Parish Clerks Company

The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks is one of the Guilds of the City of London. It has no livery, because "[i]n the 16th century, the Parish Clerks declined to take the Livery on the grounds that the surplice was older than the Livery and was the proper garb of members of the Company." It is not, therefore, technically a livery company although to all intents and purposes it acts as such. It is one of two such historic companies without livery, the other being the Company of Watermen and Lightermen.

Although they have no place in the order of precedence, which governs only liveried companies, The Master, Wardens, Assistants and Brethren of the Parish Clerks of the Parish Churches of the City and Suburbs of London and the Liberties thereof, the City of Westminster, the borough of Southwark and the fifteen Out-Parishes adjacent, are among the oldest City companies. Individual members held property on behalf of the Fraternity near Bishopsgate in 1274. The Company was incorporated by Letters Patent on 22 January 1441/2. Later Royal Charters, granted by Charles I, dated February 1635/6 and February 1638/9, are kept in the Guildhall Library.

The number of parishes at the time of the 1639 charter was 129, of which 108 were in the City of London. A further twenty one parishes in Middlesex and Surrey within the bills of mortality were added between 1639 and 1825. The Company's 150 parishes are listed below.

All Hallows Barking (Berkyngechurche), All Hallows Bread Street, All Hallows the Great, All Hallows Honey Lane, All Hallows the Less, All Hallows Lombard Street, All Hallows London Wall, All Hallows Staining, Christ Church Newgate Street (Greyfriars), Holy Trinity the Less, St Alban Wood Street, St Alphage London Wall, St Andrew by the Wardrobe, St Andrew Holborn, St Andrew Hubbard, St Andrew Undershaft, St Ann Blackfriars, St Ann and St Agnes, St Antholin, St Augustine Watling Street, St Bartholomew by the Exchange, St Bartholomew the Great, St Bartholomew the Less, St Benet Fink, St Benet Gracechurch, St Benet Paul's Wharf, St Benet Sherehog, St Botolph by Billingsgate, St Botolph without Aldersgate, St Botolph without Aldgate, St Botolph without Bishopsgate, St Bride, , St Clement Eastcheap, St Dionis Backchurch, St Dunstan in the East, St Dunstan in the West, St Edmund King and Martyr, St Ethelburga, St Faith under St Paul's, St Gabriel Fenchurch, St George Botolph Lane, St Giles-without-Cripplegate, St Gregory by St Paul's, St Helen Bishopsgate, St James Duke's Place, St James Garlickhithe, St John the Baptist Walbrook, St John the Evangelist Friday Street, St John Zachary, St Katherine Coleman, St Katherine Cree, St Lawrence Jewry, St Lawrence Pountney, St Leonard Eastcheap, St Leonard Foster Lane, St Magnus the Martyr, St Margaret Lothbury, St Margaret Moses, St Margaret, New Fish Street, St Margaret Pattens, St Martin Ludgate, St Martin Orgar, St Martin Outwich, St Martin Pomeroy, St Martin Vintry, St Mary Abchurch, St Mary Aldermanbury, St Mary Aldermary, St Mary at Hill, St Mary Bothaw, St Mary le Bow, St Mary Colechurch, St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, St Mary Mounthaw, St Mary Somerset, St Mary Staining, St Mary Woolchurch, St Mary Woolnoth, St Matthew Friday Street, St Michael Bassishaw, St Michael Cornhill, St Michael Crooked Lane, St Michael Queenhithe, St Michael le Querne, St Michael Paternoster Royal, St Michael Wood Street, St Mildred Bread Street, St Mildred Poultry, St Nicholas Acons, St Nicholas Cole Abbey, St Nicholas Olave, St Olave Hart Street, St Olave Old Jewry, St Olave Silver Street, St Pancras Soper Lane, St Peter Cornhill, St Peter Paul's Wharf, St Peter le Poer, St Peter Westcheap, St Sepulchre, St Stephen Coleman Street, St Stephen Walbrook, St Swithin London Stone, St Thomas Apostle, St Vedast Foster Lane, Bridewell Precinct (extra-parochial place)

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Wikipedia