This very ancient market was the property of the City as early as the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The College was founded by Simon Eyre, draper and Mayor, in 1445, when he also built a granary.
It was to consist of a Warden, five secular priests, six clerks, and two choristers to sing mass daily: there were also to be three schoolmasters with an usher; one master, to wit, with an usher, for grammar; one for writing; and one for singing; the masters were to have a yearly stipend of £10; every other priest £8; every clerk £5: 6: 8; and every chorister £3: 6: 8. Stow says that the conditions of the will were not carried out as regards the services in the Chapel and the free school.
But, in 1466, a Fraternity of the Holy Trinity was founded in connection with the Chapel by three priests. It consisted of 60 priests with other brothers and sisters. They performed divine service every market day in the afternoon, and once a year they had a solemn service with a procession of all the Fraternity. The property of this Fraternity amounted to £7: 10s. yearly.
The chapel escaped the Great Fire. It was pulled down in 1812. Wilkinson thus describes it:—
“This Chapel projected eastward from the exterior of the eastern cloisters of Leadenhall, from which it was entered by a large arched doorway, having the arms of the founder over the centre; and on each side of the interior arch was a perforated Gothic screen, of exquisite workmanship. The building was oblong, and was divided on the exterior sides into four parts, by buttresses reaching nearly to the roof, and separating as many large windows of the depressed pointed arch form, each parted into three lights, by stone mullions with cinquefoil arches; the window at the eastern end being considerably larger than the other, and containing five lights. On the outside the Chapel was almost completely enclosed by a case of wooden sheds, which reached nearly to the bases of the windows. It was covered with rafters and tiling of the coarsest modern workmanship, instead of the ancient roof, which had been pointed, and was supported within by carved brackets of chestnut wood, resting on corbels let into the walls against the buttresses: but of those brackets, only the scrolls and one fragment remained when the building was destroyed. Within the Chapel, at the south-west corner, was a small oaken door curiously studded and panelled, opening into a square apartment, which had probably been the sacristy; against the walls of which Mr. John Thomas Smith discovered some slight remains of painted figures. One of these exhibited the cheek, ear, and side of a head, with long yellow hair, flowing over blue and red drapery; the whole very much resembling the paintings discovered in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster, executed in the reign of Edward III. Those at Leadenhall, however, were neither embossed nor gilded; but were outlined and shaded with red ochre.” (Wilkinson, vol. ii.)
The Nunnery of Kilburn
This small House, a cell to the Abbey of Westminster, is, in history, chiefly an account of the jealousies of the Bishop of London and the Abbot of Westminster as to the Episcopal jurisdiction.
Its history is curious. One Godwyn, a recluse, built a hermitage at Kilburn on some land belonging to himself. He conveyed the land to the Abbey of Westminster, by whom a small convent was built on the spot for three ladies, maids of honour to Matilda, Queen of Henry the First. Godwyn became Warden for life, and the Abbey made provision for the maintenance of the nuns.
On the foundation of the nunnery, Gilbert, the Bishop of London, exempted it from his own jurisdiction. This exemption was questioned by Roger le Noir, Bishop in 1229. In 1231 a composition was entered into between the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s on the one side and the Abbot of Westminster on the other.