Place Name
Sir John Houblon (March 13, 1632 – January 10, 1712) was the first Governor of the Bank of England from 1694 to 1697. He had a huge house on Threadneedle Street – the site of the present day Bank. But the street itself was not named to commemorate him but more likely his daughters, Rebeckah and Susanna Houblon. Lady Alice Frances Archer Houblon takes up the story in her book The Houblon Family, its story and times published in 1907: “Lady Houblon was very old when she died. Her daughters continued for many years to live on Richmond Hill, where they had a house. A group of almshouses, eleven in number, built and endowed by them in 1753, still exists, situated on the slope of the Hill (now covered with houses), about half a mile from the famous terrace overlooking the valley of the Thames. Where change has been busy all around, this little oasis of the past has remained almost untouched since the first group of Richmond widows found a refuge there from the storms of the outer world of poverty and sorrow. Though the road to London passes scarcely fifty yards away, and opposite its brick gateway the Red Cow Inn plies its trade, — once past the fine wrought-iron gate crowned by the date 1753 which leads into the high-walled sanctuary of sleepy peace within, one can imagine oneself actually in the past, and conjure up a mental vision of the two little old ladies, Mistress Rebeckah and Mistress Susanna Houblon, hooped and powdered, each with a Bible tucked under her arm, tripping across the quadrangle between the tall hollyhocks and roses and mignonette, to ‘read a chapter’ to the white-capped inmates of the tiny houses. Down the steep green lane behind they would have come, and on their own land all the way; for they owned many goodly acres on Richmond Hill. But the trustees of the charity have long since turned the lane to good account, and now it is ‘Houblon Road,’ flanked on both sides with dingy brown houses. Susanna, the last surviving of the sisters, lived for another twelve years at Richmond. Latterly her niece Esther, the daughter of Sara Mytton and her husband, made her home with the old lady. The St James’s Evening Post tells us, on the 25th of August 1765, that Mistress Houblon, daughter to Sir John Houblon, who was Lord Mayor for this City in the year 1696 — is dead: a maiden lady of large fortune.’ Miss Susanna left £40,000, half of which she bequeathed to her father’s great-great-nephew John Houblon of Hallingbury, and half in legacies to the children of her married sisters. The house and property on Richmond Hill she likewise left to her great-nephew, subject to the proviso that Esther Mytton should be allowed to live there undisturbed so long as she should choose to do so; with the further stipulation that no buildings should be erected, or alterations made, which might interfere with the ‘prospect from her windows’; showing the famous view from Richmond Hill to have been even then in danger.”
