I.—Our Lady of the Pew. The King's Oratory or Closet in the Palace of Westminster

Charles Lethbridge Kingsford

doi:10.1017/S0261340900008523

I.—Our Lady of the Pew. The King's Oratory or Closet in the Palace of Westminster

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

Charles Lethbridge Kingsford

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During the comparatively brief period of its existence references to the chapel of our Lady of the Pew are not uncommon. But so quickly did its memory perish that John Stow writing some sixty years after its disuse was at first hopelessly in error as to its position. In the original edition of his Survey of London he connected it with the house of Bethlehem Hospital by Charing Cross. This error was corrected in the second edition, where our Lady of the Pew is described as a smaller chapel, which was sometime by the chapel of St. Stephen in the Palace of Westminster. Even when the more part of the history of the Pew was accurately brought together in J. T. Smith's Antiquities of Westminster, the author so little appreciated the character of the chapel, that after remarking ‘No etymology of the term le Pew has as yet been attempted’, he went on to allege: ‘no difficulty in settling it will remain when it is remembered that the French substantive Putts means a well, and known that in or about the Palace of Westminster were no fewer than four wells still remaining.’

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 68 , 1917 , pp. 1 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900008523 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1917

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References

^{page 1 note 1} Survey of London, ii, 121, 264.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 2} Antiquities of Westminster, 124, 125.Google Scholar

^{page 1 note 3} Britton, , Dictionary of Architecture and Archaeology in the Middle Ages.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 1} See p. 6, below.

^{page 2 note 2} In 1471 it is still ‘beate Marie in le Pew'a’, see p. 12, below.

^{page 2 note 3} Forms of the name are ‘Pue’ in 1357; ‘Piewe’ in 1369; ‘Pewe’ in 1393; ‘Puwa’ in 1411; and ‘Pewe’ in 1443. All these variations occur for ‘pew’ in its ordinary signification. See N.E.D.

^{page 2 note 4} Letters and Papers, etc., Henry VIII, v, 756.Google Scholar

^{page 2 note 5} See N.E.D. sub voce ‘pew’. Henry V in 1415 bequeathed to his confessor ‘melius altare de closeta nostra’ (Foedera, x, 291Google Scholar).

Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry VI, iv, 142. The full text of the grant is given on p. 18 below. The plan given on p. 5 is based on that in Antiquities of Westminster, p. 125. The restoration of the east side is conjectural, and in the absence of definite information no attempt is made to show more than the Constabulary, the Pew, and the Gallery. But the eastern block was very possibly more extensive than that shown on the plan.

^{page 3 note 2} Gairdner, , Letters, etc., Richard III and Henry VII, i, 391Google Scholar.

^{page 4 note 1} Exchequer (K. R.) 469/10 ‘pro cc. et di. petr. de Reygate pro nova alura inter novam capellam et cameram depictam prec c. vjs.-xvs.’: ‘pro c. bord estrich pro nova alura inter capellam et cameram depictam,’ etc.

^{page 4 note 2} See p. 16 below.

^{page 4 note 3} In Antiquities of Westminster, p. 66, the Constabulary is alleged to have been near the west end of the Prince's Chamber, which is clearly wrong.

^{page 5 note 1} Antiquities of Westminster, p. 45; a foundation was discovered at this point in 1805.

^{page 5 note 2} p. 46; referring to A New View of London, p. 652 (published in 1708), where the Cotton Library is described as ‘situate near Westminster Hall in the place supposed formerly to have been the private oratory of King Edward the Confessor’.

^{page 6 note 1} Antiquities of Westminster, pp. 123 and 127.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 2} Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1258-66, p. 61. There is reference to repairs to the ‘Capella Regine’ in 1311 12, cf. Additional MS. 17361, f. 1.

^{page 6 note 3} Royal and Noble Wills, p. 16.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 4} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, x, 430.Google Scholar

^{page 6 note 5} Antiquities of Westminster, p. 124.Google Scholar

^{page 7 note 1} Exchequer (K. R.), 472/4.

^{page 7 note 2} Additional Roll 27018 at the British Museum. See also accounts in Antiquities of Westminster, p. 205.

^{page 8 note 1} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, xiv, 325.Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 2} English Historical Review, xiii, 518.Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 3} Froissart, x, 117, ed. Luce, and Reynaud, .Google Scholar

^{page 8 note 4} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Richard II, v, 244.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 1} Widmore, , History of Westminster Abbey, p. 103.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 2} Salmon, , Les demandes faites par Charles VI, pp. 45, 46.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 3} Vita Henrici Quinti, p. 25, ed. Hearne (wrongly attributed to Thomas Elmham). Tito Livio (p. 5), who is probably the original, has ‘ad se vocato sacerdote honestissime vite, quodam monacho’, not mentioning that he was an anchorite.

^{page 9 note 4} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry IV, iv, 246.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 5} See pp. 18, 19 below.

^{page 9 note 6} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry VI, iv, 143-4.

^{page 10 note 1} See p. 19 below, and Antiquities of Westminster, p. 119.

^{page 10 note 2} Pat. Roll, 32 Henry VI, m. 4 ‘quandam Cantariara perpetuam in bassa Capella de sancti Stephani infra palacium nostrum Westm. de duobus capellanis perpetuis, siue de vno Capellano perpetuo ad minus, diuina singulis diebus in Capella predicta, siue vnus eorundem Capellanorum in ipsa bassa Capella et alter eorum ad altare Capelle beate Marie de Pewa prope dictam Capellam sancti Stephani situate, pro salubri statu nostro et carissime consortis nostre Margarete’, &c. See Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry VI, vi, 163. For the anniversary see Cotton MS., Faustina, B. viii, fol. 33 ‘Custos capelle de Pewa, si presbiter fuerit, vjd., aliter ivd.’ See Lyndwood's Will, ap. Archaeologia, xxxiv. 418-20.

^{page 10 note 3} Stow says ‘17 February’, which was a Thursday. Henry VI left London for Northampton on 16th February.

^{page 11 note 1} Kingsford, , English Historical Literature, p. 373.Google Scholar

^{page 11 note 2} Survey, ii, 121.Google Scholar

^{page 11 note 3} Visitation of Churches belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, p. 100, Camd. Soc. 1895.

^{page 11 note 4} L. T. R., Wardrobe, Roll 6, m. 8 ‘j disca elemosinaria ad modum navis argenti deaurati, cum diversis turribus et viij hominibus armatis deferentibus viij vexilla, videlicet de arrais sancti Georgii, Comitis Hereford, et domini Thome, filii Regis, nuper Ducis Gloucestrie’. The date was 1413.

^{page 12 note 1} Survey, ii, 121.Google Scholar

^{page 12 note 2} Cotton MS., Faustina, B. viii, fol. 39 ‘quam eciam ad supradicti nostri collegii vtilitatem affectatam benevolenciam, ac largifluam ipsius ad opus beate Marie in le Pewa exhibitam beneficenciam’.

^{page 12 note 3} Ibid., fol. 40, ‘Custodi capelle beate Marie de Pewa, si sacerdos fuerit, viijd.’

^{page 13 note 1} See p. 20 below.

^{page 13 note 2} See p. 4.

^{page 13 note 3} Calendar of Wills in the Court of Husting, ii, 234, 333.

^{page 13 note 4} P.C.C. 32 Vox.

^{page 14 note 1} P.C.C. 4 Holder.

^{page 14 note 2} Ibid. 8 Ayloffe.

^{page 14 note 3} Ibid. 14 Fetiplace.

^{page 14 note 4} The will of Agnes Bounde of Colchester in 1508—P.C.C. 8 Bennett—is less clear than the above. But when she wills for a priest to say mass ‘at Westmynster in that Chapell that hath such pardon and indulgence as ys named at Scala Celi’, it is probable that she referred to Henry VII's chapel, and not to the Pew. For these references to wills I am indebted to Mr. J. Challenor Smith, F.S.A. The indulgence of Scala Celi was also obtained for the Savoy chapel.

^{page 14 note 5} Excerpta Historica, pp. 246-8.

^{page 14 note 6} Cotton MS., Faustina, B. viii, fol. 50.

^{page 14 note 7} P.C.C. 17 Rous.

^{page 15 note 1} Lambeth Series, 273 Kempe. For these last two references I am again indebted to Mr. Challenor Smith.

^{page 15 note 2} P.C.C. 25 Mills.

^{page 15 note 3} Ibid. 32 Vox. See p. 13 above.

^{page 15 note 4} Ibid. 22 Maynwaryng.

^{page 15 note 5} Cal. Pat. Rolls, p. 451.Google Scholar

^{page 15 note 6} Excerpta Historica, pp. 98, 99.Google Scholar

^{page 15 note 7} Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, pp. 4, 77, 102.Google Scholar

^{page 16 note 1} Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, ii, 1449; cf. p. 1454 for masses at our Lady of Pewe on All Souls’ Day, 1511, 325.; p. 1458, the same in 1512, 435.; p. 1466, for 25 priests singing 25 masses before our Lady of Pew, All Souls’ Day, 1514, 16s. 8d.; p. 1469, for 49 priests at 8d. each. And iii, p. 1533, Twelfth Day, 1519, Dr. Rawson for masses at our Lady of Pewe, £15 14s. 3d.; p. 1538, December 1519, mass at our Lady of Pewe on All Souls’ Day, 54 priests at 8d. each.

^{page 16 note 2} Letters and Papers, i, p. 1469Google Scholar; iii, pp. 51, 497.

^{page 16 note 3} Ibid., v, p. 756.

^{page 16 note 4} With the exception of a short interval under the Commonwealth.

^{page 16 note 5} See Report of the Committee of the House of Commons in 1732, ap. Additional MS. 24932 at the British Museum.

^{page 17 note 1} Harley MS. 6850, fol. 343. A plan which accompanied the report has unfortunately disappeared.

^{page 17 note 2} Report of the Committee of the House of Commons in 1732.

^{page 17 note 3} It has occurred to me often that by careful measurement of the Cotton Manuscripts, shelf by shelf, it might be possible to restore the arrangement of the room at Cotton House. If this could be done we should recover also somewhat of the ground-plan of the chapel of the Pew. Since this paper was read I have made some investigation of the existing material. But it is clear that the conclusion would be conjectural only, and that the results, though interesting in themselves, would involve questions foreign to the present paper, and requiring fuller discussion than can be given here.

^{page 18 note 1} Something seems to be omitted; supply either ‘eidem custodie’ or ‘eidem Constabularie’. See p. 3 above.

^{page 18 note 2} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry IV, iv, 245-6.

^{page 19 note 1} Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry VI, iv, 143-4.

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I.—Our Lady of the Pew. The King's Oratory or Closet in the Palace of Westminster

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