INCORPORATION AND GROWTH

1626-1688

The Company eventually received its Royal Charter from Charles I on 14 June 1626 and the Company has an unlimited Livery. (Blackham, p314). A note describes the charter in the following terms :

"King Charles the 1st by Letters Pattent dated the 14th of June 1626 incorporates the Fraternity or Brotherhood of the Master Wardens or Keepers Fellowship and Free Men of the Art or Mistery of Upholders within the City of London and seven Miles thereof By the Name of Master, Wardens and Comonalty of the Mistery or Art of Upholders of the City of London." (Archives).

Unfortunately, this charter has been lost although the text is known from later copies (deposited with the Guildhall Library). The Company is constituted with a Master, two Wardens and twelve Assistants as the Art or Mistery of Upholders within the City of London and seven miles thereof. The Masters and Wardens were required to be chosen yearly and sworn in to execute their duties. The most important power given in the charter is the power to make orders and ordinances and to exact punishment on those who fail to comply (Archives). A new exemplification (which is annexed and see below) was obtained in 1668 so the grant of chartered status was confirmed by Charles II under the Restoration (Origins, p3).

In 1645 Andrew Yardly (the surname is variously spelled) made a gift of £500 for the purchase of a Hall. The Rolls of Chancery for 1646 show the purchase of a freehold property called "Wingfield House or Wingfield Place, between Lambeth Hill and St. Peters Hill, in the Parish of St. Peters, in the Ward of Baynard Castle". Wingfield House or Place was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 as homes were built on the site from which the Company derived rent. (Origins, p3/4). The issue of any re-building of the Hall following the 1666 fire is a matter of some confusion. The 1679 Byelaws make mention of a "Comon Hall in the Parish of St. Peters Cheap". However, this is clearly a reference to a special meeting to agree the new Byelaws and the Court Minutes for that period show meetings at various venues but no reference to a Hall. An eighteenth century map indicates a Livery Hall for the Company in Leadenhall Street but, again, the Court Minutes do not support the existence of any Hall after the Great Fire. A recent publication (Beard) shows that this hall in Leadenhall Street was not in fact connected with the Upholders’ Company. However, it is clear the Company kept rooms in Leadenhall Street for five years from 1699 (Walton, p45) possibly for use by the Clerk. The location of the Company’s Hall in St. Peter’s Hill (now Peter’s Hill) is to be marked by a plaque which is to be erected by the Corporation of London.

....... The "smaller Companies, which were composed for the most part of handicraftsmen, had been eager that all those who were working at the special craft of their Gild should be translated to it, while the larger and especially the trading Companies, like the Drapers, rarely insisted upon translation. In July 1650, a committee of the Common Council for grievances concerning trades asked the [Drapers'] Company, at the instigation, no doubt, of the upholsterers, whether the Drapers would translate all their members who were following the trade of upholstery to the Company of Upholsterers 'as a thing reasonable and likely to remedy the many deceits and abuses practiced' in the said trade? This request was refused on the ground that the Drapers' Company, 'unlike others, doth consist of men of several trades and professions, ..... and that, if all those members, who pursued other trades than that of drapery, were taken away from their Company, it 'could not subsist in undergoing charge and performing service for the publike and the honour of the City, as it hathe done and as time may require;' especially as several members of the Company using upholstery were of the Livery and 'of especial concernment for the good of the same' .....".  (Johnson, p231).

In 1653 during the Commonwealth, companies including the Carpenters submitted a joint petition to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen asking for an Act "enjoining all persons using their respective trades to present, bind and make free all their apprentices at their respective companies, and to be subject to the search and government of that company whose trade they use as hath been granted to the trades of Glaziers and Painter- Stainers". In 1659 petitions of a similar nature were presented by seven other companies, including the Upholders which seem to have been favourably considered by the Court of Aldermen, until the Twelve Great Companies presented reasons why the proposed Act should not be passed. Nevertheless, the Court of Aldermen did rule "that some expedient as to view and search, and the limitation of persons free of other companies, ..... be thought on as well to the contentment of those companies as to the weal of the city and citizens". (Unwin, p341).

From time to time the Lord Mayor set precepts to be met by the various livery companies. These precepts, or demands, might be for manpower, arms, corn or coals. In the year of the plague (1665) for "a constant supply of sea coal for the use of the poor in times, of scarcity, and to defeat the combinations of coal- dealers, the several City companies under mentioned were ordered to purchase and lay up yearly, between Lady-day and Michaelmas, the following quantities of coals; which, in dear times, were to be vended in such manner, and at such prices, as the lord mayor and court of aldermen should by written precept direct, so that the coals should not be sold at a loss". [There follows a list of companies and the number of chaldrons of coal they were to supply. This ranged from the Mercers at 488 to the Coopers at 52 and the Bowyers, Fletchers and Woolmen each at 3. The Upholders were assessed at 9 chaldrons]. This may be indicative of relative wealth or influence. (Herbert, p131, vol. 1).

The destruction of the Hall in the 1666 fire meant the loss of the Company’s records and treasures. No original document or other possession pre-dating the fire survives to remain in the Company’s ownership. Among the papers lost was the set of Byelaws and more than a dozen years passed before they were re-drafted in 1679.

Charles II granted an Inspeximus Charter (that is to say, based on an inspection of the 1626 Charter) to the Company in 1668 and the transcription is annexed. The 1668 Charter ratified and confirmed the provisions of the 1626 Charter: this means that many of the details in the second version are simply copied from the earlier charter.

Apart from London there are at least 28 towns in England and Scotland with an active tradition of guildry. A number have guild halls of considerable antiquity, such as York, or designed by a renowned architect, such as the Glasgow Trades House designed by Robert Adam. In Newcastle-upon-Tyne and in Edinburgh the craft of the upholder is part of the guild tradition but in neither case has any direct connection been found with the Worshipful Company of Upholders. In Newcastle, some crafts such as the Tanners formed themselves into fraternities or Companies. Other crafts or trades joined together to form combined companies. The Upholsterers, Tinplate Workers and Stationers joined to form one such Company which received its charter from the town in 1675. The Stewards consist of four upholsterers, one tinplate worker, and one stationer. One of the traditions of the Company is that each brother on his marriage gives a dinner and a pair of gloves to the brethren of the whole Company. (Lane, p11). Edinburgh has a Company of Merchants, a number of Trade Incorporations including the Hammermen and the Goldsmiths as well as the United Incorporations of St. Mary's Chapel. This latter Incorporation was first formed when the Wrights and the Masons formed a society in 1475. Other crafts joined later including the Upholsterers who were linked with the Masons and the Painters who were linked to the Wrights. The 15th century Act of the Common Council of Edinburgh was confirmed by a charter of George III in 1778. (Lane, p27).

A document giving the "Ordinancies Constitutions duly ratified and confirmed 18 Dec. 1679" required all who were free of the Company to appear before the Master, Wardens and Assistants once each quarter on being summoned or to pay twelve pence if they failed to attend without good reason. A penalty of up to forty shillings was set for those who were free of the Company and who refused without adequate reason to undertake any necessary public service imposed by the Company or by the City. A tariff of fines was laid down for those declining without good reason to accept office on being elected as Master (£26 13s 4d), Warden (£20), or Assistant (a sum not exceeding £20). The Master and Wardens were required to provide a "competent Dinner" for the Assistants and Livery once a year with the cost being apportioned on the basis of three sixths to the Master, two sixths to the upper Warden, and one sixth to the under Warden. These by-laws contain a number of other provisions, the most significant of which is the power given to the Company to enter the "House Shop or Booth" of offenders and distrain, take and carry away wares and goods. (Archives). The full text of the Byelaws is annexed.

The British Library holds a Parliamentary petition (dated to 1680 in the BL catalogue) seeking the lifting of customs duty in the following terms.

"The Cafe of the Upholsters of England, Humbly offered to the Confideration of the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgeffes, Affembed in Parliament. Whereas all the Duties upon the Exportation of the Woollen Manufactures of this Kingdom, have been taken off, which not withfstanding, when made up into Furniture for Houfes, pay a Duty of 5 1. per Cent. ad valorem, Cufton.

And whereas ferveral Commodities, as Damask, Sarcent, Callicoes, Ticking, &c imported into this Kingdom, have great Draw-backs allowed, when exported by Certificate, into Foreign Countries; which faid Goods, notwithftanding being Manufactured, and made up into Furniture for Houfes, with the Addition of Lace, Fringe, Joyner’s-Work, Smith’s-Work, &c. have then no Draw-backs allowed, but inftead thereof, are charged with the faid Duty of 5 1. per. Cent. Which occafions many Merchants and others to export the faid Goods Unmanufactured, that they may have the Advantage of the Draw-backs, and avoid paying the faid Duty of 5 per Cent. upon their Exportation when Manufactured.

Whereby many poor Families in this Kingdom (which otherwife might) are not now employ’d in the Manufacturing thefe Goods, but the Poor of Foreign Countries reap the Benefit thereof.

It is therefore humbly pray’d, that all the Woollen Manufactures, and all other Commodities made up into Upholftery-Goods, may have a free Exportation, and the faid Duty of 5 1. per Cent. taken off; whereby the Poor of this Kingdom will be greatly Benefitted, and the Trade thereof very much increafed. (BL 1882.c.2[28]).

The extent the Company was involved in presenting this petition to Parliament is unclear but it is reasonable to assume some participation given the position of the Company in relation to the trade at this time.

A Charter granted by James II in 1686 does not count, as it was annulled by a statute of William and Mary. (Thornley, p241). A copy of this Charter names Thomas Rogers as Master, Thomas Martin and William Jackson as Wardens, the sixteen Assistants, and George Shepard as Clerk. In the manner of those times, all were required to have "received the Sacrament according to the forme of the Church of England by law established" inside of a six month period prior to their election. The Company, referred to as the "Art or Mistery of Upholders", was given powers in the City of London "and the Suburbs thereof and within Seaven Miles in circuit of the same City and in all and every or any the Faires and Markets within this Realme of England". In particular those "makeing stuffing Working Selling or putting to sale all Featherbedds Flock Bedds Boulsters Pillowes Stooles Chaires Cushions Matrefses Quilts Ruggs" would be subject to search. If the goods so searched contained "deciptfull insufficient or corrupt stuff matter or thing" then the product might be "break and tease in pieces or cast into the Fire and burne or by any other meanes consume." Apprentices were obliged to serve at least seven years. (Archives).

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