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8 Portugal Place (14 Clement Lane)

History of 8 Portugal Place

For details see T E Faber ‘Intimate History of St Clement’s’.

Surroundings of St Clement Church

The plot of 8 Portugal Place is (2a), a plot of ground by the churchyard.

Three views of the Jesus Plot St Clement’s Parish

Before 1267: there is an undated charter which records a gift of several rents to the nuns of St. Radegund by William Corde, including 3s ‘from land in the which ]William de Furcis] holds in the parish of St Clement which lies between land of Geoffrey Gybon and land of Hareflet and extends from the road as far as he king’s ditch. The Hareflet area is labelled (5).

1373: two 14th cent. leases granted by the nuns of St Radegund refer to property in this area. The first was to Richard Milde capellanus, John de Kelesseye, cooper and his wife Avisia. The second was granted in 1377 to John and Avisia only. Richard Milde became vicar of St Clement’s in 1353 but by 1373 Adam de Walsoken had taken over the role. In fact it seems likely that Richard was no longer vicar in 1365.

1377: this lease describes in considerable detail the house that already stood on the tenement and the new house which John and Avisia contracted to build. The existing house consisted of ‘a good hall on the noprth side of the tenement with a solar adjoining the said hall occupying the full width of the tenement facing the churchyard .. under which solar are three storeroom of which one door opens into the hall and two doors into the churchyard with a kitchen adjoining the said solar on the south side of the said tenement and two storerooms as though under one roof with the hall on the north side of the tenement.

1401: Adam de Walsoken complained that there was no house for the vicar to live in. In 1402 the nuns granted Adam and successor vicars the old house on the site as a parsonage.

1471: parsonage falls into decay. Lease granted to ‘William Dack clericus’ but house not mentioned.

1473 – 1531: benefice held by John Damelot and then Reginald Aspes. They were fellows of King’s Hall and St John’s respectively and would have lived in college.

1568: Thomas Ventris

1608: lessee Hugh Jones the younger, tailor; he built two adjoining houses on a different part of the plot, and then sold out to John Trott.

1614: John Trott

1618: Thomas Trott (son)

1640: John Trott (son)

1739: Thomas Nutting, merchant. See 1739 map on diagram. His plot is indicated by the polygon ABCDE.

1771: Thomas Willett, a gardener.

1785: Thomas Willett. The two old houses were got rid of and a single house was built which survives today. Thomas Willett died in 1808 aged 76.

1808: house and garden taken over by Sussums who had a greengrocery business on Bridge Street.

1816: Elizabeth Sussum renewed lease

1830: on her death transferred to William Sussum and he sold it to a cook at St John’s.

1833: cook sold it to Juner Perry Lawrence, wine merchant


1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge: formerly the vicarage of St Clements, has rendered timber framed walls and tiled roofs. It was built in the 17th cent., improved in the 18th, and has since been modernised.


1913:

Harry Godwin Legge, painter and paperhanger

1962:

Mrs L A Legge

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