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 XXV: Shoreditch.
Chapter XXV: Shoreditch.
This ancient and ill-used parish extends from to , and from part of Finsbury to . Originally a village on the old Roman northern road, called by the Saxons , it is now a continuation of . | |
The old London tradition is that derived its name from Jane Shore, the beautiful mistress of Edward IV., who, worn out with poverty and hunger, died miserably in a ditch in this unsavoury suburb. This legend, however, is entirely erroneous, as we have shown in a previous chapter. It does not seem to have been popular even so late as . Dr. Percy hit upon quite as erroneous a derivation when he traced the name of. the parish to shore (sewer), a common drain. , or, more correctly, Soerdich, really took its name from the old family of the Soerdiches, Lords of the Manor in the time of Edward III. Sir John de Soerdich of that reign, an eminent warrior, lawyer, statesman, and diplomatist, was, on memorable occasion, sent to Rome to protest before the Pope against the greedy and tyrannical way in which foreign priests were thrust into English benefices, and it was all Sir John could do to get safe back to the little island. The Soerdich family, Mr. Timbs informs us, held the manor of Ickenham, near Uxbridge, and resided there till our own time. The last of the family, an engineer, died in , in the West Indies. In the reign of Richard II. the manor of was granted to Edmund, Duke of York, and his son, the Earl of Rutland, which accounts for the fact that , , is full of the Manners family. Stow mentions a house in Hackney called Place; and Strype notes the vulgar tradition that Jane Shore once lived there, and was often visited by her royal lover. This was probably the old mansion of Sir John de Soerdich, who rode against the French spears by the side of the Black Prince, and with Manney and Chandos. | |
In the reign of Henry VIII., when was still a mere waste of fields, dotted with windmills and probably, like (fields, much frequented by archers, for practising at roving marks), the burly king conferred on an archer of , named Barlow, who had pleased him at some wondrous competition at Windsor, the jocular title of Duke of . Happiest and proudest of all London's archers must Barlow have gloried at all civic processions, when, as captain, he strode to the , , or . The duke's companions adopted such titles as the Marquises of , , Pancras, and Shacklewell, and other ludicrous appellations of honour. In Elizabeth's reign the archers of London numbered no fewer than ,ooo, and on occasion we hear of of them, wearing gold chains, going from the Merchant Taylors' Hall to , to try their skill, attended by billmen, besides pages. In Dryden's time was a disreputable place, frequented by courtesans; and in Lillo's old ballad of the apprentice hero of which | |
p.195 [extra_illustrations.2.195.1] |
thrice robbed his master and murdered his uncle in Ludlow, that wicked siren, Mrs. Millwood, lives at ,
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[extra_illustrations.2.195.2] , occupies the site of a church at least as old as the century. The old church, which had gables and a low square tower, was taken down in , and the present ugly church built by the elder Dance, in , with a steeple to imitate that of , , and a fine peal of bells. The chancel window, the gift of Thomas Awsten, in , and a tablet to the Awstens, are the only relics left of the old church. is the actor's church of London; for, in the days of Elizabeth and James, the players of distinction from the Curtain, in , and from as well as those from the Blackfriars Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe, were fond of residing in this parish. Perhaps nowhere in all London have rooms echoed oftener with Shakespeare's name than those of . | |
The parish register, within a period of years, says Cunningham, records the interment at of the following celebrated characters: --Will. Somers, Henry VIII.'s jester (d. ); Richard Tarlton, the famous clown of Queen Elizabeth's time (d. ); James Burbage (d. ) and his more celebrated son, Richard Burbage (d. -); Gabriel Spenser, the player, who fell, in , in a duel with Ben Jonson; William Sly and Richard Cowley, original performers in Shakespeare's plays; the Countess of Rutland, the only child of the famous Sir Philip Sydney; Fortunatus Greene, the fortunate offspring of Robert Greene, the poet and player (d. ). Another original performer in Shakespeare's plays, who lived in , in this parish, was Nicholas Wilkinson, Tooley, whose name is recorded in gilt letters on the north side of the altar, as a yearly benefactor of , which sum is still distributed in bread every year to the poor inhabitants of the parish, to whom it was bequeathed. | |
In the burial register, , is the following entry: The should probably be . A correspondent of the writing in , notices this entry as the most remarkable record of longevity in existence, and adds:
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At , every Whit Tuesday, is preached a sermon on the or The money, in all, left for this purpose to the preacher was bequeathed, in , by Mr. Thomas Fairchild, a gardener, whose gardens (Selby's Gardens) then extended from the west end of to the . The sum originally bequeathed was afterwards increased by sundry contributions. It used to be the custom for the President and Fellows of the Royal Society to attend these sermons. | |
(west side of ) was so called, says Stow, from a sweet, wholesome, and clear well, spoiled, in that writer's time, by the manure-heaps of the nursery gardens. Here formerly, till the dissolution, stood a Benedictine nunnery of St. John the Baptist, founded by some forgotten Bishop of London; and in this street lived and died Richard Burbage, the tragedian, and friend and companion of Shakespeare. Near stood of the earliest London theatres--the and The site of the of these is still marked by . | |
on the site of Holywell Priory, was remarkable as being, according to Malone, the theatre erected in London. It is noticed in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, in , as the In this wooden theatre was taken down, and the timber of it was used for enlarging the Globe. | |
The is mentioned as early as (before Shakespeare came to London), and by Stubbs, in his in . In it was occupied by Prince Charles's actors. Aubrey, in , calls it the and terms it It gradually, like many of the smaller theatres, sank into a sparring-room. Maitland, in his (), mentions some remains of the as recently standing. It is supposed to have got its name from having been the house that used the green curtain. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.195.1] Entrance to London at Shoreditch Church [extra_illustrations.2.195.2] The present St. Leonard's Church, Shoreditch |