CHAPTER IV - The Precinct of St. Mary Spital: the Priory Site
On 10 November 1542 Stephen Vaughan,
described as the King's servant, (fn. a) was granted
in fee the reversion of various leases of
land within the precinct (fn. b) granted by the prior
between 1531 and 1538, and by the King to
Nicholas Bristowe on 10 December 1540 (ref. 2) The
prior's leases were of 'le oldehalle' and a 'garden
platte' to Joan Rosse or Rose, widow; a tenement
and garden described in 1542 as lying between the
chapel of St. Mary and the former hospital on the
north, the road to the churchyard on the south and
west and Joan Rosse's tenement on the east, to
John Apott of Multon, Suffolk, gentleman; a
tenement over the west gate with a garden lying
outside it, to Patrick White of London; property
described in 1540_1 as a tenement or mansion
called 'le brick house' within the cemetery of the
priory, with vacant land to the north and east, to
John Halles (Hales), gentleman; and tenements
called the ’Crown’ and the ’Crown rents’ in
Shoreditch (mainly outside the precinct) to
William Sherlande. (ref. 3) The lease by the King for
an unknown term of years to Nicholas Bristowe
of London, gentleman (a clerk of the wardrobe of
robes and beds), was of the house and site of the
former priory and all the house, chambers and
buildings called ’le Priours lodgeyng’, and the
’kytchyn garden’, and all the church and cloister,
and all the house called ’le Frater’, with all other
buildings, barns and stables usually in the occupa
tion of the priory, reserving the buildings in which
the sick lay for the term of their lives and also
reserving the lead of the cloister. (ref. 4)
In April 1540 Richard Morysyn (who was said
in 1546 lately to have held the house of Austin
Friars in London) (ref. 5) had been granted in fee other
lands formerly of the late priory. These included
the farmery, the dorter and buildings beneath it,
the hospice and building called the ’toure’ adjoin
ing the dorter, waste ground leading from the
churchyard to the farmery, the gardens called ’le
Pryours gardeyn’ and ’le Covent garden’,
adjacent waste ground, and two of the ’Crown
rents’, (ref. 6) The following year Morysyn was
licensed to alienate these properties to John Hales,
the recipient of the 'brick house' lease from the
prior, (ref. 7) and in March 1540/1 Hales was licensed
to alienate the same to Vaughan, who subsequently
possessed them (ref. 8)
Vaughan thus became possessed of almost all the
former priory buildings and precinct, apart from
the ’Tesell ground’ (see Chapter III).
Apparent exceptions were a tenement and land
near the churchyard cross and another tenement
called the ’posterne’, leased by the prior in 1536 to
William Wyld, citizen and merchant taylor, (ref. 9) and
property, described as the Candle House and gar
den, two houses and one acre and one rood of land
and a brick wall, and a tenement lately leased to
Wyld (probably that leased by the prior in 1536),
granted in June 1540 to Christopher Campion of
London, mercer (ref. 10) (see page 46).
Stephen Vaughan made his home in the pre
cinct. (ref. 11) A dispute over the tenement leased to
Patrick White in 1538 shows Vaughan apparently
anxious to gain actual possession of the property
which he had been granted in reversion in 1542.
In the summer of 1549 Patrick White, described
as of London, gentleman, petitioned the Court of
Requests against Vaughan. (ref. 12) The tenement over
the west gate and the garden outside it had been
leased to White by the prior; White, being ’a
verye aged and Impotent creature and not mete ne
able to occupye and manure the sayde messuage
and other the premyses’, had, about six years
before, granted the same to Thomas Pomell (or
Poinell), priest, for ten years, apparently on con
dition that White should be allowed to live there
’house rente free’. After a time Pomell en
deavoured to eject White, but failing to do so, con
veyed his interest to Stephen Vaughan, who ’by
colour thereof and havynge the fee symple of the
premysses, of his Insacyable covetous mynde …
forcyblye therein entered and from thens in most
cruell manner expelled your supplyaunte'.
Vaughan had since withheld the premises reserved
by White and also the rent due to him and had
’caused one of his servauntes with a dagger drawne
to assaute and make a fraye uppon your Oratour
whom the same servaunte wolde have sore hurted
and wounded to the greate Jeopperdye of hys lyffe
yf present Rescue had not then ben’. Since then
Vaughan had daily threatened White with ’oppro
bryous wordes and perpetuall Imprisonment.’
White described Vaughan as ’a man of great Sub
staunce possessions and Estimacion and greatly
frynded alyed and supported.’
Figure 6:
Extract from Agas's map showing site of St. Mary Spital and the Old Artillery Ground, c. 1560–70
Vaughan's reply consisted chiefly of the asser
tion that the prior's lease to White was void be
cause it was of property not customarily leased and
was made less than a year before the priory's
dissolution, the date of the lease (4 March
1537/8) being said to be earlier than its sealing
and delivery, which did not occur until November
of that year. This was denied by White, who had
produced evidence from former brothers and sis
ters of the priory that the premises had been
occupied by two gentlewomen before the lease to
White, and before them by (John) Stokes, and
before him, about forty years past, by ’one dokter
Smyth a dokter of physsyke’. After Vaughan's
death in December 1549 White again petitioned
the Court of Requests. (ref. 14) He claimed that Vaughan
had been ordered to allow him possession of the
premises (a chamber and stables) reserved out of
his lease to Pomell and pay him his arrears of rent,
but that neither Vaughan nor his executor, John
Ewynethe, clerk, had done so. Ewynethe's
answer, which he evidently thought sufficient, was
that Vaughan had died in debt to the King for the
sum of £3,637 12s. 6½d. of which only £1,900
had been paid, and Ewynethe was ’not in a sertenty
howe the kynges maiestye shalbe answard of the
resydew of the said dett.’.
The outcome of the second petition is not
known. In his will (ref. 15) dated 16 October 1549 and
proved 26 February 1549/50, Stephen Vaughan
had left to ’the kinges maiestie’ some of his
property in the priory precinct to the yearly value
of £28 16s. 8d. for the period of his son Stephen's
minority. This included the tenement over the
gate and the garden which was in dispute with
White. It was described in Vaughan's will as
’nowe in the holding of Thomas Hustewaite
painter for lvi s. viiid. by yere’.
Apart from the property left to the King the
only possessions in the priory precinct mentioned
in Vaughan's will was ’my mansion howse at St.
Mary Spittell with the gardeyn and orcharde
thereunto belonging’, which he left to his wife for
nine years and then to his son Stephen. Vaughan's
possessions ’at St. Mary Spytyll’ were valued at
£3765. 8d. per annum. (ref. 16)
Figure 7:
Extract from Ogilby and Morgan's map showing Spital Yard area, 1677
By his will of 15 February 1588/9, proved with
codicils on 28 March 1605/6, (ref. 17) Stephen Vaughan
left his property in St. Mary Spital, including his
’mancion house wherein I now dwell’ to his
third son Rowland Vaughan, the eldest son
Stephen being fallen into a kinde of phransie or
lunacye and the second son Henry being ’gone I
know nott whither’.
The eldest son Stephen was nevertheless seized
of a third part of twelve messuages and a close of
two acres in St. Mary Spital at the time of his
death in October 1637, when they devolved upon
his brother Sir Rowland Vaughan, knight. (ref. 18)
At Sir Rowland's death in July 1641 his
daughter and heiress Elizabeth, who had married
Sir Paulet St. John, second son of Oliver, first
Earl of Bolinghbroke, became possessed of the
twelve messuages which Sir Rowland had in
herited from his brother Stephen and also of an
additional eighteen messuages, two gardens and
two orchards in St. Mary Spital (including Sir
Rowland's dwelling-house), of which Sir Row
land had been seized at his death. She was then a
widow herself, living, like her widowed mother, at
’le Spittle’. (ref. 19)
In January 1685/6 Lady Elizabeth St. John
conveyed to the Hon. Paulet St. John, her second
son, her messuages and lands in St. Mary Spital. (ref. 20)
In 1688 Paulet succeeded his brother as third Earl
of Bolingbroke and died in October 1711 seized
of the family property in St. Mary Spital, which
he left to William St. John, who in 1714 succeeded
Paulet St. Andrew St. John as Lord St.
John. (ref. 21) The estate was however mortgaged to
Jeremy Sambrook of London and Bedfordshire:
the Sambrook interest (ref. 22) in the estate probably
dated from at least 1693 when Sir Jeremy Sam
brook was listed among subscribers to a fund to
relieve distress among Spitalfields weavers. (ref. 23) At
the time of the Earls' death in 1711 the first
development of the former priory precinct in its
modern form had already commenced with the
construction of part of the north side of the west arm of Spital Square, on the south side of which the
Earl's dwelling-house was situated. In July 1716
the Vaughan-St. John estate was conveyed by
William, Lord St. John and others to Isaac Tillard,
esquire. (ref. 24) A few years later Tillard acquired
property in Spital Square which was probably the
only part of the precinct (except for the Old
Artillery Ground) not to have come to him
already through the Vaughans and St. Johns. It
was by the Tillards that the modern street lay
out of the former priory precinct was developed
and completed.
The Extent of the Precinct
The extent of the precinct at the time of the
Dissolution can be indicated only approximately.
As has been seen, in the early thirteenth century
the priory precinct lay between Bishopsgate Street
on the west and Lolesworth field on the east, and
was further defined as lying between Shoreditch
parish on the north and Berewardeslane on the
south. The existence after the Dissolution of the
two liberties of Norton Folgate and the Old
Artillery Ground affords some presumption that
these together represented approximately the
limits of the precinct and such evidence as there is
goes towards supporting this in the main, although
the extension of the Norton Folgate Liberty west
of Bishopsgate Street outside the precinct is a
warning against a too ready identification of the
liberty boundary with that of the precinct.
On the south the precinct in 1538 included the
’Tesell ground’, subsequently the Old Artillery
Ground, and presumably the wall of the Ground
represented the wall of the precinct. The
southern limit of the precinct in the early fourteenth
century, Berewardeslane, was said by Stow
to join Bishopsgate Street to Hog Lane (now
Middlesex Street). The maps of Agas and
Faithorne and Newcourt suggest that this lane
bordered the southern end of the Old Artillery
Ground and is now represented by the western
part of Artillery Lane, by Sandys Row and by
Artillery Passage.
On the western side of the Old Artillery
Ground the precinct did not reach Bishopsgate
Street; (ref. 25) as on the southern side, the wall of the
’Tesell ground’ presumably marked the precinct
boundary. It is evident that the precinct abutted
west on Bishopsgate Street in the neighbourhood
of Spital Square. The position of the west gate is
not certain but there are said to have been precinct
buildings both north and south of it (see page 44).
The precinct apparently reached Bishopsgate
Street approximately as far north as the present
line of Fleur-de-lis Street. In 1743 this was the
northern limit of the Bishopsgate Street frontage
of the Tillard estate, which derived from Stephen
Vaughan's possession of the precinct. (ref. 26) This
agrees with the Ministers' Accounts of 1540–1
which include within the precinct two of the
tenements known as the ’Crown rents’ (from the
adjacent tenement called the Crown) in the parish
of Shoreditch (ref. 25) which fronted upon Bishopsgate
Street. (ref. 27) No other items within the precinct are
said to have been in Shoreditch parish. These two
tenements abutted south on the great barn of the
priory, which must thus have been situated im
mediately south of the then parish boundary in
Bishopsgate Street.
The northern boundary of the precinct is not
easy to establish with certainty although it
probably followed the northern part of the liberty
boundary as shown on Ogilby and Morgan's map,
turning north along the line now followed by
Blossom Street, then east along a line north of
Fleur-de-lis Street, thus also following the liberty
boundary as shown on the Ordnance Survey maps
of 1873–5 and 1894–6. The grant to Vaughan
in 1542 (ref. 2) had, in this area, included land north of
the precinct, stretching eastward to Lolesworth
field. (fn. c) This land was described in 1538 as
abutting south on the land of John Halles. (ref. 28) It is
not known with certainty what land Halles
possessed at this time, but it may have been the
land within the precinct granted to Richard
Morysyn in April 1540 which is described in the
Ministers' Accounts of 1540–1 as being leased to
Halles and which was subsequently alienated to
him. This land included ’le Pryours gardeyn’, ’le
Covent garden’, and waste ground adjoining,
within the precinct, said to measure 544 feet from
north to south. (ref. 29) This probably means that it
stretched north from the priory buildings and
enclosures in the neighbourhood of the present
Spital Square to the position of the northern
boundary of the liberty and that it included the
area designated ’Porter's Close’ on Ogilby and
Morgan's map of 1677, and unnamed on their
map of 1681–2, immediately south of the liberty
boundary.
The eastern boundary of the precinct probably
followed, for the most part, the virtually straight
line of the eastern boundary of the liberty shown
on Ogilby and Morgan's maps and the late
nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps. This
would be consistent, in the period before the building
of Wheler and Crispin Streets, with the abutment
of the precinct eastward on Lolesworth field
or Spitalfields. The boundary appears, however,
to have diverged eastward to include ground outside
the liberty, bordered in the eighteenth century
by White Lion (now Folgate) Street, Wheler
Street, Lamb Street and Tabernacle Yard (later
Church Passage and now Nantes Passage). The
maps of Braun and Hogenberg (c. 1555–72) and
Agas (c. 1560–70) indicate the eastward extension
of the priory gardens and enclosures in this area,
and in the late seventeenth century Sir George
Wheler, the owner of this ground, said that it ’is
and ever was tithe free as part of St. Mary's
Hospitall’ (see page 102). It may be noted that
the eastern boundary of the Norton Folgate
Liberty at this point is shown rather indeter
minately by Ogilby and Morgan.
Position of the Priory Buildings
There is no certain evidence of the exact position
of the priory church, cloister and related
buildings, but they probably occupied a site near to
or north of the later western arm of Spital Square (fn. d) .
In 1892 sixteen medieval tiles that may have belonged
to St. Mary Spital were found, apparently
near the northern corner of the west arm of the
Square. They are now in the north aisle of Christ
Church, Spitalfields. (ref. 30) It is said, however, that at
the period of the refoundation in about 1235 a
new church was built eastward of the old (see
page 21) and thus presumably stood some way
back from Bishopsgate Street. In 1909 during the
rebuilding of No. 38 Spital Square part of a
twelfth century capital was found (fig. 1), which
may have been part of the church.
Wyngaerde's view of a church said to be St.
Mary Spital is too distant to indicate its position
exactly. Agas's map of c. 1560–70 and Ogilby
and Morgan's of 1677, compared with the
modern Ordnance Survey maps, suggest that the
main priory buildings occupied the north side of
the western arm of Spital Square. Agas shows
three buildings running north and south, with a
large building running east and west across their
northern end. Taken together this group may
represent the former church and cloisters. Further
north several other large buildings are shown, and
these may represent ’le oldehalle’, the chapel of
St. Mary (but see below, page 49), the hospital
and prior's lodgings mentioned in the leases of
1531–40 (ref. 31) (see above) and the convent kitchen,
mentioned in a lease of 1580 (ref. 32) (see below).
Towards the north-east of the precinct Agas
indicates ornamental gardens which may be
identifiable with ’le Pryours gardeyn’, ’le Covent
garden’ (ref. 6) and the ’sisters garden’. (ref. 32)
Agas shows an entrance from Bishopsgate
Street west of the buildings that perhaps represent
the church and cloisters. This entrance ran south
on the line of the present Spital Yard, then, where
there is now a cul-de-sac, turned east into the
open space shown to the south-east of the suggested
position of the priory church and cloisters. The
open space, containing a pulpit cross and a single
storey barn-like structure, represents the priory
cemetery, which extended south to the northern
boundary of the Teasel or Old Artillery Ground,
and on the east included the sites of the later
Nos. 30, 31 and 32 Spital Square. The pulpit
cross is clearly marked on Ogilby and Morgan's
map. The site was subsequently occupied by the
back part of No. 32 Spital Square, the street front
of which stood approximately fifty feet north of
the site of the cross. The site is now occupied by
the open roadway of Steward Street since its
widening eastward at the time of the Spitalfields
Market extension.
At the pulpit cross or Spital cross were preached
the Spital sermons, attended by the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen and by the masters and children of
Christ's Hospital, on the Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday after Easter, in connexion with others
preached on Good Friday and Low Sunday at St.
Paul's Cross. The Spital sermon and cross
probably date from at least 1398, as Stow records
that in that year Richard II caused the papal con
firmation of certain statutes and ordinances to be
proclaimed ’at Pauls Crosse, and at saint Marie
Spittle in the sermons before all the people’. (ref. 33)
The chronicle of William Gregory, skinner and
Lord Mayor of London in 1451, (ref. 34) says only that
the confirmation ’was pronounsyd at Powlys
Crosse and at Synt Mary Spetylle by fforme and
in audyence of pepylle’. Stow records a bequest
to the three preachers ’at the Spittle’ in 1439. (ref. 35)
Pepys twice notes his attendance at the Spital
sermon. In 1662 he was there in time to see the
arrival of ’my Lord Mayor and the blew-coat
boys … and a fine sight of charity it is indeed’,
although he left after an hour of the sermon, ’a
Presbyterian one’. In 1669 it was again ’a dull
sermon’ but he stayed to see the departure of the
civic dignitaries and their wives, ’and, indeed, the
sight was mighty pleasing’. (ref. 36) The sermon continued
to be preached here until at least 1680: (ref. 37)
the Old Artillery Ground plan probably of 1680/1
describes its northern abutment as ’The Spitle
where my Ld Maior & Citty meet in Eastre
week’ (Plate 54c).
According to Stow the Lord Mayor and Aldermen
’were accustomed to bee present in their
Violets at Paules on good Fryday, and in their
Scarlets at the Spittle in the Holidayes, except
Wednesday in violet …’. In 1488 a house was
built for their reception with a bequest made in
1477 by Richard Rawson, Alderman and Sheriff,
and Isabell his wife. Stow describes it as a ’faire
builded house in two stories’, in the upper of which,
over the Mayor, ’the Bishop of London and other
Prelates’ used to stand and now ’the ladies, and
Aldermens wives doe there stand at a fayre win
dow, or sit at their pleasure’. (ref. 38) It was situated
south of the pulpit cross and may be the building
apparently south-west of the cross shown on
Agas. Stow records that in 1594 ’this Pulpit being
old, was taken down, and a new set up, the
Preachers face turned towardes the south, which
was before toward the west’. (ref. 35)
The sermons were attended by the masters and
children of Christ's Hospital. A contemporary
writer described the sight on 3 April 1553 when
there ’whent unto saynt Mare spytyll, onto ye
sermon, alle ye masters and rulars, and skollmasturs
and mastores [mistresses], and alle ye
chylderyn, boyth men and vomen chylderyn, alle
in plue cotes, and we[n]ssys in blue frokes and
with skoychyons in brodered on ther slevys with
ye armes of london, and red capes, and so II and
II [to-]geder, and evere man in ys plasse and
offes; and so at ye Spyttylle [a scaffold?] was mad
of tymbur, and coverd with canves, and setes on a
boyff a nodur for alle ye chylderyn syttyn on a
boyff a nodur lyke stepes and after thrug lon
don …’. (ref. 39) In 1594, when the pulpit was rebuilt,
a large house was also built on its east side ’for
the gouernors and children of Christs Hospitall to
sit in’ with a bequest from William Elkens,
Alderman, but falling into decay within a year, it
’was againe with great cost repayred at the Cities
charge’. (ref. 35) This building or another on its site is
shown on Ogilby and Morgan's map, immediately
west of the boundary between the precinct and the
north-east part of the Old Artillery Ground.
The Priory Gates
The evidence for the position of the west gate
or gates to the priory, providing access from
Bishopsgate Street, is exceedingly confusing; the
conclusion which may tentatively be drawn is that
there were two gates, one at the present western
end of Folgate Street and one at the present
western end of Spital Square. The former is the
position customarily given for the gate, the principal
evidence being the remains of a stone pier,
let into the southern wall of the house on the
north corner of Folgate Street, which survived
into this century (Plate 61 a) and were described
by Ellis in 1798 as possessing an iron staple for
merly part of a gate-hinge. (ref. 40)
There is supporting evidence for this site in a
recital in 1542 of a lease of 1537/8 to Patrick
White of a tenement over and on each side of the
west gate. (ref. 2) This describes the gate as abutting
west on the King's broad street (letam strat’
nostram), east on the way entering the church,
north on the hospital (i.e. priory) and south on the
’Candilhouse’. A garden is said to lie outside the
gate, with the tenement leased to White on its
north, a cross at the garden gate on its south, the
street on the west and the hospital on the east. The
exact position of the garden in relation to the gate
is not quite clear. By the time of Agas's map (c.
1560–70) there does not seem to be any obvious room for a garden between the west side of the
hospital or priory precinct and Bishopsgate Street.
But the Candle House is known to have been
within the precinct, and this fact, together with
the existence of a garden leased with the gate and
lying south of it, suggests that the west gate here
referred to was appreciably north of the southwest
corner of the precinct. In Ogilby and Morgan's
map of 1677 and in subsequent maps the
division between the Liberty of Norton Folgate
and the parish of St. Botolph Bishopsgate is shown
to be at or immediately south of the west entrance
to Spital Square, and it is unlikely that the precinct
fronting Bishopsgate Street ever extended south
of this point. This suggests that the gate was
further north, perhaps at the present western end
of Folgate Street. The hospital precinct is known
to have stretched north of this point to the Shore
ditch boundary. The position of the Candle
House is not known certainly, but if it was in fact
immediately south of the west end of Folgate
Street, this would be consistent with the known
fact that the Candle House site was subsequently
considered for one of the sites of a church to be
built in Norton Folgate by the ’Fifty Churches’
Commissioners, one of which was on the south
side of the western end of White Lion (now
Folgate) Street.
There are, however, indications which would
suggest that the Candle House may have been
situated further east (see page 47). If the
designation of the building south of the west gate
in 1537/8 as the Candle House is erroneous, then
the identification of the gate at the west end of
Folgate Street with the main west gate of the
priory is weakened. There is in fact evidence
that there was another entrance to the priory,
perhaps the main entrance, further south, at the
later west end of Spital Square. In 1540–1 a
tenement of the priory's called ’le Gonnpouder
housse’ in the parish of St. Botolph Bishopsgate,
and outside the precinct, was described as lying
towards the common door (communem portam) of
the former hospital, (ref. 41) which suggests that this
door was situated at the southern extremity of the
precinct, at the later west entrance of Spital
Square. Stephen Vaughan in his will of 1549
speaks of a tenement ’within the gate of saint mary
Spittell’ and another tenement ’over the gate of the
saide Spittell’: he then goes on to speak of other
tenements in the precinct distinguished as being
’without the barrs’. This suggests that the gate
itself was within the bars and thus probably near
the later entrance to Spital Square as the City bars
are known to have been situated between Spital
Square and Folgate Street, and nearer the former. (ref. 15)
Agas's map of c. 1560–70 indicates that there was
then some kind of entry near the present west
entrance to Spital Square, with a passage to the
cemetery. That in the later sixteenth century this
may have been the main entrance is suggested by
Stow, who in 1598 described the former priory as
situated ’hard within the bars’, (ref. 42) which seems to
imply that at least the main entrance was south of
the bars, near the west end of Spital Square. A
lease of properties within the precinct granted by
Stephen Vaughan to Robert Hare in 1580 (ref. 32) mentions
’the new gate or passage now and of longe
tyme before comonly used owt of the highe
strete’ and Stephen Vaughan's dwelling-house.
The position of this house is not certain but it was
probably immediately south of the later western
arm of Spital Square. The descriptions in the
lease are not clear, but it does not seem likely that
the gateway was situated north of the northern
wall of the dwelling-house by a distance of more
than sixty-two feet, plus perhaps part of the width
of the building known as the ’principal tenement’
(see fig. 8): and this suggests a position of the
gateway nearer Spital Square than Folgate Street.
The description of the gateway does not clearly
indicate whether this entrance way, or the structure
over it, had existed before the Dissolution.
There is a reference in 1676 to the residence
of a political suspect ’at a house on the left hand
as you enter within ye grete gate of ye Spittel’, (ref. 43)
which suggests that this gate may have been a
remnant of the priory buildings and was perhaps
the building called ’very ancient’ in 1715 (see
below).
In Ogilby and Morgan's maps a passage from
Bishopsgate Street is shown in a position corresponding
to that indicated by Agas, and in the early
eighteenth century a gateway led out of Bishopsgate
Street at the west entrance to Spital Square.
One of the plans of the area prepared for the
’Fifty Churches’ Commissioners in c. 1711–12
appears to show a gateway in this position, (ref. 44)
although it may not have been an old one,
and in July 1716 when Lord St. John conveyed
the estate to Isaac Tillard part was specified
as ’the New Court or Square within the Spittle
Gate’: (ref. 24) this indicates that the gate was at the
western entrance to Spital Square, which,
although at that time only begun, already formed
a wide street or court in a way that White Lion
(Folgate) Street did not.
It may be that the main entrance before the
Dissolution was in the more northerly position, and
that after Stephen Vaughan made his home within
the precinct a new or enlarged entrance was used
in the more southerly position, the ‘new gate or
passage’ mentioned in 1580.
In addition to the two gates fronting Bishopsgate Street there was also a postern on the east side.
This was leased by the prior in 1536 to William
Wyld (ref. 9) (see below), and is clearly shown on
Agas's map at the north-west corner of the Spital
Field.
The Candle House and the
Brick House
The position of the Candle House and of a
building sometimes mentioned in conjunction
with it, called the Brick House, is not, despite the
lease of the gateway recited in 1542, altogether
clear. In 1536 the prior leased to William Wyld,
citizen and merchant tailor, for ninety-nine years
a tenement within the cemetery, ‘over and against’
the pulpit cross, and also the ‘posterne’ or little
house leading to the fields. The tenement was
lately occupied by William Kayme, gentleman. (fn. e)
Together with Kayme's tenement was leased the
ground on its south side ‘unto the myddes of the
iiii Elmes next stonding and growying to the said
tenement’. (ref. 9)
In June 1540 Christopher Campion
of London, mercer, was granted by the King ‘le
Candle House’ and also a tenement lately leased
to Wyld, probably Kayme's tenement: both of
these he was licensed in November to alienate to
Wyld. (ref. 46)
(fn. f)
In 1549 Wyld owned the properties leased to
him in 1536, one being described as a newly built
messuage where the late house called ‘le Postern’
was situated, (ref. 47) and the same properties were
owned by Wyld's executor at his death in 1558 or
1559: (ref. 48) the Candle House is not mentioned by
name.
In 1573 Mary Wilkinson, widow of John
Wilkinson, merchant taylor of London, died
seized in fee simple of a capital messuage called the
Brick House (identifiable with the ‘postern’) and
of another messuage lying on the west side of it,
called the Candle House. (ref. 49) In 1582 Vincent
Goddard, in performance of trusts created by
Mary Wilkinson, gave an annuity out of the
Candle House to the parish of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate for the benefit of the parish and
of Norton Folgate and in the same year Mary
Wilkinson's son Paul gave a similar annuity out
of the Brick House. (ref. 50)
The Brick House is identified with the property
formerly called the postern in an assignment of the
1536 lease made in 1586 by Raffe Bott of London,
gentleman, (ref. 51) who in 1589/90 claimed an interest
in the forty-three acres of Lolesworth field lying
immediately east of the precinct (ref. 52) (see page 96).
In 1645 the Brick House was evidently owned
by (Sir) William Wheler (of Westminster) as he
then confirmed the charitable annuity paid out
of it. (ref. 53) His will, made in 1665, mentions his
‘Capitall Messuage … in the Spittle yard in the
parish of St. Botolph Bishopsgate’: (ref. 54) it is uncertain whether this was the Brick House. In 1719
Isaac Tillard purchased the Brick House. (ref. 55) This
purchase may well be that which in 1727 he
claimed to have made from Sir George Wheler
and others, after May 1717, at the instigation of
the ‘Fifty Churches’ Commissioners, as a possible
site for a church in Norton Folgate, near to a site
already suggested. (ref. 56) This ground was on the
north side of the eastern arm of Spital Square
‘bounded round by an old brick wall of an oblong
square’ (seepage 61).
This position for the Brick House is that which
the original lease to Wyld would seem to indicate
when compared with Agas's map, on which the
tenement north of the four elms and the postern
seem to be shown approximately on the line of the
later eastern arm of the Square. It is also consistent with the ownership of the Brick House by the
Wheler family, the bulk of whose estate adjoined
the east side of the precinct.
There is some further support from a plan made
for the ‘Fifty Churches’ Commissioners which
describes part of the ground on the north side of
the eastern arm of the Square forming the
suggested site for a church, as ‘belonging to the
Parrishrsquo;. (ref. 57) The Brick House or Candle House
are the only properties within the precinct to
which this description is known to have been
appropriate. (fn. g)
It is difficult to explain the occurrence of ’le
brik howse' in the Ministers’ Accounts of 1540–1
when it is said to be held by John Halles, gentleman,
under an eighty-year lease of 1538. (ref. 58) The
reversion of this lease was granted in 1542 to
Stephen Vaughan, (ref. 2) who mentions the Brick
House among his possessions in his will of
October 1549. (ref. 59) This is difficult to reconcile
with Wyld's ownership of the postern in 1549.
The Candle House was said in 1711 and again
in December 1717 to have ’gone to ruin’ and was
conveyed in the latter year to trustees for sale. (ref. 60)
Isaac Tillard made a purchase in 1719 which
certainly included the Brick House and probably
also included the Candle House. As recited in
1851, the deed of purchase in 1719 only specifically
included the Brick House but appears to have
related also to Vincent Goddard's grant out of the
Candle House and henceforward ’both the Candle
House and the Brick House were regarded as
freed from the trusts’. (ref. 61)
Much of this evidence suggests that the two
buildings were adjacent or near to each other.
Both were owned by Christopher Campion in
1540 and by Mary Wilkinson in 1573 when the
description of them seems to imply juxtaposition
or propinquity (see above): that they were both
subject to a similar rent-charge suggests the same,
as does the fact that, at least from the later sixteenth
century, neither seems to have belonged to
the Vaughan-St. John estate. On this interpretation
part of the ground described on the Guildhall
Library plan as belonging to the parish might well
be the site of the Candle House, east of the
Vaughan-St. John estate and west of the Brick
House.
The fact that the sites on the south side of Folgate
Street were proposed in 1711–17 for a new
church by the owners of the St. John-Tillard
estate suggests that the ground was all within that
estate, and that the Candle House, whose site was
considered in 1713 by the inhabitants of the liberty
for the erection of a church, was, like the Brick
House, on the ground marked as belonging to the
parish at the west end of the eastern arm of the
Square, where a church is indicated on some plans.
Nevertheless the Candle House was explicitly
stated in 1537/8 to have been south of the west
gate, abutting west either on Bishopsgate Street
or a garden between the priory and the street (see
page 44). If the west gate was at the end of
White Lion (Folgate) Street the Candle House
must have made a gap in the Vaughan-St. John
estate which reached Bishopsgate Street north and
south of it, and whatever the exact position of the
west gate, must, according to this, have been an
appreciable distance from the probable site of the
Brick House.
Domestic Buildings in the
Precinct in 1580
A considerable amount of information about
the new and old buildings within the precinct in
1580 is contained in a lease of that year granted by
the younger Stephen Vaughan to Robert Hare, (ref. 32)
but not in such a way that the layout can be
accurately determined (fig. 8). The chief
property leased was described as a ’principal
tenement or messuage … sumtyme in the tenure
and occupacion of Edward Isaake’ of the parish
of Wall in the County of Kent, gentleman,
deceased. The consideration for which the lease was
granted was said to include ’the greate coste and
chardge which the said Robert Hare heretofore
hath bestowed and hereafter intendeth to bestow
in buylding repayringe and amending’ the
principal tenement. Also leased was ’one old hall or
buylded rome adioyninge to the Northwest side
of the said principall tenement’, sometime in the
tenure of Robert Grigges, currier, containing
from east to west forty-four feet and north to
south twenty-four feet, together with ’somuche in
bredthe of the back yearde or voide grownde on the
Northe side of the said olde halle as reacheth from
the saide olde hall to the gutter conveyinge the
water from the olde howse sumtyme the co[n]vent
kitchen to the com'on sewer of the saide Steven
Vaughan, And in length from the said convent
kitchen unto the olde wail of flynt stone devidinge
the said backe yearde from a garden sumtyme
called the sisters garden'. A parcel of ground
lying on the east side of this back-yard between
the ’principal tenement’ on the south and the
gutter on the north was included in the lease ’and
also over the said gutter one parcell of grounde
more lyenge before the west side of the tenement
of stone buyldinge wherein Robert Maneringe
dwelleth’ measuring on its east side thirteen feet
northward from the north side of the door into
Maueringe's dwelling, forty feet east to west, and
fifteen feet on its west side.
All this lay north of the ’principal tenement’.
Also leased, on its west, was ’somuche of the great
base courte or yearde belonginge to the said Steven
as lyeth alonge before the said principall tenement
from a new pale (there erected by the said Steven)
northwards to the foresaid olde hall', apparently
measuring twelve feet square, with free access for
carts and horses to the principal tenement through
the court ’at the new gate or passage now and of
longe tyme before comonly used owt of the highe
strete’.
Figure 8:
Suggested reconstruction of part of Stephen Vaughan's ground, 1580. Based on a lease in the Bodleian Library
On the south side of the principal tenement was
a piece of void ground ’lyinge and beinge alonge
on the south side of the gallery and the new gable
ende of the said principall tenement’, enclosed
within walls and measuring fifty-four feet east to
west and thirteen feet north to south. On the
south side of this void ground was a ’new brick
wall’ dividing it from the garden of ’the new
tenement lately buylded and repayred by the said
Steven Vaughan’.
This garden appears to have extended eastward
beyond a wall, to Stephen Vaughan's house, as the
lease included ’one garden platt or grounde lying
betwene the said principal tenement and the now
dwelling howse of the said Steven Vaughan’, of
which the east to west dimension was 60 feet and
the north to south dimension probably 112 feet.
It included also ’the dead walles or inclosures compassing
and inclosing the said garden, That is to
saye the new bricke wall extendinge sowthwarde
from the sowthest [side] of the said new gable
ende toward the brick tenement wherein Sir
Edmonde Huddilston knight now dwelleth’ containing
62 feet in length, and the old stone wall
’lyeinge square from thense easteward’ containing
probably 70 feet in length, abutting ’alonge upon
the garden which the said Sir Edmonde Haddilston
now occupieth’, and one other old wall ’turninge
square from thense northward by the wall of the
said Steven Vaughan inclosinge parte of his woodeyearde’,
containing in length 20 feet, with free
ingress ’at a dore newly made by the said Robert
[Hare] throwghe the same wall’
Not all the dimensions are given and the relative
positions are not always clear, but the apparent
position of Stephen Vaughan's dwelling-house
south-east of the leased ground may well correspond
to the position of the house later occupied
by the Earl of Bolingbroke and the Tillards, and
the entrance from the high street to the present
western part of Spital Square. The old hall, convent
kitchen and sisters' garden north of this
suggest that the position of the main priory build
ings was on the north side of the western arm
of Spital Square.
The ’oldehalle’ of this 1580 lease is mentioned
in the grant to Stephen Vaughan in 1542, (ref. 31) where
it is said to have been leased, together with a
’garden platte’ between the church and the Brick
House wall, to Joan Rosse, widow, in 1538,
evidently in extension of a lease of 1531. The
grant to Vaughan also includes a tenement leased
with an adjacent fenced garden to John Apott in
1537: this is described as lying between the
tenement then of Joan Rosse on the east, the road
to the churchyard on the south and west, and the
chapel of St. Mary called ’le Hall Pace’ and the
former hospital on the north. If Joan Rosse's
tenement here mentioned is the ’oldehalle’ this
evidently lay sufficiently far east for the chapel and
hospital to lie north-west of it. (fn. h)
Occupants of the Former
Precinct
The occupants of the former precinct after the
Dissolution included persons of some rank and
distinction. The will of Stephen Vaughan, made
in October 1549, mentions ’one tenement within
the gate of Saint mary Spittell nowe in the tenure
of Sir Thomas Wyatt, knight’; (ref. 15) this was presumably
the conspirator against Queen Mary,
although Wyatt seems to have been abroad from
1544 to 1550. (ref. 1) Vaughan's will also mentions the
Brick House as being ’nowe in the holding of the
Soveragan of Norwiche’, that is, William Rugg,
Bishop of Norwich from June 1536 to January
1549/50.
In 1578 a list of names and addresses of Papists
included ’Lord Chidiock Paulet, the Spittle,
Without Bishopsgate’, presumably the third son
of William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester. (ref. 62)
Mentioned next in the list are ’Rob. Hare and
Saunders of the Inner Temple, who repair to
Lord Paulet’. (ref. 62) Two years later in 1580, as has
been seen, buildings within the precinct were
leased to Robert Hare, who in 1558 had been in
the Marquess of Winchester's service. Hare was
the second son of Sir Nicholas Hare, Master of the
Rolls, and a Roman Catholic antiquary of note;
he presented a valuable collection of historical
material to Cambridge University. (ref. 1) In 1558 he
was one of the witnesses of the younger Stephen
Vaughan's will. (ref. 17) In January 1591/2. Hare,
described as of the City of London, gentleman,
assigned the lease to his brother, Michael Hare of
Bruisyard, Suffolk, esquire, (ref. 63) but apparently he
continued to live in St. Mary Spital, and in March
1606/7 he made, as of that place, an assignment
of the same lease, and of another lease of 26 March
1582, to Edward Hobart of Hales Hall, Loddon,
Norfolk, and Robert Hobart of Clifford's Inn,
gentleman. (ref. 64) In April 1609 his previous assign
ment to his brother Michael was also assigned to
Edward and Robert Hobart. (ref. 63) The premises in
the Spital appear, however, to have been occupied
by their brother, Sir John Hobart, from January
1607/8. An undated early seventeenth-century
manuscript gives a list of ’thinges remaynyng in
Sir John Hobartes gallery at the Spitell’ (evidently
the gallery of the ’principal tenement’ referred to
in the lease of 1580), which ’are belonging to
Robert Hare’. (ref. 65) This comprised twenty-nine
pictures, including one of Christ, one of ’our
lady’, one of ’King Ferdinando’, two of Bishop
John Fisher, one of the Emperor Charles V, one
of ’Hadrian Cardinally’, one of St. Michael and
one of Hare's former patron, William (Paulet),
Marquess of Winchester. Also included was ’a
small table of St. Hierome’ and another ’of the
tower of babilon’, ’a carde for the see in parchment
in a frame’, ’Mr. Sekforde's mappe of England in a
frame’, ’a great mappe of the world in a frame’,
other framed maps of Cambridge, Oxford, Europe,
Ireland and Milan, and framed ’tables’ of the vice
chancellors and proctors of Cambridge and of
’the orders of Angelles and the 9 beatitudes’. Sir
John Hobart received letters addressed to him at
St. Mary Spital from January 1607/8 to Novem
ber 1611. (ref. 66) He presumably continued to reside
there until his death in 1613, as he was buried at
St. Botolph Bishopsgate on,7 July 1613; he was
then described as ’Sir John Hobarde, Knighte, a
mercifull man to ye poore’. (ref. 67) A Mr. John
Hobart still occupied the house ’att the Spittle’ in
1650 as a tenant of Lady Elizabeth St. John,
who in that year required him to put the house in
repair. (ref. 68)
At the time that the principal tenement and
other buildings had been leased to the Roman
Catholic Robert Hare, other neighbouring
premises, presumably within the precinct, had
been occupied by Sir Edmund Hodleston (see
page 49). A Sir Edmund Huddlestone, knight,
of Sawston Hall, Cambridgeshire (which he built
about 1580), was of a family noted for its ad
herence to the Roman Catholic faith and it may
be that it was he who occupied the house in St.
Mary Spital.
In 1599 the Jesuit Father Garnet had a house
in London ’in a place called Spital’, probably the
precinct of St. Mary Spital, and it was also prob
ably from this house that another Jesuit priest,
John Gerard, rode into the country after his
escape from the Tower in 1597. (ref. 69)
In his history of Shoreditch Ellis says that Sir
Horatio Palavicino resided within St. Mary
Spital, (ref. 70) but his house appears to have been on the
west side of Bishopsgate Street. (ref. 71) An occupant
of the precinct in the early seventeenth century
was Alexander Nevile, the author of an account
of Kett's rebellion and brother of Thomas Nevile,
Dean of Canterbury; (ref. 1) he is described in his will as
’of St. Marie's without Bishopsgate commonly
called St. Maries Spitle …. Esquier’. His will
does not indicate the position of his house but
refers to books in his study, and bequests to his
cook, butler and cater. (ref. 72) In August 1627 Lady
Elizabeth Gilford, wife of Sir Henry Gilford
and daughter of the Earl of Worcester, died 'at hir
house in St. Mary Spittle’. (ref. 73) Probably in the
following year, a Jesuit priest, ’Mr. White, alias
Black and Browne’, was thought to be residing
’at Spittle’ with Lady Digby. (ref. 74)
In 1632 the Vaughan property within the pre
cinct included, besides Sir Rowland Vaughan's
dwelling-house, ’that great messuage tenement or
mansion house then or formerly in the tenure of
Richard Lord Weston, Lord Treasurer of Eng
land, and John Mayne’. (ref. 75) Weston, the Roman
Catholic diplomatist and financier, was created
first Earl of Portland in February 1632/3: it is
not known how long he resided in St. Mary
Spital. (ref. 1)
The indications that the Spital precinct was a
fashionable place of residence are borne out by
Stow, who in 1598 wrote that ’in place of this
Hospitall, and nere adioyning, are now many
faire houses builded, for receipt and lodging of
worshipfull persons’. (ref. 76) Its position within the
Liberty of Norton Folgate probably made it
attractive to adherents of the Roman Catholic
faith.
In the late seventeenth century Doctor Samuel
Annesley, minister of a Nonconformist meetinghouse in Little St. Helen's Place, Bishopsgate,
and father of John Wesley's mother, Susanna,
lived in Spital Yard, dying there in 1696.
Susanna was born in 1669 at the house, which
was perhaps that at the southern end of
the present Spital Yard, just within the City
boundary. (ref. 77)