Lewis Boyd Sebastian

“ One is, that a member of such a Company feels himself to be connected by a direct link with the History of England, of which these Companies are part. Their destinies have been shaped and guided by men, of whom many have done good service to their country, and who stand towards their successors of later date in the position of honoured and revered ancestors, to be followed and imitated so far as change of circumstances permits. ”

“ To trace the career of a member up to the Chair—if he is not the son of a freeman, born after the date of his father’s freedom, so as himself to be entitled to the freedom by patrimony, he must be apprenticed to a freeman while between the ages of 14 and 21. After seven years of apprenticeship he is entitled to the freedom, and it is usual to take up the freedom of the City of London at the same time as the freedom of the Company. Those entitled by patrimony are able to take up the freedom on attaining 21. The Livery are elected by the Court from the freemen. ”

“ INASMUCH as, by the Providence of Almighty God, from whom all good things do come, on this day our School is gathered together here, now as of old, to thank Him for all His blessings, it is right that we should remind ourselves once more of all that we owe to those who have gone before us.
And first you are to remember your Founder, Sir Andrew Judd, Knight.
He was born at Tonbridge on the estate of his ancestors called “Barden,” situated by the river side below Quarry Hill. He was apprenticed in London into the Company of Skinners, and became himself a Skinner and a Merchant of Muscovy. ”

“ The constitution and government of the Company are as follows:—At the head comes the Court, consisting of the Master, four Wardens (known respectively as First or Upper Warden, Second Warden, Third Warden, and Renter Warden, of whom the Renter Warden, though possessing the privileges of a member of the Court, is not one technically until elected to membership at the end of his year of office) , and Assistants, all of whom but one (the last-preceding Renter Warden) are usually Past-Masters. The above form the governing body of the Company. ”

“ The later decade of the nineteenth century, and especially the last twenty-five years, have constituted a period of great activity and progress on the part of the Company, especially in the direction of education; and it has been a matter of great satisfaction to the Company to see the number of young persons, trained up under their direction, increased from the two hundred, or fewer, boys, educated at Tonbridge School so late as the early ’eighties, to approximately 1,100, distributed over four schools, of which the second in point of date was opened so recently as 1887. ”

“ He founded the Company’s almshouses for men in Great St. Helen’s. But his especial glory is that, in the year 1553, he founded and endowed, in his native town of Tonbridge, under letters-patent obtained by him from Edward VI, the famous free Grammar School, now known as Tonbridge School, which has since made good its claim to a place among the great public schools of England. This school is, by direction of the Founder, governed by the Skinners’ Company, in whom he reposed the fullest confidence, not unwisely. ”

“ In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the order of precedence of the Companies was not clearly defined, and struggles took place between them from time to time, in which one Company sought to establish its superiority over another. The Skinners, who always ranked high among the chief Companies, fell out with the Fishmongers over this matter in 1339, and fighting took place, which had to be put down by force. ”

“ The representatives of the visiting Company are received as the chief guests of the occasion, and after dinner the Master of the entertaining Company gives the time-honoured toast, which, when the entertainment is at Skinners’ Hall, is in the following terms:—“The Master and Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Skinners drink health and prosperity to the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, also to the Worshipful Company of Skinners, Merchant Taylors and Skinners, Skinners and Merchant Taylors root and branch; may they continue and flourish for ever!” ”

“ The membership of the Skinners’ Company is still open to females, but only through patrimony; and as a female member can only become a freewoman, and is not eligible for the Livery, only few take advantage of the opportunity. ”

“ Sometimes the Court have elected practically all qualified candidates free from objection. At other times, when the numbers appeared to be growing too fast, limits have been imposed. At the present time, the rule is to restrict the number of Liverymen elected after apprenticeship to not exceeding three a year. This is in addition to patrimonial candidates.
From the Livery one is chosen annually by the Court, on Corpus Christi Day, to serve as Renter Warden for the year ensuing. The Renter Warden was in former years the Bursar of the Company. ”

“ After the sixteenth century the practice of re-election became nearly obsolete, and at the present day it is never adopted except in the case of the death or retirement of the Master, or one of the five members in the succession to the Chair, in which event a Past-Master has to be elected in order to avoid dislocating the ordinary course of the Company. ”

“ The employment of a member of the Court of the Skinners’ Company to work for the Company for remuneration, whether professionally, commercially, or otherwise, is strictly prohibited. It is no doubt true that portions of the Companies’ own incomes are spent on entertainments, in accordance with the practice which has prevailed ever since the Companies existed at all ”

“ III—when the first Royal Charter was granted to “Our beloved men of the City of London called Skynners.” Later charters were granted from time to time, but it is not necessary to refer to them here. The Company also holds an unlimited license in mortmain. The earlier of the City Companies, such as the Weavers, Saddlers, and others, claim to have had their beginning in Saxon times. Whether the same is true of the Skinners, it is now impossible to say, but at all events the grant of the charter constituted a Royal recognition of what was already a voluntarily existing fraternity. ”

“ Out of the 1,100, nearly 400 are girls.
These schools are, in addition to Tonbridge School, of which the numbers now exceed four hundred, the Commercial School at Tonbridge, also on Sir Andrew Judd’s Foundation, opened in 1888; the Company’s Middle School for Boys at Tunbridge Wells, opened in 1887; and the Company’s Middle School for Girls at Stamford Hill, opened in 1890. Important buildings have been erected at all these new schools. The rebuilding and enlargement from time to time of Tonbridge School have been already mentioned. ”

“ In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Company contained many men of distinction. One of the more conspicuous of these was Sir Andrew Judd, who was Master of the Company in 1533, and on five subsequent occasions. ”

“ The working or “Artesan” Skinners, however, made attempts on various occasions to obtain admission as such into the governing body of the Company, but such attempts invariably proved unsuccessful. In 1606, the “Artesan” Skinners applied for and obtained the grant of a new charter to the Company, providing for the election of a certain proportion of working skinners, and the admission to the Court of certain persons named ”

“ The following entry refers to this occasion:—
“Paid for a dynner, April Vth, for the Lord Generall Moncke, the Councell of State, and the Feild Officers
0476 12 09” In May following the Company provided £504 towards a present from the City to the King and the Dukes of York and Gloucester: and various other sums were paid in connection with the reception of Charles II, including “the interteynement of his Matie to a Feast att Guildehall.” ”

“ Warden Key that such their invitac’on was not made by ordr of Court of Assistants of the said Company of Merchant Taylors, but only by one of their Wardens, with the consent and direction of the said Mastr and Wardens—This Court doth therefore desire Mastr and Wardens of this Company now p’sent to decline goeing to their said Dinner or to accept thereof in respect the said invitac’on was not made by ordr of their Court according to their usuall custome. ”

“ S’r Andrew Judd Knt.” Sir Andrew Judd’s daughter by his first wife was named Alice, and married one Thomas Smythe. She, by her will dated in 1592, left considerable bequests for the benefit of the inhabitants of the almshouses founded by her father, and for other purposes connected with the Company. Her second son was the well-known Sir Thomas Smythe, referred to later on.
Other conspicuous Skinners of the sixteenth century were Sir John Champneys, Lord Mayor in 1534 and six times Master of the Company ”

“ Also, it is awarded and adjugged that the said Maist’ and Wardeyns of Taillors shall yeerely desire and pray the said Maist’ and Wardeyns of Skynn’s to dyne with theym in the Fest of the Nativitee of Seint John Bapt’e if thei there than kepe an oppen dyner at their Com’on Hall; and that the said Maist’ and Wardeyns of Skynn’s so praied shall yerely dyne than and there with the said Maist’ and Wardeyns of Taillors aforesaid, withoute a reasonable excuse, etc. ”

“ This was followed up by the following order on Nov. 5th, 1690:—“Ordered that boxes of gold to ye value of £60 prsented to their Maties with their ffreedomes, and that the Rt Honble the Mr (the Earl of Monmouth) be acquainted with it, and that the Wardens attend his Lopp touching the same and to follow his Lopps direc’con therein.” ”

“ The time of the Court was not entirely occupied with matters of state. On June 25th, 1689, the following entry occurs:—“Mr Glover (Thomas Glover, the executor of Lewis Newbury, the founder of the almshouses at Mile End) appeared and complayned of diverse great disorders com’itted by severall of the Pen’coners or Almesffellowes in the Almshouses at Mile End of the erec’con of Mr. Lewis Newberry, perticularly of the Wid: Barrett, her unruly sons sometimes comeing in at unseasonable houres and lodgeing there, and of an impudent girle of ill Fame wch Tho. Row employs there ”

“ The Supplementary Award of January 17th, 1521. 12 Hen. VIII. “Where late the Wardens of the Skynn’s exhibited to the Court a Bill of Compleynt agenst the Mayst’ and Wardens of M’chantayllors recytyng by the same an Ordynaunce made in the Mayralt’ of Mr. ”

“ Many of the other entries during this period are also worthy of note. Thus:—
1644–5. “Paid for a drincking, July 18, being a daye of Thankesgiving
0002 16 01 1645–6. “Paid to Mr. Taylor’s blinde sonne for studying a sermon by order of Courte
0001 00 00 1647–8. “Paid, loste by lighte monye received in 100li.
0000 02 03 1648. “Paid, loste more by Counterfett monye
0000 05 06 1648–9. “Paid for a dynner, being thanksgiving daye about Colchester
0015 10 07 1649–50. “Paid a cheater that pretended hee was to bring the Company a doe from the state
0000 05 00 1654–55. “Paid Mr. ”

“ Paid the Collectors for the fortifications for 2 months and is in full for 6 months
0021 00 00 Jan. 7. Paid the Collectors for the maintenance of S’r Tho: Fairfaxs army for 3 months in full
0036 00 00 Jan. 23. Paid the Collectors in full for 12 months for the Brittish armye in Ireland
0010 10 00 Apr. 21. ”