Ferronerye (le) - Finsbury Court

Ferronerye (le)

In Cheap Ward, in parishes of St. Mary Colchurch and St. Mildred, Bread Street.

That part of Cheapside, in which the ironmongers had their selds, including Ironmonger lane.

Shop of John de Finchesle, ironmonger in "la ferronerye" of London, 1305 (Ct. H.W. I. 169).

Shop of John Dode in "Ferronia," 1318 (ib. 280).

Ferthingward

Ward called "Ferthingward" in parish of St. Peter upon Cornhill 28 Ed. I. 1299-1300 (Cal. L. Bk. B., p. 183).

Variously identified as Cornhill Ward and Lime Street Ward, the description being applicable to either ward.

"Ferling warde" (Cal. L. Bk. C. p. 57).

Riley (Mem. xi.) identifies it with Cornhill Ward and suggests that the ward was so called at an earlier period when it formed the soke of the Bishop of London. But Sharpe says it is Lime Street Ward and that Thomas Sely, described in Letter Book B. as Alderman of Ferthing Ward, is elsewhere spoken of as Alderman of Lime Street Ward, and that John de Causton is similarly described in 6 Ed. III. and the 8 and 10 Ed. III. respectively.

In Hust. Roll 191 (11) W. Hulyn is witness, in his character of Alderman of the Ward, to a deed relating to property in parish of St. Andrew Cornhill, 1460, "in Warda de Lyme Street al dicta 'Ferthyngward' " (Beavan I. 178).

The word "farthing" or "ferling" was sometimes used to denote the fourth part of an acre, and in Camden's Britannia, ed. Holland, I. 497, it is used as the equivalent of a ward, "There were in this borough foure ferlings, that is quarters or wards" (N.E.D. s.v.).

Perhaps the expression was applied to Lime Street Ward as being very small in size.

Fetter Lane

South out of Holborn, at No. 31, to 179 Fleet Street, in Farringdon Ward Without (P.O. Directory).

First mention : 1612 (Ct. H.W. II. 736).

Former names and forms of name : "Faytureslane," 20 Ed. I. (Hust. Roll 21, No. 20). " Faitereslane," 1312 (Ct. H.W. I. 230). "Faytoreslane," 1315 (ib. 252). "Fayturlane," 1329-30 (ib. p. 357). "New lane called Faitereslane," 11 Ed. III. (Hust. Roll 56 (31)). "Le Newestrete called Faytoreslane," 17 Ed. III. (ib. 70 (41)). "Faytourlane," 1345 (Ct. H.W. I. 481). "Faitourslane," 1361 (Ct. H.W. II. 44). "Faytereslane," 41 Ed. III. (Chancery I. p.m.). "The new lane called Faiturlane," 1357 (Ct. H.W. I. 698). "Faterlane," 1536 (L. and P. H. VIII. xi. 378). "Fewtars lane" (S.375).

Widened 1841.

Stow derives the name from Fewters or idle people. But the form of this word given in Halliwell is "Faitour," which is nearer to the earlier forms of the name of the street as set out above.

In Skeat and Mayhew's M.E. dictionary the word is "Faitour"=pretender, impostor, vagabond.

It has also been suggested that the original name was "Viteri," "Viter," found in the Ct. of Hustings Wills in the 14th century (I. 119 and 139). But this does not seem to be possible, for the property mentioned in these Wills as lying in this street was situated in the parish of St. Sepulchre without Newgate.

Fetter Lane Court

In Barnard's Inn (Strype, ed. 1755-Boyle, 1799).

Not named in the maps.

Feyre (la Novele)

Tenement in the parish of St. Nicholas Hacoun situate near "la Novele Feyre," 1297-8 (Ct. H.W. I. 133).

This fair was held in the parish of St. Nicholas Acons (Cal. L. Bk. B. p. 236).

Feyre (The Nane)

Instituted temp. Ed. I. to be held after dinner in Soper lane. But had speedily to be abolished on account of strifes and murders arising therefrom, 25 Ed. I. 1297. Had been instituted by strangers, foreigners, mendicants and others living three or four miles from London (Cal. L. Bk. B. p. 236).

Probably the None or Noon Fair.

Field Lane

North out of Holborn to Great Saffron Hill. The southern end only is in Farringdon Ward Without, the greater portion lying outside the City boundary (OS. 1848-51).

First mention : 1636-7 (L. and P. Chas. I. 1636-7, p. 563).

Former name : "Golden Lane" (q.v.).

Removed for the formation of Holborn Viaduct and the adjoining streets.

Fifteens

The fifteens or fifteenth, as it is generally called, was originally an imperial tax levied throughout the kingdom for various purposes, as wars and such like.

It was a tax of one-fifteenth on movables of all kinds, and was of a similar nature to the tenths, thirteenths, fortieths, etc., which were so frequently levied during the 13th and 14th centuries.

It appears to have been levied by a careful valuation and assessment of the movable goods of each citizen in a city or township, whether clothes, jewellery, furniture, cattle, only certain specified goods being excepted, while the poorest citizens were in many instances exempt.

About the year 1334 the practice grew up of allowing the communities of cities and boroughs to treat with the royal commissioners appointed to assess and collect the tax and to agree upon a fine or sum to be paid as a composition for the fifteenth, tenth, etc., and the sum thus agreed upon was to be entered on the rolls as the assessment to the tax of that particular city or borough. Thus it came about that when a fifteenth was levied in subsequent years, no fresh assessment had to be made, and it was understood that the sum previously agreed upon would form the amount of the city's contribution. Thus the fifteenth came to be a convenient and well-understood unit of taxation.

The Letter Books of the City of London contain frequent references to the fifteens and we find the Mayor and Commonalty compounding with the royal commissioners in this way, and offering to pay £2000 or £3000, or whatever the sum might be that they thought would be acceptable as their contribution.

It is very interesting to compare the figures of different years. In the 8 Ed. II. there was a levy in the City of 1000 marks, and everyone assessed to the last fifteenth granted to the King to pay one mark in every £1 assessed and so more or less according as each was taxed in the said fifteenth (Cal. L. Bk. D. p. 307).

A careful comparison of the assessments of the various wards for fifteenths or fractions of fifteenths, etc., will show that in many instances the assessment of the wards remained unaltered from about the middle of the 14th century to the end of the 16th century, and each ward continued to contribute the amount at which it had been assessed originally, which was regarded as its fair proportion of the City's contribution (Cal. L. Bk. F. 3, 4).

In some of the later assessments, as set out in the Letter Books, it is to be noted that the totals contributed by certain wards do not correspond with the totals of these earlier assessments, whilst in others the totals are identical, and the same discrepancies are to be noticed in the figures of Stow's assessments as compared with those in the Letter Books.

Though in its origin an imperial tax, it is evident that in later times the City made use of the tax for its own purposes, as a convenient and easy method of raising a specified sum, for repair of walls, ditches, etc., and that a fifteen levied by the Mayor and Aldermen on the city was similar in amount to the same tax for imperial purposes.

The last fifteen was levied in 1624.

Fig Tree Alley, Barbican

See Fig Tree Court.

Fig Tree Court

South out of Barbican, in Cripplegate Ward Without (O. and M. 1677-Elmes, 1831).

"Fig-tree Alley" in Hatton, 1708.

The site is now occupied by Australian Avenue (q.v.).

Fig Tree Court

On the east side of Inner Temple Lane, and west side of Inner Temple Hall, within the Temple precincts (P.O. Directory).

Mentioned 1573-4 (Inner Temple Records I. 279).

Rebuilt 1617.

Figstrete

54 H. III. (Auc. Deeds, A. 1590).

Not identified.

Fillibet Court

See Fitchett's Court.

Finch Lane

North out of Cornhill at No. 80 (P.O. Directory). In Cornhill Ward and Broad Street Ward.

Earliest mention : Leake, 1666.

"Finch or Fink Lane" (Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 133, 150).

Former name and forms : "Fynkeslane," 1274-5 (Ct. H.W. I. 22). "Fynkeslane," 1293 (Cal. L. Bk. C. p. 14). "Fynghis Lane," 1305-6 (Ct. H.W. I. 177). "Fenkislane," 5 H. VIII. (L. and P. H. VIII. I. 1509-14, p. 590).

Aylwin Fink held land in Finkeslane (MSS. Balliol College H. MSS. Com. 4th Rep. 449).

So called, Stow says, of Robert Finke, of Robert Finke his sonne, James Finke and Rosamund Finke. Robert Finke new builded the parish church of Saint Bennet Fink and lived on the west side of the lane in the ward of Broadstreete (S. 184). Rosamund Finke is mentioned in Cott. MS. Faust, B. II. (B.M.).

Finckes Lane

Near the Poultry, 1557-67 (Lond. I. p.m. II. p. 70).

Qy.=Finch Lane.

Finsbury

In old times this was a manor or lordship, forming one of the prebends of St. Paul's Cathedral, now a Metropolitan borough outside the city boundary.

It occupied the site of the "Moor" so called in early records, without the postern of Moorgate and Cripplegate.

The name survives in Finsbury Circus, Finsbury Pavement, etc.

A court baron of the Mayor and citizens for the Manor of Finsbury was held in 1636 ; Grub Street, Golden Lane, and Whitecross Street were included within the manor (L. and P. Chas. I. 1636-7, p. 389).

Finsbury Chambers

,-In London Wall (L.C.C. List, 1901).

Finsbury Chapel

A Congregational Chapel on the south side of East Street, Finsbury Circus (O.S.). In Coleman Street Ward.

First mention : Greenwood, 1827-9.

Called Fletcher's Chapel in this map.

Site now occupied by offices and chambers.

Finsbury Circus

Between South Place and Eldon Street north, London Wall south, Blomfield Street east, and Fiusbury Pavement west (P.O. Directory). In Coleman Street Ward.

First mention : Greenwood, 1827-9.

On the site of Moorfields (q.v.) and the second Bethlehem Hospital. Commenced about 1814.

London Institution on the north side.

Finsbury Court

A bridge and cowhouse near "Fensburie Court" mark the eastern boundary of Cripplegate Ward near Morefields (S. 293).

Not further identified. Probably at the north-eastern corner of the ward.