Internet
Drawn Swords, Silk Scarves and Sheep - Legends of London's 'Freemen' Revealed
, the UK's favourite family history website, in partnership with today launched online for the first time more than records detailing the people awarded the Freedom of the City of London .
The collection details some of the county's most revered famous names and is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to uncover more about an ancestor who plied a skilled trade in London from the 17 century.
The records reveal more than historic individuals from around the UK who had the 'freedom' to trade in the City of London as part of a livery or guild, which also accorded certain renowned privileges.
As well as being able to vote in parliamentary elections, exemption from certain tolls and the granting of legal privileges, legend has it these ancient traditions allowed a freeman or sister to , be without fear of arrest, wander the city with a or if sentenced to death be .
Today, these colourful privileges are rumoured to have never existed and the 'Freedom' is widely regarded solely as an honour, granted to stars including , , and . Yet before the mid-19 century it was actually a practical necessity for Britons who wanted to ply their trade in the City, on pain of prosecution.
Originally individuals wanting to work in certain trades had to apply for the Freedom through livery companies and guilds, which controlled the majority of crafts in the City. You couldn't become a freeman of the city until you were a freeman of a company. Freedoms could be obtained by servitude (completing an apprenticeship), inherited from a parent, granted as an honour, or by simply buying the title.
Applicants included councilmen, aldermen, sheriffs, and liverymen (who all still have to be freemen or sisters today), retail traders, licensed brokers, and others who wanted to take advantage of the privileges it brought.
Included among these are a number of renowned individuals, such as:
The records themselves contain a number of documents including applications, certificates, apprenticeship records and declarations of loyalty to the king or queen, revealing key details about each freeman and sister, including their profession and guild.
This information provides a valuable insight into the history of trades and guilds in London from the 17 to the 20 century, revealing the lost trades that, while still in existence, seem alien to us today.
For example, early records in the collection detail a number of , , , , , , and . Today we'd recognise their equivalents as candlemakers, barrel/cask makers, shoemakers, wine merchants, tyre repairers, wood sculptors, metalworkers and writers respectively.
Later records dating from the 20 century reveal the emergence of more familiar professions today, including , and people serving in the .
This evolution of occupations has meant that today three more liveries (trade associations) aim to be added to the 108 livery companies currently in existence in the City of London . They are the , the and .
Global Content Director Dan Jones comments:
Dr. Deborah Jenkins , Heritage Services Director in the 's Department of Culture, Heritage and Libraries, comments:
While most of these freemen and free sisters were from Middlesex , the records actually contain information of people from all over the UK who came to London to ply their trade. , , , , , , and are listed among the counties where most of the freemen hail from.
The Freedom of the City collection has been added to millions of London Metropolitan Archive records now online, including London Poor Law records such as workhouse admission and discharge registers.
Officially the UK's favourite family history website, Ancestry.co.uk hosts more than 895 million UK records, including the most comprehensive online set of England , Wales and Scotland censuses from 1841 to 1901, the fully searchable England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, the World War One British Army Service and Pension records, UK parish records and the British Phone Books.
Ancestry.co.uk was launched in May 2002 and belongs to the global network of Ancestry websites, which hosts seven billion historical records. To date, more than 26 million family trees have been created and 2.6 billion profiles and 65 million photographs and stories uploaded. ( July 29, 2011 )
For further stories and family history updates, follow Ancestry.co.uk on Facebook and Twitter.
FOOTNOTES
1. Source: .comScore, 2010, based on genealogy related websites selected from the Family and Parenting sub-category under the Community category.