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The social context of the parish church in early modern Westminster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

Julia Merritt
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Extract

In 1613 the learned divine Dr Andrew Willet remarked on the number of London churches that had recently been rebuilt, commenting that ‘generally all of them have beene more Beautified and adorned in the space of twenty or thirty yeeres than in an hundred yeeres before’. It is somewhat surprising, then, that the subject of church building in Jacobean London has attracted little attention. Yet the detailed examination of such building provides special insight into the way parishioners viewed themselves and their community.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History Yearbook , Volume 18 , May 1991 , pp. 20 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

Notes

1 I would like to thank Vanessa Harding, Lynn Hulse and Anthony Milton for their comments on an earlier version of this article.Google Scholar Willet, Andrew, Synopsis Papismi (1634 edition), 1224. Churches singled out include St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Clement Danes, St Anne Blackfriars, St Olave, Silver Street and St Mary Mounthaw.Google Scholar

2 Finlay, Roger, Population and Metropolis: The Demography of London 1580–1650 (1981);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Finlay, Roger and Shearer, Beatrice, ‘Population growth and suburban expansion’, in London 1500–1700: The Making of the Metropolis, ed. Beier, A.L. and Finlay, R. (1986);Google Scholar Power, M.J., ‘The east and west in early modern London’, in Wealth and Power in Tudor England, ed. Ives, E.W., Knecht, R.J. and Scarisbrick, J.J. (1978)Google Scholar

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5 See Merritt, J.F., ‘Religion, government and society in early modern Westminster, c. 1525–1625’ (unpublished University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1991).Google Scholar

6 PRO, STAC8/101/19.Google Scholar

7 Westminster Public Library (WPL), F2, vol.I, f. 88.Google Scholar

8 WPL, F2, vol.I, f. 114;Google Scholar Colvin, H.M. (ed.), The History of the King's Works (1982), vol. IV, pt. 2, 324. For more on the role of King's Works employees as builders and local office-holders see Merritt, ‘Religion, government and society’, chapters 4 and 5.Google Scholar

9 WPL, F2, vol. I, f. 114.Google Scholar

10 WPL, F2, vol. I, ff. 92, 115.Google Scholar

11 PRO, STAC8/101/19;Google Scholar Hasler, P. (ed.), The House of Commons 1558–1600 (1981), s.n. George Coppyn. For more on Coppin and Dobbinson see Merritt, ‘Religion, government and society’, chapter 4.Google Scholar

12 PRO, STAC8/101/19; for Oldisworth see Hasler, House of Commons, s.n. Arnold Oldisworth; for Spilman seeGoogle Scholar Patho, C. (ed.), ‘The household papers of Henry Percy, Ninth Earl of Northumberland’, Camden Society, 3rd series, vol. 103 (1962), 73, 74, 168;Google Scholar HMC Hatfield, pt. 15, 174–5, 388; pt. 21, 327, 366; pt. 24, 28.Google Scholar

13 PRO, STAC8/101/19.Google Scholar

14 PRO, STAC8/101/19.Google Scholar

15 For example, WPL, WCB 1, ff. 39, 44, 65.Google Scholar

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19 PRO, STAC8/101/19..Google Scholar

20 PRO, STAC8/101/19..Google Scholar

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23 PRO, STAC8/101/19, italics mine.Google Scholar

24 PRO, STAC8/101/19.Google Scholar

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27 WAM 57269; for example, WPL, F224.Google Scholar

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30 WPL, F2, vol.I, f. 28.Google Scholar

31 WPL, F2, vol. I, ff. 40–1.Google Scholar

32 WPL, F2001, f. 136A.Google Scholar

33 WPL, F2, vol. I, f. 61.Google Scholar

34 WPL, F2001, f. 56. For the connection between social status and place of burial, seeGoogle Scholar Harding, Vanessa ‘“And one more may be laid there”: the location of burials in early modern London’, London Journal, 14, no. 2, (1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 WPL, F2, vol. I, f. 131; WPL, F2, vol. II, f. 234; F2001, ff. 132A, 126.Google Scholar

36 WPL, E2, vol. I, f. 179.Google Scholar

37 WPL, F2001, ff.117A, 151, 155A. Presumably the Earl received satisfaction. As of April 1622, however, the parish was still attempting to recover a £14 annuity from the Earl which had been bequeathed to the parish by his father,Google Scholar Robert, 1st Earl of Salisbury, WPL, F2001, f. 156.Google Scholar

38 WPL, F2001, f. 107.Google Scholar

39 Summerson, John (ed.), ‘The book of John Thorpe’, Walpole Society, XL (1966), 10.Google Scholar

40 WPL, F2001, f. 107.Google Scholar

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44 WPL, E2413, pt. 2, f.2.Google Scholar

45 WPL, E2413, pt. 2.Google Scholar

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48 WPL, E2413, pt. 2, f.lv.Google Scholar

49 Merritt, , ‘Religion, government and society’, chapter 3.Google Scholar

50 WPL, E2413, pt. 2, f. 10v. Plague rates are among those specifically mentioned.Google Scholar

51 HMC Hatfield, pt. 9, 14–15; pt. 15, 189–90;Google Scholar Smith, A. Hassell, ‘Militia rates and militia statutes 1558–1603’, in The English Commonwealth 1547–1640, ed. P. Clark, A.G.R. Smith and N. Tyacke (1979), 99, 102–5. Comparing the scale of poverty in the two parishes is difficult. Population density and attendant poverty would seem to have been greater in St Margaret's, see Merritt, ‘Religion, government and society’, chapter 6.Google Scholar

52 Merritt, ‘Religion, government and society’, chapter 4; Rosser, Medieval Westminster, 133–43, 234–5, 363.Google Scholar

53 Merritt, ‘Religion, government and society’, chapter 3. This Act envisaged that ‘merchauntes, Artificers, or Persons usinge anye Trade of buyinge or selling’ would serve as burgesses - not gentlemen, 27 Eliz. c. 31. Exchequer officials from gentry families had occasionally served in St Margaret's parochial government since medieval times, but their royal employment meant they were full time residents with many local ties.Google Scholar

54 WPL, E2413, pt. 1, ff.7–8; CWA, St M.W., 1596–97, f. 10; Peculiar Court of Westminster, 482 Elsam.Google Scholar