When the then member for Cork City asked Parliament twenty years ago to seize the estates of the Companies in Ireland, I was fortunately enabled by my knowledge of the subject to assist in the defeat of this wild, revolutionary scheme of seizing property personally paid for by the ancestors of the citizens of London. It was the Hon. the Irish Society and the Companies who voted me their thanks, and it was my two ever-revered friends, John Nicholl, our historian, and S. Adams Beck, our then clerk (the father of our present zealous official)—the memory of whom will long remain dear, for their portraits hang side by side in our Court-room—it was their kind notice of my humble efforts, and their repeated good advice, which helped me to the honour I so highly valued, and led me to be ever watchful of our rights and privileges. Thirty years ago my said dear friend John Nicholl was Master of the Company (he died in 1871), and this year his son is our Senior Warden, and (I trust) our next Master. We wish him every best wish, we heartily pray that the Almighty will bless us all, and that “the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, root and branch,” may be permitted to “flourish for ever.” Dalston, London, March, 1889. T. C. NOBLE, Warden of the Yeomanry, 1888-1889. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.—The Old City, its Citizens and Guilds 1 II.—Iron, Ironworks, and Ironmongers 6 III.—The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers 11 IV., V., VI.—Four Hundred Years of the Ironmongers’ History 19-40 VII.—The Apprentices, the Hall, and the Irish Estate 41 VIII.—The Ironmongers’ Charities and Charitable Ironmongers 51 APPENDIX. Some Account of the Blacksmiths’ Company and their Exhibition at Ironmongers’ Hall 61-74 ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE PAGE I.—_Frontispiece_: Arms of the Ironmongers’ Company II.—(_a_) The Old Church of Allhallows Staining, Mark Lane, 1807, now removed (except the tower), and the parish united with St. Olave, Hart Street; Ironmongers’ Hall is in the parish of Allhallows 1 (_b_) The Church of St. Luke’s, Old Street, Middlesex, 1807; erected on land part of the Ironmongers’ estate; consecrated on St. Luke’s Day, 1733 1 III.—(_a_) One of the ancient silver-gilt salt-cellars 12 (_b_) One of two fifteenth-century maple-wood mazer-bowls, with silver-gilt mountings 12