The Later History of the Estate of Roncevall.
The subsequent fate of the Chapel and Hospital and the land on which they stood may be shortly stated. The site was granted, no doubt with the buildings on it, in the year 1550 to Sir Thomas Cawarden.[[14]] Cawarden had been master of the revels to Henry VIII and had established claims to reward or remuneration from the King which had not been satisfied on his death. He was able to establish and enforce these claims in the early years of Edward VI. With some difficulty he obtained in discharge of his claims on the Crown the estate and property of Roncevall and also the church and property of the Blackfriars within the City of London. He seems also to have secured at this time the stewardship of Nonsuch Palace and its lands in the County of Surrey.
[14]. “A Survey of London,” by John Stow, 1603. The edition by Charles L. Kingsford, Clarendon Press, 1908, i, p. 341; ii, p. 350.
The properties of Roncevall and of the Blackfriars soon passed from the hands of Cawarden, probably during the period of wild speculation in land and real estate which followed the dissolution of the religious houses, but the stewardship of Nonsuch he continued to hold with much tenacity in spite of the efforts to dislodge him from this favourite position by Cardinal Pole during the reign of Queen Mary.
Cawarden died in the year 1559. In the meantime the Roncevall property had passed to Sir Robert Brett. It was purchased early in the seventeenth century by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, who built himself a town house, described as a “sumptuous palace,” on the site, using for the purpose the material of the ancient Convent. This house was completed in the year 1605 and was known for some years as Northampton House. It consisted of buildings arranged on three sides of a quadrangle, and open towards the garden and river. From him the property passed by inheritance to his nephew, Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk, the second son of Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk, who completed the quadrangle, the house being then known as Suffolk House. From the Howard family the property passed by an heiress to Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in 1642; another heiress of the Percy family brought the property to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. While in the possession of the Somerset family and their immediate successors, the Strand front was much improved and acquired the architectural features so long associated with Northumberland House at Charing Cross. By another heiress, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, the property passed into the possession of the present Duke of Northumberland’s family.
In consequence of the construction of the Thames Embankment, and the necessity for making a wide approach from Charing Cross, the late Metropolitan Board of Works bought the property from the Duke of Northumberland, in 1874, for the sum of £500,000. Northumberland House, the last of the old river-side mansions, was completely demolished and now Northumberland Avenue and the great buildings near it occupy the site of the Convent and Hospital of St. Mary Roncevall.[[15]]
[15]. “Old and New London,” V. iii, by Edward Walford (Cassell, Petter and Galpin). “Charing Cross,” by J. H. MacMichael (Chatto and Windus), 1905.
The Roncevall Property in London; from Information in an unpublished Manuscript of the beginning of the Seventeenth Century in the Library at Roncesvalles.[[16]]
[16]. The author is indebted to Don José Urrutia, the Abbot-Prior, for a précis of this document.
Most of the ancient documents dealing with the history of the Priory have been destroyed or lost as the result of war, fires and other causes. There remains in the Library at Roncesvalles an unpublished MS. dealing with the early history of the Priory and its dependencies, written about the second quarter of the seventeenth century by Don Juan Huarte. This MS. incorporates information obtained by the writer from various sources, and especially under the date April 12, 1623, from a certain Brother Miguel de Spiritu Sancto, who derived it in his turn from a certain Don Francisco Olastro—(Francis Oliver?)—who is stated to have been an ambassador from England in Madrid. This document states that there is situated in the suburbs of London a wide street named “the Street of Our Lady of Roncesvalles.” The houses in this street have sculptured over their doorways a single cross according to the use of Roncesvalles. At the end of the street is a large building, now nearly dismantled, which was a sumptuous church in the time of the Catholic Religion. Over the portico of the church were sculptured three crosses of the same form, and in addition there was a clearly engraved Latin inscription to the effect that this church was built and completely finished in honour of the Blessed Virgin by Henry IV, King of England, who, in addition, granted to the Community of St. Mary of Roncevall large possessions and revenues for the service of the Priory and Hospital. The inscription is dated in the MS. 1378, but this date, which is clearly impossible, is probably an error of transcription for 1408, arising from peculiarities in the formation of the figures, and there are other errors to be noted, showing that the information is derived through indirect channels. The inscription is given as follows:—