Showing 56 results

RESTRICTED ACCESS: PERMISSION NEEDED FROM THE SOCIETY.

Records of the Antiquarian Horological Society, comprising: AGM notices, 1966-date (Ms 20510); minutes, 1950-70 (Ms 20511, 20512-13, 20575); lists of members, 1957-67 (Ms 20511A); publicity material, 1954-ca. 1974 (Ms 20514-15); Benjamin Gray's daybook, 1704-26 (Ms 23726); Robert Gardner's commonplace book, ca. 1887 (Ms 29842); and miscellaneous papers, ca. 1915-89 (Ms 29186-7A, 29287, 29292, 30794-4A).

Ms 20514 is a series of printed pamphlets recording the history of the Society in a summary form, 1955-ca. 1974.

They were catalogued at various dates from 1983 by members of Guildhall Library staff. Access to records should be sought from the Society (contact details may be obtained from the enquiry desk).

Plan of Dovecote Estate in Hornsey, 1882, with one sheet from the Ordnance Survey map of London, 1869-1872.

Records of the Association of Fellowship Porters. The records were compiled between 1620 and 1895. However they also include a copy of the ordinances of 1566, and copies of acts from 1619. No membership records are available before 1756. The collection also includes rules and regulations; Court minute books; quarterage books and financial accounts.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

Buisness ledger of Baldwin and Elliott, saddlers and ironmongers.

Account books of the Beaumont family of Pinner, wheelwrights, 1803-1901. Also article on the account books, 1992.

Records of Birch and Gaydon Limited, comprising watch books and job books, ledgers, stock books, repair and sales books, and other financial records, as well as some promotional material.

Records of the Antiquarian section of the British Horological Institute, including minutes and papers.

Records of George Brown, chandler, 1821-1843, comprising letter book dated 1821-1842, which contains information on Brown's business dealings including much comment on the state of shipping at various times, many references to steam vessels as early as 1821, and a large number of letters and memoranda relating to the seizure by the Portuguese of the steamship 'Lord of the Isles' in which Brown had an interest and subsequent attempts to get redress.

Also a memoranda book, 1833-1843, mainly recording brief memoranda of letters sent and received from 'George' or about 'George' who would appear to have settled in Canada and made attempts at farming and business. Evidence suggests that 'George' was the son of George Brown who was joined for a while in Canada by his mother and sisters. The book gives considerable information concerning shipping to and from North America; settlers in Canada and their acquisition of land; early government of Canada; references to the Canada Company, an account of 'stores required for a settler going to New Zealand' and details of goods sent out to 'George'.

These papers of Francis and George Bent Buckley comprise antiquarian notes compiled by them from 1930 to 1938, chiefly relating to watches and 17th and 18th century London watchmakers.

The records comprise: list of lost watches of London watchmakers, c 1930 (Ms 02921); list of references to 18th-century newspaper advertisements relating to watchmakers, clockmakers and allied trades, c 1934 (Ms 03338); list of British clockmakers working outside London, 1937 (Ms 03355); and alphabetical list of glass sellers, china-men and "potters", 1938 (Ms 03384).

Records of an investigation into the wages and conditions of work of unskilled labour, especially in London. Interviews with representatives of the London Carmen's Union, the General Labourers' Amalgamated Union and the United Builder's Labourers Union.

Records of Charles Frodsham and Company, chronometer, clock and watch makers. The records comprise minutes of the board of directors 1893-1939 and annual general meetings 1894-1939 (Ms 19904); a ledger 1939-55 (Ms 19905), and watch manufacturing books 1876-1910 and 1895-7 (Ms 19906-7).

Currently (as of April 2014) only the following records are available for consultation with 48 hours notice:

Chubb and Son Limited (CLC/B/002/01-11):

Memoranda and articles of association, minutes and agendas, annual reports and accounts, registers of directors and secretaries, seal registers, prospectuses, share transfer registers, annual returns, balance sheets and accounts, ledgers and day books, lock and safe order books and lock and safe number registers (from 1819), manufacturing minutes and papers, patents including specifications, staff salaries (1877-1940), films and videos, and 'Chubb Collectanea' scrapbooks;

Records of subsidiaries and associated organisations:

British Security Industry Association Limited: memorandum and articles of association, minutes and reports (1966-1974) (CLC/B/002/BS);

Chubb and Son's Lock and Safe Company Limited: memorandum and articles of association, share register, correspondence, donated employee records (1951-1982) (CLC/B/002/CLS);

Chubb Fire Security Limited: films and videos (CLC/B/002/CFS);

Chubb Security Services Limited: films and videos (CLC/B/CSS);

Hobbs Hart and Company Limited (fully catalogued): partnerships, minutes and other corporate records, share records, administrative records, financial records, production records including lock and safe order books, patents, marketing and advertising printed material and photographs, staff records, premises and histories (1887-1985) (CLC/B/002/HH);

Chatwood Safe Company Limited: lock and safe registers and progress books (1864-1956) (CLC/B/002/CH);

Chatwood-Milner Limited: order books and safe progress book (1955 - 1971) (CLC/B/002/CHM);

Milner's Safe Company Limited: day book, depot and sale ledgers, lock and key registers (1857-1954) (CLC/B/002/ML).

The lock and safe number and order books are of particular value for dating locks and safes and related products fitted into antique furniture from the late Georgian to mid 20th century.

Further records including those of other subsidiary companies remain uncatalogued and are part of a long-term cataloguing project. Please contact staff for further information on access to uncatalogued records.

The papers of Abbott, Clayton and Morris consist of the business and family records of two generations and form one of the earliest and largest extant collections of Stuart-era financial records. There are also related records of Sir George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1648-1689), a close personal friend of Robert Clayton. (Clayton was appointed by Jeffreys as a trustee of his family settlement drawn up in 1689.) Jeffreys was Common Serjeant (1671-1678) and Recorder of London (1678-1680).

'Stock books' of an unidentified clock and watch maker, recording manufacturing costs, retail prices and sales of individual clocks, watches and chains; also accounts book recording the costs of components.

Licence allowing Joseph Corbetta to sell gold plate.

Records of Daniel Desbois and Sons, watch and clockmakers, comprising a series of ledgers and a series of day books.

Records of E Dent and Company Limited, clock and watch makers. The archives in this collection are the surviving business records, covering mainly the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They are primarily the records of the Strand and Royal Exchange shops - only Ms 18026 and 23823-4 relating to M. F. Dent, 1856-1920, appear to have survived.

They are arranged as follows:
Ownership of company - shares, bonds (Mss 18005-7);
Administration - ledger, balance sheets and accounts, letter books; company management (Mss18008-15);
Business -
(i) stock books and manufacturing books (Mss 18016-26);
(ii) letters patent, specifications and related papers (Mss 18027-40);
(iii) Watch trial certificates, trade mark certificates (Mss 18041-2);
(iv) Drawings of watches, clocks, parts etc. (Mss 18043-52);
(v) Photographs of watches, clocks, parts etc. (Mss 18053-4);
Leases and agreements relating to premises (Mss 18055-64);
Miscellaneous mainly printed (Mss 18065-76);
Records of M. F. Dent (Mss 23823-4).

Records of George Jesse Dawson and his son Percy George Dawson, antique clock case makers and restorers. The records comprise job books and accounts.

The collection includes ledgers showing pledges, stock and sales books; balance sheets and accounts; certificates of incorporation or memorandum and articles of agreement; correspondence covering a range of topics including the robbery of the Holloway Branch, letters from customers and matters relating to the closure or liquidisation of branches. There are also a series of auction sale catalogues (a family member was also a director of the London Bridge Auction Rooms) showing lots put for sale by Thomsons.

The collection falls into two parts; papers relating to the dockyards and those salvaged from the German battleship Baden after she was beached in 1919. The former comprise a page from a Progress of Works register kept in Chatham dockyard, 1734; a 'Scheme of Prices for Performing Shipwrights Work by Job', 1815; a 'Scheme of Prices for Performing Shipwrights Work', 1857; two notebooks with engineering diagrams and drawings kept by students at Portsmouth engineering school, 1883, 1886. The Baden documents consist of eleven items and include a folder containing papers and letters relating to the fitting out of the ship at Danzig, 1916; a Chief Engineer's order book, 1916 to 1918, and three copies of German newspapers, 1919.

Day book of clock and watch maker Benjamin Gray.

Papers of Sir William Hannam Henderson. They consist of official service documents; a log, 1860 to 1866; a personal notebook, 1867 to 1869; an order book, 1873 to 1878; five out-letterbooks, 1889 to 1896, and accounts, estimates, memoranda, plans, personnel lists and proposed social reforms for Devonport Dockyard; also for this period, 1902 to 1905, are two out-letterbooks to the Admiralty. Among Henderson's letters received, dating from his schooldays to his death, are copies of those from Lloyd George, written during the First World War. Finally there are scrapbooks, photograph albums and news cuttings, 1847 to 1931, and proofs of his articles, including those published in the Naval Review between 1917 and 1924 entitled 'Admiralty and Command of the Sea'. In the Royal United Service Institution collection, now in this Museum, are some of Henderson's watch bills, a notebook, 1870 to 1880, and an order book for the CONQUEST, 1889 to 1891.

Records of Charles Hobson, clock restorer, comprising workshop notes and diagrams (some photocopies) and photographs of Hobson in his workshop.

Papers of I G Farben, 1956-1957, relate to the company's use of slave labour and comprise a copy of a letter from I G Farben denying that Salomon Freimann worked for them whilst a concentration camp inmate and a copy of an agreement between I G Farben and the Conference of Jewish Material Claims against Germany, concerning claims arising out of the employment of Jewish concentration camp prisoners in their factories in the region of Auschwitz.

Records of Joseph Barber and Company Limited, wharfingers and warehouse keepers, comprising constitutional documents, financial material, a list of rates and title deeds. This material requires 24 hours notice for access.

The records of Joseph Preston and Sons, watch, clock and chronometer movement makers, comprise two volumes containing descriptions of parts c 1890-5 and 1892-1914 (Mss 14558, 14560), a cash book 1893-1904 (Ms 14545) and a bank pass book 1907-12 (Ms 14559).

Business archives of Victor Kullberg, watch and chronometer maker, comprising: operational and financial records, 1857-1947 (Ms 14537-42, 14546-54), and correspondence 1871-1930 (Ms 14543-4).

Marine chronometer rating book kept by C Lupton, watchmaker.

Records of Merry and Company, saddlemakers, 1883-1951, including letter books, ledgers, account books, wages books, order books containing clients' names, notes of their requirements (whips, racing equipment, sporting gear, etc.) and many specimens of coloured silks, order book for jockeys' race caps, and correspondence.

Records of the National Benevolent Society of Watch and Clock Makers since 1916; and the archives of the three predecessor institutions, the Watch and Clock Makers' Benevolent Institution, the Watch and Clock Makers' Pension Society and the Clock and Watch Makers' Asylum. The records comprise annual reports and accounts, financial records, minutes, correspondence and related papers. Also one volume of an earlier benevolent society active in London from 1767 at least, the Society of Clock and Watch makers.

Records of the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror day reel and machine staff chapel and federated house chapel. The records comprise minutes, attendance registers, members' subscription books, correspondence and related papers.

Papers of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers, including the Amalgamated Society of Tailoresses and the United Clothing Workers' Union, comprising 1. Amalgamated Society of Tailors; 2. London Society of Tailors and Tailoresses (formerly West End Branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses); 3.United Clothing Workers' Union; 4. National Unions of Tailors and Garment Workers.

Minutes and papers of the London District Committee of the National Union of Vehicle Builders.

Records of Parkinson and Frodsham, clock and watch makers, comprising a watch manufacturing book 1872-1925; a register of clocks and watches supplied to retailers 1866-1914 and a record of retail sales 1911-4; clock and watch repair books 1937-45; customer accounts 1923-40 and 1932-45 and lists of customers and manufacturers in the clock and watch trade [1900-1941].

Records of G W Scott, basket makers, 1703-1930. The surviving records date from June 1703. They cover not only the infinite variety of baskets, cradles and wooden goods made and repaired but also items such as bugtraps, and the figures of elephants, camels, horses, giants and ghosts made for Drury Lane, Covent Garden and Astley's Circus. Records include day books; bill books; register of accounts; goods received book; wages books and newspaper cuttings and booklet summarizing the history of the firm.

The records of Searle and Company Limited, jewellers and silversmiths, comprising customer ledgers recording sales to private clients 1896-1968.

24 HOURS NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR ACCESS TO THESE RECORDS.

Navy Office records belonging to Charles Sergison comprising Navy Board Minutes, 1673 to 1718 (seventy-six volumes), and copies of Admiralty orders to the Navy Board, 1603 to 1717 (thirteen volumes), mostly after 1674. There are also a large number of miscellaneous documents, including lists of ships in Sea Pay, 1660 to 1685 and 1684 to 1718, lists of officers, 1688 to 1716, Instructions for Ordnance, 1660 to 1688, Instructions for the Navy, 1686 to 1688, an abstract of Navy Board Warrants, 1660 to 1717, an abstract of numbers of dockyard workmen, 1686 to 1718, the Ordinary Estimate, 1692, papers relating to a victualling enquiry, 1710 to 1713, and an account of the Select Committee to Examine and State the Debt of the Navy, 1714. Finally there are copies of Hollond's 'Discourse on the Navy' and 'Survey of the South Coast' by Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy between 1692 and 1699.

This class consists of sixteen documents relating to shipbuilding, eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. They include a description of the machine which steered the IPSWICH across the Atlantic after the rudder had been carried away, 1746; the agreement for the building of an East India Company ship, the PRESTON, 1798; a patent for improvement in side propellors for ocean and river vessels, 1865; and papers relating to Admiral Sir Percy Scott's (1853-1924) proposed battleship design, 1911.

Job order books of Edwin Robert Sills, watch and chronometer finisher.

Accounts ledger of Sills, Ramsay and Gray, wharfingers.

Society of Public Notaries of London records comprise rules of the Society, minutes, some accounts, and extensive correspondence, especially on laws affecting the profession, qualifications required, attempts by solicitors and other professions to encroach on notaries' area of expertise.

Note: RECORDS ARE SUBJECT TO A 30 YEAR CLOSURE PERIOD.

Records of clockmakers Ainsworth Thwaites and Company, later Thwaites and Reed Limited. The records comprise daybooks 1780-1955; ledgers, including workmen's time and materials accounts, 1788-1958; estimate and order books 1802-1945; maintenance and repair books 1822-47 and 1874-80; spare parts books 1842-1912; stock books 1814-55 and 1904-54; copy invoice books 1917-20; out-letter book 1919-20; cash books and journals 1812-1951; bank books 1886-1954; and wages books 1828-1931.

Access to Mss 6788/1-6, 6789 and 6791/1-4 is subject to special conditions: for further information ask a member of staff.

Records of UNISON, comprising minutes and papers of various branches and councils (APTEC stands for Administrative, Professional, Technical and Clerical):

• London District Council For Local Authorities A.P.T.E.C. Services;
• London J.I.C. Manual Workers/ Joint Council For Local Authorities Services Manual Workers;
• Middlesex J.I.C. Manual Workers/ Joint Council For Local Authority Services Manual Workers;
• Middlesex Whitley Council For Local Authorities A.P.T.E.C. Services;
• North Metropolitan J.I.C./ Joint Council For Local Authorities Manual Workers;
• Greater London Joint Council For Local Authority Services Manual Workers;
• Greater London Whitley Council For Local Authorities A.P.T.E.C. Services;
• Trade Union Joint Negotiating Committee For London County Council Staff;
• London, Middlesex, N. Metropolitan District and Provincial Council for Local Authorities non trading Services Manual Workers Joint Grading Committee;
• Metropolitan Education Joint Council For Local Authorities A.P.T.E.C. Services;
• Metropolitan District Council No. 5 For The Waterwork Undertaking Industry;
• Eastern District Provincial Council For Local Authority A.P.T.E.C. Services;
• South Midland Regional Council For County Council Roadmen;
• Essex County Council Local Joint Staff Committee For Manual Workers.

Records of William James Barnsdale and Son, watch and clockmakers, comprising order and repair books and accounts, as well as a pedigree of the family from the 18th to the 20th centuries.

Records of the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, compiled from 1618, but they including copies of earlier material dating from 1463. Records include ordinance book; financial accounts; Court minutes; quarterage books; registers of apprentices; registers of freedom admissions and lists of members.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

Records of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, 1503 - 1992, including copies of charters and bye-laws; Court and committee minute books; financial accounts; lists of liverymen; registers of freemen; registers of freedom admissions; registers of apprentice bindings; papers relating to duties and taxes on clocks and watches; papers relating to patents, hallmarks and foreign imports; letter books; Clerk's papers and papers relating to charities. Please note there is no public access to Ms 2710/17-20, Ms 20384 or Ms 22353 without permission from the Company.

The collection includes a number of papers of John Harrison (1693-1776), describing his construction of longitude timekeepers and watches. These papers were catalogued at various dates from 1918 by members of Guildhall Library staff. The records include description, with plans, by John Harrison, of his first longitude timekeeper or"sea clock"; papers relating to the horological inventions of John Harrison, collected by Alexander Cumming (ca. 1732-1814), clockmaker, by virtue of his appointment by Act of Parliament to adjudicate on Harrison's explanation of the mechanisms of his longitude time keeper "H 4"; journal, 1761-6, relating to the testing of John Harrison's chronometer for the determining of longitude at sea in accordance with a statute of 12 Queen Anne, chapt. 15, by Walter Williams; essays, notes and calculations by John Harrison, and his son William Harrison; and letters mainly from William Harrison, statements, cases etc relating to the tests at sea of John Harrison's longitude watches and his efforts to win an award from the Board of Longitude. PLEASE NOTE: Permission is required from the Company for photocopies or photography of Harrison material (whether for private study or for publication). All requests for reproductions for the purposes of publication should also be referred to the Company. More information is available from staff.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

Records of the Worshipful Company of Coopers, 1440-1978, including Court minute books; mark books (alphabetical lists of members practising the trade of a cooper with a representation of their marks); financial accounts; title deeds and other papers relating to property; lists of freemen; registers of freedom admissions; registers of apprentice bindings. There are also records relating to the charities of William Alexander, Nicholas Gibson and Henry Strode.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

Records of the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers. The records have been compiled between 1571 and 1997, but they include deeds from 1497, and a list of the livery 1537-ca. 1902, compiled in ca. 1902. They also include registers of freedom admissions from 1651 and of apprentice bindings from 1641, and papers relating to the Irish estates, 1832-1910.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

Records of the Worshipful Company of Masons, 1550? - 1955. The records were compiled from around 1550, but they include a schedule of deeds 1463-1676. They also include registers of freedom admissions and apprentice bindings from 1663; and records relating to the Irish estates, 1609-1910.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

Records of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers, 1555-1995. IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING ACCESS: These records are stored at the Guildhall Library site rather than the LMA Clerkenwell site. Researchers wishing to access these records should do so at the Guildhall Library Rare Books table. The Library is open Monday to Saturday, 9:30 to 16:45. Researchers will need to have an Archives History Card or a Library Readers Card. An archivist will be available at Guildhall Library on Thursday mornings to answer any queries.

The most significant records are listed below, with location of original and copies (if any):

a) Charter of James I, 1607 (at Saddlers' Hall)
b) Charter of Charles II, 1684 (at Saddlers' Hall)
c) Charter of Elizabeth II, 1995 (at Saddlers' Hall; photograph at Guildhall Library, Ms 29915)
d) "Record book", 1364-1698 (at Saddlers' Hall; photographic copy at Guildhall Library, Ms 05385A)
e) Ordinance and subscription book 1560-date (original at Saddlers' Hall; microfilm copy at Guildhall Library, Ms 30000)
f) Court minute book, 1606-65 (Guildhall Library Ms 05385)
g) Audit book, 1555-1822 (Guildhall Library Ms 05384)
h) Apprentice binding register, 1800-1962 (at Saddlers' Hall; microfilm copy at Guildhall Library, Ms 30491)
i) Alphabetical list of pensioners, 1831-1929 (at Saddlers' Hall; microfilm copy at Guildhall Library, Ms 30490)
j) Court minutes from 1892, account books from 1904 and wardens' minutes from 1914 (at Saddlers' Hall). There is a full list in the Saddlers' Company accession file
k) Database of all known members of the company compiled from the 1950s from various sources including the records listed above and the records of City freedoms (at Saddlers' Hall)