Ely Place

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London 1917 Brass Antique Nautical Sextant & Box- 2 extra Telescope sextant
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FISH SLICE STERLING SILVER MADE IN LONDON 1812
7 Nov 2011 at 11:09am

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W. J. Loftie, adding to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Holborn with this look at Ely Place:

The earliest notice of the See in connection with this spot is in the thirteenth century, when Kirkby, who died in office in 1290, bequeathed to his official successors a messuage and nine cottages in Holborn.

A succeeding Bishop, probably William de Luda, built a chapel dedicated to St. Ethelreda, and Hotham, who died in 1336, added a garden, orchard, and vineyard.

Thomas Arundel restored the chapel, and built a large gate-house facing Holborn.

It boasted noble residents besides the Bishops, for John of Gaunt died here in 1399, having probably been hospitably taken in after the burning of his own palace at the Savoy.

The strawberries of Ely Garden were famous, and Shakespeare makes reference to them, thus following closely Holinshed.

It began with the envious desires of Sir Christopher Hatton, who, by reason of his dancing and courtly tricks, had won the susceptible Queen's fancy and been made Lord Chancellor.

He settled down on Ely Place, taking the gate-house as his residence, excepting the two rooms reserved as cells and the lodge.

He held also part of the garden on a lease of twenty-one years, and the nominal rent he had to pay was a red rose, ten loads of hay, and £10 per annum.

The Bishop had the right of passing through the gate-house, of walking in his own garden, and of gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly.

Hatton spent much money (borrowed from the Queen) in improving and beautifying the estate, which pleased him so well that he farther petitioned the Queen to grant him the whole property.

The poor, ill-used Bishop protested, but was sternly repressed, and the only concession he could obtain was the right to buy back the estate if he could at any time repay Hatton the sums which had been spent on it.

But Hatton did not remain unpunished. Queen Elizabeth I, a hard creditor, demanded the immense sums which she had lent to him, and it is said he died of a broken heart, crushed at being unable to repay them.

His nephew Newport, who took the name of Hatton, was, however, allowed to succeed him.

The widow of this second Hatton married Sir Edward Coke, the ceremony being performed in St. Andrew's Church.

The Bishops' and the Hattons' rights of property seem to have been somewhat involved, for after the death of this widow the Bishops returned, and in the beginning of the eighteenth century the Hatton property was saddled with an annual rent-charge of £100 payable to the See; and, in 1772, when, on the death of the last Hatton heir, the property fell to the Crown, the See was paid £200 per annum, and given a house in Dover Street, Piccadilly, in lieu of Ely Place.

Malcolm says: "When a more convenient Excise Office was lately wanted, the ground on which Ely House stood was thought of for it, but its situation was objected to. When an intention was formed of removing the Fleet Prison, Ely House was judged proper on account of the quantity of ground about it, but the neighbouring inhabitants in Hatton Garden petitioned against the prison being built there. A scheme is now (1773) said to be in agitation for converting it into a Stamp Office, that business being at present carried on in chambers in Lincoln's Inn."

So much for the history and ownership of a place which played a considerable part in London history. The fabric itself must have been very magnificent.