From the Reformation to the Revolution. Effects of the Reformation on the companies; returns as to their suppressed chantries, with tables of their rents and expenditure, 113-17; exactions on the companies, 119-20; Lord Mayor's precepts to, on monopolies, patents, &c. 120-160; concealments, 158-61; seditious publications, sumptuary regulations, &c. 162-7; government interferes with their concerns, 167-74; rage for new incorporations in Elizabeth's reign; forced loans on the com- panies; soldiers quartered on, 176-82; celebrate the Restoration, 183; act for regulating the companies, 2 Charles II. ibid.; effects of the fire of London, 185-6; companies' old constitution altered, are prescribed new oaths, and make new ordinances, 187-92; altered state of the company's ceremonies Viz. Summary from various authorities, 225-9; Origin and History, 230- 42; Constitution and Government, 242-53; Dress and Observances, 253- 61; Hall and Buildings, 261-9; Trust-Estates and Charities, 270-93; Viz. General Summary, from the Histories of London, 297-301; Origin and Viz. Summary from various authorities, 389-93; Origin and History, 393- • See Index for more ample particulars, under the various heads, Mercers' Com- SEPARATE HISTORIES OF THE COMPANIES. FISHMONGERS, 1-120. Viz. Summary from various authorities, 1-7; Origin and History, 8-19; Constitution and Government, 19-43; Dress and Observances, 43-51; Hall and Buildings, 51-76; Trust-Estates and Charities, 76-115; Char- Viz. Summary from various authorities, 121-5; Origin and History, 125-54; Constitution and Government, 155-204; Dress and Observances, 204-21 ; Hall and Buildings, 222-48; Trust-Estates and Charities, 248-86; Viz. Summary from various authorities, 299-303; Origin and History, 303- 8; Constitution and Government, 308-19; Dress and Observances, 319-27; Hall and Buildings, 327-9; Trust-Estates and Charities, 330- Viz. Summary from various authorities, 303-8; Origin and History, 308- 412; Constitution and Government, 412-31; Dress and Observances, 432-63; Hall and Buildings, 463-84; Trust-Estates and Charities, 485- Viz. Summary from various authorities, 531-3; Origiu and History, 533-6; SALTERS, 555-65. Viz. Summary from various authorities, 555-7; Origin and History, 557-8; IRONMONGERS, 567-624. Viz. Summary from various authorities, 567-9; Origin and History, 569-79; Constitution and Government, 579-87; Dress and Observances, 587-97; Hall and Buildings, 597-610; Trust-Estates and Charities, 610-22; Char- Viz. Summary from various authorities, 625-7; Origin and History, 627-31; Viz. Summary from various authorities, 643-4; Origin and History, 644-9! HISTORY OF THE TWELVE GREAT LIVERY COMPANIES OF LONDON.. HISTORICAL ESSAY. Ec HE Livery Companies of London derive their origin from the early associations termed GILDS, and were either ecclesiastical or secular. clesiastical Gilds were for devotion and alms-deeds; "Secular Gilds were for trade and alms-deed." Both, in ancient times, were distinguished by various religious observances, and partook much of the nature of monastic institutions. Secular Gilds-to the history of which the present work will be confined-appear to have included the entire aggregate of a town, and were at first named Gilda Mercatoria, merchant-gilds; but afterwards, when the respective craftsmen, artisans, and dealers, obtained charters for managing their several callings, they were termed Gilda Mercatorum, gilds-merchants; merchant denoting, originally, all kinds of dealers and traders. The name gild, guild, or geld, primarily meaning a payment, (from the Saxon gildan, to pay,) was variously applied in old times. It signified a tax, or tribute, as, in Domesday book, the burgh of Totenais, it is said, "did not geld, but when Exeter gelded, and then it paid twelve pence for geld."+ It meant an amerciament, composition, or mulct, as did the • Firma Burgi, p. 24. + Ibid. B word gildable, the liability to such gild or payment.* It also signified an enfranchised district or soke, as in the case of the wards of London, which were anciently called gilds;† and it moreover signified the free customs and privileges of a gild or soke; its most usual acceptation, however, in later days, was to denote an associated body or brotherhood, whether a town or a minor incorporation, because every member was gildar, that is, to pay something towards the charge and support of such body; hence gilds are explained by Johnson to be "Fraternities originally contributing sums towards a common stock, gildrcipe, a corporation. The word is found in various tongues: old French, gilde, société, Lacombe; Teut. gilde, societas contributionum, Kelian; Icel. gilde, convivium, symposium, serenius, a society, a fraternity or company combined together, by orders and laws made among themselves, by their prince's license. Hence the common word guildhall proceeds, being a fraternity or commonalty of men gathered together into one combination, supporting their common charge by mutual contribution.”—Cowel.‡ GILDS, though not so named, are found among the classical ancients, and implied with them, as with us, societies which contributed certain sums for common uses. Their artificers and traders were also formed into companies, like those of later times, and occupied particular streets, to which they gave name. The latter custom only began to be discontinued in London in the reign of Richard II., and is distinctly "By the discretion of the sheriffs and bailiff, and other ministers and places gildable."-Spelman, Adm. Jur. "The city, whilst it maintained the same legal polity and constitution which distinguished a county under the Saxon government, was a concentration of leet jurisdictions, each comprising a ward, or, as the division was then named, a gild."-Commentaries on London, 8vo. 1830. The "Enquiry into the Elective Franchise," 8vo. 1822, adds, "Each ward ranking as a hundred in the division of counties, and comprising an indefinite number of inhabitants or frankpledges, was under the jurisdiction of an alderman, having an authority similar to that of the hundredor in ordinary districts." Gildam, otherwise Geltum, Geldum, and Geldus, (from whence also Gilda, Gildonia, Gildones, Con-gildones, &c.) are all derived from the Saxon Gildam and Geldam, whence, as has been seen, Gildare is in Domesday book synonymous with Solvere, Redere, to pay, to render. And in Præfat. S. Aluradi, Godgildam, in like manner, meant offerings to God, as did Deofulgild, offerings to the Devil. Geld, as meaning public taxes, was by the Anglo-Normans changed into Taxum, Tallagium, and Quinto-deciman (taxes, tallages, and fifteenths). Gildam, meaning a mulct or fine to the king, with its numerous combinations, occurs in the laws of Ethelbert, Athelstan, and other Saxon princes.-Spelman. § Encyclop. of Antiquities, (v. Guilds,) which quotes various authorities. noticed by Fitzstephen two centuries earlier, as of classic growth: "This city, even as Rome, is divided into wards, and all the sellers of wares, all the workmen for hire, are distinguished every morning in their places as well as streets."* Gervase of Canterbury, near the same time, speaks of both French and English, skilled in stone and wood work, travelling in gilds or societies, for the purpose of building: our kings impressed their workmen from such, when wanted. † ANGLO-SAXON GILDS. Gilds, in England, were at first political, and one of the grand elementary parts of our constitution. They originated from the Saxon custom of frank pledge, (thought by Minsheu to have been borrowed from the Lombards,‡) and were established here before the Anglo-Saxons abandoned their employ as husbandmen in detached habitations or farms, to form municipal governments in towns and cities. Antiquaries state them to have originated in a Saxon law, by which it being ordained "That every freeman of fourteen years old should find sureties to keep the peace, or be committed, certain neighbours, consisting of ten families, entered into an association, and became bound to each other to produce him who committed an offence, or to make satisfaction to the injured party. That they might the better do this, they raised a sum of money amongst themselves, which they put into a common stock; and when one of the pledges had committed an offence, and was fled, then the other nine made satisfaction out of this stock, by payment of money according to the Fitzstephen's Descriptio Nobilissima Civit. Lond.-Strype's Stow, ii. p. 4. "That this discipline (i. e. of frankpledge) is borrowed of us from the Roman emperors, or rather Lombards, appeareth out of 2 F. 53. et ibi Hotom: cum ibid. adduct: what articles were wont to be inquired of in this court, read in Horne's Mirrour of Justices, lib. i. c. de la veue des franc pleges. What these articles were in ancient time, see Fleta, lib. ii. c. 52."-Minsheu, v. Frankpledge. § De friborgis Præterea est quædam summa et maxima securitas per quam omnes statu firmissimo sustinentur, videlicet, ut unusquisque stabilat se sub fidejussionis securitate quam Angli vocant Fɲeobonger, soli tamen Eboracenses dicunt eandem tien manna tala, quod sonnat Latine, decem hominem numerum. Hæc securitas hoc modo fiebat scilicet, quod de omnibus villis totins regni sub decennali fide jussione debebant esse universi: Ita quod si unus ex decem forisfecerit, novem ad rectum eum haberent; &c. Leges Edovardi Regis. Wilkins's Fo. 1721, p. 201-2. |