Fullwood's Rents

Fullwood's, (commonly called Fullers) Rents, betn Holbourn, near the Bars S. and Field court in Grays inn N. Some will have it, that it is called so, from being a Woody place before there was Buildings here; but its being called Fullwood's Rents, (as it is in Deeds and Leases) shews it to be the Rents of one called Fullwood the Owner, or Builder thereof.

Fulwood's Rents, opposite to Chancery lane, runneth up to Gray's Inn, into which it hath an entrance, through the Gate; a Place of a good Resort, and taken up by Coffee Houses, Ale Houses, and Houses of Entertainment, by reason of its vicinity to Gray's Inn. On the East side is an handsomeopen Place, with a Freestone Pavement, and better built and inhabited by private Housekeepers. At the upper end of this Court, is a passage into the Castle Tavern, a House of a considerable Trade. As is the Golden Griffin Tavern, on the West side, which also hath a passage into Fulwood's Rents.

Fuller's rents, near Golden lane, High Holborn. †

Fullwood's Rents, High Holborn,—at 33, nearly op. Chancery-lane, leading into Field-court and Gray's-inn-square

Fullwood's-Rents, High Holborn, are nearly opposite Chancery-lane, and lead into Field-court.

Fulwood's Rents, in Holborn. a narrow paved court, with a closed gate at the end leading into Gray's Inn Walks, Gray's Inn Gardens, and so called from Christopher Fulwood, Esq., of the time of James I.

Jane Fulwood, gentlewoman, sister unto Christopher Fulwood, Esquire, out of Fulwood's Rents, was buried the first of December, 1618.—Register of St. Andrew's, Holborn.

Christopher Fulwood, the younger, a distinguished Royalist, was killed in 1643, and his daughters died in poverty in Fulwood's Rents. In 1608, when Francis Bacon drew up his curious Ancilla Memoruiæ he was living in "Fulwood's House," and valued his furniture there at £60. He was then contemplating removal, as there are entries to "inquire of the state of Arlington's house, and to get it for a rent;" "to inquire of Bath House;" of Wanstead, etc. From these he selected Bath House, and in the entry regarding the furniture, Fulwood's is crossed out and Bath substituted. He still kept on his chambers in Gray's Inn. Powell, in his Mysterie of Lending and Borrowing, 1623, describes Fulwood's Rents as a place of retreat for fraudulent debtors. Brome refers to it as a refuge for debtors; and from other sources we learn that bailiffs venturing there ran the risk of rough handling.

I need no more insconsing now in Ram Alley, nor the Sanctuary of Whitefriars, the Forts of Fullers Rents and Milford Lane, whose walls are daily battered with the curses of brawling creditors. My debts are paid.—R. Brome, Mad Couple well Match'd, Act ii. Sc. I.

January 20, 1673.—On Monday, happened a strong ryott at Gray's Inn, where the gentlemen pumping some bailiffs that attempted to take goods out of Fuller's Rents upon an execution, were that day charged with a body of thirty lusty bailiffs. Sir John Williamson, Correspondence (Cam. Soc.), vol. i. p. 52.

Fuller's was the vernacular for Fulwood's Rents. Strype describes Fulwood's Rents in 1720 as "a place of a good resort, and taken up by coffee-houses, ale-houses, and houses of entertainment, by reason of its vicinity to Gray's Inn."¹ The privilege of sanctuary was abolished in 1697.

When coffee first came in [circ. 1656], he [Sir Henry Blount] was a great upholder of it, and hath ever since been a constant frequenter of coffee-houses, especially at Mr. Farre's, at the Rainbow, by Inner Temple Gate, and lately John's Coffee-house, in Fuller's Rents.—Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 244.

Here stood Squire's Coffee-house, from whence several of the Spectators are dated. Here the Whig Club and Medbourne and Oates's Club met in the time of Charles II.² Here Ned Ward, the author of the London Spy, kept a punch-house (within one door of Gray's Inn), and here he died in 1731.

<sup>1 Strype, B. iii. p. 253.

2 North's Examen, pp. 173, 238.</sup>