Chapter XIII: Preface (13)

Broken Wharf is mentioned so far back—_e.g._ 1329 and 1349—that one suspects that the wall, not the wharf, was at this place broken. In 1598 a stone house stood beside the wharf, with arched gates. It belonged in the forty-third year of Henry III. to Hugh de Bygod; in the eleventh of Edward III. to Thomas Brotherton, the King’s brother, Earl of Norfolk, Marshal of England; and in the eleventh of Henry VI. to John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.

Within the gate of this house (now belonging to the city of London)
is lately—to wit, in the years 1594 and 1595—built one large house
of great heith 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 brewhouse for beer
(Stow’s _Survey_).

=St. Mary Somerset= was situated on the north side of Upper Thames
Street, opposite Broken Wharf, and was so-called from a man’s name
Summer’s Hith. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from
the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1695, when St. Mary Mounthaw
was annexed to it. The building, with the exception of the tower,
was pulled down in 1868. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1280.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: William de
Staundon, who gave it by will, dated November 20, 1273, to Arabella
de Staundon, his wife; Sir John de Peyton, 1335; Edward III., 1363
(see Braybroke, _London Review_, 146, as to a dispute about the
patronage when Thomas de Bradeston claimed it); Richard II., as
custodian of Thomas de Bradeston, 1387; Walter de la Pole, in right
of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas de Bradeston; Thomas de
Ingaldesthorp, cousin and heir of Walter de la Pole; Henry VI.,
1435; William Norris, Knight, married to Isabel, daughter of Edmund
de Ingaldesthorp, 1478; Edward VI., 1550; Mary, 1554; G. Comb,
generosus, 1560; Elizabeth, 1585; George Coton, 1596; and several
others until the Great Fire in 1666, when the parish was annexed to
St. Mary Mounthaw.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

Chantries were founded here: By and for John Gildesburgh, in the
time of Edward III., at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the
King granted in mortmain to Richard, son of W. de Segrave, May
18—the endowment fetched £4 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when John Bordell was
priest; by Thomas Wilforde, who had a licence from Henry IV., whose
endowment fetched £3 : 7 : 4 in 1548, when John Moryalle was priest.

Most of the monuments of the original church were defaced by Stow’s
time, and those which he records are of individuals of little
eminence. In later times the memory of Gilbert Ironside, Bishop of
Hereford, was honoured by a stone inscription within the communion
rails.

Ralph Bernard left 8s. per annum, and John Moysier 7s. 6d. per
annum. No other gifts or charities are recorded by Stow.

Twenty-four boys and twenty girls were clothed and educated at the
charge of the gentlemen of Queenhithe Ward.

Samuel Croxall, D.D. (d. 1752), Chancellor of Hereford, was rector
here.

Timber Hithe crossed the narrow lanes parallel to Thames Street. It is now called High Timber Street. These lanes have changed their names; “Dunghill Lane,” for instance, became Gardeners’ Lane. There used to be here a quaint little figure of a gardener, dated 1670, of the kind to be found at one time in many parts of London, but now very scarce.

A BAS-RELIEF OF A GARDENER, GARDENERS’ LANE, 1791
]

In Fye Foot Lane is the Shuttleworth Club, founded in 1889 by Prebendary Shuttleworth. It was intended to provide “a comfortable place of social intercourse, culture and recreation,” for men and women in business in the City. The affairs of the Club are managed by the members themselves, and no religious test of any kind is required. The Club at first went by the name of St. Nicholas, but it was rechristened the Shuttleworth Club in honour of the founder. Every form of recreation is provided—from cricket in the summer months, and dancing, to lectures and chess. In the basement there is a fine billiard room with two tables. On the ground floor there is a refreshment bar, where alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic beverages are provided, and also dining-rooms, which look out at the back of the house on the dreary little strip of ground—all that remains of St. Mary Somerset Churchyard. The experiment is interesting, as this is the first mixed Club established in the City.

Of =Bread Street Hill= there seems to be no recorded history; here on the west side once stood

=St. Nicholas Olave=, destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt,
its parish being annexed to that of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1327.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Bishop of
London, by whom it was given in 1172 to the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul’s, with whom it continued up to 1666, when the parish was
annexed to St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.

Houseling people in 1548 were 163.

Thomas Lewen, sheriff in 1537, who died 1555, was buried here; also
Blitheman, organist of the Queen’s Chapel, who died 1591; John
Widnell, Master of the Merchant Taylors Company.

Stow says that the parish received no gifts for any purposes.

Hugh Weston (d. 1558), Dean of Westminster, was a rector here. The
churchyard still remains.

Perhaps of all the many points of interest in Thames Street, that open dock or harbour called Queenhithe is the most interesting. It originally, as we have seen, belonged to one Edred, a Saxon, but fell into the hands of King Stephen, as valuable property had a way of falling into kings’ hands in those early days. After being held by an intermediate possessor, William de Ypres, who gave it to a convent, it came again to the Crown, and was given by King John to his mother, the Dowager Queen Eleanor. It was a valuable property by reason of the dues collected from the ships unlading here. King Henry VIII.

commanded the constables of the Tower of London to arrest the ships
of the Cinque Ports on the River of Thames, and to compel them to
bring their corn to no other place, but to the Queen’s Hithe only.
In the eleventh 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 Queen Hithe (Stow).

In pursuance of this order the larger ships, as well as the smaller ones, were compelled to come up beyond London Bridge, and were admitted by a drawbridge. In 1463 the “slackness” of the drawbridge impeded their progress, and Queenhithe suffered accordingly. At Queenhithe were delivered goods varying in quantity and quality, but the two great trades were in fish: for the fish-market, the principal one—Billingsgate not being then a free and open port—was at Old Fish Market; and grain, in memory whereof we may still see the vane on the top of St. Michael’s Church in the form of a ship made to contain exactly a bushel of corn. It was in Henry III.’s reign that the “farm” of Queenhithe was granted to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of the City to be held by them, but the profits were soon “sore diminished,” partly by reason of the competition of Billingsgate.

=St. Michael, Queenhithe=, was situated on the north side of Upper
Thames Street, and was sometimes called St. Michael, Cornhith. It
was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of
Wren in 1677, when the parish of Trinity Church was annexed. In 1876
the building was pulled down. Several portions of the building and
fittings were preserved; the font has been removed to St. Paul’s, as
well as a number of the monuments, and the old oak pulpit to St.
James’, Garlickhithe. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1150.

The church has always been in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s.

Houseling people in 1548 were 100.

Chantries were founded here: By Richard Marlowe, ironmonger and
mayor of London, 1409 and 1417; by Stephen Spelman, who died in 1414
and endowed it with lands, which fetched £11 : 16 : 8 in 1548, when
Thomas Gilbank was priest; by Robert Parres, Thomas Eure, and John
Clarke, who endowed it with tenements, etc., which fetched £7 : 13 :
4, when Sir Thomas Bigge was priest.

Few monuments are recorded by Stow, as many had been quite defaced
by his time. He mentions Stephen Spelman as a benefactor to the
church in 1404; and here was buried also Richard Marlow, mayor in
1409, who gave £20 to the poor of the parish, and Richard Gray,
donor of £40.

The gifts and benevolences belonging to the parish were registered
in the parish book, but the details of them are not recorded by
Stow.

There was a school for forty-three boys and girls.

John Russell (1787-1863), D.D., headmaster of Charterhouse, was
rector here.

=Huggin Lane= was known as Hoggene Lane in 1329, 1373, 1429, 1430, 1431, 1433 (see _Calendar of Wills_). In its south-east corner stood the Church of St. Michael, Queenhithe. The churchyard still remains.

In =Little Trinity Lane= is the Painter Stainers’ Hall, opposite to which was the Lutheran Church. In Great Trinity Lane was the Church of the Holy Trinity, not rebuilt after the Fire.

THE PAINTERS OR PAINTER STAINERS COMPANY

This Company was incorporated by Queen Elizabeth, 1582, for a
master, 2 wardens, 19 assistants, and a livery of 124. The present
livery is 130; their Corporate Income is £700; their Trust Income is
£2300. Their hall is in Little Trinity Lane. The history of the
Company has been written by Mr. John Gregory Grace, late master. It
was an ancient Gild, but how ancient cannot be learned. In the
fifteenth century the Painters sent unto the mayor and aldermen the
usual petition that they might be allowed to choose two persons of
their Mystery who should be authorised to make search for bad and
“false” work. This Company originally included painters of portraits
and other kinds, as well as decorators, sign painters, etc. It
might, in fact, have become the City Academy of Arts, and it seems a
great pity that its nobler side was lost sight of. The hall,
formerly the residence of Sir John Brown, Sergeant Painter to Henry
VIII., was destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt immediately
afterwards. The Company can show many distinguished names on the
roll of members, including those of Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey
Kneller, Antonio Verrio, Sir James Thornhill, and Richard Lovelace.

=Holy Trinity the Less= was situated in Knightrider Street. In 1607
and 1629 it was rebuilt and repaired, but it was destroyed in the
Great Fire of 1666, and its parish annexed to that of St. Michael,
Queenhithe. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1323.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, before 1316; Henry VIII.
seized it, when it soon came, either by exchange or grant, to the
Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, with whose successors it continued
till 1666, when the church was destroyed and the parish annexed to
St. Michael, Queenhithe.

Houseling people in 1548 were 170.

Chantries were founded here by: Thomas Cosyn; John Bryan.

John Bryan was buried in this church—he was an alderman in the reign
of Henry V. and a great benefactor; also John Mirsin, auditor of the
Exchequer in 1471.

No legacies or gifts are recorded by Stow.

There was a school for forty-three boys and girls belonging to St.
Michael, Queenhithe.

John Rogers, who was burnt as a heretic at Smithfield in 1555, was a
rector here; also Francis Dee (d. 1638), Bishop of Peterborough.

=Great Trinity Lane=, together with Great St. Thomas Apostle and the west half of Cloak Lane, formerly counted as part of Knightrider Street, which joins the western end of Great Trinity Lane.

It was changed to the present style after the Fire. In 1888 the underground “Mansion House” station ousted all the houses on the south side of the lane; but Jack’s Alley was a right-of-way into Keen’s mustard factory—its loss had to be made good, and hence the iron bridge which crosses the station from the lane to the factory: really it is an alley suspended in mid-air.

Great St. Thomas Apostle was an important street in old days. It was so-called from the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle.

At St. Paul’s Cathedral is a document of 1170 relating to =St.
Thomas-the-Apostle=; that is the earliest reference. In 1181 the
book of Dean Ralph de Diceto describes it as “Ecclesia Sancti
Thomae,” a church with burial-ground belonging. The Cathedral canons
collated to it, and one Stephen was then priest. The name at that
time is simply written “St. Thomas”; it was the only church of the
name in the City. A few years later the church dedicated to St.
Thomas à Becket was founded in Cheapside and styled St. Thomas of
Acres: after that, necessity of distinction caused the earlier
church to be known as “St. Thomas-ye-Apostle.” Of the building,
scant information exists. Roesia de Burford erected upon the south
side a new chapel shortly before 1329.[4] At about the same time a
partial or complete rebuilding of the church took place: John
Bernes, mercer, Lord Mayor 1371, was a substantial contributor to
the new work, and a coat-of-arms existing in the stone work and the
windows until Stow’s time (1598) was believed to attest his
munificence. A Fraternity of St. Eligius, or Eloy, Bishop of Noyon,
had quarters here, and there was an altar to their saint. In the
years 1629-1630 the building was “well repaired and finely
varnished” at a cost of nearly £300. Then in 1666 came the trial by
fire, and the church succumbed. The parish was united to St. Mary
Aldermary, and the Dean and Chapter, as patrons of St. Thomas, were
allotted alternate presentation to the united living. The sites of
the church and rectory were thrown into Queen Street, cut from
Cheapside to Thames Street soon after the Fire. Some small portion
of the churchyard remained, east and west of the new thoroughfare.
Part of the western space was shortly built upon; the very houses
still stand, with the tree-planted churchyard as a garden entrance:
beneath the garden are the vaults, once used as a last resting-place
for deceased parishioners, now as a wine store. The western space
still contained some remains of the church until plastered over in
1828. The ground was curtailed by the widening of Queen Street and
the allotment of a rectory site for St. Mary Aldermary in 1851. Thus
it has been reduced to a tiny and flagged square. On the north wall
a tablet bears this inscription: “Near this spot stood the church of
St. Thomas the Apostle, destroyed in the Great Fire of London,
September 1666: the burial ground belonging to which, extending 55
feet northward of Cloak Lane, and 20 feet on an average eastward of
Queen Street, was circumscribed to the space here enclosed a.d.
1851, when by virtue of an Act of Parliament 10 and 11 Vict. cap.
CCLXXX, the remnant of the ground was taken to widen Queen Street
and Cloak Lane. All remains of mortality which could be discovered
were carefully collected and deposited within the vault beneath this
stone. H. B. Wilson DD, rector: Matthew T. Bishop: John Pollock:
churchwardens.” The earliest date of an incumbent is 1365.

The patronage of the church has always been in the hands of the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul’s, and was given to them in the twelfth
century by Wicelonis the priest and Gervasius his nephew.

Houseling people in 1548 were 298.

Chantries were founded here: By Thomas Romayn, whose will was dated
December 21, 1312, for himself and Juliana his wife, to which John
Wariner, priest, was admitted chaplain, April 20, 1368; by Roger
atte Wine, whose endowment fetched £2 : 13 : 4 in 1548; by William
Champneys, to which Walter Badewynde de Canterbury dio was admitted
chaplain, June 12, 1368—the endowment fetched £5 : 6 : 7 in 1548
(the above three were consolidated and united in January 9,
1400-1401, when Thomas Jordan was admitted chaplain); by Richard
Chawry, who gave to the Salters Company certain lands, etc., to find
a priest, which were valued at £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Sir George
Walpole was chaplain; by William Brampton, who endowed it with
lands, etc., which fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Sir John Barnes
was chaplain.

Very few monuments of special interest are recorded by Stow. John
Foy, citizen and Merchant Taylor, was buried here in 1625; he was a
benefactor of the parish.

The charitable gifts belonging to this parish were few and small:
£13 : 0 : 4 the gift of Mr. Hinman; £2 : 12s. the gift of Mr.
Beeston; and others to the amount of £5.

Two almshouses for the poor of the Salters Company belonging to St.
Mary Aldermary.

John Walker (d. 1741), Archdeacon of Hereford, was rector here; also
Thomas Cartwright (1634-1689), Bishop of Chester.

Just beyond its eastern end, across the present College Hill, stood the =Tower Royal=. The wine merchants of La Reole, near Bordeaux, settled in and round the present College Hill during or before the reign of Edward I. The hill and the immediate neighbourhood became termed “the Reole”: the word “Royal” is a corrupted form, and has nothing to do with kings. The tower, tenement, or inn situated in “the Reole” stood on the north of Cloak Lane, at College Hill corner; it extended eastwards nearly to the Walbrook, northwards perhaps to Budge Row. It had a south gate, and probably also a courtyard opening into the lane; and a west gate standing on the hill. Perhaps Henry I. was the founder: Stow wishes us to believe that Stephen lodged here, “as in the heart of the City for his more safety,” which is very likely true.

The theory that the tower, or main building, was reserved to the King finds support in 1331, when Edward III. granted “La Real” to Queen Phillippa for life, to serve as her wardrobe. A few years later Phillippa repaired, perhaps rebuilt, it; particulars of the work done still survive (Cottonian MS.). In 1369, a few months after Phillippa’s death, the King gave this “inn (hospitum) with its appurtenances, called le Reole” to the canons of his college of St. Stephen’s, Westminster, the annual value being then £20. By some means the place still continued at the royal disposal, both to dwell in and to grant away. When the Wat Tyler rebellion in 1381 drove Johanna, the King’s mother, from the Tower of London, she took refuge here, the place being then called the Queen’s Wardrobe: thither came Richard II. when he returned from Smithfield, after the death of Tyler. Richard was still here in 1386, “lying in the Royal,” as Stow has it, when he granted a charter of £1000 per annum to the refugee Leon VI., King of Armenia. The place was granted by Richard III. to John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. In later times the Tower became neglected, and converted into stabling for the King’s horses. When Stow wrote (1598), it was divided into tenements let out to divers persons. All perished in the Great Fire; but at the rebuilding the south entrance and courtyard in Cloak Lane were plainly marked by Balding’s Yard; the west gateway by Tower Royal Court in what was then Tower Royal Street, but is now the upper end of College Hill. Neither survived; but a small lane called Tower Royal, in Cordwainer Ward, marks the western boundary.

West of the Church of St. Thomas Apostle, reaching to Bow Lane, was the great house called =Ypres Inn=, first built by William of Ypres, who came over from Flanders with other Flemings to aid Stephen against Matilda.

In the year 1377 John of Ypres lived there: on a certain day came John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Lord Henry Percy the marshal to dine with him. Both the Duke and Percy had been defending Wyclyf before the Bishop of London: the citizens, enraged, sought the life of both, going in pursuit of them to the Savoy. A knight of the Duke’s hastened to Ypres Inn with the news: the frightened Duke “leapt so hastily from his oysters that he hurt both his legs against a form,” refused the consolation of wine, left the Inn with Percy by a back gate, and taking a boat at the Thames “never stayed rowing” until he came to Kennington, where he was safe. Thus the hunters missed the fox at his hole, whilst the fox, lying in hiding at the hunter’s back door, conveyed himself to a place of security. What eventually happened to the Inn is not recorded.

=Garlick Hill=, or Garlick Hithe, where, one supposes, garlick was formerly sold, has at present in it nothing remarkable except the Church of St. James. “Garleckhithe” occurs in a record of 1281. Of old time, Stow relates, garlic was sold upon the Thames bank near this hill: as a strong flavouring it was much in vogue for the dressing of food among the common folk: and an ordinance of 1310 relating to Queenhithe, close by, makes reference to ships with cargoes of garlic and onions. Here, no doubt, the garlic market was held, hence this particular hithe, hive, harbour, or quay was the Garlickhithe, and the church on the hill just above was called St. James-at-Garlickhithe. At the north-east corner of the hill stood Ormond Place, a great stone house, sometimes the residence of the Earls of Ormond. It had just been demolished when Stow wrote his _Survey_, and tenements and a tavern built on the site. The hill was “well built and inhabited” after the Great Fire, says Strype. Sir John Coke was living here in 1625.

ST. JAMES, GARLICKHITHE

“St. James _versus vinitariam_” occurs in a document of about
1170;[5] “St. James in Garleckhithe” is found written in 1281:[6]
both names were at that time used without distinction, but the
former was eventually dropped. “Vinitarium” or Vintry applied to the
general district of the wine trade situated hereabouts;
“Garleckhithe,” to the harbour, just below the church, where the
garlic-monger made sale of his wares. St. James is the saint here
honoured.

The earliest church is well-nigh recordless: it was in part rebuilt
and chiefly restored by Richard de Rothing, probably the same who
was sheriff in 1326; here, within the walls of his munificence, was
he buried. He did not complete the restorations. John de Rothing,
Richard’s son, left by will in 1375 money towards completing the
repairs, towards the rebuilding of the old belfry, and for
re-erecting a doorway in the north side.

It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt from designs by
Wren, 1676-1683. During the last century the church was several
times repaired, but not substantially altered. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1259.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1252; Henry VIII. seized it in 1540 and
granted it to Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster, the same year,
viz. January 20, 1540-1541; the Bishop of London, by grant of Edward
VI. in 1550, confirmed by Mary, March 3, 1553-1554.

Houseling people in 1548 were 400.

The church measures 75 feet in length, 45 feet in breadth, and 40
feet in height. There are two side-aisles separated from the nave by
Ionic columns, six on either side, with a clerestory above. This is
interrupted at the centre, and three eastern and three western
columns each bear half of it, thus presenting a cruciform
appearance. The tower, measuring 20 feet square at the base, rises
at the west, surmounted by a dome, lantern, ball finial, and vane;
the total height is 125 feet. The transitions are softened by vases
and urns. Above the door projects a bracket clock topped by the
grotesque figure of St. James in pilgrim’s garb, locally known as
“old Jimmy Garlick.” Much of the woodwork in the interior was
brought from St. Michael, Queenhithe, when that church was pulled
down.

Chantries were founded here: By John Whitthorn, of three
chaplains—one Thomas Haverbergh, chaplain, exchanges it with William
Gedelston, rector of Ongar ad Castrum, Essex, July 31, 1381; by
William Hawye, at the Altar of St Katharine, whose endowment fetched
£12 : 18 : 8 in 1548, when Thomas Dale was priest; by John de
Oxenford, citizen and vintner, which was augmented by Roger de
Fordham, whose will is dated next after the Feast of St. Barnabas,
1349; by Thomas Lincoln and Richard Lyon in 1548, when John Borell
was chaplain; by Thomas Bodynge, whose endowment yielded £22 : 10s.
in 1548.

Richard Rothing, the reputed founder of this church, was buried
here. So also were the following: Walter Nele, vintner, sheriff in
1337; John Oxenford, vintner, mayor in 1341; John Wroth, fishmonger,
mayor in 1360; John Bromer, fishmonger, alderman in 1474; William
Venor, grocer, mayor in 1389; William Moor, vintner, mayor in 1395;
Robert Chichele, grocer, mayor in 1421; James Spencer, vintner,
mayor in 1527; Richard Lyons, sheriff in 1374, beheaded by Wat
Tyler; Richard Platt, brewer, founder of a free school and
almshouses in Hertfordshire. There were tombs of importance:
especially curious were those of Richard Lyons and the Countess of
Worcester, which had either great brasses or recumbent effigies;
also the tombs of Sir George Stanley, K.G., and his first wife; John
Stanley; Lord Strange, 1503; and the Countess of Huntingdon. The
church owned many precious things: an inventory of its jewels in
1449 is still preserved at Westminster Abbey.

There was a charity school in Maiden Lane, which by the subscription
of the whole ward maintained fifty boys.

Arthur Bulkely (died 1553), Bishop of Bangor, was rector here. Also
Charles Booth, Bishop of Hereford, 1516.

Adjoining to the church on the south side stood a house called “The Commons”: it had been given by one Thomas Kente for keeping his anniversary in the church. Here dwelt the chantry priests, who held the tenure. When the chantries were suppressed by Edward VI. “The Commons” was valued at 53s. 4d. a year: no fewer than nine “incumbents,” who had life interests in the chantry property of the parish, received pensions under Mary in 1555-1556. The total chantry property fetched £2551 : 3s. In the church was founded a Guild or Fraternity of St. James in 1375: it was practically a religious Benefit Society: the members, men and women, were sworn together for the amendment of their lives: on one Sunday in the year they held an annual feast: they paid entrance fees and periodical subscriptions. A member of seven years’ standing was eligible for a sickness or old age allowance of fourteen-pence a week, and in case of false imprisonment a needy member would be granted a sum of thirteen-pence a week. In the year 1566 the church was repaired. The parish bought the rood-loft which had been taken in Protestant propriety from St. Martin Vintry; the woodwork was utilised for their new fittings. Edmund Chapman, the Queen’s joiner, carried out the work. He was afterwards buried in the church, and his monument narrated that:

Fine pews within this church he made,
And with his Arms support
The table and the seats in choir
He set in comely sort.

Here it was that Sir Richard Steele heard the Common Prayer read so distinctly, emphatically and fervently that inattention was impossible.[7] The reader who drew forth his praise was the then rector, Philip Stubbs, afterwards Archdeacon of St. Albans. There is kept in the church a shrouded corpse in a remarkable state of preservation; formerly it was one of the show things for the benefit of the churchkeeper, but though still above ground it is not now publicly exposed. The parish registers date back to 1536, two years before Thomas Cromwell made a general order for the keeping of such records. They are amongst the oldest in the City. Before the Great Fire there stood south of the church, nearly opposite to Vintners’ Hall, a parsonage. In 1670 it was rebuilt and leased to one Richard Corbet for forty-one years.

Opposite, at the corner of Garlick Hill, was Ormond Place, residence of the Earls of Ormond. Farther east, on the same side, stood =Ringed Hall=. At the west end of the Church of St. Thomas was a lane called by Stow Wringwren Lane, a most interesting survival. Of old not only were wines imported into Vintry ward, but grapes were grown here. The Anglo-Saxon name for wine-press was “winwringa”; that word reversed into “wringa-win” is undoubtedly contained in the corrupted form of “Wringwren.” Perhaps a wine-press stood in the lane; the proximity of “Ringed” Hall seems to strengthen the probability.

The lane called =Worcester Place= serves to mark the site of Worcester House, the old residence of the Earls of Worcester. One of them, John Tiptoft, Lord High Treasurer of England, dwelt here in the reign of Edward IV. This earl was a patron of Caxton, and a great lover of books; to Oxford University he gave volumes to the value of 500 marks. He was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1470, when, as Fuller puts it, “the axe then did in one blow cut off more learning than was in the heads of all the surviving nobility.” Nevertheless he was known as “The Butcher of England.” He had impaled forty Lancastrians at Southampton, and slain the infant children of Desmond, the Irish chief. One of the countesses of Worcester was buried in the old church of St. James, Garlickhithe, close by. By the end of Elizabeth’s reign the premises were let out in tenements. In 1603 they were in possession of one Matthew Paris, girdler, who left them, by will bearing that year’s date, to his mother Katherine, then living in Aldermanbury.[8] The Fruiterers Company were then occupying one or more of the tenements as their Hall, although they were not incorporated until 1606. Their choice of this locality indicates that much of the fruit trade was centred here. Worcester House perished in the Great Fire. The Fruiterers were too poor to establish a new hall, but met in that of the Parish Clerks.

=Maiden Lane= appears as “Kyrunelane” in 1259. Stow writes it Kerion Lane, “of one Kerion sometime dwelling there,” but this etymology is guesswork, as shown by the earlier forms. Before the Fire the lane contained “divers fair houses for merchants,” says Stow, and the Glaziers’ Hall.

=Queen Street= was cut shortly after the Great Fire of 1666 in common with King Street, Cheapside, to connect the Guildhall with the Thames; thus the Lord Mayor now had a straight course for his procession when he “took water” at the Three Cranes Stairs on his way to be sworn at Westminster Hall. The new thoroughfare included the present Queen Street Place, and was named New Queen Street in honour of the wife of Charles II. The prefix “New” subsequently vanished. Close to Queen Street in Upper Thames Street is the Vintners’ Hall (see p. 229). The rectory house of the parish stands on a portion of St. Thomas the Apostle Churchyard; the remainder of the churchyard on this side of the street consists of a small flagged square enclosed by a railing. The portion of the churchyard on the west side of the road, opposite, contains two houses; they are the only houses remaining of the post-Fire rebuilding. In front, the churchyard serves them for a garden; its two fine plane-trees set off their quaint red brick walls and pillared and pedimented doorways. The southern house has a delightful room on the first floor, now used as the board room of the Tredegar Iron Company. The mantel is exquisite, carved with all the beauty of the Grinling Gibbons school; the walls are wainscotted; the doors all solid mahogany, over each a carved panel; the medallion cornice, of minutely beautiful detail, once carried a panelled ceiling now removed. An ante-room has a second delicately carved mantel, and a panelled ceiling.

=St. Martin Vintry= stood at the south corner of Royal or
Queen Street, Upper Thames Street. Authentic history dates
back to the Conqueror’s reign, when Ralph Peverell gave the
Church of St. Martin, London, to the Abbey Church of St.
Peter, Gloucester. In a document at St. Paul’s (_Hist. MSS.
Comm. Rep._ IX.) of the year 1257 “St. Martin de Beremanes
churche” is met with. In the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries “St. Martin de Barmannes-cherche” and St. Martin
Vintry are both used. The church was rebuilt in the beginning
of the fifteenth century, several bequests having been left
for the purpose. It was burnt down in the Great Fire and not
rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of the church, St.
Michael Royal. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1250.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Bishop of
Winchester; Ralph Peverell; Abbot and Convent of St. Peter’s,
Gloucester, from 1388; Henry VIII.; Bishop of Worcester by grant of
Edward VI., in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when the
parish was annexed to St. Michael Royal.

Houseling people in 1548 were 460.

A chantry was founded here by John Gisors or Jesores, for himself
and Isabel his wife, to which Geoffrey Stowe was admitted chaplain,
September 5, 1368.

Very few monuments of interest are recorded by Stow. Sir John
Gisors, mayor in 1311, was buried here; also Sir Ralph Austrie and
Sir Cuthbert Hacket, mayors. A considerable number of those
commemorated were “Vinetarii.”

According to Stow, there were no bequests or legacies belonging to
the church, or for public uses; though there were a few for the
poor. The Stationers Company was donor of £2 : 10s., for bread; the
Dyers Company was donor of £4 every two years, for clothing; and
George Lucas was donor of £2.

In St. Martin, Vintry, there was a workhouse, and thirteen
almshouses founded by Sir Richard Whittington, each person being
allowed 3s. 10d. a week.

Bruno Ryves (1596-1677), who suffered much persecution in Puritan
times, Dean of Chichester and of Windsor, was rector here.

The site became a burial-ground. A part is now covered with buildings, but the remainder forms a small square, planted with trees—three great elms, two small limes, one large plane: six trees in all—really quite a leafy wood for the City! The paths and flower-beds are well tended. A few gravestones impart an aspect of sepulchral solemnity. Thus the site of St. Martin Vintry is not wholly effaced.

The =Vintry= stood east of Queenhithe; it was a wharf on which “the merchants of Bordeaux craned their wine out of lighters and other vessels, and then landed and made sale of them within forty days after, until the 28th of Edward I., at which time the said merchants complained that they could not sell their wines, paying poundage, neither hire houses nor cellars to lay them in.”

This was remedied by building storehouses with vaults and cellars for storage, where formerly had stood a row of cooks’ shops.

On the Vintry wharf were three cranes standing. They gave the name to Three Cranes Lane. At Three Cranes Stairs, in 1552, the Duke of Somerset was landed on his way to the Tower. In 1554 Queen Mary landed here, when she paid a visit to the Guildhall and “showyd hare mynde unto the Mayor, aldermen, and the whole craftes of London in hare owne person.”

On the south side of Thames Street, just above the Three Cranes wharf and opposite to St. Martin Vintry, stood a large house built of stone and timber; below it were vaults for the stowage of wines, for it was a wine merchant’s mansion known as “The Vintry.” John Gisors, vintner, mayor 1311, 1312, and 1314, constable of the Tower, dwelt here; also Henry Picard, vintner, Lord Mayor, 1356. In the year 1363 Picard sumptuously feasted in this house Edward III.; John II. of France, the Black Prince’s prisoner; David, King of Scots; the King of Denmark; the King of Cyprus, and many nobles. Truly an illustrious gathering. It is said that the toast of “five times five,” still drunk, owed origin to this feast of the five kings. Picard kept his hall for all comers that were willing to play dice with him; his wife, the Lady Margaret, kept her chamber to the same intent for the princesses and ladies. The King of Cyprus won fifty marks from Picard, but afterwards lost a hundred marks and was at pains to conceal his chagrin. “My Lord and King,” said the host, “be not agrieved, I covet not your gold but your play, for I have not bid you hither that I might grieve you, but that amongst other things I might try your play.” Thereupon Picard restored the monarch’s marks and good humour at one and the same time, “plentifully bestowing of his own among the retinue.” Moreover, he gave rich gifts to King Edward and to the nobles and knights who had that day dined with him “to the great glory of the citizens of London.” (Stow).

THE VINTNERS COMPANY

It is probable that a fraternity or company of the Mystery of
Vintners, by the name of the Wine Tunners of Gascoigne, has existed
in London from time immemorial.

The Company is mentioned in a Municipal Ordinance of the year 1256.

By letters patent, 37 Edward III., it was ordained and granted,
amongst other things, that no merchant should go into Gascony for
wines, nor use the trade of wine in England, except those who in
London were enfranchised in the said mystery there, or who, in other
cities, boroughs, and towns, had skill therein, and that no stranger
should retail wines; and that the merchants of the said mystery of
Vintners should elect four persons to see that all wines were sold
by retail in taverns at a reasonable price for such wine, and of
such conditions, as they were known, or named, to be; and that the
taverners should be ruled by such four persons, and likewise that
the said four persons should correct and amend all defaults that
should be found in the exercise of the said mystery, and inflict
punishments by their good advice and consideration, if need were,
without the mayor, bailiff, or other chief magistrate; and the King
gave licence to the said Merchant Vintners to export cloth, fish,
and herrings in exchange for wines; and did ordain that all wines
coming to London should be landed above London Bridge, westward
towards the Vintry, so that the King’s butler and gauger and
searchers might have knowledge thereof, and take the customs and
prices of right due. Which Letters Patent were exemplified and
confirmed by inspeximus by King Henry the Sixth by Letters Patent,
bearing date the eighth day of November, in the sixth year of his
reign.

By another charter of King Henry VII., the King and Queen ordained
and constituted the mystery of Vintners of the City of London a
mystery of itself, and the freemen and commonalty thereof were to be
one body corporate and politic, in deed, fact, and name, by the name
of the master and wardens and freemen and commonalty of the mystery
of Vintners of London.

Other charters are recited from Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen
Elizabeth.

The members of the Vintners Company, by patrimony or servitude, and
their widows have, by its various charters, the right to sell
foreign wine without a licence; and the court of assistants as the
governing body, when a complaint is made that the privilege is
abused by any member, summons him to attend, and after hearing the
evidence on both sides, adjudicates according to its discretion. The
utmost penalty is disfranchisement.

The Company exercises control only over its own members.

The Company claims to exercise through its members the privilege of
selling foreign wine without licence throughout England.

COUNCIL CHAMBER, VINTNERS’ HALL

Vintner Sheriff receiving the Congratulations of his Company.
]

It appears that from time immemorial this Company also enjoyed the
exclusive right of loading and landing, rolling, pitching and
turning all wines and spirits imported to, or exported from the City
of London, and all places within three miles of the same. From this
franchise which was, and still is exercised by its tackle porters,
the Company derived a very considerable emolument till in the years
1799, 1800, 1804, and 1805, several Acts of Parliament were passed,
by which this privilege was in a great measure curtailed. The
Company indemnifies those persons employing its tackle porters
against all losses of wines and spirits caused through their
negligence or accident.

The number of liverymen called during ten years is 206. The
Corporate Income is £9500; the Trust Income is £1500.

1. A freeman or his widow has a claim to relief. When admitted by
patrimony or servitude, a freeman, or his widow, enjoys the
privilege of a “Free Vintner,” and, if exercising such privilege, is
exempt from “Billeting,” _i.e._ having soldiers or sailors quartered
in his or her house.

2. The average annual sum distributed amongst the members of the
court of assistants has amounted, during the last ten years, to
£886 : 11s., being about £50 each per annum (income tax free).

Members of the court receive no pensions or donations.

No fees are paid to liverymen or freemen.

The average annual sum paid to liverymen and freemen, and their
widows, in pensions and donations during the last ten years has
amounted to £2503.

3. The qualifications for a pension are: being a member or widow of
a member in reduced circumstances, between the ages of fifty and
sixty, or, if younger, being in ill-health. For a donation:
membership, or being the widow or child of a member.

The site of Vintners’ Hall appears in reliable records of the
fourteenth century. Strype has the account of it: That Sir John
Stodeye, who held it of Edward III. in free burgage, gave it in
1329, under style of the Manor of the Vintry, to John Tuke, parson
of St. Martin Vintry, as a feoffment; that Tuke’s successors claimed
it as belonging absolutely to the church, whereas it really
appertained to the Vintners’ Company; that an inquisition was held
in relation thereto before Sir Ralph Joslyn, in 1477; that a trial
in the Exchequer followed; and that finally Richard III. decided the
ownership in favour of the Company,[9] reciting the above statements
in his grant. It is difficult to harmonise this account with other
known facts; therefore, leaving it on record, we pass to better
authenticated matter. Now, Edmund de Sutton owned the site in the
reign of Edward III.; upon the Thames bank lay his quay, towards the
high street of the Vintry his houses, cellars, and solars. Upon the
east stood Spital Lane and the tenements of the Abbess of St. Clare
in Aldgate; on the west, Cressingham Lane and the tenement of John
Cressingham; through the midst ran the boundary line between St.
Martin Vintry parish and St. James-at-Garlickhithe. Sutton’s
possession was disputed, trial followed, and Sutton “recovered it
from Walter Turke by Writ of Novel disseisin.” Turke was alderman of
the ward, and mayor, 1349. Then in 1352 Edmund de Sutton granted the
whole to John de Stodeye who was sheriff that year. The Vintners
Company had as yet no licence in mortmain; perhaps Stodeye was
acting as feoffee for them, perhaps not. Stow relates that he gave
Spital Lane, “with all the quadrant wherein Vintners’ Hall now
standeth, with the tenements round about, to the Vintners”; but the
statement proves nothing either way. Stodeye’s will is dated 1375;
it makes no mention of the property. His heirs granted it to
feoffees, and it passed from one to another as a feoffment, until
finally vested in the Company by the wills of Guy Shuldham (1446)
and John Porter (1496).[10] Shuldham’s will[11] conveys the
impression that of his own bounty he added to the original property
of which he was feoffee. To his foundation are attributed the
Vintners’ almshouses. His will describes them as “thirteen little
mansions lying together.” He directs that in them should dwell rent
free thirteen poor and needy men and women of the Vintners’ craft,
each to have a penny every week; any of them to be ejected for
misconduct after three warnings. These “little mansions” were
probably on the Spital Lane (at that time Stodeye’s Lane) side of
the Hall; after the Great Fire they were removed to Mile End. Not
much is known of the old premises, but Shuldham’s will tells us
something. There was a great hall and a refectory, a parlour with a
leaden roof, and adjoining it a counting-house with two rooms above;
a kitchen, pantry and buttery, a coal-house, and a “yard” with a
well. No doubt the yard lay betwixt hall and river, and answered to
what was the garden in later years. When the Vintners “built for
themselves a fair hall and thirteen almshouses” (to quote John
Stow), these miscellaneous and doubtless inconvenient buildings
disappeared. In 1497 the premises were inspected for the purpose of
assessing the fine for amortising them pursuant to the act.[12] Here
a new pair of stocks was erected in 1609 for punishment of deserving
members; here General Monk was feasted and entertained by special
music on April 12, 1660, shortly after the Restoration. Six years
later a restoration of a different sort was required; the Great Fire
had wrought its work of woeful ruin, and the Vintners Company must
needs rebuild. In 1823 the hall was almost entirely rebuilt again.

=College Street.=—The Walbrook stream, crossing the street, divided Vintry from Dowgate ward. It was spanned by a bridge called in the twelfth century Pont-le-Arch, also, but probably later, Stodum Bridge. The earliest style of the lane east of that bridge was “Les Arches Lane,” and that would be derived from the bridge. Later, just as St. Mary de Arcabus became St. Mary-le-Bowe, so this lane became “the lane called Le Bowe”; a will of 1307 so styles it. Quite possible Little College Street did not then exist, or existed only as a path on the east side of the brook; if the latter, there would thus be a bow-like passage from Dowgate Hill to Thomas Street, and both shape and name would be singularly in accord. West of the bridge the lane was probably, and in common with the present College Hill, “Paternoster Lane”; afterwards the hill became “the high street called le Riole,” but this lane seems to have retained the old title until Stow wrote of it. When Walbrook stream became arched over, the strict division between Paternoster Lane and Le Bowe Lane disappeared. The course of Walbrook so divided the lane that the north side from the church to Skinners’ Hall was included in Paternoster Lane, and the south side opposite was part of Bowe Lane; this distinction would naturally disappear on the covering of the brook. Before that event Le Bowe Lane would be all in the parish of Allhallows the Great; in 1307 reference is made to it in the parish of St. Michael’s (_Wills in the Court of Hustings_, pt. i. p. 190), so that the covering of the brook appears already to have taken place, at least in part, by that date. By Stow’s time Le Bowe Lane had become Elbow Lane, and ran by a crescent course from Dowgate Hill to Thames Street; Paternoster Lane continued as before. Stow makes an error in each case; he misses the true etymology of the former, implying that its elbow-like bending was the origin of its name, and he surmises that “Les Arches” was the old title for Paternoster Lane, which was not so. After the Great Fire the whole thoroughfare from College Hill to Dowgate Hill became Elbow Lane, and later Great Elbow Lane; the bend into Thames Street was renamed Little Elbow Lane. Subsequently the present styles were adopted, and, like College Hill, commemorate Whittington’s College. College Street is quaint: on the south side No. 24 has been rebuilt, and No. 27 refaced since the post-Fire rebuilding; otherwise the Vintry portion remains unaltered. The Skinners’ Hall and all the garden belonging to it are close by, though the entry is on Dowgate Hill (see p. 238).

In College Street is the Innholders’ Hall.

THE INNHOLDERS COMPANY

From the records of the Company it appears that it was a Guild or
Fraternity by prescription under the name of “Hostiller” before the
same was incorporated by charter.

Its earliest known record is a petition preferred on the 12th
December, 25 Henry VI. (1446), by certain “Men of the Mistery of
Hostillars of the City,” in the chamber at Guildhall before John
Colney, mayor, and the aldermen of the City praying them to confirm
certain ordinances which were ordered to be entered upon the Record
and observed in all future times.

The next record is a petition preferred on 28th October, 13 Edward
IV., 1437, by the wardens and certain men of the Mistery of
Hostillers in the chamber of Guildhall, before Mr. Hampton, mayor,
and the aldermen of the City, stating that the craft or mistery were
called hostillers and not innholders as they were indeed, by which
no diversity was perceived between them in name and their servants
being hostillers indeed, and praying that they might be called
innholders and in no wise hostillers, which was ordained
accordingly.

On 31st July, 1 Richard III., 1483, another petition was preferred.

The present number of liverymen is 86; the Corporate Income is
£1900; the Trust Income is £225.

The Innholders were an ancient fraternity which grew out of the
Hostelers or Hostillers and the Haymongers. The former provided a
bare lodging for travellers; the latter provided stabling. The
visitor or lodger had to go to the tavern for his food and drink.
The Innholder advanced a step; he received the traveller with his
horses and his following. If the traveller was a trader, the inn
received his wagon, his merchandise; while the stable belonging to
the inn received his horses. The inn provided food, wine, and ale.
The old Hosteler became the servant of the Innholder and was at last
restricted to service in the stable.

Stow describes the hall as a fair house. After the Great Fire it was
rebuilt (about 1670) by Wren and Jarman, and the west side of the
great hall facing Little College Street is of this date. The present
College Street front was built in 1886 from designs by Mr. J.
Douglass Mathews, architect. It is a very handsome three-storied
building of red brick. The door is of remarkably fine carving, of
curious form, having the appearance of two doors, the smaller
imposed upon the greater. Above the door under a pedimental canopy
are the Company’s arms. The great hall, which dates from the old
building, is a plain apartment, with wainscotted walls, and a flat
square-panelled ceiling. The fire-place is framed in a fine piece of
marble, and the mantel is of carved wood.

The reception-room is remarkable for a splendid ceiling, said to be
Wren’s. It has a handsomely moulded oval panel, covering the centre,
whilst the four corners bear respectively: the date 1670, the arms
of Charles II., the City arms, and the Innholders’ arms. The room is
panelled and has a good oak overmantel.

In the window of the staircase is some old seventeenth-century
stained glass, removed from a window of the great hall. One piece
has the arms of Deputy John Knott, “3rd time master 1670”; the other
the arms of Captain Richard Pennar, “once master 1678.” The modern
court-room is of the 1886 rebuilding, and has a good moulded ceiling
and carved overmantel. It contains two curious old pictures. One the
arms of Charles II., bearing the mark “C.R.2,” and showing Might and
Power crushing down Rebellion whilst a peaceful king reigns. The
other is a representation of the Nativity in the Inn at Bethlehem,
said to have been presented by Charles II. It depicts St. Joseph
holding a crucifix. The star in the Innholders’ arms is the Star of
Bethlehem, which is, of course, shown in this picture.

ST. MICHAEL ROYAL

St. Michael Royal on College Hill derived its name Royal from the
adjacent lane “La Riole” (see p. 223); it was sometimes called St.
Michael Paternoster from Paternoster Lane. “Paternoster-cherch” is
first found written in the _Calendar of Wills_ (Court of Hustings,