Footnotes

'ONE OF THOSE THAT FIRED THE HOUSE OF MR FARRYNER A BAKER IN PUDDING LANE' – contemporary depositions on the Great Fire of London, bearing the file-dock "Papest fireing London". This is a contemporary manuscript of the report by Sir Robert Brooks, Chairman of the Committee appointed by the House of Commons to enquire into the origin of the fire, dated 22 January 1666/7 and published as the opening section of A true and faithful account of the several informations exhibited to the hounourable committee appointed by the Parliament to inquire into the late dreadful burning of the city of London together with other informations touching the insolency of popish priests and Jesuites (1667). Written on a typical seventeenth century stationer's bifolium, our manuscript has every appearance, not least from the handwriting, of being a contemporary scribal copy and having been in circulation during the period. It seems likely, also, that it predates printed publication of the report. The phrasing of manuscript and printed version differ in many places; for example, in the short passage quoted above, where our version reads "there were these words expressed" the latter reads 'there were these expressions'; "He Had brought 3 balls, & gave Him one in to His hands to through in to the House" is printed as 'he had brought three Balls, and gave him one of them to throw into the house'; and elsewhere where, for example, the manuscript reads "deposes" and the printed text 'informs'.

Robert Hubert, a Frenchman who worked as a watchmaker in Paris and London, had been arrested in Romford in the aftermath of the fire on suspicion of fleeing the country. Under questioning, he confessed to setting fire to the baker's in Pudding Lane with a Dutchman by the name of Peidloe (who was however never apprehended and, indeed, may not even have existed): 'Although the government accepted that the fire was an accident, considered Hubert's story unconvincing, and regarded Hubert himself as deranged, Hubert was hanged at Tyburn on 27 October. According to the Venetian ambassador in Paris the crowd tore his body to pieces after the execution, reflecting the strength of the upsurge of anti-French feeling. The mood of the time also required that Hubert should be a Roman Catholic. He and his family were known to be protestant, and so it was alleged that he had been converted while in prison by the queen mother's confessor and had died a Catholic... Hubert's conviction had an important consequence for reconstruction after the fire. The legal obligation to rebuild lay with the tenants of the property destroyed, not the landlords. However, because the losses in the great fire were attributed to Hubert, who was considered an enemy (owing to the war with France), the tenants were not held to be liable. This decision, made by 5 November, removed fears that the rebuilding would be hindered by the inability or reluctance of tenants to invest in building properties from which their landlords would reap most of the benefit' (Stephen Porter, OBNB).