One of the earliest members of the Company to arrive at distinction was Thomas Legge, who was Lord Mayor in 1347 and again in 1354, and was the ancestor of the Earls of Dartmouth. His was the age of the wars with France, and he contributed £300 to the expenses of the expeditionary forces. In 1364, the Skinners’ Company supplied a sum of £40 for the same purpose. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the order of precedence of the Companies was not clearly defined, and struggles took place between them from time to time, in which one Company sought to establish its superiority over another. The Skinners, who always ranked high among the chief Companies, fell out with the Fishmongers over this matter in 1339, and fighting took place, which had to be put down by force. But the chief of these disputes in which the Skinners were concerned took place at the beginning of the reign of Richard III, between the Skinners and the Merchant Taylors, which again caused fighting, and led to the question of precedence in processions between the two Companies being submitted to the arbitration of Lord Mayor Billesdon and the Aldermen of the City of London, by whose award, dated the 10th April, 1484—1 Ric. III—it was in effect decided that each Company should invite the Master and Wardens of the other to dine with them in their Common Hall once a year, and that the two Companies should take precedence in processions in alternate years, beginning at Easter. This order was only to be disturbed by the event of a member of either Company becoming Lord Mayor, in which case, according to old custom, the Lord Mayor’s Company was to take precedence of all others. The award will be found in Appendix I, together with a supplementary award of the 17th January, 1521—12 Hen. VIII—explaining that the original award was applicable on all occasions.