The First Charter granted by King Edward IV on 20th January 1473. This document gave licence to three Pewterers (the Master and Wardens at the time), Piers Bishop, William Large and Thomas Langtoft, to found to the honour of God and of the Virgin Mary a fraternity or perpetual Guild of the Master, two Wardens and Commonalty of the Freemen of the Mysteries of Pewterers.
The following Royal Charters were subsequently granted to the Company, most of the originals or facsimiles of them hang on the walls of the Hall: - by Henry VII in 1504, by Henry VIII in 1513, by Philip and Mary in 1555, by Elizabeth I in 1585, by James I in 1606, by Charles I in 1638, by Charles II in 1673, by James II in 1685 and by Queen Anne in 1702.
The Charters gave the Company legal substance and provided a framework for its governance. This was not always straightforward and from time to time the Company’s Charter was revoked by the issue of a Writ of quo warranto or forfeited, most recently under Charles II in 1684. Hopefully, matters are now less complicated.
The new Charter was granted to the Company in February 2016 and came into effect when it was sealed in September 2016.
For more information see Past Master, Rod Kent, article in a recent Pewterers' Review: