1719 is interesting to us from a personal point of view, as it contains much incidental information as to the history of the Houblons.1 John Houblon was born on the 13th of March 1631/2, and was therefore about twenty-eight when he married in July 1660. His wife, Marie Jurin, was a member of a Flemish refugee family, and his eldest sister had married a merchant of the same name. Five sons and six daughters were the issue of his marriage, but two sons only, John and Samuel, survived their father. The latter, who never married, became an eminent merchant of large fortune. In 1719 he was living in Edmonton, for he was in January that year 'discharged from serving the office of Surveyor of the Highways for the said parish, as he is a Justice of 1723 the Peace.' His will was made in 1723, and he died soon afterwards suddenly, leaving large charitable bequests, amongst which was a donation of £2500 to St. Thomas's Hospital. His brother John succeeded another brother (who as we have related was killed in Lisbon), as active agent to his family in their Peninsular and Mediterranean commercial affairs. He died at Port Oporto in Portugal, leaving one daughter. Two of Sir John Houblon's daughters were married during their father's lifetime: one to a merchant named Denny; the other, Sara, to Richard Mytton of Halston, in Shropshire, Esq., Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury. They became the ancestors of the famous Squire Mytton of Halston, whose hunting, shooting, and other sporting exploits remain to this day an object of 1 Sir John was a 'benefactor' to the corporation of the poor of the City of London (New View of London, ii. 752-55)—the earliest of the workhouses his large donations to the funds causing him to be elected a governor. He was also amongst the earliest subscribers to the 'Queen's House' (Greenwich Hospital); where, according to the custom common at the time, his name as the donor of £100 is still to be seen written upon the south side of the entrance hall of the hospital. 2 Sessions Book, Edmonton, No. 779 (Sessions held at Hickes Hall). 3 See Political State of Great Britain. interest and amazement to sportsmen.1 Their granddaughter was the mother of Thomas Pennant, the author of Some Account of London, in which work we see him lamenting the demolition of the Church of St. Christopher le Stocks in Threadneedle Street, and 'the hard fate of some of his kindred dust [including that of his Houblon ancestors] in the disturbance of their remains.' Sir John Houblon died at his house in Threadneedle Plan of Sir John Houblon's House and Garden. 1731. (From the Gough Collection in the Bodleian.) Street, of which Pennant remarks that it 'stood on the Thomas Pennant, Some Account of London, p. 455, 3rd edition, 1793. 1732 Bank of England. After Lady Houblon's death, which occurred at Richmond in 1732, the house and garden 1733 were purchased by the corporation of the Bank from her executors, and the first portion of the building of Sampson built thereon; subsequently, when the Church of St. Christopher was destroyed by fire, its site, as well as that of the old graveyard adjoining, was also absorbed, and the building enlarged; so that Sir John and the rest of the dead (who were left undisturbed), still lie under the great Bank which he helped to found. Lady Houblon was very old when she died. Her daughters continued for many years to live on Richmond Hill, where they had a house. A group of 1753 almshouses, eleven in number, built and endowed by them in 1753, still exists, situated on the slope of the Hill (now covered with houses), about half a mile from the famous terrace overlooking the valley of the Thames. Where change has been busy all around, this little oasis of the past has remained almost untouched since the first group of Richmond widows found a refuge there from the storms of the outer world of poverty and sorrow. Though the road to London passes scarcely fifty yards away, and opposite its brick gateway the Red Cow Inn plies its trade, once past the fine wrought-iron gate crowned by the date 1753 which leads into the high-walled sanctuary of sleepy peace within, one can imagine oneself actually in the past, and conjure up a mental vision of the two little old ladies, Mistress Rebeckah and Mistress Susanna Houblon, hooped and powdered, each with a Bible tucked under her arm, tripping across the quadrangle between the tall hollyhocks and roses and mignonette, to 'read a chapter' to the white-capped inmates of the tiny houses.1 Down the steep green lane behind they 1 Each inmate has two rooms, and receives 30s. per month and two tons of coal per annum. would have come, and on their own land all the way; for they owned many goodly acres on Richmond Hill. But the trustees of the charity have long since turned the lane to good account, and now it is 'Houblon Road,' flanked on both sides with dingy brown houses. Susanna, the last surviving of the sisters, lived for another twelve years at Richmond. Latterly her niece Esther, the daughter of Sara Mytton and her husband, made her home with the old lady. The St. James's Evening Post tells us, on the 25th of August 1765, that 1765 'Mistress Houblon, daughter to Sir John Houblon, who was Lord Mayor for this City in the year 1696-is dead a maiden lady of large fortune." Miss Susanna left £40,000, half of which she bequeathed to her father's great-great-nephew John, Houblon of Hallingbury, and half in legacies to the children of her married sisters. The house and property on Richmond Hill she likewise left to her great-nephew, subject to the proviso that Esther Mytton should be allowed to live there undisturbed so long as she should choose to do so; with the further stipulation that no buildings should be erected, or alterations made, which might interfere with the 'prospect from her windows'; showing the famous view from Richmond Hill to have been even then in danger. 1 St. James's Evening Post, No. 5556. CHAPTER XIX THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 'And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere . . . and Lot journeyed east.' As we have related in a former chapter, Mr. Abraham Houblon was one of the brothers who were elected by ballot to the board of direction of the Bank of England in 1694; also that during the years 1761 and 1762 he served as deputy-governor, and during the subsequent two years as governor of the Bank. Abraham was thus the second of his name to fill a position of great weight and responsibility. He appears to have retired from participation in the affairs of the Bank some three years later. In 1702 he was he was appointed one of the commissioners of the government victualling department. This appointment was made at an important time when his business capacities would have been taxed to the uttermost. The nation's weariness of war had forced upon William III. vast reductions in the armaments of the country. The disbanding of so many troops, as well as the dismantling of the navy, were, as was predicted by the King, closely followed by fresh troubles upon the Continent: the ambition of Louis XIV. having been kept in check solely by the powerful hand of William. The strong reaction in English public opinion at the death of James II. permitted a reversal of this policy, and William hastily replaced the forces upon 1 Luttrell, v. 171; and New View of London, ii. 729. |