Gresham Street, formerly called Catte, Cateaton, or Ketton Street, or Cattling Street, when changed to its present name also swallowed up Lad Lane and Maiden Lane.
Catte Street is mentioned in a deed dated the Saturday after Ascension 1294, in which Hugh de Vyenne, Canon of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, grants to the master and scholars of Balliol, inter alia, four shillings of yearly rent from the tenement held by Martin the arbitrator, in Catte Street, opposite the church of St. Lawrence, also the same amount from the tenement of Adam de Horsham opposite the church.
On the Feast of Ascension in the year 1360 a case of great interest was heard at the Hustings of common pleas.
In this case, John de Wyclif, Master of Balliol, Oxford, was attached to make answer to Nicholas Marchant in a plea of distresses taken. Wyclif is accused of having made an unlawful seizure upon the freehold of Nicholas in the parish of St. Lawrence, Jewry, on Wednesday after the Feast of St. Gregory that year. From the pleading it appears that the house was once the property of “one Thippe, wife of Isaac of Suthwerk, a Jewess”; after her exit from England it came to King Edward, grandfather of Edward III. Their tenement in Catte Street was given (so the pleadings show) by that king to Adam de Horsham, mercer, uncle of Nicholas above named, at a rent of one penny per annum to the King. Wyclif joins the suit. Nicholas has to pay arrears and is amerced [hitherto Wyclif’s mastership of Balliol was ascribed to date from 1361, hence the importance of this MS.] (Historical MS. Commission, Report IV., p. 448).
There is another ancient mention of Catte Street, belonging to the year 1281, in which one Aaron, a wealthy Jew and a money-lender, contracts with Rudolph the mason for the building of a house in Catte Street.
From Aldermanbury westward to Wood Street, Gresham Street was formerly called Lad Lane. The name occurs certainly as early as 1301, as containing a house belonging to Coke Bateman, a Jew. It is first found in the Calendar of Wills in 1362, after which we hear no more of it till 1419. Here a Roman pavement was found.
One of the most important of the old coaching inns, the Swan with two Necks, stood in Lad Lane. From this place an amazing number of coaches and wagons set out every day. The sign is still to be seen over the entrance to the London and South Western Railway Company’s yard.
The street was widened in 1845. It has a picturesque appearance, for the houses project irregularly at the corners of the cross streets. The Church of St. Lawrence occupies part of the north side.
ST. LAWRENCE, JEWRY
The date of the foundation of St. Laurence or Lawrence, Jewry, is not known, but the church was burnt down by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren 1671-76, when the parish of St. Mary Magdalene was annexed. The new building was erected at the expense of the parishioners, assisted by a liberal subscription from Sir John Langham. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1321. The patronage of the church was in the hands of Henry de Wickenbroke, who, May 30, 1294, gave the Rectory to Balliol College, Oxford, when a Vicarage was here ordained, and in this college it still continues.