Description
One of the 'Great Twelve' livery companies of the City of London, the Merchant Taylors' Company has been in existence for some seven hundred years. This new history will chart the remarkable story of the Company and its members from its origins until the 1950s, encompassing the lives and achievements of men such as Sir Thomas White (founder of St John's College, Oxford) and the celebrated chronicler, John Stow, as well as the roles played by the Company in the City and beyond in different periods. As well as looking in detail at the internal life of the Company, the book will also focus on a number of important themes in the wider history of London. These include trade and industry, apprenticeship, the impact of religious change, the foundation of schools and other charities, and the government and politics of the City. In doing so, the book will contribute to an understanding of the aims and activities of the livery companies over the centuries, their ability to adapt to changing circumstances and their relevance in a modern world far removed from that in which they were first established. The History of the Merchant Taylors' Company will appeal to a wide range of people interested in the history of London. It is fully illustrated with more than seventy-five black and white and thirty colour illustrations.
Table of Contents
PART ONE: THE MEDIEVAL COMPANY Chapter one - Origins: Tailors and Linen-Armourers Chapter two - 'Ghostly Treasure': The Fraternity of Stjohn the Baptist 1350-1530 Chapter three - The Government of the Medieval Company Chapter four - The Company and the Craft Chapter five - Company, City and Crown 1350-1500 PART TWO: REFORMATION TO RESTORATION Chapter six - The Company and the Reformation Chapter seven - The Company and Education in the Sixteenth CenturyChapter eight - Daily Life in Elizabethan London Chapter nine - The Clothworkers, the City and the Crown Chapter ten - The Turn of the Century Chapter eleven - Prelude to the Civil War Chapter twelve - The Company in the Civil War Chapter thirteen - Restoration, Fire and Rebuilding Chapter fourteen - Troubled Times PART THREE: THE COMPANY IN THE MODERN WORLD Chapter fifteen - The Long Eighteenth Century Chapter sixteen - The Nineteenth CenturyChapter seventeen - The Twentieth Century
