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The 'Worshipful Company of Fishmongers' is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company ranks fourth in the order of precedence of the Livery Companies, making it one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies.

Contents

History

Functions

Fishmongers' Hall

Gresham's School

Notable Liverymen of the Guild and Company

Arms

See also

Sources

History

The Company has an unbroken existence of more than seven hundred years - although it probably existed earlier, it received its first Royal Charter in the year 1272. A predecessor guild was fined as ''adulterine'' in 1154. It took the name the ''Stock Fishmongers' Company'' as the result of another Royal Charter of 1508. Then, in 1537, it combined with the ''Salt Fishmongers' Company'' into the Company of the present name.
The most famous Fishmonger is Sir William Walworth, who as Lord Mayor of London in 1381 ended the Peasants' Revolt by stabbing the rebel Wat Tyler to death at Smithfield in the presence of King Richard II.
In 1383 John of Northampton, Lord Mayor of London, persuaded the City's Common Council to declare that the Fishmongers had no power to monopolize the trade in fish, and that was confirmed by Parliament. However, in a Royal Charter granted to the Fishmongers by Richard II in 1399, all their privileges were restored. By the same Charter, they were to elect six Wardens, the number which continues to the present day.
Until the end of the fourteenth century the Fishmongers had their own Court of Law, called ''Leyhalmode'', at which disputes concerning fish were judged by the Wardens of the Company.
From 1555 to the present day, the Company has acted as the trustee of Gresham's School, Holt.
In the early 17th century, the Company was granted lands at Ballykelly and Banagher in Northern Ireland, by the Crown. It remained a major landowner there until the 20th century, and the villages contain some of the most interesting buildings erected in Ulster by the Plantation companies (see ''The History, Architecture, and Planning of the Estates of the Fishmongers' Company in Ulster'' by James Stevens Curl).
In the year 1714, the Irish actor Thomas Doggett gave money to endow a boat race called Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race in honour of the new king, George I of the house of Hanover. The race was originally to be rowed annually on August 1 on the River Thames, by up to six young watermen who were not to be out of their apprenticeship by more than twelve months. The prize for the champion oarsman is a fine red coat with a large silver badge on one arm, bearing the white horse of Hanover and the word 'Liberty'. Since Doggett's death, the Fishmongers Company has organised this event annually, and it is now believed to be the world's longest continually-running sporting event and also the world's longest boat race - 4 miles, 5 furlongs, or 7,400 metres.

Functions

The Company is governed by a Prime Warden, five other Wardens and a Court of twenty-eight livery members.
Early in its existence, the Company acquired a monopoly of the sale of fish in the City of London. Today, this monopoly is no longer absolute, but under powers established by a Charter of James I in 1604, the staff of the Company (known as 'fishmeters') still inspect all fish coming into the City of London. This applies especially to Billingsgate Market, which is the largest fish market in the United Kingdom.
The Company is intimately concerned with salmon and fresh water fishing as well as shell fish throughout the waters of the United Kingdom, and it supports research and publishes books on fish, such as ''Fish and Shellfish'' and ''The Fishmongers' Company Cook Book''. Thus, the Company continues many of its original trade duties, unlike some other City Livery Companies which have become entirely charitable or ceremonial institutions.
The Company is also a significant educational charity, and in particular is closely connected to Gresham's School (see below). It has long supported the City and Guilds of London Art School and the City and Guilds of London Institute.
The Livery numbers nearly three hundred and continues to include a good representation of working Fishmongers.
Liverymen of the Company are members of the City of London's ''Common Hall'' and thus can vote in the election of the Lord Mayor of London each year on Michaelmas Day (29 September) or on the closest weekday, and also in the election of two Sheriffs on every Midsummer's Day. Voting is by show of hands, but if any liveryman demands a ballot, this is to be held two weeks later.

Fishmongers' Hall

The Company's home in London is called Fishmongers' Hall (sometimes shortened to 'Fish Hall'), and the earliest recorded Hall was built in 1310. A new Hall, on the present site, was bequeathed to the Company in 1434. Together with forty-three other Company Halls, this one was burnt down in the Great Fire of London (1666), and a replacement Hall designed by the architect Edward Jerman opened in 1671. This Hall was taken down when the new London Bridge was constructed in 1827. The next Hall opened in 1834, was designed by Henry Roberts although his assistant Gilbert Scott made the drawings for the new building, and built by Cubitts, the firm founded by Thomas Cubitt. After severe bomb damage during the London Blitz in December 1940, Fishmongers' Hall was restored by Austen Hall and reopened in 1951.
The Hall contains many treasures, including the dagger with which Lord Mayor Walworth killed Wat Tyler in 1381, Annigoni's first portrait of H.M. the Queen, a fine collection of seventeenth and eighteenth-century silver, an embroidered fifteenth-century funeral pall, two portraits by Romney, and river scenes by Samuel Scott.

Gresham's School

Since 1555, the Company has acted as the trustee of Gresham's School, in Norfolk, in accordance with the wishes of Sir John Gresham (1492-1556), Lord Mayor of London. Among other things, the Company provides more than half of the school's governors, including the Chairman of the Governing Body, which meets at Fish Hall in London.

Notable Liverymen of the Guild and Company

★ 9th Earl of Antrim

★ William Askham, Lord Mayor of London (1403-1404)

★ 4th Baron Avebury

★ 7th Baron Brabourne

★ Admiral Earl Cairns, Royal Navy

★ 7th Baron Camoys

★ Sir Richard Carew Pole

★ Hugh Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness

★ 7th Earl of Clarendon

★ 10th Duke of Devonshire

★ Thomas Doggett, actor and Whig

★ Anthony Duckworth-Chad

★ H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh

★ 4th Earl of Inchcape

★ Merlin Hay, 24th Earl of Erroll

★ 8th Marquess of Lansdowne

★ Sir John Leman, Lord Mayor of London

★ Mark Lennox-Boyd

★ Sir John Lovekyn, three times Lord Mayor of London - (1348-1349, 1358-1359 and 1366-1367)

★ 18th Duke of Norfolk

★ Cranley Onslow

★ Isaac Penington, Lord Mayor of London (1642-1643)

★ Lady Perry of Southwark

★ 5th Baron Phillimore

★ Sir John Reynwell, Lord Mayor of London (1426-1427)

★ Edmund Leopold de Rothschild

★ 10th Duke of Roxburghe

★ Ralph Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys

★ Sir Gervais Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, 2nd Bt.

★ Sir William Walworth, twice Lord Mayor of London (1374-1375 and 1380-1381)

★ Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood

★ George Frederick Bodley

★ Ben Travers

Arms

The Arms of the Company are blazoned -
'Arms': Azure three Dolphins naiant embowed in pale argent finned toothed and crowned or between two pairs of Stockfish in saltire argent over the mouth of each Fish a Crown or on a Chief gules three pairs of Keys of St Peter in saltire or
'Crest': Upon a Helm on a Wreath argent and sable, two Cubit arms the dexter vested or cuffed azure the sinister vested azure cuffed or the Hands argent holding an Imperial Crown proper
'Supporters': On the dexter side a Merman armed and holding in his right hand a Falchion and with his left sustaining the Helm and Timbre, and on the sinister side a Mermaid holding in her left hand a Mirror and supporting the Arms with her right hand, all proper
'Motto': Al Worship Be To God Only
''Note'': In heraldry, naiant means swimming to the viewer's left, while ''embowed'' means curved like a bow. For the meaning of ''azure, argent, sable'', and ''or'', see Tincture.
The Company's motto is shared with Gresham's School.

See also

★ Great Twelve City Livery Companies

★ Livery Company

★ Fishmonger

Sources

★ The Fishmongers' Company Official site

★ Fishmongers' Hall and Fish Street Hill at british-history.ac.uk

★ Arms of the Fishmongers' Company Heraldic Media

★ Gresham's School - Official site

★ ''Holland & Hannen and Cubitts - The Inception and Development of a Great Building Firm'', published 1920