CHAPTER XI

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OR HOLIWELL NUNNERY

The nunnery of Haliwell, or Holywell, was named after a holy spring or well on the eastern extremity of Finsbury Fields, in the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch. There were many other holy wells around London, especially that in the Strand, west of St. Clement Danes. How one spring came to be accounted holy above other springs, one knows not. However, there can be no doubt that this spring in Shoreditch was a place of considerable resort and great sanctity, which was reason enough why its owner, Robert Fitz Gelran, Canon of St. Paul’s, should enclose it with a wall, and to erect a nunnery over it. The House was built to the honour of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and St. John Baptist for Benedictine nuns. This was done about the year 1127. Robert, Earl of Gloucester, Richard the First, Henry de Hallingbury, Simon, Bishop of Ely, John de Gatesbey, Richard de Beaumes, Bishop of London, Stephen Gravesend, Bishop of London, Sir Thomas Lovell, were the chief benefactors of this House. Richard the First gave the nuns a part of the moor, on which their House was built; he also gave them the church at Dunton, with land in Bedfordshire, at Camberwell, in Surrey, and in the City of London. It is unnecessary to enumerate all the gifts. Very shortly before the Dissolution, the House was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Lovell. He endowed it with more land, and was buried in a chapel built by himself for his sepulchre, little dreaming that in less than a generation the House and the Chapel and all the rest would be destroyed. On the painted windows and on the walls were inscribed the verses:—

“All ye nuns of Haliwell Pray ye both day and night For the soul of Sir Thomas Lovell Whom Harry the Seventh made knight.”

Holiwell Nunnery, on surrender, had a yearly revenue of £293 according to Stow, of £347: 1: 3 according to Speed.

In 1553 the following sisters were still living, and in the receipt of pensions:—Sibilla Nudigate, per annum, L _li._; Elena Claver, per annum, liij _s._ iiij _d._; Alicia Marteine, per annum, iiij _li._; Alicia Goldwell, per annum, iiij _li._ vj _s._ viij _d._; Beatrica Fitzlewas, per annum, Lxvj _s._ viij _d._; Agnes Bolney, per annum, Liij _s._ iiij _d._

In 1544 Queen Catherine Parr asked for the site for Henry Webbe. His daughter brought the place to her husband, Sir George Peckham. The Church and House being pulled down, houses were built on the site “for the lodgings of noblemen, of strangers born and other.”

In 1785 the last fragment of importance, a stone gateway, was pulled down: there still continued to be shown some walls, a small arch, and part of a doorway in a cellar of a tavern called “The Old King John.”

On the site of the ground belonging to the House were built two of the early theatres—“The Curtain” and “The Theatre.”