I.—INTRODUCTION
The story of the parish of All Hallows Barking as reflected in its
Church has been told by Miss Lilian J. Redstone in the first part
of this survey. Fragmentary although all such history is, depending
on the chance survival of documents, it has shown in no uncertain
manner the antiquity of the parish and the important part it played in the
medieval and later life of the City. It remains in this volume to describe the
buildings, other than the Church, which survived to the period of our survey,
and to touch lightly on the ancient sites, the names of which alone remain.
The memorials of the citizens in the Church are fully recorded here, and the
opportunity has been taken to link their names with the streets and houses
of the parish, as far as a somewhat hasty consultation of the Guildhall
muniments would allow.
The early history of the parish holds many problems that have been
only partially resolved. Its name, a clear indication of its old association with
Barking Abbey in Essex, would no doubt grow in significance if we could
learn more of its pre-Conquest organisation. The two main conditions that
have governed its fortunes have been its riverside position below London
Bridge—the first parish within the city walls approached from the sea—and
the proximity of the great fortress of the Tower of London, which was a royal
residence as well as the military castle defending the Capital. The parish
lived largely on the sea-borne trade that used its quays, and it participated,
often in poignant manner, in the life and events that make up the history of
the Tower.
We have evidence that its boundaries were changed from time to time.
In some deeds of the time of Richard II, the site of Trinity House, west of
Water Lane, is given as within the parish, but between the sixth and twelfth
year of this reign, it had been transferred to that of St. Dunstan, and is thereafter stated to be "late of the parish of All Saints Barking Church." (fn. 1) But
more important fluctuations seem to have attended its eastern boundary, for
there were constant disputes with the authorities of the Tower, the liberty
of which was more likely to expand than diminish. The existence to-day of a
detached portion of the parish adjoining the city wall, and separated from the
major part by Tower Hill, points to an early extension of the Tower precinct
northwards as far as St. Olave's.
The most important development of the riverside activities of the
parish was, of course, the institution of the Custom House, which until its
removal in 1813 to an adjoining site in St. Dunstan's, occupied successive
buildings on the Old Wool Quay. An outline of its history is given in Chapter
IX, and illustrations of the buildings are included in the plates. Another
interesting occupant was the Muscovy Company, and it is satisfactory that its
sojourn on the site of Muscovy Court has been definitely traced. The
property extended into St. Olave's, and when later the Navy Office occupied
this position, its buildings stood wholly in that parish, although All Hallows
continued to house many of the men who were prominent in the Admiralty
administration there. Muscovy House, which was the residence of Sir John
Alleyn, Lord Mayor in 1525–6 and 1535–6, passed later to Sir Francis
Walsingham, and it was to this house that the wife of the Earl of Essex
retired to live with her mother when Essex had to bow to Queen Elizabeth's
anger at his secret marriage. Three of their children's deaths are recorded
in the parish register.
Of the important names connected with the parish, one or two stand
out clearly. Sir Robert Knollys, the famous Edwardian soldier, had a house
on the west side of Seething Lane and property on the east connected by a
bridge or Haut Pas over the street. There are many references to him in
Part I of this Survey, and his property can be traced through his endowment
of the College he founded at Pontefract. A later magnate also closely connected with the parish was (Sir) Robert Tate, who built the Chapel of St.
Thomas of Canterbury on the north side of the Royal Lady Chapel to receive
his tomb. It has always been presumed that this monument was destroyed at
the taking down of the Chapel, but it is just possible that it was re-erected in
All Hallows Church, in the south Chancel Chapel, where an unidentified
altar tomb still stands. The style of the monument agrees admirably, and the
transference may have been made, for obvious reasons, with so little noise that
it escaped the attention of chroniclers like Stow. Hitherto it has not been
possible to trace (Sir) Robert Tate's residence, but it has now been located
on the site of the one fine seventeenth-century house that the parish still
possesses. This is No. 34, Great Tower Street, which is well known to lovers
of London as the most striking example extant of a city merchant's house,
built immediately after the Great Fire.
An interesting souvenir of (Sir) Robert Tate is the painted altar-piece,
which by the kindness of its present owner, Lady Millicent Hawes, we are
permitted to reproduce as the frontispiece of this volume. (Sir) Robert Tate
left directions in his will for the furnishing of "a table of the Martyrdom
of St. Thomas" in his Chapel of St. Thomas in the Royal Lady Chapel.
Since the altar-piece bears his arms and those of his wife, Margaret (Margery)
Wood, daughter of Richard Wood, Mayor of Coventry, it is not unreasonable
to ascribe its commission to him, and it is at least as likely that it adorned his
Chapel here, as the Chantry which he founded in St. Michael's, Coventry.
It consists of four panels, two of which were on the inner sides of the wings
of a triptych. The other two, now in the centre, form one composition,
and were on the outside of the leaves, being seen together when the triptych
was closed. The original central picture, which no doubt was an Adoration
of the Magi, is missing. The subjects are (in the order of their present
setting), a figure kneeling in prayer, with another standing figure behind, both
perhaps kings, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Joseph against the background
of a stable. On the last is the shield of arms. The panels have been discussed
by Joseph Maskell (fn. 2) and G. R. Corner (fn. 3) . They belonged at one time to Peter
le Neve, Norroy King of Arms (d. 1729), and after forming part of Horace
Walpole's Collection at Strawberry Hill were purchased in 1842 by the
Duke of Sutherland. From Walpole's own description it may be inferred
that he had the wing-panels split, which accounts for their present arrangement. (fn. 4)