454 LON 
Gracechurch-ftreet has nothing remarkable in itfelf ex¬ 
cept the bufy arrivals and fettings-off of ftages to the 
fouthern villages, annexed nearly, by rows of houfes, to 
the city of London.—In White-Hart-court, confiding of 
neat buildings, moftly inhabited by Quakers, is a very 
handfome meeting-houfe, one of the chief of thofe be¬ 
longing to that fed: in the metropolis. White-Hart-court 
opens alfo into Lombard-ftreet. 
Turning back to the corner of Leadenhall-ftreet and 
the opening into Bifhopfgate-ftreet, the fight may dart at 
once to nearly the diltance of a mile, through one of the 
nobleft and largelt ftreets in this part of the metropolis. 
The fouthern part of Bifhopfgate-ftreet, with Houndfditch, 
and Leadenhall-ftreet, make a perfeft triangle, the area of 
Which is interfered by many ftreets and courts. In this 
area are particularly confined the Jews and their places of 
worfhip. 4 
The entrance into Duke’s Place, from Leadenhall-ftreet, 
is by a narrow (hort lane, the corner of St. Catharine Cree. 
The gates ftill remaining, and which we are told are foon 
to be pulled down, appeared to us to merit prefervation : 
we have therefore caufed a drawing to be made, which is 
engraved on Plate VIM*, fig. 3—Here (food the Priory 
of the Holy Trinity, founded by queen Maud, wife to 
. king Henry I. in the year 1108, for canons Tegular of the 
order of St. Auguftine, with great endowments; among 
which the faid king granted the port of Aldgate, and the 
foke thereunto belonging, &c. And, in order to efta- 
blifti this foundation, 1 the four parilhes of St.’Mary'Mag¬ 
dalen, St. Michael, St. Catharine, and the Blefied Trinity, 
were united in the one parifh of “ the Priory of the Holy 
Trinity, called Chriftchurch ;” the prior of which was 
always an alderman of London, and of the ward of Port- 
foken ; who fbmetimes officiated-in perfon, and fometimes 
appointed a temporal deputy. The priory was built on 
piece of ground upwards of three hundred feet long, in 
the parilli of St. Catharine, towards Aldgate, near the 
parochial chapel of St. Michael. This priory was faid to 
have been the richelt in'England, and was, probably for 
that reafon,: felefted tc be'the . firft that was difiolved by 
Henry VIII. iirthe-year ^531 ; who gave it to fir Thomas 
Audley, fpeaker of the houfe of commons. Sir Thomas 
demolillied the priory, and converted it into a large man- 
fion, where he refided-after he became lord-chancellor. 
The only daughter of fir Thomas being married to the 
duke of Norfolk, this eftate defcended to the duke, and 
was front that time-known by the name of the Duke's 
Place, which it has retained to this day. But, the duke 
of Norfolk lofing his head on Tower-hill, this manfion 
defcended to Thomas Howard, earl of Suffolk, eldelt foil 
to the faid duke by Audley’s daughter; who, by inden¬ 
ture of bargain and fale, dated 21 July, 34 Eliz. fold the 
fame to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens, of London, 
to have and to hold, to them and their fucceffors. 
A ftiort time before the priory of the Holy Trinity was 
diffolved, the inhabitants within its boundaries, who had 
been deprived of their pariffi-churches to make way for 
that religious foundation, petitioned and obtained leave, 
■under certain conditions and reftriftions, to build a cha¬ 
pel in the church-yard of the laid priory, for their own 
convenience, which, efcaping the fate of the religious 
houfes at the diffolution of the priory, became the only 
place, after the conventual church was pulled down, for 
the inhabitants within that diftrift to repair to for divine 
fervice. This, however, creating fome diflike among the 
inhabitants of Duke’s Place, they were defirous of raif- 
ing a proper parilh-church for thernfelves, on the ground 
within their own precinblj to effeft which, they applied 
to the archbilhop of Canterbury for his affiftance ; who, 
having obtained the king’s warrant under the broad feal, 
for proceeding in their pious intention, prevailed with 
the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council, to build 
them a church with fhe ftones of the conventual church, 
which then remained on the premifes. This was accord¬ 
ingly done ; and the church was confecrated and dedi¬ 
cated to St. James, on the lecond of January, 1622, It is 
DON* 
now known by the name of St. James, Duke’s Place; and, 
although the parifh is in the ward of Aldgate, yet it is a 
precinct -within itfelf, under a minifter, two conftabies, two 
headboroughs, and fifteen jurymen. The lord-mayor is 
entitled to hold a court leet and baron, and the city- 
officers can arrelt for debt, and execute warrants within 
it; but artificers and traders are permitted to open ftiops 
and exercife their arts here, without being free of the city. 
The Jews fettled here, principally, in the time of Oliver 
Cromwell.—The church, having efcaped the fire in 
■ ftill retains its original form. The body, which was re¬ 
built in 1727, is well lighted; and the tower, compofed 
of four ftages, is terminated hy a very lingular kind of 
turret, in the form of a canopy. It is a curacy, the pa¬ 
tronage of which being in the lord-mayor and common¬ 
alty of London, the parilh claims a right of exemption 
from the bilhop of London’s jurifdiftion in matters ec- 
clefiaftical. 
A little to the north of St. James’s church, in Duke’s 
Place, is a'jews’ fy nagogue, which has been lately fo en¬ 
larged as almoft to join the church. Befides this, there 
are three other fynagogues in this ward : one near the 
north end of Bsiry-ftreet, by London Wall; another at 
the end of Church-row ; and a third, in a building which 
was formerly Bricklayers’ Hali, fituated behind the houfe* 
that are nearly oppofite to St. Catharine Cree-church. 
This church received its name from being dedicated to 
St. Catharine, an Egyptian virgin, and is diftinguiflied 
from other churches of the fame name, by the addition of 
Cree, or Chrift, from its lituation in the cemetery of the 
conventual church of the Holy Trinity, which was ori¬ 
ginally called Chrift-church, as mentioned before. The 
prefent ftru&ure was erected in 1630, and the dial-poll 
and clock in 1662. It is built of Itene, in a mixed ftyle. 
It has rounded battlements on the top, and a fquare 
tower, with battlements of the fame kind. This tower is 
crowned with a fquare turret, over which is a dome, and 
from its fummit riles the weathercock. The length of 
the church is ninety feet; the breadth fifty-one; the alti¬ 
tude of the roof, which is fquare, fupported by pilafters 
and columns of the Compofite order, is thirty-feven feet; 
and that of the lleeple is feventy-five feet. At the weft 
end of this church, adjoining to the fteeple, Hands a pil¬ 
lar of the old church, as it was erefted. This pillar, from 
the bale to the chapiter, upon which the arch was turned, 
being eighteen feet high, and but three to he feen above 
ground, (hows the height to which the floor of the new 
church has been railed above that of the old. This church 
is a curacy; and the parilhioners have the privilege of 
chooliug their own minifter, who rnuft be licenfed by the 
bilhop of London. 
In the triangle above alluded to, we alfo And Crofby- 
fquare, fo called from fir John Crofby, knt. who built 
a large houfe here in 1466. This houfe was the city-refi- 
dence of Richard duke of Gloucefter, while the meafures 
which eventually fecured him the crown were concerting. 
Part of this houfe ftill remains, on the north fide of the 
entrance into the fquare, which is chiefly built on the 
garden-ground that belonged to the houfe. The part, 
improperly called Richard Ill’s Chapel, is ftill very en¬ 
tire. It is a beautiful Gothic building, with a bow- 
window at one end ; the roof, which is of timber, ele- 
gantly carved, is very worthy of admiration. This build¬ 
ing is now the refidence of a packer. 
At a Ihort diftance north of this fquare, in a handfome 
open place, called, from the church. Great St. Helen’s, 
ftands the parilh-church of St. Helen, fo denominated from 
its dedication to Helena, the mother of Conftantine the 
Great. The patronage of it appears to have been anciently 
in lay hands; for, in the reign of Henry II. one Ranulph, 
with his foil Robert, granted it to the dean and chapter of 
St. Paul’s, by whom it was, fome time after, granted to 
Williatn Fitzwilliatn, who, in 1212, founded the priory 
of St. Helen, and conferred the advowfon of the church 
on the priorel’s and nuns, to whom it continued till the 
fuppreflion of their convent, in 1533, when it came to 
the 
