"Some Account of The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers" compiled by Samuel Elliott Atkins, formerly Clerk of the Company, and William Henry Overall, FSA, Librarian to the Corporation of the City of London, published 1881
Liverymen, Freemen and Stewards of the Clockmakers’ Company on admission and Election are required to make a Declaration (take an Oath). These were laid down in 1632 and are still administered today (though naturally “King” is now changed to read “Queen”). The “ Book of Ordinances” referred to is the Charter (granted in 1631) and the bye-laws of the Company (approved by the Crown and the City of London in 1632). They deal with the everyday running of the Company and of the clockmaking trade, and are published in full in “Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers”:
LIVERYMEN
“You shall swear to be true to our Sovereign Lady the Queen’s Majesty, her heirs and successors: and that you shall perform and obey all that to you appertaineth to be done, by the true meaning of this Book of Ordinances of this Society, and be honest for you to perform, and approved and warranted by the laws of this Realm. So help you God.”
FREEMEN
The Declaration or Oath laid down in 1632 to be taken by all new Freemen of the Company, is as follows:-
“ You shall swear to be true to our Sovereign Lady the Queen’s Majesty, her heirs and successors, and at all times obedient to the Master and Wardens of this Fellowship and Society, and their successors after them, in all honest and lawful things touching the affairs of this Fellowship. You shall be ready at all manner of Summons, and bear scot and lot in all manner of reasonable contributions of and to this Fellowship, and the Fellowship of the Company of Clockmakers of the City of London you shall to the best of your skill, power and ability, uphold and maintain. You shall not know nor suspect any manner of meetings, conspiracies, plots, devices against the Queen’s Majesty, her heirs or successors, or the Government of this Fellowship, but you shall the same to the utmost of your power, let and hinder and speedily disclose to the Master or one of the Wardens of this Society. And this City of London and Fellowship of Clockmakers you shall keep harmless, as much as in you lieth: also you shall be ready at all times to be at the Quarter Days, and every other assembly, matter or cause that you shall be warned or called unto for the affairs of this Fellowship, unless you shall have lawful or reasonable excuse in that behalf. And all other Ordinances of this Fellowship or Society, ratified according to the laws of this Realm, or otherwise lawful for this Fellowship or Society to make and ordain, you shall, to the utmost of your power well and truly submit yourself unto and keep. So help you God.”
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