| Description | The governmental framework of the Company was established by its Charter and Ordinances, modified as necessary by Standing Orders.
The Company is headed by the Master, elected on an annual basis and serving for one year. The Master is assisted by (normally four, though in the sixteenth century sometimes only three) Wardens.
The Company is governed by the Court of Assistants. Until 2004, unless specially-elected, every Assistant had first to serve as Warden. The Court's decisions are recorded as 'Court Orders'. Small groups of Assistants delegated to deal with particular matters on behalf of the Court were known as Committees, set up on an informal basis as the occasion demanded.
On a day-to-day basis, the Company is run by the Clerk, the chief employed officer. The Clothworkers' Company ran into administrative difficulties in the early nineteenth century when its Clerk was initially the ageing Giles Crompe senior (Clerk 1766-1826), succeeded by his son, the incompetent Giles Crompe junior (Clerk 1826-).
The Company was rescued from the state into which its affairs had degenerated by Thomas Massa Alsager, Master 1836-7. He established the system of governing the Company through Standing Committees, initially the Court of Master and Wardens, the Committee of Record and Trusts, the Estates Committee and the Auditors Committee. These Committees have been subject to periodic restructuring over time, but the basic system today remains the same as that established by Alsager. |