CHAPTER VI - The Wheler Estate
This estate in its original extent consisted of
the forty-three acres of Spittlehope or
Lolesworth field, also known in the Middle
Ages as the Bishop of London's field. The names
Spittlehope and Lolesworth perhaps indicate the
marshy nature of the ground whose ’wettnesse’
was noticed in 1672. (ref. 1)
In 1649 the hamlet was
designated by the old name of the field as the ’hamlet of Spittlehope’. (ref. 2)
Until the second half of the
sixteenth century the field formed part of the
Manor of Stepney. It was bounded on the south
by the line of the later White's Row and Fashion
Street, on the east by Brick Lane, on the north by
Swanfield, later forming the hamlet and parish
boundary, and on the west by the precinct of the
Priory of St. Mary Spital, later the Liberties of
Norton Folgate and the Old Artillery Ground.
In 1498 ’Spittelhope alias Lollesworthe’ was
leased for ninety-nine years by the Bishop of London to the prior (ref. 3) and in 1538 by the prior to
Robert Lorde, gentleman. (ref. 4)
In 1509–10 the
field was called Lollesbury in the Stepney court
rolls, and an area within it, apparently excluding
its southernmost part, called ’Spyttylfeld’. (ref. 5) At
that time a southern part of the field, known as ’le
bryk place’ was in the tenure of Hugh Brampston. (ref. 5)
This was probably the four acres in the south-east
part of ’Sputelhope otherwise Lollesworth’ leased
by the prior to Hugh Bramston, fishmonger, in
1527. (ref. 6)
The name suggests that it may already
have been used to dig bricks, although Stow gives
1576 as the date when ’Lolesworth now Spittlefield’ was ’broken up for Clay to make Bricke’. (ref. 7)
It was perhaps this use of the field which caused
the fine obtainable on the renewal of the lease of
’Spitel Hope’ to be estimated in 1549–50 at one
hundred pounds ’by reason of the vicinity to the
city’. (ref. 8) In that year a John Bramston had a
’Tyle-garth’ on the east side of Brick Lane (ref. 9) and
had probably succeeded also to Hugh Brampston's
’bryk place’ since a John Brampston possessed in
1561 a field behind the site of the priory. Archery
was practised here, as Agas's map suggests. (ref. 10)
In 1549–50 the tenant of all ’Spitel Hoppe
otherwise Lollesworth’ was ’Mr. Polsted’. (ref. 8) Between this period and the 1560's almost if not
quite all of the forty-three acres were sold by the
lord of the manor, although no record of the sale is
known to exist. In the 1580's and 1590's the
tenure of Lolesworth field was disputed in the
courts. It appears that in the 1560's it had passed
into the ownership of Christopher Campion, who
had also obtained part of the priory precinct in
1540 (see page 46). On his death in 1572 the
freehold passed to his widow, Ann, who sold this
in 1580/1 to Richard Cely of Lambeth, gentle
man. In 1583 Raffe Bott, later described as of
’the precinct of St. Mary Spittle’, gentleman, who
in 1586 held the Brick House there, asserted in
the Court of Requests the validity of a lease of
an orchard and other premises which he had tried
to obtain from Cely. (ref. 11)
He was apparently unsuccessful in this, but by January 1589/90 he
and a John Digges had purchased Lolesworth,
described as late part of the demesne lands of the
Manor of Stepney, from Richard Cely and Roger
Bramston for £800. In that year Bott had disputes in the Courts of Requests and Chancery
over the title to Digges's moiety with Edmund
Tylney, esquire, Master of the Revels, to whose
kinsman, Clark Tylney, Bott was guardian. (ref. 12)
Bott was still at law over his title in 1593
but in the following year he was able to convey
Lolesworth to Richard Hanbury, goldsmith.
Hanbury's tenure was apparently subject to rights
of a creditor of Bott, (ref. 13) but the freehold evidently
became securely vested in him.
The field was leased in 1596 by Hanbury to
Edward Hemmynge of London, brickmaker. (ref. 13)
The transference of the freehold of Lolesworth
to the Wheler family was apparently brought
about by the marriage of Richard Hanbury's
daughter Elizabeth to Sir Edmund Wheler, (ref. 14) who
thereby also acquired property in Datchet,
Buckinghamshire. In 1631 the freehold was
vested in Richard Wheler of Westminster, esquire,
who in that year leased it for ninety-nine years,
under certain trusts, to a John Wheler of Datchet,
gentleman, and others: the ground was then said
to have been lately in the occupation of Elias
Elliott. (ref. 15) The reversion of this lease devolved
upon Sir Edmund Wheler's son, William Wheler,
of Datchet and of the Middle Temple, while the
lease and trusts devolved upon his kinsman,
William Wheler of Westbury, Wiltshire, (ref. 16) whose
father John Wheler of London, grocer, may possibly be identifiable with John Wheler of
Datchet. (ref. 17)
In the 1640's Lolesworth field remained
almost entirely undeveloped. In March 1648/9
William Wheler of Datchet and his wife Jane
conveyed to trustees all that part of Lolesworth
which lay south of the line of Lamb Street and
Brown's Lane (then called Lolesworth Lane).
This was in trust for his wife for her life, and then
in trust to raise portions for his seven daughters.
The trusteeship of only two of the four trustees
became effective, that of Edward Nicholas, son of
Sir Oliver Nicholas of Manningford Bruce,
Wiltshire, and of George Cooke of Datchet,
gentleman. (ref. 15) Nicholas and Cooke were responsible for building in the vicinity of the open Spital
Field in the 1660's and 1670's. In 1675 they
relinquished their trusteeship for the partition and
division of this southern part of the estate among
the daughters. Subsequent developments on this
part of the estate included the market and market
area, Christ Church Spitalfields, the Wood Michell estate, and Nos. 56 and 58 Artillery
Lane (see Chapters XI–XIV).
The rest of the estate, north of the line of Lamb
Street and Brown's Lane, passed from William
Wheler of Datchet to William Wheler of Westbury. This was probably partly by a deed of
December 1646, of which details are not known
but which later formed the foundation title-deed
of that section of this northern part of the estate
which passed to Sir Charles Wheler of Birdingbury. (ref. 18) The remainder of this part came to
William Wheler of Westbury by the will of
William Wheler of Datchet, made in March
1648/9 immediately after the conveyance in trust
for the seven daughters, and proved in the following May. By this, his property was left to his son
William and then in default of his heirs, to
William Wheler of Westbury. (ref. 19) In 1652 the
estate may have been vested in the son and widow, (ref. 20)
but by 1654 the estate was vested in William
Wheler of Westbury. (ref. 14) (fn. a)
Development under Sir William
Wheler
It was by this William Wheler that the northern
part of Spitalfields was first laid out in streets in the
1650's and 1660's, to form that part of the hamlet
and parish designated for rating purposes in the
eighteenth century as the New Town, distinct
from the more southerly Old Town.
William Wheler was Member of Parliament
for Westbury from 1640 to 1648 and again in
1659. He was an active member of the Long
Parliament and a member of the Westminster
Assembly in 1643. He had a house called Rogers
in Cannon Row, Westminster, and appears to
have held a post in the First Fruits Office. His
political loyalties were not very clear-cut: he was
knighted by Cromwell in 1657 and was active as
Parliamentary Paymaster, but his wife, a sister of
William Lord Hervey of Kidbrooke held the
office of laundress to Charles I, by whom also her
husband was knighted: by his will he made a
bequest of the sword with which the king knighted
him. (ref. 22) On Charles II's Restoration he was
created a baronet, with special remainder to a
kinsman, Charles Wheler of Leith Hill, Surrey,
esquire, later of Birdingbury, Warwickshire. (ref. 23)
His friendship with the Earl of Sandwich, whose
son he made a remote conditional heir in his will,
brings him into the diary of Samuel Pepys who
visited him in 1663 to attempt to borrow £1,000
on behalf of his patron, and to see the Earl when
he was convalescent at Sir William's house. (ref. 24) The
Rev. Sir George Wheler, to whom he was a
benefactor, remembered him at this period as ’a
Comely Old Gentleman with a round plump
Face, a rudy cheerfull countenance, addorned
with curled grey hair’. (ref. 25)
Sir William died in 1666 at Derby, where there
is a monument to him in All Saints' Church. (ref. 17)
His will of 1665 mentions his ’Capitall Messuage
now divided into three Tenements’ in Spital
Yard, in the occupation of a silk throwster and his
under-tenants. This was possibly the Brick
House which Raffe Bott had also possessed together with Lolesworth field in the late sixteenth
century and which was probably sold by Sir William's heir in 1719, or perhaps the large house
with regular plan and projecting central feature
bequest is supported by a statement of Sir George Wheler in his autobiography. (ref. 21) shown on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1677
facing west immediately south of the future site of
Sir George Wheler's Chapel.
Sir William left his Spitalfields estate and other
property to his widow for her life and then to
Charles Wheler of Charing, Kent, esquire, and his
son George, later Sir George Wheler. (ref. 26) These
appear to have been unrelated to him, and the
bequest was said by Sir George to have been made
in consideration of kindness shown to Sir William,
when a young man, by Charles Wheler's grandfather when he ’was of ye first fruites office’. (ref. 21)
Charles and (Sir) George Wheler were prevented for a time from coming into their inheritance by obstruction from Sir William's widow,
who died in 1670. (ref. 27) Then in the early 1670's
Sir Charles Wheler of Birdingbury, the heir to the
baronetcy, established in Chancery his right to
part of Sir William's Spitalfields estate, ’to go
along with ye Barronett’. By the division made in
1674 Charles and George Wheler were left with
that part of Sir William's estate which consisted of
all the land on the west side of Wheler Street and
all that part on the east side of Wheler Street which
lay north of the ditch dividing (Great) Pearl
Street (Calvin Street) from Westbury Street
(Quaker Street), and west of Grey Eagle Street
and Farthing Street. They also had a disconnected
piece on the north-west corner of Brown's Lane
(Hanbury Street) and Brick Lane. In the part
that went to Sir Charles the chief later developments were by the Wilkes family and by Truman's
Brewery. The chief developments on Charles and
(Sir) George Wheler's section were the erection of
Sir George Wheler's Chapel, and some rebuilding
by his son Granville Wheler. Part of the property
still remains in this branch of the family.
In 1654 William Wheler had begun to lay out
streets in his estate north of the line of Lamb
Street and Brown's Lane, and to grant leases,
mainly for ninety-nine years. In the first year or
two a site on the north side of Brown's Lane was
leased to a brickmaker (ref. 28) and another, probably
near Corbett's Court, to a weaver. (ref. 29) Two pieces
of ground near the southern end of the west side of
Wheler Street were leased, one consisting of the
’Great White House’ in the ’Old Brick Orchard’
with an adjacent half-acre, (ref. 30) and the other of two
mansion houses with a stone-walled garden and a
pump: (ref. 31) they had perhaps formed part of the precinct of St. Mary Spital Priory. In April 1656 a
ninety-nine-year lease of ground probably near
Vine Court was granted to Andrew Bond, tyler
and bricklayer. (ref. 32) Thomas Wildgoose, a carpenter, was also granted a lease in this part of the
estate. (ref. 33)
The first main development on the estate was
the building of Wheler Street running north from
the unbuilt part of Lolesworth to Bethnal Green.
On its west side Sir William granted leases himself,
as in 1661 when he granted part of the later site
of Hope's brewery (see page 80) to a brewer and
tailor, (ref. 34) and in 1662 when he leased to Isaac
Corner, bricklayer, ground called the Licoras
Garden near Fleur-de-lis Alley. (ref. 35)
On the east side of Wheler Street Sir William
disposed of much of his estate to lessees by whom
it was subsequently developed. By December
1656 William Browne, weaver, had taken a lease
of three acres of pasture: he built along the east
side of Wheler Street and also laid out, at right
angles to it, ’the greene waie or lane there called
the newe street’ subsequently named Westbury
(later Quaker) Street. (ref. 36) Builders on Browne's
land included Henry Rogers, carpenter, Charles
Ware, carpenter, and John Somers of Norton
Folgate, labourer. (ref. 37)
In June 1657 Philip Lepiers, weaver, took a
lease of garden ground south of Browne's land.
This remained undeveloped longer than the rest
of the estate, under the name of Lepiers' or Leper's
Garden, and it was not until the years 1670–2
that (Great) Pearl Street (now Calvin Street) was
built on the ground. (ref. 38) Among the builders of the
street were John Wise and Edward Baker, both
carpenters, and William Gurling and Jacob Saywell, both bricklayers. (ref. 39) In May 1671 a Peter le
Caine was permitted to complete ’Tyleing in’
three new brick houses which he had built in
’Lepars Garden’ as a workshop to house several
’Broad Loomes’ for one Bertrand Di Barbore, on
condition that they were used for no other purpose. (ref. 40) By 1677 (Great) Pearl Street was not
completely built-up. (ref. 41) It is noticeable that at that
date the part of the east side of Wheler Street
formed by the western side of Lepiers' Garden
was set forward, making the street narrower at
that point. (ref. 41)
The eastern part of the estate, east of the line of
Grey Eagle Street, consisting of Long Hedge
Field and Conduit Close, was leased for ninetytwo years by Sir William to John Stott, mariner,
of Stepney, in March 1660. (ref. 42) Stott, described in
his will of November 1670 as ’now att Sea, Gun- ner on Board the good Shipp Loyall Merchant', (ref. 43)
laid the ground out in streets between 1661 and
1670, with building in Black Eagle Street, Grey
Eagle Street, Monmouth Street, Brick Lane, and
the eastern parts of Westbury Street, Phoenix
Street and King Street. Builders taking leases
from Stott included John Deane of St. Botolph
Bishopsgate, house carpenter, and Richard Harvey of Stratford, Essex, and Charles Ware, also
carpenters; William Sefton, bricklayer; and
Gowen Key, plasterer. (ref. 44) Part of Stott's land
on Brick Lane was developed as Truman's
Brewery.
In the 1660's Sir William appears to have
developed the northern part of his estate, between
Wheler Street and Stott's land, by leases made
after the lessees had been responsible for building.
John Underwood, a scrivener, took leases in 1661
in Wheler Street and also in Sherfield Street (later
Phoenix Street, its first name being derived from
Sir William's manor in Hampshire). Builders
working in the latter street included Abraham
Roberts and Richard Webb, bricklayers, and
Joseph Ball, carpenter. (ref. 45) Thomas Axcee of
Shoreditch, weaver, took a lease from Sir William
in 1665, probably of ground in King Street. (ref. 46)
It may be noted that in the lay-out of the
southern part of the estate some of the lines of
communication do not seem to have been carried
through. In particular the indecisive southern
end of Grey Eagle Street suggests the failure to
fulfil a scheme.
The quality of construction in this first buildingup of Sir William's estate was probably not very
high. Within sixty years a house in Quaker
Street was an ’old ruined messuage’ and was rebuilt by John Darby, carpenter, (ref. 47) and other ’old
ruinous’ houses in the same street were rebuilt in
1735 and 1736 as part of the estate of the Whelers
of Charing and Otterden. (ref. 48)