7^ History of the Company. 



cost thereof. Strype tells us that at the same 

 time " to this Church at the Chancell end, the 

 breadth being 20 yards and above, was added 20 

 feet of ground, which ground so to lengthen the 

 Church was given unto the Parish out of a faire 

 Court then belonging to the Saddlers' Hall." 

 This may have been so, as the Company owned a 

 small court, leading from a lane which anciently 

 connected Foster Lane^ with Gutter Lane. The 

 lane itself appears to have belonged to the Com- 

 pany. 



The gift of land, however, although mentioned 

 by Strype, is not recorded in the Company's 

 books. 



An entry in the Company's books for this year 

 Colonization of uiakes meutiou for the first time of a 

 ^^^^* matter which exercised an important 

 influence in the affairs of the Livery Co'mpanies 

 of London, viz., the colonization and settlement 

 of Ulster. In the early part of the reign of 

 James L a considerable part of the province of 



1 Foster Lane is of very great antiquity : under the name 

 of St. Vedast Lane it is mentioned in the Letter Books of the 

 Corporation as early as 1281, and in 1305 there is mention of 

 the lease of a house therein to Sir John de Leek, who was 

 Clerk to Prince Edward, son of Edward L (Riley's 

 " Memorials.") Both the lane and the church are frequently 

 mentioned by the old chroniclers and historians, by some 

 they are called St. Foster, and by others St. Vedast. The 

 correct name was probably a compound of the two — St. Vedast 

 Foster, under which designation the church is known to this 

 day. 



