Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
The church is in a quasi-Gothic style and somewhat after the model
of the church destroyed by the Fire. It measured 33 feet in height,
66 feet in length, and 59 feet in breadth, and has two side aisles
divided from the central portion by clustered columns and flat
pointed arches. The church terminates at the east in an apse,
containing three stained-glass windows. It has been greatly altered
and modernised, the most striking alteration being the formation of
the apse and the substitution of three smaller windows for the
original large east window. The tower attains a height of 85 feet
and terminates in an open parapet; it is surmounted by eight
pinnacles of 7 feet each, giving a total altitude of 92 feet. On the
north side there is a small churchyard, separating the church from
Little Love Lane.
There was a chantry founded here by Roger Poynel before 1366. The
church formerly contained monuments to Sir John Cheke (1514-57),
tutor of Edward VI. and others.
The donors of charitable gifts were: William Peel, of St. Mary
Savoy, who bequeathed an annuity of £10 in 1623 for the use of the
poor; Gilbert Keat; Susan Ibel, £40 for providing coals for the
poor; Richard Wynne, £20 to be distributed among eight poor people,
at 2s. 6d. apiece; Thomas Savage, citizen and goldsmith, donor of
premises in Holborn Bridge; Mr. Londson, £1 : 6s. per annum for
bread for the poor, through the Company of Embroiderers.
There was a charity school for fifty boys and twenty-five girls,
supported by voluntary contributions from the Church of St. Alban
and others, from which the boys were apprenticed and the girls
placed out to service. The parish had in 1732 a workhouse hired in
the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate.
The following are some of the notable vicars of the church: William
Watts (d. 1649), chaplain to Charles I.; John Adams (1662-1720),
chaplain to William III. and Queen Anne.
=Foster Lane= was originally St. Vedast’s. It is mentioned in a document
of 1281 as St. Fauster’s, which was actually a corruption of St.
Vedast’s. It was, before the Fire, a neighbourhood much frequented by
goldsmiths and jewellers; William Fleetwood, Recorder of London in 1571,
dated some of his letters to Lord Burleigh from Foster Lane.
=St. Vedast’s= Church, commonly known as St. Fauster’s or
Foster’s. It was severely damaged by the Fire, and rebuilt by
Wren; the steeple was erected in 1697, the old one having been
retained until then. The parish was united after the Fire with St.
Michael-le-Querne, and St. Matthew, Friday Street, to which St.
Peter, Westcheap, had been annexed. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1291.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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