THE BEADLE.
There is no certainty as to the first institution of this office, though it is probably not so old as that of the Clerk, who in ancient times, summoned the Livery, collected the quarterage and performed various duties which we afterwards find assigned to the Beadle, and we may conclude that in those days he was little more than a Caretaker or “Porter”; indeed, this is the more likely as the latter designation is frequently applied to the Under Beadle in the Records.
As the business and numbers of the Company increased, several minor functions of the Clerk were delegated to the Porter or Beadle, who had distinctive duties assigned to him varying with the age in which he lived; among these may be enumerated, sweeping the garden, collecting quarterage, cleaning the Hall, whipping naughty apprentices, summoning freemen, etc., bringing home dead bodies from Tyburn, keeping lists of journeymen, pressing Surgeons and Barbers for sea service, assisting the Masters on search days, hunting up and laying informations against non freemen practising Barbery and Surgery, marshalling and heading processions, both at the Hall and in the City pageants, guarding the Parlour door, and other offices too numerous to particularise, though there were but few of them which did not yield a fee, and indeed our Beadle could hardly have lived without fees, for his official salary in Edward VI’s time was but £4 per annum, which, notwithstanding the greater value of money then, could scarcely be considered a fat living.
With one exception, the office has been (and properly so) held by freemen, and in the appointment of the Court. In 1626, however, the Lord Keeper sent a letter “recommending” (i.e., commanding) the Company to elect one Gorton, a servant of his, to the place, and Gorton was accordingly chosen. The interference of the King and his great officers in the patronage and appointments vested in the City guilds was carried to great lengths with some of the Companies, and there are amusing accounts extant of the astuteness with which this meddling was sometimes met (vide Herbert’s Livery Companies). Our Company, with the solitary exception above referred to, appears to have been happily free from this species of intervention.
Early in the 17th century there were two Beadles of the Clothing, the Under Beadle being often styled the Porter, but about the middle of the 18th century, and since then, one Beadle has sufficed.
The Beadle has always had his “house” at the Hall, and used formerly to pay a small quit rent for it. On the dismission of a Beadle for misconduct, a difficulty was sometimes experienced in regaining possession of this house, and various shifts were resorted to; even the Beadles’ Widows now and then refused to turn out, and the “benevolences” meted out to them were possibly sometimes in the nature of bribes to induce them to go.
Besides the Beadles of the Clothing, there was a Beadle of the Yeomanry, whose duties were analogous to those of his more exalted brethren, and into whose office he frequently stepped when there was a vacancy.