much happiness to the tenantry when they shall be placed under the immediate superintendence of that body.”
The origin of the purchase of this estate arose through the rebellion in Ireland, in the reign of Elizabeth, when the O’Neills and the O’Dohertys were in the possession of the province of Ulster. In order to suppress the revolt the army was sent over in 1566, and encamped in Derry County. The lands were subsequently confiscated, and when James I. came to the throne he found them such a source of trouble that he or his Ministers devised the scheme of selling the whole property, being, as we have said, confiscated from traitors to the Crown. The King also instituted the order of Baronets to such persons who would pay towards the charges of the reclamation of the waste lands and the new plantation, and peopling with Protestants the North of Ireland, and that is why the red hand of Ulster will be found in a baronet’s coat of arms. After much trouble the City of London were offered the Irish estates, which the Companies jointly purchased for 40,000l. This sum was subscribed by fifty-five of the Guilds, being the twelve great and forty-three minor Companies. The great ones were to manage for the lesser, the Ironmongers being associated with the Brewers, Scriveners, Coopers, Pewterers, Barbers, Surgeons, and Carpenters, paying 3,333l. 6s. 8d. as their share, calling their portion the Manor of Lizard, from the crest of their arms. “This manor was created by the Irish Society in October, 1618, and was conveyed to the Ironmongers’ on November 7 following, to the only use and behoof of the said Company, their successors, and assigns for ever.” In May, 1613, the Coopers’ Company’s share was taken over by the Corporation of London, and the Irish Society of the City of London, incorporated by royal charter March 29, 1613, was made a body corporate to carry out the plantation of the City and County of Londonderry, which cost them from first to last before completed nearly 100,000l. To this day the citizens of London annually visit Ireland, the last visit in 1888 being more than usually important, as the two-hundredth anniversary of the memorable siege of Derry, now Londonderry, in 1688, about which so much has been written and said. The following works may be consulted as giving true details of the plantation scheme, one of, if not the wisest of, the schemes of the first King James:—
“A Concise View of the Irish Society,” 1822.
“An Historical Narrative of the Irish Society,” 1865.
“An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster,” by the Rev. Geo. Hill, 1877.
“Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts at Lambeth Palace,” 1873.