The Fletchers’ ordinances approved by the mayor and aldermen of London in 1403 laid down that the company would be governed by two annually elected wardens. This remained the normal practice into the early 16^th century, although there were periodic re-elections of one or both of the wardens. For a period of time in the 1520s, the company’s wardens were formally elected to serve for two consecutive years, but by the mid 1530s, the elections had once again returned to the annual cycle. By the 1760s, the company’s wardens were once more elected for a two-year term, but a gap in the records makes it impossible to tell at what date this revised practice began. It was in turn abandoned in 1888, since when the company’s officers have once again been elected for annual terms.

The ordinances of 1403 provided that the elections of the wardens were to be held annually on the feast of the Translation of St. Edward the Confessor, that is, 13 October. This remained the normal start date for the Fletchers’ year until 1542, but from 1544 to 1559 the annual changeover took place on the feast of St. Clement (23 November). In 1560, the elections were moved to the Conversion of St. Paul (25 January), and there they were to remain, although in 1566 – uniquely, as far as we can tell – the wardens’ elections were held on St. George’s day (23 April). By 1568, they had reverted to 25 January.

It seems that the office of Master had its origins in the period of the English Civil War, but a lack of company records makes it impossible to know when exactly a Master Fletcher was first chosen. The first recorded master was Baldwin Cuper, who was elected in 1661. For reasons that remain uncertain, the office of master seems to have been abandoned at the end of the 17^th century, and the company returned to the older system of two wardens. From 1884, it became customary for the senior of the two wardens to be styled ‘Master and Upper Warden’, but it was not until 1933 that it was decided to re-establish the present system of a master and two wardens.

In the 14^th and 15^th century the company’s two wardens were, as far as it is possible to tell, of equal status. This had changed by the reign of Elizabeth I: by the 1560s it was normal practice to elect an experienced man who had served as warden on a previous occasion alongside a newcomer. Only from the 1680s is there clear evidence of a formal system under which the Renter Warden on completion of his term succeeded as Upper Warden, while the Upper Warden became Master (when office existed), as is the case to the present day.Please click on the links below for information on our Past Masters and their year as Master.