Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 2
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XIX: Spitalfields.
Chapter XIX: Spitalfields.
The original Priory of St. Mary Spittle was founded by Walter Brune and Rosia his wife, in the year . It was surrendered at the dissolution to King Henry, and at that time the hospital which belonged to the priory was found to contain beds. In place of the hospital many large mansions were built, and among these Strype especially mentions that of Sir Horatio Pallavicini, an Italian merchant, who acted as ambassador to Queen Elizabeth; and in the reign of James I. we find the Austrian ambassador lodging there. | |
In the year Queen Elizabeth came in state from St. Mary Spittle, attended by a men in harness, and great guns, with drums, flutes, and trumpets sounding, and morris-dancers bringing white bears in a cart. | |
Long after the dissolution a portion of the large churchyard of the hospital remained, with a pulpit cross within a walled enclosure, at which cross, on certain days every Easter, sermons were preached. Opposite that pulpit was a small -storeyed building, where the alderman and sheriffs came to hear the sermons, with their ladies at a window over them. Foxe, in his repeatedly mentions these Spital sermons. | |
The preaching at the Spittle seems to have been a custom of great antiquity. It is said that Dr. Barrow once preached a sermon on charity at the Spittle, before the Lord Mayor and aldermen, which occupied hours and a half. Being asked, after he came down from the pulpit, if he was not tired, said he,
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In a gallery was built near the pulpit for the governor and children of ; and in we find many of the Lords of King James's Privy Council attending the Spital sermons, and afterwards dining with the Lord Mayor, at a most liberal and bountiful dinner at . | |
says Bingham, speaking of the Spital sermons,
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In , says Stow, in treating of a brick-field near the Spital churchyard, there were discovered many Roman funeral urns, containing copper coins of Claudius, Vespasian, Nero, Antoninus Pius, and | |
p.150 | Trajan, lachrymatories, Samian ware lamps, and small images, also Saxon stone coffins. Dr. Carrsatmalsa found there a skull, which he believed, to be a giant's, though others took it for an elephant's. Some of these stone coffins are still preserved in the vaults of . |
Bagford, in Leland's mentions the Priory of St. Mary Spittle as then standing, strongly built of timber, with a turret at angle. Its ruins, says Mr. Timbs, were discovered early in the last century, north of . The pulpit, destroyed during the Civil Wars, stood at the north-east corner of the square. In the map of Elizabeth's reign the Spittle Fields are at the north-east extremity of London, with only a few houses on the site of the Spital. A map published a century later shows, a square field bounded with houses, with the old artillery-ground, which had formerly belonged to the priory, on the west. Culpeper, the famous herbalist, occupied a house then in the fields, and subsequently a public-house at the corner of . | |
This is the great district for silk-weavers. says Mr. Timbs,
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p.151 p.152 | |
Riots among the Spitalfields weavers, for many a century, were of frequent occurrence. Any decline of prices, or opposition in trade, set these turbulent workmen in a state of violent effervescence. At time they sallied out in parties, and tore off the calico gowns from every woman they met. Perhaps the greatest riot was in , when, on the occasion of the king going to Parliament to give his assent to the Regency Bill, they formed a great procession, headed by red flags and black banners, to present a petition to the House, complaining that they were reduced to starvation by the importation of French silks. They terrified the into an adjournment, insulted several hostile members, and in the evening attacked Bedford House, and tried to pull down the walls, declaring that the duke had been bribed to make the treaty of Fontainebleau, which had brought French silks and poverty into the land. The Riot Act was then read, and detachments of the Guards called out. The mob then fled, many being much hurt and trampled on. At a yet later date mobs of Spitalfields weavers used to break into houses and cut the looms of men who were working with improved machinery. Many outrages were committed by these and many lives lost in scuffles and fights. | |
The older houses inhabited by the weavers have wide latticed windows in the upper storeys, to light the looms. Being nearly all bird-fanciers, the weavers supply London with singing-birds, and half the linnets, woodlarks, goldfinches, and greenfinches sold in the metropolis are caught by Spitalfields weavers in October and March. They are fond of singing-matches, which they determine by the burning of an inch of candle. | |
Spitalfields weavers are said to have extremely small heads, or inches being the prevailing width, although the average size of the male head in England is inches. We do not know whether the weavers still continue the old clothworkers' habit of singing at their looms, as mentioned by Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. says Falstaff; And Cutbeard, in Ben Jonson's , remarks,
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Spitalfields was a hamlet of Stepney until , when it was made a distinct parish, and consecrated. Among the parochial charities, says Mr. Timbs, is an eccentric bequest to be paid on the death of certain pet dogs and cats. | |
In of the houses in lived Pope's friend, the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke. | |