FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF THE IRONMONGERS’ HISTORY.—III.
The Lord Mayor’s Show of the olden time, unlike the annual carnival of
the latter half of the nineteenth century, was in reality illustrative
of the trade to which (by Company) the chief magistrate belonged, and
notwithstanding the prejudices against pageantry at the present time, we
are staunch advocates for some annual popular display whereby the rising
generation of our great City may, like the apprentices of old London,
have visible proof that the Lord Mayor is a reality and not invisible to
his subjects, and that if they will only put their shoulder to the wheel
and emulate Hogarth’s industrious apprentice they in time stand the best
chance of living in a big house, riding in a gilt coach, and wearing that
big gold chain which yearly makes their appetites so keen and their eyes
glisten with delight.
These Lord Mayor pageants of the seventeenth century were, as we have
stated, partly a show on the Thames and partly a show in the City
streets. Designed by the City poet of the period, the descriptions were
usually printed in a small volume and circulated among the Lord Mayor’s
friends and the members of the company. Probably the largest volume on
the subject is the reprint of the Fishmongers’ pageant of 1616, edited
by J. G. Nichols in 1844, a large folio with twelve illustrations,
_facsimiles_ of the original drawings. Our own copy of this work belonged
to Mr. Recorder Gurney, and has the plates beautifully hand-painted and
illuminated. And the smallest book upon so great a subject is a 32-paged
duodecimo entitled “The Lord Mayor of London: a Sketch of the Origin,
History, and Antiquity of the Office,” printed in 1860, and containing,
as we believe, every fact to that date worth knowing about the office.
There are two items in connection with the 1629 show which must not be
omitted. That “gentle angler,” Izaak Walton, a City apprentice who had
been admitted a member of the Ironmongers’ Company eleven years before,
on November 12, 1618, was one of the thirty-two members of the yeomanry
who took part in the pageant. The “Sea Lion” and the “Estridge,” after
the day’s ceremony was over, were brought in state to Ironmongers’
Hall, “to be sett upp for the Company’s use.” We do not know how long
the lion remained so proudly exalted, but certainly not so long as the
world-renowned relic still called the “original” dagger with which “brave
Walworth knight Wat Tyler slew” in 1381, and which, after being carried
in many a Fishmongers’ pageant, rests at the present time in a glass case
in Fishmongers’ Hall. The carved-wood ostrich still exists.
[Illustration: THE HEARSE-CLOTH, OR IRONMONGERS’ FUNERAL PALL, 1515—PLATE
I.
“The Blessed Virgin Mary in Glory.”
(See page 55.)]
The same year that Walton was admitted to the freedom (1618) the
Ironmongers’ pageant, exhibited a few days previous, and at which,
of course, he was unable to be a representative member, was devised
by Anthony Munday. There were three special attractions—an ironmine,
an ostrich (which eats brass and iron to help its digestion!), and a
leopard, the latter a compliment to the Lord Mayor, whose arms bore three
leopards’ heads, and whose crest was a leopard. The cost of these was
103_l._ Some of the payments are curious to read:—Six green (wood) men,
with four assistants, who threw up fireworks as they marched along, cost
8_l._ 10_s._; two men-of-war ships cost 30_l._; 120 chambers or small
cannon, 34_l._, with “4 lbs. of almond comfits put in the bullets in
the cannon,” 4_s._; banners and streamers, 36_l._; “a new antient staff
with faire guilt head,” 6_s._ 8_d._; thirty-two trumpeters, 24_l._;
taffety sarsnet, cloth, fringe, &c., 45_l._; “meat for the children’s
breakfast,” 42_s._; and marshalling the show, 3_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ Last, but
not least, there was such a gigantic operation performed that it reads
like a Chicago event of to-day—“Removing the iron myne to the hall, 2_s._
8_d._”! The next Ironmongers’ trade pageant (1635) cost 180_l._
The last Lord Mayor’s Show of the seventeenth century which the
Ironmongers specially connected themselves with was that of Sir
Robert Geffery in 1685, and who subsequently proved himself “a worthy
benefactor” to the Company and the founder of their almshouses. It was
designed by Matthew Taubman, and cost 473_l._ In his opening speech the
author reminds us:—
“Though poets place the Iron Age the last, it had certainly a being and
was of use before silver or gold had a value among the ancients. To
calculate the original founders we must go further than Tubal Cain; nor
is it probable the first Cain built such a vast city without materials
and instruments proper for so great a design in opening the quarries and
diving into the stony bowels of the earth. As the mystery of iron-working
is most ancient, so is it most useful to the State, and most profitable
to the merchant and artificer. Iron, for the universality of its use, may
be called the efficient matter of all other mysteries, being either an
ingredient or necessary instrument in all arts and professions. Take away
the use of iron, all trading must cease.”
Taubman devised this “London’s Annual Triumph,” as he called it, in
four pageants. The first exhibited a pyramid, on which was placed the
Company’s founder, King Edward the Fourth, with Victory associated with
Vigilance, Courage, and Conduct, and those four beautiful virgins,
Triumph, Honour, Peace, and Plenty; the second pageant was a sea chariot;
the third, a triumphal arch of loyalty, upon which was exalted Fame,
supported by Truth, Union, and Concord; the fourth (or trade) pageant
represented the Mountain of Ætna casting forth its sulphurous matter,
with Vulcan, hammer in hand, at his anvil, attended by three Cyclops,
also at anvils, answering Brontes, Steropes, and Pyracmon, who were
forging thunderbolts for Jove and heads of arrows for Cupid. Amidst all
the din of music and noise of the smiths were to be seen attendants
throwing up ore from an ironmine, at the entrance to which stood
Polypheme, a great giant, with only one eye, and that in the middle of
his forehead, who, with a huge iron bar in one hand and a sword in the
other, kept guard “to prevent all others but the Right Worshipful the
Company of Ironmongers (whose peculiar prerogative it is) to enter.”
Every figure in the pageant acted well his part, and Vulcan and Apollo
probably took the lead, for Vulcan, addressing the Lord Mayor, sang:—
Here, sir, in iron mines of sulphurous earth,
Where smoak and fiery vapours take their birth,
We forge out thunderbolts for incenced Jove,
And heads of arrows for the God of Love.
Victory declaring:—
Against cold ir’n no armour can prevail;
There’s no resistance in a coat of male.
At the subsequent Guildhall banquet was sung the Company’s song in praise
of iron, and this was followed by another specially prepared to greet the
King (James the Second), who was present.
It was nothing out of the way in those times for Royalty to dine with the
citizens, with whom both kings and queens were “hale fellows well met.”
The State papers and the Royal letters prove to the hilt that in a great
many instances the citizens would have preferred their room to their
company. The best anecdote belongs to the “merry monarch” Charles II.,
who, dining at Guildhall, so “hobnob’d” with the Lord Mayor that they
did not know “the other from which.” The King, however, managed to leave
without ceremony, and was just getting into his coach in Guildhall Yard
when my Lord Mayor, discovering his loss, overtook him, and begged “Mr.
King” to return and “take t’other bottle,” which, no doubt, he did, not
forgetting a few days later to send to my lord his little bill for the
usual loan!
In recent years the City Companies have taken up the question of
technical education, and it cannot be denied that in many instances
they have excelled themselves in this most praiseworthy work. If any
reform is wanted, both Royalty and Government are the last to do it, but
with the City Guilds, notwithstanding what is said against them, they
have been found to the fore when anything beneficial to the people is
required to be carried out, although in many instances they have neither
been compelled to do it nor has it been beneficial to themselves in
particular. From time to time the Companies had subscribed largely to
the charities, &c., of societies not always of their special trade; but
in January, 1860, the Painters’ Stainers’ Company took the lead in quite
another direction by giving notice that in June following they would
hold an exhibition of decorative works at their Hall in Little Trinity
Lane, Cannon Street. There were thirty-five exhibitors, and this, the
first exhibition of its kind, proving eminently successful, was held
again the following year, and has been repeated upon many occasions
since. The next Company’s announcement was that of the Ironmongers, who
held a conversazione and exhibition of ironwork and curiosities in May,
1861, and, although this was not a trade exhibition, but promoted by the
London and Middlesex Archæological Society, yet it brought together such
a remarkable collection as had never before been seen in a City Company’s
hall. In proof of this there is in print a very scarce volume entitled “A
Catalogue of the Antiquities and Works of Art Exhibited at Ironmongers’
Hall, London, in the Month of May, 1861,” edited by the well-known
Shakesperian scholar, the late G. R. French, at that time surveyor to
the Company. So laborious was the editing of this ponderous volume, of
642 large quarto pages—for Mr. French was compelled at last to rely on
his own resources in order to complete the book—that it was not issued
until August, 1869. The actual cost of the book will never be known,
for Mr. French died in October, 1881, and all the remaining copies, the
drawings, the wood blocks of the 331 illustrations, and a large quantity
of the original MSS. relating to the exhibition, the book, &c., had been
already dispersed. The “Catalogue,” however, will keep his memory before
the public long after everything else will have passed away. In this
volume will be found described and illustrated, not only the charters,
the plate, and other curiosities belonging to the Ironmongers, but also
those belonging to other corporations, and the principal owners of iron
and other antiquities and curios.
As we have said, the exhibition was opened in May, 1861. Over 600 persons
attended the private view on Wednesday the 8th, 420 were present on the
9th, 1,345 on the 10th, and 1,678 on the 11th and last day—in all, more
than 4,000 persons, each of whom on entering signed his or her name in a
book still preserved by the Company. On the fourth day the Prince Consort
attended, and he signed his name in the Court book. It was the regret of
every one that, owing to the immense value of the antiquities, &c., the
exhibition could not be kept open longer. Since 1861 the Ironmongers have
had several other interesting meetings, and at the end of the month of
March, 1889, the Blacksmiths, by special permission, held its first trade
exhibition in the same building, following, as they do in this laudable
work, the Fishmongers’, Plumbers’, Fanmakers’, Turners’, Carpenters’,
Shipwrights’, Horners’, Coachmakers’, and other City Guilds.
A most important step was taken in 1872, when the Ironmongers joined the
other City Guilds in the promotion of technical education. Mr. Henry
Grissell, an old ironmaster and then senior warden, represented the
Company at the meetings. Speaking of this great movement, the report of
the City Livery Companies’ Commission in 1884 tells us:—“The subject of
technical education has within the last few years been taken up by the
Companies. The Clothworkers’ Company has promoted the establishment of
Yorkshire College at Leeds, where instruction is given in the manufacture
of woollen goods, and similar institutions at Bradford, Huddersfield, and
other places, the present seats of its former trade. The City and Guilds
of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education has also
recently been formed. It is an association consisting of representatives
of the City of London, and of most of the more considerable Livery
Companies, and the funds which have been placed at its disposal by the
City and the Companies are very large. A building fund of upwards of
100,000_l._ has been contributed, and annual subscriptions have been
promised amounting to about 25,000_l._ a year. The former sum has been,
or is being, expended on a technical college in Finsbury and a central
institution in South Kensington.” When we state that the technical
education scheme is likely to cost the companies 50,000_l._ a year, no
one should say a word against them, but rather applaud the City for
having inaugurated a grand work without Government aid or the support of
the great employers of labour in outer London.
The attacks made in Parliament during the past quarter of a century
against the City Companies have so far fallen back with a crushing
defeat upon the enemy. Mr. Maguire’s Irish spoliation scheme of 1868
and 1869 ended, as it was expected it would, in proving then (as now)
that there are many worse-managed estates there than those belonging
to the City Guilds. In 1876 and 1877 Mr. James distinguished himself
by also attacking the Companies, and upon three occasions had the
majority of the House against his spoliation designs. Then, again, the
“Royal Commission” of 1880 has enabled our descendants to possess the
finest collection of historical details relating to the Companies it is
possible to get together, and for that alone—not for having obtained
the information at so serious an outlay to the Companies and the public
purse—historical students are truly thankful.
We will now say a few words about the livery and the yeomanry, or freemen
generally, which, unlike any other City Company, form the only two grades
of membership in the Ironmongers (all the livery forming the court);
and this exception, together with the rarity of the oldest yeoman being
considered eligible for the “Clothing,” makes this Company in every
particular as regards the term Livery Company unique. We are very sorry
it is so, because there are many of the freemen who are not only eligible
by time service, but are in many other ways equally eligible by their
devoted interest and their ability; while the peculiar order of the Guild
prevents them being members of other Companies where their services, &c.,
would be more appreciated.
_The Livery._—The introduction of liveries into the City Companies took
place 600 years ago. The chief members wore a gown or cloak with hood,
and for distinction sake each Company had its own colours; but we cannot
learn what the Ironmongers’ were. Edward IV.’s charter is directed to
“all the freemen of the mystery and art of Ironmongers,” and appoints
“one master and two keepers or wardens, and the commonalty” and their
successors to have perpetual succession, with powers to frame ordinances,
&c. The ordinances of 1498 (in which the warden was made responsible
in selecting the necessary cloth at the drapers) were revised in the
reign of Elizabeth, and finally approved, as stated in our fourth
chapter, in February, 1581. Four quarterly courts were to be held, at
which the livery called “the Clothing” were to pay their quarterage,
and those neglecting to attend were to be fined 2_s._ And at these
courts the yeomanry were to appear and also pay their quarterage. And
upon the admittance of a member of the yeomanry to the livery he was to
pay 6_s._ 8_d._ upon receiving “his pattern of his lyverie.” Those not
paying fines to be sent to prison. There does not appear to be a record
officially fixing the strength of the livery. The earliest complete
list is dated 1537, when it appears that the number was 59, at the head
being William Denham (Alderman) and Thomas Lewen (Sheriff of London).
In 1570 there were 54 liverymen. In 1687, before the restoration patent
of James II., the list comprised a master, 2 wardens, 44 assistants,
and 16 liverymen—in all 60, or one more than in the list just 150 years
previous. In 1710 the list was 95, but in 1776 the court had increased
to 100. In 1801 there were 97 all told; in 1828, 85; in 1833 again
98; in 1847, 82; in 1857, 99; in 1867, 84; since which time there has
been a gradual decrease, the total numbering only 48 last year. Now
this is an extraordinary decline, and we should not have collected all
these numbers had it not been that for some years past the yeomanry,
among whom are many worthy and representative men, have been discussing
their chance of obtaining “the clothing,” seeing that “calls” to the
court are by no means regular, and when they do take place younger men,
generally sons or relatives of those already on the court, are chosen
over the heads of “antient” yeomen equally capable, and certainly more
so by long connection with the Company, of looking after its interests,
their position in the commercial world being a guarantee that they
would serve their brethren without the “fee or reward” about which the
Royal Commission on the Companies had so much to say. The ancient dress
or costume of a liveryman in his cap and furred robe is shown in the
Leather-sellers’ charter facsimiles in the magnificent quarto work on
that Guild, edited by the late W. H. Black, for the Company in 1871.
From time to time many ordinances were made about the citizens’ dress,
special reprimands to the livery being administered in 1619 and 1677
for not appearing in their gowns; and in 1698 the Corporation issued an
order that in future no one should join as a liveryman one of the twelve
Companies unless he had an estate of 1,000_l._, or one of the minor
Guilds under 500_l._ By an order passed in 1790 no servant is eligible
for election on the livery. In 1627 a very curious dispute arose between
Humphrey Hook, then residing at Bristol, where he had served municipal
offices, and the court, they calling upon him to be their warden, he
having been a freeman twenty-four years. The Company appears to have won
the case.
_The Yeomanry_ are the freemen of the Company generally, and about
300 in number. Although not of the “Clothing” (livery) a yeoman was
described by an authority in 1759 as being of military origin, and in
many respects equal to an esquire, the former fighting with arrows and
bows made of yew tree, the latter carrying for distinction and defence
a shield. In the ordinances of 1581 it was laid down that the yeomanry
should pay their quarterage of 4_d._ a quarter, and that the wardens of
the livery should, when necessary, help the “wardens of the yeomanry”;
the four quarter-days are specially named as July 25, or St. James’ day,
October 18, being St. Luke’s day, New Year’s day, and the Wednesday in
Easter week, on which last-named day the new warden of the yeomanry
should be elected for two years, there having been two wardens allowed
by petition in 1497. All members failing to appear on these days were
fined. It was also decreed that two suppers should be kept yearly at the
hall, for which the wardens were allowed 33_s._ 4_d._ Mr. Nicholl, the
Company’s historian, states that the wardens of the yeomanry stand in
the same position to their body as the wardens of the livery do; but of
late years, their duties having declined, only one warden now represents
the freemen. The quarterage, too, of 16_d._ per annum has for many years
past ceased to be collected, and the two meetings and suppers at the
hall, which formerly took place on election day and St. Luke’s day (by
and under the authority of the ancient ordinances of 1581, confirmed by
the Lord Chancellor in 1590, assisted by the will in 1653 of “a worthy
benefactor,” none other than the clerk of the Company, Ralph Handson,
and finally approved by the Charity Trustees in 1876), were in the year
1830 discontinued, and two dinners appointed to take place at the hall in
their stead. At these meetings and festivals, which are proved to be no
unimportant rights, the senior warden of the livery presides, drinking
health and prosperity to the yeomanry “root and branch, and may they
flourish for ever”; their warden replying, and desiring his brethren in
return to drink to the health of the senior warden. These are the only
occasions when the members have the opportunity and pleasure of meeting
in a body, and may the ancient custom—which by special ordinances became
the freemen’s right—long continue is a wish echoed by the whole Company.
Formerly the bread and cheese and ale repast was obtained from the old
King’s Head Tavern opposite the hall in Fenchurch Street, and it was
within the walls of the New London Tavern, erected on its site, that the
warden of the yeomanry for the year 1888 held the St. Luke’s day meeting,
and by discoursing to his brethren upon the history and antiquity of
the Company, and exhibiting a number of curiosities relating to the
Ironmongers, not only brought together a most enthusiastic audience, but
for the first time in the recollection of the yeomanry made them feel
interested in their Guild, and to pass a resolution never to permit the
opportunity of meeting twice a year (by virtue of the old ordinance) to
lapse in the future.
The freedom of the Ironmongers’ Company is obtainable by patrimony (as
children of freemen, for there have been free women admitted), servitude
(as apprentices to freemen), and redemption (by payment of one hundred
guineas, or honorary presentation); but, curious to relate, although
there are members of the Company “learned in the law” at the present
time (as freemen by patrimony), no attorney is eligible for election by
redemption. By ordinance dated 1657 no person is to change the copy of
his freedom, and by an order of Court made November 21, 1878, “no person
who is free of any other Company can be admitted to the freedom of the
Ironmongers’ Company, nor can he become free of another Company after
being admitted to the freedom of this Company.” This order necessarily
makes the Ironmongers a select body corporate, and unlike the other
Companies of the City. Upon being elected freeman the member makes a
declaration accordingly, and when elected warden he takes the warden’s
oath to look after the Company’s welfare during his term of office. The
beadle of the Company half-yearly sends out the notices: “You are desired
by the warden of the yeomanry to meet at Ironmongers’ Hall” (on the day
of election, or St. Luke’s) “when a court will be holden in the usual
manner.” At this court the warden presides and signs the freemen’s book,
as do also such members who may be present. The beadle, having previously
written to those of the yeomanry eligible for office of warden, submits
the replies to the court. The election is entirely by their own vote, and
selected from those present; and we believe for the first time in 1881,
when Mr. F. W. Pellatt was chosen. The warden of the following year (Mr.
Alfred Marshall, C.E.) was re-elected in 1883, he having taken an active
part in the freemen’s interest; and at the election in 1888 (the Armada
Tercentenary celebration year) the warden chosen was the author of the
“Historical Essay” upon the Spanish Armada, who, being a member of the
Plymouth and London committees, was selected in commemoration of the
Company’s zeal at the time of the threatened invasion 300 years previous.
At the yeomanry meeting at Easter, 1883, a special vote of condolence
with the family was recorded in the minute-book upon the decease of “its
much respected clerk, Simon Adams Beck, Esq., who for the long period of
nearly fifty years so ably discharged the duties of his very important
office.” The death of Mr. Beck, who was at one time Governor of the Gas
Light and Coke Company—the district in which the works are situated being
now known as Beckton—was a sad loss to every member of the Ironmongers’
Company. His portrait appropriately hangs close to that of Mr. John
Nicholl, the Company’s historian, in the court-room at the hall.