am, Knights, William and
Margaret; which Sir Richard deceased the 20th day of February, An.
Domini 1548, and the third yeere of King Edward the Sixth his
Reigne, and Audrey deceased the 28th day of December, An. Dom.
1522."

There is also this epitaph:--

"Lo here the Lady Margaret North,
In tombe and earth do lye;
Of husbands four the faithfull spouse,
Whose fame shall never dye.
One Andrew Franncis was the first,
The second Robert hight,
Surnamed Chartsey, Alderman;
Sir David Brooke, a knight,
Was third. But he that passed all,
And was in number fourth,
And for his virtue made a Lord,
Was called Sir Edward North.
These altogether do I wish
A joyful rising day;
That of the Lord and of his Christ,
All honour they may say.
Obiit 2 die Junii, An. Dom. 1575."

In Ironmonger Lane, inhabited by ironmongers _temp._ Edward I., is
Mercers' Hall, an interesting building.

The Mercers, though not formally incorporated till the 17th of Richard
II. (1393), are traced back by Herbert as early as 1172. Soon
afterwards they are mentioned as patrons of one of the great London
charities. In 1214, Robert Spencer, a mercer, was mayor. In 1296 the
mercers joined the company of merchant adventurers in establishing in
Edward I.'s reign, a woollen manufacture in England, with a branch at
Antwerp. In Edward II.'s reign they are mentioned as "the Fraternity of
Mercers," and in 1406 (Henry IV.) they are styled in a charter,
"Brothers of St. Thomas a Becket."

Mercers were at first general dealers in all small wares, including
wigs, haberdashery, and even spices and drugs. They attended fairs and
markets, and even sat on the ground to sell their wares--in fact, were
little more than high-class pedlers. The poet Gower talks of "the
depression of such mercerie." In late times the silk trade formed the
main feature of their business; the greater use of silk beginning about
1573.

The mercers' first station, in Henry II.'s reign, was in that part of
Cheap on the north side where Mercers' Hall now stands, but they removed
soon afterwards higher up on the south side. The part of Cheapside
between Bow Church and Friday Street became known as the Mercery. Here,
in front of a large meadow called the "Crownsild," they held their
little stalls or standings from Soper's Lane and the Standard. There
were no houses as yet in this part of