Smithfield, London personal signature of the Monarch), invariably upon ministerial recommendation, which if unexercised by the time of a Sovereign's death required renewed authority. In this case Queen Elizabeth did not approve the executions, thus freeing the Protestants. During the 16th century the Smithfield site was also the place of execution of swindlers and coin forgers, who were boiled to death in oil. By the 18th century the "Tyburn Tree" (near the present-day Marble Arch) became the main place for public executions in London. After 1785, executions were again moved, this time to the gates of Newgate prison, just to the south
Bow, London Priory and immortalized in Chaucer's description of the Nun Prioress in the General Prologue to his "Canterbury Tales". However, Bow itself was still an isolated village by the early 14th century, often cut off from its parish church of St Dunstan's, Stepney by flood. In 1311 permission was granted to build St Mary's Church, Bow as a chapel of ease to allow the residents a local place of worship. The land was granted by Edward III, on the King's highway, thus beginning a tradition of "island" church building. Bow was made an Anglican parish of its own in 1719, with