Page:VCH London 1.djvu/666

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A HISTORY OF LONDON the abbey of Barking, to which the patronage of the church belonged," and when Henry IV, in 1402, gave the church and chapel of Allhallows as an appendage of St. Peter's to Thomas Hali- well,^^ the abbess claimed them as her property and was successful in proving her ownership.^' Edward III seems only to have set up a series of chantries in the chapel, and Stow is doubtless correct in designating the priest who in 1429 killed a friar imprisoned in the Tower as the parson of St. Peter ad Vincula." Edward IV intended to erect a college in the strict sense of the word, and in February, 1483, issued letters patent" establishing a corporation of a dean, sub-dean, treasurer, and precentor, who were to be known as the dean and canons of the royal free chapel of the household ; they were to be governed by ordinances made by the king, and as endowment were to hold the chapel, its oblations, tithes, and profits, and had leave to acquire lands to the value of ^^ 1 00 a year. The king's death, however, before the fulfilment of his purpose, put an end to the scheme.'^ Pre- sumably, therefore, the institution continued on the lines laid down by Edward III until the suppression of chantries and colleges" left the rector the sole incumbent of the chapel. In 1 55 1 the chapel was deprived of the ex- emption it had hitherto enjoyed from episcopal authority and was made subject to the bishop of London." Rectors of the Collegiate Chapel of St. Peter in the Tower Thomas, occurs 1393^^ Thomas Haliwell, appointed 1402,^" resigned 1405 " Geoffrey Wyke, appointed 1405 ^^ Robert de Morley, appointed 1413-^ John Dabrichecourt, appointed 1413^* John Salmonby, appointed 141 6, vacated 1421 -' Edmund Warcop, occurs 1440°^ John Forster, died 1445 " Edward III had held it by grant of the abbess and convent, but Richard II gave the advovvson back to the abbey. CtiJ. of Pat. 1385-9, p. 43. " Ibid. 1401-5, p. 124. " Ibid. 490. " Stow, Ann. of Engl. (ed. 161 5), 358. " Cal. of Pat. 1476-85, p. 341. '^ Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 1458. " The chapel could have been classed under either head, for the chaplainships were called chantries in a grant of 1362. Stow, Surv. ofLond. i, 68. " Newcourt, Repert. EccL Lond. i, 530. " Cal. of Pat. 1391-6, p. 265.

  • ° Ibid. I401-5, p. 124.

" Ibid. 500. » Ibid. " Hennessy, Novum Repert. 373. Ibid. « Ibid. « Ibid. " Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 1 45 8. Dr. Hutton's e.xcerpts from the patent rolls. John Palmer, appointed 1445, vacated 1446^' John Clampayne, appointed 1446-7, vacated 1448-9^' Thomas Carr, appointed 1449,^*^ vacated 1457-8" Edmund Russell, appointed 1457-8 Richard Marty n, appointed 1476, resigned 1482'^ William Fitz Herbert, appointed 1482 John Gunthorpe, appointed 1483'° Richard Surland, appointed i486, died 1509 " Roger Norton, appointed 1509'* Nicholas Willen, occurs 1535 Richard Layton, LL.D., resigned 1535*° John Ogden, appointed 1535,*^ died 1537 ^^ John Button, appointed 1537*' Richard Taylor, 1545-6^^ 36. THE CHAPEL OF ST. THOMAS ON LONDON BRIDGE The chapel on London Bridge was founded before 1205, in honour of St. Thomas h Becket, by Peter de Colechurch,^ the chaplain who supervised the building of the bridge^ begun in 1 176.^^ The original structure was of very short duration, for it was burned down in 1212,' but it was rebuilt when the bridge was restored. From the first there are said to have been there two priests and four clerks,^ who may probably be identified with the preachers licensed by King John in 1207 to preach in aid of the bridge.* A grant of a corrody in 1277 shows that there were then two or more chaplains, and that they and other persons called brothers of the Bridge lived to- " Hennessy, Novum Repert. 373. " Ibid. '» Dugdale, op. cit. vi, 1458. " Hennessy, op. cit. 373. " Cal. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 563. Ibid. " Ibid. 1476-85, p. 256. « Ibid. '* That is he was created dean of the new college by Edward IV. Ibid. 341. Hennessy, op. cit. 372. Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid. " Ibid. " L. and P. Hen. nil, viii, 291 (l i). "Ibid, xii (I), 539(46).

    • Hennessy, op. cit. 373.

' Stow, Surv. of Lond. (ed. Str)-pe), i, 54. Cole- church died four years before the bridge was completed in l2og, and was buried in the chapel, which must, therefore, have been finished, or nearly so, at that date. Newcourt, Repert. Eccl. Lond. i, 395. Peter, who was a priest of St. Mary Colechurch, the church in which St. Thomas had been baptized, built the chapel at his own cost. Welch, Hist, of the Tower Bridge, 29. ' Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Cora.), i, 58. '^ Welch, op. cit. 29. ' Matt. Pari?, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 536.

  • Stow, op. cit. i, 54.

' Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i, 58. Wace, the king's almoner, was one of them. He had been made warden of the bridge in 1205. Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 49. 572