Chapter 72

297.Somerset House Wills, Richmond, 161.

298. The house is referred to later on as “all that messuage,etc., formerly called by the name of the Great Wardrobe” (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1811, VI., 104). It will be noticed that the title “Queen Anne’s Wardrobe” given to the western half of Bristol House in 1846 (Plate 16) is doubly incorrect. In the first place it is assigned to the wrong half of Bristol House, and secondly the dates show that it could not possibly have had any connection with Queen Anne.

299. See copy of deed, dated 11th March, 1708–9, for the appointment of Dummer as deputy. (Treasury Papers, Cal.1708–14, CXIII., No. 12.)

300. Shortly before 4th February, 1774, Sheridan took a house in Orchard Street (Sanders’Life of Sheridan, p. 23).

301. His name in the ratebooks is given as “Richard Sheridan” only, but a deed of 1811, giving the names of occupants of the house mentions him by his full name: “formerly in occupation of Benjamin Wilson, painter, afterwards of John Henderson, sometime since in the possession of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and now of Ann Boak, milliner.” (Indenture of 20th June, 1811, between Jno. Kneller, Peter Tahairdin, and Thos. Grove—Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1811, VI., 104.)

302. Moore’sMemoirs of Sheridan, p. 213.

303. F. M. Parsons’Garrick and His Circle, p. 369. As an example of how false history comes to be written, it is interesting to note that Mrs. Parsons describes the house as “an Inigo Jones house, in which five men known to fame: Hudson, the painter; scritch-scratch Worlidge, the etcher; Hoole, Tasso’s translator, whom Johnson loved; now Sheridan; and after him, Chippendale, the cabinet maker, successively lived.” None of the other individuals mentioned lived in the house occupied by Sheridan.

304. See p.59.

305. Stafford’sLetters(Ed. Wm. Knowler, 1739), II., p. 165

306.Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1638–9, p. 113.

307.Close Roll, 17 Charles I. (3275). Indenture between Lord Conway, Edw. Burghe and Wm. NewtonandElizabeth, Countess Rivers.

308.Historical MSS. Commission, House of Lords Calendar, Appendix to VI. Report, p. 109b.

309. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage. TheDictionary of National Biographystates that he was born in 1628, and was the son of John Savage, a colonel in the royal army.

310.Historical MSS. Commission, Frere MSS., Appendix to 7th Report, p. 531a.

311. Elizabeth Scroope, married to the Earl in 1647.

312. “Lord Rivers denies entrance to survey and payment,” and “Earle Rivers refuseth to pay.”

313.Historical MSS. Commission, Frere MSS., Appendix to 7th Report, p. 531a.

314. At first a Roman Catholic, the Earl subsequently joined the English Communion.

315. Mary, the second wife of the second Earl, at this time Countess Dowager Rivers, by her will, proved 25th January, 1657–8 (in which she is described as “of St. Giles”) left £400 to Sir Francis Petre (Somerset House Wills, Wootton, 5).

316. Covent Garden.

317. Was this the third Earl’s sister of that name, youngest daughter but one of the second Earl by his first wife?

318.Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1673–5, p. 37.

319.Ibid., p. 174.

320.Dictionary of National Biography.

321. Arabella, dieds.p.21st March, 1717. (G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.)

322. He married, in 1679, Penelope, daughter of John Downes; and in 1688 Mrs. Margaret Tryon. (Ibid.)

323.Somerset House Wills, Barnes, 209.

324. Daughter of Sir Peter Colleton, and one of the Earl’s numerous mistresses.

325. Sewer ratebook for 1720: “Lord North and Grey.”

326. On 29th September, 1722, the Duchess of Rutland wrote to Lady Gower: “The two lords went there [to the Tower] last night, Orrery and North and Gray, through their own want of consideration and indiscretion, ’twas said.” (Hist. MSS. Commission, MSS. of Duke of Sutherland, Report V., p. 191.)

327. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.

328. His country residence was St. Osyth’s Priory, Essex.

329. She died on 23rd June, 1746. (Gentleman’s Magazine, 1746, p. 328.)

330. Indenture of 12th February, 1738–9, between “Philip Carter of Tunstal, Suffolk, clerk, and Bessy, his wife (widow of Frederick late Earl of Rochford, deceased, and now commonly called Countess Dowager of Rochford), William Henry, Earl of Rochford, eldest son and heir of the said Frederick by the said Bessy, and Sir John Colleton, of Exmouth, Bt., brother and heir at law of Elizabeth ColletonaliasJohnson, deceased,andJames Mallors”; purporting to be a lease “for a year to vest the possession of and concerning all that capital messuage or mansion house situate on the south side of Great Queen Street where the said Frederick did lately dwell, which said messuage or mansion house was heretofore the house of Richard, Earl Rivers, and then called or known by the name of Rivers House.” (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1739, I., 450–1.)

331.Lincoln’s Inn Fields, p. 174.

332. FitzGerald,Life of Mrs. Catherine Clive, p. 84.

333. Boswell,Life of Johnson, Vol. IV., pp. 7, 243.

334. See p.60.

335. “March 31, 1638–9.... Direct your letter to be left with Lord Conway’s maid in Queen Street, so it will come more speedily to me, since I am very often with the Lord Admiral [Earl of Northumberland], whose house is next to Lord Conway’s, as I think you know” (Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1638–9, p. 630).

336. See p.86.

337. Clarendon’sHistory of the Great Rebellion, Book III., par. 228.

338. Letters from Thos. Smith to Sir John Pennington (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, for 1638–9, pp. 92, 103, 113, 130).

339. Order of the Committee of the Council of War (Ibid., p. 166.)

340. March 5th, 1638–9. Instructions from the Lord Admiral to Capt. John Mennes of theVictory(Ibid., p. 537).

341. Letter, headed “Queen Street,” from Northumberland to the deputy lieutenants of Nottinghamshire (Hist. MSS. Commission, Reports on MSS. in Various Collections, VII., 295).

342.Recovery Roll(Common Pleas), 17 Chas. I., Hilary (236).

343. After her husband’s death she fell under the displeasure of Parliament, and “endured a long imprisonment ... and had ... been put to death if she had not made her escape to Oxford.” (Clarendon’sHistory of the Great Rebellion, Book XI., par. 222.) She afterwards (in 1648) married Sir James Livingstone, who became Earl of Newburgh.

344.Close Roll, 17 Chas. I. (3275)—Indenture between Lord Conway, etc., and Countess Rivers.

345. John Lucas, etc., “say they carried divers pictures, with frames, others without frames, and some rayles into Mr. Withers House [it will be remembered that Anthony Withers had purchased the house from Newton in 1637–8] in Queen’s Street, now in the possession of Col. Popham, the which goods above said these examiners say are the proper goods of Mr. Withers” (Interregnum Papers, A., 98). Withers was reported as a delinquent in October, 1645 (Domestic Interregnum Committee for Advance of Money(Order Book), A., 4 (295)), and was sequestrated in January, 1646 (Interregnum PapersA., 98 (13)).

346.Interregnum PapersG., 17 (704).

347. A deed relating to the house, dated 20th May, 1674, refers to it as being “now or late in the tenure ... of the Right Hon. Francis, Lord Viscount Mountague” (Common Pleas Recovery Roll, 26 Chas. II., Trinity, vol. 4 (366)).

348. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.

349. She was Elizabeth, daughter of Edward, first Marquess of Worcester. She died in 1684.

350. Sewer ratebook for 1683.

351. Indenture, 9th May, 1764, between Packington Tomkins (1), the Hon. Geo. Lane Parker (2) and Philip Carteret Webb (3) (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1764, II., 491); indenture 16th November, 1774, between the Rev. Jas. Hallifax, etc., and Trustees for the Freemasons (Ibid., 1775, II., 122).

352.Historical MSS. Commission, Earl of Denbigh’s MSS.Appendix to 8th Report, Part I., p. 556b.

353.Feet of Fines(Middlesex), 1 Anne, Hilary.

354. His country residence was Woodberry Hall, Cambridge.

355.Somerset House Wills, Bedford, 210–211.

356. Mary, his eldest daughter, married (with a dower of £30,000) George, Viscount Parker, who in 1732 succeeded his father as (second) Earl of Macclesfield.

357. Afterwards married William Cartwright, of Aynho, Northampton.

358. See her will, dated 22nd June, 1753 (Somerset House Wills, Pinfold, 80).

359. Indenture of 9th May, 1764 (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1764, II., 491).

360. See his will dated 7th February, 1770 (Somerset House Wills, Jenner, 417).

361. Indenture between the Rev. Jas. Hallifax, Ric. Blyke, Edw. Beavor of Farnham and Rhoda, his wife (lately Rhoda Webb, widow of Philip Carteret Webb, late of Busbridge, Surrey, deceased)andthe Rt. Hon. Robert Edward Lord Petre, Henry Duke of Beaufort, Henry Duke of Chandos, Washington Earl Ferrers, Viscount Tamworth and Rowland Holt (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1775, II., 122).

362. Foxcroft’sLife of Gilbert Burnet, p. 144.

363.Survey of London, Vol. III., p. 75.

364. Macaulay,History of England, II., p. 180.

365.Ibid., II., p. 460.

366. Foxcroft’sLife of Gilbert Burnet, I., p. lvii.

367. Foxcroft’sLife of Gilbert Burnet, I., p. lix.

368. Beaven’sAldermen of the City of London, II., pp. 109, 186.

369. Lipscombe’sHistory of Buckinghamshire, II., p. 222.

370. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.

371. See p.56.

372. See p.74.

373. Campbell’sLives of the Lord Chancellors, IV., p. 560.

374. Wheatley and Cunningham (London Past and Present, III., p. 137), mentioning his residence, which they wrongly identify with Nos. 55–56, say: “Here on October 18, 1740, the young Joshua Reynolds came to him as a house pupil and remained under his roof till July, 1743.” Leslie, in hisLife of Sir Joshua Reynolds, also states that this occurred at Hudson’s house in Great Queen Street. The ratebooks, however, show quite clearly that in 1740–42, “Vanblew,” was in occupation, and that from 1743 to 1745 the house was empty. The first year in which Hudson is shown as the occupier is 1746. Reynolds’ residence with Hudson, therefore, must have terminated before the latter had moved to the house in Great Queen Street.

375. The entry “Geo.Hudson” in the issue of the ratebook for this year is probably a mistake.

376.The Dictionary of National Biographystates that Worlidge settled in Great Queen Street in 1763, and the fact that Hudson’s name appears in the 1764 ratebook is not conclusive against this. On the other hand, a deed dated 9th May, 1764, mentions the house as being then in the occupation of Hudson (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1764, II., 491).

377. The parish ratebook for 1764 shows Hudson still in occupation of the house, but he had apparently built his house at Twickenham before this. “In 1762 Reynolds dined one Saturday with his old master, Hudson, at ‘Twitenham,’ where he had built a house in the meadows” (Leslie’sLife of Sir Joshua Reynolds, I., p. 213).

378. A deed of 16th November, 1774, refers to the house as “formerly in the tenure of Mr. Hudson, painter, and late in that of Mr. Worlidge” (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1775, II., 122).

379.Dictionary of National Biography.

380.Memoirs of Mrs. Robinson, ed. by M. E. Robinson, I., pp. 74–5.

381.Memoirs of Mrs. Robinson, I., p. 94.

382. See p.60.

383.Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1638–9, p. 630.

384. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.

385. Letter, dated 16th May, 1631, from Thomas Case ... to Edward, Viscount Conway,etc., “at his house in Drury Lane” (Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1631–3, p. 45).

386.Recovery Roll, Common Pleas, 21 Chas. I., Mich., rot. x (251).

387. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.

388. Possibly Lord Wharton was the actual occupant of the house at the time.

389.Historical MSS. Commission, Duke of Portland’s MSS., Vol. III., p. 291.

390.Calendar State Papers, Domestic, Addenda, 1660–70, p. 701.

391.Ibid., pp. 712–3.

392.Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1667, p. 535.

393.Ibid., 1667–8, p. 259.

394.Ibid., 1668–9, p. 223.

395. Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill and 1st Earl of Orrery (1621–1679) rendered great service to the Parliamentarians in Ireland, but afterwards realising that Richard Cromwell’s cause was hopeless, he combined with Sir Charles Coote to secure Ireland for Charles II. He was also a dramatist of some repute.

396.Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1668–9, p. 502.

397.Ibid., 1668–9, p. 567.

398.Ibid., 1670, p. 111.

399. A less known contemporary account is the following: “Wednesday night last ... some mischievous persons to dishonour my Lord Chancellour crept through a window of his house in Queen Street and stole the mace and the two purses, but by good chance could not find the seal. There was upon the table a great silver standish, and a thousand guineyes in a cabinet, as they report, but nothing of them touched, the design being upon another score than bare robbery” (Letter, dated 8th February, 1676–7, from Edward Smith to Lord Rous,Historical MSS. Commission, Rutland MSS., XII. Report, App. V., p. 37).The entry in the Middlesex Sessions Records concerning the event is as follows: “7 February, 29 Charles II.—True Bill that, at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Co. Midd., in the night between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. of the said day, Thomas SadleraliasClarke, William JohnsonaliasTrueman and Thomas Reneger, all three late of the said parish, laborers, broke burglariously into the dwelling house of Heneage Lord Finch the Lord Chancellor of the said Lord the King and then and there stole and carried off a silver mace gilt gold worth one hundred pounds and two velvet purses imbroydered with gold and silver and sett with pearles, worth forty pounds, of the goods and chattels of the said Lord the King. Found ‘Guilty,’ all three burglars were sentenced to be ‘hanged.’” (Middlesex Sessions Records, IV., p. 75).

The entry in the Middlesex Sessions Records concerning the event is as follows: “7 February, 29 Charles II.—True Bill that, at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Co. Midd., in the night between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. of the said day, Thomas SadleraliasClarke, William JohnsonaliasTrueman and Thomas Reneger, all three late of the said parish, laborers, broke burglariously into the dwelling house of Heneage Lord Finch the Lord Chancellor of the said Lord the King and then and there stole and carried off a silver mace gilt gold worth one hundred pounds and two velvet purses imbroydered with gold and silver and sett with pearles, worth forty pounds, of the goods and chattels of the said Lord the King. Found ‘Guilty,’ all three burglars were sentenced to be ‘hanged.’” (Middlesex Sessions Records, IV., p. 75).

400.Dictionary of National Biography.

401. Roger North’sAutobiography, p. 165.

402. “After we came to London, we were to wait on the Lord Jeffreys, who had the Seal, to congratulate and offer him all the service we could do, and to receive his commands touching the house in Queen Street where the Lord Keeper lived, and it was so proceeded that he took the house” (Roger North’sAutobiography, p. 195).

403. H. B. Irving’sJudge Jeffreys, p. 332.

404. 7 and 8 Will. III., cap. 27 (sessional number, 53).

405. Then resident next door, see pp. 73–4. She was Ursula, widow of Edward Conway, first Earl of Conway.

406. Seee.g., Indenture of lease, dated 18th November, 1743, between Francis Paddey and Jas. Mallors (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1743, III., 453).

407. The vestry minutes for 1712 also refer to the house under this title: “That a proper place for the site of a new parish church, and a house for a minister, would be at the great house in Great Queen Street, commonly called by the name of the Land Bank” (Parton’sHospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, p. 291).

408. He wrote several medical books, as well as aNarrative of the Birth of the Prince of Wales. He had been summoned to attend the confinement of James II.’s queen, but was away from London and arrived too late.

409. Subscriptions were to be paid at Mercers’ Hall and Exeter Change (London Gazette, May 28th–June 1st, 1696), and Dr. Chamberlain’s office was, at any rate, at first in New Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn (Ibid., June 20th–23rd, 1696).

410. “The trustees of the Land Bank, late at Exeter Change (now removed to the Three Anchors, over against Salisbury Court in Fleet Street) do give notice, that on the 11th day of February next they will make a dividend to such persons as are Heads of classes to whom transfers are made” (The Post Boy, January 25th–27th, 1697–8).

411. Reproduced here.

412. See pp.60–61, 63.

413.Survey of London, Vol. III., p. 98.

414. Confirmation of his residence in Great Queen Street about 1794 is found by the mention of “Thos. Leverton of Great Queen Street” in a deed of 29th September, 1795 (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1795, VI., 211).

415. Mrs. Piozzi’sAnecdotes of Dr. Johnson(1786), p. 173.

416. Boswell’sLife of Johnson, 5th April, 1775.

417. Obituary notice inGentleman’s Magazine, 88, part ii., 179.

418. Reproduced here.

419. Indenture of 19th July, 1798 (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1798, III., 185), referring to the sites of Nos. 67 and 68, recites the lease so far as it concerns those sites. The recital also refers to other ground dealt with by the lease, and this was almost certainly the site of No. 66, which it is known was also a Mills house, the eastern boundary of Conway House being described as “the messuage of Peter Mills, bricklayer, now in the tenure of the Countess of Essex.” (Recovery Roll(Common Pleas), 17 Chas. I., Hilary (236).)

420. Peter Mills died in 1670, then being resident in Little St. Bartholomew’s. (Somerset House Wills, Penn, 147.)

421. There is a clause referring to “such messuages and buildings as then were or afterwards should be erected thereon,” which is quite indefinite, but if there had been any houses the names of the occupiers would almost certainly have been given. TheFinalis Concordiarelating to the transaction does not mention houses, but only half a rood of pasture.

422. Parton’sHospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, p. 290.

423. The occupier of No. 68 seems to have persisted later than 1709 (see below). Moreover, the assessable value of No. 67 drops from £40 in 1703 to £25 in 1715 (the next record), a fact which seems to point to the curtailment of the property due to the erection of the chapel.

424. Baguley’sThe True State of the Case.

425. On 3rd September, 1728, Thos. Burges sold to Thos. Parnell and Wm. Page certain houses (one of which was certainly No. 68), and “all that building or chappell, together with all and singular the pews, seats, gallereyes and other rights and privileges thereunto belonging.” (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1728, I., 251).

426.A Sermon preached at Queen Street Chapel and St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, on ... the day appointed for a general fast.

427. He was certainly in possession on 19th June, 1758, for on that date he mortgaged the whole of the property to William Ferrand (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1758, III., 4).

428.Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1798, III., 185.

429.Blemundsbury, p. 397.

430.Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1815, III., 227.

431. “The new Methodist Chapel erected on the south side of Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was opened yesterday morning. It is a spacious, handsome building, and will accommodate a larger congregation than most of our churches. It has a range of two galleries on each side. The altar is an appropriate and beautiful piece of architecture.” (Morning Herald, 26th September, 1817).

432. Heckethorn’sLincoln’s Inn Fields, p. 183.

433. See p.61.

434. G. E. C[ockayne’s]Peerage.

435. A much mutilated Hearth Tax Roll, dating apparently from some time between 1666 and 1672, shows “Geo. Porter, Esq.,” residing on the south side of Great Queen Street, but it cannot be proved that the entry refers to the same house.

436.Dictionary of National Biography.

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