xlv Preface. 



reason for believing that the Company, from 

 a very early period of their existence, kept 

 a transcript of their proceedings, their Order 

 Books, or Minute Books, have not been pre- 

 served from a date earlier than 1605. In the 

 Company's Inventory of the year 1721 there is 

 mentioned an Order Book of the year 1416, but 

 this has also since .been lost.^ Their records have, 

 however, been preserved without Interruption 

 from the date named, 1605, and we are so far 

 fortunate, Inasmuch as the history of the Sad- 

 dlers' Company, like that of the London Livery 

 Companies generally, is of the greatest Interest 

 during the seventeenth century. This circum- 

 stance, however, compelled recourse to other 

 sources of Information, but it must be admitted 

 that the outside source to which the writer Is 

 most Indebted Is the early Letter Books and 

 Journals of the Corporation of the City of 

 London. 



To say that the Saddlers' Company Is the most 

 ancient of existing Livery Companies Is to make 

 an assertion which can be supported by evidence 

 of a strong character deduced from ancient docu- 

 ments still extant, alluded to on pages 3 et seq. 



No other Company can point to evidence 



^ Probably in either of the two fires in the early part of the 

 present century, one of which partially, and the other com- 

 pletely, destroyed the Hall. 



