Cheapside. In 1329 William Elsing,
a mercer, founded an hospital within Cripplegate, for 100 poor blind
men, and became prior of his own institution.

In 1351 (Edward III.), the Mercers grew jealous of the Lombard
merchants, and on Midsummer Day three mercers were sent to the Tower for
attacking two Lombards in the Old Jewry. The mercers in this reign sold
woollen clothes, but not silks. In 1371, John Barnes, mercer, mayor,
gave a chest with three locks, with 1,000 marks therein, to be lent to
younger mercers, upon sufficient pawn and for the use thereof. The
grateful recipients were merely to say "De Profundis," a Pater Noster,
and no more. This bequest seems to have started among the Mercers the
kindly practice of assisting the young and struggling members of this
Company.

In the reign of Henry VI. the mercers had become great dealers in silks
and velvets, and had resigned to the haberdashers the sale of small
articles of dress. It is not known whether the mercers bought their
silks from the Lombards, or the London silk-women, or whether they
imported them themselves, since many of the members of the Company were
merchants.

Twenty years after the murder of Becket, the murdered man's sister, who
had married Thomas Fitz Theobald de Helles, built a chapel and hospital
of Augustine Friars close to Ironmonger Lane, Cheapside. The hospital
was built on the site of the house where Becket was born. He was the son
of Gilbert Becket, citizen, mercer and portreeve of London, who was said
to have been a Crusader, and to have married a fair Saracen, who had
released him from prison, and who followed him to London, knowing only
the one English word "Gilbert." The hospital, which was called "St.
Thomas of Acon," from Becket's mother having been born at Acre, the
ancient Ptolemais, was given to the Mercers' Fraternity by De Hilles and
his wife, and Henry III. gave the master and twelve brothers all the
land between St. Olave's and Ironmonger Lane, which had belonged to two
rich Jews, to enlarge their ground. In Henry V.'s reign that illustrious
mercer Whittington, by his wealth and charity, reflected great lustre on
the Mercers' Company, who at his death were left trustees of the college
and almshouses founded by the immortal Richard on College Hill. The
Company still preserve the original ordinance of this charity with a
curious picture of Whittington's death, and of the first three wardens,
Coventry, Grove, and Carpenter.

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