Chapter 70

34.Privy Council Register, Vol. 47, p. 24.

35.Chancery Proceedings, Bridges, 447–82. Suit of Peter Broome and Thos. Barker.

36.Close Roll, 28 Elizabeth (1263).

37. On 13th June, 1592, administration of probate was granted to John Buck’s widow, Margaret Buck. He had, therefore, died quite a short time previously (Arch. London Probate Acts, II., 88).

38.Close Roll, 25 Elizabeth (1155).

39.Close Roll, 10 Charles I. (3018).

40.Close Roll, 13 Charles II. (4086).

41.Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1716, III., 63.

42.Close Roll, 15 Charles II. (4143).

43. John Apsley sold the inn in 1639 to Daniel Thelwall, William Bierley and Sir Chas. Dallison. SeeClose Roll, 22 Charles I. (3343)—Indenture between Dallison, Thelwall, Bierley, and George SmithsonandGeorge Gentleman.

44.Close Roll, 5 James I. (1910). Indenture between Gregory Miller and Geo. Flower.

45. Parton (Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, p. 354) records the fact of the residence of Sir Anthony Ashley and Sir John Cowper (see above) in Thornton’s Alley.

46.Middlesex Feet of Fines, 16 Elizabeth, Easter.

47.Close Roll, 2 Charles I. (2677). Indenture between Frederick Johnson and Mary Worliche and Francis Cole.

48.Close Roll, 5 Charles I. (2800). Indenture between Francis Cole and Robert Offley.

49. See warrant given in Indenture of 9th April, 1630, between Wm. and Joan NewtonandAnthony Bailey and John Johnson. (Close Roll, 6 Charles I. (2853). Newton, the designer of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, had married the daughter and heir of Gregory Miller, son of John.)

50.Survey of London, Vol. III. (St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Part I.) pp. 5–6.

51.Close Roll, 15 Chas. I. (3193).

52.Close Rolls, 20th July, 1639, between William Newton and Lewis Richard (15 Chas. I. (3191)); 15th March, 1638–9, between Wm. Newton and John Giffard (15 Chas. I. (3188)); 1st October, 1657, between Humfrey Newton and Arthur Newman (1657 (3945)).

53. The houses to the south of Fortescue’s premises seem to have been built originally as three houses. The southern boundary of Fortescue’s houses is said to be “a greate house lately built by the said William Newton.” This, according to the Hearth Tax Rolls, was the Earl of Northampton’s mansion. Then came “a faire messuage or howse of one Master Crewe,” and to the south of this, at the corner of Great Queen Street, and having a width from north to south of 42 feet, was in 1648 a plot of ground on which “Henry Massingberd intends to erect a house.” (Close Roll, 24 Chas. I. (3411.) Indenture between Humfrey Newton and Henry Massingberd.) If, however, only one house was built on this plot, it was divided quite early, as the premises already appear in two occupations in the Hearth Tax Roll for 1666.

54. One of the two houses was in 1643 in the tenure of Sir John Thimbleby (Close Roll, 18 Chas. I. (3295)—Indenture between John FortescueandJohn Pynchon and Wm. Barnard).

55. Moved to No. 1, Lincoln’s Fields, in 1743 (Survey of London, Vol. III., p. 24.)

56.British Museum Additional MS., 11,411, ff. 70 and 77.

57.Ibid., f. 17b.

58. Reproduced here.

59. SeeLand Revenue Enrolments, Book IV., No. 52, p. 120.

60.Patent Roll, 7 Jas. I. (1802) (Translated from the Latin).

61.Parliamentary Survey(Augmentation Office), No. 25. Middlesex—tenements in St. Giles-in-the-Fields and High Holborn.

62.Close Roll, 7 Jas. I. (1971).

63.Close Roll, 8 Jas. I. (2032).

64. See p.36.

65.Close Roll, 9 Jas. I. (2083).

66.Middlesex Feet of Fines, 10 Jas. I., Easter.

67.Close Roll, 13 Chas. II. (4084). Indenture between Thos. Newton and Geo. GoodmanandArthur Newman. William Lane, by his will dated 15th February, 1653–4, left nine messuages in Holborn to his grandson, who enjoyed two-thirds leaving one-third to his grandmother Elinor. The premises were rebuilt about 1698–1701. (Chancery Proceedings,Bridges, 328–31. Suit of Roger Reading, 3rd February, 1703–4.)

68. In 1618 William Taylor was reported to the Privy Council for building a house “in Fawlcon yard in the upper end of Holborne where none was before.” (Privy Council Register, No. 29, 493).

69.Survey of London, Vol. III. (St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Part I.), p. 7.

70.Privy Council Register, Vol. 47, p. 410.

71.Inquisitio Ad Quod Damnum—Brevia Regia, Petty Bag Office, No. 17.

72.Petition of the Lord Mayor,etc., dated 10th April, 1635. (Calendar of State Papers,Domestic, 1635–6, p. 17).

73.Privy Council Register, Vol. 47, p. 370.

74.Close Roll, 16 Chas. I. (3232)—Indenture between Henry Darrell and Mary Blague.

75.I.e., “very well with brick and covered with tyle.”

76. In the case of Shenton’s tenements, built probably at about the same time, it is known that rebuilding was carried out before October, 1682. (Chancery Proceedings,Bridges, 271–13. Suit of Elizabeth Stratton).

77.3rd Report of H.M. Commissioners of Woods and Forests(1819), App. 2, pp. 38–9.

78. Reproduced here.

79.Close Roll, 1650 (3510)—Indenture between William Short, Gregory Short and William and Magdalen CurtisandThomas and Elinor Vaughan.

80.Middlesex Feet of Fines, 1650, Easter.

81.Close Roll, 18 Chas. II. (4195).

82.Exchequer Pleas582 (2)—Suit of William Bell (Easter term, 18 Chas. I.) against Sir Samuel Somaster.

83. Blott’s suggestion (Blemundsbury, pp. 201–2) that the place referred to was Little Turnstile, has nothing to recommend it.

84.Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1629–31, p. 284.

85.Ibid., pp. 321–2.

86.Exchequer Pleas582 (2), cited above.

87. See p.107.

88.Close Roll, 9 Eliz. (742)—Indenture, dated 1st February, 1566–7, between Lord and Lady Mountjoy and Edward Kingston.

89. The southernmost of the three northerly houses mentioned above.

90.Close Roll, 24 Eliz. (1129)—Indenture, dated 30th July, 1582, between Jas. Briscowe, etc., and Jas. Mascall.

91. See p.27.

92. It will be remembered that the houses, including, and for a little distance west of, No. 198, High Holborn (the Public Library), are on the site of Rose Field (see p. 18).

93.Inquisitiones Post Mortem,Middx., Series II., vol. 208.

94. Together with a moiety of the three northernmost of the 8 houses and of other property on the north side of High Holborn, acquired by Mascall of Edward Kingston.

95.Close Roll, 11 Chas. I. (3057)—Indenture between Thos. Godman and Olive his wifeandFrancis Gerard and Frances his wife.

96. Blott’sBlemundsbury, p. 381.

97. As showing the connection between the Gerard and Cole families attention may be drawn to the fact that Philip Gerard, successor of Francis Gerard in Drury Lane, and probably his son, was associated with Salomon Cole in a deed relating to property at King’s Gate. (Close Roll, 1658—Indenture between Sir Thos. Fisher, Gerard and ColeandJohn Plumer).

98.Close Roll, 1655 (3857)—Indenture between Chas. Lovell, etc., and Philip Wetherell.

99.Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1756, II., 325–6—Indenture between John Smart and John Higgs.

100.Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1717, II., 272.

101. Reproduced here.

102. Parton’sHospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, p. 71.

103. From deeds quoted by Parton (Hospital and Parish of St. Giles) it is evident that in the 13th century Drury Lane was known as “Aldewych” or “Via de Aldewych.” The name “Drury Lane,” given later, was no doubt due to the existence of Drury House near the Strand end of the road. How late “Via de Aldewych” was used there is nothing to show. In certain deeds of the 17th century (e.g.,Close Roll, 24 November, 8 Charles I.—Indenture between Francis, Lord Russell, and Earl of BedfordandJohn, Earl of Bristol, etc.) the road is called “Drury LanealiasFortescue Lane.” It is just possible that the latter name is to be connected with Sir John Fortescue, who held the Elm Field (i.e., the land between Castle Street and Long Acre) in the reign of Henry VI. (Close Roll, 30 Henry VI. (302)—Grant by John Crouton and Wm. Horn to John and Katherine Nayler); in fact there is reason for thinking that the “viam regiam ducentem ... a villa Sci. Egidii versus Bosomysynne modo Johis. Fortescue militis” mentioned in the same deed is actually Drury Lane. The road seems also to have gone by the name of St. Giles’s Lane in the early part of the 17th century. (See p.35n.)

104. See p.107.

105. They appear together as witnesses in many deeds. Two deeds bearing the name of William Christmas as witness can be dated with certainty 1257–8 and 1276.

106. Blott’s statement that here “stood the mansion house of the Christmasse family, with its pasture land and orchard bordering the King’s Highway, Oldborne, the domain reaching to Ficquet Fields,” goes beyond the evidence, and his imaginative history, based on an identification of “John of Good Memory,” late chaplain of St. Giles, mentioned in Henry II.’s Charter (notthe original foundation charter, as Blott says), with a John Christmas = John de Cruce the elder = John de Fonte the elder (all equally hypothetical persons) is absolutely unjustifiable (Blemundsbury, pp. 333–4).

107.Augmentation Office, Deeds of purchase and exchange, E. 19.

108. The premises, together with a cottage and Purse Field with the pightells, were farmed to her on 6 June, 1524, by the Master of Burton Lazars, and it is stated that she was then living there. (Patent Roll, 7 Elizabeth, pt. 3, Grant to Thos. Jordayne.)

109. “Et de liijsiiijdde Willelmo Hosyer pro redditu cujusdam messuagii vocati le White Harte in Hamelett SciEgidii et xviij acr’ pasture ac unius parvi clausi vocati Pale Close.” (Ministers’ Accounts, 2101, Henry VIII.)

110. Uncertainty on this point and on the date of the period of his tenancy unfortunately stands in the way of accepting the following note as a contribution to the history ofThe White Hart. “Will. Hosyer, of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London—Licence (he having had his house burnt down 9th Oct. last [1539] and lost all his goods therein to the value of £200) to collect alms in England and Wales for his relief.” (Patent Roll, 32 Henry VIII. pt. 4.)

111.Close Roll, 9 Eliz. (733)—Indenture between Lord Mountjoy and Geo. Harrison; andClose Roll, 24 Eliz. (1129)—Indenture between Jas. Briscowe, etc., and Jas. Mascall. Cockshott was apparently there in 1579, for the piece of ground or garden plot which 12 years before had been used as “a greate garden belonginge to ... theWhite Harte,” (Close Roll, 9 Eliz. (742)—Indenture between Lord Mountjoy and Edward Kyngston) was in that year described as “then or late in the tenure of Richard Cockeshute.” (Close Roll, 21 Eliz. (1058)—Indenture between Ed. Kyngston and James Mascall.)

112. Parton,Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, pp. 131–2.

113. SeeLand Revenue Enrolments, Book IV., No. 52, p. 120.

114. Situated on the north side of High Holborn, just to the west of the present junction with New Oxford Street.

115. It will be seen that the presentYe Olde White Hart, No. 191, Drury Lane, is not on the site either of the oldWhite Hart, or even of the land formerly belonging to it.

116. Parton,Hospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 238.

117. Reproduced here.

118. The course of this stream as shown in the map accompanying Volume III. of theSurvey of Londonrequires a slight modification, as deeds, which have since come to light, show that to the south of High Holborn it followed exactly the winding red line indicating the course of the later sewer, and not the straight line there suggested.

119.Close Roll, 1657 (3940).—Indenture between William Short and Edward Tooke.

120. Thomas Burton’s land, which included the site of all the houses in Drury Lane mentioned in the above deed, had a width along that street of 233 feet. These houses reached as far south as the house belonging to Mr. Fotherley, on whose garden St. Thomas’s Street was subsequently formed. (Parton,Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, p. 275.) The distance between the boundary line and the northern side of Shelton Street, the modern representative of St. Thomas’s Street, is 243 feet, thus allowing a 10 feet extension of the garden northwards beyond the street.

121. See p.20.

122. The occupier ofThe Roseat this time was Richard Taylor. See Petition of Geo. Sutton complaining of a confederacy between Taylor and “one Thomas Barnett, brewer,” to whom Taylor had let the premises after Sutton had given him lawful warning to avoid. (Augmentation Proceedings, 22–25.) The property is described as “one tenement calledThe Roose, lieing and being within the said parish of Saint Gyles in the feldes, with one barne and syxe acres of land, with appurtenances to the same.”

123.Close Roll, 42 Elizabeth (1666).

124.Augmentation Office, Miscellaneous Books, 140, p. 56.

125.Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, p. 239.

126.Close Roll, 22 Chas. II. (4290).—Indenture between Sarah Hooper, etc., and Anthony Hannott.

127.Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1723, III., 289, 390.

128. The entries in the ratebook, from the corner of Duke Street (now represented by the first courtyard to the east of Grape Street) to the corner of Bow Street, are as follows:—Jonathan Dodswell, 2 houses (£20); Samuel Chandler (£20); Nathaniel Chandler (£25); John Lacost (£25); Mr. Anthony Elmes (£70); Thomas Gwilliam (£20); Alexander Masters (£16); John Pettit (£10).

129. This rough identification is confirmed by the fact thatThe Rosecan be shown by comparison of particulars given in various deeds to have been the 8th house westward from the Pale Pingle, the westernmost limit of which seems to have been opposite the centre of the frontage of theWhite Hartproperty. (See Plate 2).

130.Middlesex Feet of Fines, 16 Chas. I., Trin. Of course, in the absence of more definite details, there is nothing toprovethat this refers toThe Rose.

131.Close Roll, 1650 (3542).—Indenture between William Short and Thos. Walker, Peter MillsandRichd. Horseman.

132. See p.31.

133. “July 8, 1640. Warrant to the Petty Constables of the parishes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields and St. Clement’s Danes to give notice to the persons whose names are underwritten to appear ... before Sir John Hippisley and Sir Henry Spiller to show cause why they neglect and refuse to cleanse and repair their parts of a common sewer near Lewknor’s lane, St. Giles-in-the-Fields, which has become a public nuisance.” (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1640, p. 459). This sewer, which ran about 74 feet north of Lewknor’s lane (Parton’sHospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 101), seems to have originally, as an open ditch, formed the boundary between Rose Field and Bear Close.

134. Either this means that Short had purchased a portion of Bear Close, or, more probably, it refers to that portion of Rose Field which bounded Bear Close on the east. This had before 1650 been sold to Thomas Grover. (Close Roll, 1654 (3813).—Indenture between William Short and Wm. Atkinson.)

135.Close Roll, 1657 (3940)—Indenture between William Short and Edward Tooke.

136.Privy Council Register, vol. 258, 46.

137. See letters from him addressed to (a) the Earl of Pembroke, 22nd November, 1620; (b) Secretary Conway, 23rd November, 1623 (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1619–23, p. 194, and 1623–5, p. 117).

138. It need hardly be said that Blott’s (Blemundsbury, pp. 357–362) identification of Lewknor’s house with “Cornwallis House, Drury Lane,” the residence of Sir William Cornwallis, “adjoining the grounds of the White Hart Inn ... at the Holborn end of Drury Lane” is a pure fiction. There is no evidence that Sir William Cornwallis ever lived in Drury Lane. His statement that “it is a long task to trace how the Christmasse estate passed into the Cornwallis family, who appears to have been the immediate successors to the great inheritance in Drury Lane,” is delightful, seeing that “the Christmasse estate” was situated at White Hart corner, and the Cornwallis “inheritance,” which, by the way, was acquired only in 1613, some years after Sir William Cornwallis’s death, consisted of Purse Field, which nowhere reached within 500 feet of Drury Lane.

139.Coram Rege Roll, Easter term, 17 Chas. II., No. 469.

140.Close Roll, 1650 (3542).—Indenture between William Short and Thomas Walker, Peter MillsandRichard Horseman.

141. This is stated in the deed (20 June, 1652) relating to the sale of the property by George Evelyn (who had married Sir John Cotton’s widow) to John Fotherley (Common Pleas, Recovery Roll, 1652, Trin., 278), and Cotton’s name is given in respect of the house in the Subsidy Roll of 1646.

142. See,e.g.—Indenture between Henry Fotherley Whitfield and Joseph King (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1766, I., 379) concerning a parcel of ground in “St. Thomas’s Street, now intended to be called King Street.”

143. Lease dated 23rd February, 1619–20, by Thomas Burton to Edmund Edlyn, quoted in Blott’sBlemundsbury, pp. 358–9. It should be explained that Walter Burton had sublet to Thomas Burton a portion of the ground leased to him by William Short.

144. It should be noticed that the eastern portion of Parker Street (beyond the alley lying to the east of the Kingsway Theatre) is on the site of Purse Field, not of Rose Field.

145.Hospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 358.

146. “Philip Parcar, for 5 houses built neare Drury Lane in Parcar’s Lane, to the Star Chamber.” (Privy Council Register(1633–4), vol. 258, No. 46).

147. Philip Parker is seen in a different role in the following: “Recognisances ... for the appearance of ... William Hartoppe ... to answer ... for refusinge to ayde Phillip Parker to search for a seminary priest in the house of John Clarke, of St. Gyles in the Feildes” (11th April, 1626) (Middlesex Sessions Rolls, III., p. 160).

148. Reproduced here.

149. A change of tenancy in 1775 is accompanied by an increase in the rateable value from £8 to £18.

150. Reproduced here.

151.Close Roll, 9 Elizabeth (748)—Indenture, dated 20th January, 1566–7, between Lord and Lady Mountjoy and Richard Holford.

152. From other documents it is quite obvious that this must be another name for Purse Field, but the name has not been met with elsewhere.

153. The deeds show that all the western portion of Parker Street, both south and north sides, was in Rose Field, and all the western part of Great Queen Street was in Aldwych Close.

154. This was the line of the sewer, or open stream, which formed the western boundary of Purse Field. In later deeds relating to the central portion of Aldwych Close, the latter is described as extending to the common sewer on the east side towards Lincoln’s Inn. (Seee.g.Recovery Roll, 1633, 9 Chas. I., Easter (201).)

155. See p.124.

156.Inquisitiones Post Mortem (Middlesex), 18 Eliz., vol. 174 (32).

157.I.e., according to a deed referred to in the inquisition on Henry Holford (16th June, 1624) (Ibid., 22 Jas. I., vol. 428 (87)). There was also, however, or there had been three years before, “a little howse, forge or shedd” on what was afterwards the north-west corner of Great Queen Street (Close Roll, 40 Eliz. (1597)—Demise by Henry Holford to Henry Foster, Margaret Foster and Henry Warner).

158. Recited in lease of 30th April, 1607, by Walter Burton to Thomas Burton, in possession of the London County Council.

159. See p.40.

160. See indentures between Richard HolfordandRobert Stratton and Edward Stratton respectively, dated 28th July, 1635, and 24th April, 1658. (Close Rolls, 11 Chas. I. (3060) and 1658 (3984)).

161. This triangular piece, and the ground on which the houses on the south side of Kemble Street are built, both originally being portions of Aldwych Close, have recently been taken out of the Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields.

162. “The private way in Oldwitch Close for the King and Councell to passe through leading from St. Giles his lane in the feildes east towardes Holborne.” (Close Roll, 22 James I. (2601)—Indenture between Jane and Richard Holford and Jeoffery Prescott.)

163. The two gates are referred to in the petition (ascribed to March, 1632), of the Surveyor-General of His Majesty’s Ways, who complained that on the day before the King and Queen went last to Theobalds, he warned Richard Powell, the scavenger for High Holborn, to cleansethe passage between the two gatesin Holborn, where many loads of noisome soil lay stopping up the way; but Powell neglected to do this, and at the time of the Royal passage a cart laden with soil stood in the passage blocking the way. (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1631–3, p. 298.)

164. On 31st October, 1617, a warrant was issued to Thos. Norton, “Surveyor of His Majesty’s Wayes and Passages,” calling attention to the fact that in spite of the King’s commands, “sundry persons have gotten and used false keyes for opening the lockes and gates of His Majesties private passages through the feildes neere the Cittie of London, and that divers unruly coachmen, carters, and others, have and doe use with great hammers and other like tools to breake open the said gates.” (Privy Council Register, XXIX., 153.) This warrant seems almost too late to refer to Great Queen Street, and yet the fact that it also deals with the steps to be taken against “one Holford and his tennantes” for their default in allowing “the streete in Drury Lane in his Matiesordinary way” to be very noisome, seems to point to the Theobalds route. Perhaps the fields north of Holborn are referred to.

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