Place Name
A reference to the canons of St Bartholomew’s Church, Smithfield, who held the manor here after land in Islington was granted to them by Ralph de Berners certainly before 1253, and probably in the 12thCentury soon after the priory was founded as part of a monastery of Augustinian Canons. The estate covered an area which was bordered by today’s Upper Street, Essex Road, and St Paul’s Road. The London Encyclopaedia writes: “Apart from the Manor House enclosures, the land was open fields and rich dairy pastures beyond the straggling high road village of Islington”. The name, first mentioned as Canonesbury in 1373, and later Canbury in 1544, and even Canonbury alias Canbury in 1552, comes from two Middle English words caunon (these were religious men who usually of some status with the church who lived in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of or close to a cathedral) and bury meaning town or settlement. The priory was established by Rahere, a courtier and favourite of King Henry I, who fell ill on a pilgrimage to Rome. As he lay delirious, fighting for his life, he prayed that if he survived he would set up a hospital for the poor in London. On his recovery he had a vision of Saint Bartholomew who gave him very specific instructions: “I am Bartholomew who have come to help thee in thy straights. I have chosen a spot in a suburb of London at Smithfield where, in my name, thou shalt found a church.” The reference to a suburb meant outside the walls of the City. Rahere kept his word and set up both a church, a priory, and the hospital. He lived to see their completion and served as both prior of the priory and master of the hospital. It is possible that he was nursed at Barts before his death in 1145. The area itself was developed when Henry Leroux of Stoke Newington leased over 19 acres of land owned by the Marquess of Northampton sometime around 1800, he started building the north-west range of the square in 1805.
