s Wine cup, London, 1607 - Hull Museums Collections

Wine cup, London, 1607

Robert Berier gave this cup to Hull’s Merchants' Company in 1649. The Merchants' Company later became extinct. Its silver went to the Town Hall for safe keeping in 1707. Six of these silver cups are still owned by the council and are on display in the Guildhall.

The Merchants' Company was a group of traders who had great powers in Hull from 1577. They had a special Merchants' Hall and no one could trade from Hull without their permission.

This wine cup is engraved: ‘The gift of Mr Robert Berier to the Marchats Hall 1649’. Robert Berrier was a leading figure in Hull. He was Chamberlain in 1629, Sheriff in 1640 and twice Mayor of the city, in 1656 and 1671.

The Kingston upon Hull Merchants' Company was incorporated by Letters Patent dated 11th May 1577. This was under the title of ‘The Governor, Assistants, and Fellowship of Merchants inhabiting the Town of Kingston upon Hull’. This charter gave the merchants great powers and privileges, including the power to make bye-laws.

Meetings of the merchants were held in the Merchants Hall for 120 years. The Hall doesn’t exist any more. The seal, or badge, of the Hull Merchants was a ship with three crowns above it.

After more than a century’s existence the Merchants' Company gradually became extinct. On 13th February 1707 Aldermen Hydes, Trippett and Mould were ordered by the bench ‘to take care that the Plate and Books in the Merchants' Hall to be removed to the Town’s Hall for their better security in regard to the Governor’s absence and that Courts there are very seldom kept.’ (B.B. 8 f.567)

This silver wine cup is one of six pieces of silver from the Merchants' Company that are on display at the Guildhall.