The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks is one of the Guilds of the City of London. It has no livery, because "in the 16th century, the Parish Clerks declined to take the Livery on the grounds that the surplice was older than the Livery and was the proper garb of members of the Company." [1] It is not, therefore, technically a livery company although to all intents and purposes it acts as such. It is one of two such historic companies without livery, the other being the Company of Watermen and Lightermen.
Although they have no place in the order of precedence, which governs only liveried companies, The Master, Wardens, Assistants and Brethren of the Parish Clerks of the Parish Churches of the City and Suburbs of London and the Liberties thereof, the City of Westminster, the borough of Southwark and the fifteen Out-Parishes adjacent, are among the oldest City companies. Individual members held property on behalf of the Fraternity near Bishopsgate in 1274. The Company was incorporated by Letters Patent on 22 January 1441/2. Later Royal Charters, granted by Charles I, dated February 1635/6 and February 1638/9, are kept in the Guildhall Library.
The number of parishes at the time of the 1639 charter was 129, of which 108 were in the City of London. A further twenty one parishes in Middlesex and Surrey within the bills of mortality were added between 1639 and 1825. The Company's 150 parishes are listed below.
All Hallows Barking (Berkyngechurche), All Hallows Bread Street, All Hallows the Great, All Hallows Honey Lane, All Hallows the Less, All Hallows Lombard Street, All Hallows London Wall, All Hallows Staining, Christ Church Newgate Street, Holy Trinity the Less, St Alban, Wood Street, St Alphage London Wall, St Andrew by the Wardrobe, St Andrew Holborn, St Andrew Hubbard, St Andrew Undershaft, St Ann Blackfriars, St Anne and St Agnes, St Antholin, St Augustine Watling Street, St Bartholomew by the Exchange, St Bartholomew the Great, St Bartholomew the Less, St Benet Fink, St Benet Gracechurch, St Benet Paul's Wharf, St Benet Sherehog, St Botolph by Billingsgate, St Botolph without Aldersgate, St Botolph without Aldgate, St Botolph without Bishopsgate, St Bride, St Christopher le Stocks, St Clement Eastcheap, St Dionis Backchurch, St Dunstan in the East, St Dunstan in the West, St Edmund, King and Martyr, St Ethelburga, St Faith under St Paul's, St Gabriel Fenchurch, St George Botolph Lane, St Giles-without-Cripplegate, St Gregory by St Paul's, St Helen Bishopsgate, St James Duke's Place, St James Garlickhithe, St John the Baptist Walbrook, St John the Evangelist Friday Street, St John Zachary, St Katherine Coleman, St Katherine Cree, St Lawrence Jewry, St Lawrence Pountney, St Leonard Eastcheap, St Leonard Foster Lane, St Magnus the Martyr, St Margaret Lothbury, St Margaret Moses, St Margaret, New Fish Street, St Margaret Pattens, St Martin Ludgate, St Martin Orgar, St Martin Outwich, St Martin Pomeroy, St Martin Vintry, St Mary Abchurch, St Mary Aldermanbury, St Mary Aldermary, St Mary-at-Hill, St Mary Bothaw, St Mary le Bow, St Mary Colechurch, St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, St Mary Mounthaw, St Mary Somerset, St Mary Staining, St Mary Woolchurch, St Mary Woolnoth, St Matthew Friday Street, St Michael Bassishaw, St Michael Cornhill, St Michael Crooked Lane, St Michael Queenhithe, St Michael le Querne, St Michael Paternoster Royal, St Michael Wood Street, St Mildred Bread Street, St Mildred Poultry, St Nicholas Acons, St Nicholas Cole Abbey, St Nicholas Olave, St Olave Hart Street, St Olave Old Jewry, St Olave Silver Street, St Pancras Soper Lane, St Peter Cornhill, St Peter Paul's Wharf, St Peter le Poer, St Peter Westcheap, St Sepulchre, St Stephen Coleman Street, St Stephen Walbrook, St Swithin London Stone, St Thomas Apostle, St Vedast Foster Lane, Bridewell Precinct (extra-parochial place)
St George Southwark, St Olave Southwark, St Saviour Southwark, St Thomas Southwark
St Clement Danes, St Martin in the Fields, St John Baptist Savoy, St Giles in the Fields, St James Clerkenwell, St Leonard Shoreditch, St Mary Whitechapel, St Dunstan Stepney, St John at Hackney, St Mary Islington, St Katharine by the Tower (Liberty)
St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey, St Mary Lambeth, St Mary Newington, St Mary Rotherhithe
St Alban the Martyr, Holborn St Peter ad Vincula (Tower of London), St Anne Soho, St Chad Haggerston, St Clement King Square, St George Hanover Square, Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell Holy Trinity, Hoxton St James Piccadilly, St John Westminster, St Mary le Strand, St Paul Covent Garden, Christ Church Southwark, St John Horsleydown, All Saints Poplar, Christ Church Spitalfields, St Anne Limehouse, St George Bloomsbury, St George in the East, St George the Martyr Queen Square, St John Clerkenwell, St John Wapping, St John Waterloo St Luke Old Street, St Mark, Clerkenwell St Matthew Bethnal Green, St Matthew, Westminster St Paul Shadwell, St Peter London Docks St Stephen, Westminster St Paul, West Hackney
The Company was first granted arms on 16 July 1482. The second grant was made in 1582; these were replaced by a new grant on 16 October 1991, which granted supporters in addition to the previous arms, [2] blazoned as follows:
Arms
Azure a Fleur de lys or, on a chief gules a leopard's head Or between two 'pricksong books' of the same laced vert.
Supporters
On either side and standing to the front on the capital of an Ionic Column Or and Angel gazing outwards proper winged Or vested of a tunic Argent garnished Or draped over the interior shoulder with a mantle Azure and holding with the interior hand a Trumpet baldrick-wise the bell upwards all gold.
Crest
On a wreath gules and Azure, a cubit arm vested Azure cuffed ermine holding an open 'pricksong' book all proper.
Motto
"Unitas societatis stabilitas"
All Hallows Staining was a Church of England church located at the junction of Mark Lane and Dunster Court in the north-eastern corner of Langbourn ward in the City of London, England, close to Fenchurch Street railway station. All that remains of the church is the tower, built around AD 1320 as part of the second church on the site. Use of the grounds around the church is the subject of the Allhallows Staining Church Act 2010.
St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge, is a Church of England church and parish within the City of London. The church, which is located in Lower Thames Street near The Monument to the Great Fire of London, is part of the Diocese of London and under the pastoral care of the Bishop of Fulham. It is a Grade I listed building. The rector uses the title "Cardinal Rector" and, since the abolition of the College of Minor Canons of St Paul's Cathedral in 2016, is the only cleric in the Church of England to use the title Cardinal.
Sion College, in London, is an institution founded by royal charter in 1630 as a college, guild of parochial clergy and almshouse, under the 1623 will of Thomas White, vicar of St Dunstan-in-the-West.
The Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs, or the area formerly administered by the London County Council. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an Arts-and-Crafts designer, architect and social reformer and was motivated by a desire to record and preserve London's ancient monuments. The first volume was published in 1900, but the completion of the series remains far in the future.
St Botolph's Aldgate is a Church of England parish church in the City of London and also, as it lies outside the line of the city's former eastern walls, a part of the East End of London. The church served the ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate which included the extramural Portsoken Ward of the City of London, as well as East Smithfield which is outside the City.
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, and also, by virtue of lying outside the city's eastern walls, part of London's East End.
Bread Street is one of the 26 wards of the City of London the name deriving from its principal street, which was anciently the city's bread market; already named Bredstrate for by the records it appears as that in 1302, Edward I announced that "the bakers of Bromley and Stratford-le-Bow [London], and ones already living on the street, were forbidden from selling bread from their own homes or bakeries, and could only do so from Bread Street." The street itself is just under 500 ft in length and now forms the eastern boundary of the ward after the 2003 boundary changes.
St Benet Gracechurch, so called because a haymarket existed nearby (Cobb), was a parish church in the City of London. First recorded in the 11th century, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666 and rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The church was demolished in 1868.
Broad Street is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London.
All Hallows Lombard Street, also seen with the descriptor Gracechurch Street, was a parish church in the City of London. It stood behind thin buildings fronting both streets in Langbourn Ward, The west and south sides faced into Ball Alley. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London. It was demolished in 1937; its tower was reconstructed at Twickenham as part of the new church of All Hallows, which also received its bells and complete interior fittings.
Peter Monamy was an English marine painter who lived between 1681 and 1749.
St Botolph's, Billingsgate was a Church of England parish church in London. Of medieval origin, it was located in the Billingsgate ward of the City of London and destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The following is a timeline of the history of London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom.
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the City of London.