| Description | Membership of The Clothworkers' Company can be obtained by Servitude (Apprenticeship), Patrimony (inheritance), Redemption (purchase) or Presentation. It has always been available to both men and women, over the age of 21.
In the early years of the Company, membership was generally achieved through having served a seven (or occasionally eight) year apprenticeship to a member of the Company. As the Company gradually moved away from its craft roots and apprenticeship became less common as a means of education, the balance shifted and more members began to join by their inherited right of membership as the legitimate son or daughter of a Freeman, born after their father had become Free. Freedom by Redemption has never been common, but was the only means by which a tradesman from another City could become Free of a Livery Company in order to trade in London and instances of Freedom by Redemption may be found in every period. The reason why an individual sought Freedom from the Clothworkers as opposed to another Company can rarely be ascertained from the Clothworker records.
Freedom of the Company could customarily be presented by the Company, for example to King James I in 1607 and Samuel Pepys in 1677, but the terms Honorary Freedom or Honorary Livery were not used before the nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century, a man (or, in one case, woman) the Company wished to honour might be presented with the Freedom, which seems to have amounted to the Honorary Livery; or he might be presented with the Livery, which also seems to have amounted to the Honorary Livery, or he might be presented with the Livery but with the understanding that this amounted to being made an ordinary Liveryman, perhaps without being charged fees.
During the twentieth century presentation of the Freedom, the Livery or the Honorary Livery became three entirely separate honours. Notable members presented with the Freedom and Livery include Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister, in 1844; Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, in 1860 and H.R.H. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1864. In the nineteenth century, a number of individuals associated with social housing were made Free by Presentation: Henry Peabody in 1862, Angela Burdett-Coutts in 1874, Richard Assheton Cross, later Viscount Cross, in 1878 and Sir Edward Cecil Guinness, Bt., in 1890. Other individuals honoured in this way have been from the military, the Colonies, M.P.s (especially from Yorkshire) and other Yorkshire dignitaries, and leaders in the textile industry.
In the nineteenth century, there was concern that ancient families long associated with the Clothworkers were losing their connection with the Company because children had been born before their father had become Free, or because there was no male to continue the Clothworker connection to the next generation. Accordingly the Company created a new class of membership: Freedom by Patrimonial Redemption, for those whose grandfather was Free of the Company, or whose father had been made Free after the birth of the child. Strictly speaking, this was Freedom by Redemption: the member had no automatic right to join the Company, but the fees were less than for those redemption candidates who had no family connection. The City of London has never recognised Freedom by Patrimonial Redemption and members made Free in this way can only achieve Freedom of the City of London by Redemption.
Although there have always been female members of the Company, originally the Freedom of a woman was suspended on her marriage (this stipulation did not apparently apply to those women who were Free by Presentation). Married women were enabled to join the Company or to retain their membership on marriage by a revision to the Standing Orders in 1968. The 1984 Ordinances allowed women to be promoted to the Livery for the first time and the first women to join the Livery were promoted in June 1994. It was also decided that patrimonial rights should be extended to the female line and on 22 July 1987, Standing Order 5 was changed to allow sons and daughters of Freemen and Freewomen to become Free by Patrimony on equal terms from 1 January 1988 and similar equality was extended to Freedom by Patrimonial Redemption.
Freedom by Courtesy may be offered to widows (and latterly widowers) of members of the Freedom. This Freedom is deemed to have been granted on the date of death of the member, and is recorded in the Court Orders and the printed Membership lists, but is not recorded in the Freedom Registers. |