- Volume 3 Number 1
- Winter 1986
- American Ethnicity
- Ancient Skinner Lines
- Myrtle S. Bohme Lineage
- Clan MacGregor
- Cook Co., IL Census
- Cook Co., IL Wills
- Thelma C. (Browning) Dalberg Lineage
- Dead Briton - KGB
- Debrett Update
- Elephant two-step
- Guild of One Name Studies
- History of Eugene, Oregon (Chapter 1)
- Letter From the Editor
- Medical Quirks
- miscSKlNNERlaneous
- New Jersey Settlers
- New Jersey Update
- Off Broadway
- Passages
- Queries
- Resources
- Skinner-Hope Family Record
- Jane Skinner Obituary
- John Skinner of Hoodbridge
- Josiah Skinner Will
- Robert Skinner Line
- William Skinner Lineage
- Skinner Variants
- Skinner's a hit
- Vision Quest
- Worshipful Company of Skinners
- Winter 1986
Thanks to William Weiler for transcription of this article.
COMPANY OF SKINNERS
contributed by Frances McKay
Skinners dealt in skins for fur garments. Their role was mainly that of the wholesaler and retailer of furs as well as manufacturer of apparel. Dressing of skins was performed by a separate craft of tawyers which later was absorbed by the Skinners' Company. In the Middle Ages the wearing of furs was rigidly controlled, being allowed only for the adornment of royalty, nobility and persons of wealth and importance. Vestiges of its use as a mark of distinction may still be seen in the fur trimming of mayoral and aldermanic robes and on other ceremonial gowns.
Owing to the importance attached to fur, the Company of Skinners attained a prominent place in civic life at an early date, and was among the first of the incorporated companies of the City (London), having received its first charter on 1st March 1327. It is now numbered among the Great Twelve companies, sharing with the Merchant Taylors the sixth place in order of precedence. One of the most notable of the Company's present-day activities is the governing of the Tonbridge School, founded by a former Skinner in the sixteenth century.
The Armorial Bearings
Ermine on a chief gules three ermine caps tasselled and enfiled with crowns or.
Crest: On a wreath or and gules a lynx statant proper about the neck a wreath leaved vert purfled or.
Mantling: Azure doubled argent.
Supporters: Dexter a lynx proper, sinister a marten sable, about the neck of each a wreath leaved vert.
Mottoes: In Christo fratres; To God only be all glory.
Confirmation of arms and grant of crest and supporters by Thomas Hawley, Clarenceux, 1st October 1550.
The original patent of Hawley's grant has not survived but a full copy exists in the College of Arms and in the British Museum.