The messuage on which what is now the building containing 22-26 Princes Street stands almost certainly belonged to the College of St Mary Chapel in the Fields since 1272, as part of the 3 messuages of the advowson of St George Tombland.
Around 1545, as a result of the dissolution of the monasteries, the last Dean of the College of Chapel in the Fields, Dr Miles Spencer, sold off two of the St George Tombland messuages – probably Princes Inn (20) and the messuage to the north of the churchyard, facing Tombland, containing the house that was Augustine Steward’s birthplace, to Augustine Steward. The 22-26 Princes Street messuage was sold to John and Elizabeth Clerke/Clarke.
1565 – John and Elizabeth Clerke grant to Augustine Styward a tenement and garden (which the said John and Elizabeth Clerke bought of Miles Spencer; LL.D.) between a tenement of the said John Clerk E(ast)., a tenement of the said Augustine Styward W(est), a garden of the said Augustine Styward N(orth), and a highway S(outh). Possibly = sale of 22 to Styward/Steward, with the Clerks continuing to live in 24 and 26 Princes Street
1582 Francis Clarke of Gasthorpe, a clergyman, purchases two messuages (24-26?) in St George Tombland from his sister Elizabeth Clarke – widow of John Cle/arke, now married to Edmund Bradye, an innhoulder. Properties are between William Styward/Steward to the west, cemetery of St George Tombland to the east, and the garden of William Styward to the north in the tenure of William Pyckering (?-1598), a barber., with the highway (Princes Street) to the south.
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