Papers 1970 to 1979

The Office of Deputy Keeper of the Records P.E. Jones OBE, LL.B., FSA [Deputy Keeper of the Records] 17 March 1970	Town Clerk as Keeper of the Records; background to the establishment of the office of what became the Deputy Keeper of the Records in 1860-1875; RR Sharpe and AH Thomas, the first 2 office-holders; personal recollections of the author; the expansion of his office beyond the Town Clerk’s Department; the work of the archivist; the Corporation as an archive authority; Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section and the Corporation of London Records Office; author’s opinions on the possible future amalgamation of the two.
Fraud in Companies and Firms Alderman Kenneth Cork 29 June 1970	Author’s experience in the field of bankruptcy; types of fraud and examples of real cases, current and historic.
The Day the Bus Jumped the Bridge Deputy T.E. Chester Barratt MA, LL.B. 30 November 1970	Development of the larger legend; London bus becomes stuck across the opening bascules of Tower Bridge on 31 December 1952; press coverage; aftermath; causes of the incident.
The Charity that Never Asks for Money Colonel Sir Cullum Welch, Bt., OBE, MC 30 March 1971	Morden College, Blackheath, its building and establishment by John Morden, a City Goldsmith, in 1695; brief biography of John Morden; Court of Aldermen as Trustees from 1884 and reasons for the change; maintenance of beneficiaries in College and as out-pensioners.
The Southwark Comptor Wallis G.G. Hunt 7 July 1971	City’s historic links with Southwark; prisons in Southwark; the City’s Compter in Southwark and its history since 1550; conditions in the Compter; rules and regulations; offences and inmates; establishment of the Metropolitan Police in 1840 and subsequent cessation of the Aldermen sitting as Justices in Southwark; end of the Compter in 1852 and its demolition in 1855.
Sounds that Hurt Not Alderman Sir Gilbert Inglefield GBE, TD, MA, D.Sc. 24 November 1971	Public musical concerts in the City from their beginnings in 17th century City inns; private concerts and patrons; Restoration recital halls; 18th century popularity of opera and establishment of concert halls; standards of singing and playing; ideal design of a concert hall; current development of Barbican Arts Centre.
The Gates of the City A Method of Defence Alderman Hugh Wontner CVO 31 January 1972	City walls and their history, in London and elsewhere; gates and posterns in London’s City wall; defence measures in the Middle Ages; the gates in use for defence and celebrations, residences and prisons; Liberties without the walls; Temple Bar; the sale of gates in the 18th century.
The City of London School – Some Early Benefactions Deputy A.G. Coulson MA, LL.B. 31 July 1972	Sir Polydore de Keyser’s gift of fruit on the move of the School to Victoria Embankment in 1883; John Carpenter and his bequests; brief history of the School’s establishment; Alderman David Salomon’s fight to be admitted as an Alderman and his bequest; Baron Lionel de Rothschild’s scholarship; Henry Beaufoy’s benefactions; The Times scholarship and how it came about in detail in 1840.
Mayoral Heraldry A. Colin Cole BCL, MA 30 October 1972	Earliest grant of arms by a King of Arms to the Drapers’ Company in 1439; symbolism of arms and their appropriateness to the grantee; canting arms; changes to London Citizens’ arms as they advanced in their civic careers; concentration on the period 1790-1850; examples of arms and inclusion of Crystal Sceptre and Mayoral insignia in them; recent Lord Mayors’ arms.
Some Bridge House Estates in Deptford (No paper available) Deputy Dudley S Game 29 January 1973	Deptford in history; its development from the time of Henry VIII; establishment of Trinity House and Naval Dockyard there; Peter the Great of Russia’s visit to Deptford and the dockyards; establishment of the Royal Victualling Yard in 1742; John Evelyn and his introduction of Grinling Gibbons to Sir Christopher Wren; Pepys’ mentions of Deptford; brief account of the origin of the Bridge House Estates; Bridge House Estates in Lewisham, Ladywell and Brockley; John Clifford’s bequest of “le Christopher on le Hoop” (later the Dover Castle) an inn in Deptford; the Swan; the Royal Oak (later the Centurion); land near the Earl’s Sluice on the Rotherhithe side of Deptford; sale of most of the Bridge House lands in Deptford to various dock and navigation companies in the 19th century.
Royal Hospitals in the City of London Sir Lionel Denny GBE, MC, D.Sc. 19 July 1973	Thomas Vicary and the union of the Barbers’ and the Surgeons’ Companies in 1540; pre-Reformation religious houses for the care of the sick; establishment of St Bartholomew’s, Bethlem, Christ’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals and Bridewell, and their histories since the mid-16th century; expenditure and governance of them by the Corporation; King Edward’s School, Witley; 1946 National Health Service Act; the current situation.
The Lord Mayor’s Banquet Alderman Sir Hugh Wontner CVO 29 October 1973	History of the ceremonial and celebration accompanying the admission of each new Lord Mayor of London; Lord Mayors’ banquets attended by the Sovereign; security; food and drink; entertainments; toasts; invitation cards and menus.
The Ward of Bread Street Alderman H. Murray Fox MA 29 April 1974	Common background of all Wards in the City; brief history of Bread Street Ward and its boundaries; Assize of Bread and bread trade in the ward; Goldsmith’s Row, Cheapside; inns during the 16th and early 17th centuries; Livery Company halls in the ward; Admiral Phillip, 1st Governor of New South Wales, Australia and his links with the ward; effects of the industrial revolution after 1750 and the textile trade in the Ward up to 1940; subsequent dominance of financial institutions; railways and electoral reform; detailed account of the Bread Street Wardmote of 1836.
The City’s Cash Account of 1632-33 J.M. Keith TD [Chief Commoner] 30 July 1974	Corporation’s finances as Bridge House, City’s Cash and Rates Funds; earliest surviving City’s Cash account for 1632-33; 17th century accounting procedures; the Orphans’ Fund; debts due to the City; income, mostly from property; disbursements; other headings within the account; serious financial difficulties of the Chamber at the time.
The Place of Pewter in History Deputy Ralph W. Peacock CBE, MA 18 September 1974	Definitions of pewter and differences between different kinds; prehistoric and Roman use of metals; uses of pewter from the Middle Ages; Pewterers’ Company from the 14th century and its powers; causes of the disappearance of old pewter; decrease of pewter from 18th century; modern commemorative pewter,
Whittington’s Longhouse Alderman Alan Lamboll JP 29 April 1975	Longhouse (public toilet) and almshouses over it in Vintry Ward, one of the lesser-known of Richard Whittington’s benefactions; structure of the longhouse and tenants of almshouses until early 17th century, when the almshouses were probably converted into warehousing; destruction in the 1666 Fire of London and John Oliver’s sketch of the longhouse; reduction in size after the Fire; Ward complaints to the Corporation for not maintaining the terms of Whittington’s bequest in late 17th century; Viewers’ report describing it in 1690; lessees of the site and the gradual disappearance of the public convenience; post-World War II redevelopment and the disappearance of the site, which was on the doorstep of the new Public Cleansing Depot; sketch plan of the longhouse, 1671. [This article, by PE Jones, was first published in the London Topographical Record vol. XXIII, pp. 27-34 and the GHA acknowledges the London Topographical Society’s permission to reproduce it.]
The Court of Husting Norman L. Hall MBE, LL.B. 29 July 1975	Court of Husting Meeting on 5 November 1974; history of the Court from the 10th century; business of the Court in medieval times and its gradual decrease in use due to changes in law over the centuries; advantages of registration of deeds in Court of Husting; land registration; enrolment of wills in the Court of Husting; fire in Royal Exchange in 1838 and destruction of enrolments 1717-1838.
The Civic and Financial City Alderman Sir Robert Bellinger GBE D.Sc. 30 September 1975	Changes to the City over the past century; striking decline in resident population and its causes; development of financial services with the Industrial Revolution and development of the British Empire; changes in local government; the City as an independent financial centre; the 20th century and the effects of two world wars; the author’s opinions about convergence of civic and financial aspects of the City if the City is to survive and prosper in the then current political context.
Dr Reginald R. Sharpe DCL and the Establishment of the Corporation of London Records Office Betty R. Masters BA, FSA 29 June 1976	History of record-keeping within the Corporation from the 13th century; work of William Turner Alchin in the 1840s; appointment of RR Sharpe as the first archivist 1876-1914 and the background to the appointment; the ordeal of the interviewing process; duties and office-holders since 1876; brief biography of Sharpe and his character; conditions for researchers and staff and Sharpe’s complaints; his prodigious output and the debt owed to him by his successors. [Adapted from a longer article, “Local Archivist 1876-1914: Dr Reginald R Sharpe”, Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol. 5, pp. 275-282.]
Jubilee Celebrations 1809-1935 Betty R. Masters BA, FSA 29 March 1977	Religious origins of the word “jubilee”; first use in a UK royal context in 1809 for 50th anniversary of the accession of George III; unpopularity of this jubilee in some quarters; details of Queen Victoria’s 1887 and 1897 jubilees; George V’s 25 year jubilee in 1935; forthcoming 25 year jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.
The Royal Contract Estates James Mansfield Keith TD 28 June 1977	Importance of land and property to the Corporation; pre-eminence of its City Lands Committee; the Chamber of London as Royal banker; royal debt to the City at £350,000 by 1627/28; Royal Contract and the transfer of royal land to the Corporation to sell in lieu of the debt; extent of Royal Contract Estates throughout the country; new Committee to administer them; descriptions of estates in Leeds and Northumbria; Civil War affected scale of sales; final sales not made until beginning of 18th century; remaining estate (Conduit Mead, around New Bond Street).
The Commission of Lieutenancy 1617-1977 Deputy Sir Thomas Kingsley Collett CBE 29 November 1977	History of the Commission itself, not the trained bands or militia from the first recorded commission in 1617; laying of foundations of modern Commission by 1662 Act; association of Aldermen with Commission; intervals between issuing of Commissions, and numbers of people on it from 17th century to date; decrease in numbers requested by Edward VII; reforms in 1950s and 1960s, especially in 1967.
The Lost Library of the Barber Surgeons’ Company of London and Dr Richard Mead Richard Theodore Beck FSA, FRIBA 31 January 1978	Sale of the library to John Whiston in 1751 for £18 following the splitting of the Barbers from the Surgeons in 1745; detailed history of the library and its buildings 1440-1751; Whiston probably an agent for Dr Richard Mead (1673-1754); biography of Mead and sale of his library after his death.
The City and the Temples James Mansfield Keith CBE, TD 30 May 1978	Brief history of the Templars and the Temple; boundary disputes with the City of London; Temple’s transfer to the Hospitallers in 1324 and the start of its occupation by lawyers of the Inner and Middle Temple until their dissolution on 1540; Temple charter 1608; jurisdictional and voting disputes with the City; summary of modern responsibilities of Temple and City.
The Common Hunt and the Doghouse Deputy Matthew Henry Oram TD, MA 31 October 1978	Common Hunt the 3rd of the Lord Mayor’s Esquires until post abolished in 1807; duties; City’s rights of hunting in Essex; keeping and types of breed of the City’s hounds since 14th century; locations of the Doghouse; Common Hunts additional duties as dog-catcher and –killer, especially in times of plague; account of a 1562 hunt; venison warrants; disappearance of City’s hounds by mid-18th century; list of office-holders.
The Lord Mayor’s “View of the Thames” Alderman Sir Hugh Walter Kingwell Wontner GBE, CVO, D.Litt. 31 January 1979	4 existing boundary stones marking the limits of the City’s jurisdiction over the Thames Conservancy until 1857 at Staines, Leigh, Yantlett and Upnor; maintenance of the stones through the centuries; Lord Mayor’s periodic visits (“views”) to the stones in great ceremony to maintain the jurisdiction; brief history of the Thames Conservancy and duties of Waterbailiff; Conservancy Courts; narrative descriptions of late 18th/early 19th century views, especially that of 1796.
Richard Whittington Alan Seymour Lamboll 29 May 1979	The popular story of Dick Whittington; recent research on him and the development of the legend; biography of Whittington, his business, municipal career and loans to the Crown; his property and liquid assets; his charitable benefactions, will and executors.
The Development of the Post of City Architect and Planning Officer 1478-1965 Deputy Richard Theodore Beck FSA, FRIBA 31 October 1979	First appointment of the Master of the City’s Works and his duties 15th – 17th centuries; the challenge of rebuilding after the 1666 Fire of London; George Dance the Elder and Younger over 80 years in the post; William Mountague and his work 1816-1843; JB Bunning and his work 1843-1863; Horace Jones and his work from1863; his successors to 1965.