Volume II 1603-1660 - The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple

INTRODUCTION
of Henry Jones, a fellow of the Inner Temple, 1583 ; Baron Gates,
who died of the plague in 1650 ; and Thomas Nash, 1648. A large
monument of grey marble, with a square plate of brass on the top to
Sir Nicholas Hare, 1557, was on the south side of the choir. On the
Middle Temple side were brasses to John Goldsberg and his wife,
1618. Gravestones were also laid, in the centre aisle, of members of
the two societies and of the following clergy : Richard Lemster,
" Capellanus," 1420 ; Thomas Maghull, " Capellanus istius Ecclesia
beata Maria," 1442. Among the inscriptions outside the church
were those to Thomas English, " Capellanus istius Ecclesix," 1443 ;
William Langham, " quondam custos hujus Templi," 1437. The alabaster
monument of Richard Martin, sometime Recorder of London,
of the Middle Temple, stood against the north wall. The fine Elizabethan
tomb of Plowden, 1504, was at the east end of the north aisle.
The inscription to Plowden is followed by the same extract from Job,
" Credo quod Redemptor," etc., as is to be found in the will of Sir
Edward Coke. A number of gravestones, with brasses, to the members
of the two societies, were formerly " in the precincts " of the
church, but these when Dugdale wrote (1666) had disappeared.
The church itself in the evening was lighted by candles on the
walls and by the central lanterns already referred to. Jane, wife of
John Drake, is said in 1652 to have been buried " on the Inner
Temple side under the pendants." From this I gather that in
addition to the candles and lanterns, there were lamps hanging
from the roof between the pillars. During the day, however, the
interior was dim. The windows were obscured not only by the
various coats of arms, and possibly also by the decorations over the
high altar, but by various houses and shops built against the church
on either side. Some on the southern side had been pulled down by
the Inner Temple, but those on the northern and others on the
south, belonging to the Middle Temple, still remained. Many of
these shops and the houses over them indeed continued to disfigure
and darken the Temple church until about the year 1819, when they
were all removed. The font stood in the round walk near the western
p. 362 door. I t was one of the ascertained places where rent could be
Vol. i., p. 467 tendered, mortgages discharged, and other contracts carried into
effect. In 1583 the purchase money for five houses in the parish of
S. Clement Danes, was made payable " at the font stone of the