Comments on: The Relics of Norton Folgate

By: James Frankcom

James Frankcom — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 12:28:05 +0000

I found out the chest had gone to Bedord because there was correspondence kept by the local history archive which proved they asked for various items and then collected them, for which there is a receipt of sorts kept at Bancroft Local History Archive. I did ask the museum in Bedford about this. This museum in Bedford now has a different name but still exists. The Bedford Museum had been most interested in the Egyptian artefacts which the Whitechapel Museum had, but they also requested the muniment chest. However, this is where the story ends because none of the records in Bedford were accessible to me and I could not get from them any evidence about the goods they had received from Whitechapel. They said they had no record of a chest. The presumption is it is either there somewhere and of unknown origin, or it is ‘lost’ and could have been sold or given to someone after it arrived in Bedford.

However, a couple of years later (around 2017) I was advised by the custodian of the Synagogue in Sandys Lane E1 that they had found a strange chest in their basement. I did wonder if this might be the Norton Folgate Muniment Chest but it seems it is not. It is of similar design but different from the item in the photo taken in 1905. It also physically did not match the description in the interior (a brief description says the Norton Folgate one had three holes in the bottom where it seems it was attached to the floor in the White Lyon Court House). My presumption is that the Liberty of the Old Artillery Ground also had a muniment chest, and as the two liberties were set up at the same time, and as the synagogue is located in the Old Artillery Ground, that this was the muniment chest for this liberty and not Norton Folgate. I believe the Old Artillery chest is still in the synagogue basement and it contains various old hangings and cloths used historically by the synagogue.

By: Paul Dew

Paul Dew — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 21:14:08 +0000

I am interested in police history and especially deaths in service. In Jan 1661 Thomas Venner was involved in a riot in the east of London. There is a possibility a headborough was killed by Venner or his followers. Does anyone know the victim’s name?

Thank you

By: Meg Twycross

Meg Twycross — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 14:21:00 +0000

I think I have identified the couple, and at least one of the coats of arms, but they don’t match directly. More hunting called for. Also Francis Candell, who was an heraldic painter, and I have to get more about. This has all got deeply entangled with something very complicated I’m working on, so I won’t stick my neck out at the moment, but James, could you get in touch with me? I’m a respectable scholar!

By: Meg Twycross

Meg Twycross — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 20:59:29 +0000

PS Got part of it; see https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol27/pp39-51.

By: Meg Twycross

Meg Twycross — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 20:40:32 +0000

I can tell you whose coat of arms it is on the right hand side of the lid: Robert Hare (the initials RH are alongside). Look him up in the ODNB. He was an antiquary and a great benefactor of the University of Cambridge. Was he an Overseer of the Poor? This would be interesting, because he was a Catholic recusant: but he also worked for the government, and is buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. The MH on the other side may well be for his brother Michael. I think the coat of arms on the left are a married couple? I tracked your article down because I was coming at it from the other end: a mysterious entry in the ODNB which said that he lived in Norton Folgate ‘at some period between 1581 and 1594’, but doesn’t give a footnote. It looks as if he were there in 1600 as well. He died in 1611, and left his nephew his picture gallery — it sounds as if this were in Norton Folgate as well. Anybody who can join up the rest of the dots for me?

By: Jean McKern

Jean McKern — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 04:23:52 +0000

A great article and some interesting follow up comments. Robert Rayner, one of the trustees, is also a blood relation and, like Carrie, felt your research had indeed added flesh to the bones of the Norton Folgate community. Thank you.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 09:40:04 +0000

I have read this article with intense interest, knowing that my relative
once ran a business in Elder St in the later part of the 19th century. Imagine my delight when I find he was one of the trustees on the final committee of the Liberty of Norton Folgate. His name was Robert Rayner. So pleased that all this information has been made available to the general public. I would like to go to Tower Hamlets Library and if possible, read some of the minutes recorded by the committee which may give me some idea of my relatives character.
Thank you so much.

By: Michael Ward

Michael Ward — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:31:50 +0000

I think that the Liberty of Norton Folgate was abolished by the London Government Act of 1899, which established the Metropolitan Boroughs, rather than by the creation of the LCC.

See Hopkins, AB, The Boroughs of the Metropolis; London, Bemrose & Sons; London, 1900; pp 49 & 147

By: David Pear

David Pear — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:53:54 +0000

During my USA military service, I was stationed in Watford, Herts at Bushey Hall. On one of my subsequent trips back to the U.K., I was visiting some friends in Winchester and wandered into G.H. Bell Antiques Ltd. and discovered a beautiful antique grandfather clock that was made by William Beavis of London which I purchased. The folks at Bells told me that relatively little was known about Wm. Beavis but it was believed he had died in a debtor’s prison in the later 1700’s. They also said that it was believed that only three of these clocks had survived, their whereabouts unknown.

About 20 years later I was reading an article in Forbes Magazine that featured an interview with the then current American Ambassador to Canada and mr. John rogers, the CEO of Rogers Communications. The article included a picture of the two gentlemen chatting in Mr. Rogers library. For some odd reason, I was drawn to this picture and kept glancing at it. In a eureka moment, I realized it was a Wm. Beavis clock similar to mine.

In a search at the National Archives, we found a will of a William Bavis/Beavis dated 11 Aug 1760. The will reference a brother George and a wife Sarah.

I would enjoy hearing from anyone in the U.K. that could ann any insight into the history of my clock by Wm. Beavis.

By: Stuart Beavis

Stuart Beavis — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 03:49:04 +0000

Sue,
I am the cousin of Colin (above). I have discovered George and William Beavis, watchmakers during the 1700s and that they were brothers. Their father, also George was also a watchmaker who lived and died in Norton Folgate. I have found that there was an earlier George, another watchmaker who died in 1717, who could be the George you referred to (whose mother was Barbara), but I cannot link him to the ones I mentioned above. I, like you, am sure they must be related to your Benjamin, but do not know how. I am still not able to find a connection between these and the John that Colin referred to above, born in 1741 (approx. we have no proof of his birth, nor who his parents were). You seem to have found out something about George (1600s) and William (1700s). I would be pleased if you could point me in the right direction to that information, as every little helps. Stuart.