The History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and Parts Adjacent, vol. 3
Allen, Thomas
1827
Priory of Augustine Friars.
On the spot of ground still retaining the name, formerly stood a convent of Mendicant-friars, called properly Friars Eremites of the order of St. Augustine. The house was a priory, founded A.D. , by Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, and lord high constable. | |
Reginald Cobham gave his messuage in London to enlarge it, in the year . Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, re-edified this church in the year , and his body was buried in the choir. The small spired steeple was overthrown by a tempest of wind in the year , but was raised anew, and was standing in the year , in a very dangerous and tottering condition; but such was the venerable regard the city had for it, that a petition being preferred to the lord-mayor and aldermen, by the inhabitants of St. Peter le Poor, they readily concurred to | |
213 | promote the repair thereof all they could, by using their interest with the marquis of Winchester, to whom the property of that monastery and the lands adjoining belonged, and for that purpose drew up a letter to him, in the most pathetic words, and moving arguments, exciting him to proceed with that work; which was as follows:
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But this took no effect, and this fine ornament of the city was demolished. | |
This house was valued at and was surrendered by Thomas Hammond the prior, with brethren, to the king, on the , in the of Henry VIII. A great part of this friary was granted to William Paulet, baron St. John of Basing, in Hampshire, created earl of Wiltshire, Jan. , and marquis of Winchester . | |
There were buried in this church, among many others of less note, Edmond, son of Joan, mother to king Richard II. . | |
Lady Margery de Ilderton, in Com. Northumberl. buried in Augustine Friars, London. Her will bore date, . | |
Guy de Mericke, earl of St. Paul. | |
In the middle aisle Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, lord high constable, K. G., who died . | |
Richard Fitz-Alan, earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Warren, K. G., beheaded . | |
John de Vere, earl of Oxford, beheaded on , . | |
William Bourchier, lord Fitz-Warine, obit circa . | |
Dame Jane Norris, lady Bedford. | |
Anne, daughter to John viscount Welles. | |
In chapel, John, son of sir John Wingfield. | |
The lord Angleure, of France. By him the lord Tremayle of France. | |
In the Chapter-house, many of the barons slain at Barnet field, . | |
In the body of the church, sir Thomas Courtney, son to the earl of Devonshire, and by him his sister. | |
Between St. James's altar, and , the lord William, marquis of Berkeley, and earl of Nottingham, and dame Joan, his wife. This William, marquis of Berkeley, by his last will, bearing date , bequeathed his body to be buried here in the friary of Augustine: and friars to sing perpetually in the White-friars church in , in the suburbs of London, for the testator's soul, and the soul of Thomas Berkeley, his son, &c. Sir Thomas Brandon, knight, who married the lady marchioness, bequeathed by his will, anno , to these friars Augustine, for a perpetual | |
215 | memory to be had of the said marquis Berkeley, and the said lady his wife: and his own, to be buried in the friars preachers, London. |
William Collingborne, esq., beheaded, . | |
Sir James Tirrell, sir John Windany, knights, beheaded . | |
Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, K. G., beheaded . | |
Guischard D«Angle, earl of Huntingdon, K. G., obit . | |
In the successful cruises made by the English in the year , about French ships were taken; Henry converted the conventual churches into so many warehouses for the cargoes. This and the Black-friars he filled with herrings and other fishes, and the Grey friars were filled with wine. | |
That portion of the church which was eastward, and not granted to the Dutch, the before-named Paulet, earl of Wilts, obtained in the year of king Henry VIII., who of his special grace granted him | |
The other part, namely, the steeple, choir and side aisles to the choir adjoining, the earl reserved to household uses, as for stowage of corn, coal and other things. His son and heir, the marquis of Winchester, sold the monuments of noblemen (there buried) in great number, the paving stones, &c. (which cost many thousands) for , and in place thereof made stabling for horses. He caused the lead to be taken off the roof of the church, and laid tile instead; which exchange of lead for tile, proved not so profitable as he looked for, but rather to his disadvantage. | |
In the of king Edward VI, he granted by letters patent, dated the , all that church, except the choir, to John Alasco, and a congregation of Germans, and other strangers, fled hither for the sake of religion, and to their successors, ; and the church to be called Alasco to be the superintendent, and Gualter de Leone, Martinus Flandrus, Francis Riverius, and Richardus Gallus, to be the ministers: and this gift was confirmed by the successive princes to the Dutch strangers, and remains to them to this day, for the holy uses of prayer, preaching and administration of the sacraments. | |
It is customary for the Dutch and Walloon churches to pay a deference to every bishop of London, and to each lord-mayor, upon their accession to their dignity and charge, and to present | |
216 | them with a piece of plate. Their ministers and elders of both churches, as representatives of the whole, at some convenient time, make their appearance before them, and of the ministers makes a short congratulatory speech to the bishop in Latin, to the mayor in English. |
The existing remains of the conventual church, comprising the whole of the nave, is a portion of the church which was re.. built in , by the earl of Hereford, and displays the most perfect example of the architecture of the century in the city; it is far less ornamental than the generality of edifices of that age, but when the transepts and choir, with the lofty and elegant spire existed, it must have been a grand and extensive church, as the portion still remaining is larger than any parochial church in the metropolis. The west front is made by buttresses into central and lateral divisions: the former contains an entrance with a pointed arch covered with a frontispiece and pentice of wood of the latest description of pointed architecture, the jambs have attached columns, and the head of the arch the square headed architrave above it, which marks the workmanship of the century; above this is a lofty and spacious window, with a pointed headway, bounded by a weather cornice, and divided into compartments by perpendicular mullions; the head of the arch is occupied by subarches, enclosing circles and trefoil tracery, and sustaining a larger circle, occupied by quaterfoils radiating from the centre; the whole forming an elegant and pleasing group of ornamental stone work. The gable above the window is finished with a modern coping, behind which, on the ridge of the roof, is a small cupola of modern construction; the lateral divisions each contain a window, divided into lights by mullions, the arch filled with elegant quaterfoil tracery disposed in pleasing and fanciful forms, and bounded by a sweeping cornice ; the elevation of both of these divisions is finished with a parapet raking up to the centre gable, and the southern angle is guarded by double buttresses; a poligonal staircase tower lighted by loopholes, is attached to the northern angle of the front; the upper part of this turret, as well as a portion of the walls of the main building, is modern. The north side of the church is partially concealed, towards the east, by attached buildings, and the part which is visible, is made by buttresses into divisions, each containing a window similar to those in the lateral divisions of the west front. The south side of the church is more concealed than the other, the portion which may be seen from an adjacent court shews divisions made by buttresses, and containing windows exactly similar to those on the other side; in this uniformity the present church differs from the buildings of the period, in which the tracery of the windows was generally studiously varied, a series of different designs being met with repeated in succession, so that the same design occurs in every or window; in the present subject only | |
217 | designs are introduced throughout the whole of the building. Near the eastern extremity of the south side, is a modern arched entrance, with a heavy rusticated frontispiece, and the wall is finished, as well as the northern side, with a modern parapet of brickwork and stone coping; near the entrance is a sun dial, with the motto, ; the roof is covered with slates, which, as well as the finish of the side walls, are additions in modern times. The interior is divided into a nave and aisles, by pillars, each composed of a cluster of cylindrical columns, and sustaining pointed arches on each side of the nave; the arches are lofty, and are of the graceful and elegant form which prevailed in the period to which the church is above ascribed. The jambs of the windows are continued to the floor, forming a recess beneath the cills, almost universal in buildings of this period ; the east end of the church is closed by a blank wall. At the end of the south aisle, is still seen the arch of communication with the transept. The roof of the nave is composed of boards, supported on strong beams, all whitewashed, that of the aisles is modern, and plastered. The windows of divisions on the north side are destroyed, and the spaces walled up, with the exception of a modern window; on the opposite side windows are destroyed, and modern substituted; in of the windows of the south aisle, is the following inscription, times repeated, surrounded by an ornamental border in stained glass, and these, together with a crown and a portion of the mantling of a coat of arms in the west window, is all that remains of stained glass in the building; the inscriptions, it is to be recollected, were only set up at the period of the conversion of the building into a protestant church. The division from the west end, is occupied by a gallery, vestry, and library, the former has a ballustraded Ionic front sustained upon columns; on the frieze is the following inscription :--
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This gallery contains a fine toned organ; the next divisions are vacant, and form a nave to the church, which occupies the remainder of the building; the whole of the walls are handsomely wainscotted with cedar or mahogany, and the pews and screens are pannelled in the style of the early part of the century, and are very fine specimens of carpentry. The altar screen, which is affixed to the eastern wall, is painted to imitate Ionic columns of stone, with their entablature, the intercolumniations being inscribed with the commandments. In the pavement are several brassless slabs, which are alone the remnants of the numerous sepulchral monuments which once adorned the building; the inlaid brasses were removed when the monuments of the church were so shamefully disposed of | |
218 | at the commencement of the reformation, which aura, it is to be lamented, was disgraced by many similar acts of Vandalism. stone in particular, had a cross flory in brass, the traces of which are very perfect. The numerous modern gravestones, almost composing the pavement of the church, commemorate many respectable Dutch families, whose names have graced the mercantile annals of the metropolis. |
Footnotes: [] Strype's Stow, i. book ii. p. 114. [] Holinshed, 968. [] Maitland, ii. p. 842. [] John Alasco was uncle to the king of Poland, and some time a bishop of the church of Rome, having been driven from his country for his change of religious opinions, he settled at Embden, in East Friesland. He was there chosen preacher to a congregation of Protestants, who, under the terror of persecution, fled to England, where they were protected by Edward VI. On the accession of Mary, Alasco was ordered to quit the kingdom, and died in Poland in 1560. |