St. Mary le Bow 104/2

Introduction

This tenement, which lay in the middle of the block 1-5 and was bounded to the W. by Goose Lane, may in the 12th or early 13th century have been included in the lands charged with rents to Christ Church Canterbury (see 104/1), but if so this does not seem to have affected its later history. In 1858 the property was part of no. 2 Bow Lane.

In 1299 Robert de Hockele and his wife Hawise granted to Sir Henry de Guldeford, called le Mareschal, a house cum solio in Goose Lane in the parish of St. Mary le Bow; it lay between the tenement (formerly) of Robert de Kytermenestre (1) to the S. and E., Goose Lane to the W., and 5 to the N., and measured 8 ells (24 ft.; 7.32 m.) in length E.-W., 6 1/2 ells (19 ft. 6 in.; 5.94 m.) in width at the W. end, and 6 ells or 6 ells 2 inches (18 ft. or 18 ft. 2 in.; 5.49 m. or 5.4 m.) at the E. end. De Guldeford paid the grantors 10 marks (£6. 13s. 4d.) and was to render them a root of ginger yearly at Christmas; he was also to pay the quit-rent of 12s. at 4 terms to the heirs of Robert de Kydermenestre. This quit-rent suggests an earlier connection between 1 and 2, perhaps also indicated by their interlocking shapes. In 1309 the 12s. quit-rent due to John Neel, goldbeater, and his wife Maud, daughter of Robert de Kedemenstre was said to come from the tenement which Gilbert de Lesnes, citizen and goldbeater, held of them that day in the said parish: de Lesnes was probably de Guldeford's tenant. (fn. 1)

Sir Henry de Guldeford, called le Mareschal, clerk, had died by 1314, leaving all his rents and tenements in London to maintain chantries in St. Paul's. In that year his executors granted to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's the tenement in Goose Lane in the parish of St. Mary le Bow, among other properties, for this purpose. The 12s. rent was paid to the heir(s) of de Kydemenstr' by St. Paul's in 1315. William de Haukeden was said to be tenant in 1321 and in 1339 was said to inhabit the tenement pertaining to the church of St. Paul. The ownership of 1 and of the 12s. rent from 2 had passed to Richard de Kyselyngbury, citizen and draper, by 1342, when 2 was said to be debilis et ruinosus: the dean and chapter therefore granted 2 to de Kyselyngbury for ever, for a quit-rent of £1, recoverable by distraint or repossession. The tenement lay between Goose Lane to the W., de Kyselyngbury's tenement(s) (1) to the E. and S., and Walter de Blechchynggelech (5) to the N. (fn. 2)

From this period onwards 2 was united to 1 and 3, and it descended with the latter after de Kyslyngbury's death in 1361. (fn. 3) The quit-rent to St. Paul's was paid by him and his successors in the property, Robert Rysby (1390s) and Edmund Salle, husband of de Kyslyngbury's widow Alice (early 1400s). In 1402-3 the rent was listed as due from Edmund Salle, but it was said that nothing was received and it could not be levied without a plea. The rent continued to be listed under Salle's name, but recorded as unleviable, into the 16th century. In 1553 and as late as 1593 it was listed as one of the rents not received for more than 70 years, a considerable understatement. No attempt seems to have been made to recover by law the rent or the tenement on which it was charged, and the latter seems to have merged completely with 3 (q.v.) by the later 14th century. (fn. 4)