Shoreditch

according to tradition, is so called from Jane Shore, who, it is said, died there in a ditch. This tale comes from a ballad in Pepysʹ collection; but the truth is, it receives its name from Sir John de Soerdich, lord of the manor in the reign of Edward III.

“I could not get one bit of bread

Whereby my hunger might be fed… .

So, weary of my life, at length

I yielded up my vital strength

Within a ditch … which since that day

Is Shoreditch called, as writers say.”

Duke of Shoreditch. The most successful of the London archers received this playful title.

“Good king, make not good Lord of Lincoln Duke of Shoreditch!”—The Poore Man’s Peticion to the Kinge. (1603.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Shoreditch

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