Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723. — John Shaqi
Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.Phillimore, Lucy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Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.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
Christopher did not hold this living more than three years, and then
received, also from Bishop Andrewes, the neighbouring living of East (or
Bishop's) Knoyle, very near Fonthill Abbey, afterwards a place famous
for its beauty and its curiosities, then the property of a Mr. Robert
Cox. This gentleman had an only child, Mary, who inherited his property;
she became the wife of Christopher Wren, probably a few years after his
appointment to East Knoyle, where their seven children were born--five
girls, of only one of whom there is any subsequent record, and two sons.
A Christopher, baptized in the November of 1630, who probably died very
young, as in the register the record stands, 'Christopher, first sonne
of Doctor Wren,' 'first' is added above in another hand. The next
baptism is, 'Christopher, 2nd (_sic_) sonne of Christopher Wren, Dr. in
Divinitie and Rector now.' This is in the entries for 1631 (O.S.),
followed by those for March, and is dated only '10th.'
This 'second Christopher' is the one who was to make the name afterwards
so famous; but the date is very perplexing. Dr. Wren and his son both
reckoned the latter's age from his birthday, October 20, 1632, as
appears again and again in the 'Parentalia,' notably in Dr. Wren's own
MS. note to a letter from his son.[20] The East Knoyle Register would,
if the baptism is rightly put among the entries for _March_ 1631 (O.S.),
make the birthday October 20, 1631; but it seems more likely that this
is an error, and 1632 the correct date.
[CHANCEL AT EAST KNOYLE.]
At East Knoyle Dr. Wren appears to have passed most of his time, leaving
it occasionally, as he had done his previous living, to attend on Bishop
Andrewes. He was a good scholar, if less deeply learned than his
brother; a mathematician, a good musician, and had besides some
knowledge of drawing and architecture. He employed himself in decorating
East Knoyle chancel, and to him, in all probability, are owing the[21]
'flower borders, figures, and texts of Scripture in raised plasterwork'
which, though much defaced, still cover the chancel. The subjects
are--'Jacob's Dream,' 'The Ladder with the Angels,' 'Jacob anointing the
Pillar.' Over the chancel arch 'The Ascension of our Lord.' Round the
capitals of the columns are quaint inscriptions:
Sic ae Am a
pr sis. a. A Deo pta.[22]
ut o or o
'Unum necessarium.' The texts of holy Scripture, which are very well
chosen, are all quoted from that earlier translation known as the
'Bishops' Bible,' to which the Psalms, Offertory sentences, and
'Comfortable Words' of the Prayer Book belong.
Besides this, Wren contrived a new roof for the church, as the old one
was falling into decay. In the hall of the rectory he put up the
following inscription:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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