Later on we hear of a quarrel between the Duke of York and the Duke of Somerset, and of the spoiling of the goods of the latter by the people of the former at the Friars Preachers’.
A COLUMN OF THE HALL OF BLACKFRIARS’ PRIORY
Discovered in course of excavations. Now at St. Dominic’s Priory, Hampstead.
The place was also one at which Royal and distinguished persons were entertained. The Dominicans, for instance, received Charles the Fifth of Spain on his visit to Henry the Eighth. It was in the Hall, called the Parliament Chamber, that Wolsey was found guilty on a Præmunire. The brethren, of course, took no part in these functions; but the fact that they were held in their House proves the position which they occupied. They did not, being mendicants, and without property, entertain Royal persons at their own charges. The sentence on Wolsey was the last event of importance connected with the Black Friars. Within a very few years after the holding of that Court, the proud Dominicans were turned into the street. Their whole property consisted of a few houses within the Precinct, which were valued at an annual rental of £104: 15: 4, so that, like the Franciscans, they remained actually mendicant to the very end. The respect in which these Friars were held, especially by the better sort, is shown by the list of great people buried in their church. Among the names we find those of Margaret, Queen of Scots; Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent; the children of the Earl of Arundel; Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward the First, whose heart lay here; the Earls of March and Hereford; the Duchess of Exeter, and many more. The House was surrendered in 1539. It does not appear that anything was done with it in the lifetime of Henry the Eighth. Very possibly he kept the place as convenient for holding Parliaments on occasion; it was also, and had been, at least since the time of Edward the Second, a house where Records and Charters were kept. Edward the Sixth granted the Hall and the site of the Prior’s House to Sir Francis Bryan; three years afterwards he gave the whole Precinct to Sir Thomas Cawardine.
We have seen that the Liberties of Sanctuary, especially that of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, were always a great trouble and annoyance to the City. Now the Precincts both of the Grey Friars and the Black Friars were claimed—though there were no more Friars—by those who had succeeded in the ownership of the Precincts as being without the jurisdiction of the City, and privileged, whether for those who took Sanctuary in the Precinct, or for those who carried on trade to be free of the City. This claim was stoutly resisted by the City authorities, and in 1586 the case was heard in Court before the Chief Justices.
There was a small church called the Church of St. Anne, which appears to have stood beside the great church, just as St. Margaret’s stands beside the Abbey; St. Gregory beside St. Paul’s; St. Peter’s beside the Austin Friars. The Precinct became the Parish of St. Anne. The old church of St. Anne seems to have perished with the Friars’ church. Perhaps it was an aisle. Then they built another church, which was nothing more than an upper chamber. As for the liberties and privileges of the Precinct, these were gradually forgotten and lost like those of the Grey Friars. The church was unroofed for the sake of the lead; it was then divided into two parts, part becoming a carpenter’s yard, and part converted into stables. The church, according to Wyngaerde, had no transepts, so that it would be easy to divide it. The Hall remained standing for some time longer, and was used for a Theatre—Burbage’s Theatre,—and some of the Shakespearian plays were acted there.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Precinct was “much inhabited” by noblemen and gentlemen. Afterwards the place became the residence of feather-dressers and glass-blowers—because it was still outside the City,—and later still of artists. “Thence into Blackfriars, visit the painters where you may see pictures” (Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass). Vandyck died here in 1641; Cornelius Jansen lived here; Isaac Oliver died here. There is one spot in modern Blackfriars which may still be recognised as part of the ancient house of the Dominicans. Passing through Playhouse Yard at the back of the Times office, and turning into a narrow lane called Church Entry, there is the small disused burial-ground of which I have already spoken. An open yard on the other side of the court apparently formed part of the Friars’ cemetery, just as at Westminster, where, the cloisters being reserved for the brethren, there might be a burial-ground outside the church. On the east of this yard is a fragment of ancient wall, and in a carpenter’s shop (No. 7 Ireland Yard) there is still (April 1900) remaining a single arch which once formed part of the House. I know not to what building this arch belonged; the site was afterwards a mortuary and a Watch house, but I know not which of these uses was the earlier.