Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane was built sometime
around 1160 by the Knights
Templar on land they owned. It ran north-south between Fleet Street at the south end to Holborn in the North, and was originally called
New Street. The current name
dates from the time of Ralph Neville,
who was Bishop of Chichester and Lord Chancellor of England (Bebbington 78). The area around the
street came into his possession when
in 1227 Henry III gave him land for a palace in this lane: hence Bishop’s Court and Chichester Rents, small turnings out of Chancery Lane(Bebbington 78). Thus, Chancery Lane is a variation of Chancellor Lane—Stow calls it Chancelar Lane in several places—and refers to the Chancellor’s palace, located there.
Chancery Lane was also the location
of one of the Inns of Court, Sergeants
Inn, which was for Judges and Sergeants only (Stow 1:77). Stow also mentions that there was a
house for converted Jews located there:
and then nexte was sometime the house of the converted Jewes, founded by King Henry the third, in place of a Jewes house to him forfeited, in the yeare 1233(Stow 2:42). In the seventeenth year of his reign Henry III also had built
for them a faire church now used, and called the Chappell for the custodie of Rolles and Records of Chancerie(Stow 2:42).
According to Stow, the converted Jews and Infidels were baptized, taught the
ways of Christ, and then lived in the house - by law it would seem - under
the guidance of one ordained to govern them. The duration of their required
stay at the house for converts is unclear. In 1290 all Jews were banished from England, and as a
result the house had many less converts. In 1377, the house was annexed to the keeper of the
Rolls of Chancery, and became the office of the Master of the Rolls, which
was created by royal authority (Stow
2:42–43). Once the house became part of the chancery, it was
commonly called the Rolles in Chancery lane(Stow 2:43).
There was also an inn and brewhouse located on the street, which by Stow’s
time had also been
faire builded for the sixe Clearkes of the Rolles(Stow 2:43). By Elizabeth’s time, the street had become a centre of administrative activity, something that would have likely delighted the monarchy, since the street was outside the walls, closer to Westminster, where it was easier for the queen to keep an eye on government.
Today the chancery buildings and the rolls have been replaced by the Office
of Public Records (Weinreb and Hibbert
136–37).
References
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Citation
Bebbington, Gillian. London Street Names. London: B.T. Batsford, 1972.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Stow, John. A Survey of London. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. [Also available as a reprint from Elibron Classics (2001). Articles written before 2011 cite from the print edition by volume and page number.]This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert, eds. The London Encyclopaedia. New York: St. Martin’s, 1983. [You may also wish to consult the 3rd edition, published in 2008.]This item is cited in the following documents:
