The 108 Livery Companies are trade associations based in the City of London, almost all of which are known as the "Worshipful Company of" the relevant trade or profession. The Livery Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling, for instance, wages and labour conditions. Some Livery Companies (for example, the Scriveners) continue to have a regulatory role today, and some (for example, the Longbow Makers) have become inoperative except as charitable foundations. Most Livery Companies, particularly those formed in recent years, are primarily charitable organizations. The active Livery Companies also play an important part in social life and networking in the City of London. They have a long history of cultural patronage.
After the Fan Makers were established in 1709 (and later granted Livery in 1809), no new companies were formed for almost 200 years until the Master Mariners in 1926 (Livery in 1932). Post-1926 companies are called Modern livery companies. Formed in 1999, The Company of Security Professionals became the 108th Livery Company on 19th February 2008 when the Court of Aldermen of the City of London Corporation approved the Petition for Livery. In recent years, many professions (such as Solicitors and Chartered Accountants) have established new guilds with the aim of being granted Livery, the most recent being the Tax Advisers (formed as a Guild in 1995 and granted Livery in 2005).[citation needed] As of 2008 there are two old bodies which, for historical reasons, are recognized as City Companies without Livery; three further guilds (Educators, Public Relations Practitioners and Arts Scholars, Dealers and Collectors) aim to obtain a grant of Livery.
Governance
Livery Companies are governed by a Master (known in some Companies as the Prime Warden), a number of Wardens (who may be known as the Upper, Middle, Lower, or Renter Wardens), and a Court of Assistants, which elects the Master and Wardens. The chief executive officer of the Company is known as the Clerk.
Members generally fall into two categories: freemen and liverymen. One may become a freeman, or acquire the "Freedom of the Company", upon fulfilling the Company's criteria; traditionally, one may be admitted by "patrimony" if either parent was a liverymen of the company, by "servitude" if one has served as an apprentice in the trade for the requisite number of years, or by "redemption" if one pays a fee. (The Company may also vote to admit individuals as honorary freemen.) Freemen generally advance to becoming liverymen by a vote of the Court of the Company. Historically, only liverymen could take part in the election of the Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Livery halls
Many companies still have a hall, where members and their guests can be entertained and company business transacted. Among the earliest companies known to have possessed halls were the Merchant Taylors and Goldsmiths in the 14th century, but neither their nor other companies' original halls remain; the few survivors of the Great Fire were destroyed, along with many reconstructed ones, during the Blitz. Today, only 40 companies have halls in London. Companies that do not have their own hall usually borrow one of the other companies' premises for social occasions.
Precedence
In 1515, the Court of Aldermen of the City of London settled an order of precedence for the forty-eight Livery Companies then in existence, which was based on the Companies' economic or political power. The first 12 Livery Companies are known as the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. There are now one hundred and eight Livery Companies, some of recent formation, so the Order of Precedence is sometimes reviewed. However, the Merchant Taylors and the Skinners have always disputed their precedence, so once a year (at Easter) they exchange sixth and seventh place. This is one of the theories for the origin of the phrase "at sixes and sevens", as the master of the Merchant Taylors has asserted a number of times, although the first use of the phrase may have been before the Taylors and the Skinners decided to alternate their position [1]. Both companies had been founded before the birth of Chaucer, who was one of the first people to use the phrase, so this may have dated from before him.
Nothing about sheep grazing though
cheers.
Mate.
They've got tinternet on computers nowadays.
You know damn well you could have looked all that up for yerself without the Look At ME! thread
Sorry mate, but IMHO you were just 'Doing a Look-At-ME-Everybody!' thread as per NSC's resident attention-seeker Hove Born Inbred. In fact you KNOW you are. Your thread is inappropriate because a) All the stuff you are looking for is freely available on tinternet and b) You are just one of these random blips on the radar that NSC wishes Happy Birthday to 53 times between midnight and 00:02 once a year.
'The main point of the thread was to try and find other Albion fans who were Freemen or Liveryman'. Yeah, right
No offence.
Obviously.
Quite.
at least Tim you have put in the groundwork, annoyed us all for several thousand posts and - so far as is possible - earned the right to say LOOK. AT. ME.
Whereas, Roobie The Lurker seems to assume the right to say 'Hey! you Don't Know Me! My posts, if I made any ever, are utterly unmemorable. But look at me regardless, - and WORSHIP! - for I am a Freeman Of London'
At least you put in the hours on here and EARNED the right to be called WANKER!
No offence Tim