Hi Marg My great grandfather who moved to London and set up as an accountant became a Freeman in 1896, so I was interested to find out how this had happened. I guess you can read the record on Ancestry. There was a point when admission to the Freedom of the City was necessary to permit people to practice their trade and earn a living but by the late 1800s, this was no longer required. Only a few distinguished and worthy individuals are granted the Honorary Freedom and my great grandfather wasn't up there alongside Churchill or Florence Nightingale. If you completed an apprenticeship of at least 4 years (after 1889, 7 years before that) to a City Freeman you became a Freeman by Servitude. To become a Freeman by redemption (purchase) you could either petition the Court of Aldermen if going through a City Livery Company (such as the Goldsmiths or the Feltmakers) or petition the Court of Common Council if no Livery Company was involved. In your John Walter STEAD's case, it looks as if he might have gone through a Livery Company. The Livery Company involved does not always seem to be relevant to the Freeman's actual occupation as I doubt a solicitor would be involved in making hats. A child of a Freeman could become one by Patrimony, as long as they had been born after the father (until the 1970s) was admitted as a Freeman. For this reason, my own grandfather followed the redemption route too, although two great uncles did become Freemen by Servitude. I'm not sure what the benefits were by the late 1800s or early 1900s, although the prospect of your offspring attending the City of London School might have been one of them. I think a vote in the City as well as wherever they lived could also have resulted. Hope this helps Regards Anne Harley Message: 6 Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:40:10 -0700 From: "Margaret Cambridge" <talktomarg@shaw.ca> Subject: [YORKSGEN] Freedom of City of London in Company of Feltmakers To: <yorksgen-l@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <E569D6E8F9564036B060A6C64A31E13D@margaret78c408> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hi all, I have a distant relative, John Walter STEAD, born 1858, Wakefield, (2nd cousin twice removed) who in 1917 was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London by Redemption in the Company of Feltmakers. Would 'Redemption' mean that his membership would be reviewed periodically? John was a solicitor, .....J. W. Stead & Jobbings in Leeds. Thank you for any thoughts.............. Marg >From the Beautiful British Columbia Cariboo Region, Canada ------------------------------ To contact the YORKSGEN list administrator, send an email to YORKSGEN-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the YORKSGEN mailing list, send an email to YORKSGEN@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to YORKSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of YORKSGEN Digest, Vol 7, Issue 297 ****************************************

Many thanks to Anne and June. Gives me lots to look in to. Marg >From the Beautiful British Columbia Cariboo Region, Canada From: "Anne Harley" <Anne@eborel.co.uk> To: <yorksgen@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 10:32 AM Subject: [YORKSGEN] Freedom of City of London in Company of Feltmakers Hi Marg My great grandfather who moved to London and set up as an accountant became a Freeman in 1896, so I was interested to find out how this had happened. I guess you can read the record on Ancestry. There was a point when admission to the Freedom of the City was necessary to permit people to practice their trade and earn a living but by the late 1800s, this was no longer required. Only a few distinguished and worthy individuals are granted the Honorary Freedom and my great grandfather wasn't up there alongside Churchill or Florence Nightingale. If you completed an apprenticeship of at least 4 years (after 1889, 7 years before that) to a City Freeman you became a Freeman by Servitude. To become a Freeman by redemption (purchase) you could either petition the Court of Aldermen if going through a City Livery Company (such as the Goldsmiths or the Feltmakers) or petition the Court of Common Council if no Livery Company was involved. In your John Walter STEAD's case, it looks as if he might have gone through a Livery Company. The Livery Company involved does not always seem to be relevant to the Freeman's actual occupation as I doubt a solicitor would be involved in making hats. A child of a Freeman could become one by Patrimony, as long as they had been born after the father (until the 1970s) was admitted as a Freeman. For this reason, my own grandfather followed the redemption route too, although two great uncles did become Freemen by Servitude. I'm not sure what the benefits were by the late 1800s or early 1900s, although the prospect of your offspring attending the City of London School might have been one of them. I think a vote in the City as well as wherever they lived could also have resulted. Hope this helps Regards Anne Harley From: "June Parker" <juneparker142@hotmail.com> Subject: [YORKSGEN] Freemen The Guild of Freemen of London have a websitewww.guild-freemen-london.co.uk London is now the only place you can buy the Freedom. It was stopped in other towns and cities in 1835 through the Corporation Act. In December 2009 an act of partliment changed the rules once more, admitting women (many places were men only) Letting you go through the maternal line and it didn't matter if you were born before or after the person you were claiming through. Hope that helps. June Gild of Freemen www.freemenofyork.org