Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its PlacesThornbury, Walter
History
Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places
Thornbury, Walter
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
Mr. Noble, in his record of this parish, has remarked on the
extraordinary longevity attained by the incumbents of St. Dunstan's. Dr.
White held the living for forty-nine years; Dr. Grant, for fifty-nine;
the Rev. Joseph Williamson (Wilkes's chaplain) for forty-one years;
while the Rev. William Romaine continued lecturer for forty-six years.
The solution of the problem probably is that a good and secure income is
the best promoter of longevity. Several members of the great banking
family of Hoare are buried in St. Dunstan's; but by far the most
remarkable monument in the church bears the following inscription:--
"HOBSON JUDKINS, ESQ., late of Clifford's Inn, the Honest Solicitor,
who departed this life June 30, 1812. This tablet was erected by his
clients, as a token of gratitude and respect for his honest,
faithful, and friendly conduct to them throughout life. Go, reader,
and imitate Hobson Judkins."
Among the burials at St. Dunstan's noted in the registers, the following
are the most remarkable:--1559-60, Doctor Oglethorpe, the Bishop of
Carlisle, who crowned Queen Elizabeth; 1664, Dame Bridgett Browne, wife
of Sir Richard Browne, major-general of the City forces, who offered
L1,000 reward for the capture of Oliver Cromwell; 1732, Christopher
Pinchbeck, the inventor of the metal named after him and a maker of
musical clocks. The Plague seems to have made great havoc in St.
Dunstan's, for in 1665, out of 856 burials, 568 in only three months are
marked "P.," for Plague. The present church, built in 1830-3, was
designed by John Shaw, who died on the twelfth day after the completion
of the outer shell, leaving his son to finish his work. The church is of
a flimsy Gothic, the true revival having hardly then commenced. The
eight bells are from the old church. The two heads over the chief
entrance are portraits of Tyndale and Dr. Donne; and the painted window
is the gift of the Hoare family.
According to Aubrey, Drayton, the great topographical poet, lived at
"the bay-window house next the east end of St. Dunstan's Church." Now it
is a clearly proved fact that the Great Fire stopped just three doors
east of St. Dunstan's, as did also, Mr. Timbs says, another remarkable
fire in 1730; so it is not impossible that the author of "The
Polyolbion," that good epic poem, once lived at the present No. 180,
though the next house eastward is certainly older than its neighbour. We
have given a drawing of the house.
[Illustration: MRS. SALMON'S WAXWORK, FLEET STREET--"PALACE OF HENRY
VIII. AND CARDINAL WOLSEY" (_see page 45_).]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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