Livery Company

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Arms of the City of London

The 107 Livery Companies are trade associations based in the City of London, almost all of which are known as the "Worshipful Company of" the relevant trade or profession. The Livery Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling, for instance, wages and labour conditions. Some Livery Companies (for example, the Scriveners) continue to have a regulatory role today, and some (for example, the Longbow Stringmakers) have become inoperative. Most Livery Companies, particularly those formed in recent years, are charitable foundations. The active Livery Companies also play an important part in social life and networking in the City of London.

After the Fan Makers were established in 1709 (and later granted Livery in 1809), no new companies were formed for almost 200 years until the Master Mariners in 1926 (Livery in 1932). In recent years, many new professions (such as Solicitors and Chartered Accountants) have established guilds with the aim of being granted Livery, the most recent being the Tax Advisers in 2005. As of 2005, there is one new City Company without Livery (the Security Professionals) and two old bodies which, for historical reasons, are recognised as City Companies without Livery; two further guilds (Educators and Public Relations Practitioners) aim to obtain a grant of Livery.

1 Governance
2 Livery halls
3 Precedence
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Governance

Livery Companies are governed by a Master (known in some Companies as the Prime Warden), a number of Wardens (who may be known as the Upper, Middle, Lower, or Renter Wardens), and a Court of Assistants, which elects the Master and Wardens. The chief executive officer of the Company is known as the Clerk.

Members generally fall into two categories: freemen and liverymen. One may become a freeman, or acquire the "Freedom of the Company", upon fulfilling the Company's criteria; traditionally, one may be admitted by "patrimony" if either parent was a liverymen of the company, by "servitude" if one has served as an apprentice in the trade for the requisite number of years, or by purchase. (The Company may also vote to admit individuals as honorary freemen.) Freemen generally advance to becoming liverymen by a vote of the Court of the Company. Historically, only liverymen could take part in the election of the Lord Mayor of London.

[edit] Livery halls

Many companies still have a hall, where members and their guests can be entertained and company business transacted. Among the earliest companies known to have possessed halls were the Merchant Taylors and Goldsmiths in the 14th century, but neither their nor other companies' original halls remain; the few survivors of the Great Fire were destroyed, along with many reconstructed ones, during the Blitz. Today, only 36 companies have halls in London. Companies that do not have their own hall usually borrow one of the other companies' premises for social occasions.

[edit] Precedence

In 1515, after years of dispute, the Court of Aldermen of the City of London settled an order of precedence for the 48 Livery Companies in existence at that time, based on the Companies' economic or political power.

The first 12 Livery Companies are known as the Great Twelve. The Merchant Taylors and Skinners dispute their precedence, and so annually alternate between sixth and seventh place, the change occurring each Easter. This is one of the theories for the origin of the phrase "at sixes and sevens", as the master of the Merchant Taylors has asserted a number of times, although the first use of the phrase may have been before the Taylors and the Skinners decided to alternate their position [1] (However, both companies had been founded before the birth of Chaucer, who was one of the first people to use the phrase, so this may have dated from before him).