INTERIOR OF COURT ROOM.
11th February, 1636. Upon the moc͠on of or Mr to this Court concerneing the want of a publique Theater for Anatomycall exercises and Sceletons and a lesser roome for private discections, This Court doth order that if the Mrs or Governors upon their petic͠on to the Lord Maior and Aldrẽn they have the bullwarke & long stripp of ground lieing betwixt the gould smiths tenement & clothw: tenemtꝭ & london wall at the one end & the Companies hall & pˀlor & london wall at the other end, by purchase in fee farme or a long lease from the Cittie, that then a Theater to the largenes of the upper ground betwixt the goldsmithes tenem̃t & the clothworkers tenemt on the one side & london wall on the other side shalbe be ovally built for the Wor̃p[118] and comiditie of this Companie at the Charge of this house.
The piece of ground on which it was proposed to erect the Theatre was then on lease to the Company from the City. The Lease was dated 29th March, 7 Charles I (1631), and made between the Mayor, &c., of London, of the one part and the Masters, &c., of the Barber-Surgeons, of the other part. In consideration of £20 paid by the Company the City leased to them lwark and the houses Roomes and buildings therein or thereupon made or erected, And all that ground or garden plott with thappurtenñces scituat lyinge and beinge in the parish of St Olave in Silver Street in the Citie of London next unto the Wall of the same Citie there of the one side, and the landes of the saide Maisters or Governors and others on the other side late in the tenure or Pg157 Pg158 Pg159 occupac͠on of the right honoroble Henry late Lord Wyndsor deceased or of his assignes and now in the tenure or occupac͠on of the said Maisters,” etc., from the feast of the Annunciation, 1631, for forty-one years at a rent of £3. The lease contained the usual covenants of a repairing lease, as also one “that neither they the saide Masters or Governors their successors nor assigns shall or will att any time or times during the said Terme suffer any Inmate or Inmates to dwell in any part of the premises afore demised.”
5th May, 1636. There is an Indenture of Lease of this date made between the Mayor, &c., of London, and the Masters, &c., of the Barber-Surgeons, which after reciting the last mentioned lease proceeds: “And whereas the said Maisters or Governors of the Misterie and Comonaltie of Barbars and Surgians of London for the better enhableing of them in the Arte of Surgerie Doe intend to erect and build a decent Roome or Theatre on part of the premisses for the keeping therein A learned and constant Lecture in the Theorie and practiqʒ partꝭ of Surgerie As also to pˀforme their publique operac͠ons of Anatomies and other exercises thereunto belonging, Which will be verie chargeable to them Wherein the said Maior and Cominaltie and Citizens are desirous and willinge to aide and further the saide Maisters or Governors in the setting forward of soe necessarie and comendable a worke tendinge to the generall good of the whole kingdome,” wherefore the Mayor, &c., leased the said premises to the Company for a further term of 200 years upon the expiry of the lease then running, at the same rent of £3 per annum, the Lessees covenanting to build the Theatre within seven years.
16th May, 1636. Upon or Mrs report to this Court that the Lord Maior & Aldrẽn have freely graunted to this house a new lease of CC yeares comenceing from the expirac͠on of or lease now in being It is ordered with the generall consent of the whole Court here present that the Theater shalbe proceeded in and built according to the plotts drawne by his Matꝭ Surveigher.
3rd August, 1636. It is ordered by this Court that the Companies Armes with Helmett Crest supporters and mantlings shalbe sett up in Portland Stone under the Cantilaver does of the Theater being over the Windowe next the Granarye.
Alsoe the mottoe vizt. Speciosum hoc Theatrum Anatomicum erectñ fuit Michaele Andrews Chirurgo Regio ac comunioni BarbitonsoꝜ et ChirurgoꝜ pˀ tempore præfecto, Guardianis vero Joanne Warde Nicolas Heath et Wilhelmo Huckle anno ab exhibito in carne Messiæ supra millesimum sexcentesimum trigesimo sexto shalbe engraven in the voyde stone worke over the greate doore into the Theater.
A plan of the Theatre is preserved in a collection of the works of Inigo Jones, at Worcester College, Oxford, and a short description of it is found in Hatton’s New View of London, 1708. The curiosities in the Barber-Surgeons’ museum of those days will excite a smile when compared with the collection now at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Hatton says that the Theatre was built in “an elliptical form, and commodiously fitted up with four degrees of seats of cedar wood, and adorned with the figures of the seven liberal sciences, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. Also containing the skeleton of an ostrich, put up by Dr. Hobbs, 1682, with a busto of King Charles I. Two humane skins on the wood frames, of a man and a woman, in imitation of Adam and Eve, put up in 1645; a mummy skull, given by Mr. Loveday, 1655. The sceleton of Atherton with copper joints (he was executed) given by Mr. Knowles in 1693. The figure of a man flead, where all the muscles appear in due place and proportion, done after the life. The sceletons of Cambery Bess and Country Tom (as they then call them), 1638; and three other sceletons of humane bodies.”