Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The interior of the church is constructed on a rectangular plan,
without aisles, and with only one pillar, rising at the centre of
the west gallery. It is 84 feet in length, 52 feet in breadth, and
the height 30 feet. The church contains much good woodwork, the
carved oak altar-piece being especially fine. The stone tower, which
rises at the south-west, is divided into three stories, the lowest
of which has a large doorway at its south face; the second is
pierced by a circular-headed window, and the third by square
openings with louvres, each surmounted by a cornice. The height of
the tower is about 85 feet. The church is entered by a porch and
vestibule through a doorway in the tower.
Chantries were here founded by: John Chircheman, citizen, and
Richard Tasburgh, late parson of Heylesdon County, Norfolk, July 15,
1392 (Pat. 16 Richard II. p. i. m. 25); John Buck, whose endowment
yielded £40 : 6s. in 1548; John Maldon, whose endowment yielded
£20 : 3 : 4 in 1548, when Edward Hollonde was priest; William
Trystor, who endowed it with £6 : 6 : 8 in 1548.
The most notable of the monuments in this church is to the memory of
Simon Horsepoole, Sheriff of London in 1591.
The sole donor of charities seems to have been this same Simon
Horsepoole, who appointed to this parish £4 : 4s. per annum.
The original church was indebted for its south aisle, steeple, and
other sections to John Warner, Robert Warner, and the Pewterers.
Clothes were found for forty boys, as well as books, and the boys
were put out as apprentices by a Society of Langbourn Ward.
The most notable rectors were: Robert Gilbert, Bishop of London,
1436; Thomas Langton (d. 1501), Bishop of St. David’s and Sarum, and
of Winchester; Francis Dee (d. 1638), Bishop of Peterborough.
At the corner formed by the junction of Lombard and King William Streets
stands the Church of
ST. MARY WOOLNOTH
“The church was founded by Wulfnuth, son of Earl Godwin, about the
time of the Confessor. This name was corrupted into Woolnoth” (Rev.
J. M. S. Brooke, Rector). It was rebuilt, according to Newcourt,
from its very foundations about 1438. Though damaged by the Great
Fire, it was not destroyed, and Wren repaired and rebuilt various
parts in 1677. In 1716 the building was pulled down and the present
church, the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor, was commenced and finished
in 1727. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1252.
The patronage of the church, before 1252, was in the hands of: The
Prioress and Convent of St. Helen’s, London; then Henry VIII., who
seized it and granted it to Sir Martin Bowes, Alderman and Mayor of
London, whose son and heir, Thomas Bowes, sold it to William Pelham,
December 19, 1571; Robert Viner Miles, and several other persons,
the last being Sir George Broke-Middleton, who presented to it in
1883.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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