Company of Watermen and Lightermen

There is evidence that the City of London Corporation passed regulations in 1370 governing watermen. In 1585 a grant of arms was made to the Company. The lightermen, who had formerly been members of the Woodmongers' Company, were amalgamated with the watermen in 1700. Watermen were boatmen or licensed wherry-men who were available for hire on the river Thames. Lightermen owned and operated lighters, flat-bottomed barges which were used in 'lightening' or unloading ships that could not be unloaded at a wharf, and also used for transporting goods of any kind.

Almshouses at Penge in Kent were built in 1840-1 on land presented to the Watermen and Lightermen's Company by John Dudin Brown. The almshouses could accommodate sixty residents (retired freemen of the Company). They were closed in 1973. Almshouses at Ditchling in Sussex were founded in 1888 through the gift of William Vokins, a master lighterman.