Originally formed as an association of those engaged in the trade of skins and furs, the Company was granted a Royal Charter in 1327.

Under an order issued by the Lord Mayor of London on 10 April 1484 (known as the Billesdon Award), the Company ranks in sixth or seventh place (making it one of the "Great Twelve City Livery Companies") in the order of precedence of City Livery Companies, alternating annually with the Merchant Taylors' Company; these livery companies have borrowed Chaucer's phrase "at sixes and sevens" to describe their rivalry over precedence – specifically which company was entitled to be 6th in order of seniority – being a source of trouble between the Skinners and the Merchant Taylors for some time during the 15th, and perhaps even 14th centuries.

Both companies received their first Royal Charters in 1327, but the dispute erupted into lethal violence at the 1484 Lord Mayor's river procession, an occasion which the two guilds treated as their own private boat race.

After justice was administered to some of the offenders the then-Lord Mayor, Haberdasher Sir Robert Billesdon, mediated between the two companies at the request of their Masters, and he resolved that each company should have precedence over the other in alternate years and that each company's Master and Wardens should be invited to dine at the other's Hall every year.

[3] The Skinners are normally sixth in the order of precedence in even numbered years, and at seven in odd numbered years, but as the Lord Mayor (Sir David Brewer) for 2005/06 was a member of the Merchant Taylors' Company they kept precedence.