Company history

The Company's name has become misleading, as its prime aim has always been to promote assistance to the visually impaired.

It just so happened that at the time of its foundation the only known practical way of doing so was to provide sufferers with a pair of spectacles.

The origins of the craft of spectacle making are lost in the mists of time. No one knows for certain who first adapted lenses to assist vision. Most clues suggest that they first appeared in Europe in Italy towards the end of the thirteenth century. Although spectacle-making was not cited in the list of trades pursued in London as recorded by the Brewers' Company in 1422, a pair of bone riveted spectacles was recovered during the course of excavations of a medieval refuse dump behind an old riverside wall at Trig Lane (EC4) in 1974. They have been dated to circa 1440.

The Trig Lane spectacles are similar in form to those depicted in continental paintings, and may have been imported from the Low Countries. It is recorded that in 1480 a significant quantity of spectacles were shipped from Holland to London, and a pair of bone rivet spectacles were found by an archaeologist working at Bergen op Zoom in 2001. It may well be, therefore, that those in Trig Lane were made by a spectacle maker from the Low Countries working in London, where the earliest recorded spectacle maker is one Paul van der Bessen of "Southwerk", who was active in 1458/59. It can be no coincidence that his name suggests that he was a recent Dutch immigrant for, well into the seventeenth century, the Dutch were regarded as the leading producers in this field.

Having acquired their Charter, the Spectacle Makers of London quickly set about discharging the duty it imposed on them to "make laws, statutes, decrees, ordinances and constitution for the good rule" of the fellowship and its craft, within "our Realm of England"¹, and then enforcing them. So single-minded were they that they did not actually seek a grant of livery until 1809. Until that time, members of the Company were restricted to the grade of freeman.

Control was exercised by search. Officers of the Company would visit a shop and, if the wares were not up to standard laid down by the Company, they would take action against the miscreant in the Lord Mayor's Court. If they proved their case there, the glasses would then be taken out and broken on London Stone. Thus a minute of 1671 records that:

" ...two and twenty dozen of English spectacles, all very badd both in the glasse and frames not fitt to be put on sale... were seized and taken away by the Master and the Wardens by vertue of the Charter of this Company and the Lord Maior's Warrant and carryed to Guildhall and there in the Maior's Court by a jury were found badd and deceitful and by judgement of the Court condemned to be broken, defaced and spoyled both glasse and frame the which judgement was executed accordingly in Canning Street on the remayning parte of London Stone where the same were with a hammer broken all in pieces."

Ironically, just as the Company was establishing its control of its craft², several developments were getting under way which were to undermine not only its position, but that of all the other London livery companies, by rendering their antiquated working practices, restrictions and regulations unworkable. Adam Smith began the process of discrediting the old traditions of monopoly companies and guilds working as cartels in the middle of the eighteenth century, although it was not until after the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars that his ideas really sparked the clamour for free markets and free trade. In the meantime, London's role in the national economy had been brought into question by the early signs of industrialization and mass manufacture.

It was not so much the case that much of the technological changes and product innovations were taking place in the Midlands and the North, but that the character of its own industrial base underwent a profound change. London of course remained the largest and wealthiest urban settlement in the country, but the concomitant of that was that both its labour and land costs were higher than elsewhere and, crucially, the raw materials had to be transported in, making them more expensive. Thus London had to specialize in products with a greater value added content, and keep finding newer and more sophisticated ones, often copied from abroad, while existing products, and the techniques used to produce them, were readily copied by those working outside London for lower wages and with lower costs. At the same time, the service sector began to play an ever-increasing role within its internal economy, and not least finance and shipping.

Other factors undermining the livery companies' traditional methods of control were the growth of the printing industry and the rise in literacy rates, which together opened up an alternative way of learning to the traditional apprenticeship system, and thereby threatened the companies' ability to decide who could and could not be admitted to their crafts. Knowledge ceased to be the preserve of the privileged few, but could be gleaned from textbooks and instructional manuals. No longer therefore did the young aspirant to the craft have to learn on "the monkey see, monkey do" principle; he could teach himself.

As the eighteenth century progressed, therefore, the Master Spectacle Maker of London and his Court of Assistants became increasingly powerless to direct and control the craft of spectacle making. Simultaneously, advances in medical knowledge and science were beginning to offer other ways of correcting visual impairment.

It is sadly a matter of record that the leaders of the Spectacle Makers' Company failed to rise to the challenges that these developments posed to the Company. Had they done so, it is conceivable that the WCSM could have played a much more influential role in shaping the modern British optical professions and industry. The fact is, however, that they proved either unable or unwilling to recognize the forces now at work and, for a long time, the Company became an irrelevance to its craft, although individual members continued to make their mark (and see below). In 1752, membership of the Company was thrown open to all-comers, with some interesting results, whilst the Court gradually immersed itself in City politics – and to a surprisingly successful degree (see The Company today page and The Shrievalty, below).

The growing frustration with the WCSM's apparent preoccupation with anything other than optics eventually prompted the foundation of the British Optical Association (BOA) in 1895 but, ironically, by that time parliamentary attacks on the perceived "privileges" of the London livery companies had prompted a general resurgence of interest in, and concern for their traditional crafts, and in 1897 the Company introduced its own examination for opticians. These were first held in November 1898, and examinations for sight testing were added in 1904. The Company also encouraged the study of optics through evening classes at the Northampton Polytechnic (now The City University), and paid the salary of the lecturer in visual optics. Separate examinations for dispensing opticians followed in 1956.

During the first half of the Twentieth Century, any person could practise as an optician, but it gradually became the norm to sit the examinations of either the BOA or the WCSM first. These examining bodies remained to the fore of those seeking to raise the standards of professional education and conduct until that role was passed to the General Optical Council. This was established by the Opticians Act of 1958 to regulate the professions of both ophthalmic and dispensing opticians. Thenceforth no optician could practise unless registered to do so by the Council. Success in the WCSM's examinations was one method of securing such registration until, in 1979, the Company joined forces with the BOA and the Scottish Association of Opticians to found the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (now the College of Optometrists) as the single examining body for ophthalmic opticians (nowadays termed "optometrists").

Following the launch of the College, the BOA's and the Company's attention focused on their dispensing members, and in 1980 they set up the independent Faculty of Dispensing Opticians. This was never intended to be anything other than a stop-gap and, in due course, negotiations with the Association of Dispensing Opticians led to the establishment of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) in 1986.

The Shrievalty

This year's contested Shrieval election prompted an enquiry as to how many Spectacle Makers had once held an office which predates that of the Lord Mayor, whose first appearance in the history books does not come until 1189.

The Anglo-Saxon “Shire Reeve” was the King’s representative in the Shire, and was responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing the law: hence today’s Sheriffs reside in the Old Bailey, and have as their principal responsibility the welfare of Her Majesty’s Justices. The City of London acquired the right to elect its own Sheriffs from King Stephen in 1141, and until 1888 they acted as the Sheriffs of Middlesex as well.

It has previously been noted in this journal (March 2006) that the first Spectacle Maker to hold this office was Alderman James Harmer in 1833-34. However, more recent research suggests that he was preceded by Lawrence Gwynne, “Royal Mathematical Master at Christ’s Hospital”, who became Free of the Company on 22nd March 1803, and took the Livery on 25th June 1818, a few months before assuming office as Sheriff. After Harmer came:

Alderman John Lainson	1835 - 1836
James Duke (Alderman 1840; Lord Mayor 1848)	1836 - 1837
John Johnson (Alderman 1839; Lord Mayor 1845)	1836 - 1837
George Carroll (Alderman 1839; Lord Mayor 1846)	1837 - 1838
Alexander Rogers	1841 - 1842
Charles Hill	1847 - 1848
Donald Nicoll	1849 - 1850
George Edmund Hodgkinson	1850 - 1851
Richard Swift	1851 - 1852
Alexander Angus Croll	1852 - 1853
George Appleton Wallis	1853 - 1854
Alderman William Alexander Anderson Rose (Lord Mayor 1862)	1855 - 1856
Alderman Benjamin Samuel Phillips (Lord Mayor 1865)	1859 - 1860
Andrew Lusk (Alderman 1863; Lord Mayor 1873)	1860 - 1861
George Joseph Cockerell	1861 - 1862
William Holme Twentyman	1861 - 1862
Hugh Jones	1862 - 1863
Thomas Cave	1863 - 1864
Alderman Thomas Dakin (Lord Mayor 1870	1864 - 1865
Francis Lycett	1866 - 1867
Alderman David Henry Stone (Lord Mayor 1874)	1867 - 1868
William McArthur (Alderman 1872; Lord Mayor 1880)	1867 - 1868
John Bennett (from Oct 1871; elected but rejected as Alderman 1877)	1871 - 1872
Alderman Henry Edmund Knight (Lord Mayor 1882)	1875 - 1876
Alderman George Swan Nottage (Lord Mayor 1884, died in office)	1877 - 1878
Alderman Robert Nicholas Fowler (Lord Mayor 1883 & 1885)	1880 - 1881
Polydore de Keyser (Alderman 1882; Lord Mayor 1887)	1882 - 1883
George Faudel Phillips (Alderman 1888; Lord Mayor 1896)	1884 - 1885
Thomas Clarke	1885 - 1886
Horatio David Davies (Alderman 1889; Lord Mayor 1897)	1887 - 1888
Alderman Joseph Renals (Lord Mayor 1894)	1892 - 1893
Alderman Marcus Samuel (Lord Mayor 1902)	1894 - 1895
Alfred James Reynolds	1903 - 1904
Ralph Slazenger	1909 - 1910
Alderman Isadore Nathan Jacobs (to Oct 1933)	1933 - 1934
William Henry Champness	1937 - 1938
Alderman Bracewell-Smith	1943 - 1944
Alderman Frederick Alfred Hoare (Lord Mayor 1961)	1956 - 1957

To complete the record, mention should be made of those Sheriffs for whom the WCSM was not the “mother company”, but who were nevertheless still members of it at the time that they held office:

William Cubitt [FISHMONGER] (Alderman 1851, Lord Mayor 1860)	1847 - 1848
Alderman Reginald Hanson [MERCHANT TAYLOR] (Lord Mayor 1886, Master 1899)	1880 - 1881
Alfred Kirby [FAN MAKER]	1886 - 1887
Alfred James Newton [FAN MAKER] (Alderman 1890 Lord Mayor 1899)	1888 - 1889
William Farmer [HABERDASHER]	1890 - 1891
Harry Seymour Foster [WHEELWRIGHT]	1891 - 1892
Thomas Robert Dewar [SHIPWRIGHT]	1897 - 1898
Alderman John Charles Bell [FAN MAKER] (Alderman 1894, Lord Mayor 1907)	1901 - 1902
Horace Brooks Marshall [STATIONER] (Alderman 1909, Lord Mayor 1918, Master 1918-1920)	1901 - 1902
William Henry Dunn [WHEELWRIGHT] (Alderman 1909, Lord Mayor 1916)	1906 - 1907
Charles Cheers Wakefield [HABERDASHER] (Alderman 1908, Lord Mayor 1915, Master 1920 + 1924-26)	1907 - 1908
Alderman James Roll [HORNER] (Alderman 1910, Lord Mayor 1920)	1909 - 1910
Alfred Louis Bower [VINTNER] (Alderman 1918, Lord Mayor 1924)	1912 - 1913
William George Coxen [CORDWAINER] (Alderman 1931, Lord Mayor 1939, Master 1938 – 1943)	1928 - 1929
Alderman George James Cullum Welch [HABERDASHER] (Lord Mayor 1956)	1950 - 1951

Unfortunately, the WCSM cannot “claim” Francis Graham Moon [STATIONER] (Sheriff 1843-1844) as he did not join our Livery until he had become Lord Mayor (Elect) in 1854, nor Alderman Frank Newson-Smith [TURNER] (Sheriff 1939 – 1940) who joined during his Mayoralty in 1944). The latter of course served as Master of the WCSM from 1947 to 1949, and is the grandfather of Past Master The Venerable John Morrison.

Nevertheless, it is easy to see from these lists why some of the “rank and file” of the Company became so disillusioned with the Court’s neglect of the Craft that in 1895 many of them helped to establish the British Optical Association! One can only be surprised that they had not acted sooner! Mind you, by all accounts the “optical” element of the membership was a minority by this stage in the Company’s history. As recorded in the October 2007 edition of this journal the Company had long since taken the decision to offer membership of the Company as the licence to trade in London to some very famous names, and by the 1850s it was filling up with MPs, industrialists and bankers, such as Rothschild and Baring – but that is for a future article.

¹ These "Ordinances" did not come into effect until 30th October 1630. An Act of Parliament "holden at Westminster the five and twentieth Day of January in the nineteenth year of the reign of the late King of famous memory Henry after conquest the seventh", had ordained that any bye-laws made in exercise of powers conferred by a royal charter had to be approved by the King's Justices before they could be brought into use – hence the delay between May 1629 and October 1630.

² In keeping with the increasing sophistication of manufacturing within London, many of the eighteenth & early nineteenth century spectacle makers also devoted much of their time, energy and skills to the manufacture of scientific instruments. The trade card of James Ayscough, for example, who was Master in 1752, boasted that he not only made "spectacles and reading glasses", but also "Refracting telescopes of various lengths, some of which are particularly adapted to use at sea", "Camera Obscura's for delineating landskips and prospects", "optical machines for viewing Perspective Prints", "Barometers, Diagonal, Standard, or Portable", Hygrometers and Hydrometers, Quadrants, Globes, Cases of Drawing Instruments, Parallel Rulers and all sorts of Mathematical Instruments". It is probable therefore, that the Spectacle Makers of London provided much of the technical equipment that the Royal Navy used to defeat the French Navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. There is a portrait of Nelson's second-in-command at Trafalgar, Admiral Collingwood, holding what is almost certainly a Dollond telescope. Peter Dollond was Master of the Company from 1774 to 1781, then again in 1797-8 and 1801-02.