The Cockayne Cups

10th May 1602

Wheras there was some difference and question at this Court whether their Worships would accept 130li. towards five standing cups called cocks given by the last will of Mr. William Cockayne, senior, deceased, presently or that they would stay four years to come before the said cups might be made more fairer and bigger, and the matter being put to the scrutiny and election, the most part of their Worships did condescend to stay 4 years as aforesaid, had not some question or doubt been exposed touching the strict performance of the said Mr Cockaine’s wil. Their Worships ordered that the branch of the said (will) touching the said cups should be shewed to Mr. Foster, our Counsellor. To have his opinion therin and that they would proceed in the acceptance of the said cups according to his discretion and counsel.

4th November 1602

At this Court, by consent of the most part their Worships present, it was agreed that it would please Mr. Alderman More and Mr. Peereson to demand of Mr. William Cockayne 130li. lately given by Mr. William Cockayne, his late father, deceased, towards the making of 5 cocks or standing cups of that fashion, for the use of the company, and that the consent of the rest of his brethren should be by him obtained inwriting to this Company under their hands and seals for the deferring of the making of the said cocks to the use aforesaid during the space of four years to come from Midsummer be finished and that there should be 40 li. added to the said sum of 130li. towards the making of the said cocks fair in proportion and weightier in substance.

This matter was not settled, however, for a considerable time. In December, 1602, an acquittance was drawn up and read to the Court and ordered to be sealed, apparently for the £130, the amount provided in Mr Cockayne’s will, but the money was not received then, for in March 1603, it was “by their Worships ordered that the five cocks given by Mr. Cockinge shall be received of Mr. William Cockinge in the cocks and not in money according to Mr. William Cockinge’s will and advice.”

The matter continued to drag on until June. 1606, when acquittance to Mr. William Cockayne, Jnr., was drawn up and, if approved by him, was ordered to be sealed, A copy of the acquittance is entered in the Company’s Register Book of Evidences. It begins as follows: “To all true Christian people to whom this present writing indented shall come, Thomas Fisher, William Burnam, Thomas Middleton, William Towerson, William Stoddard, Master, Wardens and Commonality of the Mistery of Skinners, London, send greeting in our Lord everlasting.”

It then recites the bequest and afterwards continues:

“Know ye now therefore that the said master, wardens and Commonalty, the day of the date of these presents, have received and had of William Cockayne, Citizen and Skinner of London, one of the sons of the said William Cockayne, deceased and sole executor of the last will and testament of the said first named William Cockayne, five fair silver cups gilt every one of them of the fashion of a cock, and weighing in the whole three hundred and forty four ounces quarter and 8 parts of ounce with the said fashion, exceeding the value of the said six score and ten pounds and made and wrought at the proper costs and charges of the said William Cocayne, party to these presents, of which five cups so by them received for and in lieu and stead of the said 130li. and every of them the said Master, Wardens and Commonalty do hereby acquit, exonerate and discharge the said William Cockayne, party to these presents, his executors and administrators And the said Master, Wardens and Commonalty for them and their successors do by these presents covenant, promise, grant and agree to and with the said William Cockayne, his executors and administrators, that they, the said Master, Wardens and Commonalty and their successors, shall and will from time to time herafter use and employ the said five gilt cups to be borne upon the Election Day of Master and Wardens every year before the Wardens of the said Mistery for the election of the said Master and Wardens according to the true intent and meaning of the last will and testament of the said William Cockayne, deceased. In witness wherof &c.”

No date is given in the Register Book for this acquittance, but the Accounts for 1606-7 show the payment of 6s. 8d. for “drawing and engrossing Mr. Cockayne’s covenant and acquittance indented for five cocks”

On their receipt the Company covenanted that “they the Master, Wardens and Commonality and their successors should and would from time to time thereafter use and employ the said five guilt cups to be borne on the Election Day of Master and Wardens every year before the Wardens of the said mistery for the election of the said Master and Wardens according to the true intent and meaning of the last will and testament of the said William Cockayne deceased.”

There seems no reason to doubt they have been used on every Election Day since Monday 8th June 1607 for there is an order under June 19th 1606 which reads, “Five Silver and Guilt Cuppes of the fashion of a Cocke received under the will of Mr. Wm Cockayne to be used for ever at the election of Master and Wardens”. There was prior to William Cockayne death only one cup used for drinking to the new Master and Wardens and it may have been this that prompted William Cockayne to make his gift of five cups to the Company.

Most certainly they were used on Election Day Monday 19th June 1609 when William Cockayne himself, then Alderman of the City, was elected Master of the Company for the first time, but on the third occasion that he was elected Master, which was on Tuesday 21st June 1625, it is recorded that the “Dinner was foreborne by reason of God’s visitation of ye plague of pestilence”.

From the earliest days of the history of the Company and the City attached great importance to the Festival of Corpus Christi and its association with the Election and Crowning of the Master and Wardens for the ensuing year, so much so that the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council and Officers of the City with their ladies used to attend at the Hall to witness the Ceremony of Crowning.

The Procession as it is now stems from an order of the Court made on Election Day, 4th June 1702. By this time, the numbers of the Livery were increasing, and with more of them attending the dinner fewer guests were invited. Four members of the Court of Assistants carried the caps of the new Master and First, Second and Third Wardens in the Procession, a Liveryman carried the New Renter Warden’s Cap and Five Liverymen carried the cocks.

Some time prior to 1852 the Order of Procession had altered again. Members of the Court no longer took part, and Liverymen only had the privilege of carrying the caps and cocks. This may have been because, by this time, all the Court of assistants had at one time or another taken part.

The Beadle from Christ’s Hospital, ten Blue Coat Boys and Two Tackle Porters have also in the past formed part of the Procession.

With the number of Liverymen attending the dinner increasing each year it became necessary to shorten the length of the Procession to that which it is at the present day.

For some time now it has been the practice to give the privilege of carrying the Caps and Cocks to the ten most junior Liverymen/ Livery women.