The borough of Southwark: Manors

MANORS

The GILDABLE MANOR was probably in its origin the king's fee in Southwark. (fn. 1) It appears to have become merged in the borough and as such was granted to the City of London in 1406 (see above).

In 1812 the steward presided at the City's annual court leet of this manor, which was held at the George or Cotton's Wharf in the Bridge Yard, and at which two constables, one flesh-taster and one ale-taster were chosen for each of the parishes of St. Saviour and St. Olave. (fn. 2)

LIBERTY OF ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

It is probable that, in addition to the house in Southwark which in 1087 was appurtenant to his manor of Mortlake, a part of the king's possessions in the borough was granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century. The Pipe Rolls record that in 1130–1 4s. out of the aid of the borough was remitted to him, (fn. 3) and in 1157–8 20s. out of the sum due by the men of Southwark. (fn. 4) When in the reign of Richard I the archbishop acquired the manor of Lambeth there were appurtenant to it certain liberties and customs in Southwark which probably became merged in his liberty within the borough. (fn. 5) In 1275 a commission was issued for an inquiry as to the yearly value of the tolls of the men and tenants of the archbi-hop and of the Prior and convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, in the fairs and markets of Southwark, which were due to John de Warenne Earl of Surrey. (fn. 6) They were found to be worth £4. yearly. (fn. 7) In 1349 the extent of the rights enjoyed in this liberty becomes clear, for the king confirmed a grant for life made by the late Archbishop John Stratford to his chamberlain, William atte Fen, of the bailiwick and custody of the archiepiscopal liberty of Southwark, with power to seize, levy fines, issues and amercements, waif and stray, escheats and chattels of felons and fugitives, and to execute writs and other mandates of the king. He should render no account nor farm, saving that he must satisfy the archbishop or the steward of the liberty of the debts of the king, according to the tenor of its estreats delivered to him. (fn. 8) It is evident that the holding was free not only of the borough but also of the shire jurisdiction. (fn. 9)

The lands of the liberty were in the parishes of St. George, St. Margaret and St. Olave. (fn. 10) In 1538 it was surrendered to the Crown by Thomas Cranmer, archbishop. (fn. 11) Edward VI in 1550 granted to the Mayor, commonalty and citizens of London 'all our manor and borough of Southwark,'with all their rights, members, and appurtunances, lately parcel of the possessions of the archbishopric of Canterbury, and some rents from tenements in Southwark which had been in the same ownership. (fn. 12) In 1567–8 the City claimed certain dues on the ground of Cranmer's surrender and of the subsequent grant by Edward VI. (fn. 13) This term 'the borough of Southwark' does not occur in regard to the archbishop's liberty in earlier records. It would here seem to imply only those rights of the liberty which were equivalent to the burghal rights from which it was exempt. The liberty may subsequently be identified with the City's Great Liberty Manor of Southwark. This includes roughly the ancient borough to the east of the Borough High Street, except that part of it which is in the Gildable Manor, and its outlying southern portion around Tabard Street and the Old Kent Road. (fn. 14) In 1812 the courts leet were held annually at the Three Tuns Tavern in the High Street, and there were chosen three constables, two ale-casters and one flesh-taster for the part of St. Saviour's parish in the manor; two constables and one ale-taster for St. George's parish; four constables, one ale-taster and one flesh-taster for that of St. John; three constables and one ale-taster for that of St. Olave, and for that of St. Thomas two constables and one ale-taster. (fn. 15) The steward presided. (fn. 16)

Stow says that the walks and gardens appertaining to the inn of the Abbot of Battle and opposite to it, on the north side of Tooley Street, were called THE MAZE. (fn. 17) They appear to have constituted the territory of the manor so called, for lands thus situated were in 1386 in the tenure of Sir William Burcestre, kt., (fn. 18) who is otherwise known to have held the manor of the Maze. It was held in dower in 1423 by Margaret widow' of Sir William, and was settled after her death on his son John. (fn. 19) The latter is stated, in a survey made in 1429–30, to have held a water mill in Southwark of the Abbot of Battle for a yearly rent of £3 6s. 8d. (fn. 20) Probably not only a mill but the whole property of William and John Burcestre was held of the abbot. By 1472 the manor had been alienated, for it was then granted by Robert Lemyng, brother and heir of William Lemyng, lately citizen and grocer of London, to Roger Copley and others. (fn. 21) Henceforward it followed the descent of the manor of Gatton until after the sale of Gatton in 1654 by John Weston of Sutton and Mary his wife, daughter and co-heir of William Copley, after which it descended with the Sutton Place estate until as late as 1814, when it was held by John Webbe Weston of Sutton Place. (fn. 22)

The charter of 1550 gave to the City an annual rent of 3s. 2½d. and service from lands and tenements sometime in the tenure of John Burcestre, kt. (fn. 23) The grant follows on that of the archbishop's manor, and it probably conveyed the rights of Battle Abbey in the manor of the Maze, the position of which, like that of all the property of Battle Abbey, leads to the conclusion that it was within the Great Liberty Manor. Stow says of Maze Manor: 'Much other buildings of small tenements are thereon builded, replenished with strangers and other, for the most part poor people.' (fn. 24) In 1650 the manor, which had been sequestrated for the recusancy of William Copley, was surveyed. A court was then kept on it, but only for the purpose of setting out the bounds: it yielded no profits. The manor was worth £480 a year, but two-thirds of it had been let to George Weston at an annual rent of £220, because all the houses were out of repair, two of them had lately been burnt, an expenditure of £60 on the amendment of a wharf would shortly be necessary, and some tenants were too poor to pay arrears of rent. The Committee for Sequestration had always let the manor in parts. The collection of the rents, since they were payable quarterly and by nearly eighty tenants, was sufficient to occupy a man's whole time. The assessors laid taxes, without order or method, on the best tenants only, and thus all the highest rents were absorbed and only the worst left to be collected. (fn. 25) In 1661 the free tenants who owed suit to the court baron of the manor included the governors of the grammar school for a tenement in Horsleydown (q.v.) and holders at Battle Bridge, in Mill Lane, Bermondsey Street and Le Maze. (fn. 26) The site of the manor is marked by Weston Street, Weston Place, Melior Street, Great Maze Pond and Maze Pond.

MANOR OF BERMONDSEY ABBEY.

A hide of Southwark is said to have been originally a part of the manor of Bermondsey which was royal demesne. (fn. 27) In 1127 it was granted by Henry I to the priory of Bermondsey, (fn. 28) to whom in 1130–1 31s. out of the aid of the borough was remitted. (fn. 29) The grant by Henry I must have included the area of the liberty of the Clink (see below), and after it the monks must have held a continuous tract of territory, which included the later Paris Garden, acquired by the abbey in 1113 (see below). Henry II confirmed to them their hide (fn. 30) and granted to them 40s. out of the farm of Southwark. Their manor of Southwark shared the privileges granted to them in 1160 in all their lands, and was thus exempted from the shire, hundred and borough jurisdictions. It was affected by the grant of free warren in 1170. (fn. 31) In 1279–80 the charter of Henry I was confirmed by Edward I; and Richard II in 1378 confirmed the grants by Henry I, Henry II and Edward I. (fn. 32)

The fee of the monks lay in the parish of St. Margaret (fn. 33) and in that of St. George, both within and without the bar of Southwark. (fn. 34) Between 1427 and 1432 they received rents from property not in their fee in the parishes of St. Olave and St. Mary Magdalen. (fn. 35) Their manor was bestowed by the king in 1550, with all its rights, members and appurtenances, on the Mayor, commonalty and citizens of London. (fn. 36) It was that known subsequently as the King's Manor, of which the courts leet were held in 1812 in the town hall on St. Margaret's Hill. Two constables, one a'e-taster and one flesh-taster were then chosen for the part of the manor in St. George's parish, and one constable, one ale-taster and one flesh-taster for that in the parish of St. Saviour. (fn. 37) This manor comprehends the south-western part of old Southwark, with which it is coincident. It adjoins Paris Garden and the Clink on the north; and its north-eastern boundary is roughly parallel with the Borough High Street and with a small western part of Long Lane, and divides it from the Gildable and the Great Liberty Manors. (fn. 38)

SUFFOLK PLACE or the LIBERTY OF THE MINT.

In 1307 Robert Poun was appointed to hold the office of the marshalsea of the Bench at pleasure, and William de Grantham was ordered to deliver the prisoners to him. (fn. 39) There is no reason to suppose that the King's Bench prison was then elsewhere than in its later place in Southwark, on the east side of the Borough High Street, between St. George's Church and the Marshalsea prison. (fn. 40) In 1381 the insurgents, when they halted in the borough on their way to London, broke down the prison and its inmates joined their ranks. (fn. 41) It was reserved to the Crown, with its appurtenant lands, in 1550. (fn. 42) Stow states that those confined in this gaol were 'much punished by straitness of room,' and that nearly one hundred died within six years of 1579 'through a contagion called sickness of the house, which often happened from the few rooms and many inhabitants.' (fn. 43)

In 1510 Charles Brandon, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, received the office of marshal of the King's Bench to hold at the royal pleasure. (fn. 44) On a site in the High Street of the Borough, almost opposite to St. George's Church, and held of Bermondsey Abbey, (fn. 45) he built for himself 'a large and sumptuous house.' (fn. 46) It was, with its grounds, called Suffolk Place, and it probably stood on land appurtenant to the King's Bench prison. In 1519 Henry Courtenay Earl of Devon dined with the duke at Suffolk Place (fn. 47); in 1522 the king and the Emperor Charles V were there entertained. (fn. 48) The duke surrendered his 'place' in Southwark to the Crown by way of exchange for Norwich House, thence called Suffolk Place, in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and in 1536 it was assured to the king by Parliament. (fn. 49) In the same year Richard Long, esquire of the body, was appointed keeper of the mansion which the duke had held in the Borough, (fn. 50) and in 1537 it was granted to Queen Jane for life. (fn. 51) A map of 1542 shows a considerable inclosed area called 'the liberty of the manor,' which had gates, called the Park Gates, to the south, probably in Stoney Street, and to the north. The house is marked as 'the manor place.' (fn. 52) In this year and in 1543 payments were made for carpenters' work in the king's house in Southwark, for the making of bird-cages there and the scouring of ditches in Southwark Park between the private garden and the water-slaice. (fn. 53) These improvements have probably been recorded by the name of Birdcage Walk. The mint established in this house is first mentioned in 1545 (fn. 54) and appears to have been discontinued before Stow's day. In 1548 Edward VI dined at Suffolk Place, (fn. 55) and it is said to have been because he so delighted in it that he excepted it from the places which he granted to the City. (fn. 56) Queen Mary in 1555–6 gave it to Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, as the town house of the archbishops, in compensation for York Place, which had been annexed to Westminster Palace. With it she granted all its dovecotes, orchards, gardens, ponds, vineyards, outhouses, banqueting houses and the other land and buildings surrounded by its hedge, the conduits in and around it and 14 acres or more of adjacent lands, together with the liberties, franchises, privileges, rights, profits and services which belonged to it. (fn. 57) The archbishop sold Suffolk or Southwark Place in Southwark to buy Suffolk Place or Norwich House, near Charing Cross. (fn. 58) In 1584 Southwark Place was bequeathed by Anthony Cage, salter and citizen of London, to his third son Edward. (fn. 59) Stow tells us that the merchant of London, perhaps Anthony Cage, who bought it from Archbishop Heath, demolished the house, sold the materials and built 'many small cottages of great rents to the increasing of beggars in that borough.' (fn. 60) It was, however, still described as the capital messuage called Suffolk Place when Edward Cage died in possession of it in 1625, leaving a son and heir John. (fn. 61) The bulk of the property was sold by a Cage, presumably John, to Sir Edward Bromfield, Lord Mayor of London in 1636, for £1, 700. In the time of the Commonwealth it was said to be rather worth £1,700 a year, and to have been sold thus cheaply because Cage had fled for murder. (fn. 62) It was surveyed in 1651, on the ground that the grant to the archbishop had been illegal, (fn. 63) and it then held a capital messuage or mansion-house, built of brick and timber, in which were a hall, parlour, kitchen, buttery, larder, cellar and some other rooms on the ground floor, six chambers above stairs with garrets over them, and an adjacent wash-house with two chambers above it. The precincts included a stable, a coach-house, other outhouses, some orchards and a courtyard in which was a long fish pond. The Great Mint Garden was still planted with all sorts of fruit trees and garden fruit, and a tenement was built on it. There were fourteen other tenements on the estate, to most of which garden plots were attached, and of which three had been alienated by John Cage. (fn. 64) Sir Edward Bromfield was succeeded by Sir John Bromfield, created a baronet in 1661. His son Sir Edward settled it in 1679 on his only daughter Joyce, her husband Thomas Lant and her heirs. (fn. 65) An Act of Parliament for the improvement of Suffolk Place empowered Thomas Lant in 1701 to grant leases for fifty-one years. (fn. 66) He was succeeded in 1722 by his son John, who died in 1738 and left as heir his brother Robert. He in 1756 settled the reversion of the estate, after his death, on his illegitimate daughter Elizabeth Warfield or Lant. He died in 1758, and in 1763 Elizabeth married John Bullock of Faulkbourne Hall, Essex. In 1772 an Act enabled the sale of part of this estate and the granting of leases. (fn. 67) In the next year it was advertised to let at a rent of £1,000 a year and described as containing 17 acres of land, on which were 400 houses. In 1763 Mrs. Bullock had made a settlement reserving to herself the power of disposing of the property by will if there were no issue of her marriage. As she was childless, she devised it accordingly to her husband; and by a deed of 1780 its reversion after his and her death was vested in her niece Julia Elizabeth Watson, the wife of Jonathan Josiah Christopher Watson of Hayes in Middlesex. Elizabeth Bullock died in 1793 and her husband in 1811. After the latter event the property, which now consisted of 600 dwelling-houses producing a rental of £2,000 a year, was sold by auction in ninety-eight lots.

At the date of this sale it was stated that the owner had always exercised the right of appointing two constables to act within the liberties of the estate, and such privilege was reserved to the purchaser of the largest lot. (fn. 68)

In the estate of Suffolk Place, more usually called the Mint from the 17th century, persons were immune from liability of arrest, probably on the ground that they were within the Rules of the King's Bench prison, although the immunity was apparently not recognized by law. (fn. 69) Stow does not mention the liberty of the Mint; it seems to have become important after the district was one of many and small tenements. The disorders of the prison and of this appurtenant place were heightened by a grant of James I in 1617 to Sir William Smith, kt., of the hereditary tenure of the marshalsea of the Bench. (fn. 70) The Act of 8 & 9 William III, which permitted the sheriff to call, if necessary, a 'posse comitatus' for service of a process within certain privileged places, included among them the Mint. (fn. 71) In 1710 a 'True Description of the Mint' was written by one of the inhabitants. He divided the dwellers into three classes. The 'Benchers' were those committed to the prison who, by giving security that they would not escape, had bought the liberty of the Rules. These reached from a little below the prison to St. George's Church, of which they included one side, and comprehended the Mint, bounded on the south by the ditch which separated it from St. George's Fields. The Benchers paid 2s. 6d. a week to the marshal for chamber rent, and lightened the conditions of their life by making interest with him. His spies guarded against their escape. The second class consisted of the 'Shelterers,' apparently persons who had resorted to the Mint in fear of arrest and who rented dwellings in it. They were 'a composition enough to frighten the devil.' They had enlarged the liberties by an inclusion of all Whitecross Street, and were said to 'bear such sway over St. George's Fields, even to Cupid's Gardens, that they will not suffer any person to be arrested within those limits.' Thus, through their means, the Benchers had acquired unmolested enjoyment of the green fields and walks beyond the ditch to the south of the Mint. The third class of residents was constituted by 'minters and inhabitants,' a numerous and largely disreputable body of former prisoners and of householders, who were able to go abroad at pleasure.

At each of the three entrances to the Mint, in Mint Street, in Whitecross Street and at the sign of 'The Two Fighting Cocks,' there was a club, at which the inhabitants assembled at least twice weekly to defend from arrest persons unable to pay their debts and to punish the bailiffs, setters and followers. Each club had a steward, who, attended by six beadles, sat as judge at the trials of any suspected of being a bailiff or of acting on the behalf of one. The service of warrants not designed to trepan persons in the Mint for debt, and of warrants on any already the objects of a commission of bankruptcy, as well as the impressment of vagabonds as soldiers, was permitted.

The privileges of the Mint were costly. Rents were twice as high as elsewhere and were rack rents; hence the great value of Suffolk Place. Lodgers paid more here than in the midst of the City, and had to give payment for a month in advance. No credit was anywhere obtainable.

The writer describes the amusements of the society. 'We go to Cuperts and Moorshanks for bowls; we have our square and usual houses of meeting; at the "Sign of the Angel" we can play all day and all night too; we have our friend Isaac behind our Square who has wine and brandy of the best; we recreate ourselves at the "Sign of the Chimney Sweeper" or at the "Sign of the Red Cow." ' (fn. 72)

In 1725 the rector of St. George's Church reported to Bishop Willis that the gentry resident in his parish were 'one Baronet, two Ladies and several gentlemen, all inhabiting the Rules of the King's Bench.'

In the year 1705 some serious brawls between dwellers in the Mint and officers of justice produced a resolution of the House of Commons that traitors, murderers, felons and other criminals, as well as persons sheltering themselves from their creditors within the limits of the Mint, had assembled in great numbers and were harboured with a strong hand against justice in a riotous and tumultuous manner, to the obstruction and in defiance of justice, which practice might have dangerous consequences. (fn. 73) In 1722 an Act of Parliament declared that, since the Act of the reign of William III had not been effectual within Suffolk Place, persons who opposed the execution of writs should henceforth be deemed guilty of felony and be liable to transportation; that the sheriff might raise the 'posse comitatus' to arrest any who owed more than £50, and should be fined £200 if he refused to do so; that those who opposed officers should be transported; that disguised persons who abetted riots or impeded execution of process should be deemed guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and that any who concealed or aided them should be punished by transportation. (fn. 74)

The appointment to the office of marshal was by Act of Parliament r-stored to the Crown in 1754, and it was rendered obligatory for its holder to live within the Rules. The sum of £7,800 was granted to erect a new prison, (fn. 75) which stood on the site now marked by the King's Bench Walk. It was burnt in 1780 during the Lord George Gordon riots, but afterwards rebuild. (fn. 76)

An order of court in 1720 described the extent of the Rales, but the privilege continued to be abused. In 1790 the Lord Chief Justice defined the boundaries as extending from Great Cumber Court in the parish of St. George, and along the north side of Dirty Lane and Melancholy Walk, now Great Suffolk Street and Pocock Street, to Blackfriars Road, and along the western side of that road to the Obelisk; thence along the south-west side of the London Road, round the signpost near the 'Elephant and Castle,' and along the east side of Newington Causeway to Great Cumber Court. He ordered that the New Gaol in Southwark and the highway between it and the King's Bench prison, exclusive of the houses on either side of it, should be within the Rules, but that no places licensed to sell spirits should be deemed to be part of them. (fn. 77)

In 1842 this prison was constituted by Act of Parliament the only one for debtors, bankrupts and others who had previously been liable to confinement within it and in the prisons of the Marshalsea and the Fleet. It was ordered to be called henceforth the Queen's Prison. The liberty of the Rules was abolished together with the prisoners' fees, and the duty of making regulations for the gaol was given to the Secretary of State. Lunatics were transferred to Bedlam and the prisoners were classified. (fn. 78) The Queen's Prison was discontinued in 1862 and its property vested in the Crown. The prisoners were removed to the debtors' prisons for London and Middlesex. (fn. 79) The site of the Mint is indicated by the names of Mint Street, Lant Street and Great Suffolk Street. At the end of Layton's Buildings there is a brick house, dating from about the year 1710, which probably served as the lodging of the governor of the King's Bench prison.

The manor of the Bishop of Winchester or CLINK LIBERTY was formed for the most part out of the hide of Southwark granted to the monks of Bermondsey. King Stephen granted to Bishop Henry of Blois, his brother, and to the church of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Swithun at Winchester, and the bishop's successors, possessions in Southwark which Henry had bought. They were land and houses acquired from Ordgarnet and his successors, lands of the fee of St. Saviour of Bermondsey, whence the bishop must render 40s. to the monks, and lands bought of Henry de Lambal and his son William in the fee of Hugh de Bolbek, 'with the port of the ships.' (fn. 80)

In 1189–90 the Pipe Roll records the payment of £6 out of the revenues of the bishopric to the monks of Bermondsey for the service of the land at Southwark, and of 119s for the mending, in obedience to a royal writ, of the quay and the mills there. (fn. 81) The former entry probably marks the incurrence of an obligation additional to the existing one of rendering 40s. annually to Bermondsey Priory. Richard of Ilchester, bishop from 1173 to 1189, formally recognized that he had paid £8 a year to the monks for houses in the parish of St. Margaret which he had given to his church and his successors. (fn. 82)

The manor of Southwark was confirmed to the Bishops of Winchester in 1284, (fn. 83) and the grant of King Stephen in 1317. (fn. 84) The Prior of Bermondsey received licence in 1319 to remit the rent of £8; but it was again paid in 1324, (fn. 85) 1345 (fn. 86) and 1366. (fn. 87)

The Bishops of Winchester, almost invariably royal ministers, frequently resided at their house at Southwark, especially when the city of Winchester ceased to be in any sense the capital city of the kingdom; and Winchester House was the scene of important events. In 1232, after the king had commanded the citizens to go to Merton and to produce Hubert de Burgh alive or dead, some of the more discreet of them 'came hurriedly to the house of Bishop Peter of Winchester, and, arousing him from a heavy sleep, asked his counsel.' He answered, 'The one course is hard, the other is dire; yet I undoubtingly advise you to fulfil your lord's precept.' (fn. 88) In 1258 it was reported that many nobles of England had been craftily poisoned in the house of the elect of Winchester, Aylmer de Lusignan, while the Poitevins were receiving refreshment. (fn. 89) The marriage feast of James of Scotland and Joan Beaufort was held in Winchester House in 1423, Henry Beaufort the bishop being uncle to the bride. (fn. 90)

In 1528 Bishop Richard Fox wrote to the lord treasurer that he had been 'at great charge in repairing his ruinous houses at Southwark.' (fn. 91) But, whatever its state of repair, the bishop's house in the borough was called a palace in 1541. (fn. 92) When Wolsey held the see in 1530 William Paulet wrote to him that he had visited his three weeks court held in the Clink, and this is the earliest occurrence of the name by which the liberty came to be known. Paulet announced his intention of surveying the place and its implements, of which the Prior of St. Mary Overy had an inventory. (fn. 93) In the same year the king granted to Thomas Dawson, marshal of his hall, and William Burdett, page of his stirrup, the offices of bailiff and keeper of the manor of the Clink in Southwark, with 2d. a day, which places were in his hands because of the forfeiture of Thomas Cardinal of York. (fn. 94) The manor reverted to Stephen Gardiner, the successor to the see. He in 1547 wrote to request the interference of the Lord Protector, because he intended to have a solemn dirge and mass for the late king, and the players in Southwark had projected 'a solemn play, to try who shall have the most resort, they in game or I in earnest.' (fn. 95) At Gardiner's sequestration the lordship must have devolved on the Crown, and this ownership of it was continued by a deed executed in 1551, the year of his accession to the bishopric, by John Poynet, and by the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, which vested the manor of Southwark and a capital messuage in that town in the king, his heirs and his assigns. (fn. 96) Subsequently the episcopal residence was held by the Marquess of Northampton attainted in 1553, and he built the gallery of Winchester House. (fn. 97) In the year of his attainder letters from the Council directed that his officers should depart from the house of the Clink, which belonged to my lord of Winchester, and that the bishop's people should be suffered to enter it immediately. An inventory of all goods in the house was to be left with the latter for the use of the queen whenever she should call for it. (fn. 98) Later in the year a meeting of the Privy Council, at which the Bishop of Winchester was present as chancellor, was held at the Clink. (fn. 99) The house was pillaged and the library ruthlessly destroyed by Wyatt's insurgents in 1554. The Elizabethan bishops often lived in Southwark. (fn. 100) Stow describes 'the Bishop of Winchester's house or lodging when he cometh to this city. . . . This is a very fair house, well repaired and hath a large wharf and landing place, called the Bishop of Winchester's Stairs.' (fn. 101) It is to be seen plainly on all the 16th-century maps of Southwark. (fn. 102) Lancelot Andrewes died there.

By the Long Parliament Winchester House was turned in 1642 into a prison. (fn. 103) In 1643 Joseph Zinzan or Alexander petitioned the House of Lords for the use of the stable and yard as a riding school. (fn. 104) In 1649 the trustees for the estates of bishoprics sold to Thomas Walker of Southwark, his heirs and assigns, all the manor of Southwark commonly called Winchester Liberty or the Clink Liberty, the appurtenant rights and rents, and the yearly sums called the chaise rent. This grant included the capital messuage or mansion-house which was the palace of the late bishop; the ground, buildings and gardens belonging to it; the wharves and the wharfage due to the bishop for all commodities landed at the dock, commonly known as 'St. Mary Overey's Dock,' in Southwark; certain lands to the west of the palace, the subject of grants by the bishop and in several occupations; some ground in Clink Street; a great garden called Deadman's Place, on which were divers buildings and a gatehouse; a house in St. Saviour's parish on a tenement once held by the brotherhood of Our Lady in the church of St. Margaret; a garden known as Mellwarde Garden on the south side of Maiden Lane; and four tenements between St. Mary Overy's on the east and Stewes Bank on the west. The other rights conveyed were those of a court leet, a view of frankpledge, a court baron and any other courts and customs which the bishop had held, the goods and chattels of felons, forfeitures, wardship, marriage, escheats, releases, heriots, fines, issues, amercements, perquisites and profits of courts, goods and chattels of fugitives, persons of themselves outlawed, clerks convicted and persons put in exigent, waifs, strays, deodands, hawking, hunting, fowling, fishing, commons, ground used for common ways, passages, waters, water-courses, jurisdictions, and the reversion and remainder of all the property on the manor that was held by customary tenants. (fn. 105) The lordship reverted at the Restoration to the bishopric of Winchester, but was not again the episcopal residence. An Act of 1661 permitted it to be let out to several tenants. It is said that after the Great Fire of London chestnut trees cut from the park of Winchester House were employed in building several houses in Gracechurch Street. In 1813 some pieces of old stonework, in which had been arches, formed entrances to the house and offices on the site of the palace. (fn. 106) The rights of the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark Park estate or Winchester Park estate were vested in 1863 in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Certain portions of the property had then been acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works, the Charing Cross Railway Company, the wardens of St. Saviour's Church and several private persons. (fn. 107)

The house stood on the river bank immediately to the west of St. Mary Overy Dock. It consisted of a pile of buildings of considerable size and importance, the general disposition of which is best shown on Hollar's View of London. Along the river front stood two buildings of equal width and almost equal length, divided by a gable wall. These are both shown on Van den Wyngaerde's drawing and their similarity in size has caused some controversy as to which was the great hall. There can, however, be little doubt that the eastern portion was the building in question, and it is now the only part of the house of which there are any remains. The great hall was built about the middle of the 14th century. The hall itself was on the first floor, above a low substructure, and, as at Crosby Hall, had evidently a number of private rooms at the east end under the same roof. The existing remains consist of the whole of the west wall and gable and a portion of the return wall of the south side. This latter contains two doorways, one plain with a pointed segmental arch opening into the substructure and another above it, very deeply moulded, which formed the southern entrance to the screens. In the west wall at the hall floor level the three doors leading to the offices are intact, and above them in the gable is the fine rose window, of which the tracery is probably only hidden by a brick filling on both sides. This window, the finest feature of the building, together with the open timber roof, are well shown on Gwilt's drawing here reproduced. The hall was altered by Bishop Gardiner and a doorway at the east end, standing in 1814, bore his arms with those of the see and the motto 'VANA SALVS HOIS.' A considerable length of ragstone wall still exists, running west and continuing the line of the south wall of the hall, but it contains no features of interest; a drawing of a piece of Tudor alteration to this part of the building was on its destruction reproduced in the Builder. On the south side a large courtyard surrounded by covered alleys adjoined the hall. On the north side the alley was two stages high, and, judging from the numerous views of such remains as survived until the beginning of the 19th century, it was of early 16th-century date. The greater part of the site is now covered by bonded warehouses, in the walls of which all the existing remains are incorporated.

In 1459, at the great leet held within the lordship, ordinances were made by twelve men which amounted to a declaration of custom; some were referred to 'the old custom.' They regulated the presentment of offenders at the court of the lordship and their punishment by fine, forfeiture, the ducking stool, (fn. 108) banishment from the lordship and imprisonment. It is evident, therefore, that the bishop's prison already existed. The officers were the bailiffs of the franchise, the constable and the boursholder, presumably a treasurer. Some cognizance over civil suits is proved by an ordinance that no man nor woman within the franchise might take any action in a court of the king on an obligation which did not exceed 40s., but that such matters must be brought to the lord's court and there determined, on pain of a forfeiture of £10 to the lord for each offence. This privilege, which came to be that of holding a court of record with cognizance in cases of debt and trespass, (fn. 109) and the power to administer justice in case of offences against public order, appears to have originated the liberty of the bishop's manor. The newer ordinances, made in the 15th century, seem to presuppose some freedom from arrest by any but officers of the lordship which was enjoyed by the inhabitants.

It was ruled in 1445 that neither the bailiff of the lordship nor his deputies might make arrest for things presented by the twelve men for the king unless they were accompanied by the constable, and they must show a bill of the names of all that were to be presented. In 1449, 1450 and 1454 it was ordained at leets that the bailiff might, except for the lord or for the king, neither attach nor arrest without warrant any but those whom he found 'against the site of the lord's manor or in its precincts,' which terms seem to refer to the house of the lord and the land around it. (fn. 110) In 1697 the Act of Parliament which enforced arrest of debtors by the sheriff within 'certain pretended privileged places' numbered among the latter the Clink or Deadman's Place, (fn. 111) and it may have been more effectual there than in the Mint. The peculiar privileges of the Clink apparently became obsolete in the 18th century; there were not near at hand to preserve them any such body of persons as the King's Bench prisoners. The bishop's court of record was said in 1814 to have been for long discontinued. (fn. 112)

Stow notices ' the Clink, a gaol or prison for trespassers in those parts; namely in old time for such as should brabble, fray, or break the peace on the said bank or in the brothel houses: they were by the inhabitants thereabout apprehended and committed to this gaol, where they were straitly imprisoned.' (fn. 113) The prison in 1714 was 'disused, very ruinous and of little or no account.' (fn. 114) Its decaying condition caused its removal in 1745 to a house on Bankside, and this was burnt in 1780 during the Lord George Gordon riots. (fn. 115)

An authority, probably of the 15th century, cites rules for the government of the stewholders of Southwark, in the lordship of the bishop, as made 'in Parliament' in 1161–2. (fn. 116) It may be that Henry II in council then regulated the Stews, and that they were already established on the bank of the river in the bishop's manor. A licence to the bishop to alienate land within 'Lestues' occurs in 1351, (fn. 117) and in 1381 Wat Tyler's insurgents wrecked the Stews which the Lord Mayor Walworth held of the bishop and had sublet to ' frows of Flanders.' (fn. 118) The ordinances declared at the leet of 1459 provide a system of rigorous inspection of the Stews, to be conducted by officers of the lordship, and prescribe rules enforced by punishments. (fn. 119) In 1506 the Stews were discontinued for a short time, and in 1547 they were finally suppressed by royal proclamation. According to Stow, a plot in the parish burial-ground, known as the Single Women's Churchyard, was apportioned to the women of the Stews. (fn. 120) Their memory survived till 1613, for the epilogue to Henry VIII refers to the 'galled goose of Winchester.'

An annual court leet was in 1814 held within the manor, and at it a jury of twenty-four or more were sworn and constables, head boroughmen, ale-conners, a beadle and a bellman chosen. (fn. 121)

The site of the Clink Liberty is marked by the names of Clink Street, in which stood the Clink prison, Winchester Street, Winchester Yard, and Bank Street and the Bankside, which occupy the place of the Stews. St. Saviour's Dock, near the cathedral, must be that in which the bishop enjoyed rights. (fn. 122)

In 1466–7 Thomas Bughill released to the Bishop of Winchester lands at Les Wylos within the bishop's manor of Southwark which were called the manor of WYLOS. (fn. 123) The place was presumably one where willow trees grew, and hence marshy land near the river within the lordship. In 1661 the bailiff of the liberty received a rent of £10 6s. 8d. for the farm of the meadows called 'le Willes' or Southwark Park. (fn. 124) The present Willow Wharf probably indicates the site of this property.

The reputed manor of HORSEYDOWN (hodie Horsleydown) was apparently an ancient possession of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1206 Thomas de St. Christopher conveyed to the prior 5 acres of land in Horsemead to hold for 11 marks (fn. 125); and a certain Christiana gave to him 2½ acres in the field called Horscismead and 1 acre in Horscisdune burdened with a rent of 3s. to her and of 2s. 6d. to her heirs. (fn. 126) At the time of its dissolution the house received £8 yearly as the farm of the mill of Horseydown. (fn. 127) In 1544 John Eyre, the king's servant, bought from the Crown the water mill called St. John's Milne in Horseydown which had belonged to the hospital. (fn. 128) This mill, with 5 acres of land called Cross Leas and all lands, waters and profits which belonged to it, was conveyed in 1584 by William Gardyner to Samuel Thomas, his heirs and assigns. In 1591 the licence to alienate was received. (fn. 129) Samuel held in 1600–1. (fn. 130) In 1621 there is mention of the manor of Horseydown (fn. 131); in 1641 Sir Anthony Thomas, kt., died in possession of the manor, St. John's Mill and St. Saviour's Dock, as his inheritance from his father Samuel. The son and heir of Anthony was another Samuel. (fn. 132) He appears to have received an advance of money from Richard Dagnall on the security of St. John of Jerusalem's mills in Horseydown, and to have forfeited them as a consequence of the transaction, for in 1669 Anthony Thomas of Chobham Place, the heir of the younger Samuel, petitioned the House of Lords for a reversal of the decree and proceedings in Chancery as to such an advance. (fn. 133) It is stated in the History of Surrey by Manning and Bray that the land called Horseydown was bought by the parish of St. Olave and assigned by the parishioners to the endowment of St. Olave's grammar school before 1604. This appears to be a part of Horseydown which was within the manor of Bermondsey Abbey. It had been granted to Sir Roger Copley and had been bought by the vestry for the purposes of a school as far back as 1553, before the school was actually founded. It consisted of about 15 acres of uninclosed grass, on which the inhabitants had possessed common grazing rights. (fn. 134) There is also proof that a burial-ground, some almshouses built by the vestry and a ground for the exercise of the trained bands of Southwark were situated on Horseydown. (fn. 135) The last is probably the Martial Yard in Horsleydown, which in 1636 Captain Francis Grove and other gentlemen had inclosed with a brick wall and were utilizing for the exercise of arms. They petitioned the king for leave to build in it an armoury, (fn. 136) and there are other references to the artillery ground in this and the next century. (fn. 137) It has served to name Artillery Street, which continues Crucifix Lane from Bermondsey Street. In 1662 the governors of the school sought licence to erect brick houses at Horsleydown, near the water, where they were wanted by many seamen and would increase the revenue of the school. The desired permission was granted. (fn. 138) It is probably in this period that Horsleydown lost its old character, that of a tract of meadow land on which were a mill or mills, and came to be, before the middle of the 18th century, an area covered with streets and houses. (fn. 139) The strand which belonged to the property is marked by the names of Horsleydown Stairs, Jerusalem Wharf, Horsleydown New Stairs and St. Saviour's Dock, known as Savory Dock in the 18th century. (fn. 140) The dedication of the church of St. John, Horsleydown, is appropriate.

The manor of WIDEFLETE or PARIS GARDEN was situated on the river bank and was bounded by the lands of the Bishop of Winchester and the boundary of Southwark Borough on the east, on the west by an outlying portion of Kennington Manor, from which it was partly separated by a water-course, (fn. 141) and by Lambeth, and on the south by the Southwark manor of Bermondsey.

In 1113 Robert Marmion gave the hide of Wideflete, with mills and other appurtenant possessions, to the monks of Bermondsey. Reynold, prior, and the convent granted it in 1166, with its men, mills, waters, ponds and other appurtenances, to the brothers of the Temple to hold for a yearly rent of 10 marks. (fn. 142) Subsequently the Templars demised the manor to keepers or farmers. In May 1311 the king ordered William de Montacute, keeper of the Templars' lands in Southwark, to cause the walls and ditches on the banks of the Thames which pertained to that property to be repaired out of the issues of it. (fn. 143) Another royal order was issued to the keeper of the manor in 1312 to repair its mills at an expenditure which should not exceed £10. (fn. 144) In 1319 licence was granted for the Prior and convent of Bermondsey to exchange the hide of land called Wytheflct and the two mills on it with the Archbishop of Canterbury for other property (fn. 145); but it appears that no use was made of such permission, for the manor continued to be held of Bermondsey. It passed from the tenure of the Templars into that of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1338 it was held for life by Hawisia de Swalelive in lieu of a pension of £20 granted to her by Thomas Larcher, late prior, who had greatly burdened the order by granting pensions in return for fines of ready money. (fn. 146) In 1420 John Duke of Bedford was farmer under the Hospitallers of the 'privilleged place called Parish Garden or Wideflete or Wiles.' (fn. 147) The first name was probably derived from Robert Parys or Paris, a London grocer and shipowner, who seems to have had a house there in 1390. (fn. 148) He was marshal of the marshalsea of the King's Bench from 1384 to 1392 (fn. 149) and possibly had been farmer of this manor.

The privileges of Paris Garden were an outcome of its possession by the Templars and of their enjoyment of immunity under the papal bull which dates probably from 1200. (fn. 150) Certain ordinances to regulate them were made by the Duke of Bedford. It was enacted that any man who fled to Paris Garden for safety must be asked the cause of his flight, whether it were his debt, felony or other transgression, and his answer must be registered together with his name. For this he should pay 4d. to the lord. He must swear on the book that henceforward he would do nothing which could bring lesion, scandal or damage to his place of refuge, that he would keep all its statutes and ordinances, that he would not leave it by day or by night. He broke the last of these oaths at his peril. If he came because he had committed a felony he must be kept for the whole night after his arrival under the custody of six men of the soc unless surety were given for him or unless there were a report of his good rule. Any who was guilty of a felony after his arrival in Paris Garden lost the benefit of the place and was committed to the King's Bench. Fines were inflicted for breaches of the peace and for offences against morality. He who left without leave must pay 4d. to the lord when he returned. (fn. 151)

In 1434 the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem held the mills of Wideflete with the garden called Parish Garden and several lands, tenements, meadows and pastures in Southwark, Kennington, Lambeth and Newington of the Abbot of Bermondsey for a yearly rent of 10 marks and 4s. (fn. 152) The lordship is called that of St. John at Parys Garden between 1475 and 1485. (fn. 153) A grant of the property at farm is extant for the year 1505. The prior then gave to Robert Udale, citizen and goldsmith of London, a lease of thirty-one years of the mansion-place of Paris Garden, 'as it standeth within the moat there, and also two gardens butting upon the said mansion place, with the gatehouse, and with four pastures called the Poundyard, the Conyng Garth, the Chapel hawe and Walnut trees,' and their appurtenances, as John Hellow had lately held and occupied them. Further he granted 'two other pastures about the dike there called the Willows Woods.' The rent was to be £8 13s. 4d. annually. (fn. 154) Another lease of thirty years of the same premises was made to Robert in 1518, (fn. 155) and in 1524 there was a lease of them to Robert Amadas, citizen and goldsmith, for forty years at a rent of £ 10 a year. (fn. 156) Bermondsey Abbey retained its rights in the manor until 1536, when it conveyed them to the king. (fn. 157) The manor was assigned to Queen Jane as dower and assured to her in Parliament in the same year. (fn. 158) In 1537 it had reverted to the Crown by her death. (fn. 159) Robert Urmiston received a lease of the property demised to Robert Udale and paid for it the increased rent of £52 a year, because he constructed in and about the mansion-house the new bowling alleys. (fn. 160) A lease for twenty-one years on like terms was made to William Barley in 1542. (fn. 161) In 1542–3, however, the game of bowls was prohibited by Act of Parliament, and consequently Edmund Wiseman in 1562 acquired a lease for twenty-one years of the house, pastures and gatehouse at the old rent of £10. (fn. 162) In 1578 the queen granted to Robert Newdigate and Arthur Fountaigne, at the request of Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, the lordship and manor of Paris Garden. (fn. 163) Later in the year Newdigate and Fountaigne demised to Lord Hunsdon the mansion-house situated within the moat, the adjacent garden, the pastures named in the lease to Robert Udale and a tenement and garden on the estate which were held by James Kirby. (fn. 164) The manor was conveyed by Lord Hunsdon, Robert Newdigate and Arthur Fountaigne in 1580 to Thomas Cure, (fn. 165) saddler to Queen Elizabeth, (fn. 166) and in the same year the customary tenants bought for £6,000 a term of 2,000 years in their copyholds and vested the right in trustees. The sum was raised by an equal collection among the buyers. (fn. 167) In 1589 Thomas Cure conveyed the freehold portion to Francis Langley, citizen and draper of London, (fn. 168) who with Jane his wife received licence in 1602 to alienate it to Hugh Browker of the Inner Temple, prothonotary in the court of Common Pleas, and to Thomas his son. (fn. 169) In 1608, after his father's death, Thomas held by himself. (fn. 170)

The manor-house acquired notoriety in this period through its occupation by a woman of ill fame known as Dame Holland. A history of her adventures, written in 1632, gives a hyperbolical description of it.

At length she is informed of a place fit for her purpose being wondrous commodiously planted for all accommodations; it was out of the city yet in view of the city, only divided by a delicate river, and many hearty neighbours. . . . Presently she was brought to a fort, citadel or mansion house, so fortified and environed with all manner of fortifications, that had impregnable Rhodes taken thence pattern, neither the Turk's wealth nor the traitor's wit could ever have betrayed it, for ere any foe could approach this he must march more than a musket shot on a narrow bank, where three could not go abreast, betwixt two dangerous ditches (fn. 171); then enter a port, bulwarked on every side and immured both before and behind with deep ditches, a drawbridge and sundry pallisades, then another passage in all parts like the former, sluiced with ditches and barracadoed with strong rampiers. Then another ditch of much larger continent than any before spoke of which ran like a circumference and girded in its arms all the whole mansion, then a world of other bulwarks, rivers, ditches, trenches and outworks, which hemmed in the orchards, gardens, base courts and inferior offices, making everyone capable of a several fight and every fight able for many hours to play with an army. (fn. 172)

In 1631 certain persons who had bought the lease of Mrs. Holland's dwelling petitioned that the trained bands of Southwark might attend in Paris Garden for the whole of a certain day, on which, by means of many thousands of scrolls and papers cast about the City, the apprentices had been asked to collect in order to demolish the house. A watch had been obtained, but it was feared that it would not be enough. (fn. 173) In 1632 Dame Holland resisted for some time a siege by the peace officers; thus the manor-house of Paris Garden acquired the name of Holland's Leaguer. The street in front of the site of the manor-house is called Holland's 'Leger' in a map of 1746.

Thomas Browker in 1655 conveyed his estate to Richard Taverner of London, haberdasher, and to William Angell, the younger, (fn. 174) citizen and grocer of London, and it is stated by Manning and Bray that they in the following year made a partition by which Taverner received some land and Angell the manor-house and other land. (fn. 175) At all events, William Angell was lord of the manor in 1657. In 1667 he sold to Hugh Jermyn, woollendraper of Lombard Street, the mansion-house called Holland's Leaguer and 1 acre of land encompassed by a moat. William Angell still held the manor in 1676. (fn. 176) He was succeeded by his son William, who in 1722 conveyed the manor lands and reserved rights to William Baron of Egloskerry, Cornwall, gentleman. After him the courts leet were held by the Reverend John Baron (fn. 177) from 1733, Oliver Baron from 1744, Oliver William Baron from 1786, Joseph Baron from 1796 and Christopher Lethbridge and John Pearce, devisees in trust for an infant, from 1799 to 1812. (fn. 178)

The holder of the manor in the last of these periods was probably Jaspar Baron, to whose daughter and heir Elizabeth it passed before 1821. (fn. 179) She married John King Lethbridge, the son of Christopher, who, as her children died in infancy, inherited the manor from her. He held the freehold portion of Paris Garden until 1861, when he was succeeded by his son John Christopher Baron Lethbridge, who died in 1885 and was followed by the present holder, Mr. Edward Galton Baron Lethbridge of Tregeare, Egloskerry, Cornwall. (fn. 180) The last court leet was held in 1852, when eight constables and two ale-conners were appointed. Some earlier presentments at such courts mention a stocks, a cage and a whipping post. The customary tenants acquired the fee simple of their holdings in virtue of the Conveyancing Act of 1881. The steward of the copyhold portion of the manor still uses, in receiving their surrenders, a rod, of which he holds one end, while the other is held by the surrendering and the incoming tenant in turn. Much of the property has been enfranchised. (fn. 181)

The resistance offered to authority by Dame Holland in 1632 may indicate some survival to that date of the ancient privileges of the lordship. There is no later trace of them; the enactments made in 1697 as to 'pretended privileged places' do not mention Paris Garden.

The manor-house was called the Beggars' Hall in 1688–9, when it may have been a poor lodging-house. (fn. 182) In 1821 several old inhabitants of Christ-church parish recollected that some ground called Holland's Leaguer, of which the site has since been occupied by Holland Street and the neighbouring houses, was an artificial and elevated place, rectangular in form, and was surrounded by the tide, which ebbed and flowed from a sluice at a distance of 20 ft. from the ferry then called Cat's Dock. The place was reached by a number of ancient and mutilated steps, and within it were a house and some vacant ground used for the deposit of rubbish, which, from the remains of trees and bushes, appeared to have been a garden. (fn. 183)

Mr. Philip Norman describes the territory of the lordship in early times as 'a swampy lowlying place,' of which the land limitations were partly or wholly defined by streams or broad ditches. One of these on its western side 'had outlet to the river by the Broadwall, where there was an ancient embankment; while near the north-eastern corner the Pudding Mill Stream passed close to the site of the present Falcon Wharf. This must originally have connected old Widflete mill pond with the Thames, but degenerated into a sewer which has disappeared.' (fn. 184)

Windmill Row, Windmill Street and Cornmill Row are within the limits of the manor, which is now traversed by Blackfriars Road.