St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/11-13

Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane. Originally published by Centre for Metropolitan History, London, 1987.

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Citation:

D J Keene, Vanessa Harding, 'St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/11-13', in Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane( London, 1987), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-gazetteer-pre-fire/pp705-712 [accessed 22 November 2024].

D J Keene, Vanessa Harding, 'St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/11-13', in Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane( London, 1987), British History Online, accessed November 22, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-gazetteer-pre-fire/pp705-712.

D J Keene, Vanessa Harding. "St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/11-13". Historical Gazetteer of London Before the Great Fire Cheapside; Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St Martin Pomary, St Mary Le Bow, St Mary Colechurch and St Pancras Soper Lane. (London, 1987), , British History Online. Web. 22 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-gazetteer-pre-fire/pp705-712.

In this section

Introduction

These properties occupied the corner between Soper Lane on the W., Pancras Lane on the N., 145/14-15 on the E., and properties in the parish of St. Antonin on the S. It is not known how far S. the properties discussed here extended in the 13th and 14th centuries, although this could probably be determined once a study of the parish of St. Antonin had been completed. At the time of the Great Fire 4 properties occupied the frontage of Soper Lane between Budge Row on the S. and Pancras Lane on the N. According to the position of the parish boundaries as shown on the 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps, the 2 more southerly of these properties were in the parish of St. Antonin and the 2 more northerly were in the parish of St. Pancras. Ogilby and Morgan's survey of 1676, however, positions the boundary between the 2 parishes a little further to the N. The Ordnance Survey maps seem generally to be the more reliable guide to pre-Fire parish boundaries, but in this case the 1676 survey may reflect the true pre-Fire situation, which could at any rate have been uncertain. There is indeed some suggestion that the parochial attribution of properties in this part of Soper Lane was uncertain, both in the late 13th century and in the early 16th century.

In the 13th and 14th centuries there was substantial property in St. Pancras parish on the S. corner of Pancras Lane and Soper Lane. This has been identified as 12 and it was probably bounded on the E. by 14-15. On the S. side of it was a property whose parochial attribution in this period is not recorded. This has been identified as 11. The precise position of 11 is uncertain, although for the time being it has been assumed that it occupied part of the site of the more northerly of the 2 properties in St. Antonin parish at the time of the Fire according to the boundaries shown by the Ordnance Survey. By the early 16th century the parish of St. Pancras was in possession of the property on the corner of Soper Lane and Pancras Lane. This property was said to lie in both the parish of St. Pancras and that of St. Antonin, and was bounded by 145/14-15 on the E. It probably included the entire site earlier identifiable as 12 and may also have included the site of 11, although this is far from clear. This parish property consisted of 2 houses, one on the corner, now identified as 12, and one adjoining it to the E. and S., now identified as 13.

In 1858 the site of 12 and 13 was occupied by nos. 79-81 Queen Street and nos. 1 and 2 Pancras Lane.

Thirteenth to fifteenth century: 11 and 12

11

This property is recorded in abutments from 12 on the N., and can probably also be identified in abutments from properties in St. Antonin parish to the S. About 1280 it probably belonged to Hugh Motun. In a deed enrolled in 1280 a shop on the E. side of Soper Lane in St. Antonin parish and probably close to the northern boundary of the parish, was bounded on the N. by a shop of Hugh Motun and on the E. by Hugh's tenement. By his will, enrolled in 1290, Hugh Motun left the house in which he lived to his son-in-law, Simon Godard, and to Simon's heirs by Hugh's daughter. 11 may have been part of this house, but if so another part of the house came into the possession of Motun's other daughter, Benedicta, and her husband Hamo Box. This was probably Hamo Box's tenement in Soper Lane where in 1292 the baliff of the prioress of Haliwell took naam for arrears of a rent of 10s.; Hamo claimed to hold this tenement with his wife Benedicta by the gift of her father. In 1295 Hamo's tenement was said to adjoin the S. side of 12 and in the same year Hamo and Benedicta made an agreement with Simon Godard and his wife Alice concerning the shop in Soper Lane from which the prioress of Halliwell had claimed 10s. rent. It was agreed that Hamo and Benedicta should have the shop of which they had been enfeoffed by Hugh Motun and should pay 5s. rent from it to the priory, and that Simon and Alice should have the shop which Motun had held and should pay 5s. rent from it to the priory. St. Mary Spital also had an interest in the property, for in 1297-8 12 was bounded on the S. by a tenement of St. Mary Spital which Simon Godard held (ten' novi hospitalis Simonis Godard) and a tenement which had belonged to Hamo Box. Hamo Box died in or before 1298, and his widow Benedicta died between 1330 and 1333. In 1333 11 was probably the tenement of St. Mary Spital which adjoined the N. side of a property in St. Antonin parish. (fn. 1)

No later references to 11 have been identified for certain, and the property may have been absorbed by those which adjoined it. A tenement in St. Pancras parish belonging to St. Mary Spital and entered in rentals of 1516 and 1519, however, may represent part of 11. This tenement was let at farm for £1 rent, and in 1519 Nicholas Hoghekeynson, barber, was tenant. The hospital appears to have lost possession of the property soon after this. (fn. 2) Alternatively, the site of 11 may have been occupied by a tenement in St. Antonin parish which by 1353 had been acquired by John de Causton and was left by him as part of the endowment of his chantry (see below).

Excavations on the site in 1953 and 1960 revealed a medieval stone wall approximately parallel to and about 3.5 m. (11 ft. 6 in.) back from Soper Lane. This could have been the wall between the shops on the frontage and the house behind. In the rear part of the property was a chalk-lined well, probably of 14th-century date. (fn. 3)

12

This was the capital messuage (managium) with shops and other appurtenances in the parish of St. Pancras which by his will, enrolled in 1274, John Hervy, ironmonger, left to his daughter Juliana. She married Sewald the fishmonger (piscenar') and in 1295, as Sewald's widow, leased a shop forming part of 12 to William de Storteford, citizen and pepperer, for a term of 10 years at £2. 4s. 8d. rent, of which the tenant had already paid £5 to be allowed to him over the first 4 years of the term. The shop was on the corner between Soper Lane on the W. and the highway leading thence to the church of St. Pancras on the N.; it was bounded on the E. by Juliana's own tenement (part of 12) and on the S. by the tenement of Hamo Box (11). Juliana then married Richer de Moubray, mercer. In 1295-6 she and Richer granted to Hamo Box a plot of land with a building on it lying between the tenement of Juliana and Richer to E. and N. and Box's tenement (11?) to W. and S. Box gave £1 for this grant, and the plot of land was said to measure 3 1/2 ells 3 in. (10 ft. 9 in.; 3.28 m.) in length, 1 ell 3 in. (3 ft. 3 in.; 991 mm.) in width at the W. end and in the middle, and 1 1/4 ells (3 ft. 9 in.; 1.14 m.) in width at the E. end. That same year Richer and Juliana in return for a payment of £6 granted to Simon Godard 13s. 4d. rent out of the tenement which had belonged to John Hervy and which lay between a highway on the N., another highway on the W., a former tenement of Robert de Arras (14) on the E. and the tenement of Hamo Box (11) on the S. In 1297-8 Richer, whose name is given as Richer de Momeray, and Juliana granted this property, described as a plot of land with houses built on it lying in vico novo et in Soper Lane, to Roger de Paris, mercer, who paid £66. 13s. 4d. in gersummam and was to pay rents of £2. 16s. 8d. to Haliwell Priory and 13s. 4d. to Simon Godard and his heirs. (fn. 4) The 'new street' in this case may have been the street to the N. (now Pancras Lane) rather than Soper Lane itself.

Roger de Paris rebuilt the property and lived in it. In 1317 he was the defendant in a plea of nuisance brought against him by Simon Corp, who at that time probably inhabited 14-15. The case concerned a stone wall, 11 ells (33 ft.; 10.06 m.) long and 3 ft. (914 mm.) wide which was said to extend from Corp's house (14-15) on the N. to another house belonging to Corp (probably the one in St. Antonin parish which he held from St. Mary Spital) on the S. This wall was probably part of the substantial stone wall which in the 17th century is recorded as bounding 14-15 on its W. side. The S. end of this wall was revealed in excavations during 1953 or 1960. Roger claimed that the wall was common to the 2 tenements and that Simon had undermined it and carried off a lead gutter fixed to part of another wall running from Simon's plot of land on the S. to the street (presumably Pancras Lane) on the N. The jury found in Roger's favour. By his will, enrolled in 1321, Roger left the capital tenement which he inhabited in the parish of St. Pancras with 3 shops, as they had been newly built (sicut de novo edificantur) to his wife Margaret for life and then to be sold by his executors. His corner shop next to the capital tenement was to be sold at once and was said to be charged with the rent of 13s. 4d. to the heirs of Simon Godard. Acting as one of Roger's executors, his widow Margaret later sold to John de Causton, citizen and mercer, who was also one of Roger's executors, all the tenements and shops which Roger had had in the parish of St. Pancras in return for a rent of £4 payable to her during her lifetime. In 1332 Simon de Duntone, who was Margaret's brother and the third executor of Roger de Paris, confirmed this sale. (fn. 5)

By the time of his death in 1353 John de Causton was living in the parish of St. Mary at Hill, but he may at one time have lived in this property, his only substantial holding in St. Pancras parish, for by his will, drawn up and enrolled in 1353, he established a chantry chaplain in the church of St. Pancras and directed that his body be buried in the north chapel of St. Mary in that church. By this will de Causton left his tenement with adjacent shops in the parish of St. Pancras (12) and a tenement which he had acquired in the parish of St. Antonin (perhaps on the site of 11) as the source for an income of £6. 13s. 4d. a year which was to support the chantry chaplain. The tenements themselves he left to his niece Maud and her husband James Andrew, citizen, for the terms of their lives with remainder to Haliwell Priory. In 1374 John Deny (or Dony) inhabited the tenement representing 12, which in 1375 he held from Haliwell Priory. In 1383 the priory leased to Deny, citizen and mercer, and his wife Katharine two tenements with shops adjacent in the parishes of St. Pancras (12) and St. Antonin (perhaps 11) for a term of 30 years at £11. 2s. 2d. rent, the tenants being responsible for repairs and all other charges except those arising from John de Causton's will. Haliwell Priory appears to have had rents from a number of other properties near by, perhaps all the properties on the E. side of Soper Lane between Pancras Lane and Budge Row, and in 1397-8 sought an assize of fresh force concerning rents totalling £2. 13s. 4d. in the parishes of St. Pancras and St. Antonin against St. Mary Spital, Robert Chercheman and his wife Margaret, Richard Radewelle, John Gardyner, chaplain, Thomas Boterkram, chaplain, Roger Olney, citizen and draper, and Robert Goldsmith, clerk. Of those Chercheman is known to have held a tenement on the E. side of Soper Lane which was probably in St. Pancras parish and St. Mary Spital may have held 11, but also owned a tenement in St. Antonin parish. (fn. 6)

Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: 12 and 13

By the early 16th century the tenement in St. Pancras parish (12) and that in St. Antonin parish (perhaps 11) which John de Causton had charged with rent for the support of his chantry had come into the possession of the parish of St. Pancras. In 1522 the 2 tenements were said lately to have fallen into ruin and decay so that their issues would soon be insufficient to perform the charges of de Causton's will. The parish therefore acquired 2 other properties in order to augment the revenue. The first of these was a stable and garden in the parish of St. Antonin which was purchased from Thomas Blake and his wife Elizabeth, William Fermer and his wife Joan, and Margret Carew, widow. This property had once belonged to Thomas Chadworth, alderman (probably Thomas Catteworth who, according to Beaven, d. 1454 (?1455)), and Elizabeth, Joan, and Margaret were his daughters and heirs. The stable measured 16 ft. 3 in.(4.95 m.) N./S. and 14 ft. (4.27 m.: possibly an error for 24 ft., 7.32 m.) E./W., and lay between 14-15 on the E., the ground which had once belonged to John de Causton on the N., the garden on the W., and land belonging to the college (described as a monastery) of Higham Ferrers on the S. The garden measured 38 ft. (11.58 m.) E./W. on the N., 38 ft. 1 in. (11.61 m.) E./W. on the S., 38 ft. 9 in. (11.81 m.) N./S. on the E., and 29 ft. 9 in. (2.97 m.) at the W., and lay between the stable and lands belonging to the parish on the E., land belonging to the parish on the N., the highway (Soper Lane) on the W., and the land of Higham Ferrers College on the S. The total E./W. length of the stable and garden as given in the deed (about 52 ft.; 15.85 m.) is about 10 ft. (3.05 m.) short of the distance between the W. boundary of 14-15 and Soper Lane.

The other property acquired by the parish was a tenement in St. Antonin parish measuring 10 ft. (3.05 m.) by 18 ft. 9 in. (5.71 m.) and lying between the said land of John de Causton on the E. and S., and the highway on the W. This tenement may have occupied part of the site of 11. In or before 1504 Sir Henry Collet granted the tenement to Simon Ryce, William Burwell, Thomas Fissher, and Richard Reynolds, who were acting trustees on behalf of the parish. In 1504 Ryce, Fissher and Reynolds quitclaimed to Burwell, who by his testament was to assure the property in augmentation of the chantry. The parish erected 2 new houses on the site of this tenement, the stable and garden, and the land once of John de Causton, towards the cost of which Burwell, a mercer, made a substantial loan. Burwell also gave money to the parish with the intent that he should be acknowledged as the co-founder of de Causton's chantry. In return, according to an agreement drawn up in or after 1508, Burwell was to have a lease of the 2 new houses, of 17A, and of certain quit-rents elsewhere in the city for a term of 52 years. While the rector set his seal to this agreement, the churchwardens did not, and in or after 1515 Burwell laid a complaint against them in Chancery. The outcome was that in 1522 a further agreeement was made by which Burwell sold his right in the properties and the co-foundership of the chantry to Simon Ryce for £200. Later in 1522 Burwell enfeoffed Ryce of the tenement acquired from Collet, and then by an agreement with the rector and churchwardens Ryce, a mercer, surrendered the lease of the properties to the parish, drew up a testament under which the tenement was to pass to the parish, and with his wife Lettice was to be acknowledged as co-founder of the chantry. In return Ryce and his heirs and assigns were to receive an annual rent of £3. 6s. 8d. out of the lands and tenements belonging to the parish. In 1522 the 2 'grete mancyons or dwellinge houses' with shops, warehouses, cellars, and solars which had recently been erected on the site of 12-13 were in the tenure of Robert Pakyngeton and George Robynson, both citizens and mercers and both taxed as residents of St. Pancras parish and Cordwainer ward c. 1522-4. The agreement concerning the augmentation of the chantry was confirmed by the archbishop of Canterbury in 1523-4 and Ryce's endowment was recorded in the chantry certificate of 1548. (fn. 7)

The 2 houses (12 and 13) came into the possession of the Crown under the Act of 1547, and in 1548 were sold, with a number of other properties, to Richard Palladye, gentleman, and Francis Foxall, citizen and mercer. (fn. 8) For some years after this sale the ownership of the houses was uncertain and the parish of St. Pancras continued to exercise rights in them (see below). One of the houses (12) occupied the corner of Soper Lane and Pancras Lane, and the other (13), which fronted on to both lanes, adjoined it to the E. and S. The bounds of the 2 houses are probably approximately represented by those of the 2 foundations on the site surveyed after the Great Fire.

12

In February 1543 this was a corner tenement with shops, cellars, and solars inhabited by William Fayerpoynt, tailor, which the parson of St. Pancras leased to William Cheke, citizen and grocer, for a term of 40 years from the previous Michaelmas, at £1. 13s. 4d. rent, the landlord being responsible for repairs, cleansing, and quit-rents. Later that year, or in 1544, the same property, described as a messuage with shops, cellars, solars, and chambers, was let to Thomas Jenyns for a term of 50 years at £6 rent. The significance of the two leases is uncertain, but Cheke's interest in the property does not seem to have been extinguished (cf. below). Jenyns, a citizen and girdler, was living in the house in 1557 and had probably been living there in 1544, when he was taxed as a resident of St. Pancras parish and Cordwainer Ward. In 1557 the parson and churchwardens of St. Pancras, with the assent of the parishioners, in return for a sum of money released their right in the property to Jenyns. There then followed a sequence of conveyances which may have been intended to confuse possible investigations into the title. On 4 June 1558 Cheke conveyed his lease to William Babham, gentleman, and his wife Alice. On 10 June Babham and his wife leased the corner tenement to Cheke for a term of 30 years at £1. 13s. 4d. rent. This lease did not cover a corner shop which was part of the property and which on the same day Babham leased to Alice Ludlam and William Ludlam for the term of their lives at 6s. rent. In 1559 Babham conveyed his interest in the property to Thomas Sares, who in 1560 conveyed it to Thomas Pierson (a scrivener), who later that year conveyed it to the churchwardens of St. Pancras to the use of the parishioners. (fn. 9)

A common recovery executed in 1563 may concern 12 and 13 or a part of them. The property in question was 2 messuages and a garden in the parishes of St. Pancras and St. Antonin and in Cordwainer ward, of which Thomas Jenyns (cf. 12) and John Alsopp, citizen and haberdasher, complained that William Cock had deforced them. Cock called Francis Dellawood to warrant, and Dellawood called a second vouchee, who then defaulted so that Jenyns and Alsopp recovered possession. At the time of this recovery Cock was in the process of acquiring 14 and 15A (see 14-15) from Dellawood, but there is no indication that either of them ever had an interest in 12-13 or that Jenyns and Alsopp ever had an interest in 14-15. Alsopp cannot otherwise be associated with 12-13. The intent of this recovery may have been to eliminate any suspicion that 12-13 had once been a chantry endowment by implying (incorrectly) that the property had once been part of 14-15. (fn. 10)

The freehold of both 12 and 13, however, descended to Richard Patrick, citizen and haberdasher, presumably from Palladye and Foxall. Patrick added to 12 a little yard formerly part of 13 and enclosed it with a brick wall. Thomas Jenyns was succeeded as occupier of 12 by Humphrey Marbury, citizen and haberdasher, and in 1573 the occupant was John Garrard, citizen and haberdasher, who had married Jane, one of the daughters of Richard Patrick and his wife Ursula. In 1573 Patrick and Ursula gave the messuage to Garrard and Jane as a marriage portion, to hold to the sole use of them and the heirs of their bodies. In 1574 Garrard and Jane leased the messuage to John Blunt, citizen and clothworker, at £10 rent for a term of 21 years and a fine of £200. The schedule attached to this lease lists the following rooms: a wainscoted hall containing one door with a portal, a door leading into the parlour, a door leading into the counting house, and a piece of wainscot for the chimney; a wainscoted parlour containing a door with a portal leading into the hall, another door going up to the chambers, a wainscot cupboard, 2 settles (one with 2 locks and keys), and a piece of wainscot for the chimney; a chamber and kitchen with a portal and door of wainscot; a great chamber (presumably over the hall) with a portal and door of wainscot; a chamber over the parlour with a portal and door of wainscot; and a chamber over the kitchen chamber with a portal and door of wainscot. If we assume that the ground floor was occupied by shops, this house would have had 3 storeys above ground. (fn. 11)

In 1595 Giles Crowch, haberdasher, and Peter Garrard, gentleman, obtained possession of this messuage by means of a recovery in the court of Husting against John Garrard and his wife Jane. The purpose of the recovery was probably to break the entail created under the marriage settlement of 1573. Four of the later owners or occupiers of 12 are known. In 1638 it was probably a house valued at £40 a year and occupied by Mr. Blagden, who also held a large shop in Cheapside (145/9-10B). In 1666, immediately before the Great Fire, 12 (and possibly a part of 13) consisted of 2 houses, one with 8 hearths and the other with 12, occupied by Walter Tindall, silkman, and Samuel Clutterbuck, silkman, respectively. The houses were destroyed in the Fire, and in 1668 a new foundation on the site was surveyed for Mr. Clutterbuck and Mr. Tindal. Their property was extended up to the new frontage of Queen Street by adding to it a strip of ground which had previously been part of Soper Lane. (fn. 12)

13

In 1548 this was described as a great messuage formerly leased to Robert Packyngton for a term of 50 years at £7 rent. It was now held by Roland Shakerly, who was probably living there in 1541 and 1544, when he was assessed as a resident of St. Benet (sic) parish and Cordwainer Ward. He had ceased to live there by 1558, when he was described as of Aynho (Northants.) and was granted a lease of the capital messuage representing 13 by the rector, churchwardens, and parishioners of St. Pancras for a term of 500 years at £2. 11s. 2d. rent. The messuage, with its shops, cellars, chambers, warehouses, yards, and entries, was now inhabited by Richard Elkyn and lay in the parishes of St. Pancras and St. Antonin, between 14-15 on the E., 12 on the W. and N., the highway leading from Soper Lane to Watling Street on the W., 'Seint Pancrace Lane' on the N., and a messuage formerly belonging to the college of Higham Ferrers on the S. The lessee and his successors were to keep the 'foredore and entry' of the capital messuage at the street door which then opened into Pancras Lane so that the inhabitants of the house would be counted as parishioners of the parish of St. Pancras. About 1560 the house was inhabited by Walter Marler, citizen and haberdasher, who by his will, dated and proved in 1561, left to his wife Elizabeth his leases and terms of years in the shops and warehouses which she then occupied (probably part of 13) and in the house which he inhabited in the parish of St. Pancras. Elizabeth may then have married Ambrose Nicholas, citizen and salter, who later had a wife of that name and was tenant of 13. (fn. 13) In 1563 13, or a part of it, may have been in the possession of John Alsopp, citizen and haberdasher (see 12).

Roland Shakerley died in 1565 and left the house then held by Ambrose Nicholas, to his wife Anne and her heirs. At the inquisition which followed his death, the house was valued at £10 a year and Shakerley was said to have held it in free burgage of the Queen, suggesting that the long lease under which he in fact held it was intended to conceal the parish's interest. In 1566, in order to remove any doubt concerning this interest the rector and churchwardens quitclaimed their right in the messuage to Ambrose Nicholas, who was said to be seised in demesne. In return Nicholas was to pay the parish £68 in instalments of £2 payable twice a year. Before the end of the year Nicholas and his wife Elizabeth granted and quitclaimed in the messuage with its halls, chambers, cellars, solars, houses, warehouses, yards, and wells to John Wanton, citizen and grocer. Anne, widow of Roland Shakerley, senior, was still alive in 1570, when Roland Shakerley, junior, son of the elder Roland's son Ralph, died leaving as his heir his sister Anne, then aged 7. (fn. 14)

Richard Patrick and his wife Ursula seem later to have been in possession of the property, and in July 1577, in pursuit of an agreement earlier that year, quitclaimed their right in it to Anthony Gamage, citizen and alderman, who was then seised of the great capital messuage or mansion house with its halls (cenaculis), chambers, cellars, solars, houses, warehouses, backsides, and wells. At about this time there was probably a lawsuit or arbitration concerning the property. In November 1577 Ambrose Nicholas, then a knight, made an agreement, the details of which are not known, with Ralph Bourchier, esquire, of Benyngborough (Yorks.) on the one hand and William Cordell, Master of the Rolls, and Robert Mounson, one of the Justices of Common Pleas, on the other. In pursuit of this agreement Bourchier granted 13 and other properties to Cordell and Mounson. This was presumably a stage in providing Bourchier with an impregnable title, for in 1580 Bourchier and his wife Christiana sold these properties to William Gamage of London, gentleman. William Gamage was the son and heir of Anthony Gamage, who died in 1579, when he was said to be seised of 13. Anthony Gamage lived in the messuage, which soon after his death was occupied by his widow Alice Gamage. (fn. 15)

In 1586 William Gamage sold the capital messuage, which he had occupied to Stephen Soame, citizen, and his wife Ann. In 1588, in consideration of a payment of £90, Gamage and his wife Elizabeth quitclaimed to Soame and Ann in the property. Soame, a wealthy alderman who was knighted in 1599 and died in 1619, used 13 as his London residence. He left it to his second son, Stephen Soame. In 1624 this Stephen sold the messuage to his younger brother Thomas Soame, alderman from 1635 and knighted in 1641. Thomas Soame appears to have divided the messuage by 1638, when his own house was valued at £70 a year, the highest valuation in the parish, and a house occupied by Mr. Manton which seems to have occupied a part of the Pancras Lane frontage of 13 was valued at £4. Manton's name is entered at the end of the Pancras Lane assessments in the tithe valuation, and he was probably the Edward Manton listed in other parish assessments of the period. In 1656 Thomas Soame leased the messuage in Pancras Lane next to the back door of his capital messuage to John Gunston of London, merchant, for a term of 10 years from 1657 at £36 rent. Soame sold this messuage to Elizabeth Newman of London, spinster, and her heirs and assigns in 1662 in return for a payment of £468. Elizabeth Newman married William Berbloke, citizen and clothworker, and the two of them in 1663 granted the messuage to Ralph Crowther, goldsmith and Thomas Weekes, matchmaker, who were to hold to the use of Berbloke and Elizabeth and their joint issue, with remainder to Elizabeth's heirs, and then to Berbloke's heirs. In 1666 this messuage was probably a house of 3 hearths occupied by Henry Mattison, tobacconist. The remainder of 13 was still occupied by Thomas Soame, whose house had 10 hearths. (fn. 16)

The property was destroyed in the Great Fire and in March 1669 a new foundation occupying the whole of the site of 13 was surveyed for Sir Thomas Soame. A strip of ground once forming part of Soper Lane was added to Soame's house in order to bring it up to the new frontage of Queen Street. Soame, who lived until 1671, is also named as owner of this whole site in surveys of adjacent foundations. Berbloke, however, undertook the rebuilding on the Pancras Lane frontage and in April 1669 paid the fee for a survey to be undertaken of a foundation in Pancras Lane. In 1671 Sir James Langham, son and heir of Sir John Langham of Cattesbrook (Northants.) and Thomas Goodwin, scrivener, who had presumably succeeded to the interest of Crowther and Weekes in this part of 13, sold to Berbloke, his wife Elizabeth and Elizabeth's heirs and assigns their interest in a messuage on the site of Soame's capital messuage. It seems likely that several houses were erected on the site of Soame's capital messuage, for the site is not distinguished as a substantial residence on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1676. (fn. 17)

Footnotes

  • 1. HR 11(56), 14(152), 19(31), 24(54), 25(59), 27(22, 82), 60(149), 61(82); HCP 22, m. 6; LBB p. 212 (f. 92v).
  • 2. PRO, SC11/977-8.
  • 3. T. Wilmott, 'Excavations at Queen Street,City of London, 1953 and 1960, and Roman timber-lined wells in London', Trans LMAS 33 (1982), 1-78, esp. pp. 7 (Fig. 5) and 21: the date of the well (Feature 51), not given in the text, has been supplied by the author; the wall (Features 47 and 50) is not described in the text.
  • 4. HR 6(2), 25(59, 66), 27(22); LBB, p. 212 (f. 92v).
  • 5. AN, no. 236; HR 50(39), 60(86). For the excavated wall, see above, n. 3.
  • 6. HR 14(152), 102(73), 103(196), 112(51), 124(3); HCP 123, m. 2d; HPL 122, m. 4d.
  • 7. GL, MS 5020, ff. 20-6; Chant C, no. 28; PRO, E179/251/15b, f. 22.
  • 8. PRO: E315/67, pp. 411-12; E318/33/1835; LR15/6/156; SC6/Edward 6/293-7. Cal Pat R 1548-9, pp. 25-6.
  • 9. PRO: E179/251/123, m. 25; E315/62, pp. 411-12; E318/33/1835. GL, MS 5020, ff. 76r-v, 89-90; Canterbury, Reg U, f. 212v.
  • 10. HPL 184, m. 20, 20d.
  • 11. HR 259(5), 260(22).
  • 12. HPL 192, m. 17; Inhabitants in 1638, p. 173; M & O iv, f. 128; CLRO, Comptroller's Deeds K, bundle T, no. 25; PRO, E179/252/32/16.
  • 13. PRO, E179/251/123, E179/144/120, E315/62, pp. 411-12, E318/33/1835; PROB11/40, f. 200; GL, MS 5020, ff. 77-78v.
  • 14. GL, MS 5020, ff. 77-8v; Abs Inq PM ii, 29-30, 126-7; HR 255(18); PRO, PROB11/48, ff. 74v-75.
  • 15. HR 262(56), 263(40, 47); Abs IPM iii, p. 21.
  • 16. GL, MS 12935 (indenture of 1611); Inhabitants in 1638, p. 173; Beaven ii, 43, 63; Pearl, 191-2; PRO, PROB11/135, ff. 3-8, E179/252/32/16; Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D.892/C1-4 (the originals of these conveyances, which recite deeds back to 20 Elizabeth I, have not been seen); HR 269(11), 336(20).
  • 17. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D.892/C5; M & O i, pp. 58, 66, iv, f. 128 (cf. f. 49v); CLRO, Comptroller's Deeds K, bundle S, no. 72.