Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Although the borough of Southwark abounds with subjects of historical and antiquarian interest, it has hitherto been greatly neglected by our metropolitan topographers and local historians; and we now know little more of that considerable portion of the metropolis than was recorded by John Stow, in his Survey of London, two hundred and fifty years ago.
page 38 note a Edited by Henry Kichards Luard, Esq. lately published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, lines 442 to 451, p. 402.
page 39 note a This deed seems to have been taken by Stow from the Chronicle of Wm. Thorn, Historic Anglicane Scriptores, x. p. 1932. The Church of St. Olave, Southwark, was granted by William, second earl of Warren and Surrey, to the Priory of St. Pancras at Lewes, by a charter, to which Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester (who died in 1108), was one of the witnesses.
page 40 note a 1st Patent, 23 Edw. III. III. 28.
page 40 note b Esc. 22 Ric. II. no. 65.
page 40 note c The Cage afterwards became the property of Adam Beston or Byston, citizen and girdler of London, who by his will dated 27th May, 1554, devised his great messuage called “The Cage,” with the tenements thereunto belonging, situate in the parish of Saint Olave, to his son Cuthbert Beston (also citizen and girdler of London), who (Stow says) died seised of The Walnut Tree Inn, and who by his will dated 5th July, 1582, gave to the Girdlers' Company his capital messuage called The Cage, and seven messuages in the said parish of Saint Olave.
page 41 note a Inq. post Mort. 4 Hen. V. No. 54.
page 41 note b Inq. post Mort. 11 Hen. VI. No. 43.
page 41 note c Sir Eoland Lenthall was Yeoman of the Eobes to King Henry IV. and according to Leland and Camden he fought at Agincourt, where he took many prisoners, by whose ransoms he built Hampton Court in Herefordshire. His first wife was Margaret FitzAlan, one of the sisters and coheiresses of Thomas Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, and his second, Lucy, daughter of the last Lord Grey of Codnor. He was Governor of Haverfordwest. By his first wife he had issue Edmund, who married Margaret, daughter of William Lord Zouch of Harringworth, in the county of Northampton, but died without issue; and Roland, who, as appears by the Inquisition, was his heir. He Vas ancestor of William Lenthall, the Speaker in the Long Parliament.
page 43 note a Esc. 29 Hen. VI. No. 27. See Appendix I.
page 43 note b This is the only one of these deeds of which the original has been preserved.
page 44 note a Alexander Fairford represented the borough of Southwark in Parliament in 38 Hen. VI. He was son of Robert Fairford, coroner of the Court of Marshalsea of the King's house, who died 21st August, 1456, as appeared by his monument in St. Olave's Church, where he was buried. Stow.
page 47 note a This churchyard was made previously to the 36th Hen. VIII., as appears by the particulars of a grant to Robert Curzen in that year of a tenement called the Whyte Lyon, in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, in Southwark, abutting east upon the new cemetery of St. Olave's and the garden belonging to the late monastery of Lewes, west on the King's highway, north on the sign of the Ball, late of the hospital of St. Thomas a Beckett, and south on a tenement belonging to Master Robert Tirrell, in the tenure of Henry Mynee.
page 47 note b Vol. iii. p. 599.
page 48 note a The following letter from Mr. Bray to my late father (who gave him some assistance in that part of the History of Surrey which relates to Southwark), shows that he was acquainted with both crypts, but he very naturally appropriated the more considerable remains to the Priors of Lewes, the only pre-occupiers of whom he was aware:—
“Gt. Russell Street, Tuesday morn. 25 May (1813).
“Dear Sir,
“From your readiness to assist me, and, what is better, to do it effectually, I shall make no scruple to give you some further trouble.
“I thought I had got St. Olave's ready for the printer, but, on reading it again, I find a contradiction; you can probably get it cleared up for me.
“I am first told that opposite the church was the Prior of Lewes's town house—since the Walnut Tree inn; that the chapel, consisting of two aisles, remains at the upper end of Walnut Tree Alley, but the earth having been raised it is now under ground, used as a cyder cellar or warehouse.
“I am afterwards informed that there is a Gothic building, a little to the west, under the school-house, resembling a small chapel or crypt, now a wine-vault belonging to the King's Head inn or tavern.
“Now I wish you to tell me which is the fact, or whether these two are in truth one and the same.
“The printer being at a stand, a speedy answer will be particularly obliging.
“Is there a portrait of Queen Elizabeth in the school-house? This has occurred since my writing last night.
“I am, Sir, yr. much obliged hble. servt.
“W. BEAY.
“R. Corner, Esq.
“St. Thomas's, Southwark.
“Tuesday morn, before 8.”
page 50 note a In the parish books, previous to the Keformation, there is frequent mention of Our Lady's Brethren, St. Clement's Brethren, and St. Anne's Sisters, three religious associations attached to St. Olave's Church, which had four aisles and chapels respectively dedicated to Our Lady, St. Clement, St. Anne, and St. Barbara; the following entries relating to the suppression of these associations at the Keformation, although not exactly relevant to the subject of my paper, may, perhaps, be considered sufficiently curious to excuse their introduction into this note.
1546 to 1548
It'm. payd to the M(aster) of St. Clement's Bretheren, when we toke ye reckning at the rt. (receipt) of ther ger (gear), yt ys to say, of Wyll'm Beston, Olave Burr… iij li, viij s. ij d.
It'm, payd to O'r Lady Bretheren, when we toke the reqning at the re' of the ger, yt is to say, of Stevene Martyne, Wyll'm Jones … xv s.
Inventory, A° 1556.
It'm, a challys gyvene by Sentte Tanys (Anne's) systars, thene beyng Elizabethe Egylfered, Jone Whyte,… Maryatt, Jone Vestrame, and M'g'ette Eutte, wch challys weythe. xi onzys qt & d'qt