y were required to make returns for the
bills of mortality and of the deaths of freemen. The masters and wardens
had power granted to them to examine clerks as to whether they could
sing the Psalms of David according to the usual tunes used in the parish
churches, and whether they were sufficiently qualified to make their
weekly returns. In 1636 a new charter was granted by Charles I, and
again in 1640, this last charter being that by which the company is now
governed. By this instrument their jurisdiction was extended so as to
include Hackney and the other fifteen out-parishes, and they gained the
right of collecting their own wages, and of suing for it in the
ecclesiastical courts, and of printing the bills of mortality.

Soon after the company lost their hall through the high-handed
proceedings of Sir Robert Chester, they purchased or leased a new hall,
which was situated at the north-east corner of Brode Lane, Vintry, where
they lived from 1562, until the Great Fire in 1666 again made them
homeless. The Sun Tavern in Leadenhall Street, the Green Dragon,
Queenhythe, the Quest House, Cripplegate, the Gun, near Aldgate, and the
Mitre in Fenchurch Street, afforded them temporary accommodation. In
1669 they began to arrange for a new hall to be built off Wood Street,
which was completed in 1671, and has since been their home. Various sums
of money have been voted at different times for its repair or
embellishment. It has once been damaged by fire, and on another occasion
severely threatened. In 1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked
up and the entrance into Silver Street opened. The hall has been a
favourite place of meeting for several other companies--the Fruiterers'
Company, the Tinplate Workers' Company, the Society of Porters, and
other private companies have been their tenants.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM ROPER SON-IN-LAW AND BIOGRAPHER OF
SIR THOMAS MORE, BENEFACTOR OF THE CLERKS' COMPANY]

[Illustration: THE GRANT OF ARMS TO THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS.]

I had recently the privilege of visiting the Parish Clerks' Hall, and
was kindly conducted there by Mr. William John Smith, the "Father" of
the company, and a liberal benefactor, whose portrait hangs in the
hall. He has been three times master, and his father and grandfather
were members of the fraternity.

The premises consist of a ground floor with cellars, which are let for
private purposes, and a first floor with two rooms of moderate si