=Shoreditch= did not receive its name from Jane Shore, neither is the word a corruption of “Sewer Ditch,” as some writers have suggested. This district really comprised the manor of Sir John Soerditch, a wealthy London citizen and a valiant knight who fought by the side of Edward the Black Prince at Crecy and Poictiers. =Whitechapel= was designated after the White Chapel of St. Mary, built in 1673. =Goodman’s Fields= perpetuated the name of the owner of the land now known as the Minories, upon which a Priory of the Nuns of St. Clare was afterwards built. =Shadwell= is a corruption of St. Chad’s Well, discovered in this neighbourhood in ancient times. The once-notorious =Ratcliffe Highway= derived its name from the Manor of Ratcliffe, belonging to the adjoining parish of Stepney. The title has now been changed to St. George’s Street. =Stepney= was anciently described as _Stebenhithe_, signifying that it contained a wharf or haven belonging to one Steben or Steven. =Spitalfields= marks the site of the ancient Priory of St. Mary of the Spittle, dissolved in 1534. The French refugees established the silk manufacture here in 1685. =Bethnal Green= recalls the existence of the old family of the Bathons, whose history is first recorded in connection with their property situated in this neighbourhood during the reign of Edward I. =Hoxton= is a corruption of _Hogsdon_, meaning hog’s town. In proof of this statement we may add that HOG LANE still exists in the vicinity. =De Beauvoir Town= preserves the family name of the De Beauvoirs, whose original ancestor, Richard de Beauvoir, of Guernsey, resided here in princely style. =Copenhagen Fields= were so called after a tea-house opened by a Dane, about the time when the King of Denmark paid a visit to James I. =Haggerstone= is a corruption of “Hergotestan,” the literal Saxon for “Our God’s Town.” =Hackney= was originally described as _Hackoneye_, signifying an _ey_, or portion of well-watered pasture land, appropriated by a Danish chief named Hacon [_see_ CHELSEA, &c.].