Roman East London

When the Romans finally settled in Britain for in was on the third attempt in 43AD under the emperor Claudius that they finally came to stay. They landed in Kent and made their way northwards.

Soon they reach a place called Londinium, this wasn't named by the invading Romans for it is thought to derive from the Celtic word 'lond' meaning wild. When they reach what probably the heart of what is now the modern london the historian Guy de la Bedoyere wrote ''they found nothing like a town, no settlement of tribal people.

They found a river valley that was tidal, swampy, marshy inlets around the river banks, a lot of forest and, in the distance, smoke rising from scattered native homesteads.'' it's possible that the settlements they were seeing were those of the bronze/iron settlements in the east.

With its wide tidal river  the Romans recognised Londinium as a perfect place for trading throughout their empire according to Tatitus who wrote ''Londinium was much frequented by a number of merchants and trading vessels'. 

To extend their ambition of a trading post the Romans built a bridge

across the Thames together with a large pier. The remains of which were discovered by archaeologists in the early 1980's. To their surprise it had stood just a short distance from where the present London bridge now stands.

The bridge was thought to have been built in the first century, but according to a recent discovery it may have been earlier.

In 60AD Boudicca first burnt down Colchester and St Albans then travelled on to London to do the same, in any of the remains of buildings that stood at the time the mark of the inferno can still be seen.

It seems however that Boudicca didn't just stop at  what is now the city

of London for a recent archaeology dig in Southwark has discovered the same mark of burning on the Roman remains there.

If there this was caused by Boudicca's followers it's more than possible that they use the already existing Roman bridge to cross the Thames which would mean it wasn't built in the 1st century as stated. It is also possible that the bridge discovered in the 1980's was the second bridge built after the first was destroyed by Boudicca.

After the destruction and slaughter was over Londinium was rebuilt bigger and better than before. For added security a wall encircling the city was built in 200BC. 

There were there were several gates in the wall leading to various parts of the country and it's thought the gate at Aldgate was built before the wall finished, and it was this gate that lead to the east end. The gate remained until it was demolished in 1761.

Romans built their cemeteries outside their cities so that is why archaeology in east London comprises mainly of graves and grave goods. It's also claimed that when Boudicca and her followers rode into London the came through east London and desecrated the graves they found there. As London grew over the centuries it spread out in all directions either demolishing or building over what had gone before.

During World War Two east London was badly hit and afterwards the need for rebuilding became a priority giving little thought to what lay beneath, however one site remained untouched.

Since the end of the war Prescot Street in Aldgate was left relatively alone mostly used for a car park. When the land was bought recently by Grange Hotels they gave permission for it to be excavated before being built on and among the many graves something beautiful and unique was found.  

At first it started like any of the other excavations but it soon became obvious that this was the grave of a person of importance, someone whose life, or at least in part, had been spent a few yards away on the other side of the wall in Londinium.

As the archaeologists began to uncover the contents of the grave they found what they were expecting, the cremation urn, an assortment of pottery and glass phials that once long ago had contained perfume, all pointed to their first decsion that this was the grave of a wealthy person and then they found something which confirmed it.

Buried at the bottom of the grave was a glass dish, something so unusual to find in Britain that it was treated with the utmost care to, but in spite of lifting it with the utmost care the realised it was only being held together by the earth that surrounded it.

Piecing it together was to be a long and patient process to be done by one of the most experienced conservators, Liz Goodman, at the Museum of London.The dish was made using the millefiori (a thousand flowers} method and the dish lived up to its name, tiny pieces of blue and white glass had been fused together to create magnificent work of craftmanship.

Not only was this find beautiful it was also very rare only one more such dish had been found and that was in Egypt, this was the only one of its kind found in the western empire.

Although this particular find caused quite a flurry in the press it was only one of hundreds graves dug there in the Roman period, then the cemetery would have covered a much larger site. The archaeologists only had access to a small part for over time the rest of what would have been the cemetery was built upon and  in almost continued occupation from the 17th century.

This wasn't the only unexpected find in a cemetery for in Spitalfields there was anothersurprising find. When excavating Spitalfields market the site offered up over 200 grave sites, and one very special one. To find an undamaged limestone from the fourth was rare enough but to find an equally undamaged and ornate lead coffin inside was unbelievable.

The lead coffin was decorated with scallop shells. In pagan beliefs of the time the scallop was often used in funerals as it was meant to depicted the departeds journey to the 'Isles of the Blessed'.   

Later the same symbol was adopted by Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land and is the symbol of StJames patron saint of Spain. St James was beheaded in the Holy Land in 44AD and afterwards his body. Later in Spain a wedding was taking place on the beach when a mysterious ship appeared a short way out in the sea.

This spooked a horse which was standing among the wedding party so much so that it ran into the sea only to appear a few minutes later covered in scallop shells and carrying the body of St James. Ever since the scallop shell has been the symbol of the saint.

I mention this because when the lead coffin was open it was found to contain the skeleton of a fourth century young woman, between twenty and twenty five with her left arm crossed over her chest in the Christian manner and whose DNA proved she came from Spain, possibly the Basque region. 

So was she someone whose family were edging their bets for thei daughter by giving her a Christian burial inside a coffin with pagan symbols, or were the scallop shells in keeping with her faith and in tribute to the patron saint of her homeland. Of course it's impossible to say one was or the other but as well as being a rare find it is also an interesting one. 

Whatever the faith of the young woman it was obvious, by the grave goods, that she came froma wealthy family. Her head was resting on a pillow of Bay leaves and the was an assortment of jewellery made of Jet, including hair ornaments, a small bos made of lignite and a glass phal that had contained perfume.

There were also scraps of material that had survived, she had been dressed in the finest silk with gold thread at the waist and wrists. Some woollen material had also survived but this wasn't thought to be the remains of a garment but possible a woollen blanket that had covered her or had been a cushion that had once held the Bay leaves.

As the skeleton was in such good condition it was possible to make a good likeness of how the young woman had looked like in life and it is seen here. It may seem like the area that is now east London was simply one great cemetery in Roman times and maybe that is right but there were other places that served a different purpose. 

Like all areas east London has it's markets and one that runs from Bethnal Green to Bow is called Roman road although in earlier times it was called Green Street. Whether this Roman roadway is yet to be verified although a few shards of Roman pottery have been found on the south side of the road, 

In 2005 a housing development was planned for the area in which evidence was discovered of a hypercourse and shards of high quality marble giving evidence of a high status Roman building.

Nearby is ancient trackway mention previously at Old Ford. It was here that the Romans improved to make it able to run from the Centre of

Londinium to Colchester the Essex town that was most prized by the Romans. The road was used food transpoting goods between the two cities. It could also have been used by Boudicca when she and her followers came to Londinium after she had put Colchester to the torch.

2013

During the excavation by Crossrail which is digging a new tunnel deep

beneath London workmen discovered twenty Roman skulls. The skulls were found beneath Liverpool Street Station.

Close by the site is the river Walbrook, one of Londons rivers that went underground centuries ago. It's thought the river may have washed the skulls downstream from a nearby Roman cemetery.

Another suggestion is that there were the remains of Boudicca's attack on the city. This was the conclusion of earier historians when they found Roman skulls in the

same area.

The Museum of London will examine the skulls over the coming few months and the findings.  

When finished Crossrail will run for seventy three miles across London that will link the city to Canary Wharf the West End and Heathrow to commuter areas of east and west London, so could be many more archeaological sites will probably be found.   

Roman rule of Britain lasted for 367 years when the legions were needed to prevent what they called 'barbarians' from invading their european empire, by 410AD all Roman troops had left Britain but the marks of its presence still exist today.

Mary Tudor and the Stratford Martyrs

Mary Tudor was the eldest child of King Henry Vlll and Katherine of Aragon, but as we all know Henry had this marriage annulled to marry Anne Bolyen, but when Anne produced only a daughter, Elizabeth, and a not male her fate was sealed by the executioners block.

By that time Henry had another wife in waiting and this time Jane Seymour produced his long awaited son, christened Edward, but she was to lose her life in doing so.

At the marriage of Henry to Jane both Mary and Elizabeth were declared illegitimate by parliament. Time passed and Henry’s reign came to an end which brought his nine year old son Edward to the throne, sadly Edward wasn’t to live to adulthood and he died in 1553 at the age of fifteen.

Now Mary saw her chance to take her rightful place on the English throne and validate her birth and her mothers marriage, but John Dudley the chief councilor to the late King Edward, and second only to the King in his power, had other ideas, he knew that should Mary, or even Elizabeth take the throne he would not only lose his special position, but would be lucky to keep his head.

Some years earlier Henry Vlll’s sister had sent her daughter Jane to court and

Dudley had become her guardian, it was in Jane that he sought to retain his power, he convinced her parents that the marriage of Jane to his son would be benifical to all, they agreed and a marriage was hastily arranged for May 25th 1553. 

Somehow Dudley convinced the Council that Mary was not fit for three reasons; her mother's divorce from Henry VIII, her Catholicism and her sex, and Jane was declared Queen even though she protested saying "The crown is not my right and pleaseth me not. The Lady Mary is the rightful heir." But it was no good others thought they had more at stake, but how wrong they were for because of their lust for power young Lady Jane Grey was only Queen for nine days before Mary was announced as rightful Queen and poor Lady Jane Grey took the short walk from the tower to the execution block.

From the start of her reign Mary intended to bring England back to Catholicism, even having secret negotiations with the Pope, but at the same time she tried to compromise with the Protestant population, it was only after news of her proposed marriage to Phillip of Spain and the failed raising of a force against her by the Protestant Sir Thomas Wyatt that the burnings began.

By Christmas Parliament had passed 'An Act for the Renewing of The Three Statues made for the Punishment of Heresies', which reinstated the Act for the Burning of Heretics of 1401. Protestants up and down the country from villages and towns, labourers and craftsmen, intellectuals and men of religion were all sent to the stake. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, John Philpot, Archdeacon of Westminster, John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and John Rogers, a married priest, were all burnt at the stake by Mary's order. The former Protestant Archbishop Cranmer was burned in November of 1555 dramatically thrusting his right hand into the fire as a symbol of his dismissing the recantation he had written Queen Mary.

Of course all the burnings were scenes of inhumanity and horror such as one that happened on 27th of June 1557 in that part of east London which is now known as Stratford. On that summers day

eleven men and two women went to the stake.
They were Henry Wye a brewer, W Hallywell a smith, R Jackson a servant, L Perman a smith, J Derifall a labourer, Edmund Hurst a labourer, T Bowyer a weaver, G Seales a tailor, Lyon Cawch a merchant, H Addington a sawyer,  J Routh a labourer, Elizabeth Pepper wife of T Pepper a weaver, and Agnes George wife of R George.

They had been brought from Newgate prison where they had been held, there had originally been fifteen in their number but three had recanted so they didn't face the flames. 

The men were tied together like so much firewood tossed on the blaze to keep the fire burning, the two women, one of whom was pregnant was allowed to walk into the flames, it‘s said that all died bravely for their faith.

This tragic event happened on a large green space which extended from where St John’s now the Stratford martyrs memorial stands to Water Lane and the site of the university of East London which was once called Gallow’s Green.

Only a small part still exists and that is the churchyard of St John’s church where in 1879 a memorial was unveiled in their memory.

Mary Tudor died the following May, and Protestant Elizabeth came to the throne. It was during Elizabeth's reign that her half sister became known as 'Bloody Mary'.

The 'First East Londoners'

There have been vague traces of neolithic tribes in the area known now as east London, for they were normally a transient people going wherever the game went, but sometimes they settled down as they once did in the the area of Lefevre road in Bow. after 3000 years evidence was found of two ditches, which surrounded settlements, and some shards of pottery. 

In the Bronze/Iron age people generally seemed to settle down building their roundhousesinside enclosures such as the one excavated in Parnell road which is a short walk from Lefevre road. Round house villages were built on firm ground that was able to sustain their weight.

However at that time the area of east London was a scattering of islands interspersed with boggy marshland and lakes, so some chose to build their roundhouses on stilts sunken into the marshland or waters edge and this type of building was called a 'crannog'. Some of these types of houses were found to have been built close to the edges of the river Lee where the fish were plentiful.

Further evidence of human habitation was discovered when four skeletons of two men and two women were unearthed under what is to be the Olympic Aquatic centre in Carpenters road. So perhaps they can rightly be called the first eastenders, or they would have been if London had existed then but that was still some centuries in the future. 

 It is known that they lived in a settlement for that is where they were buried, although the roundhouses have long since gone and because they were built of wood all that remains are the shadows of postholes left if the earth as a tantalising echo of the past.   

                          

Bronze/Iron age peoples were Celts and like others of their kin living throughout the British Isleand parts of Europe and are refered to by the metals they worked with and they were mastersat working with metal, as well as mundane objects such as swords and tools, they also produced items of bronze and gold where the artistry is still marveled at today.

One item of an everyday object was found in Wick lane a small bronze arrow head, the shape remained unchanged for centuries.

The shield pictured here was made in the first century of bronze and decorated with enamelled glass beads, it was found in the Thames it shows the typical circles and swirls of Celtic art. It's purpose is unknown, it's unlikely to have been made for a warrior, it was probably made to be used in religious ceremonies or perhaps more likely as an offering to the gods of the river.

The early British Celts of the Bronze age, like all Celts of that time, had a special reverence for rivers and lakes, it was there, they believed that the gods of life dwelled.

In some cases when a sword or a pot was used it was broken before dropping into the river, the reason for this has never been explained, maybe there were differing grades of requests to the gods. If this was so then something like the bronze shield would have been used for something special, perhaps a chieftain would have had it made as a flood gift to the gods to save his people from the ravages of nature drought, flood or famine. 

Another remarkable item found in the Thames was this hornedhelmet, bronze helmets hadbeen found before but this is the first and only one bearing horns.  

Like the shield this probably belonged to a chieftain or perhaps a shaman with the horns representing an animal whose power he was trying to channel, whatever to have found both of these offerings in the same river may have meant that the river Thames also had a special significance. and that is where those living during that time had something in common with today's east Londoners.  

As the river Lea marks the boundary of the eastend to the east it is the river Thames that marks it to the south with it's distinctive loop. A large part of the eastend lies within the loop and the other part nestles above it and to the right and left.   In later centuries the river brought much needed employment when the docks were built within it's distinctive loop, but it was the same loop that made it an easy target for the Luftwaffe came up the river on that bright September day in 1940 to spread death and destruction to the people of the eastend. However that is for another time.

Before we leave the Bronze/Iron age there should be a mention of Old Ford, as its name suggests this was situated where the river Lea was at its most shallow. Recent excavations have uncovered an ancient trackway laid in the Bronze/Iron age and evidence of habitation surrounding it. This was later to be used and improved by the Romans, there was also a statue found whose identity is in dispute.

To some archeologists it is a representation of Mercury, to others it is earlier and respresents the Celtic god Lugus or Lugh who was the god of water especially 'bright water'. He was also the god that the Romans re-named Mercury so perhaps ths is where the confusion arose.  

The Bronze age is estimated to have begun about 2300 BC over time it gradually merged into the Iron age and this ended in 43AD with the coming of the Romans.

East London Monument to the Virginia Settlers

On the banks of the Thames at Blackwall stands a monument to a cold December day in 1606 when three small ships Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery set sail from this spot, aboard were the first settlers setting out for the New World since those who had vanished after landing at Roanoake ten years before. It was also fourteen years before the Mayflower made it’s epic journey.

The passage wasn’t an easy one, and it wasn’t made easier that most on board weren’t experienced sailors but merchants who had never been to sea before. Many, too many it is thought, were classed as 'gentlemen' hardly the sort ready for the task that lay ahead of them.

During the voyage there were times when the ships lay becalmed and it was at one of these times that Capt John Smith a soldier and adventurer was charged with mutiny by Captain Christopher Newport who as well as being captain of the Susan Constant was in overall charge of the three ships. Smith was held securely awaiting execution.

Towards the end of April 1607 they came within site of their destination at Chesapeake Bay, one of the first things that was done was to open the sealed box that had been given to hem in England. The box contained a list of seven names who were to be councillors and charged with running the settlement. Among the names was that of Captain John Smith who was duely freed of all charges and wrote himself into history. By now many of the men and boys were exhausted by the long and arduous trip, and by sickness, one young man had died on the journey, so as they sailed up a river, which they named after King James, they decided to tie up in a shady bend to recuperate.

A month later the settlers began to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River

60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in which is now Virginia, almost immediately the settlers came under attack by the Algonquian indians, so for security they set about building a fort. Legend has it that Captain Smith was captured by the Algonquians and his life was saved by Pocahontas the daughter of Chief , but this is thought now to have been much romanticised.

Disease, famine and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population so that by 1609 only sixty of the original two hundred and fourteen settlers survived, but then came the arrival of Lord De La Ware, who had been appointed the governor of the settlement now called Jamestown, with him came supply ships and the colony was able to survive.

The following year saw the arrival of a certain Captain John Rolf, he had been shipwrecked off the coast of Bermuda but had somehow managed to find his way to the settlement bringing with him tobacco seeds, which thrived in the Virginian climate so that in just two years he was the owner of a sizeable plantation, as the demand grew in the coming years it became responsible for Virginia’s future economy.

It’s here in 1613 that Pocahontas enters the story again, during yet another dispute with the Algonquians she was kidnapped by the settlers and taken to the fort she was held as ransom for the English prisoners being held by the Indians, and also some arms which had been stolen by them.. By now she was in her late teens or early twenties, it was here that she eventually met Captain Rolf, she was held in captivity for nearly a year, though she was given free run of the fort. When she was finally released she is said to have told her two brothers that she was in love with John Rolf. What follows is somewhat unclear but the outcome is that the two were married, whether it was a love match or a means of keeping the peace between two warring factions we shall never know, but within a year the two were married.

This was after Pocahontas was converted to Christianity christened Rebecca, for John Rolf was by all accounts a deeply religious man who debated long and hard about the decision to marry this ‘strange’ young woman, then the decision was made on the grounds that it would be good "for the good of the plantation, the honor of our country, for the glory of God, for mine own salvation ..."

Pocahontas gave birth to a son they named Thomas, and the couple seemed happy enough so that when John returned to England in 1616 his wife and young son came with him. When they arrived in England they went to London and were received by the King.  Pocahontas soon became the toast of high society, it was during her time in London that she met Capt Smith again who had left the colony in 1609, on seeing him she is reported as being unable to speak for she had thought he had died, but she soon recovered and together they spoke of the old times, this was the last time the two who would forever be linked together by history would meet.

Seven months later it was time to return to America, but as the ship began its voyage along the Thames it became clear that Pocahontas was seriously ill, it was agreed she should be taken ashore but sadly all efforts to save her failed, it is thought she had developed tuberculosis. She was buried in the vault of St George’s Gravesend. In 1727 the church was destroyed by fire, and when it was later rebuilt all remains, including those of Pocahontas were reburied in a communal grave. However a statue of her now stands in the churchyard; by this time John Rolf returned to America with his young son.

Relations between the settlers and the Algonquians had always been an uneasy one but in 1622 it spilled over into hostility leaving over 300 settlers dead, but somehow the fort survived. King James used this opportunity to revoke the Charter of the Virginia Company which had run the fort up until 1624 when it became a royal colony. The fort remained in existence until it gradually grew into Jamestown and gradually the fort disappeared.

The Monument

In 1928 a plaque commemerating the 'Virginia Settlers' was attached to the Dock Masters house at to what then was called Blackwall Quay. 

It was quite near this spot that the three ships sailed off to find a home in the 'new world'. The Dock Masters house has the appearance of once being a public house which it probably was. The plaque is just visible before the row of arches.

It remained there until world war two when the docks were the target of the intense bombing by the Luftwaffe, as were many docks throughout the country. The Dock Masters house was among those that suffered bomb damage in the Blitz so the plaque was removed.

In 1951 the P.L.A (Port of London Authority} erected a new memorial with the original plaque attached to large granite blocks and topped with a bronze mermaid. It was officially unveiled by the then American Ambassador Walter Gifford.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/virginia-settlers-memorial/query/katherine

Some time later the monument was vandalised and the mermaid was stolen.

As a postscript to this story the following appeared in the press Febuary 2007.

A mermaid statue made to commemorate the first British settlers in America has turned up at an auction in Billericay after going missing from its plinth.

The bronze topped the statue which marked the spot in Docklands from where three boats set off for the New World.

When a nearby power station was demolished in 1984, the area became neglected and the mermaid disappeared from its plinth.

This week it reappeared at the auction of dealer Alan Marks's entire collection. He bought the near lifesize statue from a man in Hatfield Heath 15 years ago and since then it has sat in his back garden.

Mr Marks decided to sell it because he was moving but it failed to reach its £1,500 reserve.

In the 1990's the whole area was cleared for redevelopment and the monument was reinstated by Barratt Homes in 1999. Today 'The Mariners Astrolabe' sits atop the monument. The Mariners Astrolabe was used to detirmine the latitude of a ship at sea.  

The monument was unveiled by the current US Ambassador and the ceremony attended by th 'Jamestowne Society whose members need to prove they are descended from the original settlers, also included was a march past by pikemen and musketeers. So here it stands surrounded by streets renamed in honour of those brrave settlers of Jamestown.