Bridge House

Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia 1579-1664. Originally published by EJ Francis, London, 1878.

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Citation:

'Bridge House', in Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia 1579-1664, (London, 1878) pp. 36-40. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/index-remembrancia/1579-1664/pp36-40 [accessed 14 May 2024].

"Bridge House", in Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia 1579-1664, (London, 1878) 36-40. British History Online, accessed May 14, 2024, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/index-remembrancia/1579-1664/pp36-40.

"Bridge House", Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia 1579-1664, (London, 1878). 36-40. British History Online. Web. 14 May 2024, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/index-remembrancia/1579-1664/pp36-40.

Bridge-house.

I. 64. Letter from William, Lord Burghely, to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, requesting, on behalf of William Clayton and Thomas James, tenants of two houses on London Bridge, lately taken down and rebuilt, that they might have the occupation of the said premises at such augmentation of their rents as they were able to bear although others might offer higher terms.
The Savoy, 7th November, 1579.

I. 65. Letter from the Lord Mayor to William, Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer, in reply, stating that the Court of Aldermen had called before them the Bridgemasters, who had informed them that the said houses being in a very dangerous ruin, the late Tenants were afraid to continue therein, and upon their suit to have them rebuilt, they gave up absolutely the unexpired term of their former leases. New leases had been offered to them upon terms which the City thought very reasonable.
9th November, 1579.

I. 140. Letter from William, Lord Burghley, to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, requesting that a tenement belonging to the Bridgehouse might be granted to Mrs. Temes, the wife of William Temes, some time Comptroller of the Custom House.
20th March, 1577.

I. 141. Letter from William, Lord Burghley, to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, upon the same subject.
31st October, 1579.

I. 214. Letter from Sir Christopher Hatton (fn. 1) to Sir Thomas Offley, (fn. 2) Sir Rowland Heywood, (fn. 3) Sir Lyonell Duckett, (fn. 4) Sir John Ryvers, (fn. 5) Knights, and the rest of the Commissioners for the lands of the Bridge-house, requesting them to consider favourably the suit of the Widow of their tenant of the Castle in Wood Street, and grant her a new lease upon payment of 200 marks.
15th June, 1581.

I. 216. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Sir Christopher Hatton, Knight, Vice-Chamberlain, in reply, stating that they had considered his letter, and had been applied to by Her Majesty, on behalf of another party, for a lease of the premises, to whom they had given out of the Chamber 30l.; they had also offered the Widow the lease of the house during her life, without any fine, only paying the rent, &c., which she had refused. One hundred marks had since been offered to her if she would leave the premises.
20th June, 1581.

I. 247. Letter from William Lord Burghley to the Lord Mayor, stating that he had been informed by his servant, Humfrey Pleasington, that his Lordship might, with the consent of the Masters of the Bridge-house, grant in reversion by lease certain houses upon London Bridge, one being the sign of the St. John's Head, in which Love's Widow dwelt, and the other the sign of the Red Cock, wherein Bradlare's Widow dwelt, neither of them having longer estate than for their lives, and requesting that Pleasington might have the reversion of one or both of them for a reasonable consideration.
30th August, 1581.

I. 438. Letter from Sir Christopher Hatton to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, reminding them of an order passed by the Masters and Governors of the Bridge-house in the first and second years of Philip and Mary, according to custom, granting a tenement situated in St. Nicholas's Shambles, in the parish of Christ Church, to William Haynes and Joane his wife, for the term of their lives, they paying the rent of 6l. a year, which before was but 5l., by virtue of which order they had accordingly held the same premises for twenty-eight years, but, being aged and sickly, they were threatened to be put out, and requesting, for the sake of charity and the good fame of the City, they might remain in quiet possession of the said lease.
2nd December, 1582.

I. 440. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Chancellor, (fn. 6) acknowledging his letter inclosing the petition of Garnons, as to a lease granted to him by the City, and informing him that the ViceChamberlain had written to the Aldermen in favour of Mr. Haynes, the present occupier of the premises; they had delayed sealing the lease to Garnons until they had answered the said letter.
4th December, 1582.

I. 441. Letter from the Lord Mayor to Sir Christopher Hatton, Knight, Vice-Chamberlain, acknowledging the receipt of his letter recommending the grant of a new lease to Mr. Haynes, of the premises held by him as a tenant at will, and stating the steps taken by the City to satisfy him, and that a new lease of the premises would be granted to Mr. Garnons.
4th December, 1582.

I. 508. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Lord Chancellor, stating that Thomas Bate (fn. 7) and Robert Ask, (fn. 8) Bridgemasters, were being sued before him by Haynes, for sealing a lease to Garnons, of the house wherein Haynes dwelt; that the lease had been made to Garnons by order of the City, having been previously offered to Haynes at a lower rate, and refused; the passing of Garnon's lease in respect of Haynes's property had been long deferred, until Garnons complained to his Lordship, who had required the City to see him satisfied, upon the receipt of which opinion the Bridgemasters were ordered to make the lease upon which Haynes had founded his complaint. The Lord Mayor begged that the charge made against the officers, who had only followed out the City's instructions and his Lordship's opinion might be dismissed.
4th May, 1583.

I. 659. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Governors of the Revenues of the Bridge-house, forwarding a petition he had received from John Tey, Merchant Taylor, requesting the renewal of a lease of a tenement held by him belonging to the Bridge-house.
3rd May, 1592.

II. 286. Letter from the Lord Mayor to the Earl of Kynlosse (fn. 9) in reply to his letter on behalf of William Wiles, a Butcher of the City, concerning a tenement of the Bridge-house Rents, and stating that it had been long since leased to one Garnons. Sans date.

Footnotes

  • 1. The favourite of Queen Elizabeth; made Gentleman Pensioner to the Queen, June 30th, 1554; Captain of the Queen's Guard, 1572. Ely Place granted to him by the Queen, about 1576; Vice-Chamberlain, November 11th, 1577; Knighted, December 1st, 1577; one of the Commissioners for the Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, in October, 1586; made Lord Chancellor, April 29th, 1587; created K. G., St. George's Day, 1588; Chancellor of the University of Oxford, September 20th, 1588; died at Ely Place, November 20th, 1591, and was buried in St. Paul's.
  • 2. Merchant Taylor, Son of William Offley, of Chester; served the office of Master of his Company in 1547–8; elected Alderman of Portsoken, July 18th, 1549; removed to Aldgate, May 22nd, 1550; chosen Sheriff, August 1st, 1553; Lord Mayor, 1556; President of Christ's Hospital, 1559–63. Died, August 29th, 1582. John Haydon elected Alderman in his room, September 27th, 1582. See 'Herald's Visitation of London,' 1568, p. 64:—"Master Offley, the Lord Mayor, and divers Aldermen, taking their barge, went to Greenwich to the Queen's Grace, and ther she mad ym Knight, he behyng Mayre, and Master William Chester, Altherman, mayd hym Knight the same tyme and day." He dwelled in Lime Street, towards the north end of it, not far from St. Andrew's Undershaft, where he is buried. The useful custom of Night-bellmen (preventing many fires and more felonies) began in his Mayoralty. He was the Zacchæus of London, not for his low stature, but his high charity, bequeathing half his estate unto the poor. (Machyn's 'Diary,' February 7th, 1556–7.)
  • 3. Sir Rowland Hayward, Clothworker, elected Alderman of Farringdon Without, September 19th, 1560; chosen Sheriff, August 1st, 1563; removed to Queenhithe, September 26th, 1564; to Cripplegate, December 17th, 1566; elected Lord Mayor, September 29th, 1570; removed to Lime Street, October 23rd, 1571. He served as Lord Mayor a second time during part of the year 1591, upon the decease of Sir John Allot, September 17th, 1591. Hugh Offley, elected, loco Sir R. Hayward, deceased, January 17th, 1594. Sir Rowland resided in Philip Lane, Cripplegate; he died Senior Alderman, December 5th, 1593, and was buried in St. Alphage's Church, London Wall, where the monument to his memory, with the effigies of his two wives and sixteen children, is still preserved. He was President of St. Bartholomew's Hospital from 1572 till his death. His first wife was Joan, daughter of William Tillesworth, Citizen and Goldsmith. His second, who survived him, was Catharine, daughter of Sir Thomas Smyth, of Ostenhanger Castle, Kent, one of the "Customers" (i.c., Farmers of the Customs) of London, and Collector of the Queen's Tonnage and Poundage Duties, and granddaughter of Sir Andrew Judd, Knight, Lord Mayor in 1550 (founder of Tunbridge Grammar School). She subsequently married Sir John Scott, of Nettlested, Kent, by whom she had no issue. She died in 1536, aged 56, and was buried in Nettlested Church, where her monument still exists. Joan, daughter of Sir Rowland, married Sir John Thynne, of Longleat (ancestor of the Marquis of Bath), whose mother was a daughter of Sir Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor in 1537, and sister of Sir Thomas Gresham.
  • 4. Mercer, elected Alderman of Aldersgate, December 5th, 1564; Sheriff, the same year; removed to Bassishaw, April 22nd, 1567; chosen Lord Mayor, September 29th, 1572; President of Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals from 1569 to 1573, and again from 1580 to 1586. Barnes, Alderman, removed to Bassishaw, loco Duckett, deceased, August 8th, 1587. He was the son of William Duckett, of Flintham, Nottinghamshire, by Jane, daughter and heir of — Redman, of Harwood Castle, Westmoreland; he was apprenticed to John Colet, Mercer, and was admitted to the freedom of that Company by servitude in 1537; he subsequently became Warden of the Company, and in that capacity his name appears in Queen Elizabeth's Charter, granted to them in 1560. He resided in Wood Street. He married, first, Mary, daughter of Hugh Leighton, of Leighton, Salop, and, secondly, Jane, the daughter of Humphrey Packington, relict of Humphrey Baskerville, Alderman of London, by whom he had an only son, Sir Thomas Duckett, Knight, who married Mary Nelson, and died with out issue. Sir Lionel was one of the executors of Sir Thomas Gresham, whose partner he is said to have been, and with whom he was associated in the building of the first Royal Exchange. He was, in conjunction with Sir Thomas Gresham, Lords Burleigh, Warwick, Leicester, and others, a munificent subscriber to the expeditions of Martin Frobisher in search of the North-west Passage. By his will, dated March 16th, 1585, he gave to the Mercers' Company 200l., to be let out on loan of 50l. for five years to young men of the Company at 4l. per cent. interest, which interest was to be given yearly to the poorest and oldest persons in the parishes of St. Lawrence Jewry, St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, and St. Peter, Cheap. He also left 2l. 4s. 8d. per annum to the parish of St. Lawrence Jewry. His portrait, in his robes as Lord Mayor, painted by Hans Holbein, is in the possession of Sir George F. Duckett, Bart., F.S.A., the present representative of the family. An interesting account of the family will be found in the privately printed work, entitled 'Ducketiana; or, Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Duckett,' by Sir George F. Duckett, Bart., F.S.A., 1869.
  • 5. Grocer, of Penshurst, Kent, his father being Steward of the lands of Edward, Duke of Buckingham; elected Alderman of Farringdon Without, August 30th, 1565; chosen Sheriff, August 1st, 1567; removed to Broad Street, December 9th, 1568; Lord Mayor, 1573; removed to Walbrook, January 28th, 1573; President of St. Thomas's Hospital, 1580–84. Alderman Bond removed to Walbrook, loco John Ryvers, Knight, deceased, April 9th, 1584. During his mayoralty, the Plague raged so voilently in the City that Queen Elizabeth enjoined him not to keep the usual feast upon his inauguration. He married Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir George Barne, Knight and Alderman. See Pedigree of his family in Hasted's 'Kent,' vol. 1. pp. 417, 418.
  • 6. Sir Thomas Bromley, Knight, from 1579 to 1587.
  • 7. Thomas Bate, Haberdasher, elected by the Common Hall to the office of Bridgemaster in the room of William Draper, Ironmonger, deceased, January 18th, 1568.
  • 8. Robert Ask, Goldsmith, elected by the Common Hall in the room of John Randall, July 8th, 1574.
  • 9. Edward Lord Bruce, Baron of Kinlosse, one of the Scotch favourites of James the First, appointed Master of the Rolls, May 18th, 1603; died January 14th, 1610. His monument is preserved in the Rolls Chapel.
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