William Lambe

William Lambe (1495–1580) was a wealthy cloth merchant in the City of London during Tudor times who engaged in a wide range of philanthropic deeds, most notably endowing the construction of St James' Church, Islington, the construction of the eponymous Lamb's Conduit, traces of which remain in a number of London street names, and the endowment of Sutton Valence School. He was a devout protestant and was friends with a number of notable protestant clerics of the time. Biography William Lambe was a London cloth merchant and philanthropist, was born at Sutton Valence, Kent, in 1495. According to Abraham Fleming, his contemporary biographer, Lambe rose from "a mean estate" in the countryside to become a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Henry VIII. He was admitted a freeman of the Clothworkers' Company in 1568, and served as master in 1569-70. In early life he lived in London Wall, next to the ancient hermitage chapel of St James's, belonging to the abbey of Gerendon in Leicestershire. Two monks of this community served the chapel as chaplains. A well belonging to them supplied its name to the adjoining Monkwell Street and Monkwell Square. Through his influence with the king Lambe purchased this chapel at the dissolution of the monasteries, by letters patent dated 30 March 34 Henry VIII (1542), and bequeathed it with his house, lands, and tenements, to the value of £30 yearly, to the Company of Clothworkers. Out of this he directed that a minister should be engaged to perform divine service in his chapel every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday throughout the year, and to preach four sermons yearly before the members of the company, who were to attend in their gowns. The company were also to provide clothing for twenty-four poor men and women, and received £4 yearly from the trust for their pains. Today there stands a plaque at 8-10, Moorgate, London, EC2 commemorating the fact that the land on which the property stands was in 1580 bequeathed by William Lambe to the Company of Clothworkers. Lambe's chapel, with the almshouses adjoining, was pulled down in 1825, and in 1872, under an act of 35 & 36 Vict. cap. 154, the chapel was finally removed to Prebend Square, Islington, where the present church of St James' was erected. At the west end of the church is a bust of the founder in his livery gown, with a purse in one hand and his gloves in the other (see photo). It bears the date 1612, and was removed from the chapel in London Wall.