Hoxton

Hoxton, This seems with the Square a little Town of it self, tho' it is (near) contiguous to the Nly end of Shore ditch, and that part like a str. is betn the Alms Houses (near the N. end of Shore ditch) S. and the Fields N. L. 520 Yds.

[Hoxton.] On the Right Hand of this Ealdestreet not far from Soersditch, but on the North side thereof, is Hoxton, a large Street with Houses on both sides, and is a Prebend belonging to Pauls Church in London, but of Soersditch Parish.

Hoxton, near Shoreditch. This was for many ages a village, and in the Conqueror’s Survey is named Hocheston: but by the increase of buildings it has been for some time past joined to this metropolis.

Hoxton-Town, High-Street or Road,—the first W. parallel to Kingsland-road, or the first on the R. in Old-street-road, about ⅛ of a mile from Shoreditch-church.

Hoxton-Town, High-street or road, is the first turning parallel to the Kingsland-road.

Hoxton, mentioned in Domesday as Hocheston, a manor belonging to the cathedral of St. Paul, whose property it still is, a suburban district within the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, lying to the north of the Shoreditch end of the Old Street Road and west of the Kingsland Road. Stow in 1598 described it as "a large street with houses on both sides." Some of the houses were of a superior class. The mansions of Oliver, third Lord St. John of Bletsoe (d. 1618), and of Sir George Whitmore, were standing only a very few years back. But most part of the district was open fields. In Hogsden Fields Ben Jonson killed in a duel Gabriel Spenser, the player. [See Hog Lane.] Writing to Alleyn, Phillip Henslowe (or, as he here signs himself, Heglawe) says (September 26, 1598):—

Sence you weare with me I have lost one of my company which hurteth me greatly, that is Gabrell, for he is slayen in hogesden fylldes by the hands of bergemen Jonson, bricklayer; therfore I wold fayne have a littell of your cownsell, yf I cowld.—Henslowe to Edward Alleyn, Memoirs of Alleyn, p. 51.¹

Hoxton Fields were a great resort of the citizens on holidays. One of the dreams of Sir Epicure Mammon was that—

                  He would have built
The City new and made a ditch about it
Of silver, should have run with cream from Hogsden;
That every Sunday in Moorfields the younkers,
And tits and tom-boys should have fed on gratis.
Ben Jonson's Alchemist, 1610, Act v. Sc. 3.

Ben Jonson, who evidently knew Hoxton well, speaks of it as "the country." His Master Stephen, "a country gull," lives at Hogsden:—

Stephen. Because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company with none but the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a-ducking to Islington ponds! A fine jest i' faith! Slid a gentleman mun show himself like a gentleman.—Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, Act i. Sc. 1.

Hoxton has long ceased to be rural, and is now populous and poor. Its population in 1881 was 57,954, in 6463 houses—figures indicative of overcrowding. Many small trades are carried on, but cabinet- and chair- making predominate. Though still a part of Shoreditch parish there are five or six district churches; chapels of all varieties, and there is a Jewish synagogue and cemetery. Hoxton appears to have had a special attraction for the founders of almshouses, the Haberdashers' Almshouses and Aske's Charity and Grammar Schools of the same Company, a large and important institution, still exist; but most of the other almshouses and charitable institutions have been removed. In the 17th century Hoxton was synonymous with Bedlam as a place for lunatics, for whom there were three distinct asylums.

Had he no friends to have given him good counsel before his understanding were quite unsettled? or if there was none near, why did not men call in the neighbours and send for the parson of the parish to persuade with him in time, but let it run on thus till he is fit for nothing but Bedlam or Hogsdon.—Andrew Marvell, The Rehearsal Transprosed, 1672.

Here was a noted college for training ministers of the Independent denomination, at which William Godwin was a student for five years, 1773–1778.¹ Dr. Kippis, editor of the Biographia Britannica, was his tutor, and Dr. Rees, editor of the Cyclopaedia which bears his name, was principal of the college. It merged, with Homerton and Coward's Colleges, in New College, St. John's Wood. Whilst Godwin was at the college his future wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, a girl of seventeen, was living in Queen's Row, Hoxton. In his Memoirs of her he speculates on what might have happened had they met. In Hoxton Square lived the Rev. Edward Calamy, and one or two other eminent Nonconformist divines. Hoxton Square was the property of Israel Wilkes, the father of John Wilkes, of No. 45 notoriety, a part of the dowry brought him by his rich wife. In Charles Square lived the Rev. John Newton, Cowper's correspondent and author of many popular hymns. [See St. Mary Woolnoth.] In Hoxton Street is the Britannia Theatre (rebuilt 1858), one of the largest of the east-end houses, where domestic melodrama of an exciting kind is generally well played.

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¹ There is something suspicious in the appearance of this letter—the elaborate mis-spelling in parts, contrasted with the correct spelling in places more likely to be mis-spelt by one ignorant, or careless of orthography, and the modem ring of the whole, if it be read without regard to the spelling. Moreover it is curious that Henslowe should have told his son-in-law and partner that one of their company had been killed by the hands of bergemen Jonson, bricklayer," when, as appears by an entry in Henslowe's own Diary of a month earlier (August 18, 1598), Bengemen Johnson was under engagement with them to complete "a Boocke called hoote anger sone cowld" {Hot Anger soon Cold), and they had had similar dealings on previous occasions (see the entries July 28 and December 3, 1597).