Her legacy in Islington, the City of London and Hertfordshire has lasted more than four centuries and includes one of the country’s highest ranked state schools.
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For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, including the brand new Groundbreaking Women of Islington walk please click here.
Alice Wilkes was born in Islington in 1547, the daughter of Thomas Wilkes, a landowner and innkeeper. Then a rural village a mile or two north of London, Islington’s southern fields were frequently used for archery practice. Farm workers and walkers needed to be aware of the danger of arrows flying past.
The image above, from the 'Agas' Map shows the fields between Clerkenwell and Islington in c1560. The two main roads leading north are today's St John Street (left) and Goswell Road (right).
While still a teenager (around the time of the image above), Alice was out walking one day with a maidservant in the fields between Islington and Clerkenwell. Approaching a milkmaid in a pasture known as the Hermitage Field, Alice asked if she could have a go at milking a cow.
As she sat down on the milking stool, a stray arrow pierced her hat and came out the other side, but left her unscathed. If she had not just sat down, the arrow could well have killed her. She promptly vowed that, if she lived ‘to be a lady’, she would establish a legacy on that spot in gratitude to God for her escape from death.
Decades later, she had been widowed three times and inherited considerable wealth from each of her husbands. Her servant (who was still with her) reminded her of the promise she had made all those years ago.
Now called Alice Owen (her third husband was Thomas Owen), she bought 11 acres of the Hermitage Field in 1608, where she went on to establish a school, chapel and almshouse for 10 poor widows.
The field’s name derived from a monk, who once lived the solitary life of a hermit there. On today’s map, the land she bought is the triangle between St John Street, Goswell Road and Rawstorne Street. On the extract from the Agas Map reproduced above, the Hermitage Field is between the two main roads, in the distance at the top of the image.
Alice passed her legacy in trust to the Worshipful Company of Brewers, one of the City of London's livery companies, who continue to manage her charity today.
Her relationship with the Brewers began with her first husband, Henry Robinson, who had been a member of the Company.
Alice and Henry lived in a house on Chancery Lane, and had six sons and five daughters together.
After the death of her first husband she married William Elkin, a City Alderman and member of the Mercers’ Company, in 1586. She moved to live with him in Bassishaw Ward, close to Guildhall, a very important location in the City. The marriage produced a daughter, Ursula, who was Alice’s 12th and last child.
Widowed a second time, in 1595 Alice married a judge, Thomas Owen, who was also a friend and neighbour. Alice lived with him in Bassishaw Ward on the same street where she had lived with William Elkin.
Alice died on 26 October 1613 and her funeral service was held at St Michael Bassishaw, her local church for the previous 30 years. However, she was buried in her native Islington, at St Mary's on Upper Street. Her grave and memorial were lost when the church was rebuilt in 1754, but she is now the subject of a bonze roundel in the churchyard.
Her death mask is kept at Brewers' Hall.
Dame Alice Owen's School, which she founded in 1613 shortly before she died, was originally for 30 boys (24 from Islington and six from Clerkenwell). It stood on the St John Street side of the Hermitage Field and, after significant expansion, it was rebuilt in 1840 on Goswell Road. A nearby girls’ school was added in 1886.
The two schools merged and left Islington for Potter’s Bar in Hertfordshire between 1973 and 1976. One of the oldest schools in England, the partially selective state school for boys and girls aged 11 to 18 has a reputation for academic success.
Dame Alice Owen's School is now in Potter’s Bar and her almshouses and chapel no longer exist, although the gateposts remain on Goswell Road, where City and Islington College now stands. Moreover, Islington street names such as Owen Street, Owen's Row, Owen’s Fields and Hermit Street are reminders of her legacy.
The Brewers' Company is trustee to the Dame Alice Owen Foundation, which supports the school and educational programmes in Islington and elsewhere. The Brewers still manage properties on part of the former Hermitage Field estate in Islington, which raises revenue for the charity.
The area remained rural for well over a century after Alice Owen’s death, but the Company started to build on the land in the 18th century. In the 1870s and 1880s it built a row of residential flats for social housing, called Brewers’ Buildings, which still stand today under the management of Islington Council.
The school's long connection with the Brewers has led to a tradition whereby the Master of the Company gives all students 'beer money' every year.
Those in their first year at the school (Year 7) visit Brewers' Hall in the City of London to receive a £5 commemorative coin from the Master. In subsequent years, the Master visits the school at the end of the summer term to present each pupil with their beer money (rising from £1 in Year 8 to £6 in Year 13) in a mostly silent ceremony.
A former pupil in the 1970s once told me that, if a pupil was absent on the day of the ceremony, their money would be given to the Head Boy instead, a practice that has been discontinued (might it have given the Head Boy an unintended incentive?). Today, according to the school’s website, the Head Boy and Head Girl receive £10 “in recognition of their additional commitments”.
Famous alumni of the school, known as Old Owenians, include Gary Kemp, Tony Hadley and other members of Spandau Ballet, actors Joss Ackland and Jessica Tandy and film maker Alan Parker.
The school crest is almost identical to the Brewers' Company coat of arms, both featuring a shield displaying barley and barrels. However, the school crest also includes crossed arrows, in a reference to its founder’s teenage escape from death four and a half centuries ago.
Strictly speaking, Alice Owen was not a ‘Lady’ or a ‘Dame’, since she was not of noble birth and none of her husbands were knights or lords.
However, Thomas Owen, as a judge and MP who owned the manor of Candover, was a man of high status. He died in 1598, just before he was due to be knighted, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
It was common for the widow of a judge to be styled Lady or Dame and this is how Alice acquired the designation (she has been referred to under both, but is now widely known as Dame Alice Owen).
Curiously, Alice’s daughter by her second husband, Ursula, officially became a Lady, since she married Thomas Owen’s son Roger, an MP, who was knighted.
It was only after the death of her third and final husband, Thomas Owen, that Alice began her philanthropy, having acquired great wealth and (presumably) more time to devote to her charitable plans.
Alice's story is a reminder of how a woman's status and wealth was very much dependent on her husband in Tudor and Stuart England.
It was very challenging and very rare for women to achieve wealth and titles in their own right. If a widow remarried, her new husband immediately assumed her assets, so the only way to be independently wealthy was to remain unmarried after being widowed.
Alice may have had some good luck in acquiring her great fortune, but her piety and charitable nature provided a lasting legacy. History has judged her a Lady and a Dame.
Alice Owen is one of the Groundbreaking Women of Islington whose stories will be told on my brand new walk of that name at 2.30pm on 8 March, International Women's Day.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, please click here.
I was at Owen's from 1950-1958. Then the first-year boys got 6 pence Beer Money and 7 years later as a prefect a Guinea. I am led to understand that the school boys in the seventeenth had an allowance of ale to drink daily as the water available was contaminated. It is appropriately called Beer Money as it comes from the Brewers Company. A representative of the company usually one of the directors of the trust handed out the Beer Money in the entrance hall under the watchful eyes of Dame Alice's statue. It was the only time each year that students were allowed to enter the entrance hall and then only in strict single file in silence. Only t…