Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The earliest notice of the craft is in 1351. The first charter
incorporating the Company was granted by Edward IV. in the year
1463, but it appears that a voluntary company or fraternity of
members of the iron trade had existed for many years previous to
that date.
There followed an Inspeximus Charter of Philip and Mary, dated June
20, 1558, which confirmed the charter of Edward IV.; Letters Patent
of the second year of Queen Elizabeth, dated November 12, 1560, by
which the charter of Edward IV. was further confirmed. James I., by
Letters Patent dated June 25, 1605, confirmed the privileges and
possessions of the Company. He also, in 1620, confirmed the Company
in the possession of certain lands and tenements therein mentioned,
in consideration of £100 paid to him. James II., by charter dated
March 18, 1685, confirmed all their privileges and granted new and
additional privileges, and by Letters Patent, dated November 19,
1688, he confirmed the last-mentioned charter.
Stow merely mentions the Hall, which occupied the area between
Fenchurch and Leadenhall Streets. It existed in 1494 and was rebuilt
in 1587. The present Hall was erected in 1748-50 on the site of an
Elizabethan house which had escaped the Fire.
The number of liverymen varies; it is now thirty-seven. The
Corporate Income is £12,000; the Trust Income is £11,000.
[Illustration:
IRONMONGERS’ HALL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
]
1. Freemen are invited to two dinners yearly, and they, their wives,
and children are entitled to the benefit of the various charities
bequeathed for their use by members of the Company or others,
particulars of which are furnished to them on admission to the
freedom.
2. Liverymen form the court and receive fees for their attendance on
courts and committees for transacting the business of the Company
and the charities. The amount of fees paid to members of the Company
for their attendances at courts and committees during the last ten
years averages £735 for each year. No fees are paid out of the trust
estates.
3. The master and wardens have no privileges beyond the other
liverymen, and no liveryman receives any money from the charities.
ST. KATHERINE COLEMAN
St. Katherine Coleman stands on the south side of Fenchurch Street,
farther east. Its second name is derived from its proximity to a
garden, anciently called “Coleman’s Haw.” In 1489 Sir William White,
Draper and Lord Mayor, enlarged the church; it was further enlarged
in 1620 and a vestry built in 1624. It escaped the Great Fire of
1666, but by the subsequent elevation of Fenchurch Street its
foundations were buried. In 1734 the building was pulled down and
the present one erected from the designs of an architect named
Horne. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1346.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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