Frances Yates was born in Hampshire, 1899 and studied at the University of London, receiving her MA in 1926. She spent 15 years as a private scholar before becoming successively Editor of Publications (1941-1944), Lecturer (1944-1957) and Reader (1956-1967) at the Warburg Institute. After her retirement she was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute until her death in 1981. Her wide research interests included Shakespeare, Renaissance thought, and many other aspects of European literature and culture. She was created OBE in 1972 and DBE in 1977.
Yarrow Convalescent Home at Broadstairs in Kent was purchased by the Westminster Hospital in May 1947.
Yardley's London and Provincial Stores Limited were incorporated in 1919; and acquired by Courage and Barclay Ltd in 1959 in order to expand their off-licences interests, as Yardley's had over 60 off-licences. The company was in liquidation in 1964. The company was based at 3/4 Chivalry Road, Battersea Rise, London SW11.
These papers on psychiatry in Nigeria were received from Dr Alexander Boroffka, who was Senior Specialist Psychiatrist in charge of Yaba Mental Hospital, Lagos, from 1961 to 1966. The Yaba Lunatic Asylum opened in Lagos, Nigeria, on 31 October 1907, taking in 8 female and 6 male patients. By 17 June 1912 there were 18 females and 17 males, and until 1949 the hospital also functioned as a leper asylum. The 'Lunatic Asylum' was renamed 'Yaba Mental Hospital' in 1960. The report book (GC/146/1) was given to him by the then Chief Nursing Officer, Mr A A Ordia, when the store of the hospital's records was cleared out in 1962. It appears to contain all the letters and reports written by the Medical Officer in charge, including reports on the leprosy patients. Dr Bruce F Home was appointed as an 'alienist' in 1927 and stayed for three tours, Oct 1927-Oct 1928, Apr 1929-Jul 1930, and Dec 1930-Aug 1931. A copy of his report of 1928 based on a tour of 25 centres of population and the results of questionnaires to Residents and Medical Officers, and the comments of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Northern Provinces, are included in this collection (GC/146/2-3).
X-rays were discovered on 8 Nov 1895, by Professor Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, of the Institute of Physics of the University of Wurzburg, Bavaria. The first radiological society - the X-ray Society - was formed in London in March 1897, by a group of medical men interested in Röntgen's discoveries. They drew up a code of rules for consideration by a larger committee meeting, and in June the same year, the name was altered changed to the Röntgen Society. The first General meeting of the Society was held in June 1897, and Professor Silvanus Thompson, was elected its first president. Members of the Society were more strongly representative of the field of physics than of medicine. In 1917 when the medical members of the Society, joined with the Electro-therapeutic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine to form the British Association for the Advancement of Radiology and Physiotherapy (BARP).
The Röntgen Society worked in collaboration with BARP and its successor the British Institute of Radiology (BIR). In 1927 it amalgamated with the BIR.
No further information available.
Born 1889; commissioned into the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 1907; Lt, 1912; Platoon commander, 2 Bn, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Dublin and Carrickfergus, Ireland, 1914; served in World War One, 1914-1918; service with 2 Bn, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 13 Infantry Bde, 5 Div, 2 Corps, British Expeditionary Force (BEF), France and Belgium, Aug-Sep 1914; retreat from Mons, Belgium, Aug 1914; Battle of Le Cateau, France, 26 Aug 1914; captured by German forces, Le Cateau, France, 26 Aug 1914; POW, Germany, Sep 1914-Jan 1918; Capt, 1915; interned in the Netherlands, Jan-Nov 1918; employed by the Historical Section, Committee of Imperial Defence ( later Historical Section, Cabinet Office), 1918-1956; resigned from Army, 1927; retired 1956; died 1964. Publications: Compiled, with Brig Gen Sir James (Edward) Edmonds, Military operations, France and Belgium, 1915. Volume I ( Macmillan, London, 1927); If Germany attacks. The battle in depth in the west (Faber and Faber, London, 1940).
Born, 1870; educated at Charterhouse, 1883-1885; privately educated in Lausanne, 1885-1888; Universities of Bonn, Heidelberg and Corpus Christi College, Oxford; B. Litt, 1899; English Language Lecturer, University College, Liverpool, 1899; Special Inspector of the Teaching of Phonetics in the Training Colleges of Scotland 1902-1910; Baines Professor of English Language and Philology, Liverpool University, 1904-1920; Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, Oxford University, 1920-1945; Fellow of Merton College Oxford, 1920-1945; British Academy Biennial Prize for contributions to the study of the English Language and Literature, 1932; published his Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1932; died, 1945.
Publications: include: Contributions to the History of the Guttural Sounds in English (1899); The Neglect of the Study of the English Language in the training of Teachers (University Press, Liverpool, 1904); The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue (John Murray, London, 1906); The Place of the Mother Tongue in National Education (John Murray, London, 1906); The Growth of English (John Murray, London, 1907); The Teaching of Reading in Training Colleges (John Murray, London, 1908); Elementary Lessons in English Grammar (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1909); The Place Names of Lancashire. Their origin and history with T Oakes Hirst (Constable & Co, London, 1911); Collected Papers of Henry Sweet (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913); A Short History of English (John Murray, London, 1914); A History of Modern Colloquial English (T Fisher Unwin, London, 1920); South-Eastern and South-East Midland Dialects (1920); Studies in English Rhymes from Surrey to Pope. A chapter in the history of English (John Murray, London, 1923); Diction and Imagery in Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1925); Some aspects of the diction of English poetry (Basil Blackwell, 1933); The Universal Dictionary of the English Language Editor (Amalgamated Press, London, [1931, 32]); The Best English. A claim for the superiority of Received Standard English, together with notes on Mr. Gladstone's pronunciation (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1934).
Wyer and Hawke were set up as a formal partnership between M R Wyer who and E J Hawke who acted as the London agents for the Bombay Company Limited. The partnership was set up due to the advantages of handling exchange transactions in London and was based at the Wallace Brothers offices at 8 Austin Friars, City of London. It was staffed by senior members of the Bombay Company Limited upon their retirement from India. Wyer was a partner in Wallace and Company 1881-1892 and managing director of the Bombay Company Limited 1890-1904, when Wyer and Hawke was formed. Hawke was a managing director of the Bombay Company Limited 1903-1912. Wyer and Hawke was dissolved in 1968.
Born 1846; served with 75 Regiment, in Gibraltar, Mauritius and South Africa; accompanied Charles Brownlee on a mission to chief Kreli of the Gcalekas, 1874; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1878-1881; led expedition to chart the tract between the Zambesi and Limpopo Rivers, where he died, 1881.
WW Pownall and Company took over as proprietors of The Australian Wine Company in 1887-8, at which time the company was at 4 Mill Street, Hanover Square. It moved to 57 St Mary Axe in 1897.
Laurance Marriott Wulcko was born in 1901 and died in 1977. He was a local historian and the author of A Forgotten Contemporary of Copernicus. Some notes concerning Mikolaj Wulkowski, Voivode of Pomerellia, and his family (1943) and Some Early Friendly Societies in Buckinghamshire (1951).
No information available at present.
The Writers' Club [for Women] (1892-fl.1920) was founded in 1892 by the journalist Frances Low at 10 Norfolk Street, near Fleet Street, London. It claimed to be unique in being the only club devoted to women of one profession. Entry, which was limited to 300, was based on evidence of literary or journalistic work. Entrance fee was one guinea for town members and the same amount for the annual subscription. Many well -known authors were members and a quiet room was reserved for writing. The suite included a writing room, dining room, kitchen, cloakroom and two reception rooms. 'At Homes' were held every Friday afternoon when guests (including men) could be invited to tea. No residential accommodation was provided and silence was enforced in the Writing Room. In the early 1900s a group of members, dissatisfied with the Club's lack of physical amenities, broke away under the leadership of Constance Smedley, to form the Lyceum Club. The Writers' Club was still in existence in the 1920s.
Arthur Joseph (Joe) Wrigley CBE, MD, FRCS, FRCOG (1904-1984) was educated at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and practised at St Thomas's, beginning his career as registrar to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and later becoming obstetric physician. He also offered his services to Mount Vernon Hospital, the Grosvenor Hospital, the Lambeth Hospital, and to the London boroughs of Lambeth and Stoke Newington. He was a Fellow of the College and inventor of the short forceps - "the Wrigley's". He died in 1984.
In 1293 Edmund, Earl of Lancaster and brother of King Edward I, constructed the Savoy Palace on land formerly belonging to the Count of Savoy. The palace was rebuilt at great expense by Henry, 1st Duke of Lancaster, between 1345 and 1370; after which it was said to be the finest house in England. In 1381 the palace was attacked during the Peasant's Revolt; the rioters started a bonfire of the Duke's possessions and mistakenly threw a box of gunpowder onto the flames, thus destroying much of the Great Hall.
In 1505 Henry VII ordered the palace to be rebuilt and used as a hospital for the poor. The hospital held 100 beds and included three chapels, a large precinct and outbuildings. It was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and a statue of him was positioned over the Strand gate. In 1570 complaints were made that Thomas Thurland, Master of the Hospital, used hospital money to maintain his relatives, rarely went to church, had sexual relations with hospital staff, and owed the hospital £2,500. The hospital never recovered from this mismanagement.
Houses in the hospital precinct were fashionable addresses for noblemen and highly ranked clergy. However, by the later 17th century these houses were occupied by businessmen, while the hospital was used for wounded servicemen, and barracks and a military prison were constructed. Some of the chapels and halls were converted for use by non-conformist religious groups such as French Protestants, Lutherans, Quakers and Calvinists. The hospital was formally dissolved in 1702.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
Sir Nathan Wright (1654-1721) was a lawyer, born in Leicestershire, son of a rector. He entered the Inner Temple in 1671 and was called to the bar in 1677. He was called to the bench in 1692 and became a serjeant-at-law in the same year. He began to represent high profile clients including the crown. In 1696 he was rewarded with a knighthood and made king's serjeant. He was named lord keeper in May 1700, although he accepted with reluctance. He sat on the privy council as an advisor to William III. Party politics led to his dismissal as lord keeper in 1705. Wright's wife died in the same month and he retired to his estates. He participated in some local law until 1721 when he died.
Information from: Robert J. Frankle, 'Wright, Sir Nathan (1654-1721)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Born, 1874; studied at the Royal College of Science; Scientific Assistant and Acting Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon; Controller, Government Experiment Station, Ceylon, 1900-1906; Editor, India Rubber Journal, London, 1907-1917; director and chairman, various tropical agricultural companies and trusts, 1907-1930; representative of the Royal Commission of 1851 on the Governing Body, Imperial College, 1918-1937; Chairman, Executive Committee, 1922 -1931 and Finance Committee, 1931-1938, of the Governing Body, Imperial College; Knighted, 1930; died, 1940.
Publications: include: Hevea Brasiliensis or Para Rubber: its botany, cultivation, chemistry and diseases (A M & J Ferguson, Colombo, 1905); The Cultivation of Rubber as an Investment (Rubber Plantation Development & Estates Agency, London, 1906); Rubber Cultivation in the British Empire. A lecture delivered before the Society of Arts, etc (Maclaren & Sons, London, 1907); Theobroma Cacao or Cocoa, its botany, cultivation, chemistry and diseases (A M & J Ferguson, Colombo, 1907); My Tour in Eastern Rubber Lands ... A series of articles contributed to the "India-Rubber Journal" (Maclaren & Sons, London, 1908).
Richard Wright, M.C., F.L.A. (1890-1976) was a pioneer of the county library movement. His early library training and experience were gained in public and reference libraries in Croydon, Sunderland, Coventry and Wiltshire. In 1922 he was appointed County Librarian of Middlesex with the task of inaugurating a county library service, following the adoption by the County Council of the Public Libraries Acts of 1919. The service was founded on a Carnegie Trust grant of £1,500 and a budget estimate of £600 and was intended to provide for rural areas without district council libraries. The initial library service comprised collections of books at schools and other centres, open to the public for a few hours weekly and staffed by volunteers, chiefly teachers. From 1930 full-time branch libraries, with professional staff, were opened, and these gradually replaced the part-time library centres. Richard Wright built up a service that was regarded as one of the most comprehensive and efficient in the country. His great enthusiasm and organising ability were evident in the development of the County Library through the medium of local library centres, whole-time branch libraries and students' library services.
Richard Wright served in the Royal Garrison Artillery in the First World War and gained the Military Cross. Throughout the war of 1939-45 he gave encouragement and support to members of his staff on active service and the letters he received are a testimonial to the high regard in which he was held (see Acc/1312/1-60). At the same time he was a member of the Book Recovery Committee which was instrumental in saving books and manuscripts from salvage. He took a prominent part in the scheme for organising a Regional Library System in S.E. England, and, among other professional activities, served on the Council of the Library Association. He retired in 1952 after thirty years service with Middlesex County Libraries.
John Wright was born in Norwich circa 1770, son of a clerk. He was apprenticed to his uncle, a silk mercer, but by 1797 he had established his own business as a bookseller and publisher, based at 169 Piccadilly. He published an anti-Whig journal called Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner. However, the journal was not a success and Wright went bankrupt in 1802 and was imprisoned. He was released on terms that indebted him to William Cobbett. Cobbett employed him to supervise production of various serial publications including Cobbett's Weekly Political Register, Cobbett's Parliamentary Debates, Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England, and Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials. However, the relationship did not end well, amid allegations of financial mismanagement and negligence ending in arbitration which saw Wright obtain £1000 damages against Cobbett. Thomas Curson Hansard took over publication of the Parliamentary Debates and Wright continued to edit them.
In 1826 Wright began a crusade against the Grand Junction Waterworks Company, which supplied water to the City of Westminster. In March 1827 Wright wrote and published a pamphlet, The Dolphin, or, Grand Junction Nuisance, followed by a monograph in 1828, The Water Question, in which he denounced the quality of the water suppy. The company used water from the Thames, drawn from a suction device (known as a dolphin) situated near the mouth of the Ranelagh common sewer, so that the water was saturated with impurities. The cause was championed in Parliament and supported by doctors and chemists. A royal commission of enquiry followed, and engineer Thomas Telford was appointed to investigate alternative water sources.
In 1830 Wright stopped working for Hansard over problems with the speed at which he worked. He was employed by other publishers to edit works including editions of Byron, Boswell, the speeches of Charles James Fox and the letters of Horace Walpole and William Pitt. Wright died in February 1844.
Source of information: Page Life, 'Wright, John (1770/71-1844)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30038, accessed 17 June 2011].
Helena Wright was born in 1887. She trained at the London School of Medicine for Women, qualifying as MRCS (Eng.) and LRCP (Lond.) in 1914, and MB, BS in 1915. She subsequently worked at the Bethnal Green Hospital, where she met her husband Peter Wright, a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon. After the First World War she and her husband decided to become medical missionaries in China, working at the Shantung Christian University in Tsinan until 1927. Following her return to England, Wright became an influential figure in the National Birth Control Association, later the Family Planning Association. She wrote several much reprinted works of popular sex instruction, including The Sex Factor in Marriage (1930). During her later years she became interested in alternative medicine and the paranormal, and there is a small amount of material in this collection which reflects this interest. She died in 1982.
Cyril Ernest Wright was born in 1907 and was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh. He received an MA in English Language and Literature with first class Honours in 1929 from Edinburgh University. At Clare College, Cambridge he received first class Honours in Archaeological and Anthropological Tripos in 1931 and in 1936 he was awarded a PhD. for his thesis on The Cultivation of Saga during the Dark Ages. His career was spent in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum where he became assistant keeper in 1933. After being seconded to the Telegraphic Censorship and Home Office during the War, Wright returned to the British Museum to take up the post of Deputy Keeper of manuscripts in 1955. He was Senior Deputy Keeper from 1961 to his retirement in 1972. Wright was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1941 and served on several of the Society's committees including the Croft Lyons Committee from 1957 until his death. He was a member of the British Records Association from 1940 to 1970. He contributed to 30 publications during his career on subjects such as Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon, and Middle English literature, on palaeography and on heraldry; and the history of collectors and libraries, from the dispersal of the monastic libraries to the collections of the eighteenth century. He died in 1980.
John M Wrigglesworth was born 4 July 1941 in West Yorkshire; educated at Rothwell Grammar School and Birmingham University, received a first class honours degree in physics, 1959-1962, an MSc in Radiobiology, 1963 and a PhD in Medical Biochemistry, 1965. His first publications were on the enzymology and radiobiology of the ileum and after obtaining his doctorate, Wrigglesworth took his first postdoctoral post, at University of California, Berkeley, working in the laboratory of Professor Lester Packer, 1967-1970; he then returned to England and was appointed as a lecturer in Biochemistry at Chelsea College, 1970. He met Beatrix Price in 1970 and married her in 1971. Wrigglesworth joined the Biochemistry Department at Chelsea College under Harold Baum. During this time he published extensively on iron, membrane topology and the mechanism of electron and proton translocation by cytochrome c oxidase; was made an Honorary Fellow of Peter Mitchell's Glynn Research Institute, 1991; later being awarded a DSc by London University for research in molecular bioenergetics; he was head of teaching in Molecular Life Sciences, King's College London, 1997 to 2000 and retired in 2004.
During the 1980s, whilst at Chelsea College, Wrigglesworth was active with the Association of University Teachers, chairing the local AUT and was very involved in the attempt to prevent the closure of the College. Wrigglesworth became a member of the Biochemical Society, hosting the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting in Birmingham, in 2000; served as Society Treasurer from 1997 to 2002 and acted as a Trustee of the Biochemical Society Staff Pension Scheme. Towards the end of his time at King's College London Wrigglesworth took a course in philosophy and qualified in medical ethics. Wrigglesworth died 24 June 2005.
Publications: Energy and life (Taylor & Francis, London, 1997) and Biochemical research techniques: a practical introduction Edited by John M. Wrigglesworth Wiley, Chichester, c1983).
Wrey entered the Navy in 1878. As a midshipman in the SUPERB, he was present at the bombardment of Alexandria, 1882, and was in the CARYSFORT in 1884 during the attack on Suakim. Still on the Mediterranean Station, he served in the TEMERAIRE, 1884 to 1885. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1888, spent eight years on the China Station and became a commander in 1900. In 1909 he was made Divisional Officer of the Coast Guard, Southern District, with the rank of captain. At the outbreak of war he was recalled to service as Principal Naval Transport Officer at Southampton and remained there until 1918.
Born 1925, trained as a telegraph operator, HMS ROYAL ARTHUR, 1943; escort carrier HMS RAJAH, 1944-1945.
Winifred Wrench (fl 1919-1938) was a member of an English family; she was educated at home and then in Germany before becoming a journalist. She was a member of the party that visited Lille in Apr 1919 to see and report on the ruined state of Northern France after the First World War, attending as the representative of the English Speaking Union and Babies of the Empire. She was interested in child welfare throughout her life and was the organiser of the first National Baby Week as well as being the founder of the Mothercraft Training Society. However, by 1925 she had also become concerned with the issue of divorce law at the same time as continuing her association with the Overseas League, acting as the organising secretary for Scotland from 1928 to 1933. In 1934 she was resident in Edinburgh and described herself as a member of the All Peoples Association, a freelance journalist, lecturer and social worker. She remained a member of the English Speaking Union, the Women's Institute and the National Council of Women, the Soroptimists' Club, the Federation of Business and Professional Women and editor of Scottish Home and Country. She appears to have spent some time in Tangiers in Morocco in 1938.
William Worsley was born circa 1435 in Eccles, Lancashire. He enjoyed the patronage of William Booth, bishop of Lichfield and later archbishop of York. Through him he was educated at Winchester College in 1442, going on to Oxford and Cambridge where he studied canon and civil law. He was ordained priest in 1460. In 1468 he was granted a doctorate in civil law, and was granted dispensation to hold canonries and prebends in London, Nottinghamshire and York.
In 1476 Worsley became archdeacon of Nottingham. In January 1479 he was elected dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral by the chapter in London. He was considered a good preacher. In 1494 he was arrested on charges of correspondence with the Yorkist pretender Perkin Warbeck. He was found guilty of high treason, but was saved from execution and paid a heavy fine to be pardoned. He died in August 1499 and was buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral.
Michael J. Bennett, 'Worsley, William (c 1435-1499)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29987, accessed 17 June 2011].
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, a City Livery Company, received its Charter and Grant of Arms in 1617 and acquired its Hall in 1632. Following its destruction in the Great Fire of 1666, Apothecaries' Hall was rebuilt on the same site and is the oldest extant livery company Hall in the City. London apothecaries had originally been members of the Grocers' Company until they were granted their own charter of incorporation by James I in recognition of their specialist skills in compounding and dispensing drugs.
The Society established an 'Elaboratory' for the bulk production of medicines in 1671-1672 at Apothecaries' Hall, laying the foundations of the British pharmaceutical industry. The Society's trade expanded and the Laboratory Stock, 1672, and Navy Stock, 1703, were created, merging to become the United Stock in 1822. From 1888 a committee managed the pharmaceutical businesses. The Society continued to manufacture, wholesale and retail drugs at the Hall until 1922.
In 1673 the Society founded Chelsea Physic Garden. Apprentices and later medical students were taught botany at the Garden, where the Society's ceremonial barge was kept and raw drugs and medicinal plants were grown, some of which were processed in the Hall laboratories. The Society managed the Garden until 1899.
In 1704, as a result of the ruling in the House of Lords in the Rose Case, apothecaries won the right both to prescribe and dispense medicines and so became legally ratified members of the medical profession. The Apothecaries Act, 1815, empowered the Society to institute a Court of Examiners to examine medical students and to grant its licence to practise medicine, the LSA, to successful candidates. The post-nominal was later changed to LMSSA by the Apothecaries Act, 1907, to reflect the all-round competence of Licentiates in medicine and surgery. John Keats qualified as Licentiate of the Society, 1816 and Elizabeth Garrett (later Garrett Anderson) became the first woman doctor to qualify in Britain, obtaining her Licence in 1865. Ronald Ross, the second Nobel Prizewinner in Medicine or Physiology, 1902, qualified LSA in 1881. The Society offers eleven specialist medical postgraduate diplomas, including Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic Human Identification and HIV Medicine.
In 1959 the Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Society of Apothecaries was established, running and teaching two diploma courses and holding an annual programme of eponymous lectures at Apothecaries' Hall. In 2004 the Faculty of Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine was founded, resulting from the success of the pioneering Diploma in the Medical Care of Catastrophes.
The Society is number 58 in the city livery companies' order of precedence, is the largest company and the only one designated 'Society'. By its constitution 85 percent of its membership must belong to the medical profession.
The Company has been in existence from at least 1297, although it has existed under a variety of names, including Woolpackers', Woolwinders' and, for the last 300 years, Woolmen's Companies. The Company received a charter in 1522.
A woodmonger was a dealer in wood; and especially a seller of wood for fuel.
The company was granted its charter in 1670 and its livery in 1773. By the late 18th century its control over the trade had ceased, but from 1882 onwards the company has been a firm supporter of general technical education, through grants and classes.
The Company is the oldest chartered livery company in the City of London, receiving its charter from King Henry II in ca. 1155-8 (Guildhall Library Ms 4621). It had control of weaving in the City of London, as well as Westminster and Southwark. The Company had a hall in Basinghall Street, in the parish of St Michael Bassishaw, until its demolition in the mid-19th century. The Company also held other properties in the City of London, as well as estates in Billericay and Shenfield in Essex.
Almshouses: William Watson (d. 1673) gave £200 towards the building of almshouses in Shoreditch. The almshouses (with 12 rooms) were opened in 1670. Richard Garrett of Wandsworth bequeathed £1,000 East India stock for the building of six almshouses at Elder Street, Porter's Fields for poor members of the Weavers' Company. In 1851 these almshouses were sold and new ones were erected at Wanstead. They comprised 24 dwellings (12 for men and 12 for women) and were ready for occupation in 1859.
There is evidence of a body of Wax Chandlers in 1330 when it collected money as a gift for the king. In 1348 four men were appointed to investigate the quality of wares, and in 1353 ordinances were entered into the Corporation's Letter Book G (held with the City of London Corporation's own records; also transcribed in Ms 9495). Their first charter was granted in 1484 and the grant of arms was made in 1485 and confirmed with supporters in 1530. The Company's operative charter was granted by Charles II in 1663 and, although it was lost during 'quo warranto' proceedings, a contemporary transcript survives in Ms 9498.
The Vintners', one of the "Great Twelve" livery companies of the City of London. The Company received its formal charter of incorporation in 1437, but the Vintners' as a group of traders had received charters from 1363. The Company's charters have been retained by the Clerk, although the Manuscripts Section has copies of many of them.The Company had a hall in Upper Thames Street in the City of London from at least 1446, which was destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt betweeen 1667 and 1676.
By his will dated 1446, Guy Shuldham bequeathed 13 buildings and land to the Vintners' Company to be converted into almshouses. The almshouses were destroyed in the Great Fire and were replaced by 12 almshouses in Mile End. A bequest by Benjamin Kenton (d. 1802) paid for the almshouses to be pulled down and rebuilt. The almshouses were damaged by bombing in the Second World War and were replaced by new almshouses built at the "Vintry", Nutley, Surrey in 1957-1960.
There are references to a "Mystery" of Upholders [upholsterers] from at least 1361, but the earliest surviving records of the Company date from the 17th century. The Company Hall was based at Lambeth Hill but was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and not rebuilt.
An existing fraternity of tylers and bricklayers was incorporated by charter in 1568 and regulated by ordinances issued in 1570-1. Tilers laid roof, floor and wall tiles, which later became known as bricks.
In 1832 the Company decided to raise a subscription to pay for the building of almshouses. A plot of land was bought on King Henry's Walk, Balls Pond Road, Islington and eight dwellings were constructed. The almshouses (for liverymen of the Company or their widows) were opened in 1836.
The Turners' Company had jurisdiction over producers of all articles of wood turned on lathes, such as bowls, chair legs, and ornaments. They were closely connected with the trade of innkeeping, providing wooden measures and drinking vessels. A charter was first granted to the Company in 1604.
By 1591, the Company had a Hall in Philpot Lane, which was destroyed in the Great Fire, rebuilt shortly afterwards, and finally surrendered in 1737. They later occupied a Hall on College Hill.
The company was granted a charter of incorporation by Charles II on 29 April 1663. It was recognised by the City of London, but without a grant of livery. The Company went into decline during the 19th century, both in membership and financial terms,and finally failed, probably in 1868. There had been an earlier Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers which was granted a charter by Charles I in 1634. Although it was of London and Westminster and England and Wales, meetings were held at Painter Stainers' Hall. However the charter was forfeited during the early 1640s. An earlier Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers of Westminster had been granted a charter in 1619, but had to surrender it fifteen years later. The present-day Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders is not the same Company, but is of recent origin (grant of arms 1956).
This Company is also known as the Wire Workers' Company, and there is evidence that these two separate crafts were joined by 1425. Although the Company did not receive a charter until 1670, the two crafts had previously sought protection from the Girdlers' and Ironmongers' Companies.
There is a reference to an organisation of candle makers in 1300, but the Tallow Chandlers' Company's charters date from 1462, with the grant of arms in 1456. In 1476 the Company purchased the site of its hall, near Cannon Street Station. The original hall was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the present Tallow Chandlers' Hall was built in 1672.
The Spectacle Makers' Company received their first charter in 1629. In the 18th century, they extended their field of activity and became involved with innovations such as telescopes and microscopes. The Company had a Hall which was destroyed in the Great Fire and currently occupy buildings on the site of Apothecaries' Hall.
The Worshipful Company of Soapmakers is now defunct and no other records are known to survive.
The Skinners received their first charter in 1327/8 as a result of the more general use of furs and the consequent growth of abuses in connection with the trade. Further charters were granted in 1393, 1437 and 1667. It is thought that the Company was formed from the consolidation of the two Fraternities of Corpus Christi and the Virgin some time between the granting of the first and second charters, the latter being the first to comprehend the whole craft. Ordinances for the regulation of the trade were drawn up immediately prior to the granting of the first charter and again in 1365/6 and 1676. The Company controlled the English fur trade until the eighteenth century. Skinners' Hall, at 8 Dowgate Hill, existed before 1295. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, rebuilt in 1670 and refaced in 1790
The Skinners' Irish estate in Londonderry was known as the Pellipar estate, after the Latin for skinners, pelliparii. It was divided into three divisions: the Dungiven, Ballinascreen and Banagher Divisions.
The following charities are associated with the Company:
Tonbridge School: Sir Andrew Judd, citizen and skinner, and former Lord Mayor of London, founded a school in Tonbridge, Kent in 1553. On his death in 1558, and in accordance with his will, the court of the Skinners' Company became governors, a role representatives of the court still perform. Judd endowed the school with land in Gracechurch Street in the City of London, and in St Pancras. It was a small and local institution until the 19th century when it expanded to become one of the leading public schools of England. The school was largely rebuilt from the 1860s-80s. It currently has some 750 pupils. For further information see A Holmes-Walker, Sixes and Sevens: A Short History of the Skinners' Company, London 2005, pp.50-60.
Skinners Company almshouses: By his will dated 1558, Sir Andrew Judd bequeathed to the Skinners' Company an almshouse in the parish of St Helen's for six poor freemen of the Company. Lewis Newberry (in his will dated 1683) provided for the purchase of land for almshouses at Mile End for six widows of freemen of the Company
Middle School for Boys, Tunbridge Wells: The school was opened by the Skinners' Company in 1887 from surplus profits from the Hunt and Atwell charities, as an addition to its school in Tonbridge, Kent. It was a day school until 1894, from which date boarders were admitted. By 1901 it had 145 pupils. In 1944 it became a voluntary aided school, and in 1992 grant maintained. It currently has about 750 pupils. The Skinners' Company maintains its role on the board of governors.
Sir Andrew Judd's Commercial School: The school was established by the Skinners' Company at Tonbridge, Kent in 1888, out of an endowment from Sir Andrew Judd's Foundation [q.v.]. It moved to its present site in Tonbridge in 1896. It soon after became known as the Judd School. In 1944 it became the first voluntary aided grammar school. It currently has about 850 pupils, including girls in the 6th form.
Middle School for Girls, Stamford Hill: The Skinners' Company founded a middle school for girls in Stamford Hill, North London in 1890 from surplus money from the Hunt and Atwell Charities. Its premises were expanded in 1892. In 1902 there were over 350 pupils. In 1944 it became a voluntary aided school, and in 1972 the first voluntary aided comprehensive. The Skinners' Company has maintained a close association. In 2004 it became a Business and Enterprise College.
A silk-thrower or silk-throwster was someone who converted raw silk into silk thread. The Company was formed in 1629 but is now defunct.
The Shipwrights' Company is derived from the medieval Fraternity of St Simon and St Jude.
The Fraternity of St Simon and St Jude was founded in 1456 by the 'artificers of shipwrights in the city of London'. Ordinances of that year show that the Fraternity, which was open to men and women, was governed by a master and one warden. New members had to be of 'good name and fame', and paid 6s 8d or 40d on entry. Attendance at the annual mass and four quarter days was compulsory and members contributed towards the cost of dinners. A common box was maintained, from which loans could be made and alms given to poor brothers and sisters. Those receiving the livery were expected to bequeath a piece of plate or other valuable gift to the Fraternity. Members were not to tempt away another's apprentice or employ a stranger, and disputes were to be taken to the master in the first instance before resorting to the courts
Due respect was to be shown to all who had held office within the Fraternity, although this respect seems not always to have been mutual: additions made to the ordinances in 1483 talk of the decay of the Fraternity caused by 'simple and slothful wardens'. Further pronouncements were made in 1512 and ca. 1524. In this year, a list of wardens and members names eleven individuals, of whom two were women. In common with other predominantly religious bodies, it seems likely that the Fraternity of St Simon and St Jude was swept away as a result of the Chantries Act passed during the reign of Edward VI. However, new ordinances for the reform of the society of shipwrights dated ca. 1594 speak of the power of the master and wardens to search the brethren 'of that fraternity', suggesting that some sense at least of the brotherhood remained.
In 1605, the Company received its first charter and its grant of arms. At the same time, a Hall was established at Ratcliff, in Stepney, where the Company remained until ca. 1794
There are references to "Writers of the Court and Text Letter" in 1357, and the Writers of the Court Letter had their bye-laws by 1374. The charter of the Scriveners' Company, dated 1617, gave them control and administration of their craft, and until the 17th and early 18th centuries scriveners were synonymous with notaries. The majority belonged to the legal and allied professions.
The Saddler's Company received its first charter in 1272 and was incorporated in 1395. The company retains close links with saddlery, giving prizes at horse shows and show jumping events. Their Hall in Foster Lane dated from the 14th century but was destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire. It was subsequently rebuilt only to be damaged again in another fire. The repaired building was again damaged by bombing in 1940. The present Hall was opened in 1958.
The Company has been in existence from at least the 13th century, receiving charters in 1504, 1665, 1685, 1688 (two) and 1692. The Company also received a grant of arms in 1634. It was responsible for regulation of the trade in rabbits, pigeons, game, poultry and swans.
The Company appears to have used a tenement in Fenchurch Street as a hall from 1610, the premises being sub-let by the Company from 1630/1. The Company subsequently leased a property on the west side of Butcher Hall Lane. This hall was destroyed in the Great Fire. Since then the Company has held meetings at other company halls in the City and various coffee houses. In the period 1767-1951 the Company held meetings at Guildhall.
The Company has been in existence from at least 1365, receiving charters in 1611 and 1678. The Company also received a grant of arms in 1588.
The Company had a hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane from 1639. The hall was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt on the same site. The hall was subsequently demolished in 1863 to make way for Cannon Street railway station.
A guild of plasterers was first incorporated by charter in 1501. Plasterers were craftsmen who plastered the exterior of buildings with a material comprised of lime, gypsum, hay and straw, often creating elaborate and ornamental patterns, known as pargetting.
In 1545 a member of the Company, William Elder, left a house in Addle Street to be used as a Hall. The current Hall, built in 1972, is in London Wall.