The Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Association was founded in 1886 to 'provide for the relief of necessitous persons who are or have been members of either ICAEW or the former Society of Incorporated Accountants and their dependents'.
It was based at Moorgate Place (1886-1965), City House, 56-66 Goswell Road (1965-c.1982) and 301 Salisbury House, London Wall (c.1982-2001). In 2001 it moved to 3 Cottesbrooke Park, Heartlands, Daventry.
In 1803, Lloyd's Patriotic Fund was established at a general meeting of the subscribers of Lloyd's. It was known as the "Patriotic Fund" until the 1850s when the title Lloyd's Patriotic Fund was adopted. The Fund was governed by a Committee, later known as the Trustees, and administered by a Secretary. The Fund has extensive connections with Lloyd's, but is an independent charity.
Its original purpose was to provide relief for men wounded in military action (with both the army and the navy), to support the widows and dependents of men killed, and to grant honorary awards in recognition of bravery. These awards usually took the form of swords or vases, although recipients could choose to accept money instead. A total of 153 swords and 66 vases, many of which survive today, were commissioned by the Fund between 1803 and 1809, when honorary awards ceased.
In addition, the Fund took a keen interest in the education of children of men who had been killed in battle. Financial assistance was provided to a number of educational establishments. Most notably, in 1806, a grant was made to the Royal Naval Asylum (also known as Greenwich Hospital School and the Royal Hospital School), at Greenwich, and later at Holbrook, in Suffolk, which allowed the Trustees to nominate children to attend the school. The Fund's association with the school continues today.
Between 1805 and 1812, the Fund was also involved in sending money to English prisoners of war in France. The money was distributed by a Committee of prisoners at Verdun and was used to provide living allowances, a hospital and schools for children held captive.
The Fund was closed to new cases from February 1825 as it was considered that the Fund had fulfilled its original purpose. Following military action in 1841, however, the Fund was re-established on a broader basis and cases were once more heard. By 1918, the Fund had expended over £1 million.
Lloyd's Patriotic Fund continues to this day to provide financial assistance to former servicemen and women, their widows and dependants.
The Secretary of the Fund had offices at the following addresses: Lloyd's Coffee House at the Royal Exchange, 1803-13; 45 Lothbury, 1813-28; 8 Royal Exchange Gallery, 1828-38; 37 Old Broad Street, 1838-48; Sun Chambers, Threadneedle Street, 1848-57; County Chambers, 14 Cornhill, 1857-99; Brook House, Walbrook, 1899-1928; Lloyd's of London, Lime Street, 1928-.
The meetings of the Trustees were held at the following addresses: Lloyd's Coffee House at the Royal Exchange (in the Merchant Seamen's Office or in the Old Committee Room), 1803-28; 8 Royal Exchange Gallery, 1828-38; 62 Old Broad Street, 1838-42; Gresham Chambers, 75 Old Broad Street, 1842-8; the Fund's offices, as listed above, 1848-1928; and finally at Lloyd's of London, Lime Street, 1928-.
Records of the Fund were partially destroyed in the fire at the Royal Exchange on 10 January 1838.
The Chartered Accountants' Charities Ltd was set up by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales in 1955, based at Moorgate Place, to act as trustee for the Institute Prize Trust Fund and the Chartered Accountants' General Trust Fund. Its directors were taken from the ICAEW's Finance Committee. In 1962 it also became trustee of the Chartered Accountants' Investment Pool for Educational Endowment.
Sutton's Hospital was founded by businessman Thomas Sutton in 1611 in the old monastery of Charterhouse, situated on Charterhouse Square, EC1. The hospital was intended for professional men fallen into poverty through "shipwreck, casualty or fire". A school for poor boys was attached to the hospital. The hospital opened in 1614 and admitted 80 men.
In 1872 the school moved to Surrey and part of the London site was sold to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1941 Sutton's Hospital was badly damaged by enemy bombing, but was repaired and still functions as an almshouse.
See http://www.thecharterhouse.org/ for more information.
Crosby Hall was part of a mansion in Bishopsgate built for Sir John Crosby in 1466. It was owned by Sir Thomas More in 1532. In 1621 to 1638 it was the headquarters of the East India Company, then it became a Presbyterian Meeting House, commercial premises, the Crosby Hall Literary and Scientific Institution, and a restaurant. In 1908 it was purchased by the Charter Bank of India and was demolished to make way for their head office. The building materials were preserved and the hall was rebuilt as part of the International Hostel of the British Federation of University Women in Chelsea.
These records date to the Hall's time as a commercial premises (1770-1853).
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
The Economic and Social Research Council is a UK agency which funds projects and training in the economic and social sciences.
The society was taken over by Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society in 1952.
In 1923, the London Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society decided to put on additional performances to provide funds for hospitals. In order to augment the money raised, a Christmas Draw was organised and people and businesses in and around the Stock Exchange were invited to donate prizes. A separate organisation, the Help Yourself Society, was formed in 1927 to run these fundraising activities. Subscribers to the Society were entitled to a draw ticket for each subscription paid (originally half a crown). The funds raised were distributed amongst institutions and organisations nominated by the trustees of the Society. Many of the gifts donated for the draw were deliberately of a comic kind and from 1926 details were published in a catalogue. This became the Help Yourself Annual which was published until 1950 when it was replaced by a gift list, later by a newsletter and subsequently by a list of prizewinners. After the Second World War, with the creation of the National Health Service, the Society shifted its support from hospitals and large institutions to smaller charitable organisations which relied on voluntary contributions for the bulk of their income. The Society was wound up in 1986.
The Rolls Liberty constituted the Middlesex part of the parish of Saint Dunstan in the West (P69/DUN2), situated around Chancery Lane. A chapel is first recorded here in 1232, known as the Rolls Chapel from 1377. It was constituted as a separate ecclesiastical parish, known as Saint Thomas in the Liberty of the Rolls, in 1842; and as a civil parish, in 1866. The chapel became part of the Public Record Office building, now the library of King's College London. The chapel survives and includes some monuments.
Saint Martin's le Grand was a monastery and college, founded in 1068. The monks were granted the right to hold their own court by Henry II. The monastery was supressed in 1540. Nothing remains of the building.
Saint Saviour's Poor Law Union was formed in February, 1836. Its constituent parishes were Saint Saviour's and Christchurch, both in Southwark. Saint Saviour's Workhouse was situated on Marlborough Street.
The School Board for London was set up under the Public Elementary Education Act of 1870 for the whole of the 'metropolis', the latter being defined as the area coming within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The School Board was closed in 1903 and its powers passed to the London County Council.
The manor of Barnet was held by the Abbey of Saint Albans. At the Dissolution the manor came to the Crown, who granted it to John Maynard and John Goodwin. The manor subsequently passed through several hands, belonging for some time to the Dukes of Chandos. Manor courts were held on Easter Tuesday.
At the time of the Domesday book the manor of Hendon belonged to the abbey of Westminster. At the Dissolution the manor passed to the Crown, who granted it to Sir William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke. It subsequently passed through various hands and was mortgaged several times. At the date of the document in this collection the manor was mortgaged to Guy's Hopsital, Southwark. It was later owned by actor David Garrick.
The Deputies were the elected representatives of every congregation of the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist denominations of Protestant Dissenters, within a ten mile radius of London. They evolved as a formal body to press for the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts and "to take care of the civil affairs of Dissenters".
The Deputies appear to have originated at a general meeting of Protestant Dissenters held on 9 November 1732 at which a committee was appointed to consider an appeal to Parliament for the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts. A meeting on 29 November 1732 recommended that every congregation of the three denominations appoint two deputies to form an assembly, and in January 1736 it was proposed that the deputies should be elected annually. This resolution became fully effective in January 1737, when 21 of these elected representatives were chosen to form a committee to deal with the main business of the year.
German Lutherans worshipped in the City of London at the Church in Austin Friars 'of the Germans and other Strangers' from 1550, and in 1672 they obtained from Charles II letters patent enabling them to build their own church, with the power to appoint ministers and hold services according to their own customs, on the site of the Holy Trinity Church (destroyed during the Great Fire), Trinity Lane. The inaugural service was held in December 1673, although baptisms were registered from 1669, and a church, rebuilt and extended in 1773, remained there until 1871. In that year it was bought and demolished by the Metropolitan Railway Company who were then building Mansion House station close by. The congregation then built a new church on a site in Alma (later Ritson) Road, Dalston, installing fittings such as the altar-piece and organ taken from the old church.
The Wesleyan chapel on the north side of Jewin Street, near the west end of Jewin Crescent, was established in the 18th century. It was rebuilt in 1847. In 1878 the chapel was sold, and, although the trustees tried to maintain an establishment in Shaftesbury Hall, Aldersgate Street, this failed. The receipts from the sale of Jewin Street were then passed to Wesley's Chapel on the City Road.
The land which became Whitechapel Quaker Burial Ground was first leased by the Quakers in 1743. The burial ground was under the care of the Devonshire House monthly meeting until its closure in 1857.
This church of French protestants was established in ca. 1686 and was based at a number of addresses in the City of London, including Jewin Street and in Buckingham House on College Hill, before taking the lease of St Martin Orgar in 1699. This church, in St Martin's Lane, had been destroyed in the Fire of London and had not been rebuilt. The lease was surrendered and the church closed in 1834.
Holy Trinity, Aldgate, was a priory constructed by the Canons of Augustine in the 12th century. The Prior was an ex-officio Alderman of Portsoken Ward in the Corporation of London. The church of Saint Katharine Cree was built in the grounds of the Priory for the use of the parish. The Priory was the first in London to be dissolved, closed by 1532 and given to the King. There were few protests at the closure as the Prior was unpopular and heavily in debt. The land was given to Lord Audley who offered the church of St Katharine Cree to the parish. They refused the gift and the church was pulled down.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
Saint Mary Graces was a small Cistercian Abbey founded in 1349 by Edward III near East Smithfield, a liberty next to the Tower of London. It was also known as East Minster and New Abbey.
The Order of Friars Minor was founded by Saint Francis in 1209 and is usually known as the Franciscan Order. The Order first came to England in 1224 and were known as the 'greyfriars'.
Syon Abbey was founded in 1415 by Henry V. It was a Brigittine monastery (the Order of the Most Holy Saviour was founded in 1370 by St Birgitta of Sweden and is usually known as the Brigittine order). The first site was in Twickenham but it moved to Isleworth in 1431. Henry VIII took over the monastery in 1534 and since 1594 it has been the site of Syon House, home of the Percys, Dukes of Northumberland.
The Cripplegate Schools Foundation was constituted by a Board of Education scheme on 30 December 1904 to administer the Red Cross Street Boys' School and Lady Holles School for Girls. A school for 100 boys was first opened in White Cross Street in 1698, later moving to Glovers' Hall and Barbican. In 1709 a plot of land in Red Cross Street was purchased with a bequest from Thomas Moore and a new school was built there. Part of the premises was leased to the trustees of Lady Holles' School, which had been established in 1711 for the education of 50 girls. The Boys' School remained in Red Cross Street until 1864, when it moved to Bridgewater Square. Lady Holles School relocated to Hackney in 1878. Its current premises, at Hampton in Middlesex, opened in 1935.
Sir John Cass was born in Rosemary Lane, in the parish of St Botolph Aldgate, on 20 February 1660/1, son of Thomas and Martha Cass. Thomas Cass was a master carpenter at the Tower of London, but in 1665 the Cass family moved to Grove Street in Hackney and where Thomas acquired considerable land. John Cass was involved in Hackney affairs, becoming a select vestryman in 1699, but became wealthy as a City of London merchant. He was a colonel in the Orange Regiment of the City militia by 1707 and was elected as an MP for the City in 1710 and served until 1715. He was knighted in 1712. Cass was elected as Alderman for the Portsoken Ward three times in 1710, but was rejected by the Court of Aldermen for his Jacobite tendencies until 1711. He remained Alderman until his death in 1718 and served as Sheriff in 1711-12. His father had been master of the Carpenter's Company and he used the Company to enter City politics; he bought his way to the mastership in 1711 by paying 11 years quarterage and fines for the three subordinate offices he had not filled. In 1713 he transferred to the Skinners' Company (one of the great twelve which perhaps suggests Mayoral ambitions) and was master of that company in 1714. He was married to Elizabeth (perhaps nee Franklin), but they had no children. In 1709 he made a will which mentioned his intention to build a school for the poor children of the ward. This school was built in a room over the passage between the porch and south gate of St Botolph Aldgate and opened in 1710.
When John Cass made his first will in 1709 he endowed his intended school with his property in Althorne and West Tilbury, Essex and Bromley by Bow and Hackney, Middlesex. Thereafter he bought land in Poplar Marsh and Stepney, Middlesex, but he died in 1718 while signing his second will which added this land to the endowment. The land in Poplar and Stepney went to his heirs-at-law, but his widow Elizabeth maintained the school until her death in 1732. Thereafter Valentine Brewis, deputy of Portsoken Ward, had Cass's second will proved and kept the school until he died in 1738. The vestry of St Botolph Aldgate started a suit in Chancery in 1742, but it was only in 1748 that a Chancery scheme emerged for the charity and 21 trustees were appointed. The school was then re-established, in rooms above Aldgate. The charity's income derived largely from the rents of the lands left by Sir John Cass. In 1847 its annual income was £2,300; in 1868 £5,300. The largest property holding was in South Hackney where in 1817 it was estimated to be ca. 87 acres around Grove Street, Well Street and Well Street Common. Another 13 acres at the south end of Grove Street lay in Bethnal Green and the trustees held ca. 50 acres in Hackney Marsh.
The income from estates increased in the later 19th century, particularly from the Hackney estate which was let on short building leases from 1846. The rising income led to pressure for reform of the charity, both from Hackney residents who wanted to establish another Cass school there, and from the Charity Commissioners. The trustees disliked the Commissioners' proposals and successfully resisted them until 1894 when a Charity Commission Scheme (approved in 1895) provided for the establishment of a Technical Institute. The Sir John Cass Technical Institute was built in Jewry Street and opened in 1902. The Charity Commissioners' scheme also reorganised the charity into a Foundation with governors replacing the trustees previously appointed for life. The scheme also led to the establishment of a Sir John Cass Hackney Technical Institute, at Cassland House, with three of the Foundation's governors on the Board. This institute was taken over by the London County Council in 1909. Various ward schools and St Botolph Aldgate Parochial School amalgamated with the Cass School at the beginning of the 20th century. The records of these schools prior to amalgamation were deposited with the Sir John Cass's Foundation archive.
Cornhill and Lime Street Wards School was established in 1711 and minutes of the committee of management survive from then. Admissions of children are recorded in the minutes from 1738.
Langbourn Ward School was founded in 1702 and on the expiration of the lease of its schoolhouse in 1874 was united with Cornhill and Lime Street Wards School.
The united school was conducted at the Cornhill and Lime Street schoolhouse in St Mary Axe until its amalgamation with the Cass School.
Cornhill and Lime Street Wards School was established in 1711 and minutes of the committee of management survive from then. Admissions of children are recorded in the minutes from 1738.
Langbourn Ward School was founded in 1702 and on the expiration of the lease of its schoolhouse in 1874 was united with Cornhill and Lime Street Wards School.
The united school was conducted at the Cornhill and Lime Street schoolhouse in St Mary Axe until its amalgamation with the Cass School.
Turner's Free School was established under the control of seven trustees, by the bequest of Richard Turner, citizen and haberdasher (will proved P.C.C. 1768). It took the place of the Norton Folgate Charity School, of which Turner had been Treasurer, which was situated in the old court house of the Liberty of Norton Folgate. The school moved to 4 Primrose Street in 1775. It aimed to educate the children of the poor of the area in reading, writing, accounting and church catechism.
Under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners sealed 28 June 1880, the funds of the charity were diverted to the further training of female pupil teachers at church training colleges, providing "Turner's Exhibitions" held over a two year period, preference being given to candidates from the parishes of St Mary, Spital Square, St Botolph Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, Spitalfields and Bethnal Green. In 1902 supervision of the charity was transferred to the Board of Education and various amendments were made
Under a new Charity Commissioners Scheme, sealed 16 August 1927, the exhibitions could be held at any places of education higher than elementary, not necessarily Church of England institutions. Since the Education Act of 1944 the funds of the charity have been allocated to training and further educating college students and secondary and grammar school pupils in financial need. For a more detailed account of the history of the charity see Ms 18608.
Saffron Hill is an area near Holborn between Leather Lane and Farringdon Road. In the 14th century saffron was grown in gardens here. In the 18th century the area deteriorated and became a notorious rookery with flourishing crime and vice, intersected by the open sewer of the Fleet Ditch. It is the site of Fagin's den in Oliver Twist. In the 19th century social workers began to operate in this area, and Saint Peter's church, to which this school was attached, was opened in 1832. The construction of Holborn Circus, Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon Road involved the covering of the Fleet and the demolition of many of the slum dwellings, changing the character of the area.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
Frederick Teague Cansick was born in 1829. He published several volumes of monumental inscriptions, for example the three volume A collection of curious and interesting epitaphs, copied from the monuments of distinguished and noted characteres in the ancient church and burial grounds of Saint Pancras, Middlesex (1869) and a similar publication for Hornsey, Tottenham, Edmonton, Enfield, Friern Barnet and Hadley, Middlesex (1875).
Robert Hollingworth Browne was an antiquarian researcher who made transcripts of many registers for parishes in London and Essex.
St John at Hackney: The earliest building on the site dated to around 1275. From the fourteenth century onwards the church was dedicated to Saint Augustine, but was changed to Saint John after 1660. The present benefice, created in 1971, is called Hackney, the church remaining dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. By the late 1770s it was clear that from the growing population of the area that a new and larger church was necessary. The new church was consecrated on 15th July 1797 with a wooden box-like structure. The old church was demolished except for the tower, which was left intact to hold the bells. The church was subsequenly rebuilt in Portland stone and a tower added in 1814. It suffered severe damage in the Second World War, but was repaired and re-consecrated in 1958. The old 16th century tower still stands to the south.
Francis Buckley was an antiquarian and author, who wrote many books and articles, published between 1912 and 1941, mostly relating to the history of the glass making industry, clockmaking and metal working; such as Old English Drinking Glasses (1913); Seventeenth Century Spoons (1928); Old watchmakers (1929) and Fob Seals in the Seventeenth Century (1932).
George Bent Buckley published books on cricket.
These papers were collected by J S Bumpus, antiquarian researcher, from a number of sources including the personal papers of Maria Hackett of 8 Crosby Square, Bishopsgate (1783-1874). Maria Hackett devoted much of her life to campaigning for various causes, notably the welfare and education of the choristers at St Paul's Cathedral and the preservation of Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate. Her interests and activities are described in "Miss Hackett of Crosby Square", by K I Garrett, in Guildhall Studies in London History, vol.1, no.3, (1974), pp.150-62.
Most of the letters were formerly in the possession of William Hawes, vicar choral, almoner and master of the choristers at St Paul's Cathedral, 1812-46, to whom some of the letters are addressed. The writers include Sir Andrew Barnard, Alfred Bunn, Lord Burghersh (John Fane), Joseph Grimaldi, Samuel Carter Hall, Rev Sydney Smith and many prominent organists and musicians of the late 18th and 19th centuries, including Adrien Boildieu, John Braham, G A P Bridgetower, Thomas Cooke, John Goss, William Jackson, Vincent Novello, Mary Paton, William Shield and Charles and Samuel Sebastian Wesley.
Edward John Carlos was the author of Historical and Antiquarian Notices of Crosby Hall (1832) and Some Account of the Chapel of Our Lady, in the Priory Church of St. Mary Overy, Southwark (1832).
John Dunkin was born in 1782 in Bicester. He was living in London by the age of 23; and by 30 was working as a bookseller, stationer and printer, with a shop in Kent. He began to publish his own topographical studies, including The history and antiquities of Bicester, to which is added an inquiry into the history of Alchester, a city of the Dobuni (1816); The History and Antiquities of the Hundreds of Bullingdon and Ploughley (1823) and History and Antiquities of Dartford (1844). He also began research on Oxfordshire. Dunkin died in 1846.
These cards duplicate and augment the article published by Harrison in the Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, New Series, Vol.8 (1960), pp.53-74, under the title "The dispersion of furniture and fittings formerly belonging to the churches in the City of London."
Revd. C Wilfred Howard was rector of Elston, Nottinghamshire, to 1932 and subsequently vicar of Torpenhow, Cumberland.
Bartholomew Howlett was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and was baptized on 5 July 1767. He was apprenticed in London to the engraver James Heath, and afterwards lived in the Blackfriars area of London. His publications include A Selection of Views of the County of Lincoln (1801) and he contributed to John Britton's Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain and Robert Wilkinson's Londina illustrata. Howlett made over a thousand drawings of the original seals of monastic and religious houses for his friend and patron John Caley FRS FSA. Howlett died in 1827.
Source of information: L. H. Cust, 'Howlett, Bartholomew (1767-1827)', rev. Mary Guyatt, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In 1897 the foundations of Saint Michael Bassishaw were severely damaged when the crypt was cleared of human remains; the church was demolished and the parish united to the parish of Saint Lawrence Jewry the same year.
William Barnes Passmore was Churchwarden of St. Michael Bassishaw.
The organisation probably dates from 1311/12. Thereafter until 1438 there are references to the masters of the misteries of Cooks, Pastelers and Piebakers, later amalgamated into the Cooks of East Cheap and Bread Street. The first grant of arms was in 1461 and the first charter in 1482. The Hall was situated on Aldersgate Street but burned down in 1771 and was not rebuilt.
Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century, amended by various local acts. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The Commissioners had responsibility to undertake the construction of sewers and drains as well as the paving, cleaning and lighting of the City streets. Its powers were greatly extended by subsequent Acts of Parliament.
Under the City of London Sewers Act 1897, the Commission was dissolved with effect from January 1898 and its duties and responsibilities transferred to the Common Council of the Corporation of London and subsequently exercised by a separate Public Health Department until 1947 when the department was merged in the Town Clerk's Office.
The City of London Paving Commission was founded under an Act of Parliament, (6 Geo III c. 26) the London Paving and Lighting Act 1766. The upkeep of street paving was later undertaken by the Commissioners of Sewers for the City of London.
The first recorded Mayor of London was Henry Fitz-Ailwyn in 1189. Since then, some 700 men and one woman have over the centuries held the position of chief officer of the City of London. The most famous of them all is Dick Whittington, who held office three times, in 1397, 1406 and 1419.
The Lord Mayor has throughout the centuries played a vital role in the life of the City of London and continues to do so today. In the City, the Lord Mayor ranks immediately after the sovereign and acts as the capital's host in Guildhall and Mansion House, his official residence. On behalf of the City and the nation he carries out numerous engagements at home and abroad.
The right of citizens to elect their own Mayor dates from the Charter granted by King John to the City in 1215. The election of Lord Mayor is held at the end of September each year in Guildhall. The assembly, known as Common Hall, consists of all liverymen of at least one year's standing together with certain high officers of the City. All aldermen who have served the office of sheriff and who have not already been Lord Mayor are eligible.
The Mayor's Court developed as an adjunct to the Court of Husting (see CLA/023) as a result of business overflowing from that court. The first court roll dates to 1298 although proceedings were probably taking place before this, from around 1280. The Mayor's Court's main jurisdiction was to enforce the customs of London, including mercantile actions. The court could sit on any day.
The Dickens Fellowship was founded in 1902 and met at Memorial Hall.
Holborn Viaduct was begun in 1863 and finished in 1869; designed by William Heywood, the City Surveyor. It bridged the valley of the Fleet river and connected Holborn with Newgate Street. As part of the construction, Holborn Circus, Charterhouse Street and St Andrew's Street were also built.
The Corporation of London is the local authority for the City of London or Square Mile, the financial and commercial centre at the heart of the metropolitan area. With its roots in medieval times, it is probably the oldest local authority in the United Kingdom and has an unusually wide range of responsibilities reflecting both its ancient role as a municipality and its modern-day role as the equivalent of a London Borough. The Corporation of London is also unique in local government as it has no charter of incorporation nor any specific date of establishment: it has evolved organically from earlier bodies. Most other councils in the United Kingdom were either created or substantially reformed in the 19th century or later.
Where "Corporation" is used in modern legislation such as City of London (Various Powers) Acts, its meaning is defined as "the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London". This latter title is one of the styles used in the charter dated 20 Sep 1608, which also lists the following titles or styles: Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London; Mayor, Citizens and Commonalty of the City of London; Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London; Citizens of the City of London; Barons of London; Barons of the City of London and indeed "any other name whatsoever, by reason or force of any letters patent, charters, or confirmations of any of our progenitors, Kings of England, which in any time or times had reasonably used or exercised". In 1690 an Act of Parliament confirming all the privileges of the Corporation of London declared that the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London should "remain continue, and be, and prescribe to be a body corporate and politick, in re, facto et nomine".
Another unusual feature of the Corporation of London is its ability to alter or amend its constitution when it benefits the Corporation of London and City of London to do so, under charters of Edward III (1341) and Richard II (1377 and 1383). This power is exercised by means of Acts of Common Council. Such Acts of the Corporation of London are authenticated by the City or Common Seal. Although the legal title of the Corporation of London remains 'the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London', statutory powers are usually conferred on the Court of Common Council, under the designation of 'the Mayor, Aldermen and Commons of the City of London in Common Council assembled'.
In 1682 - 1683 the King's Bench issued a writ of Quo Warranto against the City of London which led to the Charter of the City being forfeited and the Corporation of London being dissolved, reducing the city to the legal status of a small village. Quo Warranto writs had often been used to regulate liberties and franchises, such as the right to hold a fair or a market. It was claimed that the City of London had breached its Charter by allowing the collection of tolls at market and by publishing a seditious petition against the King and Government - these abuses of the ancient liberties of the City were enough to justify issuing the writ. The overall aim of the King, Charles II, was to control the personnel and the government of the Corporation of London. After the Charter was forfeited the King issued a new one giving him the right to appoint and remove officers, including the Mayor, Sheriffs, Recorder, Common Sergeant, Justices of the Peace and Coroner, thus allowing him direct control over the government of the City. Between 1683 and 1688 the City of London was governed by a Royal Commission. In October 1688 King James II issued a Proclamation restoring the City Liberties as fully as before the Quo Warranto judgement. In 1690 a Special Committee of the House of Commons declared the judgement illegal and an Act of Parliament was passed restoring the City to its ancient rights, enacting that the City might prescribe to be a corporation and declaring that the Charter of the City of London should never be forfeited for any cause whatsoever.
The Fire Court was established in 1667 to handle disputes arising from the Great Fire of London, 1666. Some landlords expected tenants to continue paying rent even if there was no building to live in; in other cases the tenant was liable to rebuild; or the ownership of sections of land was in dispute. The Court decided who should rebuild in order to enable the reconstruction of the City to proceed quickly without protracted legal wrangling. The Court closed in 1672.
The Middlesex House of Correction, known as Cold Bath Fields Prison, was constructed in 1794 in an area near Clerkenwell which was known for its cold springs. The prison was notorious for its severity. The site is now occupied by the Royal Mail Mount Pleasant Sorting Office.
The cathedral's deans, treasurers, precentors, chancellors and prebendaries (see below) are listed in J Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1066-1300 (compiled by DE Greenway, 1968), and 1300-1541, and 1541-1857 (compiled by JM Horn, 2 vols, 1963 and 1969).
For officials in the period 1857-98, see G Hennessy, Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (1898). After 1898, consult individual volumes of Crockford's Clerical Directory and the London Diocese Book (both issued annually).
For further details of medieval deans, see CNL Brooke, "The Deans of St Paul's ca. 1090-1499" in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, vol.29 (1956), pp.231-44. For the medieval Chapter, see CNL Brooke, "The Composition of the Chapter of St Paul's 1086-1163" in Cambridge Historical Journal, vol.10 (1951), pp.111-132, and CNL Brooke and G Keir "London and the Kingdom: The Chapter of St Paul's" in their London 800-1216: The Shaping of a City (1975), pp.338-59.
For relations between the Chapter and the bishops of London in the period 1426-48, see IA Zadnik, The Administration of the Diocese of London, Bishops William Gray, Robert Fitzhugh and Robert Gilbert (1426-1448) (University of Cambridge, PhD dissertation, 1993), pp.112-146.
The Printed Books Section of Guildhall Library has biographies of a number of individual deans of St Paul's, as well as Papers of British Churchmen, 1780-1940 (Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Guides to Sources for British History no.6, 1987).
For a list of Surveyors to the Cathedral Fabric, 1675-1987, see P Burman, St Paul's Cathedral, p.181. A typescript list of virgers, 1598-1974, compiled by AJ Morrison, is also held by the Guildhall Printed Books Section (Fo Pam 6422).
A copy of W Sparrow Simpson's The Charter and Statutes of the College of Minor Canons in St Paul's Cathedral, held by the Printed Books Section, being a reprint from Archaeologia, vol.43 (1871), pp.165-200, includes manuscript lists by JS Bumpus of the following officials: minor canons, 1306-1908; sub-deans, 1414-1904; vicars choral, 1622-1909; succentors, 1672-1906; sacrists, 1660-1901 and cathedral librarians, 1728-1903.
For the functions of individual officials, particularly in the 14th century, see K Edwards, The English Secular Cathedrals in the Middle Ages (2nd edn, 1967). See also Victoria County History, London Vol.1 (1909), pp.420-28.
The cathedral's thirty prebends are as follows:
Broomsbury [i.e. Brondesbury];
Brownswood;
Caddington Major;
Caddington Minor;
Cantlers [i.e. Cantlowes];
Chamberlainwood;
Chiswick;
Consumpta-per-Mare;
Ealdland;
Eald Street;
Finsbury;
Harleston [i.e. Harlesden];
Holbourn [i.e. Holborn];
Hoxton;
Islington;
Mapesbury;
Mora;
Nesden [i.e. Neasden];
Newington [i.e. Stoke Newington];
Oxgate;
Pancratius [i.e. St Pancras];
Portpool;
Reculversland [i.e. Reculverland];
Rugmere;
Sneating;
Totenhall [i.e. Tottenham Court];
Twiford [i.e. Twyford];
Weldland;
Wenlocksbarn;
Wilsden [i.e. Willesden].
Prebends were estates or land from which money was derived to support a canon of a cathedral.
Note: there are a number of variant spellings for certain prebends. For manorial and estate records associated with most of these prebends, see section CLC/313/N. Financial records, including salary information for cathedral personnel, are described in the full catalogue of section CLC/313/G.
The Dean's Peculiar estates, from which the Dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral personally drew the income, were located in the City of London, Middlesex, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire.
Chantries were chapels or altars and their attendant priests, maintained by an endowment on condition that a daily mass would be said for the soul of the provider of the endowment.
Similarly, an obit was a mass held to pray for the soul of a deceased person on the anniversary of his or her death. It was usually paid for by endowments or by the family.
The Minor or Petty Canons were established as a distinct body within St Paul's Cathedral at an early date. They celebrated mass at the high altar and attended all services day and night. The Succentor was additionally responsible for examining the standard of singing of the choristers. The Sub Dean of the Cathedral was traditionally appointed from the Minor Canons. In 1366 Robert de Kyngeston, Minor Canon, left a site for the building of a hall where the brethren could live communally within the Cathedral close. By the terms of their royal charter, 1394, they became a corporate body, 12 in number, only having to eat together in the Common Hall and being allowed to live separately near the Cathedral. The charter established the Warden as the senior administrator of the College, to be elected annually on St Barnabas Day by his fellow-members.
The Minor Canons were financially independent of the canons they represented. Originally their income consisted of a weekly prebend, food allowances and a share of payments from obits. Gradually each of the twelve stalls acquired its own benefice for the maintenance of the stall-holder who would also frequently hold a further living in London or elsewhere. Additional revenues, such as the tithes of the parish of St Gregory by St Paul and, later, fees for showing the cupola to visitors, were collected as income in common. After the Great Fire, 1665, the Common Hall was let and houses on the south side of St Paul's Churchyard, known as College Houses, were built for occupation by the Minor Canons.
The organisation of the Minor Canons survived the Reformation unchanged, apart from a considerable loss of income from obits, but the St Paul's Cathedral, London, Minor Canonries Act of 1875 brought about major financial restructuring. All benefices were taken into the control of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, fixed annual payments in lieu being made to the College, and the number of Minor Canons was reduced to 6. In addition, the Dean and Chapter were to provide houses for the Minor Canons; these were built in Amen Court in the 1880s.
