Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/301

This page needs to be proofread.
LONDON IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
279

municipal affairs, although legally and territorially exempt from municipal jurisdiction.

It is important to bear in mind that these sokes, in the reign of Henry the Third, were co-existent with, and, one excepted, wholly distinct from municipal wards ; because, this fact being recognised, we are thereby enabled to understand more clearly the state and relations of the conflicting parties in the metropolis in those times, which is essential to a just appreciation of the narrative under consideration. This leads us to enquire into the character of the population of London at the period in question.

First in rank and consideration, independently of any civic functions with which they might happen to be invested, were the landowners of the city : it was from this class that the earliest bailiffs and the first mayor were chosen. Besides their property within the walls we find that the Bucointes, the Buckerells, the Cornhills, the Basings, Gisorzes and others, had estates and dwellings in all the rural districts immediately surrounding London. In Edgware, Edmonton, Enfield, Hanwell, Uxbridge, and Cliig- well, we find traces of these "greater barons" of London as early as the twelfth century. Henry the First confirmed to them the hunting grounds of their ancestors, to wit, in Chiltern, in Middlesex, and in Surrey ; and appended to the charters and deeds which have descended to us, relating to the transfer of their property, are seals on which they are represented, after the fashion of the feudal lords of those days, clad in warlike panoply, or, with hawk in hand, enjoying the sports of the field. To ascend no higher than Henry Fitz-Ailwyn the first mayor, who was probably de- scended from Aylwyn Child, a native of London, who founded the priory of Bermondsey in 1082, we find that before and after his election he held land of the Crown in capite, both by knight-service and grand-serjeanty[1]; and Henry de Cornhill[2], one of the two sheriffs for the year 1188, was the husband of Alice de Courcy, the heiress of Stoke-Courcy, in the county of Somerset, and his only daughter was the wife of Hugh de Nevill, chief-forester of England. In short, all the civic officers at the beghniing of the thirteenth century were landowners, and in all probability elected owing to the influence commanded by their possessions. Next to persons of this class were the principal merchants and artizans[3], then comparatively limited

  1. ↑ Mr. Stapleton lias proved, in his elaborate introduction, that the present earl smiths : the of Ahingdon and lord Beaumont are now the joint representatives of Henry Fitz-Ailwyn.
  2. ↑ Reginald, his brother, sold a messuage in the parish of St. Olave, Southwark, for 120 marks to ransom himself from Corfe castle, where he had been imprisoned by King John; the purchasers were the prior and convent of St. Augustine at Canterbury ; and this house remained the London inn of the prior until the Dissolution.—MS. Cotton. Julius D. ii. fo. 103b.
  3. ↑ Of these the chief were the artificers in gold and iron, smiths and gold- smiths were for the most part farriers, and " locwrichtes ;" it is under these denominations they appear as witnesses to deeds in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One Quarter in which the smiths dwelt is still distinguished by the name of Ironmonger-lane; the Mareschalcia, or Farriery, was on the north-western side of Cheap. One of the sheriffs in the last year of King John, Benedictus Campanarius, was a bell-founder; his son Edmund granted lands to the priory of the Holy Trinity: on the seal appended to his deed of gilt appears a bell with a clapper of unusual length.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.