A Brief History of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, London A.D. 1351-1889. T. C. Noble
London.
CHAPTER III.
THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF IRONMONGERS.
Although existing records do not give us all the information we should like to have about the ancient history of the Guilds, we have, nevertheless, been able to show that by their joining in the election of the City officials in the year 1351, and choosing four of their members (John Deynes and Richard de Eure, wardens, and Henry de Ware and William Fromond), “the wisest and most sufficient” in the Guild, to treat with the Mayor and Sheriffs upon the “serious business” of the City, that the Ironmongers were duly recognised thus early as a firmly-established brotherhood.
The “market,” or special place of business of the fraternity, was, as we have said, in the neighbourhood of the City Guildhall, and hence the existing name of Ironmonger Lane, which is a thoroughfare out of Cheapside, on the north side, and the next turning to the Old Jewry westward, between which streets to this day stands a church, known as St. Olave’s (about to be removed), the predecessors of which—St. Martin’s, Ironmonger’s Lane, and St. Olave—contained the remains of several eminent ironmongers, including William Dikeman, “Feroner,” one of the sheriffs, 1367; Robert Havelocke, 1390; Thomas Michell, 1527; Richard Chamberlain, 1562. At what date the craft left this neighbourhood is unknown. We know they possessed the Ironmongers’ Hall, more east, near Billiter Street, in the middle of the fifteenth century, about which district the members individually may have carried on business; Strype, however, stating that when they removed from their old market they took up a position in Thames Street, wherein to this day, as is well known, the iron wharves and warehouses are numerous and extensive.
The precedency question in the olden time was a momentous one for the City Guilds, and led to many conflicts between the members of certain companies, which will be mentioned when speaking of “the Livery” and “apprentices” hereafter. It is worthy of note here to remark that in the year 1376(7), the fiftieth of Edward III., forty-eight Guilds elected 148 of their members as the Common Council, when the Ironmongers, standing the thirty-fifth in the list, elected four of their number. We imagine that no actual precedency was here followed, for in subsequent lists the “great” companies contained first thirteen names, and eventually twelve, in which the Ironmongers stood eighth, eleventh, and, finally, tenth, a position assigned them not so much for their wealth, but probably for their respectability, or, as old Stow says, “the worthiness of the men,” and the power they possessed.
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