Page:An Historical Essay on the Livery Companies of London.djvu/34

 one William Wysman, a Freeman of the Coursers (Horsedealers), as one who followed their calling, was withdrawn by the Mayor, Alderman, and Chamberlain on the ground that the said William was at that time and before and since of the Craft of the Cutlers, and not of the said trade of Coursers.

John Stowe, in his interesting work, says: — ""Peace be within thy Walls, and plenteousness within thy Palaces. Concerning this Company of Cutlers, I find them to be of great antiquity, and that they were incorporated in the beginning of the Reign of Henry V, afterwards confirmed by King Henry VI, King Henry VIII, King Philip and Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, and King James in his 5th year, 8th of February, confirmed all. The Arms of the Cutlers of London were granted by Thomas Holme Clarencieux, King of Arms, the 16th of Edward 4th, the Crest by Robert Coote Clarencieux, which is an Elephant bearing a Castle.""

A further extract from Stowe says—

""Knives, for hundreds of years past all memory, were made in this Kingdom, but coarse and uncomely. But in the time of James I the best and finest knives in the world were made in London. Richard Matthew at Fleet Bridge was the first Englishman that attained to the skill of making fine knives and knife hafts, and in the 5th of Elizabeth he obtained a prohibition against all strangers and others from bringing any knives into England from beyond Seas, which until that time were brought in by ship loads from Flanders and other places. The same Richard Matthew also obtained a privilege under the Great Seal for the making of Knives and Daggers with a new kind of Haft. But this was much complained of as tending to the decay and overthrow of the whole Company of Cutlers within the City, and their Wives and Children and Apprentices, and that the prices of Knives would be excessively enhanced, and so prejudicial to all the Queen's subjects.""

Maitland in his History of London (1750) says of the Cutlers' Company:—

"Cutlers (18). This Society was incorporated