Part 3

Sept. 30. Paid the Collectors for the maintenance of S’r Thomas Fairfaxs army for two months

0024 00 00

Nov. 10. Paid the Collectors for 2 months assessment for the Scottish army

0009 00 00

Dec. 3. Paid the Collectors for the fortifications for 2 months and is in full for 6 months

0021 00 00

Jan. 7. Paid the Collectors for the maintenance of S’r Tho: Fairfaxs army for 3 months in full

0036 00 00

Jan. 23. Paid the Collectors in full for 12 months for the Brittish armye in Ireland

0010 10 00

Apr. 21. Paid the Collectors in full for the assessm’t of the Scottish armye

0009 00 00”

In 1648, the following entries relate to soldiers quartered at the Hall:—

“Nov. 30. Paid, spent on the Lieutenant and souldiers when they came to quarter in the Hall

0000 13 06

Dec. 22. Paid, spent by the Clarke on the souldiers

0000 02 02

Paid, spent more on the souldiers by the Clarke while workmen were secureing the house

0000 05 07

Paid for iron boltes, staples, boardes, nayles and workemanshipp to secure the house

0000 16 04

Feb. 6. Paid M’r. Warden Alport by order of the M’r. and Wardens for 2 bedds and furniture to lodge the comaunders in att the courte parlor

0031 13 08

Mar. 26. Paid, spent on the M’r. and Wardens when they went to Collonell Tichburne to gett the souldiers removed

0000 04 10

Paid Mr. Richbell for fire and candles for the souldiers

0014 18 09

Paid, spent by the Clarke in going and coming by water to the Quarter-M’r Generall with Collonell Tichburne’s lettre to get the souldiers removed

0000 04 10

Paid a souldier that went to the Lieutenant to Whitehall and for bringing downe the souldiers’ bedds out of the Hall into the yard

0000 01 06

Paid for makeing cleane the Hall after the souldiers were gone

0000 12 04”

It seems to have been considered imprudent to make the entries too explicit in all cases. Thus in 1642:—

“Allowed to the Renter Warden for reasons best known to the Auditors

015 00 00”

And in 1646–7 the same entry appears, but the amount is increased to, 20–03–01.

Many of the other entries during this period are also worthy of note. Thus:—

1644–5. “Paid for a drincking, July 18, being a daye of Thankesgiving

0002 16 01

1645–6. “Paid to Mr. Taylor’s blinde sonne for studying a sermon by order of Courte

0001 00 00

1647–8. “Paid, loste by lighte monye received in 100_li._

0000 02 03

1648. “Paid, loste more by Counterfett monye

0000 05 06

1648–9. “Paid for a dynner, being thanksgiving daye about Colchester

0015 10 07

1649–50. “Paid a cheater that pretended hee was to bring the Company a doe from the state

0000 05 00

1654–55. “Paid Mr. Ogelbye for a booke called Virgill by order of Courte

005 00 00

1658. “Paid for intertayning the Lord Maior and Aldermen att their going to the funerall of the Protector

0001 16 04”

The Colonel Tichborne referred to in some of the entries of 1648 was Sir Robert Tichborne who gained an unfortunate prominence in the times of the Commonwealth. After successful trading he became a Colonel in the Parliamentary army, and was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He also obtained a seat in Parliament, and in 1649 presented a petition to the House of Commons in favour of the execution of Charles I. He was a member of the High Court by whom the King was condemned, and signed the warrant for his execution, in January, 1649. In 1650 he was Master of the Company, and in the same year he served as Sheriff of London, his colleague being another Skinner, Richard (afterwards Sir Richard) Chiverton, whose Mastership, in 1651, succeeded his own. In 1655 he was knighted by the Lord Protector, and in 1656 he filled the office of Lord Mayor, in which he was again succeeded, in 1657, by Chiverton. In 1657 he was nominated one of Cromwell’s peers, and became known as Lord Tichborne. A pageant was provided by the Company on his accession to the Civic Chair, at a cost of several hundreds of pounds. As has been seen, the Company availed themselves of his influence to secure the removal of the soldiers who had been quartered at the Hall in 1648, and they were not ungrateful for his protection. The following further entries in the Renter Warden’s accounts refer to him:—

“1650, Maye 30. Paid for a dinner when our M’r. and Wardens went to the Court of Aldermen about Alderman Tichborne

0000 13 00

June 15. Paid Mr. Woodall for warning a Courte of Assistance about Alderman Tichborne

0000 02 06”

In the same year there appears among the “good debts due to the house” the following:—

“Alderman Tichborne, our M’r., for his fyne to come into the Assistants

0025 00 00”

while in 1650–51 there appears among the payments:—

“Paid, allowed Alderman Tichborne out of his fyne according to an order of Courte

0025 00 00”

1656–7. “Paid, given the Lord Maior by order of Courte towardes the tryming of his house

0060 00 00”

In 1653–4, under date February 8th, appears the entry:—

“Paid for a dynner when the Lord Protector was feasted att Grocers’ Hall

0026 04 02”

After Cromwell’s death, when the Restoration was approaching, “the Lord Tichborne” was appointed one of a large committee to arrange for a banquet to the Lord General Monk and his lady, which took place on the 5th April, 1660. The following entry refers to this occasion:—

“Paid for a dynner, April Vth, for the Lord Generall Moncke, the Councell of State, and the Feild Officers

0476 12 09”

In May following the Company provided £504 towards a present from the City to the King and the Dukes of York and Gloucester: and various other sums were paid in connection with the reception of Charles II, including “the interteynement of his Ma^{tie} to a Feast att Guildehall.” The change of circumstances is further attested by the following entries:—

“1660–61. Paid the vergers att Poulis, Januarye 30, being a daye of humiliation

000 05 00

Paid June 12, att the Myter Taverne, being a daye of humiliation which turned to a daye of rejoycing by meanes of faire weather

000 15 10”

In the autumn of the year 1660 Tichborne was tried as a regicide by the Special Commission, and sentenced to death, but was not executed. His property was, however, confiscated, and he passed the remainder of his life in confinement, and died a prisoner in the Tower of London in 1682.

The following entries in 1661–62 show that the Company were not prevented by the heavy taxes on their loyalty from giving effect to their interest in learning:—

“1661–2. Paid the royall present for the Kinge’s Ma’tie according to an order of Courte of the xxixth of August

200 00 00

Paid to the M’r and Fellows of Pembrooke Hall in Cambridge towardes the charge of their building according to an order of Courte of the viiith of Julye

66 13 04”

In 1665 came the Great Plague, followed, in 1666, by the Great Fire of London, in which the old Skinners’ Hall shared the fate of so many others of the City Halls. The Company’s valuables were saved, but the Hall itself was destroyed, and for some years after the meetings of the Company were held in other halls and buildings which had escaped the fire. Little time was lost in rebuilding. Outstanding loans were called in, land was sold, contributions were levied upon members, and by 1672 the new buildings were sufficiently completed for occupation by Sir George Waterman, the Skinner Lord Mayor of 1671–2, on whose accession to office one of the numerous pageants provided by the Company was represented. It was usual at that period for the Hall to be let to City functionaries for their term of office, and the Court Books record a number of such lettings. Mention may be made of such lettings to Sir Robert Hanson, Lord Mayor, 1672–3, and Sir Owen Buckingham, Sheriff, 1695–6. From Christmas, 1698, to Michaelmas, 1707, the East India Company had the use of the Hall, and four silver candlesticks presented by them are still in the possession of the Company. In its leading features the Hall remains as it then was, but various alterations and improvements have been made from time to time. The Great Dining Hall was improved in 1847–8, and again in 1890–1, and is now in course of decoration with historical paintings by Mr. Brangwyn, A.R.A. The famous Cedar Drawing-room, commemorated by Lord Macaulay, was fitted with a new ceiling in 1876; the Oak Parlour was restored in 1889, and a second entrance from Cloak Lane has very recently been constructed.

The more important pieces of plate in the possession of the Company were presented in the seventeenth century. The Cokayne cups, already referred to, belong to the sixteenth century, but with this important exception the plate earlier than the nineteenth century all dates from the seventeenth. Special mention may be made of the Peacock Cup, representing a silver peahen, with removable head, accompanied by three peachicks, the gift of Mary, widow of James Peacock, Master, 1638–9, presented in 1642; the Master’s Salt, bequeathed by Benjamin Albin, Master 1669–70, who had taken an active part in rescuing the Company’s plate at the time of the Great Fire: the Leopard Snuff-box, presented by Roger Kemp, Master 1680, which is always placed in front of the Master at banquets, school prize-givings, and other functions; and the Monteith Bowls, purchased with money bequeathed by Sir Richard Chiverton, Master 1654, Lord Mayor 1657.

At the Court of May 4th, 1681, “Major Manley signifyed that the Right Hono^{ble} the Earl of Shaftesbury would doe the Company the honour to take his ffreedome of this Socyety w^{ch} moc’on the Court agreed to and ordered the Master and Wardens (and certain others named), or as many of them as conveniently can, to attend his Lordship, and to acquaint him with their readiness to receive his Lordship into their Society.” And on November 30th of the same year, it was ordered that Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Herbert, and Francis Charlton, Esq., should have their freedoms presented to them in silver-gilt boxes, engraved with the Company’s arms.

In 1684–5 the Company erected in the Royal Exchange a statue of Edward III. A small model of this statue was kept by the Company, and on April 26th, 1738, “Mr. Deputy Nash was desired to get the modell of King Edward the III’ds statue repaired, and to get a handsome frame and glass case to be set up above the Master’s chair at the upper end of the Hall.” This model is still preserved in the Cedar Drawing-room.

The Company’s charters were seized on a writ of _quo warranto_ in the reign of Charles II, and a fresh charter was granted by James II; but the seizure and the new charter were set aside by Act of Parliament, 2 Wm. and M., Sess. I, cap. 8, and the Company was restored to its previous position.

The sympathies of the Company at this crisis in the national history are sufficiently evidenced by an entry in the Court-Book for 1687, subscribed by thirty-seven names: “Now whose names are hereunder subscribed doe declare that noe fforeigne prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or Authority Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realme. Soe help me God.”

During the struggle which led to the deposition of James II, a very leading part was taken by Sir Thomas Pilkington, Master in 1677 and 1681. He was elected M.P. for the City of London in 1679, and again in 1680 and 1689. He was Sheriff in 1681, and was very conspicuous in his opposition to the Court party at the election of his successor in the following year. Before steps could be taken against him for his conduct on this occasion, he had already, in November, 1682, been sent to prison, where he remained until June, 1686, for words spoken in disparagement of the Duke of York. On being tried, while a prisoner, for his behaviour at the election of Sheriffs, he was again convicted and fined, but this judgment was set aside by the House of Lords in 1689. He and others, including Roger Kemp, the donor of the Leopard snuff-box, were removed from the Court of the Company at the instance of the Crown, but by Order in Council of September 25th, 1687, they were ordered to be re-admitted, and those who had been substituted for them to be displaced: which was carried out by order of the Court on the 15th October, 1687. He had been Alderman of Farringdon Without since 1680, but removed to Vintry in 1688; and on the death of Sir John Chapman, the Lord Mayor, in March, 1689, he was elected to succeed him for the remainder of the year. Such was the esteem in which he was held, that he was re-elected at the end of the year, and again for a third year. On his becoming Lord Mayor, the King and Queen were present at his banquet, together with the Prince and Princess of Denmark (afterwards Queen Anne), and most of the dignitaries of the Kingdom and foreign representatives. The Company provided a pageant on his re-election in 1689; and so enthusiastic were his colleagues in the Company that, on his second re-election to the Mayoralty, the Court, on November 25th, 1690, passed a resolution which, after setting out various claims which he had to their gratitude, proceeded as follows:—“This Co^t therefore, well weighing the p’misses and calling to minde his Lo^{pps} sufferings by the excessive ffines and exorbitant veredicts formerly given against him, meerly for the faithfull discharge of his duty and trust when Sheriffe of this Citty, and opposeing the arbitrary and popish designs then carrying on for the subversion and totall overthrow of the Lawes and Established Religion of the Kingdom, and that his Lo^{pp} by his wise and prudent government of this Citty for ye yeare last past (being a yeare of extraordinary difficulty) hath done great service to their Ma^{ties}, the Nation, and the Citty. This Co^{rt} did and hereby doe unanimously agree to pr’sent his Lo^{pp} with the use of the Hall for the yeare ensueing. And did alsoe agree that the Master and Wardens and the body of all the Assistants of the Worp^{ll} Company now p^rsent should immediately attend S^{r.} Thomas Pilkington, Knight, the p^rsent Lord Maior, and acquaint his Lo^{pp} with their Order and acknowledgement, and likewise to returne his Lo^{pp} their hearty thankes for the good service he hath done their Ma^{ties}, the Nation, and this Citty in his Lo^{pps} last yeares prudent and good Governm^t thereof.” Lord Mayor Pilkington’s picture, painted at this time by order of the Court, still hangs in the Court-Room.

In 1689, the honorary freedom was presented to the Earl of Monmouth (Master in the following year), Sir Rowland Gwyn, the Earl of Portland, and Lord Sydney; and on Nov. 12th, 1689, it was “Ordered that the Ma^r and Wardens (and others) be desired as a Comm’ee to joyne with the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor and the other Honorary Members of this Comp^a to attend on their Mai^{ties} when the noble persons aforesaid shall appoint to p^rsent them with the copyes of their Freedomes, each in a Box of Gold, of which the Ma^r, Wardens, and Comm^{ee} aforesaid were desired and ordered to provide the same.” This was followed up by the following order on Nov. 5th, 1690:—“Ordered that boxes of gold to ye value of £60 p^rsented to their Ma^{ties} with their ffreedomes, and that the R^t Hon^{ble} the M^r (the Earl of Monmouth) be acquainted with it, and that the Wardens attend his Lo^{pp} touching the same and to follow his Lo^{pps} direc’con therein.”

The time of the Court was not entirely occupied with matters of state. On June 25th, 1689, the following entry occurs:—“M^r Glover (Thomas Glover, the executor of Lewis Newbury, the founder of the almshouses at Mile End) appeared and complayned of diverse great disorders com’itted by severall of the Pen’coners or Almesffellowes in the Almshouses at Mile End of the erec’con of Mr. Lewis Newberry, perticularly of the Wid: Barrett, her unruly sons sometimes comeing in at unseasonable houres and lodgeing there, and of an impudent girle of ill Fame w^{ch} Tho. Row employs there; likewise of others selling ale on Sabbath daies after sermon, namely Goodwife Dawson and Wid: Carver. All which were respectively called in and their sevrall misbehaviours rep^rsented to them and rebuked for it; but upon their promise of amendm^t for the future (and this being the first compl^t against them), the Court was pleased to pardon their sevrall offences at p^rsent.” This warning seems to have been only partially successful, for on Dec. 11th, 1696, the following further entry appears:—“This Co^rt being informed that the widow Carver and the widow Goodwin, who inhabit in the almeshouses at Mile End, did sell strong water and ale, haveing been cautioned ag^t the same, yett nevertheless do still persist therein. Itt was therefore ordered they should have notice given them that unless they discontinue their practice in a week’s time from the date hereof, they shall bee removed from their almeshouses and penc’ons.”

After the close of the seventeenth century, the matters recorded are of less interest, and the troubles of the Company were of a minor order. Thus, in July, 1738, “Mr. Thomas Zachary acquainted this Com^{ee} that he had casually dropt out of the Bag the little keys of this Compa^{ys} small iron chest wherein the Seal of this Company was put, and also the Key of the Poors Box, whereupon this Com^{ee} sent for Mr. Cooke, the Smith, and directed him to break open the said small Chest and Poors Box, which was done in their presence, and the Seal of this Company and the other things therein contained was taken out of the small iron chest, and also twelve pounds fifteen shillings and six pence out of the Poors Box, and were put into a bag and sealed up by this Com^{ee} and lockt up in this Compa^s large iron chest untill such time as the Smith could mend the Locks and make new keys to the said chest and Poors box, which they ordered him forthwith to do.”

The Honorary Members elected in the eighteenth century were:—in 1766, H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland; in 1767, the Rt. Hon. C. Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer; in 1794, Earl Howe, Admiral of England.

The Honorary Members elected in the nineteenth century were:—in 1834, Viscount Strangford, a descendant of Sir Andrew Judd; in 1861, Lord Clyde; in 1877, the late Earl of Dartmouth, a descendant of Sir Thomas Legge; in 1878, T. G. Kensit, Esq., Clerk of the Company, 1828–1878; in 1886, Sir Saul Samuel, Agent-General for New South Wales (on the occasion of the Colonial Exhibition); in 1893, the present Earl of Dartmouth; in 1895, the Rt. Hon. A. W. Peel, Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Viscount Peel, and the Most Rev. E. W. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury; in 1896, the Most Rev. W. Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh, an old Tonbridge scholar; in 1897, the Rt. Hon. W. C. Gully, Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Viscount Selby; in 1900, General the Rt. Hon. Sir Redvers Buller.

Since the commencement of the present century the following have been elected:—in 1905, the Most Revd. R. Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Cromer; in 1906, the Rt Hon. J. W. Lowther, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Viscount Milner.

The later decade of the nineteenth century, and especially the last twenty-five years, have constituted a period of great activity and progress on the part of the Company, especially in the direction of education; and it has been a matter of great satisfaction to the Company to see the number of young persons, trained up under their direction, increased from the two hundred, or fewer, boys, educated at Tonbridge School so late as the early ’eighties, to approximately 1,100, distributed over four schools, of which the second in point of date was opened so recently as 1887. Out of the 1,100, nearly 400 are girls.

These schools are, in addition to Tonbridge School, of which the numbers now exceed four hundred, the Commercial School at Tonbridge, also on Sir Andrew Judd’s Foundation, opened in 1888; the Company’s Middle School for Boys at Tunbridge Wells, opened in 1887; and the Company’s Middle School for Girls at Stamford Hill, opened in 1890. Important buildings have been erected at all these new schools. The rebuilding and enlargement from time to time of Tonbridge School have been already mentioned.

The Company has also contributed very large sums to the City and Guilds’ Institute during the last twenty-five years, for the support of its Central Technical College at South Kensington, its Technical College at Finsbury, its Art School at Kennington, and its Technological Examinations. It also took an active part in the foundation at Clerkenwell, on a site adjoining the Company’s Clarke’s Close Estate, of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, to which it contributes annually. It has also given material assistance to the Leather Industries’ Department of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, now the Leeds University. Members of the Company take an active part in the government of these various institutions.

In 1887, the Company took steps to obtain the consolidation of their almshouses and of their minor pension charities, and in 1891 a Scheme, framed by the Charity Commissioners at the suggestion of the Company, came into operation, by which such charities were consolidated, and in place of the Judd almshouses in Great St. Helen’s, and the Newbury almshouses at Mile End, new and more convenient almshouses were erected at Palmer’s Green. In connection with this Scheme, the various charitable charges upon the Company’s properties were redeemed, and the Company’s estates are now free from any such charges.

In furtherance of the policy of Parliament to make the occupiers of land in Ireland the owners of their holdings, the Company resolved in 1886 to give their Irish tenants an opportunity of purchasing their holdings under the Land Acts; and the Pellipar Estate, in the County of Londonderry, has now passed entirely into the hands of the tenants.

The Company’s Hall premises have been greatly improved. Special mention may be made of the decoration of the dining-hall, which is now frequently placed at the disposal of other Companies, and literary and scientific institutions, on special occasions, and thus made more frequently useful, and of the renovation of the beautiful Oak Parlour, which had been allowed to fall into disuse.

In these various directions the present Court of the Company claim to have shown themselves not unworthy of the heritage handed down to them by their predecessors.

Quorum pars parva fui.

APPENDIX I.

_The Award of Sir Robert Billesdon, Lord Mayor, April l0th, 1484. 1 Ric. III._

Mem’dum quod decimo die Aprilis Anno r’ni Regis Ric’i tertii post conq’m primo Magistri et Gardiani miste’r Pellipa’r & Cisso’r cum q’mpluribus aliis probis hominibus utriusq’ Mist’r compromiserunt se stare Judicio Roberti Billesdon Majoris et Aldermannorum civitatis Londo’n super quâdam materi’a controversiæ inter eos penden’. Qui quidem Major et Aldermanni reddiderunt Judicium pro materi’a prædicta pacificand’ forma seq’n:

[MEMORANDUM that on the 10th day of April, in the first year of the reign of King Richard the third after the conquest, the Masters and Wardens of the Mysteries of Skinners and Taylors, with several worthy men of each mystery, agreed to abide by the decision of Robert Billesdon, Mayor, and the Aldermen of the City of London, in a certain matter of controversy pending between them. Which Mayor and Aldermen gave their decision for the purpose of settling the aforesaid matter in the following terms.]