Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors

The Merchant Taylors' Company, originally the 'Fraternity of St John the Baptist...called the Tailors and Linen Armourers of London', is one of the 'Great Twelve' livery companies of the City of London. The tailors received their first royal charter in 1327, and their charter of incorporation in 1408. The Company has been known as the Merchant Taylors since a charter of Henry VII of 6 January 1503. The Company is believed to have lost all direct contact with its trade during the 17th century. The Company's Hall has occupied the same site in Threadneedle Street since at least the 1340s.

The Company appears always to have had a large membership, and the membership records are extensive. There was also within the Company from at least the early 15th century until the late 17th century a separate, but dependent organisation for the Company's freemen (also known as 'yeomen') who had not achieved livery status. This was known from 1488 as the 'Bachelors' Company'. For a surviving minute and memorandum book of the 'Bachelors' Company' see Ms 34020. Membership of the 'Bachelors' Company was automatic for freemen of the main Company, so there were never any separate membership records.

Over the years the Company acquired extensive landed estates, either for charitable purposes (Trust property) or in its own right (Corporate property). The Company established Merchant Taylors' School from its own funds in 1561, for 'bringing up of children in good manners and literature'. It was always for boys only. Richard Hilles, the Master of the Company in that year, gave £500 towards the new school, but was not its founder. The Company has continued to govern the school up to the present day. Until the mid 20th century, there was a specially close relationship between the school and St John's College, Oxford, founded in 1567 by Sir Thomas White, Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company in 1535-6 and Lord Mayor in 1553-4. In particular, there were a number of closed scholarships from the school to the college. The President and Fellows of the college would normally travel to the school on 11 June (St Barnabas' Day) each year to elect suitable candidates. The school's first premises were in Suffolk Lane, in the parish of St Lawrence Pountney, where the Company purchased the Manor of the Rose. The staff in the early years comprised a schoolmaster and three ushers. The first buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt. In 1874 the school moved to Charterhouse Square, to the former buildings of Charterhouse School, which had recently moved to Godalming. In 1933 it moved again, to Sandy Lodge, Northwood, Middlesex. Because the school was funded by the Company entirely from its own resources, it was excluded from the '17th Report' (1827) of the Charity Commissioners which covers the Company's charities.

In 1413 the Company built seven almshouses for decayed tailors and their wives, believed to be the earliest such foundation in London. These almshouses stood in Threadneedle Street, on the west side of the church of St Martin Outwich, and were financed by charitable grants from John Churchman and the Bishop of Norwich. They appear to have escaped the Great Fire, but to have been discontinued by the Company soon after. In 1593 the Company also built almshouses for fourteen women on Tower Hill, on the north side of Rosemary Lane (now Royal Mint Street). The number of places was increased in 1637 to 26, and in 1767 the almshouses were rebuilt. In 1825 they moved to Lee in Kent, to a site then immediately north of Christopher Boone's almshouses, where they continue. The number of places was again increased, to 30. These almshouses were always funded from Corporate income, and should not be confused with Christopher Boone's almshouses, founded at Lee in the late 17th century and for which the Company acted as a trustee. In 1876 the Company in its corporate capacity purchased the redundant 17th century buildings of Boone's almshouses, which had recently moved to new buildings on a new site in Lee. The redundant buildings were then demolished, and the site added to the garden of the Company's almshouses, with the exception of the former chapel of Boone's almshouses, which was preserved in the south east corner of the garden of the Company's almshouses. In 1928 the Company's almshouses were opened to men as well as women. Confusingly, it seems always to have been possible for residents of the almshouses to also receive, on an individual basis, other Company pensions to which no accommodation was ever attached: see Mss 34162-4. For surviving lists of residents see Ms 34159 (1826-47); Mss 34162-3 (1829-1960). Other names may be discoverable from general series such as the Court minutes. The lists of Company almsmen and almswomen 1622-5 in Mss 34018/1 may also include the names of residents of the almshouses. Note that Mss 34100 and 34101, the two series of miscellaneous documents, contain further documents about the almshouses in Rosemary Lane and at Lee: see Ms 34100/147 (no.10), 151, 160-1, 163 and Ms 34101/29 (bundle 298). For plans of the almshouses in Rosemary Lane and at Lee see Ms 34214/2, 19. Further plans may be in the plan books (Mss 34216-23).