Portsoken Ward lies wholly without the city, properly so called, but includes an extensive plot of ground, extending

soundeth as much as the

Franchise at the Gate,

was some time a guild, and had this beginning as I have read in the

Liber Trinitate

. In the daies of king Edgar, more than

600

yeres since, there were

thirteen

knights, or soldiers, well-beloved of the king and realm (for service by them done) which requested to have a certain portion of land on the east part of the citie, left desolate and forsaken by the inhabitants, by reason of too much servitude. They besought the king to have this land, with the liberty of a guild for ever, and the king granted their request, on condition that each knight should victoriously accomplish

three

combats,

one

above the ground,

one

under ground, and the thirde in the water; and after this, at a certain day in

East Smithfield

, they should run with spears against all commers; all which was gloriously performed; and the same day the king named it Knighten Guilde, and so bounded it from Ealdgate to the place where the bars now are toward the east, &c. and again toward the south unto the river of Thames, and so far into the water, as a horseman entering the same may ryde at a low water, and throw his speare; so that all

East Smithfield

, with the right part of the street that goeth to Dodding Pond into the Thames, and also the hospital of St. Katherin's, with the mils that were founded in king Stephen's daies, and the outward stone wall, and the new ditch of the Tower, are of the saide fee and libertie.-These knights had as then none other charter until the time of Edward the Confessor, whom the heirs of those knights humblie besought to confirm their liberties, which he did by a deed, written in the Saxon letter and tongue, as appeareth in the booke of the late house of the Holie Trinitie.

the other charters they had thereof,

for him and his successors, admitted as

one

of the aldermen of London, to governe the same land and soke; and according to the customes of the citie, he did sit in court and rode with the maior, and his brethren the aldermen, as

one

of them in scarlet, or other livery, as they used, till the year

1531

,

It is bounded on the east by the parishes of Spitalfields, Stepney, and in the east; on the south by ; on the north by Bishopsgate ward, and on the west by ward. This ward is divided into the precincts of , , the Bars, , and Convent-garden, and contains church,

[] Stow's Lond. pp. 85, 86, Edit. 1597.

[] Ibid.

[] Stow's Lond. p. 88, Edit. 1597.