The Royal Charter of Incorporation of the Company of Merchant Taylors of the City of York was issued by King Charles II on 26th April 1662 but the company traces its origins back to the three medieval guilds of tailors, drapers and hosiers. Although tailors appear in the City's Freemen from 1273, the earliest references to guild organisation are the ordinances and register of members dating from 1387 and entered in the city's memorandum book among the City Archives.
The Company had no coat of arms of its own until the Arms granted to the Company in 1963.....
In 1273, the Taylors are first mentioned in the Freemen's rolls when they are described as .......
In medieval days, the taylors were closely associated with the religious and charitable confraternity of St John the Baptist....
The Company was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1453 and received the right to hold property and to be administered by a master and four wardens...
The earliest surviving Apprentice Register begins in 1605 and shows that during the following four years ...
When in 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act formally removed all guild restrictions on industrial activity, the Merchant Taylors of York...
The Merchant Taylors of York – a history of the craft and company from the fourteenth to twentieth centuries is the most recent publication...
The Company’s ancient Archives are held on loan at the Borthwick Institute in York and are available for inspection upon request….