CHAPTER XLV._Old and New London, Volume I A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places

THROGMORTON STREET.--THE DRAPERS' COMPANY.

Halls of the Drapers' Company--Throgmorton Street and its many Fair

Houses--Drapers and Wool Merchants--The Drapers in Olden

Times--Milborne's Charity--Dress and Livery--Election Dinner of the

Drapers' Company--A Draper's Funeral--Ordinances and

Pensions--Fifty-three Draper Mayors--Pageants and Processions of the

Drapers--Charters--Details of the present Drapers' Hall--Arms of the

Drapers' Company.

Throgmorton Street is at the north-east corner of the Bank of England,

and was so called after Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, who is said to have

been poisoned by Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favourite.

There is a monument to his memory in the Church of St. Catherine Cree.

The Drapers' first Hall, according to Herbert, was in Cornhill; the

second was in Throgmorton Street, to which they came in 1541 (Henry

VIII.), on the beheading of Cromwell, Earl of Essex, its previous owner;

and the present structure was re-erected on its site, after the Great

Fire of London.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF DRAPERS' HALL.]

Stow, describing the Augustine Friars' Church, says there have been

built at its west end "many feyre houses, namely, in Throgmorton

Streete;" and among the rest, "one very large and spacious," builded,

he says, "in place of olde and small tenements, by Thomas Cromwell,

minister of the King's jewell-house, after that Maister of the Rolls,

then Lord Cromwell, Knight, Lord Privie Seale, Vicker-Generall, Earle of

Essex, High Chamberlain of England, &c.;" and he then tells the

following story respecting it:--

"This house being finished, and having some reasonable plot of ground

left for a garden, hee caused the pales of the gardens adjoining to the

north parte thereof, on a sodaine, to bee taken down, twenty-two foote

to be measured forth right into the north of every man's ground, a line

there to be drawne, a trench to be cast, a foundation laid, and a high

bricke wall to be builded. My father had a garden there, and an house

standing close to his south pale; this house they loosed from the

ground, and bore upon rollers into my father's garden, twenty-two foot,

ere my father heard thereof. No warning was given him, nor other

answere, when hee spoke to the surveyors of that worke, but that their

mayster, Sir Thomas, commanded them so to doe; no man durst go to argue

the matter, but each man lost his land, and my father payde his whole

rent, whiche was vjs. viijd. the yeare, for that halfe which was left.

Thus much of mine owne knowledge have I thought goode to note, that the

sodaine rising of some men causeth them to forget themselves." ("Survaie

of London," 1598.)

The Company was incorporated in 1439 (Henry VI.), but it also possesses

a charter granted them by Edward III., that they might regulate the sale

of cloths according to the statute. Drapers were originally makers, not

merely, as now, dealers in cloth. (Herbert.) The country drapers were

called clothiers; the wool-merchants, staplers. The Britons and Saxons

were both, according to the best authorities, familiar with the art of

cloth-making; but the greater part of English wool, from the earliest

times, seems to have been sent to the Netherlands, and from thence

returned in the shape of fine cloth, since we find King Ethelred, as

early as 967, exacting from the Easterling merchants of the Steel Yard,

in Thames Street, tolls of cloth, which were paid at Billingsgate.

The width of woollen cloth is prescribed in Magna Charta. There was a

weavers' guild in the reign of Henry I., and the drapers are mentioned

soon after as flourishing in all the large provincial cities. It is

supposed that the cloths sold by such drapers were red, green, and

scarlet cloths, made in Flanders. In the next reign English cloths, made

of Spanish wool, are spoken of. Drapers are recorded in the reign of

Henry II. as paying fines to the king for permission to sell dyed

cloths. In the same reign, English cloths made of Spanish wool are

mentioned. In the reign of Edward I., the cloth of Candlewick Street

(Cannon Street) was famous. The guild paid the king two marks of gold

every year at the feast of Michaelmas.

[Illustration: DRAPERS' HALL GARDEN.]

But Edward III., jealous of the Netherlands, set to work to establish

the English cloth manufacture. He forbade the exportation of English

wool, and invited over seventy Walloon weaver families, who settled in

Cannon Street. The Flemings had their meeting-place in St. Lawrence

Poultney churchyard, and the Brabanters in the churchyard of St. Mary

Somerset. In 1361 the king removed the wool staple from Calais to

Westminster and nine English towns. In 1378 Richard II. again changed

the wool staple from Westminster to Staples' Inn, Holborn; and in 1397 a

weekly cloth-market was established at Blackwell Hall, Basinghall

Street; the London drapers at first opposing the right of the country

clothiers to sell in gross.

The drapers for a long time lingered about Cornhill, where they had

first settled, living in Birchin Lane, and spreading as far as the

Stocks' Market; but in the reign of Henry VI. the drapers had all

removed to Cannon Street, where we find them tempting Lydgate's "London

Lickpenny" with their wares. In this reign arms were granted to the

Company, and the grant is still preserved in the British Museum.

The books of the Company commence in the reign of Edward IV., and are

full of curious details relating to dress, observances, government, and

trade. Edward IV., it must be remembered, in 1479, when he had invited

the mayor and aldermen to a great hunt at Waltham Forest, not to forget

the City ladies, sent them two harts, six bucks, and a tun of wine, with

which noble present the lady mayoress (wife of Sir Bartholomew James,

Draper) entertained the aldermen's wives at Drapers' Hall, St. Swithin's

Lane, Cannon Street. The chief extracts from the Drapers' records made

by Herbert are the following:--

In 1476 forty of the Company rode to meet Edward IV. on his return from

France, at a cost of L20. In 1483 they sent six persons to welcome the

unhappy Edward V., whom the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham,

preparatory to his murder, had brought to London; and in the following

November, the Company dispatched twenty-two of the livery, in

many-coloured coats, to attend the coronation procession of Edward's

wicked hunchback uncle, Richard III. Presently they mustered 200 men, on

the rising of the Kentish rebels; and again, in Finsbury Fields, at "the

coming of the Northern men." They paid 9s. for boat hire to Westminster,

to attend the funeral of Queen Anne (Richard's queen).

In Henry VII.'s reign, we find the Drapers again boating to Westminster,

to present their bill for the reformation of cloth-making. The barge

seems to have been well supplied with ribs of beef, wine, and pippins.

We find the ubiquitous Company at many other ceremonies of this reign,

such as the coronation of the queen, &c.

In 1491 the Merchant Taylors came to a conference at Drapers' Hall,

about some disputes in the cloth trade, and were hospitably entertained

with bread and wine. In the great riots at the Steel Yard, when the

London 'prentices tried to sack the Flemish warehouses, the Drapers

helped to guard the depot, with weapons, cressets, and banners. They

probably also mustered for the king at Blackheath against the Cornish

insurgents. We meet them again at the procession that welcomed Princess

Katherine of Spain, who married Prince Arthur; then, in the Lady Chapel

at St. Paul's, listening to Prince Arthur's requiem; and, again, bearing

twelve enormous torches of wax at the burial of Henry VII., the prince's

father.

In 1514 (Henry VIII.) Sir William Capell left the Drapers' Company

houses in various parts of London, on condition of certain prayers being

read for his soul, and certain doles being given. In 1521 the Company,

sorely against its will, was compelled by the arbitrary king to help fit

out five ships of discovery for Sebastian Cabot, whose father had

discovered Newfoundland. They called it "a sore adventure to jeopard

ships with men and goods unto the said island, upon the singular trust

of one man, called, as they understood, Sebastian." But Wolsey and the

King would have no nay, and the Company had to comply. The same year,

Sir John Brugge, Mayor and Draper, being invited to the Serjeants' Feast

at Ely House, Holborn, the masters of the Drapers and seven other crafts

attended in their best livery gowns and hoods; the Mayor presiding at

the high board, the Master of the Rolls at the second, the Master of

the Drapers at the third. Another entry in the same year records a sum

of L22 15s. spent on thirty-two yards of crimson satin, given as a

present to win the good graces of "my Lord Cardinal," the proud Wolsey,

and also twenty marks given him, "as a pleasure," to obtain for the

Company more power in the management of the Blackwell Hall trade.

In 1527 great disputes arose between the Drapers and the Crutched

Friars. Sir John Milborne, who was several times master of the Company,

and mayor in 1521, had built thirteen almshouses, near the friars'

church, for thirteen old men, who were daily at his tomb to say prayers

for his soul. There was also to be an anniversary obit. The Drapers'

complaint was that the religious services were neglected, and that the

friars had encroached on the ground of Milborne's charity. Henry VIII.

afterwards gave Crutched Friars to Sir Thomas Wyat, the poetical friend

of the Earl of Surrey, who built a mansion there, which was afterwards

Lumley House. At the dissolution of monasteries, the Company paid L1,402

6s. for their chantries and obits.

The dress or livery of the Company seems to have varied more than that

of any other--from violet, crimson, murrey, blue, blue and crimson, to

brown, puce. In the reign of James I. a uniform garb was finally

adopted. The observances of the Company at elections, funerals, obits,

and pageants were quaint, friendly, and clubable enough. Every year, at

Lady Day, the whole body of the fellowship in new livery went to Bow

Church (afterwards to St. Michael's, Cornhill), there heard the Lady

Mass, and offered each a silver penny on the altar. At evensong they

again attended, and heard dirges chanted for deceased members. On the

following day they came and heard the Mass of Requiem, and offered

another silver penny. On the day of the feast they walked two and two in

livery to the dining-place, each member paying three shillings the year

that no clothes were supplied, and two shillings only when they were.

The year's quarterage was sevenpence. In 1522 the election dinner

consisted of fowls, swans, geese, pike, half a buck, pasties, conies,

pigeons, tarts, pears, and filberts. The guests all washed after dinner,

standing. At the side-tables ale and claret were served in wooden cups;

but at the high table they gave pots and wooden cups for ale and wine,

but for red wine and hippocras gilt cups. After being served with wafers

and spiced wine, the masters went among the guests and gathered the

quarterage. The old master then rose and went into the parlour, with a

garland on his head and his cup-bearer before him, and, going straight

to the upper end of the high board, without minstrels, chose the new

master, and then sat down. Then the masters went into the parlour, and

took their garlands and four cupbearers, and crossed the great parlour

till they came to the upper end of the high board; and there the chief

warden delivered his garland to the warden he chose, and the three other

wardens did likewise, proffering the garlands to divers persons, and at

last delivering them to the real persons selected. After this all the

company rose and greeted the new master and wardens, and the dessert

began. At some of these great feasts some 230 people sat down. The lady

members and guests sometimes dined with the brothers, and sometimes in

separate rooms. At the Midsummer dinner, or dinners, of 1515, six bucks

seem to have been eaten, besides three boars, a barrelled sturgeon,

twenty-four dozen quails; three hogsheads of wine, twenty-one gallons of

muscadel, and thirteen and a half barrels of ale. It was usual at these

generous banquets to have players and minstrels.

The funerals of the Company generally ended with a dinner, at which the

chaplains and a chosen few of the Company feasted. The Company's pall

was always used; and on one occasion, in 1518, we find a silver spoon

given to each of the six bearers. Spiced bread, bread and cheese, fruit,

and ale were also partaken of at these obits, sometimes at the church,

sometimes at a neighbouring tavern. At the funeral of Sir Roger

Achilley, Lord Mayor in 1513, there seem to have been twenty-four

torch-bearers. The pews were apparently hung with black, and children

holding torches stood by the hearse. The Company maintained two priests

at St. Michael's, Cornhill. The funeral of Sir William Roche, Mayor in

1523, was singularly splendid. First came two branches of white wax,

borne before the priests and clerks, who paced in surplices, singing as

they paced. Then followed a standard, blazoned with the dead man's

crest--a red deer's head, with gilt horns, and gold and green wings.

Next followed mourners, and after them the herald, with the dead man's

coat armour, checkered silver and azure. Then followed the corpse,

attended by clerks and the livery. After the corpse came the son, the

chief mourner, and two other couples of mourners. The swordbearer and

Lord Mayor, in state, walked next; then the aldermen, sheriffs, and the

Drapery livery, followed by all the ladies, gentlewomen, and aldermen's

wives. After the dirge, they all went to the dead man's house, and

partook of spiced bread and comfits, with ale and beer. The next day

the mourners had a collection at the church. Then the chief mourners

presented the target, sword, helmet, and banners to the priests, and a

collection was made for the poor. Directly after the sacrament, the

mourners went to Mrs. Roche's house, and dined, the livery dining at the

Drapers' Hall, the deceased having left L6 15s. 4d. for that purpose.

The record concludes thus: "And my Lady Roche, of her gentylness, sent

them moreover four gallons of French wine, and also a box of wafers, and

a pottell of ipocras. For whose soul let us pray, and all Christian

souls. Amen." The Company maintained priests, altars, and lights at St.

Mary Woolnoth's, St. Michael's, Cornhill, St. Thomas of Acon, Austin

Friars, and the Priory of St. Bartholomew.

The Drapers' ordinances are of great interest. Every apprentice, on

being enrolled, paid fees, which went to a fund called "spoon silver."

The mode of correcting these wayward lads was sometimes singular. Thus

we find one Needswell in the parlour, on court day, flogged by two tall

men, disguised in canvas frocks, hoods, and vizors, twopennyworth of

birchen rods being expended on his moral improvement. The Drapers had a

special ordinance, in the reign of Henry IV., to visit the fairs of

Westminster, St. Bartholomew, Spitalfields, and Southwark, to make a

trade search, and to measure doubtful goods by the "Drapers' ell," a

standard said to have been granted them by King Edward III. Bread, wine,

and pears seem to have been the frugal entertainment of the searchers.

Decayed brothers were always pensioned; thus we find, in 1526, Sir

Laurence Aylmer, who had actually been mayor in 1507, applying for alms,

and relieved, we regret to state, somewhat grudgingly. In 1834 Mr.

Lawford, clerk of the Company, stated to the Commissioners of Municipal

Inquiry that there were then sixty poor freemen on the charity roll, who

received L10 a year each. The master and wardens also gave from the

Company's bounty quarterly sums of money to about fifty or sixty other

poor persons. In cases where members of the court fell into decay, they

received pensions during the court's pleasure. One person of high

repute, then recently deceased, had received the sum of L200 per annum,

and on this occasion the City had given him back his sheriff's fine. The

attendance fee given to members of the court was two guineas.

From 1531 to 1714, Strype reckons fifty-three Draper mayors. Eight of

these were the heads of noble families, forty-three were knights or

baronets, fifteen represented the City in Parliament, seven were

founders of churches and public institutions. The Earls of Bath and

Essex, the Barons Wotton, and the Dukes of Chandos are among the noble

families which derive their descent from members of this illustrious

Company. That great citizen, Henry Fitz-Alwin, the son of Leofstan,

Goldsmith, and provost of London, was a Draper, and held the office of

mayor for twenty-four successive years.

In the Drapers' Lord Mayors' shows the barges seem to have been covered

with blue or red cloth. The trumpeters wore crimson hats; and the

banners, pennons, and streamers were fringed with silk, and "beaten with

gold." The favourite pageants were those of the Assumption and St.

Ursula. The Drapers' procession on the mayoralty of one of their

members, Sir Robert Clayton, is thus described by Jordan in his "London

Industre:"--

_"In proper habits, orderly arrayed,

The movements of the morning are displayed._

Selected citizens i' th' morning all,

At seven a clock, do meet at _Drapers' Hall_.

The master, wardens, and assistants joyn

For the first rank, in their gowns fac'd with Foyn.

The second order do, in merry moods,

March in gowns fac'd with Budge and livery hoods.

In gowns and scarlet hoods thirdly appears

A youthful number of Foyn's Batchellors;

Forty Budge Batchellors the triumph crowns,

Gravely attir'd in scarlet hoods and gowns.

Gentlemen Ushers which white staves do hold

Sixty, in velvet coats and chains of gold.

Next, thirty more in plush and buff there are,

That several colours wear, and banners bear.

The Serjeant Trumpet thirty-six more brings

(Twenty the Duke of York's, sixteen the King's).

The Serjeant wears two scarfs, whose colours be

One the Lord Mayor's, t'other's the Company.

The King's Drum Major, follow'd by four more

Of the King's drums and fifes, make _London roar_."

"What gives the festivities of this Company an unique zest," says

Herbert, "however, is the visitors at them, and which included a now

extinct race. We here suddenly find ourselves in company with abbots,

priors, and other heads of monastic establishments, and become so

familiarised with the abbot of Tower Hill, the prior of St. Mary Ovary,

Christ Church, St. Bartholomew's, the provincial and the prior of

'Freres Austyn's,' the master of St. Thomas Acon's and St. Laurence

Pulteney, and others of the metropolitan conventual clergy, most of whom

we find amongst their constant yearly visitors, that we almost fancy

ourselves living in their times, and of their acquaintance."

The last public procession of the Drapers' Company was in 1761, when the

master wardens and court of assistants walked in rank to hear a sermon

at St. Peter's, Cornhill; a number of them each carried a pair of shoes,

stockings, and a suit of clothes, the annual legacy to the poor of this

Company.

The Drapers possess seven original charters, all of them with the Great

Seal attached, finely written, and in excellent preservation. These

charters comprise those of Edward I., Henry VI., Edward IV., Philip and

Mary, Elizabeth, and two of James I. The latter is the acting charter of

the company. In 4 James I., the company is entitled "The Master and

Wardens and Brothers and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the

Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Mystery of Drapers of the City of London."

In Maitland's time (1756), the Company devoted L4,000 a year to

charitable uses.

[Illustration: CROMWELL'S HOUSE, FROM AGGAS'S MAP.

(_Taken from Herbert's "City Companies."_)]

Aggas's drawing represents Cromwell House almost windowless, on the

street side, and with three small embattled turrets; and there was a

footway through the garden of Winchester House, which forms the present

passage (says Herbert) from the east end of Throgmorton Street, through

Austin Friars to Great Winchester Street. The Great Fire stopped

northwards at Drapers' Hall. The renter warden lost L446 of the

Company's money, but the Company's plate was buried safely in a sewer in

the garden. Till the hall could be rebuilt, Sir Robert Clayton lent the

Drapers a large room in Austin Friars. The hall was rebuilt by Jarman,

who built the second Exchange and Fishmongers' Hall. The hall had a very

narrow escape (says Herbert) in 1774 from a fire, which broke out in

the vaults beneath the hall (let out as a store-cellar), and destroyed a

considerable part of the building, together with a number of houses on

the west side of Austin Friars.

The present Drapers' Hall is Mr. Jarman's structure, but altered, and

partly rebuilt after the fire in 1774, and partly rebuilt again in 1870.

It principally consists of a spacious quadrangle, surrounded by a fine

piazza or ambulatory of arches, supported by columns. The quiet old

garden greatly improves the hall, which, from this appendage, and its

own elegance, might be readily supposed the mansion of a person of high

rank.

The present Throgmorton Street front of the building is of stone and

marble, and was built by Mr. Herbert Williams, who also erected the

splendid new hall, removing the old gallery, adding a marble staircase

fit for an emperor's palace, and new facing the court-room, the ceiling

of which was at the same time raised. Marble pillars, stained glass

windows, carved marble mantelpieces, gilt panelled ceilings--everything

that is rich and tasteful--the architect has used with lavish profusion.

The buildings of the former interior were of fine red brick, but the

front and entrance, in Throgmorton Street, was of a yellow brick; both

interior and exterior were highly enriched with stone ornaments. Over

the gateway was a large sculpture of the Drapers' arms, a cornice and

frieze, the latter displaying lions' heads, rams' heads, &c., in small

circles, and various other architectural decorations.

The old hall, properly so called, occupied the eastern side of the

quadrangle, the ascent to it being by a noble stone staircase, covered,

and highly embellished by stucco-work, gilding, &c. The stately screen

of this magnificent apartment was curiously decorated with carved

pillars, pilasters, arches, &c. The ceiling was divided into numerous

compartments, chiefly circular, displaying, in the centre, Phaeton in

his car, and round him the signs of the zodiac, and various other

enrichments. In the wainscoting was a neat recess, with shelves, whereon

the Company's plate, which, both for quality and workmanship, is of

great value, was displayed at their feasts. Above the screen, at the end

opposite the master's chair, hung a portrait of Lord Nelson, by Sir

William Beechey, for which the Company paid four hundred guineas,

together with the portrait of Fitz-Alwin, the great Draper, already

mentioned. "In denominating this portrait _curious_," says Herbert, "we

give as high praise as can be afforded it. Oil-painting was totally

unknown to England in Fitz-Alwin's time; the style of dress, and its

execution as a work of art, are also too modern."

In the gallery, between the old hall and the livery-room, were

full-length portraits of the English sovereigns, from William III. to

George III., together with a full-length portrait of George IV., by

Lawrence, and the celebrated picture of Mary Queen of Scots, and her

son, James I., by Zucchero. The portrait of the latter king is a fine

specimen of the master, and is said to have cost the Company between

L600 and L700. "It has a fault, however," says Herbert, "observable in

other portraits of this monarch, that of the likeness being flattered.

If it was not uncourteous so to say, we should call it George IV. with

the face of the Prince of Wales. Respecting the portrait of Mary and her

son, there has been much discussion. Its genuineness has been doubted,

from the circumstance of James having been only a twelvemonth old when

this picture is thought to have been painted, and his being here

represented of the age of four or five; but the anachronism might have

arisen from the whole being a composition of the artist, executed, not

from the life, but from other authorities furnished to him." It was

cleaned and copied by Spiridione Roma, for Boydell's print, who took off

a mask of dirt from it, and is certainly a very interesting picture.

There is another tradition of this picture: that Sir Anthony Babington,

confidential secretary to Queen Mary, had her portrait, which he

deposited, for safety, either at Merchant Taylors' Hall or Drapers'

Hall, and that it had never come back to Sir Anthony or his family. It

has been insinuated that Sir William Boreman, clerk to the Board of

Green Cloth in the reign of Charles II., purloined this picture from one

of the royal palaces. Some absurdly suggest that it is the portrait of

Lady Dulcibella Boreman, the wife of Sir William. There is a tradition

that this valuable picture was thrown over the wall into Drapers' Garden

during the Great Fire, and never reclaimed.

The old court-room adjoined the hall, and formed the north side of the

quadrangle. It was wainscoted, and elegantly fitted up, like the last.

The fire-place was very handsome, and had over the centre a small oblong

compartment in white marble, with a representation of the Company

receiving their charter. The ceiling was stuccoed, somewhat similarly to

the hall, with various subjects allusive to the Drapers' trade and to

the heraldic bearings of the Company. Both the (dining) hall and this

apartment were rebuilt after the fire in 1774.

The old gallery led to the ladies' chamber and livery-room. In the

former, balls, &c., were occasionally held. This was also a very elegant

room. The livery-room was a fine lofty apartment, and next in size to

the hall. Here were portraits of Sir Joseph Sheldon, Lord Mayor, 1677,

by Gerard Soest, and a three-quarter length of Sir Robert Clayton, by

Kneller, 1680, seated in a chair--a great benefactor to Christ's

Hospital, and to that of St. Thomas, in Southwark; and two

benefactors--Sir William Boreman, an officer of the Board of Green Cloth

in the reigns of Charles I. and Charles II., who endowed a free school

at Greenwich; and Henry Dixon, of Enfield, who left land in that parish

for apprenticing boys of the same parish, and giving a sum to such as

were bound to freemen of London at the end of their apprenticeship. Here

was also a fine portrait of Mr. Smith, late clerk of the Company

(three-quarters); a smaller portrait of Thomas Bagshaw, who died in

1794, having been beadle to the Company forty years, and who for his

long and faithful services has been thus honoured. The windows of the

livery-room overlook the private garden, in the midst of which is a

small basin of water, with a fountain and statue. The large garden,

which adjoins this, is constantly open to the public, from morning till

night, excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and the Company's festival days.

This is a pleasant and extensive plot of ground, neatly laid out with

gravelled walks, a grass-plot, flowering shrubs, lime-trees, pavilions,

&c. Beneath what was formerly the ladies' chamber is the record-room,

which is constructed of stone and iron, and made fire-proof, for the

more effectually securing of the Company's archives, books, plate, and