The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Hubert de Ria, father of Eudo, Steward of the Conqueror’s household; Abbot and Convent of St. John, Colchester, being the gift of Eudo; Henry VIII. seized it, and thus it continued in the Crown until the church was burnt down and the parish annexed to St. Mary Woolnoth, of which the Crown shares the alternate patronage.
Houseling people in 1548 were 360.
Chantries were founded here by: Anne Cawood, at the Altar of St. Nicholas, whose endowment fetched £8 in 1548, when Henry Cockes was priest, and to which John Chamberlayne was admitted June 2, 1525; Roger Barlow, whose endowment fetched £3 : 6 : 8 in 1548, which was spent on maintaining the Cawood chantry: by Godwine le Hodere in 1313 for himself and his wife, for which the King granted his licence July 8, 1321.
The church formerly contained monuments to several benefactors, amongst whom were John Winger, mayor in 1504, donor of £20 for church purposes; Richard Shaw, sheriff in 1505, and donor of £20.
Stow records that the list of legacies and gifts was too long for the churchwardens to give account of in their parochial visitation of 1693, but that it could be seen in the parish registers.
William Fuller (1608-75), Bishop of Lincoln, was rector here.
Of the Wool Haw it is interesting to know: “They set up a beam for the tronage or weighing of wool in the churchyard of St. Mary, Westcheping, which was henceforth known as the Wool Haw or yard, and became a wool market. The date is not known, but it was before 1275 (‘S. Mary de Wolcherche’ occurs in a will of 1265 (see Calendar of Wills, vol. i. p. 26)). ‘Les Customes de Wolchirchaw’ as ordained in the reign of Edward I., were as follows (Liber Albus, p. 216):—‘For one pound of wool (sold) to a foreigner (non-freeman) one halfpenny; and for one sack, only one halfpenny. For two woolfels and more, one halfpenny, and for one hundred only one halfpenny. For one pound of woolen yarn, one halfpenny; for one hundred only one halfpenny. If any foreigner brings wool, woolfels, or yarn through the city for sale, to the value of ten pence and more, he shall pay as custom one farthing.’
“The weighing of wool was continued here until 1383 (6 Richard II.) when John Churchman, having built the Custom House upon Wool Quay (Tower Ward) the tronage was discontinued in this spot” (Strype).
When the watercourse of the Walbrook was open, there was a bridge over it at the junction of Walbrook, Broad Street, and Cheap wards. At the east side of the Mansion House, running from Mansion House Street to Church Row, is Mansion House Place. It contains only the sides of buildings.
Previously to the erection of the Mansion House, Mansion House Place formed merely the east side of Stocks Market, and was planted with rows of trees. On the east, about the middle, was a court, and in it, says Strype (1720), “a good large house, the habitation of Godfrey Woodward, one of the attorneys of the Sheriff’s court.” Strype’s map shows the position of the court, which opened into a fair-sized quadrangle.