A Brief History of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, London A.D. 1351-1889. T. C. Noble
The Old Church of Allhallows Staining, Mark Lane, London, 1807. (See page 45.)
The Church of St. Luke the Evangelist, Old Street, Middlesex, 1807. (See page 57.)
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF THE
IRONMONGERS’ COMPANY.
CHAPTER I.
THE OLD CITY, ITS CITIZENS AND GUILDS.
In the history of the ancient Livery Companies of London we read the history and progress of not only the City but the Empire. During the many centuries of their existence the Guilds have performed a work for which they deserve the praise and continued support of not only every citizen, but every man who to-day enjoys the freedom of local self-government. There have been kings and prime ministers who, in their tyrannical measures, have forgotten the interests of the people and their trades in their desire to gain unlawful ends, but in every case for hundreds of years the citizens and the Guilds of London have stood forward to fight the great battles for freedom, and the continued and present existence of the Corporation of the ancient City, and the good work they do to-day, prove, if we carefully read their history, that to them we are more deeply indebted than “reformers” choose to acknowledge.
Generations ago “the City” was a very small place, surrounded by a wall with gates, through which the green fields and suburbs—then the pleasant villages of Southwark, Charing, St. Giles, Clerkenwell, Islington, Shoreditch, and the Tower Hamlets and Stepney—could be reached. These gates stood at or near the entrances of the present streets known as Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate, Ludgate, Billingsgate, Aldgate, and Bishopsgate, so that the reader can judge what the size of old London was. On the south side there was the River Thames with its Dowgate, and between this water-gate and Billingsgate was the entrance across the only bridge that then spanned the river, which existed close to where St. Magnus Church now stands—a few yards east of the present London Bridge. In the suburbs were many excellent springs of water, known as Holywells, and at one of these the parish clerks of the City assembled periodically and held their festivals. The well existed till late years in Ray Street, close to the Middlesex Sessions House, and the district is now known as Clerkenwell. The Parish Clerks’ Company, although not a livery guild, still exists, and is one of the oldest of the Guilds.
It was long before the time of famous John Stow that London found a contemporary topographer, for as early as the year 1179—now 710 years ago—William Fitzstephen tells us the citizens everywhere “are esteemed the politest of all others in their manners, their dress, and the elegance and splendour of their tables,” and he pictures us the City in all its primitive grandeur, while the citizens themselves were dignified by the name of barons, a fact borne out by their description in King John’s charter. Speaking of this charter reminds us that a brief epitome of the principal grants, from the Conquest to the reign of Edward IV., when the Ironmongers’ Company received its incorporation, will help the reader to more easily comprehend the progress of the citizens and the Guilds.
There is no document more treasured at Guildhall than the diminutive parchment which William the Conqueror gave to the citizens 800 years ago, and upon which we all base our rights and privileges.
I will that ye be worthy
of all those laws which
ye were in King Edward’s day;
and I will that each child
be his father’s heir after his
father’s day, and I will not
suffer that any man do you
wrong. God preserve you.
In the Confessor’s time “the burgesses” of London had obtained the king’s warrant for their freedom, and their children’s heirship, so that their lives and their goods should be protected from the rapacity of the Lords. The foreign merchant was only permitted in the