St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/22

Introduction

This property in the 13th century consisted of 2 or more shops on the E. side of Soper Lane, between 21 to the S., 23 to the N., and 18 or Popkirtle Lane to the E. Because the property was incorporated with 18 and 21 from the early 14th century, it is not clear how large it originally was; since 21 was only one shop, however, it seems that 22 was probably much larger. Probably the shops measured some 12 to 16 ft. (3.66 m. to 4.88 m.) E.-W. In 1669-70, the combined frontage of 21 and 22 was some 58 ft. (17.68 m.) long. In the 16th century the property 18 and 21-22 was broken up again, and the parts are described under those numbers, though 22 then included a large part of what had been 18.

On the street frontage the property corresponded approximately to no. 86 and part of no. 85 Queen Street in 1858.

Thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries

In 1281 Walter de Clothale, brother of the late Hugh de Clothale, tailor, quitclaimed to John of Canterbury, pepperer, in a shop with solar in Soper Lane, between 23 to the N. and a shop already belonging to John to the S., for £8 (12 marks). Walter had recently impleaded John by writ of right in the Husting concerning this shop. In 1282 John of Canterbury granted to Reginald de Suberia, clerk, a perpetual quit-rent of £2 from his two shops in Soper Lane, between 23 to the N. and the shop of John de Duton (possibly later part of this property) to the S., and Popkirtle Lane to the E., and also from his solar and cellar contiguous to the shop(s), sometime of Cr... de Draiton. Reginald was to render 1d. at Michaelmas. By 1285 John of Canterbury held the property immediately to the N. of 21; John de Duton is not known to have held 21, and his shop may therefore have been incorporated into 22. Simon de Paris held John of Canterbury's former property here by 1294, when he acquired 18. He subsequently also acquired 3, 4, and 21, and the properties descended together to the mid 16th century (see 18). (fn. 1)

Later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: 22 with 25-26

It is not certain at what date in the later 16th or early 17th century (between c. 1551 and c. 1612) 22 and 18 were divided. In the 17th century the property described here as 22 had a frontage to Soper Lane of about 37 ft. (11.28 m.), extended back some 44 ft. (13.41 m.) from Soper Lane, and measured 70 ft. (21.34 m.) N.-S. at the back, where it extended behind 23-26. It is not known either at what date 25-26 (q.v.) was added to 22, but it was probably before 1616.

In 1612 a Mr. Hollilond was staying, perhaps only temporarily, at Mr. Chapman's in Soper Lane. (fn. 2) Thomas Chapman, citizen and court-handwriter, held 22 and probably 25-6 in 1616, when he made his will, and at the time of his death in 1620. He left all his freehold properties in tail to his grandson Thomas Chapman (III), then under age, only son of his own son Thomas Chapman (II), with remainder to Thomas Chapman II for life, and then to the heirs of Thomas Chapman III. Thomas Chapman III died between 1620 and 1626, unmarried, and when Thomas Chapman II died in 1626 his heirs were his 3 daughters Rhoda, Rebecca, and Jane. These daughters inherited equal shares in the property (22, 25-6), which was not physically partitioned between them until after the Great Fire. Differing accounts of their marriages and children are given in different secondary sources. The following explanation seems the most plausible. Rhoda, the eldest, born before 1620, married firstly Thomas Hussey of Wormley, Herts., who died before 1645, and secondly, in 1646, Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who died in 1648. She had a daughter, Ursula, by her second husband, and died in 1686. Rebecca, the second daughter, married firstly Thomas Playters (d. 1651), son of Sir William Playters, bt., by whom she had no children; secondly Richard Lucy, esquire (d. bef. 1669), son of Francis Lucy, M.P., by whom she was probably the mother of Platiers Lucy, who was under 21 in 1671; and thirdly, before 1671, Sir Rowland Lytton, bt., of Knebworth (d. 1674), by whom she had a daughter Rebecca. Jane, the youngest daughter of Thomas Chapman II, married Sir Richard Lucy, kt., bt., of Broxbourne, Herts. (d. 1667), as his second wife, in or before 1645, and was probably the mother of his son (Sir) Kingsmill Lucy. Sir Richard Lucy was the uncle of Richard Lucy, esquire. Jane seems to have died before 1659. Later deeds suggest that Rebecca's and Jane's shares were entailed, probably by marriage settlement, on their issue, but Rhoda's does not seem to have been. (fn. 3)

In 1628 Mrs. Rebecca Chapman and Mrs. Jane Chapman, probably Thomas II's daughters, or one daughter and his widow Jane, were assessed as parishioners. Mrs. Chapman had 2 houses in the parish in 1633, according to a list of that year. At a later date (see below) Edmund Travis and Edward Chelsham were said to hold 22 of the Chapman heirs: they may be identical with the Mr. Davies and Mr. Chelsham also recorded in the 1633 list. The tithe assessment of 1638 does not record Mrs. Chapman, but Davis then had a house valued at £40, and Chelsham one at £20, both in Soper Lane. Possibly John Parker, silkman, who occurs next to Mrs. Chapman in the 1633 list, and also, for a house worth £15 p.a., in 1638, held 25-6, as the predecessor of Richard Welsted, silkman, who held that property in 1659. A parish listing of 1642 records Mrs. Chapman (2 houses), Davies, and Chelsham, but not Parker. (fn. 4)

In September 1645 Thomas Playter of Sotherley, Suffolk, esquire, and his wife Rebecca, one of the daughters and co-heirs of the late Thomas Chapman, esquire, granted to Joseph Alston of London, merchant, all their one-third share in the tenement in which Thomas Chapman used to live (25-6) in Soper Lane, St. Pancras parish, now or late held or occupied by Jeremy Royston or his assigns, and in 2 other tenements (22) sometime held or occupied by Edmund Travis and Edward Chelsham, in the same lane and parish, and in several other properties in London, for £1000. The properties were subject to the life-interest in one-third as dower of Jane Chapman, Rebecca's mother, and to certain leases, none of which had more than 26 years to run. The income from rents from properties let or leased came to £320, of which one third was due to Rebecca. The grantors covenanted to assure Alston against any claims deriving from Thomas Chapman (II) the father or Thomas Chapman (I) the grandfather. Later in 1645 Alston and his wife Mary granted the same one-third share, for £1000, to Sir Richard Lucy, kt., bt., of Broxbourne, Herts., and his wife Jane, and to Rhoda Hussey of Wormley, Herts., widow, to be divided, half to Richard and Jane and their issue and half to Rhoda and her heirs and assigns. Despite this, however, the property seems still to have been held as 3 shares in 1659 and later. (fn. 5)

In 1659 Lady Rhoda Fairfax of Somerby, Lincs., widow, Richard Lucy, esquire, of Gray's Inn, and his wife Rebecca, and Sir Richard Lucy of Broxboumbury, Herts., leased to Richard Welsted, silkman, of the parish of St. Pancras Soper Lane, the house or building with yards, solars, cellars, warehouses, etc. in St. Pancras parish which he already occupied, to hold for 21 years at £16 rent and for £15 paid down. This lease probably only concerned 25-26. Welstead occupied that property in 1662-3 and 1666, when it was said to have 5 hearths. George Stavely and/or Elizabeth Baxter, and Edward Street, appear to have occupied the 2 messuages comprising 22 in 1662-3. In 1666 the occupants were William Royston, merchant, with a house with 8 hearths, and one or both of John Congrue, merchant (3 hearths) and William Burges, bricklayer (4 hearths). In post-Fire arrangements it was said that 22 had been occupied at the time of the Fire by William Rawstoune, merchant, and Edward Streete, cook, or their undertenants or assigns. (fn. 6)

After the Great Fire, in November 1669, Rhoda, Lady Fairfax, sold her one-third share of the toft or plot, to be divided into 3 parts, on which Welstead's, Rawstoune's, and Streete's messuages had stood, to George Copping, citizen and stationer for £220. Welstead's plot (25-26), formerly part of a messuage held or occupied by Thomas Chapman, Rhoda's father, measured 11 ft. 6 in. N.-S. by 12 ft. E.-W. (3.51 m. by 3.66 m.). The tofts of the other two messuages, once held by Travis and Chelsham, had a frontage to Soper Lane of 37 ft. (11.28 m.), and measured 70 ft. (21.34 m.) N.-S. at the E. side. They measured 40 ft. (12.19 m.) E.-W. at the N. end, 37 ft. (11.28 m.) E.-W. in the middle from the E. wall to the back of 23 and 24, and 44 ft. (13.41 m.) E.-W. at the S. end. A foundation was surveyed for George Coppinge, Sir Rowland Lytton, and Sir Kingsmill Lucy in December 1669, corresponding to 22 and 25-26. A strip 4 ft. 6 in. (1.37 m.) wide was cut off in front of 25-26 to widen the street, and a longer strip, 1 ft. (300 mm.) wide at the N. end and 2 ft. 8 in. (810 mm.) at the S. end, was added to the front of 22 to straighten the line of the frontage of the new Queen Street. The area cut off from 25-6 was said in 1671 to be 6 ft. (1.83 m.) wide at the N. end and 5 ft. 8 in. (1.73 m.) wide at the S. end, making 67 sq. ft. (6.22 sq. m.) for which Copping was paid £16. 15s. compensation in 1671. (fn. 7)

The property, 22 and 25-6, seems to have been partitioned between Thomas Chapman's daughters or their assigns or descendants between 1669 and 1671. The northernmost part, including 25-6, went to Copping, as Rhoda's assign, but it is not clear what physical division of the rest was made between Jane's heirs and Rebecca and her heirs. In 1671 Sir Rowland Lytton and his wife Rebecca had a toft or waste piece of ground in St. Pancras parish which they held for Rebecca's life with remainder in fee tail to Platiers Lucy, an infant under 21, and further remainders in tail. Platiers was probably Rebecca's son by Richard Lucy, esquire. Rowland and Rebecca sought from the Fire Court an extension of her life-interest by 40 years, so they could rebuild with a reasonable future term. Platier's was represented by his grandfather Francis Lucy, and it was agreed that a term of 40 years should be added from Rebecca's death, or from 1691, whichever was sooner (so that the whole term did not exceed 60 years), at £12 rent to be paid to Platiers, with remainders in tail. It appears that Platiers died without issue, as Rebecca Lytton, daughter of Rowland and Rebecca and later the wife of Anthony, Viscount Falkland, was later said to be her mother's heir. (fn. 8)

Jane's share of the property, described as a toft or wasted ground, was held in 1673 by Sir Kingsmill Lucy of Broxbourne, Herts., kt., bt., and his wife Lady Theophila, for their lives, with remainder to their issue in tail. They sought an extension of their interest from Theophila, their only child at that date, and the trustees of their marriage settlement, so that they could grant a suitable term to John Nye, gentleman, who had undertaken to rebuild the property for a rent of £12 if he could be granted a 60-year lease. The Fire Court granted an extension of 40 years from 1693 or the death of the survivor of Kingsmill and Theophila his wife, whichever came sooner, for £12 rent to be paid to the heir in tail. Subsequently Kingsmill and Theophila had a son, Berkeley Lucy (d. 1759), to whom the property probably came in preference to his sister. (fn. 9) Rhoda's share of the property, now held by George Copping, was granted in 1673 by him and his wife Sarah to John Honywood, citizen and merchant tailor, for £320. It evidently consisted of 25-6, once held by Richard Welstead, silkman, and the N. part of 22, part of the messuage once held by William Rawsterne, merchant. It extended from Soper Lane E. to the boundary with 38, where it measured 30 ft. 4 in. (9.25 m.) N.-S. Its S. boundary returned by a series of offsets, carefully measured, to the back of 24, and then along the N. side of 24 to Soper Lane. Thomas Katkine or Watkine, distiller, had a yard to the S. of Copping's property, evidently part of 22, though whether he was tenant of Lytton or Lucy or both is not known. (fn. 10)