IV.—On the Topography of the Dominican Priory of London. By ALFRED W. CLAPHAM, Esq. Read 18th January, 1912. THE remains of the Dominican houses in England are so inconsiderable as to give little indication of the former power and influence of the order. The Dominican convents, however, outnumbered those of any other mendicant order, and while the popularity of the Blackfriars amongst the lower classes probably never equalled that of the Minor brethren, yet in court favour and aristocratic support the Dominicans held the higher place, and a succession of their friars occupied the post of confessor to the later mediaeval kings. The order has left but one architectural monument of prime importance in England—the church of St. John the Baptist at Norwich,1 which is of especial interest as being the most complete friars' church now standing in this country, though even here the loss of the steeple has robbed it of its most distinctive feature. Elsewhere the Dominican remains are of the most fragmentary descrip- tion. At Gloucester portions of a small church and extensive domestic buildings are now transformed into dwellings;2 at Newcastle the cloister square remains much altered; at Canterbury,3 Bristol,4 and Hereford one of the ranges flanking the cloister stands at each place; while of the important house of King's Langley,s Herts., only a subsidiary building of uncertain use is standing. To these may be added the ground plan of the small establishment at Cardiff,6 recovered by excavation, and a few fragments at Boston, Bamburgh,7 and elsewhere. The Dominican Priory of London was founded in the year 1221, the first house having been on the south side of Holborn.8 1 See plan in Harrod's Gleanings among the Castles and Convents of Norfolk, p. 73. 2 See plan and paper by Rev. C. F. R. Palmer in Arch. Journ., vol. xxxix, p. 296. 3 See reproduction of old plan in Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. xiii, p. 87. 4 See plan and paper by J. Taylor in Trans. Bristol and Gloucester Arch. Soc, vol. iii, p. 232. 5 See plan in V. C. H. Herts., vol. ii, p. 239. 6 See paper and plan by E. P. Loftus Brock in Proc. of Brit. Arch. Assoc, vol. xlix, p. 306. 7 A view of the ruins appears in A History of Northumberland, vol. i (Bamburgh), 1893, p. 138. 8 The site of the first house is fully discussed by W. Paley Baildon in the Black Books of Lincoln's Inn, vol. iv, p. 263. VOL. LXIII. I Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 05 Sep 2018 at 04:01:51, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900011589 ARCHAEOLOGIA VOL. LXIII PLATE XI to -: n^"JtrrzBc-ztr.--z.nz. : x PkldRS CA R D E N PROVINCIALS HALLU£ o o o o o S£ S.DORTER (OVER) so 1NFI \MKK7 CL( 1STER KITCHEN YARD BAKE MD BREWHOUSCS ST ANNE'S CHAPEL Dragon ST 2 iWoucmtMNKR; fbr/aur (Ovt.) PrinlingHouse 4 Square 10 o so lOOTEET I i I I i i I i RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PLAN OF THE PRIORY OF BLACKFRIARS (Modern streets indicated in red) Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1912 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 05 Sep 2018 at 04:01:51, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900011589 58 ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE In the course of the great rebuilding works of Henry III at Westminster Abbey, the Dominicans obtained a number of grants of materials originally de- signed for that place. For instance, amongst the Westminster muniments is an order 'that the Friars Preachers of London have 1,000 freestones for their works', and again,' that five figures of kings carved in freestone and a pedestal for a figure of the Virgin be given to the Friars Preachers for making their aque- duct/ 1 Further orders mention large quantities of lead for the same purpose, and 2,000 lb. of stone for their works (1258-61).2 The extensive works here indicated make it difficult to explain the sudden abandonment of the old site and buildings fifteen or sixteen years later, and one is tempted to surmise that the elaborate and almost new conduit house with the statues of the kings was removed and re-erected in the new cloister. In 1274 Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury, himself a Dominican, obtained for them a new site between Ludgate and the Thames, including ' two lanes next the street of Baynards Castle together with the tower of Mountfichet to be destroyed',3 by gift of Gregory Roksley the mayor and the barons of the city. Licence was likewise obtained to destroy the city wall running due south from Ludgate, and to include within the precinct all the land west of this to the Fleet ditch; the city wall to be rebuilt to enclose and surround the addition. The expense of the erection of the new house was partly borne by the Arch- bishop, but King Edward I and his consort contributed so freely to the work as to be accounted founders of the new convent.4 Some 550 marks were obtained from the sale of the old site to Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln,5 and the destroyed Mountfichet's Tower provided an ample and inexpensive quarry for building material. Archbishop Robert was able before his death, which occurred in 1279, to transfer his attention to founding another Dominican house* at Salisbury. ^ A contemporary account asserts that the church was not begun till 1279,° and an entry in the Close Rolls, dated May 8, 1287, records a royal grant of 100 marks for the new church.7 In 1281 Richard de Stratford,8 a novice of the order, left certain tenements for the building of a chapter house, and the erection of the cloister followed shortly after, as in 1292 (April 24th)9 the convent had licence to fell timber to the 1 Hist. MSS. Commission, 4th Report, p. 176. 2 Ibid. 3 Stow, Survey of London, edit. 1633, p. 373. 4 They are so named on the list of burials, Harleian MSS. Plut. 6033. 5 Cal. of Close Rolls 1279-88, p. 428. 6 Memorials of Edward I and II, Rolls Series, vol. i, p. 88. 7 Cal. of Close Rolls 1279-88, p. 448. 8 Sharpe, Court of Husting Wills, vol. i, p. 52. 9 Cal. of Patent Rolls 1281-92, p. 484. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 05 Sep 2018 at 04:01:51, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900011589 DOMINICAN PRIORY OF LONDON 59 value ofp£io in the forest of Essex for that purpose. In 1294,1 and again in 1301,2 occur similar grants of timber from Windsor and Tonbridge forests, in the former case for making a quay ' at their house in London of the king's gift'. A few grants of the fourteenth century bear witness to a gradual enlarge- ment of the convent site, most of the property being described as in the parish of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe.3 The latest and most important of these (dated August 24, 1352)4 concerns 'a messuage called Okebourn between their dwelling and the Thames in the ward of Castle Baynard'. This was the Inn of the Priors of Okebourn, Wilts., a cell of Bee Abbey, and was evidently disposed of by the Abbot of Bee in view of the precarious tenure of their lands by the alien houses. A further indication of the position of Okebourn Inn is given by a confirma- tion (1309)"' of an indenture between the mayor and the convent as to the closing of a lane extending from the gate of the Prior of Okebourn on the east to the Fleet towards the west. This property must shortly afterwards have been alienated, as Stow records that it was granted by Henry VI to King's College, Cambridge.0 Little further information is available as to the site and buildings of the priory previous to the Dissolution, but their size and importance is proved by the variety of uses to which they were put by the later mediaeval kings. The Privy Council frequently met here, more especially during the early years of Henry VI, and the frater is mentioned on one occasion as the place of meeting.7 Three parliaments sat here in the years 1450,8 1523-4,0 and 1529,10 probably in the hall known as the Parliament Chamber. In 1522 the Emperor Charles V was lodged in the guest house, his train being housed in the newly erected palace of Bridewell.11 For this occasion Henry VIII constructed a long gallery spanning the Fleet river and connecting the two buildings, the city wall being breached for the purpose.12 Seven years later (1529) the question of the king's divorce was tried before Cardinals Campeggio and Wolsey ' in the Parliament Chamber near the Friars Preachers', the king and queen lodging meanwhile at Bridewell.13 The convent was surrendered by the commendator, Prior John Hilsey, Bishop of Rochester, on Nov. 12, 1538," when the inmates numbered sixteen, a 1 Cal. of Close Rolls 1288-96, p. 373. 2 Ibid., 1296-1302, p. 451, 3 e.g., Cal. of Patent Rolls 1307-13, pp.