The Dean,
High Steward, Or His Deputy, The Bailiffs And Burgesses, Or A Quorum
Of Them, Are Empowered To Make Bye-Laws, And Take Cognisance Of
Small Offences, Within The City And Liberties Of Westminster.
But I
look upon it that the justices of peace for Westminster have in a
great measure superseded the
Authority of the burgesses (except as
to weights, measures, and nuisances), by virtue of whose warrants
all petty offenders almost are apprehended and sent to Tothill
Fields Bridewell; and for higher offences, the same justices commit
criminals to Newgate, or the Gatehouse, who receive their trials
before commissioners of oyer and terminer at the Old Bailey, as
notorious criminals in the City of London do; and so far the two
united cities may be said to be under the same government.
The precinct of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in London, is deemed a part
of the city of Westminster, and the inhabitants vote in the
elections of members of Parliament for Westminster.
The ecclesiastical government of the city of Westminster is in the
dean, and chapter, whose commissary has the jurisdiction in all
ecclesiastical causes, and the probate of wills; from whom there
lies no appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury or other spiritual
judge, but to the King in Chancery alone, who upon such appeal
issues a commission under the Great Seal of England, constituting a
court of delegates to determine the cause finally.
I next proceed to survey the out-parishes in the Counties of
Middlesex and Surrey which are comprehended within the bills of
mortality, and esteemed part of this great town. And first, St.
Giles's in the Fields contains these chief streets and places:
Great Lincoln's Inn Fields, part of Lincoln's Inn Garden, Turnstile,
Whetstone Park, part of High Holborn, part of Duke Street, Old and
New Wild Street, Princes Street, Queen Street, part of Drury Lane,
Brownlow Street, Bolton Street, Castle Street, King Street, the
Seven Dials, or seven streets comprehending Earl Street, Queen
Street, White Lion Street, and St. Andrew's Street, Monmouth Street,
the east side of Hog Lane, Stedwell Street, and Staig Street.
Great Lincoln's Inn Fields or Square contains about ten acres of
ground, and is something longer than it is broad, the longest sides
extending from east to west. The buildings on the west and south
generally make a grand figure.
In the parish of St. Sepulchre, which is without the liberties of
the City of London, we meet with Hicks's Hall and the Charter House.
Hicks's Hall is situated in the middle of St. John's Street, towards
the south end, and is the sessions house for the justices of peace
of the County of Middlesex, having been erected for this end, anno
1612, by Sir Baptist Hicks, a mercer in Cheapside, then a justice of
the peace. The justices before holding their sessions at the Castle
Inn, near Smithfield Bars.
To the eastward of Hicks's Hall stood the late dissolved monastery
of the Charter House, founded by Sir Walter Manny, a native of the
Low Countries, knighted by King Edward III.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 56 of 78
Words from 29025 to 29539
of 40922
