The present Livery consists of 40. The Company has a Corporate Income of £880; a Trust Income of £20.
In Stow’s time the Plumbers had their Hall in Anchor Lane, a turning on the south side of Thames Street, next to Vintners’ Hall. For these premises they were tenants to the Vintners. After the Fire of 1666 the Plumbers left their old quarters and built a new Hall in Chequer Yard, where it is shown in Strype’s map, at the east end of the yard, north side. Maitland (1739) calls it a good handsome building. Malcolm, writing in 1802, says that it had lately been pulled down, and warehouses of great extent, called after the name of the Company, erected on its site. At about the same time a new Hall of red brick was built in Bush Lane (then called Great Bush Lane). It was rebuilt in 1830, but finally pulled down to make way for Cannon Street Station. Hallam (Constitutional History) says that the first instance of actual punishment inflicted on Protestant dissenters was in 1567, when a company of more than a hundred were seized during their religious exercises at Plumbers’ Hall (the one in Anchor Lane), which they had hired on pretence of a wedding; fourteen or fifteen of them were sent to prison.
THE POULTERS
The ancient market of the Poulters was around the place still called the Poultry (see p. [11]); they also sold poultry in the stocks market in Gracechurch Street and in Newgate Street. Riley’s Memorials contain many regulations and ordinances for the sale of poultry. One remarks that the ordinances of the City in one respect, and in one only, were observed with the greatest care: those, namely, relating to the sale of food.
The Poulters Company existed by prescription as early as 1345. It was, however, incorporated by Royal Charter in the nineteenth year of Henry VII., on February 23, 1504. The charter was renewed by Queen Elizabeth, February 22, in the thirtieth year of her reign, confirmed by Charles II., on June 13, in the sixth year of his reign, and also by James II. subsequently, but these charters, like those of many of the Companies, were destroyed in the Fire of London in 1666. The charter under which the Company now acts was granted by William and Mary, May 6, 1692.
In the year 1763 the charter was supplemented by an Act of the Corporation of London and by another Act of the Corporation in 1820. The charter gives power to the Company to inspect the poultry brought to market, but that power has long since been suspended by the Acts of the Legislature.
Their present Livery is 126; their Corporate Income is £1020; their Trust Income is £430; they have no Hall.
THE SCRIVENERS
The Company now known as the Scriveners Company had existed from a very early period as the Fraternity or Mystery of the Scriveners or Writers of the Court Letter of the City of London, and was “time out of mind” a society or Company by prescription. The Company has no document showing the probable date of the foundation of this society, but their records extend back to 47 Edward III., being the year 1374.