to Richard Whitington, gave towards the paving of this great hall twenty
pounds, and the next year fifteen pounds more, to the said pavement,
with hard stone of Purbeck; they also glazed some windows thereof,
and of the mayor’s court; on every which windows the arms of Richard
Whitington are placed. The foundation of the mayor’s court was laid in
the 3rd year of the reign of Henry VI., and of the porch on the south
side of the mayor’s court, in the 4th of the said king. Then was built
the mayor’s chamber, and the council chamber, with other rooms above the
stairs; last of all a stately porch entering the great hall was erected,
the front thereof towards the south being beautified with images of
stone, such as is showed by these verses following, made about some
thirty years since by William Elderton, at that time an attorney in the
sheriffs’ courts there:--
“Though most of the images be pulled down,
And none be thought remayne in towne,
I am sure there be in London yet,
Seven images in such and in such a place;
And few or none I think will hit,
Yet every day they show their face,
And thousands see them every year,
But few I thinke can tell me where,
Where Jesu Christ aloft doth stand:
Law and Learning on eyther hand,
Discipline in the Devil’s necke,
And hard by her are three direct,
There Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance stand,
Where find ye the like in all this land?”
Divers aldermen glazed the great hall and other courts, as appeareth
by their arms in each window. William Hariot, draper, mayor 1481, gave
forty pounds to the making of two loovers in the said Guildhall, and
towards the glazing thereof. The kitchens and other houses of office
adjoining to this Guildhall, were built of later time, to wit, about
the year 1501, by procurement of Sir John Sha, goldsmith, mayor (who
was the first that kept his feast there); towards the charges of
which work the mayor had of the fellowships of the city, by their own
agreement, certain sums of money, as of the Mercers forty pounds, the
Grocers twenty pounds, the Drapers thirty pounds, and so of the other
fellowships through the city, as they were of power. Also widows and
other well-disposed persons gave certain sums of money, as the Lady
Hill ten pounds, the Lady Austrie ten pounds, and so of many other,
till the work was finished, since the which time the mayor’s feasts
have been yearly kept there, which before time had been kept in the
Tailors’ hall, and in the Grocers’ hall. Nicholas Alwyn, grocer, mayor
1499, deceased 1505, gave by his testament for a hanging of tapestry,
to serve for principal days in the Guildhall, £73 6_s._ 8_d._ How this
gift was performed I have not heard, for executors of our time having no
conscience (I speak of my own knowledge) prove more testaments than they
perform.
Now for the chapel or college of our Lady Mary Magdalen, and of All
Saints, by the Guildhall, called London college, I read that the same
was built about the year 1299, and that Peter Fanelore, Adam Frauncis,
and Henry Frowike, citizens, gave one messuage, with the appurtenances,
in the parish of St. Fawstar, to William Brampton, custos of the
chantry, by them founded in the said chapel with four chaplains, and one
other house in the parish of St. Giles without Cripplegate, in the 27th
of Edward III., was given to them. Moreover, I find that Richard II., in
the 20th of his reign, granted to Stephen Spilman, mercer, license to
give one messuage, three shops, and one garden, with the appurtenances,
being in the parish of St. Andrew Hubbard, to the custos and chaplains
of the said chapel, and to their successors, for their better relief and
maintenance for ever.
King Henry VI., in the 8th of his reign, gave license to John Barnard,
custos, and the chaplains, to build of new the said chapel or college of
Guildhall: and the same Henry VI., in the 27th of his reign, granted to
the parish clerks in London a guild of St. Nicholas, for two chaplains
by them to be kept in the said chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, near unto
the Guildhall, and to keep seven alms people. Henry Barton, skinner,
mayor, founded a chaplaincy there; Roger Depham, mercer, and Sir William
Langford, knight, had also chaplaincies there. This chapel or college
had a custos, seven chaplains, three clerks, and four choristers.
Monuments there have been sundry, as appeareth by the tombs of marble
yet remaining, seven in number, but all defaced. The uppermost in the
choir, on the south side thereof, above the revestry door, was the tomb
of John Wells, grocer, mayor 1451. The likeness of Wells are graven
on the tomb on the revestry door, and other places on that side the
choir. Also in the glass window over this tomb, and in the east window,
is the likeness of Wells, with hands elevated out of the same Wells,
holding scrolls, wherein is written “Mercy!”--the writing in the east
window being broken, yet remaineth Wells. I found his arms also in the
south glass window; all which do show that the east end and south side
the choir of this chapel, and the revestry, were by him both built
and glazed. On the north side the choir the tomb of Thomas Knesworth,
fishmonger, mayor 1505, who deceased 1515, was defaced, and within these
forty-four years again renewed by the Fishmongers. Two other tombs lower
there are; the one of a draper, the other of a haberdasher, their names
not known. Richard Stomine is written in the window by the haberdasher.
Under flat stones do lie divers custos of the chapel, chaplains and
officers to the chamber. Amongst others, John Clipstone, priest,
sometime custos of the library of the Guildhall, 1457; another of Edmond
Alison, priest, one of the custos of the library, 1510, etc. Sir John
Langley, goldsmith, mayor 1576, lieth buried in the vault, under the
tomb of John Wells before-named. This chapel, or college, valued to
dispend £15 8_s._ 9_d._ by the year, was surrendered amongst other: the
chapel remaineth to the mayor and commonalty, wherein they have service
weekly, as also at the election of the mayor, and at the mayor’s feast,
etc.
Adjoining to this chapel, on the south side, was sometime a fair and
large library, furnished with books, pertaining to the Guildhall and
college. These books, as it is said, were in the reign of Edward VI.
sent for by Edward, Duke of Somerset, lord protector, with promise to
be restored: men laded from thence three carries with them, but they
were never returned. This library was built by the executors of Richard
Whittington, and by William Burie: the arms of Whittington are placed on
the one side in the stone work, and two letters, to wit, W. and B., for
William Bury, on the other side: it is now lofted through, and made a
storehouse for clothes.
South-west from this Guildhall is the fair parish church of St.
Laurence, called in the Jury, because of old time[206] many Jews
inhabited thereabout. This church is fair and large, and hath some
monuments, as shall be shown. I myself, more than seventy years
since,[207] have seen in this church the shank-bone of a man (as it
is taken), and also a tooth,[208] of a very great bigness, hanged up
for show in chains of iron, upon a pillar of stone; the tooth (being
about the bigness of a man’s fist) is long since conveyed from thence:
the thigh, or shank-bone, of twenty-five inches in length by the rule,
remaineth yet fastened to a post of timber, and is not so much to be
noted for the length as for the thickness, hardness, and strength
thereof; for when it was hanged on the stone pillar it fretted with
moving the said pillar, and was not itself fretted, nor, as seemeth,
is not yet lightened by remaining dry; but where or when this bone was
first found or discovered I have not heard, and therefore, rejecting
the fables of some late writers, I overpass them. Walter Blundell
had a chantry there, the 14th of Edward II. There lie buried in this
church--Elizabeth, wife to John Fortescue; Katherine Stoketon; John
Stratton; Philip Albert; John Fleming; Philip Agmondesham; William
Skywith; John Norlong; John Baker; Thomas Alleyne; William Barton,
mercer, 1410; William Melrith, mercer, one of the sheriffs, 1425; Simon
Bartlet, mercer, 1428; Walter Chartsey, draper, one of the sheriffs
1430; Richard Rich, esquire, of London, the father, and Richard Rich,
his son, mercer, one of the sheriffs 1442, deceased 1469, with this
epitaph:
“Respice quod opus est præsentis temporis æuum,
Omne quod est, nihil est præter amare Deum.”
This Richard was father to John, buried in St. Thomas Acars, which
John was father to Thomas, father to Richard Lord Ritch, etc.; John
Pickering, honourable for service of his prince and for the English
merchants beyond the seas, who deceased 1448; Godfrey Bollen, mercer,
mayor 1457; Thomas Bollen, his son, esquire, of Norfolk, 1471; John
Atkenson, gentleman; Dame Mary St. Maure; John Waltham; Roger Bonifant;
John Chayhee; John Abbot; Geffrey Filding, mayor 1452, and Angell his
wife; Simon Benington, draper, and Joan his wife; John Marshal, mercer,
mayor 1493; William Purchat, mayor 1498; Thomas Burgoyne, gentleman,
mercer, 1517; the wife of a master of defence, servant to the Princess
of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, and Countess of Chester;[209] Sir Richard
Gresham, mayor 1537; Sir Michell Dormer, mayor 1541; Robert Charsey, one
of the sheriffs 1548; Sir William Row, ironmonger, mayor 1593; Samuel
Thornhill, 1397. Thus much for Cheape ward, which hath an alderman,
his deputy, common councillors eleven, constables eleven, scavengers
nine, for the wardmote inquest twelve, and a beadle. It is taxed to the
fifteen at £72 16_s._, and in the Exchequer at £52 11_s._[210]
FOOTNOTES:
[198] “Justices charged to punish such as sel bels from their churches,
Elizabeth 14.”--_Stow._
[199] “The 13th of November.”--_1st edition_, p. 210.
[200] “This conduite was the first sweete water that was conveyed
by pipes of lead under ground to this place in the citie from
Paddington.”--_1st edition_, p. 210.
[201] This is obviously an error. It occurs in the first edition, is
repeated in that of 1603, and by Anthony Munday, in his edition of 1618.
Strype (vol. i. book iii. p. 35), endeavours to correct it, by reading
“Mary,” who was crowned in 1553, instead of Anne. The error, however, is
in the date, which should be 1533, the year of Anne Boleyn’s coronation,
as we learn from the description of that ceremony given by Stow in his
_Annals_, “that she went forward by the crosse which was _newly gilt_.”
[202] _Soler_ is described by Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer’s
_Canterbury Tales_, as originally signifying an open gallery or balcony
at the top of the house, though latterly used for any upper room, loft,
or garret. Tyrwhitt refers in his Glossary, to the _Cook’s Tale of
Gamelyn_, for an authority for the use of the word in the latter sense--
“He fleigh up until alofte,
And shet the dore fast.
* * * * *
And saugh where he looked out
At a _solere_ window.”
The German _Söller_ is used by Luther in his magnificent translation
of the Bible in both senses:--“Peter went up upon the house-top to
pray”--“_Stieg Petrus hinauf auf den SÖLLER zu beten._” Acts x. 9. “And
when they were come in, they went up into an upper room”--“_Und als sie
hinein kamen, stiegen sie auf den SÖLLER._” Acts i. 13.
[203] “There is also a preaching in the Italian tongue to the Italians
and others on the Sondaies.”--_1st edition_, p. 214.
[204] “Henry Frowicke.”--_Ibid._
[205] “Locke his armes in the windowes.”--_Stow._
[206] Because “of old time, since the raigne of William the Conqueror
(that first brought Jewes from Roan into this realme), many Jewes
inhabited thereabouts, until that in the year 1290, the 18th of Edw. I.,
they were wholly and for ever by the said king banished this realme,
having of their owne goodes to beare their charges, till they were out
of dominions. The number of the Jewes at that time banished were 15,060
persons, whose houses being sold, the king made of them a mightie masse
of money.”--_1st edition_, p. 219.
[207] “Sixty years since.”--_Ibid._
[208] “The tooth of some monstrous fish, as I take it. A shank-bone,
of twenty-five inches long, of a man, as is said, but might be of an
oliphant.”--_Stow._
[209] “A Countess of Cornwall and Chester, but her name and time is not
apparent.”--_1st edition_, p. 220.
[210] “In the Exchequer at seventy-two pound.”--_Ibid._
COLEMAN STREET WARD
Next to Cheape ward, on the north side thereof, is Coleman street ward,
and beginneth also in the east, on the course of Walbrook in Lothbury,
and runneth west on the south side to the end of Ironmongers’ lane, and
on the north side to the west corner of Bassinges hall street.
On the south side of Lothbury is the street called the Old Jury; the one
half, and better on both sides, towards Cheape, is of this ward. On the
north side lieth Coleman street, whereof the ward taketh name, wholly
on both sides north to London wall, and from that north end along by
the wall, and Moregate east, to the course of Walbrook; and again from
Coleman street west to the iron grates: and these be the bounds of this
ward.
Antiquities to be noted therein are these: First, the street of
Lothberie, Lathberie, or Loadberie (for by all these names have I read
it), took the name (as it seemeth) of berie, or court of old time there
kept, but by whom is grown out of memory. This street is possessed for
the most part by founders, that cast candlesticks, chafing-dishes, spice
mortars, and such like copper or laton works, and do afterward turn them
with the foot, and not with the wheel, to make them smooth and bright
with turning and scrating (as some do term it), making a loathsome noise
to the by-passers that have not been used to the like, and therefore by
them disdainfully called Lothberie.
On the south side of this street, amongst the founders, be some fair
houses and large for merchants, namely, one that of old time was the
Jews’ synagogue, which was defaced by the citizens of London, after
that they had slain seven hundred Jews, and spoiled the residue of
their goods, in the year 1262, the 47th of Henry III. And not long
after, in the year 1291, King Edward I. banished the remnant of the
Jews out of England, as is afore showed. The said synagogue being so
suppressed, certain friars got possession thereof; “for in the year
1257,” saith Mathew Paris, “there were seen in London a new order of
friars, called _De Pœnitentia Jesu_, or _Fratres de Sacca_, because
they were apparelled in sackcloth, who had their house in London, near
unto Aldersgate without the gate, and had license of Henry III., in the
54th of his reign, to remove from thence to any other place; and in the
56th he gave unto them this Jews’ synagogue; after which time, Elianor
the queen, wife to Edward I., took into her protection, and warranted
unto the prior and brethren _De Penitentia Jesu Christi_ of London,
the said land and building in Colechurch street, in the parish of St.
Olave in the Jury, and St. Margaret in Lothbery, by her granted, with
consent of Stephen de Fulbourne, under-warden of the Bridge-house, and
other brethren of that house, for sixty marks of silver, which they had
received of the said prior and brethren of repentance, to the building
of the said bridge.” This order of friars gathered many good scholars,
and multiplied in number exceedingly, until the council at Lyons, by
the which it was decreed, that from that time forth there should be no
more orders of begging friars permitted, but only the four orders; to
wit, the Dominicke, or preachers, the Minorites, or grey friars, the
Carmelites, or white friars, and the Augustines: and so from that time
the begging friars deceased, and fell to nothing.
Now it followed, that in the year 1305, Robert Fitzwalter requested
and obtained of the said King Edward I., that the same friars of the
Sacke might assign to the said Robert their chapel or church, of old
time called the Synagogue of the Jews, near adjoining to the then
mansion place of the same Robert, which was in place where now standeth
the Grocers’ hall; and the said Synagogue was at the north corner of
the Old Jury. Robert Large, mercer, mayor in the year 1439, kept his
mayoralty in this house, and dwelt there until his dying day. This
house standeth, and is of two parishes, as opening into Lothberie, of
St. Margaret’s parish, and opening into the Old Jury of St. Olave’s
parish. The said Robert Large gave liberally to both these parishes, but
was buried at St. Olave’s. Hugh Clopton, mercer, mayor 1492, dwelt in
this house, and kept his mayoralty there: it is now a tavern, and hath
to sign a windmill. And thus much for this house, sometime the Jews’
synagogue, since a house of friars, then a nobleman’s house, after that
a merchant’s house, wherein mayoralties have been kept, and now a wine
tavern.
Then is the Old Jurie, a street so called of Jews sometime dwelling
there, and near adjoining, in the parishes of St. Olave, St. Michael
Basings hall, St. Martin Ironmonger lane, St. Lawrence, called the Jury,
and so west to Wood street. William, Duke of Normandy, first brought
them from Rouen to inhabit here.
William Rufus favoured them so far, that he sware by Luke’s face, his
common oath, if they could overcome the Christians, he would be one of
their sect.
Henry II. grievously punished them for corrupting his coin.
Richard I. forbad Jews and women to be present at his coronation, for
fear of enchantments; for breaking of which commandment many Jews
were slain, who being assembled to present the king with some gift,
one of them was stricken by a Christian, which some unruly people
perceiving, fell upon them, beat them to their houses, and burnt them
therein, or slew them at their coming out. Also the Jews at Norwich,
St. Edmondsbury, Lincoln, Stamford, and Lynne, were robbed and spoiled;
and at York, to the number of five hundred, besides women and children,
entered a tower of the castle, proffered money to be in surety of their
lives, but the Christians would not take it, whereupon they cut the
throats of their wives and children, and cast them over the walls on the
Christians’ heads, and then entering the king’s lodging, they burnt both
the house and themselves.
King John, in the 11th of his reign, commanded all the Jews, both men
and women, to be imprisoned and grievously punished, because he would
have all their money: some of them gave all they had, and promised more,
to escape so many kinds of torments, for every one of them had one of
their eyes at the least plucked out; amongst whom there was one, which
being tormented many ways, would not ransom himself, till the king had
caused every day one of his great teeth to be plucked out by the space
of seven days, and then gave the king ten thousand marks of silver, to
the end they should pull out no more: the said king at that time spoiled
the Jews of sixty-six thousand marks.
The 17th of this king, the barons brake into the Jews’ houses, rifled
their coffers, and with the stone of their houses repaired the gates and
walls of London.
King Henry III., in the 11th of his reign, granted to Semayne, or
Balaster, the house of Benonye Mittun the Jew, in the parish of St.
Michael Bassinghaughe, in which the said Benonye dwelt, with the fourth
part of all his land, in that parish which William Elie held of the fee
of Hugh Nevell, and all the land in Coleman street belonging to the said
Benonye, and the fourth part of the land in the parish of St. Lawrence,
which was the fee of T. Buckerell, and were escheated to the king for
the murder which the said Benonye committed in the city of London, to
hold to the said Semaine, and his heirs, of the king, paying at Easter
a pair of gilt spurs, and to do the service thereof due unto the lord’s
court. In like manner, and for like services, the king granted to Guso
for his homage the other part of the lands of the said Bononye in St.
Michael’s parish, which lands that Paynter held, and was the king’s
escheat, and the lands of the said Bononye in the said parish, which
Waltar Turnar held, and fifteen feet of land, which Hugh Harman held,
with fifteen iron ells of land, and half in the front of Ironmonger
lane, in the parish of St. Martin, which were the said Bononies of the
fee of the hospital of St. Giles, and which Adam the smith held, with
two stone-houses, which were Moses’, the Jew of Canterbury, in the
parish of St. Olave, and which are of the fee of Arnold le Reus, and are
the king’s escheats as before said.
The 16th of the said Henry, the Jews in London built a synagogue, but
the king commanded it should be dedicated to our Blessed Lady, and
after gave it to the brethren of St. Anthonie of Vienna, and so was it
called St. Anthonie’s hospital: this Henry founded a church and house
for converted Jews in New street, by the Temple, whereby it came to
pass that in short time there was gathered a great number of converts.
The 20th of this Henry, seven Jews were brought from Norwich, which
had stolen a christened child, had circumcised, and minded to have
crucified him at Easter, wherefore their bodies and goods were at the
king’s pleasure: the 26th, the Jews were constrained to pay to the king
twenty thousand marks, at two terms in the year, or else to be kept
in perpetual prison: the 35th, he taketh inestimable sums of money of
all rich men, namely, of Aaron, a Jew, born at York, fourteen thousand
marks for himself and ten thousand marks for the queen; and before he
had taken of the same Jew as much as in all amounted to thirty thousand
marks of silver, and two hundred marks of gold to the queen: in the
40th, were brought up to Westminster two hundred and two Jews from
Lincoln, for crucifying of a child named Hugh; eighteen of them were
hanged: the 43rd, a Jew at Tewkesbery fell into a privy on the Saturday,
and would not that day be taken out for reverence of his Sabbath;
wherefore Richard Clare, Earl of Gloucester, kept him there till Monday,
that he was dead: the 47th, the barons slew the Jews at London seven
hundred; the rest were spoiled, and their synagogue defaced, because one
Jew would have forced a Christian to have paid more than two pence for
the loan of twenty shillings a week.
The 3rd of Edward I., in a parliament at London, usury was forbidden
to the Jews; and that all usurers might be known, the king commanded
that every usurer should wear a table on his breast, the breadth of a
paveline, or else to avoid the realm. The 6th of the said King Edward
a reformation was made for clipping of the king’s coin, for which
offence two hundred and sixty-seven Jews were drawn and hanged; three
were English Christians, and other were English Jews: the same year the
Jews crucified a child at Northampton, for the which fact many Jews at
London were drawn at horse-tails and hanged. The 11th of Edward I., John
Perkham, Archbishop of Canterbury, commanded the Bishop of London to
destroy all the Jews’ synagogues in his diocese. The 16th of the said
Edward, all the Jews in England were in one day apprehended by precept
from the king, but they redeemed themselves for twelve thousand pounds
of silver; notwithstanding, in the 19th of his reign, he banished them
all out of England, giving them only to bear their charge, till they
were out of his realm: the number of Jews then expulsed were fifteen
thousand and sixty persons. The king made a mighty mass of money of
their houses, which he sold, and yet the commons of England had granted
and gave him a fifteenth of all their goods to banish them: and thus
much for the Jews.