Most of the companies administer charities of large value. Many of them are governors of important schools, e.g. the Skinners have the Tonbridge Grammar School; the Mercers, St Paul’s School; the Merchant Taylors, the school bearing their name, &c. The constitution of the livery companies usually embraces (a) the court, which includes the master and wardens, and is the executive and administrative body; (2) the livery or middle class, being the body from which the court is recruited; and (3) the general body of freemen, from which the livery is recruited. Some companies admit women as freemen. The freedom is obtained either by patrimony (by any person over twenty-one years of age born in lawful wedlock after the admission of his father to the freedom), by servitude (by being bound as an apprentice to a freeman of the company) or by redemption. Admission to many of the companies is subject to the payment of considerable fees. For example, in the Merchant Taylors the fees are—upon taking up the freedom, by patrimony or servitude, £1, 3s. 4d.; by redemption, £84; on admission to the livery, £80, 8s.; on election to the court of assistants, £115, 10s. At one time the position of the livery companies was a subject of much political discussion. Two parties threatened to attack them—on one side those who were anxious for extensive reforms in the municipal organization of London; on the other, those who wished to carry forward the process of inspection and revision of endowments, which had already overtaken the universities, schools and other charities. A Royal Commission was appointed in 1880 to inquire into all the livery companies, into the circumstances and dates of their foundation, the objects for which they were founded, and how far those objects were being carried into effect. A very valuable Report and Appendix (4 vols., 1884) was published, containing, inter alia, information on the constitution and powers of the governing bodies, the mode of admission of members of the companies, the mode of appointment, duties and salaries and other emoluments of the servants of the companies, the property of, or held in trust for, the companies, its value, situation and description. The companies very freely made returns to the commission, the only ones not doing so being the Broderers, Bowyers, Distillers, Glovers, Tin-Plate Workers and Weavers. The Commission estimated the annual income of the companies to be from £750,000 to £800,000, about £200,000 of that amount being trust income, the balance corporate income.
Authorities.—In addition to the Report referred to above the following works may be consulted: H. T. Riley, Memorials of London and London Life (1868); Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 (ed. by Sir N. H. Nicolas and E. Tyrrel, 1827); Munimenta Gildhallae Londiniensis, in Rolls Series, ed. by H. T. Riley (4 vols., 1859-1862); J. Toulmin Smith, English Gilds (published by Early English Text Society), with essay by L. Brentano (1870); W. Herbert, History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies (1837); C. Gross, The Gild Merchant (2 vols., 1890); W. C. Hazlitt, The Livery Companies of the City of London (1892), contains a précis of the Royal Commission; P. H. Ditchfield, The City Companies of London (1904); G. Unwin, The Gilds and Companies of London (1908).
(T. A. I.)
[1] Properly the word should be spelled, as it was originally, “mistery;” it comes through the O. Fr. mestier, modern métier, from Lat. ministerium, service, employment, and meant a trade or craft, and hence the plays acted by craftsmen and members of gilds were called “mystery plays” (see [Drama]). For the word meaning a hidden or secret rite, with which this has so often been confused, see [Mystery].
LIVIA DRUSILLA (c. 55 B.C.-A.D. 29), Roman empress, was originally the wife of Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had two sons, Drusus and Tiberius (afterwards emperor). But she attracted the attention of the future emperor Augustus, who in 38 compelled her husband to divorce her and married her himself, having first got rid of his own wife Scribonia. Her two sons, at their dying father’s request, were entrusted to the guardianship of Augustus, to whom she bore no children. Livia was suspected of committing various crimes to secure the throne for Tiberius, whereas Augustus naturally favoured the claims of his blood-relatives. The premature deaths of his nephew Marcellus (whom he had at first fixed upon as his successor) and of his grandsons Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the banishment of his grandson Agrippa Postumus, and even his own death, were attributed to her. But in any case Augustus’s affection for his wife appears to have suffered no diminution up to the last; by his will he declared her and Tiberius (whom he had adopted in A.D. 4) his heirs; Livia inherited a third of his property; she was adopted into the Julian gens, and henceforth assumed the name of Julia Augusta. The senate also elected her chief priestess of the college founded in honour of the deified Augustus. She had now reached the summit of her ambition, and at first acted as joint-ruler with Tiberius. Tiberius, however, soon became tired of the maternal yoke; his retirement to Capreae is said to have been caused by his desire to escape from her. Livia continued to live quietly at Rome, in the full enjoyment of authority, until her death at an advanced age. Tiberius appears to have received the news with indifference, if not with satisfaction; he absented himself from the funeral, and refused to allow her apotheosis; her will was suppressed for a long time and only carried out, and the legacies paid, by Caligula.
See Tacitus, Annals, i. v.; Dio Cassius liii. 33, lv. 14-22, lviii. 2, lix. 2; Suetonius, Tiberius, 50, 51; J. Aschbach, Livia, Gemahlin des Kaisers Augustus (1864); V. Gardthausen, Augustus und seine Zeit, i. 1018 foll., ii. 631 foll.
LIVINGSTON, EDWARD (1764-1836), American jurist and statesman, was born in Clermont, Columbia county, New York, on the 26th of May 1764. He was a great-grandson of Robert Livingston, the first of the family to settle in America (see [Livingston, William], below). He graduated at Princeton in 1781, was admitted to the bar in 1785, and began to practise law in New York City, rapidly rising to distinction. In 1795-1801 he was a Republican representative in Congress, where he was one of the leaders of the opposition to Jay’s treaty, introduced the resolution calling upon President Washington for all papers relating to the treaty, and at the close of Washington’s administration voted with Andrew Jackson and other radicals against the address to the president. He opposed the Alien and Sedition Laws, introduced legislation on behalf of American seamen, and in 1800 attacked the president for permitting the extradition by the British government of Jonathan Robbins, who had committed murder on an English frigate, and had then escaped to South Carolina and falsely claimed to be an American citizen. In the debate on this question Livingston was opposed by John Marshall. In 1801 Livingston was appointed U.S. district-attorney for the state of New York, and while retaining that position was in the same year appointed mayor of New York City. When, in the summer of 1803, the city was visited with yellow fever, Livingston displayed courage and energy in his endeavours to prevent the spread of the disease and relieve distress. He suffered a violent attack of the fever, during which the people gave many proofs of their attachment to him. On his recovery he found his private affairs in some confusion, and he was at the same time deeply indebted to the government for public funds which had been lost through the mismanagement or dishonesty of a confidential clerk, and for which he was responsible as district-attorney. He at once surrendered all his property, resigned his two offices in 1803, and removed early in 1804 to Louisiana. He soon acquired a large law practice in New Orleans, and in 1826 repaid the government in full, including the interest, which at that time amounted to more than the original principal.