The searchable database is derived from the List of Freemen of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, 1530-1928, compiled for the company c.1930 and now Guildhall Library Ms 34037/1-4. This contains a handwritten Introduction in the following words:

“This list is copied from the List of Freemen, 1530-1909 [now Guildhall Library Ms 34036/1-12], and has been extended to the end of 1928. A separate list of Honorary Freemen, 1351-1928, has been compiled [this has not been traced], but honorary freemen are included in this list also (described as admitted “by Presentation”).  The sources for these are set out at the beginning of the separate list.

“The list from which this one is copied was compiled from the old Freemen's List, 1530-1909 (2 vols), begun in 1608 [now GL Ms 34035/1-2], and from the other sources set out in the following introductory notes to the later list.

“For the years 1530-1545 and 1557-1562 there are no records of admissions except the old Freemen's List, so the names for those years have not been checked with the original entries.  With these exceptions, the records of admissions are contained in the following volumes.

Admissions to the Freedom
Accounts 1545-1557, 1569-1625.
Minutes of the Ordinary Courts 1562-1648.
Presentment Books 1622-1909.

“The Court minutes and Presentment Books give the full date and, when the admission is by servitude, the name of the master, and when the admission is by patrimony, the father's name.  From the year 1661, the occupation and place of residence of the freeman are usually given. The Accounts give the name of the freeman and, usually, the year only, but sometimes the full date. Freemen described here as admitted “Probably before 1545-6” have been found as presenting apprentices in the volume of Accounts for 1545-1557. In the case of admissions by servitude, the name of the father, with his occupation and place of residence, may be found in the Apprentice Books, which begin in 1583. Each volume contains an index, which in some cases  is in two parts.

Admissions to the Livery
Accounts 1545-157, 1569 onwards. 
Minutes of Courts of Assistants 1562-1654, 1663 onwards.
Livery Roll 1667-1909 [this has been retained by the company].

“The Court minutes give the full date. From the year 1663, the occupation and place of residence are frequently given.  The Accounts give the year only.  The Livery Roll gives the full date, but is very imperfect for some years from 1667.

Admissions to the Court of Assistants 
Minutes of Courts of Assistants, 1562-1654, 1663 onwards.
Livery Roll (this has “C.A.” against many names but no date.)

“The old Freeman's List does not give admissions to the Court and Livery.  There are no records remaining of admissions to the Livery for the years 1530-1545; 1557-1562; and 1660-1663; and none of the admissions to the Court before 1562 and for the years 1654-1663.  Some such admissions have been entered against the names of persons found mentioned as being on the Livery or Court subsequent to these gaps, but the date of admission cannot of course be given.

The dates in this List are given in the original entries, namely in the Old Style, the year beginning on March 25th, until after the year 1751.”

The Great Twelve in order of precedence

The original Index of Freemen consists of 4 volumes in alphabetical order:
A-D,   E-J,  K-R,,  S-Z

The index, and the searchable database, gives the name, date of freedom, method of admission (apprenticeship, patrimony or redemption), name of master if by apprenticeship, date of election to livery, and ‘Remarks’.

The Index 1530-1928 does not standardise the spelling of surnames, but rather gives each one in its original spelling. This means that the same surname can appear in many different forms, and therefore in different places in the alphabetical sequence, depending on the variation in each case. A search for a particular person on the CD therefore involves a certain amount of scrolling up and down the page, looking for variant spellings and possible likely entries in places other than one's starting point. In some instances, such as, for example, Bloggs/Blogges, the variants would appear pretty close to each other; in others, such as Smith/Smyth, they may be some way apart.