and bretheren granted and let to the said Ralph Bothomley, all that one half of their dok called Seynt Savour's Dok, that is to wyte, from the upper part of the same dok to the lowe water marke of the rever of Thamys; and also all that their pightell of land, conteyning 3 roddes, little more or less, lying betwene the lane called Fyvefoot Lane on the north part, and a close of land pertaining unto Robert Preston, of London, goldsmith, on the south part: To hold the same from the feast day of St. John the Baptist then last, for 32 years, at the yearly rent of £8."[1]
At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, St. John's Mill was in the tenure of Hugh Eglesfield, by virtue of a lease granted by the Prior of St. John's to Christopher Craven, for sixty years from Midsummer, 23 Henry VIII., at the yearly rent of £8. It was sold by King Henry VIII., in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, to John Eyre. The estate has for many years belonged to the family of Sir William Abdy, Bart., having come to them from the families of Gainsford and Thomas, whose names are commemorated in Gainsford Street and Thomas Street.
Shad Thames is a narrow street, running along the waterside, through the ancient liberty of St. John, from Pickle Herring to Dockhead. For the name of this street I cannot assign a more reasonable explanation than that it may be a corruption or abbreviation of St. John at Thames; unless it be thought a more likely presumption that the place took its singular name from the quantities of shad-fish formerly caught in the river at this spot. My friend W. W. Landell, Esq., informed me that his mother recollected in her youth the shad-
- ↑ Cotton M.S. Claudius, E. vi.
