amerced to the crown, were the Goldsmiths, the Butchers, the Glovers, and the Curriers*. The Gilda Aurifabrorum, or Goldsmiths, paid the sum of forty-five marks on this occasion, and the richer Guilds in proportion; but on most of the others, the fine was set at one mark only+.

Though the establishment of trading Guilds in London under Royal authority, as early as the Norman times, is thus satisfactorily ascertained, it is rather a singular circumstance that the remotest date of any of the Patents of Incorporation, now known to be preserved, are those granted to the Goldsmiths and the Skinners, by Edward the Third, in the year 1327; nor is it less singular that in the routine of precedence, which, time immemorally, has governed the order of the Companies in all civic arrangements, the priority of date has been so little regarded, that we find certain Companies taking precedency of others, the periods of whose legal incorporation, was full fifty, or a hundred years, and even upwards, anterior to their own. The first twelve of the City Companies, as they stand on the list, are called the Chief; they are also sometimes styled, the Honorable; and it is of the one, or other of these, that the Lord Mayor elect must always be free, according to the custom of the City, before he can be sworn in.

The following are the names of all the Companies arranged in their order of precedency; and some particulars of each will be subjoined in the same order.

THE MERCERS' COMPANY existed by prescription long previous to its regular incorporation, which did not take place till the year 1393, (17th of Richard the Second,) when the members received their charter under the title of the Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of the Mercers of the City of London,' and were empowered to purchase lands in mortmain to the value of twenty pounds annually. The Company was affluent at that period, and its property has continued to accumulate to the present time, through the various grants, donations, trusts, &c. that have been progressively made to it, or otherwise committed to the guidance of its members. This increase, however, has not taken place without some intervention, particularly during a considerable part of the last century, when the Company's affairs were much involved, through the members having engaged about the end of the year 1698, in a scheme of granting annuities, for the benefit of widows, which had first been suggested by the Rev. William Asheton, D. D. Rector of Beckenham in Kent. For every 1001. subscribed, the Annuitants were to receive 301. during life; yet that sum having been found too large, it was lowered at different times to 251. 201. and 151. per annum, but the payments were still so numerous, that the Company was at last obliged to make a com. plete stop in November, 1745; its bond and other debts, then amounting to about 87,0001. besides an annual charge of 5101. 1s. on account of legacies for charitable purposes. Parliamentary aid was afterwards obtained for the relief of the Annuitants, and the rents and profits of the Company's estates having much increased, a new Act was passed in 1764, empowering the Company to consolidate their debts (which made together 146,6871. 5s. 3d.) into one sum, subject to 31. per cent interest per annum; to issue new bonds of 1001. or under; and to draw a Lottery in their own Hall, for the progressive payment of the said bonds, whenever there was "a surples of 10001. or upwards." Since that period, the Company's affairs have become so flourishing, partly through the great increase in the value of estates, and partly in consequence of the deaths of all the Annuitants, that "for many years they have gone