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The Life of JOHN STOW. | ij |
The Life of JOHN STOW.
dreadful Tempest of Thunder and Lightning happened, while the Ringers were
ringing.
And suddenly there came in at the South Window an ugly-shapen Sight, and Light
on the
North Side. Presently the Ringers, for Fear, let go their Bells, and all fell
down, and lay as
dead for the Time. And when they came to themselves, they found certain Stones
of the
North Window to be razed and scrat, as if it had been so much Butter, printed
with a
Lion's Claw, as Stow's Expression is. One of these Ringers, who was alive when
Stow
was a young Man, often verified the same to him as a Truth.
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These Stones were fastened there again, and so remained long after: Which Stow
saith he
often saw, and put a Feather or small Stick into the Holes where the Claws had
entred, and
found them two or three Inches deep.
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His Mother was Margaret Stow: Who made her last Will, June the 27th, 1568.
Proved the
Thirteenth of October following. Therein it appeareth, that she had Sons, two
Johns; one
whereof was her Eldest Son, and both alive when she made her Will, (to whom she
gave
Legacies) and Thomas, whom she made her Executor, and William Stow: Her
Daughters,
Johan, Margaret, Alice.
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His Mother, Margaret Stow. Her Will. Regist.
Lond.
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She bequeathed her Body to be buried by her Husband, in the Parish of St.
Michael's
Cornhill, in the Cloister: And Thirty Shillings, to bury her decently. Ten
Shillings upon
her Children and Friends, to drink withal after her Funeral. To the Poor, in
Bread, Five
Shillings. To the Company of Tallow-Chandlers, to follow her Corps to the
Church, Six
Shillings and Eight Pence: With these pious Words for her Soul, void of the
Superstition
commonly used in those Times:
"I bequeath my Soul unto Almighty God, my Maker
and Creator; and to his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my only Saviour and
Redeemer;
with the Holy Ghost; and into the Fellowship of the Holy Host of Heaven."
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She had a Son, named Thomas Farmer.
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To all her Children she gave Legacies: But unto John, the Eldest, the least;
viz. Five
Pounds.
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In this Parish then, we take for granted, Stow was born; and that about the Year
1525, in
the 17th of Henry VIII. His Godfathers were, Edmund Trindel and Robert Smith;
and
Margaret, the Wife of William Dickson, Godmother. For so he himself sets it
down in the
First Edition of his Survey, tho' left out afterwards: Whose said Godfathers had
Monuments in the said Church of St. Michael; as his said Godmother and her
Husband had
in the Cloister belonging to that Church, lying once under a fair Monument set
up for them,
but since defaced. These, no doubt, were wealthy Tradesmen, and his Father's
good
Neighbours in Cornhill. Who tho' he lived here for the Sake
of his Calling, yet was of such Rank and Estate, that he had a Garden to retire to for his
Pleasure and Diversion, situate on the Backside of Throgmortonstreet, in
Broadstreet
Ward; near to that Place which is now the Drapers Hall: Which then was the House
of Sir
Thomas Cromwell, K. Henry the Eighth's Great Minister and Secretary of State.
For
which Garden he paid 6s. 8d. yearly Rent; and it consisted of about Four and
forty Foot in
Length.
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Born when.
His Father's Garden.
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Here a remarkable Matter happened, which his Son John somewhere relateth,
shewing the
Power and arbitrary Proceedings of the Great Men in those Times. The Business
was
this:
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A Garden-House, close by his South Pale or Wall, stood somewhat in
Cromwells way, and obstructed his Convenience: Therefore,
without any more
ado, or having the Leave of the Proprietor, his Workmen loosed it from the
Foundation,
and bare it upon Rollers, and ran it Two and twenty Foot into Mr. Stow's Garden,
before
he heard any thing of it. Who afterwards speaking to the Surveyors of
Cromwell's Works,
had nothing but this Answer given him; That Sir Thomas commanded them to do it:
And
none durst argue the Matter. Notwithstanding his Father was fain to continue to
pay his
old Rent, without any Abatement for his Garden, tho' Half of it was in this
manner taken
away.
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John Stow seemed to follow his Father's Trade and Calling, whatever it were. In
a Letter
of Grindal, Bishop of London, to the Privy Council, concerning a Search that was
made by
his Chaplain in Stow's House, for Papistical Books, he called him Stow the
Taylor.
Which perhaps might be more than barely relating to the Company of Merchant
Taylors,
whereof he was free: It might bespeak him a Taylor by Trade: Since in former
Times, in
Cornhill, Men of that Occupation lived, and had their Shops; who were then of
more
Reputation and Wealth than of later Times those of that Calling are.
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Stow, his Trade.
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One Peter Mason, a Taylor, lived in this Street, and was a good Benefactor to
St. Peter's
Cornhill. And one Atwood, Draper, that lived over against St. Michael's Church,
in
Stow's Time, and (as it seems) a Man of Credit and Wealth, was of this Trade,
and had his
Stall, as well as his House there. Whose Wife, a Chantry Priest (belonging to
the said
Church) debauched; which the Husband, coming up to fetch a Pressing-Iron,
discovered.
But he was even with him, by making him to leap out of a Window, as well as
other severe
Shame and Punishment taken on him.
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These Shopkeepers, as they sold Cloth out of the Piece, so they seemed also
sometimes to
make and fit it up for wearing. And in Birching-Lane, and along thence in
Cornhill,
Westward, lived Upholders, or Frippers; that is, such as sold Apparel and old
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