The History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and Parts Adjacent, vol. 3
Allen, Thomas
1827
The Brethren of the Holy Trinity of St. Botolph without Aldersgate.
In St. Botolph's church in , the of Edward III. a brotherhood of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian was founded, which was subsequently confirmed by Henry IV. in the of his reign. The brothers and sisters of the fraternity were to find tapers of lb. of wax, to be lighted all on feast days, at all hours of the day, in the worship of God, his mother and Sts. Fabian and Sebastian, and of Allhallows, and on Sundays; on other common feasts, to be lighted at high mass. | |
It appears, from the chartulary of this religious guild, in the possession of Mr. Hone, that their landed property was considerable, and consisted of houses in , the , Lamb-alley, Fanchurch-street, and ; of these was held on the annual payment of a rose, others in fee. They were proprietors of the Saracen's Head-inn, and the Falcon-on-the-Hoop brewery. In the year of king Richard II. sir Rauff Kesteven, parson of St. Botolph, and the churchwardens, granted a lease for years to John Hertyshorn, of the Saracen's Head, with the appurtenances, at the yearly rent of ; the appurtenances were houses adjoining on the north side, and were included in that rental as worth each by the year, and on the south side, was valued at . the brethren received, --and but the same year they demised the Falcon brewhouse to Robert Halle and John Walpole, brewers, for years, at per annum. years before, there is, in the churchwardens' account, an item for
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The account of their pageantry is very curious. In the accounts of the wardens for there is the charge of an a large sum in those times, and must have produced a prodigious illumination. They also possessed
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There does not appear in their registers any thing like a portion of the Scriptures; except we consider their which was most likely overlaid by prayers to saints, notices of indulgences, &c. | |
In the list of this fraternity appear the following names:
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In the Henry V. was the master of the brotherhood. | |
This fraternity was of some celebrity; for John Heywood, in his brings in the Palmer relating that in his pilgrimages he has been at different parts of the world, and in enumerating them, he says,
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64 | |
The hospital wherein the fraternity resided stood where is at present situate; it belonged to the priory of Cluny in France, and was suppressed by Henry V. Henry VI. in the of his reign, , gave a licence to Dame Joan Astley, sometime his nurse, Robert Cawood, clerk of the pipe, and Thomas Smith, to refound the same, to the honour of the Holy Trinity, therein to be a master and custos, with brethren and sisters, &c. This brotherhood was endowed with lands more than per annum, and was finally suppressed by Edward VI. | |
Footnotes: [] An account of this chartulary is printed by Mr. Hone in his Ancient Mysteries Described, &c. 8vo. 1823. |