ted to
erect sheds under certain conditions.(1325)

(M673)

On Monday, the 10th September, the Common Council met. It is the first
court since the fire of which any record has come down to us. Its first
care was to order every street and lane in each ward to be cleared of all
rubbish by the late inhabitants, "every one before his grounds," and by no
one else. It next proceeded to nominate a committee of aldermen and
commoners to consider the best means of raising the city out of its ruins,
and it was agreed that the Common Council should sit every Wednesday at
Gresham House.(1326)

(M674)

When the fire was at its height the king had been anxious to send for the
Duke of Albemarle, but hesitated to do so fearing lest he would be
unwilling to be ordered home whilst engaged in the Dutch war.(1327)
Representations of the king's wishes, however, having been made to the
duke, he hurried home. On the 12th September a committee was appointed by
the Court of Aldermen to wait upon him with a draft proclamation for the
discovery and restoration of goods taken either wilfully, ignorantly, or
of purpose during the confusion consequent on the late fire.(1328) The
quantity of plate, money, jewels, household stuff, goods and merchandise
discovered among the ruins was very great, and much of it had quickly been
misappropriated. The proclamation ordered all persons who had so
misappropriated property to bring the same within eight days into the
armoury in Finsbury Fields; and by order of the Common Council no such
property was to be given up to any claimant without permission of the
Court of Aldermen or the lord mayor and sheriffs for the time being.(1329)

(M675)

A month later (19 Oct.) a letter was addressed to the mayor signed by the
archbishop of Canterbury, the lords Clarendon, Albemarle, Manchester,
Arlington and others, complaining that sundry materials of city churches
destroyed by the fire had been embezzled and stolen, and also that smiths'
forges and other artificers' shops and even alehouses were kept within the
sacred ruins. The mayor was directed, with the assistance of the Court of
Aldermen, to obtain inventories of all communion plate, vestments,
records, books and other goods belonging to each church that the fire had
destroyed, and of all that remained to each church after the fire, and he
was to cause the plate and goods that survived the fire to be preserved
for future use in their respective churches. He was