f 121 (25 February)
...
| Bowes | we present Edward Bowes to boorde pile caste & wharfe v polle of his wall more or les to be done by michellmas nexte vppon paine of x s. for euery polle then vndone on the backe syde of the beare garden | x s. michellmas |
...
According to the bill of complaint in a complicated 1583–4 court of Requests case, Edward Bowes v. John Digges and John Gape -- see Court of Requests: Edward Bowes v. John Digges and John Gape, 1583/4 -- Morgan Pope, a London goldsmith, assigned the recently acquired sub-lease of the Bear Garden property on the Bell and Cock site to Edward Bowes in 1579. Bowes then appointed William Glover as his agent to bait bears there. There is another more general entry for Bowes' wharf on 9 July (f 122). This is Bowes' earliest appearance in the Sewer Commissioners' reports.
It is worth noting here that Edward Bowes, brother of Ralph Bowes, master of the Bears, Bulls, and Mastiff Dogs, was recorded several times for bringing the bearbaiting game from 'Paris Garden' to the royal court. For payments made between 1580 and 1588 by the treasurer of the Chamber see further David Cook (ed), 'Dramatic Records in the Declared Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber, 1558–1642,' Collections 6, Malone Society (Oxford, 1962 (1961)), 10–25.
Record title: Surrey and Kent Commissioners for Sewers' Court Minutes and
Orders
Repository:
LMA
Shelfmark: SKCS/018
Repository location: London
Most of the pre-1642 records of the Surrey and Kent commissioners for sewers are now deposited at the London Metropolitan Archives. The LMA online catalogue succinctly describes the sewer records as follows: 'Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London.... Letters Patent for the Surrey and Kent Commissioners of Sewers were issued in 1554. Its minutes begin in 1570 and it was the earliest of the London Commissions to be established on an organised basis. The area of its jurisdiction ran from East Molesey in Surrey to the River Ravensbourne, and included Lambeth, Southwark, Bermondsey, Newington, Deptford, Rotherhithe, Clapham, Battersea, Camberwell, Vauxhall, Wandsworth, Putney, Barnes, Kew, Lewisham, Walworth, Kennington, Nine Elms, Peckham and New Cross. The area of jurisdiction remained the same throughout the three centuries during which it functioned.' See further Ida Darlington, 'The London Commissioners of Sewers and their Records,' in Prisca Munimenta: Studies in Archival & Administrative History presented to Dr A.E.J. Hollaender, Felicity Ranger (ed) (London, 1973), 282–98.
John Norden's 1593 map shows the lines of the Bankside sewers (or drainage ditches). There were three running along the Little Rose property: to the south along Maiden Lane and one on the west side adjacent to the Bear Garden property.
3 January 1568/9–25 April 1606; English with some Latin; paper with parchment fly leaves; i + 520 + i; 410mm x 280mm; index foliated in pencil 1–24 relating to ff 1–210 of the text, ink foliation follows, 1–444, pencil foliation 445–70 (all blank), a second index numbered in pencil 1–21, 21b, 22, 22b, 23, 23b follows the text for ff 211–444; restored, conserved and rebound in beige vellum with corded bands on spine with leather ties. Now stored in a box: within the box also are the previous red leather boards and spine with 'SEWERS | SURREY & KENT | MINUTES | 1 | 1557–1606.'
