turneth west through Budge row (a street so called of the Budge furre,
and of skinners dwelling there), then up by St. Anthony’s church through
Aetheling (or Noble street), as Leland termeth it, commonly called
Wathling street, to the Red Lion, a place so called of a great lion
of timber placed there at a gate, entering a large court, wherein are
divers fair and large shops, well furnished with broad cloths and other
draperies of all sorts, to be sold: and this is the farthest west part
of this ward.
On the south side of this street from Budge row lieth a lane turning
down by the west gate of the Tower Royal, and to the south end of the
stone wall beyond the said gate is of this ward, and is accounted a part
of the Royal street: against this west gate of the Tower Royal is one
other lane that runneth west to Cordwainer street, and this is called
Turnebase lane; on the south side whereof is a piece of Wringwren lane,
to the north-west corner of St. Thomas Church the Apostle. Then again,
out of the high street called Wathling, is one other street, which
runneth thwart the same; and this is Cordwainer street, whereof the
whole ward taketh name. This street beginneth by West Cheape, and St.
Mary Bow church is the head thereof on the west side, and it runneth
down south through that part which of later time was called Hosier
lane, now Bow lane, and then by the west end of Aldmary church to the
new built houses, in place of Ormond house, and so to Garlicke hill,
or hithe, to St. James’ church. The upper part of this street towards
Cheape was called Hosier lane, of hosiers dwelling there in place of
shoemakers; but now those hosiers being worn out by men of other trades
(as the hosiers had worn out the shoemakers), the same is called Bow
lane of Bow church. On the west side of Cordewainers street is Basing
lane, right over against Turnebasse lane. This Basing lane west to the
back gate of the Red Lion, in Wathling street, is of this Cordwainers
street ward.
Now again, on the north side of the high street in Budge row, by the
east end of St. Anthonie’s church, have ye St. Sithes lane, so called of
St. Sithes church (which standeth against the north end of that lane),
and this is wholly of Cordwainers street ward: also the south side of
Needlers lane, which reacheth from the north end of St. Sithes lane west
to Sopar’s lane; then west from St. Anthonies church is the south end
of Sopar’s lane, which lane took that name, not of soap-making, as some
have supposed, but of Alen le Sopar, in the 9th of Edward II. I have not
read or heard of soap-making in this city till within this fourscore
years; that John Lame, dwelling in Grasse street, set up a boiling-house
for this city, of former time, was served of white soap in hard cakes
(called Castell soap, and other), from beyond the seas, and of grey
soap,[190] speckled with white, very sweet and good, from Bristow, sold
here for a penny the pound, and never above a penny farthing, and black
soap for a halfpenny the pound. Then in Bow lane (as they now call it)
is Goose lane, by Bow church. William Essex, mercer, had tenements there
in the 26th of Edward III.
Then from the south end of Bow lane, by Wathling street, till over
against the Red Lion: and these be the bounds of Cordwainer street ward.
Touching monuments therein, first you have the fair parish church of
St. Anthonies in Budge row, on the north side thereof. This church
was lately re-edified by Thomas Knowles, grocer, mayor, and by Thomas
Knowles, his son, both buried there, with epitaphs, of the father thus:
“Here lieth graven vnder this stone,
Thomas Knowles, both flesh and bone;
Grocer and alderman, yeares fortie,
Shiriffe, and twice maior truly.
And for he should not lie alone,
Here lieth with him his good wife Joan.
They were togither sixtie yeare,
And ninteene children they had in feere,” etc.
Thomas Holland, mercer, was there buried 1456; Thomas Windent, mercer,
alderman, and Katherine his wife; Thomas Hind, mercer, 1528; he was a
benefactor to this church, to Aldermarie church, and to Bow; Hugh Acton,
merchant-tailor, buried 1520; he gave thirty-six pounds to the repairing
of the steeple of this church. Simon Street, grocer, lieth in the
church wall toward the south; his arms be three colts, and his epitaph
thus:
“Such as I am, such shall you be,
Grocer of London sometime was I,
The king’s wayer more then yeares twentie,
Simon Streete called in my place,
And good fellowship faine would trace;
Therefore in heaven, everlasting life,
Jesu send me, and Agnes my wife:
Kerlie Merlie, my words were tho,
And _Deo gratias_ I coupled thereto:
I passed to God in the yeare of grace,
A thousand foure hundred it was,” etc.
William Dauntsey, mercer, one of the sheriffs, buried 1542. Henry
Collet, mercer, mayor, a great benefactor to this church; the pictures
of him, his wife, ten sons, and ten daughters, remain in the glass
window on the north side of the church; but the said Henry Collet
was buried at Stebunhith. Henry Halton, grocer, one of the sheriffs,
deceased 1415; Thomas Spight, merchant-tailor, 1533; and Roger Martin,
mercer, mayor, deceased 1573. John Grantham and Nicholas Bull had
chantries there.
Next on the south side of Budge row, by the west corner thereof, and
on the east side of Cordwainer street, is one other fair church called
Aldemarie church, because the same was very old, and elder than any
church of St. Marie in the city, till of late years the foundation of a
very fair new church was laid there by Henry Keble, grocer, mayor, who
deceased 1518, and was there buried in a vault by him prepared, with a
fair monument raised over him on the north side the choir, now destroyed
and gone: he gave by his testament one thousand pounds towards the
building up of that church, and yet not permitted a resting-place for
his bones there. Thomas Roman, mayor 1310, had a chantry there. Richard
Chawcer,[191] vintner, gave to that church his tenement and tavern,
with the appurtenance, in the Royal street, the corner of Kerion lane,
and was there buried 1348. John Briton; Ralph Holland, draper, one of
the sheriffs, deceased 1452; William Taylor, grocer, mayor, deceased
1483: he discharged that ward of fifteens to be paid by the poor. Thomas
Hinde, mercer, buried in St. Anthonies, gave ten fodder of lead to the
covering of the middle aisle of this Aldemarie church. Charles Blunt,
Lord Montjoy, was buried there about the year 1545; he made or glazed
the east window, as appeareth by his arms: his epitaph, made by him in
his lifetime, thus:
“Willingly have I fought, and willingly have I found
The fatall end that wrought thither as dutie bound:
Discharged I am of that I ought to my country by honest wound,
My soule departed Christ hath bought, the end of man is ground.”
Sir William Laxton, grocer, mayor, deceased 1556, and Thomas Lodge,
grocer, mayor 1583, were buried in the vault of Henry Keble, whose bones
were unkindly cast out, and his monument pulled down;[192] in place
whereof monuments are set up of the later buried. William Blunt, Lord
Mountjoy, buried there 1594, etc.
At the upper end of Hosier lane, toward Westcheape, is the fair parish
church of St. Mary Bow. This church, in the reign of William Conqueror,
being the first in this city built on arches of stone, was therefore
called New Marie church, of St. Marie de Arcubus,[193] or Le Bow, in
West Cheaping; as Stratford bridge being the first built (by Matilde the
queen, wife to Henry I.) with arches of stone, was called Stratford le
Bow; which names to the said church and bridge remaineth till this day.
The court of the Arches is kept in this church, and taketh name of the
place, not the place of the court; but of what antiquity or continuation
that court hath there continued I cannot learn.
This church is of Cordwainer street ward, and for divers accidents
happening there, hath been made more famous than any other parish church
of the whole city or suburbs. First, we read, that in the year 1090, and
the 3rd of William Rufus, by tempest of wind, the roof of the church of
St. Marie Bow, in Cheape, was overturned, wherewith some persons were
slain, and four of the rafters, of twenty-six feet in length, with such
violence were pitched in the ground of the high street, that scantly
four feet of them remained above ground, which were fain to be cut even
with the ground, because they could not be plucked out (for the city of
London was not then paved, and a marish ground).
In the year 1196, William Fitz Osbert, a seditious tailor, took the
steeple of Bow, and fortified it with munitions and victuals, but it
was assaulted, and William with his accomplices were taken, though not
without bloodshed, for he was forced by fire and smoke to forsake the
church; and then, by the judges condemned, he was by the heels drawn
to the Elms in Smithfield, and there hanged with nine of his fellows;
where, because his favourers came not to deliver him, he forsook Mary’s
son (as he termed Christ our Saviour), and called upon the devil to help
and deliver him. Such was the end of this deceiver, a man of an evil
life, a secret murderer, a filthy fornicator, a pollutor of concubines,
and (amongst other his detestable facts) a false accuser of his elder
brother,[194] who had in his youth brought him up in learning, and done
many things for his preferment.
In the year 1271, a great part of the steeple of Bow fell down, and
slew many people, men and women. In the year 1284, the 13th of Edward
I., Laurence Ducket, goldsmith, having grievously wounded one Ralph
Crepin in Westcheape, fled into Bow church; into the which in the night
time entered certain evil persons, friends unto the said Ralph, and
slew the said Laurence lying in the steeple, and then hanged him up,
placing him so by the window as if he had hanged himself, and so was it
found by inquisition; for the which fact Laurence Ducket, being drawn
by the feet, was buried in a ditch without the city; but shortly after,
by relation of a boy, who lay with the said Laurence at the time of
his death, and had hid him there for fear, the truth of the matter was
disclosed; for the which cause, Jordan Goodcheape, Ralph Crepin, Gilbert
Clarke, and Geffrey Clarke, were attainted; a certain woman named Alice,
that was chief causer of the said mischief, was burnt, and to the number
of sixteen men were drawn and hanged, besides others that being richer,
after long imprisonment, were hanged by the purse.
The church was interdicted, the doors and windows were stopped up with
thorns, but Laurence was taken up, and honestly buried in the churchyard.
The parish church of St. Mary Bow, by mean of incroachment and building
of houses, wanting room in their churchyard for burial of the dead, John
Rotham, or Rodham, citizen and tailor, by his testament, dated the year
1465, gave to the parson and churchwardens a certain garden in Hosier
lane to be a churchyard, which so continued near a hundred years; but
now is built on, and is a private man’s house. The old steeple of this
church was by little and little re-edified, and new built up, at the
least so much as was fallen down, many men giving sums of money to the
furtherance thereof; so that at length, to wit, in the year 1469, it
was ordained by a common council that the Bow bell should be nightly
rung at nine of the clock. Shortly after, John Donne, mercer, by his
testament, dated 1472, according to the trust of Reginald Longdon, gave
to the parson and churchwardens of St. Mary Bow two tenements, with the
appurtenances, since made into one, in Hosier lane, then so called, to
the maintenance of Bow bell, the same to be rung as aforesaid, and other
things to be observed, as by the will appeareth.
This bell being usually rung somewhat late, as seemed to the young men
’prentices, and other in Cheape, they made and set up a rhyme against
the clerk, as followeth:
“Clarke of the Bow bell with the yellow lockes,
For thy late ringing thy head shall have knocks.”
Whereunto the clerk replying, wrote,
“Children of Cheape, hold you all still,
For you shall have the Bow bell rung at your will.”
Robert Harding, goldsmith, one of the sheriffs 1478, gave to the new
work of that steeple forty pounds; John Haw, mercer, ten pounds; Doctor
Allen, four pounds; Thomas Baldry, four pounds, and other gave other
sums, so that the said work of the steeple was finished in the year
1512. The arches or bowes thereupon, with the lanthorns, five in number,
to wit, one at each corner, and one on the top in the middle upon
the arches, were also afterward finished of stone, brought from Caen
in Normandy, delivered at the Customers key for 4_s._ 8_d._ the ton;
William Copland, tailor, the king’s merchant, and Andrew Fuller, mercer,
being churchwardens 1515 and 1516. It is said that this Copland gave the
great bell, which made the fifth in the ring, to be rung nightly at nine
of the clock. This bell was first rung as a knell at the burial of the
same Copland. It appeareth that the lanthorns on the top of this steeple
were meant to have been glazed, and lights in them placed nightly in
the winter, whereby travellers to the city might have the better sight
thereof, and not to miss of their ways.
In this parish also was a grammar school, by commandment of King Henry
VI., which school was of old time kept in a house for that purpose
prepared in the churchyard; but that school being decayed, as others
about this city, the school-house was let out for rent, in the reign of
Henry VIII., for four shillings the year, a cellar for two shillings the
year, and two vaults under the church for fifteen shillings both.
The monuments in this church be these; namely, of Sir John Coventrie,
mercer, mayor 1425; Richard Lambert, alderman; Nicholas Alwine, mercer,
mayor 1499; Robert Harding, goldsmith, one of the sheriffs 1478; John
Loke, one of the sheriffs 1461; Edward Bankes, alderman, haberdasher,
1566; John Warde; William Pierson, scrivener and attorney in the Common
Pleas. In a proper chapel on the south side the church standeth a tomb,
elevated and arched.[195] Ade de Buke, hatter, glazed the chapel and
most part of the church, and was there buried. All other monuments be
defaced. Hawley and Southam had chantries there.
Without the north side of this church of St. Mary Bow, towards West
Cheape, standeth one fair building of stone, called in record Seldam,
a shed, which greatly darkeneth the said church; for by means thereof
all the windows and doors on that side are stopped up. King Edward III.
upon occasion, as shall be shown in the ward of Cheape, caused this sild
or shed to be made, and to be strongly built of stone, for himself, the
queen, and other estates to stand in, there to behold the joustings and
other shows at their pleasures. And this house for a long time after
served to that use, namely, in the reign of Edward III. and Richard II.;
but in the year 1410, Henry IV., in the 12th of his reign, confirmed the
said shed or building to Stephen Spilman, William Marchford, and John
Whateley, mercers, by the name of one New Seldam, shed, or building,
with shops, cellars, and edifices whatsoever appertaining, called
Crounsilde, or Tamersilde,[196] situate in the mercery in West Cheape,
and in the parish of St. Mary de Arcubus in London, etc. Notwithstanding
which grant, the kings of England, and other great estates, as well
of foreign countries, repairing to this realm, as inhabitants of the
same, have usually repaired to this place, therein to behold the shows
of this city passing through West Cheape, namely, the great watches
accustomed in the night, on the even of St. John Baptist, and St. Peter
at Midsummer, the examples whereof were over long to recite, wherefore
let it suffice briefly to touch one. In the year 1510, on St. John’s
even, at night, King Henry VIII. came to this place, then called the
King’s Head in Cheape, in the livery of a yeoman of the guard, with an
halbert on his shoulder (and there beholding the watch) departed privily
when the watch was done, and was not known to any but to whom it pleased
him; but on St. Peter’s night next following, he and the queen came
royally riding to the said place, and there with their nobles beheld the
watch of the city, and returned in the morning.
This church of St. Mary, with the said shed of stone, all the housing
in or about Bow church yard, and without on that side the high street
of Cheape to the Standard, be of Cordewainer street ward. These houses
were of old time but sheds; for I read of no housing otherwise on that
side the street, but of divers sheds from Sopar’s lane to the Standard,
etc. Amongst other, I read of three shops or sheds by Sopar’s lane,
pertaining to the priory of the Holy Trinity within Aldgate; the one
was let out for twenty-eight shillings, one other for twenty shillings,
and the third for twelve shillings, by the year. Moreover, that Richard
Goodchepe, mercer, and Margery his wife, son to Jordaine Goodchepe, did
let to John Dalinges the younger, mercer, their shed and chamber in West
Cheape, in the parish of St. Mary de Arches for three shillings and four
pence by the year. Also the men of Bread street ward contended with
the men of Cordwayner street ward for a seld or shed opposite to the
Standard, on the south side, and it was found to be of Cordwayner street
ward; W. Waldorne being then mayor, the 1st of Henry VI. Thus much for
Cordwainer street ward; which hath an alderman, his deputy, common
councillors eight, constables eight, scavengers eight, wardmote inquest
men fourteen, and a beadle. It standeth taxed to the fifteen in London
at £52 16_s._, in the Exchequer at £52 6_s._[197]
FOOTNOTES:
[190] “Gray sope made in London dearer than bought from
Bristol.”--_Stow._
[191] “Richard Chaucer, father to Geffrey Chaucer, the poet, as may be
supposed.”--_Stow._
[192] “Sir William Laxton, grocer, mayor, deceased 1556, was buried in
the vault prepared by Henry Keble, principall founder of that church,
for himself, but now his bones are unkindly cast out, his monuments
pulled downe, and the bodies of the said Sir William Laxton, and of Sir
Thomas Lodge, grocer, mayor, are laid in place, with monuments over them
for the time, till an other give money for their place, and then away
with them.”--_1st edition_, p. 199.
[193] “Called _de Arcubus_ of the stone arches or bowes on the top of
the steeple or bell tower thereof, which arching was as well on the old
steeple as on the new, for no other part of the church seemeth to have
been arched at any time; yet hath the said church never been knowne by
any other name than St. Mary Bow, or le Bow; neither is that church so
called of the court there kept, but the said court taketh name of the
place wherein it is kept, and is called the Court of Arches.”--_1st
edition_, p. 203.
[194] “A false accuser of his elder brother, in the end was
hanged.”--_Stow._
In his first edition, p. 203, this note is continued as follows: “God
amend, or shortly send such an end to such false brethren.”
[195] “Of some unknowne founder.”--_1st edition_, p. 205.
[196] “And in the 8th of the same Henry called Tamarsilde.”--_1st
edition_, p. 206.
[197] “In London at £72 16_s._, in the Exchequer at £72.”--_1st
edition_, p. 207.
CHEAPE WARD
Next adjoining is Cheape ward, and taketh name of the market there kept,
called West Cheping. This ward also beginneth in the east, on the course
of Walbrooke in Buckles bury, and runneth up on both the sides to the
great conduit in Cheape. Also on the south side of Buckles bury, a lane
turning up by St. Sithes church, and by St. Pancrates church, through
Needler’s lane, on the north side thereof, and then through a piece of
Sopar’s lane, on both sides up to Cheape, be all of Cheape ward.
Then to begin again in the east upon the said course of Walbrooke,
is St. Mildred’s church in the Poultrie, on the north side, and over
against the said church gate, on the south, to pass up all that high
street called the Poultrie, to the great conduit in Cheape, and then
Cheape itself, which beginneth by the east end of the said conduit, and
stretcheth up to the north-east corner of Bow lane on the south side,
and to the Standard on the north side; and thus far to the west is of
Cheape ward.
On the south side of this high street is no lane turning south out of
this ward, more than some portion of Sopar’s lane, whereof I have before
written. But on the north side of this high street is Conyhope lane,
about one quarter of Old Jury lane on the west side, and on the east
side almost as much, to the sign of the Angel. Then is Ironmonger’s
lane, all wholly on both sides, and from the north end thereof through
Catton street, west to the north end of St. Lawrence lane, and some four
houses west beyond the same on that side, and over against Ironmonger’s
lane end on the north side of Catton street up by the Guildhall and St.
Lawrence church in the Jurie, is altogether of Cheape ward. Then again
in Cheape, more towards the west, is of St. Lawrence lane before named,
which is all wholly of this ward. And last of all is Hony lane, and up
to the Standard on the north side of Cheape. And so stand the bounds of
Cheape ward.
Now for antiquities there. First is Buckles bury, 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
Buckles bury, 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 Cornette 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 Cernet’s Tower at
Buckles bury 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 Buckles bury 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 Needlar’s lane, which reacheth to Sopar’s lane, as is
aforesaid. This small parish church of St. Sith hath also an addition of
Bennet shorne (or Shrog or Shorehog), for by all these names have I read
it, but the most ancient is Shorne, wherefore it seemeth to take that
name of one Benedict Shorne, sometime a citizen and stock-fishmonger of
London, a new builder, repairer, or benefactor thereof, in the reign
of Edward II., so that Shorne is but corruptly called Shrog, and more
corruptly Shorehog.
There lie buried in this church, John Froysh, mercer, mayor 1394; John
Rochford and Robert Rochford; John Hold, alderman: Henry Froweke,
mercer, mayor 1435; Edward Warrington; John Morrice; John Huntley;
Richard Lincoln, fellmonger, 1546; Sir Ralph Warren, mercer, mayor
1553; Sir John Lion, grocer, mayor 1554: these two last have monuments,
the rest are all defaced. Edward Hall, gentleman of Greyes inn, common
sergeant of this city, and then under-sheriff of the same; he wrote the
large chronicles from Richard II. till the end of Henry VIII., and was
buried in this church.