Title deed relating to property in Bread Street, on or near the site of the Company’s first Hall, 1216. This Latin document is the oldest surviving artifact in the Company archives.
Album of photographs and plans showing Company property and war damage in the City, 1940s. The Company’s former Hall in St. Swithin’s Lane, along with most of its City property, was damaged or destroyed during World War II, but photographs and plans showing the extent of the Company’s London estates survive in the archives.
Petition for assistance to the Company, 1805, relating to the three orphan children of the late Joseph Scarlett, (a Freeman of the Company). There are 2 boxes of petitions for assistance in the archives, dating from the early to late 19th century, which provide a very revealing insight into the lives of the poor, the sick and the bereaved of this period.
THE COMPANY
Archives of The Salters’ Company
Archived material provides a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Company and the City of London. The Salters’ Company archives were created in an effort to keep a written record of all the Company’s activities. The archives can tell us a great deal and would be useful to any Company members or other researchers interested in family, social, economic, political and local history.
Unfortunately, The Company lost many of its archives in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but aside from this, archives have for the most part been successfully maintained by the Company for several hundred years.
Contents of the Archives
Some of the principal surviving archives include the following:
- Title deeds, plans and other property records from 1216
- Charters from 1607
- Records of the Company’s almshouses and other charitable activities from 1609
- Minutes of the Court of Assistants from 1627
- Membership records from 1636
- Accounts from 1659
- Records of various committees reporting to the Court from 1821
- Records of The Salters’ Institute (formerly known as the Salters’ Institute of Industrial Chemistry) from its foundation in 1918 to the 1990s
A catalogue of deeds and related papers of the Company’s estates in England, 1216-1946, can be accessed online via The National Archives’ ‘Access to Archives’ (‘a2a’) website at www.a2a.org.uk.
Accessing the Archives
All the archives are kept at Salters’ Hall, with the exception of the archives of the Company’s former estates in Northern Ireland, which are held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast www.proni.gov.uk.
Research enquiries from both Company members and members of the public are always welcomed.
For further details on the archives and how they can be accessed please contact the Company Archivist, Katie George.
E-mail:
Telephone: 0207 588 5216 ext. 225