Not to keep open his Doors upon the Holy-days.
Not to keep any single Woman in his House on the Holy-days, but the Bailiff to see them voided out of the Lordship.
No single Woman to be kept against her Will, that would leave her Sin.
No Stew-Holder to receive any Woman of Religion, or any Mans Wife.
No single Woman to take Money to lie with any Man, except she lye with him all Night, till the Morrow.
No Man to be drawn or enticed into any Stew-House.
The Constables, Bailiffs, and others, were every Week to search every Stew-House.
No Stew-Holder to keep any Woman that hath the perillous Infirmity of Burning, nor to sell Bread, Ale, Flesh, Fish, Wood, Coal, or any sort of Victuals.
Anno 1345, Stews were licenced by King Edward III. Anno 1381, these Stew-Houses belonged to William Walworth, Lord-Mayor of London, who let them out to some Flemish Women, and soon after they were plundered by Walter Tyler, and the rebellious Kentishmen, when probably they were put down, and again suffered, and afterwards confirmed by Henry VI. In 1506, King Henry VII. for some Time shut up these Houses, which were in Number Eighteen, and not long after renewed their Licence, and reduced them to Twelve; at which Number they continued till their final Suppression by Sound of Trumpet, in 1546, by King Henry VIII, whose tender Conscience startled at such scandalous and open Lewdness. The single Women who were Retainers to, or Inmates in, these Houses, were excommunicated, not suffered to enter the Church while alive, or if not reconciled before their Death, prohibited Christian Burial, and were interred in a Piece of Ground called the Single-Women’s Church-Yard, set a-part for their Use only. These Houses were distinguished by several Signs painted on their Fronts, as, a Boar’s-Head, the Crane, the Cardinal’s Hat, the Swan, the Bell, the Castle, the Cross-Keys, and the Gun.
