The principal object of the guild was the preservation of the trade or calling of the fraternity, no one being permitted to work in London as a “tailor” unless a freeman of the Company. For the protection of the trade the right of search was vested in the guild, such search being a guarantee to the public that the honest usages of trade were observed, and to the fraternity that their monopoly was not infringed. Before a tailor’s shop was opened a licence had to be obtained from the master and wardens of the Company, and they granted the licence only when satisfied of the competency of the freeman. Until the abolition of Bartholomew Fair in 1854, after an existence of 700 years, the beadle of the Company used annually to attend the fair and to proceed to the drapers’ shops, taking with him the Company’s silver yard stick as the standard by which to test the measures used for selling cloth in the fair. In 1555, anticipation of the foundation of Merchant Taylors’ School, Sir Thomas White, a member of the Court of the Merchant Taylors Company, founded St. John’s College, Oxford, reserving forty-three out of its fifty endowed fellowships for scholars from the school. The Company’s school was founded in 1561 on Lawrence Pountney Hill. Great Crosby School, near Liverpool, of which the Company are sole trustees and managers, was founded in 1618 by John Harrison. In 1622 Dr. Thomas White established Sion College, giving to the Company the nomination to eight of the twenty almshouses which he connected with the college. In 1666 the losses sustained by the Company in the Fire of London obliged them to let their land in the City upon small ground-rents to enable their tenants to rebuild, and their resources were thus much crippled. The number of the livery is 288. The Corporate Income is £37,000; the Trust Income is £13,000. Their hall is at 30 Threadneedle Street. Privileges of membership: (1) The only advantages that a freeman in easy circumstances possesses is eligibility for the livery, and prospectively for the court, and the comfortable assurance that, should he fall into poverty by misfortune and maintain his respectability, he will receive a pension from the Company varying in amount from £5 to £40 a year, and that, should his wife and daughters be left in poverty, they will be assisted by the Company to earn a living. Freemen are eligible for certain gifts and loans of money for their advancement in life. Poverty from ill-health, old age, or incapacity to earn a livelihood, alone constitutes a claim to a pension or donation. The only patronage enjoyed by individual members of the court is the power of presenting boys to the Company’s school in London. Each member of the court has two or sometimes three presentations annually, according to vacancies.