in the Wheels of shod Carts being each of them as big as a mans finger and a quarter of a yard long the heads two inches over Those nayles were more wondred at then the rest of the things there found and many Opinions of men were there passed upon them namely that the men there buried were murthered by driving those nayles into their heads But to set down what was observed concerning this matter there were there the bones of a man lying the head North the feet South and round about him athwart his head along both his sides and thwart his feet such nails were found wherefore it may be conjectured they were the nayls of his Coffin which had bin a trough cut out of some great Tree and the same covered with a Plank of that thickness fastened with such nayls and found under the broad heads of some of those nayls the old Wood was found scant turned into Earth but still retaining both the grain and proper colour And thus much for that part of Bishopsgate-Ward now we will proceed to that part which lyeth within the Gate And first to begin on the left hand of Bishopsgate from the Gate ye have certain Tenements of old time pertaining to a Brother-hood of St. Nicholas granted to the Parish Clarks of London for two Chaplains to be kept in the Chappel of St. Mary Magdalen near unto the Guild-Hall of London in the 27. of Henry the sixth The first of these Houses towards the North and against the Wall of the City was sometime a large Inne or Court called the Wrastlers of such a signe And the last in the high street towards the South was sometime also a fair Inne called the Angel of such a signe Amongst these said Tenements was on the same street side a fair Entry or Court to the common Hall of the said Parish-Clarks with proper Alms-houses seven in number adjoyning for Parish-Clarks and their Wives and their Widows such as were in great years not able to labour one of these by the said Brother-hood of Parish-Clarks was allowed sixteen pence the week the other six had each of them nine pence the week according to the Patent granted to that effect This Brother-hood amongst other being suppressed in the Raign of Edward the sixth the said Hall with the other Buildings there was given to Sir Robert Chester a Knight of Cambridge-shire against whom the Parish-Clarks commencing suit in the Raign of Queen Mary and being like to have prevailed the said Sir Robert Chester pulled down the Hall sold the Timber stone and Lead and thereupon the suiâ— was ended The Alms-houses remained in the Queens hands and people were there placed such as could make best friends some of them taking the pension appointed and letting forth their houses at great Rent have given occasion to the Pâ—rson of the Parish to challenge Tithes of them c. Next unto this is the small Parish Church of Saint Ethelburgh Virgin and from thence some small distance is a large Court called Little St. Helens because it pertained to the Nuns of St. Helens and was their House there were there seven Alms-Rooms or Houses for the poor belonging to the Company of Leathersellers Then somewhat more West is another Court with a winding Lane which commeth out against the West end of St. Andrew Undershafts Church In this Court standeth the fair Church of St. Helen sometime a Priory of black Nuns and in the same the Parish Church of St. Helen This Priory was founded before the Raign of Henry the third William Baâ—ing Dean of Pauls was the first founder and was there buried and William Basing one of the Sheriffs of London in the second year of Edward the second was holden also to be a Founder or rather an helper thereof This Priory being valued at 1314 l. 2 s. 6 d. was surrendred the five and twentieth of November the thirtieth of Henry the eighth the whole Church the partition betwixt the Nuns Church and the Parish Church being taken down remaineth now to the Parish and is a fair Church but wanteth such a Steeple as Sir Thomas Gresham promised to have builded in recompence of ground in that Church filled up with his Monument The Nuns Hall and other Housing thereto pertaining was since purchased by the Company of Leather-sellers and is their common Hall which Company was incorporate the one and twentieth year of Richard the second A young new-born Child was taken up between the great Ware-house and Sir Iohn Spencers back-gate being by a most unnatural Mother there buried in a great Dung-hill of Sea-coal Ashes with the face upward yet found alive by Richard Atkinson who used to make clean the passage there of the soyle carrying it thence with his Wheel-Barrow The Child had not any ragg or Cloth about it but was all bloodied by reason that the Navil string was untyed and the Body meerly crusted over with the Seacoal-dust yet being made clean by the poor mans Wife it was found to be a most goodly Man-Child strong and well-featured without any blemish or harm upon it but strangled inwardly by sucking in the noysome filth and Ashes He was Christned and named Iob cinere extractus Iob taken out of the Ashes He lived three dayes and lies buried in the Church-yard the fifth of September 1612. Of the Sixth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of LONDON called Broad-street Ward WE will now proceed to make a Perambulation in Broad street Ward whereof part lies contigâ—ous to Bishopsgate Ward for it beginneth from the water Conduit Westward on both sides of the street by Alhallows Church to an Iron Grate on the Channel which runneth into the water-course of Wallbrook before ye come to the Postern called Moregate and this is the farthest West part of that Ward Then have ye Broad street where of the Ward taketh name which stretcheth out of the former street from the East Corner of Alhallowes Church-yard somewhat South to the Parish Church of Saint Peter the poor on both sides and then by the South Gate of the Augustine Fryars West down Throgmorton street by the Drapers Hall into Loathbury to another Grate of Iron on the Channel there whence the water runneth into the course of Wallbrook under the East end of St. Margarets Church certain posts of Timber are there set up and this is also the furthest West part of this Ward in the said street out of the which street it runneth up Bartholomew Lane South to the North side of the Exchange then more East out of the former street From over against the Fryars Augustines Church South gate runneth up another part of Broad streete South to a Pump over against St. Bennets Church Then have ye one other street called Threed-needle street beginning at the Well with two Buckets by St. Martins Oteswich Church Wall This street runneth down on both sides to Finkes-Lane now called Finch Lane and half way up that Lane to a Gate of a Marchants house on
his Reign gave unto Iohn Carpenter Dr. of Divinity and Master of St. Anthonies Hospital and to his Brethren and their Successors for ever his Mannor of Poinington with the appurtenances with certain Pensions and Portions of Milburn Burneworth Charleton and Up-Wimburn in the County of Southhamton towards the maintenance of five Scholars in the University of Oxford to be brought up in the faculty of Arts after the rate of ten pence the week for every Scholar so that the said Scholars be first instructed in the rudiments of Grammar at the Colledge of Eaton founded by the said King In the year 1474. Edward the 4th granted to William Say Batchelor of Divinity Master of the said Hospital to have Priests Clerks Scholars poor men and Brethren of the same Clerks or Laymen Queristers Procters Messengers Servants in Houshold and other things whatsoever like as the Prior and Covent of St. Anthonies of Vienna c. He also annexed united and appropriated the said Hospital unto the Collegiate of St. George in Windsor The Protectors of this House were to collect the benevolence of charitable Persons towards the building and supporting thereof In the year 1499. Sir John Tate sometime Alebrewer then a Mercer caused his Brewhouse called the Swan near adjoyning to the said Free Chappel College or Hospital of St. Anthony to be taken for the enlarging of the Church which was then newly builded toward the building whereof the said Tate gave great sums of money and finished it in the year 1501 Sir John Tate deceased 1514. and was there buried under a fair Monument by him prepared Dr. Taylor Master of the Rolls and other Walter Champion Draper one of the Sheriffs of London 1529. was buried there and gave to the Beadmen twenty pounds The Lands by year of this Hospital were valued in the 37. of King Henry the eighth to be 55l 6 s. and 8. pence One Iohnson a Schoolmaster of the famous Free-School there became a prebend of Windsor and then by little and little followed the spoil of this Hospital he first dissolved the Quire conveyed away the Plate and Ornaments then the Bels and lastly put out the Alms men from their houses appointing them portions of twelve pence the week to each but now I hear of no such matter performed for their houses with other be letten out for rent and the Church is a preaching place for the French Nation as was touched before This School was commended in the Reign of Henry the sixth and sithence commended above other but now decayed and come to nothing by taking that from it which thereunto belonged Next is the Parish Church of St. Bartholmew at the end of Bartholmew Lane Thomas Pike Alderman with the assistance of Nicholas Yoo one of the Shetiffs of London about the year 1438. new builded this Church West from this Church have ye Scalding Alley of old time called Scalding House or Scalding wick because that ground for the most part was then imployed by Poulterers that dwelled in the high street from the Stocks Market to the great Conduit Their Poultry which they sold at their stalls were scalded there the street doth yet bear the name of the Poultry and the Poulterers are but lately departed from thence into other streets as into Grasse-street and the ends of St. Nicholas Flesh-shambles This Scalding wick is the farthest part of Broadstreet-Ward and is by the water called Wallbrook parted from Cheap-Ward Of the Seventh Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Corn-hill Ward NOw Cornhil Ward comes to consideration corruptly called Cornwel by the vulgar It was called Corn-hill of a Corn-Market time out of mind there holden and is a part of the principal high street beginning at the West end of Leaden-Hall stretching down West on both the sides by the South end of Finkes Lane on the right hand and by the North end of Birchoven Lane on the left part of which Lanes to wit to the middle of them is of this Ward and so down to the Stocks Market and this is the bounds The upper or East part of this Ward and also a part of Limestreet Ward hath been as I said a Market-place especially for Corn and since for all kind of Victuals as is partly shewed in Limestreet Ward It appeareth by Record that in the year 1522. the Rippiers of Rie and other places sold their fresh Fish in Leaden-hall Market upon Cornhill but forraign Butchers were not admitted there to sell Flesh till the year 1533. And it was enacted that Butchers should sell their Bief not above a half peny the pound and Mutton half peny half farthing which Act being devised for the great Commodity of the Realm as it was then thought hath since proved far otherwise for before that time a fat Oxe was sold at London for six and twenty shillings eight pence at the most a far Weather for three shillings four pence a fat Calf at the same price a fat Lamb for twelve pence pieces of Bief weighing 2. pounds and a half at the least yea 3. pound or better for a peny on every Butchers Stall in this City and of those pieces of Bief 13 or fourteen for twelve pence fat Mutton for eight pence the quarter and one hundred weight of Bief for four shillings eight pence at the dearest What the price is now I need not set down many men thought the same Act to raise the price by reason that Grasier knew or supposed what weight every their Beasts contained and so raising their price thereafter the Butcher could be no gainer but by likewise raising his price the number of Butchers then in the City and Suburbs was accounted sixscore of which every one killed six Oxen a peece weekly which is in forty six weeks 33120. Oxen or seven hundred and twenty Oxen weekly The forraign Butchers for a long time stood in the high street of Limestreet-Ward on the North side twice every week viz Wednesdayes and Saturdayes and werâ— some gain to the Tenants before whose doors they stood and into whoâ—e houses they set their blocks and stalls but that advantage being eâ—pied they were taken into Leaden-Hall there to pay for their standing to the Chamber of London Thus much for the Market upon Cornhill The chief Ornaments in Cornhill-VVard are these First at the East end thereof in the middle of the high street and at the parting of four wayes have ye a Water-Standard placed in the year 1582. in manner following A certain German named Peter Morris having made an artificial Forcier for that purpose conveyed Thames-water in Pipes of Lead over the Steeple of St. Magnus Church at the North end of London-Bridge and from thence into divers mens Houses in Thames-street New Fish-street and Grasse-street now Gracious-street up to the North West corner of Leaden-hall the highest ground of all the City where the waste of the main Pipe rising into this Standard provided at the charges of the City with four spouts did
was added and given by John VVhitwell Isabel his Wife and William Rus or Rous Alderman and Goldsmith about the year 1430 which Bell named Rus nightly at eight of the clock and otherwise for Knels and in Peals rung by one man by the space of 160 years of late over-haled by four or five at once hath been thrice broken and new cast within the space of ten years to the charges of that Parish more than 100 marks And here note of this Steeple Upon St. James night certain men in the loft next under the Bellâ— ringing of a peal a tempest of Lightning and Thunder did arise and an ugly-shapen sight appeared to them coming in at the South Window and lighted on the North for fear whereof they all fell down and lay as dead for the time letting the Bells ring and cease of their own accord When the Ringers came to themselves they found certain stones o the North Window to be raised and scratched as if they had been so much Butter printed with a Lions claw The same stones were fastned there again and so remain till this day they may be seen to this day together with the holes where the claws had entred three or four inches deep At the same time certain main Timber posts at Queen-Hith were scratched and cleft from top to the bottome and the Pulpit-crosse in Pauls Church-yard was likewise scratcht cleft and overturned One of the Ringers lived in Queen Elizabeths time who would verifie the same to be true to his knowledge Robert Fabian Alderman and Chronicler of England lieth buried in this Church with divers others persons of note This Parish Church hath on the South side thereof a handsome Cloyster and a fair Church-yard with a Pulpit-cross not much unlike to that in Pauls Church-yard Sir John Rudstone Mayor caused the same Pulpit-crosse in his life time to be builded the Church-yard to be enlarged by ground purchased of the next Parish and also hansome Houses to be raised for lodging of Quire men such as at that time were assitants to Divine Service then daily sung by note in that Church Then have ye Burchover Lane so called of Burchover the first builder and owner thereof now corruptly called Birchin Lane the North half whereof is the said Cornhill Ward the other half is of Langborn Ward This Lane and the High-street neer adjoyning hath been of old inhabited for the most part with wealthy Drapers in whose room now Mercers and Silkmen are come from Birchover Lane on that side the street down to the Stocks in the Reign of Henry the sixth had ye for the most part dwelling there Frippers or Upholders that sold Apparrel and old houshold stuff The Popes-head Taverne with other Houses adjoyning strongly builded of Stone hath of old time been all in one appertaining to some great Estate or rather to the King of this Realm as may be supposed both by largenesse thereof and by the Armes to wit three Leopards passant gardant which was the whole Arms of England before the Reign of Edward the Third that quartered them with the Armes of France the three Flower de Luces Of the Eighth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of LONDON called Langborn Ward VVE are now by discourse and degrees of observation come to Langbourn Ward so called of a long Bourn of sweet water which of old time breaking out into Fenne Church-street ran down the same street and Lomâ—ard street to the West end of St. Mary Woolnoths Church where turning South and breaking into small floares rills or streams it gave the name of Share-borne Lane or South-borne Lane as we read because it ran South to the River of of Thames This Ward beginneth at the West end of Ealdgate Ward in Fen-Church street by the Ironmongers Hall which is on the North side of that street at a place called Culver Alley where sometime was a Lane through which men went into Lime-street but that being long since stopped up for suspition of Theeves that lurked there by night as is shewed in Lime-street Ward there is now in this said Alley a Tennis-Court c. Fen-Church-street took that name of Fenny or Moorish ground so made by means of this Bourne which passed through it And therefore until this day in the Guild-Hall of this City that Ward is called by the name of Langbourne and Fenny about and not otherwise yet others be of opinion that it took that name of Faenum that is Hay sold there as Grass-street took the name of Grasse or Herbs there sold. In the midst of this street standeth a small Parish Church called S. Gabriel Fen-Church corruptly Fan-Church Helming Legget Esquire by Licence of Edward the third in the fourty ninth of his Reign gave one Tenement with a curâ—elarge thereto belonging and a Garden with an entrey thereto leading unto Sir Iohn Hariot Parson of Fen-Church and to his Successors for ever the House to be a Parsonage House the Garden to be a Church-yard or burying place for the Parish Then have ye Lombard street so called of the Longobards and other Merchants strangers of divers Nations assembling there twice every day of what original or continuance it hath been ther 's no Record more than that Edward the second in the twelfth of his Reign confirmed a Messuage sometime belonging to Robert Turk abutting on Lombard street toward the South and toward Cornhill on the North for the Marchants of Florence which proveth that street to have had the name of of Lombard street before the Reign of Edward the second The meeting of which Merchants and others there continued until the 22th of December in the year 1568 on the which day the said Merchants began to make their Meetings at the Burse a place then new builded for that purpose in the Ward of Cornhill and was since by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth named the Royal Exchange On the North side of this Ward is Lime street one half whereof on both sides is of this Langbourne Ward and therein on the West side is the Pewterers Hall which Company were admitted to be a Brotherhood in the thirteenth of Edward the fourth At the South West corner of Limestreet standeth a fair Parish Church of St. Dionys called Back-Church new builded in the Reign of Henry the sixth John Bugge Esquire was a great Benefactor to that work as appeareth by his Arms three water-Budgets and his Crest a Morions head graven in the stone-work of the Quire at the upper and end on the North side where he was buried Also John Darby Alderman added thereunto a fair Ile or Chappel on the South side and was there buried about the year 1466. He gave besides sundry Ornaments his dwelling House and others unto the said Church The Lady Wich Sir Edward Osborn Sir James Harvey with divers other persons and Benefactors to that Church lie interred there Then by the four Corners so called of Fen-Church-street in the East Bridge-street on the South Grasse-street on
the North and Lumbard-street on the West in Lumbard-street is one fair Parish Church called Alhallowes Grasse-Church in Lumbard-street for so 't is read in Evidences of Record for that the Grasse-Market went down that way when that street was farre broader then now it is being straightned by incroachments now This Church was new builded John Warner Armorer and then Grocer Sheriff 1494. builded the South I le his Sonne Robert Warner Esquire finished it in the year 1516. The Pewterers were benefactors towards the North I le c. The Steeple or Bel-Tower thereof was finished in the year 1554. about the 36. of Henry the 8th The fair Stone-Porch of this Church was brought from the late dissolved Priory of St. John of Jerusalem by Smithfield so was the frame of their Bells but the Bells being bought were never brought thither by reason that one old VVarner Draper of that Parish deceasing his Sonne Mark VVarner would not perform what his Father had begun and appointed so that fair Steeple hath but one Bell as Fryers were wont to use c. Next is a common Ostery for Travellers called the George of such a signe This is said to have pertained to the Earl Ferrers and was his London Lodging in Lumbardstreet And that in the year 1175. a Brother of the said Earl being there privily slain in the night was there thrown down into the dirty street Next is the Parish Church of St. Edmond the King and Martyr in Lumbard-street by the South corner of Birchover Lane This Church is also called St. Edmond Grasse-Church because the said Grasse-Market came down so low Sir John Mâ—lburn and Sir VVilliam Chester both Lord Maiors with others have Monuments in this Church From this Church down Lombard-street by Birchovers Lane the one half of which Lane is of this Ward and so down be divers fair Houses namely one with a fair fore-front towards the street builded by Sir Martin Bowes Goldsmith since Maior of London And then one other sometime belonging to William de la pole Earl of Suffolk in the 24. of Richard the second and was his Marchants House and so down towards the Stocks Market lacking but some three houses thereof The South side of this Ward beginneth in the East at the Chain to be drawn thwart Mart-Lane up into Fenchurch-street and so West by the North end of Mincheon-Lane to St. Margaret Pattens street or Rood Lane and down that street to the mid-way towards St. Margarets Church then by Philpot-Lane so called of Sir John Philpot that dwelled there and was owner thereof and down that Lane some six or eight houses on each side is all of this Ward Then by Grasse-Church corner into Lumbard-street to St. Clements Lâ—ne and down the same to St. Clements Church then down St. Nicholas Lane and down the same to St. Nicholas Church and the same Church is of this Ward Then to Abchurch Lane and down some small portion thereof then down Sherborn-Lane a part thereof and a part of Bearbinder-Lane be of this Ward and then down Lumbard-street to the sign of the Angel almost to the corner over against the Stocks Market On the South side of this Ward somewhat within Mart-lane have ye the Parish Church of Alhallowes commonly called Stane-Church as may be supposed for a difference from other Churches of that name in this City which of old time were builded of Timber and since were builded of stone Sir John Test Knight of the holy Sepulcher hath here a Monument with others Then is the Parish Church of St. Nicholas Acon or Hacon for so it is read in the Records in Lombardstreet Sir John Bridges Draper Maior 1520. newly repaired this Church and imbattelled it and was there buried Then is there in the high street a comely Parish Church of St. Mary Wolnoth of the Nativity the reason of which name the Annals make no mention This Church is lately new builded Sir Hugh Price Goldsmith Mayor in the first year of Henry the 7th Keeper of the Kings Exchange at London and one of the Governours of the Kings Mint in the Tower of London under William Lord Hastings the fifth of Edward the fourth deceased 1496. He builded in this Church a Chappel called the Charnel as also part of the Body of the Church and of the Steeple and gave money toward the finishing thereof besides the stone that he had prepared he was buried in the Body of the Church and Guy Brice or Boys was also buried there with some other of note Simon Eyre 1459. He gave the Tavern called the Cardinals Hat in Lumbard-street with a Tenement annexed on the East part of the Tavern and a Mansion behind the East Tenement together with an Ally from Lumbard-street to Corn-hill with the appurrenances all which were by him new builded toward a Brother-hood of our Lady in St. Mary Wolnoths Church Among others Sir Martin Bowes hath a Monument there who Anno 1569. gave certain Lands for discharging Langborn Ward of all fifteens granted by Parliament Of the Ninth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Billingsgate Ward WE will now go South-East and take a Survey of Billingsgate-Ward which beginneth at the West end of Tower-street Ward in Thames-street about Smarts Key and runneth down along that street on the South side to St. Magnus Church at the Bridge foot and on the North side of the said Thames-street from over against Smarts Key till over against the North-West Corner of St. Magnus Church aforesaid On this North side of Thames-street is St. Mary Hill Lane up to St. Margarets Church and then part of St. Margarets Pattens street at the end of St. Mary Hills Lane next out of Thames-street is Lucas Lane and then Buttolph Lane and at the North end thereof Philpot Lane Then is there Rother Lane of old time so called and thwart the same Lane is little East-Cheape And these be the bounds of Billingsgate Ward Touching the principal Ornaments within this Ward on the South side of Thamesstreet beginning at the East end thereof there is first the said Smarts Key so called of one Smart sometime owner thereof The next is Billinsgate whereof the whole Ward taketh name the which leaving out of the Roman's faining it to be builded by King Belâ—nus a Britain â—ong before the Incarnation of Christ is at this present a large Water-gate Port or Harbor for Ships and Boats commonly arriving there with Fish both fresh and salt Shell-fishes Salt Oranges Onions and other Fruits and Rooâ—s Wheat Rie and Grain of divers sorts for service of the City and the parts of this Realm adjoyning This Gate is now more frequented then of old time when the Queens Hith was used as being appointed by the Kings of this Realm to be the special or only Port for taking up of all such kind of Matchandizes brought to this City by strangers and Forraigners because the Draw-Bridge of Timbeâ— at London Bridge was then to be raised and drawn
Ward Then higher in Grasse-street is the Parish Church of St. Bennet called Grass-Church of the Herbe Market there kept this Church also is of the Bridge Ward and the farthest North end thereof The Customes of Grasse-Church Market in the Reign of Edward the third as appears in a Book of Customes were these every forreign Cart laden with Corn or Malt coming thither to be sold was to pay one half penny every Forreign Cart bringing Cheeâ—e two pence every Cart of Corn and Cheeâ—e together if the Cheese be more worth than the Corn two pence and if the Corn be more worth than the Cheese it was to pay a half-penny of two Horses laden with Corn oâ— Malt the Bayliff had one farthing The Carts of the Franchiâ—e of the Temple and of Saint Mary Le Grand paid afarching the Carr of the Hospitall of St. Iohn of Ierusalem paid nothing of their proper goods and if the Corn were brought by Merchants to sell again the load paid a half penny c. On the West side of this Ward at the North end of London Bridge is a part of Thames street which is also of this Ward to wit so much as of old time was called Stock-Fishmonger Row of the Stock-Fish-mongers dwelling tâ—ere down West to a Waâ—er-gate of old time called Ebgate since Ebgate Lane and now the Old Swan which is a common stair on the Thames but the passage is very â—arrow by means of encroachments On the South side of Thames street about the Mid-way betwixt the Bridge foot and Ebgate Lane standeth the Fishmongers Hall and divers other fair Houses for Merchants These Fishmongers were sometimes of two several Companies to wit Stock-Fishmongers and Salt-Fishmongers Of whoâ—e antiquity we read that by the name of Fishmongers of London they were for fore-stalling c. contrary to the Laws and constitutions of the City fined to the King at 500 Marks the eighteenth of King Edward the first Moreover that the said Fishmongers hearing of the great victory obtained by the same King against the Scots in the six twentieth of his Reign made a Triumphant and solemn Shew through the City with divers Pageants and more than a thousand Horsemen c. These two Companies of Stock-Fishmongers and Salt-Fishmongers of old time had their severall Halls to wit in Thames street twain in New Fish-street twaiâ— in Old Fish-street twain in each place one for either Company in all six several Halls the Company was so great that it lies upon Records that these Fishmongers have been jolly Citizens and six Mayors have been of their Company in the space of four and twenty years to wit Walter Turk 1350 John Lofkin 1359 John Wreth 1361 John Pechie 1362 Simon Morden 1369 and William Wallworth 1374. It followed that in the year 1382 through the Counsel of John North hampton Draper then being Mayor VVilliam Essex John More Mercer and Richard Northbury the said Fishmongers were greatly troubled hindred of their Liberties and almost destroyed by combinations made against them so that in a Parliament at London the controversie depending between the Mayor and Aldermen of London and the Fishmongers Nic. Exton Speaker for the Fishmongers prayeth the King to receive him and his Company into his protection for fear of corporal hurt whereupon it was commanded either part to keep the peace upon pain of losing all they had Hereupon a Fishmonger starting up replyed that the complain brought against them by the movers c. was but matter of malice for that the Fishmongers in the Reign of Edward the 3d. being chief Officers of the City had for their misdemeanors then done committed the chief exhibitors of those Petitions to prison In this Parliament the Fishmongers by the Kings Charter Patents were restored to their Liberties Notwithstanding in the year next following 1383 John Cavendish Fishmongâ—r craveth the peace against the Chancellour of England which was granted and he put in Sureties the Earls of Stafford and Salisbury and challengeth the Chancellour for taking a bribe of ten pounds for favour of Cavendish Case which the Chancellour by Oath upon the Sacrament avoideth In further triall it was found that the Chancellours man without his Masters privity had taken it whereupon Cavendish was Judged to prison and to pay the Chancellour 1000 Marks for slandering him After this many of the Nobles assembled at Reading to supprese the seditious Sheirs of the said John Northampion or Combarton late Mayor that had attempted great and hainous enterprises of the which he was convict and when he stood mute nor would utter one word it was Decreed that he should be committed to perpetual prison his goods confiscate to the Kings use and that he should not come within a hundred miles of London during his life He was therefore sent to the Castle of Fintegall in the Confines of Cornwall and in the mean space the Kings Servants spoiled his goods John Moore Richard Northbury and others were likewise there Convict and condemned to perpetual prison and their goodâ— confiscate for certain Congregations by them made against the Fishmongers in the City of London as is aforesaid but theyâ— obtained and had the Kings pardon in the fourteenth of his Reign as appeareth upon Record and thus were all these troubles appealed Those Stock-Fishmongers and Salt-Fishmongers were united in the year 1536 the eight and twentieth of Henry the eighth their Hall to be but one in the House given unto them by Sir Iohn Cornwall Lord Fanhope and of Ampthull in the Parish of Saint Michael in Crooked Lane in the Reign of Henry the sixth Thus much was thought remarkable to be spoken of the Fishmongers men ignorant of their Antiquities and not able to shew a reason why or when they were in amity with the Goldsmiths do give part of their Arms c. Neither to say ought of Sir William Walworth the Glory of their Company more than that he slew Jack Straw which some do question for the said Straw was after the overthrow of the Rebels taken and by judgement of the Mayor beheaded whose confession at the Gallows is extant in Mr. Stows Annales where also is set down the most valiant and praise-worthy act of Sir William Walworth against the principal Rebel Wat Tyler On that South side of Thames street have ye Drink-water Wharf and Fish Wharf in the Parish of Saint Magnus On the North side of Thames street is Saint Martins Lane a part of which Lane is also of this Ward to wit on the one side to a Well of water and on the other side as far up as against the said Well Then is St. Michaels Lane part whereof is also of this Ward up to a Well there c. Then at the upper end of New Fish-street is a Lane turning towards St. Michaels Lane and is called Crooked-Lane of the crooked windings thereof Above this Lanes end upon Fish-street Hill is one great House for the most pâ—rt builded with stone which pertained sometime to
Edward the black Prince sonne to Edward the third who was in his life time lodged there and 't was called the Prince of VVales his Court which was afterward for a long time a common Hostry having the sign of the Black Bell. Of the Eleventh Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Candle-wick Ward WE will now see what light Antiquity can give us of Candle-wick street or Candle-wright street Ward It beginneth at the East end of great East-cheap it passeth West through East-cheap to Candle-wright street and thorough the same down to the North end of Suffolk Lane on the South side and down that Lane by the West end of St. Lawrence Church-yard which is the farthest West part of that Ward the street of Great East-cheap is so called of the Market there kept in the East part of the City as VVest-cheap is a Market so called being in the West This East-Cheap is now a Flesh-market of Butchers there dwelling on both sides of the street it had sometime also Cooks mixed amongst the Bâ—tchers and such other as sold Victuals ready dressed of all sorts For of old time when friends did meet and were disposed to be merry they never went to dine and Sup in Taverns but to the Cooks where they called for meat what them liked 〈◊〉 they alwayes sound ready dressed and at a reasonable rate for Vintners 〈◊〉 â—old onâ—y Wine In the year 1410. the eleventh of Henry the fourth upon the Even of Saint Iohn Baptist the Kings Sonnes Thomas and Iohn being in East-Cheape at Supper or rather at break-fast for it was after the Watch was broken up betwixt two and three a Clock after mid-night a great debate happened between their men and other of the Court which lasted one houre till the Maior and Sheriffs with other Citizens appeaâ—â—d the same For the which afterwards the said Maior Aldermen and Sheriffs were called to answer before the King his Sons and divers Lords being highly moved against the City At which time William Gascoignâ— chief Justice required the Maior and Aldermen for the Citizens to put them in the Kings Grace whereunto they answered that they had not offended but according to the Law had done their best in stinting debate and maintaining of the peace upon which answer the King remitted all his Ire and dismissed them And to prove this East-Cheape to be a place replenished with Cooks it may appear by a Song called London lick-penny made by Lidgate a Monk of Bury in the Reign of Henry the fifth in the person of a Country-man comming to London and travelling thorough the same In West-Cheape saith the Song he was called on to buy fine Lawn Paris Thred Cotton Umble and other linnen Clothes and such like he speaketh of no silk In Corn-hill to buy old Apparel and Houshold-stuffe where he was forced to buy his own Hood which he had lost in Westminster-hall In Candlewright-street Drapers proâ—cred him Cheap Cloth In East-Cheape the Cooks cryed hot Ribs of Beef rosted Pies well baked and other Victuals There was clattering of Pewter-Pots Harp Pipe and Sawtry yea by cock nay by cock for greater Oaths were spared some sang of Ienkin and Julian c. All which Melody liked well the Passenger but he wanted money to abide by it and therefore gat him into Gravesend-Barge and home into Kent Candlewright so called in old Records of the Guild-hall of St. Mary Overies and other or Candlewick-street took that name as may be supposed either of Chaundlers or Makers of Candles both of Wax and Tallow for Candle-wright is a Maker of Candles and of Wick which is the Cotton or yarn thereof or otherwise which is the place where they used to work them as scalding wick by the Stocks-Market was called of the Poulterers dressing and scalding their Poultry there And in divers Countries Dairy-houses or Cottages wherein they make Butter and Cheese are usually called Wickes There dwelled also of old time divers Weavers of Woollen Clothes brought in by Edward the 3d for I read that in the four and twentieth of his Reign the Weavers brought out of Flanders were appointed their meetings to be in the Church-yard of St. Lawrence Poultney and the Weavers of Brabant in the Church-yard of St. Mary Sommerset There were then in this City Weavers of divers sorts to wit of Drapery or Tapery and Nappery these Weavers of Candlewicke street being in short time worn out their place is now possessed by rich Drapers Sellers of Woollen Cloth c. On the Northside of this Ward at the West end of East-Cheape have ye St. Clements Lane a part whereof on both sides is of Candlewicke street Ward to wit somewhat North beyond the Parish Church of St. Clement in East-cheape Though this Church be small yet there are some comely Monuments in it among others of William Chartney and William Overy who 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 sides almost wholly of this Ward the Parish Church there called of St. Mary 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 Winchcombe sounded a Chauntery there the 19th of Richard the Littletonâ—ounded â—ounded another and Thomas Hondon another Here are likewise some remarkable Monuments particularly of Sir Iames and Sir Iohn Branch both Lord Mayors of London about the year 1570. On the South side of this Ward beginning again at the East is St. Michaels 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. Michaels Church towards New Fishstreet One of the most ancient Houses in this Lane is called the Leaden Porch and belonged sometime to Sir John Merston Knight the first of Edward the 4th It is now called the Swan in Crooked Lane possessed of strangers and retailing of Rhenish Wine The Parish Church of this St. Michaels was sometime but a small and homely thing standing upon part of that ground wherein now standeth the Parsonage House and the ground thereabout was a filthy plot by reason of the Butchers in East-Cheape who made the same their Lay-stall VV. de Burgo gave two Messuages to that Church in Candlewick street 1317. John Loveken Stock-fish monger fout times Maior builded in the same ground this fair Church of St. Michael and was there buried in the Quire under a fair Tombe with the Images of him and his Wise in Alabaster the said Church hath bin since increased with a new Quire and side Chappels by Sir W. Walworth Stock-fishmonger Maior sometime Servant to the said John Loveken Also the Tombe of Loveken was removed and a flat stone of gray marble garnished with Plates of Copper laid on him as it
is ordered by our Soveraign Lord and his Parliament that the said Marchants of Aâ—main being of the Company called the Guild-hall Theutonicorum or the Flemish Geld that now be or hereafter shall be shall have hold and enjoy to them and their Successors for ever the said place called the Steel-house yielding to the Maior and Commonalty an annual Rent of threescore and ten pounds three shillings foure pence c. In the year 1551 the 5th of Edward the 6th through complaint of the English Marchants the liberty of the Steel-yard Marchants was seized into the Kings hands and so it resteth Then is Church-lane at the West end of Alhollowes Church called Alhollowds the more in Thames-street for a difference from Alhollowes the lesse in the same street It is also called Alhollowes ad faenum in the Ropery because Hay was sold near thereunto at Hay-Wharf and Ropes of old time made and soâ—d in the high street This is a fair Church with a large Cloyster on the South side thereof about their Church-yard but fouly defaced and ruinated Dr. Lichfield a learned man and an Authour who died 1447. lieth here buried with other Benefactors At the East end of this Church goeth down a Lane called Wharf-lane now lately a great Brew-house builded there by one Pot Hen Compion Esq a Beere-Brewer used it Abraham his Son since possessed it Then was there one other Lane sometime called Woolseys Gate now out of use for the lower part thereof upon the Bank of Thames is builded by the late Earl of Shrewsbury the other end is builded on stopped up by the Chamberlain of London I. Butler Draper one of the Sheriffs in the year 1420. dwelled there He appointed his house to be sold and the price thereof to be given to the poor it was of Alhollowes Parish the lesse Then is there the said Parish-Church of Alhollowes called the Lesse and by some Alhollowes on the Cellars for it standeth on Vauâ—ts it is said to be builded by Sir Iohn Poultney sometimes Mayor The Steeple and Quire of this Church stand on an Arched Gate being the entry to a great House called Cold Harborough the Quire of late being fallen down is now again at length in the year 1594. by the Parishioners new builded Touching this Cold Harborough I finde that in thirteenth of Edward the second Sir Iohn Abel Knight demised or let unto Henry Stow Draper all that his Capital Messuage called the Cold Harborough in the Parish of All Saints ad fanum all the puâ—tenances within the Gate with the Key which Rob. Hartford Citizen Son to W. Hartford had ought the foresaid Rob. paid for it Rent 335. the year This Ro. Hartford being owner thereof as also of other Lands in Surrey deceasing without issue Male left two Daughters his Co-heires to wit Idonia married to Sir Ralph Biggot and Maude married to Sir Stephen Cosenton Knights between whom the said House Lands were parted After the which Io. Bigot Sonne to the said Sir Ralph Sir Iohn Cosentâ—n did â—ell their Moyeties of Cold Harborough unto Iohn Poultney Sonne of Adam Poultney the 8th of Edward the 3d. This Sir John Poultney dwelling in this House and being four times Mayor the said House took the name of Poultneys Inne notwithstanding this Sir John Poultney the 21. of Edward the 3d by his Charter gave and confirmed to Humphrey de Bohune Earl of Hereford and Essex his whole Tenement called Cold Harborough with all the Tenements and Key adjoyning and appurtenances sometime pertaining to Robert de Hereford on the way called Hay-wharf Lane c. for one Rose at Midsommer to him and his Heires for all services if the same were demanded This Sir John Poultney deceased 1349. and left issue by Margaret his Wife William Poultney who dyed without issue and Margaret his Mother was married to Sir Nicholas Lovel Knight c. Philip St. Cleare gave two Messuages pertaining to this Cold Harbrough in the Ropery towards the enlarging of the Parish Church and Church-yard of Al-Saints called the lesse in the 20. of Richard the second In the year 1397. the 21. of Richard the 2d John Holland Earl of Huntington was lodged there and Richard the second his Brother dined with him it was then counted a right fair and stately house But in the next year following I finde that Edmund Earl of Cambridge was there lodged notwithstanding the said house still retained the name of Poulâ—neys Inne in the Reign of Henry the sixth the 26 of his Reign It belonged since to H. Holland Duke of Excester and he was lodged there in the year 1472. In the year 1485. Richard the third by his Letters Patents granted and gave to John VVrith alias Garter principal King of Arms of English men and to the rest of the Kings Heralds and Pursevants of Arms all that Messuage with the appurtenances called Cold Harber in the Parish of Al-Saints the little in London and their Successors for ever Dated at VVestminster the second of March Anno regni sui primo without fine or fee. How the said Heraulds departed therewith I have not read â—ut in the Reign of Henry the eighth the Bishop of Durhams housâ— neer Charing Crosse being taken into the Kings hand Cuthbert Tunstall Bishop of Durham was lodged in this Cold Harber since the which time it hath belonged to the Earls of Shrewsbury by composition as is supposed from the said Cuthbert Tunstall The last deceaâ—ed Earâ— took it down and in place thereof builded a great number of â—mall Tenements now letten out for great Rents to people of all sorts Then is the Dyers-hall which Company was made a Brother-hood and a Guild in the fourth Henry the sixth and appointed to consist oâ— a Gardian or Warden and a Communalty the twelvth of Edward the fourth Then be there divers large Brew-houses and others till you come to Ebgate Lane where that Ward endeth in the East On the North side of Thames-street be divers Lanes also the first is at the South end of Elbow Lane before spoken of West from Downgate over against Greenwich-lane then be divers fair Houses for Marchants and others all along that side The next Lane East from Downâ—gate is called Bush-lane which turneth up to Candlewick-street and is of Down-gate Ward Next is Suffolk lane likewise turning up to Candlewick-street in this Lane is one notable Grammar School founded in the year 1561. by the Master Wardens and Assistants of the Marchant-Taylors in the Parish of St. Lawrence Poultney Richard Hills sometimes Master of that Company having before given 500 l. toward the purchase of an House called the Mannor of the Rose sometime belonging to the Duke of Buckingham wherein the said School is kept Then is there one other Lane which turneth up to St. Lawrence-hill and to the South vvest Corner of St. Lawrence Church-yard then another Lane called Poultney-lane that goeth up of this Ward to the South-East corner of St.
Lawrence Church-yard and so down again and to the West corner of St. Martin Orgar lane and over against Ebgate-lane and this is all of Downgate-vvard the thirteenth in number lying East from the Water-course of VVallbrooke and hat hnot any one House on the West side of the said Brook This Dowgate vvard is more considerable then others in divers things for it hath more Halls then any other it hath also the Great Hans or the Teutonique Guild call'd now the Stil-yard Mr. John Robinson who hath his House in Milk-street is lately made the Alderman of this VVard a generous discreet and worthy Gentleman being of the Company of the Turkie or Levantine Marchants Of the Fourteenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Vintry Ward THe Wards spoken of hitherto may besaid to lye on the East Now I am to treat of the other Wardâ— twelve in number all lying on the West side of the course of Wallbrook and first of the Vintry Ward so called of Vintners and of the Vintry a part of the Bank of the River of Thames where the Merchants of Bourdeaux craned their Wines out of Lighters and other Vessels and there landed and made sale of them within forty daies after until the twenty eighth of Edward the first at which time the said Merchants complained that they could not fell their Wines paying poundage neither hire Houses or Cellars to lay them in and it was redressed by virtue of the Kings Writ directed to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London dated at Carlaveroke or Carlile since the which time many fair and large houses with Vaults and Cellars for stowage of Wines and lodging of Burdeaux Merchants have been builded in place where before time were Cooks houses for Fâ—tz Stephen in the Reign of Henry the second writeth that upon the Rivers side between the Wine in Ships and the Wine to be sold in Taverns was a common Cooks row c. as in another place I have set down Whereby it appears that in those daies and till of late times every man lived according to his own professed Trade not any one interrupting another The Cooks dressed meat and sold no Wine and the Taverner sold Wine but dressed â—o meat for sale c. This Ward beginneth in the East at the West end of Downgate Ward at the Water-course of Walbrook which parteth them to wit at Granthams Lane on the Thames side and at Elbow-Lane on the Lands side it runneth along in Thames street West some three houses beyond the Old Swan a Brew-house and on the Land side some three Houses West beyond Saint Iames at Garlick Hithe In breadth this Ward stretcheth from the Vintry North to the Wall of the West gate of the Tower Royal the other North part is of Cordwainer-street Ward Out of this Royal street by the South gate of Tower Royal runneth a small street East to St. Iohns upon Walbrook which street is called Horseshooe-Bridge of such a Bridge sometime over the Brook there which is now vaulted over and pavâ—d Then from the South gate West runneth one other street called Knight-riders street by Saint Thomas Apostles Church on the North side and Wrâ—â—gwren Lare by the said Church at the West end thereof and to the East end of Trinity Church in the said Knight-riders street where this Ward endeth on that South side the street but on the North side it runneth no farther than the corner against the new builded Taverne and other Houses in a plot of ground where sometime stood Ormond place yet have ye one other Lane lower down in Royall-street stretching forth from over against Saint Michaels Church to and by the North side of Saint Iames Church by Garlick Hithe this is called Kerion Lane and thus much for the bounds of the Vintry Ward Now on the Thames side West from Granthams Lane have ye Herbert Lane or Brickles Lane so called of Iohn Brickles sometimes owner thereof Then is Simpsons Lane of one Simpson or Emperours head Lane of such a Sign then the Three Cranes Lane so called not only of a Sign of three Cranes at a Taverne door but rather of three strong Cranes of Timber placed on the Vintry Wharf by the Thames side to Crane up Wines there as is aforesaid this Lane waâ— of old time to wit the ninth of Richard the second called the Painted Tavern Lane of the Tavern being painted Then next over against St. Martins Church is a large House builded of Stone and Timber with Vaults for the stowage of Wines and is called the Vintry There dwelled John Gisers Vintner Mayor of London and Constable of the Tower and then was Henry Picard Vintner Mayor In this house Henry Picard feasted four Kings in one day as is shewed before Then next is Vanners Lane so called of Vanner that was owner thereof it is now called Church Lane of the coming up from St. Martins Church Next is Proad-Lane for that the same is broader for the passage of Carts from the Vintry Wharf than be the other Lanes At the Northwest corner of this Lane is the Parish Clarkes Hall by them purchased since they lost their old Hall in Bishopsgate-street Next is Spittle-Lane of old time so called since Stodies-Lane of the owner thereof named Stodie Sir John Stodie Vintner and Mayor in the year 1357 gave it with all the Quadrant wherein Vintners Hall now standeth with the Tenements round about unto the Vintners The Vintners builded for themselves a fair Hall and also thirteen Alms-houses there for thirteen poor people which are kept of Charity Rent-free The Vintners in London were of old time called Marchant Vintners of Gascoyne and so I read them in the Records of Edward the second the eleventh year aâ—d Edward the third the ninth year they were as well English-men as strangers born beyond the Seas but then subjects to the King of England great Burdeaux Merchants of Gascoyne French Wines divers of them were Mayors of this City namely John Adrian Vintner Reignold at Conduit John Oxenford Henry Picard that feasted the Kings of England France Scotl and and Cypres John Stodie that gave Stodies Lane to the Vintners which four last named were Mayors in the Reign of Edward the third and yet Gascoyne Wines were then to be sold at London not above fourpence nor Rhenish Wines above six pence the Gallon I read of Sweet Wines that in the fiftieth of Edward the third Iohn Peachie Fishmonger was accused of for that he procured a License for the only sale of them in London which he endeavoured to justifie by Law yet he was imprisoned and fined More I read that in the sixth of Henry the sixth the Lombards corrupted their Sweet Wines when knowledge thereof came to Iohn Raynwel Mayor of London he in divers places of the City commanded the heads of the Buts and other Vessells in the open streets to be broken to the number of a hundred and fifty so that the liquour running forth
three pence by year The Lady Stanley the Countesse of Huntingâ—on and the Lady Harbert lye buried in this Church Of the Fifteenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Cordwayner Ward VVE will passe now from the Vintry to Cordwainer-street Ward taking that name of Cordwayners or Shoomakers Curriours and Workers of Leather dwelling there for it appeareth in the Records of Henry the sixth the ninth of his Reign that an Order was taken then for Cordwayners and Curriours in Corney-street and Sopers Lane This Ward beginneth in the East one the West side of Walbrooke and runneth West thorow Budge-row a street so called of Budge Furre and of Skinners dwelling there then up by Saint Anthenâ—es Church thorow Atheling or Noble-street as Leyland 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 entring 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 lyeth 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 which is of this Ward and is accounted a part of the Royall-street Against this West gate of the Tower-Royall is one other Lane that runneth West to Cordwainer-street and this is called Turn base Lane on the South side whereof is a piece of Wring-wren-Lane to the North-west corner of Saint 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 Cordwayner street whereof the whole Ward taketh name This street beginneth by West-cheap and Saint Mary Bow Church is the head thereof on the West side and it runneth down South thorow that part which of latter time was called Hosier Lane now Bow Lane and then by the West end of Aldermary Church to the new builded Houses in place of Ormond House and so to Garlick hill or Hith to St. Iames Church The upper part of this street towards Cheap was called Hosier Lane of Hosiers dwelling there in place of Shoomakers but now those Hosiers being worn out by men of other Trades as the Hosiers had worn out the Shoomakers the same is called Bow-Lane of Bow Church On the West side of Cordwainer-street is Basing-lane right over against Turn-base-lane This Basing-lane West to the back gate of the Red Lyon in Wathling-street is of this Cordwainer-street Ward Now again on the North side of this high street is Budge-row by the East end of St. Anthonies 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 Cordwainer-street Ward also the South side of Needlers lane which reacheth from the North end of St. Sithes lane then vvest from St. Anthonies Church is the South end of Sopers lane which lane took that name not of Sope-making as some have supposed but of Alen le Sopar in the ninth of Edward the second nor can we read of Sope-making in this City till within this hundred and fifty years that Iohn Lambe dwelling in Grasse-street set up a boyling house for this City in former time was served of white Sope in hard Cakes called Castle-Soap and other from beyond the Seas and of gray Sope speckled with white very sweet and good from Bristow sold here for a peny the pound and never above peny farthing and black Sope for an half-peny the pound Then in Bow-lane as they now call it is Goose-lane by Bow-Church Willâ—am Essex Mercer had Tenements there in the six and twentieth of Edward the third Then from the South end of Bow-lane up Wathling-street till over against the Red Lyon are the bounds of Cordwainer-street Ward Then is there a fair Parish in Budge-row called St. Anthonies at first and now St. Antlins Sir Thomas Knowles Lord Mayor of London lyeth buried there who repaired and was a great Benefactor to that Church upon whom is this Epitaph Here lyeth graven under this Stone Thomas Knowles both flesh and bone c. 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 Aldermary Church because the same was very old and elder then any Church of St. Mary in the City till of late years the foundation of a very fair new Church was laid there by Henry Keeble Grocer and Mayor who deceased 1518. and was ther buried in a Vault by him prepared with a fair Monument raised over him on the North side of the Qâ—ire now destroyed and gone he gave by his Testament a thousand pound toward the building up of that Church and yet was not permitted a resting place for his bones there afterwards Richard Chawcer Vintner thought to be the Father of Ieffrey Chawcer the Poet was a great Benefactor to this Church At the upper end of Hosier-lane toward VVest-Cheape is the fair Parish Church of St. Mary Bow this Church in the Reign of VVilliam the Conqueror being the first in this City builded on Arches of Stone was therefore called New Mary Church of St. Mary de Arcubus orle Bow in VVest Cheaping As Stratford Bridge being the first builded by Matilda the Queen VVife to Henry the first with Arches of Stone was called Stratfordle Bow which names to the said Church and Bridge remain 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 't is uncertain This Church is of Cordwainer-street and for divers accidents happening there hath bin made more famous than any other Parish Church of the whole City or Suburbs First we read that in the year 1090 and the third of VVilliam Rufus by tempest of vvinâ— the roof of the Church of St. Mary Bow in Cheape was overturned wherewith some persons were slain and four of the Rafters of six and twenty foot in length with such violence were pitched in the ground of the high street that scantly four foot 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 but a Moorish ground In the year 1196. VVilliam Fitz Osbert a seditious Traytor took the Steeple of Bow and fortified it with Munitions and victuals but it was assaulted and VVilllam with his Complices were taken though without blood-shed for he was forced by fire and smoak to forsake the Church and then being by the Judges condemned he was by the heels drawn to the Elmes in Smithfield and there hanged with nine of his fellowes where because his favourers came not to deliver him he forsook Maries Son as he termed
Messuage with the appurtenances in the Parish of St. Foster to William Brampton Custos of the Chauntry by them founded in the said Chappel with four Chaplains and one other House in the Parish of St. Giles without Creplegate in the seven and twentieth of Edward the third was given to them Adjoyning to this Chappel on the South side was sometime a fair and large Library furnished with Books pertaining to the Guild-Hall and Colledge These Books as it is said were in the Reign of Edward the sixth sent for by Edward Duke of Somerset Lord Protector with promise to be restored shortly Men laded from thence threescore Carts with them but they were never returned This Library was builded by the Executors of R. Whittington and by W. Bury on the other side it is now lofted through and made a Store-house for Cloaths South-west from this Guild-Hall is the fair Parish Church of St. Lawrence called in the Iury because of old time many Jewes inhabited there about This Church is fair and large and hath divers Monuments In this Church there was the Shank-bone of a man and also a Tooth of a very great bigness hanged up for shew in Chains of Iron upon a Pillar of Stone the Tooth being about the bigness of a mans fist is long since conveyed from thence the Thigh or Shank-bone of five and twenty inches in length by the Rule remaineth yet fastned 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 it self fretted nor as seemeth is not yet lightned by remaining dry but where or when this Bone was first found or discovered I have not heard Of the Seventeenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Coleman-street Ward VVE will now stear our course Northward and look towards London Walls to find out another Ward and next to Cheap Ward on the North side thereof is Coleman-street Ward and beginneth also in the East on the course of Wallbrook 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 Basing-Hall street On the South side of Lothbury is the street called the Old Iewry the one half and better on both sides towards Cheap is of this Ward Antiquities therein to be noted are these First the street of Lothbury Lathbery or Loadbay This street is possessed for the most part by Founders that cast Candlesticks Chasing-dishes Spiceâ—Mortars and such like Copper or Latin workes and do after turn them with the Foot and not with the Wheel to make them smoth 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 disdainedly called Lothbury 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 Jewes and spoiled the reâ—due of their goods in the year 1262 the forty seventh of Henry the third And not long after in the year 1291 King Edward the first banished the remnant of the Jewes out of England as is afore shewed The Synagogue being so suppressed certain Fryars got possession thereof For in the year 1257 saith Matthew Paris there were seen in London a new Order of Fryars called De poenitentia Iesu or Fratres de sacco because they were apparrelled in sackcloth who had their House in London near unto Aldersgate without the gate and had Licence of Henry the third in the four and twentieth of his Reign to remove from thence to any other place and in the fifty sixt she gave unto them this Iews Synagogue After which time Elianor the Queen wife to Edward the first took into her protection and warranted unto the Prior and Brethren De poenitentia Jesu Christi of London the said Land and building in Cole-Church street in the Parish of Saint Olave in the Jury and St. Margaret in Loathbury by her granted with consent of Stephen de Fulborn under-Warden of the Bridge-house and other Brethren of that House for threescore Marks of Silver which they had received of the said Prior and Brethren of repentance towards the building of the said Bridge This Order of Friers gathered many good Schollars and multiplyed in number exceedingly untill the Councel of Lyons by the which it was Decreed that from that time forth there should no more Orders of Begging Fryers be permitted but only the four Orders to wit the Dominick or Preachers the Minorites or Gray Fryers and the Augustines and so from that time the Begging Fryers decreased and fell to nothing Now it foâ—lowed that in the year 1305 Robert Fitzwalter requested and obtained of the said King Edward the first that the same Fryers of the Sack might assigne to the said Robert their Chappel or Church of old time called the Synagogue of the Iewes near adjoyning to the then Mansion house 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 Majoralty in this House and dwelled there until his dying day This House sâ—andeth and is of two Parishes as opening into Lothbury of St. Margarets Parish and opening into the Old Iewry of St. Olaves Parish The said Robert Large gave liberally to both these Parishes but was buried at St. Olâ—ves Hugh Clopton Mercet Maior 1492 dwelled in this House and kept his Majoralty there it is now a Tavern and hath to signe a Wind-Mill And thus much for this House sometimes the Iews Synagogue since an house of Fryers then a Noble mans House after that a Marchants House wherein Majoralities have bin kept and now a Wine-Tavern Then is the Old Jewry a street so called of Jews sometime dwelling there and near adjoyning in the Parishes of St. Olave St. Michael Basing Hall St. Martin Ironmonger-lane St. Lawrence called the Jewry and so West to Wood-street William Duke of Normandy first brought them from Roane to inhabit here William Rusus favoured them so far that he sware by Lukes face his common Oath if they could overcome the Christians he would be one of their Sect. Henry the second grievously punished them for corrupting his Coyne Richard the first forbad Jewes and Women to be present at his Coronation for fear of Inchantments for breaking of which Commandment many Jews were slain who being assâ—mbled to present the King with some gift one of them was â—â—icken by a Christian which some unruly people perceiving fell upon them beat them to their houses and brent them therein or slew them at their comming out Also the Jewes at Norwich St.
that the same should be performed within three years after his Decease whereupon the old Bakewell-Hall was taken down and in the Moneth of February next following the foundation of a new strong and beautiful Store-house being laid the work thereof was so diligently applyed that within the space of ten moneths after to the charges of two thousand five hundred pounds the same was finished in the year 1588. Next beyond this House are placed divers fair Houses for Marchants and others till ye come to the back Gate of Guild-hall which Gate and part of the building within the same is of this Ward some small distance beyond this Gate the Coopers have their common Hall Then is the Parish Church of St. Michael called St. Michael at Bassings-hall a proper Church lately re-edified or new builded The Nineteenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of LONDON called Cripplegate Ward THe Next Ward is called of Cripplegate and consisteth of divers Streets and Lanes lying as well without the Gate and Wall of the City as within First within the Wall on the East part thereof towards the North it runneth to the West-side of Hall's Ward and towards the South it joyneth to the Ward of Cheap It beginneth at the West end of the St. Laurence Church in the Jury on the north-North-side and runeth West to a Pumpe where sometimes was a well with Buckets at the South Corner of Alderman-Bury-Street which Street runneth down North to Gayspur Lane and to London Wall which Street and Lane are wholly on both sides of this Ward and so be some few houses on both sides from Gayspur Lane by and against the Wall of the City East to the Grates made for the water-course of the Channels and West to the Creplegate Now on the South side from over against the West End of Saint Laurence Church to the Pumpe and up Milke-Street South unto Cheap which Milke-Street is wholly on both the sides of Cripplegate Ward as also without the South end of Milke-Street a part of West Cheap to wit from the Standard to the Crosse is all of Cripplegate Ward Then down great Wood-Street which is wholly of this Ward on both the sides thereof so is little Wood-Street which runneth down to Creplegate Out of this Wood-Street be diver Lanes namely on the East side is Lad lane which runneth East to Milke-Street Corner down lower in WoodStreet is Love lane which lieth by the South side of St. Albans Church in Wood-Street and runneth down to the Conduit in Aldermanbury-Street Lower down in Wood-Street is Addle-Street out of the which runneth Philip-lane down to London Wall These be the Lanes on the East-side On the West side of Wood-Street in Huggen-lane by the South side of St. Michaels Church goeth thorow to Gutherons lane Then lower is Maiden-lane which runneth West to the North End of Gutherons lane and up the said lane on the East side thereof till against Kery lane and back again then the said Maiden-lane on the North side goeth up to Staining lane up a part thereof on the East side to the farthest North part of Haberdashers Hall and back again to Wood-Street and there lower down is Silver Street which is of this Ward till ye come to the East End of St. Olaves Church on the South side and to Monkes-well Street on the North side then down the said Monkes-well Street on the East side thereof and so to Cripplegate do make the bonds of this Ward within the Walls Of these More-Feilds you have formerly read what a Moorish rotten ground they were unpassable but for Cawsways purposely made to that intent what they were also in our own nearer times of Memory even till Sir Leonard Halliday was Lord Major of London I am very well assured many do perfectly remember And what they are now at this instant by the honourable cost and care of this City and the industrious pains and diligence of that worthy Citizen Mr. Nicolas Leate we all to our continuall comfort do evidently behold Then to turn back again through the said Posternlane to More lane which More-lane with all the Allies and buildings there is of this Ward After that is Grub-Street more rhen half thereof to the Streightning of the Street Next is White-Crosse-Street up to the End of Beech-lane and then Red-Crosse-Street wholly with a part of Golding-lane even to the posts there placed as a bounder Then is Beech lane before spoken of the East side of the Red-Crosse and the Barbican-Street more than halfe thereof toward Aldersgate-Street Touching the Antiquitie of this Old Aldermans-Bury or Court I have not read other then that Richard Kenery one of the Sheriffs of London in the first of Richard the first which was in the year of Christ 1189. gave to the Church of Saint Mary at Osâ—ey by Oxford certain grounds and rents in Alderman-Bury of London as appeareth by the Register of that Church as as also entered into the Hustings of the Guild-Hall in London This Old Bery Court or Hall continued and the courts of the Major and Aldermen were continually holden there untill the New Bery-Court or Guild-Hall that now is was builded and finished which Hall was first begun to be founded in the year 1411 and was not fully finished in twenty years after The ruines of the Old Court Hall in Alderman-Bury-Street yet appear which of late hath bin imployed as a Carpenters yard c. Then is the parish Church of St. Mâ—ry Aldermanbury a fair Church with a Church-yard and Cloyster adjoyning In the which Cloyster is hanged and fastned a Shanke-bone of a man as is said very great and larger by three inches and a half than that which hangeth in St. Laurence Church in the Iury for it is in length twenty Eight inches and a half of assise but not so hard and Steely like as the other for the same is Leight and somewhat pory and spongy This bone is said to be found amongst the bones of men removed from the Charnell house of Pauls or rather from the Cloyster of Pauls Church Beneath this Church have ye Gayspur-lane which runneth down to London Wall as is afore shewed In this lane at the North end thereof was of old time a house of Nuns which house being in great decay William Elsing Mercer in the year of Christ 1329. the third of Edward of the third began in place thereof the foundation of an Hospitall for sustentation of one hundred blind men Towards the erection whereof he gave his two houses in the Parishes of St. Alphage and our Blessed Lady in Aldermanbury Near Cripplegate This house was after called a Priory or Hospitall of St. Mary the Virgin founded in the year 1332. by W. Elsing for Canons Regular the which W. became the first Prior there In the same place where the aforesaid Elsing Spittle and priory were formerly scituated there is now newly erected a Colledge for the Clergy of London and Liberties thereof called by the name
of Sion-Colledge And Almes-houses for twenty poor people ten men and ten women This was done by the especiall care and paines of Mr. Iohn Simson Rector of St. Olaves Hart-Street London one of the Executors of the last Will and Testament of Mr. Thomas White Doctor in Divinity Vicar of S. Dunstans in the West and one of the Canons Residentiary of S. Pauls Church London which ore-named Thomas White besides sundry sums of money and great yearly Revenues given by him to pious and Charitable uses in divers places gave three thousand pound to purchase and build the foresaid Colledge for the use of the Clergy and Almes-houses for the twenty poor people aforesaid He gave also unto the said Colledge and Almes-houses a hundred sixty pound per annum for ever whereof there is a hundred twenty pound yearly allowed for the maintenance of the poor Almes-men and women And forty pound yearly for four dinners for the Clergy who are to have four Latine Sermons in the year one every quarter and upon these dayes are to dine together in the Colledge In the same Colledge the forenamed Iohn Simson did in his life time at his own proper Costs and Charges build a very faire and spacious Library containing a hundred twenty one foot in length within the Walls and above twenty five foot in breadth And hath furnished it with Wainscot Stalls Desks Seats and other Necessary and usefull Ornaments befitting the place To this Library there have been already divers bountifull and well disposed Benefactors who have given large sums of money towards the furnishing of it with Books Then is there the Parish Church of Saint Alphage The principall I le of this Church towards the North was pulled down and a frame of four houses set up in the place the other part from the Steeple upward was converted into a Parish Church of S. Alphage and the Parish Church which stood near unto the Wall of the City by Cripplegate was pulled down the plot thereof made a Carpenters Yard with Saw-pits The Hospitall it self the Prior and Canons house with other Lodgings were made a dwelling house the Church-Yard is a Garden plot and a faire Gallery on the Cloyster the Lodgins for the poor are translated into stabling for horses Now we will return to Milk-Street so call'd of Milke sold there at the beginning In this Milk-Street is a small Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdelen which hath of late years been repaired William Brown Mayor 1513. gave to this Church fourty pounds and was buried there Then Next is Wood-Street by what reason so called I know not True it is that of old time according to a Decree made in the reign of Richard the first the houses of London were builded of Stone for defence of fire which kind of building was used for two hundred years or more but of latter time for the winning of ground taken down and houses of Timber were set up in their place It seemeth therefore that this Street hath been of the latter building all of timber for scarce one house of stone hath been known there and therefore called Wood-Street otherwise it might take the name of some builder or owner thereof On the East side of this Street is one of the Prison-houses pertaining to the Sheriffs of London and is called the Compter in Wood-Street which was prepared to be a prison-house in the year 1555. And on the Eve of S. Michael the Archangell the prisoners that lay in the Compter in Bread-Street were removed to this Compter in Wood-Street Beneath this Compter in Lad-lane or Ladle Hall for so I find it of Record in the parish of Saint Michaell Wood-Street and Beneath that is Love lane so called of wantons By this lane is the Ancient parish Church of S. Albans One note of the great Antiquity of it is the name by which it was at first dedicated to St. Albanus the first Martyr of England Another Character of the Antiquity of it is to be seen in the manner of the turning of the Arches in the windows and heads of the Pillars A third Note appears in the Roman Bricks here and there here and there inlayed amongst the stones of the building Very probable it is that this Church is at least of as ancient a standing as King Aldelstane the Saxon who as the Tradition sayes had his house at the East end of this Church This Kings house having a door also into Adel-Street in this Parish gave name as 't is thought unto the said Adel-Street which in all Evidences to this day is written King Adel-Street One great square Tower of this Kings house seems yet remaining to be seen at the North corner of Love lane as you come from Alderman-bury which Tower is of the very same stone and manner of building with S. Albans Church There is also but without any outward Monument the head of Iames the Fourth King of Scots of that name slain at Flodden field and buried here by this occasion After the Battell the body of the said King being found was closed in â—ead and conveyed from thence to London and so to the Monastery of Sheine in Surrey where it remained for a time in what order I am not certain But since the dissolution of that house in the reign of Edward the Sixth Henry Gray Duke of Suffolk being lodged and keeping house there the same body was to be shew'd so lapped in lead close to the head and body thrown into a waste room amongst the old timber lead other rubble since which time the workmen there for their foolish pleasure hewed off his head and Launcelot Young Master Glasier to Queen Elizabeth feeling a sweet savour to come from thence and seeing the same dried from all moisture and yet the form remaining with the hair of the head and beard red brought it into London to his house in Woodstreet where for a time he kept it for the sweetnesse but in the end caused the Sexton of that Church to bury it amongst other bones taken out of their Charnell c. There are divers Records of a house in Wood-street then called Black Hall but no man at this day can tell thereof On the North side of this Saint Michaels Church is Maiden-lane now so called but of old time Ingene-lane or Inglane In this Lane the Wax-Chaundlers have their Common Hall on the the South side thereof and the Haberdashers have their Hall on the North side at Stayning-lane end This Company of the Haberdashers or Hurrers of old time so called were incorporated a Brotherhood of St. Katherines the twenty sixth of Henry the Sixth and so confirmed by Henry the Seventh the seventeenth of his Reign the Cappers and Hat-Merchants or Hurrers being one Company of Haberdashers Down lower in VVood-street is Silver-street I think of Silver-Smiths dwelling there in which be divers fair houses And on the North side thereof is Monks-well street so called of a well at the North end thereof
where the Abbot of Garendon had an house or Cell called Saint Iames in the wall by Cripple-gate and certain Monks of their house were Chaplains there wherefore the Well belonging to that Cell or Hermitage was called Monks-well and the street of the well Monks-well street The East side of this street down against London wall and the South side thereof to Cripple-gate be of Cripple-gate Ward as is afore-shewed In this street by the corner of Monks-well street is the Bowyers Hall On the East side of Monks-well street be convenient Alms-houses twelve in number founded by Sir Ambrose Nicholas Salter Maior 1575. wherein he placed twelve poor and aged people rent-free having each of them seven pence the week and once the yeer each of them five sacks of Charcoals and one quartem of one hundred of Faggots of his gift for ever On the North side of the way turning towards Cripple-gate and even upon or close to London wall as it were are certain new erected Almes-houses six in number of the cost and gift of Mr. Robert Rogers Leather-Seller and very good maintenance allowed for ever to such people as are appointed to dwell in them Then in little VVood-street be seven proper Chambers in an Alley on the West side founded for seven poor people therein to dwell rent-free by Henry Barton Skinner Maior 1516. Now without the Postern of Cripple-gate first is the Parish Church of Saint Giles a very fair and large Church lately repaired after that the same was burned in the yeer 1545 the thirty seventh of Henry the Eighth by which mischance the Monuments of the dead in this Church are very few In VVhite Crosse-street King Henry the Fifth builded a fair house and founded there a Brotherhood of S. Giles to be kept which house had sometime been an Hospitall of the French Order by the name of Saint Giles without Cripple-gate In the reign of Edward the First the King having the Jurisdiction and pointing a Custos thereof for the Precinct of the Parish of Saint Giles c. which Hospitall being suppressed the lands were given to the Brotherhood for relief of the poor One Alley of divers Tenements over against the North wall of Saint Giles Church-yard was appointed to be Alms-houses for the poor wherein they dwelled rent-free and otherwise were releeved but the said Brotherhood was suppressed by Henry the Eighth since which time Sir Iohn Gresham Maior purchased the lands and gave part thereof to the maintenance of a Free School which he had founded at Holt a Market-town in Norfolk In Red Crosse-street on the West side from S. Giles Church-yard up to the said Crosse be many fair houses builded outward with divers Alleys turning into a large plot of ground of old time called the Iews Garden as being the only place appointed them in England wherein to bury their dead till the year 1177 the twenty fourth of Henry the Second that it was permitted them after long suit to the King and Parliament at Oxford to have a speciall place assigned them in every quarter where they dwelled On the East side of this Red Crosse-street be also divers fair houses up to the Crosse and there is Beech-lane peradventure so called of Nicholas de la Beech Lievtenant of the Tower of London put out of that office in the thirteenth of Edward the Third This Lane stretcheth from Red Crosse-street to VVhite Crosse-street replenished not with Beech trees but with beautifull houses of Stone Brick and Timber Amongst the which was of old time a great house pertaining to the Abbot of Ramsey for his lodging when he repaired to the City it is now called Drewry House of Sir Drew Drewry who dwelt there On the North side of this Beech-lane towards VVhite Crosse street the Drapers of London have lately builded eight Alms-houses of Brick and Timber for eight poor widows of their own Company whom they placed there rent-free Then is Golding-lane Richard Gallard of Islington Esquire Citizen and Painter-Stainer of London founded thirteen Alms-houses for so many poor people placed in them rent-free He gave to the poor of the same Alms-houses two pence the peece weekly and a load of Charcoals among them yeerly for ever He left fair lands about Islington to maintain his Foundation T. Hayes sometime Chamberlain of London in the latter time of Henry the Eighth married Elizabeth his daughter and heir which Hayes and Elizabeth had a daughter named Elizabeth married to Iohn Ironmonger of London Mercer who had the ordering of the Alms-people On the West side of Red Crosse-street is a street called the Barbican because sometime there stood on the North side thereof a Burghkenning or VVatch-tower of the City called in some language a Barbican as a Bikening is called Beacon This Burgh-kenning by the name of the Mannour of Base Court was given by Edward the Third to Robert Ufford Earl of Suffolk and was afterward pertaining to Peregrine Barty Lord VVilloughby of Ersby Next adjoyning to this is one other great house called Garter Place sometime builded by Sir Thomas VVrithe or VVrithesly Knight alià s Garter principall King of Arms second son of Sir Iohn VVrithe Knight alià s Garter and was Uncle to the first Thomas Earl of Southampton Knight of the Garter and Chancellor of England He built this house and in the top thereof a Chappell which he dedicated by the name of S. Trinitatis in Alto. Of the Twentieth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of LONDON callâ—d Aldersgate Ward THe Next is Aldersgate Ward taking name of that North Gate of the City this Ward also consisteth oâ— divers Streets and Lanes lying as well within the Gate and Wall as without And first to speak of that part within the Gate thus it is the East part thereof joyneth unto the West part of Cripplegate Ward in Engain lane or Maiden lane It beginneth on the North side of that Lane at Staining lane End runneth up from the Haberdashers Hall to St. Mary Staining Church and by the Church East winding almost to Wood Street and West through Oate lane and then by the South side of Bacon house in Noble-Street back again by Lilipot lane which is also of that ward to Maiden lane and so on that North side West to Saint Iohn Zacharies Church and to Foster lane Now on the south side of Engain or Maiden lane is the West side of Gutherons lane to Kery lane and Kery lane it self which is of this ward and back again into Engain lane by the North side of the Goldsmiths Hall to Foster lane are almost wholly of this Ward which beginneth in the South toward Cheap on the East side by the North side of Saint Fosters Church and runneth down North West by the East end of Engain lane by Lilipot lane and Oate lane to Noble-Street and through that by Shelly house of old time so called as belonging to the Shellies Sir Thomas Shelley Knight was owner thereof in the first of Henry the fourth It
West end of this Iesus Chappel under the Quire of Pauls also was and is a Parish-Church of St. Faith commonly called St. Faith under Pauls which served as still it doth for the Stationers and others dwelling in Pauls Church-yard Pater Noster Rowe and the places near adjoyning The said Chappel of Jesus being suppressed in the Reign of Edward the sixth the Parishioners of St. Faiths Church were removed into the same as to a place more sufficient for largeness and lightsomness in the year 1551. and so it remaineth In the East part of this Church-yard standeth Pauls School lately new builded and endowed in the year 1512. by John Collet Doctor of Divinity and Dean of Pauls for a hundred fifty three poor mens Children to be taught free in the same School for which he appointed a Master a Sub-master or Usher and a Chaplain with large stipends for ever committing the over-sight thereof to the Masters Wardens and Assistants of the Mercers in London because he was Son to Henry Collet Mercer sometime Maior Near unto this School on the North side thereof was of old time a great and high Clochier or Bell-house foure square builded of stone and in the same a most strong frame of Timber with four Bells the greatest of England these were called Jesus Bells and belonging to Jesus Chappel The same had a great spire of Timber covered with Lead with the Image of St. Paul on the top but was pulled down by Sir Miles Partridge Knight in the Reign of Henry the eighth the common speech then was that he did set one hundred pounds upon a cast at Dice against it so won the said Clochier and Bells of the King then causing the Bells to be broken as they hung the rest was pulled down This man was afterward executed on the Tower-Hill for matters concerning the Duke of Summerset the fifth of Edward the sixth In the year 1561. the fourth of June betwixt the houres of three and four of the Clock in the Afternoon the great Spire of the Steeple of St. Pauls Church was fired by lightening which brake forth as it seemed two or three yards beneath the foot of the Crosse and from thence it burnt downward the spire to the Battlements Stone-work and Bells so furiously that within the space of four houres the same Steeple with all the roofs of the Church were consumed to the great sorrow and perpetual remembrance of the beholders After this mischance the Queen Elizabeth directed her Letters to the Maior willing him to take order for speedy repairing of the same And she of her gracious disposition for the furtherance thereof did presently give and deliver in gold one thousand Marks with a Warrant for a thousand Loads of Timber to be taken out of her Woods or else-where The Citizens also gave first a great Benevolence and after that three fifteens to be speedily paid The Clergy of England within the Province of Canterbury granted the fortieth part of the value of their Benefices charged with first fruits the thirtieth part of such as were not so charged but the Clergy of London Dioces granted the thirtieth part of all that payd first fruits and the twentieth part of such as had paid their fruits Six Citizens of London and two Petty Canons of Pauls Church had charge to further and oversee the work wherein such expedition was used that within one Moneth next following the burning thereof the Church was covered with boards and Lead in manner of a false roof against the Weather and before the end of the said year all the said Iles of the Church were framed out of new Timber covered with Lead and fully finished Pauls Church was full of great Monuments the ancientest are of King Sibba and King Ethelred two Saxon Kâ—ngs There are two ancient Bishops of London viz. Erkenvald and William Norman who being of the privy Councel to William the Conqueror not only preserved by his Mediation the old priâ—iledges of London but got them inlarged whereupon it was the Custom of the Lord Maior and Aldermen upon solemn dayes when they came to Pauls to walk to the Graves stone where this Bishop lay and Sir Edward Barkham caused a Table to be hung up there with Verses thereupon called the Monument of Gratitude Touching other remarkable peeces of Antiquity which belong to St. Pauls Church I leave them to such a Person of knowledge and industry who may haply make it his sole task to preserve the memory of so stately a Temple from the injury of time Without the North Gate of Pauls Church from the end of the old Exchange West up Pater Noster Rowe by the two Lanes out of Pauls Church the first out of the Crosse Isle of Pauls the other out of the body of the Church about the midst thereof and so West to the Golden Lyon be all of this Ward as is aforesaid The Houses in this street from the first North Gate of Pauls Church-yard unto the next Gate were first builded without the Wall of the Church-yard by Henry Walleis Mayor in the year 1282. the rest of those Houses go to the maintenance of London-Bridge This street is now called Pater Noster Rowe because of Stationers or Text-Writers that dwelled there who wrote and sold all sorts of Books then in use namely A. B. C. with the Pater Noster Ave Creed Graces c. There dwelled also Turners of Beads and they were called Pater Noster makers At the end of this Pater Noster Rowe is Ave-mary lane so called upon the like occasion of Text-writers and Bead-makers then dwelling there And at the end of that Lane is likewise Creed-lane lately so called but sometime Spurrier Rowe of Spurriers dwelling there And Amen-lane is added thereunto betwixt the South end of Warwick-lane and the North end of Ave Mary Lane At the North end of Ave Mary Lane is one great House builded of Stone and Timber of old time pertaining to Iohn Duke of Britain Earl of Richmond as appeareth by the Records of Edward the second since that it was called Pembrooks Inne near unto Ludgate as belonging to the Earls of Pembrooke in the times of Richard the second the eighteenth year and of Henry the sixth in the fourteenth year it was after called Aburgaveny House and belonged to Henry late Lord of Aburgaveny but the Company of Stationers have since purchased it and made it the Hall for the Meeting of their Society converting the Stone-work into a new fair Frame of Timber and applying it to such serviceable use as themselves have thought convenient Betwixt the South end of Ave Mary Lane and the North end of Creed-lane is the comming out of Pauls Church-yard on the East and the high street on the West towards Ludgate and this was called Bowyer Roue of Bowyers dwelling there in old time now worn out by Mercers and others In this street on the North side is the Parish Church of St. Martin wherein there are divers hansom Monuments and Epitaphs On the South side
Fishmongers dwelling there and serving Frydays Market on the East side is a small Parish Church commonly called Saint John Evangelist The Monuments therein be of John Dogget Merchant-Taylor one of the Sheriffs in the year 1509. Then lower down is another Church of Saint Margaret Moyses so called as seemeth of one Moyses that was Founder or new Builder thereof In this Distar Lane on the North side thereof is the Cordwayners or Shoomakers Hall which Company were made a Brotherhood or Fraternity in the eleventh of Henry the fourth Of the Twentie third Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Queen-hithe Ward NExt unto Bread-street Ward on the South side thereof is Queen-Hith Ward so called of a Water-gate or Harborow for Boats Lighters and Barges and was of old time for Ships at what time the Timber Bridge at London was drawn up for the passage of them to the said Hith as to a principal Strand for landing and unlading against the middest and heart of the City this Ward beginneth in the East in Knight-Riders-street on the South side thereof at the East end of the Parish Church called the Holy Trinity and runneth West on the South side to a Lane called Lambert Hill which is the length of the Ward in Knight-Riders street out of the which street are divers Lanes running South to Thames street and are of this Ward the first is Trinity Lane which runneth down by the West end of Trinity Church Then is Spuren Lane or Spooners Lane now called Huggen Lane Then Bread-street Hill Then Saint Mary Mounthaunt out of the which Lane on the East side thereof is one other Lane turning East through St. Nicholas Olaves Church-yard to Bread-street Hill This Lane is called Finimore Lane or Five foot Lane because it is but five foot in breadth at the West end in the middest of this Lane runneth down one other Lane broader South to Thames street I think the same to be called Desborne Lane for we read of such a Lane to have been in the Parish of Saint Mary Summerset in the twenty two of Edward the third where there is said to ly between the Tenement of Edward de Mountacute Knight on the East part and the Tenement sometime pertaining to William Gladwine on the West one plot of ground containing in length towards Thames street twenty five foot c. Last of all have ye Lambart Hill so called of one Lambart owner thereof and this is the farthest West part of this Ward First in Knight-Riders street is the small Parish Church of the Holy Trinity lately very old and in danger of down falling Collections were made for the repairing thereof but they would not stretch so far until a general means was made as appeareth by a publick notice thereof declared in the said Church Towards the West end of Knight-Riders street is the Parish Church of Saint Nicholas Cold Abbey a proper Church somewhat ancient as appeareth by the waies raysed there about so that men are forced to descend into the body of the Church it hath been called of many Colden Abbey of some Cold Abbey or Cold Bay and so have the most ancient Writings as standing in a cold place as Cold Harbor and such like the Steeple or tall Tower of this Church with the South I le hath been of later building to wit the first of Richard the second when it was meant that the whole old Church should have been new builded as appeareth by the Arching begun on the East side the Steeple under the which in the Stone work the Armes of one Buckland Esquire and his Wife Daughter to Beaupere are cut in Stone and also are in the Glasse Windows whereby it appeareth he was the Builder thereof and Repairer of the residue In Trinity Lane on the West side thereof is the Painter Stainers Hall for so of old time were they called but now that workmanship of Staining is departed and out of use in England Lower down in Trinity Lane on the East side thereof was sometime a great Messuage pertaining unto Iohn Earl of Cornwall in the fourteenth of Edward the third On Bread-street Hill down to the Thames on both sides be divers fair Houses inhabited by Fishmongers Cheesemongers and Merchants of divers Trades on the West side whereof is the Parish Church of St. Nicholas Olave a convenient Church The next is Old Fish-street Hill a passage so called which also runneth down to Thames street In this Lane on the East side thereof is the one end of Finimore or Five foor Lane On the West side of this Old Fish-street Hill is the Bishop of Hereford's Inne or lodging an ancient House and large rooms builded of Stone and Timber which sometime belonged to the Mounthaunts in Norfolke Radulphus de Mayden-stone Bishop of Hereford about the year one thousand two hundred thirty four bought it of the Mounthaunts and gave it to the Bishops of Hereford his Successors Charles both Bishop of Hereford and Chancellour of the Marches about the year 1517 repaired it since the which time the same is greatly ruined and is now divided into many small Tenements The Hall and principall Rooms are in House to make Sugar-Loaves c. Next adjoyning is the Parish Church of Saint Mary de Monte also or Mounthaunt this is a very small Church and at the first builded to be a Chappel for the said House of the Mounthaunts and for Tenements thereunto belonging On the East side of this Old Fish-street Hill is one great House now letten out for Rent which House sometime was one of the Halls pertaining to the Company of Fishmongers at such time as they had six Hall-Motes or Meeting places namely twain in Bridge-street or New Fish-street twain in Old Fish-street whereof this was one and twain in Stock-Fishmonger Row or Thames street as appeareth by a Record the twenty two of Richard the second Next Westward is one other Lane called Lambart Hill the East side wherof is wholly of this Ward and but half the West side to wit from the North end of the Black-smiths Hall Then in Thames street of this Ward and on the North side over against the Queens Hith is the Parish Church of Saint Michael a convenient Church but all the Monuments therein are defaced At the West end of that Church goeth up a Lane called Pyel-lane on the same North side at the South end of Saint Mary Mounthaunt Lane is the Parish Church of Saint Summerset over against the Broken-Wharfe Then is a small Parish Church of St. Peter called parva or little near unto Pauls Wharf In this Church no Monuments do remain At the West end thereof is a Lane called Saint Peters Hill but two Houses up that Lane on the East side is of this Ward and the rest is of Castle Baynards Ward On the South side of Thames street beginning again in the East among the Cooks the first in this Ward is the Signe of David the King Then is
Towns-end Lane turning down to the Thames Then is Queen-hithe a large receptacle for Ships Lighters Barges and such other Vessels Touching the Antiquity and use of this Gate and Hithe first I find that the same belonged to one named Edred and was then called Edreds Hith which since falling into the hands of King Stephen it was by his Charter confirmed to William de Ypre the Farm thereof in Fee and in Heritage William de Ypre gave it unto the Prior and Covent of the Holy Trinity within Ealdgate This Edreds Hith after the foresaid Grant came again to the Kings hands by what means I have not read but it pertained unto the Queen and therefore was called Ripa Reginae the Queens Bank or Queens-Hith and great profit thereof was made to her use as may appear by this which followeth King Henry the third in the ninth of his Reign commanded the Constables of the Tower of London to arrest the Ships of the Cinque-Ports on the River of Thames and to compell them to bring their Corn to no other place but to the Queens Hith only In the eleaventh of his Reign he charged the said Constable to distrain all Fish offered to be sold in any place of this City but at the Queens Hith Moreover in the eight and twentieth of his Reign an Inquisition was made before William of Yorke and the Provost of Beverley Henry of Bath and Hierome of Caxton Justices Itinerantes sitting in the Tower of London touching the Customs of Queen-hith observed in the year last before the Wars between the King and his Father and the Barons of England and of old Customs of other times and what Customs had been changed at what time the Tax and Payment of all things coming thither and between VVoore-path and Anede Hith were found and seized according to the old Order as well Corne and Fish as of other things All which Customes were as well to be observed in the part of Down-gate as in Queen-Hith for the Kings use when also it was found that the Corn arriving between the Gate of Guild-Hall of the Merchants of Colleyne and the Soke of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for he had a House near unto the Black-Fryers was not to be measured by any other quarter than by that of the Queens Soke Next adjoyning to this Queen-hith on the West side thereof is Salt-Wharf named of Salt taken up measured and sold there The next is Stew Lane of a Stew or Hot-house there kept After that is Timber-Hith or Timber street so called of Timber or Boards there taken up and wharsed it is in the Parish of Saint Mary Sommers Hith as we read in the fifty six of Henry the third and in the ninth of Edward the second Then is Brookes Wharfe and Broken Wharfe a Water-gate or Key so called of being broken and fallen down into the Thames By this Broken-VVharfe remaineth one large old building of Stone with Arched Gates which Messuage as we finde in the Reign of Henry the third the forty three year pertained unto Hugh de Bigot and in the eleaventh of Edward the third to Thomas Brotherton the Kings Brother Earle of Norfolke Marshall of England in the eleventh of Henry the sixth to Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolk c. Within the Gate of this House now belonging to the City of London is lately to wit in the year 1594. and 1595 builded one large House of great height called an Engine made by Bevis Bulmar Gentleman for the conveying and forcing of Thames water to serve in the middle and West parts of the City the ancient great Hall of this Messuage is yet standing and pertaining to a great Brew-House for Beere West from this is Trigge Lane going down to the Thames Next is called Bosse-Lane of a Bosse of water like unto that of Belingsgate there placed by the Executors of Richard Whittington Then is one great Messuage sometime belonging to the Abbots of Chartsey in Surrey and was their Inne wherein they were lodged when they repaired to the City it is now called Sandie House by what reason we have not heard some think the Lord Sands hath been lodged there Of the Twentie fourth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Castle-Baynard Ward THen next is Castle Baynard Ward so named of an old Castle there This Ward beginneth in the East on the Thames side at an House called Huntington House and runneth West by Pauls Wharfe by Baynards Castle Puddle Wharfe and by the South side of Black-Fryers Then turning by the East Wall of the said Fryers to the South-West end of Creed Lane then on the North side of Thames street over against Huntington House by St. Peters Church and Lane called Peter Hill along till over against Puddle Wharfe and then North up by the great Wardrobe to the West end of Carter Lane Then up Creed Lane Ave Mary Lane and a piece of Pater noster Row to the Sign of the Golden Lion and back again up Warwick Lane all the East side thereof to the Sign of the Crown by Newgate-Market and this is the farthest North part of this Ward Then out of Thames street be Lanes ascending North to Knight-Riders street The first is Peters Hill Lane all of that Ward two Houses excepted adjoyning to St. Peters Church The next is Pauls Wharfe Hill which thwarting Knight-Riders street and Carter Lane goeth up to the South Chain of Pauls Church-yard Then is Adle-street over against the West part of Baynards Castle going up by the West end of Knight-Riders street and to Carter Lane Thus much for Lanes out of Thames street The one half of the West side of Lambert Hill Lane being of this Ward at the North-west end thereof on the South side and at the West end of St. Mary Magdalens Church on the North side beginneth Knight-Riders street to be of this Ward and runneth West on both sides to the Parish Church of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe Then at the said East end of St. Mary Magdalens Church goeth up the Old Exchange all the West side whereof upto the South-East gate of Pauls Church-yard and by St. Austins Church is of this Ward About the midst of this Old Exchange on the West side thereof is Carter Lane which runneth West to the East entry of the Black-Fryers and the South end of Creed-Lane out of the which Carter Lane descendeth a Lane called Dolittle Lane and commeth into Knight-Riders street by the Boar-head Tavern and more West is Sermon Lane by an Inne called the Powl-head Then out of Carter Lane on the North side thereof the South Chain of Pauls Church-yard and the Church-yard it self on that South side of Pauls Church and the Church of St. Gregory the Bishops Palace and the Deans Lodging be all of this Ward and such be the bounds thereof The Ornaments in this Ward be Parish Churches four of old time a Castle ' divers Noble-mens Houses Halls of Companies twain and such others as shall
a publick Lecture in Surgery to be read twice every week c. as is shewed else-where Towards the South is called the Lollards Tower and hath been used as the Bishops prison for such as were detected for opinions in Religion contrary to the Faith of the Church Adjoyning to this Lowlards Tower is the Parish Church of St. Gregory appointed to the Petty Chanons of Pauls Of the Twentie fifth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Farringdon Ward without or Extra THe farthest West-ward of this City being the twenty fifth Ward of London but without the Walls is called Farringdon without and was of old time part of the other Faringdon within until the seventeenth of Richard the second that it was devided and made twain by the names of Faringdon Intra and Faringdon Extra as is afore shewed Touching Ornaments and Antiquities in this Ward First betwixt the said Newgate and the Parish of St. Sepulchres is a way towards Smithfield called Gilt-Spur or Knight-Riders street of the Knights and other riding that way into Smithfield replenished with buildings on both sides up to Pye-corner a place so called of such a Sign sometimes a fair Inne for receipt of Travellers but now divided into Tenements and over against the said Pye-corner lyeth Cock-lane which runneth down to Oldburn Conduit Beyond this Pye-corner lyeth VVest Smithfield compassed about with buildings at first on the South side following the right hand standeth the large Hospital of St. Bartholmews founded by Rahere the first Prior of Saint Bartholmewes thereto near adjoyning in the year 1102. Alfune that had not long before builded the Parish Church of Saint Giles without Creplegate became first Hospitelar or Proctor for the poor of this House and went himself daily to the Shambles and other Markets where he Begged the Charity of devout people for their relief promising to the liberall givers and that by alledging Testimonies of the holy Scripture reward at the hands of God Henry the third granted to Katherine late Wife to VVilliam Hardell twenty foot of Land in length and breadth in Smithfield next to the Chappel of St. Bartholomew to build a Recluse or Ankorage commanding the Mayor and Sheriffs of London to assign the said twenty foot to the said Katherine the eleventh of Henry the third the foundation of this Hospital for the poor and diseased and their special sustentation was confirmed by Edward the third the twenty sixth of his Reign It was governed by a Master and eight Brethren being Priests for the Church and four Sisters to see the poor served This Hospitall was valued at the suppression in the year 1539 the thirty one of Henry the eighth to five and thirty pounds six shillings seven pence yearly The Church remaineth a Parish Church to the Tenents dwelling in the Precinct of the Hospital But in the year 1546 on the thirteenth of Ianuary the Bishop of Rochester preaching at Pauls Crosse declared the gift of the said King to the Citizens for relieving of the poor which contained the Church of the Grey Fryers the Church of Saint Bartholomew with the Hospital the Messuages and appurrenances in Gilt-Spur aliàs Knight-Riders street Briton street Peter Key in the Parish of Saint Mary Magdalen in old Fish-street and in the Parish of Saint Bennet Huda Linie-hurst or Limehost in the Parish of Stebunheth c. Then also were Orders devised for relief of the poor the Inhabitants were all called to their Parish Churches where by Sir Richard Dobbs then Mayor their several Aldermen or other grave Citizens they were by eloquent Orations perswaded how great and how many Commodities would ensue unto them and their City if the poor of divers sorts which they named were taken from out their streets Lanes and Alleys and were bestowed and provided for in Hospitals abroad c. Therefore was every man moved liberally to grant what they would impart towards the preparing and furnishing of such Hospitals and also what they would contribute weekly towards their maintenance for a time which they said should not be past one year or twain until they were better furnished of endowment To make short every man granted liberally according to his ability Books were drawn of the Relief in every Ward of the City towards the new Hospitals and were delivered by the Major to the Kings Commissioners on the seventeenth of February and order was taken therein at the six and twenty of Iuly In the year 1552 the repairing of the Gray Fryers House for poor Fatherless Children was taken in hand and also in the latter end of the same Moneth began the repairing of this Hospitall of St. Bartholmew and was of new endowed and furnished at the charges of the Citizens On the East side of this Hospital lyeth Duck-lane which runneth out of Smithfield South to the North end of Little Britain street On the East side of this Duck-lane and also of Smithfield lyeth the late dissolved Priory of St. Bartholmew founded also by Rahere a pleasant witted Gentleman and therefore in his time called the Kings Minstrel about the year of Christ 1102. He founded it in a part of the before named Moorish ground which was therefore a common Lay-stall of all filth that was to be voided out of the City He placed Canons there himself became their first Prior and so continued till his dying day and was there buried in a fair Monument renewed afterwards by Prior Bolton To this Priory King Henry the second granted the priviledge of a Faire to be kept yearly at Bartholomew-tyde for three dayes to wit the Eve the Day and the next Morrow to the which the Clothiers of England and Drapers of London repaired and had their Boothes and standings within the Church-yard of this Prioty closed in with Walls and Gates locked every night and watched for safety of Mens Goods and Wares a Court of Pipepowders was daily during the Faire holden for debts and Contracts On the North side of this Priory is the lane truly called Long which reacheth from Smithfield to Aldersgate-street This Lane is now lately builded on both the sides with Tenements for Brokers Tiplers and such like the rest of Smithfield from Long lane end to the Barres is inclosed with Inns Brew-houses and large Tenements On the West side is Chicken-lane down to Cow-bridge then be the Pens or Folds so called of Sheep there parted and penned up to be sold on the Market dayes Then is Smithfield Pond which of old time in Records was called Horse-Poole for that men watered Horses there and was a great water In the sixth of Henry the fifth a new Building was made in the West part of Smithfield betwixt the said Pool and the River of the Wells or Turnmill-brook in a place then called the Elmes for that there grew many Elm-Trees and this had bin the place of Execution for offenders since the which time the building there hath bin so increased that now remaineth not one Tree growing Amongst
thorow into Fen-Church street over against Northumberland house Then have ye Bricklayers Hâ—ll and another Alley called Sprinkle Alley now named Suger-loaf-alley of the like Siâ—n Then is there a fair House with divers Tenements near adjoyning sometimes belonging to a late dissolâ—ed Priory but since possessed by Mr. Cornwallies widdow and her Heirs by the gift of King Henry the eighth in reward of fine puddings as it was commonly said by her made wherewith she had presented him such was the Princely liberality of those times Of later time Sir Nicholas Throgmorton Knight was log'd there Then somewhat more West is Belzetters Lane so called of the first Builder and owner thereof now corruptly called Bâ—lliter lane betwixt this Belzetters lane and Lime-street was of later time a frame of three fair Houses set up in the year 1590 in place where before was a large Garden-plot enclosed from the High-street with a Brick Wall which Wall being taken down and the ground digged deep for cellerage there was found right under the said Brick Wall another Wall of stone with a Gate arch'd of stone and Gates of Timber closed in the middest towards the street the Timber of the Gates was consumed but the Hinges of Iron still remained on and their Staples on both the sides Moreover in that Wall were square Windowes with Bars of Iron on either side the Gate this Wall was under ground above two fathoms deep as it was esteemed and seemed to be the ruines of some House burned in the Reign of King Steven when the fire began in the House of one Aleward neer London-stone and consumed East to Ealdgate whereby it appeareth how greatly the ground of this City hath been in that place raised On the North side this principall street stretcheth to the West corner of Saint Andrews Church and then the Ward turneth towards the North by S. Mary street on the East side to St. Augustines Church in the Wall and so by Burryes Markes again or about by the Wall to Ealdgate The second way from Ealdgate more towards the South from the Pump aforesaid is called Fen-Church-street and is of Ealdgate Ward till ye come to Cullver Alley on the West side of Ironmongers Hall where sometimes was a Lane which went out of Fâ—n-Church-street to the middest of Lime-street but this Lane was stopped up for suspicion of Thieves that lurked there by night Again to Aldgate out of the principal street even by the Gate and Wall of the City runneth a Lane South to Crossed or Crouched-Fryers and then Woodroof Lane to the Tower Hill and out of this Lane West a street called Hart-street which of that Ward stretcheth to Sydon-lane by St. Olaves Church one other Lane more West from Algate goeth by Northumberland-House towards the Crossed-Fryars then have you on the same side the North end of Mart-lane and Blanch-axelton or Chappleton where that Ward endeth Thus much for bounds Now for Monuments or places most anciâ—nt and notable I am first to begin with the late dissolved Priory of the holy Trinity call'd Christs-Church on the right hand within Aldgate This Priory was founded by Matilda Queen and Wife to Henry the first in the same place where Siredus somtime began to erect a Church in honour of that Crosse and of Saint Mary Magdalen of which the Dean and Chapter of Waltham were wont to receive thirty shillings the Queen was to acquit her Church thereof and in exchange gave unto them a Miâ—â— King Henry her husband confirmed her gift This Church was given to Norman the first Canon regular in all England The said Queen gave also unto the same Church and those that served God therein the plot of Aldgate and the Soke or Tenements thereunto belonging with all Customs so free as she had held the same and 25 l. Blanks which she had of the City of Exeter as appeareth by her Deed wherein she nameth the House of Christs-Church and reporteth Aldgate to be of her Demains which she granteth with two parts of the rent of the City of Excester Norman took on him to be Prior of Christs-Church in the year of Christ 1108 in the Parishes of St. Mary Magdalen St. Michael St. Katherine and the blessed Trinity and was in old time of the holy Crosse or holy Râ—â—d Parish The Priory was builded on a piece of ground in the Parish of St. Katherine towards Aldgate which lyeth in length betwixt the Kings-street by the which men go towards Algate near to the Chappel of St. Michael towards the North and containeth in â—ength eighty three ells half quarter and half quartern of the Kings Iron eln and lieth in breadth c. The Soke and Ward of Aldgate was then bounded as I have before shewn The Queen was a men also that the Land and English Knighten-Guâ—ld was given unto the Prior Norman and the honorable man Geffrey de Clinton was a great helper therein and obtained that the Canons might enclose the way betwixt their Church and the Wall of the City c. This Priory in processe of time became a very fair and large Church rich in Lands and Ornaments and passed all the Priories in the City of London or Shire of Middlesex The Prior whereof was an Alderman of London to wit of Portsoken Ward It is Recorded that Eustacius the eighth Prior about the year 1264 because he would not deal with temporal Matters instituted Theobald Fitz Ivonâ—s Alderman of the said Portsoken Ward under him and that VVilliam Rising Prior of Christs Church was sworne Alderman of the said Portsoken Ward in the first of Richard the second These Priors have sitten and ridden amongst the Aldermen of London in Livery like unto them faring that his habit was in shape of a spirituall person at which time the Prior kept a most bountiful house of meat and drink both for rich and poor as well within the House as at the Gates to all comers according to their estates and qualities But to take leave of this Priory King Henry the eighth minding to reward Sir Thomas Audley Speaker of the Parliament against Cardinal Woolsey as ye may read in the Chronicle sent for the Prior commending him for his Hospitality promised him preferment as a man worthy of a far greater dignity which promise surely he performed and compounded with him though in what sort I never heard so that the Priory with the appurtenances was surrendred to the King in the month of Iuly 1531 the 23 of the said Kings Reign the Canons were sent to other houses of the same Order and the Priory with the appurtenances King Henry gave to Sir Tho. Audley newly knighted and afterwards made Lord Chancelour Sir Thomas Audley offered the great Church of this Priory with a ring of nine Bells well tuned whereof four of the greatest were since sold to the Parish of Stebunbith and the five lesser to the Parish of St. Katherine Christs-Church in exchange for their small Parish Church minding to have
may bear your Body Cloke This Shaft was not raised any time since evil May-day so called of an insurrection made by Prentices and other young persons against Aliens in the year 1517. but the said Shaft was laid along over the doors and under the Pentises of one rowe of Houses and Alley-gate called of the Shaft Shaft-Alley being of the possessions of Rochester-bridge in the Ward of Limestreet It was there I say hanged on Iron hooks many years till the third of King Edward the sixth That one Sir Steven Curate of St. Katherine Christs Church preaching at Pauls Crosse said there that this Shaft was made an Idoll by naming the Church of St. Andrew with the addition of Under-shaft he perswaded therefore that the names of Churches might be altered Also that the names of the dayes in the week might be changed the Fish dayes to be kept any dayes except Friday and Saturday and the Lent any time save only betwixt Shrovetide and Easter This man forsaking the Pulpit of his said Parish Church would preach out of an high Elm Tree in the midst of the Church-yard And then entring the Church forsaking the Altar to have sung his High Masse in English upon a Tomb of the Dead towards the North But his Sermon at Pauls Crosse took such effect that in the Afternoon of that present Sunday the Neighbors and Tenants to the said Bridge over whose doors the said Shaft had lain after they had dined to make themselves strong gathered more help and with great labor raising the Shaft from the Hooks whereon it had rested two and thirty years they sawed it in pieces every man taking for his share so much as had lain over his door and stall the length of his house and they of the Alley divided amongst them so much as had lain over their Alley gate Thus was his Idoll as he termed it mangled and after burned Soon after was there a commotion of the Commons in Norfolk Suffolk Essex and other Shires by means whereof streight Orders being taken for the suppression of rumors divers persons were apprehended and executed by Marshal Law amongst the which the Bayliffe of Rumford in Essex was one a man very well beloved he was early in the morning of Mary Magdalens day then kept Holy-day brought by the Sheriffs of London and the Knight-Marshall to the Well within Aldgate there to be executed upon a Gibbit set up that morning where being on the Ladder he had words to this effect â—ood People I am come hither to die but know not for what offence except for words by me spoken yester night to Sir Stephen Curate and Preacher of this Parish which were these He asked me what newes in the Country I answered Heaâ—y newes why quoth he It is said quoth I that many men be up in Essex But thanks be to God all is in good quiet about us and this was all as God be my Iudge c. Thus much by the By. Now again to the Parish Church of St. Andrew Under Shaft for it still retaineth the name which hath bin new builded by the Parishioners since the year 1520. every man putting to his helping hand some with their purses others with their Bodies Stephen Iennings Marchant-Taylor sometimes Mayor of London caused at his charges to be builded the whole North side of the great middle I le both of the Body and Quire as appeareth by his Arms over every Pillar graven and also the North I le which he roofed with Timber and seeled Also the whole South side of the Church was glazed and the Pewes in the South Chappel made of his Costs as appeareth in every Window and upon the said Pewes He deceased in the year 1524. and was buried in the Grey Fryers Church John Kirby Marchant-Taylor sometimes one of the Sheriffs John Garland Marchant-Taylor and Nicholas Levison Mercer Executor to Garland were great Benefactors to this work which was finished to the glazing in the year 1529. and fully finished 1532. Now in the second way from Aldgate more toward the South from the Well or Pump aforesaid sieth Fenne-Church street on the right hand whereof somewhat West from the South end of Belzetters lane is Ironmongers-Hall which Company was incorporated in the third of Edward the fourth Richard Flemming was their first Master Nicholas Marshall and Richard Cox were Custodes or Wardens And on the left hand or South side even by the Gate and Wall of the City runneth down a Lane to the Tower-Hill the South part whereof is called Woodroof-Lane and out of this Lane toward the West a street called Hart-street In this street at the South-East Corner thereof sometime stood one house of Crowched or Crossed Fryers founded by Ralph Hosier and William Sabernes about the year 1298. Stephen the tenth Prior of the Holy Trinity in London granted three Tenements for 13 s. 8 d. by the year unto the said Ralph Hosiar and William Saburnes who afterwards became Fryers of S. Crosse. Adam was the first Prior of that house These Fryers founded their house in the place of certain Tenements purchased of Rich. Wimblush the 12th Prior of the Holy Trinity in the year 1319. which was confirmed by Edward the third the seventeenth of his Raign valued at 52 l. 13 s. 4 d. surrendred the 12th of Novemb the 30. of Henry the 8th In place of this Church is now a Carpenters yard a Tennis-Court and such like the Fryers Hall was made a Glasse-house or house wherein was made Glasse of divers sorts to drink in which house in the year 1575. on the fourth of September burst out into a terrible fire where all meanes possible being practised to quench it notwithstanding as the same house in a small time before had consumed a great quantity of Wood by making of Glasses Now it self having within it about 40000 Billets of Wood was also consumed to the stone walls which nevertheless greatly hindred the fire from spreading any further Adjoyning unto this Fryers Church by the East end thereof in Woodroffe Lane towards the Tower-Hill are certain Almes-houses 14. in number builded of Brick and Timber founded by Sir John Milburn Draper sometime Maior 1521. wherein be placed 13. aged poor men and their Wives these have their dwellings rent-free and 2 s. 4 d. a peece the first day of every Moneth for ever Next to these Alms-houses is the Lord Lumleys house builded in the time of King Henry the 8th by Sir Thomas Wiat the Father upon one plot of ground of late pertaining to the aforesaid Crossed Fryers where part of their house stood And this is the farthest of Aldgate VVard toward the South and joyneth to the Tower-Hill the other side of that Lane over against the Lord Lumleys house on the wall side of the City is now for the most part or altogether builded even to Aldgate Then have ye on the South side of Fenne-Church-street over against the wall or Pump amongst other fair and large
declared in Aldgate Ward In the year 1576. partly at the charges of the Parish of St. Andrew and partly at the charges of the Chamber of London a water-pump was raysed in the high street of Lime-street Ward neer unto Lime-street corner for the placing of the which Pump having broken up the ground they were forced to dig more than two fadome deep before they came to any main ground where they found a Hearth made of Britaine or rather Romane Tyle every Tyle half yard square and about two inches thick they found coal lying there also for that lying whole will never consume then digging one fadome in the main they found water sufficient made their Prall and set up the Pump which Pump with oft repairing and great charges to the Parish continued not four and twenty years but being rotted was taken up and a new one set in the place in the year 1600. Thus much for the High-street In Saint Mary street had ye of old time a Parish Church of Saint Mary a Virgin Saint Ursula and the 11000 Virgins which Church was commonly called Saint Mary at the Axe of the Signe of an Axe over against the East end thereof or Saint Mary Pellipar of a plot of ground lying on the North side thereof pertaining to the Skinners in London This Parish about the year 1565. was united to the Parish Church of Saint Andrew Under Shaft and so was Saint Mary at the Axe suppressed and letten out to be a Ware-house for a Marchant Against the East end of this Church was sometime a fair Well now turned to a Pump Also against the North end of this Saint Mary street was sometime one other Parish Church of Saint Augustine called Saint Augustine in the Wall for that it stood adjoyning to the Wall of the City and otherwise called Saint Augustines Papey or the poor as I have read in the Reign of Edward the third About the year 1430 in the Reign of Henry the sixth the same Church was allowed to the Brethren of the Papey the House of poor Priests whereof I have spoken in Aldgate Ward the Parishioners of this Church were appointed to the Parish Church of Alhallowes in the Wall which is in Broad street Ward and this Brotherhood called Papey being suppressed the Church of Saint Augustine was pulled down and in place thereof one Grey Apothecary builded a Stable a Hay-lost c. It is now a dwelling house those two Parish Churches both lying in the Ward of Lime-street being thus suppressed there is not any one Parish Church or place for Divine Service in that Ward but the Inhabitants thereof repair to Saint Peters in Cornhill Ward Saint Andrew in Aldgate Ward Alhallows in the Wall in Broad-street Ward and some to Saint Denys in Langbourne Ward Now because there hath been some question to what Ward this Church of Saint Augustine Papey should of right belong for the same hath been challenged by them of Aldgate Ward and without reason taken into Bishops-gate Ward from Lime-street Ward I am somewhat to touch it About 70 years since the Chamber of London granted a Lease of ground lying near London Wall in the Ward of Lime-street from the West of the said Church or Chappel of Saint Augustine Papey towards Bishops-gate c. on the which plot of ground the Leasee builded three fair Tenements and placed Tenants there these were charged to bear Scot and Lot and some of them to beaâ— Office in Lime street Ward all which they did willingly without grudging And when any suspected or disordered persons were by the Landlord placed there the Officers of Lime street Ward fetched them out of their Houses committed them to Ward procured their due punishments and banished them from thence whereby in short time that place was reformed and brought into good order which thing being noted by them of Aldgate Ward they moved their Alderman Sir Thomas Offley to call in those Houses to be of his Ward But Mr. Stow producing a fair Ledgier Book sometime pertaining to the late dissolved Priory of the Holy Trinity within Aldgate wherein were set down the just bounds of Aldgate Ward before Sir Thomas Offley Sir Rowland Hayward the Common-Councel and Ward-Mote Inquest of the said Lime street Ward Sir Thomas Offley gave over his Challenge and so that matter rested in good quiet until the year 1579. that Sir Richard Pype being Mayor and Alderman of Bishops-gate Ward challenged those Houses to be of his Ward whereunto without reason shewed Sir Rowland Hayward yeilded and thus is that side of the street from the North corner of Saint Mary street almost to Bishopsgate wherein is one plot of ground letten by the Chamberlaine of London to the Parish of Saint Martins Oteswich to be a Church-yard or burying-place for the dead of that Parish c. unjustly drawn and with-holden from the Ward of Lime-street as Master Stow avoncheth Of the Fifth Ward or Aldermanry of London called Bishopsgate-Ward THe Ward next in order is Bishopsgate-Ward whereof a part is without the Gate and of the Subburbs from the Barres by St. Mary Spittle to Bishopsgate and a part of Hounds-ditch almost half thereof also without the Wall of the same Ward Then within the Gate is Bishopsgate-street so called of the Gate to a Pump were sometime was a fair Well with two Buckets by the East end of the Parish Church of St. Martin Oteswich and then winding by the West corner of Leaden-Hall down Grasse-street to the corner over against Grasse-Church and these are the bounds of that Ward Monuments most to be noted are these The Parish-Church of St. Buttolph without Bishopsgate in a fair Church-yard adjoyning to the Town-Ditch upon the very Bank thereof but of old time inclosed with a comely Wall of Brick lately repaired by Sir William Allen Mayor in the year 1571 because he was born in that Parish where also he was buried An Anchoresse by Bishopsgate received forty shillings the year of the Sheriffs of London Next unto the Parish Church of St. Buttolph was a fair Inne for receipt of Travellers then an Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlem founded by Simon Fitz Mary one of the Sheriffs of London in the year 1246. He founded it to have been a Priory of Canons with Brethren and Sisters and King Edward the 3d granted a Protection for the Brethren called Milites beatae Mariae de Bethlem within the City of London the 14th year of his Raign It was an Hospital for distracted people Stephen Gennings Marchant-Taylor gave forty pounds toward purchase of the Patronage by his Testament 1523. The Mayor and Commonalty purchased the Patronage thereof with all the Lands and Tenements thereunto belonging in the year 1546. Now it shall not be amisse to insert here that memorable ancient deed of gift given to Bethelem or Bedlam by the foresaid Simon the Son of Mary as followeth To all the Children of our Mother holy Church to whom this present writing shall come
the West side but not so far on the East Then the aforesaid street from this Finkes Lane now Finch Lane runneth down by the Royal Exchange to the Stocks and to a place commonly called the Scalding-house or Scalding wicke but now Scalding Alley by the West side whereof under the Parish Church of St. Mildred runneth the course of VVallbrooke and these be the bounds of this Ward Here stands the Parish Church of Alhallowes in the Wall so called of standing close to the Wall of the City near Moorfields and over against Winchester house which was so vast and spacious a Mansion that it has been many years since cut into divers habitations For the Glasse-house stood in part of it the Spanish Ambassadour had another part And now of late the Excise Office hath bin kept in another part On the other side of the street among many proper Houses possessed for the most part by Curriers is the Carpenters Hall which Company was Incorporated in the seventeenth year of Edward the fourth Then East from the Curriers row is a long and high Wall of stone in the foresaid Winchester house enclosing the North side of a large Garden adioyning to as large an house builded in the Reigns of King Henry the eighth and of Edward the sixth by Sir William Powlet Lord Treasurer of England thorow his Garden which of old time consisted of divers parts now united was sometimes a fair foot way leading by the West end of the Augustine Fryars Church straight North and opened somewhat West from Alhallowes Church against London Wall towards Mooregate which foot-way had Gates at either end locked up every night but now the same way being taken into those Gardens the Gates are closed up with Stone whereby the people are enforced to go about by Saint Peters Church and the East end of the said Fryers Church and all the said great place and Garden of Sir William Pawlet to London Wall and so to Moorgate This great House adjoyning to the Garden aforesaid stretcheth to the North corner of Broad-street and then turneth up Broad-street all that side to and beyond the East end of the said Friers Church It was builded by the said Lord Treasurer in place of Augustine Fryers House Cloyster and Gardens c. The Fryars Church he pulled not down but the West end thereof enclosed from the Steeple and Quire was in the year 1550 granted to the Dutch Nation in London to be their preaching place The other part namely the Steeple Quire and side Iles to the Quire adjoyning he reserved to houshold uses as for Stowage of Corn Coal and other thingâ— his Son and Heir Marquiss of VVinchester sold the Monuments of Noble men there buried in great number Paving stone and whatsoever which cost many thousand pounds for one hundred pounds and in place thereof made fair sâ—abling for horses He caused the Lead to be taken from the roofs and laid Tyle in place which exchange proved not so profitable as he looked for but rather to his disadvantage for there have been some remarkable judgements upon that Family since On the East side of this Broad street amongst other buildings on the back part of Gresham House which is in Bishopsgate street there are placed eight Alms-houses builded of Brick and Timber by Sir Thomas Gresham Knight for eight Almes-men which be now there placed rent-free and receive each of them by his gift six pound thirteen shillings four pence yearly for ever Next unto Pawlet House is the Parish Church of Saint Peter the poor so called for a difference from other of that name sometime peradventure a poor Parish but at this present there be many fair Houses possessed by rich Marchants and others In this little Church there be some fair Monuments one of Sir Thomas Lowe and another of Sir VVilliam Garaway with Iohn Lucas Esquire of Colchester Then next have ye the Augustine Fryers Church and Church-yard the entring thereunto by a South gate to the West Porch a large Church having a most fine spired Steeple small high and streight that there are few the like founded by Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex in the year one thousand two hundred fifty three Râ—egnald Cobham gave this Messuage in London to the enlarging thereof in the year one thousand three hundred fourty four Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex re-edified this Church in the year 1354 whose Body was there buried in the Quire The small spired Steeple of this Church was overthrown by tempest of wind in the year one thousand three hundred sixty two but was raised of new as still it might have stood had not private benefit the only devourer of Antiquity pull'd it down Both that goodly Steeple and all that East part of the Church hath lately been taken down and Houses for one mans commodity raised in the place whereby London hath lost so goodly an ornament and times hereafter may more talk of it This House was valued at fifty seven pounds and was surrendred the twelfth of November the 13 of Henry the 8. There were many great Monuments in this Fryers Church one of Edmond first son to Ioan mother to Richard the second Guy de Meryke Earl of Saint Paul Lucie Countesse of Kent Richard the great Earl of Arundel Surrey VVarren Sir Francis Atcourt Earl of Pembrooke Iohn Vere Earle of Oxford with Aubery de Vere his son the Lady of Bedford with Edward Duke of Buckingham and very many more persons of quality On the South side and at West end of this Church many fair houses are builded namely in Throgmorton street one very large and spacious builded in the place of old and small Tenements by Thomas Cromwel Master of the Kings Jewel-house after that Master of the Rolls then Lord Cromwell Knight Lord Privie Seal Vicar General Earl of Essex high Chamberlain of England c. This house being finished and having some reasonable plot of ground left for a Garden he caused the pales of the Gardens adjoyning to the North part thereof on a sudden to be taken down two and tweâ—ty foot to be measured forth-right into the North of every mans ground a Line there to be drawn a Trench to be cast a foundation laid and an high Brick Wall to be builded and this was suddenly and no warning given nor other answer but when any spake to the Surveyers of that work they said their Master Sir Thomas commanded them so to do so that no man durst go to argue the matter but each man lost his Land Thus the sudden rising of some men causeth them to forget themselves The Company of Drapers in London bought this House and now the same is their Common Hall This Company obtained of King Henry the sixth in the seventeenth of his Reign to be incorporate Iohn Gedney was chosen to be their first Master and the four Wardens were Iohn VVotton I. Darby Robert Breton and T. Cooke The Armes granted to the said
up for passage of Ships with tops to the said Queen Hith Touching the ancient Customs of Billingsgate in the Reign of Edward the third every great Ship landing there paid for standage two pence every little Ship with orelocks a peny the lesser Boat called a Battle a half-peny of two quarters of Corn measured the King was to have one farthing of a Combe of Corn a peny of every weight going out of the City a half peny of two quarters of Sea-Coals measured a farthing and of every Tun of Ale going out of England beyond the Seas by Marchants strangers four pence of every thousand Herrings a farthing except the Franchises c. Next to this is Sommers Key which likewise took that name of one Sommer dwelling there as did Lyon Key of one Lyon owner thereof and since of the Signe of the Lyon Then is there a fair Wharf or Key called Buttolphs-gate by that name so called in the time of William the Conqueror and before him of Edward the Confessor Next is the Parish of St. Buttolph a comely Church and hath had many fair Monuments therein now much defaced and gone Among others there is William Rainwel and his Sonne who gave a Stone-House to be a Vestry to that Church with Lands and Tenements to discharge Billingsgate Dowgate and Algate of fifteens granted to the King and other Tolls this was about the year 1426. This Parish of St. Buttolph is no great thing notwithstanding divers strangers are there harboured as may appear by a presentment not many years since made of strangers Inhabitants in the Ward of Billingsgate in these words In Billingsgate Ward were one and fifty Housholds of strangers whereof thirty of theâ—e Housholders inhabited in the Parish of St. Buttolph in the chief and principal Houses where they give twenty pounds a year for an house letten used to be let before for four marks the nearer they dwell to the Water side the more they give for Houses and within 30. years before there was not in the whole Ward above three Nether landers at which time there was within the said Parish levied for the help of the poor seven and twenty pounds by the year but since they came so plentifully thither there cannot be gathered above eleven pounds the strangers being exempted to contribute to such charges as other Citizens do in regard they much advance the Trade of the City On the North side is Bosse Alley so called of a Bosse of Spring-water continually running which standeth by Billingsgate against this Alley and was sometimes made by the Executors of Richard Whittington Then is St. Mary Hill ane which runneth up North from Billingsgate to the end of St. Margaret Patteâ—ns commonly called Rood-lane and the greatest half of that Lane is also of Billingsgate Ward In this St. Mary Hill lane is the 〈◊〉 Parish Church of St. Mary on the Hill called so because of the ascent from Billingsgate In the year 1497. in the Moneth of April as labourers digged for the foundation of a Wall within the Church of St. Mary Hill near unto Billingsgate they found a Coffin of rotten Timber and therein the Corps of a Woman whole of skin and of bones undissevered with the joynts of her Arms plyable without breaking of the skin upon whose Sepulcher this was engraven Here lie the Bodies of Richard Hackney Fishmonger and Alice his Wife The which Richard was Sheriff in the fifteenth of Edward the second Her Body was kept above ground three or four dayes without noyance but then it waxed unsavory and was again buried This Lane on both sides is furnished with fair Houses for Marchants and hath at the North end thereof one other Lane called St. Margaret Pattens because of old time Pattens were usually there made and sold but of latter time this is called Rood Lane of a Rood there placed in the Church-yard of St. Margaret whilest the old Church was taken down and again new builded during which time the oblations made to this Rood were imployed towards building of the Church But in the year 1538. about the 23. of May in the morning the said Rood was found to have been in the night preceding by people unknown broken all to pieces together with the Tabernacle wherein it had bin placed Then have ye another Lane called Rother Lane or Red Rose Lane of such a signe there now commonly called Pudding Lane because the Butchers of East-Cheape have their Scalding-house for Hoggs there their Puddings with other fiâ—th of Beasts are voided down that way to their Dung-boats on the Thames In this Church you have the Sepulchers of sundry worthy men among other of Mr. Vandepute a very worthy Marchant whose Son Mr. Giles Vandepute was lately buried also there Then on the West side of St. Mary Hill Church is a Lane called Rope-lane of old and after Lucas-lane but now Love-lane Then have you the Parish of St. Andrew Hubbart in East-Cheape Then is there Butâ—olph-lane and afterwards the Church of St. George Buttolph-lane which though small hath divers Monuments Of the Tenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Bridg-Ward within WE will direct ourâ— pace downward now and take a Survey of Bridge Ward within so called of London-Bridge which Bridge is a principal part of that Ward and beginning at the Stulps on the South end by Southwark runneth along the Bridge and North up Bridge-street commonly called of the Fish Market New Fish-street from Fish-street Hill up Grass-street to the North corner of Grass-Church All the Bridge is replenished on both the sides with large fait and beautiful buildings Inhabitants for the most part Rich Marchants and other wealthy Citizens Mercers and Haberdasherâ— In New Fish-street be Fishmongers and fair Taverns on Fish-street â—â—ill and Grasse-street men of divers Trades Grocers and Haberdashers In Grass-street have ye one fair Conduit of sweet water castellated with crest and vent made by the appointment of Thomas Hill Mayor 1484 who gave by his Testament a hundred Marks towards the conveyance of water to this place it was begun by his Executors in the year 1491 and finished of his goods whatsoever it cost On the East side of this Bridge Ward have ye the fair Parish Church of Saint Magnus in the which Church have been buried many men of good repute whose Monuments are now for the most part defaced Among others Sir Richard Morgan chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Morris Griffith Bishop of Rochester both born in Wales about the year 1556. Then is the Parish Church of St. Margarets Fish-shreet Hill a proper Church but Monument it hath none of any note Up higher on this Hill is the Parish Church of St. Leonard Milk-Church so termed of one VVilliam Melker an especial builder thereof but commonly called Saint Leonards East-cheap because it standeth at East-cheap coâ—ner This Church and from thence into little East-cheap to the East end of the said Church is of the Bridge
of St. Swâ—then standeth at the South vvest corner of this Lane Licence vvas procured to new build and increase the said Church and Steeple in the year 1420. Sir Iohn Hend Draper and Maior was an especial Benefactor thereunto as appeareth by his Arms in the Glasse vvindows even in the tops of them which is in a Field Argent a Chief Azure a Lyon passant Argent a Cheueron Azure three Escalops Argent Ralph Ioceline Maior of London among others hath a Monument in this Church having bin a benefactor to it 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 fastned with Barres of Iron and otherwise so strongly set that if Carts do run against it through negligence the VVheels be broken and the Stone it self unshaken The cause vvhy this Stone was there set the time when or other memory thereof 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 Christs Church in Canterbury by Ethelstane King of the vvest Saxons mention is made of Lands and Rents in London belonging to the said Church whereof one parcel is described to lie near unto London Stone Of latter time we read that in the year of Christ 1135. the first of King Stephen a fire which began in the house of one Ailward near unto London stone consumed all East to Ealdgate in which fire the Priory of the Holy Trinity was burnt and vvest to St. Erkenwalds shrine in Pauls Church and these be the Eldest Notes that I read thereof Some have said this stone to be set there as a Mark in the middle of the City within the Wall but in truth it standeth far nearer to 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 dayes and times till of latter time payments were more usually made at the Font in Ponts Church and now most commonly at the Royal Exchange Some again have imagined the same to be set up by Iohn or Thomas London-stone dwelling there against it but more likely it is that such men have taken name of the Stone than the Stone of them as did John at Noke and Thomas at Stile William at Wall or at Well c. But the most probable opinion is that it was placed there by the Romans for a Milliare as was observed elswhere in this Discourse Down West from this Parish Church and from London-stone have ye Wallbroke 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 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 Wallis Mayor caused divers houses in this City to be builded towards the maintenance of London-Bridge namely in one void place neare unto the Parish Church called Wooll-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 those Stooks and was appointed by him to be a Market-place for Fish Flesh in the midst of the City other Houses be builded in other places by Patent of Edward the first it doth appear dated the tenth of his Reign After this in the year 1322 the seventeenth of Edward the second 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-cheap Old Fish-street St. Nicholas Shambles and the said Stocks on pain to forfeit such fish or flesh as were there 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 Patents dated at the Tower the 17th of his Reign then was this Stocks let to Farm for forty six pounds thirteen shillings four pence by year this Stocks Market was again begun to be builded in the year 1410 in the eleaventh of Henry the fourth and was finished in the year next following In the year 1507 the same was rented fifty six pounds nineteen shillings ten pence And in the year 1543 John Cotes being Mayor there was in this Stocks Market for Fishmongers five and twenty Boards or Stalls rented yearly to 34 pounds 13 shillings 4 pence There was for Butchers 18 Boards or stalls rented at 41 pounds 16 shillings 4 pence and there were also Chambers above sixteen rented at five pounds thirteen shillings four pence in all eighty two pounds three shillings Next unto this Stocks is the Parish Church of St. Mary VVool-Church so called of a Beam placed in the Church-yard which was thereof called Wool-Church Haw of the Tronage or weighing of Wooll there used and to verifie this we find amongst the Customs of London written in French in the Reign of Edward the second a Chapter intituled Les Customes de VVooll-Church Haw wherein is set down what was there to be paid for every parcel of Wooll weighed this Tronage or weighing of Wooll till the sixth of Richard the second was there continued John Church-man then builded the Custome-house upon VVooll Key to serve for the said Tonnage as is before shewed in Tower-street Ward This Church is reasonable fair and large and was afterwards new builded by Licence granted in the twentieth of Henry the sixth with condition to be builded fifteen foot from the Stocks Market for sparing of light to the said Stocks the Parson of this Parish is to have four Marks the year for Tyth of the said Stocks paid him by the Masters of the Bridge-house by a special Decree made the second of Henry the seventh In the year about 1500 John VVingar Lord Mayor gave two Basons of silver to this Church And Richard Shore Sheriff of London made the Porch at the West end they lye both there entombed 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 VVooll-Church have ye Bear-Binder Lane a part whereof is of this VVallbrook Ward Then down sower in the street called Wallbrook is one other fair Church of St. Stephen builded new 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 to the Brook even on the Bank This Church was finished in the year 1439. The breadth thereof is sixty seven foot and length one hundred twenty five foot the Church-yard ninty foot in length and thirty seven in breadth and more Robert VVhittingham made Knight
of the Bath in the yeer 1432 purchased the Patronage of this Church from John Duke of Bedford Unkle to Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth in the second of his Reign gave it to Sir Richard Lee then Mayor who ileth there hansomely entomb'd having bin twice Lord Maior with divers others Lower down from this Parish Church be â—ivers fair houses namely one wherein of late Sir Richard Baker a Knight of Kent was lodged and wherein also dwelled Mr. Thomas Gore a Merchant famous for Hospitality On the West side of this VValbrook street over against the Stocks Market is a part of the High street called the Poultry On the South side West till over against Saint Mildreds Church and the Scalding wike is of this Ward Then down again Wallbrook street some small distance in Buckles Bury a street so called of Buckle that sometime was owner thereof part of which street on both sides three or four Houses to the course of the Brook is of this Ward and so down VValbrook street to the South corner from whence West down Budge row some small distance to an Alley and thorow that Alâ—ey South by the West end of St. Johns Church upon VValbrook by the South side and East end of the same again to VValbrook corner This Parish Church is called St John upon VValbrook because the West end thereof is on the very bank of Walbrook by Horshooe Bridge in Horshooe-Bridge street This Church was also lately new builded for about the year 1412 Licence was granted by the Mayor and Communalty to the Parson and Parish for the inlarging thereof with a piece of ground on the North part of the Quire one and twenty foot in length seventeen foot in breadth and three inches and on the South side of the Quite one foot of the common soyle On the South side of Walbrook Ward from Candle-wick street in the mid-way between London-stone and Walbrook corner is a little Lane with a Turn-Pike in the middest thereof and in the same a hansome Parish Church called S. Mary Bothaw or Boat-Haw by the Erbar This Church being near unto Downgate on the River of Thames hath the addition of Bothaw or Boat-haw of near adjoyning to an Haw or Yard wherein of old time Boats were made and landed from Downgate to be mended as may be supposed for other reason I find none why it should be so called This Church hath one remarkable thing in it viz. The Monument of the first Lord May or of London Sir Henry Fitz Alwin His dwelling House remains yet in the Parish but divided to divers Tenements Mr. Stow relates that he was buried in the holy Trinity within Algate but it is far more probable that he was buried here because his Armsâ— are both upon the Gravestone and the Windows Of the Thirteenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Dowgate Ward WE will now following the thred of our Discourse descend to Downgate Ward which beginneth at the South end of Wallbrook Ward over against the East corner of St. Iohns Church upon Walbrook and descendeth on both the sides to Downgate or Dowgate on the Thames and is so called of that down going or descending thereunto and of this Downgate the Ward taketh name This Ward turneth into Thames street Westward some ten Houâ—es on a side to the course of Walbrooke but East in Thames street on both sides to Ebgate Lane or Old Swan the Land-side whereof hath many Lanes turning up as shall be shewed when we come to them But first to begin with the High street called Dowgate at the upper end thereof is a fair Conduit of Thames Water castellated and made in the year 1568 at the charges of the Citizens and is called the Conduit upon Dowgate The descent of this streâ—t is such that in the year 1574 on the fourth of September in the afternoon there fell a storm of rain where-through the Channels suddenly aroâ—e and ran with such a swift course towards the Common-shores that a Lad of eighteen years old minding to have leapt over the Channel near unto the said Conduit was taken with the stream and carried from thence towards the Thames with such a violence that no man with staves or otherwise could stay him till he came against a Cart-wheele that stood in the said Water-gate before which time he was drowned and stark dead On the West side of this street is Tallow-Chandlers Hall a hansome house which Company was incorporated in the second year of Edward the fourth Somewhat lower standeth the Skinners Hall a fair house which was sometimes called Copped Hall by Downgate in the Parish of St. John upon Wallbrook In the nineteenth year of Edward the second Ralph Cobham possessed it with five shops c. This Company of Skinners in London was incorporate by Edward the third in the first of his Reign they had two Brotherhoods of Corpus Christi viz. one at St. Mary Spittle the other at St. Mary Bethlem without Bishopsgate Richard the second in the eighteenth of his Reign granted them to make their two Brotherhoods one by the name of the Fraternity of Corpus Christi of Skinners divers Royal persons were named to be Founders and Brethren of this Fraternity to wit Kings six Dukes nine Earls two Lords one Kâ—ngs Edward the third Richard the second Henry the fifth Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth This Fraternity had also once every year on Corpus Christi day afternoon a a proâ—ession which passed through the principal streets of the City wherein was borne more than one hundred Torches of Wax costly garnished burning light and above two hundred Clerks and Priests in Surplesses and Coaps singing After the which were the Sheriffs servants the Clarks of the Compters Chaplains for the Sheriffs the Mayors Sergeants the Councel of the City the Mayor and Aldermen in Scarlet and then the Skinners in their best Liveries Then lower was a Colledge of Priests called Jesus Commons a House well furnished with Brasse Pewter Napery Plate c. besides a fair Library well stored with Books all which of old time were given to a number of Priests that should keep Commons there and as one left his pâ—ace by death or otherwise another should be admitted into his room but this Order within these 70. years being discontinued the said House was dissolved and turned into Tenements Down lower have ye Elbowe Lane and at the corner thereof was one great Stone-house called Old-hall it is now taken down and divers fair Houses of Timber placed there This was sometimes pertaining to William de pont le Arch and by him given the Priory of St. Mary Overy in Southwark in the Reign oâ— Henry the first In this Elbow-lane is the Inholders Hall and other fair Houses this Lane runneth West and suddenly turneth South into Thames-street and therefore of that bending is called Elbow-lane on the East side of this Downgate-street is the great old House before spoken of
Master and Brethren the Lands with the appurtenances that sometimes were Gilbert Beckets Father to the said Thomas in the which he was born there to make a Church There was a Charnel and a Chappel over it of St. Nicholas and St. Stephen This Hospital was valued to dispend two hundred seventy seven pounds three shillings four pence surrendred the thirtieth of Henry the eighth the one and twentieth of October and was since purchased by the Mercers by means of Sir Richard Gresham and was again set open on the Eve of Saint Michael 1541 the three and thirtieth of Henry the eighth It is now called the Mercers Chappel therein is kept a free Grammer School as of old time had been accustomed commanded by Parliament In this Chappel there is every Sunday morning throughout the year a Sermon in the Italian Tongue beginning about ten a clock Here be many Monuments remaining but more have been defaced among others there is Iames Butler Earl of Ormond and Dame Ioane his Countesse 1428. Before this Hospital towards the street was builded a fair and beautiful Chappel arched over with stone and thereupon the Mercers Hall a most curious piece of work Sir Iohn Allen Mercer being founder of that Chappel was there buried but since his Tombe is removed thence into the Body of the Hospital Church and his Body-room divided into Shops are letten our for Rent These Mercers were enabled to be a Company and to purchase Lands to the value of twenty pound the year the seventeenth of Râ—chard the second they had three Messuages and Shops in the Parish of Saint Martins Oteswâ—ch in the Ward of Bishopsgate for the sustentation of the poor and a Chantry the two and twentieth of Richard the second Henry the fourth in the twelfth of his Reign confirmed to Stephen Spilman W. Marchford and Iohn Watild Mercers by the name of one new Sildam shed or building with Shops Cellars and Edifices whatsoever appertaining called Crownsildes Scituate in the Mercery in West-cheap in the Parish of St. Mary de Arcubus in London c. to be holden in Burgage as all the City of London is Next beyond the Mercers Chappel and their Hall is Ironmonger Lane so called of Ironmongers dwelling there In this Lane is the small Parish Church of St. Martin called Pomary upon what occasion I certainly know not it is supposed to be of Apples growing where now Houses are lately builded Farther West is St. Lawrence Lane so called of St. Lawrence Church which standeth directly over against the North end thereof Antiquities in this Lane I finde none other then that among many fair Houses there is one large Inne for receipt of travellers called Blossomes Inne but corruptly Bosomes Inne and hath to Sign St. Lawrence the Deacon in a Border of Blossoms or Flowers Then near to the standard in Cheap is Hony-lane being very narrow and somewhat dark In this Lane is the small Parish Church called Alhallowes in Hony-Lane There be no Monuments in this Church worth the noting I find that Iohn Norman Draper Mayor 1453 was buried there He gave to the Drapers his Tenements on the North side the said Church they to allow for the Beam light and Lamp thirteen shillings four pence yearly from this Lane to the Standard And thus much for Cheap Ward in the High-street of Cheap for it stretcheth no farther Now for the North wing of Cheap Ward have ye Catte-street corruptly called Catteaten-street which beginneth at the North end of Ironmongâ—â— Lane and runneth to the West end of Saint Lawrence-Church as is aforeshewed On the North side of this street is the Guild-hall wherein the Courts for the City are kept namely first the Court of Common-Councel second the Court of the Lord Mayor and his Brethren the Aldermen third the Court of Hustings fourth the Court of Orphanes fifth the two Sheriffsâ—ixt â—ixt the Court of the Wardmote seventh the Court of Hallmote eight the Court of Requests commonly called the Court of Conscience nine the Chamberlains Court for Prentices making them free This Guild-hall saith Robert Fabian was began to be builded new in the year 1411 the twelfth of Henry the fourth by Thomas Knowles then Mayor and his Brethren the Aldermen The same was made of a little Cottage a large and great House as now it standeth towards the charges whereof the Companies gave large benevolences Also offences of men were pardoned for sums of money towards this work extraordinary Fees were raised Fines Amercements and other things imployed during seven years with a Continuation thereof three years more all to be employed to this building The first year of Henry the sixth John Coventry John Carpenter Executors to Richard Whittington 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 Purbâ—ck They also glaz'd some VVindows thereof and of the Mayors Court on every which Window the Arms of Richard Whittington are placed The foundation of the Mayors Court was laid in the third year of the Reign of Henry the sixth and of the Porch on the South side of the Mayors Court in the fourth of the said King Then was builded the Mayors Chamber and the Councel Chamber with other Roomes above the staires Having here so just occasion speaking of that former ancient Councel Chamber which hath continued so ever since I cannot but account it expedient as in no place better fitting to remember the fair and goodly new Councel Chamber a worthy Act and an Honour to the City The said new Councel Chamber with a fair Room over the same appointed for a Treasury wherein to preserve the Books and Records belonging to the City and another Room also underneath the same Chamber reserved for necessary use and employment began to be builded the first week after Easter in the time of the Majoralty of Sir Thomas Middleton Knight and Alderman in the year of our Lord 1614 it was fully finished shortly after Michaelmas 1615 at the laâ—ter end of the Majoralty of Sir Thomas Hayes Knight and Alderman But the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen his Brethren kept their first Court in the said new Councel Chamber on the seventh day of November in the year of our Lord 1615 Sir Iohn Iolles Knight and Alderman being then Lord Mayor by whose order and direction the said building was performed from the first beginning thereof to the finall finishing of the same amounting to the charge of 1740 l. than which no money could be better bestowed nor more to the Cities credit and renown Last of all a stately Porch enâ—ring the great Hall was erected the front thereof towards the Stouth being beautified with Images of Srone Now for the Chappel or Colledge of our Lady Mary Magdalene and of All Saints by Guild-Hall called London Colledge we read that the same was builded about the year 1299 and that Peter Fanelore Adam Francis and Henry Frowick Citizen gave one
Reign gave the Office of being Porter or Keeper thereof unto John Stent for terme of his life by the name of his principal Pallace in the Old Jewry This was called the Old Wardrobe but of latter time the outward Strone-Wall hath bin by little and little taken down and divers fair Houses builded thereupon even round about Now or the North side of this Lothbury beginning again at the East end thereof upon the Water-Course of Wallbrook have ye a proper Parish Church called St. Margaret which was newly re-edified and builded about the year 1440. By the West end of this Parish-Church have ye a fair Warter-Conduit builded at the Charges of the City in the year 1546. Next is the Founders Hall a hansom House and so to the South-West corner of Basing-hall-street have ye fair and large Houses for Marchants namely the Corner-house at the end of Basings-Hall-street an old peece of work builded of Stone sometime belonging to a certain Jew named Mansere the Sonne of Aaron the Sonne of Coke the Jew the seventh of Edward the first since to Rahere Sopers-Lane then to Simon Francis Thomas Bradbury Mercer kept his Majoralty there deceased 1509. part of this House hath bin lately imployed as a Market-house for the sale of Woollen Bayes Watmoles Flanels and such like On this North side against the Old Iewry is Colemanstreet so called of Coleman the first builder and owner thereof is also of Cole-Church or Coleman-Church against the great Conduit in Cheape This is a fair and large street on both sides builded with divers fair Houses besides Allies with small Tenements in great number on the East side of this street almost at the North end thereof is the Armorers-Hall which Company of Armorers were made a Fraternity of Guild of St. George with a Chantry in the Chappel of St. Thomas in Pauls Church in the first of Henry the sixth also on the same side is Kings Allâ—y and Love-lane both containing many Tenements And on the West side towards the South end is the Parish Church of St. Stephen wherein the Monuments are defaced This Church was sometime a Synagogue of the Jews then a Parish Church then a Chappel to Saint Olaves in the Jewry until the seventh of Edward the fourth and was then incorporated a Parish Church Of the Eighteenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Basings-Hall-Ward THe next adjoyning to Coleman-street-Ward on the West side thereof is Bassings-Hall-VVard a small thing and consisteth of one street called Basings-Hall-street of Basings-Hall the most principal House whereof the Ward taketh name it beginneth in the South by the late spoken Market House called the Bay Hall which is the last of Coleman-street-VVard This street runneth from thence North down to London-Wall and some distance both East and West against the said Hall And this is the bounds of Basings-Hall-VVard Amongst divers fair Houses for Marchants have ye three Halls of Companies namely the Masons Hall for the first but of what Antiquity that Company is I have not read The next is the Weavers Hall which Company hath bin of great Antiquity in this City as appeareth by a Charter of Henry the second in these words Rex omnibus ad Quos c. to be englished thus Henry King of England Duke of Normandy and of Guyan Earl of Anjou to the Bishop Justices Sheriffs Barons Ministers and all his true Lieges of London sendeth greeting Know ye that we have granted to the Weavers in London their Guild with all the Freedoms and Customs that they had in the time of King Henry my Grandfather so that they intermit none but within the City of their Craft but he be of their Guild neither in Southwark or other places pertaining to London otherwise than it was done in the time of King Henry my Grand-father wherefore I will and straightly command that over all lawfully they may treat and have all aforesaid as well in peace free worshipful and wholly as they had it ftreer better worshipfuller and whollier than in the time of King Henry my Grand-father so that they yield yearly to me two Marks of Gold at the feast of St. Michael And I forbid that any man to them do any Unright or Disease upon pain of ten pound c. Lower down is the Girdlers Hall and this is all touching the East side of this Ward On the West side almost at the South end thereof is Bakewell-Hall corruptly called Blackwell-Hall concerning the Original whereof I have heard divers Opinious which I over-passe as Fables without colour of truth for though the same seemed a Building of great Antiquity yet in mine Opinion the Foundation thereof was first laid since the Conquest of VVilliam Duke of Normandy for the same was builded upon Vaults of Stone which Stone was brought from Cane in Normandy The like of that in Pauls Church builded by Mauritius and his Successors Bishops of London but that this House hath bin a Temple or Jewish Synagogue as some have fantisied I allow not seeing that it had no such form of roundness or other likeness neither had it the form of a Church for the Assembly of Christians which are builded East and West but contrariwise the same was builded North and South and in the form of a Noblemans House and therefore the best Opinion in my judgement is that it was of old time belonging to the Family of the Bassings which was in this Realm a name of great Antiquity and Renown and that it beares also the name of that Family and was called therefore Basings-Haugh or Hall Now how Bakewell-hall took that name is another Question For which I read That Thomas Bakewel dwelled in this House in the 36. of Edward the 3d and that in the 20. of Richard the 2d the said King for the sum of 50. pounds which the Mayor and the Communalty had paid into the Hanapar granted Licence so much as was in him to Iohn Frosh William Parker and Stephen Spilman Citizens and Mercers that they the said Messuage called Bakewell-hall and one Garden with the appurtenances in the Parish of St. Michael of Bassings-Haugh and of St. Lawrence in the Jewry of London and one Messuage two Shops and one Garden in the said Parish of St. Michael which they held of the King in Burgage might give and assign to the Mayor and Communalty for ever This Bakewell-Hall thus established hath bin long since imployed as a weekly Market-place for all sorts of Woollen Clothes broad and narrow brought from all parts of this Realm there to be sold. In the 21. of Richard the second Richard Whittington Mayor and in the 22 Drew Barringtine being Mayor it was decreed that no Forraign or stranger should sell any Woollen-Cloth but in Bakewell-hall upon pain of forfeiture thereof This House of late years growing ruinous and in danger of falling Richard May Merchant-Taylor at his decease gave towards the new building of the outward part thereof 300l upon condition
is now called Bacon-House because the same was new builded by Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal Down on that side by Serjeant Fleet-Woods house Recorder of London who also new builded it to Saint Olaves Church in Silver-Street which is by the North-West End of this Noble-Street Then have ye Maine Street of this Ward which is called Saint Martins lane in cluding Saint Martin on the East side thereof and so down on both the sides to Aldersgate And these be the bounds of this Ward within the Wall and Gate Without the Gate the main Street called Aldersgate-Street runneth up North on the East side to the West end of Hounds-ditch or Barbican-Street a part of which Street is also of this Ward And on the West side to Long-Lane a part whereof is likewise of this Ward Beyond the which Aldersgate is Goswell Street up to the Barrs And on the West side of Hidersgate Street by Saint Buttolphs Church is Briton-Street which runneth West to a Pumpe and then North to the Gate which entreth the Church-Yard sometimes pertaining to the Priory of Saint Bartholomews on the east side on the west side towards St. Bartholomews Spittle to a paire of posts there fixed And these be the bounds of this Aldersgate Ward without The antiquities be these first in Stainâ—ng lane of old time so called as may be supposed of Painter-stainers dwelling there On the East side thereof adjoyning to the Aaberdashers Hall be ten Almes-houses pertaining to the Haberdashers wherein be placed ten Almes people of that Company every of them having Eight pence the peece every Friday for ever by the gift of Thomas Huntlow Haberdasher one of the Sheriffs in the year 1539. Then is the small Parish Church of Saint Mary called Staining because it standeth at the North end of Staining lane Then is Engain lane or Maiden lane and at the North-West Corner thereof the Parish Church of St. John Zachary a fair Church with the Monuments well preserved of Thomas Lichfield who founded a Chancery there in the fourteenth of Edward the second On the East side of this Foster Lane at Engane Lane end is Goldsmiths Hall a proper House but not large and therefore to say that Bartholmew Read Goldsmith Mayor in the year 1502 kept such a feast in this Hall as some have fabuled is far incredible and altogether unpossible considering the smallnesse of the Hall number of the Guests which as they say were more than one hundred persons of great estate But of late years the said Goldsmiths Hall is much enlarged and in a stately and sumptuous manner in so much that it may compare with any other Hall in London Then at the North end of Noble-street is the Parish Church of St. Olave in Silver-street a small thing On the West side of Foster-Lane is the small Parish Church of St. Leonards for them of St. Martins le Grand A number of Tenements being lately builded in place of the great Collegiate Church of St. Martin that Parish is mightily encreased Then in Pope-lane so called of one Pope that was owner thereof On the North side is the Parish Church of Saint Anne in the Willowes so called I know not upon what occasion but some say of Willowes growing thereabouts but now there is no such void place for Willowes to grow more than the Church-yard wherein do grow some high Ash-trees to this day Then in St. Martins Lane was of old time a fair and large Colledge of a Dean and Secular Canons or Priests and was called Saint Martins le grand founded by Ingelricus and Edwardus his Brother in the year of Christ 1056 and confirmed by William the Conqueror as appeareth by his Charter dated 1068. This Colledge claimed great Priviledges of Sanctuary and otherwise as appeareth in a Book written by a Notary of that House about the year 1442 the nineteenth of Henry the sixth wherein amongst other things is set down and declared that on the first of September in the year aforesaid a Souldier prisoner in Newgate as he was led by an Officer towards the Guild-Hall of London there came out of Panyer Alley five of his fellowship and took him from the Officer brought him into Sanctuary at the West door of St. Martins Church and took Grithe of that place But the same day Philip Malpas Robert Marshall then Sheriffs of London with many other entred the said Church and forcibly took out with them the said five men thither fled led them fettered to the Counter and from thence chained by the Necks to Newgate of which violent taking the Dean and Chapter in large manner complained to the King and required him as their Patron to defend their Priviledges like as his Predecessors had done c. All which complaint and suite the Citizens by their Counsel Markham Serjeant at the Law Iohn Carpenter common Clerk of the City and others learnedly answered offering to prove that the said place of St. Martin had no such Immunity or Liberty as was pretended Notwithstanding after long debating of this Controversie by the Kings commandment assent of his Councel in the Starr-Chamber the Chancellour and Treasurer sent a Writ unto the Sheriffs of London charging them to bring the said five persons with the cause of their taking and withholding afore the King in his Chancery on the Vigil of Alhallowes on which day the said Sheriffs with the Recorder and Counsel of the City brought and delivered them accordingly afore the said Lords where the Chancellour after he had declared the Kings Commandement sent them to St. Martins there to abide freely as in a place having Franchises whiles them liked c. Without Aldersgate on the East side of Aldersgate-street is the Cookes Hall which Cooks or Pastlers were admitted to be a Company and to have a Master and Wardens in the two and twentieth of Edward the fourth From thence along unto Houndsditch or Barbican street be many fair Houses on the West side also be the like fair buildings till ye come to Long-Lane and so to Goswell street In Britaine street which took that name of the Duke of Britain Lodging there is one proper Parish Church of St. Buttolph In which Church was sometime a Brotherhood of St. Fabian and Sebastian founded in the year 1377 the fifty one of Edward the third and confirmed by Henry the fourth in the sixth of his Reign Then Henry the sixth in the twenty fourth of his Reign to the honour of the Trinity gave Licence to Dame Joane Astley sometime his Nurse to R. Cawood and T. Smith to found the same a Fraternity perpetually to have a Master and two Custos with Brethren and Sisters This Brotherhood was endowed with Lands more than thirty pounds by the year and was suppressed by Edward the sixth Of the One and Twentieth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Faringdon Ward Intra ON the South side of Aldersgate Ward lyeth Faringdon Ward called
three hundred foot of the feet of St. Paul in breadth eighty nine foot and in heighth from the ground to the roof sixty four foot and two inches c. It was consecrated 1325 and at the Generall suppression was valued at thirty two pound nineteen shillings and surrendred the twelfth of November 1538 the thirty of Henry the eighth the Ornaments and goods being taken to the Kings use the Church was shut up for a time and used as a Store-house of goods taken prizes from the French but in the year 1546 on the third of January it was again set open on the which day preached at Pauls Crosse the Bishop of Rochester where he declared the Kings gift thereof to the City for the relieving of the poor which gift was inroll'd by Patents St. Bartholmews Spittle in Smithfield lately valued at three hundred five pounds six shillings seven pence and surrendred to the King was of the said Church of the Gray Fryars and of two Parish Churches the one of St. Nicholas in the Shambles and the other of St. Ewins in Newgate-Market they were to be made one Parish Church in the said Fryers Church In Lands he gave for maintenance of the said Church with Divine Service reparations c. five hundred Marks by year for ever The thirteenth of January the thirty eighth of Henry the eighth an agreement was made betwixt the King and the Mayor and Communalty of London dated the twenty seven of December by which the said gift of the Gray Fryers Church with all the Edifices and ground the Fratrie the Library the Portar and Chapter House the great Cloistry and the lesser Tenements Gardens and vacant grounds Lead Stone Iron c. The Hospitall of St. Bartholmew in West Smithfield the Church of the same the Lead Bells and Ornaments of the same Hospitall with all the Messuages Tenements and appurtenances The Parishes of Saint Nicholas and of Saint Ewin and so much of Saint Sepulchres Parish as is within Newgate were made one Parish Church in the Grey Fryers Church and called Christs Church founded by King Henry the eighth In the year 1552 began the repairing of the Gray Fryars House for the poor fatherlesse Children and in the Month of November the children were taken into the same to the number of almost four hundred On Christmas day in the afternoon while the Lord Mayor and Aldermen rod to Pauls the Children of Christs Hospital stood from Saint Lawrence Lane end in Cheap towards Pauls all in one Livery of Russet Cotton three hundred and forty in Number and in the Easter next they were in Blue at the Spittle and so have continued ever since For these sorts of poor three several Houses were provided First for the innocent and fatherlesse which is the Beggars Child they provided the House that was the late Gray Fryers in London and called it by the name of Christs Hospitall where poor Children are trained up in the Knowledge of God and some vertuous exercises to the overthrow of beggary For the second degree was provided the Hospitals of Saint Thomas in Southwark and Saint Bartholmew in West Smithfield where are continually at least two hundred diseased persons which are not only there lodged and cured but also fed and nourished For the third degree they provided Bridewell where the Vagabond and idle Strumpet is chastised and compelled to labour to the overthrow of the vicious life of idlenesse They provided also for the honest decayed housholder that he should be relieved at home at his House and in the Parish where he dwelled by weekly relief and Pension And in like manner they provided for the Lazer to keep him out of the City from clapping of dishes and ringing of Bells to the great trouble of the Citizens also to the dangerous infection of many that they should be relieved at home at their Houses by several Pensions St. Bartholmewes Hospital is incorporated by the name of Mayor Communalty and Citizens of the City of London Governours of the Hospital for the poor called little St. Bartholmews near to West Smithfield of the Foundation of King Henry the eighth Christs Hospitall Bridewell and Saint Thomas the Apostle in Southwarke are incorporated by the names of the Mayor Communalty and Citizens of London Governours of the Possessions Revenues aâ—d Goods of the Hospitals of Edward King of England the sixth of Christ Bridewell and Saint Thomas the Apostle c. This Church was full of many great Monuments as of the Lady Margaret Daughter to Philip of France and Wife to Edward the first Of Queen Isabel Wife to Edward the second Of Joane Queen of the Scots Wife to David Bruce Of Isabel Daughter to Edward the third Of Eleanor Dutchesse of Britain Of the Lady Beatrix Dutchesse of Britain Daughter to Henry the third Of Roger Mortimer Earl of March Of John Hastings Earl of Pembrook Of John Duke of Bourton who had been taken Prisoner at Agencourt with divers other great Personages There is lately erected there in the South end of the Chancel and extraordinary hansome Monument to the Lady Venetia Stanley Wife to the noble Knight Sir Kenelme Digby Now for the South side of this Ward beginning again at the Crosse in Cheap from thence to Fryday-street and down that street on the West side till over against the North-west corner of Saint Matthewes Church And on the West side to the South corner of the said Church is wholly in the Ward of Faringdon From this Fryday-street West to the old Exchange a street so called of Kings Exchange there kept which was for the receipt of Bullion to be coyned For Henry the third in the sixth year of his Reign wrote to the Scahines and men of Ipreâ— that he and his Councel had given prohibition that no Englishmen or other should make change of Plate or other Masse of Silver but only in his Exchange at London or at Canterbury Andrew Bukerel then had to â—arm the Exchange of England was Maior of London in the Reign of Henry the third Iohn Somercote had the keeping of the Kings Exchange overall England In the eighth of Edward the first Gregory Rockâ—ley was Keeper of the said Exchange for the Kingâ— in the fiâ—th of Edward the second William Hausted was Keeper thereof And in the eighteenth Roger de Frowick c. These received the old stamps or Coyning-Irons from time to time as the same were worn and delivered new to all the Mints in England This street beginneth by VVest-Cheap in the North and runneth down South to Knight-rider-street that part thereof which is called Old Fish-street But the very Housing and Office of the Exchange and Coynage was about the midst thereof South from the East Gate that entreth Pauls Church-yard and on the West side in Baynards-Castle Ward On the East side of this Lane betwixt West-Cheap and the Church of St. Augustine Henry VValleis Mayor by Licence of Edward the first builded one row of Houses
Anno 1289 the Bridge was â—o sore decayed for want of reparations that people were afraiâ— to pass thereon and a subsidy was granted towards the amendment thereof Afterwards Sir Iohn Britain being then Custos of London Anno 1381 a great Collection was made by all the Clergy for the repair of London-Bridge In the year 1381 on St. Georges day was a great solemnity of Justs and Tournements upon London-Bridge between David Earl of Crawford of Scotland and the Lord Wells of England whereby one may infer that the houses were not there so thick at that time The Tower on London-bridge at the North end of the Draw-bridge which was then in a posture to be drawn up was built Anno 1426 in the Majoralty of Iohn Rainwell Anno 1471 a house call'd the Common siege on London-Bridge tumbled down into the Thames by death of diyers persons a little after But in the year sixteen hundred thirty three there happen'd a most raging dismal fire upon the North side of London-bridge which by computation consum'd above the third part of the Buildings thereof But by the commendable care of the City there are other goodly structures rais'd up in some of their rooms of a stronger and more stately way of building and pity it is that the work were not compleated there being no object after the Church of St. Pauls that can conduce more to the glory and Ornament of this renowned City Besides this Bridge that may be call'd the Bridge of the world there are other inferior Bridges which have still the names of Bridges that belong to the City of London the first is Fleet-bridge in the West fenc'd with iron Pikes on which towards the South there be certain Lanthorns of Stones for lights to be placed in Winter Evenings for commodity of passengers Under this Bridge runs a water sometimes call'd the River Wells but since Turn-hill brook and now Fleet Dike because it runs by the Fleet under ground to the River of Thames this Bridge hath been far greater in times pass'd but lessened as the water course hath been narrowed Over the sayd River of Wells northerly stands Oldenbridge now Holborn-bridge so call'd of a boorn that sometimes ran down Holborn hill into the River this Bridge like Fleet-bridge-serves for passage only Then comes Cow-bridge more Northerly over the same water near unto Cow-lane but this Bridge being decayed another of Timber is made more North towards Chicklane There are some other small Bridges over the Town-ditch viz. without Eald-gate without Bishopsgatâ— Mooregate the Postern of Cripplegate as also without Aldersgate the Postern of Christs Hospital Newgate and Ludgate which are now paved eaven with the streets only there remains one of Timber over the River of Wels or Fleet Dike There have 〈◊〉 informer ages divers Bridges in sundry places over the course of Wallbrook but 〈◊〉 they are made levell with the paâ—ements of the Streets so that the water-course can now be hardly discover'd being vaulted over with Brick Of the chief Fortresse or Tower of LONDON ANd now that we are come so near the famous and great Tower Palatine or Citâ—adel of London we will try whether we can get in thither without paying fees and take a view thereof as briefly as we can it being an ill-favoured and tedious thing to stay there long I know it is the current vulgar opinion that Julius Caesar the first Conquerour or rather indeed Discoverer of Britain was the Original Founder thereof but there is â—ery litle probability of truth in that for two Reasons The first is the little stay he made here during which he had other things to think on The second is that he himself who is so exact in his relations specially if they conduce to his honour nor any other Roman Author makes any mention of of such a work or Fabrique Therefore that opinion which approacheth truth the neerest is that William of Normandy the Conqueror was the first tracer and erector of the Tower of London as Edmond de Hadenham an old English Antiquary affirms The first part that was built was the great square and White Tower though black to some which was about the year 1078 whereof Gundulph Bishop of Rochester was principal Superviser and Surveyer who was log'd then in the house of Edmere a Burgesse of London as it stands upon Latine Record in the forenamed Author Now it is to be considered that at first the wall of the City was in many places furnish'd with sundry Bastions and Turrets in due distance one from the other and divers stood on the waters side where some of the said Wall extended at first but the Thames with her ebbings and flowings did as it were corrode and subverâ— those Buildings on the South side Wherefore the Conqueror for then the Art of fortification was come to a greater perfection for defence of the City and River pitch'd upon that place as most convenient to erect a Buâ—wark in the East part of the Wall The White square Tower as was formerly said was first erected and finished in the Conquerors time but stood naked and single without other Buildings a good while and the story â—aith that in William Rufus time it was by the injury of the Heavens and violence of tempest sore shaken and some part tumbled down which was repair'd by the said Rufus and Henry the first who also caused a Castle to be built under the said White Tower on the South side towards the Thames and he surrounded that also with a strong Wall Now Henry of Huntindon relates that VVill. Rufus challeng'd the inveâ—â—iture of Prelates and pill'd the people pitifully to spend the treasure about the Tower of London and the great Hall at VVestminster whereof he was Founder The first Keeper of the Tower of London was call'd Constable Ostowerus Acolinillus Otho and Geoffrey Magnaville were the first four Constables of the Tower of London by succession all which held a portion of Land that appertain'd to the Priory of the Holy Trinity near Algate viz. East Smithfield as belonging to that Office making thereof a Vineyard and would would not part with it till the second year of King Stephen when by judgment of the Court it was restored to the Church The foresaid Geoffery Magnaville was at one time Constable of the Tower Sherif of London Middlesex Essex Hartfordshire as the Chronicles relate He also fortified the Tower of London against King Stephen but the King took him at last at St. Albanes and would not free him till he had surrendred the Tower of London with the Castles of VValden and Plashey in Essex Richard de Lucie was Anno 1155 Constable of the Tower of London and also of Casâ—le the of VVinsore About the beginning of the Raign of Richard the first William Longshank Bishop of Ely and Chancellour of England for some dissentions 'twixt him and John the Kings Brother who was in Rebellion enclos'd the Tower of London with an outward
eighths time the Tower was eâ—er and anon full of prisoners among others Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor of England was clap'd there close Prisoner and at last they took away from him all his Books so he did shut up all his windows and liv'd afterwards in obscurity and being asked Why he answered 'T is time to shut up shop when the Ware is all gone At his first entrance to the Tower the Gentleman Porter ask'd for his fee which is the upper Garment whereupon Sir Thomas pull'd off his Cap to give him but that not suffâ—â—ing he pull'd out a handful of Angels end gave him a good many a Knight that was in his Company telling him that he was glad to see him so full of Angels yes answered he I love to carry my friends alwayes about me The young Lady Iane was beheaded there not long after and upon the Scaffold she made a most ingenious Speech and full of pity That she came thither to serve for an example to posterity that innocence cannot be any protection against greatness And that she was come thither not for aspiring to a Crown but for not refusing one when it was offered Her Queen Elizabeth was brought up many years in that School of affliction but afterwards she may be said to have gone from the Scaffold to the Throne For the truth is that the Scaffold had made an end of her had not King Philip her Brother in Law strongly interceded for her In her dayes Robert Earl of Essex lost his head in the Tower which he might have kept on many years longer had he not bin betrayed by the Lady Walsingham to whom after the sentence of condemnation he sent a Ring which the Queen had given him as a token that she would stick to him in any danger the Lady delivered not this Ring and being a little after upon her Death-bed she desired to speak with the Queen and having disburthened a great weight which lay upon her Conscience for that act the Queen flung away in a fury and never enjoyed her self perfectly after that time but she would break out often into passion and wring her hands crying O Essex-Essex And this Earl was the last who was executed within the walls of the Tower In King Iames's time for 22 years there was no blood spilt in the Tower or upon Tower-hill only Sir Gervase Elwayes was hanged there when he was Lieutenant and one remarkable passage there was in his Speech upon the Ladder that being in the low Countries and much addicted to gaming he made a vow that if ever he played more above such a value he might be hanged but he did violate the Oath and so the just Judgement of Heaven did fall upon him accordingly as he said The Earl of Castlehaven was brought from the Tower to be executed for horrid kinds of incontinencies in Charles the first time Afterwards in the raign of the long Parliament and ever since the Tower of London hath had more number of Prisoners then it had in the compasse of a hundred years before This stately Tower of London serves not only for a Gaol to detain prisoners but for many other uses It is a strong Fort or Cittadel which secures both City and River It serves not only to defend but to command either upon occasion It serves as a royal Randezvouz for Assemblies and Treaties It is the Treasury for the Jewels and Ornaments of the Crown The great Archive which conserves all the old Records of the Courts of Justice at Westminster It is the place for the Royal Mint and Coynage of Gold and Silver It is the chief Magazin and Armory or Arâ—enal of the whole Land for Martial Engines and Provision There only is the Brake or Rack usually call'd the Duke of Exceters Daughter because he was tâ—e first Inventer of it And lastly It is a great Ornament by the situation of it both to the River and City The City of London hath divers other inferior Towers as that on the North of the great Bridge At the South end over the Gate there is also another Tower over London-Bridge which hath suffered many accidents of firing and otherwise and was still made up by the care and charge of the City specially one time when it was under bastard Fawconbridge burnt by the Marriners and Saylers of Kent The Antiquaries speak of two Castles that were in the West part of London one call'd the Castle of Monfiquet which was built by a Baron of that name who came over with the Conqueror which was afterwards demolished and the Black Fryers risen up out of the ruines of it The second Castle is Baynards Castle by Pauls Wharf built also by one Baynard who came over with the Conqueror who being ennobled the honour of Baynards Castle succeeded from Father to Son a long time till it came to Sir Robert Fitzwater a valiant Cavalier who being fallen into the displeasure of King Iohn in the Barons Warres was banished and Baynards Castle destroyed But afterwards being restâ—red to the Kings favour by an exployt he did in France he was re-invested in all his Livings and so repair'd Baynards Castle again Moreover he was made chief Banner-bearer of the City of London whereof he had a Charter which ran to this sense That he said Robert Fitzwater and his Heirs ought to be and are chief Bannerers of London in fee for the Chastilary which he and his Ancestors had from Baynards Castle and the said City In time of War the said Robert and his Heires ought to serve the City as followeth The said Robert he being the twentieth man of Armes himself ought to come on Horseback covered with Cloth or Armor under the great West door of St. Paul with his Banner displayed before him and when he is come mounted to that door and apparreld as before is said The Maior with the Aldermen and Sheriffs in their Arms shall come out of the Church of St. Paul unto the said West door the Maior bearing a Banner in his hand all on foot which Banner shall be Gules the Image of St. Paul Gold the face hands feet and Sword Argent And as soon as the said Robert shall see the Maior Aldermen and Sheriffs come on foot out of the Church armed with such a Banner he shall alight off his Horse and salute the Maior and say to him Sir Maior I am come to do my service which I owe to the City whereunto the Maior and Aldermen shall answer We give to you as to our Bannerer of fee in this City the Banner of this City to beare and govern to the honour and profit of this City to your power And the said Robert and his Heires shall receive the said Banner in his hands and shall go on foot out of the Gate with the Banner in his hands and the Maior Aldermen and Sheriffs shall follow to the door and shall bring a Horse to the said Bannerer worth twenty pounds which Horse
so running along as far as unto the North-East corner of Bow-lane on the South side and from thence into Bow-lane on the East side until ye come to the Channel over against the Cellardoor under the Church then on the North side of Cheap up to the Standard stretching it self into divers Lanes and peeces on the right hand and on the left hand as it commeth along First for the High street of the Poultrey which is the main body of this Ward on the South side thereof toward the East this Ward beginneth in the way going down to St. Mary Wooll-Church Now for Antiquities and things worthy of memory in Cheap-Ward First in the main Body of this Ward that is the Poultry standeth the hansome little Church that beareth the name of St. Mildred in the Poultry the Virgin which name was given surely for distinction not for superstition for so was the Custom of the Kingdom yet is in building their things for the service of God that the Founders called them by the name of some Apostle Saint Martyr or Confessor as best liked their own conceit at the present time to distinguish them from others Who this Mildred was whether she was the Eldest Daughter of Merwaldus King of the VVest-Mercians as some think or that she was Daughter of Ethelbert King of Kent one of the founders of Pauls Church it is incertain neither is it much material but it is probable that she was some holy and devout Maid which the People of that Age held to be a Saint afterward in Heaven In what years this Church was first erected or who was the first Founder of it we find not but it appeareth by some ancient Evidences of the said Church that from the beginning it had not so much spare ground about it as to make a Church-yard of until in the year of our Lord God 1420 and the 8th of King Henry the fifth Thomas Morsted Esquire and Chirurgion to the Kings Henry the fourth Henry the fifth and Henry the sixth And afterward in Anno Dom. 1436. was Sheriff and Alderman of London gave unto the Church a parcel of ground lying between his dwelling-house and the said Church and adjoyning unto the said Church toward the North to make a Church-yard of for the burial of their Dead containing in length from the Course of VVallbrook toward the West forty five foot and in breadth from the Church toward the North thirty five foot Within short time after some body of Religious and Charitable disposition erected upon the sides of the said Church-yard but upon Posts and Pillars with Cloysters underneath toward the West a Parsonage House or Mansion and free dwelling of the Ministers and Rectors of the said Church and toward the East four Chambers then called the Priests Chambers now converted into a Tenement or dwelling House demised for yearly Rent but the Church-yard is much abridged and of late fouly defaced and the lights of the said Parsonage hindered by additions of pieces to the said ancient Chambers which ought not to be In this ancient Church some Citizens of note lie buried Some few Houses West from this Parish Church of St. Mildred is a Prison-house pertaining to one of the Sheriffs of London and is called the Counter in the Poultry This hath bin there kept and continued time out of minde for I have not read of the Original thereof West from this Counter was a proper Chappel called of Corpus Christi and St. Mary at Cony-hope lane end in the Parish of the said Mildred founded by one named Iorivirunnes a Citizen of London in the Raign of Edward the third in which Chappel was a Guild or Fraternity that might dispend in Lands better then twenty pounds by year it was suppressed by Henry the eighth and purchased by one Thomas Hobson Haberdasher he turned this Chappel into a fair Ware-house and Shops towards the street with fair Lodgings over them Then is Cony-hope lane of old time so called of a signe of three Coneys which hung over a Poulterers Stall at the Lanes end within this Lane standeth the Grocers Hall which Company being of old time called Pepperers were first incorporated by the name of Grocers in the year 1345 at which time they elected for Cusâ—os or Gardian of their Fraternity Richard Oswin and Lawrence Hallwell and twenty Brethren were then taken in to be of their Society In the year 1411 the Custos or Gardian and the Brethren of this Company purchased of the Lord Robert Fitzwaters one Plot of ground with the building thereupon in the said Cony-hope lane for three hundred twenty Marks and then laid their foundation of their new Common-Hall About the year 1429 the Grocers had Licence to purchase five hundred Marks Land since the which time near adjoyning unto the Grocers Hall the said Company have builded seven proper Houses for seven aged poor Alms-people Thomas Knowles Grocer and Maior gave his Tenement in St. Anthonies Church-yard to the Grocers towards the relief of the poor Brethren in that Company Also Henry Keeble Grocer and Maior gave to the seven Alms-people six pence weekly for ever which Pension is now increased by the Masters to some of them two shillings a peece weekly and to some of them lesse c. Henry Ady Grocer 1563 gave a thousand Marks to the Grocers to purchase Lands and Sir Henry Pechy Knight Banneret free of that Company gave them five hundred pounds to certain uses he builded Alms-houses at Luding stone in Kent and was there buried West from this Cony-hope Lane is the Old Iury whereof some portion is of Cheape Ward at the South end of this Lane is the Parish-Church of St. Mary Cole-Church named of one Cole that builded it this Church is builded upon a Vault above ground so that men are forced to go to ascend up thereunto by certain steps I finde no Monuments of this Church more than that Henry the fourth granted Licence to William Marshal and others to found a Brotherhood of Saint Katherine therein because Thomas Becket and St. Edmond the Arch Bishop were baptized there The Old Iury hath had alwayes Citizens of quality and fair large Houses as there is now Gurney-house where Alderman Friderique lives a very worthy Gentleman There is also another ancient fair House of Thomas Bowyer and another of Mr. Bonnel worthy and wealthy brave Marchants We read of Bordhangli-lane to be of that Parish and thus much for the North side of the Poultry The South side of the said Poultry beginning on the Bank of the said Brook over against the Parish-Church of St. Mildred passing up to the great Conduit hath divers fair Houses which were sometimes inhabited by the Poulterers but now by Grocers Haberdashers and Upholsters Concerning other Antiquities there first is Bucklesbury so called of a Mannor and Tenements pertaining to one Buckle who there dwelled and kept his Courts this Mannor is supposed to be the great Stone-Building yet in part
honour of the City and had Licence also to take up two hundred Fodder of Lead for the building thereof of certain Conduits and a common Granary This Crosse was then curiously wrought at the Charges of divers Citizens Iohn Fisher Mercer gave six hundred Marks towards it the same was begun to be set up 1484 and finished 1486 the second of Henry the seventh It was after gilt over in the year 1522 against the comming in of Charles the fifth Emperor In the year 1553 against the Coronation of Queen Anne New burnished against the Coronation of Edward the sixth And again new guilt 1554 against the comming in of King Philip. Since which time the said Crosse having bin presented by divers Juries or Quests of Wardmote to stand in the high-way to the let of carriages as they alledged but could not have it removed it followed that in the year 1581 the twenty one of Iune in the night the lowest Images round about the said Crosse being of Christ his Resurrection of the Virgin Mary King Edward the Confessor and such like were broken and defaced Proclamation was made that who so would discover the doers should have forty Crowns but nothing came to light the Image of the blessed Virgin at that time was robbed of her Son and her Arms broken by which she stayed him on her knees her whole body was also haled with Ropes and left likely to fall but in the year 1595. was again fastened and repaired and in the year next following a new mis-shapen Son as born out of time all naked was laid in her Arms the other Images remaining broke as afore But on the East side of the same Crosse the steps being taken thence under the Image of Christs Resurrection defaced was set up a curious wrought Tabernacle of gray Marble and in the same an Alabaster Image of Diana and water conveyed from the Thames prilling from her naked Brest for a time but now decayed In the year 1599 the Timber of the Crosse at the top being rotted within the Lead the Arms thereof bending were feared to have fallen to the harming of some people and therefore the whole Body of the Crosse was seasfolded about and the top thereof taken down meaning in place thereof to have set up a Pyramis but some of her Majesties honourable Councellors directed their Letters to Sir Nicholas Mosley then Maior by her Highnesse express Commandment concerning the Crosse forthwith to be repaired and placed again as it formerly stood c. Notwithstanding the said Crosse stood he adless more then a year after whereupon the said Councellors in great number meaning not any longer to permit the continuance of such a contempt wrote to William Rider then Maior requiring him by vertue of her Highness said former direction and Commandement without any further delay to accomplish her Majesties most princely care therein respecting especially the Antiquity and continuance of that Monument and ancient Ensign of Christianity c. dared the four and twentieth of December 1600. After this a Crosse of Timber was framed set up covered with Lead and gilded the Body of the Crosse downward cleansed of dust the Scaffold cartyed thence About twelve nights following the Image of our Lady was again defaced by plucking off her Crown and almost her head taking from her her naked Child and stabbing her in the Brest But in the year 1644 during the Reign of the long Parliament the said Crosse by an Ordinance thereof was utterly demolished and while the thing was a doing there was a noyse of Trumpets blew all the while Upon the utter demolition of this so ancient and visible a Monument or Ornament of the City of London as all Forrainers esteemed it it fortuned that there was another new one popp'd up in Cheap-side hard by the Standard viz. a high square Table of Stone left in Legacy by one Russel a Porter and well-minded man with this Distichengraven God blesse the Porter who great pains doth take Rest here and welcome when thy back doth ake Thus much for the Crosse in West-cheape Then at the West end of West-Cheap-street was sometimes a Crosse of Stone called the Old Crosse. Ralph Higden in his Polychronicon saith that Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exceter Treasurer to Edward the second was by the Burgesses of London beheaded at this Crosse then called the Standard without the North door of St. Pauls Church and so it is noted in other Writers that then lived This old Crosse stood and remained at the East end of the Parish Church called St. Michael in the corner by Pauls Gate near to the North end of the old Exchange till the year 1390 the thirteenth of Richard the second in place of which old Crosse then taken down the said Church of St. Michael was enlarged and also a fair Water-Conduit builded about the ninth of Henry the sixth In the Reign of Edward the third divers Justings were made in this street betwixt Sopers Lane and the greâ—â— Crosse namely one in the year 1331 about the one and twentieth of September as 't is obserted by divers Writers of that time In the middle of the City of London say they in a Street called Cheap the Stone paâ—ement being covered with sand that the Horses might not slide when they strongly set their feet to the ground the King held a Tournement three daies together with the Nobility valiant men of the Realm and others some strange Knights And to the end the beholders might with the better ease see the same there was a wooden Scaffold erected crosse the street like unto a Tower wherein Queen Philip and many other Ladies richly attired and assembled from all parts of the Realm did stand to behold the Justs but the higher frame in which the Ladies were placed brake in sunder whereby they were with some shame forced to fall down by reason whereof the Knights and such as were underneath were grievously hurt wherefore the Queen took great care to save the Carpenters from punishment and through her prayers which she made upon her Kneeâ— pacified the King and Councel and thereby purchased great love of the people After which time the King caused a shed to be strongly made of Stone for himself the Queen and other States to stand on and there to behold the Justings and other shewes at their pleasure by the Church of St. Mary Bow as is shewed in Cordwayner-street Ward Thus much for the High street of Cheap Now of the North side of Cheap street and Ward beginning at the great Conduit and by St. Mary Cole Church where we left Next thereunto Westward is the Mercers Chappel sometime an Hospital entituled of St. Thomas of Acon or Acars for a Master and Brethren Militia Hospitalis c saith the Record of Edward the third the fourteenth year it was founded by Thomas Fitz Theobald de Heili and Agnes his Wife sister to Thomas Becket in the Reign of Henry the second they gave to the
Edmonds bury Lincoln Stanford and Lyn were robbed and spoyled and at York to the number of five hundred besides Women and Children entred a Tower of the Castle profered money to be in surety of their lives but the Christians would not take it whereupon they â—â—t the throats of their own Wives and Children and cast them over the Walls on the Christianâ— heads and then entring the Kings Lodging they burned 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 oâ—t Amongst whom there was one which being tormented many wayes would not ransome himself till the King had caused every day one of his great teeth to be plucked out by the space of seven dayes and then he gave the King ten thousand Marks of silver to the end they should pull out no more the said King at that time spoylâ—d 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 the third in the 11th of his Reign granted to Semaine or Ballaster the house of Benomie Mittun the Jew in the Parish of St. Michael Bassing-hanghe in which the said Benomy dwelt with the fourth part of all his Land in that Parish which VVilliam Elie held of the Fee of Hugh Nevel and all the Land in Colemanstreet belonging to the said Benomy and the fourth part of the Land in the Parish of St. Lawrence which was the Fee of Thomas Buckerel and were excheted to the King for the murther which the said Benomy committed in the City of London to hold to the said Semaine and his Heires of the King paying at Easter a pair of gilt Spurs and to do the serviâ—e thereof due unto the Lords Court In the like manner and for like services the King granted to Guso for his Homage the other part of the Lands of the said Benomye in St. Michaels Parish which Law the Painter held and was the Kings Excheter and the Lands of the said Benomye in the said Parish which VValter Turner held and fifteen foot of Land which Hâ—gh Harman held with fifteen Iron Ells of Land and an half in the front of Iron-monger-lane in the Parish of St. Martin which were the said Benomyes 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 de Reus and are the Kings Exchetes as aforesaid The 16th of the said Henry the Jews in London builded a Synagogue but the King commanded it should be dedicated to our blessed Lady and after gave it to the Brethren of St. Anthonies of Vienna and so was it called St. Anthonies Hospital This King Henry founded a Church and House for converted Jews in a new street by the Temple whereby it came to passe that in short time there was gathered a great number of Converts The twentieth of this King Henry seven Jews were brought from Norwich vvhich had stolen a christened Child had circumcised and minded to have cruciâ—â—ed him at Easter vvherefore their Bodies and Goods vvere at the Kings pleasure The six and twentieth the Jews vvere constrained to pay to the King twenty thousand Marks at two Termes in the year or else to be kept in perpetual Prison The five and thirtieth 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 hundâ—red Marks of Gold to the Queen In the fortieth year vvere brought up to VVestminster two hundred Jews from Lincoln for crucifying a Child named Hugh eighteen of them were hang'd The forty third a Jew at Tewksbury fell into a Privie 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 forty seven the Barons slew of the Jews at London seven hundred the rest were spoiled and theiâ—r Synagogue defaced because one Jew would have forced a Christian to have payd more than two shillings for the lone of twenty shillings a week The third of Edward the first 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 weare a Table on his brest the breadth of a Paveline or else to avoid the Realm The sixth of the said King Edward a Reformation was made for clipping of the Kings Coyn for which offence two hundred 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 Horses Tayls and hanged The 11th of Edward the first Iohn Perkham Arch Bishop of Canterbury commanded the Bishop of London to destroy all the Jewes 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 nineteenth of his Reign he banished them all out of England giving them only to bear their Charge till they were out of this Realm the number of Jews then expulsed were fifteen thousand and sixty persons the King made a mighty masse 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 Jewes In this street called the Old Iewry is a proper Parish-Church of St. Olave Upwell so called in Record 1320 John Brian Parson of St. Olave Upwell in the Iewry founded there a Chauncery and gave two Messuages to that Parish the sixteenth of Edward the second and was by the said King confirmed In this Church to the commendations of the Parsons and Parishioners the Monuments of the dead remain lesse defaced than in many other From this Parish Church of St. Olave to the North end of the Old Iewry and from thence West to the North end of Ironmonger-lane almost to the Parish Church of St. Martin was of old time one large building of stone very ancient made in place of Jews Houses but of what antiquity or by whom the same was builded or for what use is not known more than that King Henry the sixth in the sixteenth of his
of this street is the turning into the Black Fryers which Order sometime had their Houses in Old-born where they remained for the space of five and fifty years and then in the year 1276. Gregory Rocksley Mayor and the Barons of this City granted and gave to Robert Kilwarby Arch Bishop of Canterbury two Lanes or wayes next the street of Baynards Castle and also the Tower of Mount fitchet to be destroyed in place of which the said Robert builded the late new Church of the Black-Fryers and placed them therein King Edward the first and Eleanor his Wife were great Benefactors thereunto this was a large Church and richly furnished with Ornaments wherein divers Parliaments and other great Meetings have been holden namely in the year 1450 the twenty eighth of Henry the sixth a Parliament was begun at VVestminster and adjourned to the Black Fryers in London and from thence to Leicester In the year one thousand five hundred twenty two the Emperor Charls the fifth was lodged there In the year one thousand five hundred twenty foure the fifteenth of April a Parliament was begun at the Black Fryers wherein was demanded a Subsidy of 800000. pounds to be raised of Goods and Lands four shillings in every pound and in the end was granted two shillings of the pound of their Goods and Lands that were worth twenty pound or might dispend twenty pounds by the year and so upward to be paid in two years This Parliament was adjourned to VVestminster amongst the black Monks and ended in the Kings Palace there the 14th of August at nine of the Clock in the night and was therefore called the Black Parliament The same year in the moneth of October began a Parliament in the Black Fryers in the which Cardinal VVoolsey was condemned in the premunire this House valued at a hundred and four pound fifteen shillings five pence was surrendred the 12th of November the 30th of Henry the 8th Now to turn again to the Black Fryers through Bowyer Rowe Ave Mary Lane and Pater Noster Rowe to the Church of St. Michael ad Bladum or at the Corn corruptly at the Querne so called because in place thereof was sometime a Corn-Market stretching up West to the Shambles It seemeth that this Church was new builded about the Reign of Edward the third Thomas Newton first Parson there was buried in the Quire in the year 1461. At the East end of this Church stood a Crosse called the old Crosse in West Cheap which was taken down in the year 1390. since the which time the said Parish Church was also taken down but new builded and enlarged in the year 1430. the eighth of Henry the sixth VVilliam Eastfield Mayor and the Communalty granted of the common ground of the City three foot and an half in breadth on the North part and four foot in breadth toward the East for the inlarging thereof At the West end of this Parish Church is a small passage for people on foot thorow the same Church and West from the said Church some distance is another passage out of Pater Noster Rowe and is called of such a signe Panyer Alley which commeth out into the North over against Saint Martins Lane Next is Ivy Lane so called of Ivy growing on the Walls of the Prebends Houses but now the Lane is replenished on both the sides with fair Houses and diâ—ers Offices have bin there kept by Registers namely for the Prerogative Court of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury the Probate of Wills which is now removed into Warwick lane and also for the Lord Treasurers Remembrance of the Exchequer c. This Lane runneth North to the Westend of St. Nicholas Shambles of old time there was one great House sometimes belonging to the Earls of Britaâ—n since that to the Lovels and was called Lovels Inne Then is Eldenesse Lane which stretcheth North to the high street of Newgate Market the same is now called Warwick Lane of an ancient House there builded by an Earl of Warwick and was since called Warwick Inne It is in Record called a Messuage in Eldenesse lane in the Parish of St. Sepulchre the twenty eighth of Henry the sixth Cicilie Dutchesse of VVarwick possessed it Now again from the Conduit by Pauls Gate on the North side is a large street running West to Newgate the first part whereof from the Conduit to the Shambles of selling Bladders there called Bladder-street then behind the Butchers Shops be now divers Slaughter-houses inward and Tipling-houses outward This is called Mount Goddard-street of the Tipling-houses there and the Goddards mounting from the Tap to the Table from the Table to the Mouth and sometimes over the Head This street goeth up to the North end of Ivy lane before this Mount-goddard street Stall-boards were of old time set up by the Butchers to shew and to sell their Flesh meat upon over the which Stall-Boards they first builded sheds to keep off the Weather but since that incroaching by little and little they have made their Stall-boards and sheds fair Houses meet for the principal Shambles Next is Newgate Market first of Corn and Meale and then of other victuals which stretcheth almost to Eldenese-Lane a fair new and strong Frame of Timber covered with Lead was therefore set up at the Charges of the City near to the West Corner of St. Nicholas Shambles for the meal to be weighed in the first of Edward the sixth Sir Iohn Gresham being then Mayor On this side the North Corner of Eldenese Lane stood sometime a proper Parish-Church of St. Ewine as is before said given by Henry the eighth towards the erecting of Christs Church It was taken down and in place thereof a fair strong Frame of Timber erected wherein dwell men of divers Trades And from this Frame to Newgaete is all of this Ward and so an end thereof Of the two and Twentieth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of London called Bread-street Ward THen is Bread-street it self so called of Bread in old time there sold for it appeareth by Records that in the year 1302 which was the thirty of Edward the first the Bakers of London were bounden to sell no Bread in their Shops or Houses but in the Market and that they should have four Hall-motes in the year at four several Terms to determine of enormities belonging to the said Company This street giving the name to the whole Ward beginneth in West Cheap almost by the Standard and runneth down South through or thwart Wathling-street to Knight Riders-street aforesaid where it endeth This Bread-street is wholly on both sides of this Ward out of the which street on the East side is Basing Lane a piece whereof to wit to and over against the back gate of the Red Lion in Wathling-street is of this Bread-street Ward Then is Fryday-street beginning also in West Cheap and runneth down South through Wathling-street to Knight-Riders street or
the field one of the fairest rising street in the World From Newgate on the left hand lyeth the Old Bayley and so down by Sea-cole and Fleet-lane we passe then over the common Sewer up to Shooe-lane and so to Fewter-lane now vulgarly called Fetter-lane but betwixt these two Lanes there is another new street butted out by the Company of Goldsmiths called Newstreet where there is a knot of very handsome Buildings Above the Barres there was a House of the Templers but they removed thence to Fleetstreet There was also adjoyning thereunto the Bishop of Lincolns House which was very ancient for the Records say 't was built Anno 1147. But of late years it hath belonged to the Noble Earls of Southhampton And lately it hath bin quite taken down and turned to several private Tenements as Durham House is in the Strand Insomuch that if one should ask what God Almighty doth now in London he might as the pulse of the 〈◊〉 beats give the same answer that was given by the Pagan Philosopher who being demanded what Iupiter did in Heaven he said Magnas ollas rumpâ—t ex frustis earum parvas componit Jupiter breaks great Vessels and makes small ones of their peeces Side long of this ancient House of the Bishop of Lincoln is Newstreet for so it was called at first but now 't is called Chancery-lane where Edward the third annexed the House of converted Jews to the Office of Custos Rotulorum Here the Cursitors Office was built by Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the great Seal Here also is the six Clarks Office which is a fair convenient peece of stone and Brick Building newly erected the old being consumed by a casual fire of late years The Bishop of Chicester Ralph Nevil had much ground given him thereabouts by Henry the third which now is become all Tenements thick built and quite alienated Then is Lincolns Inne very much encreased in building it appertained sometimes to the said Ralph Nevil Bishop of Chicester Lord Chancellor of England having bin before the House of the Black-Fryers and after the decease of the said Bishop Nevil Henry Lacy Earl of Lincoln Constable of Chester and Custos of England added much building to this place and Sir Thomas Lovel did also add much thereunto in Henry the eighth's time but now it is one of the foure Inns of Court for the Students in the Law Behind Lincolns Inne Westward is a spacious field where many fair Houses or rather Palaces are taken up by the Gentry Then is there towards Drewry Lane a new Market called Clare Market then is there a street and Palace of the same name built by the Earl of Clare who lives there in a princely manner having a House a street and a Market both for flesh and fish all bearing his name There was something omitted which should have bin spoken of the Church of St. Giles of the Field which is that being a very ancient Church and so decayed that it could not be repaired a new one was erected partly out of the ruines of the old which work was begun and finished in two years and a while after the fair Brick Wall that encompasseth it There were divers well disposed persons who contributed to so pious a work but specially the Lady Alice Duddeley according to that which is engraven upon the North door in pure and ponderous Latine which I thought therefore worthy to be here inserted Quod faelix faustumque sit posteris Hoc Templum loco Veteris ex Annosa vetustate Collapsi mole et splendore auctum multa Paraecorum Charitas Restauravit In quibus pientissimae Heroinae Dom. Aliciae Duddeley Munificentia gratum marmoris hujus meretur eloquium Huc etiam accessit aliorum pletas Quibus provisae sunt grates In Coelo Heus viator an effaetum est bonâ—s Operibus Hoc Saeculum From the North end of Chancery Lane is High Holborn which extends up to St. Giles in the Field where the famous devout Queen Matilda did found an Hospital as she did Eastward St. Katherines beyond the Tower At this Hospital the Prisoners conveyed from London to Tyborn were used to be presented with a Bowl of Ale for their last refreshment in this life and it was commonly called St. Giles's Bowl Then is there a spacious fair street called Long Acre and then Pickadilly full of fair Houses round about Thus have we as succinctly as we could avoiding superfluities and unnecessary trivial things spoken of the Skirts of London and the places thereunto annexed without the Gates and now Navigeâ— hinc alâ—â— jam mihi linter aqua I mean let us steer now to the City of VVestminster Of the Savoy the Dutchy and City of Westminster with the Antiquities the Tribunals of Iustice and Liberties thereunto belonging HAving taken so fair a Prospect and finished the perlustration of London It were a high Incivility and a soloecism in good manners or rather a Piacle not to give VVestminster also a visit being so near and contiguous a Neighborr It is true that they were once above a mile asunder but by insenâ—â—bâ—e coalition and recruit of people they came at last to be united and incorporated into one continued peece in point of posture though not of Government And the Union with Scotland did not a little conduce to make this Union â—twixt London and VVestminster For the Scots multiplying here mightily neasâ—ed themseâ—ves about the Court so that the Strand from mud Walls and thatched Houses came to that perfection of Buildings as now we see Moreover the City of VVestminster hath divers Magnalia's which may deserve as exact a view as any within London for if London of old had her Temple of Diana VVestmâ—nster had one to a greater Deity which was Apollo And since in those very places is St. Paul hath his Church in London St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles hath his in VVestminster which was used to keep the Regalia's and the Crown Add hereunto that if London hath her Guild-hall and the Hustings VVestminster hath the great Praetorian or common Hall where the chief Courts and general Tribunals of Justice do make their Sessions though to her high prayâ—e be it spoken London hath a far more expedite way of doing Justice and determination of cauâ—es then Westminster hath besides in point of safety and strength if London hath her Artillery Garden Westminster hath her Military And in point of Extent and Government if London hath her six and twenty Wards and so many Aldermen Westminster also hath her Twelve Burgesses and so many distinct Wards but for the quality of Inhabitants London muâ—t vayl to her most of the Nobility and Gentry residing in or about her Precincts Moreover in one particular Westminster may claim a great advantage of London in regard as the Royal Court once was so the residence of the Soveraign Magistrate is still there Insomuch that Westminster may well glory of three things That she hath the chiefest
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 murtherer a filthy fornicator a keepâ—r oâ— Concubines and amongst other his detestable facts a false accuser of his elder Brother 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 Church of Bow fell down and slew many people men and women In the year 1284 the thirteenth of Edward the first Lawrence Ducket Goldsmith having grievously wounded one Ralph Crepin in West Cheap fled into Bow-Church into the which in the night time entred 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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence at the time of his death and had hid him there for fear the truth of the matter was disclosed for the which cause Iordan Good-Cheape Ralph Crepin Gilbert Clarke and Ieffrey Clarke were attainted and a certain Woman named Alice that was chief causer of the said mischief was burned 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 for a while but Lawrence was taken up and honestly buried in the Church-yard afterwards The Parish-Church of St. Mary Bow by meanes of incroachment and building of Houses wanting room in their Church-yard for burial of the Dead Iohn Rotham or Rodham Citizen and Taylor by his Testament dated the year 1465. gave to the Parson and Church-wardens a certain Garden in Hosier-lane to be a Church-yard which so continued near a hundred years but now is builded on and is a private mans house The old Steeple of this Church was by little and little re-edified and new builded 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 Councel that the Bow Bell should be nightly rung at nine of the Clock Shortly after Iohn Donne Mercer by his Testament dated 1472 according to the trust of Reginald Longdon gave to the Parson and Church-wardens of St. Mary Bow two Tenements with the appurtenances since made into one in Hosierlane 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 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 Cane in Normandy delivered at the Customers Key for four shillings eight pence the Tun 1515 and 1516 William Copland being Church-warden 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 bin glazed and lights in them placed nightly in the Winter whereby Travellers to the City might have the better sight thereof and not to misse of their wayes In this Parish also was a Grammar-School by commandment of King Henry the sixth which School was of old time kept in an house for that purpose prepared in the Church-yard But that School being decayed as others about this City the School-house was let out for Rent in the Reign of Henry the 8th for four shillings the year a Cellar for two shillings the year and two Vaults under the Church for 15 s. both There are Monuments of divers Citizens of note in this Church but most of them much defac'd and mouldred away Without the North side of this Church of St. Mary Bow towards West-Cheape standeth one fair building of Stone called in Record Sildam a shed which greatly darkneth the said Church for by meanes thereof all the Windows and doors on that side are stopped up King Edward the third upon occasion as shall be shewed in the Ward of Cheap caused this side or shed to be made and strongly to be builded of Stone for himself the Queen and other States to stand there to behold the Justings and other shewes at their pleasures And this House for long time after served to that use namely in the Reign of Edward the third and Richard the second but in the year 1410. Henry the fourth in the twelfth of his Reign confirmed the said shed or building to Stephen Spilman William Marchford and John Wattle Mercers by the name of one new Sildain Shed or Building with Shops Cellars and Edifices whatsoever appertaining called Crounsild or Tamersild scituate in the Mercety of West-Cheape and in the Parish of St. Mary de Arcubus in London c. Notwithstanding which grant the Kings of England and other great Estates as well of forraign Countries repairing to this Realm as Inhabitants of the same have usually repaired to this place therein to behold the shewes 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 Midsommer the Examples whereof were over-long to recite wherefore let it suffice briefly to rouch one In the year 1510 on St. Johns Eve at night King Henry the eight came to this place then called the Kings-Head in Cheape in the Livery of a Yeoman of the Gard with an Halberd on his shoulder and there beholding the Watch departed privily when the Watch was done and was not known to any but whom it pleased him But on Saint Peters 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 return'd in the morning Of the Sixteenth Ward or Aldermanry of the City of LONDON called Cheape-Ward WE enter now into the Center of the City which is Cheap-Ward taking name of the Market there kept called West Cheaping which Ward as a River as Mr. Stow saith that hath three heads and running along to the uttermost of his bounds issueth out on the sides into little streams so this Ward beginning on the Course of Wallbrook and is not the meanest of the Wards if for no other cause yet because it is nearest to the heart of the City hath his beginning on the East from three places The High street of the Poultrey the lower end of Buckles bury and the nether part of the Venell or entry into Scalding Alley