The Honorable and Memorable (1636)

In John Taylor's book, The Honorable and Memorable (1636), he describes Hampshire as. "A goodly rich county, abounding in corn, wood, pasture, and much enriched with innumerable commodities from the sea". Southampton which by a grant of Henry VI. is a county by statute."...... a fair, sweet and pleasant town, ......... well, defended with walls". "......... it is rich in merchants and inhabitants". Describing Portsmouth, "it is a strong town and fortified, with a garrison; and it thrives better by war than by peace". Taylor's book informs us that within the shire there are eighteen market towns, two hundred and fifty-three parishes (divided into forty hundreds) of which the four locally are Alverstoke and Gosport, Titchfield, Portsdowne and Fareham. The Rowner parish forms part of the Titchfield hundred. John Taylor lists seventy-three Hampshire Wine Taverns. Locally the "Persons that allowed or keepe them" are:

SouthamptonThomas Milies Bishop's WalthamJohn Hawksworth
Thomas Stoner
ThomasSmith BotleyDorathy Doncastle
Augustine Reignolde
Oliver Stoner FarehamAnne Wilks
Elizabeth King
Elizabeth Nevey GosportAnne Clarke
Elizabeth Elzey William Towerson 1
TitchfieldRichard Brown PortsmouthRichard James
Owen Jennings 2
WinchesterJoan Prat Dorothy Jennings
Anne Bud William Haberley 3
Thomas Brexton
Cornelius Brexton Portsmouth Liberties Anthony Haberley 4
Soake near Winchester William PopeHavant William Woolgar
John Noake
Walter Travers

1. Possibly a Portsmouth Alderman in 1626. 2. Merchant. 3 . Gentleman. 4. May keep two Taverns.

The annual licence in 1625 to keep a Wine Tavern in East Retford, Nottingham was sixty Shillings. In James' I reign (1603-25) a license for an Alehouse cost its keeper annually one shilling and six pence paid to the Clerk of the Peace and one shilling to the Justice's Clerk. Known to be within Portsmouth in the year 1600 were the following Ale Houses, Inns, or Wine Taverns. Four of the five, grouped together south east of Little Penny Street near the pond, were The Rose, The Lion, The White Hart and The Dragon. On the south side of the High street, north towards the Town Gate, lay The Greyhound and in 1632 opposite the butcher's shambles in the High street lay The White Horse.



Source:

The Honorable and Memorable. J. Taylor. London 1636.

Plan of Portsmouth c. 1600.

Document. CD 2/7/1-8. PCRO.

Calendar of State Papers Domestic 1628-9. HMPRO.

The English Alehouse.

Deeds Belonging to Property in Old Portsmouth. Portsmouth City Archives.