I will now renew the notices of distinguished residents in this part of the parish, occasionally giving a short description of new public erections, and other interesting particulars.
Henry Sampson Woodfall, Esq., was born in Little Britain, in 1739, and when he retired from the active affairs of life, he took a house in Lombard Street, near the Old Church. At a very early age he had the honour of receiving from Mr. Pope half-a-crown for reading to him, with much fluency, a page of Homer. When twelve years old he was sent to St. Paul’s School, on leaving which he was apprenticed to his father, a printer in Paternoster Row; and at the age of nineteen he had committed to his charge the whole business of editing and printing the “Public Advertiser.” From this period till the beginning of 1793, he continued constantly in the exercise of this laborious function. During so long a time, when parties ran extremely high in politics, it is not surprising that a printer should have gotten into some difficulties. He used jocularly to say to his Chelsea friends that he had been fined and confined by the Court of King’s Bench; fined by the House of Lords and Commons, and indicted at the Old Bailey. He laid particular emphasis on the words “fined” and “confined.” His conduct respecting those celebrated letters, signed JUNIUS, displayed great integrity and disinterestedness of character. He associated much with Garrick, Coleman, Bonnel, Thornton, Smollett, Goldsmith, and other wits of his day, and his own conversation overflowed with interesting anecdotes.
In this street resided for many years Mr. W. Lewis, bookbinder, the intimate friend of Dr. Smollett, and his fellow companion, on their journey from Edinburgh to London. It was by the advice of Smollett that he settled at Chelsea; he is pourtrayed in the novel of “Roderick Random,” under the character of Strap the Barber, and many facetious anecdotes are there related of his simplicity, vanity, and ignorance of the world. Mr. Lewis died about 1785.
Danvers Street was begun to be built in the latter end of the 17th century, on the site of Danvers Gardens, and from thence takes its name. Danvers House adjoined Sir Thomas More’s estate, if it was not actually a part of his property, or that of his son in-law, Roper; there existed anciently a thoroughfare or private way between the houses in Lombard Street, on the north side, towards the King’s Road, but to what extent cannot now be ascertained.