Minute Books of Hospital/Guild Courts and Committees (MC)

A page of minutes from the Grand Committee Minutes of St Thomas's Hospital, dated 12 September 1780. The minutes relate primarily to business regarding the hospital's property holdings. St Thomas's Hospital, Committee Minutes, 1779-1800, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. H01/ST/A/006/007, LL ref: LMTHMC552050056.

Contents of this Article

Introduction

Institutions such as hospitals and guilds were run by bodies of governors or officers known as Courts, with some business delegated to Committees. The minutes of these bodies can often be terse and formulaic, but they provide valuable evidence not only of institutional governance and the management of assets, but also of policies concerning the provision of charity and medical care.

St Thomas's Hospital

The Grand Committee of the Court of Governors of St Thomas's Hospital dealt with a variety of business, primarily the administration of the hospital's properties and estates, leases, and rentals; the holding of manor courts; the appointment and discipline of hospital officers; and the regulation and discipline of medical students.

During the seventeenth century, increases in both the volume of business and numbers of governors attending the General Court of Governors (MG) necessitated the delegation of routine work to a new committee known as the Grand Committee. Minutes survive for the years 1634-1746 and 1779-1948. Early volumes contain a mixture of Grand Committee minutes and those from the sub-committee overseeing the rebuilding of the hospital.

Carpenters' Company

The Carpenters' Company was governed by a Court of Assistants, which met regularly. Members of the Court, who are listed at the top of the minutes of every meeting, were the master of the Company, the wardens, and assistants. The Court's business consisted largely of appointing Company officers; regulating apprenticeship and admittance to the freedom and livery of the Company; distributing charity to company members; receiving dues; and administering the Company's portfolio of properties. Specifically, entries in the minutes frequently include:

A page of minutes from the Court of Assistants, dated 6 September 1737. The business of the meeting is almost exclusively concerned with apprenticeship. Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1737-57, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/17, LL ref: GLCCMC251060009.
  • Details on the election of the master and wardens, with those who refused to serve recorded as paying a fine instead.
  • Names of apprentices bound to members of the Company, with information on the name, origin, and occupation of the father; the name of the master; and the amount of any premium, or consideration, paid.
  • Records of the transfer of apprentices from one master to another when a master died or the indenture was dissolved.
  • Names of men who were made free of the Company, and the basis on which freedom was granted (completion of an apprenticeship, patrimony, or redemption).
  • Names of freemen who were nominated to the livery of the company, and records of the substantial fines (and the cost of the clothing) new liverymen were required to pay.
  • Records of the dues ("quarteridge") paid by members of the Company.
  • Decisions on the distribution of charity to company members. Mostly this consists simply of decisions, such as on the 4th of January 1736, "that £50 be distributed amongst the poor members of this Company at ten shillings each on Saturday the 15th- instant at the Hall". But in the earlier books there are lists of pensions paid to the Company pensioners, names of members receiving doles given to the accidental poor and from bequests such as "Mr Pope's gift", and names of Company members admitted to become pensioners.
  • Decisions concerning the management of Company funds, and leases of Company properties.

The content, format, and clarity of the minute books varies considerably over time, depending no doubt largely on the diligence and predispositions of the Company clerk. In the 1720s, for example, the clerk used abbreviations, such as "B" for "bound apprentice" and "Q" for "quarteridge", making the book somewhat difficult to interpret.

Introductory Reading

  • Alford, Bernard W. E. and Barker, Theodore Cardwell. A History of the Carpenters' Company. 1968.
  • Jupp, Edward Basil. An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters. 2nd edn., with suppl. by W.W. Pocock, 1887.
  • Lawrence, Susan C. Charitable Knowledge: Hospital Pupils and Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century London. Cambridge, 1996.
  • McInnes, Eilidh Mary. St Thomas's Hospital, London, and its Archives. Journal of the Society of Archivists, 1 (1959), pp. 277-82.
  • Ridley, Jasper. A History of the Carpenters' Company. 1995.

Online Resources

For further reading on this subject see the London Lives Bibliography.

Documents Included on this Website

  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1732-41, 1685-89, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/10, LL ref: GLCCMC25108, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1691-99, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/11, LL ref: GLCCMC25109, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1699-1710, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/12, LL ref: GLCCMC25110, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1710-22, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/13, LL ref: GLCCMC25111, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1711-15, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/9, LL ref: GLCCMC25112, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1720-27, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/14, LL ref: GLCCMC25104, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1722-37, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/15, LL ref: GLCCMC25105, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1737-57, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/17, LL ref: GLCCMC25106, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1741-49, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/18, LL ref: GLCCMC25107, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1749-57, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/18, LL ref: GLCCMC25100, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1757-86, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/19, LL ref: GLCCMC25101, Tagging Level: D
  • Carpenters’ Company, Minute Book, 1787-1800, Guildhall Library, Ms. 4329/21, LL ref: GLCCMC25102, Tagging Level: D
  • St Thomas's Hospital, Grand Committee Minute Book, 1691-1740, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. H01/ST/A/006/003 pt.1/pt. 2, LL ref: LMTHMC55201, Tagging Level: B
  • St Thomas's Hospital, Grand Committee Minute Book, 1700-05, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. H01/ST/A/006/004, LL ref: LMTHMC55202, Tagging Level: C
  • St Thomas's Hospital, Grand Committee Minute Book, 1705-14, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. H01/ST/A/006/005, LL ref: LMTHMC55203, Tagging Level: C
  • St Thomas's Hospital, Grand Committee Minute Book, 1724-46, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. H01/ST/A/006/006, LL ref: LMTHMC55204, Tagging Level: B
  • St Thomas's Hospital, Committee Minutes, 1779-1800, London Metropolitan Archives, H01/ST/A/006/007, LL ref: LMTHMC55205, Tagging Level: B

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