The following excerpt is from an article published in the November 29, 2011 edition of the BBC News. Over 240,000 records are included in the collection. I did search on the surname of Canfield and got two hits. The illustration below is for John Canfield.
Records of people across the UK who had the “freedom” to trade in the City of London after 1681 have been published online for the first time.
Author Rudyard Kipling and former prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and Robert Peel are among the names listed.
The records from 1681 to 1925 were published by family history website Ancestry.co.uk.
Names and details of privileges enjoyed by more than half a million people feature on the website.
It details how some awarded the Freedom of the City of London were able to drive sheep over London Bridge, be drunk and disorderly without fear of arrest, or, if sentenced to death, be hanged with a silken rope.
