0151 928 3308

The Merchant Taylors' Company

A SHORT HISTORY, WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GUILDS AND LIVERY COMPANIES OF THE CITY OF LONDON

By S.T. Bryden (First published in the Crosbeian in 1936)

In the following pages an attempt will be made to trace the history of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors in the City of London to its origin in one of the old trade guilds.

These guilds originated in Anglo-Saxon times, played a very prominent part in civic life in the Middle Ages, and very largely controlled trade and industry in Western Europe until the 18th century. In France, Belgium and Holland they were swept away by the Revolution, but in England, although no legislation antagonistic to the guilds has been enacted since the confiscation of their religious endowments under the Tudors, they lost their influence through economic causes.

The word "gild" is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and came to be applied to an association of people who grouped themselves together for social and religious purposes. It is thought to be derived from the " geld " or money which they subscribed in order to carry out their corporate duties. In some ways these guilds resembled modern mutual-benefit Societies like the Buffaloes and Foresters in that their money was expended on feasts and charities, but they had, in addition, a definitely religious side to their nature.

Early in the 12th Century, when craftsmanship had reached a high degree of efficiency, a merchant guild was formed in each town to control local trade. These guilds formulated rules for the honest conduct of commerce, supervised the markets, protected their members from the exaction of troublesome tolls, and gave them the monopoly of their respective trades in the district. Side by side with the merchant guild existed the religious fraternities attached to the parish churches, and, as the members of each trade tended to inhabit the same quarter of a town, the fraternities frequently consisted of men engaged in the same trade. With the growth of trade it soon became impossible for a single merchant guild to control all the many trades in a town, and it split up into smaller Craft Guilds associated with the fraternities, each consisting of workers in a particular trade.

The Guild system was adopted by the civic community as a means of defence against the tyranny of the feudal system, for, by submitting themselves to the "soke," or collective overlordship, of the Guild, which exercised considerable rights over its own members, the latter were freed from the overlordship of the barons and religious houses. The system fostered both self-respect and esprit-de-corps in the craftsmen, and maintained a high standard of workmanship, and it also brought each trade under the salutary guidance of the Church; for the fraternities met at their parish churches for Requiems for their departed brethren, attended Mass on the feast-days of their patron saints, and afterwards joined in hearty convivial gatherings. It is from such a worthy source that the famous Livery Companies of the City of London trace their descent.

The known history of the London Guilds begins in the 12th Century, when Henry I granted a charter to the Weavers' Guild. Later Henry II authorized this Guild to regulate the trades of the clothworkers, drapers, tailors, and all the various crafts connected with clothing. It became so powerful, however, that it actually threatened to rival in authority the governing body of the City, and was suppressed by King John. The component trades of the guild then formed their own independent Guilds, and this marks the beginning of the Taylors' Guild.

While maintaining peace among their own members, the guilds frequently quarrelled with each other. For instance, in 1267 a conflict took place in the streets of London between the Taylors and the Goldsmiths, in which they were soon joined by members of the Clothworkers and Cordwainers, over 500 combatants participating in the struggle, in which many were wounded and some killed. As a punishment thirteen of the rioters were hanged.

Among those who had participated in Simon de Montfort's rebellion, and who were proscribed in 1269 were many members of the Taylors' Guild. By this time it was usual to elect the Lord Mayor from the Guilds, and in 1271 Philip le Tayleur was among the unsuccessful candidates ; indeed two centuries were to pass before the Taylors were successful in this respect.

In 1299 King Edward the First granted the first charter to "the Gild of Taylors and Linen Armourers of the Fraternity of Saint John the Baptist of the City of London." The Taylors' Guild was essentially a working guild and continued so until the time of James I. King Edward III granted a further charter to the Taylors giving them a monopoly over the trade.

The fourteenth century was the period of development of the companies, thirty-two of which were already formed by 1363 and approved by the King. Half a dozen of them secured special privileges by Royal Charter before the close of the century, and the City of London underwent the most important constitutional change in its history, the change from a feudal government to that of a civic community. This was due almost entirely to the growth of power of the guilds and company. At the end of that century both the Taylors and Goldsmiths possessed Halls. The Taylors, in 1331, removed from their old headquarters behind the Red Lion, in Basing Lane, to their New Hall in Threadneedle Street. This was previously the mansion of Sir Oliver de Ingham, Seneschal of Gascony under King Edward III, whose tutor he had been in that monarch's early days. The Banqueting Hall would hold two hundred guests, and was lighted by splendid Flemish glass, its walls being decorated by tapestry depicting scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist. Connected with the Hall was a private chapel, portrait gallery, a King's chamber and reception rooms, exchequer chamber, treasury, wardrobe, pantry, buttery, larder, scullery, kitchen, storehouse, bakehouse, brewery, gardener's house, and stables. The entrance gateway was flanked by seven cottages for the almsmen of the Company, these cottages being built between the Hall and the Church of St. Martin Outwich in the reign of Henry IV. The Hall itself was a lofty building with three tiers of windows and a high-pitched roof crowned by a lantern with a vane. It was described as being "of stone and of such byggness that it passeth all the halles in London for beauty and comlyness."

The name Livery Company came to be applied to the Guilds in the time of Edward III, because they adopted a livery which was worn on ceremonial occasions. The complete livery consisted of hood and gown. With the change of name from guild to company the name of the officers also changed. Up to 1387 the head of the guild was known as the Pilgrim, probably because he made pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and to Rome on behalf of the other members of the guild. His lieutenants were known as Purveyors of Alms, but in 1387 the Pilgrim's title was changed to that of Master, and the Purveyors of Alms became Wardens.

The Master and Wardens were assisted by the Court of assistants, with jurisdiction over all the members and apprentices of the trade, and power of discipline over all unruly workers and offending masters. The Companies took into their own hands the settlement of all disputes between masters and men, but as the Wardens and Court of Assistants were, in all cases, masters, their decisions were liable to he somewhat biased. Another duty of the Wardens was to care for the poor, the aged and infirm, and for the widows and orphans of the trade.

Membership of the Companies was obtained only after taking the oath of initiation and payment of the entrance fee in money or kind, and the obligations consisted of attendance at the Annual Mass and feast, and at the quarterly business meetings, at funerals of members, and participation in the friendly-society activities of the Companies. Within the organization of each Company was a junior branch which was called the Yeomanry or Bachelors' Company.

Originally the journeymen of a company were compelled to live in communities, and they claimed to be a separate craft; but, after many disputes, they came under control of the Merchant Company. In the case of the Taylors the Yeomanry exceeded in numbers the Merchant Company, and was governed by its own Master and Wardens. Poor tailors joined the Yeomanry Company, and the latter thus became the channel through which the wealthier company dispensed alms. As the centuries passed the character of the Yeomanry changed, its members ceasing to be journeymen and often consisting of wealthy traders well on the road to civic dignity. The distinction between the Bachelors and the members of the Merchant Company was that the latter were permitted to wear livery.

A very important functionary of a Lively Company was its Beadle, who kept the list of members, and summoned them to the meetings, feasts and funerals. He also distributed alms and acted as caretaker of the premises. In 1399 the salary of the Taylors' Beadle was no less than £3 a year, and their clerk received a salary of £2 13s. 3d. per annum, together with the costs of his table. The records for the same year show that the Taylors' Company maintained a special costly livery for the King, Prince and Lord Mayor, and special hoods for the Sheriffs and other civic dignities.

In 1390, King Richard II, who was himself a brother of the Fraternity, granted a further charter to the Taylors, and confirmed their privileges, viz., the holding of the Guild of Saint John the Baptist, the making of a livery, the holding of assemblies, and a feast at midsummer (St. John the Baptist's Day), and the making of ordinances. In addition, however, he gave them authority to elect a Master and four Wardens.

The pageantry of the Lord Mayor's Show as one sees it to-day is largely due to the Livery Companies, and in the Middle Ages a feature of all Lord Mayors' processions was the Pageant of St. John the Baptist and the Lamb, which was, without doubt, originated by the Taylors' Fraternity. It was this pageant which is said to have reconciled King Richard to the City in 1392.

In 1408, Henry IV, another brother of the Fraternity, granted a charter to the Taylors by the name of the " Master and Wardens of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist in London," constituting them a "sound perpetual and corporate fraternity" with a common seal, who might plead and be impleaded, and hold land. Henry VI added the right of search and collection of abuses.

It will be seen that by this time the Taylors were a very important corporation and naturally they were very jealous of their privileges. When King Henry in 1483 granted a charter to the Drapers' Company, which, like the Taylors, had originated as part of the Weavers' Guild, the Taylors, who had been incorporated in 1408, were very jealous. The friction came to a head in 1440, the two candidates to the Mayoralty being R. H. Clopton, Draper, and Ralph Holland, Taylor, Clopton was elected, and the Taylors created an uproar in the very Guildhall itself, with the result that some dozen of them were carried off to Newgate. There some were fined and some underwent a. considerable term of imprisonment as a punishment for their offence, Not satisfied with this degree revenge the new Lord Mayor succeeded m having the powers granted to the Taylors recalled by the King, who does not appear to have been a brother of the Taylors' Fraternity as his father and grandfather had been, However, the Taylors had not long to wait before one of the Company, for the first time since its incorporation, was elected Lord Mayor. This was Sir John Percyvale, elected in 1498.

The animosity of the Taylors was not confined to the Drapers. In 1484 they disputed with the Skinners for precedence. Billesden, who was then Lord Mayor, made a very wise decision, directing that the two companies should take precedence alternately, and also that each Company should dine in the Hall of the other annually, namely, on the vigil of Corpus Christi, and on the feast of St. John the Baptist, This pleasant custom holds to the present day, King Edward IV confirmed the old charters of the Taylors and granted the Company its first armorial bearings, which differed slightly from the present arms. According to Stow, the arms granted by Clarenciaulx, King-at-Arms, were :- In a field argent, a pavilion between two mantles purpure garnished or ; in a chief azure an Holy Lamb, set within a sun; the crest upon the helm a pavilion purpure, garnished or.

By the reign of Richard III the Companies had prospered so well that no fewer than twenty-eight of them possessed Halls. Edward IV and Richard III were both members of the Taylors' Fraternity, as also was King Henry VII, who in 1503 granted the Company the proud title of " the Master and Wardens of the Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist in the City of London,'' because by this time the Company consisted largely of great merchants trading with different parts of the world, This is the present charter of the Company and was later confirmed by Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth and James I.

It is now time to consider the effect of the Reformation on the Livery Companies with special reference to the Merchant Taylors' Company. In times past rich members of the Company had left considerable wealth and property to the Company on their death, certain sums being left for the purpose of having Mass said for the repose of their souls, An executor of the Outwich family had left the Company seven shops and the advowson of St. Martin's Church. The Company had been admitted to the use of the Chapel of St. John on the north side of St. Paul's Cathedral by the Bishop of London, In addition it was associated with the Priory Hospital of Saint John and half-a-dozen other religious houses, and had its own private chapel at the Hall. At the time of the Reformation there were no fewer than nine livings in its gift.
Henry VIII dealt the Companies a cruel blow. By the Act of 1545 he seized all endowments and legacies which had been left in order to provide for the saying of Mass for the Dead. This Act did not condemn the practice of saying Requiem. Mass, but the use of endowments for that purpose. So far as the Merchant Taylors were concerned they drew up a list of charities and obits and presented it to the King's Commissioners. The endowments connected with the Greyfriars Monastery were thereupon confiscated.

In I547 the first Parliament of Edward VI enacted that all such religious endowments should be diverted to " good and godly uses,'" suggesting for example, the erection of grammar schools. The Parliament then proceeded to confiscate the whole of the religious endowments which had escaped the rapacity of Henry VIII. The secular wealth of the Companies was, in the meantime, left untouched, After the Reformation attendance at Church on the day of the election of the Master, and attendance at the funerals of all deceased members (other than those who had died of the plague) continued to be acts of obligation for all members of the Companies.

In addition to the confiscation of their religious endowments the sixteenth century witnessed the beginning of the practice of levying compulsory .loans from the Companies for such purposes as helping the community to buy corn in times of scarcity. The Common Council raised a loan of £1,000 in this manner from the Livery Companies in 1521. In 1528 the Merchant Taylors allied themselves with their erstwhile enemies the Drapers, in a vain opposition to the Fullers and Shearmen, who combined and succeeded in securing for themselves the proud honour of becoming the twelfth of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London, After 1543 precepts were issued for raising loans from. the Companies almost every year, the assignment for the Merchant Taylors in 1545 being £100.

In spite of these exactions the Livery Companies continued to brighten the City with their colourful and dignified ceremonial. The Lord Mayor's Show in 1553 was headed by two bannermen bearing mighty streamers of the Merchant Taylors' arms, a drummer and fife-player in blue, and two giants clothed in green and bearing fearsome clubs. Behind these followed sixteen trumpeters and seventy javelin-men clothed in blue. Behind the javelin-men and preceding the Lord Mayor were the Bachelors of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and the well-known pageant of St. lohn the Baptist. This was in the year when Sir Thomas White, a past-Master of the Company, was Lord Mayor. In the same year he helped to subdue Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion on behalf of Lady Jane Grey. Sir Thomas White, however, is better known as the Founder of St. John's College, Oxford, in which the Company has always been interested.

In 1561, Richard Hilles, the Master, and the Wardens and Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors founded the Company's famous Grammar School in London, which has produced so many eminent men, among whom perhaps the greatest are the saintly Bishop Launcelot Andrewes, Archbishop Tuxon, Edmund Spenser, and Robert, Lord Clive; and the most notorious, Titus Oates,

In addition to raising loans for the succour of the City, the Companies also raised men for her defence. In 1562 the Taylors raised thirty-five men for this purpose. In 1572 the Privy Council raised a regular force for the defence of the City, the unit provided by the Merchant Taylors numbering two hundred men, The largest loan raised from the Companies up to that time was one of £20,000 levied compulsorily by Queen Elizabeth in 1579 for the suppression of the rising in Ireland.

In 1555, a Spanish invasion as a reprisal for the raids of Drake and the English support of Don Antonio, was expected, and entrenchments were thrown across Blackheath, where a garrison of four thousand men was posted for the defence of London. Of these the Merchant Taylors provided no fewer than three-hundred-and-ninety-five. The invasion, however, did not mature, and a later attempt was shattered by the defeat of the Armada.

In 1586 the present armorial bearings were granted to the Merchant Taylors' Company, a lion replacing the Lamb in the chief, and the Lamb replacing the pavilion as crest. Two supporters:- the well-known camels and the motto " Concordia parvae res crescunt " were also granted (click here for more information on the crest).

Perhaps the brightest day in the history of the Taylors' Hall was that of the election feast of 1607, which was attended by King James, Prince Henry, and the Court. The Company first attended at St. Helen's Church to hear the Election Sermon preached by the President of St. John's College, Oxford, Before the. day of the feast the Company had debated the desirability of inviting the Lord Mayor, but decided that it would be better not to do so, first, on the grounds that the lords would be offended if he were put at a higher table than themselves (although the Company considered it his due), and, secondly, because he was a Clothworker and might abuse the privilege of his position to the detriment of the Taylors. When the King had taken his seat in the Company's Hall, an oration composed by Ben Jonson was delivered by a pretty child in the guise of an angel, which greatly diverted His Majesty. In galleries around the Hall were skilled musicians, and in a large model ship suspended from the roofs sang a choir of three men. Then King James went up into the King's Chamber and dined alone, but, through a hole cut in the wall for the purpose, he was able to watch how gallantly the young Prince disported himself at the feast. The King and Prince were served by Knights and others who were members of the Company in the Livery, bearing their hoods on their shoulders. The Master presented the King with a purse of gold, and the Clerk presented a vellum containing a list of the Royal and other eminent past. honorary members of the Company. Similar offerings were made to Prince Henry, whereupon the latter declared that he would bs a freeman of the Company, and called upon all loyal Lords present, who were not already freemen of other Companies to do likewise. After the election, and a farewell harmony from the choir in the roof, the King, Prince and Nobles present heartily thanked the Company and took their leave.

In 1605 Mr. Robert Dowe, a member of the Merchant Taylors' Company made a bequest of £50 in order that the bellman of Saint Sepulchre's Church should ring a handbell outside the condemned cell of Newgale Prison at midnight on the eve of an execution, in order thoroughly to awaken the occupant (if necessary) before reciting the following verses :-

"All you that in the condemned hole do lie,
"Prepare you, for tomorrow you shall die ;
"Watch all; and pray ; the hour is drawing near,
"That you before the Almighty must appear.
"Examine well yourselves ; in time repent,
"That you may not to eternal flames be sent,
"And when St. Sepulchre's Bell in the morning tolls.
"The Lord above have mercy on your souls.
"Past 12 o'clock.''

This handbell is still preserved in St. Sepulchre's Church, Holborn.

In 1610 the Livery Companies acquired their Irish Estates. The Governor of the Ulster Plantation paid the King £60,000 for the confiscated lands, of the Irish rebels, and each of the Twelve Great Livery Companies subscribed one-twelfth of the money and received one-twelfth of the estate. When Macaulav visited Londonderry two centuries later he could still see the arms of the Merchant Taylors on some of the cannon in the city.

In 1620 the Merchant Taylors' Company founded another school-this time in the North of England. This was due to the generosity of John Harrison, a Warden of the Company, who bequeathed the revenues of certain property in the City for the purpose of building and endowing a school at Great Crosby in Lancashire, where his father had been born. John Harrison died in 1619, the building of the school being commenced the following year, when the Company took over the governorship.

The days of pageantry ceased when Civil War raised its grisly head throughout the land. At the time of its outbreak the Merchant Taylors' Hall contained an armoury of 153 swords, 52 muskets, 70 pikes, 32 halberds, 300 cwts, of bullets and 40 barrels of gunpowder. Most of the Company's Plate was melted for the King, but Parliament also took its toll and levied loans higher than any known previous to that time. In 1647 the Merchant Taylors' Company claimed to have lent over £26,000, and this loan was never repaid, The Puritans mutilated the splendid tapestries of the Life of St. John the Baptist in the Company's Hall, with the result that these only fetched £20 when sold in 1730.

Between the time of the Battle of Naseby and that of the dismissal of the Rump Parliament the lower ranks of the Company, encouraged by the success of the rebels during the War, agitated with some degree of success for the modification of its Constitution on democratic lines, but the old Constitution was revived at the glorious Restoration. Even before that recaulking of its bulwarks we read of the difficulties experienced by the father of Samuel Pepys in carrying on his trade as a " foreign " tailor {i.e. one who was outside the Company) until he was admitted a member through the influence of great relations in 1653.

The Great Fire of 1636 destroyed the roof of the Hall, and its wonderful interior was gutted so that only the walls and foundations remained. (The present Hall is a replica of that of the 14th century, and is the largest of all the Livery Companies' Halls). In addition to meeting its own losses after the Fire the Company had to contribute heavily towards the cost of rebuilding the City.

The premises at the west end of the Hall were built in 1682, and comprise the King's Chamber, the Great Parlour or Court Dining Room, and the Grand Staircase, The Yeomanry Company ceased to exist at the beginning of the 18th century, and from that time the history of the Company has been less eventful, one of the few outstanding events being the use of the Hall for a banquet to Alexander I of Russia and Frederick William III of Prussia in 1814 before Napoleon's return from Elba.

Although still one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies (there are actually 84 Companies, great and small, at the present day), the Merchant Taylors' Company retains little or no connection with the art of clothing the human form. Its activities and those of the other Companies are now limited to the administration of the charities committed to their care by past members, the encouragement of education, the dispensation of hospitality, and lastly, but not least, in sharing in the government of the City of London, for the Lord Mayor is still always elected from one of the Great Livery Companies

Click here for information on the old Screen in the Merchant Taylors' Hall, London.

The Merchant Taylors' Company

Schools

Information