165. The entrance became known as “Hell Gate” or “Devil’s Gap.” The widening of the street to its present measurements is said to have been carried out in 1765 (Blott’s Blemundsbury, p. 370).
166. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611–18, James I., vol. 69 (36). Robert Cecil was created Earl of Salisbury in May, 1605; he died in May, 1612.
167. This form of the name occurs frequently.
169. In January, 1669–70, references occur to “John Jones, the master of the White Swan in Queen Street, Drury Lane,” and “John Jones, victualler, at the White Swan in Queen’s Street” (Historical MSS. Commission, Ho. of Commons Calendar, App. to 8th Rep. I., 155b, 157a). As late as 8th April, 1677, a letter was addressed to “Don Manuel Fonseca, Queen Street” (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1677–8, p. 82). On the other hand, the title Great Queen Street is found in 1667 as the address of Viscount Conway (Ibid., 1667, p. 535), and occurs even in a passage which must have been written at least fifteen years earlier (see p. 50).
170. See, e.g. Wheatley and Cunningham’s London, Past and Present, III., p. 135: “The houses in the first instance were built on the south side only”; Heckethorn’s Lincoln’s Inn Fields, p. 171; Parton’s Hospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 133.
173. Lease to Edward Fort of 18th May, 1612, quoted in indenture of 10th February, 1625, between Jane and Richard Holford and Jeoffery Prescott (Close Roll, 22 Jas. I. (2601)).
174. In the absence of deeds relating to the early history of Nos. 14–35, it is impossible to be more precise. There may, of course, have been gaps in the north side (excluding Nos. 1–6) even later than 1612. In the Subsidy Rolls of 21 James I. (1623–4) and 4 Charles I. (1628–9), preserved at the Record Office, thirteen names of occupiers of houses in the street are given, and the assessment in 1623 for the rebuilding of St. Giles’ Church gives fifteen housekeepers in the street (Parton, Hospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 136n). No adequate idea of the number of houses in the street can, however, be gained from these facts, for the subsidy rolls certainly do not give all the occupiers, and, as the assessment was not compulsory, it is improbable that every householder made a contribution.
175. History of ... St. Giles-in-the-Fields and St. George, Bloomsbury, p. 58.
176. No evidence has come to light in the course of the investigations for this volume whereby Lord Herbert’s house might be identified. In his will, dated 1st August, 1648, proved 5th October, 1648, he refers more than once to his “house in Queene Streete”. (Somerset House Wills, Essex, 138).
177. Close Roll, 18 Chas. I. (3295).—Indenture between W. Newton and Francis Thriscrosse.
178. Close Roll, 15 Chas. I. (3192).
179. Close Roll, 15 Chas. I. (3190)—Indenture between W. Newton and Ric. Webb, Nicholas Redditt and Jeremy Deane.
180. Harl. MS., 5,900, fol. 57b.
181. Indenture, dated 7th February, 1734–5, between John Bigg and Peter Guerin. (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1734, V., 85.)
182. British Museum, Crace Colln., Portfolio 28, No. 53.
183. It is possible that in 1646 Sir Martin Lumley was resident at this house, but not certain. In the Subsidy Roll for that year his name is the first on the north side of the street, and precedes Sir Thos. Barrington’s, who, it may be proved, lived at No. 3. It may be, therefore, that Lumley was the occupant of No. 1.
184. G. E. C[ockayne’s] Baronetage, II., p. 80.
185. Reproduced here.
186. Elizabeth Killigrew, Lewis Richardes, Thomas Stoake.
187. Lewis Richardes.
189. It is given (Close Roll, 22 Jas. I. (2601).—Indenture between Jane and Richard Holford and Jeoffrey Prescott) as the eastern boundary of Prescott’s property, which extended along the north side of Great Queen Street from Drury Lane, and the length of which is given as 120 feet. Thus the Prescott property was on the site of the present Nos. 38 to 45. A deed dated 20 June, 1721, refers to property of which Seagood’s house had formerly formed the western boundary. This deed gives the names of the occupants of the houses to which it relates both in 1636 and at that time, and the latter list clearly identifies the property as Nos. 26 to 35, thus leaving 36 and 37 for Seagood’s house. That this house corresponded to two numbers is rendered quite certain by a careful comparison of the entries in the series of Hearth Tax Rolls. In fact, the house is on two occasions taxed for 30 hearths, which seems an over estimate, as the assessment is afterwards reduced to 24 hearths. Even this implies a very large house.
190. Close Roll, 13 Chas. II. (3123).—Indenture between Henry Holford and Paul Williams, etc.
191. Reproduced here.
192. Close Roll, 5 Chas. I. (2800). Indenture between Richard Holford and Sir Edw. Stradling—reciting indenture of 1618.
193. See Recovery Roll, 9 Chas. I. rot. 23 (201). Indenture between Edward Stradling and George Gage.
195. Close Roll, 5 Chas. I. (2800). Indenture between Richard Holford and Sir William Cawley and Geo. Strode.
196. Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1629–31, p. 47.
197. Calendar State Papers, Domestic, 1629–35, p. 55.
199. Close Roll, 11 Chas. I. (3059). Indenture between Sir Kenelm Digby and William Newton.
200. He succeeded his father as Earl of Carnwath in 1639.
201. Patent Roll, 12 Chas. I. (2740).
202. The means taken to enforce a uniform design may be gathered from the fact that the purchaser of certain plots to the west of Nos. 55–56 was required to build three houses “to front and range towards Queenes Streete ... in the same uniformity, forme and beauty as the other houses already ... erected by the said William Newton in Queenes Streete are of.”
203. The evidence for this statement is gathered from the undermentioned illustrations:
No. 51. Sir Robert Strange’s House (Parton’s Hospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 250), 3 bays, 4 pilasters. Western portion of third plot 41 feet wide.
Nos. 55–6, 57–8. Bristol House (Ibid.). Double façade each 44 feet wide, 5 bays, 6 pilasters. Fifth plot 88 feet wide.
Nos. 55–6, 57–8. J. Nash, 1840. (The Growth of the English House, J. Alfred Gotch.)
Original Freemasons’ Tavern. Engraving by Joseph Bottomley, 1783. 5 bays, 6 pilasters. Seventh plot 44 feet wide.
Queen Street Chapel (Parton, op. cit. p. 250). Western portion of tenth plot 59 feet 6 inches wide.
No. 70. (Photograph taken by the London County Council in 1903.) Refronted on old lines, 4 bays, 5 pilasters on plot 35 feet wide.
204. Survey of London, Vol. III. (St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Part I.), p. 97.
205. II., p. 174.
208. Harl. MS., 5,900, 57b.
209. The reason why Lindsey House is now not in the middle of the west side of the Fields is that in the original design the west row extended from Gate Street to No. 2, Portsmouth Street. The building of the houses on the north and south sides of the Fields, not included in the original design, encroached on both sides of the west row, but the encroachment on the north being the greater, the axis of the square was thereby moved further south.
210. British Museum. J. W. Archer Collection. “The house called Queen Anne’s Wardrobe,” drawn 1846 (No. 55–6, Great Queen Street) and “House of the Sardinia Ambassador,” drawn 1858 (No. 54, Lincoln’s Inn Fields).
211. “The expert surveyour will repart the windows to the front of a palace, that they may (besides the affording of sufficient light to the rooms) leave a solid peeres between them, and to place some pleasing ornament thereon, not prejudicial to the structure, nor too chargeable for the builder, shunning incongruities, as many (pretending knowledge in ornaments) have committed, by placing between windows pilasters, through whose bodies lions are represented to creep; as those in Queen Street without any necessity, or ground for the placing lions so ill, which are commonly represented but as supporters, either of weight, or of arms on herauldry.” (Counsel and Advice to All Builders, pp. 13–14.)
213. Anecdotes of Painting, II., p. 60.
214. Survey of London, Vol. III. (St. Giles-in-the-Fields, Part I.), Plate 6.
215. It was assessed for the hearth tax at 40 hearths, while Conway House, although of the same frontage, was only assessed at 31.
216. The frontage of this house is stated in certain deeds in the London County Council’s possession (e.g., Indenture of 26th October, 1639, between Wm. Newton and Compton, Dive and Brewer) to be 98 feet, but in others (e.g., Release by Wm. Newton senr., to Wm. Newton, junr., dated 22nd January, 1637–8) is given as 88 feet. That the latter is correct may be regarded as certain from the perfect accord of the total number of feet thus obtained with the present boundaries.
217. The deeds from which these particulars are taken are (1) Close Roll, 15 Chas. I. (3196)—Indenture between Wm. Newton and Sir Ralph Freeman; and (2) a deed in the possession of the Council—Indenture between Newton and Sir Henry Compton, etc. The former deed, in error, reverses the eastern and western boundaries.
218. A release by deed poll from Wm. Newton the elder to Wm. Newton the younger, in the possession of the London County Council.
219. Close Roll, 5 Geo. I. (5117)—Indenture dated 16th May, 4 Geo. I., between Sir John Webb and Thos. Stonor, and Sir Godfrey Kneller, etc.
220. Mr. Stonor inhabited the western half of the original house, now forming Nos. 55 and 56; Mr. Browne was in occupation of the eastern half, afterwards Nos. 57 and 58.
221. Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1832, V., 93.
223. Survey of London, Vol. III. (St. Giles-in-the-Fields. Part I.), Plate 66.
224. In possession of the London County Council.
225. Close Roll, 15 Charles I. (3196). Indenture between Wm. Newton and Sir Ralph Freeman.
226. Marginal note in his private journal (Memoirs and letters of Marquis of Clanricarde, ed. by K. De Burgh, p. 68).
227. Deed in possession of the London County Council.
228. Memoirs and Letters of the Marquis of Clanricarde, p. xiv.
229. Hist. MSS. Comm.; MSS. of the Earl of Egmont, I., p. 223.
230. Constitutional History of England (ed. 1854) III., 389n.
231. Somerset House Wills, Nabbs, 117.
232. She was Catherine, daughter of Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford; her husband, Robert Greville, second Baron Brooke, distinguished himself as a general of the parliamentary forces in the Civil War, and was killed at Lichfield in 1643. Fulke Greville, who was not born until after his father’s death, eventually succeeded to the title, and died in 1710.
233. Close Roll, 1654 (3814).
234. Sir William Constable was afterwards possibly an occupant of the house, for on 24th May, 1647, he wrote to the old Lord Fairfax from “Queen Street.” (Hist. MSS. Comm.; Morrison MSS., Report IX., Part II., App. p. 439.) Constable had married in 1608, Dorothy, daughter of Thomas, first Lord Fairfax. He contrived with difficulty to raise a regiment of foot in the Civil War, and greatly distinguished himself in the field. He was afterwards one of the king’s judges and signed the warrant for his execution. He died in 1655.
235. C. R. Markham’s The Great Lord Fairfax, p. 191.
236. Ibid., p. 254.
237. Ibid., p. 274. The old lord had recently married again. He announced the fact to his brother in a letter dated “Queen Street, October 20th, 1646.”
238. Hist. MSS. Comm., Pembroke College MSS., Report V., App. p. 487.
239. He was still in the parish (possibly in this house) in 1658, for Parton quotes (Hospital and Parish of St. Giles, p. 356) an entry in the churchwardens’ accounts for that year: “Pd. and expended at the sessions, about Sir William Paston’s complaynt, of his being double rated.”
240. Close Roll, 15 Chas. II. (4143)—Indenture between the Hon. John Digby and Sir Anthony Morgan and Richard Langhorne.
241. Described in Survey of London, Vol. IV. (Chelsea, Part II.), pp. 18–27.
242. Some time between 1666 and 1675 he removed to No. 51, Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Survey of London, Vol. III., p. 71).
243. See also North’s account: “The great House in Queen Street was taken for the use of this Commission. Mr. Henry Slingsby sometime Master of the Mint, was the Secretary; and they had a formal Board with Green Cloth and standishes, clerks’ good store, a tall Porter and staff and sitting attendance below, and a huge Luminary at the Door. And, in Winter Time, when the Board met, as was two or three times a week, or oftener, all the Rooms were lighted, Coaches at the Door, and great passing in and out, as if a Council of State in good earnest had been sitting. All cases, Complaints and Deliberations of Trade were referred to this Commission, and they reported their opinion, whereupon the King in Council ordered as of course. So that they had the Province of a Committee of Council; and the whole Privy Council was less charge to the King than this.” (Examen, p. 461.)
244. The Council of Trade was established on 7th November, 1660, and by patent dated 1st December in the same year Charles II. also created the Council of Foreign Plantations. (Haydn’s Book of Dignities, 1894, p. 263.)
245. Slingsby writes on behalf of the Council for Foreign Plantations from Queen Street, on 27th April, 1671. (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1671, p. 204.)
246. In October, 1672, the Council of Plantations was united to that of Trade (Evelyn, Diary, 13th October, 1672), and the united Council seems thenceforth to have utilised a portion of “Villiers House,” the house of the Duchess of Cleveland. (Audit Office, Declared Accounts, Trade, etc., 2303 (2)).
247. See schedules of deeds appended to Indentures between Thos. Stonor, etc., and Sir Godfrey Kneller, dated 11th and 12th March, 1717–8 (Close Roll, 5 Geo. I. (5117)).
248. Chancery Warrants (Series II.), Signet Office, 16th April, 1669 (21 Chas. II., 2386).
249. Indenture of 24th June, 1674, between Sir Chas. Harboard and John Hanson, by direction of the Earl of Devonshire, and the Earl of Sunderland, recited in Indenture of 12th March, 1717–8, between Thos. Stonor, etc. and Sir Godfrey Kneller (Close Roll, 5 Geo. I. (5117)). Sunderland’s purchase of the Earl of Bristol’s interest in the freehold was not effected until February, 1683–4 (Deed in possession of the London County Council) just before his sale of the premises.
250. The fact that the 1675 Hearth Tax Roll shows the Earl of Devonshire at the house is not conclusive against this, as it is probable, from other considerations, that this particular roll, though bearing the date 1675, represents the state of affairs in 1674.
251. Dictionary of National Biography.
252. Dictionary of National Biography.
253. Freehold and 99 years’ lease in April, subsidiary lease in June.
254. Second son of Thomas, first Lord Fauconberg, a prominent royalist. Died in 1689.
255. Will of Lord Belasyse, quoted in Indenture of 12th March, 1717–8, between Thos. Stonor, etc., and Sir Godfrey Kneller (Close Roll, 5 Geo. I. (5117)).
256. Indenture of 12th March, 1717–8, between Thos. Stonor, etc., and Sir Godfrey Kneller (Close Roll, 5 Geo. I. (5117)).
257. The sewer ratebook for 1703 (representing probably the state of things in the previous year) shows “Thomas Stonor, Esq.” still in occupation; that for 1709 (the next issue) gives “Sir Godfrey Kneller.” The Dictionary of National Biography says he purchased the house in 1703, but this is obviously an error. (See above).
258. Somerset House Wills, Richmond, 161.
259. The statement seems to have originated with Horace Walpole (Anecdotes of Painting, Wornum ed. (1888), II., pp. 209–210).
260. Munk’s Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, I., p. 456.
261. London Past and Present, III., p. 137.
263. A deed of 27th November, 1745, shows “Lady Goodyear” and Mr. Charles Leviez then in occupation. (Midd. Registry Memorials, 1745, III., No. 156).
264. Sir Godfrey Kneller left his Great Queen Street property to his wife for her lifetime, with reversion to his godson, Godfrey Kneller Huckle, “provided the surname of Kneller be adopted.” Godfrey Kneller, the younger, died in 1781, and his son, John Kneller, in 1814.
265. Bryan’s Dictionary of Artists; Walpole’s Anecdotes, p. 702.
266. The Dictionary of National Biography is in error in stating that he added this house to the other.
267. Redgrave’s Dictionary of Painters and Engravers.
268. Leask’s James Boswell, p. 125.
269. Nichol’s Illustrations of Literature, VII., pp. 308–9.
270. Details of Boswell’s residence there are given in the Council’s publication, Indication of Houses of Historical Interest, I., pp. 79–84.
271. III., p. 137.
272. Holden’s Triennial Directory for 1802–4.
273. Reproduced here.
275. “All that messuage ... lately divided into two shops or dwelling houses.” Indenture, dated 7th October, 1813, between Sophia Kneller and G. J. Kneller and Thos. Crook. (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1813, IX., 129.) The ratebook for 1812 shows the house in single occupation.
276. Close Roll, 17 Chas. I. (3275)—Indenture between Edward, Lord Viscount Conway, Edw. Burghe, and William Newton and Elizabeth, Countess Rivers.
277. Release and quit claim by Wm. Newton, jnr., in possession of the London County Council.
278. The house was still standing on 12th February, 1738–9 (see indenture of that date between Philip Carter and Jas. Mallors, Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1739, I., 450–1), but by 22nd May in that year it had been demolished, the two houses fronting Great Queen Street were then in course of erection, and others were intended to be built. The parish ratebook for 1739 shows the house as “Empty”; that for 1740 gives: “Empty. 12 houses made out of one.”
279. That the archway was exactly in the centre may be proved by the fact that when the two houses were sold to Jas. Mallors in the year 1742, they were each described as 22 feet in width, including half of the passage into Queen’s Court (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1741, IV., 424 and 1742, I., 435).
280. Between Thomas Wither and Thomas Raye (Common Pleas Recovery Roll, 26 Chas. II., Trinity, Rot. 4).
281. Feet of Fines, Middlesex, 13 Chas. I., Trinity.
282. (27th January, 1650–1.) “Col. Berkstead to take care for the pulling down of the gilt image of the late Queen, and also of the King, the one in Queen Street, and the other at the upper end of the same street, towards Holborn, and the said images are to be broken in pieces.” (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1651, p. 25.)
283. Recovery Roll (Common Pleas), 17 Chas. I., Hilary, 236.—Indenture between William Newton, Philip Willoughby and Edward Mabb and Edward Burghe.
284. Afterwards Middle Yard.
286. See Indenture of 18th May, 16 Geo. II., between Lord Conway and Francis Paddy (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1743, I., 334–5).
287. Henry Sadler, Some memorials of the Globe Lodge No. 23 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of England, p. 11.
288. Documents and drawings preserved in the Soane Museum.
289. Photographs of various modern features, although not coming properly within the scope of this volume, have been inserted for the purpose of showing the historic continuity of the buildings on the site of the old Hall.
290. The premises had been purchased in 1880. (Middlesex Registry Memorials, 1880, 962).
291. Indenture of 5th March, 1718–9, between Lord Montagu, etc. (1), William Juxon and Jas. St. Amond (2), and Sir Godfrey Kneller and Ed. Byng (3), in the possession of the London County Council.
292. G. E. C[ockayne’s] Peerage.
293. The sewer ratebook for this year shows “Henry Browne” in occupation of the house, but that for 1700 has the entry “— Webb, Esq.,” referring to the owner.
294. The sewer ratebook for this year shows “Henry, Lord Montague” in occupation.
295. Burke’s Extinct Peerage.