Does anybody know about when Gracechurch Street in the city of London stopped being called "Gracious" Street?

Question

My ancestor Walter Carson, in records of the Dutch Reformed Church of Accord NY, is shown to have been born "in the 'Genadige' Street, London" Genadige translates to gracious in English. Online sources indicate this was another name(rhyming slang?) for Gracechurch street in the City of London and use of it stopped after the Great Fire of 1666.  1666 is too early for my ancestor, so the question really is: did use continue into first quarter or half of the 18th century?

Comments

Fascinating (and helpful) Q btw!

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Ed, I keep hoping we will eventually find out where Walter Carson was born. Thank you for continuing to pursue this! C. Carson

Answer 1

Pepys regularly walked up and down Gracious Street. He obviously lived before the fire but the street still stood and he continued to mention it.

https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1668/08/22/

And Jacob Harrison , Tailor of Gracious Street's will was probated in 1748.http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D570362

(interesting possible derivation, nothing to do with Grace but Grass

Gracechurch Street is one of these unambitious streets. It derived its name, says Stow, from the grass or herb market there kept in old time, and which gave its name to the parish church of St. Bennet. St. Bennet Gracechurch, described by Stow, was destroyed in the Great Fire

Walter Thornbury. "Cornhill, Gracechurch Street, and Fenchurch Street," in Old and New London: Volume 2, (London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878), 170-183. British History Online, accessed January 1, 2018, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol2/pp170-183

Comments

Helen, Thanks! Ed

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Ekwall agrees that it means "Grass Church" but disagrees with Stow's etymology (no evidence for this herb market, and the name is very early). He suggests it stood in a grassy plot or possibly had a roof of grassy turf ... although there's no actual evidence for these either... Anyway he also notes that Gracious Street was common in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Ekwall, E. (1965). Street-names of the City of London. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Answer 2

My 1888 London Street atlas doesn't mention a Gendige or Gracious anything  (checked just in case).

I've made a very brief search of newspapers. In an article on the history of street names The Bells New Weekly Messenger 8th January 1842 page 6 mentions "Gracechurch-street, sometimes called Gracious-street, was originally Grass-street..."   https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001319/18420109/050/0006

Some articles quote documents from the 1600s which mention Gracious Street but don't attempt to translate it. Not sure if that is lazy journalists, or they expect readers to know.

Nicknames can last a long time, and it is only a couple of hundred years!

Tim

Comments

Tim, I suspect the translation of "Gracious" was originally done from the English to the Dutch here in North America. My ancestor was marrying into the Dutch community that existed North of NYC. Ed

Answer 3

Hi. I have a pewter pot from a metal smith who’s shop was in gracious street from 1750-1770.  It’s stamped gracious street London

Answer 4

The word 'Gracechurch' derives from Garscherchestrete, Gres-cherch and Gras-cherche, with 'Gracechurch' not used until after the destruction of the street in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The street is in the heart of Roman Londinium; it runs directly over the site of the basilica and forum.
BHOL

 14th and 15th centuries,   it appears from a proclamation of 1374 that there was a regular market held there at that time, for it was provided in the proclamation that those who brought corn to the City for sale from Cambridgeshire and the neighbouring counties should take their corn to be sold "a la Marche sur la Pavement a Graschirche"..
Have you come across this excellent site ?
https://www.locatinglondon.org/index.html