CHAPTER III. BROADGATES HALL-AULARIANS. ROUND Such centres as St. Aldate's the twelfth-century law-students lodged in crowded purlieus as thick as bees. At first the swarming scholars, gathered out of all nations, had found bed and board in the dwellings of the citizens and common lodging-houses. So in the Miller's Tale Heende Nicholas the clerk lodges with John the wright and Alisoun his young wife, the other members of the household being Gill the maiden and Robin the knave'. But as the University gradually took shape these lodging-houses were brought under an increasingly strict control, and became licensed hostels, inns, halls or entries, under the disciplinary jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln's chancellor and his commissaries, assisted by an official called Hebdomadarius. Of these receptacles there were at one time an incredible number and variety, distinguished by the name of the owner or by some fanciful designation. Among the halls for legists on the west of the Priory none was more important or regarded in after-times as more time-honoured than Broadgates Hall at the corner of St. Aldate's churchyard. The 1 'A chambir had he in that hostillerye, Alone withouten eny compaignye, Full fetisly i-dight with herbes soote, His almagest and bookes gret and smale, His astrylabe longyng for his art, And Angelus ad Virginem he sang.' On the other hand the 'youngë poorë scholars two' of the Reeve's Tale dwelt in a great college' at Cambridge called the 'Soler Hall,' which had a warden and a manciple. The accommodation enjoyed by Hendy Nicholas was not available for all. The pest of 1448 was ascribed in part to the lying of so many scholars in one room. 2 See Ingram's Memorials, St. Mary Hall, p. 16. BROADGATES HALL. name was a common one. 27 There appear to have been six, possibly seven, other halls that bore it. They were these: I. In the parish of St. Michael's at South Gate, probably on the right hand as one goes to Folly Bridge, conveyed 'under the name of Broadegates' by Richard Charingworth and Thomas Leye, goldsmith, to Sir Adam de Shareshull, 1362. On the authority of Olyver Smith, Wood tells us that the Brethren of the Holy Cross (Crutched Friars) had their first abode there', Richard de Charingworth being their Prior. 2. In St. Aldate's parish, a little south of the east end of Penny-farthing (Pembroke) Street on the opposite side. When the Jews were licensed to build synagogues the canons of St. Frideswyde exchanged it for other tenements with Copyn the Jew, of Worcester. After the Expulsion it came through king Edward the I his hands' to William Burnell, Dean of Wells (1291), who converted it into a hall for students, with a tenement adjoining, 'and for their better convenience turned the said Synagogue, or at least part of it, into an oratory to exercise their devotion therin.' It was now called Burnell's Inn or Synagogue. He gave it, in 1307, to Balliol College, and it was sometimes called Balliol Hall. Richard Clifford, Bishop of London, was bred in it, and afterwards endowed it, bequeathing a thousand marks to his poor scholars there. From him it was styled London College. In 1469 it appears to have the name Hospitium de le Pyke, at which date it still paid the 4d. rent for which Copyn the Jew had compounded long before. Among other benefactors to it was Bishop Goldwell. The religious students were Bernardines, but afterwards Benedictines. The seculars studied civil and canon law, 'having schooles neare them 2.' This Hall passed to Wolsey and was pulled down by him for the building of his new College. Wood says that it was 'called Broadyates in the 41 Edward III' [1367]3. So Savage in Balliofergus (1660); but he confuses it with the Broadgates on the other side of St. Aldate's church :-"The Synagogue whereunto did belong the entrance in at the great Port or Gate, and the sollar over it; from which great or broad Port or Gate, as it is thought, the House of the Students (now Pembrook Colledge) was call'd Aula Lateportensis or Broadgateshall. This Synagogue and Port was given to Stephanus de Cornubia, Master of this House [Balliol] and the Scholars, 35 Ed. I1.' 3. In St. Peter le Bailey parish, 'which by the name of Brodeyates was demised by Roger Burewald to Simon London in the beginning of the raigne of Henry III' (1220). In a charter of 1294 it is described as 'juxta ecclesiam S. Petri in Balliolo.' Gutch's Wood, Hist. Antiq., and City, ed. Clark, i. 303, 564; ii. 490. 'On the north side of the Wheatsheafe' à Wood thinks. It was 'on Grandpond, betweene a plot of ground belonging to Einsham Abby on the north and a tenement of Thomas de Legh on the south.' The land belonged to St. Frideswyde's. 2 City, i. 157-9. 3 City, i. 564. Unless he is speaking of another ex-synagogue. Savage certainly is speaking of Balliol Hall. This and the other names continued till the fifteenth century (i. 158). Halls were often polyonymous. 4 p. 27. 5 Wood's City, i. 218, 564. 28 OTHER HALLS SO NAMED. 4. In St. Edward's parish, in Schydierd Street (Oriel Lane) —' an ancient habitation for clerks,' situated between Lumbard House (Beke's Inn) on the south and Pady House (Nun Hall) on the north. It was also called Hunsingore's Inn, from its owner Master Richard Hunsingore, clerk, to whom the Priory gave leave, on the morrow of Holy Cross day, 1317, to raise a wall 28 feet long between a tenement of theirs called Brodegate in the corner in Schidiard Street and a tenement of his in which he had his chamber called Brodyates, adjoining it'. 'He, it seems, being a man of a publick spirit and excellently learned in those times, made great additions and enlargement to it for the reception of the greater number of schollers; and furthermore did his bounty only rest in that particular but also in the foundation of an oratory or chapple in this hall, for which (it seems) craving the Diocaesan's license, had it procured about the aforesaid year 1317.' Hence à Wood thinks it resembled more a college than an ordinary hall. Hunsingore's chantry in St. John Baptist's Church was founded by this Richard, who was official to the Archdeacon of Oxford. He, in 1317, 'gave severall revenews for the maintenance of a priest who should celebrate and sing divine service for his and his parents' soules. He died anno 1337, and was buried at South Newenton, of which place he was rector to the day of his death and to which he gave moneys for a preist that should celebrate there also?? 5. Concerning the Broadgates at the lower eastern corner of Schydierd Street, near the town wall, we know nothing, except that it belonged to the Priory. Wood does not give it in his list of halls of this name 3. 6. 'Bradyates in parochia S. Mariae,' called by Standish an 'old,' i. e. disused, hall. 'It was of old time inhabited by schollers, but (by the decay of them) by luminours, servants to them, as severall rentalls which belonged to [Oseney] Abbey tell us, stiling it thus :-" tenementum illuminatorum Brodyates cum sellario et selda in fronte." It yeilded for the most part 33s. 4d. per annum; but in another, 5 Richard II [1381], but 26s. 8d.,' owing to the decay of the Halls*. It was on the site of part of Brasenose. 7. A more important one was the Broadgates on the north side of High Street in All Saints' parish, 'belonging sometimes to S. John's Hospitall within few yeares after their foundation, as appears by an inquisition 6 and 7 Edward I [1279]. This had its entrance at the wide or broad gate at the utmost house saving one of the limitts of this parish from S. Marie's and almost opposite to the Swan Inn 5. Within the said gate hath anciently bin a larg court wherin have been divers receptacles for schollers, as also a chapple with other aedifices adjoyning, as the ruins therof did shew two yeares agoe.' Wood adds a note, 'pulled downe anno 1 So Wood, City, i. 141, quoting Charter 156 (Wigram). But the Charter speaks only of one' Brodezate.' Wood, however, elsewhere (City, i. 564) affirms that the other was 'termed in Edward III's raigne [1327-77] Brodeyate alias Hunsingore Inn.' He seems nevertheless to be referring to the same charter. 2 City, ii. 73. 3 City, i. 564. City, i. 135, 565, 637. 5 City, i. 81. The modern King Edward Street has been cut through the old inn-yard. See Mr. Clark's note. ORIGIN OF THE NAME. 29 1661. Elsewhere1 he says, 'It hath now a brod gate and was a place sometimes of venerable sanctuary for malefactors. There hath bin very ancient building, but of late hath bin pulled downe.' In illustration of its character of asylum he gives the story of John Harry, a tailor, who having stabbed a man (in 1463) 'fled for fear of loosing his life for the said fact to this place. Wherupon Mr. William Hill, one of the proctors, came to take him away and committ him to safegaurd. But upon information given to him that it was a place priviledged of old time by the Pope, and by the laying claime to the said priviledge by the Master and Covent of S. John's Hospitall, the man at length upon some small security found the benefit of the place and was dismissed. Several others I find made use of it for that purpose till the year 1530, but how long afterwards it doth not appeare.' Wood gives a list of principals. William Alburwyke, Chancellor of the University in 1324, was one of them, but before Wood's list begins. In later times when Broadgates Hall is spoken of the one which has been incorporated as Pembroke College is always meant. Wood seems to imply that it had this name before Henry VI. It continued by the name of Segrym Hall, and, corruptly, Segreave alias Broadgates, till the raigne of Henry VI; and then altogeather called "Aula cum lata porta" or "Aula Lateportensis" because that probably the entrance therin was broader than others 2' But elsewhere he states that this place, continuing by the name of Segrym Hall till about the beginning of Henry VI [1422], came to be called Broadyates (from a large entrance made into it about that time) and in writings Broadgates, alias Segrym (corruptly afterwards Segreve) Hall. If he had evidence that a wide entrance was made temp. Henry VI, he would not say that 'probably' this gave the place its name. The first principal of whom we have certain record is William Wytham, 1436; but if the Broadgates in St. Peter le Bailey parish had that designation in 1220, it seems unlikely that it would have been given for the eighth time two centuries later to a hall which already had a distinctive title. Probably all these halls received their name about the same time, like the Ledenporch, Glazen, or Chimney Halls, in a period when such peculiarities were a real distinction. We have no evidence that later, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Broadgates Hall had a noticeably wide portal 5. In Agas's map there is shown a rather large porch. In Sir Thomas Browne's speech, however, at the The old Broad Gate of the city of Exeter, now destroyed, looks in the pictures a very pinched entrance, just as Broad Street in Bath is one of the narrowest thoroughfares of that beautiful city. 30 AN OXFORDSHIRE BY-WORD. inauguration of Pembroke College, the name is said to have been perhaps ironical. The old building was then still standing. Browne asks also What father or founder of this House do we recall?' In a charter of Stephen (c. 1139), mention is made of a rent of 3s. from land held of the Priory by Roger Brodgee, or Brodgate1; and it has been suggested that the hall had its name from some principal or tenant. But this would not account for the other halls of the same name, one of which had, we know, a wide gate. Besides, in that charter Roger is among the few that have a surname, and the surname attached to him no doubt from his residence. If so, this proves that there was a place called Broadgates as early as King Stephen. Heywood the Epigrammatist, who was at Broadgates temp. Henry VIII, gives as one of his proverbs (No. 455) current in Oxfordshire, 'Send verdingales (farthingales) to Broadgates Hall in Oxon.' Fuller, quoting this, adds: 'This will acquaint you with the Female Habit of former ages, used not only by the gadding Dinahs of that age, but by most sober Sarahs of the same, so cogent is a common custom. With these Verdingales the Gowns of Women beneath their Wastes were penthoused out far beyond their bodies, so that posterity will wonder to what purpose those Bucklers of Pasteboard were employed. These by degrees grew so great that their wearers could not enter (except going sidelong) at any ordinary door, which gave occasion to this proverb. But these verdingales have been discontinued this fourty years.' In the University Register, under date Feb. 8, 157, the official description is the hall commonly called "the Broadgates."' In the Wood MS. (D. 2, fol. 224) is the record, dated 38 Edw. III (136), of the grant of a messuage formerly belonging to William le Wylde having a hall called Brodezates in the parish of St. Ebbe on the east part.' I can only interpret this as a name for Beef Hall; in which case 'Segrym Hall' existed as 'Broadgates' as early as Edward III, and was large enough to have annexed a tenement in St. Ebbe's parish. There is also this, at fol. 472, Ex alio rentali : 1414 Brodyates Mr. John Baron (coll. Merton), Mr. Nic. Wytham 1425, 8 per Hibernicos 1432.' 6 1 Charter 14 in Wigram's St. Fridewide's Cartulary, and see Dugdale, ii. p. 146. Wood, however, has an entry, 'Rog. Brodege (forte Brodeye ut alibi).' MS. D. 2, fol. 368. He witnessed a deed of gift to Oseney with Henry son of Segrim (then provost) and Ralph Pady. Bradgate' occurs thrice as a surname in the matriculation registers of the beginning of the seventeenth century. A John Broadgate, act. 75 in 1701, was called the 'Smyrna Doctor,' being chaplain to the British factory there (Noble, i. 107). The 'Tuns' had a landlord of this name. |