St. Anne's Church is also called the Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, from a tradition that it was built by two sisters so named, and in old records is styled St. Anne in the Willows, from its standing in a grove of those trees. The date of its foundation is not known, but a John de Chambrey was collated to the living in 1322. The rectory was under the patronage of the Dean and Canons of St. Martin's, and went with the college to Westminster. It was destroyed by fire in 1548, restored in 1624, again burnt in 1666, rebuilt by Wren in 1680, when the parish of St. John Zachary was united to it, and again "repaired and beautified" in 1701-3. Within its walls was buried William Gregory, Mayor of London 1451, in a chantry which he had founded. There was a monument to Peter Helwood, who was stabbed in Westminster Hall, in 1640, by John James, a Dominican friar, for his zealous prosecution of the Papists, as a justice of the peace. The inscription says:— "Reader, if not a Papist bred, Upon such ashes lightly tread." The Rev. James Penn, lecturer at the church, was, along with the Rev. S. Aldrich, rector of St. John's, Clerkenwell, appointed to investigate the mystery of the Cock Lane Ghost. There have been several notable Nonconformist chapels in and about Aldersgate Street. Early in the reign of Charles II., the Society of Friends established a meeting in Bull and Mouth Street, and George Fox frequently preached there. As was common at that time, the congregation was subjected to barbarous persecution. In 1662 a mob assembled, dragged them out into the street, beating and mauling them severely, and killing one outright. In 1760 the meeting was given up, and the room taken by a congregation of Sandemanians from Glovers' Hall, who held it many years until they removed to Paul's Abbey Barbican. In 1767 appeared "A Plain and Full Account of the Christian Practices Observed by the Church in St. Martin's-le-Grand, etc.," which was attributed to the Rev. John Bernard, minister of the chapel, a learned man, and author of some other works, who was eventually expelled from his pulpit for "not being sufficiently humble, and for thinking too highly of his preaching abilities." He died in 1805.