London in 1731

14. Vintry Ward (which was so called from the wine merchants who landed and sold their wines here) contains part of Thames Street, New Queen Street, Garlick Hill, College Hill, and St. Thomas Apostles.

The public buildings in this ward are Vintners’ Hall, Cutlers’ Hall, the churches of St. Michael Royal and St. James, Garlick Hill.

Vintners’ Hall is situated on the south side of Thames Street, between Queen Street and Garlick Hill, being built on three sides of a quadrangle fronting the street. The rooms are large, finely wainscoted and carved, particularly the magnificent screen at the east end of the great hall, which is adorned with two columns, their entablature and pediment; and on acroters are placed the figure of Bacchus between several Fames, with other embellishments; and they have a garden backwards towards the Thames.

15. Cordwainers’ Street Ward, so called from the cordwainers (shoemakers), curriers, and other dealers in leather, that inhabited that part of the town anciently, includes Bow Lane, New Queen Street, Budge Row, Tower Royal Street, Little St. Thomas Apostle’s, Pancras Lane, a small part of Watling Street, a little part of Basing Lane, and St. Sythe’s Lane.

The public buildings in this ward are the church of St. Anthony, St. Mary Aldermary, and St. Mary-le-Bow.

16. Cheap Ward. The principal streets and places in this ward are Cheapside, the Poultry, part of Honey Lane Market, part of the Old Jewry, part of Bucklersbury, part of Pancras Lane, part of Queen Street, all Ironmonger Lane, King Street, and St. Lawrence Lane, and part of Cateaton Street, part of Bow Lane, and all Guildhall.

The public buildings in this ward are, Guildhall, Mercers’ Chapel and Hall, Grocers’ Hall, the Poultry Compter, the churches of St. Mildred, Poultry, and St. Lawrence Jewry.

Guildhall, the town house of this great City, stands at the north end of King Street, and is a large handsome structure, built with stone, anno 1666, the old hall having been destroyed by the Fire in 1666. By a large portico on the south side we enter the principal room, properly called the hall, being 153 feet in length, 48 in breadth, and 55 in height. On the right hand, at the upper end, is the ancient court of the hustings; at the other end of the hall opposite to it are the Sheriff’s Courts. The roof of the inside is flat, divided into panels; the walls on the north and south sides adorned with four demy pillars of the Gothic order, painted white, and veined with blue, the capitals gilt with gold, and the arms finely depicted in their proper colour, viz., at the east the arms of St. Edward the Confessor, and of the Kings of England the shield and cross of St. George. At the west end the arms of the Confessor, those of England and France quarterly, and the arms of England. On the fourteen demy pillars (above the capital) are the king’s arms, the arms of London, and the arms of the twelve companies. At the east end are the King’s arms carved between the portraits of the late Queen, at the foot of an arabathram, under a rich canopy northward, and those of King William and Queen Mary southward, painted at full length. The inter-columns are painted in imitation of porphyry, and embellished with the portraitures, painted in full proportion, of eighteen judges, which were there put up by the City, in gratitude for their signal service done in determining differences between landlord and tenant (without the expense of lawsuits) in rebuilding this City, pursuant to an Act of Parliament, after the Fire, in 1666.

Those on the south side are, Sir Heneage Finch, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Richard Rainsford, Sir Edward Turner, Sir Thomas Tyrrel, Sir John Archer, Sir William Morton.

On the north side are, Sir Robert Atkins, Sir John Vaughan, Sir Francis North, Sir Thomas Twisden, Sir Christopher Turner, Sir William Wild, Sir Hugh Windham.

At the west end, Sir William Ellis, Sir Edward Thurland, Sir Timothy Littleton.

And in the Lord Mayor’s Court (which is adorned with fleak stone and other painting and gilding, and also the figures of the four cardinal virtues) are the portraits of Sir Samuel Brown, Sir John Kelynge, Sir Edward Atkins, and Sir William Windham, all (as those above) painted in full proportion in their scarlet robes as judges.

The late Queen Anne, in December, 1706, gave the City 26 standards, and 63 colours, to be put up in this hall, that were taken from the French and Bavarians at the battle of Ramillies the preceding summer; but there was found room only for 46 colours, 19 standards, and the trophy of a kettle-drum of the Elector of Bavaria’s. The colours over the Queen’s picture are most esteemed, on account of their being taken from the first battalion of French guards.

From the hall we ascend by nine stone steps to the Mayor’s Court, Council Chamber, and the rest of the apartments of the house, which, notwithstanding it may not be equal to the grandeur of the City, is very well adapted to the ends it was designed for, namely, for holding the City courts, for the election of sheriffs and other officers, and for the entertainment of princes, ministers of State, and foreign ambassadors, on their grand festivals.

17. Coleman Street Ward. The principal streets in this ward are the Old Jewry, part of Lothbury, Coleman Street, part of London Wall, and all the lower part of Moorfields without the walls.

The public buildings are Bethlem or Bedlam Hospital, Founders’ Hall, Armourers’ Hall, the churches of St. Olave Jewry, St. Margaret, Lothbury, and St. Stephen, Coleman Street.

New Bethlem, or Bedlam, is situated at the south end of Moorfields, just without the wall, the ground being formerly part of the town ditch, and granted by the City to the governors of the hospital of Old Bethlem, which had been appropriated for the reception of lunatics, but was found too strait to contain the people brought thither, and the building in a decaying condition.

The present edifice, called New Bedlam, was begun to be erected anno 1675, and finished the following year. It is built of brick and stone; the wings at each end, and the portico, being each of them adorned with four pilasters, entablature and circular pediment of the Corinthian order. Under the pediment are the King’s arms, enriched with festoons; and between the portico and each of the said wings is a triangular pediment, with the arms of the City; and on a pediment over the gate the figures of two lunatics, exquisitely carved. The front of this magnificent hospital is reported to represent the Escurial in Spain, and in some respects exceeds every palace in or about London, being 528 feet in length, and regularly built. The inside, it is true, is not answerable to the grand appearance it makes without, being but 30 feet broad, and consisting chiefly of a long gallery in each of the two storeys that runs from one end of the house to the other; on the south side whereof are little cells, wherein the patients have their lodgings, and on the north the windows that give light to the galleries, which are divided in the middle by a handsome iron gate, to keep the men and women asunder.

In order to procure a person to be admitted into the hospital, a petition must be preferred to a committee of the governors, who sit at Bedlam seven at a time weekly, which must be signed by the churchwardens, or other reputable persons of the parish the lunatic belongs to, and also recommended to the said committee by one of the governors; and this being approved by the president and governors, and entered in a book, upon a vacancy (in their turn) an order is granted for their being received into the house, where the said lunatic is accommodated with a room, proper physic and diet, gratis. The diet is very good and wholesome, being commonly boiled beef, mutton, or veal, and broth, with bread, for dinners on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, the other days bread, cheese, and butter, or on Saturdays pease-pottage, rice-milk, furmity, or other pottage, and for supper they have usually broth or milk pottage, always with bread. And there is farther care taken, that some of the committee go on a Saturday weekly to the said hospital to see the provisions weighed, and that the same be good and rightly expended.

18. Basinghall, or Bassishaw Ward, consisteth only of Basinghall Street, and a small part of the street along London Wall.

The public buildings of this ward are Blackwell Hall, Masons’ Hall, Weavers’ Hall, Coopers’ Hall, Girdlers’ Hall, and St. Michael Bassishaw Church.

Blackwell Hall is situated between Basinghall Street on the east, and Guildhall Yard on the west, being formerly called Bakewell Hall, from the family of the Bakewells, whose mansion-house stood here anno 1315, which falling to the Crown, was purchased by the City of King Richard II., and converted into a warehouse and market for woollen manufactures; and by an act of common council anno 1516, it was appointed to be the only market for woollen manufactures sold in the City, except baize, the profits being settled on Christ’s Hospital, which arise from the lodging and pitching of the cloth in the respective warehouses, there being one assigned for the Devonshire cloths, and others for the Gloucester, Worcester, Kentish, Medley, Spanish cloths, and blankets. The profits also of the baize brought to Leadenhall are settled on the same hospital. These cloths pay a penny a week each for pitching, and a halfpenny a week resting; stockings and blankets pay by the pack, all which bring in a considerable revenue, being under the direction of the governors of Christ’s Hospital. This hall was destroyed by the Fire, and rebuilt by Christ’s Hospital, anno 1672. The doorcase on the front towards Guildhall is of stone, adorned with two columns, entablature, and pediment of the Doric order. In the pediment are the King’s arms, and the arms of London under them, enriched with Cupids, &c.

19. Cripplegate Ward is usually divided into two parts, viz., Cripplegate within the walls and Cripplegate without.

The principal streets and places in Cripplegate Ward within the walls are Milk Street, great part of Honey Lane Market, part of Cateaton Street, Lad Lane, Aldermanbury, Love Lane, Addle Street, London Wall Street, from Little Wood Street to the postern, Philip Lane, most of Great Wood Street, Little Wood Street, part of Hart Street, Mugwell Street, part of Fell Street, part of Silver Street, the east part of Maiden Lane, and some few houses in Cheapside to the eastward of Wood Street.

The principal streets and places in Cripplegate Ward Without are Fore Street, and the Postern Street heading to Moorfields, Back Street in Little Moorfields, Moor Lane, Grub Street, the south part to the posts and chain, the fourth part of Whitecross Street as far as the posts and chain, part of Redcross Street, Beach Lane, the south part of Golden Lane as far as the posts and chain, the east part of Golden Lane, the east part of Jewin Street, Bridgewater Square, Brackley Street, Bridgewater Street, Silver Street, and Litton Street.

The public buildings in this ward are Sion College, Barber-Surgeons’ Hall, Plasterers’ Hall, Brewers’ Hall, Curriers’ Hall, the churches of St. Mary Aldermanbury, St. Alphege, St. Alban, Wood Street, and St. Giles, Cripplegate.

Sion College is situated against London Wall, a little to the eastward of Cripplegate, where anciently stood a nunnery, and afterwards a hospital founded for a hundred blind men, anno 1320, by W. Elsing, mercer, and called Elsing’s Spittal: he afterwards founded here a priory for canons regular, which being surrendered to King Henry VIII. anno 1530, it was purchased by Dr. Thomas White, residentiary of St. Paul’s, and vicar of St. Dunstan’s in the West, for the use of the London clergy, who were incorporated by King Charles I., anno 1631, by the name of the president and fellows of Sion College, for the glory of God, the good of His Church, redress of inconveniences, and maintaining of truth in doctrine, and love in conversation with one another, pursuant to the donor’s will; which college is governed by the president, two deans and four assistants, who are yearly elected out of the London clergy, on the third Tuesday after Easter; but none of them reside there, the whole being left to the care of the librarian. The great gate against London Wall is adorned with two columns, their entablature and pitched pediment of the Tuscan order, whereon is this inscription in gold letters: —

Collegium Sionis a Thoma White, S. T. P. Fundatum Anno Christi 1631, in Usum Clerici Lond. Bibliotheca a Johanne Simpson, S. T. B. Extracta, a diversis Benefactor, Libris locupletata, & in posterum locupletanda. Vade & fac similiter.

The college consists of a handsome hall, the president’s lodgings, chambers for students, and a well-disposed library, one hundred and twenty feet in length, and thirty in breadth, which is at this day very well replenished with books, notwithstanding both library and college were burnt down anno 1666. It was rebuilt and furnished by contributions from the London clergy and their friends. The library is kept in exact order, and there are all imaginable conveniences for those who desire to consult their books.

20. Aldersgate Ward. The principal streets and places in this ward are, Foster Lane, Maiden Lane, Noble Street, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, Dean’s Court, Round Court, Angel Street, Bull-and-Mouth Street, St. Anne’s Lane, Aldersgate Street, Goswell Street, Barbican, Long Lane, and Little Britain.

St. Martin’s-le-Grand was anciently a magnificent college, founded by Jugelricus and Edwardus his brother, anno 1056, and confirmed by William the Conqueror, by his charter, dated anno 1068, in the second year of his reign, who also gave all the moorlands without Cripplegate to this college, exempting the dean and canons from the jurisdiction of the bishop, and from all legal services, granting them soc and sac, toll and theam, with all liberties and franchises that any church in the kingdom enjoyed.

This college was surrendered to King Edward VI. in the second year of his reign, anno 1548, and the same year the church pulled down, and the ground leased out to persons to build upon, being highly valued on account of the privileges annexed to it, for it still remains a separate jurisdiction. The sheriffs and magistrates of London have no authority in this liberty, but it is esteemed part of Westminster, and subject only to the dean and chapter of that abbey.

The public buildings in this ward are, Goldsmiths’ Hall, Coachmakers’ Hall, London House, Thanet House, Cooks’ Hall, the church of St. Anne within Aldersgate, St. Leonard, Foster Lane, and St. Botolph, Aldersgate.

21. Farringdon Ward within the walls, so called to distinguish it from Farringdon Ward without, was anciently but one ward, and governed by one alderman, receiving its name of William Farendon, goldsmith, alderman thereof, and one of the sheriffs of London who purchased the aldermanry of John le Feure, 7 Edward I., anno 1279. It afterwards descended to Nicholas Farendon, son of the said William, who was four times mayor (and his heirs), from whence some infer that the aldermanries of London were formerly hereditary.

Farringdon Ward Within contains St. Paul’s Churchyard, Ludgate Street, Blackfriars, the east side of Fleet Ditch, from Ludgate Street to the Thames, Creed Lane, Ave Mary Lane, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, Newgate Street and Market, Greyfriars, part of Warwick Lane, Ivy Lane, part of Cheapside, part of Foster Lane, part of Wood Street, part of Friday Street, and part of the Old Change, with several courts and alleys falling into them.

The public buildings in this ward are, the Cathedral of St. Paul, St. Paul’s School, the King’s Printing House, the Scotch Hall, Apothecaries’ Hall, Stationers’ Hall, the College of Physicians, Butchers’ Hall, Saddlers’ Hall, Embroiderers’ Hall, the church of St. Martin Ludgate, Christ’s Church and Hospital, the church of St. Matthew, Friday Street, St. Austin’s Church, the church of St Vedast, and the Chapter House.

Austin the monk was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great, to endeavour the conversion of the Saxons, about the year 596, and being favourably received by Ethelbert, then King of Kent, who soon after became his proselyte, was by the authority of the Roman see constituted Archbishop of Canterbury, the capital of King Ethelbert’s dominions. The archbishop being thus established in Kent, sent his missionaries into other parts of England, making Melitus, one of his assistants, Bishop of London; and King Ethelbert, to encourage that city to embrace Christianity, it is said, founded the Cathedral of St. Paul about the year 604.

This Cathedral stands upon an eminence in the middle of the town, disengaged from all other buildings, so that its beauties may be viewed on every side; whereas we see only one front of St. Peter’s at Rome, the palace of the Vatican, and other buildings contiguous to it, rendering the rest invisible; and though the riches and furniture of the several chapels in St. Peter’s are the admiration of all that view them, yet they spoil the prospect of the fabric. If we regard only the building, divested of the rich materials and furniture which hide the beauties of the structure, St. Paul’s, in the opinion of many travellers, makes a better appearance than St. Peter’s: nor does the white Portland stone, of which St. Paul’s is built, at all give place to the marble St. Peter’s is lined or incrusted with; for the numerous lamps and candles that are burnt before the altars at St. Peter’s so blacken and tarnish the marble, that it is not easy to distinguish it from common stone.

As to the outside of St. Paul’s, it is adorned by two ranges of pilasters, one above the other; the lower consist of 120 pilasters at least, with their entablature of the Corinthian order, and the upper of as many with entablament of the Composite order, besides twenty columns at the west and four at the east end, and those of the porticoes and spaces between the arches of the windows; and the architrave of the lower order, &c., are filled with great variety of curious enrichments, consisting of cherubims, festoons, volutas, fruit, leaves, car-touches, ensigns of fame, as swords and trumpets in saltier crosses, with chaplets of laurel, also books displayed, bishops’ caps, the dean’s arms, and, at the east end, the cypher of W.R. within a garter, on which are the words Honi soit qui mal y pense, and this within a fine compartment of palm-branches, and placed under an imperial crown, &c., all finely carved in stone.

The intercolumns of the lower range of pilasters are thirty-three ornamental windows and six niches, and of the upper range thirty-seven windows and about thirty niches, many whereof are adorned with columns, entablature, and pediments; and at the east end is a sweep, or circular space, adorned with columns and pilasters, and enriched with festoons, fruit, incense-pots, &c., and at the upper part is a window between four pieddroits and a single cornice, and those between two large cartouches.

The ascent to the north portico is by twelve steps of black marble; the dome of the portico is supported and adorned with six very spacious columns (forty-eight inches diameter) of the Corinthian order. Above the doorcase is a large urn, with festoons, &c. Over this (belonging to the upper range of pilasters) is a spacious pediment, where are the king’s arms with the regalia, supported by two angels, with each a palm-branch in their hands, under whose feet appear the figures of the lion and unicorn.

You ascend to the fourth portico (the ground here being low) by twenty-five steps. It is in all other respects like the north, and above this a pediment, as the other, belonging to the upper order, where is a proper emblem of this incomparable structure, raised, as it were, out of the ruins of the old church, viz., a phoenix, with her wings expanded, in flames, under which is the word RESURGAM insculped in capital characters.

The west portico is adorned and supported with twelve columns below and eight above, fluted, of the respective orders as the two ranges, the twelve lower adorned with architrave, marble frieze, and a cornice, and the eight upper with an entablature and a spacious triangular pediment, where the history of St. Paul’s conversion is represented, with the rays of a glory and the figures of several men and horses boldly carved in relievo by Mr. Bird. The doorcase is white marble, and over the entrance is cut in relieve the history of St. Paul’s preaching to the Bereans (as in Acts xvii. 2). It consists of a group of nine figures, besides that of St. Paul, with books, &c., lively represented by the same hand as “The Conversion.”

On the south side of the church, near the west end, is a forum or portal, the doorcase being enriched with cartouches, volutas, and fruit, very excellently carved under a pediment, and opposite to this on the north side is the like doorcase. And, in brief, all the apertures are not only judiciously disposed for commodiousness, illumination of the fabric, &c., but are very ornamental.

At the west end is an acroteria of the figures of the twelve apostles, each about eleven feet high, with that of St. Paul on the angle of the pediment, and those of the four evangelists, two of each cumbent between as many angles on a circular pediment. Over the dials of the clock on the fronts of the two towers, also an entablature and circles of enrichment, where twelve stones compose the aperture, answering to the twelve hours.

The said towers are adorned with circular ranges of columns of the Corinthian order, with domes upon the upper part, and at the vertex of each a curious pineapple.

The choir has its roof supported with six spacious pillars, and the church with six more, besides which there are eight that support the cupola and two very spacious ones at the west end. All which pillars are adorned with pilasters of the Corinthian and Composite orders, and also with columns fronting the cross-aisle, or ambulatory, between the consistory and morning prayer chapel, which have each a very beautiful screen of curious wainscot, and adorned each with twelve columns, their entablatures arched pediments, and the king’s arms, enriched with cherubims, and each pediment between four vases, all curiously carved. These screens are fenced with ironwork, as is also the cornice at the west end of the church, and so eastward beyond the first arch.

The pillars of the church that support the roof are two ranges, with their entablature and beautiful arches, whereby the body of the church and choir are divided into three parts or aisles. The roof of each is adorned with arches and spacious peripheries of enrichments, as shields, leaves, chaplets, &c. (the spaces included being somewhat concave), admirably carved in stone; and there is a large cross aisle between the north and south porticoes, and two ambulatories, the one a little eastward, the other westward from the said cross-aisle, and running parallel therewith. The floor of the whole is paved with marble, but under the cupola and within the rail of the altar with fine porphyry, polished and laid in several geometrical figures.

The altar-piece is adorned with four noble fluted pilasters, finely painted and veined with gold, in imitation of lapis lazuli, with their entablature, where the enrichments, and also the capitals of the pilasters, are double gilt with gold. These intercolumns are twenty-one panels of figured crimson velvet, and above them six windows, viz., in each intercolumniation seven panels and two windows, one above the other; at the greatest altitude above all which is a glory finely done. The aperture north and south into the choir are (ascending up three steps of black marble) by two iron folding-doors, being, as that under the organ-gallery, &c., exquisitely wrought into divers figures, spiral branches, and other flourishes. There are two others at the west end of the choir, the one opening into the south aisle, the other in the north, done by the celebrated artist in this way, M. Tijan.

And what contributes to the beauty of this choir are the galleries, the bishop’s throne, Lord Mayor’s seat, with the stalls, all which being contiguous, compose one vast body of carved work of the finest wainscot, constituting three sides of a quadrangle.

The cupola (within the church) appears erected and elevated on eight pillars of a large magnitude, adorned with pilasters, entablature, circular pediments, and arches of the Corinthian order, and each pillar enriched with a spacious festoon. Here are also as many alcoves fronted with curious ironwork, and over the arches, at a great height from the ground, is an entablature, and on the cornice an ambulatory, fronted or fenced in with handsome ironwork, extending round the inside of the cupola, above which is a range of thirty-two pilasters of the Corinthian order, where every fourth intercolumn is adorned with a niche and some enrichments; and it said that in every foot of altitude the diameter of this decreaseth one inch.

On the outside of the dome, about twenty feet above the outer roof of the church, is a range of thirty-two columns, with niches of the same altitude, and directly counter to those aforesaid within the cupola. To these columns there is entablament, and above that a gallery with acroteria, where are placed very spacious and ornamental vases all round the cupola. At twelve feet above the tops of these vases (which space is adorned with pilasters and entablament, and the intercolumns are windows) the diameter is taken in (as appears outwardly) five feet, and two feet higher it decreases five feet, and a foot above that it is still five feet less, where the dome outwardly begins to arch, which arches meet about fifty-two feet higher in perpendicular altitude, on the vertex of which dome is a neat balcony, and above this a large and beautiful lantern, adorned with columns of the Corinthian order, with a ball and cross at the top.

Christ’s Hospital is situated between Newgate Street and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in Smithfield. Here, as has been observed already, was anciently a monastery of grey friars, founded about the year 1325, which, upon the dissolution of monasteries, was surrendered to King Henry VIII., anno 1538, who, in the last year of his reign, transferred it to the City of London for the use of the poor. King Edward VI. endowed this hospital – together with those of Bridewell and St. Thomas’s Hospital in Southwark – with large revenues, of which the City were made trustees, and incorporated by the name of the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the City of London, governors of the possessions, revenues, and goods of the hospitals of Christ, Bridewell, and St. Thomas the Apostle, to whom the king granted £3,266 13s. 4d. per annum.

It was opened in the year 1552, in the month of November, and a good writing-school was added to this foundation in the year 1694 by Sir John More, Kt., and alderman.

The children admitted into this hospital are presented every year by the Lord Mayor and aldermen and the other governors in their turns, a list of whom is printed yearly and set up at the counting-house, and a letter is sent to each of the said governors, some days before the admission, reminding him of the day of choosing, and how those he presents should be qualified, wherein is enclosed a blank certificate from the minister and churchwardens, a blank petition to the president and governors, and a paper of the rules and qualifications of the child to be presented. Upon this the governor, having made choice of a child to present, the friends of the said child come to the counting-house on the admission-day, bringing the said petition and certificates, rules, and letter along with him, and on the back side of the said petition the governor who presents endorseth words to this effect.

“I present the child mentioned in the certificate on the other side, and believe the same to be a true certificate.

“Witness my hand.. the day.. of 17.” Which the said governor signeth, and the child is admitted.

The said rules and qualifications are as follows:

1. That no child be taken in but such as are the children of freemen of London.

2. That none be taken in under seven years old.

3. That none be taken in but orphans, wanting either father or mother, or both.

4. That no foundlings, or that are maintained at the parish charge, be taken in.

5. That none who are lame, crooked, or deformed, or that have the evil, rupture, or any infectious disease, be taken in.

6. That none be admitted but such as are without any probable means of being provided for otherways; nor without a due certificate from the minister, churchwardens, and three or four of the principal inhabitants of the parish whence any children come, certifying the poverty and inability of the parent to maintain such children, and the true age of the said child, and engaging to discharge the hospital of them before or after the age of fifteen years if a boy, or fourteen years if a girl, which shall be left to the governor’s pleasure to do; so that it shall be wholly in the power of the hospital to dispose of such child, or return them to the parent or parish, as to the hospital shall seem good.

7. That no child be admitted that hath a brother or sister in the hospital already.

8. To the end that no children be admitted contrary to the rules abovesaid, when the general court shall direct the taking in of any children, they shall (before taken in) be presented to a committee, consisting of the president, treasurer, or the almoners, renters, scrutineers, and auditors, and all other governors to be summoned at the first time, and so to adjourn from time to time: and that they, or any thirteen or more of them, whereof the president or treasurer for the time being to be one, shall strictly examine touching the age, birth, and quality of such children, and of the truth of the said certificates; and when such committee shall find cause, they shall forbid or suspend the taking in of any child, until they receive full satisfaction that such child or children are duly qualified according to the rules abovesaid.