Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell [Map]
Clerkenwell is in Middlesex.
On 30 Apr 1290 Gilbert "Red Earl" Clare 7th Earl Gloucester 6th Earl Hertford (age 46) and Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford (age 18) were married at Clerkenwell [Map]. She by marriage Countess Gloucester, Countess Hertford. The difference in their ages was 28 years. She the daughter of King Edward "Longshanks" I of England (age 50) and Eleanor of Castile Queen Consort England (age 49). He the son of Richard de Clare 6th Earl Gloucester 5th Earl Hertford and Maud Lacy Countess Gloucester and Hertford. He a great x 4 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. 
Around 1525 Bishop William Overton was born in Clerkenwell [Map]. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford University.
On 29 Jan 1559 Thomas Pope (age 52) died at Clerkenwell [Map]. He was buried at St Stephen's Church, Walbrook.
Henry Machyn's Diary. 06 Feb 1559. The vj day of Feybruary went to the chyrche to be bered at Clarkenwell [Map] ser Thomas Pope (deceased) knyght, with a standard and cott, pennon of armes, a targett, elmett and sword, and a ij dosen of armes, and xij for the branchys and vj for the .... of bokeram; and ij haroldes of armes, master Clarenshus and master Yorke; master Clarenshus bare the cott, and master Yorke bare the helmett and crest. And he gayff xl mantyll frys gownes, xx men and xx women; and xx men bare torchys; and the vomen ij and ij to-gether, with torchys; and ij grett whyt branchys, and iiij branchys tapurs of wax garnysshed with armes, and with iiij dosen pensels. And ser Recherd Sowthwell knyght and ser Thomas Stradlyng, and dyver odur morners in blake, to the nomber of lx and mo in blake, and all the howsse and the chyrche with blake and armes; and after to the plasse to drynke, with spyssebred and wyne; and the morow masse, iij songe, .... with ij pryke songe, and the iij of requiem, with the clarkes of London; and after he was bered; and, that done, to the plasse to dener, for ther was a grett dener, and plente of all thynges, and a grett dolle of money.
Note. P. 188. Funeral of sir Thomas Pope. This was the founder of Trinity college, Oxford. The original place of his interment is a matter of question (see the Biogr. Brit. 1760, p. 3404), which our diary does not determine. In his will he directed his executors to bury him in the church of that parish in which he should chance to die. This would be Clerkenwell. Stowe has preserved an inscription formerly in St. Stephen's, Walbrook: "Hic jacet Thomas Pope primus Thesaurarius Augmentationum, et Dna Margaretta uxor ejus, quæ quidem Margaretta obiit 16 Jan. 1538." Margaret, who was his second wife, was no doubt interred there; but the remains of both, it seems, were afterwards removed to the college chapel, according to the inscription round the verge of the tomb—"corpora Thome Pope . . et duarum Elizabethe et Margarete uxorum ejus." Elizabeth had been the name of his first as well as his third wife, but from the former he was divorced. It is to be presumed, therefore, the third was intended by the name Elizabeth (age 44); and she, after remarrying sir Hugh Poulet (age 50), of Hinton St. George, was brought to rest in the chapel in 1593. There is however only one female effigy lying by the founder's side: see an engraving in Skelton's Pietas Oxoniensis, 4to. 1830.
Henry Machyn's Diary. 24 Aug 1559. [The xxiiij day of August, the lord] mare (age 50) and the althermen and the [sheriffs? w]her at the wrastelyng at Clarke-in-well [Map], and it was the fayre day of thynges kept in Smyth-feld [Map], [being] sant Bathellmuw (day), and the same day my lord [mayor] came home thrugh Chepe, and a-gaynst Yrmonger [lane] and a-gaynst sant Thomas of Acurs ij [2] gret [bonfires] of rodes and of Mares and Johns [sculptures of Saint Marys and Saint Johns] and odur emages [images], ther thay wher bornyd [burned] with gret wondur.
On 22 Sep 1629 Robert Radclyffe 5th Earl of Sussex (age 56) died at Clerkenwell [Map]. His first cousin once removed Edward Radclyffe 6th Earl of Sussex (age 70) succeeded 6th Earl of Sussex, 6th Viscount Fitzwalter. His half first cousin Henry Mildmay 15th Baron Fitzwalter (age 44) de jure 15th Baron Fitzwalter.
On 05 Nov 1851 Edward Robert Hughes was born at Clerkenwell [Map]. His uncle was the painter Arthur Hughes (age 19).
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, Berkeley House
Before 1581 Maurice Berkeley commissioned the building of Berkeley House.
On 16 Jun 1585 Elizabeth Sands (age 52) died at Berkeley House. She was buried at the St James' Church, Clerkenwell where a monument was constructed.
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell Close
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell Close, Newcastle House
Pepy's Diary. 10 May 1667. Then to my Lord Treasurer's (age 60), but missed Sir Ph. Warwicke (age 57), and so back again, and drove hard towards Clerkenwell1, thinking to have overtaken my Lady Newcastle (age 44), whom I saw before us in her coach, with 100 boys and girls running looking upon her but I could not: and so she got home before I could come up to her. But I will get a time to see her. So to the office and did more business, and then home and sang with pleasure with my wife, and to supper and so to bed.
Note 1. At Newcastle House, Clerkenwell Close, the duke (age 74) and duchess (age 44) lived in great state. The house was divided, and let in tenements in the eighteenth century.
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell Priory
Clerkenwell Priory was a priory, founded in 1185, of the Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, in Clerkenwell. It was the residence of the Hospitallers' Grand Prior in England. Its great landholding was in the ancient parish of Marylebone, in the now Inner London area known as St John's Wood.
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, Farringdon Road
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, St John's Church [Map]
Chronicle of Gregory 1450. Jun 1450. The morne aftyr, the kynge (age 28) rode armyd at alle pecys from Syn Johnys be-syde Clerkynwelle [Map] thoroughe London; and whythe hym the moste party of temporalle lordys of thys londe of Engelond in there a beste raye. Aftyr that they were every lorde whythe hys retenowe, to the nombyr of x M [10000] personys, redy as they alle shulde have gon to batayle in to any londe of Crystyn-dome, whythe bendys a-bove hyr harnys that every lorde schulde be knowe from othyr. 
On 26 Mar 1751 George Beaumont 6th Baronet (age 25) and Rachel Howland (age 33) were married at St John's Church, Clerkenwell [Map].
On 08 Jan 1847 Prince George Hanover 2nd Duke Cambridge (age 27) and Sarah Fairbrother (age 32) were married at St John's Church, Clerkenwell [Map]. The marriage was in contravention of the 1772 Royal Marriages Act by which he was required to seek the permission of the monarch. The marriage was considered illegal. He the son of Adolphus Hanover 1st Duke Cambridge (age 72) and Princess Augusta Hesse-Kassel Duchess Cambridge (age 49). He a grandson of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland. 
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, St John's Street
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, St John's Street, Hicks Hall
The London Gazette 259. 09 May 1668. London. This day Thomas Limmerick, Edward Cotton, Peter Messenger and Richard Beasly, four of the persons formerly apprehended in the Tumult during the Easter-holidays, having upon their Trial at Hicks-Hall been found guilty, and since sentenced as Traytors, were accordingly Drawn, Hang'd and Quartered at Tyburn [Map], where they shewed many signs of there Penitence, their Quarters permitted Burial, only Two of their Heads ordered to be fixt upon London-bridge [Map].
Evelyn's Diary. 13 Jul 1683. The fatal news coming to Hicks's Hall upon the article of my Lord Russell's (age 43) trial, was said to have had no little influence on the Jury and all the Bench to his prejudice. Others said that he had himself on some occasions hinted that in case he should be in danger of having his life taken from him by any public misfortune, those who thirsted for his estate should miss of their aim; and that he should speak favorably of that Earl of Northumberland, and some others, who made away with themselves; but these are discourses so unlike his sober and prudent conversation that I have no inclination to credit them. What might instigate him to this devilish act, I am not able to conjecture. My Lord Clarendon, his brother-in-law, who was with him but the day before, assured me he was then very cheerful, and declared it to be the effect of his innocence and loyalty; and most believe that his Majesty (age 53) had no severe intentions against him, though he was altogether inexorable as to Lord Russell (age 43) and some of the rest. For my part, I believe the crafty and ambitious Earl of Shaftesbury had brought them into some dislike of the present carriage of matters at Court, not with any design of destroying the monarchy (which Shaftesbury had in confidence and for unanswerable reasons told me he would support to his last breath, as having seen and felt the misery of being under mechanic tyranny), but perhaps of setting up some other whom he might govern, and frame to his own platonic fancy, without much regard to the religion established under the hierarchy, for which he had no esteem; but when he perceived those whom he had engaged to rise, fail of his expectations, and the day past, reproaching his accomplices that a second day for an exploit of this nature was never successful, he gave them the slip, and got into Holland, where the fox died, three months before these unhappy Lords and others were discovered or suspected. Every one deplored Essex (age 51) and Russell (age 43), especially the last, as being thought to have been drawn in on pretense only of endeavoring to rescue the King (age 53) from his present councilors, and secure religion from Popery, and the nation from arbitrary government, now so much apprehended; while the rest of those who were fled, especially Ferguson and his gang, had doubtless some bloody design to get up a Commonwealth, and turn all things topsy-turvy. Of the same tragical principles is Sydney.
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, St John's Street, Red Bull Playhouse
Pepy's Diary. 03 Aug 1660. Up betimes this morning, and after the barber had done with me, then to the office, where I and Sir William Pen (age 39) only did meet and despatch business. At noon my wife and I by coach to Dr. Clerke's to dinner: I was very much taken with his lady, a comely, proper woman, though not handsome; but a woman of the best language I ever heard. Here dined Mrs. Pierce and her husband. After dinner I took leave to go to Westminster, where I was at the Privy Seal Office all day, signing things and taking money, so that I could not do as I had intended, that is to return to them and go to the Red Bull Playhouse1, but I took coach and went to see whether it was done so or no, and I found it done. So I returned to Dr. Clerke's, where I found them and my wife, and by and by took leave and went away home.
Note 1. This well-known theatre was situated in St. John's Street on the site of Red Bull Yard. Pepys went there on March 23rd, 1661, when he expressed a very poor opinion of the place. T. Carew, in some commendatory lines on Sir William. Davenant's (age 54) play, "The Just Italian", 1630, abuses both audiences and actors:- "There are the men in crowded heaps that throng To that adulterate stage, where not a tongue Of th' untun'd kennel can a line repeat Of serious sense". There is a token of this house (see "Boyne's Trade Tokens", ed. Williamson, vol. i., 1889, p. 725).
Pepy's Diary. 23 Mar 1661. All the morning at home putting papers in order, dined at home, and then out to the Red Bull (where I had not been since plays come up again), but coming too soon I went out again and walked all up and down the Charterhouse yard [Map] and Aldersgate street. At last came back again and went in, where I was led by a seaman that knew me, but is here as a servant, up to the tireing-room, where strange the confusion and disorder that there is among them in fitting themselves, especially here, where the clothes are very poor, and the actors but common fellows.
Pepy's Diary. 26 May 1662. Thence home, and to the Trinity House, Deptford [Map]; where the Brethren (who have been at Deptford, Kent [Map] choosing a new Maister; which is Sir J. Minnes (age 63), notwithstanding Sir W. Batten (age 61) did contend highly for it: at which I am not a little pleased, because of his proud lady) about three o'clock came hither, and so to dinner. I seated myself close by Mr. Prin (age 62), who, in discourse with me, fell upon what records he hath of the lust and wicked lives of the nuns heretofore in England, and showed me out of his pocket one wherein thirty nuns for their lust were ejected of their house, being not fit to live there, and by the Pope's command to be put, however, into other nunnerys. I could not stay to end dinner with them, but rose, and privately went out, and by water to my brother's, and thence to take my wife to the Redd Bull, where we saw "Doctor Faustus", but so wretchedly and poorly done, that we were sick of it, and the worse because by a former resolution it is to be the last play we are to see till Michaelmas.
Pepy's Diary. 30 Oct 1662. And as to his own taking of too large fees or rewards for places that he had sold, he will prove that he was directed to it by Sir George (age 52) himself among others. And yet he did not deny Sir G. Carteret (age 52) his due, in saying that he is a man that do take the most pains, and gives himself the most to do business of any man about the Court, without any desire of pleasure or divertisements; which is very true. But which pleased me mightily, he said in these words, that he was resolved, whatever it cost him, to make an experiment, and see whether it was possible for a man to keep himself up in Court by dealing plainly and walking uprightly, with any private game a playing: in the doing whereof, if his ground do slip from under him, he will be contented; but he is resolved to try, and never to baulke taking notice of any thing that is to the King's prejudice, let it fall where it will; which is a most brave resolucion. He was very free with me; and by my troth, I do see more reall worth in him than in most men that I do know. I would not forget two passages of Sir J. Minnes's (age 63) at yesterday's dinner. The one, that to the question how it comes to pass that there are no boars seen in London, but many sows and pigs; it was answered, that the constable gets them a-nights. The other, Thos. Killigrew's way of getting to see plays when he was a boy. He would go to the Red Bull, and when the man cried to the boys, "Who will go and be a devil, and he shall see the play for nothing?" then would he go in, and be a devil upon the stage, and so get to see plays.
Pepy's Diary. 25 Apr 1664. Thence to Islington [Map], and so to St. John's to the Red Bull, and there: saw the latter part of a rude prize fought, but with good pleasure enough; and thence back to Islington, and at the King's Head, where Pitts lived, we 'light and eat and drunk for remembrance of the old house sake, and so through Kingsland again, and so to Bishopsgate, and so home with great pleasure. The country mighty pleasant, and we with great content home, and after supper to bed, only a little troubled at the young ladies leaving my wife so to-day, and from some passages fearing my Lady might be offended. But I hope the best.
Europe, British Isles, England, Home Counties, Middlesex, Clerkenwell, St Mark's Church
On 04 Apr 1678 John Godolphin (age 60) died at Fleet Street [Map]. He was buried at St Mark's Church, Clerkenwell.
