the library of the grey friars in London, to the charge of four hundred
pounds: his executors with his goods founded and built Whittington
college, with alms houses for thirteen poor men, and divinity lectures
to be read there for ever. They repaired St. Bartholomew’s hospital in
Smithfield; they bare some charges to the glazing and paving of the
Guildhall; they bare half the charges of building the library there, and
they built the west gate of London, of old time called Newgate, etc.
John Carpenter, town-clerk of London, in the reign of Henry V., caused
with great expense to be curiously painted upon board, about the north
cloister of Paule’s, a monument of Death leading all estates, with
the speeches of Death, and answer of every state. This cloister was
pulled down 1549. He also gave tenements to the city, for the finding
and bringing up of four poor men’s children with meat, drink, apparel,
learning at the schools in the universities, etc., until they be
preferred, and then other in their places for ever.
Robert Chichley, grocer, mayor 1422, appointed by his testament, that on
his minde day, a competent dinner should be ordained for two thousand
four hundred poor men, householders of this city, and every man to have
two pence in money. More, he gave one large plot of ground, thereupon to
build the new parish church of St. Stephen, near unto Walbrooke, etc.
John Rainwell, fishmonger, mayor 1427, gave tenements to discharge
certain wards of London of fifteenths and other payments.
John Wells, grocer, mayor, 1433, a great builder of the chapel or
college of the Guildhall, and was there buried. He caused fresh water to
be conveyed from Tyborne to the standard in West Cheape for service of
the city.
William Eastfield, mercer, 1438, appointed his executors of his goods
to convey sweet water from Tyborne, and to build a fair conduit by
Aldermanberie church, which they performed, as also made a standard in
Fleet street by Shew lane end; they also conveyed water to Cripples
gate, etc.
Stephen Browne, grocer, mayor 1439, sent into Prussia, causing corn to
be brought from thence;[120] whereby he brought down the price of wheat
from three shillings the bushel to less than half that money.
Philip Malpas, one of the sheriffs 1440, gave by his testament one
hundred and twenty-five pounds, to relieve poor prisoners, and every
year for five years, four hundred shirts and smocks, forty pairs of
sheets, and one hundred and fifty gowns of frieze, to the poor; to
five hundred poor people in London six shillings and eight pence;
to poor maids’ marriages one hundred marks; to highways one hundred
marks; twenty marks the year to a graduate to preach; twenty pounds to
preachers at the Spittle the three Easter holidays, etc.
Robert Large, mercer, mayor 1440, gave to his parish-church of St. Olave
in Surry two hundred pounds; to St. Margaret’s in Lothberie twenty-five
pounds; to the poor twenty pounds; to London bridge one hundred marks;
towards the vaulting over the water-course of Walbrooke two hundred
marks; to poor maids’ marriages one hundred marks; to poor householders
one hundred pounds, etc.
Richard Rich, mercer, one of the sheriffs 1442, founded alms houses at
Hodsdon in Hertfordshire.
Simon Eyre, draper, mayor 1346, built the Leaden hall for a common
garner of corn for the use of this city, and left five thousand marks to
charitable uses.
Godfrey Bollein, mayor of London, 1458, by his testament, gave liberally
to the prisons, hospitals, and lazar houses, besides a thousand
pounds to poor householders in London, and two hundred pounds to poor
householders in Norfolke.[121]
Richard Rawson, one of the sheriffs 1477, gave by testament large
legacies to the prisoners, hospitals, lazar houses, to other poor, to
highways, to the water-conduits, besides to poor maids’ marriages three
hundred and forty pounds, and his executors to build a large house in
the churchyard of St. Marie Spittle, wherein the mayor and his brethren
do use to sit and hear the sermons in the Easter holidays.
Thomas Ilam, one of the sheriffs 1480, newly built the great conduit in
Cheape, of his own charges.
Edward Shaw, goldsmith, mayor 1483, caused the Cripplegate of London to
be newly built of his goods, etc.
Thomas Hill, grocer, mayor 1485, caused of his goods the conduit of
Grasse street to be built.
Hugh Clopton, mercer, during his life a bachelor, mayor 1492, built the
great stone-arched bridge at Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire, and
did many other things of great charity, as in my _Summary_.
Robert Fabian, alderman, and one of the sheriffs, 1494, gathered out
of divers good authors, as well Latin as French, a large Chronicle of
England and of France, which he published in English, to his great
charges, for the honour of this city, and common utility of the whole
realm.
Sir John Percivall, merchant-taylor, mayor 1498, founded a
grammar-school at Macklefield in Cheshire, where he was born; he endowed
the same school with sufficient lands for the finding of a priest master
there, to teach freely all children thither sent, without exception.
The Lady Thomasine his wife founded the like free school, together with
fair lodgings for the schoolmasters, scholars, and other, and added
twenty pounds of yearly revenue for supporting the charges, at St. Mary
Wike in Devonshire, where she was born.
Stephen Gennings, merchant-taylor, mayor 1509, founded a fair
grammar-school at Ulfrimhampton[122] in Staffordshire, left good lands,
and also built a great part of his parish church, called St. Andrew’s
Undershaft, in London.
Henry Keble, grocer, mayor 1511, in his life a great benefactor to the
new building of old Mary church, and by his testament gave a thousand
pounds towards the finishing thereof; he gave to highways two hundred
pounds; to poor maids’ marriages one hundred marks; to poor husbandmen
in Oxford and Warwick shires one hundred and forty ploughshares, and one
hundred and forty coulters of iron; and in London, to seven almsmen six
pence the week for ever.
John Collet, a citizen of London by birth and dignity, dean of
Paule’s, doctor of divinity, erected and built one free school in
Paule’s churchyard, 1512, for three hundred and fifty-three poor men’s
children to be taught free in the same school, appointing a master, a
surmaster, and a chaplain, with sufficient stipends to endure for ever,
and committed the oversight thereof to the mercers in London, because
himself was son to Henry Collet, mercer, mayor of London, and endowed
the mercers with lands to the yearly value of one hundred and twenty
pounds or better.
John Tate, brewer, then a mercer, mayor 1514, caused his brewhouse,
called the Swan, near adjoining to the hospital of St. Anthonie in
London, to be taken down for the enlarging of the said church, then
newly built, a great part of his charge. This was a goodly foundation,
with alms houses, free school, etc.
George Monox, draper, mayor 1515, re-edified the decayed parish church
of Waltonstow, or Walthamstow, in Essex; he founded there a free school,
and alms houses for thirteen alms people, made a causeway of timber over
the marshes from Walthamstow to Lock bridge, etc.
Sir John Milborne, draper, mayor 1522, built alms houses, fourteen in
number, by the Crossed Friers church in London, there to be placed
fourteen poor people; and left to the Drapers certain messuages,
tenements, and garden plots, in the parish of St. Olave in Hart street,
for the performance of stipends to the said alms people, and other uses.
Look more in Ealdgate ward.
Robert Thorne, merchant-taylor, deceased a bachelor in the year 1532,
gave by his testament to charitable actions more than four thousand four
hundred and forty pounds, and legacies to his poor kindred more five
thousand one hundred and forty-two pounds, besides his debts forgiven,
etc.
Sir John Allen, mercer, mayor of London, and of council to King Henry
VIII., deceased 1544, buried in St. Thomas of Acres in a fair chapel
by him built. He gave to the city of London a rich collar of gold to
be worn by the mayor, which was first worn by Sir W. Laxton. He gave
five hundred marks to be a stock for sea-coal; his lands purchased of
the king, the rent thereof to be distributed to the poor in the wards
of London for ever. He gave besides to the prisons, hospitals, lazar
houses, and all other poor in the city, or two miles without, very
liberally, and long to be recited.
Sir William Laxton, grocer, mayor 1545, founded a fair free school at
Owndale in Northamptonshire, with six alms houses for the poor.
Sir John Gresham, mercer, mayor 1548, founded a free school at Holt, a
market-town in Norfolk.
Sir Rowland Hill, mercer, mayor 1550, caused to be made divers causeways
both for horse and man; he made four bridges, two of stone, containing
eighteen arches in them both; he built one notable free school at
Drayton in Shropshire; he gave to Christ’s hospital in London five
hundred pounds, etc.
Sir Andrew Jud, skinner, mayor 1551, erected one notable free school at
Tunbridge in Kent, and alms houses nigh St. Helen’s church in London,
and left to the Skinners lands to the value of sixty pounds three
shillings and eight pence the year; for the which they be bound to pay
twenty pounds to the schoolmaster, eight pounds to the usher, yearly,
for ever, and four-shillings the week to the six alms people, and
twenty-five shillings and four pence the year in coals for ever.
Sir Thomas White, merchant-taylor, mayor 1554, founded St. John’s
college, Oxford, and gave great sums of money to divers towns in England
for relief of the poor, as in my _Summary_.
Edward Hall, gentleman, of Gray’s inn, a citizen by birth and office, as
common sergeant of London, and one of the judges in the Sheriffs’ court;
he wrote and published a famous and eloquent chronicle, entitled, “The
Uniting of the Two noble Families, Lancaster and Yorke.”
Richard Hils, merchant-taylor, 1560, gave five hundred pounds towards
the purchase of a house called the manor of the Rose, wherein the
merchant-taylors founded their free school in London; he also gave
to the said merchant-taylors one plot of ground, with certain small
cottages on the Tower hill, where he built fair alms houses for fourteen
sole women.
About the same time William Lambert, Esq., born in London, a justice
of the peace in Kent, founded a college for the poor which he named of
Queen Elizabeth, in East Greenwich.
William Harper, merchant-taylor, mayor 1562, founded a free school in
the town of Bedford, where he was born, and also buried.
Sir Thomas Gresham, mercer, 1566, built the Royal Exchange in London,
and by his testament left his dwelling house in Bishopsgate street to
be a place for readings, allowing large stipends to the readers, and
certain alms houses for the poor.
William Patten, gentleman, a citizen by birth, a customer of London
outward, justice of peace in Middlesex, the parish church of
Stokenewenton being ruinous, he repaired, or rather new built.
Sir Thomas Roo, merchant-taylor, mayor 1568, gave to the
merchant-taylors lands or tenements, out of them to be given to ten poor
men, cloth-workers, carpenters, tilers, plasterers, and armourers, forty
pounds yearly, namely, four pounds to each, also one hundred pounds to
be lent to eight poor men; besides he enclosed with a wall of brick
nigh one acre of ground, pertaining to the hospital of Bethlem, to be a
burial for the dead.
Ambrose Nicholas, salter, mayor 1576, founded twelve alms houses in
Monke’s well street, near unto Creple’s gate, wherein he placed twelve
poor people, having each of them seven pence the week, and once every
year five sacks of coals, and one quarter of a hundred faggots, all of
his gift for ever.
William Lambe, gentleman and clothworker, in the year 1577, built a
water-conduit at Oldborne cross to his charges of fifteen hundred
pounds, and did many other charitable acts, as in my _Summary_.
Sir T. Offley, merchant-taylor, mayor, deceased 1580, appointed by his
testament the one half of all his goods, and two hundred pounds deducted
out of the other half given to his son Henry, to be given and bestowed
in deeds of charity by his executors, according to his confidence and
trust in them.
John Haydon, sheriff 1583, gave large legacies, more than three thousand
pounds, for the relief of the poor, as in my _Summary_.
Barnard Randolph, common sergeant of London 1583, gave and delivered
with his own hand, nine hundred pounds towards the building of
water-conduits, which was performed. More, by testament he gave one
thousand pounds to be employed in charitable actions; but that money
being in hold fast hands, I have not heard how it was bestowed, more
than of other good men’s testaments--to be performed.
Sir Wolston Dixie, skinner, mayor 1586, founded a free school at
Bosworth, and endowed it with twenty pounds land by year.
Richard May, merchant-taylor, gave three hundred pounds toward the new
building of Blackwell hall in London, a market-place for woollen cloths.
John Fuller, Esq., one of the judges in the sheriffs’ court of London,
by his testament, dated 1592, appointed his wife, her heirs and
assigns, after his decease, to erect one alms house in the parish of
Stikoneth,[123] for twelve poor single men, aged fifty years or upwards,
and one other alms house in Shoreditch, for twelve poor aged widow women
of like age, she to endow them with one hundred pounds the year, to
wit, fifty pounds to each for ever, out of his lands in Lincolne shire,
assured ever unto certain fiefs in trust, by a deed of feoffment. Item:
more, he gave his messuages, lands, and tenements, lying in the parishes
of St. Benet and St. Peter, by Powle’s wharf in London, to feoffees
in trust, yearly for ever, to disburse all the issues and profits of
the said lands and tenements, to the relieving and discharge of poor
prisoners in the Hole, or two penny wards in the two compters in London,
in equal portions to each compter, so that the prisoners exceed not the
sum of twenty-six shillings and eight pence for every one prisoner at
any one time.
Thus much for famous citizens have I noted their charitable actions,
for the most part done by them in their lifetime. The residue left in
trust to their executors, I have known some of them hardly (or never)
performed; wherefore I wish men to make their own hands their executors,
and their eyes their overseers, not forgetting the old proverb:--
“Women be forgetfull, children be unkind,
Executors be covetous, and take what they find.
If any body aske where the dead’s goods became,
They answere, So God me help, and holy dome, he died a poore man.”
One worthy citizen merchant-taylor, having many years considered this
proverb foregoing, hath therefore established to twelve poor aged men,
merchant-taylors, six pounds two shillings to each yearly for ever. He
hath also given them gowns of good broad cloth, lined thoroughly with
bays, and are to receive every three years’ end the like new gowns for
ever.
And now of some women, citizens’ wives, deserving memory, for example to
posterity shall be noted.
Dame Agnes Foster, widow, sometime wife to Stephen Foster, fishmonger,
mayor 1455, having enlarged the prison of Ludgate in 1463, procured in a
common council of this city, certain articles to be established for the
ease, comfort, and relief of poor prisoners there, as in the chapter of
gates I have set down.
Avise Gibson, wife unto Nicholas Gibson, grocer, one of the sheriffs
1539, by license of her husband, founded a free school at Radclyffe,
near unto London, appointing to the same, for the instruction of sixty
poor men’s children, a schoolmaster and usher with fifty pounds; she
also built alms houses for fourteen poor aged persons, each of them to
receive quarterly six shillings and eight pence the piece for ever; the
government of which free school and alms houses she left in confidence
to the Coopers in London. This virtuous gentlewoman was after joined in
marriage with Sir Anthony Knevet, knight, and so called the Lady Knevet;
a fair painted table of her picture was placed in the chapel which she
had built there, but of late removed thence, by the like reason as the
Grocer’s arms fixed on the outer wall of the schoolhouse are pulled
down, and the Coopers set in place.[124]
Margaret Danne, widow to William Danne, ironmonger, one of the sheriffs
of London, gave by her testament to the ironmongers, two thousand
pounds, to be lent to young men of that company, paying after the rate
of five pounds in the year for every hundred; which one hundred pounds
so rising yearly, to be employed on charitable actions, as she then
appointed, but not performed in more than thirty years after.
Dame Mary Ramsey, wife to Sir Thomas Ramsey, mayor about the year 1577,
being seised of lands in fee simple of her inheritance to the yearly
value of two hundred and forty-three pounds, by his consent gave the
same to Christ’s hospital in London towards the relief of poor children
there, and other ways, as in my _Summary_ and _Abridgment_ I have
long since expressed; which gift she in her widowhood confirmed and
augmented, as is showed by monuments in Christ’s hospital erected.
Thus much for the worthiness of citizens in this city, touching whom
John Lidgate, a monk of Bury, in the reign of Henry VI., made (amongst
other) these verses following:--
“Of seaven things I prayse this citty.
Of true meaning and faithful observance;
Of righteousnes, truth, and equity;
Of stablenes aye kept in legiance;
And for of vertue thou hast suffisance,
In this lond here, and other londs all,
The kinges chamber of custome, men thee call.”
Having thus in generality handled the original, the walls, gates,
ditches, and fresh waters, the bridges, towers, and castles, the
schools of learning and house of law, the orders and customs, sports
and pastimes, watchings and martial exercises, and lastly the honour
and worthiness of the citizens, I am now to set down the distribution
of this city into parts; and more especially to declare the antiquities
noteworthy in every of the same; and how both the whole and parts have
been from time to time ruled and governed.
FOOTNOTES:
[120] “To London in greater quantitie.”--_1st edition_, p. 80.
[121] “In the yeare 1471, John Stockton, mayor, and eleven aldermen
of London, with the recorder, were all made knightes in the fielde by
Edward IV., for their good service done to him.”--_1st edition_, p. 81.
[122] Wolverhampton.
[123] Stepney.
[124] “Cursed is hee that removeth his neighbors mark, have I
read.”--_Stow._
THE CITY DIVIDED INTO PARTS
The ancient division of this city was into wards or aldermanries. And
therefore I will begin at the east, and so proceed through the high and
most principal street of the city to the west, after this manner.
First, through Aldgate street to the west corner of St. Andrewe’s
church, called Undershaft, on the right hand, and Lyme street corner on
the left; all which is of Aldgate ward; from thence through Cornhill
street to the west corner of Leaden hall; all which is of Lyme street
ward. From thence, leaving the street that leadeth to Bishopsgate on the
right hand, and the way that leadeth into Grasse street on the left,
still through Cornhill street, by the conduit to the west corner against
the Stocks; all which is in Cornhill ward. Then by the said Stocks (a
market-place both of fish and flesh standing in the midst of the city)
through the Poultry (a street so called) to the great conduit in West
Cheape, and so through Cheape to the standard, which is of Cheape ward,
except on the south side from Bow-lane to the said standard, which is
of Cordwayner street ward. Then by the standard to the great cross,
which is in Cripplegate ward on the north side, and in Bred street ward
on the south side. And to the little conduit by Paule’s gate, from
whence of old time the said high street stretched straight to Ludgate,
all in the ward of Faringdon within, then divided truly from east to
west, but since by means of the burning of Paule’s church, which was
in the reign of William I., Mauricius, then bishop of London, laid the
foundation of a new church, so far in largeness exceeding the old, that
the way towards Ludgate was thereby greatly straitened, as before I have
discoursed.
Now from the north to the south this city was of old time divided, not
by a large highway or street, as from east to west, but by a fair brook
of sweet water, which came from out the north fields through the wall,
and midst of the city, into the river of Thames; which division is
till this day constantly and without change maintained. This water was
called (as I have said) Walbrooke, not Galus brook of a Roman captain
slain by Asclepiodatus, and thrown therein, as some have fabled, but of
running through, and from the wall of this city; the course whereof,
to prosecute it particularly, was and is from the said wall to St.
Margaret’s church in Lothberrie; from thence beneath the lower part
of the Grocers’ hall, about the east part of their kitchen, under St.
Mildred’s church, somewhat west from the said Stockes’ market; from
thence through Buckles berry, by one great house built of stone and
timber called the Old Barge, because barges out of the river of Thames
were rowed up so far into this brook, on the backside of the houses in
Walbrooke street (which street taketh the name of the said brook) by the
west end of St. John’s church upon Walbrooke, under Horseshew bridge,
by the west side of Tallowchandler’s hall, and of the Skinner’s hall,
and so behind the other houses to Elbow lane, and by a part thereof down
Greenewitch lane, into the river of Thames.
This is the course of Walbrooke, which was of old time bridged over in
divers places, for passage of horses and men, as need required; but
since, by means of encroachment on the banks thereof, the channel being
greatly straitened, and other noyances done thereunto, at length the
same by common consent was arched over with brick, and paved with stone,
equal with the ground, where through it passed, and is now in most
places built upon, that no man may by the eye discern it, and therefore
the trace thereof is hardly known to the common people.
This city was divided from east to west, and from north to south. I am
further to show how the same was of old time broken into divers parts
called wards, whereof Fitzstephen, more than four hundred years since,
writeth thus:--“This city, (saith he) even as Rome, is divided into
wards; it hath yearly sheriffs instead of consuls. It hath the dignity
of senators in aldermen,” etc. The number of these wards in London
was, both before and in the reign of Henry III., twenty-four in all;
whereof thirteen lay on the east side of the said Walbrooke, and eleven
on the west. Notwithstanding these eleven grew much more large than
those of the east; and therefore in the year of Christ 1393, in the
17th of Richard II., Faringdon ward, which was then one entire ward,
but mightily increased of buildings without the gates, was by act of
parliament appointed to be divided into twain, and to have two aldermen,
to wit, Faringdon within, and Faringdon without, which made up the
number of twelve wards on the west side of Walbrooke, and so the whole
number of twenty-five on both sides. Moreover, in the year 1550, the
mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, purchasing the liberties of
the borough of Southwark, appointed the same to be a ward of London, and
so became the number of thirteen wards on the east, twelve on the west,
and one south of the river Thames, in the said borough of Southwark, in
the county of Surrey, which in all arise to the number of twenty-six
wards, and twenty-six aldermen of London.
Wards on the east part of Walbrooke are these:--
1 Portsoken ward without the walls.
2 Tower street ward.
3 Ealdegate ward.
4 Lime street ward.
5 Bishopsgate ward, within the walls and without.
6 Brod street ward.
7 Cornehil ward.
8 Langbourne ward.
9 Billingsgate ward.
10 Bridge ward within.
11 Candlewick street ward.
12 Walbrooke ward.
13 Downgate ward.
Wards on the west side of Walbrooke are these:
14 Vintry ward.
15 Cordwainer street ward.
16 Cheape ward.
17 Colman street warde.
18 Basinghall warde.
19 Cripplegate ward, within and without.
20 Aldersgate ward, within and without.
21 Farringdon ward within.
22 Bread street ward.