NEW DATABASE: Records of London’s Livery Companies Online: Apprentices and Freemen 1400-1900 (ROLLCO)
ROLLCO is a collaboration between four of London’s Livery Companies and the Centre of Metropolitan History/Institute of Historical Research which provides free access to the historic membership records of the Worshipful Companies of Clothworkers, Drapers, Goldsmiths and Mercers. The first phase of the online database contains the details of 60,000 apprenticeship bindings, 40,000 admissions to the freedom, and 270,000 named individuals from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. These records constitute a uniquely comprehensive resource for the history of the Livery Companies as well as for a range of historical questions about the social and economic role they played in London since their creation.
The Livery Companies of the City of London originate from medieval trade guilds, established to regulate particular crafts. Guilds supervised the training of apprentices, controlled standards of craftsmanship, and protected craftsmen from unfair competition. They also provided financial support to their members in old age and in times of poverty and bereavement. Up until the nineteenth century, Freedom of the City of London (or Citizenship) and the right to exercise one’s trade there could only be obtained through membership of a Livery Company.
There were a variety of routes for someone to become a member of a Livery Company, or to be admitted to the Freedom as it is known. Chief amongst these were Servitude, by which a person gained the Freedom after serving an apprenticeship; Patrimony, by which children of Freemen qualified for membership through their parents; and Redemption whereby the Freedom was obtained through the paying of a fine (often quite substantial). Other methods of gaining the Freedom are described in the Glossary.
Over time many Companies’ direct involvement with their original craft declined, but membership has continued to be important. Today, Freedom of a Livery Company confers few tangible benefits; however, members continue to take pride in the history and traditions of their Companies and many present day Company families have generations’ long connections with their Company.
The ROLLCO database is designed to accommodate a variety of research interests, with search tools to serve researchers looking for information about specific individuals, and a rich suite of tools to allow for the querying of quantitative trends across the records of multiple Companies. The results of searches can be downloaded and saved, either in a print-ready format or as structured data for subsequent analysis.
Project details
Director: Professor Matthew Davies, M.A., D.Phil. Technical Consultant: Mark Merry, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Funded by: The Clothworkers’ Company; The Drapers’ Company; The Goldsmiths’ Company; The Mercers’ Company
PROJECT LINKS AND SOURCES: