Hello Margo > I hope this isn't presumptious, but I would like to post this on > Forums at FamilySearch. Oh, please do, by all means :-) > I have asked several colleagues and no one > has a clear answer although they really enjoyed your e-mail. We > would like to see what comes up at Forums. Anthony Camp, a famous > British genealogist, watches the Forums page and we're hoping that > he answers it. It has been suggested to me that "Exoniensis" is the title of the Diocese of Exeter, so that it might mean "Exeter House". But that was only a guess. > I will get back to you as soon as I know the answer. Yes please, and thank you for your interest :-) Best wishes . . . Dave

Hi Dave, There was an Exeter House in the Strand at that time (according to Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_House_%28London%29 Cheers, Katherine On 19/12/2011 11:42 AM, Pauline & Arthur Kennedy wrote: > My other half advises me that Exonienses is Latin for of, or > pertaining to, Exeter. So aedes Exonienses would appear to be Exeter > House. > > Pauline > > On 19/12/2011 15:53, David Beames wrote: >> A couple of times lately, ploughing through PCC wills to be added >> to the Library, I have come across an odd phrase in the official >> note which is added to the will when it is "proved": This time, >> it's with the 1670 will of Thomas Allen of Goring. >> >> "Probatum ... apud aedes Exonienses scituat' in le Strand in >> Comitatu' Middlesex..." >> >> That's "Proved ... at aedes Exonienses situated in the Strand in >> the County of Middlesex..." >> >> But what's "aedes Exonienses " ??

> > > I have asked several colleagues and no one > > has a clear answer although they really enjoyed your e-mail. We > > would like to see what comes up at Forums. Anthony Camp, a famous > > British genealogist, watches the Forums page and we're hoping that > > he answers it. I have the answer, I think., There were two Exeter Houses. Exeter House in the Strand was the site of the Bishop of Exeter's London House; then (in Elizabeth's time) it passed through the hands of Lord Paget, the earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex, taking the name of the new owner each time. After a very short time in the ownership of lord Hertford (so Hertford House) it was started collapsing and was half converted, with provision for a sort of shopping mall of boutiques , then the whole remains were demolished in 1682 and Essex street built in its place. This had me really puzzled - the name changes, the demolition etc. BUT I have the solution. There was another Extetr house on the corner of Wellington St, Strand. After the original ExeterHouse became Essex House, Lord Burleigh acquired a home in the same area, which had been the rectory of St Clements, then belonged to Sir Thomas Palmer. He forfeited it for treasoin and Elizabeth gave it to her minister, Robert Cecil, from when it was called Cecil House. then Burleigh House when he was given a title, His son,Thomas was promoted to Earl of Exeter, after which it became Exeter House . But the Cecil family didn't want to use it any more -after a brief let as below, it was divided, partly into shops, plus a wild beast meneagerie and was rebuilt as Exeter Change. with 48 shops and various exntertainment venues.(including a great bed 18ft wide, on which well known people were laid out so that the public could come and gawp, paying 2s6d for the privilege.) BUT briefly, after the Great Fire, Doctors' Commons had to find a new home, so they took a short lease of Exeter House as vacated by the Cecils, Of course, Doctors' Commons was the home of the ecclesiastical lawyers who handled legal business for the Church, and a major part of that business was the proving of wills. Hence your wills must date from the post Great Fire period, and within the next ten or fifteen years. I am indebted mainly to Old and New London for this information. EVE Author of the McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society