UK Cigar Scene Magazine October Issue 10 | Page 33

The process of pipe manufacture was also changing.
Originally, wood had been used for firing clay
pipes, but a new process using sea or pit coal came
into use around this time and the monopolists paid
an enormous sum of £40 a year for members of
the Westminster Company to be taught how to fire
pipes using with this new material.
King Charles I re-incorporated the Company in
1634 under the name of the Tobacco-pipe Makers of
London and Westminster and England and Wales,
and the Company thus became a City of London
Company. In 1639 the monopoly over the supply of
pipe clay was ended following a complaint to the
Privy Council. The outbreak of Civil War in 1642
brought difficulties to trades people as well as to
ordinary citizens: in 1643 the Company forfeited its
Charter because of non-payment of annual rent due
to the King and was consequently closed down
With the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660
the Company was re-established and reorganised
by the City of London, and granted with a Royal
Charter of Incorporation in April 1663. However,
there was plenty of competition from tobacco-pipe
makers in other areas of the country including
Bristol and Broseley in Shropshire, which had
produced clay pipes since 1575.

On 24 March 1954, prominent members of the
Briar Pipe and Tobacco Trades met to revive the
old Company. A constitution was drawn up and,
breaking with past tradition by the inclusion of the
wider tobacco trade, the name was changed to the
“Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and
Tobacco Blenders”. A Master, four Wardens, twenty
Assistants and a Clerk were appointed. Meetings
were held each quarter (as they continue to be
today), observing the same days as the original
Company.
In 1956, a new Grant of Arms was designed by the
College of Arms, retaining old Company’s motto
“Producat Terra” (Out of the Earth). In January
1960 a plea for Livery was presented to the Court of
Aldermen, which was accepted in December of that
year.
Although the company is now one of the Modern
Livery Companies of the City of London, it is
proud of its heritage and four hundred years of
history. The company has an active and friendly
membership and strives to combine its charitable
undertakings with a full and enjoyable calendar of
events - and, where possible, a full pipe!

By the 1800s there were no more than 200 “citizen”
pipe makers in London, many of whom were
extremely poor and often lacking in education,
and only around half of these were Freemen of the
Company.
As a result, the Company’s income - derived from
quarterage and apprenticeships - was very low:
no more than £180 in 1826 and £64 in 1844. The
Company had no Hall (it hired a room at Guildhall
for meetings), it had few possessions (unlike
larger Companies) and suffered further from the
changes in smoking habits in the late 18th and 19th
centuries, with cigars and later cigarettes becoming
popular.
In 1856, an Act of Common Council abolished the
laws and customs that prohibited non-Freemen
from trading in the City of London. This effectively
cut off the Company's income and resulted in its
extinction in 1868.

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