The Grocers Shop
Contributed By
PhyllisEricson
[STORY]
https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/174275250?cid=mem_copy
This is the story of two brothers who married two sisters in Merry Ole England in the 1600s.
Edmund and Rosse Underwood may have been my 9th great-grandparents.
They were both born in a small village called Weston, north of London in Hertfordshire. Edmund (b. 1576) was the seventh of ten children born to George and Alice (Papworth) Underwood. He was their sixth son.
Rosse (b. 1581) was the eighth of 12 children of John and Anne (Spencer) Fairclough. Only eight daughters reached adulthood and no sons. It appears this family was rather well-to-do and lived about a mile outside the village on an estate of several buildings known as “Fairclough Hall”. [It still exists today as a historic site.]
Edmund and Rose married in 1602 in the village parish church. Edmund was 26, Rose was 20 years old.
Edmund and his younger brother, Robert, were finishing their grocer apothecary apprenticeship under their uncle Laurence Underwood who had gone to London and was a grocer. In those days there was a Guild for every profession and one needed to complete an apprenticeship and pay a fee to “join” the Guild in order to conduct business in a city of town and become a “freeman”.
So, Rose went to London to live with Edmund.
Two years later, Rose’s younger sister, Dorothy traveled to London and married Edmund’s brother Robert at St. Stephen Walbrook Church of England, located in the center of London.
[Map] Weston, Hertfordshire located about 20 miles north of London.
In 1616, the Underwood brothers purchased a grocery complex next to the church. It had already been in use as a grocery for 80 years. Before that, it had been a wool trade and livestock business. So, the grocery was known as “The Woolsack”. In the area were the parish churches of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Christopher le Stocks, both names referring to the previous era of stockyards and wool trading.
The two couples lived in two houses, each attached to a large, historic stone and mortar building between them, that had been constructed in 1305. These two houses were 4-5 stories tall and probably had at least 2 basement levels underneath. The central stone building had served as the King’s Royal Exchequer during the reign of Kings Edward I and II and later during the reign of King Edward III it was known as the “Queen’s Tower”. Here gold coin was minted and stored. This was the beginning of London’s financial district.
The grocer's shop was at the end of a short street called Bucklersbury Lane. The ground floor of one of the houses served as the grocery storefront. Large door openings probably connected all the street-level rooms for the shop. The basements provided warehouse space and the upper floors served as dining, living, and sleeping quarters for the two families. The family levels were the sister’s domain.
Indeed, the families needed a large space. Edmund and Rose had at least 12 children; Robert and Dorothy had at least 15. That meant over 30 people lived above the grocer's shop.
[Map] Bucklersbury Lane between Queen Victoria Street and King William Street in the middle of London, where Edmund Underwood had his grocer’s shop in the early 1600s.
[Photo] Bucklersbury Lane today with the rebuilt St. Stephen Walbrook Church of England. The Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London, is likely where the grocer’s shop was located.
According to the inheritance laws of the time, the first-born son received most of the property and personal effects of his father. So, in the 1600s many of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th born sons of well-to-do families crossed the ocean and went to British colonies elsewhere.
And this was the case for the Underwood sons.
- 1. Edmund Underwood, Jr. the first-born son, married and stayed in London probably anticipating inheriting his father’s portion of the grocery shop.
- 2. John Underwood, the second son, married and stayed in London.
- 3. Thomas Underwood, possibly my 8th Great Grandfather and his brother,
- 4. William Underwood. As the fourth and fifth sons, they both went to the new colony of Virginia. They may have gone originally on the premise to buy tobacco and send it back to London to their fathers’ grocery. But they both ended up marrying and staying in Virginia becoming tobacco planters and suppliers; Thomas in Ann Arundel County, and William in Isle of Wight County.
- 5. Lawrence Underwood the fifth son, traveled to the West Indies; married, and settled in Paget Bermuda.
- 6. Benjamin Underwood the sixth son, married and moved his family away from London to Suffolk.
When King Charles I took the throne in 1625, his policies caused dramatic shifts in the lives of merchants, churchmen, and other commoners, which led to the Civil War in early 1640. The two families had always attended the nearby St. Stephen’s Walbrook church. But as political tensions grew it affected the families and it resulted in changes to their church affiliations; Edmund and Rose went to St. Christopher le Stocks Church, while Robert and Dorothy remained at Walbrook St Stephen's Church.
Edmund, the grocer, died in 1631, at the age of 56, at his home “The Woolsack”.
Edmund’s will listed lands he owned in Middlesex, Kent, and Yorkshire counties.
Rose’s sister Dorothy died the next year and her husband, Robert the grocer, died 7 years later, at the age of 58 years.
Left with the grocery shop and houses, Rose, sold her interest to her nephew, William Underwood. In a few years, he would become the Colonial of the London Blue Regiment and the Sheriff of London during the Civil War. His cousin, Edward Underwood bought out Robert’s half of the grocery, so it remained “in the Underwood family”.
Rose died at 75 years of age in 1656 and was buried “under the Great Stone” at St. Christopher le Stocks South Chapel.
Little did Rose know that just 10 years later, the Great Fire of London would destroy all the buildings and parish churches she knew, many of them collapsing into their own cellars or crypts. Bodies buried under and around those church structures stayed where they were as new buildings were built upon them.
- Phyllis Ericson, 2021
Sources:
- England & Wales, Christening Index, 1530-1980, for Edmond Underwood; Ancestry.com.
- UK and Ireland, Find a Grave for Rose Fairclough Underwood, Memorial # 1754647090.
- Weston Parish Marriage Register for Edmund Underwood and Rose Fercloughe, Hertfordshire, 1602, from Hertfordshire County Council, https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk.
- UK and Ireland, Find a Grave for Robert Underwood, Memorial # 175802074.
- England Jurisdictions 1851, Family Search wiki. https://www.familysearch.org/mapp/
- UK and Ireland, Find a Grave for Edmund Underwood, Memorial # 175464318.
- London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1812, citing the London Metropolitan Archives; Ancestry.com
- Will of Edmond Underwood, Grocer of London, 1625, Probated 14 Jun 1631, The National Archives, Item number: 4590410, Catalogue reference: PROB 11/160/50, 3 pgs.
- UK and Ireland, Find a Grave for Rose Fairclough Underwood, Memorial # 1754647090
