London Before the Conquest

hereat was there a bidding and a feast full worthy. So they went into the hall thirty men

Harold H

the wards were called by the names of the aldermen holding them, as said in the Liber Albus. There is a list of this kind, in which only a few of the traditional names appear, in the Hundred Rolls of 1275. This last is particularly interesting, however, as giving the names of the city magnates of the great time just after the war of the city with the king,

elation of the central Ward

r with a reference to one of 1211, which carries back the complete list o

t of 1114-30, which is addressed to Hugo de Bochland, Roger, Leofstan, Ordgar, and all the other barons (i.e. aldermen) of London. Another document of the same age is witnessed by Levenoth, "Alderman." A careful comparison of these lists, together with other sources,[140] might yield some new facts. From a cursory comparison it seems to be evident that too much has been made of the case of the Farndons and Farringdon Ward as evidence for hereditary ownership in the aldermanries. Most of the family names change from list to list, but a few persist: in 1240 there is a Jacob Bland, in 1275-85 and 1293 a Rudulphus Blond, but this may be the case in any office. On the other hand, two of the same family name are found more than once holding different wards at the same time, and in other cases similar names are found in different wards in different lists; thus in 1285 there are two Ashys, two Rokesleys, two Boxes, and two Hadstocks: a Frowick in 1285 held

t the wards were to the city what the hundreds were to the shire, and this view, shared by

morial antiquity is shown by FitzStephen's legend that, like Rome, London was founded by the Trojans, and c

y the Walbrook, which ran from the north wall to St. Margaret's Lothbury, then under Grocers' Hall, and St. Mildred's Church, west of the Stocks Market, through Bucklersbury, then by the west of St. John's Walbrook and

ed way as to show on a good map quite certainly at a glance, that these wards were formed by aggregations of

s of Lombard Street. Bishopsgate Ward, beginning at this same crossways,

hrough the midst of a ward. While deriving this ward's name from a brook, Stow says that Lombard Street was so called of the Longobard merchants about 1300. I find that the street was called Langbourne Strate at the end of the thirteenth century;[142] and in a charter of Matilda to Holy Trinity, 1108-18, appears the Church of St. Edmund in Longboard Strete. The first

hey probably gave their name to the ward and street; two of these were Meinbod and his son Picot the Lombard. In

e wards strung on the street which respectively threads them in passing to t

ormed by the street which gives its name to the ward. The backbone of Tower Ward is Great Tower Street, which passes into Billingsgate Street as East Cheap, and on westward as Candlewick Street. Colem

ity existed before the wards, and that these wards originated not as "private property," but as units of population inhabiting the houses along those streets,

ds of a hundred parishes can hardly date back so early as the institution of wards, it is possible that certain large parishes may have had an origin identical with the wards,[145] and most

s were part of the primitive Germanic constitution." Dr. Stubbs has shown that in Domesday several towns figure as hundreds, and the wards of the

on of peace and the suppression of theft.[146] In accordance with this idea of accounting for every man, we find that even in the thirteenth century no one was to stay in the city for more than two nights "unless he finds two sureties and so puts himself in frankpledge." The alderme

ndeed, is explained by the very name "ward," and the "frankpledge" was a survival of primitive adoption into the tribe. Some recognition of this is made by Holinshed, who says the city is divided into twenty-six wards or "tribes." It even seems possible that the wards may at first have been formed by symmetrical numerical units such as, say, a hundred freemen; or the space within the walls may

side of the roads outside the gates. Cottages outside Bishopsgate and at Holborn are mentioned even in Domesday, and Fleet Street appears to have been populous even earlier. The external wards extend to the boundary of the city liberties, or

in the reign of Edward I. there were still upwards of twenty in existence in London.[150] "Bury" seems to have been applied to a manor or property surrounded by a wall or fence; "in London," says Mr. W. H. Stevenson, "it means a large house." Bucklersbury and Bloomsbury were the properties-post-Conquest-of one Blemund, and of the family of Bockerel. A Saxon will makes a bequest to Paul's byrig.[151] The termination "haw," present still in Bassi

s keeping his Christmas "in the castle which is now called Baynard's," and after the death of Edric took boat for Westminster. There is every reason to think that the ruler's house in London, as in Constantinople, Venice, Aachen, and Paris, would have adjoined the cathedral, as Baynard's Castle did. That Baynard's Castle should have been the old royal palace would seem to agree very well with its

obably dismantled under John when the king quarrelled with Fitzwalter. In 1275 a patent was granted R. Fitzwalter to alienate Castle Baynard near the city walls, with stone wall, void areas, ditches, and even the tower of Fish Street Hill. Taking this

gthened his "castle," and that the Clares were leagued with him. This Montfichet's Castle is mentioned by FitzStephen, and Stow says that it was close to Ca

en recent "improvement." Some accounts of 23 Henry VIII., given in the Calendar of St. Paul's Documents, refer to the "clensying of certyn old ruinouse houses in Aldermanbury, sometime the palace of Saincte ?thelbert Kyng ... and making of five new tenements." It is curious that there is an Adle Hill, also in Castle Baynard Ward. The records of St. Alban's show that Abbot Paul (from 1077) obtain

lodged there.[157] Froissart, writing of the Wat Tyler's rebellion, tell

ounsellors. In the other high seat strait over against him sat his marshal, and then the guests. By litten fires should ale be drunk. He had about him sixty body-guards and thirty guests. Withall he had thirty house carles to work all needful service in the garth. In the garth also was a mickle hall wherein slept the body-guard, and there was withal a mickle chamber where the king held his court chambers