Chimney Piece, Sessions House, Clerkenwell, ca.1886

From: Henry Dixon & Son

RA Collection: Art

"The Chimney-piece is a relic of Hick's Hall, a very famous building in its day, erected at his own cost in 1612, by Sir Baptist Hicks, as a meeting place for Justices of the Peace of the County of Middlesex, who, up to this time, had held their meetings in an Inn. The site of Hick's Hall is marked by an inscription on a house in St John's Street, at the corner of St. Peter's Lane. In 1782 the present Sessions House on Clerkenwell Green was built, and the business of the Court removed thither. An inscription on the Chimney-piece records that:-

"Sir Baptist Hickes of Kensington in the

County of Middlesex Knighte one of the

Justices of Peace of this County of Midd.

out of his worthy disposition and at

his owne proper charge buylt this Session

House in the year of our Lord God 1612 and

gave it to the Justices of Peace of this County

and their successors for a Session House for ever

1618."

Underneath is another inscription, stating that the Chimney-piece was removed hither in 1782. Sir Baptist Hicks was a Citizen and Mercer of London, having a silk mercer's shop in Cheapside. He was knighted in 1603, and was one of the first Citizens, who after Knighthood, kept a shop. This was a scandal to some of the Aldermen, to whom Sir Baptist replied "That his servants kept the shop, though he had a regard to the special credit thereof, and that he did not live altogether upon interest, as most Aldermen Knights did, laying aside their trade after Knighthood; and that has two of his servants kept their promise, and articles concluded between them and him, he had been free of his shop two years past; and did then but seek a fit opportunity to leave the same" (Strype, BK.1. p.287). In 1628, Hicks was raised to the peerage by the titles of Baron Hicks of Ilmington, and Viscount Campden. Campden House, his residence at Kensington, was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1862. An excellent account of the house, its founder and the fire, which was the subject of a remarkable action against a Fire Insurance Company, will be found in Chambers's Book of Days , part vii."

The above description, by Alfred Marks, was taken from the letterpress which accompanies the photographs.