The Company cannot say what were the exact circumstances in which it had its origin, but presumes that the Scriveners of London formed themselves into a society for the purpose of more effectually protecting their own interests and those of the occupation or craft which they carried on.
In the year 1373 (Riley, Memorials, p. 372) the “Court Hand writers and scriveners obtained their Ordinances.” These were chiefly directed against “foreigners.”
It was incorporated by James I. in 1616 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 24 Assistants, with a Livery of 53.
At the time of the Great Fire of London all the archives of the Company were burnt except the ancient book called their common paper, and which book is still extant.
Their present Livery is 50. Their Trust Income is £10. Their Corporate Income is about £440. They have no Hall. Formerly they had a Hall in Noble Street which they sold to the Coachmakers. “At present,” says Maitland, 1750, “they are endeavouring by course of Law to oblige all Attorneys of the City to become Members.” An attempt which does not seem to have been successful.
The Scriveners’ work was much like that of solicitors of the present day. They made wills, drew up conveyances and other legal documents. They also wrote letters both of a business and a private nature. Some of them became financiers and bankers. In fact, the step from drawing up legal documents to advising on affairs of all kinds was easy and natural.
THE SHIPWRIGHTS
The precise year of the foundation of the Company is unknown, but it is mentioned in 1428 in the City records, from which it appears that it existed as a Fraternity, having a trade guild or mystery and a religious guild in connection with it, with a presumption in favour of its having existed by prescription for some time before that period. In a parchment book belonging to the Company there are ordinances of the religious society, the earliest of which is dated in 1456. Additions were made thereto in 1483, beginning, “In Dei nomine, Amen. It is not unknown to all the brethren and sisters of the fraternitie of Saint Symon and Jude hath been holden in London by the crafte of shipwrights of tyme out of minde,” etc. After which follow various ordinances relating to the taking of apprentices, and other matters, and more especially enjoining its members “to viewe and serche that the brethren of that fraternitie doe use in their said trades good and seasonable timber, and doe their worke workmanlike as appertaineth.”
The Company was incorporated by James I. in 1605 for a Master, 2 Wardens, and 36 Assistants.
In 1613 commenced a dispute between the Company and the foreign shipwrights who carried on their craft on the opposite side of the river, at Redrithe or Rotherhithe. The foreign shipwrights (so-called from being outside the liberties of the City) had, in the previous year, obtained a charter of incorporation, acting upon which they sought to exact fines from and impose duties upon the free shipwrights, at that time working hard by at Ratcliffe, having previously been compelled to leave the crowded part of the City by reason of the noise occasioned by exercising their trade and from fear of fire. The free shipwrights resented this treatment, and presented their case before the Court of Aldermen. The City upheld the free shipwrights, and in 1620 their ordinances were approved by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen.