St Botolph without Aldgate was an

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

immediately east of and outside (without)

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. The gate gave its name to ''Aldgate High Street'', the first stretch of the A11 road, that takes that name as it passes through the ancient, extramural Portsoken ...

, a gate in London's defensive wall. The parish church was St Botolph's Aldgate. The densely populated, and entirely extramural East End parish was split into two parts: the

Portsoken Portsoken, traditionally referred to with the definite article as the Portsoken, is one of the City of London, England's 25 ancient wards, which are still used for local elections. Historically an extra-mural ward, lying east of the former Lond ...

ward of the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

and

East Smithfield East Smithfield is a small locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, east London, and also a short street, a part of the A1203 road. Once broader in scope, the name came to apply to the part of the ancient parish of St Botolph without ...

in the

County of Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west. A line of hi ...

. Each part operated as a separate parish for civil administration with its own local government, but it was a single parish for ecclesiastical purposes.

Within the City

The section of the parish in the City of London was the

ward. The City of London section of the parish was abolished in 1907 when the City of London civil parish was created.

Outside the City

The part in Middlesex was known as

. It was part of the Tower division (which was also known as the Tower Hamlets). Its eastern boundary with Wapping ran along Sir Thomas More Street (originally known as Nightingale Lane) and the small brook that ran either side of it. Civil parish administration was in the hands of the vestry until 1855 when the parish was grouped into the Whitechapel District and the parish elected six members to Whitechapel District Board of Works. The parish was transferred from the

to the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...

in 1889. In 1895 it absorbed the civil parishes of St Katherine by the Tower and Old Tower Without. In 1901 it absorbed the civil parish of the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

. It became part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Stepney The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London created in 1900. In 1965, it became part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formation and boundaries The borough was formed from thirteen civil parishes ...

in 1900 and the local authority became Stepney Borough Council. The civil parish then had only nominal existence until 1921 when it was abolished.

Demographics

In common with the neighbouring St Katharine's Precinct (a part of the parish till 1444), the parish has had a diverse population since the medieval period. From 1236, the parish (or at least the south of it) had a Jewish population, settled in the area for the protection of the Tower and its garrison. The Jews had to take refuge in the Tower several times and on at least one of those occasions, in 1267, during the

Second Barons' War The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in Kingdom of England, England between the forces of barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of Henry III of England, King Hen ...

, formed part of its defensive garrison during a siege. This arrangement lasted until the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290. In 1483 the Portsoken ward is recorded as having more ''aliens'' in its population than any ward in the City of London. This pattern of diversity continued, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries the parish as a whole is recorded as having a population of at least 25 people identified as "blackamoors." They appear to have arrived as a result of the war with Spain, being freed from Spanish slave ships, or slavery in Spanish colonies, by English warships. These free black Londoners, some of whom had mixed African and Spanish ancestry, often found work as sailors or interpreters. Many were servants and one appears to have worked at the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

. The parish records from that time also reveal the presence of French, Dutch and Indian residents as well as at least one Persian and one East Indian (Bengali). The continuation of the black presence is illustrated from a court record from 1787, which noted that constables trying to make an arrest at the Shovel public house in East Smithfield, were ejected by the landlord and more than forty black drinkers. Since the 1840s, nearly all of the

Aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking membe ...

of the Portsoken electoral ward have been Jewish.

References

{{Authority control Parishes united into districts (Metropolis) Former civil parishes in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Bills of mortality parishes Black British history