which is divided into two sections, each with four precincts. The first
Alderman was William de Maiener; of the subsequent Aldermen, two have
been baronets, Sir Samuel Garrard, Lord Mayor in 1709, whose ancestor,
Sir William Garrard, was Lord Mayor in 1555, and whose great grandson,
Sir John, was created baronet in 1621. Sir Samuel was the fourth in
the baronetcy, and left issue two sons, both of whom succeeded, and
both of whom died unmarried, the younger in 1767, when the baronetcy
became extinct. The other was Sir John William Anderson, Lord Mayor in
1798, created baronet the same year, who died without issue in 1813,
when the title expired. Three Aldermen also have been knighted, viz.,
Sir Peter Floyer, Sir Thos. Halifax, and Sir Peter Laurie. The Liberty
of St. Martin's College was comprehended in the ward, but was exempt
from its jurisdiction. Before the fire of 1666 there were six churches
in the ward, those of St. John Zachary, St. Mary Staining, St. Olave,
St. Leonard, St. Anne, and St. Botolph; of these the first five were
consumed in the fire, and St. Anne's only rebuilt. St. Botolph escaped
with a scorching. The most important religious establishment in the
ward was the Collegiate Church of St. Martin's-le-Grand. Tradition says
that it was founded in the time of the early British Christianity, by
Wythered, King of Kent, in honour of Cadwallon, King of Britain. It was
repaired and endowed _circa_ 1056 by two brothers (Saxons), Ingelricus
and Edward or Gerard, which was confirmed by William I., after the
Conquest, by charter, wherein it is declared to be a Royal free chapel,
with a collegiate establishment consisting of a dean and a fraternity
of secular canons, with many privileges and immunities, including
exemption from outward, civil, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the
right of sanctuary within the limits of the liberty.
Ingelricus was the first dean, and after him several distinguished men
held the office, of whom William de Wykeham, the famous architect,
Bishop of Winchester and builder of Windsor Castle, rebuilt
considerable portions of the College; and James Stanley, brother of the
Earl of Derby, who was instituted in 1493, and is supposed to have been
the last.
The college with all its appurtenances was given by Henry VII., in
1502, to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, for the performance of
certain religious ceremonials; and on the suppression of the abbey, 34
Henry VIII., was transferred to the newly-created dean and chapter.
It was suppressed finally in 1548, 2 Edward VI., and the same year,
as Stow informs us, "the church was pulled down, and in the east part
thereof a large wine tavern was builded, and withall down to the west
and throughout the whole of the precinct of the college, many other
houses were builded and highly priced, letten to strangers borne and
others such as then claymed benefitte of privileges grannted to the
canons serving God day and night (for so be the words of the charter
of William the Conqueror) which may hardly be wrested to artificers,
buyers and sellers, otherwise than as mentioned in the 21st of St.
Matthew's Gospel."
The curfew bell was rung nightly, at eight o'clock, from the
churchtower. Edward I. issued a proclamation that "in consequence of
the many mischiefs, murders, robberies, and beating down persons by
certain Hectors walking arm in arm, none should be so hardy as to be
found wandering in the streets after the curfew had sounded at St.
Martin's-le-Grand. The other churches where the curfew bell was rung in
the City were St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Giles, Cripplegate, and Allhallows
Barking. At the sound of the bell the great gates of Aldersgate were
closed, but the wickets left open, which were also shut and fastened as
soon as it ceased ringing, and were not opened again until the morning
excepting by a special order from the Lord Mayor.
In digging the foundations for the Post Office in 1818, a range of
Saxon or early Norman vaults were discovered, which had belonged to the
college, the remains of a crypt of the time of Henry III., and a stone
coffin.
St. Botolph's church, situated on the western side of Aldersgate
Street, near Little Britain, is dedicated to a Cornish monk, who is
said to have lived in the time of King Lucius, and was buried at Boston
(Botolph's town), in Lincolnshire. It is an ancient rectory, formerly
in the gift of the dean and canons of St. Martin, and was given along
with the college to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, and at the
dissolution to the Bishop of Westminster, who was suppressed by Queen
Mary, and the convent restored, to whom it reverted. Queen Elizabeth
restored it to the new dean and chapter, who still hold it, subject
to the approval of the Bishop and Archdeacon of London. It escaped
the fire of 1666, became ruinous, and was patched and repaired at
divers times until 1790, when it was rebuilt, a portion of the old
church being retained in the eastern wall. It cannot be considered a
handsome church exteriorly, but the interior is effective, although
of mixed styles. It has a painted window of Christ's agony in the
garden, executed in the dark age of glass painting. In another window,
by Jas. Pierson, the figure of St. Peter is very fine. Having been
spared by the Fire, the church contains a great many monuments of the
old citizens of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is one
to Daniel Wray, F.R.S., Deputy Teller of the Exchequer, who died in
1783, æt. 83. He was a learned man, and collected a large library of
old authors, which his widow presented to the Charter House. Another,
a tablet and bust, by Roubiliac, is erected to the memory of Elizabeth
Smith, who died in 1750, æt. 15. There is an inscription commencing—
"Not far remote lies a lamented fair,
Whom Heaven had fashioned with peculiar care," etc.
At the north-east corner of Little Britain stood an alien Cluniac
Priory, or Hospital, founded in 1377, which was suppressed with other
alien houses by Henry V., and the endowments given to the parishioners
of St. Botolph's, who founded a brotherhood of the Holy Trinity, in
connection with the church, to celebrate masses in the church. It was
suppressed _temp._ Edward VI., and the hall of the priory converted
into a vestry and school. There were also two brotherhoods of St.
Fabian and St. Sebastian, and a sisterhood of St. Katherine in the
church.
St. Anne's Church is also called the Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes,
from a tradition that it was built by two sisters so named, and in old
records is styled St. Anne in the Willows, from its standing in a
grove of those trees. The date of its foundation is not known, but a
John de Chambrey was collated to the living in 1322. The rectory was
under the patronage of the Dean and Canons of St. Martin's, and went
with the college to Westminster. It was destroyed by fire in 1548,
restored in 1624, again burnt in 1666, rebuilt by Wren in 1680, when
the parish of St. John Zachary was united to it, and again "repaired
and beautified" in 1701-3. Within its walls was buried William Gregory,
Mayor of London 1451, in a chantry which he had founded. There was a
monument to Peter Helwood, who was stabbed in Westminster Hall, in
1640, by John James, a Dominican friar, for his zealous prosecution of
the Papists, as a justice of the peace. The inscription says:—
"Reader, if not a Papist bred,
Upon such ashes lightly tread."
The Rev. James Penn, lecturer at the church, was, along with the Rev.
S. Aldrich, rector of St. John's, Clerkenwell, appointed to investigate
the mystery of the Cock Lane Ghost.
There have been several notable Nonconformist chapels in and about
Aldersgate Street. Early in the reign of Charles II., the Society of
Friends established a meeting in Bull and Mouth Street, and George Fox
frequently preached there. As was common at that time, the congregation
was subjected to barbarous persecution. In 1662 a mob assembled,
dragged them out into the street, beating and mauling them severely,
and killing one outright.
In 1760 the meeting was given up, and the room taken by a congregation
of Sandemanians from Glovers' Hall, who held it many years until
they removed to Paul's Abbey Barbican. In 1767 appeared "A Plain and
Full Account of the Christian Practices Observed by the Church in
St. Martin's-le-Grand, etc.," which was attributed to the Rev. John
Bernard, minister of the chapel, a learned man, and author of some
other works, who was eventually expelled from his pulpit for "not being
sufficiently humble, and for thinking too highly of his preaching
abilities." He died in 1805.
Trinity Hall, at the corner of Little Britain, was occupied by a
congregation of Nonjurors, and afterwards by a society of Moravians.
It was here that a memorable event took place, which had an important
influence in the great revival of religion in the last century, and
resulted, along with other predisposing causes, in the outgrowth of the
now large and influential sect of Wesleyan Methodists. John Wesley,
in his journal, May 24th, 1738, writes: "In the evening I went very
unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading
Luther's Preface to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he
was describing the changes which God makes in the heart through faith
in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in
Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had
taken away my sins—even _mine_—and saved _me_ from the law of sin and
death."
Hare Court Independent Chapel was built on ground leased for 999 years,
from Sir Henry Ashurst, in the year of the Revolution, 1688. Originally
it stood with an open space in front, facing Aldersgate Street, with a
single entrance therefrom. It was built by a society gathered together
in the reign of Charles II. by the Rev. Geo. Cockayn, who had been
ejected from St. Pancras, Soper Lane, in 1662, consisting of many of
the foremost citizens and several officers of the army. It was rebuilt
in 1772, with three galleries, and a new entrance from Paul's Alley.
In 1857, the chapel was disposed of, and out of the proceeds a new one
built in Canonbury, to which was given the time honoured name of Hare
Court, and which maintains the popularity of its predecessor.
In 1804 a congregation of Calvinistic Methodists assembled in a large
room of Shaftesbury House, under the pastorate of the Rev. T. Madden,
who removed hither with his flock from Bartholomew Close.
From the time of the Plantagenets to that of the Stuarts, Aldersgate
Street was the Belgravia of London, the place of residence of prelates
and nobles. Compared with other streets of the City, it was spacious
and open, lined with magnificent buildings, and adorned with clusters
and lines of ancient trees. Howell, in his _Londinopolis_, 1657, speaks
of it as resembling a street in an Italian city; and Malcolm, in his
_Londinium Redivivum_, 1805, says; "Aldersgate Street is very unequal
in its buildings, but the majority are of superior excellence, and the
various shops and warehouses of the first respectability. In width it
is superior to most of the streets within the walls of the City."
The only one of the famous old mansions recently remaining was
Shaftesbury or Thanet House. It was built by Inigo Jones for the
Tuftons, Earls of Thanet, and was purchased by Anthony Ashley Cooper,
Earl of Shaftesbury, the Achitophel of Dryden. Pennant says: "It was
hired or purchased by the incendiary statesman, Lord Shaftesbury, for
the purpose of living in the City to inflame the minds of the citizens,
among whom he used to boast he could raise 10,000 brisk boys by the
holding up of his finger. He attempted to get into the magistracy, but
being disappointed in his views and terrified at the apprehension of
the detection of a conspiracy he had entered into against his prince,
he fled, in 1683, into Holland, where he soon died of the gout,
heightened by rage and frustrated ambition."
The house was afterwards let for manufacturing purposes; in 1750
it became a Lying-in-Hospital, which was removed to the City Road,
when it was opened as a Dispensary, with a Dissenting Chapel, called
Shaftesbury Chapel, on the first floor, until the migration of the
congregation to a new chapel opposite Westmoreland Buildings, called
Aldersgate Chapel.
Petre, Dorchester, or London House stood on the west side of the
street nearly opposite Shaftesbury House. It is supposed to have been
built by Sir William Petre, who became rich by monastic plunder at
the dissolution of monasteries, and died in 1572. It was occupied by
his descendants until 1639, when it came into possession of Henry
Pierrepoint, Marquis of Dorchester. During the Commonwealth it was
made use of as a state prison, and after the Great Fire of 1666 had
destroyed the palace of the Bishop of London, in St. Paul's Churchyard,
became the episcopal residence of the see, many alterations being
made, and the chapel built by various bishops, and was held by them
until 1725. In 1748 it was occupied by Jacob Ilive, "the crazy printer
and fanatical writer," and twenty years after by Seddon, the eminent
cabinetmaker, ancestors of the Seddons of Gray's Inn Road, who had the
misfortune to have it burnt, with the whole of his uninsured stock, on
two occasions. Afterwards, also, Miss Seddon was burnt to death in the
house, by her clothes catching fire.
The two mighty and illustrious northern families of Percy and Nevil
had both of them a town mansion in Aldersgate Street on the western
side—Northumberland House, on the site of Bull and Mouth Street; and
Westmoreland House, on the site of Westmoreland Court, extending to
Bartholomew Close. On the death of Henry, first Earl of Northumberland,
at the Battle of Bramham Moor, 1408, and his subsequent attainder,
King Henry IV. gave Northumberland House to Queen Joan for a wardrobe.
Afterwards it became a printing office, then a tavern, and finally was
divided into shops and tenements. Lauderdale House stood on the east
side, a little north of Shaftesbury House. It was the residence of
the Earl of Lauderdale, a member of the "Cabal" ministry of Charles
II. Upon the site was built Bote and Walsh's distillery. Close by
Shaftesbury House stood Bacon House, the residence of Sir Nicholas
Bacon, Lord Keeper to Queen Elizabeth, and father of Lord Chancellor
Bacon, one of the greatest of our philosophers. Ralph Montagu, third
Baron and first Duke of Montagu, "as arrant a knave as any in his
time," as Swift observed when he was raised to a dukedom, lived in
Aldersgate Street until he built Montagu House, Bloomsbury (the British
Museum), when he removed thither. Charles Mordaunt, third Earl of
Peterborough, one of the foremost men of the court of Queen Anne, was
also a resident. On the west side of the street there is a picturesque
old house (now a newsagent's shop) with an inscription stating that
"This was Shakespeare's House," which may possibly be true, but there
does not appear to be any documentary evidence in proof thereof. Mary,
Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir P. Sydney, the subject of Ben
Jonson's famous epitaph, which was not inscribed on her tomb, died at
her house in the street in 1621.
Many other distinguished personages have been born, lived, or died in
Aldersgate Street, amongst whom may be noticed Milton, who in 1641 was
living in a house at the bottom of Lamb (now Maidenhead) Court; Brian
Walton, Bishop of Chester, the learned editor of the first English
Polyglot Bible; Thos. Flatman, the poet, who was born in the street in
1657; the brothers Rawlinson, who resided in London House—Thomas, the
"Tom Folio" of the _Tatler_, No. 158, and Richard, LL.D., F.R.S., and
F.S.A., both antiquaries and great collectors of books. The Right Hon.
Thos. Harley, a memorable member of the Corporation, and M.P. for the
City, also resided here.
The Company of Cooks had their hall on the western side of Aldersgate
Street, adjoining Little Britain. The company was incorporated by
Letters Patent in 1480, by Edward IV., under the style and title of
"The Masters and Governors and Commonalty of the Mystery of Cooks in
London," and their charter was confirmed by Elizabeth and James I. with
"a master, four wardens, and 25 assistants." The hall escaped the fire
of 1666, but was destroyed by fire in 1771, and was not rebuilt.
There have been and still are many taverns and hostelries of
considerable note in Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-le-Grand. The
most interesting is the "Mourning Bush," a very ancient tavern with a
carved ivy bush for its sign—a timber-gabled house—with portions of the
old wall of London for its foundations. It stood on the east side of
the street, and had a back entrance in St. Anne's Lane. The landlord,
during the time of the Civil War, was a devoted royalist, and on the
execution of King Charles had the courage to paint his ivy bush black,
and call it the "Mourning Bush." In 1749, the sign was changed to "The
Fountain," and is referred to by Tom Brown as one of the "four or five
topping taverns of the City," whose owners might look for an alderman's
gown. In 1830, it was repaired and refitted, and instead of restoring
the old historically interesting name, it has since been christened
"The Lord Raglan." "The Bull and Mouth" (a corruption of Boulogne
Mouth, or Harbour) a very ancient hostelry, originally standing in Bull
and Mouth and Angel streets, with a galleried and gabled court-yard,
now taken down. It was rebuilt in 1830, and to meet the more fastidious
taste of the time its somewhat vulgar name was changed to the more
euphonious "Queen's Hotel." On a stone tablet was the following
inscription:—
"Milo the Cretonian
An ox slew with his fist,
And ate it up at one meal,
Ye gods, what a glorious twist!"
The new branch of the Post Office is being built on the site. Two doors
from Barbican stood the "Bell," an inn worthy of being remembered as
having been the resort of John Taylor, the Water Poet. The Albion is
celebrated for its public dinners, and for the trade sales of London
publishers. The Castle and Falcon is also a famous and very old inn,
standing close by, and probably on a portion of the site of the gate.
Aldersgate Street has been the scene of some incendiary fires for the
sake of plunder. Pepys, in his _Diary_, July, 1687, refers to a case
in which two boys, one "a son of Lady Montagu's, I know not what Lady
Montagu—got into the company of some rogues, who persuaded them to
rob their fathers' houses of plate and other valuables, of which they
appropriated the greater portion, and afterwards to set fire to a
house in the street, that they might abscond with the goods that were
thrown into the streets." Again in May, 1790, some scoundrels fired a
house at the corner of Long Lane, which eventuated in the destruction
of all the houses to Catherine (? Carthusian Street), involving the
loss of property amounting to £40,000, that they might plunder them in
the confusion. One John Flindall was apprehended, tried, and sentenced
to transportation for robbery during the fire, when he offered to
turn king's evidence, was accepted, and he revealed the diabolical
plot, implicating especially two accomplices, Lowe and Jobbins, the
ringleaders, who were hanged in front of the ruins. The Corporation
took advantage of the clearance to widen Aldersgate in this part of
the street, which had previously been very narrow, at a cost of £4,035.
The 7th of May, in the year 1603, was a day long remembered by the
worthy citizens of Aldersgate Street, as that on which King James VI.
of Scotland, entered the City through their gate to assume the title
of James the First of England. The street was adorned with triumphal
arches; arras and costly hangings decorated the fronts of the houses,
and numberless banners and pennons floated in the breeze from the
windows and points of the gables; the windows were filled with the
beauty of the City—matrons and maidens; while the 'prentices and other
venturous spirits perched themselves on the roofs, and the roadway
below was densely crowded by citizens, who ever and anon made the
welkin ring by their shouts of welcome. Sheriff Swinnerton, with ten
followers in rich liveries, met the King at Waltham, and congratulated
him on his safe arrival. At Stamford Hill he was met by the Lord Mayor
Lee and the aldermen, all in scarlet robes, and 500 of the most eminent
of the citizens, on horseback, all sumptuously apparelled in velvet,
with gold chains round their necks. The procession passed slowly
along, pausing at intervals to look upon some ingeniously-contrived
pageant, and listen to the congratulations of the characters
represented, and along Aldersgate Street to the Charter House, where
the king was magnificently entertained by Lord Howard four days. In the
evening the street was brilliantly illuminated by means of bonfires,
cresset-bearers marching up and down, and lights from the windows.
In the last and the preceding centuries Little Britain was the great
centre of the publishing and book-selling trades, and in Aldersgate
Street, of which it is a tributary, there have lived several eminent
members thereof. John Day, the famous printer, _temp._ Edward VI. and
Elizabeth, occupied rooms over the gate. He printed a folio edition of
the Bible, 1549, dedicated to King Edward VI.; published also the works
of Ascham, Tindal, etc., and it was at his suggestion that Foxe wrote
his _Book of Martyrs_, respecting which it was said—
"He set a fox to write how martyrs runne,
By death to lyfe."
Jacob Ilive, an eccentric printer, set up his press in London House,
where he printed several of his own fantastic writings, such as
"The speech of Mr. J. I., to his brothers, the Master Printers, on
the Utility of Printing, 1730; etc., etc." Robert Chiswell, who died
in 1711, of whom Dunton, in his _Life and Errors_, says, "The most
eminent in his profession in the three kingdoms, I take to be Mr.
Robert Chiswell, who well deserves the title of Metropolitan Bookseller
of England, if not of all the world." John Hereford, whose last
publication was the Newe Testament, 1548; Nicholas Borman; Anthony
Scholcker, _vix_ 1548, afterwards of Ipswich; William Tilly, who
published the new Testament in 4to. in 1549; Henry Denham, at the sign
of the Bear and Ragged Staff, Thomas Easte, at the sign of the Black
Horse, and Thos. Whitchurch, at the sign of the Well and Two Buckets,
St Martin's-le-Grand.
Old Broad Street.
The ward to which this street gives its name is unquestionably the
richest in the City of London, containing within its limits, extending
from Cornhill Ward on the south to Bishopsgate Ward on the north, and
from Bishopsgate Ward on the east to Coleman Street Ward on the west,
some of the most wealthy and important commercial establishments of
the metropolis. Within its boundaries are the Bank of England, and a
multitude of other high-class banks, the Royal Exchange, the Stock
Exchange, several Insurance offices, Consulates, the South Sea House,
the Inland Revenue Office, Drapers' Hall, Merchant Taylors' Hall,
Carpenters' Hall, and an infinite number of merchants' offices, where
mercantile transactions of incalculable magnitude take place daily. It
comprehends within its area several of the most important commercial
and financial streets of the City—Threadneedle Street, Lothbury,
Throgmorton Street, Great Winchester Street, Princes Street, Moorgate
Street, Austin Friars, with other smaller streets, courts, and alleys,
all full of life, bustle, and active commercial life. It comprehends
six parishes—those of Allhallows-on-the-Wall, St. Martin Outwich, St.
Bene't Fink, St. Bartholemew-by-the-Exchange, St. Peter-le-Poor, and
St. Christopher, Threadneedle Street. Besides these are the Dutch
Church, of the Austin Friars, and the Walloon or French Protestant
Church in Threadneedle Street.
Old Broad Street is a wide spacious thoroughfare extending from the end
of Throgmorton Street to London Wall and Wormwood Street, whence it is
continued northward to Liverpool Street by New Broad Street; at the
south end, by Throgmorton Street, it diverges at a slight angle to the
end of Threadneedle Street, this portion having formerly been called
Little Broad Street.