sweeping desolation of 1666, it was not rebuilt, and the parish was afterwards united to that of St. Bennet, Paul's-wharf, in the Ward of Castle Baynard.

The vestry is general; two churchwardens, &c.

There were no monumental inscriptions.

A List of the Aldermen of Queenhithe Ward, from 1657 to the present time.

Sir John Lawrence, knt., elected in 1657; served the office of sheriff in 1659; and that of lord mayor in 1665.

Sir Thomas Cooke, knt., elected in 1691; served the office of sheriff in 1693.

Sir Benjamin Green, knt., elected in 1709; served the office of sheriff in 1708.

Sir John Fryer, knt., elected in 1709; served the office of sheriff in 1716; and that of lord mayor in 1721.

Robert Alsop, esq.. elected in 1726; served the office of sheriff in 1733.

Sir Robert Westley, knt., elected in 1736; served the office of sheriff in 1734; and that of lord mayor in 1744.

Edward Davies, esq., elected in 1745; served the office of sheriff in 1748.

Marsh Dickenson, esq., elected in 1749; served the office of sheriffin 1752; and that of lord mayor in 1757.

Richard Peers, esq., elected in 1765; served the office of sheriff in 1768.

Frederick Bull, esq., elected in 1772; served the office of sheriff in 1771; and that of lord mayor in 1773.

John Bates, esq., elected in 1784; served the office of sheriff in 1784.

Thomas Skinner, esq., elected in 1785; served the office of No.58.-VOL. II.

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sheriff in 1783; and that of lord mayor in 1794. Elected a second time lord mayor, Michaelmas 1799; refused serving, although eligible, but not compellable, according to Act of Common Council, 6th Octobǝr, 1545.

Sir William Domville, bart., elected in 1806; served the office of sheriff in 1804; and that of lord mayor in 1816.

William Venables, esq., elected in 1821; served the office of sheriff in 1821; and that of lord mayor in 1825; and is the present alderman of the Ward.

END OF QUEENHITHE WARD.

Tower-Street Ward.

THIS ward derives its name from its leading direct to the principal entrance of the Tower of London.

It is bounded on the east by Tower-hill, and by the ward of Aldgate; on the north by Langbourn Ward; on the west by Billingsgate Ward; and on the south by the river Thames. It comprises Tower-street, part of Thames-street, Seething-laue, Marklane, Mincing-lane, Hart-street, Idol-lane; St. Dunstan's-hill, Harp-lane, Water-lane, Beer-lane, &c.; besides a number of alleys and courts. Tower-street, Great and Little, (a part of the latter only belongs to this ward) is well built, and inhabited by merchants, West India brokers, &c. Thames-street, which runs through several other wards, and here is named Lower Thames-street, from its being below the bridge: from the business of the Custom House, and the various quays in this part, it is in a perpetual bustle.

Water-lane was formerly called Sporiar-lane, and as it led to the Watergate by the Custom House, it received its present name; this being a great thoroughfare, in consequence became mostly occupied by the keepers of public houses.

Mincing-lane, was formerly called Mincheon-lane.

Mark-lane, or Mart-lane, was so called on account of a mart formerly kept here.

Seething-lane, or Sything-lane, runs northward from Towerstreet to Crutched-friars; here is the Navy Office, but the principal entrance is from Crutched-friars in Aldgate Ward. The Transport Office is in Black-raven-court in this lane.

Tower-hill.-The west row of buildings is in this ward, and in this row are Barking-alleys, one leading into Tower-street and the other into Seething-lane, the buildings of which encompass Barking church on the north and east sides. There were formerly round the Tower, old buildings, which enclosed the ditch or moat, but in the time of Charles II., being found very incommodious, they were pulled down, and the moat cleansed and enlarged, with brickwork on the outside. Sir John Robinson was then lieutenant of the Tower, one half of which, the ditch on the west side, and bulwarks adjoining, stand within that part where the wall of the city of old time went straight from the postern gate, south to the river Thames, before the Tower was built.

This Ward is governed by an alderman, and twelve common councilmen, under whom are thirteen constables, twelve scavengers, thirteen wardmote-men, and a beadle. The jurymen returned

by the Wardmote Inquest, are to serve as jurors in the several courts at Guildhall, in the month of May.

There are here three parish churches; viz. Allhallows Barking, St. Olave's Hart-street, and St. Dunstan's in the East.

The most remarkable building was the Custom House in Thames-street. In the reign of Elizabeth, the practice of smuggling being carried to a great height, an act was passed in her first year, prohibiting the lading or discharging of any goods or merchandize at any other places than those enumerated in that act; the chief of which were, Billingsgate, Three Cranes in the Vintry, the Bridge-house, and the Still-yard. About the year 1570, a person named Needham, wrote a book, exposing the abuses, &c. of the merchants and others, as regarded the customs, and sent it privately to the lord treasurer, with a letter to this import," That he thought it his duty, justly and truly to open to his honour such notes and knowledge as by his service and travel he had gathered in ten or twelve years, by searching how to reform such abuses, deceipts, and disorders, as were used all England through against the queen's majesty, both by her officers belonging to the customs, as also by merchants and shippers, and how they might be redressed, and her majesty justly answered her rights and duties, &c. &c."

The method of reforming these, this person afterwards laid before treasurer Burleigh, and offered himself as the agent to act under the warrant of the treasurer, so that he might appear the deviser, and the proposer remain free from the displeasure of the people interested. This proposer had been twelve years employed by the queen to travel in the inatters of custom, and he hereby fulfilled his duty, which he had sworn to perform, that the honest merchant might be protected, and offenders punished. In the year 1572, a list of the queen's annual customs, subsidies, and imports, was handed to the lord treasurer, by which it appeared, that from the first to the thirteenth of her reign, the sum had not exceeded £105,606. 1s. 2d., which was received in the 7th of her reign; that of the first year being £73,846. 12s. 10d.; and of the thirteenth year £69,243. 4s. 5d. About 1590, Thomas Smith, formerly a collector of the customs, farmed the customs of the port of London of the queen, to whom he paid the rent of twenty thousand per annum, when it was discovered that the annual customs amounted to the sum of thirty thousand three hundred and nine pounds fifteen shillings and five pence; by this it shewed, that Elizabeth lost the sum of £10,309. 15s. 5d. yearly. Comparing the receipt in her days, with that of the present day, exhibits the growth and increase of the commerce of this country in a striking manner. The late Custom House was situated as the new one, on the south side of Thames-street, not far from the east end of it. In the year 1668, after the fire of London, a handsome office was here built, which being burnt in 1718, a more spacious and commodious building was erected of brick and stone, adorned with an upper and a lower order of architecture; the latter was with stone columns, and entablature of the Tuscan order; the former with pilasters, entablature, and pediments of the Ionic order. The length of the building was 189 feet, and its breadth in the middle twenty-seven feet, but at the ends much broader. Underneath, and on each side, were warehouses for receiving of goods on account of the public. The building consisted of two floors, in the uppermost of which was a magnificent room, fifteen feet in height, running nearly the length of the building, called the Long Room,where