Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 60091-h.htm or 60091-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/60091/pg60091-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60091/60091-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofwo00nobl
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF
THE WORSHIPFUL
COMPANY OF IRONMONGERS
* * * * * *
THE
WORSHIPFUL COMPANY of IRONMONGERS,
MARCH, 1889.
HENRY MAUDSLAY, Esq., _Master_.
EDWARD HADHAM NICHOLL, Esq., _Senior Warden_.
JAMES LANGTON, Esq., _Junior Warden_.
(Who, with 44 others, form the Livery and Court.)
T. C. NOBLE, _Warden of the Yeomanry_.
(Who, with 260 others, constitutes the remaining Freemen
or Yeomanry.)
R. C. ADAMS BECK, Esq., _Clerk_.
Rev. R. M. BAKER, _Chaplain_.
Mr. R. ROBERTS, _Surveyor_.
Mr. C. W. McCONACHY, _Beadle_.
(With other Officers.)
* * * * * *
_The following separately-printed Works (among others) by T. C. NOBLE may
be consulted in the British Museum or Guildhall Library_:—
=The Lord Mayor of London.= 1860.
=Memorials of Temple Bar, with Some Account of Fleet Street.=
1869.
=A Ramble Round the Crystal Palace.= 1875.
=A Brief Account of the Westminster Tobacco-box.= 1879.
=A Caxton Memorial.= 1880.
=A Brief Memorial of W. F. Bray.= 1880.
=Biographical Notices of Thomas Wood, D.D., Bishop of
Lichfield.= 1882.
=An Historical Essay on the Rise and Fall of the Spanish
Armada, 1588.= 1886.
* * * * * *
[Illustration: ARMS OF THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF IRONMONGERS.
(See page 14.)]
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF
THE WORSHIPFUL
COMPANY OF IRONMONGERS
LONDON
A.D. 1351-1889
With an Appendix Containing Some Account of
the Blacksmiths’ Company
by
T. C. NOBLE
Warden of the Yeomanry of the Ironmongers’ Company
1888-1889
_With Numerous Illustrations by George Cruikshank
and Others_
London
Printed for Private Circulation Only
March 1889
Printed by
Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square
London
PREFACE.
To my brother Ironmongers, “root and branch,” I dedicate this “brief
history” of our ancient Guild. Notwithstanding the innumerable facts
printed in the following pages, the work must only be considered as an
historical essay upon the tenth of the twelve “great” Livery Companies
of the City of London. A more elaborate compilation is in progress, and
if my life is spared to complete it that work will contain the labour of
love collections during the past quarter of a century of an extensive—I
may say unique—assortment of manuscripts and other papers relating to the
City, its Companies, and its Institutions, which will prove, I have every
reason to believe, a most interesting and valuable civic record.
The present publication has taken place now for several reasons, some of
which I may as well explain. Before J. P. Malcolm printed the interesting
extracts from the Ironmongers’ records in the second volume of his
“Londinium Redivivum,” 1803, very little was known by the general public
about this ancient City Guild. He was followed by William Herbert, the
Guildhall Librarian, in 1834-36, who published a “History of the Twelve
Great Livery Companies,” with a most valuable introductory essay. Both of
these works are now scarce. In 1851 John Nicholl, Esq, F.S.A., a Member
of the Court of the Ironmongers’ Company, compiled his “Some Account”
of the Guild, taken from their own records, and this choice volume he
enlarged and printed in 1866. There were, however, only 150 copies
circulated among the Livery and their friends, consequently this history
is more scarce than those issued by Malcolm and Herbert.
When I was elected Yeomanry Warden at Easter, 1888, in commemoration
of the fact that I was one of the Committee of the Spanish Armada
Tercentenary (Plymouth and London) Commemoration, about which Armada I
had published an essay in 1886, and that the Ironmongers’ Company had
contributed towards the defence of the kingdom exactly three centuries
previous; that the year 1889 was by a curious coincidence the 700th
anniversary of the City Mayoralty; that several eminent Lord Mayors had
been citizens and Ironmongers; that from my own personal knowledge a
large percentage of the present members of the Yeomanry know very little
of the history of their Guild, or about their ancient predecessors; and
last, but not least, that the facilities afforded to me by the Editor
of the well-known trade journal, THE IRONMONGER, for the publication
in its columns during the past three months of this “brief history,”
which has had a circulation not second to any other weekly throughout
the world, prompted me to forward a long-cherished project of compiling
for my brethren a short history, and thus commemorate their kindness for
electing me their representative. The unexpected opportunity of holding
a most enthusiastic meeting on St. Luke’s Day, 1888, at the London
Tavern, opposite Ironmongers’ Hall (our Hall being temporarily closed),
enabled me, as their Warden, to give to my brother Ironmongers the first
historical discourse relating to the Company (see Chapter VI.), and it
helped to comfort their disappointment in being unable to meet in their
own Hall upon the anniversary of the day they had assembled therein for
nearly three hundred years.
Then, again, there are some personal reasons worth mentioning. A
citizen born, the great-grandson of an eighteenth-century engineer and
ironfounder, the grandson of a ship-owner, newspaper proprietor, and
possessor of the historical property in the district which he named
King’s Cross, and where to this day several of the great “iron roads”
of England meet, and the son of a publisher and bookseller of Fleet
Street, whose memory and that of my birthplace I commemorated in 1869
in the “Memorials” of the neighbourhood—in which year, too, by another
remarkable coincidence, I was honoured by being admitted a member of the
Ironmongers’ Company without the payment of fees—an honour only conferred
on those who perform their duty to their fellow-citizens.
When the then member for Cork City asked Parliament twenty years ago
to seize the estates of the Companies in Ireland, I was fortunately
enabled by my knowledge of the subject to assist in the defeat of this
wild, revolutionary scheme of seizing property personally paid for by
the ancestors of the citizens of London. It was the Hon. the Irish
Society and the Companies who voted me their thanks, and it was my two
ever-revered friends, John Nicholl, our historian, and S. Adams Beck,
our then clerk (the father of our present zealous official)—the memory
of whom will long remain dear, for their portraits hang side by side in
our Court-room—it was their kind notice of my humble efforts, and their
repeated good advice, which helped me to the honour I so highly valued,
and led me to be ever watchful of our rights and privileges.
Thirty years ago my said dear friend John Nicholl was Master of the
Company (he died in 1871), and this year his son is our Senior Warden,
and (I trust) our next Master. We wish him every best wish, we heartily
pray that the Almighty will bless us all, and that “the Worshipful
Company of Ironmongers, root and branch,” may be permitted to “flourish
for ever.”
Dalston, London, March, 1889.
T. C. NOBLE,
Warden of the Yeomanry,
1888-1889.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I.—The Old City, its Citizens and Guilds 1
II.—Iron, Ironworks, and Ironmongers 6
III.—The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers 11
IV., V., VI.—Four Hundred Years of the Ironmongers’ History 19-40
VII.—The Apprentices, the Hall, and the Irish Estate 41
VIII.—The Ironmongers’ Charities and Charitable Ironmongers 51
APPENDIX.
Some Account of the Blacksmiths’ Company and their
Exhibition at Ironmongers’ Hall 61-74
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATE PAGE
I.—_Frontispiece_: Arms of the Ironmongers’ Company
II.—(_a_) The Old Church of Allhallows Staining, Mark Lane, 1807,
now removed (except the tower), and the parish united
with St. Olave, Hart Street; Ironmongers’ Hall is in
the parish of Allhallows 1
(_b_) The Church of St. Luke’s, Old Street, Middlesex,
1807; erected on land part of the Ironmongers’
estate; consecrated on St. Luke’s Day, 1733 1
III.—(_a_) One of the ancient silver-gilt salt-cellars 12
(_b_) One of two fifteenth-century maple-wood mazer-bowls,
with silver-gilt mountings 12
IV.—A cocoa-nut cup, or hanap, of sixteenth-century date, with
silver-gilt bands and mountings, and 8½ inches high 18
V.—(_a_) The “Estridge,” or ostrich, carved in wood, about
4 feet high, which was used in the Lord Mayor’s
pageant of 1629, and now preserved at the Hall; it
has a horseshoe in its beak 26
(_b_) A bronze token representing the fourteen almshouses
erected under Sir Robert Geffery’s trust, in the
Kingsland Road, 1713-1714 26
VI.—The hearse-cloth, or Ironmongers’ funeral pall, of crimson
velvet and cloth-of-gold tissue, the gift of John
Gyva, 1515, 6 feet 5 inches long by 22 inches wide;
the centre of each side represents “The Blessed
Virgin Mary in Glory”—Plate I. 34
VII.—(_a_, _b_, _c_) Ditto, Plate II.—The Three Saints 42
VIII.—Ditto, Plate III.—Monstrance at each end 50
IX.—(_a_) The Devil gives St. Dunstan a morning call 60
(_b_) St. Dunstan compels the “Evil One” to sign a treaty
of peace 60
X.—St. Dunstan gives a practical reminder of the power of
the horseshoe 65
XI.—(_a_) The “Evil One” on his rounds sees the effect of the
treaty 69
(_b_) The horseshoe puts to flight the Devil and pursues
the “Evil One” and all his evil companions 69
[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH OF ALLHALLOWS STAINING, MARK LANE, LONDON,
1807. (See page 45.)
THE CHURCH OF ST. LUKE THE EVANGELIST, OLD STREET, MIDDLESEX, 1807. (See
page 57.)]
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IRONMONGERS’ COMPANY.
CHAPTER I.
THE OLD CITY, ITS CITIZENS AND GUILDS.
In the history of the ancient Livery Companies of London we read the
history and progress of not only the City but the Empire. During the many
centuries of their existence the Guilds have performed a work for which
they deserve the praise and continued support of not only every citizen,
but every man who to-day enjoys the freedom of local self-government.
There have been kings and prime ministers who, in their tyrannical
measures, have forgotten the interests of the people and their trades in
their desire to gain unlawful ends, but in every case for hundreds of
years the citizens and the Guilds of London have stood forward to fight
the great battles for freedom, and the continued and present existence of
the Corporation of the ancient City, and the good work they do to-day,
prove, if we carefully read their history, that to them we are more
deeply indebted than “reformers” choose to acknowledge.
Generations ago “the City” was a very small place, surrounded by a wall
with gates, through which the green fields and suburbs—then the pleasant
villages of Southwark, Charing, St. Giles, Clerkenwell, Islington,
Shoreditch, and the Tower Hamlets and Stepney—could be reached. These
gates stood at or near the entrances of the present streets known as
Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, Ludgate, Billingsgate,
Aldgate, and Bishopsgate, so that the reader can judge what the size of
old London was. On the south side there was the River Thames with its
Dowgate, and between this water-gate and Billingsgate was the entrance
across the only bridge that then spanned the river, which existed close
to where St. Magnus Church now stands—a few yards east of the present
London Bridge. In the suburbs were many excellent springs of water, known
as Holywells, and at one of these the parish clerks of the City assembled
periodically and held their festivals. The well existed till late years
in Ray Street, close to the Middlesex Sessions House, and the district
is now known as Clerkenwell. The Parish Clerks’ Company, although not a
livery guild, still exists, and is one of the oldest of the Guilds.
It was long before the time of famous John Stow that London found a
contemporary topographer, for as early as the year 1179—now 710 years
ago—William Fitzstephen tells us the citizens everywhere “are esteemed
the politest of all others in their manners, their dress, and the
elegance and splendour of their tables,” and he pictures us the City in
all its primitive grandeur, while the citizens themselves were dignified
by the name of barons, a fact borne out by their description in King
John’s charter. Speaking of this charter reminds us that a brief epitome
of the principal grants, from the Conquest to the reign of Edward IV.,
when the Ironmongers’ Company received its incorporation, will help the
reader to more easily comprehend the progress of the citizens and the
Guilds.
There is no document more treasured at Guildhall than the diminutive
parchment which William the Conqueror gave to the citizens 800 years ago,
and upon which we all base our rights and privileges.
I will that ye be worthy
of all those laws which
ye were in King Edward’s day;
and I will that each child
be his father’s heir after his
father’s day, and I will not
suffer that any man do you
wrong. God preserve you.
In the Confessor’s time “the burgesses” of London had obtained the king’s
warrant for their freedom, and their children’s heirship, so that their
lives and their goods should be protected from the rapacity of the Lords.
The foreign merchant was only permitted in the City as a lodger, and was
strictly forbidden from selling his wares by retail and underselling and
infringing the rights of his entertainer, the citizen. Thus do we see
nearly a thousand years ago a precaution taken which we to-day are still
clamouring for!
King Henry I., for a quit rent of 300_l._ per annum, granted the citizens
the Sheriffwick of Middlesex, which 750 years later has been taken from
them. The same monarch also granted them the privilege of hunting, and it
is probably through this right the Londoners obtained of late years, for
ever, Epping Forest as an open space.
Being dependent upon the king, before the days of charter rights the
citizens were often sorely fleeced upon the slightest pretence, and in
order to protect themselves they in process of time formed guilds or
fraternities of different trades. Richard I. freed them from toll and
lestage throughout England, and gave them the conservancy of the River
Thames, which right was taken from them some thirty years ago. Of course
King John enlarged their privileges in 1199, for the City paid him 3,000
marks, and kings would do anything if you paid them handsomely. Five
charters out of eight granted by Henry III. cost them one-fifteenth
of their estate, and for another, dated 1265, they paid 13,000_l._
We mention this to show that having bought these privileges it is
unreasonable to deprive them of their rights without compensation, and
yet this question is never properly understood or thought of.
In the fifth charter granted by King John (1214) the citizens of
London received the privilege of choosing their own Mayor from among
themselves, and it is to this right many of the livery companies owe
their foundation. The first Edward permitted the Chief Magistrate to be
sworn in before the Constable at the Tower should the king or his judges
be absent from London; and, furthermore, no stranger was to be admitted
to the City freedom unless six honest and sufficient members of a mystery
or trade be surety. In 1311 Edward II. exempted the citizens from service
outside the City in the time of war or tumult, and for this privilege the
king was favoured with a gift of 2,000 marks.
To King Edward III. the citizens are indebted for many of their most
valued privileges. Thus, in 1327, the Mayor was instituted one of the
judges in trials at the Old Bailey (Newgate), the right to bring felons
from any part of England and to their goods, the right of devising in
Mortmain and forbidding the holding of markets within seven miles of the
City. And in order to give them control over such persons as escaped to
Southwark to avoid justice, that ancient village was added to the City
liberties (and subsequently designated Bridge Ward Without). In 1337
the same king confirmed the rights and privileges, forbidding “foreign”
merchant traders retailing in the City and acting as brokers; and in 1354
granted a fifth charter, permitting the Mayor to have gold or silver
maces carried before him, from which time the title of Lord Mayor of
London has been assumed by London’s Chief Magistrate.
Edward IV. was not behind his predecessors in favouring the citizens, but
then it must be noted they paid him some 12,000_l._ for four charters. In
1462 the Mayor, ex-Mayors, and Recorder were all made perpetual justices,
and were exempted from serving on juries, &c., while Bartholomew Fair,
with a court of Pie Poudre, was to be held in Smithfield. And in 1478
they obtained the right of electing a coroner, and for wine-gauging,
&c. As it was Edward IV. who granted the Ironmongers their charter, we
have traced the progress of the City privileges so far, and leave the
Ironmongers’ records to tell the tale of subsequent progress.
In the course of the preceding remarks the citizens have been so
continually alluded to, that a few notes about them and what really
constituted a citizen will not be out of place here. In the first place,
we think it is not generally known that every member of a City Company
is a citizen of London, but every citizen is not a member of a Company.
There are two grades of citizens—one free of the City only; the other
free of both City and Company, the latter freeman being designated
as “citizen and ironmonger,” or whatever Company he may belong to.
As the elections or admissions to all the Companies are the same,
that describing the admission to the Ironmongers’ will be found in a
subsequent chapter of our history.
In all the early charters the general term is “citizens,” but the
Conqueror calls them “burhwarn” (inhabitants or burgesses of the
borough), and John and Henry III. call them “barons.” The citizens or
freemen were the men or inhabitants of free condition and householders,
in contradistinction to the bondsmen or villains of the great lords. In
the time of Henry III. (1260) all persons of the age of twelve years
and upwards were commanded to swear allegiance to the king. In 1305
four persons who held land from the Bishop of London, and dwelt outside
the City, were deprived of their freedom, and about the same time the
City records declare that everyone who is sworn a freeman, and acts
contrary to his oath, should be compelled to “forsweare the town” and
lose his privileges. The statute of the 18th Edward II. for View of
Frankpledge contains a list of articles still in use, but the statute
has been improperly neglected. In 1326 all alien merchants were directed
to be amerced, and in 1364 it was ordained that a citizen should obtain
his privileges by birth (as a son of a citizen), by servitude (as an
apprentice), or by presentment of a mystery or Guild. In 1377, and for a
few years after, it was decreed that members of the Common Council should
only be chosen from the mysteries, and in 1385 a most important decision
was come to, for upon the complaint of the Mercers and the Drapers that
some persons had been improperly admitted to the Haberdashers’ and
Weavers’ Guilds who were not of those trades, they were at once expelled
the City. In the seventh year of Edward IV. no freeman or officer of the
City was to be allowed to use the livery of any lord or great man, on
pain of losing his office and freedom, so it is pretty evident the two
evils which at the present time (1889) beset us—foreign traders and civil
servant traders—were not unknown 400 years ago.
We shall conclude this the first chapter of our history by a brief
notice of what is to be understood by the description “Guild.” In
ancient times Guilds or Gilds were of two kinds—religious and secular.
The term “Guilds” is from the Saxon—to pay, an amerciement or payment
towards the support of a brotherhood. The religious Guilds existed until
their dissolution by Edward VI.; their foundations in some cases were
very early, for at Glemsford, in Suffolk, in Canute’s time, existed a
fraternity of clerks. In London, the “Cnughts” or “Cnuighten Gild,”
of thirteen persons, had their district or soke outside the City
walls, near the Tower, and was the origin of Portsoken Ward. The Gilda
Theutonicorum, the steel-yard merchants of Dowgate, who first existed
900 years ago, and held a most important position, had their guildhall
in the neighbourhood where of late years the iron trade has been so
well known (Thames Street), and yet it must be borne in mind that the
definition of _steel_-yard was in reality a yard for warehousing general
_staple_ goods, and not solely for steel or iron ware. The transfer of
all trade concerns to the management and jurisdiction of the Craft Guild
was generally accomplished by a confirmation of their ordinance, that
everyone carrying on a trade within the town should join the Guild,
for which the Guild paid certain taxes—in London to the King—and under
Henry I. (1100-1133), and every succeeding reign, the Weavers paid a
fee-farm rent, and in 1179 no less than eighteen Guilds were amerced
as adulterine, or set up without licence. This was the same year that
Fitzstephen tells us the followers of the several trades, the vendors
of various commodities, and the labourers of every kind were to be
found in their proper and distinct places. Now, in proof of this, we
find that to this day in the neighbourhood of Cheap (market) side the
streets and lanes still exist wherein the particular trades in the old
City were carried on, viz., Milk Street, Bread Street Poultry, Cornhill,
Wood Street, Candlewick (now Cannon) Street, and Ironmonger Lane—in
which latter thoroughfare and Old Jewry, close to the Guildhall, the
ironmongers of old London carried on their business, as will be proved in
another chapter.
Many of the ancient Guilds in local places which related to ironmongers
will be mentioned further on, but we may mention that Walford, speaking
of the Reading Cutlers’ and Bellfounders’ Guilds, tells us that one of
their orders was:—“No smith may sell iron wares within the borough
except a freeman, on forfeiture of two shillings each time.” Next to the
Saddlers’ and Weavers’ Guilds of London in antiquity are the Glovers’
and the Blacksmiths’—the latter ordinances are dated 1434—and of this
particular Company the writer of the present history will at some future
time give some interesting and little known details. Suffice it to say
now that one of the orders particularly ordained: “If eny of the seid
bretheren or there wyves be absent fro oure comon dyner or elles fro
oure quater dai schall paie as moche as if he or she ware present.”
It is proved in this ordinance that dinners were common with the City
Guilds four centuries ago, and that the wives of the members were of as
much importance to the craft as the members themselves. At the present
day, we regret to find that the ladies are not always considered with so
brotherly an attention as the blacksmiths considered their ladies in King
Henry’s day.
Another of the ancient Guilds was the Farriers’, whose orders, about the
year 1324, included the charges to be made for shoeing horses, at the
rate of a penny halfpenny for six nails, and twopence for eight nails.
In Buckingham there was a Guild called the Mercers’, which existed from
early days. Even as late as the seventeenth century the minutes of this
Company contained many very curious entries. For instance, in 1665, when
Thomas Arnott, the eldest son of Walter Arnott, was made free upon the
understanding that he was “to follow the trade of an ironmonger,” he paid
“one gallon of good wyne for his freedom,” and when his brother Thomas
was admitted in 1671 “to follow only ye trade of an ironmonger,” he also
paid the like fee. Upon turning to the ordinances of the Company we find
that the ironmongers of the borough were, with other trades, associated
under the name of the Mercers’, and that the fifth clause particularly
orders “noe strange pson or fforeigner inhabiting within the said borough
or pish, and not ffree of the same, shall bee made ffree of the said
Companies to the intent to sell or utter any kind of wares usually solde
by any artificier, before such time as every such strange or forrein pson
have paid for his freedome”—the sums specified in a schedule annexed, and
which “for every ironmonger” was 20_l._, and “one good leather buckett
for the use of the said Corporation,” and that the son of such person or
freeman so admitted shall, upon being made free of the Company “whereunto
he hath beene an apprentice in forme aforesaid,” pay to “the bayliffe and
burgesses and his Company one gallon of good wyne.”
As we proceed with our history we shall find some curious facts connected
with the London ironmongers, and that their ordinances, quaint and still
in force, contain many very illustrative evidences of the trade-unions of
centuries ago.