Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol I
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Bartholomew Lane And Lombard Street.
Bartholomew Lane And Lombard Street.
is associated with the memory of Mr. George Robins, of the most eloquent auctioneers who ever wielded an ivory hammer. [extra_illustrations.1.522.1] stood opposite the Rotunda of the Bank. It is said that Robins was once offered and all his expenses to go and dispose of a valuable property in New York. His annual income was guessed at . It is said that half the landed property in England had passed under his hammer. Robins, with incomparable powers of blarney and soft sawder, wrote poetical and alluring advertisements (attributed by some to eminent literary men), which were irresistibly attractive. His notice of the sale of the twentyseven years' lease of the Olympic, at the death of Mr. Scott, in , was a marvel of adroitness:--
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The sale itself is thus described by Mr. Grant, who writes as if he had been present:-- says Grant,
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St. Bartholomew's behind the Exchange was built in . Stow gives the following strange epitaph, date :--
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The stone of the [extra_illustrations.1.524.1] , No. , , corner of , was laid in , the event being celebrated by a dinner at the Albion Tavern, , the Lord Mayor, Sir William Magnay, in the chair. The club was at under the presidency of John Abel Smith, Esq., M.P. The building was erected from the design of Mr. Henry Flower, architect. | |
After the expulsion of the Jews, the Lombards (or merchants of Genoa, Lucca, Florence, and Venice) succeeded them as the money-lenders and bankers of England. About the middle of the century these Italians established themselves in , remitting money to Italy by bills of exchange, and transmitting to the Pope and Italian prelates their fees, and the incomes of their English benefices. Mr. Burgon has shown that to these industrious strangers we owe many of our commercial terms, such, for instance, as , and even our s. d., which originally stood for , and . In the early part of the century we find these swarthy merchants advancing loans to the State, and having the customs mortgaged to them by way of security. Pardons and holy wafers were also sold in this street before the Reformation. | |
of the celebrated dwellers in mediaeval was William de la Pole, father of Michael, Earl of Suffolk. He was king's merchant or factor to Edward III., and in , at Antwerp, lent that warlike and extravagant monarch a sum equivalent to of our current money. He received several munificent grants of Crown land, and was created chief baron of the exchequer and a knight banneret. He is always styled in public instruments His son Michael, who died at the siege of Harfleur in , succeeded to his father's public duties and his house in , near . Michael's son fell at Agincourt. The last De la Pole was beheaded during the wars of the Roses. | |
About the date , when Gresham was honoured by being sent as English ambassador to the court of the Duchess of Parma, he resided in . His shop (about the present No. ) was distinguished by his father's crest --viz., a grasshopper. The original sign was seen by Pennant; and Mr. Burgon assures us that it continued in existence as late as , being removed or stolen on the erection of the present | |
525 | building. Gresham was not only a mercer and merchant adventurer, but a banker--a term which in those days of or per cent. interest meant also, (Burgon). After, his knighthood, Gresham seems to have thought it undignified to reside at his shop, so left it to his apprentice, and removed to Bishopsgate, where he built Gresham House. It was a vulgar tradition of Elizabeth's time, according to Lodge, that Gresham was a foundling, and that an old woman who found him was attracted to the spot by the increased chirping of the grasshoppers. This story was invented, no doubt, to account for his crest. |
During the years of Gresham's acting as the king's factor, he posted from Antwerp no fewer than times. Between the , and the his payments amounted to ; his travelling expenses for riding in and out times, , including a supper and a banquet to the Schetz and the Fuggers, the great banks with whom he had to transact business, being equal, Mr. Burgon calculates, to of the present value of money. he last-named feast must have been of great magnificence, as the guests appear to have been not more than . On such occasions Gresham deemed it policy to
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He was living in , no doubt, at that eventful day when, being at the house of Mr. John Byvers, alderman, he promised that and This mirthful affair was considered of so much importance as to be entered on the books of the Corporation, solemnly commencing with the words, & c. | |
Greshan's wealth was made chiefly by trade with Antwerp. says Burgon,
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In the reign of Charles II. we find the in the sign of another wealthy goldsmith, Sir Charles Duncombe, the founder of the Feversham family, and the purchaser of Helmsley, in Yorkshire, the princely seat of George Villiers, Duke of Buckinghan : Here also resided Sir Robert Viner, the Lord Mayor of London in , and apparently an especial favourite with Charles II. | |
The , , formerly the General , was originally built by Sir Robert Viner, on the site of a noted tavern destroyed in the Great Fire of . ere Sir Robert kept his mayoralty in . Strype describes it as a very large and curious dwelling, with a handsome paved court, and behind it The General was not opened till . | |
says in the ,
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In (No. ), , Pope's father carried on the business of a linen merchant. as his widow informed Mr. pence. His son claimed for him the honour of being sprung from gentle blood. When that gallant baron, Lord Hervey, vice-chamberlain in the court of George II., and his ally, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, disgraced themselves by inditing the verses containing this couplet- [extra_illustrations.1.526.1] indignantly repelled the accusation as to his descent. | |
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The house of Pope's father was afterwards occupied by the well-known chemists, Allen, Hanbury, and Barry, a descendant of which firm still occupies it. Mr. William Allen was the son of a Quaker silk manufacturer in Spitalfields. He became chemical lecturer at , and an eminent experimentalist-discovering, among other things, the proportion of carbon in carbonic acid, and proving that the diamond was pure carbon. He was mainly instrumental in founding the Pharmaceutical Society, and distinguished himself by his zeal against slavery, and his interest in all benevolent objects. He died in , at Lindfield, in Sussex, where he had founded agricultural schools of a thoroughly practical kind. | |
The [extra_illustrations.1.527.1] (and St. Nicholas Acons), on the north side of , stands on the site of the old Grass Market. The only remarkable monument is that of Dr. Jeremiah Mills, who died in , and had been President of the Society of Antiquaries many years. The local authorities have, with great good sense, written the duplex name of this church in clear letters over the chief entrance. | |
The date of the building of [extra_illustrations.1.527.2] seems to be very doubtful; nor does Stow help us to the origin of the name. By some antiquaries it has been suggested that the church was so called from being beneath or nigh to the wool staple. Mr. Gwilt suggests that it may have been called in order to distinguish it from the other church of St. Mary, where the wool-beam actually stood. | |
The rector mentioned by, Newcourt was John de Norton, presented previous to . Sir Martin Bowes had the presentation of this church given him by Henry V., it having anciently belonged to the convent of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. From the Bowes's the presentation passed to the Goldsmiths' Company. Sir Martin Bowes was buried here, and so were many of the Houblons, a great mercantile family, on of whom Pepys wrote an epitaph. Munday particularly mentions that the wills of several benefactors of were carefully preserved and exhibited in the church. Strype also mentions a monument to Sir William Phipps, that lucky speculator who, in , extracted from the wreck of a Spanish plate-vessel off the Bahama bank. Simon Eyre, the old founder of Leadenhall Market, was buried in this church in . | |
Sir Hugh Brice, goldsmith and mayor, governor of the Mint in the reign of Henry VII., built or rebuilt part of the church, and raised a steeple. he church was almost totally destroyed in the Great Fire, and repaired by Wren. Sir Robert Viner, the famous goldsmith, contributed largely towards the rebuilding, says Strype, Wren's repairs having proved ineffectual, the church was rebuilt in . The workmen, feet under the ruins of the steeple, discovered bones, tusks, Roman coins, and a vast number of broken Roman pottery. It is generally thought by antiquaries that a temple dedicated to Concord once stood here. Hawksmoor, the architect of St. Mary Woolnoth was born the year of the Great Fire, and died in . He acted as Wren's deputy during the erection of the Hospitals at and Greenwich, and also in the building of most of the City churches. The principal works of his own design are , Spitalfields, St. Anne's , and , Bloomsbury. Mr. J. Godwin, an excellent authority, calls St. Mary Woolnoth
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On the north side of the communion-table is a plain tablet in memory of that excellent man, the Rev. John Newton, who was curate of Olney, Bucks, for years, and rector of the united parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch years. He died on the , aged years, and was buried in a vault in this church. | |
On the stone is the following inscription, full of Christian humility:--
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Newton's father was master of a merchant-ship, and Newton's youth was spent in prosecuting the African slave-trade, a career of which he afterwards bitterly repented. He is best known as the writer (in conjunction with the poet Cowper) of the | |
The exterior of this church is praised by competent authorities for its boldness and originality, though some critic says that the details are ponderous enough for a fortress or a prison. The elongated tower, from the arrangement of the | |
528 | small chimney-like turrets at the top, has the appearance of being towers united. Dallaway calls it an imitation of St. Sulpice, at Paris; but unfortunately Servandoni built St. Sulpice some time after St. Mary Woolnoth was completed. Mr. Godwin seems to think Hawksmoor followed Vanbrugh's manner in the heaviness of his design. |
, , , sometimes called , , is noted by Newcourt as existing as early as . The rectory belonged to , but was given by Queen Mary to the Bishop of London and his successors for ever. After the Great Fire, when the church was destroyed, the parish of [extra_illustrations.1.528.1] was united to that of . | |
The parish seem to have been pleased with Wren's exertions in rebuilding, for in their register books for there is the following item:--
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of the rectors of , Dr. Benjamin Stone, who had been presented to the living by Bishop Juxon, being deemed too Popish by Cromwell, was imprisoned for some time at Crosby Hall. From thence he was sent to Plymouth, where, after paying a fine of , he obtained his liberty. On the restoration of Charles II., Stone recovered his benefice, but died years after. In this church Bishop Pearson, then rector, delivered his celebrated sermons on the Creed, which | |
529 | he afterwards turned into his excellent Exposition, a text-book of English divinity, which he dedicated
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The interior is a parallelogram, with the addition of a south aisle, introduced in order to disguise the intrusion of the tower, which stands at the southwest angle of the building. The ceiling is divided into panels, the centre being a large oval band of fruit and flowers. | |
The pulpit and desk, as well as the large sounding-board above them, are very elaborately carved; and a marble font standing in the south aisle has an oak cover of curious design. Among many mural tablets are which have been | |
erected at the cost of the parishioners, commemorative of the Rev. Thomas Green, curate twentyseven years, who died in ; the Rev. John Farrer, rector (); and the Rev. W. Valentine Ireson, who was lecturer of the united parishes years, and died in . | |
In digging a new sewer in a few years ago (says Pennant, writing in ), the remains of a were discovered, with numbers of coins, and several antique curiosities, some of great elegance. The beds through which the workmen sunk were . The consisted of factitious earth, about feet inches thick, all accumulated since the desertion of the ancient street: the of brick, feet | |
530 | thick, the ruins of the buildings; the of ashes, only inches; the of Roman pavement, both common and tessellated, over which the coins and other antiquities were discovered. Beneath that was the original soil. The predominant articles were earthenware, and several were ornamented in the most elegant manner. A vase of red earth had on its surface a representation of a fight of men, some on horseback, others on foot; or perhaps a show of gladiators, as they all fought in pairs, and many of them naked. The combatants were armed with falchions and small round shields, in the manner of the Thracians, the most esteemed of the gladiators. Some had spears, and others a kind of mace. A beautiful running foliage encompassed the bottom of this vessel. On the fragment of another were several figures. Among them appears Pan with his , or crook; and near to him of the , both in beautiful skipping attitudes. On the same piece are tripods; round each is a serpent regularly twisted, and bringing its head over a bowl which fills the top. These seem (by the serpent) to have been dedicated to Apollo, who, as well as his son Aesculapius, presided over medicine. On the top of of the tripods stands a man infull armour. Might not this vessel have been votive, made by order of a soldier restored to health by favour of the god, and to his active powers and enjoyment of rural pleasures, typified under the form of Pan and his nimble attendants? A plant extends along part of another compartment, possibly allusive to their medical virtues; and, to show that Bacchus was not forgotten, beneath lies a with a double head. |
On another bowl was a free pattern of foliage. On others, or fragments, were objects of the chase, such as hares, part of a deer, and a boar, with human figures, dogs, and horses; all these pieces prettily ornamented. There were, besides, some beads, made of earthenware, of the same form as those called the , and, by the Welsh, ; and numbers of coins in gold, silver, and brass, of Claudius, Nero, Galba, and other emperors down to Constantine. | |
[extra_illustrations.1.530.1] was destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in . Maitland says,
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Stow gives record of , which we feel a pleasure in chronicling:
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The pulpit and sounding-board are of oak, and the font has a cover of the same material, presenting carved figures of the Evangelists within niches. n the south side of the church is an elaborate monument of marble, part of which is gilt, consisting of twisted columns supporting a circular pediment, drapery, cherubim, & c., to Mr. Edward herwood, who died ; and near it is a , in memory of Sir Patience Ward, Knt., Alderman, and Lord Mayor of London in . He died on the . The east end of the church is in , and the south side faces an open paved space, divided from the lane by posts. This was formerly enclosed as a burial-ground, but was thrown open for the convenience of the neighbourhood. | |
The present church was completed from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in . In the interior it is nearly square, being about feet long, and feet wide. The walls are plain, having windows in the south side and at the east end to light the church. The area of the church is covered by a large and handsome cupola, supported on a modillion cornice, and adorned with paintings which were executed by Sir James Thornhill; and in the lower part of this also are introduced other lights. says Mr. G. Godwin,
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.1.522.1] The Auction Mart [extra_illustrations.1.524.1] Gresham Club House [extra_illustrations.1.526.1] Pope [extra_illustrations.1.527.1] church of St. Edmund King and Martyr [extra_illustrations.1.527.2] St. Mary Woolnoth of the Nativity, in Lombard Street [extra_illustrations.1.528.1] St. Martin Orgar [extra_illustrations.1.530.1] St. Mary Abchurch |