They therefore most humbly beseeche yoʳ honoʳˢ to take their great wrong and just grievance into yoʳ hoᵇˡᵉ considerations. And to be pleased to send for the said disorderly and obstinate persons hereunder named before you. And to take such order wᵗʰ them for their conformity and obedience to the ordinances made and to be made for the good governmᵗ of the said society and prevencon. of deceits & abuses as to yʳ grave and hoᵇˡᵉ wisdome shall seem meete.
And they shall ever praye for yoʳ honoʳˢ.
The names of the six disorderly Blacksmiths appear to have been:—George Johnson, William Bickford, Hanns Garrett, Leonard Berars, William Browne, and Henry Baily. Whether their nonconformity and other troubles led the Company to obtain a new charter we know not, but it is quite clear they did obtain one of Charles I., in his fourteenth year, and dated February 16, 1638-39. By this new grant all persons carrying on the business or trade of a blacksmith or spurrier within the City of London or suburbs four miles round were incorporated as “the Keepers or Wardens and Society of the Art or Mystery of Blacksmiths, London,” to have four keepers or wardens and twenty-one assistants, and to make by-laws and ordinances, to examine all spurs, ironwork made, &c., within the City and four miles round, and to hold lands to the extent of 30l. above the former charter allowance of 30l. In accordance with this grant and power the Company framed new orders (confirmed by the Judges), dated in December, 1640, and one of these allowed the Company to “call, nominate, choose, and admit into the yeomanry of the said Society such and so many persons being freemen of the said Society as they should think meet, honest, and of ability to be called and admitted into the said yeomanry.”
This shows that the Company anciently comprised the Livery, yeomanry, and freemen, and the clerk believes that the freemen were the journeymen and the yeomanry the master blacksmiths. Under the Quo warranto writ of Charles II. the Company surrendered with the other Guilds, but were reinstated to their rights and privileges by James II. in the first year of his reign by a charter dated March 18, 1684-85.
The Act of Common Council of June 9, 1658, compelled all persons carrying on the trade to be free of the Company. Fifty years later the Company took special means to enforce it; but, like many of the other rights and privileges of the Guilds, through the altered conditions of trading the power of the Company has not been exercised for many years. The following entry from the books of the Founders’ Company, as extracted by Mr. Williams and printed in his “Annals,” is sufficiently interesting to merit a place in our present notice of the Blacksmiths:—
1660, Sept. 3. Memorandum.
That upon this day the mastʳ and wardens did visit all the ffounders shopps in Bartholomew Lane and Lothebury—as well of them that were free of the ffounders company as those of the coppersmiths, and found in the shop of John Lucas one lock of brass fitted in wᵗʰ 20 oz. of lead and one 4-lb. weight unsealed, unsized, and unmarked with the owner’s stamp, which work was brought into the Hall.
Founders’ Hall stood in Lothbury (hence the name of Founders’ Hall Court), and was let to the Electric Telegraph Company in 1853. The Founders of Bartholomew Lane and Lothbury have long since departed to other quarters of the City, and the sites of their ancient trading are now occupied by the great monetary fraternities, the Bank of England and other banks, and the Capel Court of the Stock Exchange.
In May, 1750, the Committee of the Corporation of London specially reported on several petitions presented by masters and journeymen freemen, and it was resolved that the matters complained of required some regulation; that the Court of Aldermen any Tuesday may have the power to grant to any master freeman liberty to employ non-freemen, but under certain restrictions; and that all proceedings and prosecutions rest in the name of the Chamberlain, who, however, only represents the City, and does not obtain any personal benefit under such action.