Item 129 - Freedom of City of London

Record of admission dated 10 February 1825, and affirmation, of Francis Cotton as a Freeman of the City of London (citizen) in the Drapers' Company, having been apprentice of John Farrar citizen and draper.
Note: the drapers' Company is one of the oldest of the City Guilds or Livery Companies. The Drapers were originally makers of woollen cloth, but since the seventeenth century have had little connection with the cloth industry and John Farrar was not actually a draper by trade. F.C. said he was apprenticed as a carpenter etc. (see 132). Freemen were members of their company (or guild) and citizens of
London, but only the "livery men" of the Company (those entitled to wear the Company's livery) had the right to nominate an alderman as a candidate for the office of Lord Mayor each year.