Sir John Alleyn of the Mote, Lord Mayor of London

notes

From Survey of London: volume 15: All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, pt II

II.—MUSCOVY COURT. SITE OF MUSCOVY (SIR JOHN ALLEYN'S) HOUSE

Muscovy Court, which lay in the north-west angle of Tower Hill, covered the site of a short lane which formed a back entrance to the precinct of Crutched Friars. The parish boundary ran through the centre of the lane, and apparently its abrupt turn to the west occurred near the gate. The court was entirely in All Hallows parish, and so were the houses that surrounded it to the north, west and south. That to the east, which was the only one of any age which survived, lay in the adjoining parish of St. Olave's (see plan on Plates 6 and 7).

The original passage served other properties beside the Friars, since in a deed of 1538 John Martyn, gentleman, is recorded to have leased to Christopher Draper, gentleman, a messuage and two gardens in All Hallows parish near Tower Hill with "a way severall" from them and from another house of Christopher's to the Crutched Friars. It ran by a brick wall on the west which was the boundary wall of an important house which fronted on Seething Lane, and was partly in All Hallows and partly in St. Olave's parish. In 1538 this belonged to "Master John Aleyn, Knight." (fn. 1)

we find it in the hands of Sir John Alleyn in 1538. He is described as of Moate (the old name for Ightham Moat), Kent, in a deed of 1564, when with Etheldreda his wife he sold it to Richard Fookes and Thomas Nicholls. (fn. 6) In the grant it is described as a "tenement called Alleyn's House in Seething Lane," lying in both parishes and in the tenure of one Shafftinge. The sale was confirmed by Alleyn's son Christopher in the same year. (fn. 7) Sir John was a wealthy mercer and twice Lord Mayor of London (fn. 8) (1525–6 and 1535–6).

Sources

1. The topographer: containing a variety of original articles ..., Volume 1 edited by Sir Egerton Brydges. Page 448. "The said Sir Christopher was the first who settled at Greseley, and was son and heir of Sir John Alleyne, Kt. who was twice Lord Mayor of London in the reign of Hen. VIII, and a Pi ivy Counsellor to the King, and by his will dated Aug. 3, 1545, gave a rich gold collar and jewel to be worn by the Lord Mayor and his successors, and also many other noble gifts to the City of London .... "The said Sir John Alleyne was son and heir of Richard Alleyne of Thaxted, Co. Essex, and had two brothers, John and Christopher"
2. ALLEYN, Sir Christopher (d.1586), of Ightham Mote, Kent, West Drayton, Mdx. and London. Alleyn—described in one of his father’s inquisitions post mortem as Christopher Gyllet alias Carleton alias Alleyn—was the elder of two illegitimate sons of a London mercer who died in 1545, seised of lands in Derbyshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, as well as in the City. Alleyn’s father settled on him a considerable amount of real estate scattered widely about the country, and, under his father’s will he and his brother and sister were allotted between them half the remainder of their father’s moveables.
3. The Visitations of Essex  by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen and Lilly, 1634. To which are Added Miscellaneous Essex Pedigrees from Various Harleian Manuscripts: And an Appendix Containing Berry's Essex Pedigrees, Part 1 (Google eBook).  Thomas Hawley, William Harvey, Robert Cooke, John Raven (Richmond herald.), George Owen, Henry Lilly, William Berry.  Mitchell and Hughes, 1878 - Essex (England).  Page 333.  "Aleyn, Alleyn" 
4. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of ..., Volume 3.  By John Burke, Bernard Burke.  Page 375.  "Family of Alleyne."
5. 'Muscovy Court', Survey of London: volume 15: All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, pt II (1934), pp. 4-6. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=74960&strquery=... Date accessed: 07 December

Web Links

• Derbyshire Parishes - Gresely.
• Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies - Burke.
• Fuller - Worthies of England (Essex)
• History and Topography of Essex
• Ightham Mote purchased fro Henry VIII
• Lord Mayors of London
• Muscovy House
• Sheriffs of London
• The Mercery of London
• Visitation Essex
• Visitation of London

Trees

• http://trees.Ancestry.com.au/tree/11036604/person/6130989270