THE HISTORY OF THE COMPANY

Armed though it was with its Royal Charter, its grant of livery and its brand new Ordinances the Company was not able to withstand the economic and social changes brought about from the middle of the eighteenth century by the Industrial Revolution. Its role in relation to its craft dwindled almost to nothing in the space of little more than a hundred years. The Charter did not require a candidate for the livery to be a working Loriner, and certainly by 1850 the members of the Company were of various occupations. In its evidence given (with great reluctance) in 1881 to the Commission on the City of London Livery Companies the Company stated that it had “no power whatever, either by charter, orders of Court of Aldermen or Common Council, to exercise any control over or regulate the trade”. And yet, at that date, the Company had 438 liverymen, not to mention 1391 freemen. In 1696 the Company had been 185 strong, by the mid nineteenth century numbers had grown to 284 and in 1899 they reached a historic peak of 444. In its evidence to the Commission of the 1880s the Company stated that the advantages of membership were “social, charitable (though elsewhere in the same evidence the Company said that it had no charities), municipal and parliamentary”.

Certainly, at the end of the nineteenth century the Company had the reputation of being very attractive in its social aspects, its hospitality according with the best traditions, as well as of being a great force in the public life of the City.

Many aspirants to civic honours joined the Company, nor (thanks perhaps to its voting strength at Common Hall) were they disappointed. Since 1869 there have been sixteen Loriner Lord Mayors and at least sixty-six Loriner Sheriffs.

The first Loriner Lord Mayor was Sir James Bateman, who translated to the Fishmongers in 1709 in anticipation of the mayoralty which he achieved in 1716 – no doubt for many of the Company’s nineteenth and twentieth century Lord Mayors and Sheriffs the traffic was in the other direction.

In 1932 the Court of Aldermen fixed the number of liverymen permitted to the Company at 500, though this figure has not since then been approached. Since 1989 women have been admitted to the livery.

In the late twentieth century the Company rebuilt its links with the trade and with many aspects of equestrian affairs. Its support of courses in lorinery at Capel Manor College has already been noted. It has published a leaflet on bits and bitting. It has funded veterinary research at Cambridge University. It has promoted British Standards for saddle trees. It has made many donations to the Riding for the Disabled Association, including a project to re-build the stables at Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre, named and opened by The Princess Royal in September 2000. It has given and continues to give prizes for Pony Club competitions and Service equestrian events. It has developed strong relationships with the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, and with the Naval Riding Centre at HMS Dryad. It has made many distinguished men and women, prominent in the world of the horse, Honorary Freemen or Honorary Liverymen – the most notable example being HRH The Princess Royal, Master in 1992. A set of stirrups for the State Coach’s postillion riders were presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during the Golden Jubilee Year of 2002.

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