# Mediaeval Leicester/Chapter 5

V. THE TOWN HALLS.
I.
VERY little is known about the first house occupied by the Guild Merchant of Leicester. It was situated in the Parish of St. Nicholas, and "with the unanimous consent of the community" it was conveyed away to one William Emery by Walter le Bron, who was Mayor of Leicester in 1275-6.
In the year 1257, Isolda the Turner was paid is. 7d. "for arrears of the service of the messuage belonging to the community of the Guild." In 1258, a like sum was paid to Philip the Turner, "for rent of the land of the Guild." In 1260 Philip, son of Philip the Turner, received 1s. 7d. "of his annual rent from the messuage of the Guild in the Parish of St. Nicholas." Further payments of "the Guild house rent" were made to Philip the Turner in 1261, 1262 and 1264.
That these payments represented a rent issuing out of the first house belonging to the Guild is rendered practically certain by an entry made in the Pleas of the Guild Merchant for 1335-6, wherein, after a note declaring that "Walter Brown, formerly Mayor of Leicester," conveyed away "veteram aulam Gylde," it is further stated that William the Turner then claimed to have "1s. 6d. and two capons from the old Guildhall — de vetere Guildhall." Hence it appears that the rent paid to the Turner family was a charge upon the old house of the Guild that was conveyed away about 1275. The Turners' claim is not again referred to in the Records of the Guild.
II.
The new Guild Hall lay in what is now called Blue Boar Lane, opposite to the Eastern end of the Church of St. Nicholas, where Simon's Almshouse afterwards stood. For some years after its purchase by the Guild there is no indication of their occupying it. On the other hand, in the year 1258 they paid a shilling to one Robert Griffin for hire of a house to hold the Morning-speeches in. It seems to have been in a somewhat ruinous and neglected condition, for three years later Robert of the Dovecote was fined a shilling for taking freestones without license from the hall of the Guild, and "carrying them to his own house to do with them what he liked to the damage and dishonour of the Guild and of the Community of Leicester." Thirty years later we find this same Robert of the Dovecote selling stones illegally taken from the town wall to a Canon of Leicester Abbey, who confessed that he bought the stone "foreknowing that it was from the town wall." There seems to be no record of the Guild meeting in their new hall until March, 1276, but the building had been restored a year or two before. In 1274, Alexander le Debonair, who was Mayor of Leicester from 1270 to 1275, "rendered an account of the Guild-hall of £6 9s. 3d. in the presence of the Community." "Tantum aula ​custavit in omnibus," says the Record, "The hall cost so much altogether."
There is in existence the fragment of an account relating to expenses incurred in the building of the Guildhall, which seems to refer to this period. In this account the sums spent between Candlemas and July amount to rather less than £4. The rest of the document is torn away, but the fragment has a good claim to be admitted as part of the 1274 account. It will be noticed that the whole amount spent upon the site and building of this hall was £12 2s. 7d. The cost of building the present Town Hall, exclusive of the site, was £52,911 2s. 8d. The contrast is striking, after every allowance is made for the depreciation of money. But it may perhaps be said that it was the earlier builders who laid the foundations of this later and more ambitious enterprise, and in that sense "they builded better than they knew," or at any rate more expensively.
After the reconstruction of the building, it was occupied by the Guild Merchant, and used as their Guildhall for nearly a hundred years. The site is said to have comprised 20 yards and I foot in length, 9 yards in breadth at the East End, and 7 on the West. The building had a gabled roof, and consisted of a porch, a hall on the ground floor, and a large Solar, or Upper Chamber, which hung over the street, and sheltered four shops or market booths. These booths were let out by the Guild, at a rental of 4s. a year, from 1309 until 1346, after which date their use was presumably discontinued, as no later payments are mentioned.
​Adjoining the house was a garden, called in the 14th century "the garden of the Moot-hall," and in the 15th "the Town-Hall garden." This garden was walled round, and it was not large, for the wages of two Wall-builders for 3 1/2 days at 3 1/2d. a day, and two more for 1 1/2 days at 1s., with straw and water, which cost 1s. 4d., brought the whole cost of the wall to no more than 3s. 11d.
The street, now called Blue Boar Lane, which led to the hall was generally described in the 13th and 14th centuries as "the lane which leads from the High Street to the Moot-hall," or "Guildhall," and in 1484 it was called Mayor's Hall Lane. It was paved in the year 1341, when "eight rods of pavement were paved by task" for 8d.
The Guild Hall was very simply furnished. Both hall and Upper Chamber were provided with wooden benches, some of which were, on special occasions, covered with mats. These benches often needed repair, and once, in the year 1334, reference is made to some riotous proceedings, otherwise unknown to history, in order to account for the damage. The Mayor's accounts for that year say that the benches of the Guildhall had been "broken and thrown down in the presence of the King's Justices then sitting to hold the Assize."
The only other article of furniture we hear of is a lacked chest, or "common coffer," used for holding the deeds and muniments of the Guild. Other documents, rolls and charters, were kept in sacks and hampers. There was also a cheker, or counter, in the hall in the 16th century, if not earlier. The weights and measures were also there, as well as the seals, which were kept in a purse with four keys. Grasses were bought sometimes, upon special occasions, for carpeting the floors of the Hall and Upper Chamber. The Bell used for calling the community together, which the Guild had bought for sixpence in 1220, and had mended in 1258 at a cost of 3d., was also kept there, as well as the Mace, which was renewed in the year 1378 at a cost of 13s. 6d. The latter instrument, it should be noted, was for many centuries no mere ornamental symbol of authority, but a formidable weapon, by means of which the Mayor of the ​day "could break the helmet or smash the armour of an opponent, as one would crack the shell of a lobster with a hammer." Other weapons of offence and defensive armour were also kept in the Guildhall. Ever since the days of Edward the Confessor it had been the duty of the town of Leicester to send twelve burgesses to fight by land with the King's army. Thus, in 1322, twelve foot-soldiers were sent to fight in the Scotch war. In 1346 the contribution was reduced by the King's Council to six. For the use of these levies arms and equipment were bought from time to time by the Guild Merchant and kept in repair on their premises. In 1521 the town undertook to keep 10 able archers in harness with bows and arrows, swords and bucklers, "with other able harness for their bodies," to be ready for the King's use at a day's notice.
Inventories were sometimes made of the armour belonging to the town. In 1549, for instance, a list was set out of all the harness delivered by the Mayor to certain of the brethren, "to be safely kept for the town's use till it be needful to be occupied." Again, in 1551, an Inventory was taken of the plate and other property which was to be handed down from Mayor to Mayor, from which we learn that there were at that time "in the towne hall to the townes use these parcelles followyng:—
Itm. xx$^t$ alman revyttes" (i.e., corslets rivetted in the German fashion) "with splentes, sallytes and gorgetes.
Itm. xix$^t$ shef of arrowys with caces and gyrdelles.
Itm. on byll, tow bowys, viii$^t$ swordes, three daggers."
In the lane outside the Guild Hall stood a pair of stocks.
The first Hall had been known as the "Guild House" (messuagium communitatis gildæ, or messuagium gildæ, or donius gildæ). The second was called the Leicester Hall (aula Leycestriae), or the Guild Hall (aula gildas), and afterwards the Moot Hall, the Mayor's Hall, the Hall of the Community, or the Common Hall. The name Town Hall did not come into use until the 15th century. It appears first in the Borough Records in the year 1452; and, on September 20th, 1462, the Mayor and Community leased to their Town Clerk a house and garden, which were described as adjoining the "Town Hall."
​It was not found necessary to spend much upon repairing the Hall until the year 1306, when the roof began to give trouble. A "Keeper of the Guild Hall" was then appointed, who bought slates and other materials for mending the fabric. He made a bargain with a slater by contract for 5s. 11d., "and two boys helping him 4s. 1 1/2d.," the total cost (including some new benches) amounting to 19s. 2 3/4d. This bargain did not prove, however, to have been a good one, for extensive repairs were again found necessary in 13 14, when a thousand slates were put on the roof; and once again, in 1320, another thousand slates had to be used. Six years later, an end was made of this kind of tinkering, and the work of restoration was properly carried out, the structure being re-timbered and re-plastered, and re-tiled with two and a half thousand slates. After this reconstruction, which cost nearly £3, the building remained serviceable for upwards of forty years. By the middle of the 14th century, however, it had fallen into such a ruinous condition that timber was bought, it would seem, for propping it up, and it was again re-slated. In the Spring of 1366, the community decided to undertake the task of rebuilding it. This work was well carried out, at a cost of £24 14s. 0d., under the direction of William of Syston and John of Scraptoft, "keepers of the work of the common hall of the town." Some of the old slates were used up in roofing the little chapel on the West Bridge.
During the next two centuries this new building served as the Guild Hall of the Borough, although after the lapse of little more than a hundred years it was found somewhat inadequate for the purpose. Before the 15th century had run its course, the Community found it necessary to hold some at least of their meetings in the more commodious Hall of the Corpus Christi Guild. Long before the actual purchase of this Guild's building by the Leicester Corporation, the hall in Blue Boar Lane was sometimes referred to as "the old Hall," or "the old Mayor's Hall," so that it had evidently even then lost much of its vogue. It was sometimes, perhaps rather later, called disparagingly "the olde shoppe." It was still used by the Corporation, however, and periodically repaired. It was indeed handsomely redecorated in ​1549-50 and painted with fantastic designs, "antick work," as it was called, scriptures and the King's arms, The garden was let off in 1537 on a thirty years' lease to a private citizen at a rent of 23 pence. It may be the garden "against the Mayor's Hall," which was sold about 1590 to Thomas Clarke for 30s. It should be mentioned that in 1461 a house, near the High Cross, had been given to "the Mayoralty of the town of Leicester perpetually "by John Reynold the Elder. He had himself held that "honourable and worshipful office," as he states in the deed of Conveyance, no less than four times, and he had no doubt felt the want of accommodation. It is not known if the house furnished an official residence of the Mayor, or if it was used in some other way.
After the purchase of the Corpus Christi Guild Hall in 1562-3, the old Mayor's Hall was still kept in repair, The armour was removed to the new hall, and so was one of its doors. Before the building of the Free Grammer School, the old Mayor's Hall did duty at least on one occasion as a temporary school. It had long been used for the reception of prisoners, and also for the storage of coal. In 1573 a stone wall was built to divide the coal-house from the prisoners. The Corporation passed a resolution, seven years later, that no member of the 48 should be punished any longer at the old hall, but at the new.
It is not known when the Old Mayor's Hall was demolished, and different stories are told about its end. According to some M.S. notes made by James Thompson, it was sold in 1653 to John Kestian, malster, for £30. Throsby asserted, on the other hand, that during the siege of Leicester in 1645 the building was used as a store room for powder and ball, and was blown up by the King's forces at the storming of the town. This statement has been repeated, with some hesitation, by other writers. But in the rent roll of the Leicester Corporation for the year 1694 "the Mayor's Old Hall" still appears, so that Throsby's story is probably untrue, and could at the most apply only to a partial demolition, and Thompson also seems to have been mistaken.
III.
It is quite within the bounds of probability that the Hall and Parlour of the Corpus Christi Guild were built and designed not ​only for the meetings and suppers of the Guild, but also for the transaction of municipal affairs. The connection of the Town authorities and the Corpus Christi Guild had been extremely close ever since the Guild was founded in the middle of the 14th century. The men who governed the borough were always, to a very large extent, the same as those who managed the Guild; and as time passed on, the co-operation of the two bodies became constantly more noticeable. Thus, it is evident from an ordination passed by the Mayor and his Brethren in the year 1477 that, as North has pointed out, "the two masters of the Corpus Christi Guild were at that time closely connected with the Corporation in the Government of the town, and to some extent were invested by the Mayor and his Brethren with superior authority, inasmuch as they had power to inflict penalties on the Mayor himself in case he neglected his duty."
The earliest allusion to the Hall and Parlour of the Guild occurs in their Accounts for 1493-4, when a payment was made "for sweeping of the parlour and the hall." In the preceding year the rent collectors also took credit for some repairs done to the Chantry, or residence of the guild priests, which is then first mentioned.
Now, in the year 1862, Mr. Gordon Hills examined these buildings, and reported upon them to the Meeting of the British Archaeological Association which was held at Leicester in that year. The conclusion which he drew from a very close and critical survey of the architectural features of the buildings was that they were built in the reign of Henry VII. If that is so, they must have been put up somewhere about the year 1490, replacing "cottages" and "ground" in St. Martin's Church Lane, which appeared in older rentals of the guild.
At that time, the Guild was a rich body, its income being larger than that of the town, and the shrewd burgesses who managed the concerns of both felt, no doubt, that the resources of the guild might be well employed in providing that accommodation ​for carrying on the town's business which was then so badly required. If that was the case, the Mayor and his Brethren probably made use of the new buildings as soon as they were completed, although the earliest date on which a common hall is actually recorded to have been held there was January 8th, 1494-5, (10 Henry VII.) There is no record of any rent being paid by the town, but the Town Chamberlains took credit for payments, "for charcoal for Mr. Mayor and his brethren at Corpus Christi Hall divers times." The relations between Town and Guild were doubtless on an easy footing, and not defined by strict contract. Possibly the Mayor and his Brethren themselves subscribed towards the building; at all events they seem to have felt themselves entitled to some beneficial interest, occupying the Hall rent-free, although the freehold was vested in the Guild.
The crash came at Easter, 1548, when the chantry foundations ceased to exist, and the legal estate in their property passed to the Crown. Leicester had taken no open steps to resist the Chantry Bill of the first year of Edward VI. as Coventry did. The burgesses of Coventry, it will be remembered, were only induced to withdraw their opposition to it by a promise, which was duly performed, that, if they did so, the more important guilds in their constituency should recover their lands. Indeed, in this case, "the confiscation of the guild lands of Corpus Christi would simply have been the ruin of an already decaying city." Leicester was not so dependent on its chief guild as Coventry was, but what happened at the former town in 1548 is not very clear. It may be gathered from the Borough Records and from the Conveyance hereinafter quoted, that the Mayor and his Brethren managed in some way to retain the use of the Guild Hall apparently on the same terms as before. In the Chamberlains' accounts for this period, the two Town Halls are distinguished as "The Old Mayor's Hall," or the "Old Hall," or "the Mayor's Hall," on the one hand, and "the Hall," or "the new Hall," "Corpus Christi Hall," or the "Town Hall" on the other. Both were kept in repair at the cost of the town, or by voluntary contributions. Thus, in 1556-7, a study was provided for the Mayor, at "the ​Hall," when 9 pieces of old wood and 44 pounds of lead were bought "from the church" for that purpose. Towards this work a sum of £7 16s. 0 1/2d. was lent, the Mayor himself contributing 10s. "The church" was no doubt St. Martin's, but the accounts of the Churchwardens of that church for the year 1556-7 are unfortunately wanting.
The Mayor and his Brethren must have been anxious to obtain the freehold of the new Hall, and they entrusted the negotiations, it would seem, to Robert Braham, who was appointed to the Recordership of Leicester in 1558, and who was M.P. for the town in four parliaments.
Braham completed the matter a few years later through a Mrs. Pickerell, a wealthy widow of Norwich. She belonged to a very well-known and prosperous Norfolk family, being a daughter of Augustin Steward of Norwich, esquire, (who was Sheriff of Norwich in 1526, Mayor in 1534 and 1546, and M.P, for Norwich in 1542), and of Elizabeth, daughter of William Read of Beccles, Suffolk, esquire. Mrs. Pickerell's grandfather was Geoffrey Steward of Norwich, and she was named after her paternal grandmother Cecilia, a daughter of Augustin Boyce.
The family of the Pickerells was also well-known at Norwich. Thomas Pickerell, who died in 1544-5, had been Mayor of the city three times, and he was, in all probability, nearly related to John Pickerell, the husband of Cecilia Steward. John Pickerell lived at Dichborough, near Diss, in the county of Norfolk; and it does not appear that he had any connection with ​Leicestershire, though there was a John Pickerell, who owned some land at Leicester in 1492, and who may possibly have been connected with the Norfolk family.
The Will of John Pickerell of Dichborough, dated the 1st of November, 1554, was proved on February 9th, 1555 by Edmund Brudenell, proxy for the relict and executrix. The Testator gave all his lands tenements houses and orchards within the city of Norwich to his wife Cecily for life, and for her jointure of 40 marks a year he gave her £400 in money, and a debt owing to him of £500 (200 marks of which were to be paid on the marriage of their daughter Suzanne). And he left his wife all his furniture and horses, etc., (with one or two exceptions), and all his debts and his lands called "Dicheborowe and Rassall" with their appurtenances in Norfolk; and, after giving his son Richard £40 and his daughter, the wife of Francis Bolton, £20, "to be paid to them on the recovery of my debts owing by the Queen's Majesty," the Testator left the residue to Cecily his wife, and appointed her sole executrix.
Cecilia Pickerell was thus a woman of considerable means, and she became a large investor in the lands of dissolved chantries. It is possible that the debt owing by the Crown, which is referred to in John Pickerell's Will, may have been discharged from this source. No less than three Royal Grants were made to Mrs. Pickerell within two years : the first in the third year of Elizabeth; the next in the February of the fifth year, and the third in the June of the same year.
The Leicester Recorder approached Mrs. Pickerell perhaps after her first grant in 1560-1, and made a bargain with her that in her next batch of investments she should include the premises of the Leicester Corpus Christi Guild Hall, and re-sell them to him at a fixed price. The negotiations may have been carried out, if one may hazard the conjecture, through Mrs. Pickerell's proxy, Edmund Brudenell, who had proved her husband's will. Brudenell is not a Norfolk name, and Edmund Brudenell was probably one of the Brudenells of Staunton Wyville or Staunton Brudenell, in the county of Leicester. There were at that time at least three members of the family who bore the Christian name ​of Edmund; (1) Sir Edmund Brudenell, who died in 1584-5, grandson of Sir Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and a Commissioner to survey lands in Leicestershire, (2) his uncle Edmund, and (3) his cousin Edmund, who died at Staunton Wyville in 1590, and whose alabaster figure, arrayed in magisterial robes, lies in the chancel of Staunton Wyville church. The inscription placed over his monument records that he was "a man that lyv'ed in the treue feare of God, a lover of hospitalitie, pitiful to the poore, a quieter of controversies in his countrie, beloved of his neighbours, learned in the laws of the realme bothe civill and common." This worthy county magnate would be well-known to the Leicester Recorder and M.P., and pending the production of further evidence, it will do no harm to indulge in the hypothesis, that it was partly through the good offices of Edmund Brudenell of Staunton Wyville that the 15th century Guild Hall of Leicester became restored to the Town.
The grant made to Mrs. Pickerell on February 6th, 1562-3 was very extensive, and comprised property in Derbyshire, Chester, Devon, Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Surrey, etc. The roll is actually some 50 feet in length, consisting of 42 membranes sewn together end to end. There seems to be no Leicestershire property contained in any of the three grants except Leicester Corpus Christi Guild Hall passing under the grant of February 6th, 1562-3, by the same description as that which appears in the Conveyance to Braham. That Conveyance was in all probability prepared beforehand, to await the sealing and official enrolment of the grant to the vendor.
A Deed of Conveyance is still preserved in the Muniment Room of Leicester City, which is endorsed on the front "The Deeds for the Town Hall," and on the back "They dedis and Raylaisse of the towne hall bought by Mr. Brayham o$^r$ Recorder in the tyme of Mr. Raynold mayre Anno 1563." This document was produced at the meeting of the British Archaeological Association before referred to. As it has not ​been published in the Records of the Borough, a translation of it is here given.
"TO ALL the faithful in Christ to whom this present writing indented shall have come CECILIA PICKERELL of the City of Norwich widow late wife of John Pickerell Gentleman now deceased (sends) greeting perpetual in the Lord KNOW YE that I the aforesaid Cecilia for a certain sum of money to me the aforesaid Cecilia beforehand well and duly paid by Robert Braham of Barrow-on-Soar in the County of Leicester gentleman whereof I own myself to be fully paid and satisfied and the same Robert and his heirs and executors to be acquitted and exonerated in perpetuity by these presents have delivered granted enfeoffed sold and bargained and by this my present writing indented have confirmed to the same Robert ALL THAT cottage or tenement with its appurtenances situated and being next the burial ground of Saint Martin's in the town of Leicester in the County aforesaid now or late in the tenure or occupation of the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester aforesaid and late for some while belonging and pertaining to the Guild of Corpus Christi there AND any reversion or reversions of all and singular the premises and of any part thereof as well as the rents and annual profits in any way reserved upon any leases or grants of the premises or of any part thereof in any way made as fully and freely and entirely and in as full manner and form as I the aforesaid Cecilia Pickerell late held all and singular the same premises (amongst other things) by the grant and concession to me and my heirs in perpetuity of Our Lady Queen Elizabeth that now is by letters patent sealed with her great seal of England bearing date at Westminster the sixth day of February in the fifth year of the reign of the said Lady our Queen as by the said letters patent (amongst other things) more fully is clear and doth appear TO HAVE AND TO HOLD and to enjoy all the aforesaid cottage or tenement with its appurtenances to the aforesaid Robert Braham his heirs and assigns in perptuity for the sole and proper use and behoof of him the said Robert his heirs and assigns in perpetuity To Hold of the aforesaid Lady Queen her heirs and successors as of her Manor of East Grenewich in her county of Kent in free socage by fealty and not in ​capite for all rents or outgoings and demands whatsoever therefrom to the said Lady Queen her heirs and successors by whatever means to be rendered paid or done AND I the aforesaid Cecilia Pickerell and my heirs the aforesaid cottage or tenement to the aforesaid Robert his heirs and assigns in perpetuity for the aforesaid use against me the aforesaid Cecilia and my heirs will warrant and in perpetuity will defend by these presents AND MOREOVER know ye that I the aforesaid Cecilia have made ordained and constituted and in my room by these presents have put the to me beloved in Christ John Eyrycke and William Manbie my true and lawful attorneys jointly and severally to enter in my stead and in my name upon the aforesaid cottage or tenement with its appurtenances and full and peaceable possession therein to take and afterwards to deliver full and peaceable possession and seisin of and in the same cottage or tenement with its appurtenances to the aforesaid Robert or his in this behalf certain attorney according to the tenor force form and effect of this my present writing indented then completed for him holding and to hold satisfied and approved all and whatsoever my said attorneys in my stead and in my name shall have done or either of them shall have done of and in the premises by these presents IN WITNESS whereof to this my present writing indented I the aforesaid Cecilia have affixed my seal dated the seventh day of February in the fifth year of the reign of our Lady Elizabeth by the grace of God of England France and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith
by me Cecyley Pickerell
Recognised before me John Gybon
in my Chancery the day and year above written."
The use of the word "cottage," to describe the Hall and premises of the Corpus Christi Guild lying on the West side of St. Martin's churchyard, is somewhat strange. It may be due merely to legal conservatism, the parcels being copied from the original conveyance to the guild, when there was nothing but a cottage on the land, only the names of the tenants being brought up to date. Or it may be owing (as Mr. S. H. Skillington suggests), to a desire to minimise the importance which the ​Leicester authorities attached to the premises thus conveyed. Certainly, the real meaning of the transaction was not allowed to appear on the surface of the deed. In any case it seems that the Conveyance must have included the whole of the old guild premises west of St. Martin's churchyard. This is shown by the endorsement written on the back of the Conveyance, which is much earlier than the other endorsement, and must have been made soon after the execution of the deed, the handwriting being contemporary. It is also proved by the general circumstances of the case, and especially by the corroboration of the Borough Records. In the Chamberlains' Accounts for the year 1562-3, there is an entry referring to wine drunk at the "possession-taking of the Hall," and it is also noted that a certain sum was paid to Mr. Manby, one of the attorneys mentioned in the Conveyance, "that he laid out for the purchase of the Hall," and that £2 13s. 4d. more was paid to Mr. Recorder for the same Hall, "that he laid out and for his pains." The sum then paid to Manby is stated by Kelly and North to have been £10. A further payment of £7 9s. 4d. was made to Manby in 1565-6, and also some "arrearages" of the Hall were paid, stated by Kelly to have amounted to £5 10s. 8d. The total amount of the purchase money cannot be exactly ascertained, but does not seem to have been large, and, if the figures given above are correct and exhaustive, did not exceed £25.
The title of the Corporation was further confirmed in 1589 by the Charter of Queen Elizabeth, wherein she granted to the Mayor and Burgesses of Leicester, "the chantry of Corpus Christi Guild with its lands let to R. Hawkes and T. Bate," and the "guild called Corpus Christi Guild." The lease to Hawkes and Bate expired at Lady Day, 1595, and the lands and tenements comprised therein then fell into the possession of the Leicester Corporation, subject only, as appears from the Town Chamberlains' accounts, to a small yearly payment of 7s. 9d. The particulars of the lands and tenements are set out in the Corporation's Rental for the year ending Michaelmas, 1595.
The buildings seem to have occupied the four sides of a square, with an open court in the centre. On the North, fronting the street, stood the Hall of Corpus Christi, 62 feet long by 19 broad: on the West lay the Parlour, with rooms over: on the South were the Kitchens, and on the East, facing St. Martin's church, were the residences of the four chantry priests. These four houses are alluded to incidentally in the Guild's rental for the year 1525-6, where the following entry occurs: "Mending of the Chantry wickett and iiij keys, vjd": from which it appears that each of the four chantry priests occupying the four houses had a separate key to the "wykkett." In the Chantry Certificate of the Chantry of Corpus Christi Leicester returned under the Act of 37 Henry VIII c. iv, the house and garden of the chantry priests are said to be situated at the west end of the church, and to be of the annual value of 10s.
For some years after the purchase of the new Guild Hall, the accounts of the Town Chamberlains refer to various repairs that were carried out there, especially in connection with the benching, and mending the hangings of the parlour, and the stairs going up into the high chamber.
The Hall and Parlour were used not only for civic business and for the Assizes, but also for social gatherings and for theatrical entertainments. Other rooms were adapted to various purposes. One of them seems to have been given up to the use of the schoolmaster. Another was used as an armoury, and another as a ​Larderhouse. The Chamberlains' accounts allude also to the kitchen and the Spice-house. A bedroom was fitted up in 1582, for the accommodation of the Recorder, Richard Parkins, who "applied himself to reading and digesting the records of the town." The accounts for the same year give particulars of the bedroom's furniture; and a note is added, saying that it remains to the use of the corporation, and is yearly to be recorded in the account of the Mayors "for the better remembrance thereof."
Shortly after the purchase of the new Hall, some annoyance seems to have been caused on account of the Mayor's having lent it for meetings of the "paratours" or cloth-makers, for in 1572 the Corporation emphatically resolved that "the Hall, nor no part thereof, nor no implement belonging to the same, shall not at any time hereafter be lent neither by the Mayor for his time being nor no other officer nor officers."
The Mayor's Seat in the Hall was erected in the year 1586, and the date is inscribed above it between the letters E.R. A sum of fifteen shillings was paid to John Carver "for carving and making the Queen's Arms which is in the Hall extant," and for the gilding thereof 26s. 8d. These arms were not in the Hall itself, but in "a chamber at the Hall."
The Mayor's Parlour at present existing was built or restored in the year 1636. "This year the Parlour belonging to the Guildhall with the chamber gallery evidence house and other rooms adjoining unto the same were newly erected at the charge of the common chamber." The cost was £224. "The carving of the chimney-piece was finished at an outlay of £5 16s. 6d. to the carver, £4 13s. 6d. to the joiners and woodseller, and £2 10s. for the colouring and gilding. It remains to this day a monument of the skill and taste of the period of its execution."
In the year 1584 the Town Hall was mortgaged to secure a loan guaranteed on behalf of the Corporation by two of its members. Robert Herrick, who was then Mayor, and Thomas Clarke, the wealthy landlord of the Blue Boar Inn, had bound themselves in a bond of £200 to Agnes Stringer for the payment of £100, and it was resolved that "for their security there shall be the Town Hall vocat' Guildhall assured unto them." Agnes ​Stringer was a well-to-do widow, who appears in the Subsidy Roll of 1590 as an owner of land at Leicester. She may have been the widow of Roger Stringer, who was a Town Chamberlain in 1576-7, an Alderman in 1583, and an Auditor of Accounts for the South Quarter in 158 1-2. His Will was proved at Leicester in 1585, and he may have died in the previous year. The Will of Agnes Stringer was proved in 1603. Either Mrs. Stringer or her husband had advanced the £100 for repayment of a debt incurred by the Corporation in promoting the manufacture of cloth. The rest of the Twenty-four promised to pay 1s. 2d. each, and the Fortyeight 7d. each, quarterly, towards the payment. The Town Hall was mortgaged as further security.
A great feast was held at the new Leicester Guildhall in 1588, to celebrate the defeat of the Armada. The Earl of Huntingdon, his brother, Walter Hastings, who was in command of the troops in Leicestershire prepared to resist the apprehended invasion, Thomas Skeffington, of Belgrave, who was then High Sheriff of the County, and many other gentlemen of the neighbourhood were entertained by George Norris, the Mayor of Leicester. The event was commemorated on future anniversaries.
For these great civic banquets all the accommodation of the building was required. There were two long tables, known as the first and the second, which extended down the length of the Hall, and in the Parlour were also first and second tables, while room was found for yet another table in the chamber upstairs. Nichols gives the Bill of Fare of one Gargantuan Feast which contains more than 150 different items.
On other occasions the Hall was given up to theatrical performances. When companies of actors visited Leicester, they seem generally to have played at the Town Hall whenever it was available. In the year 1585-6, "The Earl of Essex' players" had a solatium paid to them of 20s., because "they were not suffered to play at the Hall." They were prevented from doing so probably by the alterations which were at that time being carried out there. The upper end of the building was used as a stage, and some of the hooks from which the curtain ​was suspended were recently to be seen upon one of the beams. No less than 56 different companies of actors are mentioned in the 16th century Records of the Corporation as having visited the town. Among them was one of which William Shakespeare was a member and shareholder, and it is traditionally believed that the poet played with his Company at the Leicester Town Hall. The subject has been fully investigated by Mr. William Kelly, who came to the conclusion, that although there is no actual proof of the historical truth of this tradition, there is still a certain presumption in its favour.
During the years 1632 and 1633 some alterations were made in the rooms which had originally formed the residences of the four Chantry Priests, and to these newly-adapted premises the Town Library was removed from St. Martin's church. The books have remained ever since in the same congenial quarters.
The history of the Town Halls of Leicester has never been written, and requires further investigation. The foregoing sketch must therefore be considered as merely preliminary and tentative, and it is liable to be corrected in some particulars by the evidence of future research.
* ↑ Not the Meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute, as Kelly inadvertently named it in his account of the old Guildhalls. The meeting of that body at Leicester took place in 1870.
* ↑ See the Steward pedigree in the Visitation of Norfolk, 1563, (Harleian Society, 1891) 368-270, and Rye's Index to Norfolk Pedigrees (Norwich 1896) p.116. Mr. George Farnham of Quorn has very kindly called my attention to another trace of Mrs. Pickerell's business transactions. Common Pleas Plea Roll 1224 Michaelmas 7 Elizabeth m. 894. A.D. 1564. "Cecilia Pyckerell of the City of Norwich, widow v. Roger Mansell of Pedmore co. Worcester yeoman Ralph Sheldon of Bewley co. Worcester gent and John Famham of the Palace of the lady the Queen esquire in pleas of debt of £100 respectively."
* ↑ In Thomas Pickerell's will, dated 10th September, 1545, and proved 13th March, 1545-6, the Testator mentions a son Edmund and a brother Edward, but no John. John may have been either brother, son, or nephew of Thomas. The arms of Pickerell were "sable, a swan close argent, a chief ermine."
* ↑ It is worth noting that Robert Braham's only daughter and heiress, Phillippa, married Henry Cave, of Barrow-on-Soar, the fourth son of Francis Cave, Doctor of Civil Law, of Bagrave, Leicestershire. (Visitation of Leicestershire, page 120.)
* ↑ In the original "St. Mary's," but obviously St.Martin's is intended.