f 148v (12 April)
...
| ffynchley Pope & Napton |
Item we present Phillip ffinchley Morgane Pope & Iohn Napton & euery of them to clense and skower & to lope the Willowes yat hang over the common sewer to the great annoysaunce of the same cont x pole more or les lyeng against ther grownd at ye new plaie house to be done by the last day of Iuly next cominge vppon paine of xx s. for euery pole then vndone | xx s. |
...
°not
done°
Pope and Napton, perhaps as Pope's deputy, shared responsibility for the Bear Garden side of the common sewer while Philip 'ffinchley' (an obvious error for 'Hinchley' as he was sometimes referred to), was required to clean and clear the sewers running immediately beside his new playhouse.
In October 1587 John Napton had been a prisoner in the Marshalsea for twenty-two weeks. In his petition for release to Sir Francis Walsingham he invoked his 'wief & five smalle children, who for wante of necessaries: are likely to perishe' (TNA: SP12/204, no 140). Although he did not specify the issue that led to his imprisonment, he vowed to 'procure some good end, to be made, betwene Mr Pope & me....' The St Saviour's token books record John Napton living in Bull Head Alley in the Liberty of the Clink and Paris Garden in 1588; see Ingram and Nelson, Token Books.
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.'
© London Metropolitan Archives (City of London), SKCS/018