24 Castle Baynard ward.
25 Farringdon ward without the walls.
One ward south the river Thames, in the borough of Southwark, by the
name of
26 Bridge ward without.
OF PORTSOKEN WARD, THE FIRST IN THE EAST PART
Seeing that of every of these wards I have to say somewhat, I will begin
with Portsoken ward without Aldgate.
This Portsoken, which soundeth[125] the franchise at the gate, was
sometime a guild, and had beginning in the days of King Edgar, more
than six hundred years since.[126] There were thirteen knights or
soldiers, well-beloved to the king and realm, for service by them done,
which requested to have a certain portion of land on the east part of
the city, left desolate and forsaken by the inhabitants, by reason of
too much servitude. They besought the king to have this land, with the
liberty of a guild for ever. The king granted to their request, with
conditions following: that is, that each of them should victoriously
accomplish three combats, one above the ground, one under ground,
and the third in the water; and after this, at a certain day in East
Smithfield, they should run with spears against all comers; all which
was gloriously performed; and the same day the king named it Knighten
Guild, and so bounded it, from Aldgate to the place where the bars now
are, toward the east, on both the sides of the street, and extended
it towards Bishopsgate in the north, unto the house then of William
Presbiter, after of Giffrey Tanner, and then of the heirs of Colver,
after that of John Easeby, but since of the Lord Bourchier, etc. And
again towards the south unto the river of Thames, and so far into the
water, as a horseman, entering the same, may ride at a low water, and
throw his spear; so that all East Smithfield, with the right part of the
street that goeth to Dodding pond into the Thames, and also the hospital
of St. Katherin’s, with the mills that were founded in King Stephen’s
days, and the outward stone wall, and the new ditch of the Tower, are
of the said fee and liberty; for the said wall and ditch of the Tower
were made in the time of King Richard, when he was in the Holy Land, by
William Longshampe, Bishop of Ely, as before I have noted unto you.
These knights had as then none other charter by all the days of Edgar,
Ethelred, and Cnutus, until the time of Edward the Confessor, whom the
heirs of those knights humbly besought to confirm their liberties;
whereunto he graciously granting,[127] gave them a deed thereof, as
appeareth in the book of the late house of the Holy Trinity. The said
charter is fair written in the Saxon letter and tongue. After this,
King William, the son of William the Conqueror, made a confirmation of
the same liberties, unto the heirs of those knights, in these words:
“William, king of England, to Maurice Bishop, and Godffrey de Magum,
and Richard de Parre, and to his faithfull people of London, greeting:
Know ye me to have granted to the men of Knighten Guilde, the guilde
that belonged to them, and the land that belonged thereunto, with all
customes, as they had the same in the time of King Edward, and my
father. Witnesse, Hugh de Buche, at Rething.”
After him, King Henry I. confirmed the same by his charter to the like
effect, the recital whereof I pretermit for brevity. After which time,
the church of the Holy Trinity, within Aldgate of London, being founded
by Queen Matilda, wife to the said Henry, the multitude of brethren,
praising God day and night therein, in short time so increased, that all
the city was delighted in the beholding of them; insomuch, that in the
year 1115, certain burgesses of London, of the progeny of those noble
English knights; to wit, Radulphus Fitalgod, Wilmarde le Deucreshe,
Orgar le Prude, Edward Hupcornehill, Blackstanus, and Alwine his
kinsman, and Robert his brother, the sons of Leafstanus the goldsmith,
Wiso his son, Hugh Fitzvulgar, Algare Secusme, coming together into the
chapter-house of the said church of the Holy Trinity, gave to the same
church and canons serving God therein, all the lands and soke called in
English Knighten Guilde, which lieth to the wall of the city, without
the same gate, and stretcheth to the river of Thames; they gave it, I
say, taking upon them the brotherhood and participation of the benefits
of that house, by the hands of Prior Norman. And the better to confirm
this their grant, they offered upon the altar there the charter of
Edward, together with the other charters which they had thereof; and
afterward they did put the foresaid prior in seisine thereof, by the
church of St. Buttolphe’s, which is built thereon, and is the head
of that land. These things were thus done before Bernard, prior of
Dunstable, John, prior of Derland, Geffrey Clinton, chamberlain, and
many other clerks and laymen, French and English. Orgar le Prude (one
of their company) was sent to King Henry, beseeching him to confirm
their gift, which the king gladly granted by his deed: “Henrie, king of
England, to Richard Bishop of London, to the shireffes and provost, and
to all his barons and faithfull people, French and English, of London
and Middlesex, greeting: Know ye mee to have graunted and confirmed to
the church and canons of the Holy Trinitie of London, the soke of the
English Knighten Guilde, and the land which pertaineth thereunto, and
the church of St. Buttolph, as the men of the same guilde have given and
granted unto them: and I will and straightly commaund, that they may
hold the same well and honourably and freely, with sacke and soke, toll
and thea, infangthefe, and all customs belonging to it, as the men of
the same Guild in best sort had the same in the time of K. Edward, and
as King William, my father and brother, did grant it to them by their
writs. Witnesse, A. the queene, Geffrey the chauncellor, Geoffrey of
Clinton, and William of Clinton, at Woodstocke.” All these prescribed
writings (saith my book), which sometime belonged to the priory of the
Holy Trinity, are registered in the end of the Book of Remembrances,
in the Guildhall of London, marked with the letter C, folio 134. The
king sent also his sheriffs, to wit, Aubrey de Vere, and Roger, nephew
to Hubert, which upon his behalf should invest this church with the
possessions thereof, which the said sheriffs accomplished coming upon
the ground; Andrew Buchevite, and the forenamed witnesses, and other,
standing by; notwithstanding, Othowerus Acolivillus, Otto, and Geffrey,
Earl of Essex, constables of the Tower by succession, withheld by force
a portion of the said land, as I have before delivered.
The prior and canons of the Holy Trinity, being thus seised of the said
land and soke of Knighten Guilde, a part of the suburb without the wall
(but within the liberties of the city), the same prior was, for him and
his successors, admitted as one of the aldermen of London, to govern
the same land and soke: according to the customs of the city, he did
sit in court, and rode with the mayor and his brethren the aldermen, as
one of them, in scarlet or other livery as they used, until the year
1531, at the which time the said priory, by the last prior there, was
surrendered to King Henry VIII., in the 23rd of his reign, who gave this
priory to Sir Thomas Audley, knight, lord chancellor of England, and he
pulled down the church; since the which dissolution of that house, the
said ward of Portsoken hath been governed by a temporal man, one of the
aldermen of London, elected by the citizens, as the aldermen of other
wards. Thus much for the out-bounds of Knighten guilde, or Portsoken
ward, and for the antiquity and government thereof.
Now, of the parts therein, this is specially to be noted. First,
the east part of the Tower standeth there, then an hospital of St.
Katherine’s, founded by Matilda the queen, wife to King Stephen, by
license of the priory and convent of the Holy Trinity in London, on
whose grounds he founded it. Helianor the queen, wife to King Edward
I., a second foundress, appointed there to be a master, three brethren
chaplains, and three sisters, ten poor women, and six poor clerks; she
gave to them the manor of Carlton in Wiltshire, and Upchurch in Kent,
etc. Queen Philippa, wife to King Edward III., 1351, founded a chantry
there, and gave to that hospital ten pounds land by year; it was of late
time called a free chapel, a college, and an hospital for poor sisters.
The choir, which of late years was not much inferior to that of Paules,
was dissolved by Dr. Wilson, a late master there, the brethren and
sisters remaining: this house was valued at £315 14_s._ 2_d._, being
now of late years inclosed about, or pestered with small tenements and
homely cottages, having inhabitants, English and strangers, more in
number than in some city in England. There lie buried in this church the
countess of Huntingdon, countess of the March in her time, 1429; John
Holland, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon, 1447, and his two wives,
in a fair tomb on the north side the choir; Thomas Walsingham, esquire,
and Thomas Ballarde, esquire, by him, 1465; Thomas Flemming, knight,
1466, etc.[128]
On the east and by north of the Tower, lieth East Smithfield and Tower
hill, two plots of ground so called, without the wall of the city; and
east from them both was sometime a monastery, called New Abbey, founded
by King Edward III. in the year 1359, upon occasion as followeth:
In the year 1348, the 23rd of Edward III., the first great pestilence
in his time began, and increased so sore, that for want of room in
churchyards to bury the dead of the city and of the suburbs, one John
Corey, clerk, procured of Nicholas, prior of the Holy Trinity within
Aldgate, one toft[129] of ground near unto East Smithfield, for the
burial of them that died, with condition that it might be called the
churchyard of the Holy Trinity; which ground he caused, by the aid of
divers devout citizens, to be inclosed with a wall of stone. Robert
Elsing, son of William Elsing, gave five pounds thereunto; and the same
was dedicated by Ralph Stratford, Bishop of London, where innumerable
bodies of the dead were afterwards buried, and a chapel built in the
same place to the honour of God: to the which King Edward setting his
eye (having before, in a tempest on the sea, and peril of drowning,
made a vow to build a monastery to the honour of God, and our lady of
grace, if God would grant him grace to come safe to land), built there
a monastery, placing an abbot, and monks of the Cistercian, or White
order. The bounds of this plot of ground, together with a decree for
tithes thereof, are expressed in the charter, the effect whereof I
have set down in another place, and have to show. This house, at the
late general suppression, was valued at £546 0_s._ 10_d._ yearly; it
was surrendered in the year 1539, the 30th of Henry VIII.; since the
which time, the said monastery being clean pulled down by Sir Arthur
Darcie, knight, and others, of late time in place thereof is built a
large storehouse for victuals; and convenient ovens are built there, for
baking of biscuits to serve her majesty’s ships. The grounds adjoining,
belonging to the said abbey, are employed in building of small tenements.
For Tower hill, as the same is greatly diminished by building of
tenements and garden-plots, etc. So it is of late, to wit, in the year
of Christ 1593, on the north side thereof, and at the west end of Hog
street, beautified by certain fair alms houses, strongly built of brick
and timber, and covered with slate for the poor, by the merchant-tailors
of London, in place of some small cottages given to them by Richard
Hils, sometime a master of that company, one thousand loads of timber
for that use, being also given by Anthonie Radcliffe, of the same
society, alderman. In these alms houses, fourteen charitable brethren
of the said merchant-tailors yet living, have placed fourteen poor
sole women, which receive each of them of their founder sixteen pence,
or better, weekly, besides £8 15_s._ yearly, paid out of the common
treasury of the same corporation for fuel.
From the west part of this Tower hill, towards Aldgate, being a long
continual street, amongst other smaller buildings in that row, there
was sometime an abbey of nuns of the order of St. Clare, called the
Minories, founded by Edmond, Earl of Lancaster, Leycester, and Darbie,
brother to King Edward III., in the year 1293; the length of which abbey
contained fifteen perches and seven feet, near unto the king’s street or
highway, etc., as appeareth by a deed, dated 1303.
A plague of pestilence being in this city, in the year 1515, there died
in this house of nuns professed to the number of twenty-seven, besides
other lay people, servants in their house. This house was valued to
dispend £418 8_s._ 5_d._ yearly, and was surrendered by Dame Elizabeth
Salvage, the last abbess there, unto King Henry VIII. in the 30th of his
reign, the year of Christ 1539.
In place of this house of nuns is now built divers fair and large
storehouses for armour and habiliments of war, with divers workhouses,
serving to the same purpose: there is a small parish church for
inhabitants of the close, called St. Trinities.
Near adjoining to this abbey, on the south side thereof, was sometime
a farm belonging to the said nunnery; at the which farm I myself in my
youth have fetched many a halfpenny worth of milk, and never had less
than three ale pints for a halfpenny in the summer, nor less than one
ale quart for a halfpenny in the winter, always hot from the kine, as
the same was milked and strained. One Trolop, and afterwards Goodman,
were the farmers there, and had thirty or forty kine to the pail.
Goodman’s son being heir to his father’s purchase, let out the ground
first for grazing of horses, and then for garden-plots, and lived like a
gentleman thereby.
On the other side of that street lieth the ditch without the walls of
the city, which of old time was used to be open, always from time to
time cleansed from filth and mud, as need required; of great breadth,
and so deep, that divers, watering horses where they thought it
shallowest, were drowned, both horse and man. But now of later time the
same ditch is inclosed, and the banks thereof let out for garden-plots,
carpenters’ yards, bowling allies, and divers houses thereon built,
whereby the city wall is hidden, the ditch filled up, a small channel
left, and that very shallow.
From Aldgate, east, lieth a large street and highway, sometime
replenished with few, but fair and comely buildings; on the north side
whereof, the first was the parish church of St. Buttolph, in a large
cemetery or churchyard. This church hath been lately new built at the
special charges of the priors of the Holy Trinity; patrons thereof, as
it appeareth by the arms of that house, engraven on the stone work.
The parishioners of this parish being of late years mightily increased,
the church is pestered with lofts and seats for them. Monuments in this
church are few: Henry Jorden founded a chauntry there; John Romany
Ollarie, and Agnes his wife, were buried there about 1408; Richard
Chester, alderman, one of the sheriffs, 1484; Thomas Lord Darcie of
the north, knight of the garter, beheaded 1537; Sir Nicholas Carew, of
Bedington, in Surrey, knight of the garter, beheaded 1538; Sir Arthur
Darcie, youngest son to Thomas Lord Darcie, deceased at the new abbey on
the Tower hill, was buried there. East from this parish church, there
were certain fair inns for receipt of travellers repairing to the city,
up towards Hog lane end, somewhat within the bars, a mark showing how
far the liberties of the city do extend.
This Hog lane stretcheth north toward St. Mary Spitle without
Bishopsgate, and within these forty years[130] had on both sides fair
hedge rows of elm trees, with bridges and easy stiles to pass over into
the pleasant fields, very commodious for citizens therein to walk,
shoot, and otherwise to recreate and refresh their dull spirits in
the sweet and wholesome air, which is now within a few years made a
continual building throughout, of garden-houses and small cottages; and
the fields on either sides be turned into garden-plots, tenter yards,
bowling alleys, and such like, from Houndes ditch in the west, as far as
White Chappell, and further towards the east.
On the south side of the highway from Aldgate were some few tenements,
thinly scattered here and there, with many void spaces between them,
up to the Bars; but now that street is not only fully replenished with
buildings outward, and also pestered with divers alleys, on either side
to the bars, but to White Chappell and beyond. Among the which late
buildings, one memorable for the commodity of that east part of this
city is a fair water conduit, hard without the gate; at the building
whereof in the year 1535, Sir John Allen being mayor, two-fifteens were
granted by the citizens for the making and laying of pipes, to convey
water from Hackney to that place; and so that work was finished.
From Aldgate, north-west to Bishopsgate, lieth the ditch of the city
called Houndes ditch; for that in old time, when the same lay open, much
filth (conveyed forth of the city), especially dead dogs, were there
laid or cast; wherefore of latter time a mud wall was made, inclosing
the ditch, to keep out the laying of such filth as had been accustomed.
Over against this mud wall, on the other side of the street, was a fair
field, sometime belonging to the priory of the Trinity, and since by Sir
Thomas Audley given to Magdalen college in Cambridge: this field (as all
other about the city) was inclosed, reserving open passage thereinto,
for such as were disposed. Towards the street were some small cottages,
of two stories high, and little garden-plots backward, for poor bed-rid
people, for in that street dwelt none other, built by some prior of the
Holy Trinity, to whom that ground belonged.
In my youth, I remember, devout people, as well men as women of this
city, were accustomed oftentimes, especially on Fridays, weekly to walk
that way purposely there to bestow their charitable alms; every poor man
or woman lying in their bed within their window, which was towards the
street, open so low that every man might see them, a clean linen cloth
lying in their window, and a pair of beads, to show that there lay a
bed-rid body, unable but to pray only. This street was first paved in
the year 1503.
About the latter reign of Henry VIII., three brethren that were
gunfounders, surnamed Owens, got ground there to build upon, and to
inclose for casting of brass ordinance. These occupied a good part of
the street on the field side, and in a short time divers others also
built there, so that the poor bed-rid people were worn out, and, in
place of their homely cottages, such houses built as do rather want
room than rent; which houses be for the most part possessed by brokers,
sellers of old apparel, and such like. The residue of the field was for
the most part made into a garden by a gardener named Cawsway, one that
served the markets with herbs and roots; and in the last year of King
Edward VI. the same was parcelled into gardens wherein are now many fair
houses of pleasure built.
On the ditch side of this street the mud wall is also by little and
little all taken down, the bank of the ditch being raised, made level
ground, and turned into garden-plots and carpenters’ yards, and many
large houses are there built; the filth of which houses, as also the
earth cast out of their vaults, is turned into the ditch, by which means
the ditch is filled up, and both the ditch and wall so hidden that they
cannot be seen of the passers by. This Portsoken ward hath an alderman
and his deputy, common councillors six, constables four, scavengers
four, for the wardemote inquest eighteen, and a beadle. To the fifteen
it is cessed at four pounds ten shillings.
FOOTNOTES:
[125] “As much as”--_1st edition_, p. 85.
[126] Liber Trinitat.
[127] Liber Trinitat.
[128] The further history of this establishment will be found in
Nichols’ _History of the Hospital and Collegiate Church of St.
Katherine, near the Tower of London_.
[129] The Danish _toft_, Swedish _tomt_, properly signifies the ground
upon which a house stands. See Grimm’s _Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer_, s.
539.
[130] “These fortie-four yeares last.”--_1st edition_, p. 92.
TOWER STREET WARD
The first ward in the east part of this city within the wall is called
Tower street ward, and extendeth along the river of Thames from the
said Tower in the east almost to Belinsgate in the west. One half of
the Tower, the ditch on the west side, and bulwarks adjoining, do stand
within that part where the wall of the city of old time went straight
from the postern gate south to the river of Thames, before that the
Tower was built. From and without the Tower ditch, west and by north,
is the said Tower hill, sometime a large plot of ground, now greatly
straitened by incroachments (unlawfully made and suffered) for gardens
and houses; some on the bank of the Tower ditch, whereby the Tower ditch
is marred, but more near unto the wall of the city from the postern
north, till over against the principal fore-gate of the Lord Lumley’s
house, etc.; but the Tower ward goeth no further that way.
Upon this hill is always readily prepared, at the charges of the city, a
large scaffold and gallows of timber, for the execution of such traitors
or transgressors as are delivered out of the Tower, or otherwise, to the
sheriffs of London by writ, there to be executed. I read, that in the
fifth of King Edward IV.[131] a scaffold and gallows was there set up
by other the king’s officers, and not of the city’s charges, whereupon
the mayor and his brethren complained, but were answered by the king
that the Tower hill was of the liberty of the city; and whatsoever was
done in that point was not in derogation of the city’s liberties, and
therefore commanded proclamation[132] to be made, as well within the
city as in the suburbs, as followeth: “Forasmuch as, the seventh day of
this present month of November, gallows were erect and set up besides
our Tower of London, within the liberties and franchises of our city of
London, in derogation and prejudice of the liberties and franchises of
this city, the king our sovereign lord would it be certainly understood
that the erection and setting up of the said gallows was not done by
his commandment; wherefore the king our sovereign lord willeth that the
erection and setting up the said gallows be not any precedent or example
thereby hereafter to be taken, in hurt, prejudice, or derogation of the
franchises, liberties, and privileges of the said city, which he at all
times hath had, and hath in his benevolence, tender favour, and good
grace, etc. Apud Westminst. 9 die Novemb. anno regni nostri quinto.”
On the north side of this hill is the said Lord Lumley’s house, and on
the west side divers houses lately built, and other incroachments along
south to Chick lane,[133] on the east of Barking church, at the end
whereof you have Tower street stretching from the Tower hill, west to
St. Margaret Patten’s church parsonage.