ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OR HOLIWELL NUNNERY
The nunnery of Haliwell, or Holywell, was named after a holy spring
or well on the eastern extremity of Finsbury Fields, in the parish
of St. Leonard, Shoreditch. There were many other holy wells around
London, especially that in the Strand, west of St. Clement Danes. How
one spring came to be accounted holy above other springs, one knows
not. However, there can be no doubt that this spring in Shoreditch
was a place of considerable resort and great sanctity, which was
reason enough why its owner, Robert Fitz Gelran, Canon of St. Paul’s,
should enclose it with a wall, and to erect a nunnery over it. The
House was built to the honour of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and St.
John Baptist for Benedictine nuns. This was done about the year 1127.
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, Richard the First, Henry de Hallingbury,
Simon, Bishop of Ely, John de Gatesbey, Richard de Beaumes, Bishop of
London, Stephen Gravesend, Bishop of London, Sir Thomas Lovell, were
the chief benefactors of this House. Richard the First gave the nuns
a part of the moor, on which their House was built; he also gave them
the church at Dunton, with land in Bedfordshire, at Camberwell, in
Surrey, and in the City of London. It is unnecessary to enumerate all
the gifts. Very shortly before the Dissolution, the House was rebuilt
by Sir Thomas Lovell. He endowed it with more land, and was buried in a
chapel built by himself for his sepulchre, little dreaming that in less
than a generation the House and the Chapel and all the rest would be
destroyed. On the painted windows and on the walls were inscribed the
verses:—
“All ye nuns of Haliwell
Pray ye both day and night
For the soul of Sir Thomas Lovell
Whom Harry the Seventh made knight.”
Holiwell Nunnery, on surrender, had a yearly revenue of £293 according
to Stow, of £347: 1: 3 according to Speed.
In 1553 the following sisters were still living, and in the receipt
of pensions:—Sibilla Nudigate, per annum, L _li._; Elena Claver, per
annum, liij _s._ iiij _d._; Alicia Marteine, per annum, iiij _li._;
Alicia Goldwell, per annum, iiij _li._ vj _s._ viij _d._; Beatrica
Fitzlewas, per annum, Lxvj _s._ viij _d._; Agnes Bolney, per annum,
Liij _s._ iiij _d._
In 1544 Queen Catherine Parr asked for the site for Henry Webbe. His
daughter brought the place to her husband, Sir George Peckham. The
Church and House being pulled down, houses were built on the site “for
the lodgings of noblemen, of strangers born and other.”
In 1785 the last fragment of importance, a stone gateway, was pulled
down: there still continued to be shown some walls, a small arch, and
part of a doorway in a cellar of a tavern called “The Old King John.”
On the site of the ground belonging to the House were built two of the
early theatres—“The Curtain” and “The Theatre.”