continued until it pleased God to move Sir John Moore a Worthy Member of this Society who taking into his consideration its deplorable Condition every year lessening in Reputation by reason of the Hall thus in Ruines which not only discouraged men to take their Freedoms and Apprentices to be bound there And Benefactors both in their life-time and by their Wills from their Liberality But also rendred the Society almost Contemptible Out of his kindness and good Will towards this his own Company was very inclineable at his own Charge to repair the Great Hall hoping thereby to Encourage other Members by his Example to Contribute their Assistance either in re-Edifying or Augmenting the residue of their antient Seat As the only means left to promote an Universal compliance of all the other Members according to their several Degrees and Abilities in liberal Contributions towards discharge of the great Arrears of their Debts and Charities which being made known to a Court of Assistants Sir James Edwards Master of the Company then present was pleased in the name of the whole Court to declare unto Sir John Moore then also present That the first mention of such his good intention towards them had so grateful a Resentment that it had a kind influence upon all present And therefore made it the Request of the Court to him on behalf of the Company to pursue the same Acquainting him That he doubted not but it should be followed with so happy success that the Grocers Hall which may justly Claim precedency of all Halls and publick Places within this City of London for Scituation and many other Conveniencies might in a short time be made the most Commodious Habitation for a Lord Mayor Whereupon Sir John Moore was pleased to declare he would give five hundred pounds to repaire and beautifie the great Hall That he might thereby incite other Members to follow in so good a Work Provided Care might be taken so to settle the same That what should be thus laid down might be so secured as to answer the good ends thereby design'd Upon which so Worthy a Declaration Mr. Beale and Mr. Bourne two of the Wardens then present by Agreement of the whole Court undertook and promised forthwith to set about the work And with all faithfulness to take Care the same should be laid out to the best advantage accordingly so as to have it finished that Summer And in order to Carry on so good a work encouraged therein by several other Worthy Members then present It was referred to the Wardens together with some other Members calling to their Assistance such Workmen and others as they should think fit to Consider off and propound a Model of such additional Building in such place as might make the Hall every way Commodious for Habitation of the Chief Magistrate of this City both for Ornament and Use And also by advice of Council to settle the Hall and all the rest of the Companies Revenue subject to the said former securities so as it might answer these good ends and secure to the extent of it the many yearly Charities payable by the Company where there is no fund now left Upon Report of which Committee soon after Sir John Frederick Sir James Edwards Sir Henry Tulse and several other Aldermen and Worthy Members agreed to Contribute liberally towards the same Additional Building For which a Preamble was ordered and accordingly drawn and engrossed whereby those that were subscribers declaring how sensible they were that if the Hall should long Continue under these Circumstances Not only all that had been done would be wholly fruitless but all that Remain for which they were Trustees to the Generations to come would soon waste into nothing which would reproachfully render the present Members most ungrateful to their Ancestors whose Names still Blossom in what remains of those Pious Monuments of their Charities and obnoxious to those who should succeed happy Members of this Society And therefore concluded the reparation of the Hall to be the only leading means left to preserve the Society And that as Sir John Cutler had so long since for those very ends at his own Charges erected that stately Fabrick which is the Parlour and Entertaining Room over it in the Garden And Sir John Moore had now undertaken to repair and Beautify the great Hall So they held themselves highly obliged to promote and carry on so excellent a work And having caused the Scite and Fabrick of the Hall to be surveyed and finding that with some more additional Building then already propounded to be erected it might be made a more commodious and convenient Habitation for the Cheif Magistrate of this City than any other within the City of London Therefore encouraged by so good Examples that it might answer all the good ends propounded and might with all possible speed be carried on and finished in order to invite and encourage a general Subscription of all the Members towards payment of the Companies Debts and Charities they Liberally Subscribed and promised to pay towards the raising and finishing of such additional Building the several Sums of Money there under at their several names set down and appearing and declaring themselves if occasion should be afterwards to be further liberally assisting to Compleat so good a work Not doubting but their Brethren the rest of the Members would every one follow according to their Degrees and Qualities And that the Beautifying and repairing their Hall might not prove a Bait to such Creditors if any should be as formerly seized the Ruines of the same to endeavour again a Sequestration against it But might answer those good ends so by them designed the Company for Encouragment of their Members in their Liberal Subscriptions towards this great Work by advice of learned Council Conveyed the same and all their Revenue and the Equity of Redemption thereof subject to the said former Securities to Trustees to secure as far as the same will extend the yearly payment of those Charities for which they are Chargeable to several Parishes Prisons and Uses by their Benefactors who heretofore paid into their hands several great Sums of Money for those Uses for which now no fund remains that they might also thereby not only discharge their Consciences towards God and the Memory of such Pious Benefactors But also avoid the Chargeable Prosecutions of the Commissioners upon the Statute for Charitable Uses who have of late put this Company every year to exceeding great Charges and Expences Thus have I endeavoured to lay down the true State of the Company of Grocers as it relates to themselves and their Creditors in their present Condition The substance whereof having been lately declared before my Lord Chancellor by way of Answer to a Creditors Bill who is the only Person that now prosecutes any suit against them seemed to give great satisfaction unto many Council and other Persons unconcerned who before were ignorant of the true State of the Companies
in some of our old Books the Word signifies Merchants that in their Merchandizing dealt for the whole of any kind 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 And indeed this City and Nation do in a great measure owe the Improvement of Navigation to these 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 The Merchants Trading to the Levant Seas and other Societies have originally been the off-spring of this Society as appears by antient Records of Indentures of Apprentices to Members of this Company And it is not inconsistent and may be 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 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. Where Pepper being the most Royal and 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 Accompt of the Original of this Society here in this City so long at first exercised 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 further 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 in Antiquity whereby we may plainly understand that the first Model of Government setled in this City was from the Example of Rome it self as Mr. Stow instances in the very words of an ancient writer who wrote in the Reign of King Stephen 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 under Officers and according to the Qualities of Laws it hath several Courts and general Assemblies upon appointed dayes And their Chief Ministers of Law were stiled Portgraves which is the same as Sheriff long before they went under the name of Sheriff Soon after the City obtained their Chief Magistrate to be under the Denomination of Mayor which was about the first year of King Richard the first And the first man we find advanced to that Dignity was Henry Fitz-Alwin who continued therein 24 years successively And afterwards for many years the Cheif Magistrate was sometimes stiled Custos and sometimes Mayor And soon after to wit in the 17th year of King Henry the third it appears Andrew Bokerell a Pepperer was Chosen Mayor and so eminent were the Pepperers in this Infancy of the Mayoralty that before the 36 year of that Kings Reign a Pepperer had the Chair 9 several years and very frequently afterwards we find the Pepperers advanced to that Dignity Which Society of the Pepperers encreasing and spreading so Universal in Merchandizing that it appears they were distinguished as well by the name of Grocers being a more comprehensive name as Pepperers Insomuch that before they were incorporated by the Name of Grocers to wit in the 3d. year of King Edward the 3d 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 3d. in the 20th year of his Reign Anno Dom. 1345 which appears to be long before the Mercers were Incorporated 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 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 more Eclipse the Grocers 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 7th year of King Henry the 6th and they then made a Body Politique by the name of Custodes Communitas Mysterij Grocerij Londini The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of the Grocery of London And in the beginning of that Kings Reign they purchased the ground where the Grocers Hall now stands with the ground belonging to it of Walter Lord Fitz-water bounding the same between the Old-Jury and VValbrook And so Considerable in the City were the Grocers long before that time that they were the only men intrusted with the management of the King's Beam peculiar to them as principally using the same and had the naming of the Weighmaster and the naming placing removing and governing of the four Porters all to be Elected out of their own Company a priviledge allowed them as their undoubted and inseperate right as antient as that Office it self used in the City and now at this day upon Settlement and Improvement thereof may become of much more advantage to the Members of this Company Also amongst other Priviledges and antient Usages of this Company I find Recorded even as high as Edward the 4th's daies 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 alwaies continued and in the Charter renewed to this Company in the 15th year of the late King Charles the first this Priviledge is Confirmed 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 But to return to the purchase of the Hall in the time of King Henry the 6th After which the Company flourished 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 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 wete 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-employed 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 Remains to the Company when the Yearly Payments Issuing thereout pursuant to the Disposition of the Donors are deducted FOR most part of all the Land and Houses given to the Grocers Company were by the Donors charged with yearly Charities issuing thereout to certain uses well nigh amounting to as much as the rent reserved upon long Leases in being 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 given by several Benefactors into this Company there to remain as a fund were charged with yearly payments issuing thereout to certain Parishes Places and Uses by the Donors 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 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 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 tried their Securities Their Credit being very high and in great Reputation But their Great Debts they Contracted as followeth Viz. ABout the year 1640 his late Majesty King Charles the first 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 Afterwards about the year 1642 this Company in Complyance 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 releif of the Protestants there which they likewise took up upon Security of their Common Seal which was never repaid And afterwards in the year 1643 in Compliance with other Companies they were induced 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 that having so taken 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 Assessement upon themselves and their Members in case their Stock and Estate fell short to pay it And afterwards from year to year 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 encreasing 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 Sums every year swallowed up in discharge of Interest several of the Members taking the Companies 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 further encrease of the Companies Debts by discharging them Gradually But other matters intervening no progress was made therein till afterwards about the Moneth of August 1663 upon the like occasion they were reminded thereof and the Committee revived and the further 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 to discharge the greatest part of their Debts And having Moneys 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