THE HISTORY OF THE COMPANY

The Loriner makes and sells bits, bridles, spurs, stirrups, saddle trees and the minor metal items of a horse’s harness.

The word Loriner is derived from the Latin lorum, a thong, bridle or reins, and seems to have entered the English language, from the French, as Lorimer. In the thirteenth century there was a street in the City of London called “la Lorimerie” and the Latin and Norman French documents which feature in the Company’s early history all use the spelling with “m”, as does a complaint in 1511, in English, against the importation of “Frensshe bittes”. The change to the modern spelling with “n” had taken place by the end of the seventeenth century - the explanation that the change was the muddled consequence of many Loriners being Huguenot refugees from Lorraine is not reliable.

The craft has long since disappeared from the City of London. The last working Loriner in London, Mr. Chavasse of St. Martin’s Lane (outside the City), was made an Honorary Freeman of the Company in the late nineteenth century. The craft continues to be taught in London, with the assistance of the Company, at Capel Manor College in Enfield. The national centre of the craft today is mainly in and around Walsall where the Company has in recent years established strong links.

The first documentary evidence of the existence of the Company is provided by its Ordinances, granted in 1261 by the Mayor (Sir William FitzRichard) and other Barons of London, and earlier than those of any other craft (except the Cappers, but they later fell under the control of the Haberdashers). The Ordinances made provisions to ensure good workmanship, arranged conditions of work and required payments to be made to the Commonalty of London and to the alms box of the guild by all those entering the craft. Four wardens were appointed to carry out these regulations - Roger Gernet, Robert de Trippelawe, Richard le Counte and Richard de Chewelle. These are the first Loriners whose names are to be found in the City records. The next are Gregory le Lorimer, who is first mentioned in a document of 1282 and who in 1295 represented the Cripplegate Ward on the body which in the next century developed into the Common Council, and Edmund le Lorimer, who in 1309 obtained a minor, but no doubt lucrative, official appointment in the City, and who in 1313 was one of the four wardens of the guild.

The Loriners, together with the Painters and the Fusters or Joiners, were trades subordinate to the Saddlers, who had been obliged to acquiesce in the formation of these independent organisations but remained hostile to them. In 1320 the Saddlers took advantage of a period of revolution to persuade the Mayor, Hamo de Chigwell, to have the Loriners’ ordinances publicly burned in Cheapside. But no sooner had Chigwell’s mayoralty come to an end, in 1327, than we find the Joiners, the Painters and the Loriners in both iron and copper up in arms against the Saddlers. On Ascension Day in that year there was an affray in Cheapside and Wood Street between the allied crafts and the Saddlers in which several were slain and many wounded. All the contestants were summoned to Guildhall, to explain themselves to the Mayor and Sheriffs.

page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4