Worshipful Company of Haberdashers

The Haberdashers' Company was formed from a combination of the small wares business of the Mercers' Company and from the Fraternity of Hurers (the Cappers and Hatters). The first ordinances of the company date from 1371 and the first charter from 1448 (to the Fraternity of St Catherine the Virgin of Haberdashers of London, i.e. to the Fraternity created from the business of the Mercers' Company). The two fraternities were united by a charter of 1502. The company inherited the site of its hall on Gresham Street (formerly Maiden Lane) in 1478. The first hall was destroyed by fire in 1666 and rebuilt in 1668; damaged by fire and rebuilt in 1840; damaged by fire and rebuilt again in 1864; and completely destroyed by enemy action in December 1940. The present hall was completed in 1956.

Robert Aske (1619-89), a prosperous City merchant and member of the Haberdashers' Company, died without children. He left the bulk of his estate to the Haberdashers' Company for charitable purposes, including money to buy land in Hoxton, near the City of London, on which the Company was to build almshouses for 20 poor members of the Company, and a school for 20 sons of poor freemen of the Company. The remainder of the money formed the Haberdasher Aske's Foundation, a charity of which the Company is a trustee. Building work on the almshouses in Hoxton, Shoreditch, started in 1691, to designs by Robert Hooke, and the first pensioners entered in 1695. The almshouse buildings were demolished in 1824 and rebuilt in 1825. The almshouses were closed in 1873 to allow the school to expand, and become a school for girls and boys. The girls school was opened in 1875. At the same time land was purchased by the Foundation at Hatcham, and another boys school built. A girls school was added to this site in 1889. In 1944 these Hatcham schools became voluntary controlled grammar schools, in 1976 comprehensive schools, and combined in 1991 as a City Technology College. In 2004 the Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College and Haberdashers' Aske's Knights Academy were established. In 1898 the schools in Hoxton moved to two new sites, in Hampstead for boys, and in Acton for girls. In 1974 the two schools were reunited at a new site in Elstree. They became independent schools in 1976.

Thomas Aldersey established by letters patent a free grammar school in Bunbury, Cheshire, and endowed it with a preacher, master and usher, drew up the statutes of the school, and gave money to the poor of Bunbury and the Haberdashers' Company, who he entrusted with the running of the school. He also endowed the school with lands in Cheshire. The school was rebuilt in 1812. In 1902 it became a public elementary schol, and in 1958 a voluntary assisted primary school. It is now known as the Bunbury Aldersey Primary School, and has about 230 boys and girls. See the Charity Commissioners' Reports vol.X, pp.193-5.

William Adams, a wealthy London Haberdasher originally from Newport, founded a free grammar school in Newport in 1656. He appointed the Master and Wardens of the Haberdashers' Company to run it and provided estates in nearby Knighton to support it. It provided an education for 80 local boys, and it was equipped with an impressive library. The school currently has about 780 pupils. The Haberdashers' Company still maintains an active role, and nominates a significant number of the governing body.

In 1613 William Jones (d.1615), a prosperous merchant and Haberdasher, gave the Haberdashers' Company money for charitable works, and later bequeathed further sums. Monmouth Grammar school for boys was established, as well as an almshouse at Newland, Gloucestershire. The school was rebuilt in 1865, and the original foundation re-organised in 1891 to support a new girls' school and elementary school, as well as another boys' grammar school in Pontypool. The elementary school and the Pontypool school were transferred to County Council control in 1940 and 1955 respectively. In 1953 the almshouse was converted into 10 flats. Monmouth School and Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls acquired direct grant status in 1946. They became independent in 1976.

By his will of 1663 Throckmorton Trotman bequeathed £2000 to the Haberdashers' Company to build and endow a school. The Company purchased land in Bunhill Row and built a school, but borrowed back much of the bequest as a mortgage to rebuild their Hall, burnt in the Great Fire. The school took boys from the parish of St Giles Cripplegate, and, after its establishment as a parish, from St Luke's Old Street. In 1819 there were only 12 boys being educated. In 1883 the Metropolitan Board of Works took possession of the site, and the school moved to City Road. It was closed in 1899, and money from the bequest diverted to other schools supported by the Company.