Note 67 — Chapter VI

I have not been able to find proof positive that a Fowler owned this property. The house, though of respectable antiquity, is much more modern than the arms. By a lease dated 1722, a messuage called the Bell, with its stables, etc., and two other messuages or tenements on either side, adjoining and fronting High Street, Holborn, ‘formerly one capital mansion or messuage called the Bell or Blue Bell Inn, together with all shops, stables, and other appurtenances,’ were bought by Christ’s Hospital for £2,113 15s. Together with the adjoining house, it still belongs to the Hospital. There is a rent-charge of 45s. (originally 30 sacks of charcoal) on the Blue Bell Inn, for the use of the poor of St. Andrews, in which parish the houses are situated; it was bequeathed by Richard Hunt, who died in 1559.