A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE COMPANY OF GROCERS From their ORIGINAL TOGETHER With their Case and Condition in their present Circumstances truly stated AS ALSO How their Revenue is settled for Payment of their Charities and Provision made for the well-governing their Members and Mystery to preserve a Succession in their Society Designed for Information of all and Benefit of the Members and for Satisfaction and Encouragement of their Friends and Benefactors LONDON Printed by Eliz. Holt for the Company of Grocers MDCLXXXIX TO THE SACRED MAJESTY OF King WILLIAM AND Queen MARY May it please Your Majesties HAVING already presumed to offer to Your Majesties Sacred Hands a mean Present in a small Treatise Entitled NOSCE TEIPSVM wherein I have endeavoured to give some account how I have spent my Holy Days since I have been Clerk of the Company of GROCERS with the Reasons and Arguments inducing me to join in the Communion of our National Church when I had examined and tryed all other different Persuasions Your Majesties Gracious Acceptance of that together with You my Dread Sovereign's vouchsafing to become our Supreme Master have embolden'd me to offer at Your Majesties Sacred Feet the following Sheets as the Product of my Working Days in the same Service I may not hope Your Majesties should spare time to look farther but I most humbly beseech Your Majesties to cast Your Gracious Eyes on the few following Lines which I have recorded in our Register immediately before the entry of such Your Majesties Gracious Condescention Whereby I humbly Hope it will plainly appear no other Company in London might so justly presume to beg the Honour of Adoption by a Crowned Head. That Your Majesties Sacred Names may be Illustrious from this little Orb throughout all Your Majesties Dominions to the ends of the Earth shall be the daily and hearty Prayers of May it please Your Majesties Your Majesties most Dutiful Loyal and Obedient Subject and Servant WILLIAM RAVENHILL Clerk of the Company of Grocers A short Account of the Grocers AULA AROMATARIORUM vulgariter Grocers Hall olim nominabatur Domus Illustrissimi Domini Fitz-water unius è Regni hujus Paribus quam regnante Henrico Sexto Societati Aromatariorum vendidit Sita est in ipso urbis Meditullio cui adjacet Hortus qui Aeri liberiori spatium det necnon Area prae foribus satis ampla quâ Senatorum vice Comitumque dum Praetori rebusque publicis inserviunt Nobilium etiam quacunque de causa huc accedentium currus recipiantur ac ea de causa Communitas Aromatariorum post Conflagrationem Urbis horrendam re-edificabat ampliorem fecit omnis generis necessariis adornavit ut Domus ad Summum Magistratum magnificè recipiendum prae omnibus aliis maximè Commoda Videretur Summus enim Magistratus Vicem gerit ipsius Regis nullis igitur sumptibus pepercit Aromatariorum Societas ut receptaculum esset tanto Officio tanto Magistratu Dignum nam in hoc opere perficiendo multa expenduntur Millia Solidorum ut Aedificium esset Splendidum aptum suis civibus conveniens qui in loco hoc sese solemnibus Conviviis amicitiam suam invicem testantur augent ab omni Civitatis parte congregati huc accedunt ut mutuam erga seipsos Benevolentiam exerceant Hoc quoque honori gloriae totius Regni vertitur dum egredientes Domi redeuntes Peregrini Domestici Aulam hanc conspicuam mirantur simul amant Quod ad antiquitatem Spectat egregiae hujus Societatis Originem suam longâ serie deducit à Mercatoribus Romanis qui cum Orientali Orbis Regione commercia habuerunt pro Aromatibus comparandis devictâ hâc Insulâ Urbem habitabant Quibus Nostratium in re nautica peritia Originem suam debere videtur saltem ab illis multum incrementi accepit atque adeò Maris Imperium quod haec Insula largè latéque per multa retro Secula obtinuit eisdem aliquo modo acceptum refert Quapropter in Divitiis abundanti rerum Copiâ caeteras omnes Communitates facilè superabant Hinc Ortae sunt Familiae illustrissimae mox Prolem illustriorem daturae Haec Communitas Corpus fit politicum sub cura gubernatione quatuor Custodum qui vocari possint Superintendentes nomine Magistro excluso ut Capiti Coronato semper locus relinquetur quem locum Carolus Secundus Beatae Memoriae Rex implere non dedignatus est Cujus Nomen ut aeternitati consecraret gratissima Societas Statuam ejus erexit in Byrsa Regia in Registro suo Nomen ejus inscriptum habet ut testimonium sit posteris gratitudinis suae erga Regem tam Benignum qui Chartam illi fixam reddidit firmam quâ in re Exemplum proposuit Regibus suis successoribus ut favore suo perpetuo Communitatem hanc foverent ut perpetuum sit Charitatis Diversorium fertilissimum Mercatorum opulentorum piorum Civium fidelium Subditorum Seminarium Which may be thus read in English GROCERS HALL was once the mansion-Mansion-House of the Lord Fitz-water a Peer of this Realm of whom the Company purchased the same in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth being situate in the Centre of the City of London and having a fair open Garden behind for Air and Diversion and before it within the Gate a large Court-yard for the reception of Coaches as the Aldermen and Sherriffs attend the Lord Mayor on Publick Affairs especially from Guild-Hall and the Sessions at the Old-Baily or as the Nobility and other Persons of Quality shall either pay their Visits or be thither invited by his Lordship For these Reasons the Company of Grocers after the late dreadful Fire rebuilt and inlarged it with all Offices and Accommodations far beyond any other Place that ever was or now is for the most Commodious Seat of the Chief Magistrate as he is for the time being his Majesty's Representative in this Famous City at the expence of many thousand pounds as designing it for encouragement of their Members and conveniency of the Citizens resorting thither as to the Fountain of Justice from all Parts of the City as it may also redound to the Honour of the Kingdom being conspicuous in their transient view to Embassadors and Foreigners as well as Natives of his Majesty's Dominions passing and repassing through this City And as this Society may boast of its Antiquity deriving its Original from Merchants in Rome trading in Spices to the Eastern Parts who from Rome transplanted themselves to this City with the Conquest of this Island and first gave Wings to Navigation here from whence this Island hath been able to give Law by Sea to all the World so hath it above all other Companies in London abounded in wealthy Members trading both at home and abroad from whence have sprung many honourable Families being incorporate by the Name of Four-Wardens as Super-intendents without a Master and so most capable of Adoption
occasioned some difficulty in settling the draught of the Lease hereafter mentioned from the Company to the City The City claiming Interest in the soil of the Weigh-house-yard upon some surmise that they had more ground there than what they claimed under the Company 's Title belonging to them until I had made the contrary appear both by Evidence and Certificate of the ancient Inhabitants there as also that as well all the ground so demised by the Company to the City as that whereon the Houses on all parts of the Weigh house-yard are built being bounded on the North with the ground of the Merchant-Taylors and fronting the High Street of Cornhill is part of that ground so devised by Mr. John Bilsdon to the Company of Grocers So as all the Interest the City hath there appears to be thus viz. The Grocers having as above is mentioned the management of the Office of the King's Beam did formerly accommodate the City with a weigh-Weigh-house there How the City have Interest in the Messuage in Weigh-House-Yard convenient for executing the same Office under some reserved Rent for that the whole duty arising thereby the Weigh-Master and Porters Wages deducted belonged to the City until the year 1625. some difference happening between the then Lord Mayor and the Company touching the Nomination of one to succeed the Weigh-Master then lately Dead a Committee of Aldermen was appointed for the City and a Committee of Grocers for the Company who determined the same and the Company pursuant to that Agreement were to grant the City a Lease of their weigh-Weigh-house being one great lower room for 99 years under the Rent of 10 l. per annum which the City accordingly had and enjoyed and the Company to enjoy their Privileges so to nominate the Weigh-Master and Porters The Company afterwards granting a Lease to one Lyonell Newman of a small Ware-house at one end of the same weigh-Weigh-house and of all the Rooms as well over the weigh-Weigh-house as over the same Ware-house for a long term at 40 s. per annum the City afterwards purchased the said Lyonell Newman's Interest and the whole being so consumed by the Fire upon application of the City to the Judges at Clifford s-Inn The Judges decree a Lease to the City of it and on hearing the City and Company they Decreed the Company for encouragement of the City to build should grant the City a Lease of the whole with additional years under the entire Rent of 12 l. per annum which is drawn and prepared accordingly being one Messuage erected by the City on the ground whereon the weigh-Weigh-house and Ware-house stood and now in the occupation of Mr. Williams the Leassee of the City The other part of the Company 's Revenue and the several Charities and Vses wherewith the wâ—â—le and every branch are charged As also the Schools and Ecclesiastical Promotions in their gifts digested in Books at the Hall. The other branches of the Company 's Revenue together with the several Charities and Uses wherewith as well Sir Henry Keble Sir William Laxton and Mr. Bilsdon's as also every other branch thereof are charged as also the several Schools and Ecclesiastical Promotions in the Company 's disposition and under their Government and Inspection I have digested into an orderly Method as most proper there to be seen in Books for that purpose provided at the Hall. Thus this Company long flourished both before and after that time with many Eminent and Worthy Members who became very liberal Benefactors and had so great a share all along in the Senators of this famous City Had always an Alderman their Master Intrusted with many Charities which they faithfully discharged 〈◊〉 the Fire Consumed their Revenue that they never wanted an Alderman of their Members yearly to succeed Master-Warden of this Company and so faithfully did they acquit themselves of those Charities they were intrusted withal that it gave them the greatest Reputation of any Company in London Insomuch that many well-disposed Persons did covet to make this Corporation as it were the Corban of their Charities which in process of time became their Snare as in this Discourse will immediately appear wherein I shall endeavour by giving a true account of the Nature of those Charities to remove the reproach that hath been cast on this Company as if they had mis-imployed them and make it plainly appear that the Company of Grocers have in the Judgment of every impartial Man who shall well weigh their Circumstances from the first to the last acquitted themselves in all the Trust and Affairs of this Company as becomes Worthy Citizens and beyond what the worst of their Detractors might have justly expected from them especially considering how small a part of their yearly Revenue remained to the Company when the Yearly Payments issuing thereout pursuant to the Disposition of the Donors are deducted MOST part of all the Land and Houses Though charged with nigh the value and so rather charge than benefit to them given to the Grocers Company were by the Donors charged with yearly Charities issuing thereout to certain Uses by them limited and appointed well nigh amounting to as much as the Rent reserved upon long Leases in being and Let before they contracted any of their Debts as is hereafter mentioned all or most part of which lay in the City of London and the same Leases many of them were nigh expiring about the time of the late dreadful Fire Those other Charities which were Summs of Money In regard many of them were Summs of Money left them to pay yearly Charities given by several Benefactors unto this Company there to remain as a Fund who charged this Company on that account with yearly payments to certain Parishes Places and Uses well nigh as much as the full Interest thereof amounted to or very small advantage to the Company over and above the same so that the Company were necessitated to dispose of those Summs of Money at Interest on the best Securities they could get Which being put out on Securities many proved bad to enable them to make good those yearly Charities many of which Securities might in all probability become very backwards in payment and sometimes quite Desperate so that the Company having daily Money pressed upon them were inforced to accept the same at Interest and thereout continued constant payment of those yearly Summs and also to accommodate Young Men of their Members with Money on Security to set up pursuant to the Wills of several Donors of that kind whereof they had not a few Benefactors so that in time by occasion of many Losses and Casualties of this Nature And so loss accrewed to them it cannot be imagined but the Company must sustain much damage notwithstanding all their Care and Endeavours though they were not in the least sensible thereof till they had long after under greater pressure tryed their Securities their Credit being very High and
in their Christian Duty they shall thereby assuredly though not meritoriously treasure up to themselves Eternal Happiness hereafter Where neither Moth can Eat nor Rust Corrupt nor Thieves break through and Steal and where they shall be for ever above all necessity of aid from the fading Enjoyments of this World when they shall be there entertained with a Well done Good and Faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord and Master For most assuredly as the succour and relief of the Hungry and Naked the Aged and Impotent do daily ascend in silent Prayers to the Ears of the Omniscient Father of Mercies and bring down at least Temporal Blessings in this Life on their Children and Posterity who thus as Faithful Stewards become their Patrons and Benefactors as we may read to this purpose that Jehu for the small Good he did swayed the Sceptre to the Fourth Generation So most assuredly the silent Sighs and Groans of the Widow and Orphans the Aged the Captive and the Impotent under oppression and in their Want and Misery do cry as loud in the Ears of the same righteous Judge for Vengeance in all the Curses and Miseries attending Mortality on the Heads and Families not only of all such as either covet defraud take away from or hinder those poor Objects of their Right their Portion or Relief but also of such as come short in their Duty herein according to their Power Interest and the opportunity they have to shew it towards them as they themselves are appointed of God but Stewards in Trust for those poor Members of one Christian Body A short Account of the Original of the GROCERS and their first Incorporation And their Condition in their present Circumstances truly Represented * Grocers inquit Minshew ab initio ut ex legibus nostris probat nihil minutim sed omnia al grosso by the Great Magnis sc ponderibus divendere soliti sunt In libro Statutorum nostrorum significat Mercatores Qui aliquod mercium genus totum coemunt Skin Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae THE word Grocers was a term at first distinguishing Merchants of this Society Etymology of the Word Grocer in opposition to Inferiour Retailers for that they usually sold in gross Quantities by great Weights And in some of our old Books the Word signifies Merchants that in their Merchandizing dealt for the Whole of any Kind Which after he came more Extensive But in after times the word Grocery became so extensive that it can now hardly be restrained to the certain kinds of Merchandizes they have formerly dealt in For they have been the most Universal Merchants that traded abroad and what they brought home many Artists of this Society found out ways afterwards to change and alter the Species by Mixture Confections and Compositions of simple Ingredients by which means many and various ways of Dealing and Trading passed under the Denomination of Groceries They were the first Merchants trading abroad and so prolifick that other Companies have branched from them And indeed this City and Nation do in a great measure owe the Improvement of Navigation to Merchants originally exercising this Mystery as Trading into all Foreign Parts from whence we have received either Spices Druggs Fruits Gums or other rich Aromatick Commodities It is well known this Company hath bred the most Eminent Merchants in this City and this Society hath been so prolifick that many other Societies have been branched out from hence as will be owned by the most worthy of them Improved Navigation The Merchants Trading to the Levant Seas and other Societies have originally been the Off-spring of this Society as appears by ancient Records of Indentures of Apprentices to Members of this Company And it is not inconsistent and may easily be drawn within compass of Belief That there was amongst the Romans a Society agreeable to this of the Grocers who were also Merchants trading into those Seas as may be Collected from Persius Their Antiquity a Poet who wrote in Rome in the time of Augustus describing the various Inclinations of Men in their Course of Life He instances them in these Words viz. Mercibus hic Italis mutat sub sole recenti Rugosum piper pallentis Grana Cymini Sat. 5. With Merchandizing this with Care doth run Vnto the East under the rising Sun To fetch rough Pepper and pale Cummin Seeds For Roman Wares c. First called Pepperers by way of Eminency for all Spices as were such like Merchants trading in Rome Where Pepper being the most Royal Preservative Spice is only mentioned by way of Eminency for all the rest And so we may well conclude that this was the Reason why the Society of the Grocers whose Original first here exercised may modestly be supposed to spring from the Romans were long before they were Incorporated distinguished by the name of Pepperers although they traded before in all other the former Merchandizes as well as that It is impossible to give any other Account of the Original of this Society here in this City so long at first excercised under the Denomination of Pepperers for that the City of London it self at first under the Britains and successively after under the Romans and Saxons and at last was over-run by the Danes no History now remains to give a certain Account of the first Methods of Government therein farther than what may be collected from some late Writers of our own now extant who have transmitted to us what they could then discover by their Enquiry and Search into Antiquity whereby we may plainly understand that the first Model of Civil Government settled in this City was from the Exemplar of Rome it self as Mr. Stow instances in the very words of an ancient Writer who wrote in the Reign of King Stephen From whence London had its first Model of Civil Government viz This City saith he even as Rome is divided into Wards it hath yearly Sheriffs instead of Consuls it hath the Dignity of Senators it hath Vnder-Officers and according to the Qualities of Laws it hath several Courts and general Assemblies upon appointed days Some time after the City obtained their Chief Magistrate to be under the Denomination of Mayor First Lord Mayor in London which was about the first year of King Richard the First the first Man we find advanced to that Dignity was Henry Fitz-Alwin who continued therein 24 years successively And soon after to wit in the 17th year of King Henry the Third Their first Member Mayor Andrew Bockerell it appears Andrew Bockerell a Pepperer was chosen Mayor and so eminent were the Pepperers in this Infancy of the Mayoralty Pepperers Eminent and frequent Mayors that before the 36th year of that King's Reign a Pepperer had the Chair nine several years and very frequently afterwards we find the Pepperers advanced to that Dignity And it appears by ancient Books now extant That in the time of
King Henry the Fourth there were at one time no less then 12 of their Members Aldermen Twelve Aldermen at once Members of which Number were two Brothers William Chicheley afterwards Sheriff Sir Robert Chicheley afterwards also Sheriff Sir Robert Chicheley twice Lord Mayor and Founder of Wal-Brook Church Still in their Donation and twice Lord Mayor who also was Founder of the Parish Church of St. Stephen Walbrook upon a Plot of ground by him for that Sacred Use purchased of the Grocers the Donation of which Church is at this day in the Company of Grocers Which Society of the Pepperers increasing and spreading so Universal in Merchandizing that it appears afterwards they were distinguished by the Name of Grocers as being a more comprehensive Name than Pepperers Afterwards called Grocers insomuch that before they were incorporated by the Name of Grocers to wit in the Third year of King Edward the Third Anno 1329. John Grantham was chosen and held Mayor by the Title of Grocer And the first Charter I find of the Corporation of the Grocers was granted by King Edward the Third in the twentieth year of his Reign Anno Dom. 1345. which appears to be long before the Mercers were incorporated First Charter of the Grocers and before the Mercers though they are now the only Company have Precedency of the Grocers yet for the Reasons above-mentioned it may be very well presumed that as the Grocers were long before them the most Eminent Society so in after-times renewing their Charter by a more Comprehensive Term Afterwards Postponed to them they might Post pone themselves But though they thus March as a forlorn Regiment in the Front might the Hopes and Endeavours of many good Members prevail to have the Spirit of our Ancestors revived in the present Generation this could no way eclipse the Grocers But not to Dimination of their Dignity who have all the Noble Army of the rest of the Corporations following them than the Morning Star ushering in Day before it can eclipse the Glory of the Rising Sun. Afterwards the Charter of this Company was several times renewed as also it was in the Seventh year of King Henry the Sixth and they then made a Body Politick Grocers Incorporate by the Name of Custodes Communitas Mysterii Groceriae Londini And in the beginning of that King's Reign Purchase of the Hall of the Lord Fitz-water men late his mansion-Mansion-House they purchased the ground where the Grocers Hall now stands with the ground belonging to it of Walter Lord Fitz-water a Noble Peer of this Realm bounding the same between the Old-Jewry and Walbrook And so considerable in the City were the Grocers long before that time that they may be well presumed time out of Mind to have had the management of the King's-Beam as an Office peculiar to them not only as principally using the same but as being originally vested therein The Office of the King's Beam. they having had all along beyond the Memory of Man the naming of the Weigh-Master and the naming placing removing and governing of the four Porters attending that Office all to be elected out of their own Company and to be Sworn at their own Hall a Privilege allowed them as their undoubted and inseparate Right as ancient as that Office it self used in the City Their ancient Privileges of Inspection and Correction of Abuses in their Mystery Also amongst other Privileges and ancient Usages of this Company I find recorded even as high as Edward the Fourth's days this Company had Power of Inspection and Correction of Abuses and Irregularities of all Persons though free of this or any other Company in the City or Suburbs any way using or exercising any kind of Grocery and also to assay the Weights they bought or sold by and to take notice of all their Defaults and return them to be Fined at the Discretion of this Fellowship and to take 4 d. of every Person for their Labour therein as well of such as were offending as such as were not which Usage was always continued And in the Charter renewed to this Company in the fifteenth year of the late King Charles the First this Privilege is Gonfirmed Confirmed and Expressed to extend 3 Miles from the Liberties and expressed to extend three Miles from the City as well within Liberties as without and hath only been omitted for some years past when the Company began to be first interrupted in their Affairs The same King Henry the Sixth by Charter under the Great Seal granted to this Company the Office of Garbling in all places throughout the Kingdom of England Garbling-Office the City of London only excepted which Privilege though discontinued during the late unnatural War and almost forgotten is now ratified by their late Charter and Confirmation and may be of considerable Advantage to this Company In the time of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh the Company was greatly indebted Sir Henry Keble Sir William Laxton Worthy Members and Benefactors both buried in a Vault in Aldermary Church See Stow's Survey and Sir Henry Keble a Worthy Member sometime Lord Mayor of this City lent them Money on their Hall and their Revenue nigh the full value to clear their Debts and afterwards in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth by his last Will and Testament freely gave back all to the Company remitting his whole Debt and Interest This Sir Henry Keble at his own Charge built Aldermary Church Afterwards about the eighteenth year of the same King Henry the Eighth Sir William Laxton also a Worthy Member and sometime Lord Mayor by Deed executed in his Life time gave the Company all their Lands and Houses in Canning-Street and the Lanes thereunto adjoining I shall here add but one more who may well deserve to be recorded among their chief Benefactors Mr. John Bilsdon John Bilsdon a Worthy benefactor of Houses in Cornhill a worthy Member by his Will dated about the fourteenth of King Henry the Eighth gave this Company all his Messuages in the several Parishes of St. Michael's and St. Peter's in Cornhill which being consumed with the rest of their Revenue in London by the late dreadful Fire many very fair Houses have been since built on the same ground by the Companies Leassees on long Leases under small Rents but of great improvement when expired Upon part of which ground stood the late Weigh house weigh- weigh-Weigh-House where the Office of the King's Beam was kept until the time of the same Fire And in order to prevent any difference which might otherwise hereafter happen between the City and Company touching the interest of the City in Weigh-house-yard I humbly conceive it to be my duty herein to insert in the best manner I can the Truth of the Case especially since upon search I could find no certain footsteps of it in their own Books at Guild-Hall which