LIVERY COMPANIES: SMALL COLLECTIONS

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 CLC/L/ZA
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: LIVERY COMPANIES: SMALL COLLECTIONS
Date(s)	: 1644-1985
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 45 production units
Name of creator(s)	: Various Livery Companies and compilers.

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The documents in this collection all relate to Livery Companies but have a separate provenance to the records of the relevant Company and have therefore been catalogued separately.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records relating to Livery Companies, 1644-1985. IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

* Abstracts from the minute book of the Company of Surgeons, 1745-1783.

* Scrapbook of miscellaneous printed items, facsimiles and copies of documents relating to the Barber Surgeons' Company, 17th-19th centuries.

* Transcripts of original charters, bye-laws etc relating chiefly to various London livery companies, made for Sir Francis Palgrave as Commissioner of Enquiry into the Municipal Corporations.

* Various legal documents including apprenticeship indentures and leases.

* Rules or bye-laws for the government and regulation of the freemen of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames, their widows and apprentices and the boats, vessels and other craft to be used or worked by them, set down by the court of Mayor and Aldermen; official copies, signed by the Town clerk and examined by a High Court judge.

* A complete list of the apprentices bound to the freemen of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London; also a complete register of the freemen of the same, with index.

* Catalogue of the pictures and statuary in Drapers' Hall, with descriptions of the stained glass windows and biographical notices of benefactors of the Company, 1884.

* An account of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and its benefactors, 1885.

* Parish clerks' certificates of searchers' reports on viewing dead bodies, stating the name of the person and the cause of death, 1815 - 1834.

* Notes, press cuttings and extracts from books, articles, statutes and Founders' Company archives relating to weights and measures, with special reference to the right of the Company to size and stamp brass weights, compiled ca. 1854.

* Alphabetical list of freedom admissions and apprenticeship bindings within the Worshipful Company of Poulters, 1620-1694.

* List of the Master [sic] Wardens and Court of Assistants and Livery of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, 1831.

* Extracts from records of the Skinners' Company and from minutes of Court of Common Council relating to the interests of the Skinners' Company in the Irish plantation, late 17th century.

* Notes on parish clerks and the Parish Clerks' Company, ca. 1321-1940, by Harry McClintock Harris (1857-1959), parish clerk of St Stephen Walbrook and past master of the company. Compiled ca. 1940. Much of the source material for these notes was destroyed by enemy action in 1940.

* Alphabetical list of apprentice bindings in the Coachmakers' and Coach Harness Makers' Company, 1677-1800, compiled in 1937 by G. Eland and F. Wall.

* Index of apprentices bound, freemen and liverymen admitted, and assistants, wardens and masters elected in the Coachmakers' and Coach Harness Makers' Company, 1803-93; compiled 1985.

* Notes on the Wardens' accounts of the Founders' Company, 1497-1681 (now GL Ms 6330/1-2). Include an analysis of company income and expenditure throughout the period.

* Fellowship Porter badge, issued October 1873, of a Robert Slaymaker, with an acknowledgment of his payment of the association's admission fee and a copy of his freedom certificate of the City of London (September 1873).

* Petition from the Watermen on the Thames to Oliver, Lord Protector, and the Privy Council. The petition is on behalf of the watermen and many hundreds of poor men complaining that the ballast officers are preventing watermen and many others who gain a living thereby from providing river ballast for ships. It further alleges that the ballast engines used by the ballast officers are harmful to the river. The document includes circa 700 names, roughly half of which are signatures and the other half are names and marks (of illiterate men). The petition is not dated but it can be dated between 1653 and 1658 as it is addressed to the Lord Protector.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The documents have been listed in no particular order.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries. For further information please see LMA Research Guide "Consulting Archives at Guildhall Library", available at http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/Visitor_information/free_information_leaflets.htm

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: Depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

These items were deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library at various dates; please see catalogue entry for each item for more information. The Manuscripts Section merged with London Metropolitan Archives in 2008. The records have been catalogued by various members of staff over many years.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Company of Watermen and Lightermen: CLC/L/WA
Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers: CLC/L/GC
Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks: CLC/L/PB
Worshipful Company of Founders: CLC/L/FG
Worshipful Company of Skinners: CLC/L/SE
Worshipful Company of Poulters: CLC/L/PI
Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harnessmakers: CLC/L/CF
Association of Fellowship Porters: CLC/L/FC

Publication note:

For further information relating to Livery Companies, particularly using the company records for family history, please see Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section "Livery Company Membership Guide" and Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section "Leaflet Guides to Records: Searching for Members or those apprenticed to Members of City of London Livery Companies" (both available online).

For a general introduction to the history of the City of London Livery Companies please see entry in The London Encyclopaedia, ed Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Oct-09