COUSIN LANE

   South out of Upper Thames Street, at No. 83, to the Thames (P.O. Directory). In Dowgate Ward.

   Earliest mention: O. and M. 1677.

   Other forms of name : "La Cosyneslane," 1305-6 (Ct. H.W. I. 175). "Cosyngeslane," 1321 (Cal. L. Bk. E. p. 144). "Cosineslane," 1338 (Ct. H.W. I. 430). " Cosynes lane," 1345 (ib. 479). "Cosynlane," 1379 (Cal. L. Bk. II. p. 136). "Cuflyn lane," 1510 (Lond. I. p.m. H. VIII. I. p. 74). "Cossen Lane," I and 2 P. and M. (1554) (ib. 133). "Cosin Lane" (S. 234), 1603. "Couzens Lane," "Cousens Lane" (Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 207). "Cousens Lane" (Rocque, 1746).

   Stow says that this lane was named after "William Cosin that dwelled there in the fourth of Richard the second, as divers his predecessors...had done before him. William Cosin was one of the sheriffs in the yeare 1306." These could hardly have been the same persons.

   Peter Cusyn had a wharf in the parish of All Hallows at the Hay in the Ward of Dowgate, 6 Ed. I. 1278 (Cal. L. Bk. B. p. 279), and the lane probably took its name from the family.