THE LEATHERSELLERS
A SHORT HISTORY
01
T he Leathersellers’ Company is thought to have its origins amongst the whittawyers (makers of fine white leather) and pouchmakers who congregated along London Wall in the early thirteenth century. The English word ‘leatherseller’ is first found to describe the occupations of John and Robert Pointel in 1297, but the earliest official documentary use of ‘leathersellers’ for a group of London craftsmen comes in 1372, when members of the ‘mistery’ or craft of Leathersellers and Pursers complained to the Mayor and Aldermen about the dyers who, “in deceit of the people”, had been dyeing sheep leather in order to pass it off as the more durable and expensive roe leather.
and granted the right to meet, to wear a livery, to hold land and to use a common seal. Shortly after incorporation a group of trustees acting for the Company purchased five tenements on the south side of London Wall near Moorgate, and from around 1476 the Leathersellers used the upper floor of one of the houses as a Hall.
BY 1444 THE LEATHERSELLERS WERE SUFFICIENTLY ORGANISED AND INFLUENTIAL TO APPLY TO HENRY VI FOR A CHARTER OF INCORPORATION. In 1398, during the first mayoralty of Richard Whittington, the Leathersellers applied for ‘articles’ for the regulation of their craft and the prevention and punishment of dishonest practices in their trade. This resulted in a number of ordinances or bye-laws, in which the Leathersellers laid claim to the right to inspect all leather goods and skins sold in the City of London. By 1444 the Leathersellers were sufficiently organised and influential to apply to Henry VI for a charter of incorporation. The charter established the government of the Company by four Wardens, confirmed and extended the Company’s right to inspect leather,
The Company’s charter of incorporation, 1444.
In the fifteenth century most Leathersellers were still living and working in this peripheral part of the City; their parish church was All Hallows, London Wall and the Company’s patron saint was Our Lady of the Assumption, whose feast day was celebrated by all the Livery on 15th August each year. Contemporary descriptions of the Hall show that it was well furnished, with tapestries depicting the life of the Virgin Mary lining the walls and a large window overlooking a garden to the rear. The other properties were let out, and part of the revenue distributed amongst poor prisoners for debt in accordance with the will of Robert Ferbras, an early benefactor who had helped with the purchase of the Hall.
Henry VI grants the Leathersellers their first Charter in 1444. A 19th century oil painting by an unknown artist.
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