II.— The Armourers' Company of London and the Greenwich School of Armourers

In making researches into the early history of the Armourers' Company, we are faced with the question what kind of craftsman was the armourer or ‘armorarius’ up to the middle of the fourteenth century. On consulting the recognized reference books on the subject, up to the present I have found no word used to denote the maker of defensive armour and offensive weapons as distinct from any other craft till the end of the thirteenth century. Smith translates armourer as ‘faber armorum’, and Riddle and White do not even give this qualification under the word ‘faber’. Du Cange gives 1412 as the earliest use of the term, Murray 1386, and Gay 1351. The nearest approach to the word is ‘armarium’ from which we get ‘armoir’, a closet or cupboard to keep arms, clothing, and possibly, but not necessarily, armour

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