This inventory is very curious, and, as inventories of so early a date are very rare, we could not resist the temptation of quoting one, especially when it related to an ironmonger’s shop. Now, it appears that the whole of these goods and chattels, together with one tenement, three shops, and one alley, situated in the parish of St. Michael, Cornhill, and valued at fourteen shillings yearly (rents in Cornhill were reasonable in those days), were delivered over to Simon Palmer, “pelterer,” and William Sunnyng, “carpenter,” by the Mayor and Aldermen, to be holden in trust for the use of Alice, the daughter of John Leche aforesaid, when she came of age. As the premises appear to have been shortly afterwards burnt to the ground, the trustees had to rebuild, and on folio 45 of the Corporation Letter Book G Mr. Riley found the cost of such restoration. In our first chapter we stated it was in 1377 that by enactment the Common Council and other officials of the City were directed to be elected from the mysteries instead of by the Wards, as theretofore. This privilege, although only temporarily enjoyed as regarded the Council, yet has continued, so far as the Liverymen being the elective body of the City officials, down to the present time, notwithstanding that 500 years have passed by since the passing of the Act; and, looking at the list of names of the persons chosen and the many notable individuals, styled by old Stow under the heading, “Honor of citizens and worthinesse of men in the same,” there are few persons who carefully and without prejudice study the facts but will agree with us that the Livery have never neglected their duty, but have, as a rule, only elected those persons who would do their duty to their country, to their Sovereign, and to their brethren in the City. We sincerely trust that, whenever any elective franchise is conferred upon the Londoners at large, they will execute their trust with as good and unbiased a judgment. In our next chapter we shall tell how the Ironmongers carried out their trust after their foundation as a Guild and an Incorporated Company of the City of 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.