St. Dunstan gives a Practical Reminder of the Power of the Horseshoe.
It was by Charter, dated April 20, 1571, that the two Companies were united under the usual conditions of a body corporate and with the powers and privileges of making ordinances for the government of the Company. The Charter was confirmed by James I. in his second year, March 21, 1604-5. Meanwhile the precepts poured into the Blacksmiths as they did to other Companies, and in May, 1595, out of 12,000 quarters of corn stored at the Bridgehouse in the preceding November by the City Guilds, only some 779 quarters remained, and ten of these belonged to this Company. The Corn Custom, as described by Herbert, was a heavy tax, and often so tyrannical was the system of levy that some of the wardens were sent to prison in 1632 for neglecting to obey orders.
In 1609 King James I. submitted to the City of London his scheme for the plantation of the forfeited lands of the O’Neills and the O’Dohertys in the province of Ulster in the North of Ireland; and the same King founded a new order of Knighthood, purchasable by those desirous of helping to maintain the authority of the King in future against the rebels in Ireland. That order of Knighthood is the present Baronetage, and in proof of its origin every person so titled bears in his shield of arms the red hand of Ulster. The citizens of London paid James I., from first to last, for their Ulster estates more than 60,000l. The difficulty then arose as to the management, and so, in 1613, the whole property was partitioned off into twelve shares (according to the sum subscribed by each of the twelve principal Guilds, who, having raised 40,000l., showed that each of the twelve had paid 3,333l. 6s. 8d.). With the twelve principal companies certain minor ones, having paid a certain sum, joined in the scheme, and accordingly, the Blacksmiths, subscribing 64l. with seven others, became associated with the Vintners, who held possession until the year 1736, when they sold the whole estate, reserving only a rent charge.
There are many interesting documents extant relating to the Blacksmiths and the Blacksmiths’ Company. We do not lack the will to publish all the information we could give about their progress, but for the greatest of all reasons—want of room, our space being but limited—we must limit our notes to a few of the most important events.
In 1607 Thomas Bickford, Master of the Company, prosecuted Nicholas Lowe for carrying on the trade of a smith, he not being free of the City; and in March, 1612, the curious controversy about Daubigny’s patent set all the machinery of the Royal Commissioners and the City into high-pressure activity. It appears that Clement Dawbney, alias Daubigny, desired to have a renewal of his patent for cutting iron into small rods, and that restraint should be placed upon the importation of foreign iron so cut. His petition to the Commissioners of Suits was backed by shipwrights, masters, and nailmakers, who particularly condemned foreign iron. The Commissioners, being unable to decide, referred the matter to three of the City Companies, the Ironmongers, Blacksmiths, and Carpenters. The record books of the Ironmongers contain many interesting details of the inquiry made by that company into the question in dispute, and two of the most active members in the debate were two of the Chamberlyn family—George (then Master, in 1612) and Richard (who had been Master two years previous). The Nailmakers reminded the Commissioners, “as the fathers of the Commonwealth,” that a private patent deprived the poor of their trade and labour; that one or two enriched themselves at the cost of the many. “Wee allwaies have in evrie C. weight eleven or twelve pounds of ends or refuse iron and pay for that after 2d. the lb., whereof we make againe ever hardly a halfpenny for everie pound.” Also, “We affirme as workmen that especially it is that the Flemmish iron is as good and servicable and worketh as well as or owne English iron.” The result was a temporary benefit, for the patent was called in; although Sir Francis Bacon, one of the Commissioners, having made a special report subsequently, in 1617, that the monopoly, or patent, would benefit not only the Blacksmiths but the Nailmakers, and was only opposed by Burrell, who had set up a similar ironworks at Danbury, the King renewed the patent, December 11, 1618. The granting of similar monopolies caused no end of bickerings and ill-feeling, and ruin was by no means uncommon among those who neither had capital with which to defend their rights, nor interest at Court to prevent that “bribery and corruption” so common in the surroundings of our seventeenth century monarchy. When, in the previous reign, the Earl of Oxford had endeavoured to obtain one of these patents of privilege against the Company of Pewterers, “whereby he would have undone the pewterers, their wives and families,” Queen Elizabeth acted with discretion—not always a virtue with all-powerful royalty—for she actually granted the Earl’s desired privilege to the company itself!
We will now give a full copy of a petition which the Blacksmiths sent to the Privy Council in December, 1631. It is directed to “The Right Honᵇˡᵉ the Lords and others of His Maᵗʸˢ most Honᵇˡᵉ Privy Counsell,” by “the Mʳ Wardens and Assistants of the Society of Blacksmiths, London”:—
Humbly sheweth—
That notwᵗʰstanding yoʳ petʳˢ great care and good endeavʳ by making searches and orders, according to their oath and charter, whereby to suppress disorders and abuses in deceitfull working and making of ironwork, yet by the evill example and refractorie of some ill-affected persons of their society, whose names are here under menconed, their authority and orders are slighted and disgraced, and many who have been heretofore obedient and conformable doe now by their meanes continue refractory and disorderly, and yoʳ petʳˢ and their charters are so notoriously scandalised and abused that of themselves they cannot reforme the same, nor have they any hope of redresse therefore but by yoʳ honoʳˢ favor.