mongers, and Butchers, commanding them respectively to assemble the "bones gentz" of their crafts, and to cause to be elected, by common assent, four good men thereof, to treat with the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs upon certain important affairs touching the state of the city. The precept addressed to the Ironmongers on this occasion was as follows:

By the Mayor.

To John Deynes and Richard de Eure, Ironmongers.

Assemble the good people of the said mystery, and cause them to elect, by common assent, four good people of the said mystery, the wisest and most sufficient, to treat with the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs upon some heavy business touching the state of the said city; and this you omit not, on the faith which you owe to our Lord the King; and have the names and persons of those so elected at the Guildhall on Thursday, the eve of Saint Martin.*

The members returned in compliance with this order were the two wardens and Henry de Ware and William Fromond.

In the 37th Edw. III. (1363), a document in Latin of this date, preserved amongst the city records, furnishes an account of various sums received by John de Cauntebrigg, the chamberlain, from the several mysteries, for an offering to be presented to the Lord the King of England, towards carrying on his French wars. Thirty-two companies are enumerated, and the sums paid by each amounted in the whole to 4527. 16s. The Ironmongers appear the eleventh on the list, and contributed 67. 18s. 4d.†

* Records of the City of London.

Arms of Eure: Quarterly or and gules, over all on a bend sable three escallops argent.-Contemporaneous authority.

+ Records of the City of London. Herbert.

In 1368, WILLIAM DIKEMAN, citizen and ironmonger, served the office of Sheriff. I find no further particulars respecting him, except that he was buried in the church of St. Olave's in the Jewry.

The mysteries or public companies began to be incorporated in the reign of Edward the Third; and, being greatly increased in numbers and importance, they now contended for the right of electing the chief officers, and making ordinances for the government of the city, in contravention of an order made in the 20th of this king's reign, by which that right was confined to the representatives of the wards. The mayor, with a view to settle the dissensions which had arisen on this subject, and acting under the advice of five aldermen and eight commoners, directed the aforesaid mysteries to choose several of the aldermen and a great number of the commoners to meet at the Guildhall; who, having met, ordained, amongst other things, that the persons who should be hereafter called to the common councils of the city should be elected by every sufficient mystery, and that those persons and no others should be summoned to the election of mayors and sheriffs. This ordinance continued in force until the 7th of Richard II. (1384), when, at a meeting of the "mayor, aldermen, and an immense commonalty of good and discreet men of the city," it was ordained that the common council should be again chosen by the wards instead of the mysteries.*

In 1376, the companies sending members to the common council had increased to forty-eight. Of these the principal ones sent six, the secondary four, and the small companies two. In this list the order of precedency is

* Printed Report to the Court of Common Council, 1833, fol. 9.

not observed, and the Ironmongers stand thirty-fifth, and returned four members.*

The Ironmongers are described as being principally congregated about this period in Ironmongers' Lane and the Old Jewry, "where they had large warehouses and yards, and exported and sold bar-iron and iron rods; they had also shops wherein they displayed abundance of manufactured articles which they purchased of the workmen in town and country, and of which they afterwards became the general retailers." Several of the principal members of the trade were buried in the adjacent church of St. Olave; Stowe has recorded the following:-William Dikeman, ferroner or ironmonger, one of the sheriffs of London, 1367; Robert Havelocke, ironmonger, 1390; Thomas Michell, ironmonger, 1527; and Richard Chamberlain, ironmonger, one of the sheriffs, 1562. Strype mentions the subsequent removal of the Ironmongers from this locality to Upper Thames-street, which still continues to be the principal market in London for bar-iron and castings.

The following entry occurs in the City Records,† under the year 1397:

"On the 20th December, 21 Rich. II. came here (to the Guildhall) before Richard Whityngton, mayor, and the aldermen of the city of London, William Sevenoke, son of William Rumschedde, of Sevenoaks, in the county of Kent, late apprentice to Hugh de Boys, citizen and ironmonger, who was admitted into the franchise of the city afore said, and sworn in the time of John Hadle, late mayor, and Stephen Speleman, then chamberlain, to wit, on the tenth day of July, in the eighteenth year of the reign of the aforesaid king, and which same William Sevenok, alleging, says, that his master, aforesaid, as well as

* City Records, H. fo. 46 b., in Norman French. See Report to Common Council, 1834. † Lib. H. fo. 316.

C

himself, in time past used and were of the mystery of the Grocers, and not of the mystery of the Ironmongers, as the masters of the aforesaid mystery of the Grocers here testify, beseeching the said mayor and aldermen that they would be pleased to admit and enter the aforesaid William Sevenok into the franchise of the said city, in the mystery of the Grocers aforesaid. Which same mayor and aldermen, consultation being had among them at the instance of the good men of the mystery of the Grocers being present, granted the aforesaid prayer of the aforesaid William Sevenok, and he gives for his admission aforesaid forty shillings."

In

FREEDOM OF THE CITY.-The earliest entries to be found of admissions to the freedom of the city by purchase or by grant at the request of the king or others appear in the 3rd Edw. II. These admissions are before the mayor, aldermen, and chamberlain. most cases the business of the party is set forth in the entry, and no mention made of a company. The words or entries of admissions are, "Admissus fuit in libertate civitatis et juratus." The fines vary from five shillings to one hundred shillings.-City Rec. D. fo. 8 to 36.

The earliest acknowledgments or enrollments of apprentices and of admission to the freedom by servitude are from the 3rd to the 6th of Edward II.-Ibid. fo. 10 to 70.

Robert Gladwin was admitted to the freedom, 5 Edw. II (1311), paying one mark, and allowed time to come and reside in the city, with his wife, children, and goods, under the penalty of his losing his freedom and money.-D. fo. 21 b.

A person admitted on a fine of 2s. 6d. only, because he had stood well in the city for thirty years past, and had sustained the burthens of the city. (D. fo. 18 b.) The sheriff's' cook admitted without any fine, because he had well served the sheriffs.-Printed Report to the Common Council, 6 March, 1834.

APPRENTICESHIP.-It is the opinion of Sir Francis Palgrave that the origin of our system of apprenticeship is to be found in the laws and customs which regulated the colleges of workmen in the Roman empire, and which had prevailed from time immemorial. This system, during the middle ages, and indeed almost down to our own days, has exercised a very beneficial influence upon the community. Motives infinitely

more valuable than those of mere money and money's worth were engrafted upon this system so long as its spirit was properly observed. The admission into the guild after the period of probation had concluded, was an attestation that, during that period of life when the human character is most susceptible of the influences of habit and example, the individual had conducted himself with due attention to diligence and morality. Gratitude towards a kind master, emulation excited by an able one, the necessity of conciliating a harsh superior, the wish to form that union which the Church so emphatically calls a "holy state," and upon which the happiness of the individual, and through the individual the happiness of the state, so mainly depends, all these rendered the guilds a continual source of moral renovation to the commonwealth. The series of events so forcibly presented to us by Hogarth, in the graphic scenes of his "Industrious Apprentice," were common in the last age, rare as they may be in ours.-Sir F. Palgrave's "Merchant and Friar."

During the early period of our municipal history, the mayor and aldermen seem to have exercised a jurisdiction and control over the trading companies. These minor communities, previous to their incorporation, possessed no proper internal power of coercive legislation, except with the assent and under the supervision of the general civic legislature.

In the 45th Hen. III. certain ordinances or bye-laws were made by the Lorimers, "par comun conseil de tous, et par assentement de Sir William Fitz-Richard, adonques Maire de Londres, et des autres barons de la cité;" and in like manner the "probi homines" of the Cordwainers made certain provisions or bye-laws in 53 Hen. III. "de consensu et voluntate Majoris Londoniæ cæterorumque baronum ejusdem civitatis." In 11 Edw. I. certain ordinances were made by the "prodes homes," painters of the city of London, for regulating their trade; and, in order that the regulations might be observed, they elected four guardians or wardens, who were sworn before the mayor