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History of The Company of Watermen and Lightermen

of the River Thames

 

 

Contents

 

 

1

Origins and Progress

7

Doggett’s Coat and Badge

2

The Company’s Role Today

8

Possessions

3

The Court and Freemen

9

Some Eminent Freemen

4

The Hall

10

The Lord Mayor

5

The Arms       

11

Conclusion

6

The Charities

12

Links

 

Origins and Progress

 

From ancient times the Thames has been a main highway for moving people and goods from the Estuary to London and beyond.  The use of ferries was the only link across the river before the building of the first London Bridge by the Romans.  This was the first blow to the watermen’s profession.  The flow of water through the arches created a weir effect that made navigation particularly hazardous.  Use was made of the tide to achieve remarkable journey times between Gravesend and upriver destinations.  Evidence of the River’s importance was provided by Stow, who in his survey of London of 1598, related that forty thousand men earned a living on or about the river.  Parliament had already found it necessary to introduce some form of control, and through an Act of 1514 fares on the Thames were regulated.

 

The watermen, who carried passengers, however continued to act independently, and an Act of 1555 appointed Rulers of all watermen and wherrymen working between Gravesend and Windsor.  Thus the Company was born.  Its history may be studied through successive Acts of Parliament.  The Act of 1555 also introduced apprenticeship for a term of one year for all boys wishing to learn the watermen’s trade, and this was extended to seven years in 1603 by a further Act.

 

At an early stage in its life the company achieved two marks of distinction.  In 1585 Arms were granted by Queen Elizabeth and, before the end of the century, the Company established a Hall.

 

In 1700 the lightermen, who carried cargo and who hitherto had been members of the Woodmongers Company, succeeded in their petitions to Parliament, and an Act of that year brought them into the Watermen’s Company.  From then on lightermen were bound by the same regulations as applied to watermen.  In succeeding years their numbers grew with the trade of the Port of London, while those of the watermen diminished with the improvement of road transport in the cities of London and Westminster.

 

As the strength of the Royal Navy was built, Thames watermen were key targets for impressment and over the years many thousands of watermen served, particularly in the Napoleonic wars.

 

The Act of 1827 was important, in that for the first time the Company became completely independent and a body corporate with its own seal.  The Watermen’s and Lightermen’s Amendment Act of 1859 consolidated and extended the Company's powers, and it is this Act under which the Company functions today.

 

During the nineteenth century the Company accepted responsibility for fixing fares and appointing plying places, the measurement and registration of boats and barges, and the regulation and control of watermen and lightermen.  However, by the Thames Conservancy Act of 1857 the sphere of the Company’s operation was restricted to eastwards of Teddington Lock and, with the birth of the Port of London Authority in 1908, and its Consolidation Act of 1920, the company lost all its duties with the exception of apprenticeship, admissions to the Freedom and the care of its Charitable Trusts.  Notwithstanding the transfer of responsibilities to the new Port Authority in 1908, it requested the Company continue its examination of applicants for licences as watermen and lightermen, work which it continues today, and has now undertaken for more than four centuries.

 

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The Company’s Role Today

 

The Company’s principal activities are:

 

-         To operate the apprenticeship and licensing regulations for the tidal Thames as agents for the Port of London Authority.

-         To provide training opportunities for apprentices and other young people in watermanship in general, and rowing in particular.

-         To provide almshouse accommodation for aged watermen, lightermen and their widows, and other forms of charitable support.

-         To encourage interest in the use of the River as an environmentally friendly and efficient mode of transport for people and bulk goods.

-         To maintain the Company’s finest traditions and to maintain its place in the life of the City of London.

-         To make the best use of its Hall and other possessions, both for Company purposes and by hiring the Hall to third parties.

 

Lightermen declined rapidly from the early 1960s, largely because of the development of new modes of transport, particularly the container.  However, the River continues to be used for handling bulk goods, including petroleum spirit, aggregates, cement and domestic waste, as well as materials for large capital projects such as the Canary Wharf development and the Jubilee Line construction.

 

There is a thriving passenger boat industry with craft carrying tourists and charter parties on a variety of routes between Greenwich and the Upper River.  New large passenger vessels have been introduced, and the piers are continually being upgraded to provide modern amenities compatible with the investment in high class craft.  With the development of larger and faster vessels the Company has to be prepared continually to ensure that its standards of training are of the highest quality to meet the increasingly stringent navigation regimes.

 

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The Court and Freemen

 

The Company is governed by a Court of Assistants.  This is led by the Master and four Wardens who are elected annually by the Court.  The Company has over 300 Freemen who are either craft owners, or appointed because they have a special connection with the River.  It has some 816 Journeymen Freemen, both men and women who have completed a five-year apprenticeship to a Master involving a rigorous training and assessment programme.  They operate the working commercial craft operating on the tidal River above Lower Hope Point near Gravesend.

 

The Royal Watermen appointed to assist the Sovereign comes from the ranks of the Company’s Freemen.

 

 

The Hall

 

The Hall is first mentioned in the Act of 1603, and in Hollar’s View of the Thames in 1647 it is shown as being the mansion of Cold Harbour but when the Company actually took possession of it from Earl Gilbert is not recorded.  Cold Harbour is situated on the north bank immediately east of the site of Cannon Street Railway Station.  The mansion was completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London and with it almost all the Company’s records.  The Company rebuilt on the same site in 1670 and again in 1721, eventually moving to the present Hall upon its completion in 1780.

 

The architect of the existing hall, William Blackburn, designed a small but beautiful hall in Georgian style, comprising a Court Room, Parlour and offices.  It suffered some bomb damage during the Second World War; repairs were completed in 1951 and ten years later the parlour was greatly enriched and a decorated ceiling introduced.

 

In 1984 a major extension was built which more than doubled the size of the Hall.  This was formally opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra in 1984 and provides a pleasant Freemen’s Room together with office space on the other floors.  The Hall houses the company’s offices and is the venues for most of the functions for Freemen and their guests held throughout the year.  Rooms are available for hire for meetings, presentations, functions and social events.  Details can be obtained from the Hall.

(Telephone: 020 7283 2373, Fax: 020 7283 0477)

 

 

The Arms

 

The Arms Display a boat on six silver and blue wavy bars, and on a chief a pair of crossed oars between two cushions.  The crest is an arm holding an oar upon a wreath of silver and red; the supporters are two dolphins, above the motto “At the Commandment of our Superiors”

 

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The Charities

 

In the Ordinances of 1626 it is related that “poor and impotent freemen” may be granted a pension of 6d a week.  This is the earliest remaining reference to the relief of aged freemen of the Company.  Payments for this purpose were made from time to time, often in consequence of the river freezing over for lengthy periods, and often to maimed freemen returning from the wars.  Regular payments through the “Poor’s Fund” were authorised in the Act of 1700, and the present day pensioners are paid in December.

 

The early Ordinances relate that the Rulers could license freemen to work on Sundays and the extra receipts after the payment of the watermen were placed in a strong box for the relief of the poor.  From time to time the Company received grants from the government to relieve watermen hit hard by unemployment in the great frosts.  The Company also received compensation for the loss of ferries when bridges were built across the river.  Considerable income was derived from the Court’s power to fine freemen for bad behaviour and language.

 

Today payments are made to well over 200 aged freemen or their widows, which are partly financed through weekly contributions made by the freemen.

 

In 1839 Mr John Dudin Brown, a master lighterman, presented the Company with land at Penge and, together with the Court, raised the money to build forty-eight cottages to answer the pressing need of the freemen returning from the Napoleonic Wars, and those made redundant by the building of the docks and the introduction of steam tugs.  These cottages have survived although they are no longer occupied by retired watermen.  In 1973 fifty two new bungalows were built in seven acres of grounds at Hastings.  The new bungalows and a Community Centre were officially opened by HRH Princess Alexandra in 1974.  Her Majesty the Queen has further honoured the Company by transferring her Patronage from the institution at Penge to the new one at Hastings.

 

In 1988 another master lighterman, Mr William Vokins, built twelve cottages at Ditchling, Sussex, and presented them to the Company for similar use.  These are particularly fine almshouses set in the rural atmosphere of the South Downs.

 

In 1961 the court gratefully accepted from a freeman, Dr Philip Henman, a Deed of Trust endowing “after school” education among port transport workers, with particular emphasis upon apprentice watermen and lightermen.  Today the Company’s charity work is in two parts – assisting the young and the old.  The Philip Henman Foundation is continually being developed to provide new opportunities and experience to those under training; general and covenanted donations and legacies provide the income.

 

At the Almshouses, which are run by a warden, the accommodation and community facilities are being continually updated as funds permit.  This ensures that the residents have the benefit of comfortable and modern amenities.

 

 

Doggett’s Coat and Badge

 

This ancient sculling race traditionally is open only to apprentices who have completed their apprenticeship and taken up the Freedom of the Company within the twelve months preceding the day of the race.  However, due to the small number of boys and girls being apprentices each year, it has been decided that unsuccessful competitors may have a second or third attempt in the following years.  The course from London Bridge to Chelsea is four miles and five furlongs, and the prize of the orange-red coat and the silver badge is much treasured by freemen of the Company.  The “wager” has been rowed every year since its inception in 1715 and Thomas Doggett, the Irish comedian who founded it to celebrate the anniversary of the accession of the House of Hanover to the throne of England, can hardly have expected it to continue for so long.  It is now claimed to be the oldest annual sporting event in the world.

List of Doggetts Winners

 

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Possessions

 

The Company is particularly fortunate for the numerous articles it possesses reflecting its history and life on the Thames.  It has a small but select collection of silver, of which the “Bachelor’s Bowl” (1695) and the “Great Tankard” (1717) are the oldest pieces.  For a period of 165 years the Bowl was used by aged widows of the Freemen of the Company at every Court of Admissions to the Freedom.  The old lady filled the Bowl with ale and gave each young freeman a draught as he left the Court Room, in return for which he handed her a shilling.

 

Of modern silver the standing salt cellar presented by Mr Charles Alexander, a freeman, commemorating the six brothers and their father, is hallmarked 1953, and the contemporary Beadle’s Staff, presented by Mr D E Layton, a freeman, in 1965, commemorating his family’s 300 year association with the Company, are noteworthy examples.

 

John Taylor the Water Poet, Thomas Mann the Honest Waterman, and the first winner of Doggetts Coat and Badge, are the subjects of three of the Company’s paintings in oil.  Comprehensive collections of prints and books on the River, including the works of John Taylor, are among the many benefactions of Mr R R Francis, a Past Master of the Company.  Mr Francis bequeathed £5000 to form a fund for the purchase of additions to the Company’s collection of plates and books and other valued possessions connected with the River.

 

Among other interesting articles are naval relics and, in particular, a bone model of a 104 gun ship of the line reputed to be the largest in the world, which was won in a 6d raffle on the London Corn exchange in 1840.

 

A recent addition has been the collection of coats and badges and skiff backboards won by apprentices and freemen in regattas on the river, mainly during the nineteenth century.  This collection is being added to continually and forms a most interesting insight into one of the pastimes of members in those days.

 

Old and interesting documents relating to life on the river are acquired regularly and placed in the Company’s archives.

 

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Some Eminent Freemen

 

John Taylor 1580 – 1653

 

John Taylor’s prolific writings in prose, poetry and doggerel provide a fascinating and entertaining picture of life in this time.  Apprenticed to a Westminster waterman, he was pressed into the navy on seven different occasions, making thirteen voyages in all.  He supported the watermen against the removal of the theatres from the south bank to the north bank and against the introduction of sedan chairs and hackney carriages onto the streets of London.  With the Company he was successful in keeping the carriages from London for 35 years unless the journeys ended at least two miles from the river.  Taylor was well received in most of the royal courts of Europe and was self-styled “Queen Majesty’s Poet”.

 

Jack Broughton 1705 – 1789

 

Jack Broughton won Doggett’s Coat and Badge in 1730 and became a champion prize fighter of England four years later.  He ran his own school of boxing and was the first man to introduce gloves and science into the sport.  He produced his famous code of boxing, which was only superseded by the Marquis of Queensberry’s rules, and was rightly styled the “father of British boxing”.

 

Harry Gosling C.H., J.P., M.P. 1861 – 1930

 

Harry Gosling was born of a well-known Thames family and became prominent in the Trade Union movement.  He was a member of the London County Council for many years and Member of Parliament for Whitechapel.  He became Minister of Transport in 1924.

 

Ernest Barry 1882 – 1968

 

In his youth Ernest Barry was perhaps the finest sculler ever apprenticed.  He held the English sculling championship between 1908 and 1914 and was champion of the world on five occasions between 1912 and 1920.

 

The 1st Viscount Leathers of Purfleet P.C., C.H. 1883 – 1965

Among his many other distinctions Lord Leathers was perhaps known for his work as Minster for War Transport during the Second World War.

 

Sir Alan Herbert 1890 – 1971

 

Sir Alan Herbert and his “Water Gypsy” were well known to users of the River and the initials “APH” are as familiar to lovers of the Thames as they are often quoted in the literary and theatre worlds.

 

 

The Lord Mayor

 

The Company is proud to have had six Lord Mayors of London numbered among its freemen: Matthias Prime Lucas, elected in 1827; Sir Rupert De la Bere, Bt. KCVO, elected in 1952 and Sir Lionel Denny G.B.E. M.C. J.P. elected in 1965.  Air Commodore the Honourable Peter Vanneck G.B.E. A.F.C. D.L. was admitted in 1978 during his mayoralty and Sir Christopher Lever, G.B.E. DMus was elected in 1981 and was later admitted to the Freedom of the Company on 15 October 1986.  Sir Roger Cork was Lord Mayor in 1996/7 and has recently been admitted to the Freedom.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The Company today seeks to maintain its traditions in a changing world, whilst ensuring that the best training is given to its young people to meet the high standards of watermanship required today.  The Hall continues to be the focus and meeting point for Freemen.  The Watermen’s toast continues to be “Master, Wardens and Gentlemen…I give you the Toast to the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames, root and branch.  May it continue to flourish forever.”

 

Links

 

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List of Doggetts Winners  List of Clerks

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