Overies, and other), or Candlewick street, took that name (as may be
supposed) either of chandlers, or makers of candles, both of wax and
tallow; for candlewright is a maker of candles, or of wick, which is
the cotton or yarn thereof; or otherwise wike,[180] which is the place
where they used to work them, as Scalding wike by the Stocks market was
called of the poulterers scalding and dressing their poultry there;
and in divers countries, dairy houses, or cottages, wherein they make
butter and cheese, are usually called wicks. There dwelt also of old
time divers weavers of woollen clothes, brought in by Edward III. For
I read, that in the 44th of his reign, the weavers, brought out of
Flanders, were appointed their meetings to be in the churchyard of St.
Laurence Poultney, and the weavers of Brabant in the churchyard of St.
Mary Sommerset. There were then in this city weavers of divers sorts; to
wit, of drapery, or tapery, and napery. These weavers of Candlewright
street being in short time worn out, their place is now possessed by
rich drapers, sellers of woollen cloth, etc.
On the north side of this ward, at the west end of Eastcheape, have ye
St. Clement’s lane; a part whereof on both sides is of Candlewick street
ward, to wit, somewhat north beyond the parish church of St. Clement in
Eastcheape. This is a small church, void of monuments, other than of
Francis Barnam, alderman, who deceased 1575, and of Benedicke Barnam,
his son, alderman also, 1598. William Chartney and William Overie
founded a chantry there.
Next is St. Nicholas lane, for the most part on both sides of this ward,
almost to St. Nicholas church. Then is Abchurch lane, which is on both
the sides almost wholly of this ward, the parish church there (called
of St. Marie Abchurch, Apechurch, or Upchurch, as I have read it),
standeth somewhat near unto the south end thereof, on a rising ground:
it is a fair church. Simon de Winchcomb founded a chantry there the
19th of Richard II.; John Littleton founded another, and Thomas Hondon
another; and hath the monuments of J. Long, esquire, of Bedfordshire,
1442; William Wikenson, alderman, 1519; William Jawdrell, tailor, 1440;
Sir James Hawes, mayor 1574; Sir John Branch, mayor 1580; John Miners;
William Kettle, etc.
On the south side of this ward, beginning again at the east, is St.
Michael’s lane, which lane is almost wholly of this ward, on both sides
down towards Thames street, to a well or pump there. On the east side of
this lane is Crooked lane aforesaid, by St. Michael’s church, towards
New Fish street. One the most ancient house in this lane is called the
Leaden porch, and belonged sometime to Sir John Merston. knight, the 1st
of Edward IV. It is now called the Swan in Crooked lane, possessed of
strangers, and selling of Rhenish wine. The parish church of this St.
Michael’s was sometime but a small and homely thing, standing upon part
of that ground wherein now standeth the parsonage-house; and the ground
there about was a filthy plot, by reason of the butchers in Eastcheape,
who made the same their laystall. William de Burgo gave two messuages to
that church in Candlewick street, 1317. John Lofkin, stock-fishmonger,
four times mayor, built in the same ground this fair church of St.
Michael, and was buried there in the choir, under a fair tomb, with
the images of him and his wife, in alabaster. The said church hath
been since increased with a new choir, and side chapels by Sir William
Walworth, stock-fishmonger, mayor, sometime servant to the said John
Lofkin: also the tomb of Lofkin was removed, and a flat stone of grey
marble garnished with plates of copper laid on him, as it yet remaineth
in the body of the church. This William Walworth is reported to have
slain Jack Straw,[181] but Jack Straw being afterward taken, was first
adjudged by the said mayor, and then executed by the loss of his head in
Smithfield.
True it is that this William Walworth, being a man wise, learned, and
of an incomparable manhood,[182] arrested Wat Tyler, a presumptuous
rebel, upon whom no man durst lay hand, whereby he delivered the king
and kingdom from most wicked tyranny of traitors. The mayor arrested him
on the head with a sound blow, whereupon Wat Tyler, furiously struck
the mayor with his dagger, but hurt him not, by reason he was well
armed. The mayor, having received his stroke, drew his basiliard, and
grievously wounded Wat in the neck, and withal gave him a great blow on
the head; in the which conflict, an esquire of the king’s house, called
John Cavendish, drew his sword, and wounded Wat twice or thrice even to
the death; and Wat, spurring his horse, cried to the commons to revenge
him: the horse bare him about eighty feet from the place, and there
he fell down half dead; and by and by they which attended on the king
environed him about, so as he was not seen of his company: many of them
thrust him in divers places of his body, and drew him into the hospital
of St. Bartholomew, from whence again the mayor caused him to be drawn
into Smithfield, and there to be beheaded. In reward of this service
(the people being dispersed) the king commanded the mayor to put a
bascinet on his head; and the mayor requesting why he should do so, the
king answered, he being much bound unto him, would make him knight: the
mayor answered, that he was neither worthy nor able to take such estate
upon him, for he was but a merchant, and had to live by his merchandise
only; notwithstanding, the king bade him to put on his bascinet, and
then with a sword in both his hands he strongly stroke him on the neck,
as the manner was then; and the same day he made three other citizens
knights for his sake in the same place; to wit, John Philpot, Nicholas
Brember, and Robert Launde, alderman. The king gave to the mayor one
hundred pounds land by year, and to each of the other forty pounds land
yearly, to them and their heirs for ever.
After this, in the same year, the said Sir William Walworth, founded in
the said parish church of St. Michael a college of a master and nine
priests, or chaplains, and deceased 1385, was there buried in the north
chapel by the choir; but his monument being amongst other by bad people
defaced in the reign of Edward VI., and again since renewed by the
fishmongers, for lack of knowledge of what before had been written in
his epitaph, they followed a fabulous book, and wrote Jack Straw instead
of Wat Tilar, a great error meet to be reformed there and elsewhere; and
therefore have I the more at large discoursed of this matter.
It hath also been, and is now grown to a common opinion, that in reward
of this service done by the said William Walworth against the rebel,
King Richard added to the arms of this city (which was argent, a plain
cross gules) a sword or dagger (for so they term it), whereof I have
read no such record, but to the contrary. I find that in the 4th year of
Richard II.,[183] in a full assembly made in the upper chamber of the
Guildhall, summoned by this William Walworth, then mayor, as well of
aldermen as of the common council, in every ward, for certain affairs
concerning the king, it was there by common consent agreed and ordained,
that the old seal of the office of the mayoralty of the city being very
small, old, unapt, and uncomely for the honour of the city, should be
broken, and one other new should be had, which the said mayor commanded
to be made artificially, and honourable for the exercise of the said
office thereafter, in place of the other; in which new seal, besides
the images of Peter and Paul, which of old were rudely engraven, there
should be under the feet of the said images a shield of the arms of the
said city, perfectly graved,[184] with two lions supporting the same,
with two sergeants of arms; another part, one, and two tabernacles, in
which above should stand two angels; between whom, above the said images
of Peter and Paul, shall be set the glorious Virgin. This being done,
the old seal of the office was delivered to Richard Odiham, chamberlain,
who brake it, and in place thereof was delivered the new seal to the
said mayor, to use in his office of mayoralty, as occasion should
require. This new seal seemeth to be made before William Walworth was
knighted, for he is not here entitled Sir, as afterwards he was; and
certain it is that the same new seal then made is now in use, and none
other in that office of the mayoralty; which may suffice to answer the
former fable, without showing of any evidence sealed with the old seal,
which was the cross and sword of St. Paul, and not the dagger of William
Walworth.
Now of other monuments in that church. Simon Mordon, mayor 1368, was
buried there; John Olney, mayor 1446; Robert March, stock-fishmonger,
gave two pieces of ground to be a churchyard; John Radwell,
stock-fishmonger, buried 1415; George Gowre, esquire, son to
Edward Gowre, stock-fishmonger, esquire, 1470; Alexander Purpoynt,
stock-fishmonger, 1373; Andrew Burel, gentleman of Gray’s-inn, 1487;
John Shrow, stock-fishmonger, 1487, with this epitaph:
“Farewell, my friends, the tide abideth no man,
I am departed hence, and so shall ye.
But in this passage the best song that I can,
Is _requiem æternam_, now Jesus grant it me,
When I have ended all mine adversitie,
Grant me in Paradise to have a mansion,
That sheddest thy blood for my redemption.”
John Finkell, one of the sheriffs 1487, was knighted, and gave forty
pounds to this church, the one half for his monument. John Pattesley,
mayor 1441; Thomas Ewen, grocer, bare half the charges in building of
the steeple, and was buried 1501; William Combes, gentleman, of Stoke,
by Guilford in Surrey, 1502; Sir John Brudge, mayor 1530, gave fifty
pounds for a house called the College in Crooked lane; he lieth buried
in St. Nicholas Hacon. Waltar Faireford; Robert Barre; Alexander Heyban;
John Motte; John Gramstone; John Brampton; John Wood, stock-fishmonger,
1531; Sir Henry Amcots, mayor 1548, etc. Hard by this St. Michael’s
church, on the south side thereof, in the year 1560, on the fifth
of July, through the shooting of a gun, which brake in the house of
one Adrian Arten, a Dutchman, and set fire on a firkin and barrel of
gunpowder, four houses were blown up, and divers other sore shattered;
eleven men and women were slain, and sixteen so hurt and bruised, that
they hardly escaped with life.
West from this St. Michael’s lane is St. Martin Orgar lane, by
Candlewick street, which lane is on both sides down to a well,
replenished with fair and large houses for merchants, and it is of
this ward; one of which houses was sometime called Beachamp’s inn, as
pertaining unto them of that family. Thomas Arundel, archbishop of
Canterbury, commonly for his time was lodged there.
The parish church of St. Martin Orgar is a small thing. William Crowmer,
mayor, built a proper chapel on the south side thereof, and was buried
there 1533; John Mathew, mayor 1490; Sir William Huet, mayor 1559, with
his lady and daughter, wife to Sir Edward Osburne; Ralph Tabinham,
alderman; Alice, wife to Thomas Winslow; Thorudon; Benedicke Reding;
Thomas Harding; James Smith; Richard Gainford, esquire; John Bold, etc.
Then is there one other lane called St. Laurence, of the parish church
there. This lane, down to the south side of the churchyard, is of
Candlewick street ward. The parish church of St. Laurence was increased
with a chapel of Jesus by Thomas Cole, for a master and chaplain; the
which chapel and parish church was made a college of Jesus and of Corpus
Christi, for a master and seven chaplains, by John Poultney, mayor, and
was confirmed by Edward III., the 20th of his reign: of him was this
church called St. Laurence Poultney, in Candlewick street; which college
was valued at £79 17_s._ 11_d._, and was surrendered in the reign of
Edward VI. Robert Ratcliffe, Earl of Essex, and Henry Ratcliffe, Earl
of Sussex, was buried there; Alderman Beswicke was buried there; John
Oliffe, alderman, Robert Browne, and others. Thus much for this ward,
and the antiquities thereof. It hath now an alderman, his deputy, common
councillors eight, constables eight, scavengers six, wardmote inquest
men twelve, and a beadle. It is taxed to the fifteen at sixteen pounds.
FOOTNOTES:
[176] “In London at fifty pounds, and in the Exchequer at forty-nine
pounds ten shillings.”--_1st edition_, p. 169.
[177] “The king’s sons beaten to Eastcheape; there was no tavern then in
Eastcheape.”--_Stow._
[178] “In Westcheape linen cloth sold, but no silks spoken of.”--_Stow._
[179] “Fripparia, upholders upon Cornhill, sellers of old apparel and
household stuff in Eastcheape.”--_Stow._
The following is the stanza alluded to by Stow (see Lydgate’s _Minor
Poems_).
“Then into Corn hyl anon I rode,
Where was much stolen gere amonge;
I saw where honge myne owne hoode,
That I had lost amonge the thronge:
To by my own hoode I thought it wronge;
I knew it well as I did my crede,
But for lack of money I could not spede.”
[180] “Wike is a working place.”--_Stow._
[181] “In Smithfield, and there to have been knighted by the king, but
that is not true.”--_1st edition_, p. 172.
[182] “Fable of William Walworth and Jack Straw reproved. Praise of W.
Walworth for his manhood in arresting of Wat Tyler. The mayor was well
armed, and had on his head a basonet.”--_Stow._
[183] Dunthorne.
[184] “The armies of this citty were not altered, but remayne as afore;
to witte, argent, a playne crosse gules, a sword of S. Paul in the first
quarter, and no dagger of W. Walworth, as is fabuled.”--_Stow._
WALBROOK WARD
Walbrook ward beginneth at the west end of Candlewick street ward. It
runneth down Candlewick street west towards Budge row. It hath on the
north side thereof St. Swithen’s lane, so called of St. Swithen, a
parish church by London stone. This lane is replenished on both the
sides with fair built houses, and is wholly of Walbrook ward.
The said parish church of St. Swithen standeth at the south-west corner
of this lane. License was procured to new build and increase the said
church and steeple in the year 1420. Sir John Hend, draper, mayor,
was an especial benefactor thereunto, as appeareth by his arms in the
glass windows, even in the tops of them, which is in a field silver, a
chief azure, a lion passant silver, a cheveron azure, three escalops
silver: he lieth buried in the body of this church, with a fair stone
laid on him, but the plates and inscriptions are defaced. Roger Depham,
alderman, Thomas Aylesbourgh, William Neve, and Matilda Caxton, founded
chantries, and were buried there; John Butler, draper, one of the
sheriffs, 1420; Ralph Jecoline, mayor, a benefactor, buried in a fair
tomb; William White, draper, one of the sheriffs, 1482, and other.
On the north side of this church and churchyard is one fair and large
built house, sometime pertaining to the prior of Tortington in Sussex,
since to the earls of Oxford, and now to Sir John Hart, alderman; which
house hath a fair garden belonging thereunto, lying on the west side
thereof. On the back side of two other fair houses in Walbrook, in the
reign of Henry VII., Sir Richard Empson, knight, chancellor of the duchy
of Lancaster, dwelt in the one of them, and Edmond Dudley, esquire, in
the other; either of them had a door of intercourse into this garden,
wherein they met and consulted of matters at their pleasures. In this
Oxford place Sir Ambrose Nicholas kept his mayoralty, and since him the
said Sir John Hart.
On the south side of this high street, near unto the channel, is pitched
upright a great stone called London stone, fixed in the ground very
deep, fastened with bars of iron, and otherwise so strongly set, that if
carts do run against it through negligence, the wheels be broken, and
the stone itself unshaken.
The cause why this stone was set there, the time when, or other memory
hereof, is none, but that the same hath long continued there is
manifest, namely, since (or rather before) the Conquest; for in the end
of a fair written Gospel book given to Christ’s church in Canterburie,
by Ethelstane, King of the West Saxons, I find noted of lands[185] or
rents in London belonging to the said church, whereof one parcel is
described to lie near unto London stone. Of later time we read, that in
the year of Christ 1135, the 1st of King Stephen, a fire, which began
in the house of one Ailward, near unto London stone, consumed all east
to Aldgate, in the which fire the priory of the Holy Trinitie was burnt,
and west to St. Erkenwald’s shrine in Paule’s church. And these be the
eldest notes that I read thereof.
Some have said this stone to be set as a mark in the middle of the city
within the walls; but in truth it standeth far nearer unto the river
of Thames than to the wall of the city; some others have said the same
to be set for the tendering and making of payment by debtors to their
creditors at their appointed days and times, till of later time payments
were more usually made at the font in Pont’s church, and now most
commonly at the Royal Exchange; some again have imagined the same to be
set up by one John or Thomas Londonstone dwelling there against; but
more likely it is, that such men have taken name of the stone than the
stone of them, as did John at Noke, Thomas at Stile, William at Wall, or
at Well, etc.
Down west from this parish church, and from London stone, have ye
Walbrooke corner; from whence runneth up a street, north to the Stocks,
called Walbrook, because it standeth on the east side of the same brook,
by the bank thereof, and the whole ward taketh the name of that street.
On the east side of this street, and at the north corner thereof, is
the Stocks market, which had this beginning. About the year of Christ
1282, Henry Wales, mayor, caused divers houses in this city to be built
towards the maintenance of London bridge, namely, one void place near
unto the parish church called Woole church, on the north side thereof,
where sometime (the way being very large and broad) had stood a pair of
stocks for punishment of offenders; this building took name of these
stocks, and was appointed by him to be a market place for fish and flesh
in the midst of the city. Other houses he built in other places, as by
the patent of Edward I. it doth appear, dated the 10th of his reign.
After this, in the year 1322, the 17th of Edward II., a decree was
made by Hamond Chickwell, mayor, that none should sell fish or flesh
out of the markets appointed, to wit, Bridge street, East Cheape, Old
Fish street, St. Nicholas’ shambles, and the said Stocks, upon pain to
forfeit such fish or flesh as were sold, for the first time, and the
second time to lose their freedom; which act was made by commandment
of the king under his letters patent, dated at the Tower the 17th of
his reign, and then was this stocks let to farm for £46 13_s._ 4_d._ by
year. This Stocks market was again begun to be built in the year 1410,
in the 11th of Henry IV., and was finished in the year next following.
In the year 1507, the same was rented £56 19_s._ 10_d._ And in the year
1543, John Cotes being mayor, there were in this Stocks market for
fishmongers twenty-five boards or stalls, rented yearly to £34 13_s._
4_d._, there were for butchers eighteen boards or stalls, rented at £41
16_s._ 4_d._, and there were also chambers above, sixteen, rented at £5
13_s._ 4_d._, in all £82 3_s._
Next unto this Stocks is the parish church of St. Mary Wool church, so
called of a beam placed in the churchyard, which was thereof called
Wool church haw, of the tronage, or weighing of wool there used; and to
verify this, I find amongst the customs of London, written in French in
the reign of Edward II., a chapter intituled _Les Customes de Wolchurch
Haw_, wherein is set down what was there to be paid for every parcel of
wool weighed. This tronage or weighing of wool, till the 6th of Richard
II., was there continued; John Churchman then built the Customhouse
upon Wool key, to serve for the said tronage, as is before showed in
Tower street ward. This church is reasonable fair and large, and was
lately new built by license granted in the 20th of Henry VI., with
condition to be built fifteen foot from the Stocks market, for sparing
of light to the same Stocks. The parson of this church is to have four
marks the year for tithe of the said Stocks, paid him by the masters
of the Bridge house, by special decree made the 2nd of Henry VII. John
Winyar, grocer, mayor 1504, was a great helper to the building of this
church, and was there buried 1505; he gave unto it by his testament two
large basons of silver, and twenty pounds in money. Also Richard Shore,
draper, one of the sheriffs 1505, was a great benefactor in his life,
and by his testament gave twenty pounds to make a porch at the west
end thereof, and was there buried; Richard Hatfield of Steplemorden in
Cambridgeshire, lieth entombed there, 1467; Edward Deoly, esquire, 1467.
John Handford, grocer, made the font of that church, very curiously
wrought, painted, and gilded, and was there buried; John Archer,
fishmonger, 1487; Anne Cawode founded a chantry there, etc.
From the Stocks’ market and this parish church east up into Lombard
street, some four or five houses on a side, and also on the south side
of Wool church, have ye Bearbinder lane, a part whereof is of this
Walbrooke ward; then lower down in the street called Walbrooke, is one
other fair church of St. Stephen, lately built on the east side thereof,
for the old church stood on the west side, in place where now standeth
the parsonage house, and therefore so much nearer the brook, even on
the bank. Robert Chichley, mayor in the year 1428, the 6th of Henry
VI., gave to this parish of St. Stephen one plot of ground, containing
two hundred and eight feet and a half in length, and sixty-six feet in
breadth, thereupon to build their new church, and for their churchyard;
and in the 7th of Henry VI. the said Robert, one of the founders, laid
the first stone for himself, the second for William Stoddon, mayor, with
whose goods the ground that the church standeth on, and the housing,
with the ground of the churchyard, was bought by the said Chichley for
two hundred marks from the Grocers, which had been letten before for
six-and-twenty marks the year; Robert Whittingham, draper, laid the
third stone, Henry Barton then mayor, etc. The said Chichley gave more,
one hundred pounds to the said work, and bare the charges of all the
timber work on the procession way, and laid the lead upon it of his
own cost; he also gave all the timber for the roofing of the two side
aisles, and paid for the carriage thereof. This church was finished in
the year 1439; the breadth thereof is sixty-seven feet, and length one
hundred and twenty-five feet, the churchyard ninety feet in length, and
thirty-seven in breadth and more. Robert Whittingham (made Knight of the
Bath), in the year 1432, purchased the patronage of this church from
John Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI., and Edward IV., in the 2nd of
his reign, gave it to Richard Lee, then mayor. There be monuments in
this church of Thomas Southwell, first parson of this new church, who
lieth in the choir; John Dunstable, master of astronomy and music, in
the year 1453; Sir Richard Lee, mayor, who gave the said parsonage to
the Grocers; Rowland Hill, mayor 1549; Sir Thomas Pope, first treasurer
of the augmentations, with his wife Dame Margaret; Sir John Cootes,
mayor 1542; Sir John Yorke, knight, merchant-tailor, 1549; Edward
Jackman, sheriff 1564; Richard Achley, grocer; Dr. Owyn, physician to
King Henry VIII.; John Kirby, grocer, 1578; and others.