London City

by Walter Besant

It is believed that the Company of Brasiers was incorporated about the year 1479 by Edward IV., and that the craft of bladesmiths was incorporated with the Company of Armourers about the year 1515, but the Company has no authentic evidence in its possession as to these facts.

In the year 1559, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter of Inspeximus, confirming the Letters Patent of King Henry VI.

In the year 1618, King James I., in consideration of the sum of £100, granted Letters Patent confirming the title of the Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the Men of Mystery of Armourers in the City of London, to the messuages and lands then held by it. The greater part of these messuages and lands is still in the possession of the Company.

In the year 1685, King James II. granted Letters Patent to the Company which (inter alia) directed that all edge tools and armour, and all copper and brass work wrought with the hammer within the City of London, or a radius of five miles therefrom, should be searched and approved by expert artificers of the Company.

In the year 1708 the Company of Armourers was, by Letters Patent granted by Queen Anne, incorporated with the Brasiers under the corporate title of “The Company of Armourers and Brasiers in the City of London.” In this charter it is recited that of late years many of the members of the Company of Armourers had employed themselves in working and making vessels, and wares of copper and brass wrought with the hammer, and that for want of powers to search and make byelaws to bind the workers of such wares in the City of London, frauds and deceits in the working of such goods and vessels had increased, and power was thereby granted to the Company of Armourers and Brasiers to make byelaws for the government of the Company; and also of all persons making any work or vessel of wrought or hammered brass or copper, in the Cities of London and Westminster, or within a radius of five miles thereof, and with authority to inflict fines and penalties against persons offending against such byelaws. And the Company was invested with power to inspect and search for all goods worked or wrought with the hammer and exposed to sale within such limits as aforesaid. No person was allowed to sell or make armour or vessels, or wares of copper or brass wrought with the hammer, unless he was a member or had been apprenticed to a member of the Company.

It would appear that the master and wardens exercised a very extensive jurisdiction in ancient days, fining and punishing members of the Company for social offences as well as for infringements of the byelaws of the Company, and hearing and adjudicating upon all questions arising between members of the Company and their apprentices, and also inflicting fines on persons making or selling goods of an improper quality.

This Company is still in the habit of binding apprentices to masters engaged in the trades of workers of brass and copper, and of pensioning infirm members of those trades. Their workshops were situated close to London Wall, below Bishopsgate, probably in order to remove their hammering as far as possible from the trading part of the City.

The Company is governed by a Master, an Upper Warden and a Renter Warden, with eighteen assistants, and, together with the livery, now number 91. The Hall is at 81 Coleman Street. Stow mentions the Hall on the north end of Coleman Street and on the east side of it. “The Company of Armourers were made a Fraternity or Guild of St. George with a Chantry in the Chapel of St. Thomas in Paul’s Church in the 1st of Henry VI.”

On the north side of King’s Arms Yard extends the elaborate and very handsome building of the Metropolitan Life Assurance Society, which has its entrance at the corner of Moorgate Street. This has deeply recessed windows, and the corner is finished off by an octagonal turret which begins in a projecting canopy over the door, and is carried up to the roof. In niches here and there are small stone figures. This building is the work of Aston Webb and Ingress Bell in 1891. Opposite, in great contrast, are oldish brick houses, very plain in style. Round the northern corner into Coleman Street is carried a building which is chiefly remarkable for the amount of polished granite on its surface. On the west, a little higher up, is another entrance of the Wool Exchange from which a large projection overhangs the street. There is a lamb in stonework over the door.

Basinghall Street (or Bassishaw Street) runs from London Wall to Gresham Street. The street used to contain the Masons’, Weavers’, Coopers’, and Girdlers’ Halls. Only the Girdlers’ and Coopers’ Halls now remain. The names Basinghall and Bassishaw are frequently supposed to have the same origin. Riley, however, quotes a passage in which (A.D. 1390) there is mention of the “Parish of St. Michael Bassishaw in the Ward of Bassyngeshaw,” which he considers indicates that the word Basseshaw is Basset’s haw, and Bassyngeshaw is Basing’s haw, referring to two families and not one. There is a great number of references to Basings and to Bassets. Yet the names seem to refer to the same place. Thus in 1280 and 1283 we hear of houses in Bassieshaw. In 1286 we hear of houses in Bassinge haw. Basinghall was the hall or house of the Basings, an opulent family of the thirteenth century. Solomon and Hugh Basing were sheriffs in 1214; Solomon was mayor in 1216; Adam Basing was sheriff in 1243. Basinghall passed into the hands of a family named Banquelle or Bacquelle. John de Banquelle, Alderman of Dowgate, had a confirmation and quit claim to him of a messuage in St. Michael, Bassieshawe, in 1293.