Carpenters' Company , Worshipful Company of Carpenters

The governing body of the Carpenters' Company is the Court of Assistants, with the Master, who holds office for one year, being the head of the Company. The Company's earliest ordinances of 1333 stated that the Brotherhood was to be governed by four wardens elected annually. The ordinances of 1455 were more specific: the Company was to be governed by a Master and three Wardens who were to be elected annually on the Feast of St Lawrence (10 August) and hold office for one year. In order to help them manage the Company's business, which had increased, particularly in attempting to control the carpentry trade, the Master and Wardens were permitted to appoint eight Assistants who formed the Court of Assistants. They were to be former Master or Wardens of the Company, or 'most honest persons', and the Court was to meet once a week on Fridays. The ordinances of 1455 and the election of Master and Wardens were confirmed by the Company's charter of 1477. The work of the Court covered two areas, as a committee of management dealing with ordinary Company business, managing property and organising regulations for its conduct, and as a judicial court dealing with breaches of regulations, overseeing differences between freemen of the Company, and settling trade disputes between freemen and their employers outside the Company. As the Company's control over the trade declined, the Court's role as a judicial court was also diminished, and the Court's principal role became that of the governing body of the Company. The Court now meets once a month. A number of Standing Committees comprising members of the Court and Liverymen report to the Court on a regular basis.