XI.—CHESTER'S QUAY
(A) AQUAVITE HOUSE
The river front between Galley Quay and Tower Dock, which
measures only some 50 yards, seems to have been occupied by four clearly
defined properties: Aquavite House, Stew Quay, Clare's Quay and the
"Ram's Head." Some of these comprised more than one messuage or
tenement, probably in certain cases warehouses or granaries, but the four
main properties retained their identity throughout.
It will be seen below that Aquavite House occurs in 1588 as the
western boundary of Stew Quay, and when the story of the latter property
is traced it will be found that the site in question, in 1368 and again in 1415
before Stew Quay obtained its name, was land belonging to Thomas Pilke,
afterwards allocated to the support of the chantry which he founded in
All Hallows Barking Church. That it adjoined Galley Quay is evident from
the grant from William Colyn to William Marowe in 1449, where the eastern
boundary of the tenement that became part of Gallery Quay is given as property
belonging to the church of All Hallows, once of Thomas Purcus. (fn. 1) After the
lapse of more than a century, in 1588, Aquavite House is found in the hands
of Henry Hewitt, who leased it for forty-one years to William Kimber. This
is set forth in a sale by Benjamin Hewitt of Enfield, son of Henry Hewitt,
to George Chester of "a messuage called the Aquavite House in Petty Wales,
also a little key or wharfe adjoining the same abutting on Stew Key on the
east and Galley Key on the west." (fn. 2) In its passage into Chester's possession it
did not, like its neighbour Stew Quay, lose its identity, but continues in the
17th-century rate-books to maintain its old name (see later, p. 55).
Hewitt.
It seems difficult, from the above citations, to avoid the conclusion
that Aquavite House and its wharf was identical with the property belonging
to Pilke's chantry, but it is not so named in the particulars of grants at the
dissolution of the chantries under Edward VI. The endowments of Pilke's
chantry included houses on Tower Hill, in Great Tower Street and in Petty
Wales. (fn. 3) It is possible that one of the latter may be the forerunner of Aquavite
House, possibly "the messuage called the Dyehouse in the tenure of
Katherine Wilkes in Petty Wales."
(B) STEW QUAY
The earliest reference which can be traced to this quay is in 1352,
and occurs in the description of the boundaries of the adjoining property to
the east, which will be identified as Clare's Quay (see p. 53). The latter is
therein described as the quay which John Palmer had in Petty Wales, and
bounded on the west by the tenement of Thomas Snettisham. (fn. 4) Stew Quay
appears to have devolved upon Snettisham's widow Joan, for in 1368 we
have a formal grant to her of the property by her brother, who was probably
her trustee, and who is described as "William Phelippe, brother and heir of
Sir John Phelippe, rector of S. Faith within the monastery of St. Paull's." (fn. 5)
Thomas Snettisham is called "clerk," and the boundaries are given as
Salaman Brounyng on the east (Clare's Quay) and the tenement late of
Thomas Pylk on the west (Aquavite House). From a document dated 1383 (fn. 6)
we learn that Thomas and Joan Snettisham had two daughters and co-heiresses,
Margaret and Margery, who married John Andrew, vintner, and Nicholas
Brounyng respectively. The premises were to be jointly occupied by the
two families, and "the big stone door" was to be common to both. John
and Margaret had the houses near the door containing 115/8 yards to the
east, and the house within the gate containing 7½ yards to the west. In 1413
Margery Browning, then a widow, received from Henry Andrew the moiety
of the wharf which he had from his mother Margaret Andrew, (fn. 7) and two years
later Margery made a grant of the whole property. The entry in the Hustings
Rolls (fn. 8) is as follows: "Margery, widow of Nicholas Brounyng, late shipwright, grants to John Rolf, shipwright, Robert Colbrook, ironmonger, and
John Braunthwayte all her tenements with wharves lying between the
tenement late of Salaman Brounyng and now of Robert Purfot on the east
[Clare's Quay], and a tenement belonging to a chantry for the soul of Thomas
Pylk on the west."
John Rolf, shipwright and lighterman, left by will (1433) a mansion
in Petty Wales to his daughter Joanna, wife of William Miller, shipwright,
and directs that the rest of his tenements with a wharf in the same street are
to be sold, (fn. 9) but the purchasers have not been traced. Strype in his edition
of Stow refers to a monument in All Hallows Church to Laurence Coke,
citizen and draper, who, he tells us, gave by will (27th October, 1466) to
his daughter Isobel, his lands and tenements in Petty Wales called the
Stew Key. (fn. 10)
A hundred years or so later we find a reference in the Hustings
Rolls (fn. 11) which throws some light on the name of the quay. It concerns the
sale, in 1560, by Thomas Reade to Edward Geoffry, tallow chandler,
"of his moiety of a tenement called Stewe Key, now or late in the tenure of
Andrewe Berye … together with a key called Stewe Key, and a tenement
on the street side in the occupation of Laurence Rak, and another tenement
on the same key in the occupation of Robert Johnson and a warehouse
sometimes called a hote-house [hot-house, bath-house or stew] now or late
in the tenure of Mother Johnson and a storehouse in the gate of the said
key next adjoining to the hot-house."
The parish rate-list for 1562 gives us Edward Jeffery rated at 10d.
and Robert Johnson at 1d., and that for 1578 has the following four names:
Edward Jefferaye at 10d., John Ryan ("in Jefferays Key") at 4d., Hugh
Fludd 4d. and John Nottingham at 4d. The Nottingham family occurs in a
series of documents recorded in the Hustings Rolls. In 1588 William
Nottingham, woodmonger, grants to Thomas Jones, white baker, premises
which include a bakehouse, coalhouse and hayloft "on the west side of the
gatehouse of the Stewe Key, abutting on Pety Wales on the north and on the
tenement of William Ryan on the south, tenements of John Nottingham, the
grantor's father, on the west and tenements of the grantor on the east." (fn. 12)
Robert Jones, gentleman, appears to have succeeded Thomas, and William
Nottingham's two daughters and co-heiresses, Rachel and Sarah (who married
Richard Harrison, cordwainer, and John Roworth, weaver, respectively),
recovered the property from him and parted with it in 1621–2 to George
Chester. (fn. 13) Henceforth it was to be known as Chester's Quay.
"Chester's Key" occurs first in the Lambeth MS. of 1638, where
the occupier, Roger Alsop, is estimated to be paying £120 a year rent. (fn. 14) Its
later history is given with that of the adjoining quays on p. 55.