which was known as the ‘Fishmongers' aisle.’ His handsome tomb was destroyed ‘by the axes and hammers of the reformers,’ and all record of its inscription is lost. In 1562 the Fishmongers' Company set up a new tomb for him with his effigy in armour gilt. The doggerel inscription then added is preserved by Weever (Funeral Monuments, p. 410), and, besides describing his Smithfield opponent as Jack Strawe, wrongly describes his death as having occurred in 1383. This monument perished with the church in the great fire of London, and was not restored in the new church, which was removed in 1831 to make way for the approaches to new London Bridge. Walworth's wife, Dame Margaret, survived him for eight years; her will, dated 12 Jan. 1393, being enrolled in the court of husting 20 July 1394 (Sharpe, Calendar, ii. 310–11). The property which she leaves does not include the manor of Walworth in Surrey, and she cannot be identified with that manorial family as is attempted by William Herbert (1771–1851) [q. v.], the historian of St. Michael's (pp. 162–3).
By his first will, dated 20 Dec. 1385 and enrolled in the court of husting on 13 Jan. 1385–6 (Sharpe, Calendar, ii. 251) Walworth left large estates in the city of London to his wife for life and for the maintenance of his chantries, and certain tenements to the Carthusian priory of the Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near London. His second will, dated the same day, gave directions for his burial, and made various bequests in money. To the church and to ecclesiastics he left about 300l., a sum exceeding by 120l. that left to his family and kindred; for his funeral expenses 40l., to the poor 65l., and to apprentices, servants, and friends about 162l. The bequest of law-books to his brother Thomas is very interesting; his possession of so complete and valuable a collection implies more than ordinary proficiency in that branch of study. His effects also included many choice service books and other religious works. The fraternity of chaplains in London, of which he was a brother, is also remembered, as well as the hospitals, prisons, anchorets, &c., of the city of London. Both wills are printed at length by Samuel Bentley in ‘Excerpta Historica’ (1833, pp. 134–41, 419–23).
Walworth first lived in the parish of St. Mary-at-Hill, ‘in the narrow way leading to “Treyerswarfe,”’ the house having probably belonged to his master, John Lovekyn (Thomson, London Bridge, p. 258). He afterwards moved to a large mansion in Thames Street in the parish of St. Michael, Crooked Lane. The house became the property of the Fishmongers' Company in 1413, and their hall occupied its site down to the time of the great fire of 1666 (Herbert, History of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, pp. 47–8). He also held the stews in Southwark under a lease from the bishop of Winchester, and their destruction by the Kentish rebels doubtless added to his resentment against Tyler.
Walworth was the most eminent member of the Fishmongers' Company, and, as in the case of Whittington, a halo of romance has surrounded his memory. More than two hundred years after his death the company included a representation of him in the mayoralty pageants which they provided for members of their company who reached the civic chair. The drawings of the elaborate pageant with which they honoured Sir John Leman for his mayoralty in 1616 are still preserved at Fishmongers' Hall, and were reproduced under the editorship of Mr. J. G. Nichols in 1844. A principal feature of this pageant was ‘Sir William Walworth's Bower,’ which was first stationed in St. Paul's Churchyard. He is shown seated at a table with pens and paper, and rises at the approach of the lord mayor, to whom he delivers a congratulatory address in verse. A special feature of the Fishmongers' pageants in later years was a personification of Walworth, dagger in hand, and the head of Wat Tyler carried on a pole. So late as 1799, in the mayoralty of Alderman Combe, Walworth figured in the procession. As a hero of legendary romance, Walworth is the first figure introduced in Richard Johnson's ‘Nine Worthies of London,’ a little black-letter quarto published in 1592, and reprinted in the ‘Harleian Miscellany’ (viii. 437–43).
Besides the statue by Pierce in Fishmongers' Hall, which has been engraved by Grignion and others, a statue of Walworth's decorates one of the staircases of the Holborn Valley Viaduct. There is a rare and curious little print in the Guildhall Library representing Walworth in his robes as mayor, holding in his right hand a dagger inscribed ‘pugna pro patria,’ and in his left a shield displaying the city arms. Another small print from a painting belonging to Richard Bull, published by Richard Godfrey for the ‘Antiquarian Repertory’ in 1784, is a half-length with the arms of the city and Walworth above, and those of the Fishmongers' Company below (Grose, Antiq. Rep. new edit. ii. 183–4).
[City Records; Herbert's History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies; Munday's Chrysanaleia, ed. J. G. Nichols and Henry
