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The Worshipful Company of Grocers

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The Worshipful Company of Grocers, who rank second of the City Livery Companies was originally known as The Guildš of Pepperers whose earliest records date from 1180. The Company was formed as a religious and social fraternity of merchants and moneyers trading in spices, gold and other luxury goods from Byzantium and the Mediterranean, often using pepper as a form of currency (hence the saying ‘peppercorn rent’). These merchants formed a community centred on the Church which they built in Soper Lane (now Queen Street) and dedicated to St. Antonin. Later they became more involved in the import and export of all kinds of goods which they bought and sold ‘in gross’ and in 1376 changed the name if their guild to The Company of Grossers of London. Later still the shopkeepers who retailed the goods bought from the wholesale ‘grossers’, took on the name of grocers with the meaning we associate with it today. Over the centuries the Company has lost its close connections with the import and trade of goods, its former function of controlling weights and measures in the Port of London having been taken over since the Great Fire of 1666 by H.M. Customs and Excise. In the twentieth century the Company, along with the other Livery Companies, continues to play its part in the daily life of the City and in the election of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs.

A Brief History

The Pepperers were recognised as general traders who bought and sold all kinds of merchandise. They were officially connected with the duty of weighing in the City and together with the Ropers and Apothecaries they nominated the officer to have charge of the King’s Beam. This beam weighed by "aver-de-pois" weight or "peso grosso" the scale by which all heavy goods were weighed in the Port of London. They also were armed with special powers for garbling or cleansing spices, drugs and kindred commodities, and for that purpose they had access to shops and warehouses. These powers were exercised by their successors the Grocers until the close of the seventeenth century, when they were no longer deemed necessary, and abolished by Parliament.

In 1426 The Grocers’ Company acquired the site on which the present Hall stands for the sum of Ł213 6s. 8d. The foundation stone of the first Hall was laid on the 8th May, 1427, and by 5th February in the following year the building was sufficiently advanced for the members to dine together in the Hall for the first time.

The Company has played an important political role within the City throughout history. In the War of the Roses, the City took the Yorkist side, and two Grocers, John Young and John Crosby, were knighted by Edward IV for services in the field.

The Company can also claim a share in the work of the Reformation for Richard Grafton, a member, printed the Great Bible, the first English translation placed in churches by the King’s order, and the two Prayer Books of Edward VI. The Company also played a part in the restoration of Charles II, General Monck being entertained to a banquet at Grocers’ Hall when the freedom of the City and the Company was conferred upon him, while the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Alleyn, who welcomed the King on his return, was a member of the Company.

šThe Guilds of London, now usually called the City Livery Companies, derive their name from the Anglo-Saxon Gildan "to pay". They were voluntary associations formed originally for mutual protection, with religious, benevolent and social elements. Each was centered round a trade or craft and this arrangement was helped by the fact that the members of particular trades and crafts in London were located in the same area. As they grew in wealth and power the trade element became even more important than the religious one and these fraternities developed a dominating influence in the regulation of trade and in the government of the City. They have been described as "the rock upon which the life of the City was built, and largely responsible for shaping the destiny of British commerce and enlarging the prestige of the City".