“Your Lordship’s humbly to be commauned,
Nycholas Mosly, Mayor. Richard Martyn, John Hart, Henry Billingsly, Stephen Soame, William Ryder, John Garrard, Thomas Bennett, Thomas Lowe, Leonard Holiday, Robert Hampson, Ry. Godard, John Wattes, Tho. Smythe, William Craven, and Humphrey Weld.”
The ancient Church of Austin Friars was given by Edward VI. to the Dutch congregation, in whose possession it still continues. All that remains is the nave. In 1862 this was badly damaged by fire, but was carefully restored, the window tracery and roof dating from that time as well as many other additions. For an account of the Austin Friars, see Mediæval London, vol. ii. p. 345.
Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, lived in Broad Street in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Lords Weston and Dover in that of Charles I.
“Here was a Glass House where Venice Glasses were made and Venetians employed in the work; and Mr. James Howel (author of the familiar Letters which bear his name) was Steward to this house. When he left this place, scarce able to bear the continual heat of it, he thus wittily expressed himself, that had he continued still Steward he should in a short time have melted away to nothing among those hot Venetians. This place afterwards became Pinners’ Hall” (Cunningham’s Handbook).
General Monk (February 1660) took up his quarters at the Glass House. On the north side was the Navy Pay Office, on the south the Excise Office.
On the site of the Excise Office was Gresham College. Sir Thomas Gresham, who died in 1596, bequeathed his dwelling-house in Bishopsgate Street for the purposes of the college, besides presenting the Corporation of the City of London and the Mercers Company with the Royal Exchange on the condition that they carried on lectures in the college as he prescribed. His house was a very fine one, well suited for the purpose he had in view. After the death of his widow in 1596, lectures on seven subjects were appointed and the work began. The house escaped the Great Fire of 1666, and the mayor took the college for courts and meetings; the merchants used the inner court for their Exchange, and temporary shops were put up for the use of those who had been burned out by the destruction of the Exchange. In the history of the college there has been a good deal of litigation, the full story of which may be found in Maitland and elsewhere.
GRESHAM COLLEGE
The following Regulations are given in Stow and Strype, in 1720, in full. They are here abridged: