Chapter II: Preface (2)

The Company throughout this period kept, in common with others, a
store of corn, according to ancient custom, for the supply of the
poor at reasonable prices when bread was dear.

The Company was also bound to maintain an armoury at their Hall.

At the time of the Great Plague in 1665 the Company were assessed in
various sums of money for the relief of the poor, and they also
provided a large quantity of coals.

The next year the Great Fire of London inflicted losses on the
Company from which it did not recover for nearly a century. The
Company’s Hall and all the adjacent buildings (save the turret in
the garden, which fortunately contained the records and muniments of
the Company) and almost all the Company’s houses were destroyed. The
silver recovered from the ruins of the Hall was remelted and
produced nearly 200 lbs. weight of metal; this was sold for the
Company’s urgent present necessities. In 1668 Sir John Cutler came
forward and proposed to rebuild the parlour and dining-room at his
own charge. In the same year ninety-four members were added to the
Livery. The next year a petition was presented to Parliament praying
for leave to bring in a Bill to raise £20,000 by an equal assessment
upon the members of the Company of ability. The application to
Parliament failed, and an effort was then made to raise the £20,000
among the members, but only £6000 was subscribed.

In January 1671 a Special Court was summoned to consider a Bill
exhibited in Parliament by some of the Company’s creditors, praying
for an Act for the sale of the Company’s Hall, lands, and estates to
satisfy debts; and to make members of the Court liable for debts
incurred. A Committee was appointed and in 1672 the Hall was, at the
instance of the Governors of Christ’s Hospital, sequestered, and the
Company ejected till 1679, when, after great difficulties and
impediments, money was borrowed to pay off the debts and get rid of
the intruders. In 1680 the Court of Assistants agreed that the most
effectual way of regaining public confidence was to rebuild the
Hall.

In order to prevent a second sequestration an Inquisition was taken
in 1680 before Commissioners for Charitable Uses, and, pursuant to a
decree made by those Commissioners, a period of twenty years was
allowed to the Company to discharge their debts. The next year, to
secure an accession of influence and talent for the support of the
Company, sixty-five members were added to the Court, and a number of
Freemen were summoned, and eighty-one members added to the Livery.

In 1683 the Company arranged, by arbitration, their difficulties
with the Governors of Christ’s Hospital, and their prospects
appeared more hopeful when the celebrated Writ of Quo Warranto was
issued by King Charles II. against the City charters and liberties.
The Company, with the view of propitiating the King, by deed under
seal, voluntarily surrendered the powers, franchises, privileges,
liberties, and authorities granted or to be used or exercised by the
Wardens and Commonalty, and the right of electing and nominating to
the several offices of Wardens, Assistants, and Clerk of the
Company, and besought his Majesty to accept their surrender. Charles
II. obtained judgment upon the Quo Warranto against the City, and
all the redress that the Company could obtain was the grant of
another charter under such restrictions as the King should think
fit. His successor, James II., with a view to secure the goodwill
and support of the City, sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and
voluntarily declared his determination to restore the City charters
and liberties as they existed before the issuing of the Writ of Quo
Warranto; and subsequently Judge Jeffreys came to Guildhall and
delivered the charters with two grants of restoration to the Court
of Aldermen.

The history of the Company during the eighteenth century is an
account of pecuniary difficulties and the gradual extrication by the
public spirit and foresight of the members.

As regards the profession or trade of the members, a return exists
of the whole numbers for the year 1795 when the Court contained 32,
the livery numbered 81, and the freemen 228. Of these, 40 were
Grocers.

The number of the Livery returned in 1898 was 183. The Corporate
Income was £37,500; the Trust Income was £500.

The advantages of being a member of the Company are as follows:

(1) Freemen are entitled to apply on behalf of their children for
the Company’s presentations (six in number) to Christ’s Hospital;
for the Company’s Scholarships for free education at the City of
London School. The orphan children of freemen are alone eligible for
the three presentations to the London Orphan Asylum.

Freemen are entitled to take apprentices.

Freemen, and widows and daughters of freemen, in needy circumstances
may apply for relief, either temporary or permanent. Loans to
freemen are practically abolished.

(2) Twelve months after a liveryman has been elected he is entitled,
provided he live within twenty-five miles of the polling place,
Guildhall, to be put upon the Register of Voters for the City, which
entitles him to a vote at the election of Members of Parliament for
the City; a liveryman is also entitled to vote at the election of
the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London. The livery receive
invitations from the Master and Wardens to the four public dinners
in the months of November, February, May, and July, in each year,
and at every fifth dinner an invitation for a friend as well.

In some years when the honorary freedom of the Company is bestowed
on distinguished personages, there is an extra public dinner to
which the livery are invited. At the public dinner in May, called
the Restoration Feast, a box of sweetmeats is presented to every
guest. Liverymen, and the widows and daughters of liverymen in needy
circumstances may apply for relief, either temporary or permanent.

The Hall of the Company has always occupied the same site since the
first erection in 1427, when the Wardens bought part of the demesne
of Lord FitzWalter in Conyhope Lane.

This building perished in the Great Fire of 1666. A new hall was
built, but in 1798-1802 this building was pulled down and rebuilt.
Alterations and additions were made in 1827, when the present
entrance into Princes Street was constructed. There were formerly
three ways of access to the hall—one from the Old Jewry; one by the
lane called Grocers’ Alley; and one by Scalding Lane from St.
Mildred, Poultry, of which a scrap of the churchyard still remains.
The two lanes opened on a small _Place_ on the north side of which
was Grocers’ Hall and on the south side the Poultry Compter.

The hall destroyed in 1666 would have become by this time historical
as the place to which the Houses removed from Westminster in 1642
after the attempt to seize the five members on 4th January of that
year. The Committee appointed by both Houses met first at Guildhall
and adjourned to Grocers’ Hall to “treat of the safety of the
Kingdoms of England and Ireland.” It was in this hall that the City
entertained the Houses, June 17, 1645, in the midst of the Civil
War, and on June 7, 1649, when the Civil War was over. For forty
years, 1694-1734, the Grocers’ Hall was rented and occupied by the
Governors and Company of the Bank of England.

The Company numbered among its members Charles II., James II.,
William III., the Earl of Chatham, William Pitt, George Canning, and
many others.

In the eighteenth century, the “Lane” was chiefly occupied by houses called spunging houses; here persons were confined by the sergeants belonging to the Poultry Compter, so that they might come to some compromise with their creditors, and not be taken into prison. Hawkesworth, essayist and man of letters, was originally clerk to an attorney in this court. Boyse, the ragged poet, was confined in one of the spunging houses. Here he wrote the Latin letter to Cave:

INSCRIPTION FOR ST. LAZARUS’S CAVE.

Hodie, teste coelo summo,
Sine pane, sine nummo;
Sorte positus infeste,
Scribo tibi dolens moeste.
Fame, bile, tumet jecur:
Urbane, mitte opem, precor,
Tibi enim cor humanum
Non a malis alienum:
Mihi mens nec male grato,
Pro a te favore dato.—ALCÆEUS.

Ex gehenna debitoria,
Vulgo domo spongiatoria.

The Alley led to an open court. In this open place in 1688 a cart-load of seditious books was burned.

The east side of the Place is at present occupied by one wall of the Gresham Life Assurance Society, a magnificent building facing Poultry. It has finely proportioned polished granite columns with Corinthian capitals adding strength to the frontage, and a balcony with parapet running horizontally across the front. This was rebuilt in 1879. It stands on the site of St. Mildred, Poultry.

=The Church of St. Mildred, Poultry=, was situated on the north side
of the Poultry. It was rebuilt in 1456, and, after being destroyed
by the Great Fire, again rebuilt in 1676, when the parish of St.
Mary Colechurch was annexed. In 1872 it was taken down, and the
parish joined to St. Olave, Jewry. The earliest date of an incumbent
is 1247. The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior
and Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, 1325; Henry VIII., 1541,
and so continued in the Crown.

Houseling people in 1548 were 277.

Chantries were founded here by Solomon Lanfare or Le Boteler,
citizen and cutler, at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, to which
Wm. de Farnbergh was admitted chaplain, October 4, 1337; by Hugh
Game, poulterer, who endowed it with rents, which fetched £10 in
1548, when John Mobe was priest; by John Brown, for himself, his
wife, Margaret his daughter, and Giles Walden, etc., to which John
de Cotyngham was admitted chaplain, April 6, 1366. One John Mymmes
had licence from Richard II. to found the Guild of Fraternity of
Corpus Christi here; the endowment fetched £10 : 8 : 8 in 1548, when
John Wotton was priest thereof. Here was a “Little Chapell” valued
at 60s. in 1548.

Thomas Ashehill was buried here; he gave great help in rebuilding
the church about 1450; also Thomas Morstead, chirurgeon to Henry
IV., V., and VI., and one of the sheriffs of London. In more recent
times, Wm. Cronne was commemorated; he was a Fellow of the Royal
Society and of the College of Physicians, and died in 1706.

A great number of benefactors are recorded by Stow, of which the
most notable are: William Watson, of £100, whereof £65 was received;
William Tudman, of £247 in all, for various charities; Sarah Tudman,
of £80; Lady Elizabeth Allington, £200, towards rebuilding.

One free school is recorded, called Mercers’ School (Stow).

John Williams (d. 1709), Bishop of Chichester, 1696, was rector
here; also Benjamin Newcome, D.D., Dean of Rochester.

On the east side of Grocers’ Hall Court stood the =Poultry Compter=.

Strype describes the place and its government.

ST. MILDRED, POULTRY
]

“Somewhat west to this Church is the Poultry Compter, being the Prison belonging to one of the Sheriffs of London, for all such as are arrested within the City and liberties thereof. And, besides this Prison, there is another of the same Nature in Wood Street for the other Sheriff; both being of the same nature, and have the like officers for the Execution of the concerns belonging thereunto, as shall be here taken notice of. So that what is said here for Poultry Compter, belongs also to Wood Street Compter.

“The Charge of those prisons is committed to the Sheriffs.

“Unto each Compter also belongs a Master Keeper; and under him two Turnkeys, and other servitors.

INSIDE THE POULTRY COMPTER
]

“The poorer sort of prisoners, as well in this Compter, as in that in Wood Street, receive daily relief from the sheriff’s table, of all the broken meat and bread. And there are divers gifts given by several well disposed people, towards their subsistence. Besides which, there are other benevolences frequently sent to all the prisons by charitable persons; many of which do conceal their names, doing it only for charity sake. And there are other gifts, some for the releasement of such as lie in only for prison fees; and others, for the release of such, whose debts amount not to above such or such a sum” (Strype, vol. i. p. 567).

This was the only prison in London with a ward set apart for Jews. “Here died Lamb, the conjuror (commonly called Dr. Lamb), of the injuries he had received from the mob, who pelted him (June 13, 1628), from Moorgate to the Windmill in the Old Jewry, where he was felled to the ground with a stone, and was thence carried to the Poultry Compter, where he died the same night. The rabble believed that the doctor dealt with the devil, and assisted the Duke of Buckingham in misleading the king. The last slave imprisoned in England was confined (1772) in the Poultry Compter. This was Somerset, a negro, the particulars of whose case excited Sharpe and Clarkson in their useful and successful labour in the cause of negro emancipation” (Cunningham’s _Hand-book of London_).

When Whitecross Street Prison (1815-1870) was erected, the prisoners were removed there from the Poultry, and the site of the Compter was built upon partly by a Congregational Chapel, the congregation of which removed to the Holborn Viaduct when the City Temple was built.

The prison was burned down in the Fire, whereupon the prisoners were taken to Aldgate until it was rebuilt. It was an ill-kept, unventilated, noisome place.

It is worthy of note that the earliest bequest to the Compter mentioned in the _Calendar of Wills_ belongs to the fifteenth century, and that most of the legacies to the prisoners were made after the Reformation and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In some of them we find mention of the “Hole” and of the “Twopenny Ward.”

In 1378 there was an altercation between the Mayor and one of the sheriffs. Allusion is made to that sheriff’s “own compter” in Milk Street, which may be taken for that of Wood Street, as the Compter lay between the two, though it stood in Bread Street until the year 1555. In the year 1382 a sumptuary law was issued restricting the dress of women of loose life, and those who offended were to be taken to one of the Compters. In 1388 we find the porter of a Compter insulting Adam Bamme, alderman, for which he was removed from his office. We find also a householder taken to the Compter for refusing to pay his rates and abusing the collector. In 1413, an old man named John Arkwythe, a scrivener, was summoned by Alderman Sevenoke for allowing the escape of a certain priest caught in adultery in St. Bride’s Church. John Arkwythe lost his temper, clutched the Alderman by the breast and threatened him. They sent him to Newgate, but, considering his age, they let him go, only depriving him of the freedom of the City. In 1418, one William Foucher, for contempt of Court, was sent to solitary imprisonment in the Compter, and prohibited from speaking to any one except those who should counsel him repentance and amendment.

From these cases it would appear that the Compters were used partly as houses of detention before trial, and that trial was frequently deferred in order that the offender might endure a term of imprisonment in addition to the pillory, or the release on finding security, which would follow.

West of Grocers’ Alley is the =Old Jewry=, one of the most interesting places in the whole of London on account of its having been the Ghetto, though not a place of humiliation, for the Jews of London. When they came to London they received this quarter for their residence; why this place, so central, so convenient for the despatch of business, was assigned to them, no one has been able to discover. In the learned work of Mr. Joseph Jacobs (_The Jews of Angevin England_) he shows that Jews were in Oxford and Cambridge as well as in London in the time of the Normans.

The older name of the street was Colechurch Street. In the Receipts and Perquisites of the Tower from the Jews of London are found the following:

For two pounds found in the Jewry for
forfeit 60s.

[The sense of this entry is doubtful. Perhaps the two pounds were forfeited and 60 is wrongly transcribed for 40 (lx. for xl.).] (Guildhall MS. 129, vol. ii. p. 95_a_.)

From a certain Christian woman found in the
Jewry for the purpose of making an
exchange. She fled and threw away the
money 100s. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain goldsmith fighting in the
Jewry, of a fine 21s. (_ibid._ p. 96).
From Nicholas, the convert, goldsmith of
London, for his boys fighting in the Jewry 100s. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain Christian found in the Jewry
by night 7s. 11½d. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain boy coming into the Jewry 66s. 8d. (_ibid._ p. 97).
From John of Lincoln because he was found in
the Jewry by night £6 (_ibid._ p. 97).
From a certain Christian woman in the Jewry
by night 18s. (_ibid._ p. 97).

It thus appears that the Jewry was walled in with gates. Had it been a simple street, a thoroughfare, there could have been no objection to any one passing through. As for the teaching of the Church respecting Jews, these extracts from Mr. Jacob’s book will show the hatred which was inculcated towards them.

“If any Christian woman takes gifts from the infidel Jews or of her own will commits sin with them, let her be separated from the church a whole year and live in much tribulation, and then let her repent for nine years. But if with a pagan let her repent seven years.

“If any Christian accepts from the infidel Jews their unleavened cakes or any other meat or drink and share in their impieties, he shall do penance with bread and water for forty days; because it is written ‘to the pure all things are pure.’

“It is allowable to celebrate mass in a church where faithful and pious ones have been buried. But if infidels or heretics or faithless Jews be buried, it is not allowed to sanctify or celebrate mass; but if it seem suitable for consecration, tearing thence the bodies or scraping or washing the walls, let it be consecrated if it has not been so previously.”

The earliest mention of the Jews occurs in the _Terrier of St. Paul’s_, 1115:

“In the ward of Haco ... in the Jew’s street (?Old Jewry) the land of Lusbert, in the front on the west side, is 32 feet in breadth. Towards St. Olave’s is fourscore and fifteen feet; again towards St. Olave’s is 65 feet, and in the front 13 feet. The land in the front is 73 feet, and in depth 41 feet, and pays 10s.”

In 1264, and again in 1267, the popular hatred of the Jews broke out with unmistakable violence. They fled to the Tower, while the mob destroyed and sacked their buildings.

In 1290 they were banished.

Their synagogue, which stood in the north-east corner of the present street, was given to the Fratres de Saccâ (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 365), and on their dissolution it was ceded to Robert FitzWalter and converted into a merchant’s residence. Here lived and died Robert Large to whom Caxton was apprenticed.

The later history of the street may be quoted from Cunningham:

“The last turning but two on the east side (walking towards Cateaton Street) was called Windmill Court, from the Windmill Tavern, mentioned in the curious inventory of ‘Innes for Horses seen and viewed,’ preparatory to the visit of Charles V. of Spain to Henry VIII., in the year 1522. ‘From the Windmill,’ in the old Jewry, Master Wellbred writes to Master Knowell, in Ben Jonson’s play of _Every Man in his Humour_. Kitely, in the same play, was a merchant in the Old Jewry. The house or palace of Sir Robert Clayton (of the time of Charles II.), on the east side, was long a magnificent example of a merchant’s residence, containing a superb banquetting-room, wainscotted with cedar, and adorned with battles of gods and giants. Here the London Institution was first lodged; and here, in the rooms he occupied as librarian, Professor Porson died (1808). Dr. James Foster, Pope’s ‘modest Foster’—

Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten Metropolitans in preaching well—

was a preacher in the Old Jewry for more than twenty years. He first became popular from Lord Chancellor Hardwicke stopping in the porch of his chapel in the Old Jewry, to escape from a shower of rain. Thinking he might as well hear what was going on, he went in, and was so well pleased that he sent all his great acquaintances to hear Foster.”

Alexander Brown, the cavalier song-writer, was an attorney in the Lord Mayor’s Court in this street, and Bancroft, who built the almshouses of Mile End, was an officer in the court. Sir Jeffrey Bullen, Lord Mayor, 1457, lived in this street, where he was a mercer.

In the fifteenth century there was standing in Old Jewry, north of St. Olave’s Church, and extending to the north end of Ironmonger Lane and down the lane as far as St. Martin’s Church, a large building of stone “very ancient,” the history and purpose of which were unknown except that Henry VI. appointed one John Stert, keeper of the place, which he called his principal palace in the Old Jewry. It was standing when Stow was a boy, but he says the outward stone-work was little by little taken down, and houses built upon the site. It was known as the Old Wardrobe. I know of no other reference to this place, but one would like to learn more. The taking away of the stone “little by little” accounts in like manner for the gradual disappearance of the ruins of the monastic houses.

The modern street is not of much interest. The City Police Office is in a court of some size near the north end. The Old King’s Head is in an elaborate building faced with red sandstone, and a grimy blackened old brick house close by contains the Italian Consulate.

In Frederick Place are two rows of Georgian houses in dull brick, varying only slightly in detail. The iron link-holders of a past fashion still survive on the railings before some of the houses. No. 8, at the south-eastern corner, contains some curious and interesting mantels. One of these has a central panel representing a boar hunt; this is in relief enclosed in a large oval. There are fine details also in other fireplaces in the house.

But these are not the only objects of interest in Frederick Place, for in exactly the opposite corner, the north-west, in a house numbered 4, are one or two fireplaces which surpass these in beauty if not in quaintness. In one of the rooms there is a very high and well-proportioned white marble mantelpiece, with singularly little decoration, which is yet most effective. All these houses are now used as offices by business men, and the evidences of bygone domestic occupation add a human interest to the daily routine.

=St. Mary Colechurch= was situated in the Poultry at the south-west
corner of the Old Jewry. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and
not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of St. Mildred,
Poultry. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of Henry III., who
presented to it one Roger de Messendene, April 21, 1252; then the
Master and Brethren of St. Thomas de Acon; afterwards Henry VIII.,
who granted it to the Mercer’s Company, April 21, 1542.

Houseling people in 1548 were 220.

Chantries were founded here by Thomas de Cavendish, late citizen and
mercer, at the Altar of St. Katherine, to which Roger de Elton was
instituted chaplain, March 15, 1362-63; Agnes Fenne, who left by
Will, dated March 28, 1541, £140 to maintain a priest for twenty
years; Henry IV. granted a licence to William Marechalcap and others
to found a Fraternity in honour of St. Katherine, February 19,
1399-1400; a further licence was granted by Henry VI., June 19,
1447, the endowment of which fetched £9 in 1548, when Robert Evans
was Chaplain.

No monuments are recorded by Stow. In this church St. Thomas à
Becket and St. Edmund were baptized. The parish had one gift-sermon,
but no other gifts or legacies are recorded.

Thomas Horton (d. 1673), Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, 1649, was a
rector here.

=The Church of St. Olave, Jewry=, stood on the west side, near the
middle of Old Jewry, and was sometimes called St. Olave, Upwell. It
was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1673. It was
subsequently taken down. The tower, which alone was left, is now
part of a dwelling-house. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul’s, who granted it in 1171 to the Prior and Convent of
Butley, Suffolk, when it became a vicarage. Henry VIII. seized it,
and so it continues in the Crown.

Houseling people in 1548 were 198.

The open space, belonging to the ancient graveyard, abuts on
Ironmonger Lane.

A chantry was founded here by John Brian, rector, who died in 1322,
and a licence was granted by the King, August 20, 1323; Robert de
Burton, chaplain, exchanged with William de Aynho, June 15, 1327. In
1548 the endowment fetched £13 : 1 : 4.

Robert Large, Mayor in 1440, and donor of £200 to the church, was
buried here. Among the later monuments is one in memory of Sir
Nathaniel Herne, Governor of the East India Company; he died 1679.

The church was not rich in charitable gifts and legacies. Among the
benefactors, Sir Thomas Hewet gave £5 : 4s. yearly; Henry Lo gave
£10 for ever; Gervase Vaughan gave a house, rented at £14 per annum,
to provide bread for the poor every Sunday.

On the west side of Old Jewry there was a free school, said to be
founded by Thomas à Becket in 1160, for 25 scholars. There were two
almshouses for 9 poor widows of armourers, each of whom received 6s.
per quarter, and 9 bushels of coal a year; those past labour
received £1 a quarter. These were the gift of Mr. Tindal, citizen
and armourer of London.

Anthony Ellys, D.D. (1690-1761), Bishop of St. David’s, was rector,
also Joseph Holden Pott (1759-1847), Archdeacon of London.

Old Jewry runs through into Gresham Street, which is roughly parallel with Cheapside.

=Gresham Street=, formerly called Catte, Cateaton, or Ketton Street, or Cattling Street, when changed to its present name also swallowed up Lad Lane and Maiden Lane.

Catte Street is mentioned in a deed dated the Saturday after Ascension 1294, in which Hugh de Vyenne, Canon of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, grants to the master and scholars of Balliol, _inter alia_, four shillings of yearly rent from the tenement held by Martin the arbitrator, in Catte Street, opposite the church of St. Lawrence, also the same amount from the tenement of Adam de Horsham opposite the church.

On the Feast of Ascension in the year 1360 a case of great interest was heard at the Hustings of common pleas.

In this case, John de Wyclif, Master of Balliol, Oxford, was attached to make answer to Nicholas Marchant in a plea of distresses taken. Wyclif is accused of having made an unlawful seizure upon the freehold of Nicholas in the parish of St. Lawrence, Jewry, on Wednesday after the Feast of St. Gregory that year. From the pleading it appears that the house was once the property of “one Thippe, wife of Isaac of Suthwerk, a Jewess”; after her exit from England it came to King Edward, grandfather of Edward III. Their tenement in Catte Street was given (so the pleadings show) by that king to Adam de Horsham, mercer, uncle of Nicholas above named, at a rent of one penny per annum to the King. Wyclif joins the suit. Nicholas has to pay arrears and is amerced [hitherto Wyclif’s mastership of Balliol was ascribed to date from 1361, hence the importance of this MS.] (Historical MS. Commission, Report IV., p. 448).

There is another ancient mention of Catte Street, belonging to the year 1281, in which one Aaron, a wealthy Jew and a money-lender, contracts with Rudolph the mason for the building of a house in Catte Street.

From Aldermanbury westward to Wood Street, Gresham Street was formerly called Lad Lane. The name occurs certainly as early as 1301, as containing a house belonging to Coke Bateman, a Jew. It is first found in the _Calendar of Wills_ in 1362, after which we hear no more of it till 1419. Here a Roman pavement was found.

One of the most important of the old coaching inns, the Swan with two Necks, stood in Lad Lane. From this place an amazing number of coaches and wagons set out every day. The sign is still to be seen over the entrance to the London and South Western Railway Company’s yard.

The street was widened in 1845. It has a picturesque appearance, for the houses project irregularly at the corners of the cross streets. The Church of St. Lawrence occupies part of the north side.

ST. LAWRENCE, JEWRY

The date of the foundation of St. Laurence or Lawrence, Jewry, is
not known, but the church was burnt down by the Great Fire, and
rebuilt by Wren 1671-76, when the parish of St. Mary Magdalene was
annexed. The new building was erected at the expense of the
parishioners, assisted by a liberal subscription from Sir John
Langham. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1321. The patronage of
the church was in the hands of Henry de Wickenbroke, who, May 30,
1294, gave the Rectory to Balliol College, Oxford, when a Vicarage
was here ordained, and in this college it still continues.

Houseling people in 1548 were 148.

The church measures 82 feet in length, 71 feet in breadth, and 39
feet in height. It contains only one aisle, on the north side,
separated from the rest of the building by Corinthian columns. Above
the columns is a richly worked entablature, which is continued all
round the church. The east front has a façade formed by four
Corinthian columns with entablature, supporting the pediment. The
tower, which is three storied, is surmounted by a square turret,
supporting a square pedestal, and above this by an octagonal
spirelet with a ball and vane; the vane is in the form of St.
Laurence’s emblem, the gridiron. The total height is 160 feet.

Chantries were founded here: For William de Kancia at the Altar of
St. John, July 10, 1321; by Thomas Wytton at the Altar of Virgin
Mary, the endowment of which fetched £8 : 4 : 8 in 1548, when Thomas
Sandlord was chaplain; by William Myldreth at the Altar of St.
Michael the Archangel, the endowment of which yielded £7 : 6 : 8 in
1548, when Rowland Robynsonne was chaplain; by Simon Bonyngton,
whose endowment fetched £22 : 13 : 4 in 1548 when Thomas Sylvester
was chaplain; by Simon Bartlett, whose endowment yielded £5 : 4 : 8
in 1548, when Thomas Ballard was chaplain; by Simon Gosseham, for
two chaplains, whose endowment fetched £14 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when
Thomas Begley and Henry Whorleston were the priests.

_Pictorial Agency._

ST. LAWRENCE, JEWRY
]

The old church was the burying-place of a considerable number of
eminent citizens. Among them were: Richard Rich, ancestor of the
Earls of Warwick and Holland, who died in 1469; Sir Geffney Bullen,
Lord Mayor in 1459 and great-great-grandfather to Queen Elizabeth;
Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor in 1537 and father of Sir Thomas
Gresham; Sir Michael Dormer, Lord Mayor in 1541; Roger Thorney, who
founded a Fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge; Dame Alice Avenon,
a benefactress to the parish. Against the west wall there is a
monument displaying three busts, in memory of Alderman Sir William
Halliday, sheriff in 1617; this was erected in 1687 by Dame Margaret
Hungerford in place of that destroyed by the Fire. Dr. John Wilkins,
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and vicar here in 1662, was
buried under the north wall of the chancel. There are monuments also
to John Tillotson, lecturer here for some years, and to Dr. Benjamin
Whichcote, the celebrated preacher, who succeeded Wilkins as vicar.
On the western part of the south wall a large monument commemorates
Mrs. Sarah Scott, who died in 1750, leaving £700 for parish
purposes. Sir John Langham was a donor of £250 for the purpose of
church repairing, etc., and no gifts or bequests belonging to the
parish are recorded by Stow, except two weekly lectures each at £30
per annum, the donors of which are not stated by him. There was one
Grammar School, kept over the vestry. William Bell, Master of
Balliol College, Oxford, in 1494 was a rector here; also William
White, Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1125-39; Edward Reynolds
(1629-1698), Bishop of Norwich; Seth Ward (1617-1689), Bishop of
Exeter; John Mapletoft (1631-1721), President of Zion College; and
Benjamin Morgan Cowie (1816-1900), Dean of Exeter.

Gresham College stands at the end of a row of uniform plaster-faced houses. The College itself is a great yellow-plastered building with disproportionately heavy cornice and rigid balconies.

_Drawn by J. Coney._

SS. ANNE AND AGNES
]

In Guildhall Yard is a fine view of the ornamental gateway of the Guildhall. On the east is the Guildhall Tavern, and on the west, beyond the church, is an open space, formerly the churchyard, with a few plane-trees dotted about, and a fountain of Gothic design, erected in 1866, with statues upon it representing St. Lawrence and the Magdalene.

St. Martin’s House, on the north side, is a modern red sandstone building.

St. Anne’s Churchyard, with one or two plane-trees of good size, makes a break in the line of modern houses beyond.

SS. ANNE AND AGNES, ALDERSGATE

This church stands on the north side of Gresham Street, towards the
west end. The date of the foundation of the original church is
uncertain, but mention is made of it in a deed dating between
1193-1212, in St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was damaged by fire in 1548,
reconstructed and again destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The
present building was completed by Wren in 1681. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1322.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of:

The Dean and Canons of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, 1322; the Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1510; the Bishop of Westminster by grant of
Henry VIII., January 11, 1540-41; the Bishop of London and his
successors by grant of Edward VI., July 4, 1550; confirmed by Queen
Mary, March 3, 1553-54.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

The present building is of brick, and measures 53 feet square, and
35 feet in height. Within this area four Corinthian columns form
another square. The tower, rising at the west, measures 14 feet at
the base and culminates in a vane; the total height is 95 feet.

A chantry was founded here by Thomas Juvenal and Alice his wife at
the Altar of St. Nicholas; to which Richard Grant was instituted
chaplain, April 10, 1363.

The church formerly contained monuments to Stephen Brackynbury,
gentleman, Usher to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen
Elizabeth. William Gregory, Mayor of London, 1461, was buried here,
but no monument remained in 1598.

The principal benefactors were William Gregory, alderman and
skinner, and John Werke, goldsmith, both of whom bequeathed a number
of houses to the parish in the fifteenth century.

Some of the most notable rectors were: John Hopton (d. 1558), Bishop
of Norwich; Samuel Freeman, Dean of Peterborough, 1691; and Fifield
Allen, Archdeacon of Middlesex.

At the corner of Noble Street is the churchyard of St. John Zachary, which parish is now incorporated with St. Anne and St. Agnes. This is a fairly large piece of ground surrounded by brick houses. There are many upright tombstones among the blackened shrubs within. Beyond there is a large building of red brick finished with piers of polished granite.

=The Church of St. John Zachary=, which was situated in Maiden Lane,
was burnt down in the Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of
St. Anne, Aldersgate. It was built or founded by a monk named
Zachary. The earliest date of an incumbent is some year between 1217
and 1243.

The church has always been in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of
St. Paul’s, from the earliest record up to 1666, when the parish was
annexed to that of St. Anne and St. Agnes.

Houseling people in 1548 were 240.

Chantries were founded here by Thomas Lichfield in 1320; for Roger
Beynyn and Isabel his wife before 1322.

Stow records that the monuments in this church were well preserved
in his time. Some of the most notable persons commemorated were: Sir
James Pemberton, who founded a free school in Lancashire, and was
donor of many other charitable gifts (died 1613); Philip Strelley
(d. 1603), benefactor to the parish, and Henry de Spondon, rector
here in 1366.

There were some small legacies belonging to the parish, but few
names are recorded by Stow. Colonel Henry Drax was donor of £20, and
his wife of £30. Philip Strelley, of 40s. a year.

By the subscribers of the united parishes thirty boys and twenty
girls were taught, clothed, and put out as apprentices.

William Byngham, founder of Christ Church College, Cambridge, was
rector here.

In Gresham Street are also the halls of two City Companies.

THE HABERDASHERS COMPANY

It has been surmised that the haberdashers were originally a branch of the mercers, and formed a trade association for the protection and general supervision of the trade carried on by the haberdashers and milliners. They are supposed to have existed as early as the year 1372, being mentioned in the City records as having then promulgated their first ordinances. By the Company’s earlier minute books they seem to have been at one time associated with the felt-makers.

The first charter granted to the Haberdashers Company was by Henry VI. (June 3, 1448); it authorised and empowered the liegemen of the mystery of haberdashers to erect and found a guild or fraternity in honour of St. Katherine. The charter grants that the fraternity shall be a perpetual and incorporate fraternity of haberdashers of St. Katherine of London, to hold lands to themselves and their successors and with a common seal.

Henry VII. by charter united the crafts of hurriers and hatter merchants into one craft, and by another charter, 17th Henry VII., he united the hurriers and hatter merchants with the craft of haberdashers, and declared they should be one craft and perpetual commonalty by the name of Merchant Haberdashers.

Henry VIII.—November 1511—by charter of this date confirmed previous charters, and, on the application of the Merchant Haberdashers, altered and translated the style of the said guild into the name of the Master and Four Wardens of the Guild of Fraternity of St. Katherine, of the Craft of Haberdashers, in the City of London. It enacted that no foreigner or stranger in London should make any caps or hats for the use of any stranger, unless admitted by the master and wardens, under pain or forfeiture of the thing made, one half to go to the Mayor and Commonalty of the City, and the other to the use of the mystery or craft aforesaid.

Philip and Mary—1557—by charter of this date confirmed all previous charters.

Elizabeth—June 19, 1578—by charter confirmed all previous charters, and it is under this charter that the Company is now governed.

It is thought there can be little doubt that the Haberdashers Company was originally established for trade purposes, and was in former times associated with other trades, as the felt-makers and hatters. The before-mentioned charters of incorporation gave the Company considerable powers for regulating the trade in haberdashery, and for enforcing its orders in reference thereto, and these powers were no doubt exercised for many years. In course of time, however, the business or trade of haberdashery became so interwoven with other trades, such as drapers, milliners, mercers, hosiers, etc., that there is no longer any distinct business of haberdashery. The Company, however, being anxious to help those who are engaged in it have for the last eight or nine years advertised that the sum of £100 will be annually awarded as prizes to the actual inventors of new patterns, designs, or specimens of articles of haberdashery proper, provided such inventors were not manufacturers or dealers. No control is now exercised by the Company in reference to the trade of haberdashery.

Freemen are eligible for pensions and gifts if in needy circumstances. The children of freemen have the privilege of competing for certain exhibitions in the gift of the Company.

Liverymen are also eligible for the pensions and gifts under similar circumstances, and their children have like privileges for competing in exhibitions. They are also eligible (provided their fathers or grandfathers are not members of the governing body) for educational grants which are made voluntarily by the Company annually towards defraying the cost of education, and liverymen’s children who have distinguished themselves in their studies are also eligible for four exhibitions of £40 each, also voluntarily given by the Company and tenable for three years, for the purpose of pursuing their studies in the higher branches of learning. The children of liverymen and freemen have also a priority of claim over outsiders for admission to the Company’s Aske’s Schools at Hatcham and West Hampstead and Acton.

The members of the governing body, on attending courts and committees (but not otherwise), receive fees for their attendance.

The present number of pensioners is 152, and the amount paid to them
£2999 : 10s.

The present number of recipients of annual gifts is 40, and the
amount paid to them £215 : 2s.

It is believed that few, if any, of the recipients of the above
pensions and gifts carry on or have carried on the trade the name of
which is borne by the Company. Considerable grants are made every
year to poor clergy and poor hatters.

In addition to the above yearly gifts various sums are from time to
time voluntarily granted to poor members of the Company, their
widows and families, amounting in 1879 to £276 : 10s.

The Hall is at 77 Gresham Street. It was built by Wren but burned
down in 1864.

The Trust Income of the Company is expended in schools and
almshouses, the most important schools being Aske’s, referred to
above. There are other almshouses at Monmouth, at Newland in
Gloucestershire, and at Newport, Salop. There are also schools at
Monmouth, Pontypool, Newport, Salop, and Bunbury connected with the
Company. They give several exhibitions, and they grant pensions and
give large subscriptions to philanthropic objects.

THE WAX CHANDLERS COMPANY

There is no documentary evidence in the possession of the Wax
Chandlers’ Company of an earlier date than 45th Edward III., A.D.
1371, which is a petition to the Court of Aldermen of the City of
London for leave to choose searchers for bad wares, and for approval
of byelaws then submitted for the regulation of the craft. The
prayer of this petition seems to have been acceded to, for Walter
Rede and John Pope were in the same year chosen and sworn to oversee
the said craft, and the defaults from time to time found to present
to the mayor and aldermen, etc. These documents are set out (p. 104)
in the Report of the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations in
England and Wales dated 1837. That the craft of wax chandlers had an
association previous to this date there are no documents to show,
although from the petition it would appear that it had, but without
power to enforce obedience to its orders.

The following is a list of the charters, etc., granted at various
times to the Company:

1. Charter of 1 Richard III., 1484. 2. Grant of arms, 2 Richard
III., 1485. 3. Further grant of arms, 28 Henry VIII., 1536. 4.
Exemplification and confirmation of said charter of Richard III. by
Philip and Mary, 7th June, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary. 5. Letters
Patent of confirmation of said charter by Queen Elizabeth, 2
Elizabeth, 1560. 6. Ditto, ditto. King James I., 2 James I., 1604.
7. Charter of 15 Charles II., 1663. 8. Byelaws pursuant to
last-mentioned charter, and the statute 19 Henry VII., approved and
signed and sealed by the Lord Chancellor and two Chief Justices of
the King’s Bench and Common Pleas, dated June 28, 1664, referred to
at p. 100 of the above-mentioned report. 9. Charter of 1 James II.,
1685 (this charter was avoided under the General Statute).

At present they have a livery of twenty-seven, a Corporate Income of
£1370, a Trust Income of £230, and a hall in Gresham Street.

The use of wax tapers and candles not only in the churches, but also
in the houses of the wealthy sort, caused the material to be
valuable and the mystery of preparing it prosperous. The Company was
in fact in great credit until the Reformation, when the greater part
of its work—that of providing lights for the churches—vanished.

In ancient documents the =Guildhall Yard= is mentioned frequently, as might be expected. In Agas’s map the yard is enclosed, and entered by a gateway. Some of the land belonged to Balliol College, Oxford. It was widened by taking off part of the churchyard of St. Lawrence, Jewry. Here were the taverns of the Three Tuns and the White Lyon. Sir Erasmus de la Fountaine had property here and gave his name to Fountain Court.

A passage out of Guildhall Yard and others out of Basinghall Street and Cateaton Street led to the two courts of =Blackwell= or =Bakewell Hall=.

BLACKWELL HALL, 1819
]

Of this historic mansion Stow speaks at some length. He says that it was built upon vaults of stone brought from Caen in Normandy, and that it was covered over in painting and carved stone with the arms of the Basings or Bassings, viz. “a gyronny of twelve points gold and azure.” This family when Stow writes was “worn out.” In the 36th year of Edward III., one Thomas Bakewell was living in this house. In the 20th of Richard II., for a sum of £50, licence was given to transfer this hall with certain messuages appertaining to the mayor and commonalty of the City. Here was established the year after, by Whittington, thrice Mayor, a weekly market for cloth, no foreigners being allowed to sell cloth anywhere except in Blackwell Hall and in the courts thereof. In the year 1588 the house, being decayed, was taken down and rebuilt. In the Great Fire the Hall was destroyed, together with a great quantity of cloth stored by country manufacturers in its warehouses. “What,” says Lord Clarendon, “have we lost in clothe if the little Company [the stationers] lost £200,000 in books?”

“The late edifice of Blackwell Hall appears to have been erected about the year 1672, and it exhibited the dull and prison-like appearance of the older storehouses of London, in the unglazed transom-windows with iron bars, contained in the front. The attic was ornamented with a cornice and pediment, and in the centre was a heavy stately stone gateway between two Doric columns, surmounted by the royal arms, carved in a panel above; and the city arms, impaling those of Christ’s Hospital, supported by winged boys, were sculptured in the head of the arch. The disposition of the interior consisted of two quadrangular open courts, one beyond the other, surrounded by buildings of freestone. Within the Hall were several large rooms or warehouses, both above and on the ground floor, in which the factors employed by the clothiers exposed their cloths on the established market days, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the first being the principal. These apartments formed the Devonshire, Gloucester, Worcester, Kentish, Medley, Spanish, and Blanket Halls, etc., in which one penny was charged for the pitching of each piece of cloth, and one halfpenny per week each for resting there. The profits paid to Christ’s Hospital arising from those charges are said to have produced £1000 yearly” (Wilkinson’s _Londina Illustrata_, vol. ii. p. 36).

The changes gradually made in the cloth trade caused the decay of the market. In 1815 an Act was passed enabling the Mayor and Corporation to pull down the hall of St. Mary Magdalene Chapel, which was stated to be in a ruinous condition, and to replace it by buildings for courts.

The present Art Gallery, the Museum, the Library, Guildhall Buildings, the Courts, etc., stand upon the site of the Hall, the Chapel, and the adjacent ground. The Hall was taken down in 1819.

The Guildhall, like the Mansion House, Royal Exchange, etc., is so woven in with the history of the City that an account of it must be sought in the historical volumes preceding this.

We may return to the Poultry by the next north and south thoroughfare, namely:

=Ironmonger Lane=, which is frequently mentioned in early deeds and documents. As early as the middle of the twelfth century documents are spoken of in “Ismongers’ Lane,” in the parish of St. Mary Colechurch. In 1245 there are shops, solars, and cellars in the street. Riley (_Mem._ 128. 15) presents two most interesting inquests connected with two murders in this street. The lane is called variously Ismongers’, Iremongers’, and Ironmongers’.

On the east side of this street, near Cheapside, was the Church of St. Martin Pomeroy.

=St. Martin Pomeroy= is supposed by Stow to have gained its second
name from an apple garden there, but it was more probably from a
family named Pomeroy. In 1629 the church was repaired, but it was
burnt down in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being
united to that of St. Olave, Jewry. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1361.

_Photo. Sandell, Ltd._

MERCERS’ HALL
]

The patronage of the church before 1253 was in the hands of Ralph
Tricket, who gave it in 1253 to the Prior and Canons of St.
Bartholomew, Smithfield; after the Reformation it continued in the
Crown up to 1666, when it was annexed to St. Olave.

Houseling people in 1548 were 120.

Chantries were, founded here: For Henry atte Roth, chandeler, to
which Richard Scot was admitted, February 7, 1391-92; for William
Love, to which Stephen Benet was collated, January 24, 1391-92. Only
two monuments are recorded by Strype, neither of which commemorate
persons of eminence. There was a free school, said to have been
founded by Thomas à Becket, in the Old Jewry, for twenty-five
scholars. There were also two almshouses for nine widows of
Armourers or Braziers, the gift of Mr. Tindal, citizen and armourer
of London.

John Kingscote, Bishop of Carlisle, 1462, was rector here.

In Ironmonger Lane is the Mercers’ Hall.

THE MERCERS COMPANY

The Mercers, although not incorporated until the year 1393 (17th
Richard II.), were in very early times associated voluntarily for
the purposes of mutual aid and comfort. They come to light as a
fraternity first in the time of Henry II., for Gilbert à Becket, the
father of St. Thomas of Canterbury, is said to have been a mercer;
and in the year 1192, Agnes de Helles, sister of St. Thomas, and her
husband, Thomas Fitztheobald de Helles, in founding the hospital of
St. Thomas of Acon, which is distinctly stated to have been built on
the spot where the future archbishop was born, constituted the
fraternity of mercers patrons of the hospital. The hospital and the
Company were intimately connected until the Reformation, and afford
a good example of the connection of secular guilds and
ecclesiastical foundations in the Middle Ages, secular guilds being
established for the promotion of trade and almsdeeds, and
ecclesiastical foundations for devotion and almsdeeds.

It is probable that a guild could not be carried on without the
King’s licence at this early date; and it would seem a necessary
interference that the mercers had a licence at the time of Henry
II., from their not appearing among the “adulterine” guilds, or
guilds set up without the King’s licence, which were fined in 1180
for being established without such licence.

The Merchant Adventurers Company gradually became detached from the
Mercers Company in the course of the fifteenth century, especially
by the opening of the trade with Flanders in the year 1497; and yet
more so in 1564, when Queen Elizabeth, by charter, constituted the
Merchant Adventurers a distinct body politic or corporation in
England; but the Mercers Company still kept up an intimate
connection with the “Brotherhood beyond the Sea,” the last link
connecting the two companies being only severed by the Great Fire of
London in 1666, which destroyed the office which the Merchant
Adventurers held of the mercers under Mercers’ Hall.