compleated And it is a clear augmentation and the best branch of the Revenue and was the only means to remove the reproach incourage Freemen and Apprentices and Benefactors is in it self of far greater value than all the other part of the Company 's Revenue over and above the Charities issuing thereout and that those several Summs so subscribed were thus freely given by several Worthy Members on purpose for this great Work that it might incourage the whole Members freely and liberally to contribute towards the residue of this Work and the Debts To which end I have to the best of my Capacity That it might Move every good member to contribute towards their Debts and Charities this Book is composed for their Information and Incouragement composed these Sheets for their Information and Encouragement to follow so good Examples that so great and good a Work wherein so many Thousands are and may be concerned may be chearfully carried on and they may all as Fellow-helpers have the honour to be recorded amongst the Generations to come The happy Repairers and Restorers of the Company of Grocers THis is a Work wherein those that are most Zealous shall be most Illustrious The worst as well as best if Men esteemed it their chief Honour to derive their Pedigree from such a Benefactor and is that alone which will abide the Scrutiny of the most Malicious and Censorious in all Changes and is a root from which the most Avaricious and Luxurious as well as the Ambitious after many Generations will esteem it the Chief Honour of their Family to derive their Pedigree 'T is founded in Obedience to a Divine Command and anchor'd on such infallible Promises as will render the sincere Donors impregnable against all the Malice and Designs of our Common Enemies who with equal Subtilty and Malice to divide and destroy have of late years Characterized the two extremes in each Corporation by the distinction of Whig and Tory and though with no less Malice they endeavoured to blemish Moderation with the squint-eyed Invective of Trimming yet they could never grass their Poison on the Sacred Stock of Pious and well-intended Charity and Good Works May the Author of Peace and Lover of Concord awaken every Member of this and all other Societies to reflect on what is past and to consider seriously the sad Effects of our late Heats and Animosities and the sufferings of many innocent Objects of Charity occasioned thereby so as to lay aside all prejudice towards one another for the future and after the Example and in obedience to the Command of our Blessed Redeemer to forgive and forget in the exercise of Charity and Tenderness as Members of one Christian Body and Brethren of one Society striving to excell each other in doing good and promoting the Honour and Happiness of their Fellowship And that the Members of this Company may with Harmony of Hearts and Voice at their Anniversary Feasts sitting at Meat in our Great Hall with a calm temper of Mind and chearful Countenance read what I have placed in their view as a motive thereto in a little Table over the Musick-Room at the lower end of the Hall thus Written Psal 134. Blest Day Might I but live to see The Tribes like Brethren all agree Like Brethren striving Who shall the Best Members be POSTSCRIPT THE Company of Grocers at the time when the Quo Warranto was brought against them Anno 1684. were of all Companies in London under the most irregular Government as to By-Laws and Ordinances The Company when the Quo Warranto was brought was very defective as to By-Laws and Ordinances having none made that are extant since King Henry the Eighth's time and those though fitted to the Distempers of that time were most obsolete and out of use now which might have proved fatal had not the Company had a Quietus by their late Charter wherein by aid of our late Master the Earl of Mulgrave are several Privileges granted this Company First a Confirmation of a Charter granted to this Company by King Henry the Sixth of the Office of Garbling in all places in England London only excepted Secondly The Mystery of Grocers is explained and all Druggists Confectioners Tobacconists and Tobacco-Cutters in London and three Miles compass are Incorporated herein and never to be separated from this Company to warrant their Actions and Proceeding not having any extant that I could find made and legally confirmed since the time of King Henry the Eighth in whose Reign by search I found on Record in the Town-Clerk's Office many suited to the Distempers and Nature of the Mystery of the Grocery in those days but having taken Copies of them nigh an hundred Sheets on perusal I found them most Obsolete and out of Use and very defective to cure or antidote the Diseases or Corruptions of the present Constitution of the Company So that the Renewing and Confirmation of our Charter proved an happy opportunity to this Company not only to have a Relaxation and Quietus of all Offences and Misprisions that might have proved fatal through defect of such Sanctions of Government which are essentially necessary to every Corporation but by the aid and favour of the Right Honourable the Earl of Mulgrave then our Master interceding with his late Majesty King Charles the Second of Blessed Memory who graciously condescended to own himself our Master our Charter was enlarged with these following advantages viz. a Confirmation of a Charter made by King Henry the Sixth granting the Office of Garbling to this Company in all places in this Kingdom the City of London only excepted which Privilege by non-usage for some years was grown almost out of knowledge to the Members until by search for other Charters I found it on Record in the Tower. By declaring the Species of the Mystery which before in the former Charters was expressed generally under the Denomination of Grocery but thereby declared to include all Druggists Confectioners Tobacconists and Tobacco-Cutters as having been branched out of and bred by Grocers there being then no Company of them or any of them Afterwards that Charter so granted upon and after this Quo Warranto with those Additional Clauses and Privileges being vacated a new Charter by advice of Sir Henry Pollixfen and other Learned Counsel was obtained independent of any surrender whereby all Persons using these Species as well as Grocers in London or within three Miles of the Liberties of the same are incorporated into this Company and never to be separated from them or otherwise incorporated with liberty given to all Persons using any part of the Mystery whether Free of any other Company or no to incorporate themselves therein not judging it reasonable to compel them as Men that have born Office in one Parish And positively enjoyning all Persons using this Mystery as Grocers Confectioners Druggists Tobacconists or Tobacco-Cutters for ever after to bind their Apprentices to Members of this
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-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-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
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-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-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-house and of all the Rooms as well over the 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-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 great Reputation But their Great Debts they Contracted as followeth viz. Their great Debts Contracted by Money borrowed on their Common Seal viz. Anno 1640. To Accommodate K. Char. I. 4500 l. ABout the Year 1640. his late Majesty King Charles the Royal Martyr having Occasion for Money in his Exigencies and making his Condition and Desires known to this Company as well as others they did take up Money upon their Common Seal and to supply him did on Security of some of his Peers accommodate his said Majesty with 4500 l which the unhappy War Succeeding is yet unpaid To relieve his said late Majesty's distressed Subjects in Ireland 9000 l. Afterwards about the year 1642. this Company in Compliance with other Corporations and indeed with the whole City were again required to raise 9000 l. for the Defence of the Kingdom of Ireland and Relief of his said then Majesty's distressed Subjects there which they likewise took up upon Security of their Commnn Seal and which was never repaid Anno 1643. Compelled to lend the City of London 4500 l. And afterwards in the year 1643 in Compliance with other Companies they were compelled to lend the City of London 4500 l. which they in like manner advanced and had the Common Seal of the City for Security thereof some small part whereof they afterwards received the residue is yet unpaid These great Loans were the only Means that brought this Company at last into such Extremity yet did they appear to be so just in their Intentions amongst themselves They made a By-Law to levy that Money so raised on themselves if their Stock fell short that having so taken up these great Summs of Money upon their Common Seal of several Persons at Interest they made a By-Law in their Court of Assistants to levy the same by Assessment upon themselves and their Members in case their Stock and Estate fell short to pay it And afterwards from year to year All which continued on Interest duely paid by them as their Creditors call'd for their Principal constantly paying the Interest as it became due they took up other Moneys which was daily offered to the Company and paid them off About the year 1661 The Company having sustained many losses and their Debts naturally every year increasing But despairing to receive either Principal or Interest they receiving no Interest of any to whom they themselves had so lent and despairing of the Principal and upon Audit of the Wardens Accounts finding such prodigious Summs every year swallowed up in discharge of Interest And their Debts every year swelling they call a Court in 1662. and appointed a Commitee to consider of means to discharge it several of the Members taking the Company 's condition into consideration moved the Court of Assistants and a Committee was appointed to inspect the same and to consider of some way how to obviate the farther encrease of the Company 's Debts by discharging them gradually but other Matters intervening no progress was made therein till afterwards about the Month of August 1663. Again the like in 1663. upon the like occasion they were reminded thereof and the Committee revived and the farther consideration resumed but having spent some time in considering which way to advance Money The fair Prospect they had of advancing Money within a few years by renewing Leases of their Estates in London But the prospect of Fines on renewing Leases then nigh expiring respited that Consideration till the Fire in 1666. consumed all to discharge the greatest part of their Debts and having Monies daily pressed on them to supply their occasions on Security of their Common Seal they were not hasty to propose the renewing of their Leases many of them judging it for the Company 's Advantage to defer that for some time longer and to endeavour to get in their own Debts In which circumstances they continued till soon after and before they had renewed any Leases it pleased God the late dreadful Fire happened Anno 1666. whereby not only their Hall but their whole Revenue in London so highly improvable upon expiring Leases was consumed and the several Members then at the Helm who most of them greatly suffered in their own private capacities were separated and so taken up with care of disposing of themselves and Families that very few could attend the Affairs of the Company and so that dreadful Calamity rendred this Company which sustained so great damage therein uncapable to comply any longer with due payment of their Debts and Charities Till which time the Books make appear they justly complied with their trust in all things which plainly appears by the Wardens Books to have been all along before that time punctually paid and discharged as they grew due and were from time to time call'd for and demanded The Fire having consumed their whole Revenue in London in which their Hope 's depended to raise great Summs by renewing Leases then well nigh expired to pay off their Debts they applied themselves to the Parliament on the said By-Law to assess their Members having before 66 paid 30000 l. for Interest of 18000 l. they so took up but the Parliament rejecting it as binding no more than were parties they were forced to let their Ground to Builders on long Leases and small Rents And prepounded to raise by Benevolence what they could not by Fines and to that purpose to get Subscriptions of Members But as soon after the Fire as the Members could have freedom from their own distracting Affairs they took the Company 's deplorable condition into their consideration and found they had no refuge now left but to propose their Ground to Builders for long Leases and thereby advance what Monies they could by way of Fines And that they might leave nothing unattempted their Stock and Estate by these Providences falling short to pay those great Debts so contracted they applied themselves on their said By-Law to the Parliament then sitting stating their Case how great Debts they owed and how they became so indebted on the before-mentioned Securities which were now never like to be repaid and that although they had received no Interest yet they had before that time paid for Interest of the Monies they had so taken up nigh 30000 l. and therefore pray'd an Act of Parliament to put their said By-Law in Execution by Assessment on their Members but that was rejected as Impracticable that it should bind any more than those who were Parties to the making of it who were then most of them dead Whereupon as the only means then left they endeavoured to raise Money by letting their Ground and what should fall short therein they propounded to make up among themselves by a Voluntary Subscription of their Members And to Encourage them in so Good a Work Sir JOHN CUTLER a Worthy Member at his own proper Charges Sir John Cutler to encourage them therein Erected the Stately Building