Part 42

Then is the Marshalsey, another gaol or prison, so called, as pertaining to the marshals of England. Of what continuance kept in Southwark I have not learned; but like it is, that the same hath been removable, at the pleasure of the marshals: for I find that in the year 1376, the 50th of Edward III., Henry Percie (being marshal) kept his prisoners in the city of London, where having committed one John Prendergast, of Norwich, contrary to the liberties of the city of London, the citizens, by persuasion of the Lord Fitzwalter their standard-bearer, took armour and ran with great rage to the marshal’s inn, brake up the gates, brought out the prisoner, and conveyed him away, minding to have burnt the stocks in the midst of their city, but they first sought for Sir Henry Percy to have punished him, as I have noted in my _Annales_.

More about the feast of Easter next following, John, Duke of Lancaster, having caused all the whole navy of England to be gathered together at London: it chanced a certain esquire to kill one of the shipmen, which act the other shipmen taking in ill part, they brought their suit into the king’s court of the Marshalsey, which then as chanced (saith mine author) was kept in Southwark: but when they perceived that court to be so favourable to the murderer, and further that the king’s warrant was also gotten for his pardon, they in great fury ran to the house wherein the murderer was imprisoned, brake into it, and brought forth the prisoner with his gyves on his legs, they thrust a knife to his heart, and sticked him as if he had been a dog; after this they tied a rope to his gyves, and drew him to the gallows, where when they had hanged him, as though they had done a great act, they caused the trumpets to be sounded before them to their ships, and there in great triumph they spent the rest of the day.

Also the rebels of Kent, in the year 1381, brake down the houses of the Marshalsey and King’s Bench in Southwark, took from thence the prisoners, brake down the house of Sir John Immorth, then marshal of the Marshalsey and King’s Bench, etc. After this, in the year 1387, the 11th of Richard II., the morrow after Bartholomew day, the king kept a great council in the castle of Nottingham, and the Marshalsey of the king was then kept at Loughborrow by the space of five days or more. In the year 1443, Sir Walter Manny was marshal of the Marshalsey, the 22nd of Henry VI. William Brandon, esquire, was marshal in the 8th of Edward IV. In the year 1504 the prisoners of the Marshalsey, then in Southwark, brake out, and many of them being taken were executed, especially such as had been committed for felony or treason.

From thence towards London bridge, on the same side, be many fair inns, for recepit of travellers, by these signs, the Spurre, Christopher, Bull, Queene’s Head, Tabarde, George, Hart, Kinge’s Head, etc. Amongst the which, the most ancient is the Tabard, so called of the sign, which, as we now term it, is of a jacket, or sleeveless coat, whole before, open on both sides, with a square collar, winged at the shoulders; a stately garment of old time, commonly worn of noblemen and others, both at home and abroad in the wars, but then (to wit in the wars) their arms embroidered, or otherwise depict upon them, that every man by his coat of arms might be known from others: but now these tabards are only worn by the heralds, and be called their coats of arms in service; for the inn of the tabard, Geffrey Chaucer, esquire, the most famous poet of England, in commendation thereof, writeth thus:--

“Befell that in that season, on a day, In Southwarke at the Tabard, as I lay, Readie to wenden on my Pilgrimage To Canterburie with devout courage, At night was come into that hosterie, Well nine-and-twentie in a companie, Of sundrie folke, by adventure yfall, In fellowship, and pilgrimes were they all, That toward Canterburie woulden ride, The chambers and the stables weren wide, And well we weren eased at the best,” etc.

Within this inn was also the lodging of the abbot of Hide (by the city of Winchester), a fair house for him and his train, when he came to that city to parliament, etc.

And then Theeves lane, by St. Thomas’ hospital. The hospital of St. Thomas, first founded by Richard Prior of Bermondsey, in the Selerers ground against the wall of the monastery, in the year 1213, he named it the Almerie, or house of alms for converts and poor children; for the which ground the prior ordained that the almoner should pay ten shillings and four pence yearly to the Selerer at Michaelmas.

But Peter de Rupibus,[274] Bishop of Winchester, in the year 1215, founded the same again more fully for canons regular in place of the first hospital; he increased the rent thereof to three hundred and forty-four pounds in the year. Thus was this hospital holden of the prior and abbot of Bermondsey till the year 1428, at which time a composition was made between Thomas Thetford, abbot of Bermondsey, and Nicholas Buckland, master of the said hospital of St. Thomas, for all the lands and tenements which were holden of the said abbot and convent in Southwark, or elsewhere, for the old rent to be paid unto the said abbot.

There be monuments in this hospital church of Sir Robert Chamber, knight; William Fines, Lord Say; Richard Chaucer, John Gloucester, Adam Atwood, John Ward, Michael Cambridge, William West, John Golding, esquires; John Benham, George Kirkes, Thomas Kninton, Thomas Baker, gentlemen; Robert, son to Sir Thomas Fleming; Agnes, wife to Sir Walter Dennis, knight, daughter, and one of the heirs of Sir Robert Danvars; John Evarey, gentleman; etc.

This hospital was by the visitors, in the year 1538, valued at two hundred and sixty-six pounds seventeen shillings and six pence, and was surrendered to Henry VIII., in the 30th of his reign.

In the year 1552, the citizens of London having purchased the void suppressed hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark, in the month of July began the reparations thereof, for poor, impotent, lame, and diseased people, so that in the month of November next following, the sick and poor people were taken in. And in the year 1553, on the 10th of April, King Edward VI., in the 7th of his reign, gave to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, to be a workhouse for the poor and idle persons of this city, his house of Bridewell, and seven hundred marks land of the Savoy rents, which hospital he had suppressed, with all the beds, bedding, and other furniture belonging to the same, towards the maintenance of the said workhouse of Bridewell, and of this hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark. This gift the king confirmed by his charter, dated the 26th of June next following, and willed it to be called the King’s hospital in Southwark.

The church of this hospital, which of old time served for the tenements near adjoining, and pertaining to the said hospital, remaineth as a parish church.

But now to come to St. Olave’s street. On the bank of the river of Thames, is the parish church of St. Olave, a fair and meet large church, but a far larger parish especially of aliens or strangers, and poor people; in which church there lieth entombed Sir John Burcettur, knight, 1466.

Over against this parish church, on the south side the street was sometime one great house built of stone, with arched gates, pertaining to the prior of Lewes in Sussex, and was his lodging when he came to London; it is now a common hosterie for travellers, and hath to sign the Walnut Tree.

Then east from the said parish church of St. Olave is a key. In the year 1330, by the license of Simon Swanlond, mayor of London, built by Isabel, widow to Hamond Goodchepe. And next thereunto was then a great house of stone and timber, belonging to the abbot of St. Augustine without the walls of Canterburie, which was an ancient piece of work, and seemeth to be one of the first built houses on that side the river over-against the city; it was called the abbot’s inn of St. Augustine in Southwark, and was sometime holden of the Earls of Warren and Surrey, as appeareth by a deed made 1281, which I have read, and may be Englished thus:--

“To all whom this present writing shall come, John Earl Warren sendeth greeting. Know ye, that we have altogether remised and quit-claimed for us and our heirs for ever, to Nicholas, abbot of St. Augustine’s of Canterburie, and the convent of the same, and their successors, suit to our court of Southwarke, which they owe unto us, for all that messuage and houses thereon built, and all their appurtenances, which they have of our fee in Southwarke, situate upon the Thames, between the Bridge house and the church of St. Olave. And the said messuage, with the buildings thereon built, and all their appurtenances, to them and their successors, we have granted in perpetual alms, to hold of us and our heirs for the same, saving the service due to any other persons, if any such be, then to us; and for this remit and grant the said abbot and convent have given unto us five shillings of rent yearly in Southwarke, and have received us and our heirs in all benefices which shall be in their church for ever.” This suit of court one William Graspeis was bound to do to the said earl for the said messuage, and heretofore to acquit in all things the church of St. Augustine against the said earl.

This house of late time belonged to Sir Anthony Sentlegar, then to Warham Sentlegar, etc., and is now called Sentlegar house, but divided into sundry tenements. Next is the Bridgehouse, so called as being a storehouse for stone, timber, or whatsoever pertaining to the building or repairing of London bridge.

This house seemeth to have taken beginning with the first founding of the bridge either of stone or timber; it is a large plot of ground, on the bank of the river Thames, containing divers large buildings for stowage of things necessary towards reparation of the said bridge.

There are also divers garners, for laying up of wheat, and other grainers for service of the city, as need requireth. Moreover, there be certain ovens built, in number ten, of which six be very large, the other four being but half so big. These were purposely made to bake out the bread corn of the said grainers, to the best advantage for relief of the poor citizens, when need should require. Sir John Throstone, knight, sometime an embroiderer, then a goldsmith, one of the sheriffs 1516, gave by his testament towards the making of these ovens, two hundred pounds, which thing was performed by his executors. Sir John Munday, goldsmith, then being mayor, there was of late, for the enlarging of the said Bridge house, taken in an old brewhouse, called Goldings, which was given to the city by George Monex, sometime mayor, and in place thereof, is now a fair brewhouse new built, for service of the city with beer.

Next was the abbot of Battailes inn, betwixt the Bridge house and Battaile bridge, likewise on the bank of the river of Thames; the walks and gardens thereunto appertaining, on the other side of the way before the gate of the said house, and was called the Maze; there is now an inn, called the Flower de Luce, for that the sign is three Flower de Luces. Much other buildings of small tenements are thereon builded, replenished with strangers and other, for the most part poor people.

Then is Battaile bridge, so called of Battaile abbey, for that it standeth on the ground, and over a water-course (flowing out of Thames) pertaining to that abbey, and was, therefore, both built and repaired by the abbots of that house, as being hard adjoining to the abbot’s lodging.

Beyond this bridge is Bermondsey street, turning south, in the south end whereof was sometime a priory or abbey of St. Saviour, called Bermond’s Eye in Southwark, founded by Alwin Childe, a citizen of London, in the year 1081.

Peter, Richard, Obstert, and Umbalde, monks de Charitate, came unto Bermondsey, in the year 1089, and Peter was made first prior there, by appointment of the prior of the house, called Charity in France, by which means this priory of Bermondsey (being a cell to that in France) was accounted a priory of Aliens.

In the year 1094 deceased Alwin Childe, founder of this house. Then William Rufus gave to the monks his manor of Bermondsey, with the appurtenances, and built for them there a new great church.

Robert Blewet, Bishop of Lincolne (King William’s chancellor), gave them the manor of Charlton, with the appurtenances. Also Geffrey Martell, by the grant of Geffrey Magnavile, gave them the land of Halingbury, and the tithe of Alferton, etc.

More, in the year 1122, Thomas of Arderne, and Thomas his son, gave to the monks of Bermond’s Eye the church of St. George in Southwark, etc.

In the year 1165, King Henry II. confirmed to them the hyde or territory of Southwark, and Laygham Wadden, with the land of Coleman, etc.

In the year 1371, the priors of Aliens, throughout England, being seized into the king’s hands, Richard Denton an Englishman was made prior of Bermondsey, to whom was committed the custody of the said priory, by the letters patents of King Edward III., saving to the king the advowsons of churches.

In the year 1380, the 4th of Richard II., this priory was made a denison (or free English) for the fine of two hundred marks paid to the king’s Hanaper in the Chancery. In the year 1399 John Attelborough, prior of Bermondsey, was made the first abbot of that house by Pope Boniface IX., at the suit of King Richard II.

In the year 1417, Thomas Thetford, abbot of Bermondsey, held a plea in chancery against the king, for the manors of Preston, Bermondsey, and Stone, in the county of Somerset, in the which suit the abbot prevailed and recovered against the king.

In the year 1539 this abbey was valued to dispend by the year four hundred and seventy-four pounds fourteen shillings and four pence halfpenny, and was surrendered to Henry VIII., the 31st of his reign; the abbey church was then pulled down by Sir Thomas Pope, knight, and in place thereof a goodly house built of stone and timber, now pertaining to the earls of Sussex.

There are buried in that church, Leoftane, provost, shrive or domesman of London, 1115; Sir William Bowes, knight, and Dame Elizabeth his wife; Sir Thomas Pikeworth, knight; Dame Anne Audley; George, son to John Lord Audley; John Winkefield, esquire; Sir Nicholas Blonket, knight; Dame Bridget, wife to William Trussell; Holgrave, baron of the exchequer; etc.

Next unto this abbey church standeth a proper church of St. Mary Magdalen, built by the priors of Bermondsey, serving for resort of the inhabitants (tenants to the prior or abbots near adjoining) there to have their Divine service: this church remaineth, and serveth as afore, and is called a parish church.

Then in Kent street is a lazar house for leprous people, called the Loke in Southwark; the foundation whereof I find not. Now, having touched divers principal parts of this borough, I am to speak somewhat of its government, and so to end.

This borough, upon petition made by the citizens of London to Edward I., in the 1st year of his reign, was, for divers causes, by parliament granted to them for ever, yielding into the exchequer the fee-firm of ten pounds by the year; which grant was confirmed by Edward III., who, in the 3rd of his reign gave them license to take a toll towards the charge of paving the said borough with stone. Henry IV. confirmed the grant of his predecessors, so did Edward IV., etc.

But in the year 1550, King Edward VI., for the sum of six hundred and forty-seven pounds two shillings and one penny, paid into his court of augmentations and revenues of his crown, granted to the mayor and commonalty all his lands and tenements in Southwark, except, and reserved, the capital messuage, two mansions, called Southwark place, late the Duke of Suffolk’s, and all the gardens and lands to the same appertaining, the park, and the messuage called the Antilope. Moreover, he gave them the lordship and manor of Southwark, with all members and rights thereof, late pertaining to the monastery of Bermondsey. And all messuages, places, buildings, rents, courts, waifs and strays, to the same appertaining, in the county of Surrey, except as is before excepted. He also granted unto them his manor and borough of Southwark, with all the members, rights, and appurtenances, late of the possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his see in Southwark. Moreover, for the sum of five hundred marks, he granted to the said mayor and commonalty, and their successors, in and through the borough and town of Southwark, and in all the parishes of St. Saviour, St. Olave, and St. George, and the parish of St. Thomas Hospital, now called the King’s hospital, and elsewhere, in the said town and borough of Southwark, and Kentish street, Bermondsey street, in the parish of Newington, all waifs and strays, treasure trove, all felons’ goods, etc., within the parishes and precinct aforesaid, etc.: the return of writs, processes, and warrants, etc.: together with a fair in the whole town for three days, to wit, the 7th, 8th, and 9th of September, yearly, with a court of pye powders. A view of franke pledge, with attachments, arrests, etc. Also to arrest all felons, and other malefactors, within their precinct, and send them to ward, and to Newgate. Provided that nothing in that grant should be prejudicial to the stewards and marshal of the king’s house. The same premises to be holden of the manor of East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, by fealty in free forage. Dated at Westminster, the 23rd of April, in the 4th of his reign. All which was also confirmed by parliament, etc. And the same year, in the Whitsun week, in a court of aldermen, kept at the Guildhall of London, Sir John Aylophe, knight, was sworn the first alderman of Bridge ward without, and made up the number of twenty-six aldermen of London.

This borough at a subsidy to the king yieldeth about one thousand marks, or eight hundred pounds, which is more than any one city in England payeth, except the city of London. And also the muster of men in this borough doth likewise in number surpass all other cities, except London. And thus much for the borough of Southwark, one of the twenty-six wards of London, which hath an alderman, deputies three, and a bailiff, common-council none, constables sixteen, scavengers six, wardmote inquest twenty. And is taxed to the fifteen at seventeen pounds seventeen shillings and eight pence.

FOOTNOTES:

[271] “And in the Exchequer at thirty-four pounds.”--_1st edition_, p. 338.

[272] “Li. St. Mary Eborum. English people disdayned to be baudes. Froes of Flaunders were women for that purpose.”--_Stow._

[273] “John Gower was no knight, neither had he any garland of ivie and roses, but a chaplet of foure roses onely.”--_Stow._

[274] Li. St. Marie Overy.

THE SUBURBS WITHOUT THE WALLS OF THE SAID CITY BRIEFLY TOUCHED. AS ALSO WITHOUT THE LIBERTIES MORE AT LARGE DESCRIBED.

Having spoken of this city, the original, and increase, by degrees: the walls, gates, ditch, castles, towers, bridges, the schools, and houses of learning: of the orders and customs, sports, and pastimes: of the honour of citizens, and worthiness of men: and last of all, how the same city is divided into parts and wards: and how the same be bounded: and what monuments of antiquity, or ornaments of building, in every of them, as also in the borough of Southwark: I am next to speak briefly of the suburbs, as well without the gates and walls as without the liberties, and of the monuments in them.

Concerning the estate of the suburbs of this city, in the reign of Henry II., Fitz Stephen hath these words:--“Upwards, on the west (saith he), is the king’s palace, which is an incomparable building, rising with a vawmure and bulwark aloft upon the river, two miles from the wall of the city, but yet conjoined with a continual suburb. On all sides, without the houses of the suburbs, are the citizens’ gardens and orchards, planted with trees, both large, sightly, and adjoining together. On the north side are pastures and plain meadows, with brooks running through them, turning water-mills with a pleasant noise. Not far off is a great forest, a well wooded chase, having good covert for harts, bucks, does, boars, and wild bulls. The corn fields are not of a hungry sandy mould, but as the fruitful fields of Asia, yielding plentiful increase, and filling the barns with corn. There are near London, on the north side, especial wells in the suburbs, sweet, wholesome, and clear. Amongst which, Holywell, Clarkenwell, and St. Clement’s well, are most famous, and most frequented by scholars and youths of the city in summer evenings, when they walk forth to take the air.” Thus far out of Fitz Stephen for the suburbs at that time.

The 2nd of King Henry III. the forest of Middlesex, and the warren of Staines, were disafforested; since the which time the suburbs about London hath been also mightily increased with buildings; for first, to begin in the East, by the Tower of London, is the hospital of St. Katherine, founded by Matilda the queen, wife to King Stephen, as is afore shown in Portsoken ward; from this precinct of St. Katherine to Wapping in the west,[275] the usual place of execution for hanging of pirates and sea rovers, at the low-water mark, and there to remain, till three tides had overflowed them, was never a house standing within these forty years; but since the gallows being after removed farther off, a continual street, or filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements, or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors’ victuallers, along by the river of Thames, almost to Radcliff, a good mile from the Tower.

On the east side, and by north of the Tower, lieth East Smithfield, Hogs’ street, and Tower hill; and east from them both, was the new abbey called Grace, founded by Edward III. From thence Radcliffe, up East Smithfield, by Nightingall lane (which runneth south to the hermitage, a brewhouse so called of a hermit sometime being there), beyond this lane to the manor of Bramley (called in record of Richard II. Villa East Smithfield, and Villa de Bramley), and to the manor of Shadwell, belonging to the Dean of Pauls, there hath been of late, in place of elm trees, many small tenements raised towards Radcliffe; and Radcliffe itself hath been also increased in building eastward (in place where I have known[276] a large highway, with fair elm trees on both the sides), that the same hath now taken hold of Lime hurst, or Lime host, corruptly called Lime house, sometime distant a mile from Ratcliffe.