All Hallows Honey Lane 11/9

Introduction

This property, separately identified from the 14th century, was originally the E. part of 8, on the Cheapside frontage, adjoining 10 to the E. and bounded at its N. end, some 80 ft. (24.38 m.) back from Cheapside, by 8 and 10. 9A was the larger part. 9B was possibly only a shop, lying on the frontage to the E. of 9A and probably in some way intermixed with 9A or with 10, with which it was later united. 9A descended with 8 until 1328, but there are some references to it as an identifiable unit of 8-9 before that date.

In 1858 the property was no. 106 Cheapside.

9a, thirteenth to seventeenth century

In the mid 13th century, Laurence of St. Michael, who had succeeded the Bucointe family as owner of 8-9, granted a rent of £5. 6s. 8d. to John de Wynton, mercer, which John son of Geoffrey the goldsmith used to render from the selds he held of Laurence in foro in the parish of All Hallows Honey Lane. £2 of the rent came from the seld next to 10, presumably the site later identified as 9A, and the rest of the rent came from another seld to the W., presumably 8 or part of it. John de Wynton granted these rents to Thomas, rector of Great Walsingham, who granted them to St. Mary Spital without Bishopsgate. (fn. 1)

9A descended as part of 8 until 1328. In 1325 Walter de Blecchinggeleye was Sir Stephen Asshwy's tenant, probably for 9A. In Asshwy's grant, before 1328, of the whole of 8 and 9A to John de Oxenford, citizen and vintner, 9A was probably represented by the tenement with cellars, solars, shops and rents next to the tenement held by John Poynter (10); the shop with solar over which John le Gras held, from which Asshwy had a quit-rent of £1. 13s. 4d., may possibly be 9B. In 1328 de Oxenford granted back to Asshwy the property which from now on is identifiable as 9A. This was the house with shop and appurtenances called la Mariole in Cheapside in the parish of All Hallows Honey Lane. De Oxenford also granted the quit-rent due from the shop of John le Gras (?9B) in australi capite eiusdem domus. The Mariole lay between 8 to the W., 10 to the E., 8 and 10 to the N. and Cheapside to the S. Asshwy gave de Oxenford a certain sum as a gersum, and was to render a clove yearly at the nativity of St. John the Baptist. (fn. 2)

By 1336 Asshwy had granted 9A to Walter de Blechyngleye, citizen and cheesemonger (casiarius), who had been his tenant for the same in 1325 and may have held continuously since then. In 1337 9A was referred to as Blecchingleieseld. In 1340 de Blechyngleye granted 9A, described as the seld called la Mariole with 2 shops and solars built above, between the boundaries defined in 1328, to Thomas de Macchyng, citizen and cheesemonger, for a certain sum. Sir John de Staunton, kt., and his wife Alice, widow of John de Oxenford, quitclaimed in 9A to de Macchyng, in 1347; the E. abutment was given as the tenement sometime of John Pointel (10), and the shop of the hospital of St. James of the Lepers (for the latter, see 9B below). (fn. 3) De Macchyng died in or before 1360, leaving the Mariole to his younger son John, son of his wife Margery, in tail, with remainder to the issue of himself and Margery in tail, and in default for sale. The custody of Thomas and John, sons of Thomas de Macchyng, was committed to John Cok and his wife Margery, widow of Thomas, in 1364. (fn. 4)

John Cok and Margery his wife held the property, either in her dower or on behalf of John de Macchyng. In 1373 they granted all their tenements in All Hallows Honey Lane and elsewhere to Sir John English, rector of All Hallows Honey Lane, John Furneys, draper, and Joan Etegroue, but this cannot have been a permanent grant. John Cok was the W. neighbour of 10 in 1389. In 1391 Richard Knoweslee, executor of Thomas de Macchyng, late citizen and cheesemongere, sold the reversion of the Mariole after the death of Margery to Robert Somersete and Michael Cornewaille, citizens and drapers; John de Macchyng had died without issue and there had been no further issue of the marriage of Thomas and Margery. Later in 1391 Somersete and Cornewaille sold the same reversion to Thomas de Macchyng, citizen and draper; it is possible that he was the elder son of Thomas de Macchyng, cheesemonger, by an earlier marriage. (fn. 5)

By his will, dated 1392 and proved 1401, Thomas Macchyng, draper, left the reversion of the Mariole, which Margery Cok still held for life, to his wife Joan for life, if she paid his debts within 2 years. The remainder was to go to his male issue in tail, and then to his female issue in tail. If Joan did not pay his debts, his executors (of whom she was the principal) were to sell the Mariole to pay them, dividing the residue between Joan and his daughter Agnes. By 1402 Margery Cok had died and Joan was in seisin of the Mariole; all Thomas's issue male and female were also dead. In order to pay his debts, Joan as principal executrix (her co-executors Thomas Giffard, spicer, and Robert Frankeleyn, dyer, being unwilling to administer the will) sold the Mariole to Richard Jepe, rector of All Hallows Honey Lane, and Richard Cornewaill, citizen and tailor. (fn. 6)

By 1404 Jepe and Richard Cornewaill had sold the Mariole to John Lemman, citizen and skinner (pellipar) and his wife Joan; in that year John and Joan granted a rent of £2 from the Meriole to Cornewaill and his wife Agnes for ever, giving them 4d. as livery of seisin. William Westnesse, citizen and draper, was said to be tenant and occupant of a shop to the W. of 9B and the Goat (10) in 1409. John Lemman and Joan granted 9A in 1409 to John Pellyng and Ralph Skynnard, citizens and skinners; in 1413 or 1414 Pellyng sold it back to them for £62. Agnes, widow of Richard Cornewaill, quitclaimed in the £2 rent to John Lemman and Joan in 1420. John Lemman died in 1435, leaving the Meriole to Joan for life, with remainder for sale; £5 from the proceeds of the sale was to go to the fraternity of Corpus Christi of the Skinners and £2 to the fraternity of St. Mary of the same. (fn. 7)

In 1438 Thomas Ive, citizen and skinner, and Thomas Grene, late servant of John Lemman, his executors, sold the reversion of the tenements called le Meryole to John Uphaveryng, citizen and skinner, for £166. 13s. 4d.; Uphaveryng had already married Joan, Lemman's widow, who had the life-interest. By his will dated 1448 Uphaveryng left the reversion of the Meriole, after the death of Joan, to the master and wardens of the Skinners' craft or company, to maintain a chaplain in St. Mary Aldermary and keep his obit there, distributing 6s. 8d. to the poor. The date at which the property came to the Skinners is not known; Uphavering's will leaving the reversion was not proved in the Husting until 1470, though another will was proved before the dean of Arches in 1448. (fn. 8) The Skinners' first known tenant was Thomas Botrell, draper, paying £10. 16s. rent for the Horsehead, as 9A was now called, in 1491-2. Thomas Legett paid the rent in 1492-3, and John Fynche, haberdasher, in 1493-4 (£10. 16s.) and 1494-1500 (£11). In 1499-1500 £1. 7s. 8d. was remitted because the forepart of the tenement was void for a quarter. In 1500-1 four separate rents were due from the tenement: Roger Bentley 'and his fellows' paid £6. 16s. for a year's rent of the chief part of the Horsehead; Roger Fowle paid 13s. 4d. for one quarter's rent of a shop with the over part, vacant for the rest of the year; George Haydok owed £1. 10s. for a year's rent of a warehouse, parcel of the tenement, not paid because it was vacant, and William Boydon paid 10s. for a chamber for a year. In 1501-2 the rents were again recorded separately. Roger Bentley now paid only £6, and Roger Chaundeler paid 16s. for a chamber. William Whyte paid 13s. 4d. for a quarter's rent of the shop, Emery Baynham paid 15s. for half a year's rent of the warehouse, and William Boydon 10s. for his chamber. In 1502-3 Bentley and Whyte paid in full, Roger Chaundeler paid 4s. for a quarter's rent, and the warehouse and other chamber were void all year. (fn. 9)

Despite these vacancies, the Skinners continued to spend money on repairs. In 1492-3 and 1493-4 repairs, including daubers' and carpenters' work and lead and solder, cost £1. 3s. 1d. and £1. 4s. 11 1/2d. Other smaller repairs were followed by higher expenditure after 1496, including making a hearth, and a pentice over a garret window, paving and work in the cellar. In 1503-4 the kitchen floor was broken up, the paving removed and new stone paving laid, 3 chimneys were mended and doors and windows renewed, at a total cost of £4. 6s. 6 1/2d. Possibly the vacancies had been caused by the dilapidation of the premises. (fn. 10)

In 1503-4 William and Thomas Gybons paid £10. 13s. 4d. rent for the Horsehead, let to them for seven years. They continued to pay the same until 1518, when William Gybons alone paid, continuing to 1527. William Gybbons, leatherseller, was assessed c. 1522-4 for subsidy in this parish on goods valued at £100. The company continued to repair the tenement, at times substantially: £5. 15s. was spent in 1510-11 on two 'tuells' (?tunnels or funnels) of a 'sege' and £1. 18s. in 1513-14 for work including mending and cleansing the 'tonell'. Most of the repairs were to the roof and gutters, and on the windows. In 1527-8 a pentice was made beside the Drapers' rent (10), a garret floor repaired, the joists in the shop going up to the hall repaired, and 1000 bricks used to mend a great vault that had fallen down. William Gybons paid the rent in 1527-8, and Nicholas Gybons (sic, but possibly recte Beyghton) paid £2. 10s. as part payment for the 'goodwill' of the same house. In 1528-9 Nicholas Beyghton paid £10. 13s. 4d. rent and £2. 10s. in full payment for the goodwill. Beyghton or Bayton paid the rent until 1545; in 1544 he was assessed for subsidy in this parish on goods valued at £400. The Skinners' Company continued to repair until 1545: 33 (square) yards (27.59 sq. m.) in front of the tenement were paved in 1528-9, and 39 (square) yards (32.61 sq. m.) in 1534-5. References to the tavern called the Horsehead in Cheap in 1536 and 1538, when 'the goodman of the house' seems to have been involved with participants in the Northern Rebellion, probably relate not to this property but to the Nag's Head or Horsehead on the S. side of Cheapside in the parish of St. Matthew Friday Street or St. Vedast; 11/9A is not otherwise referred to as a tavern. (fn. 11)

John Atkynson became tenant in 1545, with a 40-year lease at the old rent and £30 fine. In 1547 his neighbour John Butler (tenant of 8A4) sought a view of a frame of timber that Atkynson was setting up. The viewers said that Atkynson's frame was 18 ft. long and 7 ft. high (5.49 m. by 2.13 m.), that it was on the frame of his own house and he was therefore entitled to make it, and that there was a partible lead gutter between Butler's and Atkynson's tenements which should remain so thereafter. (fn. 12)

In addition to repairs, the tenement was still charged with £2 quit-rent to St. Mary Spital and the chantry and obit of John Uphaveryng. The former was regularly paid by the Skinners to the hospital until 1539, and thereafter to the Crown; in 1550 Edward VI granted the rent to Augustine Hynde, Richard Turke, and William Blackwell, who probably later sold it to the Skinners. (fn. 13) In 1546 the Skinners' tenement called the Horsehead in the parish of All Hallows Honey Lane, given to them by John Uphaveryng, was in the tenure of John Atkynson at £10. 13s. 4d. rent from which the company paid £6. 13s. 4d. for the chantry priest in St. Mary Aldermary, 6s. 8d. for the obit, £2 to the king for the St. Mary Spital rent, and the rest in repairs. The chantry and obit charges went to the Crown in 1548 and were granted to Hynde, Turke and Blackwell in 1550, and probably subsequently acquired by the Company. (fn. 14)

John Atkynson paid the rent in 1545-6, Nicholas Atkynson from 1546 to 1548. No repairs were done by the company after 1545. In 1548 John Dames or Adams was granted a 99-year lease of the same; he paid the rent until 1557. Thomas Upleye paid the rent in 1557-9, Humphrey Francke from 1559 to 1580 (the name Henry Francke, given in 1565-6, may be an error). Vincent Norrington paid the £10. 13s. 4d. rent from 1580 to 1603. (fn. 15)

From 1579 the company was involved in an expensive lawsuit over an allegedly 'concealed' superstitious rent from the tenement. Theophilus Adams 'an informer' and his copartners put up the information to the Exchequer and as a result James Woodshawe and Edward Norton obtained a grant of the property from the Crown for 21 years from 1579, paying 6s. 8d. rent to the Exchequer. The Skinners spent £63. 1s. 8d. 'in charge of law' in 1580-1, but in 1581-2 and 1582-3 paid 13s. 4d. rent to Mr. Sowthertonne for the Queen. In 1583 the Queen granted the reversion of the tenement to Mr. Heron and Mr. Nicholas. In 1583 the company evidently concluded that it would have to buy back the rent, and paid £60 to Heron and Nicholas to grant this property and another in St. Stephen Walbrook parish (156/1) to Thomas Awdeley, citizen and skinner, who thereupon made a will (renewed in 1590) devising it to the company. The company spent a further £78. 13s. 4d. in legal costs in 1583-4, and its total costs on the matter, excluding the purchase price, exceeded £145. Part of this they recouped by charging Norrington, the tenant, £80 for a new lease for the same term that remained in the old. The rent was alleged to originate in a bequest of John Uphaveryng, but it is not clear why it was listed in the ministers' accounts as one of the revenues of St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. (fn. 16)

In 1603-4 Mrs. Joan Norrington paid the rent; Vincent Norrington was said to do so in 1604-5, and Mr(s). Norrington from 1606 to 1616. Mr(s). Norrington's executors paid from 1616 to 1630. John Aubrey and his wife Sarah, daughter and administratrix of Mr. Norrington, paid from 1630 to 1637, when they assigned to William Geere (later Capt. Geere) who paid until 1648. The tithe-payers in 1638 were Mr. Walton, for a house worth £35 p.a., and Mr. Louel, for a house worth £40 p.a. The 99-year lease granted to Dames in 1548 (and renewed for the remainder of the term to Norrington in 1583) was due to expire in 1647 and negotiations for the new lease began in the 1640s. The property was described in May 1643 as two tenements, occupied by Capt. Geere and Mr. Harris or one of them. In June 1643 the company decided to make separate leases of the two tenements, one to Thomas Lovell and John Orersby for 21 years from the expiry of the old lease, at £10 rent and £400 fine, and the other to William Walton, for the same term and rent and £300 fine. Lovell and Walton were evidently already the subtenants; the company offered £20 a year to Mr. Harris's widow, the 'now tenant' of the tenements, after the expiry of her lease, if she and Geere would allow the (sub-) tenants quietly to enjoy for the remainder of the lease, but they both refused. (Mrs.) Martha Harris, daughter of Vincent Norrington, petitioned for some 'commiseration' in respect of the lease in August 1643, but this was denied because of her earlier refusal. (fn. 17)

In 1644 Orersby, Lovell, and Walton were granted an extension of the time to pay their fines; this was done in full in May 1648. They paid a quarter's rent (£5 in all) that year, and £10 yearly for each tenement thereafter. Five years and then four years were added to the terms in 1648, making them up to 30 years, for which the lessees agreed to give a brace a bucks each year at election day. Lovell, Oresby and Walton were noted as paying the two £10 rents until 1656, then Lovell and Oresby and Walton's executor up to the Fire. In fact by that time, and possibly as early as 1650, Thomas Lovell had died, leaving his interest to Sarah his wife, who assigned it to Henry Lovell, gentleman, his son; William Walton's lease had also been assigned to Henry Lovell. It is not clear what had happened to Orersby and his interest. In 1662-3 9A appears to have been occupied in 2 parts by Peter Smyth and Henry Bulstrode, each with 5 hearths. In 1666 Peter Smyth, silkman, and Edward Beaushamp occupied the same 2 properties. (fn. 18)

Henry Lovell was willing to rebuild the whole of 9A after the Great Fire, but asked the Fire Court to make terms taking into consideration the fact that 7 ft. (2.13 m.) had been staked out on the N. side (for inclusion in Honey Lane market) and that rebuilding would cost £700. The premises were said to be two distinct houses with a frontage of 18 ft. 4 in. (5.59 m.) and a depth of 73 ft. (22.25 m.). The court ruled in 1668 that Lovell should rebuild, paying the old rent without a break for the rest of the term (9 1/4 years), and that he should have an extension of the lease by 35 3/4 years at a new single rent of £25. 11/9 was not surveyed by Mills or Oliver, but when 11/8A4 to the W. was surveyed in July 1668 the E. neighbours were said to be Mr. Smith and Mr. Beauchamp. (fn. 19)

9b, twelfth to sixteenth century

This property appears to have occupied a part of the Cheapside frontage between 8-9 and 10, but its exact position and size and the length of time for which it remained a separate identifiable unit are not certain.

In the late twelfth or early 13th century, possibly in 1204, William Bocuinte son of Sabelina, owner of 8-9, granted £1 quit-rent which Adrian de Wintonia brother of Richard de Wintonia used to render him from the land, shop and solar Adrian held of him in Cheapside, lying between the land Adrian held of him in fee (?8-9) to the W. and the land of the fee of the canons of Southwark(10) to the E., to the sick of the hospital of St. Giles without London (the leper hospital of St. Giles Holborn). The hospital was to render 1/2 lb. cumin or 1d. within the octave of Easter yearly, and gave £11 in silver as a gersum. (fn. 20) Possibly the shop of John de Gras, from which a quit-rent of £1. 13s. 4d. was due c. 1328 to the owner of 8-9A, subsequently of 9A, and which was said to lie in australi capite eiusdem domus (referring to 9A) can be identified as 9B. 9B is not usually mentioned in abutments, but in 1347 the Mariole (9A) was said to lie between 8 to the W. and the tenement sometime of John Pointel(10) and the shop of the hospital of St. James (sic) of the lepers to the E. In 1391 Richard II granted St. Giles, dependent on Burton Lazars (Leics.) since 1299, to the abbey of St. Mary Graces, which in that year leased a shop with two solars over, once of St. Giles', in All Hallows Honey Lane between 9A to the W. and 10 to the E., to Peter Fikelden, citizen and tailor, and Agnes his wife, for 20 years at 6s. 8d. rent. The tenants were to repair and pay all charges, and not to alienate or sell their term without licence. Burton Lazars subsequently recovered control of St. Giles, and in 1409 leased the shop and 2 solars to William Westnesse, citizen and draper, who was then tenant of 9A or part of it, for 20 years from 1408 at £2 rent. The tenant was to repair, in great timbers as in other things, and to bear all charges. In 1410 John Harp (of 10) complained of intrusion against the master of Burton Lazars and St. Giles' and John Westeneys, draper, who probably now held 9B, touching his free tenement in All Hallows Honey Lane. (fn. 21)

No further 15th-century deeds or references survive. In 1508 the Drapers' Company, owners of 10, and St. Giles' hospital went to arbitration to settle a dispute between them over the title to a messuage or house with 2 solars over in All Hallows Honey Lane, annexed to the W. part of the Goat on the Hoop (10). The judgment has not survived, but in 1509 the hospital granted the house and solars to William Calley, citizen and draper, to hold to himself and the uses of his will, and quitclaimed in all actions relating to the property to the Drapers' Company. Calley made a will leaving the property to the company in 1509, and another in 1513, proved in 1516. The Drapers then appear to have pulled down all the buildings on the front part of their tenement 10, as a view of a vacant plot 10 ft. 5 in. (6.22 m.) wide at the front and 38 ft. (11.58 m.) in depth was made in 1510. This plot probably represents the site of 9B and of the front part of 10. The Drapers then rebuilt the whole, leaving an alleyway on the E. side to the back part of 10. (fn. 22)