Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.Phillimore, Lucy
History
Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.
Phillimore, Lucy
Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714 -- Biography; Wren family; Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723
The Museum at Oxford, known as the Ashmolean, was Sir Christopher's work
in 1677. It contained a collection of objects of natural history which
was then reckoned a very good one: it had been collected by John
Tradescant, and bequeathed by him to Mr. Elias Ashmole, the historian of
the Order of the Garter, who made the whole over to the University,
endowing a lecture upon them.
The collection contained several curious specimens of Roman, Indian, and
other weapons, some clothing made of feathers; among other 'rarities,' a
'toad included in amber,' and a 'habit of feathers from the Phoenix
wing as tradition goes.'[159] Ashmole was of the Royal Society and a
student of astrology.
In the November of this year, Sir Christopher's only daughter Jane was
born, and was baptized at S. Martin's, probably by the Rev. William
Lloyd, then the vicar, who bore the high character of 'an excellent
preacher, a man of great integrity and piety, one who thoroughly
understood all the parts of his function and had a mind fully bent to
put them in execution.' Wren's fourth and youngest child was born in
June, 1679, and baptized, also at S. Martin's, by the name of William.
Sir Christopher's good friend Evelyn was one godfather, the other was
Sir William Fermor, the head of an old Cavalier family of
Northamptonshire, whose father, all but ruined in the civil wars,
survived to attend as one of the Knights of the Bath at Charles II.'s
coronation. Sir William, who was by his mother's side first cousin to
Lady Wren, was a friend of Evelyn's, whose tastes he shared. He was
created Lord Lempster[160] by William and Mary. The other sponsor was
Lady Newport, daughter of the Earl of Bedford, and wife of the Lord
Treasurer, Lord Newport, who, greatly distinguished by his loyalty and
his suffering in the Civil War, was made Comptroller of the Household,
and in 1672 Lord Treasurer, an office which he held under the two
succeeding monarchs.[161] Lord Newport was a friend both of Wren and of
Evelyn, and entertained them, Prince Rupert, and others at his house,
where he had a fine collection of pictures.
Wren began five of his churches in this year: one was the little square
church of SS. Anne and Agnes, Aldersgate, with its four Corinthian
columns and decorated ceiling.
'There is a constant tradition in the parish that SS. Anne and Agnes
were two sisters who first built this church at their own charge,'[162]
but at what date is not said. It once bore the name of 'S.
Anne-in-the-Willows,' from the willow-trees that grew hard by.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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