Ippeau, Pierre, 1729-32 (pour Nortier, Magdelaine, veuve Du

Wills within the soke were proved in Thorpe Church, and it occurred to me that some made by the French residents would be found in

the Ipswich Registry. A search, however, revealed but two, and those of no striking interest. The earlier one, which is in French, is that of Armand Guine bald, chevalier, Seigneur de la Milliere, etc. : estant sain d'esprit, memoire, et entendement mais considerant qu'il n'y a rien plus certain que la mort ny plus incertain que l'heure d'jcele.' He left everything he possessed, after payment of his debts, to Damoiselle Rachel Ammonnet, his wife, whom he made his executrix. The will was signed in London, January 29, 1770-1, the witnesses being Noé Houssarp (? Houssaye), W. Botelen (? Boteler), Notaries; Edw. Johnson; George Wharton.

The other will is that of Jane Espinasse, widow, first of Paul Pottier and then of Pierre Espinasse, both surgeons.1 She appears to have prospered and became a considerable copyholder in the manor, some fifty acres near the church being hers, with forty acres at Thorpe Cross, and other land in or near Thorpe Street. She names in her will Elias Potter, her son-one sees that he had given up his French name-Anne, his wife, and their four daughters, her own daughter, Jane Dorvesse alias Lifegold—' if she shall be living and shall come over into England' within fifteen years of testatrix' death-her grandson, James Dorvesse alias Lifegold, Jane's son, her granddaughter, Jane Potter, daughter of her late son, Alexander Potter, her granddaughters, Mary and Susan, other daughters of Alexander, and her grandson, Paul Potter. As executors she appointed Robert Shearcroft and Henry Barnard. 'Dated February 24, 1728. Witnesses: Hen. Hunt, John Newton, James Grellet.'

The alias 'Lifegold' is curious. Reference to the Thorpe Register will show that Jeanne Potier married, in 1694, Jacques Darvif. Darvif, which it seems probable should be read 'Dorvif,' 2 suggests the possibility that 'Lifegold' was intended to be an English rendering of the name which, in the will, occurs as ' Dorvesse.' Such attempts at translation were quite common.

Postscriptum. Any inconsistencies in spelling or irregularities in the use of accents, found in the foregoing account, may rightly be attributed to their prototypes in the original document.

1 Thorpe Register, p. 14.

2 It is so spelt in the Court Rolls on July 26, 1736, when James Dorviff and Jane Newton were admitted under the will of Jeanne Espenasse each to a moiety of the lands at Thorpe Cross.

Memories of Spitalfields.

BY W. H. MANCHÉE.

'Tis true, they are not "rich nor rare":
Enough, for me, that they are-there.'

ANDREW LANG.

SPITALFIELDS, despite its surroundings at the present day, is full of fascination and charm. To the stranger it has the attraction of the unknown, a place full of interest, and yet one about which so little has been written. Of the history of this famous old quarter it is impossible to give more than a very brief outline in the limits of this paper, and even confining oneself mainly to the Huguenot period, it is difficult to keep within the prescribed bounds, so many are the items of interest which might be given. Commencing then with the time when London was confined to the City walls, we read that

'on the east side of Bishopsgate Street antiently stood an Hospital dedicated to St. Mary, and called St. Mary Spittle, the grounds of which since the dissolution of the house, have been known by the name of Spittlefeilds.' 1

Such was the origin of Spitalfields, a name which later on came to be applied to the field beyond, then called Lolesworth, or the Bishop of London's field, the whole forming in time the little hamlet, the predecessor of the home of the Spitalfields

weavers.

The actual boundaries of the hamlet of Spitalfields are a more difficult matter to decide. It is common knowledge that the hamlet formed part of Stepney-that enormous parish, which, in the opinion of Stow,

Northouck.

'may be esteemed rather a province than a parish, especially if we add that it contains in it both city and country'

and practically the only guide we have is the Rolls of the old Stepney Manor. Consulting them, one finds the copyhold portion to be the ground bordered by Phoenix Street on the north, Wentworth and Montague Streets on the south, Brick Lane on the east, and Wheeler Street on the west. The Priory would not, following the usual custom, have been the subject of the manor, and therefore the copyhold portion would not have comprised the whole hamlet, of which the Priory would have formed part, and this would add to the copyhold portion Spital Square and the Old Artillery Ground, which as a whole would have formed the original hamlet.

On the immigration of the French refugees about 1685 the district extended north and east, embracing in the term 'Spitalfields' within the next century as far as Bethnal Green and Mile End, and it is this enlarged district with which, in these memories of Spitalfields, I now wish to deal.

The description of Bethnal Green by a modern writer

'First a dismal swamp, next a portion of the great forest of Epping, anon a pleasant hamlet covered with fields of corn, dotted here and there with the country residences of the London gentry, still later a suburban parish with its area divided between townland, houses, agricultural and dairy farms, and finally arriving at what we know it to-day, a crowded working-class borough' 1— might equally apply to Spitalfields, as the earlier conditions were exactly the same, and later, as Bethnal Green boasted of the home of the Bishops of London, so Spitalfields in its turn centred round the important old Priory of St. Mary Spital.

The Manor of Stepney, which governed the larger portion of the hamlet, had prior to the Norman conquest been attached to the Bishopric of London. On the appointment of Bishop Ridley to the See of London, the Bishopric of Westminster was abolished, and Bishop Ridley took the lands attached to the See of Westminster, surrendering those of London to the King, Edward VI, who in turn (by letters patent of April 16,

1 Allgood, Hist. Bethnal Green.

1550) granted the Manors of Stepney and Hackney to his Lord Chamberlain, Thomas, Lord Wentworth. The latter will possibly be remembered as the commander of the garrison of Calais at the time of its capture by the French, a conquest due principally to the assistance of Sieur Jean de Monchy,1 who later became one of the Huguenot leaders. The son of Thomas, Lord Wentworth, created Earl of Cleveland, was noted in his day as a spendthrift and as one of the boon companions of the Duke of Buckingham, but is only interesting to us as having accompanied his Grace in the second unsuccessful expedition made by the English to relieve the Huguenots at the siege of La Rochelle, and also as being with the Duke at the time of his assassination by Felton on the eve of his embarkation for the fourth expedition to the same place. The Manor of Stepney remained in the Wentworth family until 1720, when it was sold to Mr. John Wicker of Horsham, and from him it passed to his relatives, the Colebrooke family, in whose possession it still remains.

The importance of the old manor is shown by the weekly Court of Records, created by Charles II at the request of the Earl of Cleveland-a kind of county court for the manorfor the recovery of debts not exceeding 51. In this court, existing as late as 1746 in the Whitechapel Road, the steward of the manor acted as the judge. The cases were tried by jury, any juryman failing to attend being fined by the steward. The fines went to the London Hospital. Even more important was the Court of Homage, which undertook the duties of inspector of nuisances, district surveyor, inspector of weights and measures, the control of the police, and finally all the functions of a local vestry. It is said that the court even intervened in matters of a most trivial kind, as, for instance, 1 Hozier and Haag.

2 The first expedition, a fleet of thirty ships, commanded by Robert Bertie, 11th Baron Willoughby d'Eresby, created Lord Lindsey, started in September 1626, and returned in October, never having got beyond the Channel. The second, in 1627, was commanded by the Duke of Buckingham. The third, a fleet of fifty ships, commanded by Lord Denbigh, the Duke's brother-in-law, started April 17, 1628, and returned May 26. The fourth, starting in September 1628, was commanded by Lord Denbigh, vice the Duke of Buckingham, who was stabbed on August 23.