Carpenters' Company , Worshipful Company of Carpenters

The Carpenters' Company is one of the ancient guilds of the City of London. The first recorded date of the Company's existence is its 'Boke of Ordinances' of 1333 (held at the National Archives), which show the principal objects of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood to be charitable and religious.

During the medieval period the Company had considerable powers to control building in the City. The Company ordinances of 1455 contained regulations giving power to the Master and Wardens to search carpenters' workshops to ensure that all timbers were to the standards set down by the City. They also confirmed that the Company was to be governed by a Master and three Wardens elected annually. They were to be helped in regulating the carpentry trade by a Court of Assistants of 'six or eight of such men as have already held office or are of the same weight in their craft'.

The Company received its Grant of Arms in 1466, and its first charter in 1477 from King Edward IV. By this charter, and confirmed by subsequent charters, the Carpenters' Company is 'a body Corporate and Politic by the name of the Master, Wardens and Commonalty of the Mistery of Freemen of the Carpentry of the City of London', with power to receive bequests and gifts of property, to plead in any courts, and to have a Common Seal. In 1607, a further charter of James I extended the jurisdiction of the Company from the City to two miles beyond the City Walls, and a new charter of 1640 extended the Company's powers to four miles.