Chapter VII: Preface (7)

Between the Church of St. Edmund and the west end of the street were two mansions formerly belonging, one to William de la Pole, Knight Banneret, and “King’s Merchant” in the reign of Edward III., and afterwards to his son, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and the other to Sir Martin Bowes, mayor, 1545. Here also was the Cardinal’s Hat Tavern, one of the oldest of the City taverns, mentioned in 1492.

The modern street gives a general impression similar to that of Cornhill. Everywhere we are confronted by solid banks and insurance offices, which seem to divide the ground between them.

George Yard contains the imposing building of the Deutsche Bank in London, as well as a couple of large houses let in flats, and presents a decidedly dignified appearance. The Bank is an immense building, with a granite-columned portico, and rusticated stonework round it.

Of the two churches now remaining in this street, one is

ST. EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR

This church was anciently called by some St. Edmund Grass-Church,
because of its proximity to the grass market. It was burnt down in
the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1690. In 1864 and 1880 the
church was restored. After the Great Fire, the parish of St.
Nicholas Acon was annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1150.

The patronage was in the hands of the Prior and Convent of Holy
Trinity, London, but Henry VIII. seized it and granted it to the
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1545, in whose successors it continues.

Houseling people in 1548 were 240.

The present church measures 59 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth,
and 57 feet 9 inches in height. It is singular from its standing
north and south, but this was forced upon Wren by the position of
the ground at his disposal. There are no aisles. The steeple, which
rises at the south, consists of a three-storied tower and octagonal
lantern and spire, and a pedestal supporting a finial and vane. The
lantern is ornamented at the angles by flaming urns, in allusion to
the Great Fire. A projecting clock is attached to the face of the
second story and is a prominent feature in Lombard Street. The total
height is 136 feet.

Chantries were founded here: By Thomas Wyllys for himself and
Christian his wife, whose endowment fetched £24 in 1548, when
Richard Auncell was chaplain; by and for Matilda at Vane, relict of
John Atte Rose, dedicated to SS. John, Peter, and Thomas the martyr,
to which John Reynes was admitted chaplain on the resignation of
William Belgrave, September 25, 1382; by Richard Toky for himself
and Matilda his wife, to which William Howes de Blackolm was
admitted chaplain, October 20, 1362; by John Longe, whose endowment
fetched £35 in 1548, when William Myller and Edward Mamyn or Hamonde
were chaplains.

The old church contained a monument to John Shute, a
painter-stainer, who wrote one of the earliest English works on
Architecture. He died in 1563. On the east wall a monument
commemorates Dr. Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter, President of the
Society of Antiquaries, and rector of the united parishes, who died
in 1784.

Addison was married in this church to the Dowager Countess of
Warwick and Holland in 1716.

This parish was not rich in charitable gifts. Some of the donors
were: Richard Jaie of 45s. for bread, etc., for the poor; Mrs. Joan
Lowen of 52s.; Mrs. Anne Whitmore, £5.

ALLHALLOWS, LOMBARD STREET

This church went by the name of Allhallows “Grasse Church” from its
proximity to the grass and hay market. It was consumed by the Great
Fire, but subsequently rebuilt and completed by Wren in 1694. The
parish of Allhallows was one of the thirteen “Peculiars” of the
Archbishop of Canterbury in the City of London. The earliest date of
an incumbent is 1279.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Brihterus, citizen
of London, who in 1052 gave it to the Prior and Convent of Christ
Church, Canterbury; the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, in whose
successors it continued, who first presented to it in 1552.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

The interior of the church is constructed on a rectangular plan,
without aisles, and with only one pillar, rising at the centre of
the west gallery. It is 84 feet in length, 52 feet in breadth, and
the height 30 feet. The church contains much good woodwork, the
carved oak altar-piece being especially fine. The stone tower, which
rises at the south-west, is divided into three stories, the lowest
of which has a large doorway at its south face; the second is
pierced by a circular-headed window, and the third by square
openings with louvres, each surmounted by a cornice. The height of
the tower is about 85 feet. The church is entered by a porch and
vestibule through a doorway in the tower.

Chantries were here founded by: John Chircheman, citizen, and
Richard Tasburgh, late parson of Heylesdon County, Norfolk, July 15,
1392 (Pat. 16 Richard II. p. i. m. 25); John Buck, whose endowment
yielded £40 : 6s. in 1548; John Maldon, whose endowment yielded
£20 : 3 : 4 in 1548, when Edward Hollonde was priest; William
Trystor, who endowed it with £6 : 6 : 8 in 1548.

The most notable of the monuments in this church is to the memory of
Simon Horsepoole, Sheriff of London in 1591.

The sole donor of charities seems to have been this same Simon
Horsepoole, who appointed to this parish £4 : 4s. per annum.

The original church was indebted for its south aisle, steeple, and
other sections to John Warner, Robert Warner, and the Pewterers.

Clothes were found for forty boys, as well as books, and the boys
were put out as apprentices by a Society of Langbourn Ward.

The most notable rectors were: Robert Gilbert, Bishop of London,
1436; Thomas Langton (d. 1501), Bishop of St. David’s and Sarum, and
of Winchester; Francis Dee (d. 1638), Bishop of Peterborough.

At the corner formed by the junction of Lombard and King William Streets stands the Church of

ST. MARY WOOLNOTH

“The church was founded by Wulfnuth, son of Earl Godwin, about the
time of the Confessor. This name was corrupted into Woolnoth” (Rev.
J. M. S. Brooke, Rector). It was rebuilt, according to Newcourt,
from its very foundations about 1438. Though damaged by the Great
Fire, it was not destroyed, and Wren repaired and rebuilt various
parts in 1677. In 1716 the building was pulled down and the present
church, the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor, was commenced and finished
in 1727. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.

The patronage of the church, before 1252, was in the hands of: The
Prioress and Convent of St. Helen’s, London; then Henry VIII., who
seized it and granted it to Sir Martin Bowes, Alderman and Mayor of
London, whose son and heir, Thomas Bowes, sold it to William Pelham,
December 19, 1571; Robert Viner Miles, and several other persons,
the last being Sir George Broke-Middleton, who presented to it in
1883.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

The interior of the church is almost square. It contains twelve
Corinthian columns, placed at the angles in groups of three, and
supporting an entablature prolonged to the walls by means of
pilasters. There is a clerestory above, pierced on its four sides by
semicircular windows. The tower, which rises at the west, contains
the doorway in its basement story; the cornice is surmounted by a
pedestal supporting composite columns, and the summit is divided
into two turrets with balustrades above. The north front has three
niches, each enclosing two Ionic columns on pedestals; the south
front is plain.

Chantries were founded here by: Gregory de Rokeslie, Mayor of
London, 1275-81, for himself and Amicia his wife, to which John de
Pory was admitted chaplain, July 15, 1333; Thomas Noket, for himself
and for Alice, wife of Gregory de Norton, called atte Shire, at the
Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Anne, in the south side of
the church, to which William Weston was admitted chaplain, January
28, 1400-1401; the endowment fetched £13 : 6 : 8 in 1548, when
William Wentors, or Ventrys, and Richard Browne were chaplains;
Henry Brige, Knt., whose endowment yielded £13: 13 : 4 in 1548, when
John Meres was priest.

Sir Hugh Brice, keeper of the King’s Exchange under Henry VII., was
buried in this church; he built a chapel here called the “Channel”;
also Sir Thomas Ramsey, Lord Mayor in 1577; William Hilton, Merchant
Taylor and Taylor to Henry VIII., and Sir Martin Bowes, patron of
the church for over thirty years.

Among the later monuments, Stow records one in memory of Sir William
Phipps, who discovered a sunken Spanish ship in 1687 containing
silver to the value of £300,000 sterling, and one commemorating Sir
Thomas Vyner, goldsmith, and Mayor of London, who died in 1665.

The list of legacies and bequests was too long for insertion, Stow
says, but was to be seen by any one in the Parish Book. He records a
gift of £1 : 6s. per annum from Sir Nicholas Rainton, and one of
£3 : 15 : 8 paid by the Merchant Taylors.

Richard Rawlins (d. 1536), Bishop of St. David’s, was rector here;
also John Newton, author of “Olney Hymns.”

=King William Street= contains few associations of interest, having been built, as its name implies, in the reign of the fourth monarch of that name, whose statue on a pedestal, which outrivals every other in the City on the score of weight alone, stands at the south end. This is the work of W. Nixon and was set up in December 1844. The figure is 15 feet 3 inches high, and the whole statue weighs 20 tons. Special arrangements had to be made for carrying the Metropolitan Railway beneath it. The statue is on the site of the Boar’s Head Tavern, noted in old days as a famous rendezvous, and familiar to readers of Shakespeare from Falstaff’s frequent resort thither. Goldsmith and Washington Irvine have written on the Boar’s Head Tavern, which rose again after the Fire; the sign of the later house is preserved in the Guildhall Museum.

King William Street was cut through various lanes, which are now dealt with. At the north end in Gresham Place is Gresham Club, which was built in 1844; the architect was Henry Flower. It is for merchants and City men; the entrance fee is twenty guineas, annual subscription eight guineas, and the membership is limited to 500. It is a grey stone building with triangular stone pediments projecting over the upper windows.

_Pictorial Agency._

ST. MARY WOOLNOTH
]

=St. Clement’s Lane= leads to St. Clement’s Church. I find a reference to rents in Clement’s Lane in 1322. In 1371 the “good folk” of Candelwyke Street and Clement’s Lane petitioned the mayor against certain plumbers who proposed to melt their lead in a place hard by called the Woodhaugh; they said that the vapours were noxious and even fatal to human life, that trustworthy people would depose to the mischief caused by inhaling these fumes, and that the shaft of the furnace was too low. In the end the plumbers were allowed to go on with their work, provided that they raised the shaft. In the lane was the bank in which Samuel Rogers was a partner.

In Church Court, we come to the ancient graveyard of St. Clement, a minute space with one great shapeless tomb in the centre of the asphalt and a few small erect tombstones in the little border running inside the railings.

ST. CLEMENT, EASTCHEAP

The Church of St. Clement was destroyed by the Great Fire, but
rebuilt by Wren in 1686, when St. Martin’s Orgar was annexed to it.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1309.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1309; then Henry VIII., who seized it and
gave it to the Bishop of Westminster in 1540; next the Bishop of
London, by Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continues.

Houseling people in 1548 were 271.

The present building measures 64 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth,
and 34 feet in height. It has one aisle on the south side, separated
from the rest of the church by two high-based columns. The square
tower at the south-west is built of brick, with stone dressings, and
contains three stories, with a cornice and balustrade above. The
total height is 88 feet.

Chantries were founded here: by John Chardeney for himself and
Margaret his wife, to which William Hocchepound was admitted
chaplain, July 23, 1371, at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary;
for William Ivery.

There were very few monuments in this church originally. In the west
window is a memorial to Thomas Fuller, the church historian, Bishop
Bryan Walton, and Bishop Pearson. Fuller and Pearson were lecturers
here for some time; the preaching of Pearson on the Creed and
Thirty-nine Articles made him famous. Walton, the compiler of the
Polyglot Bible, was created Bishop of Chester, 1660. The
stained-glass window on the southern side was erected in 1872 by the
Clothworkers’ Company in memory of Samuel Middlemore, who died in
1628, leaving a charitable bequest to the parish. Henry Purcell and
Jonathan Battishill, the musical composers, who were organists at
the church, are commemorated by brass tablets.

There were several gifts belonging to the parish, but the names of
the donors are not recorded by Stow.

Sir Thomas Gooch (1674-1754), Bishop of Bristol, of Norwich and of
Ely, was rector here.

=St. Nicholas Lane=, also one of the most ancient lanes in London. In 1258 we find that one Ralph was chaplain in the Church of St. Nicholas Acon. In 1275 the church is endowed with a small rent; in 1279, a testator bequeaths his “Stone house” in the lane; and in many subsequent entries the lane is mentioned. The dedication of the church may possibly indicate the date of its foundation. It was in the eleventh century that the bones of St. Nicholas were brought from Myra in Asia Minor, then in the hands of the Mohammedans, to Bari on the Adriatic, where they still lie. There grew up quite suddenly an extraordinary belief in the power of this saint. Pilgrimages were instituted, in which thousands flocked to his tomb; miracles were multiplied at the sacred spot; the churches without end were dedicated to his name of Nicholas. In England 372 churches are said to be named after him. It would be interesting to learn the date of this dedication. May we, however, connect this saint of Italian pilgrimage with the coming of Italian merchants to London? St. Nicholas was the protector of sailors, virgins, and children. Cunningham calls him also the protector of merchants, but of merchants as sailors. His emblem was the three purses, round and filled with gold, or the three golden balls. We may therefore at least assume that this was the church of the “Lombards” and the financiers from Italy. The churchyard still remains, a square patch of ground, railed in, very similar to the generality of such quiet little spaces. It has asphalt paths running in and out of stunted evergreen bushes. Nicholas Passage runs on the south side, and near is the Acorn public-house, an old house, with its sign of a huge gilt acorn hanging over the door.

=St. Nicholas Acon= was situated on the west side of Nicholas Lane,
near Lombard Street; it was burnt down in the Great Fire, and not
rebuilt, its parish being annexed to that of St. Edmund the King and
Martyr, and its site turned into a burying-ground. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1250.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of Godwin: and Thurand
his wife gave it in 1084 to the Abbot and Convent of Malmesbury;
Henry VIII. seized it, 1542, and so it continued in the Crown up to
1666, when it was annexed to St. Edmund the King; since then the
patronage is alternately in the Crown and the Archbishop of
Canterbury.

Houseling people in 1548 were 154.

Johanna Macany, who left large legacies to the parish about 1452,
was buried in this church, also John Hall, Master of the Company of
Drapers; he died in 1618.

No legacies or gifts are recorded by Stow except that of Johanna
Macany, of which he gives full details.

Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester in 1554, was rector here.

Of =Birchin Lane= Stow says it should be Birchover Lane. It is also spelt Berchernere and Borcherveres Lane. It is frequently mentioned in the _Calendar of Wills_. In 1260 there is “land” in the lane; in 1285 there is a mansion house; there are a bakehouse and shops in 1319; in 1326, a tenement; twenty years later, other tenements; in 1358, a place called “la Belle”; in 1363, lands and a tenement; and in 1372, tenements in “Berchers” Lane. In 1386 and the following century we have it spelled Birchin Lane. In 1348, Riley quotes the name as Bercherners Lane.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the lane was inhabited by “fripperers,” _i.e._ old-clothes men. Here was Tom’s Coffee-house, frequented by Garrick. Chatterton wrote a letter to his sister from this house. In a court leading out of Birchin Lane is the George and Vulture, a well-known tavern, which still preserves the custom of serving chops and steaks on pewter.

=Abchurch Lane= gives its name to the church of St. Mary Abchurch, which, according to Stow, is also Upchurch (see below). The parish of Abchurch or Abbechurch is mentioned as early as 1272 and 1282, and tenements in Abbechurch Lane are devised by a testator of the year 1297.

ST. MARY ABCHURCH

The additional name signifies “Up-church,” and is accounted for by
the position of the edifice on rising ground. The church was burnt
down by the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1686 from the designs of Sir
Christopher Wren, when the parish of St. Lawrence Pountney was
annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1323.

_Pictorial Agency_.

ALTAR OF ST. MARY ABCHURCH
]

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, who exchanged it to the Master
and Wardens of Corpus Christi College near St. Lawrence Pountney,
1448; Henry VIII., who seized it in 1540, and so continued in the
Crown till Elizabeth, in 1568, granted it to Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, with whom it continued. Elizabeth’s grant was procured by
Archbishop Parker, who gave her the rectory of Penshurst in Kent, in
order that he might make over the patronage of a London living to
his old college.

Houseling people in 1548 were 368.

The church is almost square, measuring 63 feet in length and 60 feet
in breadth, and is surmounted by a cupola 51 feet in height
supported by pendentives attached to the walls; the latter is
decorated with painting by Sir James Thornhill. The altar-piece is
adorned with carving, which is considered to be some of Gibbon’s
finest work. The steeple consists of a tower of four stories,
finished by a cornice, and surmounted by a cupola, lantern, and
lead-covered spire, with ball and cross; the total height is about
140 feet. The building is of red brick with Portland stone
dressings.

Chantries were founded here: By and for Simon de Wynchecombe,
citizen and armourer, in the chapel of Holy Trinity, to which Robert
de Bruysor Chesterson was admitted, November 18, 1401—a licence was
granted by the King to found this, July 26, 1359; by John Lyttelton;
by Simon Wryght.

The church formerly contained monuments to Sir James Hawes and Sir
John Branch, mayors in 1574 and 1580; and to Master Roger Mountague,
“illustrious Precedent of Bounty and pious Industry.” Against the
eastern wall, there is a large monument to Sir Patience Ward, mayor
in 1680, and senior member for the City of London in the Convention
Parliament of 1688-89.

The parish had no legacies or charitable gifts of any considerable
amount. Mrs. Hyde gave £3 : 18s. for bread. The Merchant Taylors
Company (the gift of several benefactors) gave £16 : 19 : 6 for
coal.

=Sherborne Lane.=—Stow asserts that originally Langbourn Water, “breaking out of the ground in Fenchurch Street, ran down the same street, Lombard Street, to the west end of St. Mary Woolnoth’s church, where, turning south and breaking into small shares, rills, or streams, it left the name of Share-borne Lane,” or as he had also read it, South-borne Lane, “because it ran south to the river Thames.” Wheatley thinks that _Scrieburne_, from _scir_, a share (_sciran_, to divide), is the more likely etymology. This “long bourne of sweet water,” Stow further relates, “is long since stopped up at the head, and the rest of the course filled up and paved over, so that no sign thereof remaineth more than the names.” The existence of the stream indeed is more than problematical. The lane is narrow, and now occupied wholly by business premises more or less modern. The back of the City Carlton Club shows on the west side, and near the north end is the narrow way into St. Swithin’s Lane at the south end of the street (possibly Plough Alley); and the back way into the old General Post Office “by the sign of the Cock” (east side, north end), both shown in Strype’s 1754 map, have vanished. The former is built up; the latter is occupied by King William Street, which was cut clean through St. Mary Woolnoth’s churchyard and the old General Post Office (formerly the residence of Sir Robert Vyner, Lord Mayor, 1675). Before the Fire the General Postmaster lived “at his house in Sherburne Lane neere Abchurch,” and hither “_The Carriers’ Cosmographie_, by John Taylor, the Water Poet,” written in 1637, bids repair all who desired to send letters abroad or to various parts of the kingdom.

The name occurs as early as A.D. 1300, and is very frequently referred to in the _Calendar of Wills_, but under quite another form, viz. as “Shiteburn Lane.” Stow’s derivation of “Sharebone” or “Southbone” Lane will not, therefore, hold.

=St. Swithin’s Lane.=—Oxford Court in this lane was so called from John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, who died here in 1562.

As early as 1277 we find houses in St. Swithin’s Lane. In 1310 we find turners of St. Swithin’s Lane.

The houses are of modern brick and stone, some of them are finished with polished granite piers. The great richly wrought iron gates before the courtyard of Salters’ Hall immediately attract attention. The hall itself, built in 1823, is painted and stuccoed, and has a fine Ionic portico. Salters’ Hall was used as a Presbyterian chapel in the reign of William III.

THE SALTERS COMPANY

The first evidence of the existence of the Company is a Patent Roll
of 17 Richard II., 1394; but from documents in their possession,
there is every reason to believe that the Company had a much earlier
existence.

In 1454 Thomas Beamond, citizen and salter (at one time sheriff in
London), left to the wardens of the brotherhood and guild of the
Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church of All Saints, Bread
Street, London, and their successors for ever, land in Bread Street,
whereon had recently been erected the “Salters’ Hall,” together with
other property, out of the rents and profits of which he directed
that the hall should be repaired or rebuilt as occasion might
require. This will also gave directions for certain religious
observances, and for the support of poor Salters in almshouses, etc.

At some time subsequently to 1454 an attempt was made to prove that
the religious guild and the Company of Salters were distinct
corporations, and that Mr. Beamond intended to bequeath the property
mentioned in his will to the spiritual body exclusively, but the
legal decision was that the religious guild and the Salters Company
were identical.

In the reign of Edward IV., 1465, ordinances were made for the good
government of the “Company of Salters”; and in a suit presented by
Lord Arundel against the Company (about the same time) it was proved
that the Company of Salters and the guild or fraternity mentioned in
the Patent Roll of Richard II. were identical corporations.

1507.—Ordinances were confirmed by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord
Treasurer, and the two Lord Chief Justices, to the wardens and
fellowship of the mystery and craft of Salters in the City of
London, and keepers of the fraternity of Corpus Christi in the
Church of Allhallows, Bread Street.

1530.—Arms were granted to the Company by Thomas Benolt,
Clarencieux. This deed of grant is in the Company’s possession.

1539.—The hall in Bread Street was burnt down, and rebuilt by the
Company.

1551.—In consideration of a large payment made by them King Edward
VI. reconveyed to the Company of Salters the whole of the annual
payments issuing out of their property in respect of superstitious
uses, which had been held forfeited to the Crown at the time of the
abolition of chantries in the reign of Henry VIII. (1545).

1559.—First charter of incorporation granted by Queen Elizabeth to
the “Keepers or Wardens and Commonalty of the art or mystery of
Salters, London.” About the same time some new ordinances were drawn
up and doubtless sanctioned by the proper authorities, which make
provision for the government of the guild, and prescribe oaths for
its various members and officers; and also conferred the right of
search in the premises of persons using the art or mystery of
Salters in the City of London and suburbs thereof, for unwholesome
merchandise and false weights and measures.

1607-1609.—Acts of Parliament passed in the reign of James I.,
confirming to the Company all their property.

In these years a fresh charter and statutes were granted by the
King.

1613 to 1619.—The Company’s Irish estate was acquired by payment to
the Crown of the sum of £5000 (being the twelfth part of £60,000
raised by the twelve chief companies) with the object of planting an
English and Scotch Protestant colony there.

1641.—Oxford House (with gardens), which formerly stood on the
present site of the Company’s hall and offices, was purchased with
corporate funds of the Company, and used as their hall: this was the
third, that left by Mr. Beamond (1454) having been destroyed by fire
and rebuilt about 1539.

1666.—The whole of the Company’s estate in London and the greater
part of their archives were destroyed by the “great fire,” whereby
heavy losses were entailed on them.

1684, 1685.—King James II. granted the Company another charter, but
the whole of these proceedings were rendered void by an Act passed
in the following reign, William and Mary, under which the Salters
Company, amongst others, were restored to their ancient rights,
privileges, and franchises.

1821, 1827.—The hall of the Company, erected after the Fire in 1666,
was taken down, and the existing building was erected, being the
fifth hall of the Company.

The application of salt to the preservation of food, and
particularly of fish for consumption in winter, must have given rise
to a distinct trade for that purpose in the earliest times; and, as
civilization advanced, the term “Salter” no doubt became more
extended in its commercial interpretation, until it included, as in
the present day, all persons trading wholly or partially in salt,
such as oilmen, drysalters, and druggists.

Salt manufacturers and merchants, oilmen, druggists, and grocers
(who made salt one of their trading commodities) have been and are
largely represented on the guild.

The number of liverymen is given as 183; the Corporate Income is
£20,000; the Trust Income is £2000.

The only advantage incident to the position of a freeman is a claim
for relief, if in pecuniary distress.

Liverymen are entitled to vote at the election for the office of
renter warden, of assistant, of master and of wardens; and, if free
of the City of London, for candidates for the office of Lord Mayor,
and for some officers of the corporation; also, if free of the City,
and resident within a radius of twenty-five miles, for members of
Parliament for the said City. All liverymen not in receipt of
pecuniary assistance are invited to entertainments of the Company,
and have a claim for relief should they fall into misfortune.

The present Salters’ Hall and garden, with some adjoining land, occupies the site of the “fair and large built house” which Sir Robert Aguylum devised in 1285-86 to the priors of Tortington in Sussex for their town inn or mansion. The Dissolution brought it to the Crown, and Henry VIII., in 1540, gave it to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. Then it became known as Oxford Place or House. Mary probably restored it; at all events Elizabeth regranted it in 1573 to the Earldom of Oxford, then held by Edward, grandson of John de Vere above named. The new tenant apparently resided here in good style. Stow quaintly tells of his pomp. “He hath been noted within these forty years to have ridden into this City, and so to his house by London Stone, with 80 gentlemen in a livery of Reading tawny, and chains of gold about their necks, before him, and one hundred tall yeomen in the like livery to follow him, without chains but all having his cognisance of the blue boat embroidered on their left shoulder.” He appears not to have remained here long, for Sir Ambrose Nicholas, salter, kept his mayoralty here in 1575, and Sir John Hart dwelt here as Lord Mayor in 1589. Hart bought the place from the Earl, who was then dissipating his great estates from motives of pique and indignation against his father-in-law, Cecil, Lord Burleigh.

_Drawn by Thos. H. Shepherd_.

SALTERS’ HALL, 1822
]

The house was sold to the feofees of the Salters Company in 1641. The Great Fire of 1666 probably destroyed only a part of the great house (Wilkinson in _Londina Illustrata_ goes too far in maintaining that the building wholly escaped, but is probably nearer right than those who say it was quite destroyed), statements to the contrary notwithstanding, for, at the request of the Bishop of London, the parishioners of St. Swithin’s assembled in the long parlour for worship whilst their church was building, and several of the companies held their courts here until their halls had risen from the ashes. The destroyed portion, perhaps indeed the whole, and the wall of the great garden, and some adjoining houses, were rebuilt about this time by the Company and their tenants. The history of the Salters’ Hall has already been told.

In 1687 a congregation of “protestant dissenters” took from the Company, on moderate terms, a lease of certain ground on which part of Oxford House had stood before the Fire. Here they built their meeting-house, where Mr. Mayo preached until his death in 1695, drawing, by his eloquence, congregations so large that it is said even the windows were crowded when he preached. William Long, writer for Matthew Henry’s _Commentary_, was minister in 1702. In 1716 he and Mr. John Newman, popular with the congregation, became co-pastors. In 1719 the general body of dissenting ministers met here to discuss means for stopping the spread of Arianism. “You that are against subscribing to a declaration as a test of orthodoxy, come upstairs,” cried the Arians and the private-judgment men of a stormy synod. “And you that are for declaring your faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, stay below,” replied Mr. Bradbury of New Court. A count showed fifty-seven to have gone up, and fifty-three to have remained down, giving the “scandalous majority” of four. Arianism meanwhile had become the coffee-house topic of the town. In March 1726 Long died, and Newman became sole pastor till his death in 1741. In the reign of William III., Robert Bragge started a “Lord’s Day evening lecture,” popular for many years, but afterwards removed by the originator to his meeting-house in Lime Street. The celebrated Thomas Bradbury shortly afterwards revived it at Salters’ Hall Chapel, and for more than twenty years delivered it to crowded audiences. Samuel Baker continued it on Bradbury’s resignation in 1725. Presbyterians of some eminence followed him, as Dr. William Prior, Dr. Abraham Rees, Dr. Philip Furneaux, and Hugh Farmer (1761), the writer of an exposition on demonology and miracles, which aroused sharp controversy. When the Salters determined to rebuild their hall, they gave the congregation notice to quit by Lady Day 1821. Whereupon the congregation acquired premises in Oxford Court, upon the site of which they erected a handsome new meeting-house completed in 1822. But the glory of the place as a dissenting centre was departing, and the Presbyterians abandoned it. Then came some erratic fanatics who called themselves “The Christian Evidence Society,” and their meeting-house was “Areopagus.” Their leader went bankrupt and the experiment collapsed. In 1827 the Baptists reopened the place, and remained there for some years, but, shortly before 1870, removed to Islington, where to this day the “Salters’ Hall” Chapel in the Baxter Road preserves the memory of the struggles, quarrels, and triumphs of the old City meeting-house. In Tom Brown’s _Laconics_ (1709) is this allusion: “A man that keeps steady to one party, though he happens to be in the wrong, is still an honest man. He that goes to a Cathedral in the morning, and Salters’ Hall in the afternoon, is a rascal by his own confession.”

In _Hudibras Redivivus_ (1706) this is found:

I thumb’d o’er many factious Reams,
Of canting Lies, and Poets’ Dreams,
All stuffed as full of Low-Church Manners,
As e’er was Salters’ Hall with Sinners.

On the south side of St. Swithin’s Lane is Founders’ Hall. The hall is on the first floor, and there are shops below. The building is of stone with pilasters running up the front, and the coat-of-arms is over the door, which has a very projecting cornice. The hall was rebuilt 1877. On the north side of Salters’ Hall is New Court showing through behind a covered entry. The opposite side of St. Swithin’s Lane seems to contain the offices of an absolutely unlimited number of companies. The court, opening out of it, consists of uninteresting earth brick houses shut in by an iron gate. The City Carlton Club is in Nos. 28 and 29. It is a Conservative Club, with fifteen-guinea entrance fee, and eight-guinea subscription. The building is of stone with a porch over the door. There are bay windows with polished granite columns. Richard Roberts was the architect.

THE FOUNDERS COMPANY

The Founders Company existed as a “Mistery” prior to the year 1365,
as appears from a petition to the City of London from the “Good Men
of the Mistery of the Founders of the City of London.” This petition
is to be found in the Letter Books at Guildhall, and the entry is
also evidence that ordinances were granted on the 29th July, 39
Edward III. The Company possesses no copy of these ordinances.

In the year 1389 (Riley, _Memorials_, p. 512), certain “good folks
of the trade of Founders” made plaint to the mayor and aldermen as
to the bad work put into candlesticks, stirrups, buckles, and other
things, and they prayed that certain ordinances which they submitted
should be accepted by the mayor and made law. Among these ordinances
was one to the effect that two or three masters should be chosen and
sworn to guard and oversee the trade.

In Williams’ _History_ of this Company (1867) he gives the above
petition word for word under the date of 1365. It is certain from
this document, as with many other Companies, that as yet the
Fraternity of Founders had no power or authority to enforce good
work on pains and penalties.

They were incorporated January 1, 1614, for a master, 2 wardens, 15
assistants, and 100 liverymen. At present the number of the livery
is 79; their Corporate Income is £1855; their Trust Income is £102;
and their Hall is in St. Swithin’s Lane. The original home of the
Founders was that part of London north of Lothbury.

The name of Founders’ Court marks the site; this was formerly the
lane which led through the Company’s buildings to a garden beyond;
the buildings stretched from St. Margaret Street to Coleman Street,
Moorgate Street not then existing. This hall was burnt down in the
Great Fire and rebuilt. The Company let off portions of their hall,
and in 1853 let the whole on a long lease and bought a house in St.
Swithin’s Lane, on the site of which they built their present hall
in 1877.

ST. SWITHIN’S CHURCH

St. Swithin, to whom this church is dedicated, was Bishop of
Winchester and Chancellor to King Egbert. Formerly the usual
designation of the church was St. Swithin’s in Candlewick Street,
but Newcourt (1708) states that St. Swithin, London Stone, was
becoming the more common title. The stone at that time stood on the
south side of the road opposite to the church. No record exists of
the original foundation of the church. Probably it was built soon
after the death of St. Swithin in 862, or at any rate before A.D.
1000. It is mentioned in the taxation book of Pope Nicholas IV. in
1291. The first rector given by Newcourt is Robert de Galdeford, who
resigned in 1331. In 1420 licence was obtained to rebuild and
enlarge the church and steeple, and Sir John Hend, Lord Mayor, 1391
and 1404, was, says Stow, “an especial benefactor thereunto, as
appeareth by his arms in the glass windows, even in the tops of
them.” The hall of the Drapers Company was at that time Sir John
Hend’s house in St. Swithin’s Lane. The church thus rebuilt
consisted of a chancel and a nave separated from the north and south
aisles by pillars. There was a chapel of St. Katherine and St.
Margaret. From the date of rebuilding it is evident that the style
of the architecture was Early Decorated. The maps of Aggas (1560)
and Newcourt (1658) agree in showing a small battlemented church,
with a square battlemented tower (without spire) at the west end and
level with the street. In 1607-1608 the church was “fully beautified
and finished at the cost and charge of the parishioners.” It was
again repaired shortly before the Great Fire, when £1000 was spent
upon it. The church was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by
Wren in 1678, when the neighbouring parish of St. Mary Bothaw was
annexed. In 1869 and 1879 it was entirely “rearranged.”

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Sir Robert Aguylum,
Knt., who gave it by will dated February 28, 1285, to Richard, Earl
of Arundel, who has licence from the King to assign it to the Prior
and Convent of Tortington, June 21, 1367; the Prior and Convent of
Tortington, Sussex, in whose successors it continued up to 1538,
when Henry VIII. seized it and granted it June 8, 1536, to John de
Vere, Earl of Oxford, who sold it, 1561, to John Hart, citizen and
alderman of London, who gave it to George Bolles (his son-in-law),
citizen of London, from whose descendants it was purchased about
1683; the Salters Company, in whose successors it continued up to
1666, when the parish of St. Mary Bothaw was annexed, and the
patronage shared alternately with the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury; Elizabeth Beachcroft presented to it in 1765, the
Salters Company having parted with their share of the patronage.

Houseling people in 1548 were 320.

The church measures 61 feet in length, 42 feet in breadth, and 41
feet in height. It is surmounted by an octagonal cupola, divided by
bands, and powdered with stars on a blue ground. The tower, which
rises at the north-west, is square but contracted at the top into an
octagonal shape. Above this a simple spire rises with a ball and
vane. The total height is 150 feet.

Chantries were founded here: By Roger de Depham at the Altar of SS.
Katherine and Margaret, to which William de Kyrkeby was presented,
November 5, 1361—in 1548 the mayor and commonalty of London paid to
carry out the object of Roger de Depham’s will, £5 : 6 : 8; by
William Newe, who endowed it with lands, etc., which fetched £17 :
8 : 4, when John Hudson was priest; by James de Sancto Edmund, who
left five marks per annum for an endowment in 1312; by Geoffrey
Chittick, who gave lands to endow it which fetched £13 : 6 : 8 in
1548, when Sir Roger Butte was priest; by John Betson, who endowed
it with all his lands in this parish, which yielded £13 : 6 : 8 in
1548, when Richard Hudson was priest.

Sir John Hart and Sir George Bolles, patrons of the church, were
both buried here, but their monuments perished in the Great Fire.
There is a large tablet affixed to a column on the north side of the
church commemorating Michael Godfrey, first deputy governor of the
Bank of England; he was slain in 1695 by a cannon ball at Namur,
whither he was sent on business to King William’s camp.

In 1663 Dryden was married here to Lady Elizabeth Howard.

Only two charities are recorded by Stow: 12d. per week in bread,
50s. per annum in coals for the poor, the gift of Henry Hobener;
£10 : 10s. for a weekly lecture, the gift of Thomas Wetnal.

The parish churchyard is situated in Salters’ Hall Court, by which it is separated from the church. It is elevated above the court and contains two trees, two or three bushes and shrubs, and a few tombstones. Across it is a right-of-way to the premises of the National Telephone Company, to which it has the appearance of being a garden.

=George Street= was anciently Bearbinder Lane. Riley notes “Berbynderslane” in the City records so early as 1358. It was renamed George Street within the nineteenth century. If Charlotte Row, west of the Mansion House, was so called in honour of Queen Charlotte, surely this was rechristened in honour of George III., whom she married in 1761. It is quite small compared with its former extent, for it once ran from Walbrook past the south side of St. Mary Woolchurch into St. Swithin’s Lane, and also had a northern limb, passing the west end of Dove Court, into Lombard Street. Now the Mansion House stands upon all the old course west of Walbrook churchyard, and the northern limb is built over. This was the fatal spot where the plague of 1665 first made its appearance within the City. Defoe, in his history of the dire disease, relates how a Frenchman living in Long Acre, near the plague-stricken houses, moved hither “for fear of the distemper.” Alas! he was already stricken, and in the beginning of May he died, the first victim within the City walls. Strype calls Bearbinder Lane “a place of no great account as to trade: well inhabited by merchants and others.” In his time about thirty yards at the east end were reckoned in Langbourn ward, and apparently also most of the northern arm. It now belongs wholly to Walbrook ward, and is merely a narrow passage containing no houses older than the nineteenth century.

We now take =Walbrook=, leaving Cannon Street to be dealt with subsequently. The memory of the stream of the Walbrook coming down from the heights to the north is preserved in the name of this short street.

In 1279 and in 1290 we find that there were houses on the banks of the stream. In the year 1307, there was one William le Marischale living beside the stream. It must have been almost impossible, even then, to live near the stream, because it was a common open sewer with latrines built over it. These were farmed by certain persons. Part of the stream, however, was covered over by the year 1300; it was not till the close of the sixteenth century that it was completely covered over. Empson and Dudley, the instruments of Henry VII.’s extortions, lived in Walbrook; and later Sir Christopher Wren is said to have lived here at the house afterwards No. 5.

The modern street is chiefly composed of ordinary stone-faced business houses. But on the west side are three charming seventeenth-century buildings of mellow red brick, Nos. 10, 11, and 12. On the centre one is a stone tablet supported by brackets, and covered by a projecting cornice; this bears date 1668. A little farther up on the opposite side an eighteenth-century brick house stands over the entry to Bond Court. The doorway immediately opposite the entry is a nice piece of woodwork. There are also one or two doorways of different designs in the northern part of the court. These belong to old houses, though those buildings on the west facing them are quite modern.

Returning to the street, the ornamental front of the City Liberal Club, founded 1874, draws attention to itself. The front is of light stone with the windows and doorway framed in granite. Farther north on the same side is Ye Olde Deacons Tavern, next door to Bell Court, a narrow passage of no particular interest. Representations of almost every trade occupy the street; it contains two great houses let in flats, one of which, Worcester House, seems to be especially given up to the offices of company promoters.

ST. STEPHEN, WALBROOK

St. Stephen, Walbrook, stands at the back of the Mansion House. It
was formerly often called St. Stephen-upon-Walbrook, from the fact
that its first site was actually upon the bank of the stream so
named. There is only one other church in the City dedicated to St.
Stephen, viz. St. Stephen, Coleman Street. The date of its
foundation is not known, but it dates back at least as far as the
reign of Henry I.; Eudo Dapifer’s gift of it to his Abbey of St.
John, Colchester, in 1096, being the earliest reference to it. It
was rebuilt early in Henry VI.’s reign, chiefly through the agency
of Robert Chicheley, Lord Mayor in 1411 and 1421. It was totally
consumed by the Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in 1672, when the
neighbouring parish of St. Benet Sherehog was annexed. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1315.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Eudo, Steward to
Henry I., who gave it to the Abbot and Convent of St. John,
Colchester, who held it up to 1422; John, Duke of Bedford, who sold
it in 1432 to Sir Robert Whytingham, Knt., who gave it to Richard
Lee in 1460, who gave it in 1502 to the Grocers Company, in whose
successors it continued.

Houseling people in 1548 were 250.

This church is, after St. Paul’s Cathedral, considered Wren’s
masterpiece. It is oblong in shape, traversed by four rows of
Corinthian columns, which divide it into five aisles, of which the
central is the broadest; it is crowned by a circular dome supported
on eight arches. The effect thus produced of the circle springing
from an octagonal base is especially graceful. The building measures
82½ feet in length, 59½ feet in width, and the height to the dome is
63 feet, to the ceiling of the side aisles 36 feet. The tower
contains four stories; upon it the steeple is placed, tapering to a
spirelet with finial and vane; the total height is about 130 feet.
Against the wall of the north transept is a picture of St. Stephen
being carried from the scene of his martyrdom; this is by Benjamin
West, P.R.A., and is generally considered his best work; it was
presented by the rector, Dr. Wilson, and put up in 1776, though it
then stood over the reredos.

Chantries were founded here: By Lettice Lee, whose endowment fetched
£14 : 10s. in 1548; by William Adams, who left £126 : 13 : 4 as an
endowment for a priest to sing for his soul “as long as the money
would endure”—this in 1548 was in the hands of one named Myller of
Lynn, Norfolk.

The church originally contained a monument in memory of Sir Thomas
Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxford. The oldest monument
is one in memory of John Lilbourne, citizen and grocer of London,
who died in 1678. On the north wall two physicians are
commemorated—Nathaniell Hodges, who wrote a treatise on the
Plague, and died in 1688; and Percival Gilbourne, who died 1694.
In 1726 Sir John Vanbrugh the architect was interred here; he was
also a playwright.

_Pictorial Agency._

ST. STEPHEN, WALBROOK
]

According to Stow, the parish possessed £100 per annum, employed in
repairing the church, etc., the exact uses of which were unknown. He
records a legacy of £20 per annum for charitable uses left by one
named Dickenson.

Henry Chicheley, L.L.D. (d. 1443), Archbishop of Canterbury, was a
rector here; also Thomas Wilson (1703-84), author of the _History of
St. Margaret’s_; John Kite (d. 1537), Archbishop of Armagh; and
Thomas Howell (1588-1646), Bishop of Bristol.

The Church of St. Stephen stood on the west side of the original course of Walbrook stream. Over the new course of the stream a “covering” or small bridge was made for access to the church, and in 1300 the parishioners were found, by inquisition before the mayor, to be under the obligation of repairing it. Little is known of this building; that it possessed a belfry is shown from an entry in the coroner’s roll of 1278, which records the death of one William le Clarke, who, having gone pigeon-nesting in the belfry, accidentally fell as he was climbing the beams, and so ruptured and crushed his body on one of them that he died. The fatal beam was thereupon “appraised at four pence, and two neighbours nearest to the church were attached, each by two sureties, to see the fine or deodand paid” (Riley’s _Memorials of London_, p. 13).

The “parsonage house,” before the Great Fire, stood, Stow tells us, on the site of the first church, next to the course of the Walbrook. It was rebuilt by one Jerome Raustorne (or Rawstorne) upon a lease of forty years, commencing 1674, and by this, Newcourt says, was “reserved to the parson £17 a year ground-rent.” The parish at this time enjoyed an income of £100 a year, and with part of this, supplemented by sums of money received from leases, and from compensations for encroachments and new “lights” made upon the churchyard at the rebuilding of the City after the Fire, the Vestry determined to build a new rectory house. The leave of the Grocers Company, as patrons, and a faculty from the Bishop of London, dated 1692-93, having been obtained, the new house was built (between 1693 and 1708) adjoining the west end of the church by the tower on a piece of ground, about 20 feet square, previously occupied by a portion of the ante-Fire edifice. It was considered that the rector had a title to some portion of the ground, and to half the compensation money paid for new lights, and accordingly it was provided that in case the rector or any of his successors should find it inconvenient or inadvisable to live in the house, then the Vestry should let the same from year to year, the parish to have two-thirds of the rental, and the remaining third to go to the rector. This house is still standing, but is let out for offices, the rector living at Brockley. It is a quaint and small house, which almost touches the church wall at the back. Two of its rooms stand over the church porch. The original staircase and panelled walls remain. It is the only old house standing on the east side of Walbrook. The churchyard is situated at the east end of the church. It has a round flower-bed in the centre, two trees, and several bushes, and is kept in excellent order. It is entered from Church Row by an iron gate, and from the church by the door in the east wall.

The Mansion House occupies the sites of Stocks Market and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw.

ST. MARY WOOLCHURCH HAW

This church was situated on the eastern side of the market. It
probably derived its name “Woolchurch” from the fact that a beam was
erected in the churchyard for the weighing of wool. It was probably
built about the time of William I. by one Hubert de Ria, founder of
the Abbey of St. John in Colchester. His son Eudo Dapifer, Steward
to the Conqueror, endowed his newly-built Abbey and Convent of St.
John, Colchester, with it. The charter of foundation (1096) calls it
St. Mary de Westcheping, or Newchurch, and states that Ailward Gross
the priest held the living by gift of Hubert de Ria. The exact words
are these, and constitute the earliest mention of the church:

_Photochrom Co., Ltd._

THE MANSION HOUSE AND CHEAPSIDE
]

_Et ecclesiam S. Mariae de Westcheping, London, quae vocatur
Niewecherche, concedente Ailwardo Grosso, presbytero qui in eadem
ecclesia et donatione antecessoris mei Huberti de Ria personatum
consecutus fuerat_ (Newcourt 1. p. 459).