London in 1731

The fellows meet four times every year, viz., on the Monday after every quarter-day, and two of them meet twice a week, to give advice to the poor gratis. Here are also prepared medicines for the poor at moderate rates.

The president and four censors meet the first Friday in every month. The Lord Chancellor, chief justices, and chief baron, are constituted visitors of this corporation, whose privileges are established by several Acts of Parliament.

22. Bread Street Ward contains Bread Street, Friday Street, Distaff Lane, Basing Lane, part of the Old Change, part of Watling Street, part of Old Fish Street, and Trinity Lane, and part of Cheapside.

The only public buildings in this ward are the churches of Allhallows, Bread Street, and St. Mildred, Bread Street.

23. Queenhithe Ward includes part of Thames Street, Queenhithe, with the several lanes running southward to the Thames, Lambeth Hill, Fish Street Hill, Five Foot Lane, Little Trinity Lane, Bread Street Hill, Huggin Lane, with the south side of Great Trinity Lane, and part of Old Fish Streets.

Queenhithe lies to the westward of the Three Cranes, and is a harbour for barges, lighters, and other vessels, that bring meal, malt, and other provisions down the Thames; being a square inlet, with wharves on three sides of it, where the greatest market in England for meal, malt, &c., is held every day in the week, but chiefly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It received the name of Queenhithe, or harbour, from the duties anciently paid here to the Queens of England.

24. Baynard’s Castle Ward contains Peter’s Hill, Bennet’s Hill, part of Thames Street, Paul’s Wharf, Puddle Dock, Addle Hill, Knightrider Street, Carter Lane, Wardrobe Court, Paul’s Chain, part of St. Paul’s Churchyard, Dean’s Court, part of Creed Lane, and part of Warwick Lane.

The public buildings in this ward are Doctors’ Commons, the Heralds’ Office, the churches of St. Bennet, Paul’s Wharf, St. Andrew, Wardrobe, and St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street.

Doctors’ Commons, so called from the doctors of the civil law commoning together here as in a college, is situated on the west side of Bennet’s Hill, and consists chiefly of one handsome square court. And here are held the Court of Admiralty, Court of Arches, and the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Near the Commons are the Prerogative Office and Faculty Office.

The Heralds’ College or office is situated on the east side of Bennet’s Hill, almost against Doctors’ Commons. It is a spacious building, with a square court in the middle of it, on the north side whereof is the Court-room, where the Earl Marshal sits to hear causes lying in the court of honour concerning arms, achievements, titles of honour, &c.

25. The Ward of Farringdon Without includes Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and Fleet Ditch, Sheer Lane, Bell Yard, Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane, Dean Street, New Street, Plough Yard, East and West Harding Street, Fleur-de-Lis Court, Crane Court, Red Lion Court, Johnson’s Court, Dunstan’s Court, Bolt Court, Hind Court, Wine Office Court, Shoe Lane, Racquet Court, Whitefriars, the Temples, Dorset or Salisbury Court, Dorset Street, Bridewell, the Old Bailey, Harp Alley, Holborn Hill, Castle Street or Yard, Cursitor Alley, Bartlett’s Buildings, Holborn Bridge, Snow Hill, Pye Corner, Giltspur Street, Cow Lane, Cock Lane, Hosier Lane, Chick Lane, Smithfield, Long Lane, Bartholomew Close, Cloth Fair, and Duck Lane.

West Smithfield – or, rather, Smoothfield, according to Stow – is an open place, containing little more than three acres of ground at present, of an irregular figure, surrounded with buildings of various kinds. Here is held one of the greatest markets of oxen and sheep in Europe, as may easily be imagined when it appears to be the only market for live cattle in this great city, which is held on Mondays and Fridays. There is also a market for horses on Fridays; nor is there anywhere better riding-horses to be purchased, if the buyer has skill, though it must be confessed there is a great deal of jockeying and sharping used by the dealers in horseflesh. As for coach-horses, and those fit for troopers, they are usually purchased in the counties to the northward of the town. The famous fair on the feast of St. Bartholomew also is held in this place, which lasts three days, and, by the indulgence of the City magistrates, sometimes a fortnight. The first three days were heretofore assigned for business, as the sale of cattle, leather, &c., but now only for diversion, the players filling the area of the field with their booths, whither the young citizens resort in crowds.

The public buildings in this ward are Bridewell, Serjeants’ Inn in Fleet Street, the Temple, the Six Clerks’ Office, the Rolls, Serjeants’ Inn in Chancery Lane, Clifford’s Inn, the House of the Royal Society, Staple’s Inn, Bernards’ Inn, and Thavie’s Inn, Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, and the Fleet Prison, with the churches of St. Bartholomew, and the hospital adjoining, the churches of St. Sepulchre, St. Andrew, Holborn, St. Bride’s, and St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West.

Bridewell is situated on the west side of Fleet Ditch, a little to the southward of Fleet Street, having two fronts, one to the east, and the other to the north, with a handsome great gate in each of them. It consists chiefly of two courts, the innermost being the largest and best built, four or five storeys high, on the south side whereof is a noble hall, adorned with the pictures of King Edward VI. and his Privy Council, King Charles, and King James II., Sir William Turner, Sir William Jeffreys, and other benefactors.

It was one of the palaces of the Kings of England till the reign of King Edward VI., who gave it to the City of London for the use of their poor, with lands of the value of 700 marks per annum, and bedding and furniture out of the Hospital of the Savoy, then suppressed.

Here are lodgings and several privileges for certain tradesmen, such as flax-dressers, tailors, shoemakers, &c., called art masters, who are allowed to take servants and apprentices to the number of about 140, who are clothed in blue vests at the charge of the house, their masters having the profit of their labour. These boys having served their times, have their freedom, and ten pound each given them towards carrying on their trades; and some of them have arrived to the honour of being governors of the house where they served.

This Hospital is at present under the direction of a president, and some hundreds of the most eminent and substantial citizens, with their inferior officers; and a court is held every Friday, where such vagrants and lewd people are ordered to receive correction in the sight of the Court, as are adjudged to deserve it.

Among the public buildings of this ward, that belonging to the Royal Society, situate at the north end of Two Crane Court, in Fleet Street, must not be omitted, though it be much more considerable on account of the learned members who assemble there, and the great advances that have been made by them of late years in natural philosophy, &c., than for the elegancy of the building.

During the grand rebellion, when the estates of the prime nobility and gentry were sequestered, and there was no court for them to resort to, the then powers encouraging only the maddest enthusiast, or the basest of the people, whom they looked upon as the fittest instruments to support their tyranny; some ingenious gentlemen, who had applied themselves chiefly to their studies, and abhorred the usurpation, proposed the erecting a society for the improvement of natural knowledge, which might be an innocent and inoffensive exercise to themselves in those troublesome times, and of lasting benefit to the nation. Their first meeting, it is said, were at the chambers of Mr. Wilkins (afterwards Bishop of Chester) in Wadham College, in Oxford, about the year 1650, and the members consisted of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq., Dr. Ward (afterwards Bishop of Salisbury), Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Petty, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Goddard, and Dr. Hook (late Professor of Geometry), the above-named Bishop Wilkins, and others. In the year 1658 we find them assembling in Gresham College, in London, when were added to their number the Lord Brounker (their first president), Sir Robert Murray, John Evelyng, Esq., Sir George Ent, Dr. Croon, Henry Shingsby, Esq., and many others. And after the Restoration, his Majesty King Charles II. appeared so well pleased with the design, that he granted them a charter of incorporation, bearing date the 22nd of April, 15 Charles II., anno 1663, wherein he styled himself their founder, patron, and companion; and the society was from thenceforward to consist of a president, a council of twenty, and as many fellows as should be thought worthy of admission, with a treasurer, secretary, curators, and other officers.

When a gentleman desires to be admitted to the society, he procures one of the Corporation to recommend him as a person duly qualified, whereupon his name is entered in a book, and proper inquiries made concerning his merit and abilities; and if the gentleman is approved of, he appears in some following assembly, and subscribes a paper, wherein he promises that he will endeavour to promote the welfare of the society: and the president formally admits him by saying, “I do, by the authority and in the name of the Royal Society of London for improving of natural knowledge, admit you a member thereof.” Whereupon the new fellow pays forty shillings to the treasurer, and two-and-fifty shillings per annum afterwards by quarterly payments, towards the charges of the experiments, the salaries of the officers of the house, &c.

Behind the house they have a repository, containing a collection of the productions of nature and art. They have also a well-chosen library, consisting of many thousand volumes, most of them relating to natural philosophy; and they publish from time to time the experiments made by them, of which there are a great number of volumes, called “Philosophical Transactions.”

The Hospital of St. Bartholomew, on the south side of Smithfield, is contiguous to the church of Little St. Bartholomew. It was at first governed by a master, eight brethren, and four sisters, who had the care of the sick and infirm that were brought thither. King Henry VIII. endowed it with a yearly revenue of five hundred more yearly for the relief of one hundred infirm people. And since that time the hospital is so increased and enlarged, by the benefactions given to it, that it receives infirm people at present from all parts of England. In the year 1702 a beautiful frontispiece was erected towards Smithfield, adorned with pilasters, entablature, and pediment of the Ionic order, with the figure of the founder, King Henry VIII., in a niche, standing in full proportion; and the figures of two cripples on the pediment: but the most considerable improvements to the building were made in the year 1731, of the old buildings being pulled down, and a magnificent pile erected in the room of them about 150 feet in length, faced with a pure white stone, besides other additions now building.

There are two houses belonging to this hospital, the one in Kent Street, called the Lock, and the other at Kingsland, whither such unfortunate people as are afflicted with the French disease are sent and taken care of, that they may not prove offensive to the rest; for surely more miserable objects never were beheld, many of them having their noses and great part of their faces eaten off, and become so noisome frequently, that their stench cannot be borne, their very bones rotting while they remain alive.

This hospital is governed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, with about three hundred other substantial citizens and gentlemen of quality, who generally become benefactors; and from these and their friends the hospital has been able to subsist such numbers of infirm people, and to perform the surprising cures they have done; for the patients are duly attended by the best physicians and surgeons in London, and so well supplied with lodging and diet proper to their respective cases, that much fewer miscarry here, in proportion, than in the great hospital of invalids, and others the French so much boast of in Paris.

Those that have the immediate care of the hospital are, the president, the treasurer, the auditors of accounts, viewers of their revenues, overseers of the goods and utensils of the hospital, and the almoners, who buy in provisions and necessaries for the patients.

A committee, consisting of the treasurer, almoners, and some other of the governors, meet twice a week to inspect the government of the house, to discharge such persons as are cured, and to admit others.

26. Bridge Ward Without contains in chief the Borough, or Long Southwark, St. Margaret’s Hill, Blackman Street, Stony Street, St. Thomas’s Street, Counter Street, the Mint Street, Maiden Lane, the Bankside, Bandy-leg Walk, Bennet’s Rents, George Street, Suffolk Street, Redcross Street, Whitecross Street, Worcester Street, Castle Street, Clink Street, Deadman’s Place, New Rents, Gravel Lane, Dirty Lane, St. Olave’s Street, Horselydown, Crucifix Lane, Five-foot Lane, Barnaby Street, Long Lane and Street.

The Bankside consists of certain houses so called from their lying on the south bank of the Thames to the westward of the bridge.

The public buildings in this ward are, St. Thomas’s Church and Hospital, Guy’s Hospital for Incurables, the church of St. Saviour, the church of St. Olave, and that of St. George, the Bridge House, the King’s Bench Prison, the Marshalsea, and the Clink Prison, the Sessions House, Compter, and New Prison.

The Hospital of St. Thomas consists of four spacious courts, in the first of which are six wards for women. In the second stands the church, and another chapel, for the use of the hospital. Here also are the houses of the treasurer, hospitaller, steward, cook, and butler. In the third court are seven wards for men, with an apothecary’s shop, store-rooms and laboratory. In the fourth court are two wards for women, with a surgery, hot and cold baths, &c. And in the year 1718 another magnificent building was erected by the governors, containing lodgings and conveniences for a hundred infirm persons. So that this hospital is capable of containing five hundred patients and upwards at one time; and there are between four and five thousand people annually cured and discharged out of it, many of them being allowed money to bear their charges to their respective dwellings.

But one of the greatest charities ever attempted by a private citizen was that of Thomas Guy, Esq., originally a bookseller of London, and afterwards a Member of Parliament for Tamworth, who, having acquired an immense fortune, founded a hospital for incurables, on a spot of ground adjoining to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and saw the noble fabric in a good forwardness in his lifetime, assigning about two hundred thousand pounds towards the building, and endowing it, insomuch that it is computed there may be an ample provision for four hundred unhappy people, who shall be given over by physicians and surgeons as incurable. This gentleman died in December, 1724, having first made his will, and appointed trustees to see his pious design duly executed. He gave also several thousand pounds to Christ’s Hospital, and a thousand pounds a piece to fifty of his poor relations; but the will being in print, I refer the reader to it for a more particular account of this noble charity.

The first church and hospital, dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, was erected by the Prior of Bermondsey, so long since as the year 1013; but the hospital was refounded, and the revenues increased, anno 1215, by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese it was situated, continuing, however, to be held of the priors of Bermondsey till the year 1428, when the Abbot of Bermondsey relinquished his interest to the master of the hospital for a valuable consideration. In the year 1538 this hospital was surrendered to King Henry VIII., being then valued at £266 17s. 6d. per annum. And in the following reign, the City of London having purchased the buildings of the Crown, continued them a hospital for sick and wounded people; and King Edward VI. granted them some of the revenues of the dissolved hospitals and monasteries towards maintaining it: but these were inconsiderable in comparison of the large and numerous benefactions that have since been bestowed upon it by the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and other wealthy citizens and men of quality, governors of it, who are seldom fewer than two or three hundred, every one of them looking upon themselves to be under some obligation of making an addition to the revenues of the hospital they have the direction of. A committee of the governors sit every Thursday, to consider what patients are fit to be discharged, and to admit others.

The government of the City of London, it is observed, resembles that of the kingdom in general; the Lord Mayor is compared to the king, the aldermen to the nobility or upper house, and the common councilmen to the commons of England.

This assembly, consisting of the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and common councilmen, has obtained the name of The Common Council, and has a power, by their charters, of making such bye-laws and statutes as are obligatory to the citizens. It is called and adjourned by the Lord Mayor at pleasure, and out of it are formed several committees, viz. – 1. A committee of six aldermen and twelve commoners for letting the City lands, which usually meets every Wednesday at Guildhall for that end. 2. A committee of four aldermen and eight commoners for letting the lands and tenements given by Sir Thomas Gresham, who meets at Mercers’ Hall on a summons from the Lord Mayor. 3. Commissioners of Sewers and Pavements, elected annually. And, 4. A governor, deputy-governor and assistants, for the management of City lands in the province of Ulster in Ireland.

The other principal courts in the City are, 1. The Court of Aldermen. 2. The Court of Hustings. 3. The Lord Mayor’s Court. 4. The Sheriff’s Court. 5. The Chamberlain’s Court. 6. The Court of the City Orphans. 7. The Court of Conscience. 8. The Courts of Wardmote. And, 9. The Courts of Hallmote.

Besides which, there is a Court of Oyer and Terminer and Jail Delivery, held eight times a year at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, for the trial of criminals.

1. In the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen is lodged the executive power in a great measure, and by these most of the city officers are appointed, viz., the recorder, four common pleaders, the comptroller of the chamber, the two secondaries, the remembrancer, the city solicitor, the sword-bearer, the common hunt, the water bailiff, four attorneys of the Lord Mayor’s Court, the clerk of the chamber, three sergeant carvers, three sergeants of the chamber, the sergeant of the chanel, the two marshals, the hall-keeper, the yeomen of the chamber, four yeomen of the waterside, the yeoman of the chanel, the under water-bailiff, two meal weighers, two fruit-meters, the foreign taker, the clerk of the City works, six young men, two clerks of the papers, eight attorneys of the Sheriff’s Court, eight clerks fitters, two prothonotaries, the clerk of the Bridge House, the clerk of the Court of Requests, the beadle of the Court of Requests, thirty-six sergeants at mace, thirty-six yeomen, the gauger, the sealers and searchers of leather, the keeper of the Greenyard, two keepers of the two compters, the keeper of Newgate, the keeper of Ludgate, the measurer, the steward of Southwark (but the bailiff of Southwark is appointed by the Common Council) the bailiff of the hundred of Ossulston, the City artificers, and rent-gatherer, who hath been put in by Mr. Chamberlain.

In this court all leases and instruments that pass under the City Seal are executed; the assize of bread is settled by them; all differences relating to water-courses, lights, and party-walls, are determined, and officers are suspended or punished; and the aldermen, or a majority of them, have a negative in whatever is propounded in the Common Council.

2. The Court of Hustings is esteemed the most ancient tribunal in the City, and was established for the preservation of the laws, franchises, and customs of it. It is held at Guildhall before the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, and in civil causes the Recorder sits as judge. Here deeds are enrolled, recoveries passed, writs of right, waste, partition, dower, and replevins determined.

3. The Lord Mayor’s Court, a court of record, held in the chamber of Guildhall every Tuesday, where the Recorder also sits as judge, and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen may sit with him if they see fit. Actions of debt, trespass, arising within the City and liberties, of any value, may be tried in this court, and an action may be removed hither from the Sheriff’s Court before the jury is sworn.

The juries for trying causes in this and the Sheriff’s Courts, are returned by the several wards at their wardmote inquests at Christmas, when each ward appoints the persons to serve on juries for every month in the year ensuing.

This court is also a court of equity, and gives relief where judgment is obtained in the Sheriff’s Court for more than the just debt.

4. The Sheriff’s Courts are also courts of record, where may be tried actions of debt, trespass, covenant, &c. They are held on Wednesdays and Fridays for actions entered in Wood Street Compter, and every Thursday and Saturday for actions entered in the Poultry Compter. Here the testimony of an absent witness in writing is allowed to be good evidence.

5. The Chamberlain’s Court or office is held at the chamber in Guildhall. He receives and pays the City cash and orphans’ money, and keeps the securities taken by the Court of Aldermen for the same, and annually accounts to the auditors appointed for that purpose. He attends every morning at Guildhall, to enroll or turn over apprentices, or to make them free; and hears and determines differences between masters and their apprentices.

6. The Court of City Orphans is held by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen as often as occasion requires; the Common Sergeant being entrusted by them to take all inventories and accounts of freeman’s estates, and the youngest attorney in the Mayor’s Court is clerk of the orphans, and appointed to take security for their portions; for when any freeman dies, leaving children under the age of twenty-one years, the clerks of the respective parishes give in their names to the common crier, who thereupon summons the widow or executor to appear before the Court of Aldermen, to bring in an inventory, and give security for the testator’s estate, for which they commonly allow two months’ time, and in case of non-appearance, or refusal of security, the Lord Mayor may commit the executor to Newgate.

7. The Court of Conscience was established for recovering small debts under forty shillings at an easy expense, the creditor’s oath of the debt being sufficient without further testimony to ascertain the debt. This court sits at the hustings in Guildhall every Wednesday and Saturday, where the Common Council of each ward are judges in their turns. They proceed first by summons, which costs but sixpence, and if the defendant appears there is no further charge; the debt is ordered to be paid at such times and in such proportion as the court in their consciences think the debtor able to discharge it; but if the defendant neglect to appear, or obey the order of the court, an attachment or execution follows with as much expedition and as small an expense as can be supposed. All persons within the freedom of the City, whether freemen or not, may prosecute and be prosecuted in this court, and freemen may be summoned who live out of the liberty.

8. The courts of wardmote are held by the aldermen of each ward, for choosing ward-officers, and settling the affairs of the ward, the Lord Mayor annually issuing his precept to the aldermen to hold his wardmote on St. Thomas’s Day for the election of common councilmen and other officers; they also present such offences and nuisances at certain times to the Lord Mayor and common councilmen as require redress.

9. Small offences are punished by the justices in or out of sessions, by whom the offender is sentenced to be whipped, imprisoned, or kept to hard labour; but for the trial of capital offences, a commission of Oyer and Terminer and jail delivery issues eight times every year, i. e., before and after every term, directed to the Lord Mayor, Recorder, some of the twelve judges, and others whom the Crown is pleased to assign. These commissioners sit at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey, and bills of indictment having been found by the grand juries of London or Middlesex, containing the prisoner’s accusation, a petty jury, consisting of twelve substantial citizens is empanelled for the trial of each of them; for, as to the grand jury, they only consider whether there is such a probability of the prisoner’s guilt as to put him upon making his defence, and this is determined by a majority of the grand jury: but the petty jury, who pass upon the prisoner’s life and death, must all agree in their verdict, or he cannot be convicted. But though the petty jury judge of the fact, i. e., what the crime is, or whether it was committed by the prisoner or not, the commissioners or judges declare what are the punishments appropriated to the several species of crimes, and pronounce judgment accordingly on the offender. In high treason they sentence the criminal to be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, there to be hanged and quartered. In murder, robbery, and other felonies, which are excluded the benefit of the clergy, the criminal is sentenced to be hanged till he is dead. And for crimes within the benefit of the clergy, the offender is burnt in the hand or transported, at the discretion of the court. And for petty larceny, i. e., where the offender is found guilty of theft under the value of twelve pence, he is sentenced to be whipped. But a report being made to His Majesty by the Recorder, of the circumstances with which the several capital offences were attended, and what may be urged either in aggravation or mitigation of them, the respective criminals are either pardoned or executed according to His Majesty’s pleasure. But I should have remembered, that the sentence against a woman, either for high or petty treason, is to be burnt alive. I shall now give some account of the election of the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, &c., who are chosen by a majority of the liverymen.