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_The Survey of London_
LONDON
CITY
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
INTERIOR OF ROYAL EXCHANGE.—(Page 128)
]
LONDON
CITY
BY
SIR WALTER BESANT
[Illustration]
LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1910
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
With this volume we begin what may be called the second part of the
Survey. All that has preceded it has dealt with the history of London as
a whole; now we turn to London in its topographical aspect and treat it
street by street, with all the historical associations interwoven in a
continuous narrative with a running commentary of the aspect of the
streets as they were at the end of the nineteenth century, for the book
is strictly a Survey of London up to the end of the nineteenth century.
Sir Walter Besant himself wrote the greater part of the volume now
issued, calling it “The Antiquities of the City,” and it is exclusively
confined to the City. For the topographical side of the great work,
however, he employed assistants to collect material for him and to help
him; for though, as he said, he had been “walking about London for the
last thirty years and found something fresh in it every day,” he could
not himself collect the mass of detail requisite for a fair presentation
of the subject. In the present volume, therefore, embedded in his
running commentary, will be found detailed accounts of the City
Companies, the City churches and other buildings, which are not by his
hand. A word as to the plan on which the volume is made may be helpful.
In cases where the City halls are standing, accounts of the Companies
they belong to are inserted there in the course of the perambulation;
but where the Companies possess no halls, the matter concerning them is
relegated to an Appendix. The churches, however, being peculiarly
associated with the sites on which they are standing, or stood, are
considered to be an integral part of the City associations, and
churches, whether vanished or standing, are noted in course of
perambulation. A distinction which shows at a glance whether any
particular church is still existing or has been demolished is made by
the type; for in the case of an existing church the name is set in large
black type, as a centre heading, whereas with a vanished church it is
given in smaller black type set in line.
The plan of the book is simplicity itself; it follows the lines of
groups of streets, taken as dictated by common sense and not by the
somewhat arbitrary boundaries of wards. The outlines of these groups are
clearly indicated on the large map which will be found at the end of the
volume.
CONTENTS
THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY
GROUP I
PAGE
STREETS NORTH AND SOUTH OF CHEAPSIDE AND THE POULTRY 1
GROUP II
STREETS NORTH OF GRESHAM STREET AND WEST OF MOORGATE STREET 63
GROUP III
STREETS BETWEEN MOORGATE AND BISHOPSGATE STREETS 91
GROUP IV
STREETS BETWEEN FENCHURCH AND BISHOPSGATE STREETS 146
GROUP V
THAMES STREET AND THE STREETS NORTH AND SOUTH OF IT 190
THE TOWER OF LONDON 288
GROUP VI
NEWGATE STREET AND THE STREETS NORTH AND SOUTH OF IT 300
ST. PAUL’S 327
GROUP VII
FLEET STREET AND THE ADJACENT COURTS (INCLUDING THE TEMPLE AND THE
ROLLS) 362
THE TEMPLE 370
THE ANCIENT SCHOOLS IN THE CITY OF LONDON 385
APPENDICES
1. THE CITY COMPANIES 433
2. MAYORS AND LORD MAYORS OF LONDON FROM 1189 TO 1900 455
3. A CALENDAR OF THE MAYORS AND SHERIFFS OF LONDON FROM 1189 TO
1900 461
INDEX 483
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Interior of Royal Exchange _Frontispiece_
Cheapside Cross (as it appeared on its erection
in 1606) 5
St. Mildred, Poultry 18
Inside the Poultry Compter 19
St. Lawrence, Jewry 26
SS. Anne and Agnes 27
Blackwell Hall, 1819 31
Mercers’ Hall: Interior _Facing_ 32
Mercers’ Hall 35
City of London School, Milk Street 39
Church of St. Vedast 43
Goldsmiths’ Hall, 1835 45
Gerard’s Hall Crypt in 1795 57
The Armourers’ and Brasiers’ Almshouses,
Bishopsgate Without, 1857 65
St. Mary, Aldermanbury, in 1814 70
Porch of St. Alphage, London Wall, 1818 72
Sion College, London Wall, 1800 73
Grub Street Hermit 77
St. Giles, Cripplegate 81
London Wall 83
The Pump in Cornhill, 1800 93
St. Peter’s, Cornhill 96
Confectioner’s Shop, Cornhill 98
Garraway’s Coffee-House 99
Pope’s House in Plough Court 103
St. Mary Woolnoth _Facing_ 106
Altar of St. Mary Abchurch 109
Salters’ Hall, 1822 113
St. Stephen, Walbrook _Facing_ 118
The Mansion House and Cheapside 120
Stocks Market 123
Bank of England Fountain _Facing_ 126
St. Benet Finck 129
St. Martin Outwich 131
Gresham College 135
Carpenters’ Hall, London Wall, 1830 144
Ironmongers’ Hall in the Eighteenth Century 149
A Remarkable Old House in Leadenhall Street 154
Leadenhall Street 155
Skin Market, Leadenhall, 1825 157
Leadenhall Chapel in 1812 160
Crypt in Leadenhall Street, 1825 161
Aldgate in 1830 169
St. Andrew Undershaft 173
Bishopsgate Street, showing Church of St.
Martin Outwich, and the Pump, 1814 177
St. Helen, Bishopsgate, 1817 179
Cornhill Military Association, with a View of
the Church of St. Helen’s, and
Leathersellers’ Hall _Facing_ 180
Council Room, Crosby Hall, 1816 181
Principal Entrance to Leathersellers’ Hall.
Demolished 1799 184
St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate Street 186
St. Botolph, Bishopsgate 187
Blackfriars Bridge, 1796 193
Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Hill 198
Stationers’ Hall in 1830 199
Stationers’ Hall (Interior) 201
Fleur-de-lys Court 203
British and Foreign Bible Society House _Facing_ 206
The College of Arms 209
Doctors’ Commons, 1808 211
Queen Victoria Street _Facing_ 214
A Bas-relief of a Gardener, Gardeners’ Lane,
1791 219
Council Chambers, Vintners’ Hall 230
Whittington’s House 236
Cannon Street, looking West _Facing_ 250
Old Merchant Taylors’ School, Suffolk Lane,
Cannon Street 254
Fishmongers’ Hall, present day 260
London Bridge _Facing_ 260
Fishmongers’ Hall in 1811 261
St. Magnus 262
The Monument in 1752 265
The Coal Exchange 271
Billingsgate Market _Facing_ 272
Custom House _Facing_ 274
Clothworkers’ Hall 277
Whittington’s House, Crutched Friars, 1796 279
Pepys’ Church (St. Olave, Hart Street) 281
Trinity House, Tower Hill 284
Remains of London Wall, Tower Hill, 1818 285
Block, Axe, and Scavenger’s Daughter 288
Newgate Market, 1856 304
Newgate, 1799 305
Christ’s Hospital, from the Cloisters, 1804 308
An Exciting Game, Christ’s Hospital 319
The Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane 323
The Post Office, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Bull
and Mouth Inn, London 329
St. Paul’s Cathedral 334
Paternoster Row (as it was) 343
Paternoster Row _Facing_ 346
The City Boundary, Aldersgate 349
St. Bartholomew the Great 353
General Post Office _Facing_ 354
Cloth Fair 356
Old Coach and Horses, Cloth Fair 357
Long Lane, Smithfield, 1810 358
Bartholomew Fair, 1721 359
Fleet Street _Facing_ 364
Izaak Walton’s House in Fleet Street 366
St. Dunstan in the West (Old Church) 368
Inner Temple Gate House _Facing_ 374
Supposed House of Dryden, Fetter Lane 380
Dr. Johnson’s House 381
Fleet Ditch, West Street, Smithfield, as it was
in 1844 383
St. Paul’s School (before its removal to
Hammersmith) 402
THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY
It seems convenient in treating of the history and archæology of the
City to take the streets in groups, each group being in connection with
the main street to which it belongs. We may in this fashion conveniently
arrange the streets as follows:—
(1) Those north and south of Cheapside and the Poultry.
(2) Those north of Gresham Street and west of Moorgate Street.
(3) Those between Moorgate and Bishopsgate Streets.
(4) Those between Fenchurch and Bishopsgate Streets.
(5) Thames Street and the streets north and south of it.
(6) Newgate Street and the streets north and south of it.
(7) Fleet Street and the adjacent Courts (including the Temple and the
Rolls).
GROUP I
=Cheapside.=—We begin with the true heart of London, West Chepe, as it
was formerly called, and the streets lying north and south of this
marketplace. St. Paul’s Churchyard and Foster Lane mark our western
boundary; Princes Street and Walbrook, our eastern; Gresham Street
(formerly Cateaton Street) is on the north, and Cannon Street on the
south.
By the time of Queen Elizabeth we find the West Chepe, with its streets
north and south, laid out with something like the modern regularity. We
must therefore go back to earlier centuries to discover its origin.
West Chepe, from time immemorial, has been the most important market of
the City. It was formerly, say in the twelfth century, a large open
area. This area contained no fewer than twenty-five churches, of which
nine still exist. The churches are dotted about in apparent disorder,
which can be partly explained. For the market of Chepe was extended in
fact from the Church of St. Michael le Querne on the west, to that of
St. Christopher le Stock on the east, and lay between the modern Gresham
Street in the north and Watling Street in the south.
It is ordered in _Liber Albus_ that all manner of victuals are to be
sold between the kennels of the streets. The so-called streets were
narrow lanes, many of which remain to the present day.
There was, however, a principal way, not a street in our sense of the
word, on either side of which, on the north and on the south, as well as
along the middle, were stalls and shops. These stalls were at first mere
wooden sheds; the goods were exposed by day and removed at night; in
course of time they became permanent shops with living rooms at the back
and an upper chamber. Among the sheds stood “selds.” The seld was a
building not unlike the present Covent Garden Market, being roofed over
and containing shops and store-houses. Several “selds” are mentioned in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These were the “great-seld” in
the Mercery, called after the Lady Roisia de Coventre. This was near the
house of St. Thomas of Acon, where now stands the Mercers’ Hall. There
was also the “great seld of London,” in the ancient parish of St.
Pancras, therefore on the south side of Cheapside. There was again the
“seld of Fryday Street serving for foreign tanners, and time out of mind
occupied with these wares”; and there was a seld held in 1304 by John de
Stanes, mercer.
In the _Liber Albus_ the seld is distinguished from the “shop, the
cellar or solar.” It is also alluded to in the same book as the place
where wool and other commodities are sold. Bakers were forbidden to
store their bread in selds longer than one night. The seld was therefore
a warehouse, a weighing place, as well as a shop. Since we hear nothing
about selds in the _Calendar of Wills_ after the fourteenth century, we
may infer that a change had been made in the methods of the market. The
change in fact was this. North and south of what is now Cheapside were
arranged in order the stalls of those who sold everything; these stalls
were protected from the weather; the various branches or departments of
the market were separated by narrow lanes. It is impossible at this time
to assign all the various trades accurately each to its own place—in
fact, they always overlapped; but we can do so approximately. The names
of the streets belonging to Cheapside are a guide. For instance, Wood
Street, Milk Street, Honey Lane, Ironmonger Street, Old Jewry, the
Poultry, Scalding Alley, Soper Street, Bread Street, Friday Street, Old
Change, explain a great part of the disposition of the ancient market.
When we consider that twenty-five churches stood in or about the great
market, and that they were all presumably more ancient than the
Conquest, we may deduce the fact that the stalls very early became
closed shops, and in many cases permanent houses of residence, and that
the market contained a large resident population by which industries
were carried on as well as shops. With certain wares, such as milk,
honey, wood, spices, mercery, salt-fish, poultry, meat, and herbs, there
was no other industry than that of receiving, packing, and distributing.
We therefore find few churches between Wood Street and Ironmonger Lane,
the chief seat of these branches; while on the south side, for the same
reason, there are still fewer churches.
The South Chepe was occupied by money-changers, salt-fish dealers,
leather-sellers, bakers, mercers, pepperers, and herb-sellers.
Soap-makers were there also at one time, but they were banished to
another part of the City before the time of Edward the Second.
“Melters,” _i.e._ of lard and tallow, were also forbidden to carry on
their evil-smelling trade in West Chepe so far back as 1203.
A brief study, therefore, enables us to understand, first, why the
churches stand thickly in one part and thinly in another; next, that
West Chepe was a vast open market containing a resident population,
crowded where industries were carried on, and sparse where the goods
were simply exposed for sale; and, thirdly, that the place could be
easily converted into a tilting ground, as was done on many occasions,
by clearing away the “stationers,” that is to say, the people who held
stalls or stations about the crosses in Cheapside. On one occasion, at
least, this was done, to the great indignation of the people.
There are certain places in the country, and on the Continent, where the
mediæval market is still preserved in its most important features. For
instance, there is the market-place of Peterborough, which is still
divided by lanes, and which has areas allotted to the different trades;
and that of Rheims, where the ancient usages are preserved and followed,
even to the appearance of Autolycus, the Cheap Jack, and the Quack, who
may be seen and heard on every market day.
We may take Stow’s description of the Elizabethan Chepe:
“At the West end of this Poultrie, and also of Bucklesbury, beginneth
the large street of West Cheaping, a market place so called, which
street stretcheth west till ye come to the little conduit by Paule’s
gate, but not all of Cheape ward. In the east part of this street
standeth the great conduit of sweet water, conveyed by pipes of lead
underground from Paddington for the service of this city, castellated
with stone, and cisterned in lead, about the year 1285, and again new
built and enlarged by Thomas Ilam, one of the sheriffs 1479.
“About the midst of this street is the Standard in Cheape, of what
antiquity the first foundation I have not read. But Henry VI., by his
patent dated at Windsor the 21st of his reign, which patent was
confirmed by parliament 1442, granted license to Thomas Knolles, John
Chichele, and other, executors to John Wells, grocer, sometime mayor of
London, with his goods to make new the highway which leadeth from the
city of London towards the palace of Westminster, before and nigh the
manor of Savoy, parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster, a way then very
ruinous, and the pavement broken, to the hurt and mischief of the
subjects, which old pavement then remaining in that way within the
length of five hundred feet, and all the breadth of the same before and
nigh the site of the manor aforesaid, they to break up, and with stone,
gravel, and other stuff, one other good and sufficient way there to make
for the commodity of the subjects.
“And further, that the Standard in Cheape, where divers executions of
the law beforetime had been performed, which standard at the present was
very ruinous with age, in which there was a conduit, should be taken
down, and another competent standard of stone, together with a conduit
in the same, of new, strongly to be built, for the commodity and honour
of the city, with the goods of the said testator, without interruption,
etc.
“Of executions at the Standard in Cheape, we read, that in the year 1293
three men had their right hands smitten off there, for rescuing of a
prisoner arrested by an officer of the city. In the year 1326, the
burgesses of London caused Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exceter,
treasurer to Edward II., and other, to be beheaded at the standard in
Cheape (but this was by Paule’s gate); in the year 1351, the 26th of
Edward III., two fishmongers were beheaded at the standard in Cheape,
but I read not of their offence; 1381, Wat Tyler beheaded Richard Lions
and other there. In the year 1399, Henry IV. caused the blank charters
made by Richard II. to be burnt there. In the year 1450, Jack Cade,
captain of the Kentish rebels, beheaded the Lord Say there. In the year
1461, John Davy had his hand stricken off there, because he had stricken
a man before the judges at Westminster, etc.
“Then next is a great cross in West Cheape, which cross was there
erected in the year 1290 by Edward I. upon occasion thus:—Queen Elianor
his wife died at Hardeby (a town near unto the city of Lincoln), her
body was brought from thence to Westminster; and the king, in memory of
her, caused in every place where her body rested by the way, a stately
cross of stone to be erected, with the queen’s image and arms upon it,
as at Grantham, Woborne, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St.
Albones, Waltham, West Cheape, and at Charing, from whence she was
conveyed to Westminster, and there buried.
“This cross in West Cheape being like to those other which remain to
this day, and being by length of time decayed, John Hatherle, mayor of
London, procured, in the year 1441, license of King Henry VI. to
re-edify the same in more beautiful manner for the honour of the city,
and had license also to take up two hundred fodder of lead for the
building thereof of certain conduits, and a common granary. This cross
was then curiously wrought at the charges of divers citizens: John
Fisher, mercer, gave six hundred marks toward it; the same was begun to
be set up 1484, and finished 1486, the 2nd of Henry VII.
“In the year 1599, the timber of the cross at the top being rotted
within the lead, the arms thereof bending, were feared to have fallen to
the harming of some people, and therefore the whole body of the cross
was scaffolded about, and the top thereof taken down, meaning in place
thereof to have set up a piramis; but some of her majesty’s honourable
councillors directed their letters to Sir Nicholas Mosley, then mayor,
by her highness’ express commandment concerning the cross, forthwith to
be repaired, and placed again as it formerly stood, etc.,
notwithstanding the said cross stood headless more than a year after.
After this (1600) a cross of timber was framed, set up, covered with
lead, and gilded, the body of the cross downward cleansed of dust, the
scaffold carried thence. About twelve nights following, the image of Our
Lady was again defaced, by plucking off her crown, and almost her head,
taking from her her naked child, and stabbing her in the breast, etc.
Thus much for the cross in West Cheape” (Stow’s _Survey_, 1633, pp.
278-80).
[Illustration:
CHEAPSIDE CROSS (AS IT APPEARED ON ITS ERECTION IN 1606).
From an original Drawing in the Pepysian Library, Cambridge.
]
The cross was the object of much abuse by the Puritans, who at last
succeeded in getting it pulled down. “On May 2nd, 1643, the Cross of
Cheapside was pulled down. A troop of horse and two companies of foot
waited to guard it; and, at the fall of the top cross, drums beat,
trumpets blew, and multitudes of caps were thrown into the air.... And
the same day, at night was the leaden popes[1] burnt in the place where
it stood, with ringing of bells and a great acclamation” (Wilkinson’s
_Londina Illustrata_).
To continue Stow’s account:
“Then at the west end of West Cheape Street, was sometime a cross of
stone, called the Old Cross. Ralph Higden, in his _Policronicon_, saith,
that Walter Stapleton, Bishop of Exceter, treasurer to Edward II., was
by the burgesses of London beheaded at this cross called the Standard,
without the north door of St. Paul’s church; and so is it noted in other
writers that then lived. This old cross stood and remained at the east
end of the parish church called St. Michael in the Corne by Paule’s
gate, near to the north end of the old Exchange, till the year 1390, the
13th of Richard II., in place of which old cross then taken down, the
said church of St. Michael was enlarged, and also a fair water conduit
built about the 9th of Henry VI.
“In the reign of Edward III., divers joustings were made in this street,
betwixt Sopers lane and the great cross, namely, one in the year 1331,
the 21st of September, as I find noted by divers writers of that time.
“In the middle of the city of London (say they), in a street called
Cheape, the stone pavement being covered with sand, that the horses
might not slide when they strongly set their feet to the ground, the
king held a tournament three days together, with the nobility, valiant
men of the realm, and other some strange knights. And to the end the
beholders might with the better ease see the same, there was a wooden
scaffold erected across the street, like unto a tower, wherein Queen
Philippa, and many other ladies, richly attired, and assembled from all
parts of the realm, did stand to behold the jousts; but the higher
frame, in which the ladies were placed, brake in sunder, whereby they
were with some shame forced to fall down, by reason whereof the knights
and such as were underneath, were grievously hurt; wherefore the queen
took great care to save the carpenters from punishment, and through her
prayers (which she made upon her knees) pacified the king and council,
and thereby purchased great love of the people. After which time the
king caused a shed to be strongly made of stone, for himself, the queen,
and other estates to stand on, and there to behold the joustings, and
other shows, at their pleasure, by the church of St. Mary Bow, as is
showed in Cordwainer street ward” (_ibid._).
In 1754 Strype writes:
“Cheapside is a very stately spacious street, adorned with lofty
buildings; well inhabited by Goldsmiths, Linen-Drapers, Haberdashers,
and other great dealers. The street, which is throughout of an equal
breadth, begins westward at Paternoster Row, and, in a straight line,
runs to the Poultry, and from thence to the Royal exchange in Cornhill.
And, as this Street is yet esteemed the principal high street in the
City, so it was formerly graced with a great Conduit, a Standard, and a
stately Cross; which last was pulled down in the Civil Wars. In the last
Part, almost over-against Mercers Chapel, stood a great Conduit; but
this Conduit, standing almost in the Middle of the street, being
incommodious for Coaches and Carts, was thought fit by the Magistracy,
after the great Fire, to be taken down, and built no more.”
The great Conduit of Chepe, commenced in 1285, brought the water from
Paddington, a distance of 3½ miles. It stood opposite Mercers’ Hall and
Chapel. It was a stone building long and low, battlemented, enclosing a
leaden cistern. In the year 1441 at the west end of Chepe and in the
east end of the Church of St. Michael le Querne, the smaller conduit was
erected. Both conduits were destroyed in the Great Fire—the larger one
was not rebuilt. The Standard opposite Honey Lane was in later years
fitted with a water cock always running. At the Standard many public
executions took place (Strype, vol. 1. p. 566).
Hardly any street of London is more frequently mentioned in annual
documents than Chepe. There are many ancient deeds of sale and
conveyances still preserved at the Guildhall, relating to property in
Chepe. In the _Calendar of Wills_, houses, etc., in Chepe are bequeathed
in more than two hundred wills there quoted; many ordinances concerning
Chepe are recorded in Riley’s _Memorials_.
Stow has given some of the history of Chepe. His account may be
supplemented by a few notes on other events and persons connected with
the street.
The antiquity of the street is proved by the discovery of Roman coins,
Roman _tesserae_, Romano-British remains of various kinds, and Saxon
jewels. It is not, however, until the thirteenth century that we find
historical events other than the conveyance, etc., of land and tenements
in Cheapside.
In the thirteenth century a part of Cheapside, if not the whole, was
called the Crown Field; the part so called was probably confined to a
space on the east of Bow Church.
In the year 1232 we find the citizens mustering in arms at Mile End and
“well arrayed” in Chepe.
In 1269 it is recorded that the pillory in Chepe was broken, and so
remained for a whole year by the negligence of the bailiffs, so that
nobody could be put in pillory for that time. The bakers seized the
opportunity for selling loaves of short weight—even a third part short.
But in 1270, on the Feast of St. Michael, the sheriffs had a new pillory
made and erected on the site of the old one. Then the hearts of the
bakers failed them for fear, and the weight of the loaves increased.
In 1273 the Mayor removed from Chepe all the stalls of the butchers and
fishmongers, together with the stalls which had been let and granted by
the preceding sheriffs, although the persons occupying them had taken
them for life and had paid large sums for their leases. This was a
political move, the intention being to deprive the stall-keepers of
their votes. The Mayor, however, defended the action on the ground that
the King was about to visit the City, and that it behoved him to clear
the way of refuse and encumbrances.
In the year 1326 a letter was sent by the Queen and her son Edward
calling upon the citizens of London to aid with all their power in
destroying the enemies of the land, and Hugh le Despenser in especial.
Wherefore, when the head of Hugh was carried in triumph through Chepe,
with trumpets sounding, the citizens rejoiced.
In October of the same year when the Bishop of Exeter, Walter de
Stapleton, was on his way to his house in “Elde Dean’s Lane” to dine
there, he was met by the mob, dragged into Chepe with one of his
esquires, and there beheaded. Another of the Bishop’s servants was
beheaded in Chepe the same day.
On the birth of Edward III. on November 13, 1312, the people of London
made great rejoicings, holding carols, _i.e._ dances and songs, in Chepe
for a fortnight, while the conduits ran wine.
In 1482 a grocer’s shop in Cheapside with a “hall” over it—perhaps a
warehouse—was let for the rental of £4 : 6 : 8 per annum. The owner of
the shop was Lord Howard, created Duke of Norfolk in 1483.
References to Cheapside multiply as we approach more modern times. In
1522, when Charles V. came to England, lodgings were appointed for his
retinue. Among them was a house in Cheapside, a goldsmith’s. It
contained one parlour, one kitchen, one chamber, and one bed. The murder
of Dr. Lambe in 1631, the execution of William Hacket in 1591, the
burning of the Solemn Covenant in 1661,—these are incidents in the
history of Cheapside. Many other events belonging either to the history
of the City or of the realm have been mentioned elsewhere.
In the sixteenth century one of the sights of London was the Goldsmiths’
Row, built in 1491 on the site of certain shops and selds. Stow calls
the Row “a most beautiful frame of faire houses and shops consisting of
ten faire dwellinghouses and fourteen shops, all in one frame, builded
foure stories high, beautified towards the street with the Goldsmith’s
Arms and the likeness of woodmen, in memory of his name, riding on
monstrous beasts all richly painted and gilt.” Maitland, who certainly
could not remember it, says that it was “beautiful to behold the
glorious appearance of the Goldsmith’s shops in the South row of
Cheapside, which in a course reached from the Old Change of Bucklersbury
exclusive of four shops only, of three trades, in all that space.”
Coming now to a description of Cheapside as it is at present, we find a
statue of Sir Robert Peel standing on a block of granite. The whole is
more than 20 feet in height. The statue was put up in 1855, and on the
pedestal is the inscription of Peel’s birth and death. On the north of
Cheapside is a large stone block of building in one uniform style with
shops on the ground floor. This contains the Saddlers’ Hall, and in the
middle is the great entrance way solidly carried out in stone.
THE SADDLERS COMPANY
The date of the formation of the Company, and the circumstances
under which it was founded, are unknown. It existed at a very remote
period. There is now preserved in the archives of the Collegiate
Church of Saint Martin’s-le-Grand a parchment containing a letter
from that foundation, in which reference is made to the then ancient
customs of the Guild. This document is believed to have been written
about the time of Henry II., Richard I., or John, most probably in
the first of these reigns. In this letter reference is made to
“Ernaldus, the Alderman of the Guild.” This Ernaldus is stated by
Mr. Alfred John Kempe, in his work _Historical Notices of the
Collegiate Church of Saint Martin’s-le-Grand_, to have lived before
the Conquest, by which it may be inferred that the Company is of
Anglo-Saxon origin.
King Edward I., A.D. 1272, granted a charter. King Edward III., by
his charter 1st December, 37 Edward III., A.D. 1363, granted that as
well in the City of London as in every other city, borough, or town
where the art of Saddlers is exercised, one or two honest and
faithful men of the craft should be chosen and appointed by the
Saddlers there dwelling to superintend and survey the craft. This
charter was exemplified and confirmed by Henry VI., Henry VII., and
Henry VIII.
Richard II., by charter 20th March, 18 Richard II., A.D. 1374,
granted to the men of the mystery of Saddlers of the City of London,
that for the good government of the mystery they may have one
commonalty of themselves for ever, and that the men of the same
mystery and commonalty may choose and appoint every year four
keepers of the men of the commonalty to survey, rule, and duly
govern the same. Furthermore, that the keepers and commonalty, and
their successors, may purchase lands, to the yearly value of twenty
pounds, for the sustentation of the poor, old, weak and decayed
persons of the mystery, and this charter was exemplified, ratified,
and confirmed by Edward IV.
Queen Elizabeth, by charter 9th November, 1 Elizabeth, A.D. 1558,
exemplifies, ratifies, and confirms the previous charters, and
reincorporates the Company by the name of the wardens or keepers and
commonalty of the mystery or art of Saddlers of the City of London.
The charter names and appoints four wardens to hold office from the
date of the charter until the 14th August then following, and
authorises them to keep within their common hall an assembly of the
wardens or keepers or freemen of the same mystery, or the greater
part of them, or of the wardens, and of eight of the most ancient
and worthy freemen, being of the assistants of the mystery, and that
the wardens and eight of the assistants at least being present shall
have full power to treat, consult, and agree upon the articles and
ordinances touching the mystery or art aforesaid, and the good rule,
state, and government of the same. Power is given to elect four
wardens on the 14th August yearly. Power of giving two votes is
given to the master at doubtful elections. Powers are also given for
the government and regulation of the trade.
This is one of the most ancient, as it is also one of the most
interesting, of the City Companies. Their original quarter was at
St. Martin’s-le-Grand. The saddle played an important part in every
man’s life at a time when riding was the only method of travelling.
The saddlers were connected with the Church of St. Martin’s-le-Grand
and made some kind of convention with the Canons, the nature of
which is uncertain. Probably the Canons promised them their aid in
support of their rights and privileges, in return for which their
religious gifts and fees were paid to the Church of St. Martin. The
mystery of saddlery, like all others, overlapped, and encroached
upon, other mysteries and crafts. Then there followed quarrels. Thus
in 1307 (Riley, _Memorials_, p. 156) there was an affray between the
saddlers on one side and the loriners, joiners, and painters on the
other, on account of such encroachments. The quarrel was adjusted by
the Mayor and Aldermen. Another trouble to which so great a trade
was liable, was the desire of the journeymen to break off into
fraternities of their own. This pretension was seriously taken in
hand in 1796, and such fraternities were strictly forbidden.
The Company has had three halls, all on the same site. The first was
burned in the Great Fire; the second in 1822; the present hall was
built after the second fire, and is at No. 141 Cheapside.
At the corner of Wood Street is what remains of the churchyard of St.
Peter’s, Westcheap, the building of which was destroyed in the Great
Fire: a railed-in space, gravel covered and uninteresting, except for
the magnificent plane-tree which spreads its branches protectingly over
the low roofs in front. On the walls of the old houses near are fixed
two monuments, and a little stone tablet rather high up, with the
inscription:
“Erected at the sole cost and charges of the Parish of St. Peter’s,
Westcheap, A.D. 1687,”
followed by the names of the churchwardens.
=The Church of St. Peter, Westcheap=, was also called SS. Peter and
Paul. After the Great Fire its parish was annexed to that of St.
Matthew, Friday Street. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1302.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Abbot of St.
Alban’s before 1302. Henry VIII. seized it and granted it in 1545 to
the Earl of Southampton, in whose successors it continued up to
1666.
Houseling people in 1548 were 360.
A chantry was founded here at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary
by Nicholas de Faringdon, Mayor of London, 1313 and 1320, for
himself and Rose his wife, to which Lawrence Bretham de Faversham
was admitted chaplain, October 24, 1361; the endowment fetched £29 :
3 : 4 in 1548, when Sir W. Alee was priest. There was another at the
Altar of the Holy Cross.
Sir John Munday, goldsmith, Mayor, was buried here in 1527; also Sir
Alexander Avenon, Mayor in 1569; and Augustine Hind, clothworker,
Alderman, and Sheriff of London, who died in 1554.
The only charitable gifts recorded by Stow are: £2 : 4 : 4, the gift
of Sir Lionel Ducket; 3s. 4d., the gift of Lady Read; 7s. 6d., the
gift of Mr. Walton.
John Gwynneth, Mus. Doc. and author, was rector here in 1545; also
Richard Gwent, D.D., and William Boleyn, Archdeacon of Winchester.
ST. MARY-LE-BOW
But the ornament of Cheapside is St. Mary-le-Bow, which derived its
additional name from its stone “bows” or arches. The date of its
foundation is not known, but it appears to have been during or
before the reign of William the Conqueror. The court of the
Archbishop of Canterbury was held here before the Great Fire; and
though the connection between the church and the ecclesiastical
courts has ceased, it is still used for the confirmation of the
election of bishops. The “Court of Arches” owes its name to the fact
that it was held in the beautiful Norman crypt which still survives.
The church has been made famous, Stow observes, as the scene of
various calamities, of which he records details. In 1469 the Common
Council ordained the ringing of Bow Bell every evening at nine
o’clock, but the practice had existed for already more than a
century; in 1515 the largest of the five bells was presented by
William Copland. The church was totally destroyed in 1666, as well
as those of St. Pancras, Soper Lane and Allhallows, Honey Lane; the
two last were not rebuilt, their parishes being annexed to St.
Mary’s. Wren began building the present church in 1671 and completed
it in 1680. The cost was greater than any other of Wren’s parish
churches by £3000, £2000 of which was contributed by Dame
Williamson. The steeple was repaired by Sir William Staines in the
eighteenth century, and again in 1820 by Mr. George Gwilt. In 1758,
seven of the bells were recast, new ones were added, and the ten
were first rung in 1762 in honour of George III.’s birthday; the
full number now is twelve. In 1786 the parish of Allhallows, Bread
Street, was united with this.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1242.
The patronage of the church has always been in the hands of the
Archbishop of Canterbury and his successors, but Henry III.
presented to it in 1242.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The church measures 65 feet in length, 63 feet in breadth, and 38
feet in height; it contains a nave and two side aisles. The great
feature of the building is the steeple, which is the most elaborate
of all Wren’s works and only exceeded in height by St. Bride’s. It
rises at the north-west end of the church and measures 32 square
feet at the base. The tower contains three storeys. The highest is
surmounted by a cornice and balustrade with finials and vases, and a
circular dome supporting a cylinder, lantern, and spire. The
weather-vane is in the form of a dragon, the City emblem. The total
height is 221 feet 9 inches. The Norman crypt already mentioned
still remains, consisting of three aisles formed by massive columns;
it probably formed part of the building in William I.’s time.
Chantries were founded here:
By John Causton, to which John Steveyns was admitted chaplain,
December 2, 1452; by John Coventry, in the chapel of St. Nicholas;
by Henry Frowycke, whose endowment fetched £15 : 10s. in 1548; by
John de Holleghe, whose endowment produced £7 in 1548; by Dame
Eleanor, Prioress of Winchester, whose endowment yielded £4 in 1548.
The original church does not appear to have contained many monuments
of note. Among the civic dignitaries buried here was Nicholas
Alwine, Lord Mayor in 1499, whose name is familiar to readers of
_The Last of the Barons_.
Sir John Coventry, Mayor in 1425, was also buried here.
There is a tablet fixed over the vestry-room door, commemorating
Dame Dionis Williamson, who gave £2000 towards the building of the
church. On the west wall a sarcophagus commemorates Bishop Newton,
rector, who won celebrity by his edition of Milton first published
in 1749.
The parish possessed a considerable number of charities and gifts:
George Palin was donor of £100, to be devoted to the maintenance of
a weekly lecture.
Mr. Banton, of £50 for the same purpose. There were others, to the
total amount of £60.
There was one Charity School belonging to Cordwainer and Bread
Street Wards for fifty boys and thirty girls, who were put to
employments and trades when fit.
The following are among the notable rectors:
Martin Fotherby (d. 1619), Bishop of Salisbury; Samuel Bradford
(1652-1731), Bishop of Gloucester; Samuel Lisle (1683-1749), Bishop
of Norwich; Nicholas Felton (1556-1626), Bishop of Bristol; Thomas
Newton (1704-1782), Bishop of Bristol; and William Van Mildert
(1765-1836), Bishop of Llandaff, and later the last Prince-Bishop of
Durham.
Quaint sayings and traditions have gathered more thickly about St.
Mary’s than about any of the City churches. Dick Whittington’s story has
made the name familiar to every British child; while to be born “within
sound of Bow Bells” is more dignified than to own oneself a Cockney. In
sooth-saying we have the prophecy of Mother Shipton that when the
Grasshopper on the Exchange and the Dragon on Bow Church should meet,
the streets should be deluged with blood. They did so meet, being sent
to the same yard for repair at the same time, but the prophecy was not
fulfilled.
The ringing of the Bow bells in the Middle Ages signified closing-time
for shops, and the ringer incurred the wrath of the apprentices of Chepe
if he failed to be punctual to the second.
We now proceed to the =Poultry=.
Stow thus describes the place:
“Now to begin again on the bank of the said Walbrooke, at the east end
of the high street called the Poultrie, on the north side thereof, is
the proper parish church of St. Mildred, which church was new built upon
Walbrooke in the year 1457. John Saxton their parson gave thirty-two
pounds towards the building of the new choir, which now standeth upon
the course of Walbrooke.”
Strype says of it:
“The Poultry, a good large and broad Street, and a very great
thoroughfare for Coaches, Carts, and foot-passengers, being seated in
the Heart of the City, and leading to and from the Royal Exchange; and
from thence to Fleet Street, the Strand, Westminster, and the western
parts: and therefore so well inhabited by great tradesmen. It begins in
the West, by the old Jewry, where Cheapside ends, and reaches the Stocks
market by Cornhill. On the North side is Scalding Alley; a large place,
containing two or three Alleys, and a square Court with good buildings,
and well inhabited; but the greatest part is in Bread Street Ward, where
it is mentioned.”
Roman knives and weapons have been found in the Poultry. The valley of
the Walbrook, 130 feet in width, began its slope here. Nearly opposite
Princes Street, a modern street, there was anciently a bridge over the
stream. We find in the thirteenth century an inquest held here over the
body of one Agnes de Golden Lane, who was found starved to death, a rare
circumstance at that time, and only possible, one would think,
considering the charity of the monastic houses, in the case of a
bedridden person forgotten or deserted by her own people. In the
fourteenth century there are various bequests of shops and tenements in
the Poultry. In the fifteenth century we find that there was a brewery
here, near the Compter; how did the brewer get his water? In the same
century the Compter—which was one of the two sheriffs’ prisons—seems to
belong to one Walter Hunt, a grocer. In the sixteenth century one of the
rioters of 1517 was hanged in the Poultry; there was trouble about the
pavements and complaints were made of obstructions by butchers,
poulterers, and the ancestors of the modern coster, who sold things from
barrows, stopping up the road and refusing to move on. Before the Fire
there were many taverns in the Poultry; some of them had the signs which
have been found belonging to the Poultry.
The later associations of the place have been detailed by Cunningham:
“Lubbock’s Banking-house is leased of the Goldsmiths, being part of Sir
Martin Bowes’s bequest to the Company in Queen Elizabeth’s time. The
King’s Head Tavern, No. 25, was kept in Charles II.’s time by William
King. His wife happening to be in labour on the day of the King’s
restoration, was anxious to see the returning monarch, and Charles, in
passing through Poultry, was told of her inclination, and stopped at the
tavern to salute her. No. 22 was Dilly, the bookseller’s. Here Dr.
Johnson met John Wilkes at dinner; and here Boswell’s life of Johnson
was first published. Dilly sold his business to Mawman. No. 31 was the
shop of Vernor and Hood, booksellers. Hood of this firm was father of
the facetious Tom Hood, and here Tom was born in 1798” (_Hand-book of
London_).
Here is a little story. It happened in 1318. One John de Caxtone,
furbisher by trade, going along the Poultry—one charitably hopes that he
was in liquor—met a certain valet of the Dean of Arches who was carrying
a sword under his arm, thinking no evil. Thereupon John assaulted him,
apparently without provocation, and drawing out the sword, wounded the
said valet with his own weapon. This done, he refused to surrender to
the Mayor’s sergeant, nor would he give himself up till the Mayor
himself appeared on the spot. We see the crowd—all the butchers in the
Poultry collected together: on the ground lies the wounded valet,
bleeding, beside him is the sword, the assailant blusters and swears
that he will not surrender, the Mayor’s sergeant remonstrates, the crowd
increases, then the Mayor himself appears followed by other sergeants, a
lane is made, and at sight of that authority the man gives in. The
sergeants march him off to Newgate, the crowd disperses, the butchers go
back to their stalls, the women to their baskets, the costers to their
barrows. For five days the offender cools his heels at Newgate. Then he
is brought before the Mayor. He throws himself on the mercy of the
judge, sureties are found for him that he will keep the peace, and he
consents to compensate the wounded man.
For Stocks Market, St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, on the site of which the
Mansion House stands, and the vicinity, formerly included in the
Poultry, see Group III.
At the east end of the Poultry is =Grocers’ Alley=, formerly Conyhope
Lane, of which Stow says:
“Then is Conyhope Lane, of old time so called of such a sign of three
conies hanging over a poulterer’s stall at the lane’s end. Within this
lane standeth the Grocers’ hall, which company being of old time called
Pepperers, were first incorporated by the name of Grocers in the year
1345.” The Grocers’ Hall really opens into Princes Street.
THE GROCERS COMPANY
The Company’s records begin partly in Norman-French, partly in Old
English, as follows: “To the honour of God, the Virgin Mary, St.
Anthony and All Saints, the 9th day of May 1345, a Fraternity was
founded of the Company of Pepperers of Soper’s Lane for love and
unity to maintain and keep themselves together, of which Fraternity
are sundry beginners, founders, and donors to preserve the said
Fraternity.”
(Here follow twenty-two names.)
The same twenty-two persons “accorded to be together at a dinner in
the Abbot’s Place of Bury on the 12th of June following, and then
were chosen two the first Wardens that ever were of our Fraternity,”
and certain ordinances were agreed to by assent among the
Fraternity, providing that no person should be of the Fraternity “if
not of good condition and of this craft, that is to say, a Pepperer
of Soper’s Lane or a Spicer in the ward of Cheap, or other people of
their mystery, wherever they reside”; for contributions among the
members, for the purposes of the Fraternity, including the
maintenance of a priest; the wearing of a livery; arbitration by the
Wardens upon disputes between members; attendance at Mass at the
Monastery of St. Anthony on St. Anthony’s Day, and at a feast on
that day or within the octave, at which feast the Wardens should
come with chaplets and choose and crown two other Wardens for the
year ensuing; attendance at the funerals of members; the taking of
apprentices; assistance of unfortunate members out of the common
stock; and that “any of the Fraternity may according to his
circumstance and free will devise what he chooses to the common box
for the better supporting the Fraternity and their alms.”
From external evidence it appears that for two centuries at least
before 1345 there had existed a Guild of Pepperers, who had
superseded the Soapers in Soper’s Lane, and probably absorbed them.
The twenty-two Pepperers, who in 1345 founded the social,
benevolent, and religious fraternity of St. Anthony, were of “good
condition,” probably the most influential and wealthy men in the
Pepperers’ guild; in founding the new brotherhood “for greater love
and unity” and “to maintain and assist one another,” they did not
desert their old guild, but formed a new fraternity within it. They
did not seek, apparently, to alter the institution of the Guild of
Pepperers, nor did they adopt a distinctive title for themselves;
but the movement was obviously an important one, and attracted
notice and jealousy, which was perhaps increased by the foreign
connections of some of the members. So rapidly did the Company gain
favour and strength that in 1383, not forty years after its
foundation, there were one hundred and twenty-nine liverymen of whom
not less than sixteen were Aldermen. At that time, no doubt, the
Company exercised a preponderating influence in the City of London.
The new brotherhood was styled the Fraternity of St. Anthony from
1348 to 1357. After this year there is an hiatus in the Company’s
records, and when these recommence in 1373 the title is “company” or
“fraternity” of “gossers,” “grosers,” “groscers,” or “grocers.”
The origin of the term “grocer” and its application to the Company
are involved in considerable obscurity. As far as can be
ascertained, the first use of the word, officially, is against the
Company from without, and in an aspect of reproach. It occurs in a
petition to the King and Parliament in 1363, against the new
fraternity that “les Marchantz nomez Grossers engrossent toutes
maneres de marchandises vendables.”
It is by no means improbable that the term, first suggested by less
successful rivals in trade, was adopted by the leading dealers “en
gros” for the name of the company, which formed round the Fraternity
of St. Anthony, and probably absorbed the whole Guild of Pepperers.
From this time forward the Company began to act with energy in the
interests of trade. In 1394 we find them, together with some Italian
merchants, presenting a petition to the Corporation complaining of
the unjust mode of “garbling,” _i.e._ cleansing or purifying spices
and other “sotill wares.” The petition was entertained, and the
Company were requested to recommend a member of their own body to
fill the office, and on their nomination Thomas Halfmark was chosen
and sworn garbeller of “spices and sotill ware.”
The fraternity, after holding their meetings for three years at
the Abbot of Bury’s, assembled in 1348 at Fulsham’s house at the
Rynged Hall, in St. Thomas Apostle, close to St. Anthony’s Church
in Budge Row, Watling Street, where they at this time obtained
permission to erect a chantry, etc., and called themselves the
Fraternity of St. Anthony. They ultimately collected at
Bucklersbury (“Bokerellesbury”), at the Cornet’s Tower, which had
been used by Edward III. at the beginning of his reign as his
exchange of money and exchequer. Here the Company began to
exercise the functions entrusted to them of superintending the
public weighing of merchandise.
In 1411 a descendant of Lord FitzWalter, who, in the reign of Henry
III., had obtained possession of the chapel of St. Edmund which
adjoined his family mansion, sold the chapel to the Company for 320
marks, and in the next reign the Company purchased the family
mansion and built their Hall upon the site. The foundation stone was
laid in 1427 and the building was completed in the following year.
The expenses were defrayed by the contributions of members. Five
years later the garden was added.
In 1428 the Company’s first charter of incorporation was granted by
King Henry VI., and they became a body politic by the name of
“Custodes et Communitas Mysterii Groceriæ Londini.” Nineteen years
later the same king granted to the Company the exclusive right of
garbling throughout all places in the kingdom of England, except the
City of London.
In 1453 the Company, having the charge and management of the public
scale or King’s Beam, made a regular tariff of charges. It appears
that to John Churchman, grocer, who served the office of sheriff in
1385, the trade of London is indebted for the establishment of the
first Custom House. Churchman, in the sixth year of Richard II.,
built a house on Woolwharf Key, in Tower Street Ward, for the
tronage or weighing of wools in the port of London, and a grant of
the right of tronage was made by the King to Churchman for life. It
is probable that Churchman, being unable of himself to manage so
considerable a concern as the public scale, obtained the assistance
of his Company, and thus the management of the weigh-house and the
appointment of the officers belonging to it came into the hands of
the Grocers Company.
Henry VIII. granted to the City of London the Beam with all
appurtenances, and directed its management to be committed to some
expert in weights. The City thereupon gave the management to the
Company, only requiring one-third of the profits. The Company
enjoyed, uninterruptedly, these privileges up to 1625, when a
dispute arose with the City, and an agreement was made whereby the
Company were to appoint four under-porters, and present four
candidates for Master Porter, the Lord Mayor to choose one of them.
Several disputes followed with the Corporation, who in 1700 ejected
the officers appointed by the Company, and tried their right at law.
No result is reported, but the Company filled up vacancies after
that date, and up to 1797, when a Bill was passed for making Wet
Docks at Wapping, and this appears to have had the effect of
depriving the Company of their privileges.
The Company throughout this period kept, in common with others, a
store of corn, according to ancient custom, for the supply of the
poor at reasonable prices when bread was dear.
The Company was also bound to maintain an armoury at their Hall.
At the time of the Great Plague in 1665 the Company were assessed in
various sums of money for the relief of the poor, and they also
provided a large quantity of coals.
The next year the Great Fire of London inflicted losses on the
Company from which it did not recover for nearly a century. The
Company’s Hall and all the adjacent buildings (save the turret in
the garden, which fortunately contained the records and muniments of
the Company) and almost all the Company’s houses were destroyed. The
silver recovered from the ruins of the Hall was remelted and
produced nearly 200 lbs. weight of metal; this was sold for the
Company’s urgent present necessities. In 1668 Sir John Cutler came
forward and proposed to rebuild the parlour and dining-room at his
own charge. In the same year ninety-four members were added to the
Livery. The next year a petition was presented to Parliament praying
for leave to bring in a Bill to raise £20,000 by an equal assessment
upon the members of the Company of ability. The application to
Parliament failed, and an effort was then made to raise the £20,000
among the members, but only £6000 was subscribed.
In January 1671 a Special Court was summoned to consider a Bill
exhibited in Parliament by some of the Company’s creditors, praying
for an Act for the sale of the Company’s Hall, lands, and estates to
satisfy debts; and to make members of the Court liable for debts
incurred. A Committee was appointed and in 1672 the Hall was, at the
instance of the Governors of Christ’s Hospital, sequestered, and the
Company ejected till 1679, when, after great difficulties and
impediments, money was borrowed to pay off the debts and get rid of
the intruders. In 1680 the Court of Assistants agreed that the most
effectual way of regaining public confidence was to rebuild the
Hall.
In order to prevent a second sequestration an Inquisition was taken
in 1680 before Commissioners for Charitable Uses, and, pursuant to a
decree made by those Commissioners, a period of twenty years was
allowed to the Company to discharge their debts. The next year, to
secure an accession of influence and talent for the support of the
Company, sixty-five members were added to the Court, and a number of
Freemen were summoned, and eighty-one members added to the Livery.
In 1683 the Company arranged, by arbitration, their difficulties
with the Governors of Christ’s Hospital, and their prospects
appeared more hopeful when the celebrated Writ of Quo Warranto was
issued by King Charles II. against the City charters and liberties.
The Company, with the view of propitiating the King, by deed under
seal, voluntarily surrendered the powers, franchises, privileges,
liberties, and authorities granted or to be used or exercised by the
Wardens and Commonalty, and the right of electing and nominating to
the several offices of Wardens, Assistants, and Clerk of the
Company, and besought his Majesty to accept their surrender. Charles
II. obtained judgment upon the Quo Warranto against the City, and
all the redress that the Company could obtain was the grant of
another charter under such restrictions as the King should think
fit. His successor, James II., with a view to secure the goodwill
and support of the City, sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and
voluntarily declared his determination to restore the City charters
and liberties as they existed before the issuing of the Writ of Quo
Warranto; and subsequently Judge Jeffreys came to Guildhall and
delivered the charters with two grants of restoration to the Court
of Aldermen.
The history of the Company during the eighteenth century is an
account of pecuniary difficulties and the gradual extrication by the
public spirit and foresight of the members.
As regards the profession or trade of the members, a return exists
of the whole numbers for the year 1795 when the Court contained 32,
the livery numbered 81, and the freemen 228. Of these, 40 were
Grocers.
The number of the Livery returned in 1898 was 183. The Corporate
Income was £37,500; the Trust Income was £500.
The advantages of being a member of the Company are as follows:
(1) Freemen are entitled to apply on behalf of their children for
the Company’s presentations (six in number) to Christ’s Hospital;
for the Company’s Scholarships for free education at the City of
London School. The orphan children of freemen are alone eligible for
the three presentations to the London Orphan Asylum.
Freemen are entitled to take apprentices.
Freemen, and widows and daughters of freemen, in needy circumstances
may apply for relief, either temporary or permanent. Loans to
freemen are practically abolished.
(2) Twelve months after a liveryman has been elected he is entitled,
provided he live within twenty-five miles of the polling place,
Guildhall, to be put upon the Register of Voters for the City, which
entitles him to a vote at the election of Members of Parliament for
the City; a liveryman is also entitled to vote at the election of
the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London. The livery receive
invitations from the Master and Wardens to the four public dinners
in the months of November, February, May, and July, in each year,
and at every fifth dinner an invitation for a friend as well.
In some years when the honorary freedom of the Company is bestowed
on distinguished personages, there is an extra public dinner to
which the livery are invited. At the public dinner in May, called
the Restoration Feast, a box of sweetmeats is presented to every
guest. Liverymen, and the widows and daughters of liverymen in needy
circumstances may apply for relief, either temporary or permanent.
The Hall of the Company has always occupied the same site since the
first erection in 1427, when the Wardens bought part of the demesne
of Lord FitzWalter in Conyhope Lane.
This building perished in the Great Fire of 1666. A new hall was
built, but in 1798-1802 this building was pulled down and rebuilt.
Alterations and additions were made in 1827, when the present
entrance into Princes Street was constructed. There were formerly
three ways of access to the hall—one from the Old Jewry; one by the
lane called Grocers’ Alley; and one by Scalding Lane from St.
Mildred, Poultry, of which a scrap of the churchyard still remains.
The two lanes opened on a small _Place_ on the north side of which
was Grocers’ Hall and on the south side the Poultry Compter.
The hall destroyed in 1666 would have become by this time historical
as the place to which the Houses removed from Westminster in 1642
after the attempt to seize the five members on 4th January of that
year. The Committee appointed by both Houses met first at Guildhall
and adjourned to Grocers’ Hall to “treat of the safety of the
Kingdoms of England and Ireland.” It was in this hall that the City
entertained the Houses, June 17, 1645, in the midst of the Civil
War, and on June 7, 1649, when the Civil War was over. For forty
years, 1694-1734, the Grocers’ Hall was rented and occupied by the
Governors and Company of the Bank of England.
The Company numbered among its members Charles II., James II.,
William III., the Earl of Chatham, William Pitt, George Canning, and
many others.
In the eighteenth century, the “Lane” was chiefly occupied by houses
called spunging houses; here persons were confined by the sergeants
belonging to the Poultry Compter, so that they might come to some
compromise with their creditors, and not be taken into prison.
Hawkesworth, essayist and man of letters, was originally clerk to an
attorney in this court. Boyse, the ragged poet, was confined in one of
the spunging houses. Here he wrote the Latin letter to Cave:
INSCRIPTION FOR ST. LAZARUS’S CAVE.
Hodie, teste coelo summo,
Sine pane, sine nummo;
Sorte positus infeste,
Scribo tibi dolens moeste.
Fame, bile, tumet jecur:
Urbane, mitte opem, precor,
Tibi enim cor humanum
Non a malis alienum:
Mihi mens nec male grato,
Pro a te favore dato.—ALCÆEUS.
Ex gehenna debitoria,
Vulgo domo spongiatoria.
The Alley led to an open court. In this open place in 1688 a cart-load
of seditious books was burned.
The east side of the Place is at present occupied by one wall of the
Gresham Life Assurance Society, a magnificent building facing Poultry.
It has finely proportioned polished granite columns with Corinthian
capitals adding strength to the frontage, and a balcony with parapet
running horizontally across the front. This was rebuilt in 1879. It
stands on the site of St. Mildred, Poultry.
=The Church of St. Mildred, Poultry=, was situated on the north side
of the Poultry. It was rebuilt in 1456, and, after being destroyed
by the Great Fire, again rebuilt in 1676, when the parish of St.
Mary Colechurch was annexed. In 1872 it was taken down, and the
parish joined to St. Olave, Jewry. The earliest date of an incumbent
is 1247. The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior
and Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, 1325; Henry VIII., 1541,
and so continued in the Crown.
Houseling people in 1548 were 277.
Chantries were founded here by Solomon Lanfare or Le Boteler,
citizen and cutler, at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, to which
Wm. de Farnbergh was admitted chaplain, October 4, 1337; by Hugh
Game, poulterer, who endowed it with rents, which fetched £10 in
1548, when John Mobe was priest; by John Brown, for himself, his
wife, Margaret his daughter, and Giles Walden, etc., to which John
de Cotyngham was admitted chaplain, April 6, 1366. One John Mymmes
had licence from Richard II. to found the Guild of Fraternity of
Corpus Christi here; the endowment fetched £10 : 8 : 8 in 1548, when
John Wotton was priest thereof. Here was a “Little Chapell” valued
at 60s. in 1548.
Thomas Ashehill was buried here; he gave great help in rebuilding
the church about 1450; also Thomas Morstead, chirurgeon to Henry
IV., V., and VI., and one of the sheriffs of London. In more recent
times, Wm. Cronne was commemorated; he was a Fellow of the Royal
Society and of the College of Physicians, and died in 1706.
A great number of benefactors are recorded by Stow, of which the
most notable are: William Watson, of £100, whereof £65 was received;
William Tudman, of £247 in all, for various charities; Sarah Tudman,
of £80; Lady Elizabeth Allington, £200, towards rebuilding.
One free school is recorded, called Mercers’ School (Stow).
John Williams (d. 1709), Bishop of Chichester, 1696, was rector
here; also Benjamin Newcome, D.D., Dean of Rochester.
On the east side of Grocers’ Hall Court stood the =Poultry Compter=.
Strype describes the place and its government.
[Illustration:
ST. MILDRED, POULTRY
]
“Somewhat west to this Church is the Poultry Compter, being the Prison
belonging to one of the Sheriffs of London, for all such as are arrested
within the City and liberties thereof. And, besides this Prison, there
is another of the same Nature in Wood Street for the other Sheriff; both
being of the same nature, and have the like officers for the Execution
of the concerns belonging thereunto, as shall be here taken notice of.
So that what is said here for Poultry Compter, belongs also to Wood
Street Compter.
“The Charge of those prisons is committed to the Sheriffs.
“Unto each Compter also belongs a Master Keeper; and under him two
Turnkeys, and other servitors.
[Illustration:
INSIDE THE POULTRY COMPTER
]
“The poorer sort of prisoners, as well in this Compter, as in that in
Wood Street, receive daily relief from the sheriff’s table, of all the
broken meat and bread. And there are divers gifts given by several well
disposed people, towards their subsistence. Besides which, there are
other benevolences frequently sent to all the prisons by charitable
persons; many of which do conceal their names, doing it only for charity
sake. And there are other gifts, some for the releasement of such as lie
in only for prison fees; and others, for the release of such, whose
debts amount not to above such or such a sum” (Strype, vol. i. p. 567).
This was the only prison in London with a ward set apart for Jews. “Here
died Lamb, the conjuror (commonly called Dr. Lamb), of the injuries he
had received from the mob, who pelted him (June 13, 1628), from Moorgate
to the Windmill in the Old Jewry, where he was felled to the ground with
a stone, and was thence carried to the Poultry Compter, where he died
the same night. The rabble believed that the doctor dealt with the
devil, and assisted the Duke of Buckingham in misleading the king. The
last slave imprisoned in England was confined (1772) in the Poultry
Compter. This was Somerset, a negro, the particulars of whose case
excited Sharpe and Clarkson in their useful and successful labour in the
cause of negro emancipation” (Cunningham’s _Hand-book of London_).
When Whitecross Street Prison (1815-1870) was erected, the prisoners
were removed there from the Poultry, and the site of the Compter was
built upon partly by a Congregational Chapel, the congregation of which
removed to the Holborn Viaduct when the City Temple was built.
The prison was burned down in the Fire, whereupon the prisoners were
taken to Aldgate until it was rebuilt. It was an ill-kept, unventilated,
noisome place.
It is worthy of note that the earliest bequest to the Compter mentioned
in the _Calendar of Wills_ belongs to the fifteenth century, and that
most of the legacies to the prisoners were made after the Reformation
and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In some of them we find mention of
the “Hole” and of the “Twopenny Ward.”
In 1378 there was an altercation between the Mayor and one of the
sheriffs. Allusion is made to that sheriff’s “own compter” in Milk
Street, which may be taken for that of Wood Street, as the Compter lay
between the two, though it stood in Bread Street until the year 1555. In
the year 1382 a sumptuary law was issued restricting the dress of women
of loose life, and those who offended were to be taken to one of the
Compters. In 1388 we find the porter of a Compter insulting Adam Bamme,
alderman, for which he was removed from his office. We find also a
householder taken to the Compter for refusing to pay his rates and
abusing the collector. In 1413, an old man named John Arkwythe, a
scrivener, was summoned by Alderman Sevenoke for allowing the escape of
a certain priest caught in adultery in St. Bride’s Church. John Arkwythe
lost his temper, clutched the Alderman by the breast and threatened him.
They sent him to Newgate, but, considering his age, they let him go,
only depriving him of the freedom of the City. In 1418, one William
Foucher, for contempt of Court, was sent to solitary imprisonment in the
Compter, and prohibited from speaking to any one except those who should
counsel him repentance and amendment.
From these cases it would appear that the Compters were used partly as
houses of detention before trial, and that trial was frequently deferred
in order that the offender might endure a term of imprisonment in
addition to the pillory, or the release on finding security, which would
follow.
West of Grocers’ Alley is the =Old Jewry=, one of the most interesting
places in the whole of London on account of its having been the Ghetto,
though not a place of humiliation, for the Jews of London. When they
came to London they received this quarter for their residence; why this
place, so central, so convenient for the despatch of business, was
assigned to them, no one has been able to discover. In the learned work
of Mr. Joseph Jacobs (_The Jews of Angevin England_) he shows that Jews
were in Oxford and Cambridge as well as in London in the time of the
Normans.
The older name of the street was Colechurch Street. In the Receipts and
Perquisites of the Tower from the Jews of London are found the
following:
For two pounds found in the Jewry for
forfeit 60s.
[The sense of this entry is doubtful. Perhaps the two pounds were
forfeited and 60 is wrongly transcribed for 40 (lx. for xl.).]
(Guildhall MS. 129, vol. ii. p. 95_a_.)
From a certain Christian woman found in the
Jewry for the purpose of making an
exchange. She fled and threw away the
money 100s. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain goldsmith fighting in the
Jewry, of a fine 21s. (_ibid._ p. 96).
From Nicholas, the convert, goldsmith of
London, for his boys fighting in the Jewry 100s. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain Christian found in the Jewry
by night 7s. 11½d. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain boy coming into the Jewry 66s. 8d. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From John of Lincoln because he was found in
the Jewry by night £6 (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain Christian woman in the Jewry
by night 18s. (_ibid._ p. 97).
It thus appears that the Jewry was walled in with gates. Had it been a
simple street, a thoroughfare, there could have been no objection to any
one passing through. As for the teaching of the Church respecting Jews,
these extracts from Mr. Jacob’s book will show the hatred which was
inculcated towards them.
“If any Christian woman takes gifts from the infidel Jews or of her own
will commits sin with them, let her be separated from the church a whole
year and live in much tribulation, and then let her repent for nine
years. But if with a pagan let her repent seven years.
“If any Christian accepts from the infidel Jews their unleavened cakes
or any other meat or drink and share in their impieties, he shall do
penance with bread and water for forty days; because it is written ‘to
the pure all things are pure.’
“It is allowable to celebrate mass in a church where faithful and pious
ones have been buried. But if infidels or heretics or faithless Jews be
buried, it is not allowed to sanctify or celebrate mass; but if it seem
suitable for consecration, tearing thence the bodies or scraping or
washing the walls, let it be consecrated if it has not been so
previously.”
The earliest mention of the Jews occurs in the _Terrier of St. Paul’s_,
1115:
“In the ward of Haco ... in the Jew’s street (?Old Jewry) the land of
Lusbert, in the front on the west side, is 32 feet in breadth. Towards
St. Olave’s is fourscore and fifteen feet; again towards St. Olave’s is
65 feet, and in the front 13 feet. The land in the front is 73 feet, and
in depth 41 feet, and pays 10s.”
In 1264, and again in 1267, the popular hatred of the Jews broke out
with unmistakable violence. They fled to the Tower, while the mob
destroyed and sacked their buildings.
In 1290 they were banished.
Their synagogue, which stood in the north-east corner of the present
street, was given to the Fratres de Saccâ (see _Mediæval London_, vol.
ii. p. 365), and on their dissolution it was ceded to Robert FitzWalter
and converted into a merchant’s residence. Here lived and died Robert
Large to whom Caxton was apprenticed.
The later history of the street may be quoted from Cunningham:
“The last turning but two on the east side (walking towards Cateaton
Street) was called Windmill Court, from the Windmill Tavern, mentioned
in the curious inventory of ‘Innes for Horses seen and viewed,’
preparatory to the visit of Charles V. of Spain to Henry VIII., in the
year 1522. ‘From the Windmill,’ in the old Jewry, Master Wellbred writes
to Master Knowell, in Ben Jonson’s play of _Every Man in his Humour_.
Kitely, in the same play, was a merchant in the Old Jewry. The house or
palace of Sir Robert Clayton (of the time of Charles II.), on the east
side, was long a magnificent example of a merchant’s residence,
containing a superb banquetting-room, wainscotted with cedar, and
adorned with battles of gods and giants. Here the London Institution was
first lodged; and here, in the rooms he occupied as librarian, Professor
Porson died (1808). Dr. James Foster, Pope’s ‘modest Foster’—
Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten Metropolitans in preaching well—
was a preacher in the Old Jewry for more than twenty years. He first
became popular from Lord Chancellor Hardwicke stopping in the porch of
his chapel in the Old Jewry, to escape from a shower of rain. Thinking
he might as well hear what was going on, he went in, and was so well
pleased that he sent all his great acquaintances to hear Foster.”
Alexander Brown, the cavalier song-writer, was an attorney in the Lord
Mayor’s Court in this street, and Bancroft, who built the almshouses of
Mile End, was an officer in the court. Sir Jeffrey Bullen, Lord Mayor,
1457, lived in this street, where he was a mercer.
In the fifteenth century there was standing in Old Jewry, north of St.
Olave’s Church, and extending to the north end of Ironmonger Lane and
down the lane as far as St. Martin’s Church, a large building of stone
“very ancient,” the history and purpose of which were unknown except
that Henry VI. appointed one John Stert, keeper of the place, which he
called his principal palace in the Old Jewry. It was standing when Stow
was a boy, but he says the outward stone-work was little by little taken
down, and houses built upon the site. It was known as the Old Wardrobe.
I know of no other reference to this place, but one would like to learn
more. The taking away of the stone “little by little” accounts in like
manner for the gradual disappearance of the ruins of the monastic
houses.
The modern street is not of much interest. The City Police Office is in
a court of some size near the north end. The Old King’s Head is in an
elaborate building faced with red sandstone, and a grimy blackened old
brick house close by contains the Italian Consulate.
In Frederick Place are two rows of Georgian houses in dull brick,
varying only slightly in detail. The iron link-holders of a past fashion
still survive on the railings before some of the houses. No. 8, at the
south-eastern corner, contains some curious and interesting mantels. One
of these has a central panel representing a boar hunt; this is in relief
enclosed in a large oval. There are fine details also in other
fireplaces in the house.
But these are not the only objects of interest in Frederick Place, for
in exactly the opposite corner, the north-west, in a house numbered 4,
are one or two fireplaces which surpass these in beauty if not in
quaintness. In one of the rooms there is a very high and
well-proportioned white marble mantelpiece, with singularly little
decoration, which is yet most effective. All these houses are now used
as offices by business men, and the evidences of bygone domestic
occupation add a human interest to the daily routine.
=St. Mary Colechurch= was situated in the Poultry at the south-west
corner of the Old Jewry. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and
not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of St. Mildred,
Poultry. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of Henry III., who
presented to it one Roger de Messendene, April 21, 1252; then the
Master and Brethren of St. Thomas de Acon; afterwards Henry VIII.,
who granted it to the Mercer’s Company, April 21, 1542.
Houseling people in 1548 were 220.
Chantries were founded here by Thomas de Cavendish, late citizen and
mercer, at the Altar of St. Katherine, to which Roger de Elton was
instituted chaplain, March 15, 1362-63; Agnes Fenne, who left by
Will, dated March 28, 1541, £140 to maintain a priest for twenty
years; Henry IV. granted a licence to William Marechalcap and others
to found a Fraternity in honour of St. Katherine, February 19,
1399-1400; a further licence was granted by Henry VI., June 19,
1447, the endowment of which fetched £9 in 1548, when Robert Evans
was Chaplain.
No monuments are recorded by Stow. In this church St. Thomas à
Becket and St. Edmund were baptized. The parish had one gift-sermon,
but no other gifts or legacies are recorded.
Thomas Horton (d. 1673), Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, 1649, was a
rector here.
=The Church of St. Olave, Jewry=, stood on the west side, near the
middle of Old Jewry, and was sometimes called St. Olave, Upwell. It
was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1673. It was
subsequently taken down. The tower, which alone was left, is now
part of a dwelling-house. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s, who granted it in 1171 to the Prior and Convent of
Butley, Suffolk, when it became a vicarage. Henry VIII. seized it,
and so it continues in the Crown.
Houseling people in 1548 were 198.
The open space, belonging to the ancient graveyard, abuts on
Ironmonger Lane.
A chantry was founded here by John Brian, rector, who died in 1322,
and a licence was granted by the King, August 20, 1323; Robert de
Burton, chaplain, exchanged with William de Aynho, June 15, 1327. In
1548 the endowment fetched £13 : 1 : 4.
Robert Large, Mayor in 1440, and donor of £200 to the church, was
buried here. Among the later monuments is one in memory of Sir
Nathaniel Herne, Governor of the East India Company; he died 1679.
The church was not rich in charitable gifts and legacies. Among the
benefactors, Sir Thomas Hewet gave £5 : 4s. yearly; Henry Lo gave
£10 for ever; Gervase Vaughan gave a house, rented at £14 per annum,
to provide bread for the poor every Sunday.
On the west side of Old Jewry there was a free school, said to be
founded by Thomas à Becket in 1160, for 25 scholars. There were two
almshouses for 9 poor widows of armourers, each of whom received 6s.
per quarter, and 9 bushels of coal a year; those past labour
received £1 a quarter. These were the gift of Mr. Tindal, citizen
and armourer of London.
Anthony Ellys, D.D. (1690-1761), Bishop of St. David’s, was rector,
also Joseph Holden Pott (1759-1847), Archdeacon of London.
Old Jewry runs through into Gresham Street, which is roughly parallel
with Cheapside.
=Gresham Street=, formerly called Catte, Cateaton, or Ketton Street, or
Cattling Street, when changed to its present name also swallowed up Lad
Lane and Maiden Lane.
Catte Street is mentioned in a deed dated the Saturday after Ascension
1294, in which Hugh de Vyenne, Canon of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, grants to
the master and scholars of Balliol, _inter alia_, four shillings of
yearly rent from the tenement held by Martin the arbitrator, in Catte
Street, opposite the church of St. Lawrence, also the same amount from
the tenement of Adam de Horsham opposite the church.
On the Feast of Ascension in the year 1360 a case of great interest was
heard at the Hustings of common pleas.
In this case, John de Wyclif, Master of Balliol, Oxford, was attached to
make answer to Nicholas Marchant in a plea of distresses taken. Wyclif
is accused of having made an unlawful seizure upon the freehold of
Nicholas in the parish of St. Lawrence, Jewry, on Wednesday after the
Feast of St. Gregory that year. From the pleading it appears that the
house was once the property of “one Thippe, wife of Isaac of Suthwerk, a
Jewess”; after her exit from England it came to King Edward, grandfather
of Edward III. Their tenement in Catte Street was given (so the
pleadings show) by that king to Adam de Horsham, mercer, uncle of
Nicholas above named, at a rent of one penny per annum to the King.
Wyclif joins the suit. Nicholas has to pay arrears and is amerced
[hitherto Wyclif’s mastership of Balliol was ascribed to date from 1361,
hence the importance of this MS.] (Historical MS. Commission, Report
IV., p. 448).
There is another ancient mention of Catte Street, belonging to the year
1281, in which one Aaron, a wealthy Jew and a money-lender, contracts
with Rudolph the mason for the building of a house in Catte Street.
From Aldermanbury westward to Wood Street, Gresham Street was formerly
called Lad Lane. The name occurs certainly as early as 1301, as
containing a house belonging to Coke Bateman, a Jew. It is first found
in the _Calendar of Wills_ in 1362, after which we hear no more of it
till 1419. Here a Roman pavement was found.
One of the most important of the old coaching inns, the Swan with two
Necks, stood in Lad Lane. From this place an amazing number of coaches
and wagons set out every day. The sign is still to be seen over the
entrance to the London and South Western Railway Company’s yard.
The street was widened in 1845. It has a picturesque appearance, for the
houses project irregularly at the corners of the cross streets. The
Church of St. Lawrence occupies part of the north side.
ST. LAWRENCE, JEWRY
The date of the foundation of St. Laurence or Lawrence, Jewry, is
not known, but the church was burnt down by the Great Fire, and
rebuilt by Wren 1671-76, when the parish of St. Mary Magdalene was
annexed. The new building was erected at the expense of the
parishioners, assisted by a liberal subscription from Sir John
Langham. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1321. The patronage of
the church was in the hands of Henry de Wickenbroke, who, May 30,
1294, gave the Rectory to Balliol College, Oxford, when a Vicarage
was here ordained, and in this college it still continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 148.
The church measures 82 feet in length, 71 feet in breadth, and 39
feet in height. It contains only one aisle, on the north side,
separated from the rest of the building by Corinthian columns. Above
the columns is a richly worked entablature, which is continued all
round the church. The east front has a façade formed by four
Corinthian columns with entablature, supporting the pediment. The
tower, which is three storied, is surmounted by a square turret,
supporting a square pedestal, and above this by an octagonal
spirelet with a ball and vane; the vane is in the form of St.
Laurence’s emblem, the gridiron. The total height is 160 feet.
Chantries were founded here: For William de Kancia at the Altar of
St. John, July 10, 1321; by Thomas Wytton at the Altar of Virgin
Mary, the endowment of which fetched £8 : 4 : 8 in 1548, when Thomas
Sandlord was chaplain; by William Myldreth at the Altar of St.
Michael the Archangel, the endowment of which yielded £7 : 6 : 8 in
1548, when Rowland Robynsonne was chaplain; by Simon Bonyngton,
whose endowment fetched £22 : 13 : 4 in 1548 when Thomas Sylvester
was chaplain; by Simon Bartlett, whose endowment yielded £5 : 4 : 8
in 1548, when Thomas Ballard was chaplain; by Simon Gosseham, for
two chaplains, whose endowment fetched £14 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when
Thomas Begley and Henry Whorleston were the priests.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
ST. LAWRENCE, JEWRY
]
The old church was the burying-place of a considerable number of
eminent citizens. Among them were: Richard Rich, ancestor of the
Earls of Warwick and Holland, who died in 1469; Sir Geffney Bullen,
Lord Mayor in 1459 and great-great-grandfather to Queen Elizabeth;
Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor in 1537 and father of Sir Thomas
Gresham; Sir Michael Dormer, Lord Mayor in 1541; Roger Thorney, who
founded a Fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge; Dame Alice Avenon,
a benefactress to the parish. Against the west wall there is a
monument displaying three busts, in memory of Alderman Sir William
Halliday, sheriff in 1617; this was erected in 1687 by Dame Margaret
Hungerford in place of that destroyed by the Fire. Dr. John Wilkins,
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and vicar here in 1662, was
buried under the north wall of the chancel. There are monuments also
to John Tillotson, lecturer here for some years, and to Dr. Benjamin
Whichcote, the celebrated preacher, who succeeded Wilkins as vicar.
On the western part of the south wall a large monument commemorates
Mrs. Sarah Scott, who died in 1750, leaving £700 for parish
purposes. Sir John Langham was a donor of £250 for the purpose of
church repairing, etc., and no gifts or bequests belonging to the
parish are recorded by Stow, except two weekly lectures each at £30
per annum, the donors of which are not stated by him. There was one
Grammar School, kept over the vestry. William Bell, Master of
Balliol College, Oxford, in 1494 was a rector here; also William
White, Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1125-39; Edward Reynolds
(1629-1698), Bishop of Norwich; Seth Ward (1617-1689), Bishop of
Exeter; John Mapletoft (1631-1721), President of Zion College; and
Benjamin Morgan Cowie (1816-1900), Dean of Exeter.
Gresham College stands at the end of a row of uniform plaster-faced
houses. The College itself is a great yellow-plastered building with
disproportionately heavy cornice and rigid balconies.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by J. Coney._
SS. ANNE AND AGNES
]
In Guildhall Yard is a fine view of the ornamental gateway of the
Guildhall. On the east is the Guildhall Tavern, and on the west, beyond
the church, is an open space, formerly the churchyard, with a few
plane-trees dotted about, and a fountain of Gothic design, erected in
1866, with statues upon it representing St. Lawrence and the Magdalene.
St. Martin’s House, on the north side, is a modern red sandstone
building.
St. Anne’s Churchyard, with one or two plane-trees of good size, makes a
break in the line of modern houses beyond.
SS. ANNE AND AGNES, ALDERSGATE
This church stands on the north side of Gresham Street, towards the
west end. The date of the foundation of the original church is
uncertain, but mention is made of it in a deed dating between
1193-1212, in St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was damaged by fire in 1548,
reconstructed and again destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The
present building was completed by Wren in 1681. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1322.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of:
The Dean and Canons of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, 1322; the Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1510; the Bishop of Westminster by grant of
Henry VIII., January 11, 1540-41; the Bishop of London and his
successors by grant of Edward VI., July 4, 1550; confirmed by Queen
Mary, March 3, 1553-54.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The present building is of brick, and measures 53 feet square, and
35 feet in height. Within this area four Corinthian columns form
another square. The tower, rising at the west, measures 14 feet at
the base and culminates in a vane; the total height is 95 feet.
A chantry was founded here by Thomas Juvenal and Alice his wife at
the Altar of St. Nicholas; to which Richard Grant was instituted
chaplain, April 10, 1363.
The church formerly contained monuments to Stephen Brackynbury,
gentleman, Usher to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen
Elizabeth. William Gregory, Mayor of London, 1461, was buried here,
but no monument remained in 1598.
The principal benefactors were William Gregory, alderman and
skinner, and John Werke, goldsmith, both of whom bequeathed a number
of houses to the parish in the fifteenth century.
Some of the most notable rectors were: John Hopton (d. 1558), Bishop
of Norwich; Samuel Freeman, Dean of Peterborough, 1691; and Fifield
Allen, Archdeacon of Middlesex.
At the corner of Noble Street is the churchyard of St. John Zachary,
which parish is now incorporated with St. Anne and St. Agnes. This is a
fairly large piece of ground surrounded by brick houses. There are many
upright tombstones among the blackened shrubs within. Beyond there is a
large building of red brick finished with piers of polished granite.
=The Church of St. John Zachary=, which was situated in Maiden Lane,
was burnt down in the Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of
St. Anne, Aldersgate. It was built or founded by a monk named
Zachary. The earliest date of an incumbent is some year between 1217
and 1243.
The church has always been in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of
St. Paul’s, from the earliest record up to 1666, when the parish was
annexed to that of St. Anne and St. Agnes.
Houseling people in 1548 were 240.
Chantries were founded here by Thomas Lichfield in 1320; for Roger
Beynyn and Isabel his wife before 1322.
Stow records that the monuments in this church were well preserved
in his time. Some of the most notable persons commemorated were: Sir
James Pemberton, who founded a free school in Lancashire, and was
donor of many other charitable gifts (died 1613); Philip Strelley
(d. 1603), benefactor to the parish, and Henry de Spondon, rector
here in 1366.
There were some small legacies belonging to the parish, but few
names are recorded by Stow. Colonel Henry Drax was donor of £20, and
his wife of £30. Philip Strelley, of 40s. a year.
By the subscribers of the united parishes thirty boys and twenty
girls were taught, clothed, and put out as apprentices.
William Byngham, founder of Christ Church College, Cambridge, was
rector here.
In Gresham Street are also the halls of two City Companies.
THE HABERDASHERS COMPANY
It has been surmised that the haberdashers were originally a branch of
the mercers, and formed a trade association for the protection and
general supervision of the trade carried on by the haberdashers and
milliners. They are supposed to have existed as early as the year 1372,
being mentioned in the City records as having then promulgated their
first ordinances. By the Company’s earlier minute books they seem to
have been at one time associated with the felt-makers.
The first charter granted to the Haberdashers Company was by Henry VI.
(June 3, 1448); it authorised and empowered the liegemen of the mystery
of haberdashers to erect and found a guild or fraternity in honour of
St. Katherine. The charter grants that the fraternity shall be a
perpetual and incorporate fraternity of haberdashers of St. Katherine of
London, to hold lands to themselves and their successors and with a
common seal.
Henry VII. by charter united the crafts of hurriers and hatter merchants
into one craft, and by another charter, 17th Henry VII., he united the
hurriers and hatter merchants with the craft of haberdashers, and
declared they should be one craft and perpetual commonalty by the name
of Merchant Haberdashers.
Henry VIII.—November 1511—by charter of this date confirmed previous
charters, and, on the application of the Merchant Haberdashers, altered
and translated the style of the said guild into the name of the Master
and Four Wardens of the Guild of Fraternity of St. Katherine, of the
Craft of Haberdashers, in the City of London. It enacted that no
foreigner or stranger in London should make any caps or hats for the use
of any stranger, unless admitted by the master and wardens, under pain
or forfeiture of the thing made, one half to go to the Mayor and
Commonalty of the City, and the other to the use of the mystery or craft
aforesaid.
Philip and Mary—1557—by charter of this date confirmed all previous
charters.
Elizabeth—June 19, 1578—by charter confirmed all previous charters, and
it is under this charter that the Company is now governed.
It is thought there can be little doubt that the Haberdashers Company
was originally established for trade purposes, and was in former times
associated with other trades, as the felt-makers and hatters. The
before-mentioned charters of incorporation gave the Company considerable
powers for regulating the trade in haberdashery, and for enforcing its
orders in reference thereto, and these powers were no doubt exercised
for many years. In course of time, however, the business or trade of
haberdashery became so interwoven with other trades, such as drapers,
milliners, mercers, hosiers, etc., that there is no longer any distinct
business of haberdashery. The Company, however, being anxious to help
those who are engaged in it have for the last eight or nine years
advertised that the sum of £100 will be annually awarded as prizes to
the actual inventors of new patterns, designs, or specimens of articles
of haberdashery proper, provided such inventors were not manufacturers
or dealers. No control is now exercised by the Company in reference to
the trade of haberdashery.
Freemen are eligible for pensions and gifts if in needy circumstances.
The children of freemen have the privilege of competing for certain
exhibitions in the gift of the Company.
Liverymen are also eligible for the pensions and gifts under similar
circumstances, and their children have like privileges for competing in
exhibitions. They are also eligible (provided their fathers or
grandfathers are not members of the governing body) for educational
grants which are made voluntarily by the Company annually towards
defraying the cost of education, and liverymen’s children who have
distinguished themselves in their studies are also eligible for four
exhibitions of £40 each, also voluntarily given by the Company and
tenable for three years, for the purpose of pursuing their studies in
the higher branches of learning. The children of liverymen and freemen
have also a priority of claim over outsiders for admission to the
Company’s Aske’s Schools at Hatcham and West Hampstead and Acton.
The members of the governing body, on attending courts and committees
(but not otherwise), receive fees for their attendance.
The present number of pensioners is 152, and the amount paid to them
£2999 : 10s.
The present number of recipients of annual gifts is 40, and the
amount paid to them £215 : 2s.
It is believed that few, if any, of the recipients of the above
pensions and gifts carry on or have carried on the trade the name of
which is borne by the Company. Considerable grants are made every
year to poor clergy and poor hatters.
In addition to the above yearly gifts various sums are from time to
time voluntarily granted to poor members of the Company, their
widows and families, amounting in 1879 to £276 : 10s.
The Hall is at 77 Gresham Street. It was built by Wren but burned
down in 1864.
The Trust Income of the Company is expended in schools and
almshouses, the most important schools being Aske’s, referred to
above. There are other almshouses at Monmouth, at Newland in
Gloucestershire, and at Newport, Salop. There are also schools at
Monmouth, Pontypool, Newport, Salop, and Bunbury connected with the
Company. They give several exhibitions, and they grant pensions and
give large subscriptions to philanthropic objects.
THE WAX CHANDLERS COMPANY
There is no documentary evidence in the possession of the Wax
Chandlers’ Company of an earlier date than 45th Edward III., A.D.
1371, which is a petition to the Court of Aldermen of the City of
London for leave to choose searchers for bad wares, and for approval
of byelaws then submitted for the regulation of the craft. The
prayer of this petition seems to have been acceded to, for Walter
Rede and John Pope were in the same year chosen and sworn to oversee
the said craft, and the defaults from time to time found to present
to the mayor and aldermen, etc. These documents are set out (p. 104)
in the Report of the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations in
England and Wales dated 1837. That the craft of wax chandlers had an
association previous to this date there are no documents to show,
although from the petition it would appear that it had, but without
power to enforce obedience to its orders.
The following is a list of the charters, etc., granted at various
times to the Company:
1. Charter of 1 Richard III., 1484. 2. Grant of arms, 2 Richard
III., 1485. 3. Further grant of arms, 28 Henry VIII., 1536. 4.
Exemplification and confirmation of said charter of Richard III. by
Philip and Mary, 7th June, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary. 5. Letters
Patent of confirmation of said charter by Queen Elizabeth, 2
Elizabeth, 1560. 6. Ditto, ditto. King James I., 2 James I., 1604.
7. Charter of 15 Charles II., 1663. 8. Byelaws pursuant to
last-mentioned charter, and the statute 19 Henry VII., approved and
signed and sealed by the Lord Chancellor and two Chief Justices of
the King’s Bench and Common Pleas, dated June 28, 1664, referred to
at p. 100 of the above-mentioned report. 9. Charter of 1 James II.,
1685 (this charter was avoided under the General Statute).
At present they have a livery of twenty-seven, a Corporate Income of
£1370, a Trust Income of £230, and a hall in Gresham Street.
The use of wax tapers and candles not only in the churches, but also
in the houses of the wealthy sort, caused the material to be
valuable and the mystery of preparing it prosperous. The Company was
in fact in great credit until the Reformation, when the greater part
of its work—that of providing lights for the churches—vanished.
In ancient documents the =Guildhall Yard= is mentioned frequently, as
might be expected. In Agas’s map the yard is enclosed, and entered by a
gateway. Some of the land belonged to Balliol College, Oxford. It was
widened by taking off part of the churchyard of St. Lawrence, Jewry.
Here were the taverns of the Three Tuns and the White Lyon. Sir Erasmus
de la Fountaine had property here and gave his name to Fountain Court.
A passage out of Guildhall Yard and others out of Basinghall Street and
Cateaton Street led to the two courts of =Blackwell= or =Bakewell Hall=.
[Illustration:
BLACKWELL HALL, 1819
]
Of this historic mansion Stow speaks at some length. He says that it was
built upon vaults of stone brought from Caen in Normandy, and that it
was covered over in painting and carved stone with the arms of the
Basings or Bassings, viz. “a gyronny of twelve points gold and azure.”
This family when Stow writes was “worn out.” In the 36th year of Edward
III., one Thomas Bakewell was living in this house. In the 20th of
Richard II., for a sum of £50, licence was given to transfer this hall
with certain messuages appertaining to the mayor and commonalty of the
City. Here was established the year after, by Whittington, thrice Mayor,
a weekly market for cloth, no foreigners being allowed to sell cloth
anywhere except in Blackwell Hall and in the courts thereof. In the year
1588 the house, being decayed, was taken down and rebuilt. In the Great
Fire the Hall was destroyed, together with a great quantity of cloth
stored by country manufacturers in its warehouses. “What,” says Lord
Clarendon, “have we lost in clothe if the little Company [the
stationers] lost £200,000 in books?”
“The late edifice of Blackwell Hall appears to have been erected about
the year 1672, and it exhibited the dull and prison-like appearance of
the older storehouses of London, in the unglazed transom-windows with
iron bars, contained in the front. The attic was ornamented with a
cornice and pediment, and in the centre was a heavy stately stone
gateway between two Doric columns, surmounted by the royal arms, carved
in a panel above; and the city arms, impaling those of Christ’s
Hospital, supported by winged boys, were sculptured in the head of the
arch. The disposition of the interior consisted of two quadrangular open
courts, one beyond the other, surrounded by buildings of freestone.
Within the Hall were several large rooms or warehouses, both above and
on the ground floor, in which the factors employed by the clothiers
exposed their cloths on the established market days, Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday, the first being the principal. These apartments formed the
Devonshire, Gloucester, Worcester, Kentish, Medley, Spanish, and Blanket
Halls, etc., in which one penny was charged for the pitching of each
piece of cloth, and one halfpenny per week each for resting there. The
profits paid to Christ’s Hospital arising from those charges are said to
have produced £1000 yearly” (Wilkinson’s _Londina Illustrata_, vol. ii.
p. 36).
The changes gradually made in the cloth trade caused the decay of the
market. In 1815 an Act was passed enabling the Mayor and Corporation to
pull down the hall of St. Mary Magdalene Chapel, which was stated to be
in a ruinous condition, and to replace it by buildings for courts.
The present Art Gallery, the Museum, the Library, Guildhall Buildings,
the Courts, etc., stand upon the site of the Hall, the Chapel, and the
adjacent ground. The Hall was taken down in 1819.
The Guildhall, like the Mansion House, Royal Exchange, etc., is so woven
in with the history of the City that an account of it must be sought in
the historical volumes preceding this.
We may return to the Poultry by the next north and south thoroughfare,
namely:
=Ironmonger Lane=, which is frequently mentioned in early deeds and
documents. As early as the middle of the twelfth century documents are
spoken of in “Ismongers’ Lane,” in the parish of St. Mary Colechurch. In
1245 there are shops, solars, and cellars in the street. Riley (_Mem._
128. 15) presents two most interesting inquests connected with two
murders in this street. The lane is called variously Ismongers’,
Iremongers’, and Ironmongers’.
On the east side of this street, near Cheapside, was the Church of St.
Martin Pomeroy.
=St. Martin Pomeroy= is supposed by Stow to have gained its second
name from an apple garden there, but it was more probably from a
family named Pomeroy. In 1629 the church was repaired, but it was
burnt down in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being
united to that of St. Olave, Jewry. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1361.
[Illustration:
_Photo. Sandell, Ltd._
MERCERS’ HALL
]
The patronage of the church before 1253 was in the hands of Ralph
Tricket, who gave it in 1253 to the Prior and Canons of St.
Bartholomew, Smithfield; after the Reformation it continued in the
Crown up to 1666, when it was annexed to St. Olave.
Houseling people in 1548 were 120.
Chantries were, founded here: For Henry atte Roth, chandeler, to
which Richard Scot was admitted, February 7, 1391-92; for William
Love, to which Stephen Benet was collated, January 24, 1391-92. Only
two monuments are recorded by Strype, neither of which commemorate
persons of eminence. There was a free school, said to have been
founded by Thomas à Becket, in the Old Jewry, for twenty-five
scholars. There were also two almshouses for nine widows of
Armourers or Braziers, the gift of Mr. Tindal, citizen and armourer
of London.
John Kingscote, Bishop of Carlisle, 1462, was rector here.
In Ironmonger Lane is the Mercers’ Hall.
THE MERCERS COMPANY
The Mercers, although not incorporated until the year 1393 (17th
Richard II.), were in very early times associated voluntarily for
the purposes of mutual aid and comfort. They come to light as a
fraternity first in the time of Henry II., for Gilbert à Becket, the
father of St. Thomas of Canterbury, is said to have been a mercer;
and in the year 1192, Agnes de Helles, sister of St. Thomas, and her
husband, Thomas Fitztheobald de Helles, in founding the hospital of
St. Thomas of Acon, which is distinctly stated to have been built on
the spot where the future archbishop was born, constituted the
fraternity of mercers patrons of the hospital. The hospital and the
Company were intimately connected until the Reformation, and afford
a good example of the connection of secular guilds and
ecclesiastical foundations in the Middle Ages, secular guilds being
established for the promotion of trade and almsdeeds, and
ecclesiastical foundations for devotion and almsdeeds.
It is probable that a guild could not be carried on without the
King’s licence at this early date; and it would seem a necessary
interference that the mercers had a licence at the time of Henry
II., from their not appearing among the “adulterine” guilds, or
guilds set up without the King’s licence, which were fined in 1180
for being established without such licence.
The Merchant Adventurers Company gradually became detached from the
Mercers Company in the course of the fifteenth century, especially
by the opening of the trade with Flanders in the year 1497; and yet
more so in 1564, when Queen Elizabeth, by charter, constituted the
Merchant Adventurers a distinct body politic or corporation in
England; but the Mercers Company still kept up an intimate
connection with the “Brotherhood beyond the Sea,” the last link
connecting the two companies being only severed by the Great Fire of
London in 1666, which destroyed the office which the Merchant
Adventurers held of the mercers under Mercers’ Hall.
It is probable, however, that trade in former times was separated
into main divisions, the staple and the miscellaneous, now known as
mercery. Silk, when first imported, fell in England into the latter
division, hence the combined appellation “silk mercers”; but on the
Continent the word was applied to the vendors of all goods carried
about for sale. Cervantes, speaking of the original history in
Arabic of Don Quixote, says he purchased it of a book mercer; and
Guicciardini, in his description of the Netherlands, speaks of
merceries as well of silk as of other materials, and in another
place says that mercery comprehends all things sold by retail or by
the little balance or scales. Skinner, in his _Etymologicon_,
published in 1671, says “that a mercer was _mercator peripateticus_”
or an itinerant merchant.
The master and wardens superintended the taking of apprentices by
their members, searching the weights and measures of shopkeepers
belonging to the Company, and otherwise regulating their commercial
dealings. The Company appointed brokers of mercery wares, under the
first charter to the City by Edward II., by which it was declared
that there should be no brokers in the City but those chosen by the
merchants in the mysteries in which they exercised their office, and
under the charter of Edward III., which declared that none should
exercise the office of broker in foreign merchandise in London
unless chosen by the merchants of the mysteries in which they should
act. The Company also appointed a common meter of linen cloth and
silk, a common weigher of raw silk, and tackle porters to do their
work at the waterside. The Company no longer appoint to any of these
offices, because of the different methods of carrying on business
which have obtained in modern times.
In the 13th year of Edward II. the Companies had advanced towards
the phase of “Livery Companies.” “_Moultz des gens de Mesters en
Loundres furent vestus de suite._”
The Company seem to have exercised some supervision over the
retailers of silk and other mercery wares previous to the reign of
Queen Elizabeth; but such supervision was probably not founded on
any legal basis, as a petition to the privy council at the
commencement of that queen’s reign, praying that these rights should
be recognised, was unsuccessful.
The numbers of the Company have been recruited by the admission of
apprentices, and from the sons of mercers, who have from very early
times been always entitled to the freedom; and one reason for the
smallness of the Company may probably have been the old custom,
established so long ago as 1347, that no strangers should be
admitted to the freedom without the consent of the generality. The
Company has never been very numerous. In 1347, when it was
refounded, 103 persons paid their entrance fees; in 1527 the Company
numbered 144; in 1707, when most numerous, 331; and on December 31,
1880, 166.
The earliest date of which there is a record in the Company’s books
is the year 1347, when it was reorganised, if not refounded.
The statement that no one should take as an apprentice one who had
carried packs through the country, called pedlars, seems to show
that a mercer at this time had ceased to be, if he had ever been, a
pedlar.
Previous to the charter granted by Richard II., the mercers did not
pretend to be a corporation, but simply a member of the City. In
their petition to Parliament in 10th Richard II., against Nicholas
Brembre, then mayor, they call themselves “the folk of the mercerie,
a member of the city.” The Company, having at this time no hall of
their own, assembled either in the house of one of the wardens, or
in the hall or church of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, the
site of which is now occupied by their chapel and hall, and
subsequently occasionally at the Prince’s Wardrobe in the Old Jewry.
They had then no landed property, and their income was derived from
subscriptions, apprentice fees, and fines, and amounted to about £20
a year.
The Company’s first charter, enrolled at the Record Office (the
original of which has been lost), is dated at Westminster the 13th
January, 17th Richard II. (1393).
The most important event in the early history of the Mercers Company
was the appointment of the Company as trustees of the charities of
Sir Richard Whittington, several times master or principal warden of
the Company, and four times Lord Mayor of London. He died in the
year 1422-23. It is not necessary to enumerate precisely the
munificent works of charity which were carried out by Sir Richard
Whittington in his lifetime, or by his executors after his death;
suffice it to say that he, or they by his direction, rebuilt the
parish church of St. Michael Royal, rebuilt the prison of Newgate,
built or repaired the City conduits, contributed very largely to the
building of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and of the Guildhall, to the
library of the Corporation of London, and the library of the
Greyfriars, and established a chaplain at St. Paul’s. Whittington
appointed John Coventry, John White, John Carpenter, and William
Grove to be executors of his will, which was proved in March
1422-23. On the 12th November, 3rd Henry VI. (1424), his executors
obtained a charter from the King to found Whittington college and
almshouses. Of both these foundations the Mercers Company were made
trustees.
The Company’s second charter was granted by Henry VI. at the prayer
of the executors of Whittington.
On the accession of Edward IV. it became necessary for the quieting
of men’s titles that the grants made by the Lancastrian kings should
be confirmed, and accordingly the statute 1st Edward IV. cap. 1 was
passed, by which it was enacted that all liberties and franchises
granted by Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., to counties or
corporations, and among others to the wardens and commonalty of the
Mystery of Mercers of the City of London, should be of the same
force and virtue as if they had been granted by kings reigning _de
jure_. The Mercers Company is the only company named in the Act, the
others being included in general words.
[Illustration:
MERCERS’ HALL
]
1463. This year is a most important one in the Company’s annals, as
in it the court of assistants was first established. The business of
the Company having very much increased, both on account of their
connection with the Merchant Adventurers Company and also from the
management of the trusts of Whittington, Abbot, and Estfield, it was
felt that the whole burden of the Company’s affairs should not be
cast upon the wardens, and that it was not desirable that the
generality should be constantly called together. For many years
previous to this date it had been the practice that the wardens, and
the aldermen free of the Company, and their peers, should hold
assemblies for the devising of ordinances or other matters, their
deliberations being afterwards submitted to a general court for
approval. On the 23rd of July 1463, at a general court of the
Company, the following resolution was passed: “It is accorded that
for the holding of many courts and congregations of the fellowship
it is tedious and grievous to the body of the fellowship, and
specially for matters of no great effect, that hereafter yearly
shall be chosen and associate to the custoses for the time being, 12
other sufficient persons to be assistants to the said custoses, and
all matters by them, or most part of them, finished, to be holden
firm and stable, and the fellowship to abide by them.”
The rest of the history of the Mercers Company is mainly occupied by
a recital of charities which were placed in their hands to
administer. It is sufficient to call attention to the many and
splendid endowments which have been placed in the hands of the
Company.
The general court appoint three trustees of the Prisons’ Charities
Trust, decide when the corporate seal shall be affixed, and
determine the amount of fees which shall be paid for attendance at
general courts, courts of assistants, and committees. The fee paid
to a member for his attendance at general courts and courts of
assistants is £4 : 4s., and to a member attending a committee, £2 :
2s.
(1) A freeman is entitled from Lady Campden’s legacy for loans, and
from the money legacies for loans, to have the loan of not more than
£500 without interest for not more than five years, giving approved
security.
He is entitled, if his circumstances warrant it, and within the
limits of the Company’s nominations, to have his sons placed in
Christ’s Hospital under Daniel Westall’s gift, and clothed, boarded,
and educated there from eight years old to fifteen, and perhaps to
nineteen; and his daughters educated out of the Company’s funds at
an expense not exceeding £50 per annum, from nine years of age to
fifteen, and if they show reasonable proficiency and ability to
seventeen, under regulations approved by the general court.
He is also entitled in case of old age, misfortune, or infirmity to
receive relief proportioned to his circumstances out of the
Company’s or out of Sir Richard Whittington’s estate, which was left
to the Company specially for that purpose; and his widow and
daughters are entitled to relief under similar circumstances.
(2) Liveryman.—A liveryman is entitled to the same advantages as a
freeman, and in addition is invited to three dinners in the course
of the year. He has the right to attend common hall, and to vote at
elections of lord mayors and sheriffs and of such other officers of
the Corporation of London as are elected by the livery; and if
resident within a radius of twenty-five miles from the City, to vote
at elections of members of Parliament for the City of London.
He is eligible, and if of sufficient position and standing he is
generally called in rotation by the court of assistants, to be a
member of their body.
(3) Master, Warden, or otherwise a member of the governing body.—A
member of the court of assistants is summoned to general courts as
well as to meetings of the court of assistants (which are held
weekly, except during Christmas and Easter weeks and six weeks in
August and September). He is also eligible to be placed on
committees appointed by the court and on the Gresham committee.
He is invited to dine at all dinners in the Company’s hall.
He recommends in rotation to appointments to Mercers’ School, and to
out-pensions on the Whittington estate, and to the Whittington
almshouses.
The court of assistants appoint nine governors of St. Paul’s School
under the provisions of the scheme, and also governors and members
of the council and of the executive committee of the City and Guilds
of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education.
The master and wardens are members of every committee appointed by
the Company. They distribute Alderman Walthall’s and Lady
Hungerford’s gifts, appoint preachers in Mercers’ Chapel under
various gifts, and are _ex officio_ governors of St. Paul’s School.
They also receive under various wills of benefactors to the Company
certain small annuities, and are entitled to the surplus of
Blundell’s estate, which surplus amounted in 1880 to £205 : 9 : 9.
A member of the Company will probably come on to the court of
assistants when he is about forty-five years of age, and he remains
a member for life.
The Company does not carry on any trade or occupation whatever.
The Mercers’ Hall is interesting as standing on the site of the
ancient House of St. Thomas Acon. On the dissolution the Mercers
purchased the buildings of the House.
The Mercers had occupied a house adjoining for more than a hundred
years before this acquisition. The Religious House itself was
undoubtedly on the site of the house where Thomas was born. The
buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire. The second hall was
built on the same site with another chapel in which service is held
every Sunday evening. Fragments of the ancient buildings can still
be seen. The present hall is said to have been designed by Wren. The
entrance in Cheapside was built in 1879.
Among the more distinguished members of this great Company have been
Whittington, Caxton, and Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir Henry Colet, Sir
Baptist Hicks. The present number of the livery is returned in
_Whitaker_ as 187; the Corporate Income as £48,000; the Trust Income
as £35,000.
For an account of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, which at first
extended from Ironmonger Lane to Old Jewry, see _Mediæval London_, vol.
ii. p. 262.
=King Street= was constructed after the Fire, in order to give a nobler
approach to the Guildhall. Pepys refers to the ground having been
already bought in December 1667. Strype says that “it is well inhabited
by Norwich Factors and other wholesale dealers of wealth and
reputation.” He calls it New King Street.
=Trump Street= or =Trump Alley= is not named in Agas, Stow, or Ogilvy;
Strype calls it Duke Street.
The mention of John Carsyl, Tromppour, Trumper or Trumpet-maker (1308),
also of William Trompeor (1321) and William le Trompour, gives Riley
occasion for the following notes:
“The persons who followed this trade mostly lived, in all probability,
in Trump Street, formerly Trump Alley (a much longer street then than it
is now), near the Guildhall; their principal customers not improbably
being the City waits, or watchmen; each of whom was provided with a
trumpet, also known as a “wait,” for sounding the hours of the watch,
and giving the alarm. In reference to this trade it deserves the remark,
that the only memorial that has come down to us of the Chapel of St.
Mary the Virgin, and of St. Mary Magdalen and all Saints, formerly
adjoining the Guildhall, is a massive stone coffin (now in the Library
at Guildhall) with its lid, whereon is sculptured a cross between two
trumpets, and around its margin the following inscription: Godefrey le
Trompour: gist: ci: Deu: del: ealme: eit: merci. ‘Godefrey the Trompour
lies here, God on the soul have mercy.’ In Trump Alley, close adjoining,
he probably lived, sold trumpets, and died—if we may judge from the
character of the writing, in the latter half of the fourteenth century”
(Riley’s _Memorials_, p. xxi).
=St. Lawrence Lane.=—“Antiquities in this lane I find none other, than
that among many fair houses, there is one large inn for receipt of
Travellers called Blossoms inn, but corruptly Bosoms inn, and hath to
sign St. Laurence the Deacon, in a border of blossoms or flowers”
(Stow’s _Survey_).
Cunningham adds as follows:
“When Charles V. came over to this country in 1522, certain houses and
inns were set apart for the reception of his retinue, and in St.
Lawrence Lane, at ‘the signe of Saint Lawrence, otherwise called Bosoms
yn, xx beddes and a stable for lx horses’ were directed to be got ready.
The curious old tract about Bankes and his bay horse (_Maroccus
Extaticus_) is said to be by ‘John Dando, the wier-drawer of Hadley, and
Harrie Runt, head ostler of Besomes Inne.’”
The inn was also called “Bossamez” Inn and Boscham’s Inn.
=Honey Lane Market= was established soon after the Fire. Strype thus
speaks of it (vol. i. p. 566):
“Adjoining to this street, on the north side, is Honey Lane, being now,
as it were, an alley with a Freestone pavement, serving as a passage to
Honey Lane Market; the former Lane, and other buildings, being since the
fire of London converted into this market. Among which buildings, was
the Parish Church of St. Allhallow’s, Honey Lane; and, because it was
thought fit not to rebuild it, the parish is united to St. Mary-le-Bow.
This Market is well served, every Week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
and Saturdays, with Provisions. The Place taken up by this Market is
spacious. In the middle is a large and square Market-house, standing on
pillars, with rooms over it, and a bell-tower in the midst. There are in
the market one hundred and thirty-five standing stalls for butchers,
with racks, blocks, and others necessaries, all covered over, to shelter
them from the injury of the weather; and also several stalls for
fruiterers. The west end of the market lieth open to Milk Street, where
there is a cock of conduit water for the use of the market. There are
two other passages into it, that is, one out of St. Lawrence’s Lane,
besides that which comes out of Cheapside; which passages are inhabited
by grocers, Fishmongers, Poulterers, Victuallers, and Cheesemongers.”
Complaints are found in the wardmote book of people making fires in the
market; of butchers killing sheep and lambs there; and of the annoyance
caused by the farmers letting soil and refuse lie about the place. Honey
Lane, which led to it, is said by Stow to be so called, being a dark and
narrow place, on account of the constant washing required to keep it
clean—a far-fetched derivation. The name is indeed very ancient. In a
grant, dated 1203-15, made by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s to one
Richard de Corilis mention is made of “Huni” Lane, and in another grant
of the same period the house in question, “a stone built house,” is
mentioned in between Milk Street and “Huni” Lane. There was one Elias de
Honey Lane in 1274.
The market was closed in 1835 and the City of London School built on its
site. The school has now been removed to the Embankment and the place is
let out in offices.
=The Church of Allhallows, Honey Lane=, stood on the north side of
Cheapside in Honey Lane. It was burnt down in the Great Fire and the
parish was then annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow. Honey Lane Market was on
the site of the church. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1327.
The patronage was in the hands of: Simon de Creppyng, citizen, who
presented in 1327; several private persons, among whom was Thomas
Knoles, Mayor of London, 1399; the Grocers Company, 1471-1666, when
it was annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow.
Houseling people in 1548 were 150.
[Illustration:
CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL, MILK STREET
]
Chantries were founded here for John Fourneys, citizen, and
Katherine his wife, at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, August 22,
1396 (Pat. 20 Rd. II. p. i. m. 21), and by Alexander Speat, Thomas
Trompington, John Downe, and Henry Edelmeton. Sir John Norman, Mayor
of London, 1453, was buried in this church. No bequests or
charitable gifts are recorded in Parish Clerk’s Summary of 1732.
Among the notable rectors were Thomas Garrard, who was burnt at
Smithfield, and John Young, Bishop of Gallipoli.
=Milk Street= is one of the streets of Cheapside which peculiarly
recalls the site of the old market by its name. There is not much
recorded of this street. Sir Thomas More was born here, “the brightest
star,” says Fuller, “that ever shone in that _via Lactea_.” In the
Calendar of Wills the street is repeatedly mentioned as containing
shops. The earliest date on which it occurs is 1278. In Riley’s
_Memorials_ we find a cook living here in 1351; in 1377 the sheriff has
“his own Compter” in this street; in 1390 one Salamon Salaman, a mercer
of Milk Street, gets into trouble for having putrid fish in his
possession; and in 1391 one William of Milk Street, no name or trade
given, is falsely imprisoned by means of a conspiracy.
Milk Street in the thirteenth century was the residence of certain Jews.
Thus in 1247 Peter the Jew had a house there; and in 1250 leave was
granted to John Brewer to build a chapel in his house, formerly that of
Benedict the Jew; and in 1285 Cresse the Jew had a house there. In 1294
Martin the Arbalestin lived in Milk Street; and in 1285 the mayor had
his residence there, his house being rented of the Prior of Lewes.
=The Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street=, formerly stood on
the east side, towards the south end of Milk Street, Cheapside. It
was burnt down in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being
annexed to that of St. Lawrence, Jewry. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1162.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s continuously from 1162, until it was burnt down, when
the parish was annexed; the Dean and Chapter now share the alternate
patronage of the amalgamated parish (see Hist. MSS. Rept. ix. p.
18^{bc} 19^a as to a lawsuit concerning the patronage).
Houseling people in 1548 were 220.
Chantries were founded here by: Robert de Kelsey, about 1334, for
himself, Julian his wife, Hen. de Galeys, and Sara de Eldham, to
which Hen. de Kelsey was admitted chaplain, September 5, 1336; the
above Robert de Kelsey endowed it with the “Caufare” in Westcheap,
which fetched £3 : 14 : 8 in 1548; John Offam, whose endowment
fetched £14 : 9 : 6 in 1548, when William Baker was priest; Thomas
Kelsey, whose endowment fetched £12 : 13 : 4 in 1548.
A great number of the monuments in this church had been defaced by
Stow’s time. He records the interment of Thomas Knesworth, mayor in
1505; Sir John Langley, mayor in 1576. No names of benefactors are
recorded by him.
Lawrence Bothe, Bishop of Durham 1457, of York 1476, was rector
here; also John Bullingham (d. 1598), Bishop of Gloucester.
=Wood Street= or Lane is the next important thoroughfare westward. It is
supposed by Stow to have been so called because it was built wholly of
wood; but Stow suggests also an alternative derivation, that it may have
been named after one Thomas Wood, sheriff in 1491. The latter suggestion
must be ruled out, because in 1394 a testator bequeathed his “mansion”
in Wood Street. It is worthy of note that the first mention of the
street is of houses, rents, and tenements, and so it continues until the
end of the thirteenth century, when we begin to hear of shops; in 1349 a
brewery is spoken of—the water, as in the case of Mugwell Street, must
have been furnished by one of the numerous City wells. There were many
inns in Wood Street: the Bell, the Coach and Horses, the Castle, and the
Cross Keys. The Castle is still commemorated in a stone slab.
=The Church of St. Michael, Wood Street=, was sometimes called St.
Michael Hogge or Huggen from one of that name who lived in the lane
which runs down by the church. It was destroyed by the Great Fire
(with the exception of the steeple) and rebuilt by Wren, who
completed it in 1675, when the parish of St. Mary Staining was
annexed. It was repaired in 1888, and taken down at the end of the
nineteenth century. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1150.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot of St.
Albans before 1150; Henry VIII., who seized it in 1540 and sold it
in 1543 to William Burwell; John Marsh and others in trust for the
parish—it so continued up to 1666, when St. Mary Staining was
annexed and the patronage was alternately in the Crown and
parishioners.
Houseling people in 1548 were 317.
The latest church was very plain and measured 63 feet in length, 42
feet in breadth, and 31 feet in height. The east front had four
Ionic pilasters supporting a pediment, and in the spaces between the
columns there were three circular-headed windows. The tower, which
was connected with the church by a porch, contained three stories,
terminated by a parapet which was surmounted by a narrow spire with
a vane; the total height was 130 feet.
Richard de Basingstoke founded a chantry here before 1359, probably
at the Altar of St. John Baptist. Amongst those buried in the old
church was Alderman John Lambarde, sheriff, 1551, who was father to
Stow’s great friend William Lambard, the antiquary; he died in 1554.
The church contained a monument to Queen Elizabeth.
The legacies of charity left to the parish were: 8s. per annum, of
which Lady Read was donor; 5s. per annum, of which Mr. Hill was
donor; £2 for 20 years, of which Mr. Longworth Cross was donor; £1
per annum, of which Mr. Bowman was donor. There were also
ground-rents amounting to £36 : 4s. leased for 61 years.
Anthony Ellis or Ellys (1690-1761), Bishop of St. David’s, was a
rector here; also Thomas Birch (1705-66), Secretary to the Royal
Society, 1752-65.
The modern =Wood Street=, for a considerable distance after Gresham
Street, is one series of immensely high warehouses, on which the
vertical lines of bricks between the plate-glass windows are the most
prominent feature. The effect of these lines is rather neat and
workmanlike; horizontally beneath the windows are carved stone designs
of flowers and fruit in very heavy relief. On the other side of the
street are the entries into Pickford’s Yard under an old
eighteenth-century house of the plainer sort.
The Church of St. Alban, Wood Street, is too far north to fall within
our present section; but as it belongs to this street it must find a
place here.
ST. ALBAN, WOOD STREET
The Church of St. Alban, the only one remaining in this street, is
on the west side, in the Cripplegate Ward. In 1632 it was pulled
down, but was rebuilt in 1634, probably by Inigo Jones, but was
destroyed by the Great Fire, and the present building is the work of
Wren, who completed it in 1685. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1244.
The patronage of the church, as far as can be traced, was in the
hands of: St. Alban’s Abbey, who exchanged it in 1077 to Westminster
Abbey; St. James’ Hospital, Westminster, presented before 1244;
Provost and Fellows of Eton, 1477, with whom it remained up to 1666,
when the parish of St. Olave, Silver Street, was annexed and the
patronage shared alternately with the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul’s.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The church is in a quasi-Gothic style and somewhat after the model
of the church destroyed by the Fire. It measured 33 feet in height,
66 feet in length, and 59 feet in breadth, and has two side aisles
divided from the central portion by clustered columns and flat
pointed arches. The church terminates at the east in an apse,
containing three stained-glass windows. It has been greatly altered
and modernised, the most striking alteration being the formation of
the apse and the substitution of three smaller windows for the
original large east window. The tower attains a height of 85 feet
and terminates in an open parapet; it is surmounted by eight
pinnacles of 7 feet each, giving a total altitude of 92 feet. On the
north side there is a small churchyard, separating the church from
Little Love Lane.
There was a chantry founded here by Roger Poynel before 1366. The
church formerly contained monuments to Sir John Cheke (1514-57),
tutor of Edward VI. and others.
The donors of charitable gifts were: William Peel, of St. Mary
Savoy, who bequeathed an annuity of £10 in 1623 for the use of the
poor; Gilbert Keat; Susan Ibel, £40 for providing coals for the
poor; Richard Wynne, £20 to be distributed among eight poor people,
at 2s. 6d. apiece; Thomas Savage, citizen and goldsmith, donor of
premises in Holborn Bridge; Mr. Londson, £1 : 6s. per annum for
bread for the poor, through the Company of Embroiderers.
There was a charity school for fifty boys and twenty-five girls,
supported by voluntary contributions from the Church of St. Alban
and others, from which the boys were apprenticed and the girls
placed out to service. The parish had in 1732 a workhouse hired in
the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate.
The following are some of the notable vicars of the church: William
Watts (d. 1649), chaplain to Charles I.; John Adams (1662-1720),
chaplain to William III. and Queen Anne.
=Foster Lane= was originally St. Vedast’s. It is mentioned in a document
of 1281 as St. Fauster’s, which was actually a corruption of St.
Vedast’s. It was, before the Fire, a neighbourhood much frequented by
goldsmiths and jewellers; William Fleetwood, Recorder of London in 1571,
dated some of his letters to Lord Burleigh from Foster Lane.
=St. Vedast’s= Church, commonly known as St. Fauster’s or
Foster’s. It was severely damaged by the Fire, and rebuilt by
Wren; the steeple was erected in 1697, the old one having been
retained until then. The parish was united after the Fire with St.
Michael-le-Querne, and St. Matthew, Friday Street, to which St.
Peter, Westcheap, had been annexed. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1291.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury; the Archbishop of Canterbury
before 1396, in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when the
parish of St. Michael-le-Querne was annexed and the patronage was
alternately shared with the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s up to
1882, when St. Matthew, Friday Street, with St. Peter, Westcheap,
were annexed; the patronage is now in the hands of the Bishop of
London for two turns, the Duke of Buccleugh for one turn.
Houseling people in 1548 were 460.
The church measures 69 feet in length, 51 feet in breadth, and 36
feet in height, and consists of a nave and south aisle separated by
arches supported on four Tuscan columns. The steeple, which rises at
the south-west, consists of a tower, surmounted by three stages, the
lowest of which is concave, the second convex, and the third an
obelisk-shaped spire; the total height is about 160 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By Galfridus atte gate for himself and
his wives Joan and Alice, about 1447, when Edmund Brennyng was
admitted chaplain—the lands fetched £8 : 6 : 8, which was augmented
by Christopher Tury and yielded in all £14 : 10s. in 1548, when John
Markehame was priest, “of the age of 59 years, of mean qualities and
learning”; by William de Wyndesore for himself and Tolonia his wife;
by John de Wyndesore, brother of the above William; by Mr. Cote in
1530, who gave £160 to purchase lands for the endowing of it, which
were not purchased, but one Mr. Hayton, in 1548, finds a priest; by
William Tryston, who endowed it £6 : 14 : 4, which was augmented by
Simon Atwoll to £18 : 5 : 2 in 1548, when Albert Copeman was priest,
“of the age of 39 years, of mean qualities and mean learning.”
John Longson, Master of the Mint, was buried in this church in 1583.
Among the later interments Stow records those of: William Fuller,
D.D., Dean of Durham, who suffered imprisonment for his loyalty in
the times of the rebellion; Sir John Johnson, Alderman of the City,
who died in 1698; and William Hall, deputy of this ward, who died in
1680; Robert Herrick was baptized here in 1591. No legacies or gifts
are recorded by Stow.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by G. Shepherd._
CHURCH OF ST. VEDAST
]
Thomas Rotherham (1423-1500), afterwards Archbishop of York, was
rector here; also Isaac Maddox (1697-1759), Bishop of St. Asaph and
of Worcester; Adam Moleynes (or Molyneux, d. 1450), LL.D., Bishop of
Chichester, who was slain by the marines at Portsmouth, incited by
Richard, Duke of York; Thomas Blage (d. 1611), Dean of Rochester;
Nathaniel Marshall (d. 1730), Canon of Windsor.
In Gresham Street, between Foster Lane and Gutter Lane corners, is the
Goldsmiths’ Hall.
THE GOLDSMITHS COMPANY
The Goldsmiths Company is mentioned in the year 1180, when it
appears to have been a voluntary association. It doubtless had its
origin in a combination of goldsmiths, for their mutual protection,
and to guard the trade against fraudulent workers. In the year 1300
the existence of the Company is recognised by a statute, viz., the
28th Edward I., cap. 80, which provides for the standards of gold
and silver, and enacts that all articles of those metals shall be
assayed by the wardens of the craft, to whom certain powers of
search are also given.
The first of the Company’s charters was granted to them by Edward
III., in the first year of his reign (1327).
It states that it had been theretofore ordained that all those who
were of the goldsmiths’ trade should sit in their shops in the High
Street of Cheap (Cheapside), and that no silver or plate, nor vessel
of gold or silver, ought to be sold in the City of London, except at
the King’s Exchange, or in the said street of Cheap amongst the
goldsmiths, and that publicly, to the end the persons of the said
trade might inform themselves whether the sellers came lawfully by
such vessel or not; that no gold or silver shall be manufactured to
be sent abroad but what shall be sold at the King’s Exchange, or
openly amongst the goldsmiths, and that none pretending to be
goldsmiths shall keep any shops but in Cheap.
By two subsequent charters Edward III. confirmed and extended the
privileges before granted, and he gave the Company licence to
purchase and hold tenements and rents to the value of £20 per annum,
for the relief of infirm members.
Richard II., by letters patent of the sixteenth of his reign, after
reciting that Edward III. had allowed the Company of the said craft
to accept charitable donations, and to purchase estates as
aforesaid, and that they might retain a chaplain to celebrate Mass
amongst them every day, confirmed the liberties granted by Edward
III. and granted and licensed the men of the craft that thenceforth
they may be a perpetual community or society amongst themselves.
Henry IV., by letters patent of his fifth year, recited and
confirmed the preceding charters of Edward III. and Richard II.
Henry VI., by letters patent of his first year, also recited and
confirmed the charter of Henry IV.
Edward IV., by letters patent of his second year, recited and
confirmed the charters of his predecessors.
Moreover, he granted that the said then wardens and their successors
may be a corporation or body corporate to consist of and be called
the Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City
of London. That they may be capable in law to purchase, take, and
hold in fee and perpetuity lands, tenements, rents, and other
possessions whatsoever of any persons whomsoever that shall be
willing to give, devise, and assign the same to them. That they may
have perpetual succession and a common seal.
Henry VII., by letters patent of the twentieth year of his reign,
confirmed the whole of the preceding charters, and on account of the
Company being opposed in their trade search and assay, granted by
Edward IV., gave them the additional power to imprison or fine
defaulters in the trade at their discretion; to seize and break
unlawful work; to compel the trade, within three miles of the City,
to bring their work to the Company’s common hall, to be assayed and
stamped; and gave them power for ever, when it was not standard, to
utterly condemn the same, without rendering account to the Crown.
The whole of the liberties and franchises granted to the Company by
the preceding charters are set forth and confirmed by inspeximus
charters of 1st of Henry VIII., 1st of Edward VI., 1st of Mary, 3rd
of Elizabeth, 2nd of James I., and 18th of Charles II.
The Company also received a charter from James II. dated 4th of May
in the first year of his reign, whereby, amongst other things, that
monarch reserved to the Crown a right of control over the
appointment of the wardens and clerk. The statute was made void by
the Act of Parliament 2nd William and Mary, cap. 8.
The Company have also a copy of that part of the following patent
which relates to their property, viz. 4th of Edward VI. The King to
Augustine Hynde, and others.
The Company have also an exemplification under the great seal of
letters patent granted to them by James I., in the seventeenth year
of his reign (July 24, 1619), confirming to them the possession of a
large quantity of property in the City of London.
The powers of the Company are exercised at the present time chiefly
under the Acts of 12th George II., cap. 26, and 7th and 8th
Victoria, cap. 22.
As before stated, it appears that the Company was at first a
voluntary association, and had for its chief objects the protection
of the mystery or craft of goldsmiths; but it was evidently also
formed for religious and social purposes, and for the relief of the
poor members.
[Illustration:
_From a drawing by Thos. H. Shepherd._
GOLDSMITHS’ HALL, 1835
]
The powers exercised by this voluntary association over the craft
were subsequently confirmed to them by their charters. The wardens
fined workmen for making wares worse than standard, entered their
shops and searched for and seized false wares, settled disputes
between masters and apprentices, and frequently punished rebellious
apprentices by flogging, levied heavy fines upon members for slander
and disobedience of the wardens, and for reviling members of the
livery; and generally exercised a very powerful and absolute
control, not only over the members of the fellowship, but also over
all other persons exercising the goldsmiths’ trade.
For the purpose of the assay they had an assay office in the early
part of the fourteenth century. The statute of 28th Edward I. enacts
that no vessel of gold or silver shall depart out of the hands of
the workman until it is assayed by the wardens of the craft, and
stamped with the leopard’s head; the leopard being at that time part
of the royal arms of England.
The Company and its members, even at this early period, appear to
have acted as bankers and pawnbrokers. They received pledges, not
only of plate, but of other articles, such as cloth of gold and
pieces of napery.
The London goldsmiths were divided into two classes, natives and
foreigners. They inhabited chiefly Cheapside, Old Change, Lombard
Street, Foster Lane, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, Silver Street,
Goldsmiths’ Street, Wood Street, and the lanes about Goldsmiths’
Hall. Cheapside was their principal place of residence; the part of
it on the south side, extending from Bread Street to the Cross, was
called “the Goldsmiths’ Row.” The shops here were occupied by
goldsmiths, and here the Company possess many houses at the present
time. The Exchange for the King’s coin was close by, in what is now
called Old Change.
The native and foreign goldsmiths appear to have been divided into
classes, and to have enjoyed different privileges. First, there were
the members of the Company, who were chiefly, but not exclusively,
Englishmen; their shops were subject to the control of the Company;
they had the advantages conferred by the Company on its members, and
they made certain payments for the support of the fellowship. The
second division comprised the non-freemen, who were called
“Allowes,” that is to say, allowed or licensed. There were the
“Allowes Englis,” “Allowes Alicant,” “Alicant Strangers,”
“Dutchmen,” “Men of the Fraternity of St. Loys,” etc. All these paid
tribute to the Company, and were also subject to their control. The
quarterage paid by the members, and the tribute so paid by the
“Allowes,” constituted the Company’s original income. We find
frequent mention of efforts made by the English goldsmiths to
prevent foreign goldsmiths from settling in London, but they did not
succeed. The wise men of the craft probably knew that the best
artists were foreigners, and were willing to profit by observation
of their works and mode of working. In 1445, thirty-four persons,
who were strangers, were sworn, and paid 2s. a head. In 1447 Carlos
Spaen paid £8 : 6 : 8 to the alms of St. Dunstan, to be admitted a
freeman, and in 1511 John de Loren paid £20 for the same object.
The wardens also frequently obliged foreigners applying for the
freedom to produce testimonials from the authorities of the towns
abroad where they had resided.
The government of the trade under the Company’s charters continued
up to the reign of Charles the Second. But some time before this
period, and in the interval between it and the passing of the Act of
the 12th George II., cap. 26, the powers which had been granted to
the Company began to be questioned, and the Company experienced
difficulty in putting them into force. In 1738 the Company
considered it expedient to obtain an Act of Parliament.
And the 12th George II., cap. 26, passed in 1739, was prepared by
the officers of the Company, brought into Parliament by them, with
the assent of the government of the time, and all the cost of
soliciting it and getting it passed was paid for by the Company,
although it is a public Act.
Under this Act the Assay Office is regulated. The Company are
empowered thereby to make charges for the assaying and marking plate
sufficient only to defray the expenses of the office, and are
prohibited from making any profit thereby or deriving any pecuniary
advantage therefrom.
It may here be mentioned that at a very early period we find members
of the governing body of the Company, both wardens and assistants,
who were not of the craft. Amongst others, the leading bankers,
themselves the descendants in trade of the old goldsmiths, from the
time of the Stuarts to the present time, have been some of the most
conspicuous members of the body. Amongst them we find the names of
Sir Martin Bowes, who was Master of the Mint in the reign of
Elizabeth; Sir Hugh Myddelton, the enterprising founder of the New
River; Sir Francis Child, of Temple Bar; Sir Charles Duncombe, Sir
James Pemberton, Sir Robert Vyner; and in the 19th century, Robert
Williams and Thomas Halifax, Henry Sykes Thornton, William Banbury,
John Charles Salt, Herbert Barnard, William Newmarch, William
Cunliffe Brooks, Robert Ruthven Pym, Arthur B. Twining, Charles
Hoare, and Robert Williams, jun.
It remains to mention the connection of the Company with the coinage
of the realm in what is called the trial of the Pyx, an office which
has been performed by the Company ever since the reign of Edward I.
Its object is to ascertain that the metal of which the gold and
silver money coined by the Mint is composed is standard, and that
the coins themselves are of the prescribed weight.
This duty was performed in ancient times at uncertain intervals, and
usually had for its immediate object the giving an acquittance to
the Mint Master, who was bound to the Crown by indentures to coin
money of the prescribed fineness and weight. But the Coinage Act of
1870 provides for and establishes an annual trial, and since that
date the Pyx has been brought to Goldsmiths’ Hall and tried
annually.
In 1900, for the first time, at the request of H.M.’s Treasury, a
Pyx from each of the Colonial Mints coining Imperial Coinage was
tried.
Formerly a jury of competent freemen, summoned by the wardens, was
charged by the Lord Chancellor, who subsequently received their
verdict.
The jury is sworn by the Crown Remembrancer, who, the trial having
been made and the verdict of the jury reduced to writing, attends at
the Hall and receives them; after which their names are published in
the _Gazette_.
The number of the livery is 150. The Hall is in Foster Lane.
Privileges of membership:
A freeman of the Company has no advantages as such, except that if
he be a deserving man and in need of pecuniary assistance he is
eligible to receive, and would certainly receive, aid from the
Company, either by pension or donation.
When the Guild first had a Hall we know not, but the Hall has stood
on its present site for upwards of 550 years.
About 1340, land and a house at St. Vedast Lane and Ing Lane[2]
corner, formerly belonging to Sir Nicholas de Segrave, was bought.
This land still underlies part of the present Hall, and was in the
midst of the gold- and silver-smiths’ quarter. In 1407, Sir Dru
Barentine built the Goldsmiths a second Hall, wherefrom a gallery
led to his house. Within the great hall were arras hangings,
streamers, banners, tapestried benches, worked cushions, and a
screen bearing their patron’s (St. Dunstan’s) silver-gilt statue
bejewelled. There were chambers, parlour, ‘say-house, chapel with
coloured hangings, great kitchen, vaults, granary, armoury, clerk’s
house, beadle’s house, assayer’s house. This Hall decayed. Borrowing
money, they built a third and larger, 1635-40, Stone being surveyor.
After the Great Fire they repaired and partly rebuilt their Hall,
1666-69, raising money slowly. Jarman was architect. The buildings,
brick and stone, surrounded a paved quadrangle entered through the
Doric archway in Foster Lane.
The great hall was “magnificent” with marbled floor, moulded
ceiling, pillared screen, high wainscot, painted banners, costly
plate. Within 140 years they found this Hall decaying. They pulled
it down and built the present (fourth) Hall in 1830-35, Philip
Hardwick being architect.
Like the Drapers, the Goldsmiths Company has taken up the cause of
Technical Higher Education.
* * * * *
On the west side of Foster Lane stood also =St. Leonard’s Church=,
which was the parish church for St. Martin’s-le-Grand. It was burnt
down in the Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of Christ
Church, Newgate Street. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1291.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: the Dean and Canons
of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, 1291; the Abbot and Convent of
Westminster, 1509; Henry VIII., who seized it in 1540; the Dean and
Chapter of Westminster, 1553-54, in whose successors it continues,
they being the alternate patrons of Christ Church, Newgate Street.
Houseling people in 1548 were 452.
A chantry was founded here by and for William de Wyndesore, at the
Altar of Virgin Mary, before 1368, when his endowment fetched £3 :
13 : 4. There are few charities recorded by Stow.
The church of =St. Mary Staining= was situated on the north side of
Oat Lane, Foster Lane, and derived its name Staining from Painter
Stainers dwelling there; or, according to some from _stein_, the
Saxon for stone, other churches being built of wood. It was repaired
and redecorated in 1630, and was burnt down in the Great Fire, but
not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of St. Michael, Wood
Street; the site of this church was made a burying-ground. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1270.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prioress and
Convent of St. Mary, Clerkenwell; Henry VIII., and so continued in
the Crown till the Great Fire, when the parish was annexed to St.
Michael, Wood Street.
Houseling people in 1548 were 98.
Two monuments only are recorded by Stow, one in memory of George
Smithes, goldsmith and alderman, who died in 1615, and the other of
Sir Arthur Savage, knighted at Cadiz in 1596, who was General of
Queen Elizabeth’s forces in France at the siege of Amiens; he died
in 1632.
The parish received three legacies, payable yearly, namely: 15s. 6d.
from Lady Read and Mr. Hill; £1 : 4s. from Mr. Lawne; and 1s. 6d.
from Mr. Dean.
What Gresham Street is on the north of our present section, so =Watling
Street= is on the south. It runs roughly parallel with Cheapside and
Poultry. Stow says of it:
“Then for Watheling Street, which Leland called Atheling, or Noble
Street; but since he showeth no reason why, I rather take it to be so
named of that great highway of the same calling. True it is that at the
present the inhabitants thereof are wealthy drapers, retaillers of
woollen cloths, both broad and narrow, of all sorts, more than in any
one street of this city.”
How came Watling Street, the old country road, into the City? The old
Roman road, as it approached the Thames, passed down the Edgware Road.
Where is now the Marble Arch it divided into two, of which the older
part crossed the marsh, and so over Thorney Island? The other ran along
what is now Oxford Street and Holborn.
It then crossed the valley of the Fleet and entered the City at the New
Gate. If now we draw a line from Newgate to London Stone, just south of
its present position, we shall find that it passes the north-east course
of St. Paul’s precinct, cutting it off, so to speak, and meets the
present Watling Street where it bends to the south of Bow Lane; it then
follows the old Budge Row as far as the Stone. That was the original
Watling Lane of the City. The Saxons, however, who found the streets a
mass of confused ruins, built over part of the old Watling, and
continued it as far as the south-east course of St. Paul’s. The street
has few antiquities apart from its churches.
There is no mention of Watling Street in Riley’s _Memorials_.
In the Calendar of Wills we find shops in this street in 1307, a brewery
in 1341, a widow’s mansion in 1349, and shops in 1361, “lands,
tenements, and rents” in 1373, a house called “le Strelpas” in 1397. The
other references to Watling Street are those of “tenements” only.
The yearly procession of the City rectors with the mayor and aldermen
started from St. Peter’s, Cornhill, marched along Chepe as far as St.
Paul’s Churchyard, turning to the south and so to “Watling Street
Close,” which was the eastern entrance to the churchyard.
After the Fire, while the rubbish was being cleared away, on the east of
the street were discovered nine wells in a row. They were supposed to
have belonged to a street of houses from Watling Street to Cheapside.
But one hardly expects to find a well in every house.
In Watling Street and its continuation, Budge Row, were the following
churches, beginning at the west end: St. Augustine’s; Allhallows, Bread
Street; St. Mary Aldermary; St. Anthony’s. For St. Augustine’s see p.
62, and for Allhallows see p. 58.
ST. MARY ALDERMARY
The Church of St. Mary Aldermary stands in a triangle formed by Bow
Lane, Queen Victoria Street, and Watling Street. It is called Alder,
Older, or Elder, Mary, from its being the oldest church in the City
having that dedication. Sir Henry Keble, Lord Mayor in 1510, began
to rebuild it, and left at his death £1000 towards its completion;
this was augmented by William Rodoway and Richard Pierson in 1626.
The building was destroyed by the Great Fire, but rebuilt by Wren in
1681-82. For this purpose the legacy of £5000 was applied, which had
been left by Henry Rogers for the rebuilding of a church;
stipulation, however, was made that the new church should be an
exact imitation of Keble’s, so that Wren was forced to adopt methods
very different from his own. The building was greatly restored in
1876-77. The church now serves for four parishes—its original one,
that of St. Thomas the Apostle, of St. Antholin, and of St. John the
Baptist. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1233.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of Henry III., 1233;
the Prior and Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1288, who
exchanged it with the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1401, in whose
successors it continued up to 1666, when the parish of St. Thomas
was annexed; and thus the Archbishop shared the patronage
alternately with the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s.
Houseling people in 1548 were 400.
The church is in the Tudor style of architecture, and consists of a
nave, chancel, and two side aisles, separated from the central part
by clustered columns and slightly pointed arches. It is 100 feet
long, 63 feet broad, and about 45 feet high. The north side of the
chancel is longer than the south, which gives the church a somewhat
curious appearance. The tower, the upper portion of which was
rebuilt about 1701, contains four storeys, with an open parapet, and
is surmounted by four pinnacles. The total height is 135 feet.
Sir Henry Keble, the founder of the original church, was buried
here, and a monument erected to him in 1534; also Sir William
Laxton, mayor, 1556, and Henry Gold, one of the rectors here, who
was executed at Tyburn in 1534. “The Holy Maid of Kent” was also
buried here. The monuments in the present church are of little
interest. Over the west door there is a Latin inscription recording
the munificence of Henry Rogers. Mr. Garret gave £100 to the
lecturer of this church, to endure as long as the Gospel was
preached. The particulars of the numerous other gifts and charities
did not come into the possession of Stow. There were two almshouses
for the poor of the Salters Company, who are four in number, each of
whom has an allowance of 1s. per week.
Thomas Browne (d. 1673), chaplain to Charles I., was rector here;
also Robert Gell (1595-1665), Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge;
Offspring Blackall (1654-1716), Bishop of Exeter; White Kennett
(1660-1728), Bishop of Peterborough; Henry Ware, Bishop of
Chichester; Henry Gold, who was executed at Tyburn, 1534; George
Lavington, D.D. (1684-1762), Bishop of Exeter.
=Budge Row=, northward, was spelt Begerow in 1376. Of it Stow says: “So
called of Budge fur and the Skinners dwelling there.”
At the south-western corner of Sise Lane, in Budge Row, there is a
rectangular railed-in space about a dozen feet by six, sheltered by the
corner of the adjoining house. Against the wall, facing eastward, is a
monument in stone of considerable size. Two columns with Corinthian
capitals support an architrave, and enclose a view in slight relief of
=St. Antholin’s= as it was. Beneath the view are the words:
Here stood the parish church of St. Antholin, destroyed in the Great
Fire, A.D. 1666, rebuilt 1677 by Sir Christopher Wren, architect.
On the bases of the columns are inscribed the names of the churchwardens
of St. Antholin’s and St. John Baptist’s, Walbrook, respectively. While
the following inscription is beneath:
The change of population in the City during two centuries rendering
the church no longer necessary, it was taken down A.D. 1875, under
the Act of Parliament for uniting City Benefices; the funds derived
from the sale of the site were devoted in part to the Restoration of
the neighbouring church of St. Mary Aldermary, where are also
erected the monumental tablets removed from St. Antholin, and the
erection at Nunhead of another church dedicated to St. Antholin
greatly needed in that thickly populated district.
And again, right across the bases of the pillars and the stone, run the
words:
In a vault beneath are deposited the greater part of the human
remains removed from the Old church. The remainder are laid in a
vault in the City of London Cemetery at Ilford, where also a
monument marks the place of interment.
The Church of =St. Anthony= or =Antholin= stood on the north side of
Budge Row, at the corner of Shoe Lane, in Cordwainer Street Ward. It
derived its name from being dedicated to St. Anthony of Vienna, who
had a cell here founded by Henry II., but it is not known when the
church was first built. About 1399 it was rebuilt, and again in
1513, but the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed it. From Wren’s design it
was rebuilt, and completed in 1682; it was remarkable for its tower,
with a spire all of freestone. In 1874 the building (except the
steeple) was taken down, and in 1876 the steeple was also
demolished, the materials of which were sold for £5. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1181.
The patronage of the church was always in the hands of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted one part to John, son of Wizo the
goldsmith, about 1141.
Houseling people in 1548 were 240.
In 1623 a very beautiful gallery was added to the church, every
division of which (52 in number) was filled with the arms of kings,
queens, and princes of the kingdom, from Edward the Confessor to
Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine.
Chantries were founded here by: Nicholas Bole, citizen and skinner,
at the Altar of St. Katherine, to which William Pykon was admitted
chaplain, 1390, on the resignation of Richard Hale—the endowment
fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Robert Smythe was chaplain; John
Grantham, whose endowment fetched £4 in 1548.
In this church Thomas Hind and Hugh Acton, benefactors to the
parish, were buried. There was also a monument to William Daunsey,
mercer and alderman of the City.
Some of the donors of gifts and charities were: the Mercers and
Drapers, of £6 respectively; Sir William Craven and William Parker,
£100, to which £118 were added by the parishioners, for establishing
a daily lecture. There were a considerable number of charities in
this parish.
Among the rectors of this church were William Colwyn, who made a
recantation at St. Paul’s Cross, Advent 1541, and Thomas Lamplugh
(1615-91), Archbishop of York.
On the opposite side of the street extends for some way a really old
brick building, evidently built immediately after the Fire. Over a
centre window is a curved pediment of brickwork. Beneath, an opening
leads into a yard, and the building is used by Stationers. The west side
of the lane is modern.
=St. Pancras Lane= was formerly Needlers’ Lane. The church, the parish,
the chantries and endowments, and the parishioners are mentioned
frequently in the _Calendar of Wills_. The earliest entry there is of
A.D. 1273, where John Hervy bequeaths to Juliana his daughter his
mansion in the parish of St. Pancras, and to his daughter Johanna his
shop in the parish of Colechurch. The Lane, except that it contained two
parish churches, was of little importance.
Pancras Lane is an open space, once the graveyard of St. Pancras, Soper
Lane. The houses are dull brick and stucco. The graveyard bears a great
similarity to all that is left of the others; it is covered with dingy
gravel and decorated by blackened evergreens. The iron gate bears a
little shield telling that it was erected in 1886. There are one or two
tombs still left.
The Church of =St. Pancras, Soper Lane=, stood near a street called
Soper Lane, but since the Fire called Queen Street. It was repaired
1621, and in 1624 Thomas Chapman the younger built a porch to it.
The building was destroyed by the Great Fire, when its parish was
annexed to that of St. Mary-le-Bow. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1312.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, who granted it, April 25,
1365, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose successors it
continued up to 1666, when the church was destroyed in the Great
Fire and the parish annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow.
Houseling people in 1548 were 146.
Chantries were founded here by: John Causton at the Altar of St.
Anne, which was augmented by Simon Rice and Lettice his wife, before
1356, to which William de la Temple was presented by the King,
January 10, 1374-75—the endowment was valued at £13 in 1548, when
Adam Arnolde was priest; Margaret Reynolds, who bequeathed £233 :
6 : 8, which the Mercers had, and guaranteed a rent charge of £8 :
13 : 4 for the same to find a priest.
The church originally contained monuments to John Stockton, mercer
and mayor, 1470; Richard Gardener, mercer and mayor, 1478; and
Thomas Knowles, twice Lord Mayor.
Two charitable gifts are recorded by Stow, the donors of which were
Thomas Chapman, whose benefaction was lost by Stow’s time, and
Thomas Chapman his son, to the amount of £11 : 3 : 8.
Only a few steps farther on is another melancholy little spot, with a
stone slab on the wall near with inscription as follows: “Before the
dreadful Fire, Anno 1666, stood the church of St. Benet Sherehog.” The
railing and low wall were put up in 1842. Within the enclosure stands a
tomb over the “Family Vault of Michael Davison, 1676.”
The church was called =St. Benet Sherehog=, from one Benedict
Shorne, or Shrog, or Shorehog, who was connected with it in the
reign of Edward II. It was repaired in 1628, but destroyed by the
Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to St. Stephen,
Walbrook, and its site made into a burying-ground. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1285.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, of Southwark, 1324; then the Crown, since
Henry VIII. seized it in 1542.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
Chantries were founded here: For Ralph le Fever and Lucy his
wife—the endowment fetched £3 : 11 : 8 in 1548, when Anthony Gyplyn,
lately deceased, had been priest; for Thomas Romayn and Julia his
wife, to which John de Loughebourgh was admitted, August 12, 1326.
Edward Hall, who wrote the large chronicle from Richard II. to Henry
VIII., was buried here. The church formerly contained a monument to
Sir Ralph Warren, twice Lord Mayor of London, who died in 1553. Mrs.
Katherine Philips of Cardigan, the poetess, who died in 1664, was
also buried here.
Only one charitable gift is recorded by Stow in this parish, that of
£5 per annum left by Mr. Davison for keeping his family vault in
repair. Some of this was used for charitable purposes.
John Wakering (d. 1425), Bishop of Norwich, was rector here.
=Queen Street= was constructed in part after the Fire, and covers the
old Soper Lane, so called from the soap-makers who formerly lived here
(though Stow wants to derive the name from an ancient resident). The
south end, leading to the river, seems to have been the later part.
Soper Lane is mentioned in the _Calendar of Wills_ as early as 1259,
when Nicholas Bat, a member of the old City family of that name,
bequeathed to his wife rents in Sopers’ Lane.
Here, in 1297, there sprang up an evening market—“Eve Chepynge”—called
the New Fair. It was established against the knowledge of the mayor by
“strangers, foreigners, and beggars,” and was the cause of many deeds
made possible by selling in the dark, and of much strife and violence.
Therefore it was abolished.
In the reign of Edward II. Soper Lane was the market-place of the
Pepperers; seventy years later of the Curriers and Cordwainers. In the
reign of Queen Mary there were many shops here for the sale of pies.
In the year 1316 the “good folks in Soper Lane, of the trade of
Pepperers,” agreed upon certain regulations for the observance of the
trade and the prevention of dishonesty.
In 1375 we find cordwainers between Soper Lane and the Conduit.
The name of Size Lane is derived from St. Osyth.
For =Bucklersbury= we will first let Stow speak:
“Bucklersbury, so called of a manor and tenements pertaining to one
Buckle, who there dwelt and kept his courts. This manor is supposed to
be the great stone building, yet in part remaining on the south side of
the street, which of late time hath been called the Old Barge, of such a
sign hanged out near the gate thereof. This manor or great house hath of
long time been divided and letten out into many tenements; and it hath
been a common speech, that when Walbrooke did lie open, barges were
rowed out of the Thames, or towed up so far, and therefore the place
hath ever since been called the Old Barge.
“Also on the north side of this street, directly over against the said
Bucklersbury, was one ancient and strong tower of stone, the which tower
King Edward III., in the 18th of his reign, by the name of the king’s
house, called Cornet stoure in London, did appoint to be his Exchange of
money there to be kept. In the 29th he granted it to Frydus Guynysane
and Landus Bardoile, merchants of Luke, for twenty pounds the year. And
in the 32nd he gave the same tower to his college or free chapel of St.
Stephen at Westminster, by the name of Cornet Stoure at Bucklersbury in
London. This tower of late years was taken down by one Buckle, a grocer,
meaning in place thereof to have set up and built a goodly frame of
timber; but the said Buckle greedily labouring to pull down the old
tower, a part thereof fell upon him, which so sore bruised him that his
life was thereby shortened, and another that married his widow set up
the new prepared frame of timber, and finished the work.
“This whole street called Bucklersbury on both the sides throughout is
possessed of grocers and apothecaries towards the west end thereof: on
the south side breaketh out one other short lane called in records
Peneritch street; it reacheth but to St. Sythe’s Lane, and St. Sythe’s
church is the farthest part thereof, for by the west end of the said
church beginneth Needler’s Lane, which reacheth to Soper Lane, as is
aforesaid” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 276).
The origin of the name of Bucklersbury is Bukerel, and not Buckle;
Bukerel was the name of an old City family. Andrew Bukerel was mayor
from 1231 to 1236.
Many Roman antiquities, pavements, bronzes, Samian ware, spoons, etc.,
have been found in Bucklersbury. A bronze armlet also found there may
belong to pre-Roman times. The street is mentioned in many ancient
documents, beginning with the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth
century there were tenements here known as “Sylvestre tour” assigned by
the Dean of St. Stephen, Westminster, to the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, druggists, furriers,
herbalists, and tobacconists had shops in Bucklersbury.
In 1688 there was a Roman Catholic chapel in Bucklersbury, which was one
of those destroyed or burned by the mob, chiefly consisting of London
apprentices, during the riots pending the arrival of the Prince of
Orange.
An argument between the Dean and Canons of St. Paul’s and a carpenter of
Bucklersbury shows that the parish of St. Benet Sherehog was called in
1406 the parish of St. Osyth, in which part of Bucklersbury stood. In
1455 the former name is given to the parish.
Bucklersbury was cut in two when Queen Victoria Street was made. The
upper portion consists chiefly of large modern many-windowed business
houses. Near the north-east corner there is an old brick house
containing part of Pimm’s restaurant. In the southern half Barge Yard is
modern. The Bourse Buildings, occupied by a great number of engineers,
accountants, and business men of all sorts, take up a large part of the
street.
Passing westward we come to =Bow Lane=, which was formerly called in the
lower part Hosier Lane, from the trade of those who occupied it, and in
the upper part, for a similar reason, Cordwainers’ Street.
The street spoken of in the _Calendar of Wills_ by the name of Hosier
Lane belonged to the parish of St. Sepulchre without the wall. The same
street is mentioned in Riley’s _Memorials_.
For the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow see p. 10.
In its modern aspect Bow Lane is not uninteresting.
A covered entry, inappropriately named New Court, leads into a
fascinating corner. There is a gateway really and ruinously old; it is
said to have survived the Fire. The ironwork pattern is lost now in
meaningless and broken twists, though there is a semblance of what might
have been a monogram over the centre gate. The houses all round the
court evidently date from the period directly after the Fire. That
facing the street is of red brick toned by age, and is said to have been
the residence of a Lord Mayor. The others are of dark brick, picked out
in red. No. 5 contains the offices of the _Financial World_.
Beyond it a narrow passage leads at an angle round to the churchyard. A
more spacious way runs beside the church itself. At the corner of this
is a polished granite drinking fountain, erected in 1859, supporting
green painted dolphins.
In the churchyard a scene of confusion and turmoil daily takes place on
the pavement which lies over the bones of the “ancient dead.” Great
wooden crates and packing-cases are littered about. They are from that
large modern building on the west, facing the church, belonging to
warehousemen and manufacturers. But one old seventeenth-century house,
of a date immediately succeeding the Fire, remains, on the south side of
the churchyard, facing Cheapside. Its quiet blackened bricks and flat
windows have beheld many a change of scene on the stage before it. The
ground-floor windows and doorway are connected by an ornamental cornice.
The red bricks of the church in Bow Lane contrast with a long narrow
building of the eighteenth century which is squeezed against them. These
contrast with the gaping cellars and basements of the more modern
buildings.
Of =Bread Street= there is very early mention. In 1204 the leprous women
of St. James’s received a charter respecting a certain tenement in
Chepe, at the head of Bread Street; in 1290 this tenement again becomes
the subject of a charter. In 1263 there was a fire which consumed a part
of Bread Street.
“So called of bread in old time there sold: for it appeareth by records,
that in the year 1302, which was the 30th of Edward I., the bakers of
London were bound to sell no bread in their shops or houses, but in the
market: and that they should have four hall-motes in the year, at four
several terms, to determine of enormities belonging to the said Company.
“Bread Street is now wholly inhabited by rich traders; and divers fair
inns be there, for good receipt of carriers and other travellers to the
city. It appears in the will of Edward Stafford, Earl of Wyltshire,
dated the 22nd of March, 1498, and 14 Hen. VII., that he lived in a
house in Bread-street in London, which belonged to the family of
Stafford, Duke of Bucks afterwards; he bequeathing all the stuff in that
house to the Lord of Buckingham, for he died without issue” (Strype,
vol. i. pp. 686-687).
The bakers gave continual trouble to the City by their light-weight
loaves and their bad bread. When they were “wanted” by the alderman they
gat themselves out of the City and to their hills beyond the
jurisdiction of the mayor. It was ordained, in order to meet this
difficulty, that the servants who sell the bread thus complained of
should be punished as if they were masters. It was also discovered that
“hostelers and habergeons” bought bread in the market and sold it to
their guests at a profit. This was not allowed in mediæval times. It was
ordered that every loaf was to be bought of a baker, with his special
stamp, and sold at the price regulated by the assize of bread.
But there were others besides bakers who used the market of Bread
Street, Cheapside; it became a place for cooks. In 1351, one Henry
Pecche bought a caper pasty of Henry de Passelowe, cook at the Stocks,
and found on opening it that the fowl was putrid. The case coming before
the mayor, experts were called in, among them six cooks of Bread Street
and three of Ironmonger Lane. The story shows how the exclusive
character of a market had to be broken up for the conveniences of the
people. Here we have cooks carrying on their trade in three different
parts of the great market of Chepe. A few years later, one of the Bread
Street cooks, John Welburgh Man by name, was convicted by the evidence
of his neighbours of selling a pie of conger, knowing the fish to be
bad.
In 1595 a singular discovery was made at the north-east end of this
street. In the construction of a vault was found, 15 feet deep, a “fair”
pavement, and at the farther end a tree sawed into five steps—Stow says:
“which was to step over some brook running out of the west towards
Walbrooke; and upon the edge of the said brook, as it seemeth, there
were found lying along the bodies of two great trees, the ends whereof
were then sawed off, and firm timber as at the first when they fell,
part of the said trees remain yet in the ground undigged. It was all
forced ground until they went past the trees aforesaid, which was about
seventeen feet deep or better; thus much hath the ground of this city in
that place been raised from the main.”
The first turning to the east going down Bread Street was, until
recently, called the Spread Eagle Court. One of the corner houses of
this court is supposed to have been the work-place of John Milton, whose
father traded under the sign of the “Spread Eagle.” He was baptized in
the church of Allhallows. House and church were destroyed in the Fire,
but the register remains.
On the corner house between Watling and Bread Streets is a stone slab
fixed to the wall; this bears a bust of the poet in _alto relievo_. The
rest of the building, which runs along Watling Street as far as Red Lion
Court, is in new red brick, dated 1878. It has ornamental brickwork and
festoons here and there, and the roof terminates in curiously shaped
gables, some of which follow the old shell pattern. The doorways and
windows are carried out in stone. The penthouse pediment over Milton’s
bust is also in brick. Beneath, two little red cherubs hold a laurel
wreath. Below the head is the one word—Milton; and lower follows the
inscription:
Born in Bread Street, 1608.
Baptized in the Church of Allhallows, which stood here ante 1678.
The Mermaid, like many other London inns, stood in a court with an
entrance from Friday Street and from Bread Street.
On the west side of Bread Street, on a site which, when Stow wrote, was
occupied by “large houses for merchants and fair inns for passengers,”
stood the Bread Street Compter, one of the two sheriffs’ prisons. As we
have seen, it was later removed to Wood Street.
Behind St. Mildred’s Church stood =Gerard’s Hall=, the entrance from
Basing Lane. Of this place Stow speaks at length:
“On the south side of this lane is one great house, of old time built
upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought from Caen in
Normandy. The same is now a common hostrey for receipt of travellers,
commonly and corruptly called Gerards hall, of a giant said to have
dwelt there. In the high-roofed hall of this house sometime stood a
large fir pole, which reached to the roof thereof, and was said to be
one of the staves that Gerard the giant used in the wars to run withal.
There stood also a ladder of the same length, which (as they say) served
to ascend to the top of the staff. Of later years this hall is altered
in building, and divers rooms are made in it. Notwithstanding, the pole
is removed to one corner of the hall, and the ladder hanged broken upon
a wall in the yard. The hosteler of that house said to me, ‘the pole
lacketh half a foot of forty in length’: I measured the compass thereof,
and found it fifteen inches.
“I read that John Gisors, mayor of London in the year 1245, was owner
thereof, and that Sir John Gisors, knight, mayor of London, and
constable of the Tower 1311, and divers others of that name and family,
since that time owned it. William Gisors was one of the sheriffs 1329.
More, John Gisors had issue, Henry and John; which John had issue,
Thomas; which Thomas deceasing in the year 1350, left unto his son
Thomas his messuage called Gisor’s Hall, in the parish of St. Mildred in
Bread Street: John Gisors made a feoffment thereof, 1386, etc. So it
appeareth that this Gisor’s Hall, of late time by corruption hath been
called Gerard’s Hall for Gisor’s Hall; as Bosom’s inn for Blossom’s inn,
Bevis Marks for Buries Marks, Marke Lane, for Marte Lane, Belliter Lane
for Belsetter’s Lane, Gutter Lane for Guthuruns Lane, Cry Church for
Christ’s Church, St. Michel in the Querne for St. Michel at corne, and
sundry such others. Out of this Gisor’s Hall, at the first building
thereof, were made divers arched doors, yet to be seen, which seem not
sufficient for any great monster, or other man of common stature to pass
through, the pole in the hall might be used of old time (as then the
custom was in every parish), to be set up in the summer as May-pole,
before the principal house in the parish or street, and to stand in the
hall before the screen, decked with holme and ivy, at the feast of
Christmas. The ladder served for the decking of the may-pole and roof of
the hall. Thus much for Gisor’s hall, and for that side of Bread street,
may suffice” (Stow’s _Survey_, 393-394).
[Illustration:
GERARD’S HALL CRYPT IN 1795
]
The crypt of this house escaped the Fire. On its site was erected an inn
called Gerard’s Hall, which contained seventy-eight bedrooms, and was
one of the principal hotels of the City. The whole was removed for the
construction of Cannon Street; Basing Lane, which ran from Bread Street
to Bow Lane, disappeared at the same time.
ST. MILDRED, BREAD STREET
The Church of St. Mildred, Bread Street, still stands. It is on the
east side of the street, a little to the south of Cannon Street, and
is supposed to have been rebuilt in 1300 by Lord Trenchaunt, of St.
Alban’s, knight, whose monument was in the church. It was destroyed
by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1683, when the parish of
St. Margaret Moses was annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1170.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, who had it in 1300, and
granted it to John Incent and John Oliver, 1333; the above Prior and
Convent.
Houseling people in 1548 were 216.
The present church measures 62 feet in length, and 36 feet in
breadth, while the total height, to the summit of the cupola, is 52
feet. The interior remains practically in its original state. The
carvings about the altar-piece and pulpit are attributed to Grinling
Gibbons. The steeple, which rises at the south-east, consists of a
plain brick tower, lantern, and slender spire culminating in a ball
and vane. The total height is 140 feet, but only the upper portion
is visible, owing to the buildings surrounding it.
A chantry was founded here by Stephen Bull, citizen, of which Thomas
Chapman was chaplain, April 26, 1453.
The church originally contained monuments to: Lord Trenchaunt, a
great benefactor, who was buried here about 1300; also Sir John
Shadworth, mayor, 1401, who gave a parsonage house and other gifts
to the church. Here too John Ireland and Ellis Crispe were buried in
1614 and 1625, the grandfather and father of Sir Nicholas Crispe,
the devoted adherent of Charles I., who is greatly eulogised for his
loyalty by Dr. Johnson; he died in 1666.
Few details of the charities belonging to the parish are recorded by
Stow; Thomas Langham and Mr. Coppinger being the only names
mentioned besides those commemorated by monuments.
Thomas Mangey (1688-1755), D.D., Prebendary of Durham, was a rector
here; also Hugh Oldham (d. 1519) of Exeter.
=The Church of Allhallows, Bread Street=, stood on the east side of
the street. In 1625 the building was repaired, but ruined by the
Great Fire shortly after. It was subsequently rebuilt. In 1878 it
was taken down. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1284.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury; Archbishop of Canterbury,
April 24, 1365, by gift (1284-85) from the above, in whose
successors it continued up to 1666, when St. John’s, Watling Street,
was annexed to it, these being annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow by Order
in Council dated July 21, 1876.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
On the south side of the chancel there was a small part of the
church, called “The Salters’ Chapel,” containing a window with the
figure of the donor, Thomas Beaumont, wrought upon it. The church
originally had a steeple, but in 1559 it was destroyed by lightning
and not restored. The King granted a licence to Roger Paryt and
Roger Stagenhow to found a guild in honour of our Lord, April 12,
1394 (Pat. 17 Rd. II. p. 2 m. 15). Some of the most notable
monuments were those of Thomas Beaumont of the Company of Salters,
John Dunster, a benefactor of the church, and Arthur Baron.
The following were among the numerous benefactors: David Cocke,
£100; William Parker, £100; John Dunster, £200, to be laid out in
lands and tenements; Edward Rudge, £200, to be laid out in lands and
tenements; Lady Middleton, £100.
The most notable rectors of the church were: William Lyndwood (d.
1446), Chancellor to the Archbishop of Canterbury; Thomas Langton
(d. 1501), Bishop of St. David’s. John Milton was baptized in this
church.
A tablet formerly affixed to the exterior of the church in
commemoration of the event was put up outside St. Mary-le-Bow after
the destruction of Allhallows.
=Friday Street.=—“So called,” says Stow, “of fishmongers dwelling there,
and serving Friday’s market.” In the roll of the Scrope and Grosvenor
controversy, the poet Chaucer is recorded as giving evidence connected
with this street, for when he was once in Friday Street he observed a
sign with the arms of Scrope hanging out; and on his asking what they
did there, was told they were put there by Sir Robert Grosvenor.
Cunningham also notes as follows: “The Nag’s Head Tavern, at the
Cheapside corner of Friday Street, was the pretended scene of the
consecration of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. The real consecration took place in the adjoining
church of St. Mary-le-Bow; but the Roman Catholics chose to lay the
scene in a tavern. ‘The White Horse,’ another tavern in Friday Street,
makes a conspicuous figure in the _Merry Conceited Jests of George
Peele_. In this street, in 1695, at the ‘Wednesdays Clubs,’ as they were
called, certain well-known conferences took place, under the direction
of William Paterson, which ultimately led to the establishment of the
Bank of England.”
In the year 1247, certain lands in Friday Street are held by the nuns of
“Halliwelle.” In 1258, one William Eswy, mercer, bequeathed to the Earl
of Gloucester all his tenements in Friday Street for 100 marks, wherein
he was bound to the Earl, and for robes, capes, and other goods received
from him. In 1278, Walter de Vaus left to Thomas, his uncle, shops in
Friday Street. Therefore in the thirteenth century the street was
already a lane of shops. The date shows that the former character of
Chepe market as a broad open space set with booths and stalls had
already undergone great modifications. Other early references to the
street show that it was one of shops. Chaucer’s evidence shows that a
hundred years later there were “hostelers” or “herbergeours” living
there.
In 1363, certain citizens subscribed money as a present to the King.
Among them is one Thomas, a scrivener of Friday Street, and in 1370 we
find one Adam Lovekyn in possession of a seld which has been used for
time out of mind by foreign tanners. He complains that they no longer
come to him, but keep their wares in hostels and go about the streets
selling them in secret.
In Friday Street at the corner in Watling Street is a railed-in space,
all that remains of an old churchyard, the churchyard of St. John the
Evangelist. This is a piece of ground containing very few square yards,
separated from the street by high iron railings, and filled with stunted
laurel bushes and other evergreens. A hard gravel walk runs round a
circular bed of bushes, and on one side stands a raised tomb-like
erection. On the wall are one or two slabs indicating the names of those
who are buried in the vault below.
=The Church of St. John the Evangelist= was burnt down in the Great
Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to Allhallows, Bread
Street, and both of these to St. Mary-le-Bow, by Order in Council,
1876. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1354.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, before 1354; Henry VIII.
seized it in 1540; the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church,
Canterbury, 1546 up to 1666, when it was annexed to Allhallows,
Bread Street.
Houseling people in 1548 were 100.
A chantry was founded here by William de Angre, before 1361, whose
endowment fetched £8 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when John Taylor was
chaplain. No monuments of any note are recorded by Stow.
In the north part of Friday Street is Blue Boar Court on the east side.
This court was rebuilt in 1896, but previous to this was surrounded by
old houses. One of these, No. 56, was interesting as having been the
City home of Richard Cobden until 1845. It is said that this house was
built on the site of a garden attached to Sir Hugh Myddelton’s house in
Cheapside. The cellars beneath the building once covered the bullion
belonging to the Bank of England. This was at the time when the Bank was
in a room of the old Grocers’ Hall.
=The Church of St. Matthew, Friday Street=, was situated on the west
side of the street near Cheapside. It was burnt down in the Great
Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1685;
it was then made the parish church for this and St. Peter’s,
Westcheap, which was annexed to it. About 1887 the building was
pulled down. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1322.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of St. Peter, Westminster, 1322, then Henry VIII., who
seized it and gave it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20,
1540-41; the Bishop of London, March 3, 1553-54; it continued in his
successors up to 1666, when St. Peter’s, Cheapside, was annexed, and
the patronage was shared alternately with the patron of that parish.
Houseling people in 1548 were 200.
The church was plain, without aisles, measuring 64 feet by 33 feet
and having a tower 74 feet high.
Chantries were founded here: By Adam de Bentley, goldsmith, for
himself and Matilda his wife, to which Adam Ipolite de Pontefracto
was admitted chaplain, June 14, 1334; by Thomas Wyrlyngworth, at the
Altar of St. Katherine, to which John Donyngton was admitted
chaplain, November 13, 1391: the King granted his licence, June 16,
1404; by John Martyn, whose endowment fetched £10 in 1548, when
Henry Coldewell was priest, “70 years of age, meanly learned”; for
Nicholas Twyford, _miles_, about 1400.
The church originally contained monuments to Sir Nicholas Twyford,
goldsmith and mayor, who died 1583, also Sir Edward Clark, Lord
Mayor in 1696. Sir Hugh Myddelton, the designer of the New River,
was a parishioner, and was buried here in 1631.
A legacy of £5 a year was left to the poor of the parish by Mrs.
Cole.
James Smith, Edward Clark, and others contributed to the furnishing
of the necessities of the church. The parish was to receive £240 out
of the “cole-money” for the use of the parish or poor (Stow).
John Thomas (1691-1766), Bishop of Lincoln, 1744, of Sarum 1761-66,
was rector here; also Edward Vaughan (d. 1522), Bishop of St.
David’s; John Rogers, who was burnt at Smithfield, 1555; Lewis
Bayley (d. 1631), Bishop of Bangor, and Michael Lort (1725-90),
Vice-President of Society of Antiquaries; Henry Burton, the ardent
Puritan, who was put in the pillory and imprisoned for his religious
opinions and attacks.
=The Church of St. Margaret Moses= was situated on the east side of
Friday Street, opposite Distaff Lane, now merged in Cannon Street,
and derived its name from one Moses, who founded it. It was burnt
down in the Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of St.
Mildred, Bread Street. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1300.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Robert Fitzwalter,
the founder, who gave it in 1105 to the Priors and Canons of St.
Faith, Horsham, Norfolk, being confirmed to that house by Pope
Alexander III. in his Bill dated at Turin, May 26, 1163; Edward
III., who seized it from St. Faith, as an alien priory, and so it
continued in the Crown till the parish was annexed to St. Mildred,
Bread Street, in 1666.
Houseling people in 1548 were 240.
Chantries were founded here by: Nicholas Bray, whose endowment
fetched £8 : 16 : 8 in 1548, when John Griffyn was “priest of the
age of 46 years, of virtuous living and of small learning”; John
Fenne, whose endowment yielded £9 : 10s. in 1548, when John
Brightwyse was “priest of the age of 46 years, of honest behaviour
and indifferently learned”; Gerard Dannyell, whose endowment fetched
£8 in 1548, when Nicholas Prideoux was priest.
The church originally contained monuments to Sir Richard Dobbes,
mayor, 1551; Sir John Allot, mayor, 1591.
Only two legacies are recorded by Stow: 18s. per annum, the gift of
John Bush; 16s. per annum, the gift of John Spot.
John Rogers, who was burnt at Smithfield in 1555, was rector here.
=Distaff Lane.=—“On the west side of Friday Street, is Mayden lane, so
named of such a sign, or Distaffe lane, for Distar lane, as I read in
the record of a brew-house called the Lamb, in Distar Lane, the 16th of
Henry VI. In this Distar Lane, on the north side thereof, is the
Cordwainers, or Shoemakers’ hall, which company were made a brotherhood
or fraternity, in the 11th of Henry IV. Of these cordwainers I read,
that since the fifth of Richard II. (when he took to wife Anne, daughter
to Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia), by her example, the English people had
used piked shoes, tied to their knees with silken laces, or chains of
silver or gilt, wherefore in the 4th of Edward IV. it was ordained and
proclaimed, that beaks of shoone and boots, should not pass the length
of two inches, upon pain of cursing by the clergy, and by parliament to
pay twenty shillings for every pair. And every cordwainer that shod any
man or woman on the Sunday, to pay thirty shillings.
“On the south side of this Distar Lane, is also one other lane, called
Distar Lane, which runneth down to Knightrider Street, or Old Fish
Street, and this is the end of Bread Street Ward” (Stow’s _Survey_, p.
393).
The other lane was afterwards called Little Distaff Lane. Another name
for this street was Maiden Lane. There was another Maiden Lane in Thames
Street, and a third in Lad Lane, and a fourth on Bank side.
Distaff Lane is absorbed by Cannon Street, and the “Little Distaff Lane”
has been promoted by the omission of the adjective.
=Old Change.=—Of this street Stow tells us everything that is of
interest:
“A street so called of the King’s exchange there kept, which was for the
receipt of bullion to be coined. For Henry III., in the 6th year of his
reign, wrote to the Scabines and men of Ipre, that he and his council
had given prohibition, that none, Englishmen or other, should make
change of plate or other mass of silver, but only in his Exchange at
London, or at Canterbury. Andrew Bukerell then had to farm the Exchange,
and was mayor of London, in the reign of Henry III. In the 8th of Edward
I., Gregory Rockesly was keeper of the said Exchange for the king. In
the 5th of Edward II., William Hausted was keeper thereof; and in the
18th, Roger de Frowicke.
“These received the old stamps, or coining-irons, from time to time, as
the same were worn, and delivered new to all the mints in England, as
more at large in another place I have noted.
“This street beginneth by West Chepe in the north, and runneth down
south to Knightrider Street; that part thereof which is called Old Fish
Street, but the very housing and office of the Exchange and coinage was
about the midst thereof, south from the east gate that entereth Pauls
churchyard, and on the west side in Baynard’s castle ward.
“On the east side of this lane, betwixt West Cheape and the church of
St. Augustine, Henry Walles, mayor (by license of Edward I.), built one
row of houses, the profits rising of them to be employed on London
Bridge” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 35).
Lord Herbert of Cherbury lived in a “house among gardens near the Old
Exchange.”
St. Paul’s School was founded by Dean Colet in 1509, and the schoolhouse
stood at the east end of the Churchyard, facing the Cathedral. It was
destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren, and then again taken
down and rebuilt in 1824, and subsequently removed to Hammersmith to the
new building designed by Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., in 1884. For further,
see “Hammersmith” in succeeding volume. The old site in St. Paul’s
Churchyard is now covered by business houses.
ST. AUGUSTINE
At the corner of Old Change and Watling Street stands St.
Augustine’s Church.
It was burnt down by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1682, and
the parish of St. Faith’s annexed to it. The steeple, however, was
not completed till 1695. As it possessed no proper burying-ground of
its own, a portion of the crypt of St. Paul’s was used for the
interment of parishioners. The earliest date of an incumbent was
1148.
The patronage of the church was always in the hands of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted it to Edward, the priest, in
1148.
Houseling people in 1548 were 360.
The present church measures about 51 feet in length, 30 feet in
height, and 45 feet in breadth; it is divided into a nave and side
aisles by six Ionic columns and four pilasters. The steeple rises at
the south-west, consisting of a tower, lantern, and spire. It is 20
feet square at the base, and has three stories. The lantern is very
slender. The total altitude is 140 feet. No chantries are recorded
to have been founded here. The ancient church contained few
monuments of note. The present building has a tablet to the memory
of Judith (died 1705), the first wife of the eminent lawyer William
Cowper.
Some of the benefactors were: Thomas Holbech, rector of the parish,
1662, who gave £100 towards finishing the church; Dame Margaret
Ayloff, £100. After the parish of St. Faith’s was annexed, gifts to
the amount of £700 were received from various sources.
William Fleetwood (1656-1723), Bishop of St. Asaph, was rector here;
also John Douglas (1721-1807), Bishop of Carlisle and of Sarum, and
Richard H. Barham (1788-1845), author of _The Ingoldsby Legends_.
With this we end the first section of the City.
GROUP II
The second group of streets will be those lying north of Gresham Street,
with Noble Street and Monkwell Street on the west, and Moorgate Street
on the east. This part of the City is perhaps less rich in antiquities
and associations than any other. The north part was, to begin with,
occupied and built over with houses much later than the south. For a
long time the whole area north of Gresham (then Cateaton) Street and
within the Wall presented the appearance of gardens and orchards with
industrial villages as colonies dotted here and there, each with its
parish church and its narrow lane of communication with the great market
of Chepe. Some of the names, as Oat Lane, Lilypot Lane, Love Lane,
preserve the memory of the gardens and their walks.
In this district grew up by degrees a great many of the industries of
the City, especially the noisy trades and those which caused annoyance
to the neighbours, as that of the foundry, the tanyard, the tallow
chandlers.
An examination of the _Calendar of Wills_ down to the fifteenth century
is in one sense disappointing, because it affords no insight into the
nature of the trades carried on in the area before us. On the other
hand, it curiously corroborates the theory that this part of the City
was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries purely industrial,
because among the many entries referring to this quarter there is but
one reference, down to the seventeenth century, of any shops. There are
rents, tenements—“all my Rents and Tenements” several times repeated;
land and rents—“all my Land and Rents”; there are almshouses, Halls of
Companies, gardens; but there are no shops, and that at a time when the
streets and lanes about Cheapside are filled with shops!
The Companies’ Halls offer some index to the trades of the quarter.
There are still Broderers’ Hall, Curriers’ Hall, Armourers’ Hall,
Coopers’ Hall, Parish Clerk’s Hall, Brewers’ Hall, Girdlers’ Hall; and
there were Haberdashers’ Hall, Mercers’ Hall, Wax Chandlers’ Hall,
Masons’ Hall, Plaisterers’ Hall, Pinners’ Hall, Barber Surgeons’ Hall,
Founders’ Hall, Weavers’ Hall, and Scriveners’ Hall, which have now been
removed elsewhere or destroyed. These trades, we may note, are for the
most part of the humbler kind.
=Coleman Street= is described by Stow as “a fair and large Street on
both sides built with divers fair houses, besides alleys with small
tenements in great numbers.”
Cunningham enumerates the chief events connected with the street:
“The five members accused of treason by Charles I. concealed themselves
in this street. ‘The Star,’ in Coleman Street, was a tavern where Oliver
Cromwell and several of his party occasionally met.... In a conventicle
in ‘Swan Alley,’ on the east side of this street, Venner, a wine-cooper
and Millenarian, preached the opinions of his sect to ‘the soldiers of
King Jesus’” (see _London in the Time of the Stuarts_, p. 68 _et seq._).
“John Goodwin, minister in Coleman Street, waited on Charles I. the day
before the King’s execution, tendered his services, and offered to pray
for him. The King thanked him, but said he had chosen Dr. Juxon, whom he
knew. Vicars wrote an attack on Goodwin, called ‘The Coleman-street
Conclave Visited!’ Justice Clement, in Ben Jonson’s _Every Man in his
Humour_, lived in Coleman Street; and Cowley wrote a play called _Cutter
of Coleman-street_. Bloomfield, author of ‘The Farmer’s Boy,’ followed
his original calling of a shoemaker at No. 14 Great Bell-yard in this
street.”
ST. STEPHEN, COLEMAN STREET
The Church of St. Stephen, Coleman Street, was “at first a Jews’
synagogue, then a parish church, then a chapel to St. Olave’s in the
Jewry, now (7 Edward IV.) incorporated as a parish church” (Stow).
It is situated on the west side of Coleman Street, near to the south
end. It was consumed by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1311.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted it to the Prior and Convent of
Butley; Henry VIII. seized it, and in the Crown it continued till
Queen Elizabeth granted it, about 1597, to the parishioners, in
whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 880.
The church is plain, long and narrow, without any aisles, measuring
75 feet in length and 35 feet in breadth. The steeple, which rises
at the north-west, consists of a stone tower, a lantern, and small
spire, the total height being about 65 feet.
Chantries were founded here by: William Grapefig, for which the King
granted a licence, August 6, 1321, and to which John de Maderfield
was admitted chaplain, June 23, 1324; Rodger le Bourser, for which
the King granted his licence, August 1, 1321; Stephen Fraunford and
John Essex, both citizens of London, of which John de Bulklegh was
chaplain, who died in 1391: founded July 1361; Edward IV., who
endowed it with lands, etc., which fetched £50 : 5 : 4 in 1548.
Anthony Munday, the dramatist, arranger of the City pageants and the
continuation of Stow’s _Survey_, who died in 1633, was buried here.
A very large number of legacies and charitable gifts are recorded by
Stow, amongst which are: £640, the gift of Christopher Eyre, for the
building and maintenance of six almshouses; £100, the gift of Sir
Richard Smith, for coals for the poor; £100, the gift of Hugh Capp,
for lands for the poor; £400, the gift of Barnard Hyde, to purchase
land for six poor people for ever.
In White Alley there were six almshouses built by Christopher Eyre
for six poor couples, each of whom were allowed £4 per annum.
Richard Lucas (1648-1715), author of several theological works, was
a rector here; also John Davenport (1597-1670), he was one of the
leaders of a party who went over to America in 1637, and founded
Newhaven in Connecticut. He had a design of founding a university
(Yale), but this was not carried into effect until sixty years
later.
Over the stuccoed gateway of the churchyard is a skull and
cross-bones, with an elaborate panel in relief below, representing
the Last Judgment; this is a replica in oak of the original panel,
which was removed, for its better preservation, to the Vestry.
As for the present street the most notable building is the Armourers’
Hall.
THE ARMOURERS AND BRASIERS COMPANY
The trade of armourer was of great importance in the ages when men
went out to war clad in iron. There were many kinds of armour. Some
were taught to make helmets and some corslets. There was armour of
quilted leather worn under the armour or acting as armour.
[Illustration:
_T. H. Shepherd._
THE ARMOURERS’ AND BRASIERS’ ALMSHOUSES, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT (1857)
]
A great number of people lived by the making of armour. The custom
of wearing armour decayed gradually, not rapidly. It is still kept
up for purposes of show but no longer for any use in defence.
The origin of the Company of Armourers and Brasiers is lost in
antiquity. The Company was, however, founded previously to the
beginning of the fourteenth century, for records are in existence
showing that at that time (1307-27) the Company had vested in it the
right of search of armour and weapons. It would appear from
documents in the possession of the Company that as early as the year
1428 the Company was in the possession of a hall. In the year 1453
the Company was incorporated by a charter from King Henry VI. by the
title of “The Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the Men of
Mistery of Armorers of our City of London,” and had licence granted
to it to appoint a chaplain to its chapel in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
It is believed that the Company of Brasiers was incorporated about
the year 1479 by Edward IV., and that the craft of bladesmiths was
incorporated with the Company of Armourers about the year 1515, but
the Company has no authentic evidence in its possession as to these
facts.
In the year 1559, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter of Inspeximus,
confirming the Letters Patent of King Henry VI.
In the year 1618, King James I., in consideration of the sum of
£100, granted Letters Patent confirming the title of the Fraternity
or Guild of St. George of the Men of Mystery of Armourers in the
City of London, to the messuages and lands then held by it. The
greater part of these messuages and lands is still in the possession
of the Company.
In the year 1685, King James II. granted Letters Patent to the
Company which (_inter alia_) directed that all edge tools and
armour, and all copper and brass work wrought with the hammer within
the City of London, or a radius of five miles therefrom, should be
searched and approved by expert artificers of the Company.
In the year 1708 the Company of Armourers was, by Letters Patent
granted by Queen Anne, incorporated with the Brasiers under the
corporate title of “The Company of Armourers and Brasiers in the
City of London.” In this charter it is recited that of late years
many of the members of the Company of Armourers had employed
themselves in working and making vessels, and wares of copper and
brass wrought with the hammer, and that for want of powers to search
and make byelaws to bind the workers of such wares in the City of
London, frauds and deceits in the working of such goods and vessels
had increased, and power was thereby granted to the Company of
Armourers and Brasiers to make byelaws for the government of the
Company; and also of all persons making any work or vessel of
wrought or hammered brass or copper, in the Cities of London and
Westminster, or within a radius of five miles thereof, and with
authority to inflict fines and penalties against persons offending
against such byelaws. And the Company was invested with power to
inspect and search for all goods worked or wrought with the hammer
and exposed to sale within such limits as aforesaid. No person was
allowed to sell or make armour or vessels, or wares of copper or
brass wrought with the hammer, unless he was a member or had been
apprenticed to a member of the Company.
It would appear that the master and wardens exercised a very
extensive jurisdiction in ancient days, fining and punishing members
of the Company for social offences as well as for infringements of
the byelaws of the Company, and hearing and adjudicating upon all
questions arising between members of the Company and their
apprentices, and also inflicting fines on persons making or selling
goods of an improper quality.
This Company is still in the habit of binding apprentices to masters
engaged in the trades of workers of brass and copper, and of
pensioning infirm members of those trades. Their workshops were
situated close to London Wall, below Bishopsgate, probably in order
to remove their hammering as far as possible from the trading part
of the City.
The Company is governed by a Master, an Upper Warden and a Renter
Warden, with eighteen assistants, and, together with the livery, now
number 91. The Hall is at 81 Coleman Street. Stow mentions the Hall
on the north end of Coleman Street and on the east side of it. “The
Company of Armourers were made a Fraternity or Guild of St. George
with a Chantry in the Chapel of St. Thomas in Paul’s Church in the
1st of Henry VI.”
On the north side of King’s Arms Yard extends the elaborate and very
handsome building of the Metropolitan Life Assurance Society, which has
its entrance at the corner of Moorgate Street. This has deeply recessed
windows, and the corner is finished off by an octagonal turret which
begins in a projecting canopy over the door, and is carried up to the
roof. In niches here and there are small stone figures. This building is
the work of Aston Webb and Ingress Bell in 1891. Opposite, in great
contrast, are oldish brick houses, very plain in style. Round the
northern corner into Coleman Street is carried a building which is
chiefly remarkable for the amount of polished granite on its surface. On
the west, a little higher up, is another entrance of the Wool Exchange
from which a large projection overhangs the street. There is a lamb in
stonework over the door.
=Basinghall Street= (or Bassishaw Street) runs from London Wall to
Gresham Street. The street used to contain the Masons’, Weavers’,
Coopers’, and Girdlers’ Halls. Only the Girdlers’ and Coopers’ Halls now
remain. The names Basinghall and Bassishaw are frequently supposed to
have the same origin. Riley, however, quotes a passage in which (A.D.
1390) there is mention of the “Parish of St. Michael Bassishaw in the
Ward of Bassyngeshaw,” which he considers indicates that the word
Basseshaw is Basset’s haw, and Bassyngeshaw is Basing’s haw, referring
to two families and not one. There is a great number of references to
Basings and to Bassets. Yet the names seem to refer to the same place.
Thus in 1280 and 1283 we hear of houses in Bassieshaw. In 1286 we hear
of houses in Bassinge haw. Basinghall was the hall or house of the
Basings, an opulent family of the thirteenth century. Solomon and Hugh
Basing were sheriffs in 1214; Solomon was mayor in 1216; Adam Basing was
sheriff in 1243. Basinghall passed into the hands of a family named
Banquelle or Bacquelle. John de Banquelle, Alderman of Dowgate, had a
confirmation and quit claim to him of a messuage in St. Michael,
Bassieshawe, in 1293.
At the south-west corner of Basinghall Street was a fine stone house
built by a “certain Jew named Manscre, the son of Aaron.” Thomas
Bradberry (d. 1509) kept his mayoralty there.
THE GIRDLERS COMPANY
The Girdlers Company traces its existence to a very early period,
and cannot, in the strict sense of the word, be said to have been
founded. It is believed to have been a fraternity by prescription,
which owed its origin to a lay brotherhood of the order of Saint
Laurence, maintaining themselves by the making of girdles and
voluntarily associating for the purpose of mutual protection and for
the regulation of the trade which they practised, and the
maintenance of the ancient ordinances and usages established to
ensure the honest manufacture of girdles with good and sound
materials.
The earliest public or State recognition of the Company of which it
now possesses any evidence consists of Letters Patent of the first
year of King Edward III., A.D. 1327, addressed to them as an
existing body, as “les ceincturiers de notre Citée de Loundres,” by
which the “ancient ordinances and usuages” of the said trade are
approved and their observance directed. The King also grants licence
to the girdlers that they shall have power to elect one or two of
their own trade to seek out false work and present it before the
mayors or chief guardians of the places where found, who shall cause
the same to be burnt and those who have worked the same to be
punished; all amercements resulting therefrom to belong to the
mayors of the places where the false work is found.
Some ten years later we find the girdlers presenting a code of laws
for the governance of their trade to the mayor and aldermen;
therefore, though their charter enabled them to search into and
discover bad work, it gave them no power to make laws for the
safeguarding of the trade. Moreover, the charter gave them no power
over wages, nor did it compel the workers of the trade to join the
Fraternity, nor did it empower them to hold land, to sue or to be
sued. Considering these omissions, the document quoted by Riley
ought not, strictly speaking, to be considered a charter.
The said Letters Patent were confirmed in 1 Richard II. (1377) and 2
Henry IV. (1401), and the Company was incorporated in 27 Henry VI.
(1448) by the Master and Guardians of the Mystery of Girdlers of the
City of London.
Further confirmations were made in 2 Edward IV., 10 Elizabeth, 15
Charles I., and 1 James II.
No important change in the original constitution of the Company was
made by any of the charters prior to that of 10 Elizabeth, which
directed that the three arts or mysteries called Pinners,
Wyerworkers, and Girdlers should be joined and invited together into
one body corporate and polity, and one society and company for ever,
and did incorporate them by the name of the Masters and Wardens or
Keepers of the Art and Mystery of Girdlers, London.
It does not appear that the Pinners and Wyerworkers brought any
accession of property to the Girdlers.
The Hall has always been in Basinghall Street. Here it is mentioned
by Stow along with Masons’ Hall and Weavers’ Hall.
No. 1 on the east of Basinghall Street was probably built early in the
nineteenth century; the buildings which follow it are chiefly modern.
The whole street is rather fine, though too narrow for much effect.
There are in it many great “houses,” “chambers,” and “buildings”
occupied in floors. Gresham Buildings are faced with dark-coloured stone
and rise comparatively high. The ground-floor walls on the exterior are
covered with the most elaborate stonework representations of flowers and
foliage. The City of London Court in the passage known as Guildhall
Buildings is picturesquely built in a perpendicular style of Gothic. A
great square stone building opposite was built in 1890, and next to it a
plain Portland stone edifice contains the Lord Mayor’s court office. The
City Library and Museum form a picturesque group of buildings in the
west of Basinghall Street.
Near at hand is the Coopers’ Hall with a narrow frontage.
THE COOPERS COMPANY
The Coopers Company was incorporated in 1501 by charter of King
Henry VII., dated 29th April, in the sixteenth year of his reign.
There is no record, however, of any anterior charter. There is no
doubt that the Coopers were one of the early mysteries or
brotherhoods of the City of London, though it is difficult to assign
a correct date of their origin. The Company’s archives, however,
show that the Company had existed for a considerable period prior to
the date of its incorporation. A subsequent charter was granted on
the 30th August, in the thirteenth year of King Charles II. This is
the governing charter, and its provisions regulate the management of
the Company to the present day. Under the statute of 23 Henry VII.
cap. 4, power is given to the wardens of the Company with one of the
mayor’s officers to gauge all casks in the City of London and the
suburbs, and within two miles’ compass without the suburbs, and to
mark such barrels when gauged. By a subsequent Act, 31 Elizabeth,
cap. 8, “for the true gauging of vessels brought from beyond the
seas, converted by brewers for the utterance and sale of ale and
beer,” brewers were prohibited from selling or putting to sale any
ale or beer in any such vessels within the limits before mentioned
before the same should be lawfully gauged and marked by the master
and wardens of the Coopers Company. The Company do not now exercise,
and have not for a considerable period exercised, any control over
the trade of coopers.
It is quite certain that a craft so technical and so useful as that
of the cooper must have been constituted as a guild as soon as
craftsmen began to work together at all. In the year 1396 (Riley, p.
541), “the goodmen of the trade of Coopers” presented a code of
ordinances for the regulation of the trade. They complained that
certain persons of the trade were in the habit of making casks out
of wood which had been used for oil and soap casks, so that ale or
wine put into these casks was spoiled. Therefore it is certain that
their guild did not possess authority over the trade at that time.
This is shown again in 1413, when certain Master Coopers again
complained to the mayor that one Richard Bartlot, fishmonger, had
made 260 vessels called barrels and firkins of unseasoned wood and
of false measure. These vessels were ordered to be destroyed.
Perhaps in order to prevent similar practices, it was decreed that
every cooper should mark his work by his own trade-mark.
The Corporate Income of the Company is given in 1898 as £2400; the
Trust Income as £5000; the number of the livery as 200. Their Hall
is 71 Basinghall Street, on the site of two previous halls.
Close by is the “Wool Exchange and Colonial Office” with an open entry
supported by polished granite pillars, whose capitals are carved as
rams’ heads. This is rather a fine building, with segmental windows set
closely all across the frontage. Bevois House, just completed, takes a
good line of curvage and is of white stone. Before Guildhall Chambers
there is an old house built of narrow red bricks, with semicircular
pillars on each side of the centre window frame, and above, on a slab of
stone, the date 1660. The site of =St. Michael’s Church= is here. A row
of straight ordinary business houses succeeds. On the east are
=Guildhall Chambers=, plastered houses built round an asphalt court. The
centre one has a small portico with Ionic columns; the rest of the court
is plain and severe, but not ineffective.
=The Church of St. Michael, Bassishaw=, was situated on the west
side of Basinghall Street. It was rebuilt in the fifteenth century,
but destroyed by the Great Fire, and again rebuilt, by Wren, between
1676 and 1679. In 1895 the church was closed, a commission having
been issued in 1893 by the Bishop of London to inquire into the
expediency of uniting this with the parishes of St. Lawrence, Jewry,
and St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1286.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Canons of St. Bartholomew’s about 1140, given by the Bishop of
London; Henry III.; Thomas de Bassinges, 1246, who left it to his
wife by will dated 1275; Henry Bodyk, 1327, who left it to Johanna
his wife; Nicholas de Chaddesdon, who sold it in 1358 to Sir John de
Beauchamp, brother to the Earl of Warwick; Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul’s, 1435, in whose successors it continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 500.
The present church measures 70 feet in length, 50 feet in breadth,
and 42 feet in height, and includes a nave and two side aisles
separated by Corinthian columns. The ceiling is divided into panels,
and is pierced with openings to admit the light. The tower, which
rises at the west, contains four stories concluded by a cornice and
parapet; above this is a lead-covered octagonal lantern in two
stages surmounted by a short spire with ball, finial, and vane. The
total height is 140 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By John Hannem, citizen, before 1326;
by John Asche, whose endowment, “called the bell on the hope,”
fetched £3 : 6 : 8; by James Yardeford, Knt., whose endowment
yielded £16 in 1548.
A considerable number of monuments are recorded by Stow, the most
notable of which are those of Sir John Gresham (d. 1556), Lord Mayor
of London, uncle to the more famous Sir Thomas Gresham; and Dr.
Thomas Wharton (d. 1673), a physician who gained great glory from
his labours during the Plague of 1665.
The parish received a large number of gifts and charities, some of
which were as follows: £9 from Lady Anne Vaughan, for lectures; £10
from Sir Wolstan Dixey, for lectures; £20 from Lady Anne Bacon; £70
from Sir Robert and Lady Ducie.
George Gardiner (d. 1589), chaplain to Queen Elizabeth and
Chancellor of Norwich, was rector here; also George Lavington
(1684-1762), Bishop of Exeter 1746-47.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by G. Shepherd._
ST. MARY, ALDERMANBURY, IN 1814
]
=Aldermanbury= is another ancient City street. The name, according to
Stow, is derived from the Court of Aldermen formerly held in the first
Guildhall, the ruins of which, on the east side of the street, were
standing in his day. They had then been converted into a carpenter’s
shop. Here, in 1383, Sir Robert Tressilian, Lord Chief Justice, had his
residence. At the north end of this street, before the memory of men
living in 1415, a postern had been built leading from the City to the
moor. In Riley’s _Memorials_ there is a full account of a crowded
meeting of citizens in the Guildhall, July 2, 1415, to consider the
state of the moor and certain nuisances outside the postern and within
Bishopsgate. It was resolved to lay out the moor, then a waste place, in
gardens to be allotted to citizens at a certain rental. The street is
frequently mentioned from the thirteenth century. In the sixteenth
century the street had become a place of residence for the better sort.
“Here be divers fair houses on both sides meet for merchants and men of
worship.”
ST. MARY, ALDERMANBURY
This church is of very ancient date, as appeared from a sepulchral
inscription, said to have been in the old church, dated 1116. The
building was destroyed by the Great Fire, and re-erected by Wren in
1668-76. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1200.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who, June 1113, appropriated it to Elsing
Spital, with certain restrictions. The living is now in the gift of
the parishioners.
Houseling people in 1548 were 371.
The church measures 72 feet in length, 45 feet in breadth, and 38
feet in height, and includes two aisles separated by six Corinthian
columns from the nave. Externally, the church is rather imposing.
The east front has a handsome cornice and pediment, with carved
scrolls and figures. The steeple, which rises at the west, consists
of a tower completed by a cornice and parapet. This is surmounted by
a square turret in two stages, and a concave roof tapering to a
point, with a finial and vane; the total height is about 90 feet.
There is a churchyard on the south side, open to the public for
several hours daily.
Chantries were founded here: By William Estfelde, augmented by
Stephen Bockerell, at the Altar of St. George, for Stephen, Isabella
his wife, and William his son, before 1363; by Henry Bedeyk—the
advowson thereof was released to Sir John de Beauchamp by John de
Bovenden and Katherine his wife, in 1359; by Adam de Bassyng.
A considerable number of citizens of repute were buried in the old
church, amongst whom the two most interesting to posterity are Henry
Condell (d. 1627) and John Heminge (d. 1630), the fellow-actors of
Shakespeare and editors of the folio of 1623. The celebrated divine
Edmund Calamy (the elder) was rector here for some years, and was
buried in 1666 beneath the ruined building with which he had been so
long connected. In the register of the church the marriage of Milton
with his second wife Katherine Woodcock, 1656, is entered. The
remains of Judge Jeffreys, interred in the Tower after his death
there in 1689, were removed here and deposited in a vault beneath
the communion table in 1693.
According to Stow, there were no legacies or bequests to the church,
but a legacy to the poor, by the Lady Gresham, of £3 per annum, paid
by the Mercers Company.
Among other celebrated rectors are Edmund Calamy the younger, and
Dr. Kennett (d. 1728), author of Kennett’s Register, afterwards
Bishop of Peterborough.
ST. ALPHAGE
At the north end of Aldermanbury at the corner of London Wall, is
the Church of St. Alphage. This parish church originally stood on
the other side, against the Wall. It is dedicated to St. Alphage,
Archbishop of Canterbury, who was canonised in 1012. Its old
churchyard may still be seen. It is built on part of the site of the
hospital and priory founded by William Elsing in 1329 and 1332. The
priory harboured one hundred poor blind men, and suffered
suppression along with the rest at the Dissolution. Under Henry
VIII. a remnant of the priory church became parochial and was
extensively repaired and rebuilt in 1624, 1628, and 1649. It escaped
the Great Fire, but was taken down in 1774 and the present building
erected by Sir William Staines and opened in 1777. Part of the
original structure may still be seen in the porch. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1137.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Deans and
Canons of St. Martin’s-le-Grand before 1324, from whom it passed to
the Abbot and Convent of Westminster from 1505; the Bishop of
Westminster by grant of Henry VIII., January 20, 1540; the Bishop of
London by gift of Edward VI. in 1550, confirmed by Mary, March 3,
1553-54, in whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 345.
The present church possesses two fronts, an eastern and
north-western; the north-west door leads into a porch, the pointed
arches of which show it to have once formed part of the old priory
church. This is the only relic of past times. The interior is plain,
the ceiling flat, and there are no aisles.
A chantry was founded here by John Graunte, whose endowment yielded
£15 : 10 : 8 in 1548.
The church contains a handsome monument on the north wall to Sir
Rowland Hayward, Lord Mayor in 1570 and 1591; it was placed on the
south side of the old church. On the same wall, farther east, a
marble monument commemorates Samuel Wright, who at his death in 1736
left charitable bequests to the extent of £20,950.
[Illustration:
PORCH OF ST. ALPHAGE, LONDON WALL, 1818.
]
Some of the donors of gifts were Sir Rowland Hayward, 20d. for bread
every Sabbath day for the poor, 1591, and John Brown, £30 for church
repairs, 1629.
There was a school for fifty boys and twenty-five girls, who were
clothed and educated and put out to trades and service at the charge
of the ward. There were also ten almshouses for ten men and ten
women, each of whom was allowed £4 per annum, founded by the Rev.
Dr. Thomas White. Part of the almshouses in Monkwell Street belonged
to this parish.
A notable rector of this church was Philip Stubbs (1665-1738),
Archdeacon of St. Alban’s.
Just opposite to Philip Street is still preserved the old churchyard of
St. Alphage, a rectangular railed-in space with ivy growing over the old
wall that forms the backbone. On a slab near the centre is the
inscription:
The burial ground of St. Alphage containing part of the old Roman
City wall. Closed by Act of Parliament 1853. Laid out as a garden
1872.
To the west of the churchyard once stood Sion College. This was built in
1623 with almshouses attached, according to the will of Dr. Thomas
White, vicar of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West. It stood on the site of
Elsing Spital (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 248).
[Illustration:
SION COLLEGE, LONDON WALL, 1800
From an original drawing in the possession of the President and
Fellows of Sion College.
]
Sion College had a fine library left by the will of Dr. John Simson,
rector of St. Olave, Hart Street, and a third of these books was burnt
in the Great Fire, which almost destroyed the College. Up to 1836 the
College enjoyed the privilege of receiving a gratuitous copy of every
published book. The City clergy were Fellows of the College. In 1886 a
new building on the Embankment was opened to take the place of the old
one, and now the ancient site is covered by business houses.
THE CURRIERS COMPANY
The Curriers were incorporated by James I. in April 30, 1606, for a
master, two wardens, twelve assistants, and 103 liverymen.
The exact date of the origin of the Company is unknown, but it must
have had some sort of existence previous to 1363, for in that year
it is recorded that the Company contributed five marks to aid King
Edward III. in carrying on his wars with France.
There are no documents in existence referring to the origin of the
Company.
Many indications of the antiquity of this Fraternity occur. It was
attached to the White Friars’ Church in Fleet Street. The Curriers
settled in Soper Lane; they asked for ordinances in 1415; they were
authorised to appoint the City scavengers.
Their Hall is the third erected on the same site; it was founded in
1874. The first Hall perished in the Fire. The quarter where the
curriers lived and worked was in the north facing London Wall, where
they built their Hall.
Of =Addle Street= Stow says: “The reason of which name I know not.” It
may have been derived from “Ethel,” meaning noble. In it is the Brewers’
Hall.
THE BREWERS COMPANY
In the year 1445 the Brewers were first incorporated. Like many
other trades, they had been associated long before. Thus in 1345 the
Brewers (Riley’s _Memorials_, p. 225) are treated as a body, being
ordered not to use the water of the Chepe conduit for making beer
and ale, seeing that it was wanted for the supply of the citizens.
(Fishmongers at the same time were forbidden to use the water for
washing their fish.)
The original charter of February 22, 1445, granted by Henry VI.,
after citing the Brewers Company as one of the ancient mysteries,
incorporates the Company into one body and perpetual community.
The charter granted 11th November, 2 Elizabeth, and the charter of
August 29, 1563, confirm the previous charter of Henry VI.
The charter of July 13, 21 Elizabeth, appears to have been granted
owing to the great increase of persons engaged in and practising the
trade of brewing. The charter incorporates all persons in or about
the City of London or the suburbs, or within two miles of the City.
The charter of 6th April, 15 Charles I., recites previous charters,
but increases the jurisdiction of the corporation over the brewing
trade in or about the City of London to a limit of four miles.
This charter of Charles I. confers a great deal of power on those in
authority over the trade. It allows them to make rules and
ordinances, and generally to exercise supervision over all members
of the trade in and about the City, and within a four-mile radius.
Byelaws on the strength of this charter were framed for the Company
on July 9, Charles I., 1641.
The charter of 18th March, 1 Charles II., after reciting the charter
of 22nd February, 16 Henry VI., the confirmation of the said charter
by Queen Elizabeth on August 29, 1563, and a surrender of the right
to elect master, warden, or assistant, incorporates the Company
again, nominates William Carpenter to be master till June 24, 1686,
further nominates wardens and assistants; provides for the
institution of search and quarterage, and for the binding of
apprentices; gives the corporation the right to inspect brew-houses
within certain limits, and to inflict penalties; orders that every
assistant elected shall be a communicant, and allows the commonalty
to distil aqua-vitæ or spirits.
The deed of July 1, 1684, surrenders the Company’s charter and all
rights appertaining to it.
The charter of 18th March, James II., after reciting the charter of
16 Henry VI., and 4 Elizabeth, 1563, and the surrender of their
charter by the Company, orders all brewers within eight miles of the
City or suburbs of London to be of the corporation; establishes
search and quarterage payments according to the number of servants
employed; gives the Company power to make laws or set penalties;
grants a licence in mortmain to purchase lands up to the value of
£60; orders every master, warden, assistant, and clerk to take the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and to subscribe the declaration;
orders each person elected to be a communicant.
The Company have a copy of byelaws drawn up in the year 1714, and
signed by all the members of the court.
The present constitution, orders, rules, and conditions, as drawn up
by the master, wardens, and assistants, were made on July 13, 1739.
They provide for the holding of the courts; the election of masters,
wardens, and assistants; for certain penalties for refusing to
serve; for the auditing of accounts, for the election to the livery
and freedom; for binding apprentices; for making the search and
quarterage; for certain restrictions in the case of freemen; for
power for the master and wardens to sue for penalties; for the
taking of the oaths, and the signing of the declarations.
In February 13, 1857, the byelaws were altered under the Act of 6
William IV., as far as regards the taking of oaths, and an order was
made that a declaration should be substituted for the oath.
The Company is governed by a master, three wardens, and twenty-six
assistants.
This Company is one of the richest of the City Companies; it has an
annual income of £2500 and administers Trusts and charities to the
extent of £25,000 more; it has a livery of 47; it admits none but
members of the trade. The Company has always, as might be expected,
been rich and flourishing.
THE BRODERERS COMPANY
The first charter of the Company of Broderers, or embroiderers, is
dated in 1561, and this is the earliest definite evidence now in the
possession of the Company of the date of its existence as a Company,
though the association existed long before incorporation. In an
indenture of conveyance of certain of the Company’s property in
Gutter Lane, dated 5 Henry VIII., one Thomas Foster (the grantee) is
described as a citizen and broyderer, and “The wardens of the
mystery of broyderers within the city of London” are described as a
definite body in the will of the same Thomas Foster.
25th October, 3 Elizabeth, 1561.—Original charter of Queen
Elizabeth.
Incorporates the freemen of the mystery or art of the broderers of
the City of London and the suburbs by the name of Keepers or Wardens
and Society of the Art or Mystery of the Broderers of the City of
London, to have perpetual succession and a common seal, to bring and
defend actions, and especially in the City of London to hold lands
of the annual value of £30, for the assistance and support of poor
men and women of the mystery.
Grants powers to the keepers or wardens from time to time to make
good and salutary statutes and ordinances for the good regulation
and government of the mystery and the freemen thereof, which shall
be inviolably observed.
Grants to the keepers or wardens power to overlook and govern the
art and all using the same in the City and suburbs thereof, the City
of Westminster, Saint Katherine’s in Middlesex, and the borough of
Southwark, and to punish all men for not truly working or selling.
20th April, 7 James I., 1609.—Original charter of James the First.
Contains only a recital and confirmation of the charter of Queen
Elizabeth without any alteration or addition.
The above is an abstract of the subsisting charter of the Company.
It was the Broderers who produced the palls used by many Companies
at the funerals of their members. They also made the pulpit cloths
and altar cloths of the churches, the vestments of the clergy, the
caparison of horses, and the decoration of arms and armour.
The livery in 1900 was 28. Their Trust Income about £32 : 9s. The
beautiful art of embroidery is encouraged by this Company by
scholarships at the Royal School of Art Needlework, Decorative
Needlework Society, and Clapton and Stamford Hill Government School
of Art.
=Milton Street=, one of the dreariest and dullest of thoroughfares,
deserves some comment, having originally been that Grub Street for ever
associated with starveling authors. In 1600 it was inhabited by bowyers,
fletchers, bowstring-makers and such occupations. There were many
bowling alleys and dicing houses. Andrew Marvell speaks of the Puritans
of Grub Street.
It was in the eighteenth century that the poorer sort of literary men
seem to have lived here.
Swift and Pope both ridiculed Grub Street writers; and Swift’s advice to
Grub Street verse-writers is worth quoting:
I know a trick to make you thrive:
Oh! ’tis a quaint device:
Your still-born poems shall survive,
And scorn to wrap up spice.
Get all your verses printed fair,
Then let them well be dried:
And Curll must have a special care
To leave the margin wide.
Lend these to paper-sparing Pope,
And when he sits to write,
No letter with an envelope
Could give him more delight.
When Pope has filled the margin round,
Why then recall your loan;
Sell them to Curll for 50 pound,
And swear they are your own!
Let us commemorate some of the Grub Street poets and a few others of the
same obscure kind. The names of those selected justify my assertion that
the miseries of poets fell only on those who were profligate, indolent,
or incapable.
Samuel Boyse, a colonist, so to speak, of Grub Street, since he
evidently belonged to that and no other quarter, was not a native of
London, but of Dublin, where his father was a dissenting minister of
great name and fame. The young man was sent to Glasgow University, where
he brought his university career to a close by marrying a wife at the
age of nineteen. As he had no means of his own, he was obliged to take
his wife, with her sister, to Dublin, where his father supported them,
selling an estate he had in Yorkshire to defray his son’s debts. On his
father’s death Samuel Boyse removed to Edinburgh, where he published a
volume of poems and wrote an elegy on the death of Lady Stormont.
He had many introductions, but his natural indolence forbade his taking
advantage of them. He seems to have been unable to converse with persons
in higher life, and when letters failed he made no further effort to win
their favour. Like all the poets of Grub Street, he was of a grovelling
habit, and loved to make friends with men of low life and habit; at the
same time he was selfishly extravagant, and would feast upon a casual
guinea while his wife and child were starving at home. The casual guinea
he mostly got by writing begging letters.
[Illustration:
GRUB STREET HERMIT
]
At one time he was so far reduced that he had no garment of any kind to
put on; all, including his shirts, were at the pawnbrokers; he sat up in
bed with a blanket wrapped round him through which he had cut a hole for
his arm, in which condition he wrote his verses. He died in 1749 in a
lodging in Shoe Lane. A friend endeavoured to get up a subscription to
save him from a pauper’s funeral. It was in vain; the parish officers
had to take away the body.
The man was a hopeless tenant of Grub Street, without foresight, without
prudence, without care, except for the present, without dignity or
self-respect; his poetry was third-rate, yet there are fine passages in
it; he had scholarly tastes, especially for painting and music, and in
heraldry he was well skilled. In a word, Samuel Boyse is quite the most
illustrious example of the poetaster who has failed to reach even the
lower levels of genius; whose life was utterly contemptible; who would
have brought, had such a man been worth considering, discredit by his
sordidness and his want of principle, morals, and honour, upon the
profession of letters.
Another case is that of Thomas Britton. He was born about the year 1650
at Higham Ferrers. He was apprenticed to a small coalman in Clerkenwell
and followed the same trade. He walked the streets carrying his sack on
his back, dressed in the blue frock of his profession. When he had
disposed of his coal he walked home, looking at the book-stalls and
picking up bargains. It was a splendid time for picking up bargains.
There were still the remnants of the old Monastic libraries and MSS.
together with the old books which had escaped the Great Fire.
Many collectors used to search about among the same book-stalls. Britton
became known to them and was employed by them. The Earls of Oxford,
Pembroke, Sunderland, and Winchelsea, and the Duke of Devonshire, were
among those collectors.
Presently it was discovered that the small coalman, besides being an
excellent hand at discovering an old book, was also a very good
musician. Then the wonderful spectacle was to be seen of the great ones
of the earth—the aristocracy, the wits, the musicians—assembling in an
upper room of an itinerant pedlar of small coals to hear a concert of
music. Handel played the harpsichord here; Dubourg played the violin.
These concerts were begun in 1678 and continued for many years. Britton
himself played the viol de gamba. But he was not only a musician and a
bibliophile, he was also an antiquarian; he was a collector of music; in
addition to all these things, he was also a chemist and had a laboratory
of his own. He died in 1714, aged about sixty-four. He was buried in
Clerkenwell Churchyard.
Let us not forget the famous Tom Brown. Though most of his life was
spent in London, he was a native of Shifnal in Shropshire. He was sent
to Christ Church, Oxford, where he distinguished himself as a linguist,
a scholar, and a writer of pieces which were certainly witty whatever
else they might be. He was so brilliant as a wit that he found it
necessary to exchange Oxford for London, where he nearly starved.
However, he obtained, just in time to save him, the school of
Kingston-on-Thames, which he held for a while, giving it up after a very
short tenure of office. Once more he came to London, and became poet,
satirist, descriptive writer, and libeller. He was one of the earliest
authors by profession, having, in fact, no other means of livelihood
than the proceeds of his writings. There is very little known concerning
his life; he is said to have been deficient in the courtliness which was
necessary in the society of Addison and the wits of society; indeed, he
belonged to a somewhat earlier time. He had no patron among the
nobility, though it is related that he was once invited to dinner by the
Earl of Dorset, who placed a bank-note for £50 under his plate. This was
the solitary exception, however. Nothing is known as to his private
circumstances, though it would be extremely interesting to learn what
sums he received for his Dialogues, Letters, and Poems. He closed a
short, merry, godless, waggish life at the early age of forty-one, a
fact which suggests drink and good living, with other easy ways of
shortening life. He is said—which one readily believes—to have died in
great poverty, and he was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey.
An unfortunate poet named William Pattison belongs to Grub Street. He
was the son of a farmer in Sussex. By the kindness of Lord Thanet he was
sent to school and to Cambridge. He quarrelled, however, with the tutor
of this College, and took his name off the boards. He then went up to
London intending to live by his pen. It was a very bad time for living
by the pen, and the boy, for he was no more, arrived with a very slender
equipment of experience and knowledge. He began by soliciting
subscriptions for a volume of poems; he seems to have had no friends;
but he made some impression at the coffee-house by clever talk. When he
had brought out his poems and spent all the subscription money, he fell
into absolute indigence and was forced to accept a post as assistant in
the shop of the notorious Curll. Before he did that, he wrote to Lord
Burlington a poem called _Effigies Authoris_, in which he said that he
was destitute of friends and money, half-starved, and reduced to
sleeping on a bench in St. James’s Park. To another person he writes, “I
have not enjoyed the common necessaries of life these two days.” He did
not long continue in this post of bookseller’s assistant, because
small-pox attacked him and he died. He was not yet twenty-two years of
age.
Not with less glory mighty Dulness crowned
Shall take through Grub Street her triumphant round,
says Pope in “The Dunciad.”
Among others who lived in Grub Street was Foxe the martyrologist.
General Monk is said to have had a house in a court off Grub Street. As
to the origin of the later name of the street, it is in doubt, some
asserting it was from a builder named Milton, and others that it was so
called from Milton’s many residences in the neighbourhood. The latter
explanation sounds probable; Milton lived at different times in
Aldersgate Street, in Jewin Crescent, in Little Britain, and in Bunhill
Fields, all within the district.
Eastward is Moorgate Street Station, and not far from it St.
Bartholomew’s Church, founded in 1850 to meet new demands. Northward in
White Street is the =City of London College=. This is a very large
building occupying all the space between White’s Court and Finsbury
Street. The lower part is red brick and above is glazed white brick. The
character of the building changes just before the corner, having stone
facings and a turret angle, which springs from above the first floor.
This institution was founded in 1848 and was first established at Crosby
Hall. It removed to Sussex Hall, Leadenhall Street, in 1881, and the
present building was opened in 1884. In 1895 the secondary portion in
White Street, connected with the main building by means of a bridge, was
added. The institution was first established as Metropolitan Evening
Classes. In 1891 it became, under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners,
one of the constituent Institutes of the City Polytechnic. It is in
union with the Society of Arts, the Science and Art Department, and the
City and Guilds of London Technical Institute. The number of individual
students in attendance during the session 1894-95 was 2257 (College
Calendar, 1895-96). Besides languages, sciences, and arts, the
curriculum includes a practical knowledge of technical subjects. There
is accommodation for 4000 students.
In Redcross Street the long line of wall bounding the yard of the
Midland Railway goods station occupies much of the east side. Beyond
this is a grey brick house partly stone faced, and very ugly, with “Lady
Holles’ School for Girls, founded 1702,” running across the front. The
west side of the street is all composed of manufactories and warehouses
in various styles.
There is a tree-covered space in the middle of =Bridgewater Square=.
Along the south side is Tranter’s Temperance Hotel, a dingy building, in
the same style as the houses in the street just mentioned. On the west
near the south end are one or two old tiled houses. On the north the new
building of the Cripplegate Without Boys’ School rises high, with narrow
frontage and projecting bow window in the centre resting on a bracket.
Up near the roof is the figure of a boy in a long coat standing in a
niche. At this school there is accommodation for 260 boys; of these 150
are clothed by Trust, and an outfit on leaving and a situation found for
all who pass the VIIth Standard.
The houses on either side of the school are of recent date, but from
that on the west, to the west corner, stretches a long row of old houses
with windows under the tiles on the roof. The west side of the square is
almost wholly eighteenth century, in the usual style. The staircases are
panelled, and have spiral balusters. The rooms are all completely
wainscotted, and have heavily recessed fireplaces. The entrance ways are
completely panelled, and many door lintels and window frames are
perilously askew.
ST. GILES, CRIPPLEGATE
By far the most interesting object in the ward without the Walls is
the Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, which stands at the south end
of Red Cross Street. It was built about 1090 by Alfure, who became
the first Hospitaller of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; the building
was replaced by a second church, towards the end of the fourteenth
century, and this was burnt down in 1545. It was at once rebuilt,
and escaped the Great Fire of 1666, and has remained substantially
the same up to the present time. It is of exceptional interest in
contrast with the uniformity of Wren’s City churches. In 1791 the
pitch of the roof was raised, and during the latter half of the
eighteenth century there was extensive restoration. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1181.
The patronage of the church has been in the hands of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who received it from Almund the priest in
1100, or thereabouts, up to the present time.
Houseling people in 1548 were 2440.
This church is in the Perpendicular style and contains a nave,
chancel, and two side aisles separated from the central part by
clustered columns and pointed arches. The total length is 146 feet 3
inches, and the height 42 feet 8 inches; the total height of the
steeple 146 feet 3 inches, that of the four pinnacles rising from
the corners of the parapet of the tower 12 feet 9 inches.
Chantries were founded in the church: By Richard Chaurye, whose
endowment fetched £4 in 1548; by Matthew Ashebye, whose endowment
yielded £9 : 7 : 8 in 1548. The King granted his licence to found
the Fraternity of Our Lady and St. Giles, September 21, 1426; there
were several chantries endowed here by John Bullinger, William Lake,
and William Serle, and by William Grove and Richard Heyworth.
[Illustration:
_From a drawing by W. Pearson._
ST. GILES, CRIPPLEGATE
]
Among the several memorial windows of the church the most
interesting is that at the west of the south aisle, comprising three
subjects, erected in memory of Edward Alleyne, the founder of
Dulwich College. The earliest monument now existing is of Thomas
Busby, who died in 1575. On the west wall, at the end of the north
aisle, is a tablet commemorating the martyrologist John Foxe, who
died in the parish in 1587. Sir Martin Frobisher was buried here,
but it was not till 1888 that a monument was erected to his memory,
on the eastern part of the south wall. On the same wall, farther
west, John Speed is commemorated, author of various works dealing
with the history of Great Britain. The chief interest attaching to
this church is the fact that in it John Milton was buried in 1674;
there is a stone commemorating him. In 1793 a monument in the shape
of a bust was erected to him at the expense of Samuel Whitbread, and
in 1862 a cenotaph designed by Edmund Woodthorpe was placed in the
south aisle. The church contains numerous other monuments, a great
many of which have a considerable degree of interest; many of them
have been erected to the memory of benefactors and vicars. It was
here that the wedding of Oliver Cromwell was solemnised in 1620; the
register also contains entries to another family whose name is also
linked with Milton’s—that of the Egerton’s, Earls of Bridgewater.
The greatest of the benefactors recorded by Stow seems to have been
Throckmorton Trotman, who gave to the parish £547 in all. In later
times, Sir William Staines, Lord Mayor in 1800, was a liberal donor,
founding and endowing four almshouses for decayed parishioners; also
the Rev. Frederick W. Blomberg, D.D., vicar of this church in 1833.
There was a school for 150 boys in the Freedom; also another for 50
girls, supported by the donation of the Lady Eleanor Holles, the
Haberdashers’ Free School. There were six almshouses, founded by Mr.
Allen, also the Lorrimer’s almshouses.
John Buckeridge (d. 1631), Bishop of Rochester, was vicar here; also
William Fuller (d. 1659), Dean of Durham; Lancelot Andrewes
(1555-1626), Bishop of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester; John Rogers,
(1679-1729), chaplain to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George
II.); John Dolben (1625-86), Archbishop of York; William H. Hale
(1795-1870), Master of Charterhouse.
The churchyard contains a drinking fountain in the shape of the old
Cripplegate, which is neatly laid out and intersected by a public
footpath; there is also an interesting relic, a bastion of the old
London Wall, 36 feet wide and about 12 feet high, the most perfect
fragment of the wall now existing. It is of inconsiderable height, not
more than 12 feet, and made of many odd pieces of different kinds of
stone, laid in cement. It looks solid enough to last another 400 years.
Ivy grows over it and over the adjoining wall, which is a modern
addition. Within this bastion was formerly a small religious house
called St. James-on-the-Wall (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 368).
The backs of great warehouses and the east side of the box-like vicarage
surround the churchyard. Over the entry from =Fore Street= are several
very old houses. We are outside the limits of the Fire here, as the date
of the entry, 1660, testifies. This entry has a semicircular canopy or
pediment containing this date, and the names of the churchwardens of the
period, deeply and clearly cut. On either side are the representations
of two large hour-glasses. A skull and cross-bones on the one side, and
an hour-glass on the other, are carved in relief below, and the whole is
covered with plaster. The backs of the houses are covered with
overlapping pieces of wood which rise right up to the gable ends. Facing
the street, there are projecting bays running up the front containing
windows.
The street, =London Wall=, until the middle of the eighteenth century,
consisted of a south row of houses facing the wall itself. In two places
the space before the wall was occupied by churchyards, that of
Allhallows-on-the-Wall and that of St. Alphage. Farther to the east, St.
Martin Outwich also had a burial-ground beside the wall. The pulling
down of the wall, the building of houses upon it and against it on
either side, was the work of many years. To this day there are houses on
the north side of the street to which access is gained by a step,
showing that they were built actually on the wall. Towards the end of
the eighteenth century a long piece of wall, where is now the opening to
Finsbury Square, was taken down to allow of more sunshine in the front
of Bethlehem Hospital. The appearance of the street at that time was
very pleasing. Sion College, the churches of Allhallows and St. Alphage,
and the Armourers’ Hall, with the venerable wall on the north, gave it a
very striking and picturesque character. It is a great pity that the
wall was taken down. The distance marked by the length of a lane
connecting London Wall with the south side of Fore Street gives the
breadth of the wall and of the town ditch beyond.
[Illustration:
LONDON WALL
]
At the east end of London Wall is the church of
ALLHALLOWS, LONDON WALL
This church stands on the old Roman wall erected in the third
century, and probably marks the site of one of the earliest
Christian churches built in this country.
The earliest authentic records give particulars of a church on the
present site, which dates from the year A.D. 1300, and there is
little doubt that it replaced an earlier structure, which had stood
since the Norman Conquest, and had fallen into disrepair. In A.D.
1474 Allhallows Chapel was constructed, probably for the
accommodation of the Ankers, or Anchorites, who were closely
associated with the church. The most famous of these was Sir Simon,
or Master Anker, the author of a devotional book which has been
preserved in the British Museum, entitled _The Fruits of
Redemption_, who was a great benefactor to Allhallows.
In A.D. 1527 a new aisle was added to the church. Possibly Sir
Simon, when he attached himself to Allhallows, discarded the loft
over the chapel, and settled himself in a cell in the bastion of the
old Roman wall, which now forms the vestry. If, as is probable, he
had taken a vow never to emerge from his retirement, it may be that
when the new aisle was added he was persuaded to place his eloquence
at the disposal of the parishioners, by consenting to preach on
condition that a private passage was made from his cell leading
straight into the pulpit. This would explain why, when the present
church was built, the conditions were reproduced by which the pulpit
is not accessible from the church, but can only be reached by a
staircase leading through the vestry.
The list of rectors can only be traced back to A.D. 1335, but there
is an interesting record in the _Croniques de Londres_, which
mentions that in A.D. 1320 the priest of Allhallows (whose name is
not given) was murdered by Isabel de Bury, who took refuge in the
church, but the Bishop of London would not allow her to seek
sanctuary there, so she was seized, and was hanged five days
afterwards.
The patronage of Allhallows was for many centuries in the hands of
the Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity, Aldgate. At the dissolution
of the monasteries in the sixteenth century it passed to the Crown,
and since then has belonged to the Lord Chancellor.
The church was fortunate enough to escape destruction during the
Great Fire in 1666, but it fell into a ruinous state about a century
later, and had to be demolished. The present structure, for the
erection of which a special Act of Parliament was passed, was
commenced in A.D. 1765, and cost £3000. The architect was George
Dance the younger, and it was his brother, Sir Nathaniel Dance
Holland, R.A., who presented to the church the magnificent painting
which hangs over the altar. It was a copy made by himself of the
famous picture in the Church of the Conception at Rome by Pietro
Berretini di Cortona, a Florentine painter of repute who died in
1669. The subject is the restoration to sight of Saul of Tarsus (St.
Paul) by Ananias at Damascus. The fifteenth-century monk in the
crowd gives a quaint touch of mediævalism to the scene.
The architecture of the church deserves a passing notice. The plan
is intended to reproduce a modified Roman Basilican church, but the
evidences of the Greek revival are shown in the character of the
Ionic capitals of the interior columns, as well as in the famous
Greek honeysuckle ornament, which appears both in the Roman
barrel-vault of the ceiling and in the frieze round the interior
walls. The church is almost unique in representing the transition
stage between the Italian renaissance and the short-lived
introduction of the Greek style.
Among the most famous rectors during the nineteenth century were the
Rev. William Beloe, the well-known translator of Herodotus and Aulus
Gellius; the Rev. Robert Nares, the Shakespearian glossary writer;
and the Rev. George Davys, who was tutor to the late Queen Victoria,
and became successively Rector of Allhallows, Dean of Chester, and
Bishop of Peterborough.
Returning to our section, from which we have somewhat strayed, we find
Wood Street has been already described.
In =Noble Street= stood the houses of Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sergeant
Fleetwood, Recorder of London. This street is dismissed by Stow in a few
words; it faced the City Wall westward, and so long as the Wall was
preserved there was an open space of twenty feet at least free from
buildings, while without there was the City Ditch. It began at the end
of Foster Lane, having the Church of St. John Zachary in the east, and
on the west, separated by a block of houses, the Church of St.
Anne-of-the-Willows. Going up the street we pass Lilypot Lane, Oat Lane,
leading to St. Mary Staining Church (see p. 47), and two or three
courts.
At the south end of Noble Street was Engain Lane, called also Maiden
Lane, Ingelene Lane, or Ing Lane. Here a Roman pavement was found
(_Proceedings of Soc. Antiq. Series_, i. 2. p. 184). Riley, in his
Introduction to the _Memorials_, thinks that this lane is lost. He
supposes, however, that the St. Michael “Hoggene Lane” was St. Michael
Queenhithe, instead of St. Michael by Huggin Lane, which is adjacent.
A continuation of Maiden Lane is St. Anne’s Lane or Distaff Lane.
In 1339, William de Clif bequeaths tenements in Igene Lane “elsewhere
called Ing Lane and Engaynes end, afterwards Maiden Lane” (Prideaux,
_Goldsmiths’ Company_, vol. i. p. 4). In 1560, “Mother Lowndes” had a
melting furnace in Maiden Lane. In 1627, Lord Nowell had the lease of a
house in the lane. In 1642, Lord Campden wanted to purchase the messuage
of which he held a lease, but was refused. In Staining Lane stood the
almshouses of the Haberdashers for the men of that Company.
In the modern Noble Street the new Post Office Hotel is a conspicuous
object on the east. Close by is Ye Noble Restaurant. Lilypot Lane is one
consecutive series of the less ornamental style of modern brick and
stone warehouses. Ye Olde Bell next to Oat Lane is evidently an old
house, and, seen in the vista of the street, has a considerable bow
forward. It is plastered. The coat-of-arms over the wooden doorway of
the Coachmakers’ Hall arrests attention for a moment. Then we see Nos.
16 and 17 on either side over the entry of Fitchett’s Court, which are
really old. They are of roughened red brick, dating from the rebuilding
after the Fire. Fitchett’s Court is a narrow stone-flagged _cul de sac_
lined on either side with similar houses. At the upper end is a modern
glass-roofed building. It is inhabited chiefly by manufacturers’ agents,
but is quaint, with a projecting bowed window near the entry, and a dark
woodwork doorway with two carved brackets supporting the cornice. The
house mentioned above in Noble Street on the north of the Court is The
Royal Mail Tavern. The remainder of this street contains no point of
interest. The Coachmakers’ Hall stands on the east side of Noble Street,
north of Oat Lane.
THE COACHMAKERS COMPANY
The Hall stands on the site of Shelley House, owned by Sir Thomas
Shelley _temp_ Henry IV. Afterwards it was named Bacon House by
Nicholas Bacon. “A plain man, direct and constant, without all
finesse and doubleness,” who dwelt here till the Queen, Elizabeth,
made him Lord Keeper in 1558, when he moved hence. He was the father
of Lord Bacon, the philosopher. He sometime rebuilt this house, and
was buried in St. Paul’s, where his effigy yet remains. After the
Lord Keeper’s departure, William Fleetwood, Recorder of London,
lived here between 1575 and 1586, yet he seems to have died in a
house of his own building, in Noble Street, to the north of this
(1593-94). By continual industry, advanced by natural good parts, he
attained to the name of an eminent lawyer. He was a man of a merry
conceit, eloquent and very zealous against vagrants, mass-priests,
and papists. In 1638, Sir Arthur Savage and others sold the house to
one Charles Bostock, scrivener. Now, the Common Scriveners had been
a Company of this City by prescription, time out of mind. They made
regulations for their profession in 1373; in 1390 they began their
Common Paper, a book of ordinances and signatures, still extant. Yet
there is no account of any Hall for them. In 1497 they met at the
dwelling-place of Henry Woodcock, their warden; in 1557 at Wax
Chandlers’ Hall. Their Charter of Incorporation (January 28,
1616-17) ordained a Hall, so in 1631 they bought Bacon House for
£810. After the Great Fire of 1666 they rebuilt this.
Afterwards the Coachmakers Company treated for its purchase, and
bought it with houses in Oat Lane, for £1600, raised by gift. For
though coaches had become common since the seventeenth century
began, and the Coach and Coach-Harness Makers had been incorporated
in 1677, they had up till then no Hall.
Early in the nineteenth century the Hall had become a warehouse,
whose counting-house retained the Coachmakers’ arms and a name-list
of their benefactors. In 1841 they rebuilt it; in 1843 furnished it
anew by subscription.
In 1870, borrowing money, they built the present Hall.
THE COACH AND COACH-HARNESS MAKERS COMPANY
The date of the first charter is 31st May, 29 Charles II., 1677, and
is for the general protection and supervision of the trade of
coachmakers and coach-harness makers.
In the early days of the Company, the master, wardens, and
assistants used to visit all the workshops within the prescribed
limits of the Company’s sphere of action, but that seems to have
engendered bad feelings among the various members of the trade, and
so gradually fell into desuetude; but in 1864 the Company granted
the free use of the hall for the operative Coachmakers’ Industrial
Exhibition, which was opened under the auspices of the Marquis of
Lansdowne and the Very Reverend Dean Milman, D.D. From that time to
the present the Company have continuously offered prizes to those
connected with the trade.
At present the number of the livery is 115. The Corporate Income is
£970; there is no Trust Income. The Company have of late held
exhibitions and offered prizes for the encouragement of
coach-building.
St. Olave’s Churchyard is on the south side of Silver Street. A stone
inscription tells us that the road was widened 8 feet in 1865 just at
this point. The disused graveyard is now open to the public as a
recreation ground, and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association have
distributed seats about among the old tombs. Low down by the steps at
the entrance is a stone slab bearing a heading of a skull and
cross-bones, and beneath the following words:
This was the parish church of St. Olave’s, Silver Street, destroyed
by the Dreadful Fire in the year 1666.
ST. OLAVE, SILVER STREET
This church was situated on the south side of Silver Street, in
Aldersgate Ward. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt,
its parish being annexed to that of St. Alban’s, Wood Street. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1343.
The patronage of the church was always in the hands of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s.
Houseling people in 1548 were 130.
No monuments of any interest are recorded.
The parish received two charitable gifts: a messuage purchased for
£58, the gift of Roger James; and £5 : 10s., to be paid every tenth
year, the gift of Bernard Hyde.
In Silver Street, No. 24 is the Parish Clerks’ Hall.
PARISH CLERKS
The Parish Clerks were first incorporated by 12 Henry III., 1232,
and confirmed by 14 Henry IV., 1412. In 1547, the first year of
Edward VI., all lands and properties belonging to fraternities not
being mysteries and crafts, were declared Crown possessions; thus
the Parish Clerks suffered the loss of their hall in Bishopsgate,
which was sold to Sir Robert Chester in 1548. In vain they disputed
the King’s claim; in vain obtained powerful support in the City, and
hoped to win the day: Sir Robert pulled down their hall, and they
were homeless. Then they took quarters at the north-west corner of
Broad Lane in the Vintry; the site is now thrown into the roadway of
Queen Street Place. Immortal Machyn, in his diary, 1562, records
that, after service at the Guildhall chapel and procession, that
year the Parish Clerks went to “their own” hall to dine; this was
the Broad Lane house. Little enough is known of the premises: the
Clerks were paying thirty-one nobles (£10 : 6: 8) rent in 1583; in
1592 they commenced publishing the Bills of Mortality; on renewing
the lease in 1628, for forty years, they handed to “the superior”
£40 as fine. By this time they had been reincorporated by the 8
James I., 1611, and were confirmed by 12 Charles I., 1636. They seem
to have covered their rent from 1648 onwards by letting the lower
rooms and cellars on lease for £11 per annum. In 1625 the Star
Chamber granted them permission to set up a printing-press in this
hall for the purpose of issuing the weekly Bills of Mortality. Here
also the Company appointed its own joiner, carpenter, and
bricklayer, nor omitted to secure the all-important cook. By 1637
the bricklayer had new-tiled the roof; he charged £12: also the
joiner had wainscotted the parlour, but the Clerks thought his bill
of £13 rather too much; he must include “some convenient work in
addition,” to be set up above the three doors in the newly
wainscotted room, then they would pay him and appoint him their
official joiner. The Great Fire destroyed this hall two years before
the lease was up. For some time the Court of the Company wandered
from tavern to tavern, but in 1671 ultimately settled at their
present hall in Silver Street.
=Monkwell Street=, anciently written Mugwell, Muggewell, or Mogwell
Street, was so called, according to Stow, after a well in the Hermitage
of St. James at the north end of the street. The Hermitage was a cell
belonging to Garendon Abbey where two or three of the brethren resided
as chaplains. There is no doubt about the house or the Hermitage, and
very possibly there was a well within its small precinct. At the same
time the ancient form of the name, Mugwell, does not suggest the word
Monk. It seems probable that the name was originally Mugwell, and that
after the Dissolution the memory of the well was kept up by a corruption
of the name. The street appears to have been outside the industries of
North London. It is mentioned many times in the _Calendar of Wills_, but
never in connection with workshops or trading shops. Between 1277 and
1576 there are the entries of the street. They all speak of rents,
tenements, and houses. In the year 1349 we find a brewery in the street.
This naturally inclines us to think that there must have been a well—?
Mugwell—to supply the brewery. In Riley’s _Memorials_ it is mentioned
once only in connection with a tourelle of London Wall near the street.
The Hermitage was succeeded by Lamb’s Chapel.
THE BARBERS
This Fraternity should also be of extreme antiquity. When or why the
barbers took upon themselves the practice of surgery I do not know.
It was the custom of the Roman Catholic Church to allow
ecclesiastics to become physicians on the condition (Council of
Tours, 1163) that they abstained from fire and steel; Rabelais, for
instance, in the fifteenth century, practised medicine subject to
this condition. But some kinds of surgery are necessary:
bone-setting, for instance, which was understood and performed by
the common people; dentistry, which at first fell into the hands of
barbers but afterwards became a separate mystery practised by
itinerants; cupping, blood-letting, the dressing of wounds, and
amputations also fell into the hands of the barbers. But not of all
the barbers. Surgery advanced by degrees; it became a distinct
profession before it was recognised.
That the barbers practised blood-letting is proved by an ordinance
of 1307 forbidding them to put blood in their windows in view of
folks. In 1308, Richard le Barber is presented to the mayor and
admitted Master over the trade of Barbers. He swore to make scrutiny
among the craft, and if he found any keeping brothels or acting
unseemly he would distrain upon them. The oath indicates that
barbers were suspected of keeping disorderly houses; in fact they
looked after the bagnios, which were always regarded with
well-founded suspicion. Barbers were often appointed as gatekeepers.
The reason would seem difficult to find, until it is remembered that
it was strictly forbidden that lepers should enter the City, and
that barbers were better able than other men from their medical
knowledge to detect them.
The earliest admission of a surgeon is recorded in the year 1312.
John of Southwark is described as “cirurgicus.” Clearly he was that
and nothing else; not a shaving man at all.
Some of them were wealthy. For instance, Hamo the Barber in 1340 was
assessed at £10 as his contribution towards a forced loan of £5000
to the King.
In the year 1376, the fraternity was ruled by two masters
representing the two divisions of barbers—who could also let blood
and draw teeth—and surgeons.
In the year 1388, the King sent writs all over the kingdom to
inquire into the constitution of the guilds and fraternities then
existing in the country. The returns appear to have been lost. But
the return sent in by the barbers still exists in a copy preserved
at Barbers’ Hall. It is published _in extenso_ in Mr. Sidney Young’s
book. It is a long document, and it pours a flood of light upon the
guilds and their laws. The original is in Norman French.
Since the barbers were not yet incorporated, they had no authority
except over their own members. They could not, therefore, prevent
the formation of a Fraternity of Surgeons, who practised without any
reference to the barbers. In 1376, the barbers, no doubt because of
this rival guild, complained against incompetent persons practising
surgery, and prayed that two masters should rule the craft, and that
none should be admitted without examination. In 1390, the Surgeons’
Guild obtained powers to appoint five masters for the directing of
those practising surgery and of women as well as men. The surgeons
thereupon tried to exercise the right of scrutiny over the barbers,
who claimed and obtained the protection of the City.
In the year 1461, Edward IV. granted the barbers a Charter of
Incorporation.
The preamble to the Letters Patent, 1 Edward IV., by which the
Company were incorporated, recites that the Freemen of the Mystery
of Barbers of the City of London, using the Mystery or Faculty of
Surgery, had for a long time exercised and sustained and still
continued to exercise and sustain great application and labour, as
well about the curing and healing wounds, blows, and other
infirmities as in the letting of blood and drawing of teeth, and
that by the ignorance and unskilfulness of some of the said barbers,
as well freemen of the said City as of others being foreign
surgeons, many misfortunes had happened to divers people by the
unskilfulness of such barbers and surgeons in healing and curing
wounds, blows, hurts, and other infirmities, and that it was to be
feared that the like or worse evils might thereafter ensue unless a
suitable remedy was speedily provided in the premises.
And it was thereby granted to the freemen of the said mystery of
barbers in the said City of London, that the said mystery and all
the men of the said mystery, should be one body, and one perpetual
community, with power for electing two masters or governors, and
that the said masters or governors and commonalty and their
successors might make statutes and ordinances for the government of
the said mysteries. And that the masters or governors for the time
being, and their successors, should have the survey, search,
correction, and government of all the freemen of the said City being
surgeons, using the mystery of barbers in the said City, and other
surgeons being foreigners practising the mystery of surgery within
the said City and suburbs thereof, and the punishment of them for
offences in not perfectly executing, performing, and using the said
mystery, and should have the survey of all manner of instruments,
plaisters, and other medicines, and the receipts used by the said
barbers and surgeons for the curing and healing of sores, wounds,
hurts, and such like infirmities. And that no barber using the said
mystery of surgery within the said City or suburbs should be
thereafter admitted to exercise the same mystery unless he had first
been approved of as well instructed in that mystery by the said
masters or governors, or their successors sufficiently qualified in
that behalf.
By the Act of Parliament of 32 Henry VIII., after reciting that
within the said City of London there were then two several and
distinct companies of surgeons exercising the science and faculty of
surgery, the one company called the Barbers of London, and the other
called the Surgeons of London, and that the former were incorporated
by the Letters Patent of 1 Edward IV., but the latter had not any
manner of incorporation; it was enacted that the two several and
distinct companies, and their successors, should from thenceforth be
united and made one entire and whole body corporate, which should
thereafter be called by the name of Masters or Governors of the
Mystery or Commonalty of Barbers and Surgeons of London.
The Letters Patent of 1 James and 5 Chas. I., granted and confirmed
to the united companies: All and singular the manors, messuages,
lands, tenements, customs, liberties, franchises, immunities,
jurisdictions, and hereditaments of the united companies of barbers
and surgeons then held by them and enjoyed under any letters patent
of any former kings and queens or by colour of any lawful
prescription, with power to make byelaws, annual elections, appoint
examiners of surgeons, and that no person should exercise surgery
within the cities of London and Westminster or within the distance
of seven miles of the said cities, unless previously examined; and
by the public letters testimonial of the said company, under their
common seal, and admitted to exercise the said art or mystery of
surgery under the penalty therein mentioned; and that all persons so
examined and admitted as aforesaid might exercise the art in any
other places whatsoever of the kingdom of England, with power to
appoint lectures for instruction in the principles and rudiments in
the art of chirurgery.
By the Act of 18 Geo. 2, cap. 15, after reciting the
before-mentioned Acts, and that the barbers had for many years past
been engaged in a business foreign to and independent of the
practice of surgery, and the surgeons being then become a numerous
and considerable body, and finding their union with the barbers
inconvenient in many respects, and in no degree conducive to the
progress of the art of surgery, and that a separation of the
corporation of barbers and surgeons would contribute to the
improvement of surgery, it was enacted that the said union and
incorporation of barbers and surgeons should, after June 24, 1745,
be dissolved, and the surgeons were constituted a separate and
distinct body corporate by the name of the Master, Governors, and
Commonalty of the Art and Science of Surgeons of London; and the
barbers were thereby constituted a body corporate and commonalty
perpetual, which should be called by the name of the Master,
Governors, and Commonalty of the Mystery of Barbers of London.
The Barbers Company, since their separation from the surgeons, have
continued to conduct the affairs of the Company.
The Hall of the Company is mentioned by Stow with certain
particulars of their history:
“In this west side is the Barbers-Chirurgeons’ hall. This Company
was incorporated by means of Thomas Morestede, esquire, one of the
sheriffs of London 1436, chirurgeon to the kings of England, Henry
IV., V., and VI.: he deceased 1450. Then Jaques Fries, physician to
Edward IV., and William Hobbs, physician and chirurgeon for the same
king’s body, continuing the suit the full time of twenty years,
Edward IV., in the 2nd of his reign, and Richard, Duke of
Gloucester, became founders of the same corporation in the name of
St. Cosme and St. Damiane. The first assembly of that craft was
Roger Strippe, W. Hobbs, T. Goddard, and Richard Kent; since the
which time they built their hall in that street, etc.”
The number of the livery is about 120. There are no particulars as
to the Corporate Income of the Company. The Trust Income is about
£650 per annum.
GROUP III
The third group of streets is that which is bounded on the south by
Cannon Street, on the east by Bishopsgate Street and Gracechurch Street,
and on the west by Moorgate Street, Princes Street, and Walbrook, and
northward by the City limits.
This, with Cheapside, includes the very heart and centre of the City. In
it are the streets called Cornhill, Lombard Street, Threadneedle Street,
Throgmorton Street, Lothbury, Princes Street, and Broad Street. Here
were formerly the ecclesiastical foundations of the Austin Friars and
St. Anthony’s. Here are the Royal Exchange, the Bank of England, the
Mansion House, the offices of many Banks and of Companies; the site of
such well-known houses as the Baltic, the South Sea House, Garraway’s,
the Jerusalem, the London Tavern. In Lombard Street we have the first
house of City Firemen and the first Post Office. In Broad Street is the
site of Gresham House, afterwards Gresham College, founded with such a
noble ambition, fallen now to so poor a place.
In this place it is proposed to take the principal streets and lanes and
to set down whatever points of interest have not been touched upon in
the large History of London.
=Cornhill= has been a crowded street from time immemorial. Stow says
that there was here a corn market. It does not seem proved, however,
that there ever was one here. Loftie points out that the London corn
market was on the east side of St. Michael-le-Querne, opposite Bread
Street. It has been suggested that the family of Coren Hell or Corn Hill
gave their name to the ward. In 1125 there is Edward Heep Cornhill among
those engaged in the conveyance of the Portsoken to the Holy Trinity
Priory. But a market of some sort was most certainly held here, and it
may have been originally a corn market.
We must not suppose that the division of trades and markets was ever
rigidly observed. If there were bakers in Bread Street, there may have
been bakers elsewhere for the general convenience. Then in 1347 (Riley’s
_Memorials_, p. 236) there was a corn market in Gracechurch Street and
another in Newgate Street. The market was opposite the Franciscan House,
so that perhaps we may accept Stow’s statement and conclude that the
corn market of Cornhill gradually receded eastward into Gracechurch
Street, where it was presently absorbed by Leadenhall Market, which is
reckoned by Stow as in Cornhill.
In 1310 proclamation was made in the City as follows:
“It is ordered and commanded on the King’s behalf, that no man or woman
shall be so daring or so bold as from henceforth to hold a common market
for any manner of merchandise in the highway of Chepe after the hour of
None, as heretofore they have done; nor yet in any other place within
the City, save only upon Cornhulle; and that, from Matins until the hour
of None, and not after: on pain of forfeiture of the goods so carried
there to sell, by way of holding common market there” (Riley’s
_Memorials_, p. 75).
The hour of “None” is from two to three. What was the meaning of this
proclamation? Why must the markets of Chepe be closed at three while
those of Cornhill remained open? But in 1369, because many cheats had
been possible by selling things after dark, it was ordered that at the
ringing of the bell upon the Tun at sunset (not the bell of St.
Mary-le-Bow, which only belonged to West Chepe), all shops and stalls
were to be closed.
The Tun, of which mention has often been made in other volumes of this
book, was a small prison, something like a tun, built by Henry le Waleys
in 1282. Beside it was a conduit built by the same citizen. And there
was a standard for Thames water brought there by the contrivance of one
Peter Morris, a Dutchman. Distances were reckoned from the standard of
Cornhill.
Here were stocks for the sturdy beggar, the lazar, should he venture
into the City, and fraudulent dealers. Here was a pillory for similar
offenders; one William Felde stood in it in 1375 for cheating hucksters
of ale. Here Gyleson also, in 1348, was so put to public shame for
selling putrid pork, some of which was burned under his nose to his
unspeakable discomfort.
The earliest occupants of Cornhill, according to Strype, were drapers.
It is, however, certain that other trades were established there. Thus
in 1302 there is a baker of Cornhill; in 1318 a bakehouse opposite the
Pillory; in 1345 the City poulterers are ordered not to sell east of the
Tun on Cornhill, while the “foreign” poulterers are sent to Leadenhall;
in 1342, “false” blankets are burned in Cornhill; in 1347 there is a
turner of Cornhill; in 1364 a tailor; in 1365 the pelterers are ordered
to carry on their business in Cornhill, Walbrook, and Budge Row only; in
1372 the blacksmiths are confined for the exhibition of their wares to
Gracechurch Street, St. Nicholas Fleshambles’ (Newgate), and the Tun of
Cornhill.
The punishment of common clerks illustrated by Stow is noted elsewhere.
As regards the Tun, he writes:
[Illustration:
THE PUMP IN CORNHILL, 1800
]
“By the west side of the foresaid prison, then called the Tun, was a
fair well of spring water curbed round with hard stone; but in the year
1401, the said prison house, called the Tun, was made a cistern for
sweet water, conveyed by pipes of lead from Tiborne, and was from
thenceforth called the Conduit upon Cornhill. Then was the well planked
over, and a strong prison made of timber called a cage, with a pair of
stocks therein set upon it, and this was for night walkers. On the top
of which cage was placed a pillory, for the punishment of bakers
offending in the assize of bread, for millers stealing of corn at the
mill, for bawds, scolds, and other offenders. As in the year 1468, the
7th of Edward IV., divers persons being common jurors, such as at
assizes were forsworn for rewards, or favour of parties, were judged to
ride from Newgate to the pillory in Cornhill, with mitres of paper on
their heads, there to stand, and from thence again to Newgate, and this
judgment was given by the mayor of London. In the year 1509, the 1st of
Henry VIII., Darby, Smith, and Simson, ringleaders of false inquests in
London, rode about the city with their faces to the horse tails, and
papers on their heads, and were set on the pillory in Cornhill, and
after brought again to Newgate, where they died for very shame, saith
Robert Fabian.
“The foresaid conduit upon Cornhill, was in the year 1475 enlarged by
Robert Drope, draper, mayor, that then dwelt in that ward; he increased
the cistern of this conduit with an east end of stone and castellated it
in comely manner” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 208).
In the time of Stow there were still standing some of the old houses,
built of stone in accordance with the regulations of Henry Fitz Aylwin
and other mayors. The danger of fire was thus diminished. But those
houses which in many cases were built round open courts, covering a
large space and of no more than two stories in height, were gradually
taken down and houses of four or five stories built in their place, a
fact which must be remembered when we read of the Great Fire. All those
broad courts and open spaces which might have checked the Fire at so
many points were gone in 1666, and replaced by high houses standing
together and by narrow courts.
The Royal Exchange, the Bank of England, and the Mansion House are so
mixed up with the general history of London that they must be sought for
in the volumes that have preceded this.
The Weigh-house was the place where all merchandise brought across the
sea was taken to be weighed at the King’s beam. “This house hath a
master, and under him four master porters, with porters under them: they
have a strong cart, and four great horses, to draw and carry the wares
from the merchants’ houses to the beam and back again” (Stow, p. 73).
The house was built by Sir Thomas Lovell, “with a fair front of
tenements towards the street.” The cart therefore was taken into an
inner court through a gateway, as we might expect.
There were many taverns in and about Cornhill.
In the sixteenth century was still standing one of the old stone houses
of which we have spoken. This was popularly known as “King John’s
House.” Now at the granting of the commune to the City, John lodged at
the house of Richard Fitz Richer, the sheriff. Possibly this was the
house. Pope’s Head Alley marks the site of the Pope’s Head Tavern, which
had the ancient arms of England, three leopards between two angels,
engraved in stone on the front. Stow thinks it may have been a royal
palace.
A perspective view of =Cornhill= at the present day gives a very fine
effect. The sides are lined with large buildings on the erection of
which no time or expense has been spared, and the protuberant stone
decoration and the lines of enriched windows give on the whole an
appearance of wealth and dignity. Yet, taken singly, there are few of
these buildings that deserve any commendation. There is a sameness and
want of originality. Everywhere are round-headed windows and stone
foliage; everywhere the same shaped roof projections and pinnacles. The
flagged space in front of the Royal Exchange is decorated by trees in
tubs, and on it stands an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington.
This was executed by Sir Francis Chantrey in 1844. The Royal Exchange
lines the side of the street for some distance and all round the
ground-floor are shops, etc. Beyond it is a second open space. The
statue here facing southward is of Rowland Hill. The figure is on a
block of polished granite.
Beyond Finch Lane the Union Bank of Australia stands out as one of the
exceptions to the general monotony of the street. It is of white stone,
in a severe style without undue excrescences, and the chief ornament is
a row of sculpturesque figures supporting the cornice.
On the south side of Cornhill an entrance to St. Peter’s Church first
attracts attention.
ST. PETER, CORNHILL
This church is possibly the most ancient in the City. It was
practically rebuilt in the reign of Edward IV. and thoroughly
renovated in 1632, but so damaged by the Great Fire that after
attempts at restoration it had to be rebuilt. The present building
was erected by Wren in 1680-81. The earliest known date of an
incumbent is 1263—one John de Cabanicis. There is an unbroken
succession since John de Exeter, 1282.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the family of Nevil
before 1263, one of whom, Lady Alice Nevil, conveyed it in 1362 to
Richard, Earl of Arundell, for a term of years; in 1380 to Thomas
Coggeshall and others; in 1402 to Hampweyde Bohern, Earl of
Hereford. It was again conveyed about, or shortly before, 1395 to
Robert and Margaret Rykedon and others, who presented to it in 1405;
it was confirmed to Richard Whittington and others in 1408, who in
turn confirmed it in 1411 to the Mayor and Commonalty of London, in
whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 500.
The church measures 80 feet in length, 47 feet in breadth, and 40
feet in height, and contains a nave and two aisles separated from
the central portion by Corinthian columns. There is a very fine
screen, one of the only two erected in the City of London, and the
only one remaining in its original position. The steeple, which
rises at the south-west, attains a height of 140 feet, and consists
of a tower and cornice surmounted by a cupola, an octagonal lantern,
and a spire, terminating in St. Peter’s emblem, the Key. The view of
the exterior is blocked on the north by intervening houses, but on
the south the church is open to the churchyard.
Chantries were founded here by Roger FitzRoger previous to 1284; by
Nicholas Pycot at the Altar of St. Nicholas in 1312; by Philip de
Ufford at the Altar of St. Katherine in 1321; by Robert de la Hyde
at the Altar of St. George in 1328; by William Elliot (William of
Kingston) at the Altar of the Holy Trinity, for himself, Sarah and
Alynor his wives, and for his father and mother in 1375; by John
Foxton at the Altar of St. George in 1382; by John Waleys at the
same altar in 1409; and by Dame Alice Brudenel in 1437 to the Altar
of St. Nicholas. There were also chantries founded by Richard
Morley, Peter Mason, and John Lane. The Guild or Fraternity of St.
Peter was established in this church by Henry IV. in 1403 at the
intercession of Queen Johanna, William Aghton being rector. The
valuation of the Rectory _temp_ Henry VIII. was £39 : 5 : 7½, to
which was added tenths from the chantries amounting to £14 : 14 : 4.
A large number of monuments are recorded by Stow, some of the most
notable of which were in memory of: William of Kingston; Margery
Clopton, widow of Robert Clopton; Sir Christopher Morice, Master
Gunner of England to Henry VIII.; Sir Henry Huberthorne, Merchant
Taylor, and Lord Mayor of the City; Francis Breerewood, Treasurer of
Christ’s Hospital; Sir William Bowyer. John Carpenter, the famous
Town Clerk of London and compiler of the _Liber Albus_, was also
buried here. In the vestry is an interesting tablet copy of one
hanging in St. Paul’s Cathedral from A.D. 1300, and preserved from
the Great Fire, to the effect that this church was the first founded
in London, and that it was erected by King Lucius in 179—a legend
which Stow himself appears not to have believed. There is here,
also, the old key-board and organ-stops used by Mendelssohn when he
played in St. Peter’s in 1840 and 1842. The portraits of Bishop
Beveridge and Bishop Waugh, both of whom were rectors here for some
years, hang on the walls. A fine manuscript Vulgate, with
illuminations, written for the Altar of the Holy Trinity in St.
Peter’s, is also preserved in the vestry.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by G. Shepherd._
ST. PETER’S, CORNHILL
]
Among the most important charities were those of: Laurence Thompson,
1601, who left £100 in trust for tea, coal, and bread for the poor
of the parish. William Walthal, 1606, who left £246 : 13 : 4, £200
of which was to be lent to the struggling shopkeepers of the parish,
the interest to be distributed in bread and coal. The Robert Warden
(1609) bequest for Ash Wednesday sermons and Sunday bread to be
administered through the Poulterers Company. The Lucy Edge (1630)
bequest for the weekly lecture. Sir Benjamin Thorowgood’s (1682)
bequest of three shops at the west end of the church for the
maintenance of the organ and organist; and the Gibbs’ bequest
(1864). Of these, all, with the exception of the Lucy Edge and
Gibbs’ bequests, which provide for the Thursday lecturer, and part
of the Robert Warden bequest, which provides for the Ash Wednesday
sermon before the Poulterers Company, have been appropriated, with
other endowments, by the City Parochial Charities, out of which
common fund a yearly allowance is made for the upkeep of the Church.
John Hodgkin, Bishop of Bedford, 1537, was rector here; also John
Taylor (d. 1554), Bishop of Lincoln; Francis White (d. 1638), Bishop
of Ely; William Beveridge (1637-1708), Bishop of St. Asaph; John
Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle, 1723—he is buried in front of the present
altar.
Next door to the church is another of the exceptions in the street, a
well-designed terra-cotta building. The building is in a late
Perpendicular or Tudor style, and is appropriately named Tudor Chambers.
St. Peter’s Alley leads to the graveyard at the back of the church,
which is cut in two by an abnormally broad sweeping way up to the centre
door. Plainly built chambers of many stories look down on the dusty
evergreens of the churchyard. The next object of interest is the deeply
recessed and beautifully ornamented porch of St. Michael, which stands
back a little from the line of the street. By the side of the church is
St. Michael’s Alley, which leads us to the graveyard. In this a small
cloister or entry with vaulted roof leads through to the churchyard, a
space of newly turned soil with a fringe of the inevitable evergreen
bushes.
The great London coffee-house was set up in St. Michael’s Alley in 1652
by one Pasqua Rosee.
ST. MICHAEL, CORNHILL
The body of St. Michael’s Church was destroyed in the Great Fire and
rebuilt by Wren in 1672; the tower was injured and pulled down in
1722, when the present tower, also the work of Wren, was erected. In
1858 it was greatly altered by Sir Gilbert Scott. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1287.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Alnoth the priest,
before 1133, who granted it to the Abbot and Convent of Evesham, who
gave it in 1133 to Sparling the priest; the Abbot and Convent of
Evesham, who granted it in 1505 to Simon Hogan, who bequeathed it to
the Drapers’ Company, who presented to it in 1515, and in whose
successors it continued.
The church measures 87 feet in length, 60 feet in breadth, and 35
feet in height, and contains two aisles divided from the nave by
Doric columns. The church was originally in the Italian style, but
the alterations in 1858-60 by Sir Gilbert Scott give the appearance
of a nineteenth-century imitation of mediævalism. The tower is
Gothic in architecture, and contains three stories crowned by a
parapet from the angles of which four pinnacles rise up. The total
height is 130 feet. The church has always been famous for its bells,
of which it possesses 12.
Chantries were founded here by: Walter de Bullingham, to which John
de Bourge was admitted chaplain, August 22, 1390; Thomas Baker
augmented the endowment by £2 : 18 : 8; Ralph More was chaplain in
1548, “a man of 50 yrs. who hath lyen bedridden this 18 years”;
Simon Smith; William Comerton at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary;
Hamo Box, for which the King granted his licence, July 28, 1321;
William Rus, whose endowment for this and other purposes fetched
£27 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when William Penne was priest “of the age of
38 years, and of indifferent learning and hath none other living but
this his yearly stipend of £8”; Andrew Smythe, who endowed it with
lands, etc., which fetched £12 in 1548, when John Paddye was priest
“of the age of 26 years, indifferently learned, having no other
living or promotion over and above his stipend of £7 : 6 : 7”; Simon
Mordonne, mayor, 1368, who left tenements valued at £9 in 1548, when
John Campyon was priest, “of the age of 66 years, a good singer and
indifferently well learned, having none other living besides this
his stipend of £6 : 18 : 4”; John Langhorne, who endowed it with
tenements which yielded £10 : 8s. in 1548, when Abail Mortcock was
priest, “of the age of 36 years, whose qualities, conversation, and
learning is as the other and hath none other living but this his
stipend of £6 : 13 : 4.” The King granted his licence to Peter Smart
and others to found a guild in honour of St. Anne and Our Lady,
September 27, 1397, which was valued at £17 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when
Sir William Bryck was chaplain “of the age of 33 years, moderately
well learned.” John Shopman and others have licence to found a guild
in honour of Blessed Virgin Mary with special devotion to St.
Michael the Archangel, October 4, 1442.
[Illustration:
CONFECTIONER’S SHOP, CORNHILL
]
Alderman Robert Fabian (d. 1513) was buried here in 1513; he
compiled an elaborate chronicle, _The Concordance of Histories_,
dealing with France as well as England. This church is specially
connected with the antiquary John Stow, and both his father and
grandfather were buried here. Against the north walk there is a
monument in memory of John Vernon, erected in place of one consumed
by the Fire, by the Merchant Taylors in 1609; he was a donor of
several large legacies. In 1609 John Cowper was buried here—founder
of a family whose memory is still preserved in connection with
Cowper’s Court, Cornhill. To this family the poet Cowper belonged.
The parish was extremely rich in charitable gifts. Brass tablets are
affixed to the sides of the tower recording the dates, etc., of
repairs, and the benefactors in connection, amongst whom are the
following: Sir John Langham, £500; Sir Edward Riccard, £100; James
Clotheroe, £50. Other benefactors were Robert Drope, donor of £30,
and his wife Jane, afterwards Viscountess Lisle, of £90.
William Brough (d. 1671), Dean of Gloucester, and author of several
religious works, was rector here; also Robert Poole-Finch
(1724-1803), chaplain of Guy’s Hospital and a preacher of some
eminence.
No. 15 Cornhill is the oldest shop of its class in the Metropolis. The
window is set in a carved wooden framework, painted green, which
encloses the small glass panes in three arches. It was established as a
confectioner’s shop in the time of George I., and it is a confectioner’s
still. Within, the low roof and thick woodwork testify its age. It might
easily be overlooked, as the brick house rising above it presents no
noticeable feature.
Of =Change Alley= one has to note that Jonathan’s Coffee-house was the
resort of those who dealt and dabbled in stocks.
[Illustration:
GARRAWAY’S COFFEE-HOUSE
]
Why did ‘Change Alley waste thy precious hours,
Among the fools who gap’d for golden show’rs?
No wonder if we found some poets there,
Who live on fancy and can feed on air;
No wonder they were caught by South-Sea schemes,
Who ne’er enjoyed a guinea but in dreams.
Here also were Garraway’s and Robins’ Coffee-houses. In 1722 “the better
sort,” according to Defoe, who carried on business as a hosier in
Freemason’s Court, met at these coffee-houses before going to the
Exchange.
The present Stock Exchange was not erected till the year 1801.
Strype thus speaks of the Alley as it was after improvements:
“Exchange Alley, that lies next eastward, hath two passages out of
Cornhill; one into Lombard Street, and another bending east into Birchin
Lane. It is a large Place vastly improved, chiefly out of an house of
Alderman Backwall’s, a Goldsmith, before the Great Fire, well built,
inhabited by tradesmen; especially that passage into Lombard Street
against the Exchange, and is a place of a very considerable concourse of
Merchants, seafaring men and other traders, occasioned by the great
Coffee houses, Jonathan’s and Garraway’s, that stand there. Chiefly now
brokers, and such as deal in buying and selling of Stocks, frequent it.
The Alley is broad and well paved with free-stones, neatly kept. The
Fleece Tavern, seated in Cornhill, hath a passage into this Alley, being
a very large house and of great resort.” At No. 41 Thomas Gray the poet
was born on December 24, 1716.
Change Alley is at present a winding and tortuous thoroughfare. It bears
the date 1886 over the western entry, and contains many red and glazed
white brick houses. Close by this entry is the Bakers’ Chop House, a
curious little old building with projecting windows of dark wood.
In the next portion of Change Alley is a well-built red brick building
by R. Norman Shaw, with a slab on the north-east corner bearing the
inscription:
The site of Garraway’s Coffee House, rebuilt 1874;
and beneath is a large stone grasshopper.
=Gracechurch Street=, called also Grass church, Garscherche, and
Gracious Street, was formerly a market for hay, corn, malt, cheese, etc.
There was uncertainty about the name, for in 1329 we find it written
Grescherche Street, in 1333 Grascherche Street, a form of the name which
is afterwards repeated.
In 1275 there is a will by one Martin de Garscherche bequeathing
property to his sons and daughters; in 1294, 1311, and 1324, we hear of
tenements in Garscherche, which seems as if the place was then an open
market, not yet settled down to a street; perhaps, however, the dignity
of a street was sometimes conferred upon it, for in 1296 there is
mention of Leadenhall in Garscherch Street, and in 1342 it is also named
as a street.
In 1320 one of the supervisors of shoes was Richard le Cordewaner of
“Gras cherche”; in 1347 a jury of “Graschirche,” consisting of a butcher
and eleven others, accused John de Burstalle of selling corn at more
than the legal price, and he was sent to prison for forty days; in 1372
it was ordained that the blacksmiths should send their work either to
“Graschirche” or to the “Pavement” by St. Nicholas Fleshambles, or by
the Tun on Cornhill, and should stand by their work openly. Therefore
the market here was not confined to hay and corn. In 1386 one Thomas
Stokes was in trouble for pretending to be an officer and taker of ale
for the household of the King, under which pretence he marked with an
arrowhead several barrels in the brewery of William Roke of Graschirche.
There was therefore a brewery in the market. One finds so many breweries
scattered about the City that one asks how they got the water; it must
certainly have been drawn up from a local well. Another case of
personating an officer of the King was that of William Redhede in 1417,
who tried to carry off certain bushels of wheat at Graschirche
pretending that they were for the King. He was clapped into prison and
then put in pillory. “Upon the three market days ensuing he was to be
taken each day from the Prison of Newgate to the Market called ‘le
Cornmarket’ opposite to the Friars Minors and there the cause of the
judgment aforesaid was to be proclaimed: and after that he was to be
taken through the middle of the high street of Chepe to the Pillory on
Cornhille; and upon that he was to be placed on each of those three days
there to stand for one hour each day, the reason of his sentence being
then and there proclaimed, and after that he was to be taken from thence
through the middle of the high street of Cornhill to the Market of
Graschirche aforesaid, where like proclamation was to be made: and from
thence back to prison.”
Roman remains, such as vases, bronzes, coffins, have been found in this
street.
In 1654 Brethmer, citizen of London, gave to the Church at Canterbury
his messuage at “Gerscherche” as also the Church of Allhallows, Lombard
Street.
The street is continually mentioned in connection with tenements,
messuages, houses, and rents.
In more modern times Richard Tarleton the actor lived in Gracechurch
Street, at the sign of the Saber. Probably he acted in the courtyard of
the Cross Keys in the same street, licensed in 1570, but only for that
year. Many pageants and processions were conducted through Gracechurch
Street.
In Gracechurch Street at the corner of Fenchurch Street was St. Benet’s
Church.
=St. Benet, Grasschurch=, was so called after St. Benedict. The date
of its foundation is unknown. It was burnt down in the Great Fire,
rebuilt and finished in 1685. In 1868 the building was pulled down,
and in 1869 and 1870 the site was occupied by offices. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1170.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s, who granted it about 1142 to Algarus the priest, for
his life.
Houseling people in 1548 were 223.
A chantry was founded here in the chapel of St. Mary and St.
Katherine for Lady Joan Rose; the endowment fetched £14 : 3 : 4 in
1548.
Few notable monuments in this church are recorded by Stow. It
originally contained Queen Elizabeth’s monument. The parish was rich
in charitable gifts, some of the donors of which were: Mrs. Doxie of
£50, for the better maintenance of the parson; Lady Elizabeth Newton
£40, and many others whose names are not recorded.
In modern Gracechurch Street, at the corner of Eastcheap, is a fine new
building of the National Provident Institution for Mutual Life
Assurance. The courts opening out of the street are lined with countless
window reflectors and are very monotonous. The Russian Bank is fine and
of great height; on the west there is a long line of brick and stucco
buildings which can boast no style at all. The street is given over to
merchants, solicitors, bankers, agents, etc. The great building at the
corner of Lombard Street is the City Linen Company Bank, and is
conspicuous by reason of its stone ornamentation.
The northern portion of the street is not remarkable for architectural
beauty. The street consists chiefly of great square blocks of buildings
interspersed with dull early nineteenth-century brick boxes. In Bell
Yard there is an almost unbroken line of old houses on the south side,
and at the end the half-embedded gilt bell over a public-house points to
the name-derivation. On the east of Gracechurch Street a high arch of
rusticated stone leads to Leadenhall market (see p. 160). Gracechurch
Buildings follow, and Bull’s Head Passage, leading to Skinner’s Place,
is lined by open stalls. The flat end of St. Peter’s, Cornhill, faces
Leadenhall Buildings.
=Lombard Street.=—Shops and tenements are mentioned belonging to Lombard
Street in the fourteenth century. The _Calendar of Wills_ has a
reference in the year 1327. Riley’s earliest reference is 1382.
When the street first received its name is not known. Stow ventures back
no further than Edward II., but there were Italian merchants before that
time:
“Then have ye Lombard Street, so called of the Longobards, and other
merchants, strangers of divers nations assembling there twice every day,
of what original or continuance I have not read of record, more than
that Edward II., in the 12th of his reign, confirmed a messuage,
sometime belonging to Robert Turke, abutting on Lombard Street, toward
the south, and toward Cornehill on the north, for the merchants of
Florence, which proveth that street to have had the name of Lombard
Street before the reign of Edward II. The meeting of which merchants and
others there continued until the 22nd of December, in the year 1568; on
the which day the said merchants began to make their meetings at the
burse, a place then new built for that purpose in the ward of Cornhill,
and was since by her majesty, Queen Elizabeth, named the Royal
Exchange.”
The Lombards came over at first as collectors of the papal revenue; but
they did much more than this: they opened up trade between the Italian
towns and London—every year the fleets of Genoa and Venice brought goods
from the East and from the Mediterranean. Moreover, the Italians in
England sent wool from England instead of precious metals by way of
Florence, if not other cities. Their wealth enabled them to take the
place of the Jews in their expulsion; if the City was suddenly and
heavily taxed they made advances to the merchant who could not
immediately realise. Of course they charged heavy interest—as heavy as
the necessities of the case permitted—and they became unpopular. The
lending of money, forbidden and held in abhorrence, was absolutely
necessary for the conduct of business: those who carried on this trade
naturally lived together, if only to be kept in knowledge of what was
going on. And as the progress of trade went on, their power increased
year by year. Lombard Street, where they lived, was the daily mart of
the London merchants before the erection of the Exchange.
[Illustration:
POPE’S HOUSE IN PLOUGH COURT
]
“Jane Shore’s husband was a goldsmith in this street; so at least the
old ballad, printed in Percy’s _Reliques_, would lead us to believe. No.
68, now Messrs. Martin, Stones and Martin’s (bankers), occupies the site
of the house of business of Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal
Exchange. When Pennant wrote, the Messrs. Martin still possessed the
original grasshopper that distinguished his house. ‘How the Exchange
passeth in Lombard Street’ is a phrase of frequent occurrence in Sir
Thomas Gresham’s early letters. No. 67, now in the occupation of Messrs.
Glyn and Co. (bankers), belongs to the Goldsmiths’ Company, to whom it
was left by Sir Martin Bowes, an eminent goldsmith in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. Guy, the founder of Guy’s Hospital, was a bookseller in this
street. The father of Pope, the poet, was a linendraper in Lombard
Street; and here, in 1688, his celebrated son was born. Opposite the
old-fashioned gate of the Church of St. Edmund the Martyr is a narrow
court, leading to a Quakers’ Meeting-house where Penn and Fox frequently
preached” (Cunningham’s _Handbook_).
The house in which Pope is said to have been born is that at the end of
Plough Court.
Between the Church of St. Edmund and the west end of the street were two
mansions formerly belonging, one to William de la Pole, Knight Banneret,
and “King’s Merchant” in the reign of Edward III., and afterwards to his
son, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and the other to Sir Martin
Bowes, mayor, 1545. Here also was the Cardinal’s Hat Tavern, one of the
oldest of the City taverns, mentioned in 1492.
The modern street gives a general impression similar to that of
Cornhill. Everywhere we are confronted by solid banks and insurance
offices, which seem to divide the ground between them.
George Yard contains the imposing building of the Deutsche Bank in
London, as well as a couple of large houses let in flats, and presents a
decidedly dignified appearance. The Bank is an immense building, with a
granite-columned portico, and rusticated stonework round it.
Of the two churches now remaining in this street, one is
ST. EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR
This church was anciently called by some St. Edmund Grass-Church,
because of its proximity to the grass market. It was burnt down in
the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1690. In 1864 and 1880 the
church was restored. After the Great Fire, the parish of St.
Nicholas Acon was annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1150.
The patronage was in the hands of the Prior and Convent of Holy
Trinity, London, but Henry VIII. seized it and granted it to the
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1545, in whose successors it continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 240.
The present church measures 59 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth,
and 57 feet 9 inches in height. It is singular from its standing
north and south, but this was forced upon Wren by the position of
the ground at his disposal. There are no aisles. The steeple, which
rises at the south, consists of a three-storied tower and octagonal
lantern and spire, and a pedestal supporting a finial and vane. The
lantern is ornamented at the angles by flaming urns, in allusion to
the Great Fire. A projecting clock is attached to the face of the
second story and is a prominent feature in Lombard Street. The total
height is 136 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By Thomas Wyllys for himself and
Christian his wife, whose endowment fetched £24 in 1548, when
Richard Auncell was chaplain; by and for Matilda at Vane, relict of
John Atte Rose, dedicated to SS. John, Peter, and Thomas the martyr,
to which John Reynes was admitted chaplain on the resignation of
William Belgrave, September 25, 1382; by Richard Toky for himself
and Matilda his wife, to which William Howes de Blackolm was
admitted chaplain, October 20, 1362; by John Longe, whose endowment
fetched £35 in 1548, when William Myller and Edward Mamyn or Hamonde
were chaplains.
The old church contained a monument to John Shute, a
painter-stainer, who wrote one of the earliest English works on
Architecture. He died in 1563. On the east wall a monument
commemorates Dr. Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter, President of the
Society of Antiquaries, and rector of the united parishes, who died
in 1784.
Addison was married in this church to the Dowager Countess of
Warwick and Holland in 1716.
This parish was not rich in charitable gifts. Some of the donors
were: Richard Jaie of 45s. for bread, etc., for the poor; Mrs. Joan
Lowen of 52s.; Mrs. Anne Whitmore, £5.
ALLHALLOWS, LOMBARD STREET
This church went by the name of Allhallows “Grasse Church” from its
proximity to the grass and hay market. It was consumed by the Great
Fire, but subsequently rebuilt and completed by Wren in 1694. The
parish of Allhallows was one of the thirteen “Peculiars” of the
Archbishop of Canterbury in the City of London. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1279.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Brihterus, citizen
of London, who in 1052 gave it to the Prior and Convent of Christ
Church, Canterbury; the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, in whose
successors it continued, who first presented to it in 1552.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The interior of the church is constructed on a rectangular plan,
without aisles, and with only one pillar, rising at the centre of
the west gallery. It is 84 feet in length, 52 feet in breadth, and
the height 30 feet. The church contains much good woodwork, the
carved oak altar-piece being especially fine. The stone tower, which
rises at the south-west, is divided into three stories, the lowest
of which has a large doorway at its south face; the second is
pierced by a circular-headed window, and the third by square
openings with louvres, each surmounted by a cornice. The height of
the tower is about 85 feet. The church is entered by a porch and
vestibule through a doorway in the tower.
Chantries were here founded by: John Chircheman, citizen, and
Richard Tasburgh, late parson of Heylesdon County, Norfolk, July 15,
1392 (Pat. 16 Richard II. p. i. m. 25); John Buck, whose endowment
yielded £40 : 6s. in 1548; John Maldon, whose endowment yielded
£20 : 3 : 4 in 1548, when Edward Hollonde was priest; William
Trystor, who endowed it with £6 : 6 : 8 in 1548.
The most notable of the monuments in this church is to the memory of
Simon Horsepoole, Sheriff of London in 1591.
The sole donor of charities seems to have been this same Simon
Horsepoole, who appointed to this parish £4 : 4s. per annum.
The original church was indebted for its south aisle, steeple, and
other sections to John Warner, Robert Warner, and the Pewterers.
Clothes were found for forty boys, as well as books, and the boys
were put out as apprentices by a Society of Langbourn Ward.
The most notable rectors were: Robert Gilbert, Bishop of London,
1436; Thomas Langton (d. 1501), Bishop of St. David’s and Sarum, and
of Winchester; Francis Dee (d. 1638), Bishop of Peterborough.
At the corner formed by the junction of Lombard and King William Streets
stands the Church of
ST. MARY WOOLNOTH
“The church was founded by Wulfnuth, son of Earl Godwin, about the
time of the Confessor. This name was corrupted into Woolnoth” (Rev.
J. M. S. Brooke, Rector). It was rebuilt, according to Newcourt,
from its very foundations about 1438. Though damaged by the Great
Fire, it was not destroyed, and Wren repaired and rebuilt various
parts in 1677. In 1716 the building was pulled down and the present
church, the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor, was commenced and finished
in 1727. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.
The patronage of the church, before 1252, was in the hands of: The
Prioress and Convent of St. Helen’s, London; then Henry VIII., who
seized it and granted it to Sir Martin Bowes, Alderman and Mayor of
London, whose son and heir, Thomas Bowes, sold it to William Pelham,
December 19, 1571; Robert Viner Miles, and several other persons,
the last being Sir George Broke-Middleton, who presented to it in
1883.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The interior of the church is almost square. It contains twelve
Corinthian columns, placed at the angles in groups of three, and
supporting an entablature prolonged to the walls by means of
pilasters. There is a clerestory above, pierced on its four sides by
semicircular windows. The tower, which rises at the west, contains
the doorway in its basement story; the cornice is surmounted by a
pedestal supporting composite columns, and the summit is divided
into two turrets with balustrades above. The north front has three
niches, each enclosing two Ionic columns on pedestals; the south
front is plain.
Chantries were founded here by: Gregory de Rokeslie, Mayor of
London, 1275-81, for himself and Amicia his wife, to which John de
Pory was admitted chaplain, July 15, 1333; Thomas Noket, for himself
and for Alice, wife of Gregory de Norton, called atte Shire, at the
Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Anne, in the south side of
the church, to which William Weston was admitted chaplain, January
28, 1400-1401; the endowment fetched £13 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when
William Wentors, or Ventrys, and Richard Browne were chaplains;
Henry Brige, Knt., whose endowment yielded £13: 13 : 4 in 1548, when
John Meres was priest.
Sir Hugh Brice, keeper of the King’s Exchange under Henry VII., was
buried in this church; he built a chapel here called the “Channel”;
also Sir Thomas Ramsey, Lord Mayor in 1577; William Hilton, Merchant
Taylor and Taylor to Henry VIII., and Sir Martin Bowes, patron of
the church for over thirty years.
Among the later monuments, Stow records one in memory of Sir William
Phipps, who discovered a sunken Spanish ship in 1687 containing
silver to the value of £300,000 sterling, and one commemorating Sir
Thomas Vyner, goldsmith, and Mayor of London, who died in 1665.
The list of legacies and bequests was too long for insertion, Stow
says, but was to be seen by any one in the Parish Book. He records a
gift of £1 : 6s. per annum from Sir Nicholas Rainton, and one of
£3 : 15 : 8 paid by the Merchant Taylors.
Richard Rawlins (d. 1536), Bishop of St. David’s, was rector here;
also John Newton, author of “Olney Hymns.”
=King William Street= contains few associations of interest, having been
built, as its name implies, in the reign of the fourth monarch of that
name, whose statue on a pedestal, which outrivals every other in the
City on the score of weight alone, stands at the south end. This is the
work of W. Nixon and was set up in December 1844. The figure is 15 feet
3 inches high, and the whole statue weighs 20 tons. Special arrangements
had to be made for carrying the Metropolitan Railway beneath it. The
statue is on the site of the Boar’s Head Tavern, noted in old days as a
famous rendezvous, and familiar to readers of Shakespeare from
Falstaff’s frequent resort thither. Goldsmith and Washington Irvine have
written on the Boar’s Head Tavern, which rose again after the Fire; the
sign of the later house is preserved in the Guildhall Museum.
King William Street was cut through various lanes, which are now dealt
with. At the north end in Gresham Place is Gresham Club, which was built
in 1844; the architect was Henry Flower. It is for merchants and City
men; the entrance fee is twenty guineas, annual subscription eight
guineas, and the membership is limited to 500. It is a grey stone
building with triangular stone pediments projecting over the upper
windows.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
ST. MARY WOOLNOTH
]
=St. Clement’s Lane= leads to St. Clement’s Church. I find a reference
to rents in Clement’s Lane in 1322. In 1371 the “good folk” of
Candelwyke Street and Clement’s Lane petitioned the mayor against
certain plumbers who proposed to melt their lead in a place hard by
called the Woodhaugh; they said that the vapours were noxious and even
fatal to human life, that trustworthy people would depose to the
mischief caused by inhaling these fumes, and that the shaft of the
furnace was too low. In the end the plumbers were allowed to go on with
their work, provided that they raised the shaft. In the lane was the
bank in which Samuel Rogers was a partner.
In Church Court, we come to the ancient graveyard of St. Clement, a
minute space with one great shapeless tomb in the centre of the asphalt
and a few small erect tombstones in the little border running inside the
railings.
ST. CLEMENT, EASTCHEAP
The Church of St. Clement was destroyed by the Great Fire, but
rebuilt by Wren in 1686, when St. Martin’s Orgar was annexed to it.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1309.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1309; then Henry VIII., who seized it and
gave it to the Bishop of Westminster in 1540; next the Bishop of
London, by Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 271.
The present building measures 64 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth,
and 34 feet in height. It has one aisle on the south side, separated
from the rest of the church by two high-based columns. The square
tower at the south-west is built of brick, with stone dressings, and
contains three stories, with a cornice and balustrade above. The
total height is 88 feet.
Chantries were founded here: by John Chardeney for himself and
Margaret his wife, to which William Hocchepound was admitted
chaplain, July 23, 1371, at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary;
for William Ivery.
There were very few monuments in this church originally. In the west
window is a memorial to Thomas Fuller, the church historian, Bishop
Bryan Walton, and Bishop Pearson. Fuller and Pearson were lecturers
here for some time; the preaching of Pearson on the Creed and
Thirty-nine Articles made him famous. Walton, the compiler of the
Polyglot Bible, was created Bishop of Chester, 1660. The
stained-glass window on the southern side was erected in 1872 by the
Clothworkers’ Company in memory of Samuel Middlemore, who died in
1628, leaving a charitable bequest to the parish. Henry Purcell and
Jonathan Battishill, the musical composers, who were organists at
the church, are commemorated by brass tablets.
There were several gifts belonging to the parish, but the names of
the donors are not recorded by Stow.
Sir Thomas Gooch (1674-1754), Bishop of Bristol, of Norwich and of
Ely, was rector here.
=St. Nicholas Lane=, also one of the most ancient lanes in London. In
1258 we find that one Ralph was chaplain in the Church of St. Nicholas
Acon. In 1275 the church is endowed with a small rent; in 1279, a
testator bequeaths his “Stone house” in the lane; and in many subsequent
entries the lane is mentioned. The dedication of the church may possibly
indicate the date of its foundation. It was in the eleventh century that
the bones of St. Nicholas were brought from Myra in Asia Minor, then in
the hands of the Mohammedans, to Bari on the Adriatic, where they still
lie. There grew up quite suddenly an extraordinary belief in the power
of this saint. Pilgrimages were instituted, in which thousands flocked
to his tomb; miracles were multiplied at the sacred spot; the churches
without end were dedicated to his name of Nicholas. In England 372
churches are said to be named after him. It would be interesting to
learn the date of this dedication. May we, however, connect this saint
of Italian pilgrimage with the coming of Italian merchants to London?
St. Nicholas was the protector of sailors, virgins, and children.
Cunningham calls him also the protector of merchants, but of merchants
as sailors. His emblem was the three purses, round and filled with gold,
or the three golden balls. We may therefore at least assume that this
was the church of the “Lombards” and the financiers from Italy. The
churchyard still remains, a square patch of ground, railed in, very
similar to the generality of such quiet little spaces. It has asphalt
paths running in and out of stunted evergreen bushes. Nicholas Passage
runs on the south side, and near is the Acorn public-house, an old
house, with its sign of a huge gilt acorn hanging over the door.
=St. Nicholas Acon= was situated on the west side of Nicholas Lane,
near Lombard Street; it was burnt down in the Great Fire, and not
rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of St. Edmund the King and
Martyr, and its site turned into a burying-ground. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1250.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of Godwin: and Thurand
his wife gave it in 1084 to the Abbot and Convent of Malmesbury;
Henry VIII. seized it, 1542, and so it continued in the Crown up to
1666, when it was annexed to St. Edmund the King; since then the
patronage is alternately in the Crown and the Archbishop of
Canterbury.
Houseling people in 1548 were 154.
Johanna Macany, who left large legacies to the parish about 1452,
was buried in this church, also John Hall, Master of the Company of
Drapers; he died in 1618.
No legacies or gifts are recorded by Stow except that of Johanna
Macany, of which he gives full details.
Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester in 1554, was rector here.
Of =Birchin Lane= Stow says it should be Birchover Lane. It is also
spelt Berchernere and Borcherveres Lane. It is frequently mentioned in
the _Calendar of Wills_. In 1260 there is “land” in the lane; in 1285
there is a mansion house; there are a bakehouse and shops in 1319; in
1326, a tenement; twenty years later, other tenements; in 1358, a place
called “la Belle”; in 1363, lands and a tenement; and in 1372, tenements
in “Berchers” Lane. In 1386 and the following century we have it spelled
Birchin Lane. In 1348, Riley quotes the name as Bercherners Lane.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the lane was inhabited by
“fripperers,” _i.e._ old-clothes men. Here was Tom’s Coffee-house,
frequented by Garrick. Chatterton wrote a letter to his sister from this
house. In a court leading out of Birchin Lane is the George and Vulture,
a well-known tavern, which still preserves the custom of serving chops
and steaks on pewter.
=Abchurch Lane= gives its name to the church of St. Mary Abchurch,
which, according to Stow, is also Upchurch (see below). The parish of
Abchurch or Abbechurch is mentioned as early as 1272 and 1282, and
tenements in Abbechurch Lane are devised by a testator of the year 1297.
ST. MARY ABCHURCH
The additional name signifies “Up-church,” and is accounted for by
the position of the edifice on rising ground. The church was burnt
down by the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1686 from the designs of Sir
Christopher Wren, when the parish of St. Lawrence Pountney was
annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1323.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency_.
ALTAR OF ST. MARY ABCHURCH
]
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, who exchanged it to the Master
and Wardens of Corpus Christi College near St. Lawrence Pountney,
1448; Henry VIII., who seized it in 1540, and so continued in the
Crown till Elizabeth, in 1568, granted it to Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, with whom it continued. Elizabeth’s grant was procured by
Archbishop Parker, who gave her the rectory of Penshurst in Kent, in
order that he might make over the patronage of a London living to
his old college.
Houseling people in 1548 were 368.
The church is almost square, measuring 63 feet in length and 60 feet
in breadth, and is surmounted by a cupola 51 feet in height
supported by pendentives attached to the walls; the latter is
decorated with painting by Sir James Thornhill. The altar-piece is
adorned with carving, which is considered to be some of Gibbon’s
finest work. The steeple consists of a tower of four stories,
finished by a cornice, and surmounted by a cupola, lantern, and
lead-covered spire, with ball and cross; the total height is about
140 feet. The building is of red brick with Portland stone
dressings.
Chantries were founded here: By and for Simon de Wynchecombe,
citizen and armourer, in the chapel of Holy Trinity, to which Robert
de Bruysor Chesterson was admitted, November 18, 1401—a licence was
granted by the King to found this, July 26, 1359; by John Lyttelton;
by Simon Wryght.
The church formerly contained monuments to Sir James Hawes and Sir
John Branch, mayors in 1574 and 1580; and to Master Roger Mountague,
“illustrious Precedent of Bounty and pious Industry.” Against the
eastern wall, there is a large monument to Sir Patience Ward, mayor
in 1680, and senior member for the City of London in the Convention
Parliament of 1688-89.
The parish had no legacies or charitable gifts of any considerable
amount. Mrs. Hyde gave £3 : 18s. for bread. The Merchant Taylors
Company (the gift of several benefactors) gave £16 : 19 : 6 for
coal.
=Sherborne Lane.=—Stow asserts that originally Langbourn Water,
“breaking out of the ground in Fenchurch Street, ran down the same
street, Lombard Street, to the west end of St. Mary Woolnoth’s church,
where, turning south and breaking into small shares, rills, or streams,
it left the name of Share-borne Lane,” or as he had also read it,
South-borne Lane, “because it ran south to the river Thames.” Wheatley
thinks that _Scrieburne_, from _scir_, a share (_sciran_, to divide), is
the more likely etymology. This “long bourne of sweet water,” Stow
further relates, “is long since stopped up at the head, and the rest of
the course filled up and paved over, so that no sign thereof remaineth
more than the names.” The existence of the stream indeed is more than
problematical. The lane is narrow, and now occupied wholly by business
premises more or less modern. The back of the City Carlton Club shows on
the west side, and near the north end is the narrow way into St.
Swithin’s Lane at the south end of the street (possibly Plough Alley);
and the back way into the old General Post Office “by the sign of the
Cock” (east side, north end), both shown in Strype’s 1754 map, have
vanished. The former is built up; the latter is occupied by King William
Street, which was cut clean through St. Mary Woolnoth’s churchyard and
the old General Post Office (formerly the residence of Sir Robert Vyner,
Lord Mayor, 1675). Before the Fire the General Postmaster lived “at his
house in Sherburne Lane neere Abchurch,” and hither “_The Carriers’
Cosmographie_, by John Taylor, the Water Poet,” written in 1637, bids
repair all who desired to send letters abroad or to various parts of the
kingdom.
The name occurs as early as A.D. 1300, and is very frequently referred
to in the _Calendar of Wills_, but under quite another form, viz. as
“Shiteburn Lane.” Stow’s derivation of “Sharebone” or “Southbone” Lane
will not, therefore, hold.
=St. Swithin’s Lane.=—Oxford Court in this lane was so called from John
de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, who died here in 1562.
As early as 1277 we find houses in St. Swithin’s Lane. In 1310 we find
turners of St. Swithin’s Lane.
The houses are of modern brick and stone, some of them are finished with
polished granite piers. The great richly wrought iron gates before the
courtyard of Salters’ Hall immediately attract attention. The hall
itself, built in 1823, is painted and stuccoed, and has a fine Ionic
portico. Salters’ Hall was used as a Presbyterian chapel in the reign of
William III.
THE SALTERS COMPANY
The first evidence of the existence of the Company is a Patent Roll
of 17 Richard II., 1394; but from documents in their possession,
there is every reason to believe that the Company had a much earlier
existence.
In 1454 Thomas Beamond, citizen and salter (at one time sheriff in
London), left to the wardens of the brotherhood and guild of the
Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church of All Saints, Bread
Street, London, and their successors for ever, land in Bread Street,
whereon had recently been erected the “Salters’ Hall,” together with
other property, out of the rents and profits of which he directed
that the hall should be repaired or rebuilt as occasion might
require. This will also gave directions for certain religious
observances, and for the support of poor Salters in almshouses, etc.
At some time subsequently to 1454 an attempt was made to prove that
the religious guild and the Company of Salters were distinct
corporations, and that Mr. Beamond intended to bequeath the property
mentioned in his will to the spiritual body exclusively, but the
legal decision was that the religious guild and the Salters Company
were identical.
In the reign of Edward IV., 1465, ordinances were made for the good
government of the “Company of Salters”; and in a suit presented by
Lord Arundel against the Company (about the same time) it was proved
that the Company of Salters and the guild or fraternity mentioned in
the Patent Roll of Richard II. were identical corporations.
1507.—Ordinances were confirmed by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord
Treasurer, and the two Lord Chief Justices, to the wardens and
fellowship of the mystery and craft of Salters in the City of
London, and keepers of the fraternity of Corpus Christi in the
Church of Allhallows, Bread Street.
1530.—Arms were granted to the Company by Thomas Benolt,
Clarencieux. This deed of grant is in the Company’s possession.
1539.—The hall in Bread Street was burnt down, and rebuilt by the
Company.
1551.—In consideration of a large payment made by them King Edward
VI. reconveyed to the Company of Salters the whole of the annual
payments issuing out of their property in respect of superstitious
uses, which had been held forfeited to the Crown at the time of the
abolition of chantries in the reign of Henry VIII. (1545).
1559.—First charter of incorporation granted by Queen Elizabeth to
the “Keepers or Wardens and Commonalty of the art or mystery of
Salters, London.” About the same time some new ordinances were drawn
up and doubtless sanctioned by the proper authorities, which make
provision for the government of the guild, and prescribe oaths for
its various members and officers; and also conferred the right of
search in the premises of persons using the art or mystery of
Salters in the City of London and suburbs thereof, for unwholesome
merchandise and false weights and measures.
1607-1609.—Acts of Parliament passed in the reign of James I.,
confirming to the Company all their property.
In these years a fresh charter and statutes were granted by the
King.
1613 to 1619.—The Company’s Irish estate was acquired by payment to
the Crown of the sum of £5000 (being the twelfth part of £60,000
raised by the twelve chief companies) with the object of planting an
English and Scotch Protestant colony there.
1641.—Oxford House (with gardens), which formerly stood on the
present site of the Company’s hall and offices, was purchased with
corporate funds of the Company, and used as their hall: this was the
third, that left by Mr. Beamond (1454) having been destroyed by fire
and rebuilt about 1539.
1666.—The whole of the Company’s estate in London and the greater
part of their archives were destroyed by the “great fire,” whereby
heavy losses were entailed on them.
1684, 1685.—King James II. granted the Company another charter, but
the whole of these proceedings were rendered void by an Act passed
in the following reign, William and Mary, under which the Salters
Company, amongst others, were restored to their ancient rights,
privileges, and franchises.
1821, 1827.—The hall of the Company, erected after the Fire in 1666,
was taken down, and the existing building was erected, being the
fifth hall of the Company.
The application of salt to the preservation of food, and
particularly of fish for consumption in winter, must have given rise
to a distinct trade for that purpose in the earliest times; and, as
civilization advanced, the term “Salter” no doubt became more
extended in its commercial interpretation, until it included, as in
the present day, all persons trading wholly or partially in salt,
such as oilmen, drysalters, and druggists.
Salt manufacturers and merchants, oilmen, druggists, and grocers
(who made salt one of their trading commodities) have been and are
largely represented on the guild.
The number of liverymen is given as 183; the Corporate Income is
£20,000; the Trust Income is £2000.
The only advantage incident to the position of a freeman is a claim
for relief, if in pecuniary distress.
Liverymen are entitled to vote at the election for the office of
renter warden, of assistant, of master and of wardens; and, if free
of the City of London, for candidates for the office of Lord Mayor,
and for some officers of the corporation; also, if free of the City,
and resident within a radius of twenty-five miles, for members of
Parliament for the said City. All liverymen not in receipt of
pecuniary assistance are invited to entertainments of the Company,
and have a claim for relief should they fall into misfortune.
The present Salters’ Hall and garden, with some adjoining land, occupies
the site of the “fair and large built house” which Sir Robert Aguylum
devised in 1285-86 to the priors of Tortington in Sussex for their town
inn or mansion. The Dissolution brought it to the Crown, and Henry
VIII., in 1540, gave it to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. Then it became
known as Oxford Place or House. Mary probably restored it; at all events
Elizabeth regranted it in 1573 to the Earldom of Oxford, then held by
Edward, grandson of John de Vere above named. The new tenant apparently
resided here in good style. Stow quaintly tells of his pomp. “He hath
been noted within these forty years to have ridden into this City, and
so to his house by London Stone, with 80 gentlemen in a livery of
Reading tawny, and chains of gold about their necks, before him, and one
hundred tall yeomen in the like livery to follow him, without chains but
all having his cognisance of the blue boat embroidered on their left
shoulder.” He appears not to have remained here long, for Sir Ambrose
Nicholas, salter, kept his mayoralty here in 1575, and Sir John Hart
dwelt here as Lord Mayor in 1589. Hart bought the place from the Earl,
who was then dissipating his great estates from motives of pique and
indignation against his father-in-law, Cecil, Lord Burleigh.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Thos. H. Shepherd_.
SALTERS’ HALL, 1822
]
The house was sold to the feofees of the Salters Company in 1641. The
Great Fire of 1666 probably destroyed only a part of the great house
(Wilkinson in _Londina Illustrata_ goes too far in maintaining that the
building wholly escaped, but is probably nearer right than those who say
it was quite destroyed), statements to the contrary notwithstanding,
for, at the request of the Bishop of London, the parishioners of St.
Swithin’s assembled in the long parlour for worship whilst their church
was building, and several of the companies held their courts here until
their halls had risen from the ashes. The destroyed portion, perhaps
indeed the whole, and the wall of the great garden, and some adjoining
houses, were rebuilt about this time by the Company and their tenants.
The history of the Salters’ Hall has already been told.
In 1687 a congregation of “protestant dissenters” took from the Company,
on moderate terms, a lease of certain ground on which part of Oxford
House had stood before the Fire. Here they built their meeting-house,
where Mr. Mayo preached until his death in 1695, drawing, by his
eloquence, congregations so large that it is said even the windows were
crowded when he preached. William Long, writer for Matthew Henry’s
_Commentary_, was minister in 1702. In 1716 he and Mr. John Newman,
popular with the congregation, became co-pastors. In 1719 the general
body of dissenting ministers met here to discuss means for stopping the
spread of Arianism. “You that are against subscribing to a declaration
as a test of orthodoxy, come upstairs,” cried the Arians and the
private-judgment men of a stormy synod. “And you that are for declaring
your faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, stay below,” replied Mr.
Bradbury of New Court. A count showed fifty-seven to have gone up, and
fifty-three to have remained down, giving the “scandalous majority” of
four. Arianism meanwhile had become the coffee-house topic of the town.
In March 1726 Long died, and Newman became sole pastor till his death in
1741. In the reign of William III., Robert Bragge started a “Lord’s Day
evening lecture,” popular for many years, but afterwards removed by the
originator to his meeting-house in Lime Street. The celebrated Thomas
Bradbury shortly afterwards revived it at Salters’ Hall Chapel, and for
more than twenty years delivered it to crowded audiences. Samuel Baker
continued it on Bradbury’s resignation in 1725. Presbyterians of some
eminence followed him, as Dr. William Prior, Dr. Abraham Rees, Dr.
Philip Furneaux, and Hugh Farmer (1761), the writer of an exposition on
demonology and miracles, which aroused sharp controversy. When the
Salters determined to rebuild their hall, they gave the congregation
notice to quit by Lady Day 1821. Whereupon the congregation acquired
premises in Oxford Court, upon the site of which they erected a handsome
new meeting-house completed in 1822. But the glory of the place as a
dissenting centre was departing, and the Presbyterians abandoned it.
Then came some erratic fanatics who called themselves “The Christian
Evidence Society,” and their meeting-house was “Areopagus.” Their leader
went bankrupt and the experiment collapsed. In 1827 the Baptists
reopened the place, and remained there for some years, but, shortly
before 1870, removed to Islington, where to this day the “Salters’ Hall”
Chapel in the Baxter Road preserves the memory of the struggles,
quarrels, and triumphs of the old City meeting-house. In Tom Brown’s
_Laconics_ (1709) is this allusion: “A man that keeps steady to one
party, though he happens to be in the wrong, is still an honest man. He
that goes to a Cathedral in the morning, and Salters’ Hall in the
afternoon, is a rascal by his own confession.”
In _Hudibras Redivivus_ (1706) this is found:
I thumb’d o’er many factious Reams,
Of canting Lies, and Poets’ Dreams,
All stuffed as full of Low-Church Manners,
As e’er was Salters’ Hall with Sinners.
On the south side of St. Swithin’s Lane is Founders’ Hall. The hall is
on the first floor, and there are shops below. The building is of stone
with pilasters running up the front, and the coat-of-arms is over the
door, which has a very projecting cornice. The hall was rebuilt 1877. On
the north side of Salters’ Hall is New Court showing through behind a
covered entry. The opposite side of St. Swithin’s Lane seems to contain
the offices of an absolutely unlimited number of companies. The court,
opening out of it, consists of uninteresting earth brick houses shut in
by an iron gate. The City Carlton Club is in Nos. 28 and 29. It is a
Conservative Club, with fifteen-guinea entrance fee, and eight-guinea
subscription. The building is of stone with a porch over the door. There
are bay windows with polished granite columns. Richard Roberts was the
architect.
THE FOUNDERS COMPANY
The Founders Company existed as a “Mistery” prior to the year 1365,
as appears from a petition to the City of London from the “Good Men
of the Mistery of the Founders of the City of London.” This petition
is to be found in the Letter Books at Guildhall, and the entry is
also evidence that ordinances were granted on the 29th July, 39
Edward III. The Company possesses no copy of these ordinances.
In the year 1389 (Riley, _Memorials_, p. 512), certain “good folks
of the trade of Founders” made plaint to the mayor and aldermen as
to the bad work put into candlesticks, stirrups, buckles, and other
things, and they prayed that certain ordinances which they submitted
should be accepted by the mayor and made law. Among these ordinances
was one to the effect that two or three masters should be chosen and
sworn to guard and oversee the trade.
In Williams’ _History_ of this Company (1867) he gives the above
petition word for word under the date of 1365. It is certain from
this document, as with many other Companies, that as yet the
Fraternity of Founders had no power or authority to enforce good
work on pains and penalties.
They were incorporated January 1, 1614, for a master, 2 wardens, 15
assistants, and 100 liverymen. At present the number of the livery
is 79; their Corporate Income is £1855; their Trust Income is £102;
and their Hall is in St. Swithin’s Lane. The original home of the
Founders was that part of London north of Lothbury.
The name of Founders’ Court marks the site; this was formerly the
lane which led through the Company’s buildings to a garden beyond;
the buildings stretched from St. Margaret Street to Coleman Street,
Moorgate Street not then existing. This hall was burnt down in the
Great Fire and rebuilt. The Company let off portions of their hall,
and in 1853 let the whole on a long lease and bought a house in St.
Swithin’s Lane, on the site of which they built their present hall
in 1877.
ST. SWITHIN’S CHURCH
St. Swithin, to whom this church is dedicated, was Bishop of
Winchester and Chancellor to King Egbert. Formerly the usual
designation of the church was St. Swithin’s in Candlewick Street,
but Newcourt (1708) states that St. Swithin, London Stone, was
becoming the more common title. The stone at that time stood on the
south side of the road opposite to the church. No record exists of
the original foundation of the church. Probably it was built soon
after the death of St. Swithin in 862, or at any rate before A.D.
1000. It is mentioned in the taxation book of Pope Nicholas IV. in
1291. The first rector given by Newcourt is Robert de Galdeford, who
resigned in 1331. In 1420 licence was obtained to rebuild and
enlarge the church and steeple, and Sir John Hend, Lord Mayor, 1391
and 1404, was, says Stow, “an especial benefactor thereunto, as
appeareth by his arms in the glass windows, even in the tops of
them.” The hall of the Drapers Company was at that time Sir John
Hend’s house in St. Swithin’s Lane. The church thus rebuilt
consisted of a chancel and a nave separated from the north and south
aisles by pillars. There was a chapel of St. Katherine and St.
Margaret. From the date of rebuilding it is evident that the style
of the architecture was Early Decorated. The maps of Aggas (1560)
and Newcourt (1658) agree in showing a small battlemented church,
with a square battlemented tower (without spire) at the west end and
level with the street. In 1607-1608 the church was “fully beautified
and finished at the cost and charge of the parishioners.” It was
again repaired shortly before the Great Fire, when £1000 was spent
upon it. The church was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by
Wren in 1678, when the neighbouring parish of St. Mary Bothaw was
annexed. In 1869 and 1879 it was entirely “rearranged.”
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Sir Robert Aguylum,
Knt., who gave it by will dated February 28, 1285, to Richard, Earl
of Arundel, who has licence from the King to assign it to the Prior
and Convent of Tortington, June 21, 1367; the Prior and Convent of
Tortington, Sussex, in whose successors it continued up to 1538,
when Henry VIII. seized it and granted it June 8, 1536, to John de
Vere, Earl of Oxford, who sold it, 1561, to John Hart, citizen and
alderman of London, who gave it to George Bolles (his son-in-law),
citizen of London, from whose descendants it was purchased about
1683; the Salters Company, in whose successors it continued up to
1666, when the parish of St. Mary Bothaw was annexed, and the
patronage shared alternately with the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury; Elizabeth Beachcroft presented to it in 1765, the
Salters Company having parted with their share of the patronage.
Houseling people in 1548 were 320.
The church measures 61 feet in length, 42 feet in breadth, and 41
feet in height. It is surmounted by an octagonal cupola, divided by
bands, and powdered with stars on a blue ground. The tower, which
rises at the north-west, is square but contracted at the top into an
octagonal shape. Above this a simple spire rises with a ball and
vane. The total height is 150 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By Roger de Depham at the Altar of SS.
Katherine and Margaret, to which William de Kyrkeby was presented,
November 5, 1361—in 1548 the mayor and commonalty of London paid to
carry out the object of Roger de Depham’s will, £5 : 6 : 8; by
William Newe, who endowed it with lands, etc., which fetched £17 :
8 : 4, when John Hudson was priest; by James de Sancto Edmund, who
left five marks per annum for an endowment in 1312; by Geoffrey
Chittick, who gave lands to endow it which fetched £13 : 6 : 8 in
1548, when Sir Roger Butte was priest; by John Betson, who endowed
it with all his lands in this parish, which yielded £13 : 6 : 8 in
1548, when Richard Hudson was priest.
Sir John Hart and Sir George Bolles, patrons of the church, were
both buried here, but their monuments perished in the Great Fire.
There is a large tablet affixed to a column on the north side of the
church commemorating Michael Godfrey, first deputy governor of the
Bank of England; he was slain in 1695 by a cannon ball at Namur,
whither he was sent on business to King William’s camp.
In 1663 Dryden was married here to Lady Elizabeth Howard.
Only two charities are recorded by Stow: 12d. per week in bread,
50s. per annum in coals for the poor, the gift of Henry Hobener;
£10 : 10s. for a weekly lecture, the gift of Thomas Wetnal.
The parish churchyard is situated in Salters’ Hall Court, by which it is
separated from the church. It is elevated above the court and contains
two trees, two or three bushes and shrubs, and a few tombstones. Across
it is a right-of-way to the premises of the National Telephone Company,
to which it has the appearance of being a garden.
=George Street= was anciently Bearbinder Lane. Riley notes
“Berbynderslane” in the City records so early as 1358. It was renamed
George Street within the nineteenth century. If Charlotte Row, west of
the Mansion House, was so called in honour of Queen Charlotte, surely
this was rechristened in honour of George III., whom she married in
1761. It is quite small compared with its former extent, for it once ran
from Walbrook past the south side of St. Mary Woolchurch into St.
Swithin’s Lane, and also had a northern limb, passing the west end of
Dove Court, into Lombard Street. Now the Mansion House stands upon all
the old course west of Walbrook churchyard, and the northern limb is
built over. This was the fatal spot where the plague of 1665 first made
its appearance within the City. Defoe, in his history of the dire
disease, relates how a Frenchman living in Long Acre, near the
plague-stricken houses, moved hither “for fear of the distemper.” Alas!
he was already stricken, and in the beginning of May he died, the first
victim within the City walls. Strype calls Bearbinder Lane “a place of
no great account as to trade: well inhabited by merchants and others.”
In his time about thirty yards at the east end were reckoned in
Langbourn ward, and apparently also most of the northern arm. It now
belongs wholly to Walbrook ward, and is merely a narrow passage
containing no houses older than the nineteenth century.
We now take =Walbrook=, leaving Cannon Street to be dealt with
subsequently. The memory of the stream of the Walbrook coming down from
the heights to the north is preserved in the name of this short street.
In 1279 and in 1290 we find that there were houses on the banks of the
stream. In the year 1307, there was one William le Marischale living
beside the stream. It must have been almost impossible, even then, to
live near the stream, because it was a common open sewer with latrines
built over it. These were farmed by certain persons. Part of the stream,
however, was covered over by the year 1300; it was not till the close of
the sixteenth century that it was completely covered over. Empson and
Dudley, the instruments of Henry VII.’s extortions, lived in Walbrook;
and later Sir Christopher Wren is said to have lived here at the house
afterwards No. 5.
The modern street is chiefly composed of ordinary stone-faced business
houses. But on the west side are three charming seventeenth-century
buildings of mellow red brick, Nos. 10, 11, and 12. On the centre one is
a stone tablet supported by brackets, and covered by a projecting
cornice; this bears date 1668. A little farther up on the opposite side
an eighteenth-century brick house stands over the entry to Bond Court.
The doorway immediately opposite the entry is a nice piece of woodwork.
There are also one or two doorways of different designs in the northern
part of the court. These belong to old houses, though those buildings on
the west facing them are quite modern.
Returning to the street, the ornamental front of the City Liberal Club,
founded 1874, draws attention to itself. The front is of light stone
with the windows and doorway framed in granite. Farther north on the
same side is Ye Olde Deacons Tavern, next door to Bell Court, a narrow
passage of no particular interest. Representations of almost every trade
occupy the street; it contains two great houses let in flats, one of
which, Worcester House, seems to be especially given up to the offices
of company promoters.
ST. STEPHEN, WALBROOK
St. Stephen, Walbrook, stands at the back of the Mansion House. It
was formerly often called St. Stephen-upon-Walbrook, from the fact
that its first site was actually upon the bank of the stream so
named. There is only one other church in the City dedicated to St.
Stephen, viz. St. Stephen, Coleman Street. The date of its
foundation is not known, but it dates back at least as far as the
reign of Henry I.; Eudo Dapifer’s gift of it to his Abbey of St.
John, Colchester, in 1096, being the earliest reference to it. It
was rebuilt early in Henry VI.’s reign, chiefly through the agency
of Robert Chicheley, Lord Mayor in 1411 and 1421. It was totally
consumed by the Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in 1672, when the
neighbouring parish of St. Benet Sherehog was annexed. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1315.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Eudo, Steward to
Henry I., who gave it to the Abbot and Convent of St. John,
Colchester, who held it up to 1422; John, Duke of Bedford, who sold
it in 1432 to Sir Robert Whytingham, Knt., who gave it to Richard
Lee in 1460, who gave it in 1502 to the Grocers Company, in whose
successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 250.
This church is, after St. Paul’s Cathedral, considered Wren’s
masterpiece. It is oblong in shape, traversed by four rows of
Corinthian columns, which divide it into five aisles, of which the
central is the broadest; it is crowned by a circular dome supported
on eight arches. The effect thus produced of the circle springing
from an octagonal base is especially graceful. The building measures
82½ feet in length, 59½ feet in width, and the height to the dome is
63 feet, to the ceiling of the side aisles 36 feet. The tower
contains four stories; upon it the steeple is placed, tapering to a
spirelet with finial and vane; the total height is about 130 feet.
Against the wall of the north transept is a picture of St. Stephen
being carried from the scene of his martyrdom; this is by Benjamin
West, P.R.A., and is generally considered his best work; it was
presented by the rector, Dr. Wilson, and put up in 1776, though it
then stood over the reredos.
Chantries were founded here: By Lettice Lee, whose endowment fetched
£14 : 10s. in 1548; by William Adams, who left £126 : 13 : 4 as an
endowment for a priest to sing for his soul “as long as the money
would endure”—this in 1548 was in the hands of one named Myller of
Lynn, Norfolk.
The church originally contained a monument in memory of Sir Thomas
Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. The oldest monument
is one in memory of John Lilbourne, citizen and grocer of London,
who died in 1678. On the north wall two physicians are
commemorated—Nathaniell Hodges, who wrote a treatise on the
Plague, and died in 1688; and Percival Gilbourne, who died 1694.
In 1726 Sir John Vanbrugh the architect was interred here; he was
also a playwright.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
ST. STEPHEN, WALBROOK
]
According to Stow, the parish possessed £100 per annum, employed in
repairing the church, etc., the exact uses of which were unknown. He
records a legacy of £20 per annum for charitable uses left by one
named Dickenson.
Henry Chicheley, L.L.D. (d. 1443), Archbishop of Canterbury, was a
rector here; also Thomas Wilson (1703-84), author of the _History of
St. Margaret’s_; John Kite (d. 1537), Archbishop of Armagh; and
Thomas Howell (1588-1646), Bishop of Bristol.
The Church of St. Stephen stood on the west side of the original course
of Walbrook stream. Over the new course of the stream a “covering” or
small bridge was made for access to the church, and in 1300 the
parishioners were found, by inquisition before the mayor, to be under
the obligation of repairing it. Little is known of this building; that
it possessed a belfry is shown from an entry in the coroner’s roll of
1278, which records the death of one William le Clarke, who, having gone
pigeon-nesting in the belfry, accidentally fell as he was climbing the
beams, and so ruptured and crushed his body on one of them that he died.
The fatal beam was thereupon “appraised at four pence, and two
neighbours nearest to the church were attached, each by two sureties, to
see the fine or deodand paid” (Riley’s _Memorials of London_, p. 13).
The “parsonage house,” before the Great Fire, stood, Stow tells us, on
the site of the first church, next to the course of the Walbrook. It was
rebuilt by one Jerome Raustorne (or Rawstorne) upon a lease of forty
years, commencing 1674, and by this, Newcourt says, was “reserved to the
parson £17 a year ground-rent.” The parish at this time enjoyed an
income of £100 a year, and with part of this, supplemented by sums of
money received from leases, and from compensations for encroachments and
new “lights” made upon the churchyard at the rebuilding of the City
after the Fire, the Vestry determined to build a new rectory house. The
leave of the Grocers Company, as patrons, and a faculty from the Bishop
of London, dated 1692-93, having been obtained, the new house was built
(between 1693 and 1708) adjoining the west end of the church by the
tower on a piece of ground, about 20 feet square, previously occupied by
a portion of the ante-Fire edifice. It was considered that the rector
had a title to some portion of the ground, and to half the compensation
money paid for new lights, and accordingly it was provided that in case
the rector or any of his successors should find it inconvenient or
inadvisable to live in the house, then the Vestry should let the same
from year to year, the parish to have two-thirds of the rental, and the
remaining third to go to the rector. This house is still standing, but
is let out for offices, the rector living at Brockley. It is a quaint
and small house, which almost touches the church wall at the back. Two
of its rooms stand over the church porch. The original staircase and
panelled walls remain. It is the only old house standing on the east
side of Walbrook. The churchyard is situated at the east end of the
church. It has a round flower-bed in the centre, two trees, and several
bushes, and is kept in excellent order. It is entered from Church Row by
an iron gate, and from the church by the door in the east wall.
The Mansion House occupies the sites of Stocks Market and St. Mary
Woolchurch Haw.
ST. MARY WOOLCHURCH HAW
This church was situated on the eastern side of the market. It
probably derived its name “Woolchurch” from the fact that a beam was
erected in the churchyard for the weighing of wool. It was probably
built about the time of William I. by one Hubert de Ria, founder of
the Abbey of St. John in Colchester. His son Eudo Dapifer, Steward
to the Conqueror, endowed his newly-built Abbey and Convent of St.
John, Colchester, with it. The charter of foundation (1096) calls it
St. Mary de Westcheping, or Newchurch, and states that Ailward Gross
the priest held the living by gift of Hubert de Ria. The exact words
are these, and constitute the earliest mention of the church:
[Illustration:
_Photochrom Co., Ltd._
THE MANSION HOUSE AND CHEAPSIDE
]
_Et ecclesiam S. Mariae de Westcheping, London, quae vocatur
Niewecherche, concedente Ailwardo Grosso, presbytero qui in eadem
ecclesia et donatione antecessoris mei Huberti de Ria personatum
consecutus fuerat_ (Newcourt 1. p. 459).
In the “Taxatio Ecclesiastica” of Pope Nicholas IV. (1291) occurs
reference to _ecclesia Sancte Marie de Wolchurche hawe_, indicating
that the names of St. Mary de Westcheping and Niewecherche had alike
disappeared to give place to a title in some way derived from the
wool staple and market. This is Stow’s etymology of the name. Mr. J.
H. Round doubts the theory; he suggests that this St. Mary’s was a
daughter-church to St. Mary Woolnoth (_Athenæum_, August 17, 1889,
p. 223) (Woollen-hithe-hatch, or haw). This would give as the full
and new name of our “Niewecherche” St. Mary-in-Woollenhaw,
Church-Haw, and by contraction St. Mary Woolchurch Haw. It is
actually styled St. Mary Wolmaricherch in 1280-81, which certainly
appears to support Mr. Round’s theory.
The first rector given by Newcourt is John Dyne, who resigned in
1382. By licence granted 1442 (20 Henry VI.), the church was
rebuilt; the new building stood farther south than the old, in
accordance with a condition imposed by the licence, which ordained
it to be 15 feet from the Stocks Market “for sparing of light to the
same.” The foundation stone of this new building was discovered when
digging the foundations of the Mansion House in 1739.
The stone was drawn by R. West, engraved by Toms, and relegated to
an obscurity from which it has never since emerged: its whereabouts
is unknown. The new church, whose foundation was laid on May 4,
1442, is described by Stow as “reasonably fair and large.”
The church was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its
parish being annexed to the neighbouring one of St. Mary Woolnoth.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1349.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Hubert de Ria,
father of Eudo, Steward of the Conqueror’s household; Abbot and
Convent of St. John, Colchester, being the gift of Eudo; Henry VIII.
seized it, and thus it continued in the Crown until the church was
burnt down and the parish annexed to St. Mary Woolnoth, of which the
Crown shares the alternate patronage.
Houseling people in 1548 were 360.
Chantries were founded here by: Anne Cawood, at the Altar of St.
Nicholas, whose endowment fetched £8 in 1548, when Henry Cockes was
priest, and to which John Chamberlayne was admitted June 2, 1525;
Roger Barlow, whose endowment fetched £3 : 6 : 8 in 1548, which was
spent on maintaining the Cawood chantry: by Godwine le Hodere in
1313 for himself and his wife, for which the King granted his
licence July 8, 1321.
The church formerly contained monuments to several benefactors,
amongst whom were John Winger, mayor in 1504, donor of £20 for
church purposes; Richard Shaw, sheriff in 1505, and donor of £20.
Stow records that the list of legacies and gifts was too long for
the churchwardens to give account of in their parochial visitation
of 1693, but that it could be seen in the parish registers.
William Fuller (1608-75), Bishop of Lincoln, was rector here.
Of the =Wool Haw= it is interesting to know: “They set up a beam for the
tronage or weighing of wool in the churchyard of St. Mary, Westcheping,
which was henceforth known as the Wool Haw or yard, and became a wool
market. The date is not known, but it was before 1275 (‘S. Mary de
Wolcherche’ occurs in a will of 1265 (see _Calendar of Wills_, vol. i.
p. 26)). ‘Les Customes de Wolchirchaw’ as ordained in the reign of
Edward I., were as follows (_Liber Albus_, p. 216):—‘For one pound of
wool (sold) to a foreigner (non-freeman) one halfpenny; and for one
sack, only one halfpenny. For two woolfels and more, one halfpenny, and
for one hundred only one halfpenny. For one pound of woolen yarn, one
halfpenny; for one hundred only one halfpenny. If any foreigner brings
wool, woolfels, or yarn through the city for sale, to the value of ten
pence and more, he shall pay as custom one farthing.’
“The weighing of wool was continued here until 1383 (6 Richard II.) when
John Churchman, having built the Custom House upon Wool Quay (Tower
Ward) the tronage was discontinued in this spot” (Strype).
When the watercourse of the Walbrook was open, there was a bridge over
it at the junction of Walbrook, Broad Street, and Cheap wards. At the
east side of the Mansion House, running from Mansion House Street to
Church Row, is Mansion House Place. It contains only the sides of
buildings.
Previously to the erection of the Mansion House, Mansion House Place
formed merely the east side of Stocks Market, and was planted with rows
of trees. On the east, about the middle, was a court, and in it, says
Strype (1720), “a good large house, the habitation of Godfrey Woodward,
one of the attorneys of the Sheriff’s court.” Strype’s map shows the
position of the court, which opened into a fair-sized quadrangle.
=Stocks Market.=—In Plantagenet London the Westcheping (Westcheping
comprised at least the present Cheapside, Poultry, and Mansion House
Street) had an open space, “very large and broad,” where the Mansion
House now stands. South of the space was St. Mary Woolchurch Haw,
already described; in the space itself a pair of stocks for punishment
of offenders. By patent of Edward I., in 1282, Henry Waley, several
times mayor, built sundry houses in the City, whose profits were
destined for the maintenance of London Bridge. The void space by the
Woolchurch he built and otherwise turned into a market, known as “Les
Stokkes,” otherwise Stocks Market, sometimes Woolchurch Market. He
appointed it a market-place for fish and flesh. The keepers of the
bridge let out the stalls to fishmongers and butchers for term of their
lives, until 1312-13, when John de Gisors, mayor, and the whole
commonalty decreed that life-leases should not be granted in future
without the consent of the mayor and commonalty (for full text of the
decree see Strype, 1754 ed.). In 1322, Edward II. sent Letters Patent
from the Tower commanding that no one should sell fish or flesh save in
the markets of Bridgestreet, Eastcheap, Old Fish Street, St. Nicholas
Shambles, and Stocks Market—a first offence to be punished by forfeiture
of such fish or flesh as was sold, second offence by loss of freedom;
and it was accordingly thus decreed by the mayor, Hamo de Chigwell. The
rents of the market at that time amounted to £46 : 13 : 4 per annum.
Foreigners, _i.e._ non-freemen, were allowed to sell in this “house
called the Stocks,” but under conditions. None might cut meat after 2
P.M. rung at St. Paul’s; meat cut and remaining unpurchased at that time
was all to be sold by vespers, “without keeping any back or carrying any
away.” In 1320 three alleged “foreigners” were accused of selling their
pork and beef by candlelight, after curfew had rung at St.
Martin’s-le-Grand. One did not appear to defend himself, one
acknowledged his offence; the meat of both was forfeited. The third
contended that he possessed the City freedom, and his meat was returned
to him (Riley, _Memorials of London_).
The “butchers of the Stokkes” were jealous of their honour. In 1331 they
petitioned Sir John Pountney, mayor, and the aldermen, that ordinance
should be made against certain abuses. Their prayer was granted;
henceforth no butcher having once or twice failed in payment should
trade in the market until he had paid his debts. The trade had evidently
got into bad repute owing to insolvent butchers. Likewise no “foreigner”
was to sell by retail in the market; no butcher to “take another’s man”
except such man had paid his former master that he owed him, otherwise
the new master was to be held responsible for his servant. Also that
butchers of the market who had bought their freedom should be obliged to
live in the City. Hitherto some of them had dwelt in Stratford, and had
thus avoided bearing “their part in the franchise of the City.”
Infringement of the ordinance was punishable by a fine of 40s. payable
to the Chamber of London (Riley, _ibid._).
[Illustration:
STOCKS MARKET
]
By degrees the flesh and fish trade centred hereabouts overflowed into
the King’s highway from Cheap conduit to the market, and became an
obstruction. The common serjeant complained to the mayor and aldermen in
1345. As a result, ordinary butchers, poulterers, and fishmongers were
to confine their operations to their houses and shops: market men to
sell within the market. On fish days the fishmongers were to occupy the
market enclosure, and the butchers the pent-house adjoining; on flesh
days the enclosure was for the butchers, and the pent-house for the
fishmongers. Obstruction of the highway henceforth entailed forfeiture
of goods exposed for sale. That same year the common serjeant found
three butchers selling from stalls in the highway of Poultry, and
confiscated their meat (Riley, _ibid._).
The butchers of the “Stokkes” gave £17 to Edward III. for the carrying
on of the French Wars. This was a large contribution, showing their
prosperous condition. Their brethren, St. Nicholas Shambles, gave only
£9, those of West Cheap only £8; the greater Companies £20 to £40, the
lesser mostly below £7. This old market was under strict supervision. In
1319 the market wardens cited one William Sperlyng for offering two
putrid beef carcases for sale. A jury of twelve pronouncing the carcases
putrid as alleged, the unhappy man was ordered to be put in the pillory
and to have the two carcases burned beneath him (Riley), as in the case
of the pork butcher already mentioned. In 1351 one Henry de Passelewe,
cook, was cited before the commonalty on a charge of selling at the
Stocks a pasty in which the two capons baked therein were “putrid and
stinking, and an abomination to mankind: to the scandal, contempt and
disgrace of all the City,” and the manifest peril of the life of the
purchaser. Passelewe contended that when sold the capons were “good,
well-flavoured, fitting and proper.” However, eight good and trusty
cooks pronounced them “stinking and rotten, and baneful to the health of
man.” So poor Passelewe was sentenced to the pillory, the offensive
pasty to be carried before him, and a proclamation to be made as to the
reason of his punishment.
Considerable prejudice existed against non-freemen using the market. In
1382 Adam Carlelle, late alderman of Aldgate, approached the places of
the “foreign fishmongers” and “in a haughty and spiteful manner cursed
the said strangers, saying that he did not care who heard it or knew of
it, but that it was a great mockery and badly ordained than such ribalds
as those should sell their fish in the City, and further that he would
rather a fishmonger who was his neighbour in the City should make 20s.
by him, than such a ribald barlelle was adjudged to have thus expressed
contempt for the command of the king and the ordinance of the City, and
was excluded from ever holding any offices of dignity in the City”
(Riley, _Memorials_).
In 1410 (2 Henry IV.) it was found necessary to rebuild the market, and
the work was completed in the next year. The annual rents were valued at
£56 : 19 : 6 in 1507, an increase of £10 on 185 years. In 1543, only 36
years later, the sum reached £82 : 3s. per annum. The market must have
been fully let at that time: fishmongers had 25 stalls, producing £34 :
13 : 4 in rent; the butchers rented 18 stalls at £41 : 16 : 4; there
were also 16 upper chambers rented at £5 : 13 : 4—total £82 : 3s. per
annum (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 243, 1754).
In 1509 (1 Henry VIII.) the dwellers about the Stocks obtained leave of
the Common Council to substitute for a leaden water-pipe at the
south-east of the market a stone conduit, or, as it is called in the
petition, “a portico of stone, with a cesterne of lead therein” from
which water was “to bee drawne out by cocks.” Time wrought changes in
the market and its uses. After the Great Fire, the fishmongers and most
of the butchers gave place to the sellers of fruits, roots, and herbs.
It was of note, says Strype (1720), “for having the choicest in the kind
of all sorts, surpassing all other markets in London.” The post-Fire
market was increased by the addition of the sites of St. Mary Woolchurch
Haw and its churchyard, the sites of three houses belonging to the
parish, purchased for £350, and of the site of the rectory house,
obtained at a perpetual rental of £10 per annum. Thus the new market was
230 feet from north to south, and 108 feet from east to west, measured
at the middle; besides the open roadways or passages on the west and
east sides. The eastern side was planted with “rows of trees, very
pleasant.” The market-place itself had twenty-two covered fruit stalls,
most of them at the north side; two ranges of covered butchers’ stalls,
with racks, blocks, and scales, in the south-east corner; the remaining
space was occupied by gardeners and others who sold “fruits, roots,
herbs, and flowers” (Strype, 1720). Well might Shadwell ask in his _Bury
Fair_ (1689), “Where is such a garden in Europe as the Stocks Market?”
Here follows an amusing description of it taken from a paper called _The
Wandering Spy_ (1705):
“I saw Stocks Market, all garnished with nuts, and pears, and grapes,
and golden pippins, all in rank and file most prettily. And then on the
other side for physic herbs there is enough to furnish a whole country,
from the nourishing Eringo, to the destructive Savine, where a man may
buy as much for a penny as an apothecary will afford for half-a-crown,
and do a man twice as much good as their specific bolusses, hipnotic
draughts, sudorific hausteses, anodyne compositions, and twenty other
flip-flops with hard names, which only disorder the body, put nature
into convulsions, and prepare a man for the sexton. But here a man may
consult a female doctor in a straw hat without fee, have what quantity
he pleases, of what herb he pleases, be his distemper what it will, and
convert it into a juice, concoction, syrup, purge, or glister, in a
quarter of an hour, without any danger to body or pocket” (Malcolm,
_Londinium Redivium_).
Oak Apple Day, 1672, was a gala day for the market. Then it was that Sir
Robert Vyner inaugurated the “nobly great statue of King Charles II. on
horseback” which he had, at his own charge, caused to be set upon the
conduit at the north end of the same. The King was represented in
armour, his head uncovered; the horse trampled beneath its feet the
fallen form of Oliver Cromwell. The whole, which was of white marble,
stood upon a freestone pedestal 18 feet high, carved with the royal arms
and niches containing dolphins. Handsome iron gates and rails enclosed
this loyal tribute to a great king. That day the market conduit ran with
wine; three years afterwards Sir Robert Vyner was Lord Mayor. Alas! the
glory of the statue, as of the monarch it portrayed, was short-lived. It
was soon criticised as a clumsy work, and the revelation of its history
turned it into a laughing-stock. Early in the eighteenth century it was
discovered that the loyal Vyner had found somewhere abroad a statue of
John Sobieski, King of Poland, conqueror of the Turks at Choozim. The
statue represented the King’s horse trampling on a Turk. It lay on the
sculptor’s hands. Sir Robert, seeing the means of paying his sovereign a
compliment without great expense, obtained the statue, and secured
Latham to substitute the head of Charles for that of the Pole. The
downtrodden Turk was christianised into Cromwell, only, unfortunately,
Latham omitted to alter the Turk’s turban, which remained intact and
incongruous upon Oliver’s head, and served as a confirmation of the
story. There is a lampoon on the statue worth quoting. It occurs in Lord
Rochester’s _History of the Insipids_ (1676):
Could Robert Vyner have foreseen
The glorious triumphs of his master,
The Woolwich Statue gold had been,
Which now is made of alabaster:
But wise men think had it been wood
’Twere for a bankrupt king too good.
When Stocks conduit was removed, the “ridiculous statue” was relegated
to the rubbish heaps of Guildhall; finally the Common Council granted it
to Mr. Robert Vyner, a descendant of Sir Robert, in 1779, and it was
taken by its new owner to adorn his country seat at Gantly Park,
Lincolnshire. The year 1737 saw the end of Stocks Market in this place.
On March 12 the sheriffs petitioned the House of Commons to remove it to
Fleet Ditch, and to erect the Mansion House upon its site. Their prayer
was granted; the market was removed at Michaelmas 1737, and the ancient
market-place was enclosed with a broad fence. In its new home the name
which it had borne for 255 years was lost, and it became known as the
Fleet Market. At Michaelmas 1829, exactly 82 years after its removal, it
was closed and the site cleared to form Farringdon Street. St.
Christopher le Stocks, so called from its proximity to the market, stood
on part of the site of the present Bank of England. Seven streets now
meet before the Bank and pour forth omnibuses, cabs, and other vehicles
in an endless stream of traffic. Below are the white-bricked subways of
the electric railway which form a safe crossing for those who cannot
ford the river of traffic.
=St. Christopher le Stocks= stood on the north side of Threadneedle
Street in the ward of Broad Street. The date of its foundation is
unknown. The building was much injured by the Great Fire and
subsequently repaired. In 1780, after the Gordon Riots, it was taken
down and its site is now covered by part of the Bank of England. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1280.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The family of Nevil
in 1281; the Bishop of London, 1415, in whose successors it
continued up to 1783.
Houseling people in 1548 were 221.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
BANK OF ENGLAND FOUNTAIN
]
The church originally contained monuments to Robert Thorne, a donor
of £4445 to the parish for charitable uses; William Hampton, mayor,
1472, and great benefactor, and other donors. Few of these were to
be seen after the Fire.
Chantries were founded here: By John Walles, mercer, whose endowment
fetched £10 : 13 : 4 in 1548; for Thomas Legg, to which William
Swynbrok was admitted chaplain, January 10, 1370-71; for John
Gedney, Mayor of London, 1427, at the Altar of Holy Trinity; for
Margerie de Nerford, William de Bergh, cl. and Christian Vaughan,
widow, at the Altar of Holy Trinity, for which the King granted his
licence, February 23, 1406-1407: the endowment was valued at £10 :
4s. in 1548; by John Plonkett, whose endowment fetched £13 : 17 : 8
in 1548; by Alice, wife of Benedict Harlewyn, late citizen and
clothier, at the Altar of Holy Trinity, for the king, John Wenlok,
Knt., herself, Richard, Duke of York, and Benedict her husband; the
King granted his licence, March 20, 1461-62: the endowment fetched
£5 : 13 : 4 in 1548.
Robert Thorne was donor of more than £4445 to the parish. John
Kendrick was also a great benefactor, whose will is recorded in full
by Stow. Sir Peter le Maire bequeathed £100 to the poor of the
parish. There were many other donors of smaller amounts.
Among notable vicars were John Pearson (1631-86), Bishop of Chester,
the theologian, and William Peirse, Bishop of Peterborough in 1630.
The site of the Church of St. Bartholomew is now also absorbed by the
Bank.
=St. Bartholomew Exchange=, formerly called Little St. Bartholomew,
stood at the south-east corner of St. Bartholomew Lane, over against
the Royal Exchange. The date of its foundation is unknown, but about
1438 it was rebuilt. In 1840 it was sold, and possession given to
Kames William Freshfield, junr., for the Bank of England; instead
thereof the Church of St. Bartholomew, Moor Lane, was built. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1331.
The patronage was in the hands of: Simon Goddard, citizen and draper
of London, who bequeathed it to his heir, Johanna, in 1273-74;
Edward III. in 1364; Richard Plessy; Abbot and Convent of St. Mary
Graces, 1374, confirmed February 19, 1422-23; Henry VIII., and
continued in the Crown.
Houseling people in 1548 were 392.
Chantries were founded here for: Richard de Plessis, Dean of the
Arches, who died 1362, when John Radyng was admitted chaplain; Mary,
wife of Sir John Lepington.
Sir William Capell, mayor, 1509, was buried here, also James
Wilford, sheriff, 1499. The church originally contained a monument
to Richard Croshawe, Master of the Company of Goldsmiths. He lived
in this parish for thirty-one years, and left by his will over £4000
for the maintaining of lectures, relief of the poor, and other
charitable uses. There are no other gifts recorded.
Ralf Brideoake (1613-78), Bishop of Chichester, was rector here;
also John Sharp (1645-1714), Archbishop of York, and Zachary Pearce
(1690-1774), Bishop of Rochester and Bangor.
=Threadneedle Street.=—The derivation of this extraordinary name is very
uncertain. Stow calls it Threeneedle Street, and it may possibly have
arisen from some tavern with the sign of the three needles. The arms of
Needlemakers Company are “three needles in fesse argent.” This is one of
the humbler Companies and has no hall.
On the north side there were in the sixteenth century “divers fair and
large” houses, after which came the Hospital of St. Anthony, close to
the Royal Exchange.
The very interesting foundation of St. Anthony is considered elsewhere,
as so long an account would interrupt our perambulation unduly. One of
the oddest customs at a time when there were so many odd customs, was
that the pigs belonging to this house were allowed to roam about the
City as they pleased, and on the 17th January, any year, had the
privilege of going into any house that was open. But in 1281, and again
in 1292, there are no exceptions made to the rule that all pigs, to
whomsoever they may belong, shall be killed, if found in the street.
An open concrete-covered space beyond the Royal Exchange lines part of
this street. Here there is a fountain erected in 1878 by the exertions
and donations of an alderman. A gilded canopy overhangs a stone group of
a mother and two children. The pedestal and basins are of granite. On
the east there is a seated figure of Peabody, life size. The buildings
on the north side of the street do not require much comment; the North
British & Mercantile Insurance Company is the most noticeable, because
the horizontal lines are broken by the deeply recessed windows. The
Postal Telegraph Office next door has a little tower on the summit, and
the frontage is sprinkled with rather conventional stone panels and has
a superfluity of stone ornament. The Consolidated Bank, after the
following corner, has a plain frontage, which makes a deep frieze across
the upper part more striking; this is an allegorical subject in a stone
_bas relievo_ under a heavy cornice. The National Bank of India is a
solid, well-proportioned building with symmetrical columns of polished
granite running up the front.
=St. Benet Finck= was situated on the south side of Threadneedle
Street, east of the Royal Exchange. It was dedicated to St. Benedict
and took its additional name from its founder, Robert Fincke. The
date of its foundation is unknown. It was burnt down in the Great
Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, who completed it in 1673. The church was
taken down in 1842, and its parish united with that of St.
Peter-le-Poer. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1323. The
patronage of the church was in the hands of: The family of Nevils in
1281, who presented to it as a Rectory; Master and Brethren of the
Hospital of St. Anthony, then the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, 1474,
up to 1844, when it was annexed to St. Peter-le-Poer.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300 and above.
Wren’s church was elliptical in shape, and measured 63 feet by 48
feet. It was traversed by six composite columns, which, with the
connecting arches, supported the roof. The steeple, which rose to a
height of 110 feet roughly, consisted of a tower, lead-covered
cupola, and lantern.
The original church contained monuments to John Wilcocks and Dame
Anne Awnsham (d. 1613), both benefactors of the parish. After the
Great Fire a Table of Benefactors was set up to the memory of:
George Holman, donor of £1000 to the rebuilding of the church; Anne
Thriscrosse, donor of £100 for apprenticing poor children, and
several other donors. On a table in the organ loft there was an
inscription to Mrs. Sarah Gregory, donor of £600 for various
charitable purposes. In 1662 Richard Baxter, the celebrated
Nonconformist divine, was married here.
In Threadneedle Street, at the corner of =Bartholomew Lane=, is the Sun
Fire Office with glittering gilt suns over the corner and windows. The
angle has been sliced off to form an entrance. A heavy wreath of foliage
in stone surrounds the window above. The architect was C. R. Cockerell.
A graceful new building in white stone with engaged pillars fluted,
rising from the top of the ground-floor, contains the Life Alliance and
Fire Office in Bartholomew Lane. Next door is Bartholomew House with the
usual stereotyped stone detail, and a couple of somewhat cumbrous stone
figures reclining over each side window. Capel Court leads to the Stock
Exchange.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by G. Shepherd._
ST. BENET FINCK
]
At No. 40 Threadneedle Street is a paved courtyard shut in by iron gates
and behind an archway, striking because of its size and the massiveness
of its stonework. This leads to entrances of the National Provincial
Bank of England, and the Mercantile Bank of India. Beyond it is the
Baltic and South Sea House. This differs from all the preceding
buildings because it belongs to the eighteenth century, as the deep
tinge of its well-preserved bricks tells.
The centre window and doorway are encased in stonework, and the solidity
of the whole structure is in contrast with its “bubble” reputation. It
is now occupied as chambers by merchants, brokers, etc., and the
secretary of the Baltic Company finds lodging here among others.
On the south side of Threadneedle Street we have the Bank of
Australasia. Then two great doorways with an interval between them.
These bear over them the arms of the powerful Merchant Taylors Company,
whose hall is behind.
MERCHANT TAYLORS COMPANY
The precise date of the foundation of the Company is not known, but
one of the earliest civic records mentioning the Taylors as a
separate craft, is the “Chronicle of the Mayors and Sheriffs of
London,” which narrates their dispute with the Goldsmiths in
November 1267.
In 1299 Edward I. granted them his licence to adopt the name of
“Taylors and Linen Armourers of the Fraternity of St. John the
Baptist.” Stow says that on St. John Baptist’s Day, 1300, a master
(Henry de Ryall) and four wardens were chosen, the master being then
called “the pilgrim,” as travelling for the whole Company, and the
warders “the purveyors of alms or quarterages,” plainly showing that
the gild was originally a charitable as well as a commercial
fraternity.
In March 1326 the first charter was granted to the Company by Edward
III.
In 1371 the Company, under this charter, made an ordinance to
regulate their trade, with the special object of recovering damages
from workmen miscutting the cloth entrusted to them.
The Company acquired that portion of their Threadneedle Street
estate upon which their present hall stands in 1331.
In 1351 they enrolled their first honorary member; and about 1361
obtained a grant of a chapel at the north side of St. Paul’s, in
honour of St. John the Baptist, for daily service and prayers for
“the preservation of them that are or shall be of the fraternity.”
In 1480 the Company received their first grant of arms, taking
religious emblems, viz. a holy lamb set within a sun, the crest
being within the pavilion, Our Blessed Lady St. Mary the Virgin,
Christ her Son standing naked before her, holding between His hands
a vesture (_tunica inconsutilis_).
In 1484 the celebrated controversy for precedence in processions,
etc., between the Taylors and Skinners arose, which was settled by
the award of the Lord Mayor that each Company should have precedence
in alternate years, and that each should invite the other to dine
once in every year. This custom has been ever since kept up, the
master and wardens of the Taylors dining with the Skinners on the
first Thursday in December, the master and wardens of the Skinners
with the Taylors on the 14th July.
It was not till 1502 that the Company attained to the full
privileges which they afterwards enjoyed. Under Henry VII.’s
charter, not only were the Company made “Merchant” Taylors, but they
ceased to be exclusively Taylors, and were permitted to receive
others into their fraternity.
The principal object of the guild was the preservation of the trade
or calling of the fraternity, no one being permitted to work in
London as a “tailor” unless a freeman of the Company. For the
protection of the trade the right of search was vested in the guild,
such search being a guarantee to the public that the honest usages
of trade were observed, and to the fraternity that their monopoly
was not infringed. Before a tailor’s shop was opened a licence had
to be obtained from the master and wardens of the Company, and they
granted the licence only when satisfied of the competency of the
freeman. Until the abolition of Bartholomew Fair in 1854, after an
existence of 700 years, the beadle of the Company used annually to
attend the fair and to proceed to the drapers’ shops, taking with
him the Company’s silver yard stick as the standard by which to test
the measures used for selling cloth in the fair.
In 1555, anticipation of the foundation of Merchant Taylors’ School,
Sir Thomas White, a member of the Court of the Merchant Taylors
Company, founded St. John’s College, Oxford, reserving forty-three
out of its fifty endowed fellowships for scholars from the school.
The Company’s school was founded in 1561 on Lawrence Pountney Hill.
Great Crosby School, near Liverpool, of which the Company are sole
trustees and managers, was founded in 1618 by John Harrison.
In 1622 Dr. Thomas White established Sion College, giving to the
Company the nomination to eight of the twenty almshouses which he
connected with the college.
In 1666 the losses sustained by the Company in the Fire of London
obliged them to let their land in the City upon small ground-rents
to enable their tenants to rebuild, and their resources were thus
much crippled.
The number of the livery is 288. The Corporate Income is £37,000;
the Trust Income is £13,000. Their hall is at 30 Threadneedle
Street.
Privileges of membership:
(1) The only advantages that a freeman in easy circumstances
possesses is eligibility for the livery, and prospectively for the
court, and the comfortable assurance that, should he fall into
poverty by misfortune and maintain his respectability, he will
receive a pension from the Company varying in amount from £5 to £40
a year, and that, should his wife and daughters be left in poverty,
they will be assisted by the Company to earn a living. Freemen are
eligible for certain gifts and loans of money for their advancement
in life.
Poverty from ill-health, old age, or incapacity to earn a
livelihood, alone constitutes a claim to a pension or donation.
The only patronage enjoyed by individual members of the court is the
power of presenting boys to the Company’s school in London. Each
member of the court has two or sometimes three presentations
annually, according to vacancies.
The present magnificent hall was built in 1671 by Jerman. It has
been altered and improved, but it remains much the same as when
Jerman handed it over to the Company.
The Company has almshouses and schools, notably the great school on
the site of the Charter House. It also gives largely to the City and
Guilds of London Technical Institute.
At the east end of Threadneedle Street, where it meets Bishopsgate
Street, stood St. Martin Outwich.
[Illustration:
ST. MARTIN OUTWICH
]
=St. Martin Outwich= was called Oteswich or Outwich from four
brothers of that name who founded it. It escaped the Great Fire, but
was rebuilt in 1796 by the Merchant Taylors Company. In 1873 the
parish of St. Martin Outwich was united with that of St. Helen,
Bishopsgate, and the former church pulled down; the Capital and
Counties Bank stands on its site. The earliest date of an incumbent
is 1300.
The patronage of the Church was in the hands of: Edward III., who
granted it to John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, in 1328; the
Oteswiches, who, by their trustee, John Churchman, conveyed it to
the Merchant Taylors Company, July 15, 1406, who presented it up to
1855.
Houseling people in 1548 were 227.
A chantry was founded here by John de Bredstrete, whose endowment
for this and other purposes fetched £4 : 3 : 4 in 1548. The King
granted his licence to found the Guild of St. Baptist, July 15,
1406.
Money fetched 5 per cent in 1548, for one John Kyddermester the
elder by his will bequeathed £200 to purchase £10 by year to keep an
obite, etc., in St. Martin Outwich.
A considerable number of monuments are recorded by Stow. Some of the
most notable are those in memory of: Matthew Pemberton, Merchant
Taylor, donor of £50 for repairing the chapel of St. Lawrence;
Richard Staper, alderman, 1594, and greatest merchant of his day;
George Sotherton, sometime Master of the Merchant Taylors Company,
and M.P. for the City of London, who died in 1599. All the monuments
in St. Martin Outwich were removed to St. Helen, Bishopsgate, on the
union of the parishes.
No detailed account of the charities is recorded by Stow. The
benefactors whose names are given, were: Sir Henry Rowe, donor of £5
yearly; Mrs. Taylor, donor of £2 : 15s., for two special sermons a
year.
George Gardiner (d. 1589), chaplain to Queen Elizabeth and Dean of
Norwich, was rector here; also Richard Kidder (1633-1703), Bishop of
Bath and Wells; Samuel Bishop (1731-95), head master of Merchant
Taylors’ School.
There was near the church a well with two buckets; this was
afterwards turned into a pump.
There are references to “rents” in =Broad Street= as early as 1258; in
1278, Matthew de Hekham, on his way from Broad Street to the Jewry, was
murdered by Jews; in 1331 there is the conveyance of a very large and
substantial house belonging to Edmund Crepin, citizen, and deed of hire
by Sir Oliver Ingham, Knt. In 1387, the parson of St. Peter’s, Broad
Street, brings to the mayor and aldermen a breviary called “Portehers,”
_i.e._ for carrying about, bequeathed to the prison of Newgate by the
late Hugh Tracy, chaplain, so that priests and clerks there imprisoned
might say their service from it. And he also obtained permission to
visit the prison from time to time in order to see that the book was
well kept.
“East from Currier’s row is a long and high wall of stone, inclosing the
north side of a large garden adjoining to as large an house, built in
the reign of King Henry VIII., and of Edward VI., by Sir William Powlet,
lord Treasurer of England. Through this garden, which of old time
consisted of divers parts, now united, was sometimes a fair footway,
leading by the west end of the Augustine Friars church straight north,
and opened somewhat west from Allhallows church against London wall
towards Moregate; which footway had gates at either end, locked up every
night; but now the same way being taken into those gardens, the gates
are closed up with stone, whereby the people are forced to go about by
St. Peter’s church, and the east end of the said Friars church, and all
the said great place and garden of Sir William Powlet to London Wall,
and so to Moregate.
“This great house, adjoining to the garden aforesaid, stretcheth to the
north corner of Broad Street, and then turneth up Broad Street all that
side to and beyond the east end of the said Friars church. It was built
by the said lord treasurer in place of Augustine Friars house, cloister,
and gardens, etc. The Friars church he pulled not down, but the west end
thereof, inclosed from the steeple and choir, was in the year 1550
granted to the Dutch nation in London, to be their preaching place: the
other part, namely, the steeple, choir, and side aisles to the choir
adjoining, he reserved to household uses, as for stowage of corn, coal,
and other things; his son and heir, Marquis of Winchester, sold the
monuments of noblemen (there buried) in great number, the paving-stone
and whatsoever (which cost many thousands), for one hundred pounds, and
in place thereof made fair stabling for horses. He caused the lead to be
taken from the roofs, and laid tile in place whereof; which exchange
proved not so profitable as he looked for, but rather to his
disadvantage” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 184).
This house stood on the north side of what was afterwards called
Winchester Street; the garden and grounds between it and the nave of
Austin Friars’ Church having been built over. The beautiful steeple of
the church, in spite of the remonstrances of the parishioners and of a
letter of remonstrance addressed to the Marquis by the mayor and
aldermen, was pulled down in 1604. The letter, the earliest in favour of
the preservation of ancient monuments, is given in Strype, vol. i. p.
442:
“RIGHT HONORABLE, MY VERY GOOD LORD—There hath been offered of late,
unto this Court, a most just and earnest Petition, by divers of the
chiefest of the Parish of St. Peter the Poor, in London, to move us
to be humble Suitors unto your Lordship in a Cause, which is
sufficient to speak for itself, without the Mediation of any other,
viz.:—for the Repairing of the ruinous Steeple of the Church,
sometime called, The Augustine Friars, now belonging to the Dutch
Nation, situate in the same Parish of St. Peter the Poor: The Fall
whereof, which, without speedy Prevention, is near at hand, must
needs bring with it not only a great deformitie to the whole City,
it being, for Architecture, one of the beautifullest and rarest
Spectacles thereof, but also a fearful eminent danger to all the
inhabitants next adjoining. Your Lordship being moved herein, as we
understand, a year since, was pleased then to give honorable
Promises with Hope of present help, but the effects not following
according to your honorable intention, we are bould to renew the
said Suit agayne; eftsoons craving at your Lordship’s hands a due
consideration of so worthy a work, as to help to build up the House
of God; one of the cheefest fountains, from whence hath sprung so
great glory to your Lordship’s most noble descendency of the
Powlets; whose steps your Lordship must needs follow, to continue,
to all posterity, the fame of so bountiful benefactors both to
Church and Commonwealth.
“So that I trust we shall have the less need to importune your
Lordship in so reasonable a suite; first, Bycause it doth
principally concern your Lordship, being the Owner of the greatest
part of the said Speare, or Steeple; but especially that by
disbursing of a small sum of money, to the value of 50 or 60 £s,
your Lordship shall do an excellent work, very helpful to many, and
most grateful to all, as well English as strangers; who, by this
means, shall have cause to magnify to the world this so honorable
and charitable an action. And I and my brethren shall much rejoice
to be releeved herein by your Lordship’s most noble disposition,
rather than to fly to the last remedie of the Law of the Land;
which, in this case, hath provided a Writ De reparatione facienda.
“Thus, hoping as assuredlie on your Lordship’s favour, as we pray
incessantlie for your continual Felicitie, we humbly take leaves of
your Lordship. From London, the 4th of August, 1600.
“Your Lordship’s humbly to be commauned,
NYCHOLAS MOSLY, MAYOR. RICHARD
MARTYN, JOHN HART, HENRY
BILLINGSLY, STEPHEN SOAME, WILLIAM
RYDER, JOHN GARRARD, THOMAS
BENNETT, THOMAS LOWE, LEONARD
HOLIDAY, ROBERT HAMPSON, RY.
GODARD, JOHN WATTES, THO. SMYTHE,
WILLIAM CRAVEN, AND HUMPHREY
WELD.”
The ancient Church of Austin Friars was given by Edward VI. to the Dutch
congregation, in whose possession it still continues. All that remains
is the nave. In 1862 this was badly damaged by fire, but was carefully
restored, the window tracery and roof dating from that time as well as
many other additions. For an account of the Austin Friars, see _Mediæval
London_, vol. ii. p. 345.
Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, lived in Broad Street in Queen
Elizabeth’s reign, Lords Weston and Dover in that of Charles I.
“Here was a Glass House where Venice Glasses were made and Venetians
employed in the work; and Mr. James Howel (author of the familiar
Letters which bear his name) was Steward to this house. When he left
this place, scarce able to bear the continual heat of it, he thus
wittily expressed himself, that had he continued still Steward he should
in a short time have melted away to nothing among those hot Venetians.
This place afterwards became Pinners’ Hall” (Cunningham’s _Handbook_).
General Monk (February 1660) took up his quarters at the Glass House. On
the north side was the Navy Pay Office, on the south the Excise Office.
On the site of the Excise Office was Gresham College. Sir Thomas
Gresham, who died in 1596, bequeathed his dwelling-house in Bishopsgate
Street for the purposes of the college, besides presenting the
Corporation of the City of London and the Mercers Company with the Royal
Exchange on the condition that they carried on lectures in the college
as he prescribed. His house was a very fine one, well suited for the
purpose he had in view. After the death of his widow in 1596, lectures
on seven subjects were appointed and the work began. The house escaped
the Great Fire of 1666, and the mayor took the college for courts and
meetings; the merchants used the inner court for their Exchange, and
temporary shops were put up for the use of those who had been burned out
by the destruction of the Exchange. In the history of the college there
has been a good deal of litigation, the full story of which may be found
in Maitland and elsewhere.
[Illustration:
GRESHAM COLLEGE
]
The following Regulations are given in Stow and Strype, in 1720, in
full. They are here abridged:
1. Precedency of the Professors.
The three Professors of Divinity, Law, and Medicine to be
Governor or President of the College in turn.
2. The Professors to live in the College.
3. The Professors to be unmarried.
4. To have a common table, and not to entertain friends as guests at
more than three meals in one month.
5. The Year to consist of five terms:
(1) To begin on the Monday before Trinity Term and to continue
one month.
(2) From the first Monday in September and to continue a
fortnight.
(3) From the Monday before Michaelmas Term and to continue to
the end of that Term.
(4) From the Monday after Epiphany to continue two months or
sixty days.
(5) From the Monday seven night after Easter Day to the end of
Easter Term.
6. The Divinity Lecture to be read on Monday and Wednesday at 8 A.M.
in Latin and on Friday in English.
7. The Divinity Lecturer to deal especially with the controversies
which affect the Church of Rome.
8. The Law and Physick Lectures to be read, like the Divinity
Lecture, twice in Latin and once in English.
9. The other lectures in Astronomy, Geometry, Rhetoric, and Music to
be read alternately in Latin and English.
10. The Professors to wear their hoods and gowns.
11. A keeper of the House to be appointed by the Lord Mayor.
The college was intended to be a rival, in some sort, to Oxford and
Cambridge. It seems never to have succeeded in attracting students. Dr.
Johnson attributed its failure to the fact that the lectures were free,
and that what is given is not valued. The House was pulled down in 1768
and the Excise Office took its place. The lectures were then read in a
room at the Royal Exchange. In 1843 the present building was erected and
the college entered upon a new course. So far, however, it does not seem
to fulfil the intentions of the Founder as a great educational centre.
Isaac Barrow, Robert Hooke, and Christopher Wren have been Professors in
the college. The Royal Society held its meetings here for fifty years
(1660-1710).
ST. PETER-LE-POER
In Broad Street at present still stands St. Peter-le-Poer, nearly
opposite the Excise Office. It escaped the Great Fire, but was
rebuilt in 1791 from the designs of Jesse Gibson. In 1842-44 St.
Benet Finck was demolished, and its parish was united with this. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1356.
So far as there is any record, since 1181 at least, the patronage of
the church has always been in the hands of the Dean and Chapter of
St. Paul’s.
Houseling people in 1548 were 160 or 200.
The church is circular in shape, with a recess at the north for the
altar; a gallery originally ran round the building, but in 1888 the
greater part of this was removed. The steeple rises at the south,
the only side on which the exterior is visible, owing to surrounding
buildings. It consists of a square tower, supporting a stone cupola
which is terminated by a vane.
The most interesting monument which the present church contains is
that in memory of Dr. Richard Holdsworth, rector here in 1623, who
was for some time imprisoned by the Long Parliament. He was Master
of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and several times Vice-Chancellor of
the University. The church originally contained monuments to: John
Lucas, Master of the Requests to Edward VI., who died 1556; Robert
Calthrop, mayor, 1588; Sir William Roche, mayor, 1540; and Sir
William Garaway, at whose expense a new aisle was made in 1616,
costing £400.
Some of the charities given yearly to the poor were: £4, the gift of
Lady Ramsey; £5, the gift of John Quarles, for bread; £20, the gift
of Lady Richard, for housekeepers at Christmas time; £30, the gift
of Gerard Vanheithuysens, to be distributed among the poor.
There were six almshouses in Broad Street, the gift of Sir Thomas
Gresham.
Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), Dean of Worcester, was rector here;
also Benjamin Hoadley (1676-1761), successively Bishop of Bangor, of
Hereford, of Sarum, of Winchester.
Opposite the church of St. Peter-le-Poer stood the “old” South Sea
House, and behind it the yards used by the Company. This was the back of
South Sea House, the front of which was at the east end of Threadneedle
Street where it runs into Bishopsgate Street. The City of London Club
now has its premises here; it is a large building with a massive porch,
built by P. Hardwick.
Of the other business houses in this street there is nothing to say. At
the corner of Winchester Street is Winchester House (modern), which
keeps alive the memory of old Winchester House, standing until 1839, the
town house of the marquises of Winchester.
The Pinners’ Hall was formerly in this street (see Appendix).
=Wormwood Street= is a continuation of London Wall, facing it. “In the
street,” says Strype, “briefly, there be divers courts and alleys.” In
other words, that part of London was occupied as lately as 1720 or 1750
by a population of industrial folk not yet driven out by the increase of
merchants’ offices and banks. There appear to have been no antiquities
in this street, unless we reckon a small burial-ground belonging to St.
Martin Outwich, which lay in the point of the wall.
Of =London Wall= we have already spoken.
Northward are three stations, Broad Street, Bishopsgate Street, and
Liverpool Street.
There are dreary rows of old brick houses on either side of the part of
New Broad Street which runs east and west. Towards the west end of the
street are one or two well-built business houses. The site of the Jews’
Synagogue is occupied by Blomfield House, largely inhabited by
secretaries of companies and syndicates. When we turn the corner into
the part of New Broad Street running north and south, we find some large
modern buildings. On the east the building is uniform for a considerable
way. Broad Street House occupies all the frontage between the two
passages of St. Botolph’s Churchyard. It is stone fronted and is in an
Italian style. Dashwood House behind it covers a very large area of
ground. It is of ugly design in red brick with each line of windows in a
different style. Both of these are largely occupied by agents,
engineers, secretaries of companies, etc. Dashwood House looks out on
the churchyard. This is an uninviting strip of ground surrounded on the
south by the backs of warehouses. A small house at the east end is
called “The Old Watchhouse,” and bears an inscription to the effect that
it was rebuilt in 1771 by an alderman named James Townsend.
In Blomfield Street was formerly the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital,
now removed to the City Road. The Hospital had its origin in 1804 when
some gentlemen founded a free dispensary for eye diseases.
There are some large buildings on the east known as Blomfield Buildings,
also the London Provident Institution Savings Bank, and the headquarters
of the London Missionary Society. The bank bears an inscription to the
effect that it was erected 1835 and enlarged 1875. This Society was
first formed a hundred years ago (January 15, 1795) in the Castle and
Falcon Inn, Aldersgate Street, and it now sends missionaries to every
quarter of the world. Close by is St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel,
stucco-covered, and a Roman Catholic School. At the corner of =East
Street= is a fine building called Finsbury House, with grey granite
columns of considerable strength running from the ground-floor upwards.
It is well proportioned and has a well-finished angle.
Finsbury Circus is surrounded by a uniform line of dull brick houses
having their ground-floors covered with yellow stucco. At one point only
do the area railings give way, and that is at the London Institution,
built of Portland stone, with a heavy portico and fluted columns. The
Institution was established in 1806 in Old Jewry and afterwards removed
to King’s Arms Yard, Coleman Street. It was incorporated a year after
its establishment. The present building was founded in 1815 and opened
four years later.
A great many solicitors have their offices in the Circus, and there is
also a sprinkling of surgeons, accountants, and secretaries of
companies. The centre of the Circus is occupied by a wide space of grass
surrounded by a thick shrubbery of trees.
Northward of this is =Finsbury Square=, built in 1789 by George Dance.
At the junction of Finsbury Pavement and Moorgate Street stood Moor Gate
from which northwards outside the walls stretched the great open moor,
the playground of the London citizens; this is now all built over with
the exception of the Square and Circus mentioned above.
=Moorfields= so frequently occurs in documents before the end of the
eighteenth century, and played so large a part in the life of the
Londoner, that it deserves some notice. The earliest mention made of it
is in the reign of Henry II., and was apparently a large open mere or
marsh on which water lay in parts, so that in winter it was covered with
ice, and formed a playground where the young citizens practised a
primitive kind of skating. It was drained in 1627, and in Queen
Elizabeth’s time was much resorted to for the practice of archery. It
was also used as a general rendezvous for all who desired to meet
without the gates, a perpetual fair, a drying ground, a preaching place,
and many other things. It is generally said that the houseless people
assembled here after the Great Fire; but Moorfields could have
accommodated but a tenth part of them, so that the camps must have
extended northward and westward far beyond the limits of Moorfields into
Finsbury Fields northwards and to Islington.
Various attempts were made from time to time to enclose parts of
Moorfields and build on the space, and these were resisted by the
citizens with much ardour; but the spreading tide heeds not resistance,
and gradually the whole area was built over—even in the seventeenth
century the fields were enclosed and surrounded by shops.
Moor Gate was rebuilt in 1672, and the central gateway made higher than
usual that the City Trained Bands might march through with pikes erect.
From end to end Moorgate Street is composed of comparatively uniform
stucco-fronted houses in a hideous Victorian style, with little
projecting pediments and cornices over the windows. To this there is one
exception, at the south-east corner, in the British and Fire Insurance
Office, a stone and grey granite building of imposing size.
Great Swan Alley is a narrow entry which comes out just beside Ye Old
Swan’s Nest public-house, which is a new stone-faced building. At the
north-east corner are Swan Chambers, designed by Basil Champneys in
1891.
Moorgate Court (late Coleman Street Buildings) contains the Institute of
Chartered Accountants, a very fine building of stone, with panels of
female figures in relief; on each panel is a shield, and the words Arts,
Sciences, Crafts, Education, Commerce, Agriculture, Manufacture, Mining,
Railways, Shipping, India, Colonies, Building are inscribed on these
shields. This frieze extends across the whole frontage, but is cut up by
intersecting columns. It is the work of Hamo Thorneycroft. The angle at
the corner has the merit of being thoroughly unconventional. The figure
of Justice surmounts the balcony. The building was designed by John
Belcher, 1892. Facing south is a red brick and stone building known as
Moorgate Court. This is in a picturesque style of Perpendicular Gothic,
and the building over the projecting porch is carried up to the roof,
giving relief to the frontage. Altogether this is an unexpectedly
picturesque Court. In the covered entry leading to it from Moorgate
Street are two old doorways, the northern one fascinating, with
grotesque faces on the keystone of the lintel, and vertical Wrenian
ornaments on either side. Looking back at the entry from the street we
see that these doorways belong to a very old plaster house, with tiled
roof, which stands back from the street line, overlooking two shops, one
on either side the entry, which are finished with parapets. The windows
in the tiled roof also peep over a parapet. This is the only picturesque
bit in that very ugly but useful thoroughfare—Moorgate Street.
Close at hand the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation have fitted
up their ground-floor with pink terra-cotta which jars with the yellow
plaster above. Altogether, to the east of Moorgate Street lie an amazing
number of quiet courts, without beauty, but lined by respectable solid
brick-and-plaster houses.
Between Moorgate and Old Broad Streets east and west, and London Wall
and Throgmorton Street north and south, lies a typical business quarter.
In Copthall Buildings we see great modern houses. The Chambers here are
filled by stock-jobbers and stockbrokers. Copthall Avenue is made up of
fine well-built houses and little old ones. Lanthorn, Moorgate,
Throgmorton, Copthall Houses are all in a sensible but not displeasing
style. Some are of the lighter red brick and light stone which shows up
well in a London Street, others in grey stone and granite. Copthall
House, which runs round the corner along the south part of Sun Court,
has windows bayed in imitation of an old style. Basil Champneys was the
architect. For the old houses, Nos. 4 and 6 on the east side date from
the seventeenth century. Nos. 10 and 12 are of about the same date. Nos.
22, 24, and 26 farther northward are also old, and are perhaps early
eighteenth century; their discoloured bricks and the bent lines of the
windows and doorway bear testimony to their years.
Of =Lothbury= there is not much to say; it contains the Bank of
Scotland, and the chief office of the London and Westminster Bank, and
numerous companies are promoted and worked from this address.
The building at the corner of Tokenhouse Yard is in the style known as
Venetian Gothic. It is harmoniously carried out. There is a somewhat
deeply recessed doorway. The building bears a frieze or panel on it
which divides an upper window into two parts. It was designed by G.
Somers Clarke and built in 1866. No. 19, the Auction Mart in Tokenhouse
Yard, owns the same architect, and is characterised by the same air of
neatness and finish.
ST. MARGARET, LOTHBURY
St. Margaret, Lothbury, was probably rebuilt about 1440; the
building was destroyed by the Great Fire; the present church was
designed by Wren and completed in 1690. It serves, besides its own
original parish, for 6 other parishes—those of St. Christopher, St.
Bartholomew by the Exchange, St. Olave Jewry, St. Martin Pomeroy,
St. Mildred in the Poultry, and St. Mary Colechurch. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1181.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: the Abbess and
Convent of Barking, Essex, 1303. Henry VIII. who seized it, and so
it continues in the Crown to the present time.
Houseling people in 1548 were 279.
The church measures 66 feet in length, 54 feet in breadth, and 36
feet in height. It contains a nave, chancel, and one aisle,
separated by Corinthian columns. The south aisle, which is railed
off, contains a side-altar at the east. The steeple consists of a
three-storied tower and cornice, surmounted by a lantern and obelisk
with finial and vane; its total height is 140 feet.
Chantries were founded here by: John le Boteler, sen., citizen, for
himself and Matilda his wife, for which the King granted his
licence, August 2, 1321; John Julyan, whose endowment fetched £7 :
4 : 0 in 1548, when John Badye was priest; John Iforde, whose
endowment yielded £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Patrick Faber was
priest.
Reginald Coleman, son of Robert, who is supposed to be the first
builder of Coleman Street, was buried here in 1483. Also John Benet,
rector of the parish and a great benefactor; John Dimocke, who
served Henry VIII. and Edward VI.; Nicholas Style, Alderman of
London, who died in 1615.
On the demolition of St. Olave’s, a monument to Alderman John
Boydell, the engraver (Lord Mayor in 1790), was removed to this
church.
Anthony Bedingfield gave £100 to the parish; Mary Barnes, £100;
Thomas Bremley, £5; Henry VIII., £3 : 6 : 8; John Hanson, £50 for
the completion of the church. Many other names are recorded on the
Table of Benefactors.
=Throgmorton Street= takes its name from Sir Nicholas Throckmorton who,
tradition says, was poisoned by Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Queen
Elizabeth’s favourite. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was born in 1515 and
died in 1570. There is nothing to warrant the statement that he was
poisoned by Dudley, with whom he was on friendly terms. What was the
name of the street before the life and death of Sir Nicholas
Throckmorton? Stow simply says that in Throgmorton Street, Thomas
Cromwell built a large house in the place of certain tenements. The
house in 1541 became the property, and the second hall, of the Drapers
Company. It could hardly have been named after a man at that time only
twenty-six years of age.
There were, however, other Throckmortons; the name in the _Dictionary of
National Biography_ occupies nearly eight pages. Most of them lived a
good deal in London; all of them occupied good positions; the street,
formerly part of Lothbury, may have received its name from one or other
of the family. The following imperfect genealogy of the family will
illustrate this possibility:
Sir John Throgmorton (Under Treasurer of Chamberlain of Exchequer) Lived
in London, where his will is dated (d. 1445).
+Alianora, heiress of Sir Guy de la Spirn of Coughton.
├── Sir Thomas (d. 1472).
│ └── Sir Robert, Privy Councillor Henry VII. (d. 1518).
│ └── Sir George
│ +Katherine, daughter of Lord Vaux.
│ ├── Thomas (d. 1614).
│ │ └── Thomas, Baronet, 1642.
│ ├── Clement.
│ │ └── Job (1545-1601), Puritan Controversialist.
│ ├── Sir Nicholas (1515-1570).
│ │ └── Etc.
│ └── Sir John (Master of Requests, lived in London, d. 1580).
│ └── Francis, Conspirator (b. 1554, executed Aug. 1584).
├── John.
└── Seven daughters.
We have here a choice of four generations of Throckmortons, all more or
less intimately connected with London, any one of whom may have given
his name to the street.
The courts leading out of Throgmorton Street on the north were, in 1750,
Whalebone Court, Angel Court, Copt Hall Court, Warnford Court, and
Austin Friars. On the south were formerly Bartholomew Lane, Bartholomew
Court, Shorters Court, and Crown Court. All of these, except Whalebone
and the Bartholomew Courts, still exist.
The present =Throgmorton Street= is lined by the usual business houses
in a decorative style, with a general uniformity pervading all. The
Drapers’ Hall occupies a great part of the northern side with its
curving frontage and highly decorative frieze.
THE DRAPERS COMPANY
The association from which the Drapers Company derive their origin
appears to have partaken of the nature of a social and religious as
well as a commercial guild. The exact date of their foundation
cannot be ascertained, but they undoubtedly existed as a brotherhood
at a very early period. Madox (_Hist. Exch._ p. 391) mentions the
Gilda Parariorum, whereof John Maur was alderman, among the
adulterine guilds amerced in the 26 Henry II. (1180). The Company
possess a certificate by William Camden, Clarencieux King-of-Arms,
certifying the arms borne by Henry Fitz Alwin, Lord Mayor 1198-1212,
and that he was a member of the Drapers Company.
The earliest charter of which the Company have any record is the
Charter of Privileges of 38 Edward III.
The earliest ordinances of which the Company possess any record
purport to be a revision of an earlier set made in 1322. The revised
ordinances were made in 1418.
The earliest accounts in the possession of the Company are those of
the wardens for the year 1415. In that year the number of members is
shown to exceed 100, and quarterage was received from 83 persons,
and due from 13 more.
The arms of the Company were first granted by Sir William Bruges,
Garter King-of-Arms, March 10, 1439-40. This grant was confirmed
with the addition of crest and supporters by William Harvey,
Clarencieux, July 10, 1561, and again confirmed with a slight
alteration by Sir William Segar, Garter, June 6, Jac. I. 1613.
In 1607 the Company obtained an entirely new charter (4 Jac. I.,
19th January), incorporating them by their ancient style of “The
Masters and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or
Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Drapers
of the City of London,” and vesting the government in the master,
four wardens and assistants. Under this charter the government of
the Company has been carried on down to the present day.
(1) The advantages incident to the position of a freeman of the
Company consist of the eligibility to participate in the various
charitable funds held by the Company in trust for their members, and
to become liverymen of the Company.
(2) Liverymen of the Company, as such, have no pecuniary or other
direct advantages, but they constitute the class from which the
governing body is elected, and every liveryman, except in cases of
special disqualification, is in his turn placed in nomination for
the governing body.
(3) The master is entitled to, and is paid, certain small bequests
which amount to £2 : 13 : 4 per annum.
The wardens are also entitled to certain bequests and allowances
which amount on an average to £106 : 4 : 10 per annum. This sum is
not paid to them, but goes towards the cost of the election dinner
in August, which in ancient times was provided by the wardens.
The members of the governing body, as such, have no direct pecuniary
or other advantages.
Freemen and liverymen of the Company receive no fees.
The fees paid to the master, wardens, and other members of the
governing body, for their attendance at courts and committees during
the last ten years, average £3225 : 12 : 6 per annum.
No pensions or donations are paid to liverymen. Liverymen who have
become reduced in circumstances, and have applied for and received
the return of their livery fine, are then eligible to receive
charitable assistance as freemen.
Assistance by way of pension or donation is not granted to any
member of the Company except on full inquiry into his circumstances,
to ascertain that he is in need of assistance, and that his
necessity is not occasioned by his own improvidence or misconduct.
The number of the livery of the Drapers is 300; their Corporate
Income is £50,000; their Trust Income is £28,000.
The Drapers have had several places of meeting. The first is said to
have been the Church of St. Mary Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate; the
next, where Nos. 19 to 23 St. Swithin’s Lane now is. This was
formerly the house of Sir John Hend, draper, Lord Mayor 1391 and
1404, who materially assisted towards the rebuilding of St.
Swithin’s Church in 1420. In 1479 the Company’s annals have this
entry respecting tithes: “Paid to the parson of St. Swithin for our
place for a year VIs. VIIId.,” implying that it had now regularly
passed into the Company’s hands. Herbert, in his _History of the
London Livery Companies_, has sifted out information regarding this
hall, which tells much concerning its apartments, and the brave
feasts held therein on election days and other occasions. The great
hall was strewed with rushes and hung mostly with tapestry, but the
upper end, above the dais for the high table, with blue buckram. It
must have been of large dimensions, capable of dining two to three
hundred persons, and here assembled bishop and prior and parson,
Lord Mayor and Mayoress, to feast with the master and wardens and
brethren and sisters of the Drapers Company all seated at table in
due order of rank. The sisters had a dining-room of their own, “the
ladies’ chamber,” and there was a “chekker chamber” laid with mats
and set apart for “maydens,” but both married and unmarried ladies
usually dined in hall with the brothers of the fraternity. Besides
the refectory, there was a large kitchen with its three fire-places,
and there were buttery and pantry, a store-house for cloth, and “a
scalding yard”; also a court-room, a “great chamber” or livery-room,
and parlours hung with tapestry or painted green, and all contained
beneath the shelter of leaded roofs. The Drapers continued to feast
and transact their business here until 1541, when they bought the
house in Throgmorton Street which had belonged to Thomas Cromwell,
Earl of Essex.
The Earl had suffered attainder under Henry VIII. This estate formed
the finest hall that any City Company had hitherto obtained. It
contained, besides the buildings, a large garden at the back. This
garden was still preserved until a few years ago, when the greater
part of it was sold and converted into offices.
The hall, after the Fire, was rebuilt, but a hundred years
afterwards, in 1774, it was greatly damaged by another fire. The
present hall was altered and remodelled, with the addition of a
screen, in 1866-70.
In February 1660 General Monk made Drapers’ Hall his headquarters.
The Company point to many illustrious members. The Pulteneys, Earls
of Bath; the Capels, Earls of Essex; the Brydges, Dukes of Chandos
were descended from members of the Drapers Company.
What was said of the Mercers may be repeated of this Company. They
administer their great Trust Income in the endowment of hospitals,
schools, and almshouses; and they have large funds for purely
charitable and philanthropic purposes. Of late the Drapers Company
have taken up the cause of Technical Education; at the People’s
Palace they have a Polytechnic attended by thousands of students,
with classes of instruction in all the principal trades.
At the north end of Throgmorton Avenue, near London Wall, is the
Carpenters’ Hall.
THE CARPENTERS COMPANY
A brotherhood or guild of carpenters is believed to have existed in
London about 1350, but under what circumstances we have no
information. The first charter to the present Company was granted in
1477, 17 Edward IV. This granted to certain freemen of the mystery
of carpentry of the City of London, that they or any of them might
establish a brotherhood or guild within the City to remain for ever,
to consist of one master, three wardens, and commonalty of freemen
of the mystery of carpentry abiding in the City of London, and the
suburbs and precincts of the same, and of the brethren and sisters
of the freemen of the said mystery, and of all others who of their
devotion will be of the same brotherhood or guild; and that the same
master, wardens, and commonalty should be one body and one
commonalty, incorporated by the name of Master, Wardens, and
Commonalty of the Mystery of Freemen of the Carpentry of the City of
London.
This charter was exemplified, ratified, and confirmed by Philip and
Mary (a Charter of Inspeximus), and also by Elizabeth; the latter
exemplification being dated 8th November, 2 Elizabeth.
James I., by charter (dated 15th July, 5 James I.), granted to the
master, wardens, and commonalty of the mystery of freemen of the
carpentry of the City of London, that they should exercise the
powers of search, correction, and government of all the freemen of
the art or mystery of Carpenters of the City, or using or exercising
the said art or mystery within the said City or the suburbs of the
same, or within two miles thereof, together with powers for the
inspection of timber, and regulation of matters relating to the
trade.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Thos. W. Shepherd._
CARPENTERS’ HALL, LONDON WALL, 1830
]
Charles I., by charter (dated 17th July, 16 Charles I.), reciting
the preceding charters, and that various frauds and deceptions were
practised in the trade, granted to the master, wardens, and
commonalty of the Company, that the master, wardens, and assistants
for the time being, to the number of twelve or more, of which the
master and wardens for the time being to be four, being met together
upon summons to be made for that purpose, should have full power and
authority to appoint, constitute, and make ordinances, decrees, and
constitutions in writing for the good rule and government of the
master, wardens, and commonalty of the mystery, and of all other
persons being free of the art or mystery, or using the same art or
mystery within the City of London, or liberties of the same, and for
declaring in what manner the master, wardens, and commonalty, and
all such persons as aforesaid, should behave themselves, and use the
occupation of the said art or mystery.
Charles II., by charter (dated 20th October, 26 Charles II.),
reciting and confirming the preceding charters, granted, upon the
humble petition of the master and wardens of the Company, the
oversight and government of all and singular persons, whether
freemen of the said mystery, or using or occupying the same within
the City of London, or within four miles of the same, together with
very extensive powers and privileges for exercising the oversight,
search, and measurement of all and all manner of timber, timber
stuff, and materials, and the works and workmanship thereto within
the before-mentioned limits.
In 1666 an Act of Parliament was passed ordering brick building in
place of wood, and all carpenters, etc., not freemen of the City
employed in the building were, for the space of seven years, to be
allowed the liberty of working as freemen, and all who should so
help for seven years were to enjoy the same liberty for their lives.
In 1693 an Act of Common Council was passed by which all persons
carrying on the trade of carpentry in the City of London were
compelled to bind their apprentices to the Carpenters Company.
The Company is now governed by a master, three wardens, and a
varying number of assistants.
The livery numbers 150. The hall in Throgmorton Avenue was built
when the old hall at London Wall was taken down in 1876. The
Corporate Income of the Company is £16,000 and the Trust Income is
£1180.
GROUP IV
The next group is a triangle, of which Bishopsgate Street and Fenchurch
Street are two sides. It is a part of very considerable interest, though
not so full of history as Cheapside or Thames Street. It contains the
great market of Leadenhall Street, which is itself a continuation of
that market which extended eastward from West Chepe to the Poultry, to
Cornhill, to Gracechurch Street or Grass Street, and so to Leadenhall,
the distributing market of London, and from London to the country. Its
financial centre was Lombard Street before the Exchange was built. At
two points it had a City gate; it had three monastic houses, St.
Helen’s, The Papey, and the Holy Trinity; it has been for three hundred
years especially a Jewish quarter; it had the East India Houses one
after the other, and it has within its borders the most ancient church
in the City, that of St. Ethelburga, with three other churches which
were not destroyed by the Fire.
=Fenchurch Street.=—The origin of the name has been generally accepted
as from a supposed situation in a marsh or fen. According to Stow, “of a
fenny or moorish ground, so made by means of this borne”—“Langborne.” We
may admit the fenny ground, but we are not obliged to admit the
existence of a stream here. Maitland, who loves to be precise, says that
the stream rose in a place called Magpie Alley close to St. Katherine
Coleman, and ran down Fenchurch Street and Lombard Street as far as the
west end of St. Mary Woolnoth, where it turned south at Sherborne Lane
(whence the name) and divided into many rivulets, where it fell into the
Thames. Now, no trace of any such stream has ever been found. Moreover,
though the levels of the streets have been raised by many feet, they
have been raised in proportion, and if such a stream now ran along
Fenchurch Street, it would run up-hill for half its course. Further, the
name Sherborne does not mean what Maitland thinks at all. Its real
meaning may be found in the _Calendar of Wills_ (vol. i. p. 147, and on
many other pages). Langborne appears as Langford in an early list.
Somewhere near the end of Sherborne Lane was the wall, and perhaps the
fosse of the Roman citadel. But Stow, and Maitland after him, call the
ward Langborne and Fennie About. Langborne was one part—that of which
Lombard Street is the principal part—and Fennie About the other, in the
marshy ground.
The ward is mentioned in a murder case (Riley’s _Memorials_) in 1276.
Reference to the parish occurs repeatedly between 1276 and 1349
(_Calendar of Wills_). There are mentioned messuages, rents, tenements,
shops, a brew-house, etc., in the parish. The street is mentioned
separately later. In the fourteenth century there are dwelling-places,
tenements, mansion-houses, brew-houses, bakehouses, and shops. But there
are no signs of a fen in or about the street. It is suggested that as
Gracechurch Street is the street of Grass, so Fenchurch Street is
Foin-church, the street of Hay, both streets belonging to the market of
hay, grass, and corn. But Professor Skeat replies to this suggestion:
“It is impossible to derive _fen_ from the French _foin_. No French _oi_
becomes _e_ in English. But it might be derived from the Anglo-French
_fein_, which is the corresponding word to the French _foin_ and had the
same sense. In this case it ought to be possible to find the spelling
_fein_. Otherwise _fen_ can only mean _fen_. Note that the English _fen_
may be spelt also _fenne_. But the Anglo-French _fein_ could not take
either _n_ or _ne_ at the end of it. I suspect Stow is right. I see no
evidence to the contrary.”
Again, writing later, Professor Skeat says: “I think we can get at
Fenchurch now, by help of the history.
“Fen was an extremely common word in Middle English, not merely in the
sense of _morass_, but in the sense of the modern word _mud_. ‘Mud’ is
quite a late word, but I presume that the thing was known in the City
even in the earliest times, and the name of it was ‘fen.’ This being so,
it is tolerably certain that if the name originally was anything that
could be readily turned into _fen_, that would soon become the
pronunciation and the ‘popular’ etymology.
“If we start from the idea of Hay, we proceed through the Norman form
which was not _foin_ (this could never have given us _fen_), but _fein_
or _fayn_, or _fain_, pronounced as modern English _fain_ (the nasal _n_
in Norman being of little account except after the simple vowels _a_ and
_e_). But the corresponding verb ‘to cut hay’ was actually ‘fener.’ The
phrase ‘Li fain estoient fené’ is quoted from Froissart in Godefroy’s
_Old French Dictionary_, s.v. _Fener_. And the verb _fener_ is still in
use in Burgundy.
“It is easy to see how the word _fain_ could thus be associated with a
pronunciation _fen_, and Englishmen who knew no French (there were
plenty of them) may very well have imagined in their hearts that the
reference was to the mud in the streets. That there _was_ mud may be
taken for granted. There is some left still.
“There was also a remarkable adjective _feneresse_, whence the word
_feneresse_, a female seller of hay. And there was a word _fenerie_
which meant a barn for hay. And _feneron_, a hay maker.”
Professor Skeat later repeats that if the word for hay is used by itself
in London, it will be in the form of fein-fain. The spelling Fanchurch
is especially valuable; in fact, it settles it, for _fan_ may be short
for _fain_ whereas _fan_ cannot be another form of _fen_.
There are extant many ancient deeds connected with this street. Here was
a brew-house called Le George super le Hoop.
Roman remains have been found here, vases, things in bronze, and an iron
candlestick.
At No. 119 Fenchurch Street is a tavern known as the Elephant. It stands
on the site of a house called the Elephant and Castle. In the Great Fire
this house, being built of stone, resisted the flames, and offered
shelter to many homeless people. Is the same thing related of the
churches? They, too, were built of stone. Why did not they resist the
flames?
Wallace was taken, on his arrival in London as a prisoner, to the house
of William de Leyre in Fenchurch Street.
At the King’s Head Tavern, Queen Elizabeth was regaled with pork and
peas on a certain visit to the City.
In Fenchurch Street at present, on the south side, the building numbered
3 and 4, which contains the Castle Mail Packet Company, is well
designed, with wide, deeply-recessed windows enriched by mouldings. The
ground-floor is encased in grey polished granite. Langbourn Chambers is
a huge mass of building. Down the side of the street are various plain
brick buildings of different ages interspersed with modern erections,
stone fronted.
The huge building at the west corner of Mark Lane running round into
Fenchurch Street is so covered with stone ornamentation, statues, etc.,
that the red brickwork is hardly to be seen. This is the London Tavern,
and contains the City Glee Club. Both Mark and Mincing Lanes abound in
great commercial buildings. Fen Court has an old stuccoed house over the
tunnel-like entrance, but in itself is all composed of flat-windowed
expressionless offices. These look down on the ancient graveyard, a very
large space for one of the City churches. It is surrounded by railings,
and divided down the centre by a flagged path. Several flat tombstones
lie in the middle, and one or two altar tombs complete the quiet
picture, over which the leaves of the wych-elms throw shadows. Those who
have read Mrs. Riddell’s tragic story _George Geith of Fen Court_ will
remember her description of the Court. Beyond Fen Court is the Spread
Eagle Bread Company, a fine old house of the beginning of the eighteenth
century. The gilt eagle spreads its wings in front of a square red-brick
block with antiquated windows, and a general tint of age.
The Ironmongers’ Hall, a large building, faces Fenchurch Street.
THE IRONMONGERS COMPANY
The earliest notice of the craft is in 1351. The first charter
incorporating the Company was granted by Edward IV. in the year
1463, but it appears that a voluntary company or fraternity of
members of the iron trade had existed for many years previous to
that date.
There followed an Inspeximus Charter of Philip and Mary, dated June
20, 1558, which confirmed the charter of Edward IV.; Letters Patent
of the second year of Queen Elizabeth, dated November 12, 1560, by
which the charter of Edward IV. was further confirmed. James I., by
Letters Patent dated June 25, 1605, confirmed the privileges and
possessions of the Company. He also, in 1620, confirmed the Company
in the possession of certain lands and tenements therein mentioned,
in consideration of £100 paid to him. James II., by charter dated
March 18, 1685, confirmed all their privileges and granted new and
additional privileges, and by Letters Patent, dated November 19,
1688, he confirmed the last-mentioned charter.
Stow merely mentions the Hall, which occupied the area between
Fenchurch and Leadenhall Streets. It existed in 1494 and was rebuilt
in 1587. The present Hall was erected in 1748-50 on the site of an
Elizabethan house which had escaped the Fire.
The number of liverymen varies; it is now thirty-seven. The
Corporate Income is £12,000; the Trust Income is £11,000.
[Illustration:
IRONMONGERS’ HALL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
]
1. Freemen are invited to two dinners yearly, and they, their wives,
and children are entitled to the benefit of the various charities
bequeathed for their use by members of the Company or others,
particulars of which are furnished to them on admission to the
freedom.
2. Liverymen form the court and receive fees for their attendance on
courts and committees for transacting the business of the Company
and the charities. The amount of fees paid to members of the Company
for their attendances at courts and committees during the last ten
years averages £735 for each year. No fees are paid out of the trust
estates.
3. The master and wardens have no privileges beyond the other
liverymen, and no liveryman receives any money from the charities.
ST. KATHERINE COLEMAN
St. Katherine Coleman stands on the south side of Fenchurch Street,
farther east. Its second name is derived from its proximity to a
garden, anciently called “Coleman’s Haw.” In 1489 Sir William White,
Draper and Lord Mayor, enlarged the church; it was further enlarged
in 1620 and a vestry built in 1624. It escaped the Great Fire of
1666, but by the subsequent elevation of Fenchurch Street its
foundations were buried. In 1734 the building was pulled down and
the present one erected from the designs of an architect named
Horne. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1346.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Dean and Canons
of St. Martin’s-le-Grand since 1346, then the Abbot and Convent of
Westminster, 1509; Thomas, Bishop of Westminster, by grant of Henry
VIII., January 20, 1540-41; Bishop of London by grant of Edward VI.
in 1550, confirmed by Queen Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose
successors it continued. The present building is of brick, with
stone dressings. The tower rises at the west.
Sir Henry Billingsley, Lord Mayor of London, was buried here in
1606. A few monuments are recorded by Strype, but the individuals
commemorated are of little note. The finest monument still preserved
is that to Lady Heigham (d. 1634), wife of Richard Heigham,
gentleman pensioner to King Charles I.
Sir H. Billingsley left £200 for the poor at his death, but his
heirs did not carry out his instructions. Jacob Lucy was donor of
£100; Thomas Papillon of £61. Other names also were recorded on the
Table of Benefactors erected in 1681. There was a workhouse
belonging to the parish.
=St. Gabriel, Fenchurch=, was situated in the middle of Fenchurch
Street between Rood Lane and Mincing Lane. It was burnt down by the
Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to St. Margaret
Pattens by Act of Parliament. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1321.
The patronage of this church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Holy Trinity, 1321-1519; the Crown from 1540 up to 1666,
when the church was burnt down and the parish annexed to St.
Margaret Pattens.
Houseling people in 1548 were 200.
For Rood Lane, Mincing Lane, and the other streets south of Fenchurch
Street leading to Thames Street, see Group V.
=Billiter Street=, not, as Stow says, from its first owner Belzetter,
but from being the quarter in which stood the Bell Founders. Agnes,
sister of Thomas à Becket, had land in Bellzetter Lane, parish of St.
Michael, Aldgate. The lane is mentioned in the _Calendar of Wills_ in
1298, and on many occasions afterwards. Strype, in 1720, calls it a lane
of very ordinary account, the houses being very old and of timber (the
place escaped the Fire), the inhabitants being “inconsiderable, as small
brokers, chandlers, and the like.” But the chief “ornament” of this
place was Billiter Square, which was then newly built with good brick
houses “well inhabited.”
=Lime Street= runs between Fenchurch and Leadenhall Streets.
In 1576 a passage was constructed at the north-east corner of this
street; in the necessary excavation was discovered what Stow calls a
“hearth” made of Roman tiles, every tile half a yard square and two
inches thick. It was six feet under ground, corresponding in depth with
Roman remains found on Cornhill. The passage was duly set up and was
standing.
The name of the street occurs in the _Calendar of Wills_ for the year
1298. We are now approaching that imaginary belt of the City lying
between the markets and Thames Street, in which the merchants and the
nobles mostly had their houses. Stow enumerates a long list of the great
houses in Lime Street:
“In Lime Street are divers fair houses for merchants and others; there
was sometimes a mansion-house of the kings, called the King’s Artirce,
whereof I find record in the 14th of Edward I., but now grown out of
knowledge. I read also of another great house in the west side of Lime
Street, having a chapel on the south and a garden on the west, then
belonging to the Lord Nevill, which garden is now called the Green yard
of the Leaden hall. This house, in the 9th of Richard II., pertained to
Sir Simon Burley, and Sir John Burley his brother; and of late the said
house was taken down, and the forefront thereof new built of timber by
Hugh Offley, alderman. At the north-west corner of Lime Street was of
old time one great messuage called Benbrige’s inn; Ralph Holland,
draper, about the year 1452 gave it to John Gill, master, and to the
wardens and fraternity of tailors and linen-armourers of St. John
Baptist in London, and to their successors for ever. They did set up in
place thereof a fair large frame of timber, containing in the high
street one great house, and before it to the corner of Lime Street three
other tenements, the corner house being the largest, and then down Lime
Street divers proper tenements; all which the merchant-tailors, in the
reign of Edward VI., sold to Stephen Kirton, merchant-tailor and
alderman: he gave, with his daughter Grisild, to Nicholas Woodroffe the
said great house, with two tenements before it, in lieu of a hundred
pounds, and made it up in money £366 : 13 : 4. This worshipful man, and
the gentlewoman his widow after him, kept those houses down Lime Street
in good reparations, never put out but one tenant, took no fines, nor
raised rents of them, which was ten shillings the piece yearly: but
whether that favour did overlive her funeral, the tenants now can best
declare the contrary.
“Next unto this, on the high street, was the Lord Sowche’s messuage or
tenement, and other; in place whereof, Richard Wethell, merchant-tailor,
built a fair house, with a high tower, the second in number, and first
of timber, that ever I learnt to have been built to overlook neighbours
in this city.
“This Richard, then a young man, became in a short time so tormented
with gouts in his joints, of the hands and legs, that he could neither
feed himself nor go further than he was led; much less was he able to
climb and take the pleasure of the height of his tower. Then is there
another fair house, built by Stephen Kirton, alderman; Alderman Lee did
then possess it, and again new buildeth it; but now it is in the custody
of Sir William Craven.
“Then is there a fair house of old time called the Green gate; by which
name one Michael Pistoy, a Lumbard held it, with a tenement and nine
shops in the reign of Richard II., who in the 15th of his reign gave it
to Roger Corphull, and Thomas Bromester, esquires, by the name of the
Green Gate, in the parish of St. Andrew upon Cornhill, in Lime Street
ward; since the which time Philip Malpas, sometime alderman, and one of
the sheriffs, dwelt therein, and was there robbed and spoiled of his
goods to a great value by Jack Cade, and other rebels, in the year 1449.
“Afterwards, in the reign of Henry VII., it was seised into the King’s
hands, and then granted, first, unto John Alston, after that unto
William de la Rivers, and since by Henry VIII. to John Mutas, a Picarde
or Frenchman, who dwelt there, and harboured in his house many
Frenchmen, that kalendred wolsteds, and did other things contrary to the
franchises of the citizens; wherefore on evil May-day, which was in the
year 1517, the apprentices and others spoiled his house; and if they
could have found Mutas, they would have stricken off his head. Sir Peter
Mutas, son to the said John Mutas, sold this house to David Woodroffe,
alderman, whose son, Sir Nicholas Woodroffe, alderman, sold it over to
John Moore, alderman, that then possessed it.
“Next is a house called the Leaden porch, lately divided into two
tenements; whereof one is a tavern, and then one other house for a
merchant, likewise called the leaden Porch, but now turned to a cook’s
house. Next is a fair house and a large, wherein divers mayoralties have
been kept, whereof twain in my remembrance; to wit, Sir William Bowyer
and Sir Henry Huberthorne” (Stow’s _Survey_, pp. 162-163).
In modern Lime Street the first thing that attracts attention is an old
iron gateway leading to a little paved yard where once stood St. Dionis
Backchurch. Laid in a horizontal row are nine tombstones, on which one
can look down. A steep flight of stone steps leads up to the parish
offices, and the backs of business houses surround the court. At No. 15
is the Pewterers’ Hall.
THE PEWTERERS COMPANY
The earliest information respecting the Company is found in the
records of the City of London, 22 Edward III., A.D. 1348, when the
mayor and aldermen are prayed by the good folk of the trade to hear
the state and points of the trade, to provide redress and amendment
of the defaults thereof for the common profit, and to ordain two or
three of the trade to oversee the alloys and workmanship.
In the year 1443 (22 Henry VI.), in consequence of the complaints of
“the multitude of tin which was untrue and deceyvable brought to the
City, the defaults not being perceptible until it comes to the
melting,” the mayor and aldermen granted to the Company the right to
search and assay all the tin which was brought into the City of
London.
Edward IV. (1473-74) incorporated the Company by royal charter.
This power was recognised and confirmed by charters granted
successively by Henry VIII., Philip and Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James
I., and Queen Anne.
An Act of Parliament confirming the Company’s powers to search for
bad wares was passed in 1503-1504, 19 Henry VII. c. 6., confirmed by
other Acts, 4 Henry VIII. c. 7., 1512-13; 25 Henry VIII. c. 9.,
1533-34; and a statute 33 Henry VIII. c. 4., 1541-42, prohibited the
hawking of pewter.
The maintenance of the good faith of the trade appears to have been
one of the primary considerations in the proceedings of the Company.
In 1555 it was resolved that any member buying metal of tylors,
labourers, boys, women, or suspected persons, or between six at
night and six in the morning, if the metal should prove to have been
stolen, should not only be dismissed the Company, but stand to such
punishment as the Lord Mayor and aldermen might direct.
The Company appear to have furnished a certain number of men with
arms for the defence of the City, and to have kept at the Hall
equipments for them—calyvers, corslets, bills, pikes, etc.—and to
have appointed an armourer to preserve them in good condition.
The Company used to cast into bars such tin as was to be transported
out of the realm, whereby the poor of the Company were wont to
provide for part of their living; but after these bars were made by
strangers beyond the sea, the poor were greatly “hindered.” A
petition was presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1594, and after a delay
of four years Letters Patent were granted to the Company, giving
permission for a small charge to be made on the smelting and casting
of bars of tin.
The fellowship of the craft and mystery of Pewterers of London and
elsewhere represented, before Henry VIII.’s reign, one of the best
handicrafts within the realm.
The master and wardens appear at the commencement of the seventeenth
century to have exercised the right to nominate the casters of tin
in London, and the Company received a small royalty on the casting,
which was distributed to the poor of the Company. They also appear
to have had from the Council of the Revenue of the Prince of Wales
an allotment of certain proportions of the tin produced in Cornwall,
and to have derived some profit from the privilege. In fact, the
pewter trade in London was supplied with tin from Cornwall through
the Company, and frequent disputations are recorded between the
Company and the Prince’s Council as to the rate, which was sometimes
said to be so high that the poor of the Company could not live
thereby.
At a later period the Company, in order to prevent the public from
imposition, and to sustain the credit of the pewterers’ trade,
appointed the standard assays of the various wares and the weight of
metal for each article.
The Hall stands upon a piece of ground presented to the Company by
W. Smallwood, Master, 1487. The first building was destroyed in the
Great Fire and the present one is that which replaced it.
The Company now have a livery of 103; a Corporate Income of £5400;
and a Trust Income of £233.
The Ordinances of the Pewterers were submitted to the mayor and
aldermen in 1348. They may be found in Riley (_Memorials_, 241).
They contain clauses similar to those in the ordinances of other
trades, including the power of appointing overseers of their own
body. Two years later we find a Pewterer named John de Hiltone
brought before the mayor on the charge of making “false”
salt-cellars and “potels.” The “false” vessels were forfeited. The
use of pewter for domestic purposes was universal. Dishes, plates,
basins, drinking cups, measures were all made of pewter. There are
luncheon-rooms in the City at the present day where steaks and chops
are served on pewter: at Lincoln’s Inn the dishes are still of
pewter; in the last century children and servants took their meals
off pewter. These facts explain the flourishing condition of the
Company and its large income.
* * * * *
=St. Dionis Backchurch= was situated at the south-west corner of
Lime Street behind Fenchurch Street, from which position it probably
derived its name of Backchurch. It was burnt down by the Great Fire,
and rebuilt by Wren in 1674, and the steeple added in 1684. In 1878
this building was pulled down by an Order in Council. Part of the
money obtained from the site was given to the foundation of a new
church of St. Dionis at Parsons Green erected in 1885. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1288.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: In 1248, the Prior
and Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury; then the Dean and Chapter
of Canterbury 1552, in whose successors it continued up to 1878,
when the church was demolished and the parish annexed to Allhallows,
Lombard Street.
Houseling people in 1548 were 405.
Chantries were founded here: By John Carby, Alderman of London,
whose endowment fetched £13 in 1548, when James Servaunt was priest;
by Maude Bromeholme, whose endowment yielded £5 : 7 : 4 in 1548; by
John Wrotham, whose endowment was £15 : 7 : 4, when Nicholas
Metcalfe was chaplain.
The church originally contained a considerable number of monuments,
the most notable of which were in memory of John Hewet of the
Clothworkers Company and benefactor of the parish; Sir Robert
Jeffreys, Knt., Alderman and Lord Mayor of the City, who died in
1703; and Edward Tyson, M.D.
Some of the donors of charitable gifts were: Dame Elizabeth Clark,
£30; Robert Williams, £25, towards a bell; James Church, £10. Many
others gave various fittings for the church.
Lionel Gatford (d. 1665); Archdeacon of St. Alban’s, was rector
here; also Nathanial Hardy (1618-1670), Dean of Rochester.
[Illustration:
A REMARKABLE OLD HOUSE IN LEADENHALL STREET
From a drawing by S. Rawle. Published January 1801.
]
=Leadenhall Street= was so named after the Leadenhall, _i.e._ the hall
covered with lead, which stood at the corner of that street and
Gracechurch Street. An early reference to the place is found in the
_Calendar of Wills_ in the year 1296, when certain “rents near la
Ledenhalle in Gracechurch Street” are mentioned. The next reference does
not occur till the year 1369. But in Riley’s _Memorials_, we are told
that on the eve of St. John the Baptist, June 24, the mayor delivered to
the chamberlain “one silver mark arising from a certain small garden
annexed to Leden Hall, which mark was taken ... for completing the
pavement belonging to the Court of Leaden Hall.” Riley gives a very
brief history of the place:
“At the beginning of the 14th century, it was occasionally used as a
Court of Justice; see the MS. _Liber de Antiqu. Legibus_, at Guildhall,
fol. 61. In October, 1326, after the flight of Edward II., the Commons
of London met there, when making terms with the Constable of the Tower”
(Riley, _Memorials_, p. 138).
Stow gives a long account of the various hands through which the _manor_
of Leadenhall passed, confusing the hall with the manor on which it was
built. In the year 1411, according to Stow, the manor came into
possession of the City.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Thos. H. Shepherd._
LEADENHALL STREET
]
“Then in the year 1443, the 21st of Henry VI., John Hatherley, mayor,
purchased licence of the said king to take up two hundred fodder of
lead, for the building of water conduits, a common granary, and the
cross in West Chepe, more richly, for the honour of the City. In the
year next following, the parson and parish of St. Dunstan, in the east
of London, seeing the famous and mighty man (for the words be in the
grant, _nobilis et potens vir_), Simon Eyre, citizen of London, among
other his works of piety, effectually determined to erect and build a
certain granary upon the soil of the same city at Leadenhall, of his own
charges, for the common utility of the said city, to the amplifying and
enlarging of the said granary, granted to Henry Frowicke, then mayor,
the aldermen and commonalty, and their successors for ever, all their
tenements, with the appurtenances, sometime called the Horsemill, in
Grasse Street, for the annual rent of four pounds, etc. Also, certain
evidences of an alley and tenements pertaining to the Horsemill
adjoining to the said Leaden hall in Grasse Street, given by William
Kingstone, fishmonger, unto the parish church of St. Peter upon
Cornehill, do specify the said granary to be built by the said
honourable and famous merchant, Simon Eyre, sometime an upholsterer, and
then a draper, in the year 1419. He built it of squared stone, in form
as now it showeth, with a fair and large chapel in the east side of the
quadrant, over the porch of which he caused to be written, _Dextra
Domini exaltavit me_ (The Lord’s right hand exalted me). Within the said
church on the north wall, was written, _Honorandus famosus mercator
Simon Eyre hujus operis_, etc. In English thus: ‘The honourable and
famous merchant, Simon Eyre, founder of this work, once mayor of this
City, citizen and draper of the same, departed out of this life, the
18th day of September, the year from the incarnation of Christ 1459, and
the 38th year of the reign of King Henry VI.’” (Stow’s _Survey_, p.
162).
Before the middle of the fourteenth century Leadenhall had become a
market for poultry. In 1345 it was ordered that strange folk, _i.e._
people from outside the City, bringing poultry for sale should no longer
hawk it about from house to house, but should take it to the Leaden
Hall, and should there sell it, and nowhere else. Also that citizens who
sell poultry should offer it on the west side of the Tun of Cornhill
(Riley, pp. 220, 221).
The market was not, however, confined to the sale of poultry, as is
proved by the following request of the commons of the City, in the year
1503:
“Please it, the lord mayor, aldermen and common council, to enact, that
all Frenchmen bringing canvass, linen cloth, and other wares to be sold,
and all foreigners bringing wolsteds, sayes, Stamins, Kiverings, nails,
iron work, or any other wares, and also all manner of foreigners
bringing lead to the city to be sold, shall bring all such their wares
aforesaid to the open market of the Leaden Hall, there and no where else
to be sold and uttered, like as of old time it hath been used, upon pain
of forfeiture of all the said wares showed or sold in any other place
than aforesaid; the show of the said wares to be made three days in the
week, that is to say, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; it is also thought
reasonable that the common beam be kept henceforth in the Leaden Hall,
and the farmer to pay therefore reasonable rent to the chamber; for
better it is that the chamber have advantage thereby than a foreign
person; and also the said Leaden Hall, which is more chargeable now by
half than profitable, shall better bear out the charges thereof; also
the common beam for wool at Leaden Hall, may yearly pay a rent to the
chamber of London, toward supportation and charges of the same place;
for reason it is, that a common office, occupied upon a common ground,
bear a charge to the use of the commonalty; also, that foreigners
bringing wools, felts, or any other merchandises or wares to Leaden
Hall, to be kept there for the sale and market, may pay more largely for
the keeping of their goods than free men” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 164).
[Illustration:
SKIN MARKET, LEADENHALL, 1825
]
A granary was kept at Leaden Hall, the use of which depended entirely on
the forethought of the mayor. Thus, in 1512, Roger Acheley, the mayor,
found that there were not one hundred quarters of wheat in all the
garners of the City. He took immediate steps, and not only imported
wheat for present necessities, but also filled the granaries of the
City. Stow adds a note as to the activity of the mayor: “He kept the
market so well, that he would be at the Leaden Hall by four o’clock in
the summer mornings; and thence he went to other markets, to the great
comfort of the citizens.”
In 1529 a petition was presented by the Commons to the Common Council on
the uses to which Leaden Hall might be put. It should not be let out to
farm to any person or to any Company incorporate for any time of years,
and they proceeded to give their reasons.
About the year 1534 an effort was made to convert Leadenhall into a
Burse. This failed, and the Burse continued to be held in Lombard Street
until the building of the Royal Exchange. This is interesting, because
it shows that Gresham was not alone in desiring to have a convenient
building for the meeting of the merchants.
“The use of Leaden Hall in my youth (says Stow) was thus:—In a part of
the north quadrant, on the east side of the north gate, were the common
beams for weighing of wool and other wares, as had been accustomed; on
the west side of the gate were the scales to weigh meal; the other three
sides were reserved for the most part to the making and resting of the
pageants showed at Midsummer in the watch; the remnant of the sides and
quadrants was employed for the stowage of wool sacks, but not closed up;
the lofts above were partly used by the painters in working for the
decking of pageants and other devices, for beautifying of the watch and
watch-men; the residue of the lofts were letten out to merchants, the
wool winders and packers therein to wind and pack their wools” (p. 166).
The market in 1754 is thus described by Strype:
“Leadenhall is a very large building of Free-stone, containing within it
three large Courts or Yards, all encompassed with buildings, wherein is
kept a market, one of the greatest, the best, and the most general for
all provisions in the City of London, nay of the Kingdom; and, if I
should say of all Europe, I should not give it too great a praise. The
building hath flat battlements leaded at the top; and, for the
conveniency of People’s coming to this great market, which is kept every
day of the week, except Sundays, for one thing or the other, besides the
principal entrance out of Leadenhall Street, there are two or three
others, one out of Lime Street, and the rest out of Gracechurch Street.
“Of the three Courts or Yards that it consists of, the first is that at
the north-east corner of Gracechurch Street, and opens into Leadenhall
Street; this court or yard contains, in length, from north to south, one
hundred and sixty-four feet, and, in breadth, from east to west, eighty
feet; within this court or yard, round about the same, are about one
hundred standing stalls for butchers for the selling only of beef, and
therefore this court is called the Beef Market, many of which stalls are
eight, ten, or twelve feet long, and four, five, or six feet broad, with
racks, hooks, blocks, and all other conveniences for the sale of their
meat: All which stalls are either under warehouses above head, or
sheltered from the weather by roofs over them. This yard is, on
Tuesdays, a market for leather, to which the tanners do resort. On
Thursdays the waggons from Colchester, and other parts, come with Baiz,
etc., and also the Felmongers with their wool; and on Fridays it is a
market for raw hides, besides Saturdays for Beef, as also other
provisions.
“The second market-yard is called the Green yard, as being once a green
Plat of Ground. Afterwards it was the City’s Store-yard for Materials
for building, and the like, but now a market only for veal, mutton,
lamb, etc. This yard is one hundred and seventy feet in length, from
east to west, and ninety feet broad from north to south: It hath in it
one hundred and forty stalls for the butchers, all covered over, and of
the bigness of those in the beef-market. In the middle of this Green
yard Market, north to south, is a row of shops, with kitchens, or rooms
over them, for fishmongers; and, also, on the south side and west end,
are houses and shops also for fishmongers. Towards the east end of this
yard is erected a fair market-house, standing upon columns, with vaults
underneath, and rooms above, with a bell-tower and a clock, and under it
are butchers’ stalls. The tenements round about this yard are, for the
most part, inhabited by cooks, victuallers, and such-like; and, in the
passages leading out of the streets, into this market, are fishmongers,
poulterers, cheesemongers, and such-like traders for provision.
“The third market belonging to Leadenhall is called the Herb Market, for
that herbs, roots, fruits, etc., are only there sold. This market is
about one hundred and forty feet square; the west, east, and south sides
have walks round them, covered over for shelter, and standing upon
columns; in which walks there are twenty-eight stalls for gardeners,
with cellars under them. There is also, in this yard, one range of
stalls covered over for such as sell tripe, neats-feet, sheeps-trotters,
etc., and, on the south side, the tenements are taken up by Victuallers,
Cheesemongers, Butchers, Poulterers, and such-like.
“The rooms in the stone building about the beef-market, which is
properly Leadenhall, are employed for several uses, as the west side was
wholly used for the stowage of wares belonging to the East-India
Company; on the east side is the meal-warehouse and the Wool-hall; on
the south end is the Colchester Baiz-hall, and at the north end is the
warehouse for the sealing of leather.
“The general conflagration of this city, in 1666, terminated in that
part of the City near adjoining to this hall; all the houses about it,
and within the yards belonging to it, being destroyed, there did, of
this fabric, only remain the stonework; since which, the Courts and
yards belonging to this building, and some other adjacent grounds
purchased by the City, are wholly converted into a market for the City’s
use; the place for the reception of Country butchers, and others who
brought provisions before to the City, being then only in Leadenhall
Street, between Gracechurch Street and Lime Street, which was very
incommodious to the market people, as well as to the passengers.”
[Illustration:
LEADENHALL CHAPEL IN 1812
]
=Leadenhall Market= is in four rays of varying lengths; the longest is
about 80 feet, the shortest about 30. These are covered in by a wide
arched roof of glass, supported by girders, and are about 30 feet wide.
At each entrance there is a similar design. On either side a couple of
massive fluted columns are surmounted by griffins, which support the
arch. These are decorated with gilt. Over the entry is an arch of great
height, with a stone relief, and on the frieze below the words
“Leadenhall Market.” The market was built in 1881, designed by Sir
Horace Jones, and is occupied to a very great extent by poulterers and
butchers. There are roughly about fifty holdings and two taverns, the
Lamb and the Half Moon.
There was a chapel in the market, to which was attached a Fraternity of
the Trinity of sixty priests, with other brethren and sisters, in which
service was celebrated every day.
The chapel was taken down in 1812 (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p.
373).
In Leadenhall Street have been found Roman remains, a pavement, pottery,
etc.
A crypt existed under the house 153 Leadenhall Street until 1896, when
it was destroyed.
[Illustration:
CRYPT IN LEADENHALL STREET, 1825
]
“Under the corner house of Leadenhall and Bishopsgate Streets, and two
houses on the east, and one on the north, side thereof, was situate a
very ancient church of Gothic construction, the principal part of which
is still remaining under the said corner house, and two adjoining in
Leadenhall Street; but part of the north aisle beneath the house
contiguous in Bishopsgate Street, was lately obliged to make way to
enlarge the cellar. When or by whom this old church was founded I cannot
learn, it not being so much as mentioned by any of our historians or
surveyors of London that I can discover.
“Some other ancient architectural remains, perhaps originally connected
with the former, were also found under the houses extending up the
eastern site of Bishopsgate Street. The description of their situation,
given by Maitland, fixes their locality to the side of the very house at
which the fire of 1765 commenced; and which appears to have continued
until that time in the same kind of occupation as it was when the
ensuing account of these ruins was written. ‘At the distance of 12 feet
from this church,’—namely the remains already noticed at the north-east
corner of Leadenhall Street—‘is to be seen, under the house at the late
Mr. Macadam’s, a peruke-maker in Bishopsgate Street, a stone building of
the length of 30 feet, breadth of 14, and altitude of 8 feet 6 inches
above the present floor; with a door in the north-side, and a window at
the east end, as there probably was one in the west. It is covered with
a semi-circular arch, built with small piers of chalk in the form of
bricks, and ribbed with stone, resembling those of the arches of a
bridge. What this edifice at first was appropriated to is very
uncertain; though, by the manner of its construction, it seems to have
been a chapel; but the ground having been since raised on all sides, it
was probably converted into a subterraneous repository for merchandise;
for a pair of stone stairs, with a descending arch over them, seems to
have been erected since the fabric was built’” (Wilkinson, _Londina
Illustrata_).
The most important house in the street next to the Leadenhall itself was
the East India House, which stood near to the Hall. The Company first
met, according to tradition, at the Nag’s Head Tavern, Bishopsgate; they
then had a house in Leadenhall Street; they took on lease in
1701—perhaps it was their first house—Sir William Craven’s large house
in Leadenhall Street, with a tenement in Lime Street. This is probably
the house pictured in a print in the British Museum.
In 1726 the “Old” East India House was built, of which several parts
were retained in the new buildings of 1799.
Hardly any part of the City, unless it be the south of Cornhill, is so
honeycombed with courts and passages as the quarter upon which we are
now engaged. For the most part they are not distinguished by any
historical associations. Some of them formerly contained taverns and
inns. The courts are greatly diminished in size; some of them were
narrow lanes with houses standing face to face, a few feet apart; some
of them formerly contained gentlemen’s houses. Why were these houses
built in a court? The explanation is easy. The town-house of noble or
merchant was built like a college: a gateway with a chamber over it in
front, rooms beside the gate in case of a nobleman with a retinue; in
other cases a wall enclosing a garden in a square, on either side rooms,
at the back the Hall and what we call reception rooms, with the private
rooms of the family. When land became more valuable the rooms beside the
gateway became shops, then there was building at the back of the shops,
the sides became contracted, and there were left at last only the court,
the gateway, and the house beyond. There are several places in the City
where this history of a house may be traced, the modern offices being
built on the site of the old foundation, the gateway having disappeared,
and the court still remaining.
“Anno 1136. A very great fire happened in the City, which began in the
house of one Ailward, near London Stone, and consumed all the way east
to Aldgate, and west to St. Erkenwald’s shrine in St. Paul’s Cathedral,
both which it destroyed, together with London Bridge, which was then
constructed of wood.
“It is reasonable to conjecture, that the accumulation of ruins these
extensive fires occasioned left the distressed inhabitants little choice
in their determination; and as it would have caused infinite trouble and
inconvenience to have cleared and removed the same, they wisely
preferred sacrificing a few (to them) useless buildings, raised and
levelled the ground, and began a foundation for new dwellings on the
site of the roofs of some of their remaining habitations. The amazing
descent to the banks of the Thames from several parts of the City
confirms the opinion that most of the buildings denominated crypts,
oratories, or undercrofts, were, in their pristine states, level in
their foundations with the dwelling-places of their original builders.
What greatly adds to the probability is the circumstance of our being
informed that near Belzeter’s Lane (Billiter Lane) and Lime Street,
three new houses being to be built, in the year 1590, in a place where
was a large garden plot enclosed from the street by a high brick wall,
upon taking down the said wall and digging for cellarage, another wall
of stone was found directly under the brick wall with an arched gateway
of stone, and gates of timber to be closed in the midst towards the
street. The timber of the gates was consumed, but the hinges of iron
were then remaining on their staples on both sides: moreover, in that
wall were square windows with bars of iron on each side this gate. The
wall was above two fathoms deep under the ground, supposed to be the
remains of those great fires before mentioned. Again, we learn, on the
east side of Lime Street opening into Fenchurch Street, on that site,
after the fire of 1666, Sir Thomas Cullum built thirty houses, and that
a short time previous to 1757, the cellar of one of the houses giving
way, there was discovered an arched room, ten feet square and eight feet
deep, with several arched doors round it stopped up with earth”
(Wilkinson, _Londina Illustrata_, vol. ii. p. 43).
In 1660 the mayor, Sir Thomas Allen, resided in Leadenhall Street and
entertained Monk. At the corner of St. Mary Axe stood, in the fifteenth
century, the town-house of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford.
Gibbon’s great-grandfather, one of the last of the younger sons of
county families who came to London and went into trade, had his shop as
a draper in Leadenhall Street.
In this street Peter Anthony Motteux, translator of _Don Quixote_, kept
an “East India” shop. He was a Huguenot, and could speak and understand
many languages. He was also employed as a linguist at the Post Office.
In addition to his shop and his office, he worked as a poet and man of
letters generally; being the author of plays, prologues, and epilogues.
He is best known by his completion of Urquhart’s _Translation of
Rabelais_. He was a loose liver, and died in a disorderly house in St.
Clement Danes. Like the lady of Père la Chaise, “Resigned unto the
Heavenly Will, His wife kept on the business still.”
ST. KATHERINE CREE
St. Katherine Cree, in Leadenhall Street, is on the site of the
cemetery of the Priory of Holy Trinity, whence it derives its name
Creechurch or Christchurch. This priory is said to have been built
in the same place where Siredus sometime began to erect a church in
honour of the Cross and of St. Mary Magdalen. This ancient church
contributed thirty shillings to the Dean and Chapter of Waltham. The
abbey church here is also dedicated to the Holy Cross, and when
Matilda founded Christ Church or Trinity she gave to the Church of
Waltham a mill instead of this payment. But little is known of the
building of Siredus; but Matilda’s Priory is said to have occupied
parts of the parishes of St. Mary Magdalen, St. Michael, St.
Katherine, and the Blessed Trinity, which now was made but one
parish of the Holy Trinity, and was in old time of the Holy Cross or
Holy Rood parish. At this time, therefore (1108), the old parish of
the Holy Rood had disappeared, and four parishes appear on its site.
In the perambulation of the old soke of the Priory we find the
parishes of Coleman Church (St. Katherine), St. Michael, St. Andrew
(Undershaft), and of the Trinity (now St. James’s, Duke’s Place),
but St. Mary Magdalen and Holy Rood are not mentioned. This loss of
St. Mary Magdalen is not easily explained. Could the Church of St.
Andrew have been dedicated formerly to St. Mary Magdalen? Such
changes in dedication are known, and, even in this ward or soke,
Stow tells us that St. Katherine Coleman was called St. Katherine
and All Saints.
This would make up all the parishes which are given at the several
periods in this locality. The existence of St. Katherine Coleman and
St. Katherine Cree as two distinct parishes adjoining is remarkable.
The parish of St. Katherine Coleman belonged to the ancient
establishment of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and so remained until the
Dissolution. Was it a part of this parish which was taken into the
precinct of the Trinity? The inhabitants of the enclosed parish of
Cree Church at first used the Priory church, but it was agreed
afterwards that they should have a church erected, and use the
Priory church only at certain times. This would be what we might
expect of a part of a parish detached at the establishment of the
Priory, but which desired to be released from the control of the
prior, and to be a parish of itself, with its own church. We must
not confound the parish of St. Mary Magdalen with a small parish of
St. Mary the Virgin, St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. This was on
the west side of St. Mary Axe, and belonged to the Priory of St.
Helen. The church was destroyed, and the parish united, by Edmund
Grindal, Bishop of London, to St. Andrew, Undershaft, in the year
1561.
The parishioners had been allowed to worship at an altar in the
Priory church, but this being inconvenient, St. Katherine’s was
built through the agency of Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London,
1280-1303. It was rebuilt in 1628-1630, possibly after the design of
Inigo Jones. The steeple, which was built in the early sixteenth
century, is still standing. The church was consecrated by Laud in
1631. In 1874 the parish of St. James’s, Duke’s Place, was annexed.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1436.
The patronage of which was in the hands of the Prior and Canons of
Holy Trinity, London. Henry VIII. seized it in 1540, and soon after
granted it to Sir Thomas Audley, who gave it, by his will dated
April 19, 1544, to the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College,
Cambridge, in whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 542.
The church is a mixture of the Gothic and classical styles. It
contains two narrow aisles separated from the nave by Corinthian
columns and round arches, above which is a clerestory. The roof is
groined, and the arms of the City and several City Companies are
displayed on it. The building is 94 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 37
feet high. It is larger than the original church, of which the sole
relic now existing is a pillar at the south-west, less than three
feet above ground, owing to the higher level of the new church. The
stone steeple rises at the west and consists of a tower surmounted
by a Tuscan colonnade with a cupola and vane; its total height is 75
feet.
A chantry was founded here at the Altar of St. Michael.
The church is not rich in historical monuments. It contains,
however, the tomb of Nicholas Throckmorton, Chief Butler of England
and intimate friend of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Elizabeth.
Tradition said that Hans Holbein was buried here, but there is no
evidence for it except that he died in the vicinity.
There is a brass in the floor in front of the communion table,
commemorating Sir John Gayer, Lord Mayor in 1646 and staunch
adherent of Charles I., for which he suffered imprisonment.
At the west end there is a bas-relief to Samuel Thorpe (died 1791):
this is only interesting as being the work of the elder Bacon.
Sir John Gayer bequeathed £200 for charitable purposes, amongst them
a fee for a sermon to be preached on October 16 annually, and though
the charity is now diverted, yet the “Lion sermon,” in commemoration
of the donor’s delivery from a lion in Arabia, is still kept up.
There was a charity school at the end of Cree Church Lane, in which
forty boys were clothed and taught, by subscriptions from the
inhabitants of the ward.
Roger Maynwaring (1590-1653), Bishop of St. David’s, was a perpetual
curate here; also Nicholas Brady (1659-1726), joint author of Tate
and Brady’s version of the Psalter.
The north of Leadenhall Street between St. Katherine Cree and Aldgate,
from the year 1130 and the suppression of the Religious Houses, was
covered with the buildings of the Priory of the Holy Trinity already
described (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 241).
The buildings of the Priory were given by the King to Sir Thomas Audley
in 1531 after the surrender.
The Earl of Suffolk, son of the Duke who was beheaded in 1572, sold the
house and precinct to the City of London, and built Audley End in Essex.
The City seems to have pulled down the mansion and laid out the grounds
in streets and courts. The disposition of these seems to preserve, to a
certain extent, that of the old Priory.
When the people began to settle in the precinct, they found themselves,
although so close to St. Katherine Cree, without a parish church. They
therefore petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, who obtained
permission of the King to build a new church here, and to erect a new
parish. The church was finished and dedicated to St. James in 1622. The
memory of the consecration is described at length by Strype. This
quarter was assigned to the Jews by Oliver Cromwell in 1650. Here is the
Great Synagogue of the German Jews.
St. James’s was one of the most notorious of the many places for
irregular marriages, those without licence, because as standing in the
ancient precinct of the Priory it was without the jurisdiction of the
bishop.
=St. James’s, Duke’s Place=, escaped the Great Fire of 1666.
In 1873 the church was pulled down and its parish united with that
of St. Katherine Cree Church. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1622.
This church was in the gift of the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of
London from 1622.
Few monuments, and none of much note, are recorded by Stow. Booker,
an astrologer, was commemorated by a stone inscription.
Sir Edward Barkham is the only benefactor whose name is recorded by
Stow.
The modern Leadenhall Street is at the west end full of fine,
well-executed Chambers. Of these, New Zealand Chambers are the most
noticeable. The building is by R. Norman Shaw in the pseudo-ancient
style. It was erected in 1872, and is carried out in red brick. The
bayed windows on either side of the entrance are placed in wide recesses
which run right up the frontage. Africa House is in a commonplace style,
but has rather good stone panels on the front. On the north Leadenhall
House is solidly faced in granite, with granite columns on the frontage.
West India House is neatly built in white stone.
Farther eastward the street is singularly dull; it is lined at first by
dreary blocks of imitation stone buildings. These are succeeded by brick
buildings all turned out of the same mould. The north side is better
than the south, and is chiefly made up of solid, well-built houses on
various designs.
At No. 153 the ground-floor is occupied by a bric-à-brac shop. Below the
parapet there is a curious triangular pediment let into the brickwork.
This encloses a round stone with an inscription on it, of which the
first word seems to be “incendio”; on either side is a small shelf.
The London Joint Stock Bank is a few doors off. No. 140, an Aerated
Bread Shop, is fantastically built, in imitation of an old style. The
Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Company is in a stone and terra-cotta
building, with well-designed figures in slight relief in the corners of
the windows.
=Aldgate=, spelt otherwise Alegate or Algate, was probably, but not
certainly, opened and constructed by Queen Matilda, Consort of Henry I.,
who is also said to have built the bridge over the Lea at Bow. There
seems no reason for doubting the story.
On the spelling of the name Professor Skeat writes, September 18, 1897:
“It occurs to me to say that in any case of interpreting spellings, the
date of the spelling is of the greatest service. We now know the
meanings of all the vowel symbols at all dates. If we can obtain a few
early spellings of Aldgate, with approximate dates, we ought to be able
to decide it. We have to remember that _all_, in composition meant
‘wholly,’ and was adverbial as in Al-mighty, and ‘wholly gate’ gives no
sense. If ‘for all’ were intended, it would be _alra_, _aller_, or
_alder_, the genitive of plural. This is not a question of etymology but
of grammar. On the other hand, if the M.E. _Ald_ [now spelt _Old_] were
meant, I have proof that a Norman scribe would be apt to omit the _d_;
so that _Alegate_ would, in fact, be quite regular. And it would _not_
necessarily become _Oldgate_ in course of time; just as Acton, though it
means _Oaktown_, is called Acton still. This is due to what we call the
preservation of a short or shortened vowel, owing to stress.”
And again, writing on 21st September, he says:
“The list of spellings which you send me is most interesting, but it is
not easy to explain it. I can remember a time when I should have drawn
the conclusion that they are very much against connecting the word with
the Old Mercian _ald_, which we now spell _old_. But my recent
investigations tell the other way; not only were perfectly common words
persistently (but regularly) mis-spelt in Domesday and early charters,
from the time of the Conquest till about 1350, but in many instances (as
would likely be the case in official documents) such habits became
stereotyped. The early scribes were nearly all Norman, and they brought
in Norman spelling to that extent that the whole of modern English is
pervaded by it; indeed, no one who does not know the phonetic laws of
Anglo-French can explain why the word _house_ is spelt with _ou_, or the
word _build_ with _ui_.... The explanation of the spelling Ald in 1270
is probably simply this: that this particular charter (contrary to
practice) was entrusted to an English scribe. It is a simple
supposition—English spellings began to prevail in these matters in the
period from 1350-1400, and it is just here that we get two instances.
The Normans learnt Latin easily: to an English scribe it was a foreign
language. This is why the French scribes were preferred for writing
Latin documents. After 1400 such French spellings as affect the true
sound are rare; this is why, after that the E. form prevails. But we
must remember that many Englishmen do not fully pronounce the _d_ in
_Aldgate_ even now, but slur it over; and in days of phonetic spelling
such things were reproduced. I should say the evidence can only be
explained, on the _whole_, from the supposition that the English word
was _Ald_, preserved in composition instead of being turned into _old_
(as it did when standing alone); and this will explain _eald_ also, as
_eald_ is the Wessex form of _Ald_, adopted in 1598 as a mere bit of
pedantry, but at the same time showing that the belief then prevailed.
This is all I have to say about Aldgate.”
The gate was rebuilt by Norman, first Prior of Holy Trinity. The
weigh-house for weighing corn was in the gateway.
After the Fire, Aldgate was used for the prisoners who had been confined
in the Poultry Compter.
In 1374 the gate was let on lease to Geoffrey Chaucer. Here followeth
the lease itself:
“To all persons to whom this present writing indented shall come, Adam
de Bury, Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Commonalty of the City of London,
greeting. Know ye that we, with unanimous will and assent, have granted
and released by these presents unto Geoffrey Chaucer the whole of the
dwelling-house above the gate of Algate, with the rooms built over, and
a certain cellar beneath, the same gate, on the South side of that gate,
and the appurtenances thereof; to have and to hold the whole of the
house aforesaid, with the rooms so built over, and the said cellar, and
the appurtenances thereof, unto the aforesaid Geoffrey, for the whole
life of him, the said Geoffrey. And the said Geoffrey shall maintain and
repair the whole of the house aforesaid, and the rooms thereof, so often
as shall be requisite, in all things necessary thereto, competently and
sufficiently, at the expense of the same Geoffrey, throughout the whole
life of him, the same Geoffrey. And it shall be lawful for the
Chamberlain of the Guildhall of London, for the time being, so often as
he shall see fit, to enter the house and rooms aforesaid, with their
appurtenances, to see that the same are well and competently, and
sufficiently, maintained and repaired, as aforesaid. And if the said
Geoffrey shall not have maintained or repaired the aforesaid house and
rooms competently and sufficiently, as is before stated, within forty
days after the time when by the same Chamberlain he shall have been
required so to do, it shall be lawful for the said Chamberlain wholly to
oust the before-named Geoffrey therefrom, and to re-seise and resume the
same house, rooms, and cellar, with their appurtenances, into the hand
of the City, to the use of the Commonalty aforesaid; and to hold the
same in their former state to the use of the same Commonalty, without
any gainsaying whatsoever thereof. And it shall not be lawful for the
said Geoffrey to let the house, rooms, and cellar, aforesaid, or any
part thereof, or his interest therein, to any person whatsoever. And we,
the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty aforesaid, will not cause any gaol
to be made thereof, for the safekeeping of prisoners therein, during the
life of the said Geoffrey; but we and our successors will warrant the
same house, rooms, and cellar, with their appurtenances, unto the
before-named Geoffrey, for the whole life of him, the same Geoffrey, in
form aforesaid: this however excepted, that in time of defence of the
city aforesaid, so often as it shall be necessary, it shall be lawful
for us and our successors to enter the said house and rooms, and to
order and dispose of the same, for such time, and in such manner, as
shall then seem to us to be most expedient. And after the decease of the
same Geoffrey, the house, rooms, and cellar aforesaid, with their
appurtenances, shall wholly revert unto us and our successors. In
witness whereof, as well the Common Seal of the City aforesaid as the
seal of the said Geoffrey, have been to these present indentures
interchangeably appended. Given in the Chamber of the Guildhall of the
City aforesaid, the 10th day of May, in the 48th year of the reign of
King Edward, after the Conquest the Third” (Riley’s _Memorials_, pp.
377-378).
“This,” says Stow, “is one and the first of the four principal gates,
and also one of the seven double gates, mentioned by Fitzstephen. It
hath had two pair of gates, though now but one; the hooks remaineth yet.
Also there hath been two portcloses; the one of them remaineth, the
other wanteth, but the place of letting down is manifest.”
“This gate being very ruinous, was pulled down Anno 1606; when, in
digging for a new foundation, divers Roman coins were discovered, two of
which Mr. Bond, the Surveyor, caused to be cut in stone, and placed in
the east front on each side the passage. The first stone of this edifice
was laid Anno 1607, at the depth of sixteen feet, and finished Anno
1609.
“Here was only one postern, and that on the north side, for
foot-passengers; and a water-conduit at the south-east angle thereof;
but the last being disused for many years, two houses were erected in
lieu of it, in the year 1734, and a postern made on the south side of
the gate. The apartments over this gate are appropriated to the use of
one of the Lord Mayor’s Carvers, and at present are lett to the Charity
School founded by Sir John Cash” (Maitland, vol. i. pp. 22-23).
The gate was taken down in 1761.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Thos. H. Shepherd._
ALDGATE IN 1830
]
In 1291, Thomas de Alegate leaves to his wife Eleanor, his houses within
Alegate (_Calendar of Wills_). The street is often mentioned afterwards.
The ward of Aldgate in the year 1276 was called the ward of John of
Northampton, the then alderman. There was a hermitage on the south side
of the gate within a garden; the garden was let, in 1325, to one Peter a
“blader,” or corn merchant. It is not stated whether the hermitage was
then occupied. There were houses beside the gate in 1354. The Prior of
Holy Trinity, Aldgate, was alderman _ex officio_ of Portsoken Ward; in
1378 we find him sworn to fill the office “and faithfully to do all
things touching that office.”
In 1349, the _Calendar of Wills_ speaks of tenements in “Algate Street.”
Roman remains have been found in Aldgate; at the gate there was a
“Roomland”; without the gate was a great pit for the burial of those who
died of the plague. In 1315 Sir John de Sandale, leaving London on
business of the King, put the Great Seal into the custody of Sir William
de Ayremynn at his inn near Aldgate. In the same year he received at his
inn Edward de Baliol, newly returned from beyond the sea.
At the east end of the street, under a house facing the pump, was still
to be seen, until 1868, a crypt formerly supposed to have been that of
an ancient church, dedicated to St. Michael and taken down when the
Priory of the Holy Trinity was first founded.
This handsome Gothic structure, which is situated between the east end
of Leadenhall and Fenchurch Streets, under the houses fronting the pump
at Aldgate, is still remaining entire, exhibiting a most beautiful
specimen of ancient architecture.
It is shown (_L. & M. Archæological Journal_, iv. p. 223 _et seq._) that
the crypt could not have been that of St. Michael’s Church. The paper
referred to proved that the Church of St. Michael was not on that site
at all. It quotes from the _Liber Dunthorne_ the boundaries of the soke
of the monastery of the Trinity, which are very nearly the same as those
of Aldgate ward.
It concludes that it was more likely the crypt of a great house, perhaps
the ward house.
Rowland Taylor, before being burned for heresy, was taken to the
Woolpack, an inn without Aldgate, and kept there.
A curious story is told concerning the Duke of Buckingham in 1663. “When
the Duke came from Newmarket he stayed at an Inn by Aldgate. Here a
fellow told him his fortune, saying that he would die unfortunately, as
his father did, or that a similar attempt would be made upon him by the
1st of April. On the Tuesday prior to the date of the letter, the usher
of the duke’s hall went to bed about 9 at night and rose again about one
in the morning and came up at the back and private way to the duke’s
chamber where only he, his lady, and a maid were talking. The maid
opened the door at his knock and the usher rushed in with a naked sword,
at which the maid squeaking gave my lord an alarm and he turning back
snatched up a knife and by his boldness daunted the fellow so that he
got within him, became master of his sword, and by that time company
came in. The duke sent after the fortune-teller but the writer did not
know whether he had heard of him.”
Northward of Aldgate, Mitre Street leads to Mitre Square which is
surrounded by large new buildings belonging to merchants. The ward
school is reached through a rounded tunnel-like entry and proves a
pleasant surprise. In itself it is only a square old brick house without
an atom of style or ornament, but before it is a garden plot where lilac
bushes grow, and over the blackened bricks of the house and adjoining
wall climb big trees, hiding the dinginess. From here we get a view of
the old red-tiled roofs of the houses in Duke Street. In the school
there is free education, and 110 children are clothed at the expense of
the charity.
At the back of the ward school stood, until 1874, St. James’s, Duke’s
Place (see p. 165).
ST. BOTOLPH, ALDGATE
St. Botolph, Aldgate, stands at the junction of Aldgate Street and
Houndsditch, and is said to have been originally founded about the
reign of William the Conqueror. The old building remained standing
till 1741, when it was pulled down and the present one erected under
the direction of the elder Dance and completed in 1744. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1362. The patronage of the church was in the
hands of: The Prior and the Canons of Holy Trinity, London; Henry
VIII.; Robert Halywell, by grant of Elizabeth; George Puttenham,
granted by Elizabeth in the 30th year of her reign; Francis Morrice,
by James I., in the 7th year of his reign, since which time it has
been held by several private persons, but is now in the hands of the
Bishop of London. The benefice, which had been previously united
with that of St. Katherine by the Tower, was in 1899 united with
that of Holy Trinity Minories.
Houseling people in 1548 were 1530.
The present church is built of brick, with stone dressings. It
includes two side-aisles separated from the central portion by
Tuscan columns, supporting a flat ceiling. There are a great many
windows, mostly filled with stained glass. The tower stands at the
south, facing Aldgate High Street, and is surmounted by a small
spire.
Chantries were founded here: For John Romeney, at the Altar of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, to which Humphrey de Durham was admitted
chaplain, June 3, 1365; by Thomas Weston, whose endowment fetched
£5 : 6 : 8 in 1548; by Alex. Sprot and John Grace, whose endowments
yielded £22 : 15 : 8 in 1548.
The most interesting monument in this church is a tomb inscribed to
the memory of Thomas, Lord Darcy and Sir Nicholas Carew, both of
whom were concerned in the Roman Catholic plots against Henry VIII.
and beheaded on Tower Hill, the former in 1537 and the latter in
1538. The memory of Robert Dowe, the charitable Merchant Taylor, is
preserved by a monument erected by his Company, originally affixed
to a pillar in the chancel, but now removed to the east gallery.
A great number of benefactors are recorded by Stow, some of the most
notable of whom were: Robert Cockes, donor of £100; George Clarke,
donor of £200 for a public school, and other large sums for parish
purposes. The sum total of all the yearly gifts belonging to this
parish recorded, amounted to £151 : 15 : 8.
There were two charity schools, one in the Freedom having fifty boys
and forty girls, erected by Sir John Cass, alderman; the other, in
East Smithfield, having forty boys and thirty girls maintained by
subscription.
James Ardene (1636-91), D.D., Dean of Chester, 1682, was perpetual
curate here in 1666; also White Kennett (1660-1728), Bishop of
Peterborough.
St. Botolph’s Churchyard is a wide gravelled space with seats provided
by the Metropolitan Public Spaces Association. There is an altar-tomb
near the centre, and a row of flat tombstones of the usual pattern set
back against the wall of the church. There are a few plane-trees and a
row of little limes. It is a pleasant breathing space, used by the
poorest of humanity, who come here for a little rest and sleep.
=High Street, Whitechapel=, is of great width and contains some large
new brick and stone buildings. The Three Nuns Hotel, an immense
red-brick building erected in 1877, and recently added to, stands near
the station. By Crown Place, No. 23, is an old bow-windowed chop-house.
On the east the chief feature is the large number of shops or stalls
open to the street, covered by an awning or by a glass roof. These
belong chiefly to butchers, and have a characteristic aspect. The last
five or six houses before Mansell Street are all of considerable age and
very picturesque.
Returning now westward we find:
The church and parish of =St. Mary Axe=, which are mentioned in the
_Calendar of Wills_ in the thirteenth century. Stow says of it:
“In St. Marie street had ye of old time a parish church of St. Marie
the Virgin, St. Ursula and the eleven thousand Virgins, which church
was commonly called St. Marie at the Axe, of the sign of an axe,
over against the east end thereof, or St. Marie Pellipar, of a plot
of ground lying on the north side thereof, pertaining to the
Skinners in London. This parish, about the year 1565, was united to
the parish church of St. Andrew Undershaft, and so was St. Mary at
the Axe suppressed and letten out to be a warehouse for a merchant.”
Cunningham corrects this statement. The church was called St. Mary
Axe because it possessed an Axe, one of the three with which the
11,000 Virgins were beheaded.
The parish is now united with that of St. Andrew Undershaft.
ST. ANDREW UNDERSHAFT
The Church of St. Andrew Undershaft stands at the corner of St. Mary
Axe, and on the north side is the churchyard, a little space where a
few young trees grow. It derives its name from the May-day custom of
setting up a pole higher than the steeple before the south door.
This custom was discontinued after “Evil May Day” (see _Tudor
London_, p. 24). The present building, occupying the site of the
original one, of unknown date, was erected, according to Stow, in
1520, at the expense of a Sir Stephen Jennings, William
Fitzwilliams, and others. The work of restoration has been carried
on here during the last thirty years. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1361. The patronage has always been in the hands of the
Bishop of London, in whose successors it continues; he presented to
it in 1361.
The church is a late example of the Perpendicular style, consisting
of a nave and two side aisles, and surmounted by a tower, rebuilt in
1830, which is about 91 feet in height, and contains six bells. The
aisles are divided from the nave by clustered columns and obtusely
pointed arches, and above this is the clerestory. The spandrels
between the arches were embellished with scriptural paintings in
1726, but they are now much faded. In 1875 the series of full-length
portraits of Edward VI., Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and
Charles II., were transferred from the east window to the west, and
modern stained glass took their place. A chantry was founded here by
Alan de Chepe in 1311.
The most interesting monument is that of the great antiquarian John
Stow; it is made of terra-cotta and is placed near the eastern end
of the north wall. There is another dedicated to Sir Hugh
Hammersley, sheriff 1618, and Lord Mayor 1627, part of the sculpture
of which is very fine. On the east wall of the north aisle is a
brass to Nicholas Levin, sheriff in 1534, and a liberal contributor
to the work of building the church; the brass is not large, but
twenty well-defined figures have been introduced. Sir William
Craven, Lord Mayor, 1640, a great benefactor to the parish, was
interred here, but has no monument; also Peter Antony Motteux, who
wrote comedies and masques, and died in 1718. Seven remarkable old
books are preserved in the vestry, Foxe’s _Acts and Monuments_, Sir
W. Raleigh’s _History of the World_, and others; a fragment of the
chain which formerly fastened Foxe’s book to a desk is still
retained.
This church and parish received many charitable gifts, some of the
donors of which were: Robert Gayer, £50; Sir Thomas Rich, £400; the
widow of Mr. Van Citters, £200, for the apprenticeship of two parish
children, 1706; and Joseph Chamberlain, £121 : 1s. in 1706. There
was a charity school for fifty boys and thirty girls who were
clothed, taught, and put out as apprentices by contribution. Among
the most notable rectors were: John Russell (died 1494), Bishop of
Rochester; John Pricket, Bishop of Gloucester; Robert Grove
(1631-1696), Bishop of Chichester; and William Walsham How
(1823-1897), Bishop of Bedford and of Wakefield.
[Illustration:
ST. ANDREW UNDERSHAFT
]
Stow died in this parish and, it is believed, in St. Mary Axe itself,
his windows overlooking the grounds and ruins of St. Helen’s nunnery.
Another parish church stood in St. Mary Axe, at the north end against
the wall. It was called St. Augustine’s-in-the-Wall. In the year 1430
the church was allotted to the Fraternity of the Papey, the house for
poor priests.
The house was suppressed in the reign of Edward VI., and was afterwards
occupied by Sir Francis Walsingham (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p.
377).
The modern St. Mary Axe is not interesting. The old house at the corner
of Great St. Helen’s is the first to be noticed. Next to it is another
old one, stuccoed. A few doors northward is the Grapes public-house.
Then follow a succession of more or less new warehouses, with narrow
frontage, chiefly in red brick, not unpicturesquely designed. A very new
red brick building with much ornamental detail is St. Anne’s Chambers,
Nos. 37 to 41. This is succeeded by the ward school, which is of red
brick and bears its name across its frontage. It is the ward school of
Cornhill and Lime Street, and was established 1710. The present building
was erected in 1846. A little model of St. George and the Dragon gives a
touch of vivacity to its appearance. Beyond this are large brick
business houses and warehouses. Bishopsgate Avenue is occupied chiefly
by stationers and printers.
=Bevis Marks.=—“Then next is one great House, large of Rooms, fair
Courts and Garden Plots, sometime pertaining to the Bassets, since that,
to the Abbots of Bury in Suffolk, and therefore called Buries Marks,
corruptly Bevis Marks. And since the Dissolution of the Abbey of Bury,
to Thomas Heneage the Father, and Sir Thomas Heneage the Son.
“This House and Ground is now encreased into many Tenements: And among
the rest, the Jews of London have of late built themselves a large
Synagogue here, wainscotted round. It stands East and West like one of
our Churches. The great Door is on the West: Near to which West End is a
long Desk upon an Ascent, somewhat raised from the rest of the Floor;
where I suppose the Law is read. The East wall is in part railed in; and
before the Wall is a Door, which is to open with a Key, where their Law
seems to be laid up. Aloft on this Wall are the Ten Commandments, or
some part of them, inscribed in Golden Hebrew Letters without Points.
There be seven great Branched Candlesticks of Brass hanging down from
the Top; and many other Places for Candles and Lamps. The Seats are
Benches, with Backs to them that run along from West to East” (Strype,
vol. i. bk. ii. p. 73).
The modern Bevis Marks is lined on the west by substantial red-brick
buildings chiefly occupied by merchants.
=Heneage Lane=, leading out of Bevis Marks, a narrow and dark
thoroughfare, contains the synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
It is a plain structure externally, built in the year 1700. Standing in
the midst of its courts and almshouses the place has somewhat the
appearance of a Spanish convent. The interior is spacious and fitted
with two galleries, one for women. The children attend service under one
of the galleries.
The derivation of =Houndsditch= as given by Stow is as unsavoury as the
reputation the street later earned. “Called Hounds-ditch for that in old
time when the same lay open much filth (conveyed forth of the Citie)
especially dead dogges was there laid or cast.” Beyond the mud wall that
enclosed the ditch was a “fayre field” where were the almshouses of the
Priory of Holy Trinity.
“In my youth, I remember,” continues Stow, “devout people as well men as
women of the Citie, were accustomed oftentimes, especially on Frydayes
weekely, to walke that way purposely, and there to bestow their
charitable almes; every poor man or woman lying in their bed within
their window, which was toward the street open so low, that every man
might see them.”
At present looking down Houndsditch from Bishopsgate Within the street
presents a not unpicturesque appearance. On the south, indeed, it is one
continuous row of dull brick box-like houses, but on the north one or
two old projecting houses break the line. No. 96 is an old stuccoed
house which projects in a broad bay above the first floor. Besides these
old houses several high plain warehouses break up the monotony of the
street line. Houndsditch is the centre of the old-clothes trade. To the
north lie huge warehouses and industrial dwellings.
=Bishopsgate=.—There were two northern gates to the Roman wall: one of
them corresponding with Newgate and the other with Bishopsgate. But the
Saxon and mediæval Bishopsgate was not built on the site of the Roman
gate, but a little to the west. The foundations of the Roman gate have
been found in Camomile Street; they were built with carved stones taken
from some Roman building, perhaps a villa, an illustration of my theory
that the wall was built in great haste and that all the stone buildings
of the City were used in its construction.
The massive masonry of the ancient “Newgate” has also been found close
by the later gate in Giltspur Street.
The traffic along Bishopsgate Street, which led into the Roman Fort, and
to the Bridge from the north and eastern parts of the island, caused a
settlement and a street to be established here long before the wall was
built. For the same reason, when the City began to fill up after its
long period of desolation, the line was one of the first to be settled
again, while on either side there were vacant spaces, orchards, fields,
and gardens. Houses and shops sprang up both within and without the
wall; the latter only when the Norman power had removed the fear of
another siege. It is impossible to say with any certainty when the
street was actually recognised as such. Thus, to quote such facts as are
accessible in Riley’s _Memorials_, in the _Calendar of Wills_, etc., we
find that in 1259, 1272, 1285, and 1288 there are mentioned “houses
near, or within, Bishopsgate,” and in 1309 and 1311 there are “houses
without” Bishopsgate. In 1329 we find a brew-house in Bishopsgate
Street. Again, in 1314 the shops of one Roger Poyntel are in danger by
reason of an overhanging elm-tree, thanks to which we learn that there
were at that time residents close by the gate; in 1305 a tourelle in the
wall near the gate is given to William Coeur de Lyon, chaplain, on
condition that he keeps it in repair; in 1314 another tourelle near the
gate is given to John de Elyngham, chaplain in charity, on the same
condition; in 1318 the upper chamber of the gate, together with a
tourelle on the east, and a garden against the wall, is granted to John
de Long, an Easterling, or member of the Hanseatic League, on the same
condition. In 1324 he renounced his lease and, apparently, went home.
(Here we have an instance of a Hanseatic merchant living outside the
_Domus_, or _Aula Teutonicorum_, where they were all supposed to live.
But no absolute rule about anything can be laid down in these
centuries.) The Almaines or Easterlings who were responsible for the
repair and maintenance of the gate, were exempt from toll. On the other
hand (another illustration of the conflicting “rights” of the time), the
Bishop of London claimed one stock out of every cart-load of wood that
passed through the gate. Let the Bishop, then, keep the hinges in
repair!
The gate was built, it is said, by Bishop Erkenwald in 685. One
supposes, since he did not rebuild on the Roman foundations, that a way
had been made through the wall on the west side, and that traffic had,
for convenience, chosen that way. The gate was considered, in some
sense, to be under the special care of the Bishop. But the burden of its
maintenance was laid upon the Hanseatic merchants. The case was tried
and decided in 1282, when the merchants were ordered to keep the gate,
and to find men and money if necessary in its defence for one-third of
the cost. On the antiquities of the gate, hear also Stow:
“The eldest note that I read of this Bishopsgate, is that William Blund,
one of the sheriffs of London, in the year 1210, sold to Serle Mercer,
and William Almaine, procurators or wardens of London Bridge, all his
land, with the garden, in the parish of St. Buttolph without
Bishopsgate.
“Next I read in a charter, dated the year 1235, that Walter Brune,
citizen of London, and Rosia his wife, having founded the priory or new
hospital of our blessed Lady, since called St. Mary Spittle without
Bishopsgate, confirmed the same to the honour of God and our blessed
Lady, for canons regular.
“Also in the year 1247, Simon Fitzmary, one of the sheriffs of London,
the 29th of Henry III., founded the hospital of St. Mary, called Bethlem
without Bishopsgate.
“This gate was again beautifully built in the year 1479, in the reign of
Edward IV., by the Haunce merchants.
“Moreover, about the year 1551, these Haunce merchants, having prepared
stone for that purpose, caused a new gate to be framed, there to have
been set up, but then their liberties, through suit of our English
merchants, were seized into the king’s hand; and so that work was
stayed, and the old gate yet remaineth.”
[Illustration:
BISHOPSGATE STREET, SHOWING CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN, OUTWICH, AND THE
PUMP, 1814
]
In 1731 the old gate was taken down and another erected. This, with the
other City gates, was removed in 1760.
If we walk down Bishopsgate Street Within, we cannot do better than take
Stow with us, remembering that he is writing in the year 1598:
“And first to begin on the left hand of Bishopsgate street, from the
gate you have certain tenements of old time pertaining to a brotherhood
of St. Nicholas, granted to the parish clerks of London, for two
chaplains, to be kept in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, near unto the
Guildhall of London, in the 27th of Henry VI. The first of these houses
towards the north, and against the wall of the city, was sometime a
large inn or court called the Wrestlers, of such a sign, and the last in
the high street towards the south was sometime also a fair inn called
the Angel, of such a sign. Among these said tenements was on the same
street side a fair entry, or court, to the common hall of the said
parish clerks, with proper almshouses, seven in number, adjoining, for
poor parish clerks, and their wives and their widows, such as were in
great years not able to labour. This brotherhood, amongst other, being
suppressed, in the reign of Edward VI. the said hall, with the other
buildings there, was given to Sir Robert Chester, a knight of
Cambridgeshire; against whom the parish clerks commencing suit, in the
reign of Queen Mary, and being like to have prevailed, the said Sir
Robert Chester pulled down the hall, sold the timber, stone, and lead,
and thereupon the suit was ended. The almshouses remain in the queen’s
hands, and people are there placed, such as can make best friends; some
of them, taking the pension appointed, have let forth their houses for
great rent, giving occasion to the parson of the parish to challenge
tithes of the poor, etc.”
After mentioning St. Ethelburga, St. Helen’s, and St. Andrew Undershaft,
he goes on:
“Then have you one great house called Crosby place, because the same was
built by Sir John Crosby, grocer and woolman, in place of certain
tenements, with their appurtenances, letten to him by Alice Ashfeld,
prioress of St. Helen’s, and the convent, for ninety-nine years, from
the year 1466 unto the year 1565, for the annual rent of £11 : 6 : 8.
“Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and lord protector, afterwards king, by
the name of Richard III., was lodged in this house; since the which
time, among other, Anthonie Bonvice, a rich merchant of Italy, dwelt
there; after him, Garmain Cioll, then William Bond, alderman, increased
this house in height, with building of a turret on the top thereof: he
deceased in the year 1576, and was buried in St. Helen’s church. Divers
ambassadors have been lodged there; namely, in the year 1586, Henry
Ramelius, chancellor of Denmark, ambassador unto the queen’s majesty of
England from Frederick II., the king of Denmark; an ambassador of
France, etc. Sir John Spencer, Alderman, lately purchased this house,
made great reparations, kept his mayoralty there, and since built a most
large warehouse near thereunto.
“From this Crosbie place up to Leaden Hall corner, and so down Grass
Street, amongst other tenements, are divers fair and large built houses
for merchants and such like.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Schnebbelie_.
ST. HELEN, BISHOPSGATE, 1817
]
“Now for the other side of this ward, namely, the right hand, hard by
within the gate, is one fair water conduit, which Thomas Knesworth,
mayor, in the year 1505, founded: he gave £60, the rest was furnished at
the common charges of the city. This conduit hath since been taken down
and new built. David Woodroffe, alderman, gave £20 towards the
conveyance of more water thereunto. From this conduit have you, amongst
many fair tenements, divers fair inns, large for receipt of travellers,
and some houses for men of worship; namely, one most spacious of all
other thereabout, built of brick and timber by Sir Thomas Gresham,
knight, who deceased in the year 1579, and was buried in St. Helen’s
church, under a fair monument, by him prepared in his life: he appointed
by his testament this house to be made a college of readers, as before
is said in the chapter of schools and houses of learning.
“Somewhat west from this house is one other very fair house, wherein Sir
William Hollis kept his mayoralty, and was buried in the parish church
of St. Helen. Sir Andrew Jud also kept his mayoralty there, and was
buried at St. Helen’s: he built almshouses for six poor alms people near
to the said parish church, and gave lands to the Skinners, out of the
which they are to give 4s. every week to the six poor alms people, 8d.
the piece, and 25s. 4d. the year, in coals amongst them for ever”
(Stow’s _Survey_, p. 181).
Shakespeare, who lived for a time in St. Helen’s, and therefore knew
Crosby Hall well, has introduced it in Richard III. Sir Thomas More
lived here for a time, the guest of Bonvici, to whom from the Tower he
wrote, and in whose gown, of silk camlet, he went to his execution. In
1547 Bonvici let the house on lease to William Roper, More’s son-in-law,
and to his nephew William Rastell, a printer. Under Edward VI., Bonvici,
Rastell, and Roper went abroad, but came home under Mary. Meantime
Edward VI. had conferred the house upon Sir Thomas D’Arcy, afterwards
Lord D’Arcy, who seems to have sold it to William Bond, alderman and
sheriff. Sir John Spencer next became the owner of the house. He
received the Duc de Sully, Grand Treasurer of France, with all his
retinue.
The way in which the inheritance of this great merchant came to the
Comptons is told by Hare:
“Sir John Spencer, having but a poor opinion of the Compton family in
that day, positively forbade the first Earl of Northampton to pay his
addresses to his daughter, who was the greatest heiress in England. One
day, at the foot of the staircase, Sir John met the baker’s boy with his
covered barrow, and, being pleased at his having come punctually when he
was ordered, he gave him sixpence; but the baker’s boy was Lord
Northampton in disguise, and in the covered barrow he was carrying off
the beautiful Elizabeth Spencer. When he found how he had been duped,
Sir John swore that Lord Northampton had seen the only sixpence of his
money he should ever receive, and refused to be reconciled to his
daughter. But the next year Queen Elizabeth, having expressed to Sir
John Spencer the sympathy which she felt with his sentiments upon the
ingratitude of his child, invited him to come and be “gossip” with her
to a newly-born baby in which she was much interested, and he could not
refuse; and it is easy to imagine whose that baby was. So the Spencer
property came to the Comptons after all” (Hare, vol. i. pp. 284-85).
[Illustration:
CORNHILL MILITARY ASSOCIATION, WITH A VIEW OF THE CHURCH OF ST.
HELEN’S AND LEATHERSELLERS’ HALL
]
In 1642 the Earl of Northampton was killed at Hopton Heath, beside the
King. Here lived the Countess of Pembroke, Sidney’s sister, immortalised
by Ben Jonson’s epitaph. In 1640 Sir John Langham, sheriff in 1642,
leased the house; it is said to have been used as a prison for
Royalists. His son, Sir Stephen Langham, succeeded, and in his time a
great part of the house was destroyed by fire. In 1672, its great hall
became a Presbyterian meeting-house; it was then turned into a packers’
warehouse. In 1831 it was converted into an institute for lectures and
is now a restaurant.[3]
[Illustration:
COUNCIL ROOM, CROSBY HALL, 1816
]
The streets and courts leading out of Bishopsgate Street Within are
neither important nor numerous. On the west side going south from the
gate were inns called the Vine, the Four Swans, the Green Dragon, the
Black Bull, and the Cross Keys (in Gracechurch Street).
Beginning at the south end of the modern Bishopsgate we see on the west
the Bank of Scotland, the National Bank of Australasia, and the Delhi
and London Bank, housed under one roof in a large stone building with
the lower windows enclosed in exceptionally high and bold arches. Baring
Bros. Bank is opposite. It is a plain, well-proportioned brick building,
symmetrical and without tawdry ornament; it was designed by R. Norman
Shaw. It is flanked on either side by a public-house, The Black Lion and
the City of London Tavern. Just opposite the entrance of Threadneedle
Street the Wesleyan Centenary Hall attracts attention by its size and
solidity. Four immense fluted columns run up the facade to a frieze and
triangular pediment. It was erected in 1839. Close by is the Bank of
Scotland. It looks out on the really fine National Provincial Bank of
England at the north corner of Threadneedle Street. This has fluted
stone columns running up to the frieze along the whole frontage. They
enclose very tall, round-headed windows, and above the windows are deep
panels of great size executed in _basso-relievo_. It was erected in 1833
and the architect was J. Gibson. Along the parapet of the roof at
intervals are placed statues which break the hard line.
Immediately opposite the entry, on the east side of the square we see a
dreary block of brick houses; these are Crosby Buildings, and are fully
occupied by representatives of trade and commerce. On the south side
there is an old stuccoed house with a square pillared porch. The next
house is of red brick with decorative brick panels let in on the face.
This is an old house which has been recased. Its fine stuccoed doorway
is still preserved. On the west a large red brick building bearing date
1876 fills up the space, and on the north is an old brick house with a
plain projecting pediment over the door, and brackets similar to those
on the south side. No. 7 in the north-east corner is a new stone house
of plain but rather original design. A couple of little plane-trees grow
up at either end of the quiet square.
A covered entry leads from Crosby Square to Great St. Helen’s. The first
part of this tortuous thoroughfare is lined by the side of Crosby
Buildings, modern brick, on the one side, and the end of the stuccoed
synagogue, which stands back from the frontage of the street, on the
other. About this part, and the narrow lane which succeeds it running
north and south, there is little to say; the substantial business spirit
pervades even the bricks and mortar. But in the open space beyond,
facing the church, are some features of interest. Nos. 8, 9, and 10 have
all been rebuilt in the large-windowed flat modern style. No. 7 is a
fine old red brick house. No. 2 is a delightful one and has an
ornamental doorway with fluted columns and pilasters supporting the
lintel, beneath which on either side are cherubs’ heads. Across the wide
space before the quaint and interesting church are other red brick
houses, some old and some of more modern date. Close by the entry the
builder is at work on the site of some charming old gabled houses
demolished within the last five years.
ST. HELEN, BISHOPSGATE
There is a well-known tradition that a church was built here in the
fourth century by the Emperor Constantine, and there is a record
preserved which proves that the church was in existence before the
year 1010. A church standing on this site was given by one Ranulph,
and Robert his son, to the Dean and Canons of St. Paul’s at a date
unknown. About 1212, permission was obtained to found the Priory of
St. Helen for nuns of the Benedictine Order and with this the real
history of the church begins. It is always stated that the north
aisle of the church was used by the nuns, while the south was
occupied by the parishioners, but the first rector mentioned dates
from 1541, that is to say, after the suppression of the Religious
Houses. On the dissolution of the priory in 1538 the church was
given in its entirety to parochial uses. It was largely repaired in
1631 (under the direction of Inigo Jones), in 1841, 1865, and again
in 1891-93. In 1873 the Parish of St. Martin Outwich was united with
this, its church having been pulled down.
Houseling people in 1548 were 220.
The church consists of two parallel naves, each of 122 feet in
length and about 25 feet in width, and a south transept, out of
which two eastern chapels open. In the north wall is an arched
doorway which led from the choir into the priory, also a hagioscope
through which the nuns were able to discern the high altar from the
cloisters. All this part and some of the south transept dates from
the thirteenth century; the side chapels were added about the middle
of the fourteenth and the rest dates from the fifteenth century.
A chantry was founded in honour of the Holy Ghost for the soul of
Adam Fraunceys, to which Joan, Prioress of the Convent of St. Helen,
presented Robert Gryngeley, May 18, 1399, and for Agnes his wife
(Hennessey’s _Chantries_, p. 39).
The church contains a remarkable number of interesting monuments.
The following are commemorated: Alderman John Robinson, Merchant
Taylor and merchant of the Staple of England; died 1599. Francis
Bancroft, who bequeathed over £28,000 to the Drapers Company for the
erection of almshouses and a school for boys; he died 1727. Martin
Bond, M.P. in 1624 and 1625 for the City of London. Alberticus
Gentilis, Merchant Adventurer and a prolific legal author who was an
exile from Italy on account of his Protestant opinions; he became
Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford and died in 1608. Sir Thomas
Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange and Gresham College, who died
in 1579. Sir Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor in 1550, and a great
benefactor of the parish. Sir Julius Cæsar, judge, Master of the
Rolls under James I.; his monument was executed by Nicholas Stone,
Master Mason to King Charles I. Sir William Pickering, Knt., soldier
and scholar, whose monument is the most magnificent in the church;
he distinguished himself greatly under Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
Mary, and Elizabeth; he died in 1574. Sir John Crosby, already
mentioned in connection with Crosby Hall. Sir John Spencer, Lord
Mayor in 1594, commonly known as “Rich Spencer” on account of his
vast wealth. The Rev. J. E. Cox, D.D., who was Vicar-in-charge of
the united parishes, wrote _The Annals of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate,
London_; he was for nine years in succession Grand Chaplain of
England. On the floors of the two chapels there are several brasses
very well executed.
A considerable number of benefactors are recorded by Stow, but the
amounts of their gifts were small individually. Sir John Crosby, at
his death in 1475, bequeathed 500 marks for the repair of the
church. In more recent times Francis Bancroft bequeathed over
£28,000; this has been devoted to founding a school at Woodford,
Essex, for boys—100 boarders and 200 day-boys. Sir Andrew Judde left
the Skinners Company trustees for the accomplishment of charitable
aims.
There were five almshouses near the church for as many decayed
Skinners and their wives. Six almshouses also were founded by Sir
Andrew Judde; in Little St. Helen Street there were seven houses for
the same number of widows, each of whom had £5 : 4s. per annum.
Thomas Horton (d. 1673), Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, 1649, was
rector here.
For an account of the ancient nunnery of St. Helen, see _Mediæval
London_, vol. ii. p. 313.
St. Helen’s Place is a quiet corner with monotonous rows of Early
Victorian or Georgian brick houses finished off with yellow paint. No.
1, near the entrance, and No. 2 have slight pillared porches over their
doorways. In the northeast corner the small but richly-decorated front
of the Leathersellers’ Hall attracts attention. The place is shut off
from the street by spiked iron gates.
THE LEATHERSELLERS COMPANY
Dealers in leather are supposed to have existed as a society or
corporation in Britain from the time of the Romans.
[Illustration:
PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE TO LEATHERSELLERS’ HALL. DEMOLISHED 1799
]
The “leathersellers,” as a company, are first mentioned about A.D.
1372, in Edward III.’s reign, when their “probi homines,” or “bons
gentz,” their wardens or seniors, came before the Court of Aldermen,
together with those of the craft of Pursers, afterwards amalgamated
with the Leathersellers Company, and jointly presented a bill or
“supplication” desiring some stringent regulations to be made for
the prevention of the sale of other than genuine leather, and to
prevent fraudulent colouring of leather.
The leathersellers were known as a corporation in London, and were
governed by ordinances, 1377-99.
The first charter of incorporation was granted to the Company by 22
Henry VI., 1444. It is still in their possession, and, “after
reciting the petition of Thomas Bigge and fourteen others, men of
the mistery of leathersellers of the city of London, sets forth an
ordinance made by Richard Whittington, mayor, and the aldermen of
the city, 21 Richard II., A.D. 1398, that two or four of the better
or more approved men of the mistery should yearly be chosen and
sworn to guard and oversee defaults in the same mistery, and to
present, from time to time, to the mayor and chamber of the said
city aforesaid for the time being; and that none of the mistery
aforesaid, to wit, master or servant, should be rebellious or
contrarious to such men so chosen and sworn, duly exercising search
in the said mistery, nor points, or laces, unless they were well and
sufficiently made, nor straps of the leather of sheep or calf, nor
thereof any other work, should falsely or deceitfully be wrought to
the deception of the people under pain of the heavy punishment upon
such cases ordained, and the payment of 6s. 8d.; to wit, to the use
of the Chamber of the city aforesaid 40d., and to the use of the
said mistery 40d.”
There are now 151 members of the livery. They have a Corporate
Income of £17,000 and a Trust Income of £3000. With the
Leathersellers were incorporated the White Tawyers, or makers of
white leather; the Pouchmakers, the Pursers, the Mailmakers, the
Galoche-makers, the Tiltmongers, the Leather-dressers, the
Parchment-makers and the Leather-dyers.
The earliest quarters of the trades connected with Leather were in
the north under London Wall. Here they had their first hall. After
the dissolution of the Religious Houses the Company obtained the
site of the nunnery known as St. Helen’s. Part of the house was
converted into the Company’s Hall, the old Refectory becoming the
Company’s place of meeting and banqueting. This ancient structure
was destroyed in 1797, the present one was built in 1878.
The low small Church of =St. Ethelburga= peers over some old houses,
which seem to have stuck to it as barnacles to a decayed ship.
ST. ETHELBURGA THE VIRGIN
This church is dedicated to Ethelburga, who was sister of Erconwald,
fourth Bishop of London, and first Abbess of Barking. In all
probability the parish was formed and the church was built in the
century which succeeded the Conquest. It escaped the Great Fire, and
has subsequently had a great deal of attempted restoration. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1304.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: the Prioress and
Convent of St. Helen’s, London, 1366; then Henry VIII. seized it and
it was granted in 1569 to the Bishop of London, and continues with
his successors.
Houseling people in 1548 were 140.
The present church, originally Early English, appears to have been
altered at the close of the fourteenth century or early fifteenth.
It is very small, measuring less than 60 feet by 30, and under 31
feet in height, and is almost crowded out by houses. Entrance is
obtained through an archway between two shops, the upper stories of
which conceal everything but the top of the west window and turret.
It contains a south aisle separated from the rest by four pointed
arches, with a clerestory above. The roof is divided into
compartments and slopes slightly at the sides. The arch at the
entrance of the nave is fine and there are remnants of wood-carving,
probably of the sixteenth century, on the porch.
A chantry was founded here at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary
by Gilbert Marion, and Christina his wife, to which Thomas More was
admitted chaplain, December 15, 1436.
There are tablets affixed to the wall commemorating parishioners,
but little interest attaches to the individuals. The only two
connected with this church of any eminence are John Larke, a friend
of Sir Thomas More, who was executed in 1554 for denying the King’s
supremacy; and Luke Milbourne (1649-1720), Dryden’s hostile critic,
rector here in 1704. William Bray (d. 1644), chaplain to Archbishop
Laud, was also sometime rector.
In Clark’s Place is a building containing the Marine Society, with the
statues of a woman and boy in a niche. In Bishopsgate Street, No. 68, is
an old stuccoed house with projecting upper stories. No. 67 is also old
though not so noticeable.
Part of Ethelburga House and the numbers on the north, as far as 23
inclusive, are in this ward. The corner house has a stone mitre of large
size on its corner and an inscription, rather quaintly worded,
announcing that the gate stood formerly “adjoining to this spot.”
Looking back down Bishopsgate from here we get a fine perspective view.
The modern buildings are of all heights, but distance blends them not
inharmoniously, leaving enough variety to be pleasing.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by R. West, 1736._
ST. ETHELBURGA, BISHOPSGATE ST.
]
The Mail Coach public-house is at the corner, and on the opposite house
is a small mitre in memory of the Bishopsgate.
Just outside the City Wall is
ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE
This church escaped the Great Fire of 1666, but was rebuilt in
1725-29 by James Gold. In 1615 the City gave the parishioners
additional ground on the west for burial purposes. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1323.
The patronage of the church has always been in the hands of the
bishops of London since 1323.
Houseling people in 1548 were 650.
The building includes two aisles, separated from the main body by
composite columns. There are galleries on the north, south, and
west. The steeple rises at the east end, and the chancel, therefore,
is formed beneath the tower. It is built of stone and consists of
three stories, the third of which is completed by a small composite
temple surrounded by a balustrade and surmounted by an urn. The
remainder of the exterior is of red brick with stone dressings.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE
]
Sir Paul Pindar, a great benefactor to the church, who acted as
James I.’s Turkish Ambassador in 1611, was buried in this church,
and a monument was erected to his memory. Close to this, also in the
chancel, is a brass plate in memory of Sir William Blizard,
President of the Royal College of Surgeons, who died in 1835. John
Keats was baptized here in 1795, and Edward Alleyn, founder of
Dulwich College, in 1566. Here also Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of
Argyll and father of the celebrated first marquis, was married in
1609.
There were a considerable number of small charitable gifts belonging
to this parish. Of the larger, Ralph Pindar was a donor of £60;
Nicholas Reive, of £406 : 5s. in 1626; William, Earl of Devonshire,
of £100.
There was one charity school for twenty-five boys and twenty-five
girls, who were taught and made apprentices by subscription and
legacies. Also almshouses in Lamb’s Court for the poor of the
parish, maintained by Dulwich College, and three almshouses by the
pesthouse for three poor widows, the gift of Lady Lumley.
Some of the notable rectors were: Alfred Earle, Bishop of
Marlborough, in 1888; Charles James Blomfield (1786-1857), Bishop of
Chester; John Lake (1624-89), Bishop of Chichester.
On the site of Spital Square, Bishopsgate Street Without, stood the
ancient house called St. Mary Spital, for an account of which see
_Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 322.
Bishopsgate Street Without is a curious mixture of old houses, some with
grotesque features, and modern buildings presenting only a strip of
much-ornamented stone or brick frontage. After the Great Eastern Hotel
on the west, the frontage of the station presents a very long row of
uniform buildings in new red brick with stone dressings and ornamental
gable ends. The famous old house named Paul Pindar’s was pulled down to
make way for these.
Paul Pindar (b. 1565) was the son of Ralph Pindar, alderman’s deputy for
the ward of Bishopsgate. At sixteen he was apprenticed to one Parvish,
an Italian merchant who sent him to Venice as his factor, and he stayed
there many years. In 1615 he was sent to Turkey as Ambassador by request
of the Turkey Company, and he remained there for nine years. He returned
in 1623, and was knighted. The King offered him also the Lieutenancy of
the Tower, which he declined. Charles thereupon made him Farmer of
Customs.
In 1639 he possessed £236,000, out of which he gave large sums to the
King. He died August 22, 1650. The row of houses that now stand on the
site of his house have fairly good shops on the ground-floors, and there
are one or two archway entrances into the station premises near the
north end. The Black Raven public-house is one of these. Acorn Street,
Skinner Street, and Primrose Street need very little comment. They are
chiefly composed of the sides of houses fronting Bishopsgate, and some
ordinary modern brick buildings.
Nos. 131-2-3 are old plaster houses, and No. 120, beyond Acorn Street,
has a projecting bay window carried up two stories. This is also an old
house. These are all on the west side. On the east, beginning again from
the south end, the first building to attract attention is the
Metropolitan Fire Brigade Station, erected 1885. It is an improvement on
the monstrosities continually perpetrated in the name of the Fire
Brigade. The Bishopsgate Institute is near Brushfield Street. It fronts
Bishopsgate with an elaborate yellow terra-cotta façade, and has an open
entry. The entrance to the Bishopsgate Chapel is under an old stuccoed
house, and the chapel itself is a large stuccoed building. Beyond this,
after a Great Northern Receiving Office, are some very old houses,
plastered with rough stucco in imitation of stone. These are Nos. 82 to
84. One of them has wooden rusticated work from above the first story to
the top of the gable end. The date 1590 is stated to have been visible
on one of them within the memory of man. On the corner house of Spital
Street is a tablet noting the point of the City Bounds. This was placed
here in 1846.
GROUP V
We come next to those streets which run north and south of Thames
Street. The area is bounded on the north by Ludgate Hill, St. Paul’s
Churchyard, Cannon Street, and Fenchurch Street; on the south by the
Thames; on the east by Tower Hill and the site of London Wall; and on
the west by the bed of the Fleet River, now New Bridge Street. For the
sake of convenience we will begin at the west end.
The wall of the City originally crossed Ludgate Hill at the gate, and
ran down nearly in a straight line to the river. The Castle or Tower of
Montfichet was in the middle of this piece of wall, and Baynard’s Castle
was at the south end of it. The Tower of Montfichet passed into the
Fitzwalter family, who also owned the soke beside it. Now, when the
first enmity broke out between John and Fitzwalter, all the castles and
houses of the latter were dismantled and destroyed by the King’s
command. In 1276 the Dominicans begged permission to occupy a piece of
ground lying between the wall and the river Fleet. Lord Fitzwalter gave
the Friars the site of Castle Baynard and of Montfichet. They also
obtained permission to pull down the town wall at this place, and to
rebuild it farther west, so as to include their ground. Here the Black
Friars settled and built great buildings, and claimed the right of
sanctuary. Westward of the Black Friars was the house of the Carmelites,
called the White Friars. They claimed right of sanctuary also, a right
which descended to a haunt of rogues, called Alsatia, an account of
which may be read in _The Fortunes of Nigel_:
“The ancient sanctuary at Whitefriars lay considerably lower than the
elevated terraces and gardens of the Temple, and was therefore generally
involved in the fogs and damps of the Thames. The brick buildings by
which it was occupied crowded closely on each other.... The wailing of
children, the scolding of their mothers, the miserable exhibition of
ragged linens hung from the windows to dry, spoke the wants and
distresses of the wretched inhabitants; while the sounds of complaint
were mocked and overwhelmed in the riotous shouts, oaths, profane songs,
and boisterous laughter that issued from the alehouses and taverns,
which, as the signs indicated, were equal in number to all the other
houses.”
Where is now Bridge Street was formerly the Fleet River, and on its
western bank was Bridewell Palace, a palace where the Norman kings held
Court.
The old palace, burnt down in the Great Fire, was built round two
courtyards; in its later days rebuilt, it followed the frequent fate of
such ancient monuments, and became partly a “hospital” for poor boys,
partly a prison for vagrants and other unwanted persons. It was also a
hospital for lunatics, and was put under the same management as
Bethlehem in 1557. Bridewell is also fully described in _London in the
Eighteenth Century_. The part of London bounded north and south by Fleet
Street and the River, east and west by New Bridge Street and the Temple,
is now almost entirely occupied by mammoth printing-offices; yet on the
Embankment are one or two buildings of note: Sion College, opened here
in 1886 to supersede the old building on London Wall; the Guildhall
School of Music; the City of London School for Girls (all modern).
After Blackfriars Bridge, running behind the line of wharves and
warehouses, begins Thames Street, Upper and Lower, once one of the
principal thoroughfares in London, a London that knew nothing of what is
now called the “West End.” It is now a noisy street “pestered” with
drays and vans, with cranes and their accompaniments, so that to walk
therein in work-hours is a perilous proceeding.
Yet this ancient street, Thames Street, is, not even excepting West
Chepe, the most interesting and the most venerable of all the streets of
London. It is the seat of the export and the import trade. From Thames
Street the City sent abroad the products of the country—the iron, the
wool, the skins and hides; from Thames Street the City distributed the
imports to the various parts of the country.
Off the wharves of Thames Street lay the shops of all the nations of
Western Europe. In the narrow lanes leading down to the stairs between
the quays lived the seafaring folk and those who worked for them, and
those who worked for the merchants.
London at one time was roughly divided into belts of population. The
first belt is that of the Service. It consists of the foreshore between
Thames Street and the river, with the lanes and houses upon it. The
second is that of the Merchants, between Thames Street and the Markets
of West and East Chepe. The third is that of the Markets. The fourth
that of the Industries between the Markets and the Wall.
As to the first: The Wall of London, when it was first erected, was
carried along the river from the south-west angle to the Walbrook.
Beyond the Walbrook the south wall of the Roman fortress formed a
river-wall, which was continued as far as the south-east angle.
Beyond that stream the south wall of the Roman fort was allowed to
remain as the river-side wall of the City, when all the rest of the
Roman buildings, temples, public edifices, tombs, and villas were
ruthlessly pulled down to build the wall towards the end of the fourth
century.
Now, the wall between the south-west angle and the Walbrook ran along
the middle of Thames Street. At the time of its construction there were,
therefore, no buildings between the wall and the river. It was built
about the middle of the bank, which sloped to the river below, with a
narrow stretch of mud at low tide; and above it rose on the hill which
still exists, to the higher ground on which the City stood. The breadth
of the foreshore varied, but, of course, it was not very great. The
first break in the wall was that which allowed for the waters of the
Walbrook. Here there was the first port—the Roman port. It may have been
the only port, unless, in their haste to complete the wall, which was
undoubtedly built under the pressure of panic, the builders deliberately
excluded other ports. In that case there may have been many, for nothing
was easier than to make a small port, such as the two which still remain
of Billingsgate and Queenhithe. A small square space was dug in the mud
and shingle of the foreshore. It was maintained by piles placed close
together along the three sides of the square, leaving the fourth side
open for the ships. Other piles furnished support for wharves and quays.
It is therefore quite possible that there may have been other such
ports. Puddle Dock may have been one. In the absence of any evidence
which might lead one even to form a conjecture, we may believe that
Queenhithe, originally Edred’s hithe, was of later, or Saxon,
construction; while Billingsgate, close to London Bridge and Bridge
Gate, was probably still earlier.
What happened, therefore, was this: On the increase of trade, when
London was again settled in the sixth century, wharves and quays began
to be pushed out on piles upon the foreshore of Billingsgate and
Walbrook, or afterwards at other places, when a break in the wall
allowed access to the City. When Queenhithe was constructed as an
additional port, another break was needed in the wall, and wharves and
quays were built along this part of the foreshore as well. The erection
of the wharf on piles was speedily followed by the erection of tenements
for the people between the wharf and the wall on the bank. The wharf
extended laterally; the houses grew up laterally with the wharf; the
wharf was pushed out farther upon the mud of the low tide; the wall was
broken into here and there at intervals, continually growing less in
length. These breaks are marked, possibly, by the ancient stairs, such
as those of Paul’s Wharf and Trig Stairs.
In a word, the whole of the first belt, that of the Service, is later
than the Roman wall. It belongs, therefore, to the Saxon period, and in
great part, perhaps, to the early Norman times. It seems likely that, if
the riverside wall had been pierced or broken in parts, the Danish and
Norwegian besiegers would have attacked the City at those vulnerable
points. A narrow stream, such as Walbrook, with wharves on either side,
could be easily defended by chains drawn across; but a dozen places
where the wall was broken—and there was nothing to defend it except
wooden wharves and wooden huts—would have been difficult to defend.
[Illustration:
BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE, 1796
]
Thames Street in later times, when the wall had disappeared, became the
most crowded, the most busy part of the City. Its south side was wholly
occupied by wharves, warehouses, and the dwellings of the working
people, the Service of the port. On the north side and in the streets
rising up the hill were the houses of the merchants and the better
class—the second belt of the City. Here stood the townhouses of the
nobles among the equally stately houses of the merchants. Here kings
were entertained by the mayors and aldermen. The great number of
churches shows not only the crowded condition of this part, but also the
wealth of the merchants by whom the churches were founded, rebuilt,
adorned, and endowed.
The breadth of the foreshore as at present built upon varies from 150
feet at its narrowest, which is at the western end, to 450 feet at its
broadest, which is on either side of the Walbrook. The modern breadth,
however, must not be taken to represent the breadth in the twelfth
century. The excavations for London Bridge in 1831 disclosed three
distinct lines of piles, representing three several occasions when the
foreshore was built upon. And the oldest plan of London, called after
one Agas, clearly represents the erection by the riverside built upon
piles. There are no churches on this belt of reclaimed land. As it was
gradually added to the City, so it was gradually added to the riverside
parishes. Four churches are built on the south side of Thames Street,
viz. Allhallows the Great, Allhallows the Less, St. Botolph, and St.
Magnus. The dedication of the last two proclaims their late origin. The
last, for instance, must belong to the late eleventh or the twelfth
century. The very small size to which the parishes would be reduced if
we took away the reclaimed foreshore seems to indicate that much was
reclaimed before the Norman Conquest. The dedication of the churches
along Thames Street—St. Peter, St. James, St. Michael, St. Mary, St.
Andrew—has been supposed to indicate the site of Roman churches. Perhaps
the parish boundaries may have been adjusted from time to time.
“Roomland” was the name given to the quays and the adjacent plots of
land of Queenhithe, Dowgate, Billingsgate, etc., whereon goods might be
discharged out of vessels arriving there.
In 1311 and in 1349 we find mention of houses built upon “la Romeland”
by St. Michael, Queenhithe. In 1338, and again in 1349, we read of a
tenement near the King’s garden upon _le Romelonde_, near the Tower. In
1339 we learn that there was a Roomland in the parish of Allhallows
Barking. After 1374 we find no more mention of any Roomland. Perhaps the
limits of the quays were by this time contracted and defined; perhaps
the foreshore had been enlarged and the “land” behind had been built
upon.
Thames Street was the Exchange, the place of meeting for the merchants.
One supposes, however, that the lesser sort transacted business at the
taverns. Here walked in great dignity Aylwin of London Stone, the first
mayor; Whittington, Philpott, Rokesley, and the Beckets, Faringdons,
Walworths, Sevenokes, and all the great men of the City, each in his
generation, not only building up their own fortunes, but fighting
against disorder and crime in their wards, and against encroachments
from the sovereign.
The Fire swept through the street, raging among the stores of the
warehouses, laying low churches, destroying monuments, and burning up
old memories and associations.
The warehouses were at once rebuilt, but, according to Malcolm (1803),
many of the buildings had in his time become ruinous or decayed. There
is very little left of the building immediately after the Fire: hardly a
single warehouse, and on the north side only one or two of the mansions
built by the merchants. The two ports, Billingsgate and Queenhithe,
still remain, though the trade of the City is no longer carried on upon
the quays. The Custom House still stands very nearly on its old site;
the bridge has been moved farther west; there are other City
bridges—Blackfriars and Southwark; one can still walk down lanes as
narrow as when they were first reclaimed from the foreshore; and there
are still one or two of these narrow lanes where, as of old, the people
of the Service live.
The following is a list of the old signs in Thames Street:
“The White Bear” inn; “The White Lion” inn near London Bridge; “The
White Lion” inn at the White Lion Wharf; “The Blew Ancor” inn; “The Old
Swan” inn; “The Bull Head” inn; “The Naggs Head Tavern” inn; “The
Princes Arms” inn; “The Fling Hors” inn; “The Lion and Key” inn; “The
Black Bell inn; “The Woodmongers Arms” inn; “The Crose Bulets” inn; “The
Suggar Lofe” inn; “The Lobster” inn; “The Bear and Ragged Staff” inn;
“The Two Fighting Cocks” inn; “The Blue Boar and Three Horse Shoes” inn;
“The Horse Shoe” inn; “The Royal Arms on Shield” inn; “The Cross against
Barkin Church” inn.
Thames Street itself is the subject of a great many references in the
_Calendar of Wills_ dated from 1275 to 1688. The earliest is in 1275,
after which they occur repeatedly. In 1280 a tenement is mentioned as
that of Ernald Thedmar; in 1282 Henry de Coventre bequeathed to his wife
his mansion in the Vintry from Thames Street to the waterside.
So far, we have spoken of Thames Street and the riverside generally; let
us now take our section in detail.
Only a short way to the north lay =Ludgate=, one of the principal
entrances to the City.
Ludgate can hardly have been so named later than the Norman Conquest.
Stow, in his explanation of the ancient street leading from Aldgate to
Ludgate, clearly conveys the belief that it was an ancient gate. Perhaps
the necessity of land communications from the City to Westminster caused
the piercing of this gate and the construction of the causeway and the
bridge over the valley and stream of the Fleet. In that case, one would
naturally think of King Knut and his palace at Westminster. The name is
said to mean a postern.
Ludgate was either repaired or rebuilt in 1215, when the barons, in arms
against King John, entered London and destroyed the houses of the Jews,
using the stones in the restoration of the City walls and of Ludgate
more especially. Stow records a curious confirmation of this
circumstance, the discovery, when the gate was rebuilt in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, of a stone with a Hebrew inscription, signifying the
sign or note of Rabbi Moses, the son of Rabbi Isaac. On the east side,
in a niche, on this renewal, were placed the statues of Lud and his two
sons in Roman costumes; and on the west side the statue of Queen
Elizabeth. When the gates were taken down (1761-62), Lud and his sons
were given by the City to Sir Francis Gosling, who intended to set them
up at the east end of St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet Street. This,
however, he did not carry into effect, and the king and his two sons
were deposited in the parish bone-house. The statue of Elizabeth met
with a better fate, having a niche assigned it in the outer wall of old
St. Dunstan’s, Fleet Street. The Lud gate of 1586 was gutted in the
Great Fire, and the stonework seriously injured.
Ludgate was first erected into a prison in the reign of Richard II., and
was anciently appropriated to the freemen of the City and to clergymen.
The place soon became too small for the growing occasions of the City,
and it was enlarged at the expense of Dame Agnes Forster, widow of
Stephen Forster, mayor in 1454.
“Formerly Debtors that were not able to satisfy their debts, put
themselves into this prison of Ludgate for shelter from their creditors.
And these were merchants and tradesmen who had been driven to want by
losses at sea. When King Philip, in the month of August, 1554, came
first through London, these prisoners were thirty in number, and owed
10,000 pounds, but compounded for 2000 pounds, who represented a
well-penned Latin speech to that Prince to redress their miseries, and
by his royal generosity to free them. ‘And the rather for that place was
not Sceleratorum Carcer, sed Miserorum Custodia, _i.e._ a gaol for
villains, but a place of restraint for poor unfortunate men; And that
they were put in there, not by others, but themselves fled thither; and
that not out of fear of punishment, but in hope of better fortune.’ The
whole letter was drawn by the curious pen of Roger Ascham, and is extant
among his epistles, _Lib._ III.” (Cunningham).
The rules and customs of Ludgate are given by Strype:
“If a freeman or freewoman of London be committed to Ludgate, they are
to be excused from the Ignominy of irons, if they can find sureties to
be true prisoners, and if the sum be not above £100. There is another
custom for the liberal and mild imprisonment of the citizens in Ludgate;
whereby they have indulgence and favour to go abroad into any place,
under the guard and superintendency of their keeper; with whom they must
return again to the prison at night.
“This custom is not to hinder and delay Justice nor to defraud men of
their debts and executions, as it is quarrelled against by some, but
serves for a mitigation of their punishment; and tends rather for the
expedition of their discharge, and speedy satisfaction of their
creditors. While they may go and inform themselves, upon their mutual
reckonings, both what they owe, and what is due unto them.” For further
account of this prison see _London in the Eighteenth Century_, pp.
581-87.
In the year 1659, one Marmaduke Johnson, a prisoner in Ludgate,
presented a memorandum on the prison and its Government to the Lord
Mayor. In this document he sets forth the history of the prison, its
constitution and laws, its officers, its charities, and the grievances
of the prisoners.
A great many benefactors have left money to the prison, amounting in all
to about £60 a year. In addition, the Lord Mayor allowed the prisoners a
basket of broken meat every day; and provisions of some kind were every
day, to some small extent, bestowed upon them by the markets. Besides
which there were two grates, one in Ludgate, and the other on the
Blackfriars side, where all day long a man stood crying, “Pity the poor
prisoners.” There were about fifty of the prisoners “on the Charity,” as
it was called. But the warders and turnkeys, by their exactions, got
most of the money.
=Ludgate Hill= was formerly Bowyer Lane. On the south, until a few years
ago, were to be seen some fragments of London Wall, now vanished.
On the top of Ludgate Hill, and on the west side of St. Paul’s, Digby,
Grant, Winter, and Bates were executed, January 30, 1606, for their
participation in the Gunpowder Plot.
The houses on the south side of the hill were set back when the street
was widened in modern times. On the north side there are several old
ones.
ST. MARTIN, LUDGATE
This church was rebuilt in 1437 for Sir John Michael, then mayor,
but was destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of
Wren in 1684. The benefice was united with the united benefices of
St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, and St. Gregory by St Paul’s,
by Order in Council, 1890. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1322.
The patronage of the church, long before 1322, was in the hands of:
The Abbot and Convent of Westminster; Henry VIII., who seized it and
granted it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20, 1540-41; the
Bishop of London, by grant of Edward VI., 1550, confirmed by Queen
Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 476.
The interior of the church is noticeable as being broader and higher
than it is long, its width being 66 feet, height 59 feet, and length
51 feet. The appearance is rendered cruciform by four composite
columns, which, with pilasters on the walls, support entablatures at
the angles of the church. The ceiling is lowered in the quadrangular
corners thus formed. The tower rises at the centre of the south
front, and contains three stories; this is concluded by a cornice,
above which there is a narrow stone stage surmounted by an octagonal
cupola, with a lantern and balcony. The steeple is completed by a
tapering spire, with ball, finial, and vane; its height is 158 feet.
It is said to have been especially built by Wren to form a
foreground to the towering dome of St. Paul’s.
Chantries were founded here by: William Sevenoke, whose endowment
fetched £3 : 6 : 8 in 1548; Michael de London and John le Hatte,
augmented by Roger Payn, William Pows, Simon Newell, and Thomas
Froddashame, to which John de Derby was admitted as chaplain,
January 11, 1392-93, on being vacated by Roger Shirrene; William
Alsone, who also founded chantries in Northants and Derbys.
William Sevenoke, grocer, who founded a free school and almshouses
in the town of Sevenoaks, Kent, Mayor of London, 1419, was buried
here and commemorated by a monument. The other monuments recorded by
Stow are of little note. No benefactors are recorded by Stow.
Sixty boys and fifty girls, belonging to the charity school of the
ward, were clothed and disposed of (when fit) by subscriptions from
the inhabitants.
William Glyn (d. 1558), Bishop of Bangor, was rector here; also
Richard Rawlins (d. 1536), Bishop of St. David’s.
[Illustration:
_Photochrom Co., Ltd._
LUDGATE CIRCUS AND LUDGATE HILL
]
On Ludgate Hill we find also Stationers’ Court, where is the Stationers’
Hall.
THE STATIONERS COMPANY
The Company was incorporated in 1557, but it is believed that a
brotherhood or society existed upwards of a century and a half
previously, called the Brotherhood or Society of Text-writers.
There was a Gild of Stationers as early as the beginning of the
fifteenth century. It appears to have been a branch of the
Scriveners, and to have left them to carry on the preparation of
legal documents while they themselves took over the production of
books. The charter of the Company shows that it was regarded as a
company of printers, and that Queen Mary intended it to be
especially a guard against the issue of heretical doctrines.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Thos. H Shepherd._
STATIONERS’ HALL IN 1830
]
The original charter was destroyed in the Fire of London, but the
Company have a copy of it; also of the charter granted by William
and Mary, confirming the privileges granted by the charter of 1556.
The Company has continued ever since its incorporation, and still
is, a trade guild consisting exclusively of members of the trade of
a stationer, printer, publisher, or bookmaker, and their children,
and descendants born free. The greater number of printers’
apprentices in the City of London are bound at Stationers’ Hall, and
the Company’s pensioners, and the recipients of the charities under
their control, are principally journeymen printers, compositors, and
pressmen.
The Company was originally established for the purpose of fostering
and encouraging the trade of a printer, publisher, and stationer,
and from the time of its original foundation to this date a limited
number of liverymen of the Company have carried on at Stationers’
Hall the trade of a publisher for their own benefit, and a division
of profits has been annually made amongst the partners. Other
portion of the profits has been distributed annually amongst poor
freemen of the Company, applied towards the necessary expenses of
the Company, and invested in the purchase of the hall and premises
adjoining. The capital for this trade was originally subscribed by
the members of the Company in certain proportions or shares, and
these shares have been regularly transmitted from time to time since
1605, as in the case of shares of trade companies.
The copyright registry was first established by the Company at the
commencement of the sixteenth century or even earlier. It would
appear from the ancient records that a register of copies had
existed previous to the incorporation. In 1565 rules were made by
the Company regulating the transmission of copies upon the decease
of the owner, and requiring them to be entered in the books of the
Company. In 1584 the Privy Council (through the Lord Mayor) ordered
that all copies should be entered in the Company’s register, and
copyrights were from time to time transferred by entries in these
registers. Between 1580 and 1615, there are letters from the Lords
of the Council and the Lord Mayor calling attention to the
publication of certain books of a traitorous or mischievous
tendency. There is no mention of any power or authority belonging to
the Stationers Company for the suppression of these books. On one
occasion the Wardens of that Company are ordered to produce the
printer of a certain pamphlet with the person who was circulating
it. Various orders were from time to time issued by the Lords of the
Privy Council and High Commissioners, regulating printing. In 1660 a
committee of the House of Commons was appointed to prepare a Bill
regulating printing, and in 1662 the Bill was passed, and was known
as the Licensing Act. It required all printed works to be registered
at Stationers’ Hall. This Act expired in 1681, and in 1710 the first
copyright Act was passed, which has been superseded by the Act of
1842. The Act of 1710 required copies to be entered at Stationers’
Hall before publication, and the Act of 1842 makes entry at
Stationers’ Hall a condition precedent to the title to sue for
protection against infringements. As a printer, not as a novelist,
Samuel Richardson was a member.
The most ancient hall stood in Milk Street, Cheapside, but in 1553
the Company moved to St. Peter’s College, near the Deanery of St.
Paul’s, and in 1611 they purchased Abergavenny House in Stationers’
Court. This was burnt in the Great Fire. The present building was
erected in 1670, and in 1805 the exterior was cased in Portland
stone, according to a design by the Company’s architect, Robert
Mylne, F.R.S.
The present livery is 284; the Corporate Income is but small, and
the Trust Income £1200.
The Company formerly published almanacks, primers, “A.B.C.’s,”
psalters, and school books, in which they maintained a valuable
monopoly until the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was
declared illegal.
The Company established a school at Bolt Court, Fleet Street, in
1861; this is now at Ridge Road, Hornsey. The school has
accommodation for more than three hundred boys.
This corner of London to the south of Ludgate Hill was covered with
narrow lanes and courts into which light was admitted by the
construction of Queen Victoria Street. It is the site of the
=Blackfriars’ Precinct=. This house was in the hands of the Dominicans.
See _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 354.
Church Entry marks the site of
=St. Anne, Blackfriars=, standing adjacent to the walls of
Blackfriars’ Monastery; it was consecrated in 1597 by Edmund
Stanhope, Doctor of Laws, by virtue of a commission from the Bishop
of London. It was enlarged on the south side in 1613, which was
consecrated by the Bishop of London in 1617. The church was burnt
down in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, but the parish was annexed
to St. Andrew by the Wardrobe. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1597.
The patronage was in the hands of the Crown and parishioners
alternately, since the Great Fire when it was burnt down, and the
parish was annexed to St. Andrew by the Wardrobe; before this the
parishioners presented.
Isaac Oliver, miniature painter, was buried here.
[Illustration:
STATIONERS’ HALL (INTERIOR)
]
The charities and reliefs recorded in this parish were few. John
Bobhurst was a donor of £2 per annum, also Edward Corbet and Mrs.
Miller. The greatest benefactor was Peter Jorge, who founded a free
school, appointing Sion College trustees.
Forty boys and thirty girls were to be taught reading and writing,
and some useful work besides. All were to be given clothing once a
year and two to be put out as apprentices. The school was endowed
with £150 a year, and salaries for teachers. As there were many
tailors among the foundation, the children of such were to have
preference of admission (Stow and Strype).
St. Anne’s had some notable vicars, among them William Gouge (or
Goughe), D.D., forty-six years minister of the parish. In November
1633 “Mr. William Goughe, Doctor of Divinity, prayed to be admitted
freeman of the Society of Apothecaries, and was so.”
On the west is an open space fairly wide, with asphalt centre and
scrubby bushes round. This is jealously guarded by iron rails and wall
from all intruders. It was sacred ground, the churchyard, though there
are no monuments or stones left to bear testimony. Close beside the
churchyard in a carpenter’s shop are certain old arches belonging to the
Dominicans’ Buildings.
Westward there is a small court, called Fleur-de-Lys, on the west side
of St. Anne’s churchyard, which escaped the Fire, though here the Fire
had raged most hotly. A little consideration will show the reason. An
open space called Church Entry lay between the backs of the Fleur-de-Lys
Houses and St. Anne’s Church and churchyard. Now the church stood high,
and during the continuance of the Fire the wind blew steadily from the
east. The view of the City after the Fire shows that the walls of the
churches and of many houses were still standing. Therefore, even though
the roof was burned, the flames blew _over_ this court, while, when the
roof had fallen, the walls of the church sheltered the little court on
the other side. I dare say that, had we a more exact account of the
Fire, it would be found that many houses or courts escaped in the same
way.
“Eminent inhabitants—(of Blackfriars), Isaac Oliver, the
miniature-painter. He died here in 1617, and was buried in St. Anne’s,
Blackfriars. Lady Ayres, wishing to have a copy of Lord Herbert of
Cherbury’s picture to wear in her bosom, went ‘to Mr. Isaac the painter
in Blackfriars, and desired him to draw it in little after his
manner.’—Cornelius Jansen, the painter (d. 1665). He lived in the
Blackfriars for several years, and had much business, but left it a
little before Van Dyck’s arrival. Sir Anthony Van Dyck, from his
settlement in England in 1632, to his death in 1641. The rent of his
house, ‘at a moderate value,’ was estimated, in 1638, at £20, and the
tithe paid £1 : 6 : 8. His daughter Justina was born here December 1,
1641, and baptised in St. Anne’s, Blackfriars, December 9, 1641, the day
of her father’s death. Ben Jonson, who dates his dedication of Volpone
or The Fox ‘from my house in the Blackfriars, this 11th day of February,
1607.’ Here he has laid the scene of The Alchemist. The Earl and
Countess of Somerset were living in the Blackfriars when Overbury was
murdered. The precinct no longer exists, but is now a part of the ward
of Farringdon Within. I have not been able to trace any attempt to
assert its privileges later than 1735, when in the July of that year the
Court of Common Council brought an action against Daniel Watson, for
opening a shop and vending shoes in the Blackfriars without being free
of the City. The court of King’s Bench gave it in favour of the City.
The sheriffs could arrest here many years before” (Cunningham).
Note that the Earl of Northumberland had a town house in 1612 in the
unfashionable precinct of Blackfriars.
[Illustration:
FLEUR-DE-LYS COURT
]
Within the precinct were—and are—several places of interest. The
Blackfriars Theatre was built in 1576. It was rebuilt or extensively
repaired in 1596 when Shakespeare and Richard Burbage were sharers. In
1633 it was let by Cuthbert and William Burbage for a rent of £50. The
building was pulled down in 1655 and tenements put up in its place.
Playhouse Yard preserves the memory of the theatre.
Standing at the western end of Queen Victoria Street and taking a
general view we see St. Paul’s Station of the L.B. and S.C. Railway.
=Water Lane= runs by the railway. Here is the Apothecaries’ Hall.
THE APOTHECARIES COMPANY
Two opposite forces acted upon the City Companies: one separating
them and multiplying Companies for different parts of the same trade
or craft; the other uniting in one Company crafts which were related
chiefly by using the same material. Thus the Barbers divided into
Barbers and Surgeons; the Grocers into Grocers and Apothecaries;
while at one time the Weavers included in their body all those
trades which had to do with woven stuffs, and were so powerful that
they threatened to rule the whole City. It happened sometimes that
some trades were injured by the inability of the Company to look
after them. Thus it was quite natural that the Grocers who imported
drugs and spices and oils used by Apothecaries should include these
persons in their own livery. But, the wardens not being skilled in
the use of medical prescriptions and preparations, could not look
after their own people. Consequently complaints became general of
the ignorance and incompetence of Apothecaries for want of proper
supervision. Towards the end of the sixteenth century these
complaints were brought forward categorically. It took time for the
matter to be understood, and it was not until 1617 that James
bestowed a separate charter upon the Apothecaries in spite of the
remonstrances of the Grocers.
The objects of this charter, concisely stated, are to restrain the
Grocers (the former associates of the Apothecaries) or any other
City Company from keeping an apothecary’s shop or exercising the
“art, faculty, or mystery of an apothecary within the City of London
or a radius of seven miles.” To allow no one to do so unless
apprenticed to an apothecary for seven years at least, and at the
expiration of such apprenticeship such apprentice to be approved and
allowed by the master and wardens and representatives of the College
of Physicians, before being permitted to keep an apothecary’s shop,
or prepare, dispense, commix, or compound medicines. To give the
right of search within the City of London or a radius of seven miles
of the shops of apothecaries or others, and “prove” the drugs, and
to examine within the same radius all persons “professing, using, or
exercising the art or mystery of apothecaries.”
It also confers the power to burn “before the offender’s doors” any
unwholesome drugs, and to summon the offenders before the
magistrates.
And to buy, sell, or make drugs. Up to the passing of the
Apothecaries Act, 1815, so far as the prescribed radius extended,
the three first-stated objects of the charter and the existence of
the society in relation to its members were identical. A member of
the Society of Apothecaries and an apothecary of the City of London
or within seven miles were convertible terms.
As regards the fourth object prescribed by the charter, the Society,
doubtless from its want of means, has never itself until the present
time bought, sold, or made drugs, but owing to the great difficulty
of its members obtaining pure drugs it allowed them to raise money
themselves and create stock or shares for that purpose, and to carry
on such trade in the name of the Society for their own personal
profit as a private Company or partnership under various titles.
Owing to such trade having ended in a loss, this private partnership
was dissolved in 1880, and the Society is now itself carrying on the
trade at its own risk.
As regards the three first-stated powers of the charter, the Society
(by means of the Apothecaries Act of 1815) extended them so greatly
as to effect not only a revolution in their own sphere of
operations, but also in the medical profession and in the relations
subsisting between the latter and the general public.
This Act (after placing the right of search referred to in the
third-stated power of the charter on a more precise and practical
basis, but to which it is unnecessary to allude as having fallen
into necessary desuetude by the various Pharmacy and Poisons Acts)
created a court of 12 examiners to be appointed by the master,
wardens, and court of assistants, who were to examine all persons in
England and Wales as to their skill and ability in the science and
practice of medicine, and five examiners to examine assistants for
the compounding and dispensing of medicine. It authorised the
Society to receive fees for granting the respective licences, and
(saving the rights of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons) it
empowered the Society to recover penalties for practising or
compounding without such licences.
The Apothecaries Act, 1815, contained, however, two restrictions
which were removed by the Apothecaries Act Amendment Act, 1874,
namely, (_a_) the obligation of the 12 examiners being members of
the Society of Apothecaries, and being of at least 10 years’
standing, and (_b_) of candidates for examination having served an
apprenticeship of five years to an apothecary.
The Act of 1874 also contains other provisions which relate more to
questions of medical legislation than this present inquiry. Shortly
the effect of the Act of 1815 was to make the Society of
Apothecaries one of the three great medical licensing bodies for
England and Wales [the number of its present licentiates is between
8000 and 9000], and of the Act of 1874 was to throw open the
Society’s examinerships, and to confer on it a freedom in reference
to future medical reform to an extent not exceeded by any other
body.
The Company consists of about 400 members including the court, the
livery, and the yeomanry or freemen.
The hall, which stands on the eastern side of Water Lane, formerly
consisted of the town house of Lady Howard of Effingham. It was, of
course, destroyed by the Fire, but the buildings which were erected
after the Fire have a delightful air of quiet and peace, such as
belongs very fitly to a scientific society. The hall stands behind a
small paved court; on the left hand is the shop, at the north end of
the hall are the offices, the library and the court rooms. The
Physic Gardens at Chelsea also belong to the Apothecaries on certain
conditions, especially that the Company should every year present to
the Royal Society fifty dried specimens of plants growing in these
gardens, till the number of 2000 was reached. As this was in 1731,
that number has long since passed and the Company’s debt is paid.
Among the more eminent members of this Company have been William and
John Hunter, Jenner, Smollett, Humphry Davy, Dr. Sydenham, Erasmus
Wilson, and Sir Spencer Wells. Oliver Goldsmith and Keats were also
members.
=Printing House Square= contained the King’s Printing House.
“The first I have discovered was John Bill, who, ‘at the King’s Printing
House in Black Friars,’ printed the proclamations of the reign of
Charles II., and the first London Gazette, established in that reign.
Charles Eyre and William Strahan were the last King’s printers who
resided here, and in February, 1770, the King’s Printing House was
removed to New Street, near Gough Square, in Fleet Street, where it now
is. The place still continues to deserve its name of Printing House
Square, for here every day in the week (Sunday excepted) _The Times_
newspaper is printed and published, and from hence distributed over the
whole civilized world. This celebrated paper, finding daily employment
on the premises for between 200 and 300 people, was established in
1788,—the first number appearing on the 1st of January in that year.”
(Cunningham.) _The Times_ office is a very notable feature in Queen
Victoria Street by reason of its great height and conspicuous clock.
Queen Victoria Street and Upper Thames Street gradually diverge at a
very acute angle. The former is on a lower level than the latter, and is
divided from it for about seventy yards by a low wall only, with an open
space crossed by steps. In Queen Victoria Street on the left is the
square tower of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, outlined in white stone, and
thrown into relief by a rather ornamental red-brick building which
stands in front.
=St. Andrew’s Hill= was sometimes called Puddle Dock Hill. In Ireland
Yard stood the house bought by Shakespeare in 1612, and bequeathed by
him to his daughter Susanne Hall. In Green Dragon Court there stood,
until a year or two ago, one of the oldest of the London taverns from
which the court took its name.
=The Wardrobe.=—On the north side of St. Andrew’s church stands a small
square which, with its trees and the absence of vehicles or shops, is
one of the most quiet spots in the whole City. This square was formerly
the court of the town house built by Sir John Beauchamp (d. 1359), whose
tomb in St. Paul’s Cathedral was commonly called Duke Humphrey’s tomb.
Before his death the house became the property of King Edward III. who
made it a Royal Wardrobe House, and so it remained until the Great Fire.
James I. gave the collection of dresses—called by Fuller a “Library of
antiquaries wherein to read the fashion and mode of garments in all
ages”—to the Earl of Dunbar, by whom they were all sold and dispersed.
The wardrobe was taken after the Fire to the Savoy and then to
Buckingham Street, Strand. The last keeper was Ralph, Duke of Montagu
(d. 1709).
When Charles V. came to England in 1522, among the lodgings assigned to
his suite was the house of Margaret Hanley, “under the Wardrobe side,
having two chambers and two beds.”
=Wardrobe Place= is a delightful spot with an air of brooding quietness.
The houses are nearly all old “post fire,” dating from about 200 years
ago. That on the east side of the entry is black with age, and the lines
in the brickwork waver as they cross its front. Next to it on the east
side of the court is a plaster-fronted one, and then a row of three
dark-brick houses with the so-called “flat arch” of brighter red bricks
glowing above the rectangular windows. Nearly a dozen twisted plane
trees, all young, and measured by inches only in circumference, straggle
irregularly from the cobblestones of the courtyard. On the west side
there are charming houses in the same style as the above-mentioned. The
largest of these, No. 2, is wainscotted from floor to ceiling, and has
in many rooms great projecting fireplaces forming recesses on either
side half the width of the rooms. From the south-east corner there is a
covered-in passage leading to the back of the Old Bell Hotel, and with
Wardrobe Chambers opening into them.
ST. ANDREW BY THE WARDROBE
The church derived its title from its proximity to the
King’s Wardrobe above described. It was formerly called St.
Andrew-juxta-Baynard’s Castle. After the Great Fire, the church was
rebuilt by Wren and completed in 1692, and the parish of St. Anne,
Blackfriars, was united with it. The earliest date of an incumbent
is 1261.
The patronage of this church was in the hands of: The family of
Fitzwalter, Lords of Woodham, 1361, which becoming extinct, it
passed to Thomas, Lord Berkeley, then to Richard, Earl Warwick, who
married Berkeley’s daughter; the three daughters of the Countess of
Warwick, viz. Lady Talbot, afterwards Countess of Shrewsbury; Lady
Ross; and Lady Latimer, afterwards Countess of Dorset in 1439; and
the Crown, since St. Anne’s, Blackfriars, was annexed to it.
Houseling people in 1548 were 450.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency_.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY HOUSE
]
This church measures 75 feet in length, 59 in breadth, and 38 feet
in height, and contains two side aisles divided from the nave by
square pillars, encased in wood to the height of the top of the
galleries. The ceiling is exceptionally fine, with beautifully
moulded wreaths. The exterior is of red brick with stone dressings.
The tower, which is square and of four stories, rises at the
south-west; the two lower ones contain windows, the third a clock,
and the highest has square-headed openings with louvres. A cornice
and balustrade complete the tower, which is about 86 feet in height.
Chantries were founded here by: John Parraunt, armiger, for himself
and Clemencia his late wife, and for John Loc, alias Foxton, citizen
and fishmonger, and Margaret, his wife (licence was granted December
3, 1409; the endowment fetched £12 : 3 : 4 in 1518 when Thomas Mores
was priest, “aged 54, meanly learned”); Humphrey Talbot, whose
endowment fetched £7 : 6 : 8 in 1548.
There are three pyramidal monuments of white marble to three
successive rectors—the Rev. William Romaine, a celebrated preacher;
the Rev. William Goode, rector in 1795; and the Rev. Isaac Saunders,
who held the living for nearly twenty years.
Some of the donors of charities were: John Lee, of a house and
wharf, leased for £30 per annum; Mrs. Paradine, £3 per annum; Mrs.
Cleve, thirteen penny loaves to be dealt out every Sunday.
There was a free school founded by a private person for the benefit
of the children of poor tailors, where forty boys and thirty girls
were taught and clothed. Also three almshouses maintained by the
rent of an adjoining house, built partly by charity of the Lady
Elizabeth, Viscountess Chomondeley, and partly at the expense of the
inhabitants, in 1679.
Among the most notable of the rectors were: Philip Baker (d. 1601),
Vice-Chancellor Cambridge University; William Savage (d. 1736),
Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; William Romaine (1714-1795),
Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London; William Goode
(1762-1816), President of Sion College; John Harding (1805-74),
Bishop of Bombay.
A little passage, right-of-way to the public, goes round the north and
east sides of the church, and at the corner where this joins St.
Andrew’s Hill stands the old Rectory House. This is a charming old
building, dating from soon after the Fire. There is, curiously enough,
no oak in the woodwork, excepting only in the cross-pieces of the
window-frames. The fireplace in the study is of interest, fashioned of
marble and tiles set in polished wood; and on the overmantel there is a
little slab bearing the words, all in capital letters:
Laus Deo per Jesum Christum. Church Missionary Society, Instituted
April 12, 1799, in this room; the committee meetings of the Society
were held from June 17, 1799, to January 3, 1812: and here on
January 2, 1804, its first missionaries were appointed to preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
The house betrays its age in all its lines, and though there is no other
special feature worthy of comment in it, the tiny garden behind is well
worth a visit; it contains a plane-tree, and is a curious little oasis
in a wilderness of bricks and mortar.
=Queen Victoria Street= was only begun in 1867-68 as a direct
thoroughfare from the embankment to the Mansion House. It was formally
opened November 4, 1871.
The headquarters of the British and Foreign Bible Society is solidly
designed, with pilasters running up the front between the windows. Over
the great door, supported by blocks of polished granite, is a heavy
stone balcony, and three smaller balconies project from the windows
above. An ornamental cornice runs round the roof. The architect was Mr.
Edward l’Anson.
The library contains the Fry collection of English Bibles, the most
complete ever made. This was purchased by the Society for £6000. It
includes a copy of the earliest edition of _Coverdale_ printed abroad
1535, and one of the earliest editions printed in England two years
later. In the cases about the room are many objects of interest—a German
Bible printed 1473; Codex Zacynthus, a palimpsest, of which the earlier
writing is supposed to date from the fifth or sixth century, the later
from the twelfth. The Society was founded in 1804. Its object is simply
to “circulate the Bible without note or comment, in all languages and in
all lands.”
Since its foundation over 140 million copies of the Bible, whole or in
parts, have been issued. The Society now produces the Bible in about 330
languages and dialects. The University Press monopolises the printing of
English Bibles, and much of the printing of the Society in foreign
languages is done abroad. The only actual printing carried on in Queen
Victoria Street is that done by one man, who works with two hand-presses
for the blind. But the issue of fresh copies by the Society comes to an
average of 13,000 for every working day.
The General Post Office Savings Bank offices, with a frontage of about
250 feet, are next door. The garden belonging to the old Doctors Commons
stretched across the roadway at this point, and was only finally cleared
away in 1867 at the making of the new street.
The Heralds’ College or College of Arms is a fine old building in
deep-coloured brick. The front stands back from the street, and is
supported by two wings. The small courtyard resulting is separated from
the street front by high iron railings and gates. There are two brick
and stone piers at each gateway, with that favourite ornament of the
Stuart period—stone balls—on their summits. The back of the eastern wing
abuts on Peter’s Hill, and the wide, outside flap shutters of an
old-world style give the little hill a quaint aspect. The College was
rebuilt after the Fire, and restored at the opening of Queen Victoria
Street. It was originally Derby House, built by the first Earl of Derby
and presented in 1555 by Queen Mary to the then Garter King-of-Arms; so
it has long been devoted to its present use. Returning to Queen Victoria
Street we see opposite in enormous gilt letters, each four or five feet
long, “Salvation Army International Headquarters” right across the front
of a great building.
=Addle Hill=, like Addle Street, is supposed to be derived from the
Saxon Adel, _noble_. It has been found written Adling Hill. The whole
space between Addle Hill and Bell Yard, and between Queen Victoria
Street and Carter Lane, with the exception of Knightrider Street, is now
occupied by General Post Office Savings Bank Department. Northward, on
the south side of St. Paul’s Churchyard, near the west end, was the
church of St. Gregory mentioned elsewhere.
=Carter Lane= was formerly divided into Great and Little Carter Lane.
From the Bell Inn, Bell Yard, in Carter Lane, the only letter addressed
to Shakespeare that is known to exist was sent to him by Richard
Quiney—“To my loveing good friend and country man, Mr. William
Shakespeare, deliver these.” Bell Yard led to the Prerogative Will
Office, Doctors’ Commons.
Carter Lane, also called Shoemakers’ Row, is mentioned in the _Calendar
of Wills_ in the year 1295. The west end still retains that name in
Ogilby’s map of 1677. In 1424 the exchequer paid to John Kyllyngham,
master of a house called The Bell in Carter Lane, the sum of £17 : 14 :
8 for costs and expenses of Sir Gilbyn de Lauvoy, knight, and John de la
Roe, Esq., and their servants and horses for twenty-eight days. The said
Sir Gilbyn and John de la Roe had been sent to the Holy Land by Henry V.
“upon certain important causes.” Deeds of the fourteenth century speak
of tenements in Carter Lane. In this street were several taverns of note
such as the White Horse, the Sun, the Bell, and the Saracen’s Head. Here
was a famous meeting-house in which many of the most distinguished of
Nonconformist ministers preached.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency_.
THE COLLEGE OF ARMS
]
Here is the school for St. Paul’s choir-boys, with a stencilled frieze.
The playground is on the roof.
=Creed Lane= was formerly called Sporier Row. An inn in Sporier Row is
assigned in the fifteenth century by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s
to their canons. After the Fire there were differences as to the sites
and boundaries of houses destroyed in Creed Lane. The Lane was widened
in 1750 as one of the improvements made at that time.
Dean’s Court has now warehouses erected on the north and east sides. The
house over the archway was said to have been occupied by Sir Christopher
Wren as his office during the building of St. Paul’s. Within this court
were also the vicar general’s, the commissary and the consistory courts,
and offices for procuring marriage licences.
St. Peter’s College adjoined Dean’s Court on the west side in St. Paul’s
Churchyard (see under the Stationers Company, p. 199).
When Charles V. came to London in 1522, Doctors’ Commons among other
places furnished for his suite a hall, a parlour, and three chambers
with feather beds. Mention is made of the dining-hall of Doctors’
Commons and of the “entre going into the great canonicale House now
naymed the Doctors’ Commons with a chamber over the said entre,” and of
other parts of the building.
This ancient College or House of Doctors of Law was swept away in
1861-67 in consequence of alterations in legal procedure. The courts
were removed, and the business of the proctors was merged in the
ordinary work of the High Courts of Justice and the Bar.
The Deanery itself is on the west side standing back behind a high brick
wall, painted yellow. It is attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, and was
built soon after the Great Fire. The stone piers of the gates are
surmounted by cones. The building itself is tiled with three dormer
windows standing out from the roof and heavy projecting eaves. In the
interior there is no carving or anything of antiquarian interest calling
for remark, but the front door has some rich wood-carving in the style
of Grinling Gibbons.
Paul’s Chain and the greater part of St. Bennet’s Hill are now Godliman
Street. The origin of the name “Godliman” is unknown. Cunningham says
that the earliest mention of the name is 1732. It is not found in Ogilby
nor in Strype. It has been spelt “Godalmin.”
A little court named Paul’s Bakehouse seems to have been asleep while
the rest of the world passed it by. It is true the house immediately
fronting the entry is covered with ugly yellow plaster, but it is by no
means obtrusively modern, and if we except an iron railing in the corner
over an area in the north-east, and the house above it, the remainder of
the court has been touched by time alone since it left the builders’
hands in the seventeenth century. The houses on the north and south
sides are of brick; the northern ones bulge forward out of the
perpendicular, and they have low wooden doorways. That in the south-west
corner is supported by grooved pilasters. The northern building claims a
better staircase in the interior—a staircase with spiral balusters and
carved woodwork, low and substantial.
=Knightrider Street.=—Why this street should be named, as Stow says,
“after knights riding” more than any other street, it is impossible to
explain. One may, however, suppose that it was named after some branch
of the Armourers’ or Loriners’ Craft. Dr. Linacre lived here.
Knightrider Street now extends to Queen Victoria Street, but formerly
the eastern part from Old Change was called Old Fish Street. Do Little
Lane, between Carter Lane and Knightrider Street, now Knightrider Court,
is found in many ancient documents called “Dolite,” “Do Lyttle,”
“Doelittle” in deeds of Edwards I., II., and III.
[Illustration:
DOCTORS’ COMMONS, 1808
From a drawing by Rowlandson and Pugin.
]
ST. NICHOLAS COLE ABBEY
The church stands in Knightrider Street; it has been known by
several other names, Coldenabbey, Coldbey, etc. It was burnt down in
the Great Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren
in 1677, when the parish of St. Nicholas Olave was annexed. In 1873
it was thoroughly repaired. Four other parishes were subsequently
united. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1319.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Dean of St.
Martin’s-le-Grand, then the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, 1532.
Henry VIII., who seized it, and so continued in the Crown till Queen
Elizabeth granted it in 1559 to Thomas Reeve and George Evelyn, from
whom it passed to several private persons and at length came to the
Hacker family in 1575, one of whom, Colonel Francis Hacker, was
involved in the beheading of Charles I.; he was finally executed as
a traitor, his estate including this advowson being forfeited and
thus it came to the Crown, and so continued until St. Nicholas Olave
was annexed after the Great Fire, when the patronage was shared
alternately with the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s.
Houseling people in 1548 were 180.
The interior of the church, which contains no aisles, measures 63
feet in length, 43 feet in breadth, and 36 feet in height. The
steeple, which rises at the north-west, consists of a tower of four
stories concluded by a cornice with urns at each angle; above this a
spire rises, completed by a balcony, and supporting a square
pedestal with a finial, ball, and vane. The total height is about
135 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By John Sywarde and Thomas Blode, who
endowed it with lands which fetched £6 in 1548, when Anthony Little
was priest “of 50 years and of mean learning”; by John Tupley, who
left lands and tenements valued at £12 : 8 : 4 in 1548, when Ralph
Jackson was priest “of 30 years of age and very well learned”;
Thomas Barnard, John Saunderash, and William Cogshale, who gave
their lands in Distaff Lane to endow the same, which yielded £7 :
6 : 8 in 1548, when William Benson was priest, “46 years of age, and
a very poor and sickly man.”
The church contained no monuments of any special note. Walter Turke,
mayor in 1349, was interred here.
Barnard Randolph bequeathed £900 to this parish and St. Mary
Magdalene for charities; he died in 1583. No other names are
recorded by Stow.
Herbert Kynaston (1809-1878), High Master of St. Paul’s School, was
rector here. But the most notable among the rectors is the most
recent, Prebendary Shuttleworth, whose death in 1900 left a gap
difficult to fill. Among the most notable of his social schemes was
the foundation of a social club for young men and women who work in
the City (see p. 219).
Old Fish Street, partly wiped out by Knightrider Street, was a row of
narrow houses built along the middle of the street like the old houses
at Holborn Bars, or like Butchers’ Row behind St. Clement Danes; or like
Holywell Street, Strand. Stow says:
“These houses, now possessed by fishmongers, were at the first but
moveable boards or stalls, set out on market-days to show their fish
sold; but procuring license to set up sheds, they grew to shops, and by
little and little to tall houses of three or four stories in height, and
now are called Fish Street.”
=St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street=, was situated on the north
side of Knightrider Street at the west corner of the Old Change. It
was destroyed by the Great Fire, and subsequently rebuilt and made
the parish church for this and the parish of St. Gregory; but it was
again burnt down in 1886, and has not been rebuilt.
In 1890 these two parishes were united to St. Martin, Ludgate. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1162.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s, as a vicarage, about 1162, but about 1319 it was a
rectory in the same patronage and has so continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 360.
The church formerly contained a considerable number of monuments,
but the individuals commemorated were of comparatively little note.
Among them was one, Barnard Randolph, common sergeant of the City of
London, and benefactor of the parish. He died in 1583.
Some of the charitable gifts recorded by Stow are: A messuage,
leased at £28 per annum, the gift of Thomas Berry; 40s. per annum,
the gift of Justice Randall; £3 : 18s. per annum, the gift of the
Company of Wax Chandlers.
In St. Gregory’s Parish, in the Ward of Castle Baynard, there was a
school purchased at the cost of Alderman Barber, where thirty boys
and twenty girls were educated. There was one almshouse upon Lambeth
Hill.
John Hewitt was rector here; he was tried by Cromwell’s High Court
of Justice in 1658 and beheaded. Also William Crowe (d. 1743),
Chaplain in Ordinary to George II.
=Sermon Lane.=—According to Stow this was originally Sheremonier’s Lane.
The name is found as “Sarmoneres,” “Sarmoners,” “Sarmouneris,” and
“Seremoneres” Lane. The most interesting mention of the Street is
contained in the Hist. MSS. Comm. Rept. IX., Part I. 26b. (A.D. 1315):
“Whereas a house belonging to the Chapter of St. Paul’s, at the
north-east corner of ‘Sarmouneris’ Lane, has been assigned to Sir
Nicholas Housebonde, minor canon of St. Paul’s, for his residence, the
said Sir Nicholas has complained that it is inconvenient for the purpose
on account of the grievous perils which are to be feared by reason of
its distance from the cathedral and the crossing of dangerous roads by
night, and the attacks of robbers, and other ill-disposed persons, which
he had already suffered, and also on account of the ruinous condition of
the building and the crowd of loose women who live around it. The
Chapter, therefore, assigns to him a piece of ground at the end of the
schools upon which to make a house.”
In Sermon Lane is the charity school. It was built in the beginning of
the eighteenth century. Two quaint figures of charity children, each
perhaps a couple of feet high, project from the first floor. The boy
dressed in the long lapelled coat, the girl in panniers, apron, and cap.
The house is of brick. The two lower floors have ordinary wide arched
windows, but the two upper ones have each a unique display of no less
than nine narrow, circular headed windows in a row extending across all
the front. These give a curious cloistral aspect to the place. Over the
doorway and two ground-floor windows are scrolls fixed up, but on one
only is there an inscription, which is clearly readable, as follows:
To the Glory of God and for the benefit of the poor children of this
parish of Castle Baynard Ward this house was purchased at the sole
cost of John Barber, Esq., Alderman of this ward, in the year of our
Lord 1722.
And on an immense plaster slab running all across the story above is
“Castle Baynard Ward School, supported by voluntary contributions.”
=St. Bennet’s Hill.=—Strype: “Upon Paul’s Wharf Hill, within a great
Gate, and belonging to that gate next to the Doctors’ Commons are many
fair Tenements, which in their Leases made from the Dean and Chapter go
by the name of _Camera Dianæ_, or Diana’s Chamber. So denominated from a
spacious building that in the time of Henry II. stood where they now are
standing. In this Camera, an arched and vaulted structure, this Henry
II. kept, or was supposed to have kept, that jewel of his heart, fair
Rosamund, whom there he called Rosa Mundi; and hereby the name of Diana.
To this day are remains and some evident testifications of turnings
tedious and windings as also of a passage underground from this House to
Castle Baynard, which was, no doubt, the king’s way from thence to his
_Camera Dianæ_.”
In 1452 (Hist. Comm. IX.) the “Inn called _Camera Dianæ_,” _alias_
Segrave, in the parish of St. Benet is assigned by the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s to a Canon Residentiary of the Cathedral. And in 1480 we
find the _Camera_ described as a messuage with a garden let at eight
marks a year to Sir John Clay; it was formerly occupied by Lord Berners,
“but probably belonging to Richard Lichefield, Canon Residentiary, who
pays to the Chapter 26s. a year for the obit of Richard Juvenis.
ST. BENET, PAUL’S WHARF
St. Benet, Paul’s Wharf, is sometimes called St. Bennet Huda, or At
the Hyth, and sometimes St. Benet Woodwharf. The date of the
foundation of the original church is unknown. It was destroyed by
the Great Fire, and the present building, the work of Wren, was
finished in 1683. The neighbouring church of St. Peter was not
rebuilt and after the Fire the parishes were united. This rectory
has ceased to be parochial, its parish having been united with that
of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. In 1879 the church was handed over to
the Welsh congregation by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners ratified
by an Order in Council. The patron is the Bishop of London. It is
now used for services for Welsh residents in London. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1150.
The patronage of the church had always been in the hands of the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul’s since 1150 up to 1879.
Houseling people in 1548 were 336.
The present church is built of red brick, with stone quoins and
festoons over the windows. It is 54 feet long, 50 feet broad, and 36
feet high. There is one aisle, on the north side, separated from the
nave by two Corinthian columns on lofty bases. The steeple, rising
at the north-west, reaches a height of 115 feet and consists of a
square-based tower, with a cornice, a cupola with oval openings, and
a lantern supporting a ball and vane.
A chantry was founded here at the Altar of Our Lady for Sir William
de Weyland, to which John Love de Canterbury was admitted, April 10,
1334.
This church formerly contained monuments to: Sir William Cheyne,
Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, who died in 1442; Dr. Richard
Caldwell, President of the Royal College of Physicians, who died in
1585; Inigo Jones was buried here in 1652, but his memorial perished
in the Great Fire; there is a marble tablet to his memory on the
north-side wall. Many heralds and dignities of the Ecclesiastical
Courts were buried in this church owing to its contiguity to the
College of Arms and Doctors’ Commons, among whom are John Charles
Brooke, William Oldys, author of the _Life of Raleigh_, who died in
1761, also Mrs. Manley, author of the _New Atlantis_, who died in
1724. Elias Ashmole, the antiquary, was married here.
There was a charity school here for twenty poor boys; also
almshouses, consisting of six tenements for six poor widows. Each
widow received 7s. 4d. per quarter from Christ’s Hospital, 9s. 6d.
at Christmas from the Embroiderers, and 25s. each at Christmas from
the churchwardens. In the event of marriage, the benefit of this
foundation was forfeited.
As this brings us down to Thames Street again, we must retrace our steps
and come right along the river-side from the westward limit of our
section.
[Illustration:
_Photo. York & Son._
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET
]
Puddle Dock was called Waingate in Stow’s time; it was possibly an
artificial port constructed like Queenhithe, in the mud of the
foreshore. Beside the dock, in the sixteenth century, was a brewery, the
first of the many river-side breweries.
Baynard’s Castle has already been mentioned. There was no house in the
City more interesting than this. Its history extends from the Norman
Conquest to the Great Fire—exactly 600 years; and during the whole of
this long period it was a great palace. First it was built by one
Baynard, a follower of William. It was forfeited in A.D. 1111, and given
to Robert Fitzwalter, son of Richard, Earl of Clare, in whose family the
office of Castellan and Standard-bearer to the City of London became
hereditary. His descendant, Robert, in revenge for private injuries,
took part with the barons against King John, for which the King ordered
Baynard’s Castle to be destroyed. Fitzwalter, however, becoming
reconciled to the King, was permitted to rebuild his house. It was again
destroyed, this time by fire, in 1428. It was rebuilt by Humphrey, Duke
of Gloucester, on whose attainder it reverted to the Crown. During one
of these rebuildings it was somewhat shifted in position. Richard, Duke
of York, next had it, and lived here with his following of 400 gentlemen
and men-at-arms. It was in the hall of Baynard’s Castle that Edward IV.
assumed the title of king, and summoned the bishops, peers, and judges
to meet him in council. Edward gave the house to his mother, and placed
in it for safety his wife and children before going out to fight the
Battle of Barnet. Here Buckingham offered the crown to Richard.
Alas! why would you heap those cares on me?
I am unfit for state and majesty;
I do beseech you, take it not amiss
I cannot, nor I will not, yield to you.
Henry VIII. lived in this palace, which he almost entirely rebuilt.
Prince Henry, after his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, was conducted
in great state up the river, from Baynard’s Castle to Westminster, the
mayor and commonalty of the City following in their barges. In the time
of Edward VI. the Earl of Pembroke, whose wife was sister to Queen
Catherine Parr, held great state in this house. Here he proclaimed Queen
Mary. When Mary’s first Parliament was held, he proceeded to Baynard’s
Castle, followed by “2000 horsemen in velvet coats, with their laces of
gold and gold chains, besides sixty gentlemen in blue coats with his
badge of the green dragon.” This powerful noble lived to entertain Queen
Elizabeth at Baynard’s Castle with a banquet, followed by fireworks. The
last appearance of the place in history is when Charles II. took supper
there just before the Fire swept over it and destroyed it.
Baynard’s Castle is mentioned repeatedly in ancient documents. During a
lawsuit heard before the Justices Itinerant at the Tower of London (14
Edward II.) a charter of Henry I. was produced granting permission to
the Bishop of London to make a wall over part of the ditch of Baynard’s
Castle, and referring back to the possession of the castle by Eustace,
Earl of Boulogne, in 1106. In 1307 there were mills “without” Castle
Baynard, which were removed as a nuisance. The Brethren of the Papey had
a tenement adjoining Baynard’s Castle.
In 1276 Gregory Rokesley, mayor, gave the Archbishop of Canterbury two
lanes or ways next the street of Baynard’s Castle. In 1423 a great fire
destroyed a part of the castle. In 1501 Henry VII. rebuilt the place or
restored it. In 1463 Cicely, Duchess of York, wrote from “our place at
Baynard’s Castle.” In 1551 the castle was in the hands of Lord Pembroke,
whose wife, Anne Parr, sister of Queen Catherine Parr, died there,
February 28, 1552, and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The house, as it stood a little before the Fire, was a striking and
picturesque palace. The river-front was broken by three towers of
unequal height and breadth; the spaces between these were ornamented by
tourelles containing the windows; a gateway with a portcullis opened
upon the river with a broad stone “bridge” or pier, and stairs. Within,
it contained two courts.
After the Fire the site of Baynard’s Castle lay for a long time
neglected. Ogilby’s map shows an area not built upon, approached by a
lane from Thames Street, called Dunghill Lane. At the river-edge is a
small circle denoting a tower. Strype says that it was all burned down
except a little tower. Strype also says that the site was converted into
“Buildings and Wharves,” but his map shows neither.
Near Baynard’s Castle, but not marked on the maps, was a place called
Butchers’ Bridge, where the offal and blood of the beasts killed in the
shambles, Newgate, were thrown into the river. It was ordered (43 Edward
III.) that the bridge, a pier or jetty such as at New Palace Yard was
called Westminster Bridge, should be taken away, and the offal should be
carried out of the City.
Stow speaks of another tower on the west side of Baynard’s Castle, built
by Edward II. “The same place,” he says, “was since called Legate’s Inn,
where be now divers wood wharves.”
On the east side of the castle stood “a great messuage” belonging to the
Abbey of Fécamp. During the wars Edward III. took it, and gave it to Sir
Simon Burley, from whom it was called Burley House.
Next came another great house, called Scrope’s Inn, “belonging to Scrope
in the 31st of Henry VI.”
Paul’s Wharf, a “common stair,” was very ancient, and may very well mark
the site of an early break in the wall. In 1354 Gilbert de Bruen, Dean
of St. Paul’s, bequeaths his “tenements and wharf, commonly called
‘Paule’s Wharf,’ to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s and their
successors, so that they maintain a chantry in the Chapel of St.
Katherine” (in the cathedral) “for the good of his soul and the souls of
others.”
In 1344 there was a dispute concerning the right of free access to the
river by Paul’s Wharf. The matter was referred to certain wardsmen.
“They say that Paul’s Wharf used to be common to the whole city for
taking water there, but they say that Nicolas de Tailleur, ‘heymonger,’
tenant by rent service of Dominus William de Hagham, collects the
quarterly payments of those who take water there against the custom of
the city.”
Paul’s Wharf was also called the Wharf of the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul’s.
Beyond Paul’s Wharf was a great house, formerly—_i.e._ in the fourteenth
century—called Beaumont’s Inn, but given by Edward IV. to Lord Hastings.
In 1598 it was called Huntingdon House, as belonging to the Earls of
Huntingdon.
=St. Peter, Paul’s Wharf=, stood at the south-east corner of St.
Peter’s Hill in Upper Thames Street. It was sometimes called St.
Peter’s Parva. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt,
its parish being annexed to that of St. Benet, Paul’s Wharf. Its
burying-ground may still be seen amidst the surrounding warehouses.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1315.
The church has always been in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul, since 1181, and continued in their successors up to
1666, when the church was burnt down and the parish annexed to that
of St. Benet, Paul’s Wharf.
Chantries were founded here by: William Bernard for himself and
Isabel his wife, to which James Payne was admitted January 22,
1542-43; Walter Kent.
No monuments remained in Stow’s time except that in memory of Queen
Elizabeth.
Fish Wharf was near Queenhithe. In 1343 Thomas Pykeman, fishmonger,
bequeathed to his wife the messuage wherein he lived, situate upon “la
Fisshewharfs,” with shops, for life. In 1347 Simon de Turnham,
fishmonger, ordered the sale of “his shops and solars” at “le
Fisshewharfs in the parish of St. Mary Somerset.” In 1374 the Fishwharfs
is said to be in the parish of St. Magnus. Now, there are four parishes
between St. Mary Somerset and St. Magnus. The latter “Fish Wharf” is
probably “Fresh” Wharf in St. Magnus’s parish. In 1291 Thomas Pikeman
(father of the above named [?]), Henry Poteman, and John Aleyn,
fishmongers of Fishers’ Wharf, pray that they may be allowed to go on
selling fish, fresh or salted, in their houses on the above wharf by
wholesale or retail, as their ancestors have been accustomed to do. The
Fish Wharf of St. Magnus was also called the Fish Wharf at the Hole.
=St. Mary Mounthaw= was situated on the west side, about the middle
of Old Fish Street Hill, and derived its name “Mounthaw” or
“Mounthault” from its having belonged to the family of Mounthaul or
Monhalt who owned a house in the parish. It was destroyed by the
Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of St. Mary Somerset, its
site being made into a burying-ground for the inhabitants. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1344.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The family of
Mounthault, who sold it to Ralph de Maydenstone, about 1234, who
gave it to his successors the Bishop of Hereford, in whose
successors it continued till 1666, when the church was burnt down
and the parish annexed to St. Mary Somerset, who shared the
alternate patronage of that church up to 1776.
A chantry was founded here by John Gloucester, late citizen, before
1345, to which John Whutewey was admitted, February 18, 1381.
Two monuments only are mentioned by Stow, one in memory of John
Gloucester, alderman in 1345, and John Skip, Bishop of Hereford,
1552.
Twenty-four boys and twenty girls were taught and clothed by the
gentlemen of Queenhithe Ward.
The parish, together with others, had a gift of 8s. per annum left
by Randolph Bernard, and 40s. per annum left by Robert Warner.
Boss Alley, now vanished, preserved the memory of a “boss” of water
placed there by the executors of Whittington. Beside Boss Alley was a
house once belonging to the Abbots of Chertsey in Surrey, as their inn
when they came to town. It was afterwards known as Sandie House. “I
think the Lord Sands has been lodged there.”
Trig Lane follows, leading down to Trig Stairs:
A pair of stairs they found, not big stairs,
Just such another pair as Trig Stairs.
Broken Wharf is mentioned so far back—_e.g._ 1329 and 1349—that one
suspects that the wall, not the wharf, was at this place broken. In 1598
a stone house stood beside the wharf, with arched gates. It belonged in
the forty-third year of Henry III. to Hugh de Bygod; in the eleventh of
Edward III. to Thomas Brotherton, the King’s brother, Earl of Norfolk,
Marshal of England; and in the eleventh of Henry VI. to John Mowbray,
Duke of Norfolk.
Within the gate of this house (now belonging to the city of London)
is lately—to wit, in the years 1594 and 1595—built one large house
of great heith called an engine, made by Bevis Bulmar, gentleman,
for the conveying and forcing of Thames water to serve in the middle
and west parts of the city. The ancient great hall of this messuage
is yet standing, and pertaining to a great brewhouse for beer
(Stow’s _Survey_).
=St. Mary Somerset= was situated on the north side of Upper Thames
Street, opposite Broken Wharf, and was so-called from a man’s name
Summer’s Hith. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from
the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1695, when St. Mary Mounthaw
was annexed to it. The building, with the exception of the tower,
was pulled down in 1868. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1280.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: William de
Staundon, who gave it by will, dated November 20, 1273, to Arabella
de Staundon, his wife; Sir John de Peyton, 1335; Edward III., 1363
(see Braybroke, _London Review_, 146, as to a dispute about the
patronage when Thomas de Bradeston claimed it); Richard II., as
custodian of Thomas de Bradeston, 1387; Walter de la Pole, in right
of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas de Bradeston; Thomas de
Ingaldesthorp, cousin and heir of Walter de la Pole; Henry VI.,
1435; William Norris, Knight, married to Isabel, daughter of Edmund
de Ingaldesthorp, 1478; Edward VI., 1550; Mary, 1554; G. Comb,
generosus, 1560; Elizabeth, 1585; George Coton, 1596; and several
others until the Great Fire in 1666, when the parish was annexed to
St. Mary Mounthaw.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
Chantries were founded here: By and for John Gildesburgh, in the
time of Edward III., at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the
King granted in mortmain to Richard, son of W. de Segrave, May
18—the endowment fetched £4 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when John Bordell was
priest; by Thomas Wilforde, who had a licence from Henry IV., whose
endowment fetched £3 : 7 : 4 in 1548, when John Moryalle was priest.
Most of the monuments of the original church were defaced by Stow’s
time, and those which he records are of individuals of little
eminence. In later times the memory of Gilbert Ironside, Bishop of
Hereford, was honoured by a stone inscription within the communion
rails.
Ralph Bernard left 8s. per annum, and John Moysier 7s. 6d. per
annum. No other gifts or charities are recorded by Stow.
Twenty-four boys and twenty girls were clothed and educated at the
charge of the gentlemen of Queenhithe Ward.
Samuel Croxall, D.D. (d. 1752), Chancellor of Hereford, was rector
here.
Timber Hithe crossed the narrow lanes parallel to Thames Street. It is
now called High Timber Street. These lanes have changed their names;
“Dunghill Lane,” for instance, became Gardeners’ Lane. There used to be
here a quaint little figure of a gardener, dated 1670, of the kind to be
found at one time in many parts of London, but now very scarce.
[Illustration:
A BAS-RELIEF OF A GARDENER, GARDENERS’ LANE, 1791
]
In Fye Foot Lane is the Shuttleworth Club, founded in 1889 by Prebendary
Shuttleworth. It was intended to provide “a comfortable place of social
intercourse, culture and recreation,” for men and women in business in
the City. The affairs of the Club are managed by the members themselves,
and no religious test of any kind is required. The Club at first went by
the name of St. Nicholas, but it was rechristened the Shuttleworth Club
in honour of the founder. Every form of recreation is provided—from
cricket in the summer months, and dancing, to lectures and chess. In the
basement there is a fine billiard room with two tables. On the ground
floor there is a refreshment bar, where alcoholic as well as
non-alcoholic beverages are provided, and also dining-rooms, which look
out at the back of the house on the dreary little strip of ground—all
that remains of St. Mary Somerset Churchyard. The experiment is
interesting, as this is the first mixed Club established in the City.
Of =Bread Street Hill= there seems to be no recorded history; here on
the west side once stood
=St. Nicholas Olave=, destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt,
its parish being annexed to that of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1327.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Bishop of
London, by whom it was given in 1172 to the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul’s, with whom it continued up to 1666, when the parish was
annexed to St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.
Houseling people in 1548 were 163.
Thomas Lewen, sheriff in 1537, who died 1555, was buried here; also
Blitheman, organist of the Queen’s Chapel, who died 1591; John
Widnell, Master of the Merchant Taylors Company.
Stow says that the parish received no gifts for any purposes.
Hugh Weston (d. 1558), Dean of Westminster, was a rector here. The
churchyard still remains.
Perhaps of all the many points of interest in Thames Street, that open
dock or harbour called Queenhithe is the most interesting. It
originally, as we have seen, belonged to one Edred, a Saxon, but fell
into the hands of King Stephen, as valuable property had a way of
falling into kings’ hands in those early days. After being held by an
intermediate possessor, William de Ypres, who gave it to a convent, it
came again to the Crown, and was given by King John to his mother, the
Dowager Queen Eleanor. It was a valuable property by reason of the dues
collected from the ships unlading here. King Henry VIII.
commanded the constables of the Tower of London to arrest the ships
of the Cinque Ports on the River of Thames, and to compel them to
bring their corn to no other place, but to the Queen’s Hithe only.
In the eleventh of his reign he charged the said constable to
distrain all fish offered to be sold in any place of this city, but
at the Queen Hithe (Stow).
In pursuance of this order the larger ships, as well as the smaller
ones, were compelled to come up beyond London Bridge, and were admitted
by a drawbridge. In 1463 the “slackness” of the drawbridge impeded their
progress, and Queenhithe suffered accordingly. At Queenhithe were
delivered goods varying in quantity and quality, but the two great
trades were in fish: for the fish-market, the principal one—Billingsgate
not being then a free and open port—was at Old Fish Market; and grain,
in memory whereof we may still see the vane on the top of St. Michael’s
Church in the form of a ship made to contain exactly a bushel of corn.
It was in Henry III.’s reign that the “farm” of Queenhithe was granted
to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of the City to be held by them, but the
profits were soon “sore diminished,” partly by reason of the competition
of Billingsgate.
=St. Michael, Queenhithe=, was situated on the north side of Upper
Thames Street, and was sometimes called St. Michael, Cornhith. It
was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of
Wren in 1677, when the parish of Trinity Church was annexed. In 1876
the building was pulled down. Several portions of the building and
fittings were preserved; the font has been removed to St. Paul’s, as
well as a number of the monuments, and the old oak pulpit to St.
James’, Garlickhithe. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1150.
The church has always been in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s.
Houseling people in 1548 were 100.
Chantries were founded here: By Richard Marlowe, ironmonger and
mayor of London, 1409 and 1417; by Stephen Spelman, who died in 1414
and endowed it with lands, which fetched £11 : 16 : 8 in 1548, when
Thomas Gilbank was priest; by Robert Parres, Thomas Eure, and John
Clarke, who endowed it with tenements, etc., which fetched £7 : 13 :
4, when Sir Thomas Bigge was priest.
Few monuments are recorded by Stow, as many had been quite defaced
by his time. He mentions Stephen Spelman as a benefactor to the
church in 1404; and here was buried also Richard Marlow, mayor in
1409, who gave £20 to the poor of the parish, and Richard Gray,
donor of £40.
The gifts and benevolences belonging to the parish were registered
in the parish book, but the details of them are not recorded by
Stow.
There was a school for forty-three boys and girls.
John Russell (1787-1863), D.D., headmaster of Charterhouse, was
rector here.
=Huggin Lane= was known as Hoggene Lane in 1329, 1373, 1429, 1430, 1431,
1433 (see _Calendar of Wills_). In its south-east corner stood the
Church of St. Michael, Queenhithe. The churchyard still remains.
In =Little Trinity Lane= is the Painter Stainers’ Hall, opposite to
which was the Lutheran Church. In Great Trinity Lane was the Church of
the Holy Trinity, not rebuilt after the Fire.
THE PAINTERS OR PAINTER STAINERS COMPANY
This Company was incorporated by Queen Elizabeth, 1582, for a
master, 2 wardens, 19 assistants, and a livery of 124. The present
livery is 130; their Corporate Income is £700; their Trust Income is
£2300. Their hall is in Little Trinity Lane. The history of the
Company has been written by Mr. John Gregory Grace, late master. It
was an ancient Gild, but how ancient cannot be learned. In the
fifteenth century the Painters sent unto the mayor and aldermen the
usual petition that they might be allowed to choose two persons of
their Mystery who should be authorised to make search for bad and
“false” work. This Company originally included painters of portraits
and other kinds, as well as decorators, sign painters, etc. It
might, in fact, have become the City Academy of Arts, and it seems a
great pity that its nobler side was lost sight of. The hall,
formerly the residence of Sir John Brown, Sergeant Painter to Henry
VIII., was destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt immediately
afterwards. The Company can show many distinguished names on the
roll of members, including those of Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey
Kneller, Antonio Verrio, Sir James Thornhill, and Richard Lovelace.
=Holy Trinity the Less= was situated in Knightrider Street. In 1607
and 1629 it was rebuilt and repaired, but it was destroyed in the
Great Fire of 1666, and its parish annexed to that of St. Michael,
Queenhithe. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1323.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, before 1316; Henry VIII.
seized it, when it soon came, either by exchange or grant, to the
Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, with whose successors it continued
till 1666, when the church was destroyed and the parish annexed to
St. Michael, Queenhithe.
Houseling people in 1548 were 170.
Chantries were founded here by: Thomas Cosyn; John Bryan.
John Bryan was buried in this church—he was an alderman in the reign
of Henry V. and a great benefactor; also John Mirsin, auditor of the
Exchequer in 1471.
No legacies or gifts are recorded by Stow.
There was a school for forty-three boys and girls belonging to St.
Michael, Queenhithe.
John Rogers, who was burnt as a heretic at Smithfield in 1555, was a
rector here; also Francis Dee (d. 1638), Bishop of Peterborough.
=Great Trinity Lane=, together with Great St. Thomas Apostle and the
west half of Cloak Lane, formerly counted as part of Knightrider Street,
which joins the western end of Great Trinity Lane.
It was changed to the present style after the Fire. In 1888 the
underground “Mansion House” station ousted all the houses on the south
side of the lane; but Jack’s Alley was a right-of-way into Keen’s
mustard factory—its loss had to be made good, and hence the iron bridge
which crosses the station from the lane to the factory: really it is an
alley suspended in mid-air.
Great St. Thomas Apostle was an important street in old days. It was
so-called from the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle.
At St. Paul’s Cathedral is a document of 1170 relating to =St.
Thomas-the-Apostle=; that is the earliest reference. In 1181 the
book of Dean Ralph de Diceto describes it as “Ecclesia Sancti
Thomae,” a church with burial-ground belonging. The Cathedral canons
collated to it, and one Stephen was then priest. The name at that
time is simply written “St. Thomas”; it was the only church of the
name in the City. A few years later the church dedicated to St.
Thomas à Becket was founded in Cheapside and styled St. Thomas of
Acres: after that, necessity of distinction caused the earlier
church to be known as “St. Thomas-ye-Apostle.” Of the building,
scant information exists. Roesia de Burford erected upon the south
side a new chapel shortly before 1329.[4] At about the same time a
partial or complete rebuilding of the church took place: John
Bernes, mercer, Lord Mayor 1371, was a substantial contributor to
the new work, and a coat-of-arms existing in the stone work and the
windows until Stow’s time (1598) was believed to attest his
munificence. A Fraternity of St. Eligius, or Eloy, Bishop of Noyon,
had quarters here, and there was an altar to their saint. In the
years 1629-1630 the building was “well repaired and finely
varnished” at a cost of nearly £300. Then in 1666 came the trial by
fire, and the church succumbed. The parish was united to St. Mary
Aldermary, and the Dean and Chapter, as patrons of St. Thomas, were
allotted alternate presentation to the united living. The sites of
the church and rectory were thrown into Queen Street, cut from
Cheapside to Thames Street soon after the Fire. Some small portion
of the churchyard remained, east and west of the new thoroughfare.
Part of the western space was shortly built upon; the very houses
still stand, with the tree-planted churchyard as a garden entrance:
beneath the garden are the vaults, once used as a last resting-place
for deceased parishioners, now as a wine store. The western space
still contained some remains of the church until plastered over in
1828. The ground was curtailed by the widening of Queen Street and
the allotment of a rectory site for St. Mary Aldermary in 1851. Thus
it has been reduced to a tiny and flagged square. On the north wall
a tablet bears this inscription: “Near this spot stood the church of
St. Thomas the Apostle, destroyed in the Great Fire of London,
September 1666: the burial ground belonging to which, extending 55
feet northward of Cloak Lane, and 20 feet on an average eastward of
Queen Street, was circumscribed to the space here enclosed a.d.
1851, when by virtue of an Act of Parliament 10 and 11 Vict. cap.
CCLXXX, the remnant of the ground was taken to widen Queen Street
and Cloak Lane. All remains of mortality which could be discovered
were carefully collected and deposited within the vault beneath this
stone. H. B. Wilson DD, rector: Matthew T. Bishop: John Pollock:
churchwardens.” The earliest date of an incumbent is 1365.
The patronage of the church has always been in the hands of the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul’s, and was given to them in the twelfth
century by Wicelonis the priest and Gervasius his nephew.
Houseling people in 1548 were 298.
Chantries were founded here: By Thomas Romayn, whose will was dated
December 21, 1312, for himself and Juliana his wife, to which John
Wariner, priest, was admitted chaplain, April 20, 1368; by Roger
atte Wine, whose endowment fetched £2 : 13 : 4 in 1548; by William
Champneys, to which Walter Badewynde de Canterbury dio was admitted
chaplain, June 12, 1368—the endowment fetched £5 : 6 : 7 in 1548
(the above three were consolidated and united in January 9,
1400-1401, when Thomas Jordan was admitted chaplain); by Richard
Chawry, who gave to the Salters Company certain lands, etc., to find
a priest, which were valued at £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Sir George
Walpole was chaplain; by William Brampton, who endowed it with
lands, etc., which fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Sir John Barnes
was chaplain.
Very few monuments of special interest are recorded by Stow. John
Foy, citizen and Merchant Taylor, was buried here in 1625; he was a
benefactor of the parish.
The charitable gifts belonging to this parish were few and small:
£13 : 0 : 4 the gift of Mr. Hinman; £2 : 12s. the gift of Mr.
Beeston; and others to the amount of £5.
Two almshouses for the poor of the Salters Company belonging to St.
Mary Aldermary.
John Walker (d. 1741), Archdeacon of Hereford, was rector here; also
Thomas Cartwright (1634-1689), Bishop of Chester.
Just beyond its eastern end, across the present College Hill, stood the
=Tower Royal=. The wine merchants of La Reole, near Bordeaux, settled in
and round the present College Hill during or before the reign of Edward
I. The hill and the immediate neighbourhood became termed “the Reole”:
the word “Royal” is a corrupted form, and has nothing to do with kings.
The tower, tenement, or inn situated in “the Reole” stood on the north
of Cloak Lane, at College Hill corner; it extended eastwards nearly to
the Walbrook, northwards perhaps to Budge Row. It had a south gate, and
probably also a courtyard opening into the lane; and a west gate
standing on the hill. Perhaps Henry I. was the founder: Stow wishes us
to believe that Stephen lodged here, “as in the heart of the City for
his more safety,” which is very likely true.
The theory that the tower, or main building, was reserved to the King
finds support in 1331, when Edward III. granted “La Real” to Queen
Phillippa for life, to serve as her wardrobe. A few years later
Phillippa repaired, perhaps rebuilt, it; particulars of the work done
still survive (Cottonian MS.). In 1369, a few months after Phillippa’s
death, the King gave this “inn (hospitum) with its appurtenances, called
le Reole” to the canons of his college of St. Stephen’s, Westminster,
the annual value being then £20. By some means the place still continued
at the royal disposal, both to dwell in and to grant away. When the Wat
Tyler rebellion in 1381 drove Johanna, the King’s mother, from the Tower
of London, she took refuge here, the place being then called the Queen’s
Wardrobe: thither came Richard II. when he returned from Smithfield,
after the death of Tyler. Richard was still here in 1386, “lying in the
Royal,” as Stow has it, when he granted a charter of £1000 per annum to
the refugee Leon VI., King of Armenia. The place was granted by Richard
III. to John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. In later times the Tower became
neglected, and converted into stabling for the King’s horses. When Stow
wrote (1598), it was divided into tenements let out to divers persons.
All perished in the Great Fire; but at the rebuilding the south entrance
and courtyard in Cloak Lane were plainly marked by Balding’s Yard; the
west gateway by Tower Royal Court in what was then Tower Royal Street,
but is now the upper end of College Hill. Neither survived; but a small
lane called Tower Royal, in Cordwainer Ward, marks the western boundary.
West of the Church of St. Thomas Apostle, reaching to Bow Lane, was the
great house called =Ypres Inn=, first built by William of Ypres, who
came over from Flanders with other Flemings to aid Stephen against
Matilda.
In the year 1377 John of Ypres lived there: on a certain day came John
of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Lord Henry Percy the marshal to dine
with him. Both the Duke and Percy had been defending Wyclyf before the
Bishop of London: the citizens, enraged, sought the life of both, going
in pursuit of them to the Savoy. A knight of the Duke’s hastened to
Ypres Inn with the news: the frightened Duke “leapt so hastily from his
oysters that he hurt both his legs against a form,” refused the
consolation of wine, left the Inn with Percy by a back gate, and taking
a boat at the Thames “never stayed rowing” until he came to Kennington,
where he was safe. Thus the hunters missed the fox at his hole, whilst
the fox, lying in hiding at the hunter’s back door, conveyed himself to
a place of security. What eventually happened to the Inn is not
recorded.
=Garlick Hill=, or Garlick Hithe, where, one supposes, garlick was
formerly sold, has at present in it nothing remarkable except the Church
of St. James. “Garleckhithe” occurs in a record of 1281. Of old time,
Stow relates, garlic was sold upon the Thames bank near this hill: as a
strong flavouring it was much in vogue for the dressing of food among
the common folk: and an ordinance of 1310 relating to Queenhithe, close
by, makes reference to ships with cargoes of garlic and onions. Here, no
doubt, the garlic market was held, hence this particular hithe, hive,
harbour, or quay was the Garlickhithe, and the church on the hill just
above was called St. James-at-Garlickhithe. At the north-east corner of
the hill stood Ormond Place, a great stone house, sometimes the
residence of the Earls of Ormond. It had just been demolished when Stow
wrote his _Survey_, and tenements and a tavern built on the site. The
hill was “well built and inhabited” after the Great Fire, says Strype.
Sir John Coke was living here in 1625.
ST. JAMES, GARLICKHITHE
“St. James _versus vinitariam_” occurs in a document of about
1170;[5] “St. James in Garleckhithe” is found written in 1281:[6]
both names were at that time used without distinction, but the
former was eventually dropped. “Vinitarium” or Vintry applied to the
general district of the wine trade situated hereabouts;
“Garleckhithe,” to the harbour, just below the church, where the
garlic-monger made sale of his wares. St. James is the saint here
honoured.
The earliest church is well-nigh recordless: it was in part rebuilt
and chiefly restored by Richard de Rothing, probably the same who
was sheriff in 1326; here, within the walls of his munificence, was
he buried. He did not complete the restorations. John de Rothing,
Richard’s son, left by will in 1375 money towards completing the
repairs, towards the rebuilding of the old belfry, and for
re-erecting a doorway in the north side.
It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from designs by
Wren, 1676-1683. During the last century the church was several
times repaired, but not substantially altered. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1259.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1252; Henry VIII. seized it in 1540 and
granted it to Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster, the same year,
viz. January 20, 1540-1541; the Bishop of London, by grant of Edward
VI. in 1550, confirmed by Mary, March 3, 1553-1554.
Houseling people in 1548 were 400.
The church measures 75 feet in length, 45 feet in breadth, and 40
feet in height. There are two side-aisles separated from the nave by
Ionic columns, six on either side, with a clerestory above. This is
interrupted at the centre, and three eastern and three western
columns each bear half of it, thus presenting a cruciform
appearance. The tower, measuring 20 feet square at the base, rises
at the west, surmounted by a dome, lantern, ball finial, and vane;
the total height is 125 feet. The transitions are softened by vases
and urns. Above the door projects a bracket clock topped by the
grotesque figure of St. James in pilgrim’s garb, locally known as
“old Jimmy Garlick.” Much of the woodwork in the interior was
brought from St. Michael, Queenhithe, when that church was pulled
down.
Chantries were founded here: By John Whitthorn, of three
chaplains—one Thomas Haverbergh, chaplain, exchanges it with William
Gedelston, rector of Ongar ad Castrum, Essex, July 31, 1381; by
William Hawye, at the Altar of St Katharine, whose endowment fetched
£12 : 18 : 8 in 1548, when Thomas Dale was priest; by John de
Oxenford, citizen and vintner, which was augmented by Roger de
Fordham, whose will is dated next after the Feast of St. Barnabas,
1349; by Thomas Lincoln and Richard Lyon in 1548, when John Borell
was chaplain; by Thomas Bodynge, whose endowment yielded £22 : 10s.
in 1548.
Richard Rothing, the reputed founder of this church, was buried
here. So also were the following: Walter Nele, vintner, sheriff in
1337; John Oxenford, vintner, mayor in 1341; John Wroth, fishmonger,
mayor in 1360; John Bromer, fishmonger, alderman in 1474; William
Venor, grocer, mayor in 1389; William Moor, vintner, mayor in 1395;
Robert Chichele, grocer, mayor in 1421; James Spencer, vintner,
mayor in 1527; Richard Lyons, sheriff in 1374, beheaded by Wat
Tyler; Richard Platt, brewer, founder of a free school and
almshouses in Hertfordshire. There were tombs of importance:
especially curious were those of Richard Lyons and the Countess of
Worcester, which had either great brasses or recumbent effigies;
also the tombs of Sir George Stanley, K.G., and his first wife; John
Stanley; Lord Strange, 1503; and the Countess of Huntingdon. The
church owned many precious things: an inventory of its jewels in
1449 is still preserved at Westminster Abbey.
There was a charity school in Maiden Lane, which by the subscription
of the whole ward maintained fifty boys.
Arthur Bulkely (died 1553), Bishop of Bangor, was rector here. Also
Charles Booth, Bishop of Hereford, 1516.
Adjoining to the church on the south side stood a house called “The
Commons”: it had been given by one Thomas Kente for keeping his
anniversary in the church. Here dwelt the chantry priests, who held the
tenure. When the chantries were suppressed by Edward VI. “The Commons”
was valued at 53s. 4d. a year: no fewer than nine “incumbents,” who had
life interests in the chantry property of the parish, received pensions
under Mary in 1555-1556. The total chantry property fetched £2551 : 3s.
In the church was founded a Guild or Fraternity of St. James in 1375: it
was practically a religious Benefit Society: the members, men and women,
were sworn together for the amendment of their lives: on one Sunday in
the year they held an annual feast: they paid entrance fees and
periodical subscriptions. A member of seven years’ standing was eligible
for a sickness or old age allowance of fourteen-pence a week, and in
case of false imprisonment a needy member would be granted a sum of
thirteen-pence a week. In the year 1566 the church was repaired. The
parish bought the rood-loft which had been taken in Protestant propriety
from St. Martin Vintry; the woodwork was utilised for their new
fittings. Edmund Chapman, the Queen’s joiner, carried out the work. He
was afterwards buried in the church, and his monument narrated that:
Fine pews within this church he made,
And with his Arms support
The table and the seats in choir
He set in comely sort.
Here it was that Sir Richard Steele heard the Common Prayer read so
distinctly, emphatically and fervently that inattention was
impossible.[7] The reader who drew forth his praise was the then rector,
Philip Stubbs, afterwards Archdeacon of St. Albans. There is kept in the
church a shrouded corpse in a remarkable state of preservation; formerly
it was one of the show things for the benefit of the churchkeeper, but
though still above ground it is not now publicly exposed. The parish
registers date back to 1536, two years before Thomas Cromwell made a
general order for the keeping of such records. They are amongst the
oldest in the City. Before the Great Fire there stood south of the
church, nearly opposite to Vintners’ Hall, a parsonage. In 1670 it was
rebuilt and leased to one Richard Corbet for forty-one years.
Opposite, at the corner of Garlick Hill, was Ormond Place, residence of
the Earls of Ormond. Farther east, on the same side, stood =Ringed
Hall=. At the west end of the Church of St. Thomas was a lane called by
Stow Wringwren Lane, a most interesting survival. Of old not only were
wines imported into Vintry ward, but grapes were grown here. The
Anglo-Saxon name for wine-press was “winwringa”; that word reversed into
“wringa-win” is undoubtedly contained in the corrupted form of
“Wringwren.” Perhaps a wine-press stood in the lane; the proximity of
“Ringed” Hall seems to strengthen the probability.
The lane called =Worcester Place= serves to mark the site of Worcester
House, the old residence of the Earls of Worcester. One of them, John
Tiptoft, Lord High Treasurer of England, dwelt here in the reign of
Edward IV. This earl was a patron of Caxton, and a great lover of books;
to Oxford University he gave volumes to the value of 500 marks. He was
beheaded on Tower Hill in 1470, when, as Fuller puts it, “the axe then
did in one blow cut off more learning than was in the heads of all the
surviving nobility.” Nevertheless he was known as “The Butcher of
England.” He had impaled forty Lancastrians at Southampton, and slain
the infant children of Desmond, the Irish chief. One of the countesses
of Worcester was buried in the old church of St. James, Garlickhithe,
close by. By the end of Elizabeth’s reign the premises were let out in
tenements. In 1603 they were in possession of one Matthew Paris,
girdler, who left them, by will bearing that year’s date, to his mother
Katherine, then living in Aldermanbury.[8] The Fruiterers Company were
then occupying one or more of the tenements as their Hall, although they
were not incorporated until 1606. Their choice of this locality
indicates that much of the fruit trade was centred here. Worcester House
perished in the Great Fire. The Fruiterers were too poor to establish a
new hall, but met in that of the Parish Clerks.
=Maiden Lane= appears as “Kyrunelane” in 1259. Stow writes it Kerion
Lane, “of one Kerion sometime dwelling there,” but this etymology is
guesswork, as shown by the earlier forms. Before the Fire the lane
contained “divers fair houses for merchants,” says Stow, and the
Glaziers’ Hall.
=Queen Street= was cut shortly after the Great Fire of 1666 in common
with King Street, Cheapside, to connect the Guildhall with the Thames;
thus the Lord Mayor now had a straight course for his procession when he
“took water” at the Three Cranes Stairs on his way to be sworn at
Westminster Hall. The new thoroughfare included the present Queen Street
Place, and was named New Queen Street in honour of the wife of Charles
II. The prefix “New” subsequently vanished. Close to Queen Street in
Upper Thames Street is the Vintners’ Hall (see p. 229). The rectory
house of the parish stands on a portion of St. Thomas the Apostle
Churchyard; the remainder of the churchyard on this side of the street
consists of a small flagged square enclosed by a railing. The portion of
the churchyard on the west side of the road, opposite, contains two
houses; they are the only houses remaining of the post-Fire rebuilding.
In front, the churchyard serves them for a garden; its two fine
plane-trees set off their quaint red brick walls and pillared and
pedimented doorways. The southern house has a delightful room on the
first floor, now used as the board room of the Tredegar Iron Company.
The mantel is exquisite, carved with all the beauty of the Grinling
Gibbons school; the walls are wainscotted; the doors all solid mahogany,
over each a carved panel; the medallion cornice, of minutely beautiful
detail, once carried a panelled ceiling now removed. An ante-room has a
second delicately carved mantel, and a panelled ceiling.
=St. Martin Vintry= stood at the south corner of Royal or
Queen Street, Upper Thames Street. Authentic history dates
back to the Conqueror’s reign, when Ralph Peverell gave the
Church of St. Martin, London, to the Abbey Church of St.
Peter, Gloucester. In a document at St. Paul’s (_Hist. MSS.
Comm. Rep._ IX.) of the year 1257 “St. Martin de Beremanes
churche” is met with. In the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries “St. Martin de Barmannes-cherche” and St. Martin
Vintry are both used. The church was rebuilt in the beginning
of the fifteenth century, several bequests having been left
for the purpose. It was burnt down in the Great Fire and not
rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of the church, St.
Michael Royal. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1250.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Bishop of
Winchester; Ralph Peverell; Abbot and Convent of St. Peter’s,
Gloucester, from 1388; Henry VIII.; Bishop of Worcester by grant of
Edward VI., in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when the
parish was annexed to St. Michael Royal.
Houseling people in 1548 were 460.
A chantry was founded here by John Gisors or Jesores, for himself
and Isabel his wife, to which Geoffrey Stowe was admitted chaplain,
September 5, 1368.
Very few monuments of interest are recorded by Stow. Sir John
Gisors, mayor in 1311, was buried here; also Sir Ralph Austrie and
Sir Cuthbert Hacket, mayors. A considerable number of those
commemorated were “Vinetarii.”
According to Stow, there were no bequests or legacies belonging to
the church, or for public uses; though there were a few for the
poor. The Stationers Company was donor of £2 : 10s., for bread; the
Dyers Company was donor of £4 every two years, for clothing; and
George Lucas was donor of £2.
In St. Martin, Vintry, there was a workhouse, and thirteen
almshouses founded by Sir Richard Whittington, each person being
allowed 3s. 10d. a week.
Bruno Ryves (1596-1677), who suffered much persecution in Puritan
times, Dean of Chichester and of Windsor, was rector here.
The site became a burial-ground. A part is now covered with buildings,
but the remainder forms a small square, planted with trees—three great
elms, two small limes, one large plane: six trees in all—really quite a
leafy wood for the City! The paths and flower-beds are well tended. A
few gravestones impart an aspect of sepulchral solemnity. Thus the site
of St. Martin Vintry is not wholly effaced.
The =Vintry= stood east of Queenhithe; it was a wharf on which “the
merchants of Bordeaux craned their wine out of lighters and other
vessels, and then landed and made sale of them within forty days after,
until the 28th of Edward I., at which time the said merchants complained
that they could not sell their wines, paying poundage, neither hire
houses nor cellars to lay them in.”
This was remedied by building storehouses with vaults and cellars for
storage, where formerly had stood a row of cooks’ shops.
On the Vintry wharf were three cranes standing. They gave the name to
Three Cranes Lane. At Three Cranes Stairs, in 1552, the Duke of Somerset
was landed on his way to the Tower. In 1554 Queen Mary landed here, when
she paid a visit to the Guildhall and “showyd hare mynde unto the Mayor,
aldermen, and the whole craftes of London in hare owne person.”
On the south side of Thames Street, just above the Three Cranes wharf
and opposite to St. Martin Vintry, stood a large house built of stone
and timber; below it were vaults for the stowage of wines, for it was a
wine merchant’s mansion known as “The Vintry.” John Gisors, vintner,
mayor 1311, 1312, and 1314, constable of the Tower, dwelt here; also
Henry Picard, vintner, Lord Mayor, 1356. In the year 1363 Picard
sumptuously feasted in this house Edward III.; John II. of France, the
Black Prince’s prisoner; David, King of Scots; the King of Denmark; the
King of Cyprus, and many nobles. Truly an illustrious gathering. It is
said that the toast of “five times five,” still drunk, owed origin to
this feast of the five kings. Picard kept his hall for all comers that
were willing to play dice with him; his wife, the Lady Margaret, kept
her chamber to the same intent for the princesses and ladies. The King
of Cyprus won fifty marks from Picard, but afterwards lost a hundred
marks and was at pains to conceal his chagrin. “My Lord and King,” said
the host, “be not agrieved, I covet not your gold but your play, for I
have not bid you hither that I might grieve you, but that amongst other
things I might try your play.” Thereupon Picard restored the monarch’s
marks and good humour at one and the same time, “plentifully bestowing
of his own among the retinue.” Moreover, he gave rich gifts to King
Edward and to the nobles and knights who had that day dined with him “to
the great glory of the citizens of London.” (Stow).
THE VINTNERS COMPANY
It is probable that a fraternity or company of the Mystery of
Vintners, by the name of the Wine Tunners of Gascoigne, has existed
in London from time immemorial.
The Company is mentioned in a Municipal Ordinance of the year 1256.
By letters patent, 37 Edward III., it was ordained and granted,
amongst other things, that no merchant should go into Gascony for
wines, nor use the trade of wine in England, except those who in
London were enfranchised in the said mystery there, or who, in other
cities, boroughs, and towns, had skill therein, and that no stranger
should retail wines; and that the merchants of the said mystery of
Vintners should elect four persons to see that all wines were sold
by retail in taverns at a reasonable price for such wine, and of
such conditions, as they were known, or named, to be; and that the
taverners should be ruled by such four persons, and likewise that
the said four persons should correct and amend all defaults that
should be found in the exercise of the said mystery, and inflict
punishments by their good advice and consideration, if need were,
without the mayor, bailiff, or other chief magistrate; and the King
gave licence to the said Merchant Vintners to export cloth, fish,
and herrings in exchange for wines; and did ordain that all wines
coming to London should be landed above London Bridge, westward
towards the Vintry, so that the King’s butler and gauger and
searchers might have knowledge thereof, and take the customs and
prices of right due. Which Letters Patent were exemplified and
confirmed by inspeximus by King Henry the Sixth by Letters Patent,
bearing date the eighth day of November, in the sixth year of his
reign.
By another charter of King Henry VII., the King and Queen ordained
and constituted the mystery of Vintners of the City of London a
mystery of itself, and the freemen and commonalty thereof were to be
one body corporate and politic, in deed, fact, and name, by the name
of the master and wardens and freemen and commonalty of the mystery
of Vintners of London.
Other charters are recited from Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen
Elizabeth.
The members of the Vintners Company, by patrimony or servitude, and
their widows have, by its various charters, the right to sell
foreign wine without a licence; and the court of assistants as the
governing body, when a complaint is made that the privilege is
abused by any member, summons him to attend, and after hearing the
evidence on both sides, adjudicates according to its discretion. The
utmost penalty is disfranchisement.
The Company exercises control only over its own members.
The Company claims to exercise through its members the privilege of
selling foreign wine without licence throughout England.
[Illustration:
COUNCIL CHAMBER, VINTNERS’ HALL
Vintner Sheriff receiving the Congratulations of his Company.
]
It appears that from time immemorial this Company also enjoyed the
exclusive right of loading and landing, rolling, pitching and
turning all wines and spirits imported to, or exported from the City
of London, and all places within three miles of the same. From this
franchise which was, and still is exercised by its tackle porters,
the Company derived a very considerable emolument till in the years
1799, 1800, 1804, and 1805, several Acts of Parliament were passed,
by which this privilege was in a great measure curtailed. The
Company indemnifies those persons employing its tackle porters
against all losses of wines and spirits caused through their
negligence or accident.
The number of liverymen called during ten years is 206. The
Corporate Income is £9500; the Trust Income is £1500.
1. A freeman or his widow has a claim to relief. When admitted by
patrimony or servitude, a freeman, or his widow, enjoys the
privilege of a “Free Vintner,” and, if exercising such privilege, is
exempt from “Billeting,” _i.e._ having soldiers or sailors quartered
in his or her house.
2. The average annual sum distributed amongst the members of the
court of assistants has amounted, during the last ten years, to
£886 : 11s., being about £50 each per annum (income tax free).
Members of the court receive no pensions or donations.
No fees are paid to liverymen or freemen.
The average annual sum paid to liverymen and freemen, and their
widows, in pensions and donations during the last ten years has
amounted to £2503.
3. The qualifications for a pension are: being a member or widow of
a member in reduced circumstances, between the ages of fifty and
sixty, or, if younger, being in ill-health. For a donation:
membership, or being the widow or child of a member.
The site of Vintners’ Hall appears in reliable records of the
fourteenth century. Strype has the account of it: That Sir John
Stodeye, who held it of Edward III. in free burgage, gave it in
1329, under style of the Manor of the Vintry, to John Tuke, parson
of St. Martin Vintry, as a feoffment; that Tuke’s successors claimed
it as belonging absolutely to the church, whereas it really
appertained to the Vintners’ Company; that an inquisition was held
in relation thereto before Sir Ralph Joslyn, in 1477; that a trial
in the Exchequer followed; and that finally Richard III. decided the
ownership in favour of the Company,[9] reciting the above statements
in his grant. It is difficult to harmonise this account with other
known facts; therefore, leaving it on record, we pass to better
authenticated matter. Now, Edmund de Sutton owned the site in the
reign of Edward III.; upon the Thames bank lay his quay, towards the
high street of the Vintry his houses, cellars, and solars. Upon the
east stood Spital Lane and the tenements of the Abbess of St. Clare
in Aldgate; on the west, Cressingham Lane and the tenement of John
Cressingham; through the midst ran the boundary line between St.
Martin Vintry parish and St. James-at-Garlickhithe. Sutton’s
possession was disputed, trial followed, and Sutton “recovered it
from Walter Turke by Writ of Novel disseisin.” Turke was alderman of
the ward, and mayor, 1349. Then in 1352 Edmund de Sutton granted the
whole to John de Stodeye who was sheriff that year. The Vintners
Company had as yet no licence in mortmain; perhaps Stodeye was
acting as feoffee for them, perhaps not. Stow relates that he gave
Spital Lane, “with all the quadrant wherein Vintners’ Hall now
standeth, with the tenements round about, to the Vintners”; but the
statement proves nothing either way. Stodeye’s will is dated 1375;
it makes no mention of the property. His heirs granted it to
feoffees, and it passed from one to another as a feoffment, until
finally vested in the Company by the wills of Guy Shuldham (1446)
and John Porter (1496).[10] Shuldham’s will[11] conveys the
impression that of his own bounty he added to the original property
of which he was feoffee. To his foundation are attributed the
Vintners’ almshouses. His will describes them as “thirteen little
mansions lying together.” He directs that in them should dwell rent
free thirteen poor and needy men and women of the Vintners’ craft,
each to have a penny every week; any of them to be ejected for
misconduct after three warnings. These “little mansions” were
probably on the Spital Lane (at that time Stodeye’s Lane) side of
the Hall; after the Great Fire they were removed to Mile End. Not
much is known of the old premises, but Shuldham’s will tells us
something. There was a great hall and a refectory, a parlour with a
leaden roof, and adjoining it a counting-house with two rooms above;
a kitchen, pantry and buttery, a coal-house, and a “yard” with a
well. No doubt the yard lay betwixt hall and river, and answered to
what was the garden in later years. When the Vintners “built for
themselves a fair hall and thirteen almshouses” (to quote John
Stow), these miscellaneous and doubtless inconvenient buildings
disappeared. In 1497 the premises were inspected for the purpose of
assessing the fine for amortising them pursuant to the act.[12] Here
a new pair of stocks was erected in 1609 for punishment of deserving
members; here General Monk was feasted and entertained by special
music on April 12, 1660, shortly after the Restoration. Six years
later a restoration of a different sort was required; the Great Fire
had wrought its work of woeful ruin, and the Vintners Company must
needs rebuild. In 1823 the hall was almost entirely rebuilt again.
=College Street.=—The Walbrook stream, crossing the street, divided
Vintry from Dowgate ward. It was spanned by a bridge called in the
twelfth century Pont-le-Arch, also, but probably later, Stodum Bridge.
The earliest style of the lane east of that bridge was “Les Arches
Lane,” and that would be derived from the bridge. Later, just as St.
Mary de Arcabus became St. Mary-le-Bowe, so this lane became “the lane
called Le Bowe”; a will of 1307 so styles it. Quite possible Little
College Street did not then exist, or existed only as a path on the east
side of the brook; if the latter, there would thus be a bow-like passage
from Dowgate Hill to Thomas Street, and both shape and name would be
singularly in accord. West of the bridge the lane was probably, and in
common with the present College Hill, “Paternoster Lane”; afterwards the
hill became “the high street called le Riole,” but this lane seems to
have retained the old title until Stow wrote of it. When Walbrook stream
became arched over, the strict division between Paternoster Lane and Le
Bowe Lane disappeared. The course of Walbrook so divided the lane that
the north side from the church to Skinners’ Hall was included in
Paternoster Lane, and the south side opposite was part of Bowe Lane;
this distinction would naturally disappear on the covering of the brook.
Before that event Le Bowe Lane would be all in the parish of Allhallows
the Great; in 1307 reference is made to it in the parish of St.
Michael’s (_Wills in the Court of Hustings_, pt. i. p. 190), so that the
covering of the brook appears already to have taken place, at least in
part, by that date. By Stow’s time Le Bowe Lane had become Elbow Lane,
and ran by a crescent course from Dowgate Hill to Thames Street;
Paternoster Lane continued as before. Stow makes an error in each case;
he misses the true etymology of the former, implying that its elbow-like
bending was the origin of its name, and he surmises that “Les Arches”
was the old title for Paternoster Lane, which was not so. After the
Great Fire the whole thoroughfare from College Hill to Dowgate Hill
became Elbow Lane, and later Great Elbow Lane; the bend into Thames
Street was renamed Little Elbow Lane. Subsequently the present styles
were adopted, and, like College Hill, commemorate Whittington’s College.
College Street is quaint: on the south side No. 24 has been rebuilt, and
No. 27 refaced since the post-Fire rebuilding; otherwise the Vintry
portion remains unaltered. The Skinners’ Hall and all the garden
belonging to it are close by, though the entry is on Dowgate Hill (see
p. 238).
In College Street is the Innholders’ Hall.
THE INNHOLDERS COMPANY
From the records of the Company it appears that it was a Guild or
Fraternity by prescription under the name of “Hostiller” before the
same was incorporated by charter.
Its earliest known record is a petition preferred on the 12th
December, 25 Henry VI. (1446), by certain “Men of the Mistery of
Hostillars of the City,” in the chamber at Guildhall before John
Colney, mayor, and the aldermen of the City praying them to confirm
certain ordinances which were ordered to be entered upon the Record
and observed in all future times.
The next record is a petition preferred on 28th October, 13 Edward
IV., 1437, by the wardens and certain men of the Mistery of
Hostillers in the chamber of Guildhall, before Mr. Hampton, mayor,
and the aldermen of the City, stating that the craft or mistery were
called hostillers and not innholders as they were indeed, by which
no diversity was perceived between them in name and their servants
being hostillers indeed, and praying that they might be called
innholders and in no wise hostillers, which was ordained
accordingly.
On 31st July, 1 Richard III., 1483, another petition was preferred.
The present number of liverymen is 86; the Corporate Income is
£1900; the Trust Income is £225.
The Innholders were an ancient fraternity which grew out of the
Hostelers or Hostillers and the Haymongers. The former provided a
bare lodging for travellers; the latter provided stabling. The
visitor or lodger had to go to the tavern for his food and drink.
The Innholder advanced a step; he received the traveller with his
horses and his following. If the traveller was a trader, the inn
received his wagon, his merchandise; while the stable belonging to
the inn received his horses. The inn provided food, wine, and ale.
The old Hosteler became the servant of the Innholder and was at last
restricted to service in the stable.
Stow describes the hall as a fair house. After the Great Fire it was
rebuilt (about 1670) by Wren and Jarman, and the west side of the
great hall facing Little College Street is of this date. The present
College Street front was built in 1886 from designs by Mr. J.
Douglass Mathews, architect. It is a very handsome three-storied
building of red brick. The door is of remarkably fine carving, of
curious form, having the appearance of two doors, the smaller
imposed upon the greater. Above the door under a pedimental canopy
are the Company’s arms. The great hall, which dates from the old
building, is a plain apartment, with wainscotted walls, and a flat
square-panelled ceiling. The fire-place is framed in a fine piece of
marble, and the mantel is of carved wood.
The reception-room is remarkable for a splendid ceiling, said to be
Wren’s. It has a handsomely moulded oval panel, covering the centre,
whilst the four corners bear respectively: the date 1670, the arms
of Charles II., the City arms, and the Innholders’ arms. The room is
panelled and has a good oak overmantel.
In the window of the staircase is some old seventeenth-century
stained glass, removed from a window of the great hall. One piece
has the arms of Deputy John Knott, “3rd time master 1670”; the other
the arms of Captain Richard Pennar, “once master 1678.” The modern
court-room is of the 1886 rebuilding, and has a good moulded ceiling
and carved overmantel. It contains two curious old pictures. One the
arms of Charles II., bearing the mark “C.R.2,” and showing Might and
Power crushing down Rebellion whilst a peaceful king reigns. The
other is a representation of the Nativity in the Inn at Bethlehem,
said to have been presented by Charles II. It depicts St. Joseph
holding a crucifix. The star in the Innholders’ arms is the Star of
Bethlehem, which is, of course, shown in this picture.
ST. MICHAEL ROYAL
St. Michael Royal on College Hill derived its name Royal from the
adjacent lane “La Riole” (see p. 223); it was sometimes called St.
Michael Paternoster from Paternoster Lane. “Paternoster-cherch” is
first found written in the _Calendar of Wills_ (Court of Hustings,
Part I. p. 3) in 1259; “St. Michael de Paternoster-cherch” in 1284;
and “Paternostercherche near la Rayole” in 1301. It was rebuilt by
Sir Richard Whittington. Early in the fifteenth century the old
church was small, frail, and ruinous: it stood where it now stands,
but north and east lay unbuilt spaces, green with grass, and
possibly tree-planted. Across the green to the north stood “The
Tabard,” the dwelling-house of Whittington, who rebuilt the church
on a larger scale, granting land of his own for the purpose in 1411.
The site available measured 113 feet long from east to west, just as
now there is a graveyard 26 feet long. The new building had a
castellated parapet: the tower stood at the west end, square,
embattled, surmounted by a great cross. Beneath the tower a great
doorway opened upon Paternoster Lane. It was destroyed in the Great
Fire and rebuilt by Edward Strong, Wren’s master-mason, in 1694; the
steeple was added in 1713. The church of St. Martin Vintry was not
rebuilt after the Fire, its parish being annexed to this. The
parishes of Allhallows the Great and Allhallows the Less were also
annexed in 1893. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1282.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1282; the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury from 1550 to 1666, when St. Martin Vintry was annexed and
the patronage was alternate with the Bishop of Worcester.
Houseling people in 1548 were 213.
The church is oblong in shape, 67 feet in length, 47 feet in width,
and 38 feet in height. The oak altar-piece is said to be the work of
Grinling Gibbons, and above it there is a painting by William
Hilton, R.A., presented in 1820 by the directors of the London
Institution. The tower is square and contains three stories
terminated by a cornice and parapet, with vases at the angles; it is
surmounted by a shallow dome on four arches, and encircled by Ionic
columns. Above this the steeple is octagonal, crowned by a pedestal
with finial and vane. The total height is 128 feet 3 inches. The
church was repaired and the interior arrangements remodelled in
1864; in 1895 was again repaired; at this date the carved woodwork
and the organ case from Allhallows the Great were utilised on the
demolition of that church. Beneath the tower is preserved a carving
of the royal arms (William and Mary); this stood above the reredos
before the placing of the picture there in 1820. The tower contains
one bell.
A chantry was founded here by Lawrence Duket in 1289.
The church contained but few monuments of note. There was one in
memory of John Haydon, mercer, Sheriff 1582, and benefactor of the
parish. Sir Richard Whittington, the founder of the church, was also
commemorated; he was buried here with his wife, and the traditional
site of the tomb, which was destroyed in the Great Fire, is where
the sanctuary rail and organ are.
The only monument of any interest in the present building is one to
Sir Samuel Pennant, who died 1750, during his mayoralty; he died of
gaol fever, caught in discharging his duty in visiting Newgate.
There is a memorial tablet to Jacob Jacobsen on the west wall;
Bishop Wadington’s arms can be seen in the south-west window.
Reginald Peacock, Bishop of Chichester, 1449, was rector here; also
William Ive (d. 1485), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford; Humphrey Hody
(1659-1707), Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford; and Richard Smith
(1500-1563), Dean of Douai and a great pillar of the Catholic
Church.
Under Whittington’s will, the church became collegiate in 1424. A
college of St. Spirit and St. Mary, the college house, the almshouse,
also of Whittington’s foundation, and a parcel of ground then a garden,
but intended for consecration as a new churchyard, were grouped north of
the church, between that and Whittington’s own dwelling. They probably
composed a quadrangle. The almshouse was called “God’s House or
Alms-house or the hospital of Richard Whittington.” It was for twelve
poor folk, men and women, and a “tutor” who had custody of the goods,
and was to preserve order. He had a separate apartment—the twelve others
lived more together; all dined and supped in common hall. They were to
pray daily for their founder, his wife and others; to behave seemly; to
read, work, or meditate; to dress in dark brown, “not staring nor
blazing in colour.” The college house was for the accommodation of five
fellows or chaplains, two clerks, and four choristers; these composed
the collegiate staff. The fellows were secular priests, that is to say,
not regulars or conventual clergy; they were to be masters of art, poor
men, unbeneficed. One of them was to occupy the position of master. The
church ceased as a rectory when it became a collegiate. The then rector
was appointed the first master and he was to continue his parochial
duties.
Before the end of the century the members had formed themselves into a
fraternity—_Fraternitas Scantæ Sopluæ_—for the reading of a divinity
lecture. A little later a divinity reader was provided by a bequest, and
another legacy was allotted to the fellows, so that each should deliver
two additional sermons every year, either in the City or out.
Whittington’s estates originally produced £63 per annum for the college
and £40 per annum for the almshouse. At the suppression of the former,
under Edward VI., the value was returned at only £20 : 1 : 8 per annum;
the college house and garden were sold for £92 : 2s. to Armagil Waad, or
Wade, Clerk of the Council, in 1548. The almshouse was not then
affected, but was and is administered by the Mercers Company. It was
rebuilt after the Great Fire. In 1808 the almshouse people were removed
to Highgate. The Mercers’ School, rebuilt in Old Jewry in 1670, removed
to Budge Row in 1787, and burnt down and removed to 20 Red Lion Court,
opposite to St. Antholin’s, Watling Street, in 1804, was settled in the
old almshouses on their becoming empty. In 1832 the premises were
rebuilt. Externally they present a plain structure of stone, with a
great projecting cornice; the interior is spacious, the flagged
playground still preserves a suggestion of collegiate cloisters. Here
almsmen walked, here college fellows paced, here hearty schoolboys
shouted—now all is silent and untenanted. The Mercers’ School is now
removed to Holborn.
The name College Hill does not occur in Stow, but Newcourt’s map of 1658
so styles it: it bore reference to Whittington’s College. As the Duke of
Buckingham’s “Litany” (1679) has it, there was thus “Nought left of a
College, but College Hill.” Ogilby’s post-Fire map (1677) names the
street College Hill only so far north as Cloak Lane; above that it was
Tower Royal Street: both portions are now reckoned as College Hill as
far as Cannon Street. At the corner of the present Maiden Lane was
situated, in the fourteenth century, the house and tavern of Richard
Chaucer, vintner, step-grandfather to Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet.
Perhaps the latter dwelt here.
After the Great Fire “a very large and graceful building” with great
courtyards was erected on College Hill. Here lived the second and last
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, “for the more security of his trade, and
convenience of driving it among the Londoners.” This dissolute but
clever courtier was nicknamed “Alderman Buckingham” and satirised by
Dryden as “Zimri” who was “everything by starts and nothing long.” The
house was sometime the residence of Sir John Lethieullier, merchant and
alderman, sheriff in 1674; it has since disappeared, but portions of the
courtyard remain. One of these is Newcastle Court, on the west of
College Hill, now merely a yard between backs of great houses, and a
postern entrance to the Cloak Lane Police Station.
[Illustration:
WHITTINGTON’S HOUSE
]
Of the general houses which Strype (1720) says were “well built and
inhabited by merchants and others,” none remain, except Nos. 3 and 4 on
the west side, of which the latter has a quaintly carved tympanum above
the front door: and Nos. 21 and 22 on the east side. The two last or
some part of them stand upon the site of “The Tabard,” Whittington’s own
dwelling-house. Here are two stories of cellars in the northern house,
whose foundation walls are built from stones possibly once forming the
materials of Whittington’s mansion. Both premises have massive
staircases, and the southernmost possesses some well-carved doorcases.
The little courtyards before them are each entered through a great porch
with timbered sides, and heavy panelled doors shut it off from the
street. The arched gateways of the porches are pedimented, the tympanums
filled with a profusion of luxuriant carvings—grotesque heads, drapery,
garlands of flowers and fruit. Above the gateways stand porch-rooms;
still higher little latticed dormer windows peep out of the quaint,
tiled roofs. The porches are the pride of the hill, and well serve to
mark so illustrious a site.
Stow calls =Dowgate Hill= “the high street called Downgate,” and by that
he doubtless includes both the hill on the north side of Thames Street
and Dowgate Dock on the south side of the same. The east side is now
wholly occupied by the immense wall of Cannon Street hotel and station.
Only a portion of the former is in the ward. Beneath the latter, opening
upon the street, are several cellars called Dowgate vaults. Previously
to the erection of the station a lane called Chequer Yard ran from
opposite Dyers’ Hall to Bush Lane. Stow terms it Chequer Lane, or Alley,
“of an inn called the Chequer.” Its former name, he says, was Carter
Lane, “of carts and carmen having stables there.” Strype calls it “a
pretty good open space.” Malcolm (1802) says Chequer Yard then consisted
of a vast range of warehouses, many stories in height, always filled
with tobacco, cotton, coffee, etc. Amongst these were the Plumbers’ Hall
warehouses. Here formerly stood Plumbers’ Hall (see Appendix) and the
Chequer Inn. “The Chequer” is mentioned as a brew-house so early as the
reign of Richard III., when it appears to have appertained to the Erber.
It was rebuilt as an inn after the Great Fire, and stood in a courtyard
on the south side of the lane, near the west end. It had a gate and a
passage into Dowgate Hill. Strype (1720) says it was “an inn of no great
account, being chiefly for livery stables and horses.” In Strype’s 1754
edition all mention of the inn is omitted, so that it had, presumably,
vanished during the intervening thirty-four years. At the north-west
corner of Chequer Yard was the site of the Erber (p. 245). Previously to
the erection of the station, the hill forked opposite to Skinners’ Hall
and turned into Cannon Street by two narrow lanes. Of these the
north-eastern was Turnwheele Lane, “from a turnpike in the middle
thereof”; the north-western retained the name of Dowgate Hill. They had
between them at the fork a block of buildings. When the station was
built, Turnwheele Lane was covered and Dowgate Hill was widened by
absorbing the block. Towards “the upper end of the hill, stood the fair
Conduit-upon-Dowgate,” mentioned by Stow as “castellated, and made in
the year 1568, at charges of the citizens.” In Ryther’s map, 1604
(British Museum), it is shown to stand in the middle of Dowgate Hill
opposite the end of Cloak Lane. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and
not rebuilt. Allen, in his _History of London_, places it at the
south-east corner of Walbrook, in Walbrook ward; evidently he is
mistaken. On the west side the ward begins at the corner of Cloak Lane,
of which only a part of the southern side is in Dowgate. Thence
proceeding southwards is Tallow Chandlers’ Hall (see p. 243).
At 8 Dowgate Hill is
THE SKINNERS COMPANY
It is probable that, like other traders who came to London in early
times, men following the trade of Skinners were assigned some
separate locality in the town and associated together for the
purposes of a guild.
In course of time, as the guild grew in importance, the Skinners
seem to have absorbed or affiliated unto themselves two other
trades, the Upholders and the Tawyers.
It is clear that as long ago as the reign of Henry VI. the guild
included among its members other than those who exercised the trades
of Skinner, Tawyer, and Upholder, for in one of the Company’s books,
dated 25th July, 23 Henry VI., there is a list of names of the
brethren and sistren of the guild at that time. They amount to
twenty in all, and include one doctor, three gentlemen, nine of no
trade or description, two butchers, one dyer, one joiner, one
skinner, one grocer, as brethren, and one sister as silkwife.
The Company has a copy of the charter of Henry VI., but none of that
of Philip and Mary. They are Inspeximus charters, as also is that of
22nd March, 2 Elizabeth.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth differences arose between the
working “artesans” of the guild and the rest of the fraternity,
especially the governing body, which continued for many years and
culminated in a surreptitious application in 1606 by the Artisan
Skinners for new Letters Patent from the Crown without the consent
or privity of the master and wardens of the guild, and in December
1606 (4 James I.) a charter was issued. Full inquiry was made. The
Lord Mayor and aldermen made their report to the lords of the Privy
Council, who thereupon ordered (March 22, 1606) that the privy seal
that had been procured by the Artisan Skinners for this new charter
appertaining to the Company of Skinners should be cancelled.
The charters and title deeds of the Skinners Company were
surrendered in 1625 like those of the other City Companies, but in
1641 their privileges were restored.
After the restoration of King Charles II. the Skinners Company
obtained the charter dated 20th June, 19 Charles II. It grants
nothing new, but merely confirms to the master and wardens of the
guild or fraternity all they had under any of their previous
charters.
Passing to 1744, the Artisan Skinners appear to have thought that if
they could only be more fully represented on the governing body of
the Company, their trade grievances would be redressed, and they
accordingly, in October 1744, presented a remonstrance to the Court.
The result of this was that in three months the master and three
wardens were served with a copy of a rule for a mandamus commanding
them to choose a number of Artisan Skinners to be wardens and
assistants. The governing body, in reply, set out the whole of the
proceedings of 1606, but the mandamus was ultimately issued and a
return made to the writ. At the hearing, counsel for the
prosecutors, the artisans, informed the Court of King’s Bench that
he had perused the return and could not find any fault with it, and
accordingly the judges ordered the return of the master and wardens
to be affirmed.
In December 1747 similar hostile proceedings were renewed, and led
finally to an information for a false return being filed against the
master and wardens in June 1748. The cause came on for trial at the
King’s Bench bar on the 24th April following, and the jurors,
without going out of court, brought in a verdict of not guilty.
The number of liverymen is 200; the Corporate Income is £27,500; the
Trust Income is £17,500.
A freeman of the Skinners Company is eligible, as vacancies from
time to time occur, to a presentation for his child to Christ’s
Hospital, ten such presentations being given to the Company under
the benefaction of Mr. William Stoddart. Besides being eligible for
certain almshouses and pensions, poor freemen who have fallen into
straitened circumstances obtain charitable assistance from the
Company at the discretion of the governing body, as also do the
widows and children of such poor freemen. Freemen are entitled to a
preference among applicants for loans under trusts administered by
the Company. They are also with their sons and apprentices eligible
under certain conditions for exhibitions founded by the Company, and
their sons will have a preference for admission into the Company’s
Middle School, referred to in another part of this return, if there
should not be room for all the candidates. Liverymen have similar
claims. They also attend at dinners given to the livery at the
Company’s Hall, and have the privilege of occasionally introducing
friends at such dinners. The master and wardens and other members of
the court have similar rights and privileges. They also receive fees
as members of the governing body in respect of their attendance at
courts and committees as already stated.
Assistance is granted by the Company to members if it appears upon
inquiry that from misfortune or by reason of sickness, infirmity, or
from other good cause they are in need.
Stow describes Skinners’ Hall as “a fair house, which was sometime
called Copped Hall by Downgate.” Copped Hall was purchased by the
Skinners, together with several small tenements adjacent, in the
reign of Henry III. (about 1260-62). The Company afterwards held it
under a licence of mortmain granted by that king. It was
subsequently alienated, though by what means is uncertain, and in
1326, according to Stow, it was possessed by Ralph de Cobham, the
brave Kentish warrior, who made Edward III. his heir. Edward III.
restored the hall to the Skinners at about the time of the Company’s
legal incorporation (1327).
Of Copped Hall no plan exists, but it is probable that four small
tenements occupied the Dowgate Hill frontage (50 feet), and it is
known that there was a court or quadrangle somewhat like the present
one with an entrance from it direct into the hall. It perished in
the Great Fire of 1666, soon after which the rubbish and lead were
sold. There still remain, however, some of the old walls, and the
great stone fireplace of the kitchen was discovered when excavating
in the present cellars about 1870. On October 15, 1668, a committee,
of which Sir George Waterman, Master of the Skinners, and Sir Thomas
Pilkington were members, was appointed to carry out the rebuilding,
the Company meanwhile holding their courts in various places as at
Salters’ Hall, the Red Bull Inn, Bishopsgate, and in the church of
St. Helen.
In November 1688 “the front houses at Skinners’ Hall” were ordered
to be rebuilt; in the February following the Renter was empowered to
make a gateway of stone or timber as he thought fit; and the
quadrangle was ordered to be 40 feet square. By 1672 the rebuilding
must have been practically finished, for Sir George Waterman kept
his mayoralty here in 1672-73, renting the hall for £160.
The Dowgate Hill front was rebuilt under the Company’s surveyor in
1777, and Mr. Jupp, afterwards surveyor to the Company, also made
some alterations. This front is somewhat like that of Old Covent
Garden Theatre in the time of Garrick. It is a regular three-storied
building of the Ionic order. The basement part to the level of the
first story is of stone, and rusticated; from this rise six
pilasters supporting an entablature and pediment all of the same
material. In the tympanum are the Company’s arms. In the facade are
two doorways, one leading to the quadrangle before the great hall,
the other to the clerks’ offices. Across the quadrangle is a carved
doorway, the principal entrance to the lobby in front of the great
hall. This hall is a very handsome apartment. It was rebuilt 1849-50
under the direction of Mr. G. B. Moore, and was restored and
decorated in 1891 at much expense. Up to that time the walls had
been wainscotted; they are now panelled in light oak to a higher
level, the panelling being crowned by a fine frieze decorated with
raised shields, and a cornice. The carved roof is richly decorated
and contains a wagon-headed skylight. The entrance to the hall is at
the north end through a splendid carved oak screen, which in 1891
supplanted the original Ionic screen ordered for the hall in 1760.
Behind the hall is a small Committee room with a good fireplace,
above which is a carved panel in the style of Grinling Gibbons.
Beyond is the court room. On the floor above is the great cedar
parlour or withdrawing room. It is a magnificent chamber, redolent
with the scent of the red cedar, in which material the whole of the
interior is executed. The cedar wood is said to have been presented
by the East India Company. The walls are wainscotted up to the
frieze and cornice, the former of which is carved both in light and
dark wood, the whole being richly gilt. From the cornice springs the
coved ceiling, which is panelled and painted, and which, some years
ago, when the room was redecorated under the mastership of Mr.
Charles Barry, architect, was substituted for the old ceiling. The
doors are handsomely carved and pedimented. Over the fireplace is a
panel carved in Grinling Gibbon’s best style, displaying the
Company’s arms wreathed about with festoons of dark wood on the
light cedar panel.
At one end, in glass cases, are two curious coloured statuettes, one
representing Edward III., the other Sir Andrew Judd, both neat
pieces of work.
The grand staircase is well designed, and displays some of the massy
carving and rich ornaments in vogue just after the Great Fire.
Attached to the hall is a small garden, in which are a tree and
several flower-beds, also a curiously embossed cistern dated 1768.
The original cost of the Skinners’ Hall was, according to the _New
View of London_ (1708), £18,000, but much has since been spent upon
it. Several Lord Mayors and sheriffs have kept their year of office
here, and in 1691 the new East India Company, before their
incorporation with the old Company, began to hold their meetings
here, paying an annual rent of £300. In consequence of these
meetings the new Company afterwards presented to the hall a carved
mahogany court-table and silver candlesticks.
THE DYERS COMPANY
The Dyers Company was in existence in 1381, and probably even
earlier.
The first charter was that granted by Henry VI. in 1471; this was
renewed by Edward IV. in 1472. The charter was confirmed or renewed
by Henry VIII., Edward VI., Elizabeth, and Mary. An Inspeximus
charter was granted, 2 Elizabeth 1559 and by 4 James I. 1606; James
II. gave the Company a charter 1688, and they were re-incorporated
by Anne 1704.
The number of the livery is now 61; the Corporate Income is £5000;
the Trust Income £1000.
The Company has the right to keep swans on the river Thames. This
privilege they share with the vintners, and the “Barge masters” of
both Companies have the care of the swans.
Dyers’ Hall extends from Skinners’ Hall to the corner of College
Street, and occupies the site of Jesus’ Commons, which was, says
Stow (1598), “a college of priests, a house well furnished with
brass, pewter, napery, plate, etc., besides a fair library well
stored with books, all which of old time was given to a number of
priests that should keep commons there, and as one left his place,
by death or otherwise, another should be admitted into his room, but
this order within this thirty years being discontinued, the said
house was dissolved, and turned to tenements.”
The Dyers’ Hall consists of a plain four-storied building, the
basement being of stone, the upper part of white brick with stone
facings. Part of the lower story is let out as business premises,
the corner at College Street being allotted to the Bunch of Grapes
Inn. The great hall is a large and lofty room, but comparatively
plain. It is relieved by rather handsome frieze and cornice and is
lighted by two windows, one at either end.
The Company’s Hall in use prior to 1666 stood at the south end of
what is now Dyers’ Hall Wharf, Upper Thames Street. It was destroyed
in the Great Fire and apparently rebuilt in a stately manner, but
again destroyed by fire in 1681. (Malcolm, 1802.) For several years
the Company met in Salters’ Hall. Maitland (1739) says “the Company
has converted one of their houses in little Elbow Lane into a hall
to transact their business in.” This fell down in 1768. The next
hall was erected about 1770. It was a tolerably spacious unassuming
building, the exterior distinguished by a double flight of steps,
but was not of any architectural merit. The present hall was built
1839-40 (Charles Dyer, architect). Some additions and alterations
were made to it 1865-67 by D. A. Corbett, architect. (See Lond. and
Mid. _Arch. Trans._ vol. v. p. 452.)
The Dyers’ Wharf estate is now covered with warehouses. Those on the
riverside are known as the Monument Bonded Warehouses. The archives
of the Company were destroyed in the Great Fire.
The slope of Dowgate Hill is now a gradual one, but Stow speaks of it as
of rapid descent, and relates that in 1574 the channels became so
swollen and swift in a heavy storm of rain, that a lad of eighteen,
endeavouring to leap over near the conduit, was taken with the stream
and carried thence against a cartwheel that stood in the watergate,
“before which time he was drowned and stark dead.” Strype (1720)
mentions that the hill was still so steep that in great rains floods
arose in the lower parts. Ben Jonson speaks of “Dowgate torrents falling
into Thames.”
Dowgate Wharf or Dock is supposed to have gained its name from its steep
descent to the river, as it was sometimes called Downgate, but this
derivation sounds highly improbable. One of the most ancient ferries
over the Thames was at Dowgate. On the east side of the dock is Walbrook
Wharf, showing the spot where the ancient stream, the Walbrook, reached
the Thames.
Robert Green the dramatist, from whom Shakespeare borrowed the plot of
his _Winter’s Tale_, died (1592) in an obscure lodging at the house of a
shoemaker in Dowgate, indebted to his landlord for the bare necessaries
of life.
At the north end of Dowgate Hill near Cloak Lane stood St. John the
Baptist’s Church.
=St. John the Baptist= was situated on the west side of Dowgate Hill
in the ward of Walbrook. _Ecclesia Sancti Johannis super Walbroc_,
occurs about 1181; _ecclesia Sancti Johis de Walbrook_ is set down
in the “Taxatio Ecclesiasticus” of Pope Nicholas IV. (1291). The
first mention of the church is contained in a book at the Cathedral
(Newcourt, i. p. 371) compiled in the time of Ralph de Diceto made
dean 1181. The entry is as follows:—“_Ecclesia Sancti Johannis super
Walbroc_ est Canonicorum, & reddit eis ii sol. per manum _Vitalis_
clerici, solvit Synodalia ivd, Archidiacono xiid. & habet in domino
suo quondam terram, quae reddit ii sol. & est de feodo _Willimi de
la Mare_, & etiam terrulam, quae est inter ecclesiam & _Walbroc_ &
reddit iii sol. non habet coemiterium.”
Thus the earliest church stood upon the east side of the stream, a
little tract of land intervening between its west wall and the bank.
When the watercourse was diverted to flow more eastwards, the
chancel bordered on the brook. It was rebuilt about 1412, and again
in 1621, but destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, when its parish
was annexed to that of St. Antholin. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1150.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s in 1150, who granted it to the Prioress and
Convent of St. Helen about 1373, till it was seized by Henry VIII.
and so continued in the Crown up to 1671, when it was annexed to St.
Antholin.
Houseling people in 1548 were 375.
Only two monuments are recorded by Stow as being of note—W.
Combarton, Skinner, who gave lands to the church, buried 1410; and
John Stone, Taylor, Sheriff 1464.
The site of the building was converted into a churchyard, and upon the
wall is a stone with this inscription:
“‘Before the dreadfull Fire, anno domini 1666, here stood the parish
church St. John Baptist, upon Walbrook—William Wilkins, James
Whitchurch, churchwardens this present year anno domini 1674.’ The
above stone was refaced, and the letters fresh cut anno domini
1836—Rev. John Gordon M.A. rector, Edward Jones, Lewis Williams,
churchwardens.”
The parsonage was not rebuilt, and Strype notes (1754, vol. i. p. 516)
that neither its site nor that of its garden was given in the 1693
visitation. Newcourt (_Repertorium_, i. p. 371) further notes that the
same visitation records great encroachments having been made on the
churchyard since the Fire “to some of which the parish had consented,
and others have been done by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen,
without the consent of the Archbishop and Bishop of London (as ’tis
said) and the Chamberlain of London receives the rent for them.”
It was reserved for the commercial civilisation of this century to
“encroach” the churchyard out of existence. The Act of the Metropolitan
Railway gave the Company power to construct their Cannon Street Station
(1883) under the burial-ground, and to remove the human remains. The
churchyard is no more; the greater part of its site is enclosed by a
brick wall which screens the opening in the roof of the station below.
At the extreme west end an asphalted square has been railed in and
reserved as a home for gravestones, and a large ornament bearing this
melancholy and curious inscription:
Sacred to the memory of the dead interred in the ancient church and
churchyard of St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook during four
centuries. The formation of the District Railway having necessitated
the destruction of the greater part of the churchyard, all the human
remains contained therein were carefully collected and re-interred
in a vault beneath this monument A.D. 1884.—Rev. LEWIS BORRETT
WHITE, D.D., rector; JOHN R. W. LUCK, EDWARD WHITE, churchwardens.
But why sacred to the memory of the dead during “four centuries” only?
Had not those buried previously to 1484 any right to commemoration? The
churchyard existed in 1378 and the church in 1181. Truly inscription
writers are marvellous in their discriminating powers. The vault
containing the remains is situated alongside the railway line beneath.
Very interesting discoveries were made when excavating for the station.
Mr. E. P. Seaton, the resident engineer, has preserved some careful
notes, from which the following is an extract: “At the west end of the
churchyard was found a subway running north and south. The arch was
formed of stone blocks (Kentish rag) placed 3 feet apart, the space
between being filled up with brickwork. The sides were of worked red
ragstones, 8 by 11 inches, and 3 feet long (some 1 foot 4 inches long),
surrounded with rough rubble masonry, set in mortar of a brown colour.
The flat bottom varied from 2 to 4 feet in thickness and was formed of
random rubble masonry. The brick invert was of much later date, about 6
inches thick and almost a semicircle. The space between the underside of
that and the bottom was filled with made earth. A portion of the arch
had been broken in, and was filled with human bones. The other parts of
the subway or sewer were filled with hand-packed stones. This is
supposed to be the centre of the ancient Walbrook (this supposition is
quite correct) and made earth was found to a distance of 35 feet from
the surface. Clay of a light grey colour was then found, impregnated
with the decayed roots of water-plants. The foundations (it is a matter
of regret that no plan of the foundations was taken; the opportunity is
now lost for ever) of the old church of St. John the Baptist, destroyed
1666, and pulled down about 1677, were discovered about 10 to 12 feet
from the surface and composed of chalk and Kentish ragstones. They ran
about north-north-east to south-south-west. Piles of oak were found
which seem to denote that the church was built on the edge of the brook,
which must have been filled up during the Roman occupation, as numerous
pieces of Roman pottery were found.” The bottom of the Walbrook valley
was reached at 32 feet below the present street level, and is now 11
feet below the level of the lines in the station. During the excavations
the piles and sill of the Horseshoe bridge which crossed the Walbrook
hereabouts were also found near the churchyard, together with the
remains of an ancient boat. These were unfortunately too rotten to
preserve, but a block of Roman herring-bone pavement, formerly
constituting part of a causeway or landing-place on the brook, is now at
the Guildhall Museum. It was found beneath the churchyard 21 feet below
the present level of the street, and was presented by the rector and
churchwardens. Most of the Samian pottery and Roman coins found at this
time were also presented to the Guildhall.
THE TALLOW CHANDLERS COMPANY
The first charter of incorporation of this Company bears date the
8th of March 1462, 2 Edward IV., wherein the then members of the
Company are described as “our beloved and faithful subjects, the
Freemen of the Mystery or Art of Tallough Chandlers of our City of
London.”
It is evident, however, that a company, guild, or other association
of tallow chandlers existed in London before the date of the above
charter, seeing that in the year 1426, or thirty-six years prior
thereto, Letters Patent were granted by Henry VI. to the mayor of
the City of London, and the master and wardens of the Mystery or
Craft of Tallow Chandlers of the same city for the time being,
empowering them to search for and destroy all bad and adulterated
oils.
Also in the year 1456, or six years prior to the said charter, a
grant of arms and crest was made by John Smert, Garter King-at-Arms,
to John Priour, John Thurlow, William Blakeman, and Richard
Grenecroft, sworn wardens or keepers (gardiens) and several other
notable men of the trade and of the Company of Tallow Chandlers
(Chandeliers de Suif) of the City of London, on behalf of and in the
name of their whole confraternity.
At present there is a livery of 102; the Corporate Income was not
returned to the Commissioners. The Trust Income is £220. Maitland
says that the Fraternity anciently dealt not only in candles, but
also in oils, vinegar, butter, hops, soap, etc.
Stow designates the hall of the Tallow Chandlers “a proper house.”
After the Great Fire it was rebuilt (1672). In 1884 a large red
brick and terra-cotta building of five stories, standing upon a
granite base, was erected on Dowgate Hill instead, and upon the site
of the old house of the Company’s clerk and beadle, and the hall is
now approached by a vestibule running under this building. The
vestibule leads into an open quadrangle, which was diminished when
the above-mentioned house was built. It is surrounded by a Tuscan
piazza of ten arcades. This piazza in part belongs to the 1672
building. It was restored in 1871. The building itself is of red
brick. On the first floor is the great hall, a handsome apartment 50
feet long by 27 feet wide, having a decorated ceiling, and walls
wainscotted with oak panelling and looking-glass to a height of 30
feet. On the south wall are three great mirrors; in a broken
pediment over the central one are the arms of Charles II. At the
north end is a carved oak screen, in the centre of which are the
entrance doors, of handsome carved work filled with stained glass,
erected in 1894. The screen itself is of the 1672 building. A heavy
carved frieze and cornice passes round the hall above the long
windows. The pictures include two by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The court
parlour is the handsomest room. It is wainscotted to the ceiling,
which is magnificently panelled in oak, and richly gilt, having in
the centre an oval compartment enclosed by an exquisitely moulded
wreath of flowers. The rest is divided into squares and oblongs,
filled with groups of flowers and fruit.
An inscription tells us:
“This parlour was wainscotted at the expense of Sir Joseph Sheldon,
Knt., a member of this Company and Lord Mayor of this City A.D.
1675. Who also gave this Company a barge with all its furniture.”
On the second floor is the court-room, which is also wainscotted to
the ceiling.
Dowgate, the Steelyard, and Cold Harbour were all very near together.
The Steelyard was so called from the beam of steel by which goods
imported into London were weighed. It stood just where Cannon Street
Station now is. It had a fine hall and courtyard, and was for 300 years
held by the members of the Hanseatic League, a community of foreigners
who enjoyed the monopoly of importing hemp, corn, wax, linen and many
other things into England, to the great loss of our own traders. (See
_London in the time of the Tudors_, p. 82.)
Beyond the station is the City of London Brewery. The archway spanning
the central entrance to this occupies the site of an earlier arch which
once carried the choir and steeple of Allhallows the Less, and led to
what Stow speaks of as “the great house called Cold Harbrough.” Its site
is now covered by the brewery. The name of the house is conjectured to
be a corruption of the German words Colner Herberg (Cologne Inn), which
passed into Coln Harbrough, Cole Harbrough, Cold Harbrough, and Cold
Harbour. Cologne being one of the principal of the Hanse towns, the
proximity of the steelyard makes this derivation appear likely. There
are several Cold Harbours in England, none of them remarkable for bleak
situations, but most of them existing in places where commerce once
greatly throve. The house stood at the water’s edge. It was a large
building, with steps leading down to the river through an arched door.
About the year 1600 it is represented with five gables facing the water,
and rows of mullioned diamond-pane windows—a beautiful building. It had
the right of sanctuary, though how or when gained is not known.
Until 1607 Cold Harbour had been outside the City jurisdiction, for it
is one of the places added to the City’s rule by the charter of James I.
to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London in that year. It must
have been deserted by its original inhabitants, the Cologne merchants,
before the reign of Edward II. It belonged to the Poultney family, and
was for some time called Poultney’s Inn.
“In the year 1397, 21 Richard II., John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, was
lodged there, and Richard II., his brother, dined with him. It was then
counted a right fair and stately house: but in the next year following
Edmond, Earl of Cambridge, was there lodged, notwithstanding the said
house still retained the name of Poultney’s Inn in the reign of Henry
VI., the 26th of his reign” (Stow).
In 1410 Henry IV. gave it to Henry, Prince of Wales, for life. Margaret,
Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., lodged here temporarily; in
the reign of Henry VIII., the Bishop of Durham’s house, already
mentioned, “being taken into the King’s hands,” Cuthbert Tunstall,
Bishop of Durham, was lodged in “the Cold Harbrough.” This Bishop of
Durham remained here until 1553, when he was deposed from his bishopric
and Cold Harbour was taken from him. It was granted by Edward VI.,
together with its appurtenances and six houses or tenements in the
parish of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East, and certain lands in Yorkshire, to
the Earl of Shrewsbury and his heirs. Edward VI. is said to have given
it to the Earl at the instance of the Duke of Northumberland, “who
practised to gain as many of the nobility as he could to his purpose.”
It then became known as Shrewsbury House. Francis, fifth Earl of
Shrewsbury, who died in 1560, and his son, the sixth Earl, the guardian
for fifteen years of Mary, Queen of Scots, took it down, “and in place
thereof built a great number of small tenements, now letten out for
great rents to people of all sorts” (Stow). The Earl died in 1590. The
tenements were destroyed in the Fire of 1666. No remains of the building
exist unless Wren utilised some of the stones in rebuilding Allhallows
the Great. Hubbard, writing in 1843, says that a foundation wall of the
house and the ancient stairs still survived in his time.
Stow calls =The Erber= a “great old house” and says that Geoffrey
Scroope held it by gift of Edward III. in 1341. It subsequently belonged
to John Nevil, Earl of Raby, who appears to have died some years prior
to 1396. The last of the honourable family of the Scroopes to possess it
was William de Scroope, Knt., who lived in the reign of Henry IV. He
gave it for life to his brother Ralph Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland, who
married, as his second wife, Joan, daughter of the Duke of Lancaster.
Ralph Nevil died, seised of the Erber, in 1426, and his wife in 1441.
Their son Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, was lodged here in 1547. He
died in 1460, and the Erber passed to his son Richard, Earl of Warwick
and Salisbury, “the king-maker,” who was slain at the battle of Barnet
Field in 1471. In 1474, George, Duke of Clarence, who had married
Isabel, daughter of “the king-maker,” then received it from Edward IV.
who gave it to him and his heirs so long as there was living male issue
of the Marquis Montacute. If the said male issue should die during the
duke’s life, then the duke to remain seised for life, taking precedence
of the rights of all others than the marquis and his issue. The Duke of
Clarence died in 1479. After his death, Edward, his son, was seised of
the Erber, and George, Duke of Bedford, son of John Nevil, Marquis
Montacute, dying without male issue in 1483, the lands remained in the
hands of Edward till 1500, when he was attainted and the lands thus came
to the Crown. Here they remained until 1512, when Henry VIII. gave them
to John, Earl of Oxford, and his heirs male. In 1513 the King gave the
reversion to Sir Thomas Bulleyn, Knt., and his male heirs. In 1514 he
restored Margaret, daughter and heir to George, Duke of Clarence, and to
all the lands of Richard, Earl of Salisbury, “who by colour of
restitution entered, and was attainted in 1540. So the lands came back
to the Crown, and were given in the next year to Sir Philip Hoby, who in
1545 sold the Erber to one Doulphin, a draper, who in 1553 sold it to
the Drapers Company. Strype, who gives these particulars, says that
notwithstanding this account “by some lawyers and historians in those
days,” it appears by the Rolls (1405) that there was a surrender of the
Erber from Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland, to the King for the use of John
Darrel, and Walter de Arkham; that Richard III. possessed it under the
name of “The King’s Palace,” and that one Ralph Dowel, a yeoman of the
Crown, was keeper of this place. Dowel seems to have repaired not only
the Erber, but also other houses belonging to it, “particularly a
brewhouse called the Chequer,” as appears by a ledger-book of the King’s
in which the accounts of Dowel are said to be examined by John Hewyk,
one of the King’s auditors. Orders were given to Lethington, bailiff of
the lordship of the Clavering in Essex, “to content him,” but £14 : 18 :
3 still remained in arrears due to him for the repairs. Stow says that
the Erber had been lately rebuilt by Sir Thomas Pullison, and that it
was afterwards inhabited by Sir Thomas Drake.
=St. Mary Bothaw= was situated on the east side of Turnwheele Lane,
Cannon Street. The date of foundation is unknown. Newcourt mentions
Adam Lambyn as a rector, who died 1279. In the Taxation Book of Pope
Nicholas IV., 1291, the church occurs as Sancte Marie de Bothaw. It
was destroyed by the Great Fire, but not rebuilt, its parish being
annexed to that of St. Swithin. Stow supposes, for want of a better
theory, that “this church being near unto the Down-Gate in the river
of Thames, hath the addition of Bothaw, or Boat Haw, of near
adjoining to a haw or yard, wherein of old time boats were made, and
landed from Downgate to be mended.” Strype mentions that it seems
“of old to be called St. Mary de Bothache,” and Mr. Loftie in his
_London City_ (1891) says that the name is “most likely from ‘la
board hatch,’ a wooden gate-lock called also in some ancient
documents ‘Board-Hatch.’” The map by Agas _c._ 1560, and Hollar’s
view of London, call the church St. Mary Buttolph Lane. It is
somewhat remarkable that Dowgate is almost the only one of the older
City gates which has no Church of St. Botolph near by, as at
Billingsgate, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, and Aldersgate. The term St.
Mary Bothol occurs more than once in records of the sixteenth
century. Can it be that the name bears witness to the existence of a
St. Botolph’s Church here, which was dedicated to the Virgin, with
the name Botolph attached as a remembrance of the former
appellation? The earliest date of an incumbent is 1281.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, before 1281; the Dean and
Chapter of Canterbury from 1552 up to the time it was annexed to St.
Swithin in 1666.
Houseling people in 1548 were 182.
Chantries were founded here: By Lady Joan Fastolf, to which Robert
Kirke was instituted, May 10, 1445; by and for John, son of Adam de
Salusbury, who endowed it with a tenement called the “Key” in
Coleman Street, which fetched £7 in 1548; by and for John Hamond,
before 1387; by James le Butler; by Hugh Fostall.
Many noble persons were buried here, as appeared from the arms in
the windows, the defaced tombs, and print of plates torn up and
carried away. The most remarkable, perhaps, was that of Sir Henry
Fitz-Alwine, draper, the first Lord Mayor of London, who continued
in his position for twenty-four years. Here, too, Robert Chicheley,
grocer and mayor of London in 1422, was buried; he appointed by his
will that 2400 poor men should each have a good dinner on his
birthday, and he also gave a plot of land for the building of the
parish church, called St. Stephen’s, Walbrook.
No charitable gifts are recorded by Stow.
At the construction of Cannon Street station and hotel, in 1866-68, the
churchyard was built over. Its site is now immediately under the steps
leading from the hotel to the forecourt, and is occupied by part of a
corridor, a carpenter’s shop, a knife-cleaning room, and a coal cellar,
all of which belong to the hotel basement.
The north-western side of the station forecourt stands upon the site of
=Turnwheele Lane=, a narrow turning which formerly led from Cannon
Street by a westerly slope into Dowgate Hill, which it joined opposite
the northern boundary of Skinners’ Hall. Stow calls it “a little lane
with a turnpike in the middle thereof.” Strype (1720) terms it
Turnwheele Lane, but the _New Remarks of London_ (1732) style it
Turnmill Lane. By the eastern side of the station runs Allhallows Lane
leading northward into Bush Lane. The church of Allhallows the Great
stood here until 1898, and east of it was Allhallows the Less.
=Allhallows the Great= was situated on the south side of
Thames Street. This church has been known, at various times,
as All Saints, Allhallows-ad-foenum, Allhallows-in-the-Hay,
Allhallows-in-the-Ropery (“because,” says Stow, “of hay sold
thereunto at Hay Wharf, and ropes of old time made and sold in
the high street”), Allhallows the More (“for a difference from
Allhallows the Less”), Allhallows the Great, which has been
the name at least since the Fire. Of its first foundation
there is no record, but from the fact that the riverside is
the oldest inhabited part of the City it may be nearly coeval
with the establishment of Christianity in London. The first
actual mention of it is in 1361 when, according to Newcourt,
one Thomas de Wodeford was rector. In 1627 and 1629 it was
repaired and redecorated, and a gallery built at the west end,
but the whole was destroyed by the Great Fire. In 1683 it was
rebuilt, the architect being Wren, and Allhallows the Less,
its neighbour, united with it by Act of Parliament. In 1877
the tower and north aisle were taken down to widen Thames
Street. The church was taken down in 1898. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1279.
The patronage was in the hands of the family of Le Despensers before
1314; Richard Beauchamp; Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick and
Salisbury, 1465; George, Duke of Clarence, before 1480; Edward,
eldest son of Isabel, Duchess of Clarence, 1480; Edward IV.; Henry
VII., as a gift from Anne, widow of Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick
and Salisbury; Henry VIII.; the Archbishop of Canterbury, by
exchange, 1569, in whose successors it continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 550.
There was a large cloister originally on the south side of the
church, but it was in a considerable state of ruin in 1627.
The plan was nominally an oblong square, but, owing probably to the
desire of Wren to make use of the old foundations, its walls were
neither built parallel nor four-square. The length was 87 feet, the
height 33 feet, and the width 60 feet, of which the nave was made 48
feet wide and a north aisle 12 feet wide. To the north aisle was
also attached a heavy square tower, occupying a portion of the
aisle. The elevation was finished with a cornice and parapet. The
tower rose above the second division from the east to a height of 86
feet. The church was celebrated for its beautiful woodwork, which,
on its demolition, was removed to St. Michael Royal.
Chantries were founded here by: Richard de Preston, citizen and
grocer, at the Altar of St. Katherine, for himself and Agnes his
wife, and to which Alfred Lyndon was admitted chaplain in 1396;
Peter Cosin whose will is dated 1291 (Pat. 43 Edward III. p. 2 m.
12); Sir Nicholas Lovin for himself and dame Margaret his wife;
William Lichfield, augmented by Thomas Westhowe, both of which
endowments fetched £8 : 16 : 8 in 1548; and William Peston.
The church formerly contained monuments to: William Lichfield,
Doctor of Divinity; John Brickles, a great benefactor. Queen
Elizabeth’s monument, “If Royal Vertues, etc.,” was also in this
church.
Two charity schools were erected in 1715, consisting of thirty boys
and twenty girls supported by voluntary subscriptions from the
inhabitants of the ward.
Among the notable rectors of this church are: Thomas White
(1628-98), Bishop of Peterborough; Hon. James York, Bishop of Ely,
1781; Robert Richardson, D.D. (1732-81), Dean of Lincoln; Edward
Waddington (d. 1731), Bishop of Chichester; William Vincent
(1739-1815), Dean of Westminster; William Cave, author (1637-1713).
In 1877 a new vestry was built on the south side of the church. It is
approached from Allhallows Lane by steps, through an arched doorway,
above which stands what is called “the tower,” a mean erection and a
mere apology for a tower. Its height does not extend beyond the church
roof. The vestry is fitted with the panelling and the pedimented doorway
brought from the old north aisle, from which also come the two
fantastically and beautifully carved wooden shields, now placed
respectively over the fireplace and the door. The ceiling is a neat
piece of panelling. The room is used for the holding of the Dowgate
wardmotes. The churchyard (south of the church) is much higher than the
lane at its side. It contains one tree, several tombs, and in the
north-west corner the vestry-room. The enclosure remains an open space
even after the demolition of the church.
Allhallows Church was dismantled in 1894. The screen, the pulpit, the
altar rails, the brass candelabra, and some of the woodwork went to St.
Margaret, Lothbury; the organ case, the font rails, the statues of Moses
and Aaron, most of the carved woodwork, the monuments, and the
stained-glass arms of Bishop Waddington went to St. Michael, Paternoster
Royal. The carved-wood altar was allotted to the new Church of
Allhallows, North St. Pancras, which was to be erected partially from
the funds arising out of the sale. The clock by Ericke was bought by a
gentleman connected with the City of London Brewery, where it now
stands. The site and the materials of the fabric were sold by auction on
July 31, 1894, for £31,100.
ALLHALLOWS THE LESS
Allhallows the Less was situated on the south side of Thames Street,
to the east of Allhallows the Great; it was called by some
Allhallows-on-the-Cellars, from its standing on vaults. It is said
to have been built by Sir John Poultney. After the Great Fire the
church was not rebuilt and the parish was annexed to Allhallows the
Great. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1242.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Bishops of
Winchester in 1242; master and chaplains of Corpus Christi College,
Candlewick Street.
Houseling people in 1548 were 200.
The steeple and choir of this church stood on an arched gate, which
was the entry to a great house called Cold Harbour. Dormers were
made on the south side of the church in 1613 to lighten it, and
several galleries subsequently added.
A chantry was founded here by James Andrew, the endowment of which
fetched £8 : 9 : 4 in 1548.
The donors of charities to this church were: Elizabeth Bannister,
£5; Anne Hope, £5; Roger Daniel, £8; and Samuel Goldsmith, £6, paid
by the Company of Dyers.
Two charity schools were erected in 1715 consisting of thirty boys
and twenty-eight girls supported by voluntary contributions from the
inhabitants of the ward.
=Cannon Street= was formerly Candlewick Street. It was part of the
ancient Roman highway that ran through the City and was once called
Watling Street throughout its whole length. Many deeds are extant
relating to Candlewick Street.
Roman remains have been found in Cannon Street including tessellated
pavements and a bronze statuette of Hercules.
In 1369 mention is made of the “Yeldehalle” in Candlewick Street,
probably the “Hula Dacorum,” Hall of the Danes mentioned in the _Liber
Albus_, where we learn that it was occupied by the Cologne merchants and
perhaps by those of Dinant also. The building was probably the “Great
stone Binn” called “Olde Hall” mentioned by Stow.
One of the Caxton family, of whom there were so many in the City, named
William de Caxton, lived here in 1342, and left to the Rector of St.
Swithin his mansion in this street for the maintenance of a chantry.
The _Calendar of Wills_ proves that we are in the most populous and
ancient part of London. Between 1259 and 1350 there are more than fifty
references to Candlewyke Street. The place is famous for its weavers,
and especially for the coarse cloth they made here called “burel.” There
was a fraternity of the “Burellers” working here. In 1334 one hundred
foot-soldiers were provided with “gowns” of cloth made in Candlewyke
Street. There was also a petition drawn up by the “good-folk” of this
street and Clement’s Lane against the melting of lead in their midst.
From Eastcheap to Walbrook, the title was for many centuries Candlewick,
Candlewright, or Canewyke Street. “Candelwykestrete” is mentioned in the
City Records as early as 1308; “Canewykestrete” appears 1376-99, and
again as “Cainwicke St.” in the map of Ralph Agas c. 1560. Stow gives
three possible derivations: (1) From Candlewright, a maker of candles;
(2) from the yarn or cotton candle-wick; (3) from candle-wike, a “wike”
being a place where things are made. The proximity of Tallow Chandlers’
Hall in Dowgate Hill points to this as the candlemakers’ quarter of the
City, and favours the first and third theories rather than the second.
In Ryther’s map of London, 1604, it is styled “Conning Streete,”
(probably a misprint for Canning Street), and Newcourt in his 1658 map
of London calls it “Cannon Street,” so that the change from Candlewick
to Canwyke, Conning, and Cannon appears to have taken place within a
comparatively short space of time.
The weavers of woollen cloths, brought from Flanders by Edward III.,
probably dwelt here: “cloth of Candelwykestrete” is mentioned in City
records in 1334; and Stow says that these weavers obtained permission in
1371 to meet in the churchyard of St. Lawrence Pountney close by. They
appear not to have remained long in the neighbourhood, but their advent
led to a settlement of many drapers in this part of the City and
ultimately to the founding of the Drapers’ Hall in St. Swithin’s Lane.
In Stow’s time the street was “possessed by rich drapers, sellers of
woollen cloth, etc.” After the Great Fire the street, Strype says, was
“well built and inhabited by good tradesmen.”
There are two churches in the street, which is now extended to the
south-east corner of St. Paul’s, sweeping away Distaff Lane, Basing
Lane, Little St. Thomas Apostle, and a bit of Budge Row. London Stone is
in this street. Beside London Stone Henry Fitz Ailwyn or Alwyne, first
mayor of London, had his residence. Here lived the Earl of Oxford, who,
about the year 1540, according to Stow, rode to his house with eighty
gentlemen in “livery of Reading tawny,” and chains of gold about their
necks and “one hundred tall yeomen in the like livery to follow him
without chains, but all having his cognizance of the blue boar
introduced on their left shoulders.” This retinue was discountenanced by
the Tudors and fell into disuse. Perhaps this earl was the last to
maintain so great a following.
London Stone was probably the pillar set up in the Roman fort to mark
the _milliarium_, the beginning of mile.
Some have supposed this stone to be the remains of a British druidical
circle or religious monument. Strype quotes Owen of Shrewsbury as giving
rise to this view by his assertion that “the Druids had pillars of stone
in veneration, which custom they borrowed from the Greeks, who, as
Pausanius writeth, adored rude and unpolished stones.” Malcolm suggests
that, if it is of British origin, “policy may have induced the Romans to
preserve it, as a relic highly valued by the Londoners, or as the
monument of some great event.” The general opinion, since Camden’s time,
seems to be that the stone is of Roman origin, but its first purpose
still remains uncertain. Stow notes that some considered it to have been
set “as a mark in the middle of the City within the wall; but, in truth,
it standeth far nearer to the river of Thames than to the wall of the
City.” He says, also, that others thought it was set for the payment of
debts, on appointed days, “till, of later times, payments were most
usually made at the font in Pont’s Church (St. Paul’s), and now most
commonly at the Royal Exchange.”
Sir Christopher Wren was of opinion that “by reason of its large
foundation, it was rather some more considerable monument in the Forum;
for, in the adjoining ground to the south, upon digging for cellars
after the Great Fire, were discovered some tessellated pavements, and
other extensive remains of Roman workmanship and buildings.” Originally,
no doubt, the erection was of considerable proportions, and a suggestion
is made in the _Parentalia_ that this milliarium was not in the form of
a pillar as at Rome, but probably resembled that at Constantinople,
which must have been a large building “for under its roof, according to
Cedrenus, and Seidas, stood statues of Constantine and Helena, Trajan,
an equestrian statue of Hadrian, a statue of Fortune, and many other
figures and decorations.”
[Illustration:
CANNON STREET, LOOKING WEST
]
Strype considers it likely that this stone was, in after days, the place
from which proclamations and public notices were made. This is confirmed
in _Pasquill and Marforius_ (1589): “Set up this bill at London Stone.
Let it be done solemnly with drom and trumpet.” Malcolm considers that
it was certainly regarded for some ages as “a rallying point for the
citizens in times of insurrection, as Guildhall would now be.” At any
rate, when in 1540 Jack Cade, “the Kentish rebel, who feigned himself to
be Lord Mortimer,” forced his way into the City from Southwark, he
marched to London Stone, where he found a great concourse of citizens,
the Lord Mayor being among them. Here, according to Holinshed’s account,
he struck his sword upon the stone, exclaiming, “Now is Mortimer Lord of
this City,” as if, Pennant remarks, “that had been a customary ceremony
of taking possession.” This scene occurs in the second part of _Henry
IV._, Act iv. Sc. 6, where Shakespeare makes Cade enter Cannon Street
with his followers, and strike the stone with his _staff_ instead of his
_sword_. To quote Fabian, “Rome, Carthage, and Jerusalem have been caste
downe” with many other “cytyes,” yet
Thys, so oldely founded,
Is so surely grounded,
That no man may confounde yt,
It is so sure a stone
That yt is upon sette,
For though some have it thrette
With Manasses grym and great,
Yt hurt hath it none:
Chryste is the very stone
That the Citie is set upon:
Which from all his foon
Hath ever preserved it.
By means of dyvyne servyce
That incontinuall wyse
Is kept in devout guyse
Within the mure of it.
However great the stone may have been in the beginning, the ravages and
fires of London could have left but little of the original remaining in
the sixteenth century.
After the Fire its foundations were disclosed by Wren: no doubt a
certain part of its upper end had been destroyed in the flames and
possibly damaged in clearing away debris, but at all events a small
portion of it, in shape somewhat like a cannon ball, was saved, says
Strype, and placed within “a new stone handsomely wrought, cut hollow
underneath, so as the old stone may be seen, the new stone being over it
to shelter and deface the venerable one.” Strype’s map shows that the
stone, in its new case, was at first re-erected on the old site on the
south side of the street. On December 13, 1742, it was complained of as
an obstruction, and was removed by order of the churchwardens of St.
Swithin, at a cost of 12s., to the opposite of the “kerbstone” on the
north side of the street. By kerbstone is here meant the stone
protecting the foot of the buildings and not (as now) a stone protecting
a pavement. At the beginning of 1798 the church was about to undergo a
complete repair, and the historic stone was actually doomed to be
removed as a nuisance. Fortunately Mr. Thomas Maiden, a printer of
Sherborne Lane, championed the cause, and prevailed on one of the parish
officers to preserve it and to have it replaced against the church wall.
The enclosing stone, “somewhat like a Roman altar,” had formerly a
curved bar of iron projecting across the elliptical aperture through
which the relic is seen; but the present grill was placed over the front
of the case in 1869, when the present inscription, in English and Latin,
was cut in the wall of the church over the stone at the instance of a
Committee consisting of members of the London and Middlesex
Archæological Society, and the parish officers. At the same time a
careful examination of the stone itself was made. It was found to
measure about a foot cube, and that instead of being basaltic, capable
of giving off sparks when struck by steel, it was in reality an oolite,
such as the Romans used extensively in their buildings, and sometimes
for coffins and sepulchral monuments, thus corroborating the idea of its
Roman origin.
In Cannon Street is the Cordwainers’ Hall.
THE CORDWAINERS COMPANY
The Allutarii or Cordwainers appear to have been voluntarily
associated together as a craft or mystery from very remote times,
probably as early as the Conquest, in close connection with the
municipality of London. Its object was to encourage and regulate the
trades connected with the leather industry, and included the
flaying, tanning, and currying of hides, and also the manufacture
and sale of shoes, boots, goloshes, and other articles of leather.
In the thirteenth and following centuries several branches separated
and formed distinct communities, such as the girdlers, tanners,
curriers, and leather sellers.
The first existing Ordinance of the Cordwainers (Allutarii) is found
in _Liber Horn_, folio 339, and was made in the 56th year of King
Henry III., Anno Domini 1272.
The Company was originally called the “Allutarii,” and became first
connected with the “Coblers” in the 14th century. Maitland explains
that the Cobler was not only the maker but the vendor of boots and
shoes. As people in cold countries always wanted shoes, the Guild or
Fraternity of shoemakers was certainly ancient. In 1375 the
“reputable” Cordwainers submitted their ordinances to the mayor. In
1378 we learn that “discreet” men of the trade had authority to
seize hides badly tanned. In 1395 the Cordwainers and the
Coblers—_i.e._ the workers in new and old shoes—adjusted their
differences, but that in 1409 the dissensions between them broke out
again and were once more composed. In 1387 three journeymen
cordwainers were haled before the mayor, charged with illegally
forming a Fraternity of themselves excluding the masters. Another
indication of the existence of an ancient Fraternity is that of the
brawling and fighting in 1304 of the cordwainers and the tailors.
The first charter of incorporation was granted by King Henry VI.
1439, whereby, in consideration of the payment of fifty marks, he
granted to the freemen of the Mysterie of Cordwainers (Allutariorum)
of the City of London that they should be one body or commonalty for
ever, that they should every year elect and make of themselves one
master and four wardens to rule and govern the said mysterie, and
all men and workers of the mysterie and commonalty, and all workmen
and workers whatsoever of tanned leather relating to the said
mysterie, to search and try black and red tanned leather and all new
shoes which should be sold or exposed for sale, as well within the
said City as without, within two miles thereof.
The above charter was exemplified and confirmed by the charter 4 and
5 Philip and Mary (June 17, 1557).
The charter or Letters Patent of Queen Elizabeth, dated August 24,
in the fourth year of Her Majesty’s reign (A.D. 1562), exemplifies
and confirms the exemplification of Philip and Mary.
The charter further grants to them the government of all persons
exercising the said trade within the City of London and three miles
round about the said City and suburbs, the privilege having
previously run only to two miles. Also the power of making bylaws
for such purpose is thereby given to the master, wardens,
assistants, and commonalty.
King James I., in the tenth year of his reign, granted another
charter to the Company.
A new charter was granted by King James II. in the first year of his
reign, but it would appear that this charter was afterwards annulled
by Act 2 William and Mary, cap. 9; but this same Act restored and
confirmed all previous charters.
The first Hall was burned in the Great Fire: it stood in Great
Distaff Street; since this street was swallowed up by Cannon Street,
the Hall, rebuilt after the Fire, and again in 1788, and greatly
altered since then, has now a frontage in Cannon Street.
The livery is now 100; the Corporate Income is £7700; the Trust
Income £1600.
Of the cordwainers, Stow speaks as follows:
“In this Distar Lane, on the north side thereof, is the
Cordwainers’, or Shoemakers’ hall, which company were made a
brotherhood or fraternity, in the 11th of Henry IV. Of these
cordwainers I read, that since the 5th of Richard II. (when he took
to wife Anne, daughter of Vesalaus, King of Boheme), by her example,
the English people had used piked shoes, tied to their knees with
silken laces, or chains of silver or gilt, wherefore in the 4th of
Edward IV. it was ordained and proclaimed, that beaks of shoone and
boots should not pass the length of two inches, upon pain of cursing
by the clergy, and by parliament to pay twenty shillings for every
pair. And every cordwainer that shod any man or woman on the Sunday
to pay thirty shillings.”
Suffolk House, in =Suffolk Lane=, stands upon the site of the old
Merchant Taylors’ School, and hence also upon the site of the =Manor of
the Rose=.
This was a famous mansion once called Poultney’s Inn, from Sir John
Poultney, who dwelt here after his removal from Cold Harbour. This was
probably in 1348, for in that year (the year after he founded his
college of Corpus Christi, by the church of St. Lawrence Poultney (or
Pountney) on Lawrence Poultney Hill) he gave the Cold Harbour to the
Earl of Hereford and Essex, for “one Rose at Midsummer, to him and his
heirs for all services, if the same were demanded” (Stow). It seems most
probable that this light “service” is accountable for the name of the
Manor of the Rose. Subsequently the Manor belonged to John Holland, Duke
of Exeter, then to William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, attainted and
beheaded 1450. His son John, made Duke of Suffolk in 1463, does not
appear to have possessed it, but his son John, Earl of Lincoln, owned it
at the time of his attainder in 1487. It remained with the Crown until
1495, when it was restored to Edmund de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, on
whose forfeiture of it by treason it was granted in 1506 to Edward
Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who kept possession of it until he was
attainted and beheaded in 1521. Shakespeare (_Henry VIII._, Act i. Sc.
2) alludes to “The Rose within the parish of St. Lawrence Poultney,” in
connection with the Duke of Buckingham. After remaining with the Crown
for about four years it was granted in 1526 to Henry Courtenay, Earl of
Devon, who had recently been created Marquis of Exeter. He was beheaded
in 1539, when the property again fell to the Crown. In 1540 it was
granted to Robert Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, Earl of Sussex, whose son
and grandson held it in turn. In 1560-61 it was sold and shortly after
divided into moieties, of which one part was afterwards sold for the use
of the Merchant Taylors’ School. All that remained intact of the mansion
perished in the Fire of 1666, except a few portions of which the chief
were a wall in Ducksfoot Lane, and a crypt extending from Suffolk Lane
to Lawrence Poultney Hill. At the rebuilding of the City, No. 3 Lawrence
Poultney Hill stood over this crypt, which remained until that house was
pulled down in 1894, when, despite the protests of the antiquarians, the
crypt was ruthlessly destroyed.
[Illustration:
OLD MERCHANT TAYLORS’ SCHOOL, SUFFOLK LANE, CANNON STREET
]
After the Fire the school was rebuilt on the old site, in 1675, the
head-master’s house being erected adjoining it.
The school premises were enlarged at various times, especially in 1829.
In 1875 they became too small for the requirements of the school, and
the old Charterhouse School having been removed to Godalming, the
Charterhouse site was bought by the Merchant Taylors Company for
£90,000, and Merchant Taylors’ School was moved to its present quarters.
The old premises were taken down, and Suffolk House was erected in part
upon their site in 1882.
The pious Robert Nelson, author of the _Fasts and Festivals_, was born
in Suffolk Lane, June 22, 1656. His father, John Nelson, was a wealthy
trader to the Levant.
Strype calls =Ducksfoot Lane= Duxford. The name is, perhaps, a
corruption of Duke’s Footmen’s Lane, tradition asserting that this lane
contained the servants’ entrance to the Duke of Suffolk’s house, the
Manor of the Rose. In that case “footmen” is equivalent to retainers, or
men-at-arms, whose quarters would probably be at the back of the
mansion. Wilson (_History of St. Lawrence Poultney_) thinks it was once
called Duke’s-foot-lane, meaning a narrow way to the mansion.
The only old house in the Lane is No. 2, which possesses a very
interesting interior. The building is now used for offices, but was
originally a merchant’s residence. The old dining-room is a fine
chamber, having panelled walls profusely decorated with florid designs
in raised composition. The panel over the chimney-piece is particularly
good. The entablature of the handsome mantel is supported by fluted
Ionic pilasters, the frieze filled with flowers and fruit, and the
keystone embellished with a curious rural scene. There are several other
quaint mantels in the house, one being of coloured marbles exquisitely
painted with figures and scenes. The great staircase with its
wainscotted walls and fine balusters is a good piece of work. The
cellars are very extensive, and there are traces of a subterranean
passage which formerly led to the Thames. The staircase and the old
dining-room were copied by Mr. John Hare, and staged at the Garrick
Theatre for Mr. Pinero’s play _The Profligate_, first performed in 1889.
=Laurence Pountney Hill.=—Stow calls this hill St. Laurence Hill. The
part from Cannon Street to Suffolk Lane was formerly Green Lettice Lane,
but was renamed under the present title only, on the widening of Cannon
Street, 1853-54. The two houses at the corner of Suffolk Lane are
splendid specimens of early eighteenth-century architecture. Both are
finished with a handsome cornice. The doorways of both are side by side
and have lintels and architraves of such rich carving as to be
unsurpassed in the City by any doorways of similar size and style. The
lintels are both concave: that on the southern house contains garlands
of flowers, a cherub’s head, and the date 1703, that on the northern
consists of a large scallop shell having in it two naked children. The
staircase in the northern house, with its fine twisted balusters, is one
of the best original staircases left in the City. The southern house has
been modernised for business premises and spoiled. Next below is a plot
recently bared, where was the vault alluded to under Suffolk Lane.
At the north-east corner of Ducksfoot Lane is an old house, a good
specimen of the domestic architecture after the Fire. Next to it
eastwards is the southern half of St. Lawrence Pountney Churchyard now
disused. It contains three trees and several tombs. In summer a
large-leafed plant covers almost the whole area. Across the enclosure is
another fine old house, now used for offices, containing handsome rooms
and a fine balustered well-staircase.
Dr. William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, came
to live with his brother Eliab opposite St. Lawrence Pountney Church,
after the surrender of Oxford. Both Eliab and another brother Daniel
were rich and distinguished merchants on the hill. Richard Glover, the
author of _Leonidas_, was also an eminent merchant on this hill.
The character of Laurence Pountney Lane on both sides (except the modern
warehouses on the east side at the corner of Upper Thames Street) is
that of the rebuilding after the Fire. Perhaps as a whole this lane
preserves this character better than any other thoroughfare in the ward.
At the Upper Thames Street end, on the west side, is a house which,
though rebuilt on the Upper Thames Street front, retains the old side
wall. This is still pierced with narrow windows filled with little
squares of glass in lead-work. On the same side of the lane are several
carved lintels, and well-panelled deeply recessed doorways. Near the
lower end is an old house beneath which is an archway leading to a
courtyard, cellars, and offices. The house is partly tenanted by Messrs.
Cooper, Box & Co., who first made beaver hats here in 1830 or
thereabouts. The back part at the end of the yard, and the front windows
were added about 1855. The cellars at the rear of the yard used to
contain the vats in which the beaver hats were dyed. The lease of the
house dating from shortly after the Fire is still in existence. In the
yard is an arched doorway of stone, and solid arches of the same
material support the walls of the house in the basement cellars. The
stone no doubt came out of the ruins of buildings destroyed in the Fire;
possibly some of it from the Manor of the Rose.
At the beginning of 1543 Master Arundel kept a house of entertainment in
this lane, much resorted to by the gay young men of that time. Henry,
Earl of Surrey, the poet, was summoned before the Privy Council to
answer certain charges, when Mistress Arundel, being examined, said that
the Earl of Surrey and other young noblemen frequented her house. They
ate meat in Lent and committed other improprieties. At Candlemas they
went out at 9 o’clock at night, with stone bows, and did not return till
past midnight; and next day there was a great clamour of breaking of
windows, both of houses and churches, and shouting at men in the street,
and the voice was that those hurts were done by my lord and his company.
Again at night, rowing on the Thames, they used these stone bows to
shoot, as she was told, “at the queens on the Bankside” (MS. quoted by
Froude, vol. iv. p. 253).
=St. Lawrence Poultney= or =Pountney= was situated on the west side
of Laurence Pountney Lane, between Cannon Street and Thames Street
in the Ward of Candlewick Street. Thomas Cole added to it a chapel
of Jesus, for a master and a chaplain, and this together with the
parish church was made into a college by John Poultney and confirmed
by Edward III. At the suppression of the religious houses it was
valued at £97 : 17 : 11 and surrendered in the reign of Edward VI.
The church was burnt down by the Great Fire and its parish annexed
to that of St. Mary Abchurch. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1318.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The chaplains of
this college; Henry VIII., who seized it and so continued in the
Crown till Queen Elizabeth granted it to Edward Dorening and Roger
Rant as an appendage of the manor of East Greenwich.
Houseling people in 1548 were 270.
No benefactors are recorded by Stow. There are few monuments
recorded, and those of little note: John Oliffe, alderman, was
buried in the church in 1577; also Robert and Henry Radcliffe, Earls
of Sussex.
William Latymer was master of this college; he was prosecuted for
complaining with John Hooper, of Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London.
In Martin’s Lane a high tower resembling the steeple of a church
projects at the end of a block of modern buildings. The old clock, which
is attached and hangs out over the street, makes the resemblance to a
church more noticeable. The building was erected on the site of the old
church of St. Martin Orgar. The churchyard below is comparatively large
and includes a row of trees. It is considerably above the level of the
street. At the east end are some old seventeenth or eighteenth century
houses with rusticated woodwork beneath their gables. On the west side
of the lane No. 7 is an old eighteenth-century house, a fine specimen,
with brick courses across its frontage.
=St. Martin Orgar= was situated in St. Martin’s Lane, near
Candlewick Street. It was burnt down in the Great Fire and not
rebuilt, its parish being annexed to St. Clement’s, Eastcheap. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1348.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Orgarus, who gave
it about 1181 to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, who held it up
to 1666, when the church was burnt down.
Houseling people in 1548 were 280.
Chantries were founded here by: William Cromer, whose endowment
fetched £30 : 15 : 4 in 1548, when John Carre was priest; John
Weston, who gave to the Augmentation of Our Lady’s Mass to be “songe
by note” £12 : 18 : 8 a year in 1548; William Oreswicke, whose
endowment for two chaplains fetched £13 : 5 : 0 in 1548.
The church contained monuments to: William Crowmer, mayor, who built
a chapel on the south side of the church, and who was buried there
in 1433; Sir Humphrey Browne, Lord Chief Justice (d. 1562); Sir
Allen Cotton, lord mayor (d. 1628). There was also a monument to
Queen Elizabeth.
According to Stow the parish enjoyed the benefits of many
benefactors. Among others, Benedict Barnham was donor of £10 yearly;
Thomas Nicolson of £5; Sir Humphrey Walwyn of £5; and James Hall of
three tenements to the value of £18 : 10 : 0.
Brien Walton (d. 1661), Bishop of Chester, was rector here.
=Crooked Lane= has been partly destroyed to make way for the approach to
London Bridge, which has also swallowed up St. Michael’s Lane and Great
Eastcheap. In Crooked Lane stood a house before the Fire called “the
Leaden Porch,” which belonged to one Sir John Sherston in the fifteenth
century. The lane also contained St. Michael’s Church, the burial-place
of William Walworth.
=St. Michael, Crooked Lane=, was situated on the east side of
Miles’s Lane, Great Eastcheap, and was one of the thirteen
“Peculiars” in the City, subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It
was repaired and redecorated in 1610, but burnt down by the Great
Fire and rebuilt from Wren’s designs in 1687; the steeple was not
built till 1698. In 1831 the building was pulled down, its parish
being united with those of St. Magnus and St. Margaret. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1286.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, before 1286; the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who presented in 1408, in whose successors it continued
up to 1848, when the church was annexed to St. Magnus the Martyr.
Houseling people in 1548 were 354.
The church built by Wren, which was without aisles, measured 78 feet
in length and 46 feet in breadth. The tower was surmounted by a
circular lantern in three stages, supporting a cupola with a lofty
vane and cross, and reached a height of about 100 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By William Walworth (mayor 1380) of
five chaplains; he endowed it with lands, etc., which fetched £20 :
13 : 4 in 1548, when the priests were William Berte, Thomas Harper,
William Hale, William Clayton, and John Nesehame; by John Rothinge,
who left £6 yearly, which is appropriated to finding a Walworth
chaplain; by Walter Morden, who endowed it with the “bores hedde” in
Eastcheap, valued at £4 a year; by William de Burgo, who had the
King’s licence June 21, 1318, whose endowment fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in
1548; by Pentecost Russel and Gerard de Staundon at the altar of St.
Thomas Martyr and St. Edmund; the King granted his licence July 14,
1321, for himself, his father and mother, and G. de Staundon, late
parson of Stevenage, Herts; by Henry Grubbe, for which the King
granted his licence April 20, 1371; by Roger Steere, who endowed it
with tenements valued at £8 : 8 : 0 yearly, which is spent towards
finding the Walworth chaplains; by William Jordan, who left £5 :
16 : 8 to find a priest, but this was also appropriated to the
Walworth chaplains; by Robert Brocket, who endowed it with £7 a
year; by John Longe, who left 10s. per annum; March 10, 1380-81—the
King granted his licence to William Walworth, citizen and merchant
of London, to unite diverse chantries in this church, founded by
Pentecost Russell; Matilda and Roger Steere; John Harewe; John
Abell; W. Burgh; Henry Grubbe; William Jordan; Walter Mordon; and
Thomas atte Leye, which by changes of time are insufficient to
maintain these chantries, and he was further empowered to found a
college of one master and nine chaplains there.
The church formerly contained monuments to: John Lovekin,
fishmonger, four times Lord Mayor, through whom the church, 1348,
1358, 1365, and 1366, was rebuilt; also Sir William Walworth, the
mayor who overthrew Wat Tyler—he enlarged the church with a new
choir and side-chapels and founded a college in connection with it;
Sir John Brug, mayor 1520, donor of £50.
No legacies or charitable gifts are recorded by Stow.
John Poynet (d. 1556), Bishop of Rochester and of Winchester, was
rector here; also Adam Molens or Molyneux (d. 1450), Bishop of
Chichester, who was slain at Portsmouth by the Marines, incited by
Richard, Duke of York; Giovanni Giglii (d. 1498), Bishop of
Worcester.
At the end of =Swan Lane= is Old Swan Pier, beneath which are the famous
Old Swan Stairs; these now consist of stone steps followed by a flight
of wooden ones, descending straight into the water. Stow calls them “a
common stair on the Thames.” In 1441, when the Duchess of Gloucester did
penance at Christchurch-by-Aldgate, she landed here, and walked the rest
of the way. When persons did not care to risk “shooting London Bridge,”
it was customary for them to land at these stairs, walk to the other
side of the bridge, and then take to the water again. Pepys in his
_Diary_ (1661) mentions taking Mr. Salisbury to Whitehall: “But he could
not by any means be moved to go through the bridge, and we were fain to
go round by the Old Swan Pier”; and Boswell says that he and Johnson
“landed at the Old Swan and walked to Billingsgate,” where they took
oars for Greenwich.
The race for Doggett’s Coat and Badge, open to watermen, is rowed
between the Old Swan and the White Swan at Chelsea. Near these stairs
was John Hardcastle’s counting-house, where were first brought forth the
Hibernian Society, the London Missionary Society, the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society.
At the end of Swan Lane (west side) is the entrance to the subway called
Waterside. It passes beneath Tennants’, Commercial, and Dyers’ Hall
wharves, in front of Red Bull Wharf (the only place where it emerges
into the open), and ultimately runs under the City of London Brewery
into All Hallows Lane. In Strype’s 1754 map the whole of the riverside
from Swan to All Hallows Lane is shown as a broad path (40 feet wide)
open to the water, and called New Key, upon which debouch all the lanes
leading from Thames Street to the shore. It was part of a design of Wren
for improving the river-bank after the Great Fire. In a map of 1819 the
“key,” though mostly open, is shown to be a subway under a portion of
the brewery. It is marked as a “Public Way.” It has been gradually
covered over by the extension of the brewery and the wharves, so that
now what was once a riverside walk has become a subway, from which the
water is nowhere visible, unless one of the wharf doors happens to be
open.
The Fishmongers’ Hall rises squarely beside London Bridge, and not far
off is the Monument, with an absurd _chevaux de frise_ of spikes rising
from its golden ball, and representing flames, very much as they are
represented in the contemporary illustrations of the Fire. St. Magnus’s
white steeple makes a good foreground.
THE FISHMONGERS COMPANY
The origin of the Fishmongers Company is lost in remote antiquity;
it is unquestionable that it existed prior to the reign of Henry
II., and originated in an association or brotherhood.
The Fishmongers Company lost the greater part of its earlier
records, books, and muniments in the Great Fire of London; the
earliest existing record in the possession of the Company being a
court book dating from 1592.
The privileges of the Company were confirmed by royal charters in
the reign of Edward I., 1272, Edward II., 1307, and Edward III.,
1327.
The first extant charter is in Norman French, dated July 10, 1364,
37 Edward III.
It recites that from ancient times, whereof memory runs not, it was
a custom that no fish should be sold in the City of London but by
fishmongers, except stockfish, which belongs to the mistery of
stockfishmongers (subsequently incorporated with the fishmongers),
and further recites that the mistery of fishmongers had grants from
the King’s progenitors in ancient times, that the fishmongers should
choose yearly certain persons of the mistery to well and lawfully
rule the same.
The foregoing charter was confirmed by a proclamation of the
following year, July 12, 1365, 38 Edward III., which granted further
power and privileges to the mistery of fishmongers of the City of
London.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
FISHMONGERS’ HALL, PRESENT DAY
]
By a further mandate of King Edward III., dated July 24 in the same
year, the King granted to the fishmongers of the said city, and of
the liberty of the halmote of the same mistery, that no person,
stranger or inhabitant, should in any manner occupy the mistery of
fishmongers in the said city, or intermeddle therewith, unless he
were of the same mistery; and that the fishmongers of the same
liberty should be able in every year to elect four persons (to be
sworn) to oversee the buying and selling of fish in the said city,
and well and faithfully to rule the said mistery “for the common
commodity of our people.”
In the twenty-second year of King Richard II., May 9, 1399, another
charter was granted.
By an Inspeximus of 6 Henry VI., July 10, 1427, the charter of King
Richard II. was confirmed.
By charter of 23 Henry VII., dated July 3, 1508, the Letters Patent
of 11 Henry VI., 1433, are set forth and ratified and confirmed.
By a charter of 24 King Henry VII., dated September 20, 1508, the
stockfishmongers of the City of London were incorporated by the name
of “The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mistery of Stockfishmongers of
the City of London,” with perpetual succession and a common seal.
In the twenty-seventh year of King Henry VIII., 1537, a charter was
granted by which the two corporations of the Fishmongers Company and
Stockfishmongers Company were incorporated as one company, and in
the same year a deed was executed between the two companies
regulating the terms of such union.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
LONDON BRIDGE
]
The rest of the brief history furnished by the Company is a recital
of the later charters, which do not seem of very great importance.
The number of liverymen in 1898 was 344; the Corporate Income was
£46,053; the Trust Income was £7235.
Freemen, the widows of freemen, and freewomen, being in poor
circumstances, are eligible for pecuniary relief by way of grant or
pension, or for election to the Company’s almshouses. The children
of freemen are eligible for weekly pensions or pecuniary relief.
Loans are also made by the Company in special cases in aid of
freemen in necessitous circumstances.
The Company has established a number of educational exhibitions for
the children of deserving freemen, and subscribe liberally to the
City of London Institute.
[Illustration:
FISHMONGERS’ HALL IN 1811
]
The children of freemen are also eligible for the nominations to
Christ’s Hospital in the gift of the Company.
Liverymen have the usual privileges, and receive invitations in turn
to dine at livery dinners in the Company’s hall.
The Company’s first hall was the house of Lord Fanhope given to the
Fishmongers by him in the reign of Henry VIII. It was rebuilt after
the Fire by Jarman. It stood on the north foot of the present
bridge. The present hall was erected when New London Bridge
swallowed up its predecessor.
ST. MAGNUS, LONDON BRIDGE
St. Magnus stands on the south side of Thames Street at the bottom
of Fish Street Hill; it was called the “Martyr” from its dedicatory
saint, who suffered martyrdom in Cæsarea in the time of Aurelian the
Emperor. It was burnt down by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren,
who completed it in 1676, with the exception of the steeple, which
was not added till 1705. The parish of St. Margaret, New Fish
Street, was annexed to this after the Fire. In 1831 that of St.
Michael, Crooked Lane, was also annexed. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1247.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by G. Shepherd._
ST. MAGNUS
]
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Bermondsey before 1252, and the Abbot and Convent of
Westminster alternately, since 1252; Henry VIII. seized it, and
granted it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20, 1540-41; Bishop
of London by grant of Edward VI. in 1550, confirmed by Queen Mary,
March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 535.
The building is one of the most beautiful of all the City churches;
it measures 90 feet in length, 59 feet in breadth, and 41 feet in
height. It contains a nave and side-aisles separated by slender
Ionic columns standing a considerable distance from each other. The
steeple rising near London Bridge is seen to great advantage, and is
considered one of the best of Wren’s works. It consists of a tower
with a cornice, parapet, and vases, surmounted by an octagonal
lantern with a cupola, which, in its turn, is surmounted by a
slender lantern and spire, with a finial and vane. The total height
is 185 feet.
Chantries were founded here by: Andrew Hunt, whose endowment fetched
£6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Gilbert Smythe was chaplain; Thomas
Makinge, whose endowment yielded £16 in 1548, when Thomas Parker was
chaplain; Sir John Deepdene, Knt., for himself and Elizabeth his
wife, at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, and also at the same
altar by Robert Ramsey, for himself and Jane his wife, for which the
King granted his licence, February 5, 1404-1405—the endowments
fetched £16 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Joseph Stepneth was chaplain;
Ralph de Gray, whose endowment fetched £4 in 1548; Hugh Pourt, who
was sheriff of London 1303, for himself and Margaret his wife, at
the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, to which Hugo de Waltham was
admitted chaplain, October 10, 1322—this chantry was augmented by
Roger Clovill, and the King granted his licence in mortmain, June
10, 1370; John Bever, for the support of two priests, whose
endowment fetched £20 : 6 : 8 in 1548, but no priests have been
found since Henry IV.’s time—the King granted his licence, May 26,
1448, to constitute the Guild of S. Maxentius and S. Thomas; Andrew
Hunt and several others founded and endowed the Brotherhood of Salve
Regina, whose gifts fetched £49 : 0 : 4 in 1548, when John Swanne
and William Bunting were the chaplains.
The old church was the place of sepulture of several persons of note
in their day, amongst whom may be mentioned Henry Yeuele,
master-mason to Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV.; Sir W.
Gerrard, mayor in 1555; and Sir John Gerrard, mayor in 1601; and
Thomas Collet, for twenty years deputy of this ward, who died in
1703. On the demolition of St. Bartholomew by the Exchange, the
remains of Miles Coverdale were brought here, as he had been rector
of the church 1563-66. His monument is on the east wall, south of
the communion table.
Sixty boys and forty girls were maintained in the Candlewick and
Bridge Wards.
The parish did not possess many large charitable gifts: Samuel Petty
was donor of £600, of which only £250 was received, owing to the
bonds not being good; Susanna Chambers, £17; Thomas Arnold, £2 :
12s.; John Jennings, £13.
Besides Miles Coverdale, other rectors of note were: Richard de
Medford or Mitford, Bishop of Chichester in 1389; Maurice Griffith
(d. 1558), Bishop of Rochester.
=Great Eastcheap=, now destroyed, was in Stow’s time a market-place for
butchers: it had also cooks mixed among the butchers and such others as
sold victuals ready dressed of all sorts. “For of old time when friends
did meet and were disposed to be merry, they went not to dine and sup at
taverns but to the cooks, where they called for meat what they liked
which they found ready dressed and at a reasonable rate.” In Great
Eastcheap was the immortal tavern of the Boar’s Head, already mentioned
p. 106.
There was apparently another Boar’s Head in this ward. Maitland mentions
it:
“In this Ward there was a house called The Boar’s Head, inhabited by
William Sanderson, which came to King Edward VI. by the Statute about
Chantries; which, with the shops, cellars, solars, and other Commodities
and easements, he sold in the second of his reign, together with other
lands and tenements, to John Sicklemore and Walter Williams for two
thousand six hundred and sixty-eight pounds, and upwards” (Maitland,
vol. ii. p. 793).
=Fish Street Hill=, or New Fish Street, formerly Bridge Street, led to
Old London Bridge past St. Magnus’s Church. It contained an ancient
stone house which had once been occupied by the Black Prince, and was
afterwards converted into an inn called the Black Bell. Very frequent
mention is made of Bridge Street. Here lived Andrew Horne, fishmonger,
City Chamberlain, author of the _Liber Horne_. A note which concerns him
may be found in Riley’s _Memorials_, A.D. 1315. Among the signs of the
street were the “King’s Head”; the “Harrow”; the “Swan and Bridge”; the
“Star”; the “Mitre”; the “Golden Cup”; the “Salmon”; the “Black Raven”;
the “Crown”; the “Maiden Head”; the “White Lion”; the “Swan,” etc.
Foundations of Roman buildings have been found here. Riley has notices
of the street between 1311 and 1340. Notices are found in the _Calendar
of Wills_ from 1273. In the Guildhall MSS. the earliest mention of the
street is 1189. In this street stood the Church of St. Margaret, not
rebuilt after the Fire. This church was on the west above Crooked Lane.
=St. Margaret, New Fish Street=, sometimes called St. Margaret,
Bridge Street, stood on the east side of Fish Street Hill, where the
Monument now stands; it was destroyed by the Great Fire, and its
parish united to that of St. Magnus the Martyr. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1283.
The patronage of the church, before 1283, was in the hands of: The
Abbot and Convent of Westminster, 1283-84; Henry VIII., who granted
it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20, 1540-41; the Bishop of
London, by grant of Edward VI. in 1550, confirmed by Queen Mary,
March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when
the parish was annexed to St. Magnus.
Houseling people in 1548 were 200.
Chantries were founded here by: Roger de Bury, for which the King
granted his licence in 1318; John Coggeshall, at the Altar of St.
Peter—his endowment fetched £13 : 10s. in 1548, when Richard Bec was
chaplain; Thomas Dursley, whose endowment yielded £4 in 1548; John
Rous, whose endowment fetched £5 in 1548; Robert Whaplode, whose
endowment yielded 40s. in 1548.
Only one monument of note is recorded by Stow, that of John
Coggeshall, 1384, and the reason of his eminence is not stated.
Some of the chantries belonging to this parish were: £2 : 10s., the
gift of John Wybert; £2, the gift of Katherine Parry; £1 : 10s., the
gift of Mr. Mosyer.
Candlewick and Bridge Wards maintained sixty boys and forty girls.
John Seton (d. 1568), Prebendary of York, author of _Dialectica_;
William Cotton (d. 1621), Bishop of Exeter; Samuel Hasnet,
Archbishop of York 1629, are among the notable rectors.
On the east side, higher up, stood the Church and burial-ground of St.
Leonard’s Milk Church, also destroyed by the Fire and not rebuilt (see
p. 266). The most important building in Fish Street is, of course, the
Monument.
For =The Monument= we quote the account taken by Maitland from the life
of Sir Christopher Wren:
“In the year 1671, the Surveyor began the building of the great fluted
column of Portland Stone, and of the Dorick Order (commonly called the
Monument of London, in memory of the burning and rebuilding of the
City), and finished it in 1677. The Artificers were obliged to wait
sometimes for Stones of proper scantlings; which occasioned the work to
be longer in execution than otherwise it would have been. The altitude
from the pavement is two hundred and two feet, the diameter of the shaft
or body of the column is fifteen feet, the ground bounded by the Plinth
or lowest part of the pedestal is twenty-eight feet square, and the
pedestal in height is forty feet. Within is a large staircase of black
marble, containing three hundred and forty-five steps, ten inches and an
half broad, and six inches rising. Over the Capital is an Iron Balcony,
encompassing a Cippus or Meta, thirty-two feet high, supporting a
blazing urn of brass gilt. Prior to this, the Surveyor (as it appears by
an original drawing) had made a design of a pillar of somewhat less
proportion, viz.: fourteen feet in diameter, and after a peculiar
device: For, as the Romans expressed by Relievo, on the pedestals, and
round the shafts of their Columns, the history of such actions and
incidents as were intended to be thereby commemorated; so this Monument
of the conflagration and resurrection of the City of London was
represented by a pillar in flames; the flames, blazing from the
loopholes of the shaft (which were to give light to the stairs within),
were figured in brasswork gilt, and on the top was a Phoenix rising from
her ashes, of brass gilt likewise.” The total expense was about £14,500.
[Illustration:
THE MONUMENT IN 1752
From a drawing by Signor Canalsti.
]
The height (202 feet) is supposed to be equal to its distance eastward
from the house in Pudding Lane in which the Fire broke out. Inside are
345 steps, by which any one after paying 3d. may ascend to the caged-in
platform near the top. The pedestal has Latin inscriptions on the north,
south, and east panels. In 1681 a further inscription, running round the
base of the pedestal, was added as follows:
This pillar was set up in perpetual remembrance of that most
dreadful burning of this Protestant City begun and carried on by y^e
treachery and malice of y^e Popish factio, in y^e beginning of
Septem in y^e year of our Lord 1666 in order to y^e carrying on
their horrid plott for extirpating the Protestant religion and old
English liberty, and the introducing Popery and slavery.
This was obliterated in the reign of James II., but recut in that of his
successor, causing Pope’s comment:
Where London’s column, pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully rears its head and lies.
The obnoxious inscription was not erased until 1831.
On the west panel of the pedestal is a bas-relief representing Charles
II. in Roman dress attended by Liberty, Genius, and Science.
In the background the City is being rebuilt, and at the King’s feet Envy
tries to rekindle the flames.
ST. LEONARD, EASTCHEAP
This church stood at the corner of Eastcheap on Fish Street Hill; it
was sometimes called St. Leonard Milk Church, from one Am. Milker,
who built it. It suffered considerably from a fire in 1618, but was
subsequently well repaired. The building was destroyed by the Great
Fire, and its parish annexed to that of St. Benet, Gracechurch
Street. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1348.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1353; Henry VIII., who seized
it in 1540, and soon after gave it to the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury.
Houseling people in 1548 were 260.
Chantries were founded here by: Reginald de Canterbury, citizen, at
the Altar of St. Thomas the Archbishop in 1329, when John de
Lacelbrigge was admitted chaplain; William Ivorye, whose endowment
yielded £8 : 6 : 8 in 1548; John Bromesburye and John Wasselbye,
whose endowments fetched £10 in 1548; Margery Bedyn, whose endowment
yielded £10 : 8s. in 1548; Hugo Browne, whose endowment fetched
£18 : 11s. in 1548; John Doggett, whose endowment yielded £10 in
1548; Robert Boydon.
A considerable number of monuments were recorded by Stow to have
been well preserved. That of the greatest antiquity was one in
memory of John Johnson, who died 1280. Several were erected to
various members of the Doggett family, of whom Walter Doggett was
sheriff in 1380, John Doggett, a citizen of eminence in his day,
buried 1456 (_circa_); Robert Fitzhugh (d. 1436), Bishop of London,
was rector here.
=Pudding Lane= was formerly Rother Lane, or Red Rose Lane. It was
called, according to Stow, “Pudding Lane, because the butchers of
Eastcheap have their scalding houses for hogs there, and their puddings
with other filth of beasts are voided down that way to their dung boats
on the Thames. This lane stretcheth from Thames Street to Little East
Cheap, chiefly inhabited by basket makers, turners and butchers, and is
all of Billingsgate Ward” (Cunningham). But the lane has its chief claim
to remembrance in the fact that here originated the Great Fire.
In Stow’s time it was occupied by basket-makers, turners, and butchers.
On the north-east of the lane stood Butchers’ Hall, destroyed by the
Fire, and rebuilt; burned again in 1829; rebuilt in 1831; removed to
Bartholomew Close in 1884.
ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH
St. George’s Church was burnt down in the Great Fire, rebuilt by
Wren in 1674, and became the parish church for St. Botolph’s,
Billingsgate, which had been also destroyed but not re-erected. In
1895 the building was closed on account of its dilapidated state.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1321. [Since pulled down.]
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, in 1321; then the Crown, since
1541 up to 1666, when it was annexed to St. Botolph, Billingsgate,
and with it to St. Mary-at-Hill.
Houseling people in 1548 were 123.
The present church measures 54 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth,
and 36 feet in height. It has two side-aisles, each separated from
the nave by two composite columns, placed far apart. The tower,
which rises at the north-west, consists of three stories, concluded
by a cornice and parapet, the angles of which are adorned with
vases. The total height is about 84 feet.
Stow records a chantry founded by Roger Delakere.