NORTON-FALGATE, a liberty (extra-parochial),
locally in the Tower division of the hundred of Ossulstone,
county of MIDDLESEX, adjoining the ward of
Bishopsgate (Without) in the city of London, containing
1896 inhabitants. Norton-Falgate, or Folgate,
called also Norton-Folley, derives its name from its situation
north of Bishopsgate, and probably the adjunct
from the Saxon Foldweg, a highway, the Roman Irmin-
street having passed through the place. It is a
precinct exempt from archidiaconal jurisdiction, being
subject to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, to whom
the manor belongs, and who are stated in Domesdaybook
to have held ten cottages and nine acres of land
here in the reign of Edward the Confessor. According
to some authorities, this place belongs to the parish of
St. Faith under St. Paul's, but the inhabitants consider
it a liberty (extra-parochial), marrying and burying where
they please, and maintaining their own poor, except in
that part of the liberty which includes part of Long-alley,
Hog-lane, and Blossom-street, the inhabitants of which
pay poor rates to the parish of Shoreditch, but as to
watch and ward they pay to this liberty. It is within the
jurisdiction of the court of requests held for the Tower
Hamlets, for the recovery of debts under 40s. A courthouse
formerly stood in the High-street, which was long
used as a free school for boys, founded in 16913 but
the school has been removed to Primrose-street, in. the
parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, where a school-house
was erected in 1775, in which sixty boys are educated
and thirty of them clothed. The endowment consists
of £7000 three per cent, consols., arising from the benefactions
of Mr. Richard Turner and others, which,
with a house in Lombard-street, produces £228 per annum.
A school for girls was established in this liberty
in 1703, by voluntary subscription; it is now endowed
with £ 1720 stock in the three per cents., with the dividends
on which, aided by subscriptions, thirty-six girls
are clothed and educated. In Elder-street are almshouses
for six poor members of the Weavers' Company,
founded and endowed, in 1729, by Nicholas
Garrat, Esq., and adjoining them are others for the
poor of Norton-Falgate, erected in 1728. St. Mary Spital,
a priory for canons and brethren of the order of St.
Augustine, was founded by William Brune, a citizen of
London, in 1197  its revenue, at the dissolution, was
£557. 14. 10.