A Previously Unnoticed Copy of the Articles of the Worshipful Company of Broderers, 1528

Abstract

Administrative activities for the City of London are recorded in a fifty-volume series known as the Letter Books, now held at the London Metropolitan Archives, and partially calendared by Reginald R. Sharpe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ¹ The Letter Books record administrative activities between the aldermen and what became the Court of Common Council, from the reign of Edward I and up to and including most of the reign of James II. On occasion, London company statutes (also known as ordinances) were recorded in the Letter Books as part of the city’s long-running struggle for civic oversight of company business. In this way, an otherwise unknown copy of the 1528 articles of the Worshipful Company of Broderers was entered in its entirety in Letter Book O (1526–1532). ² Correspondence with the Clerk of the Broderers reveals the Company had no knowledge of the 1528 articles in...