All Hallows, London Wall

All Hallows, London Wall

On the north side of London Wall at No. 85 (P.O. Directory). In Broad Street Ward. Parish extends into Aldgate and Bishopsgate Within Wards.

Earliest mention found in records: Temp. H. I. (Strype, I ii. p. 5) included in grant to Holy Trinity of soke of Aldgate (See below).

"Omnium sanctorum super murum," 1241–59 (Register of Fulk Basset, Bishop of London, in D. and C. St. Paul's MSS. W.D. 9, fo. 48b).

It seems to have been described in various ways: "All Hallows by the Wall," 1285 (Ct. H.W. I. 73). "Omnium sanctorum de Bradstte," 1285 (D. and C. St. Paul's MS. liber. L. fo. 117a). "Omnium scor secus murum" (Ed. I.) (Anc. Deeds, A. 2012). "Omnium Sanctorum ad Murum," 31 Ed. I. (Lib. Cust. I. 230). "All Hallows near London Wall," 1313 (Ct. H.W. I. 243). "All Hallows under the Wall" (ib. II. 33), 1361. "All Hallows atte Walle," 1388 (ib. 268). "All Hallows within the gate of Bishopesgate," 1344–5 (ib. I. 476). "All Hallows opposite the Augustine Friars," 1350–1 (ib. 645).

Chapel of Allhallows in the Church.

Church of St. Augustine Pappey incorporated with it 1441 (Cal. P.R. H. VI. 1441–6, p. 3).

New aisle built 1528–9. Repaired 1613, 1627. Escaped the Fire. Taken down and rebuilt 1765. Arch. Dance. Patrons: Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity (Lib. Cust. I. 230).

Strype says that Maud, Queen of H. I. gave the church to the prior and convent of Holy Trinity (ed. 1720, I. ii. 5), and it was probably included in the grant of the soke of Aldgate, which she made to the Prior (Lansdowne MS. 448, p. 9). Since the dissolution, in the hands of the Crown. A Rectory (Newcourt, I. 256). The portion of the parish in Aldgate Ward is detached and formed, prior to 1441, the parish of St. Augustine Papey.

There was a fraternity of Brewers connected with the church in 1361 (Ct. H.W. II. 26), and a brotherhood of St. Sith (Churchwardens' Accounts, Welch, 1912).

"So called of standing close to the wal of the Citie" (S. 177).

Many interesting details relating to the church and parish are contained in the transcript of the Churchwardens' Accounts of the parish for 1455 to 1536, edited by Charles Welch (Pub. L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans.), and not the least interesting are the particulars relating to the famous ankers or anchorites and the anker-hold connected with the church and parish which are so frequently referred to in early London records.

It has been found, in the course of recent excavations in 1905, that the church was built on the Wall of London, and that the foundations of the bastion here were used in the rebuilding of the circular vestry in the 18th century. This was exposed to view in 1905 by the removal of houses, and the excavations and discoveries made are set out in Arch. lx.

Allhallows in the Wall, a church in London Wall, Broad Street Ward, designed by George Dance junior, in 1765, and so called "of standing close to the wall of the city."¹ The old church escaped the Fire, but in 1764 had become so dangerously dilapidated that an Act of Parliament was obtained for its removal, and the present mean building erected at a cost of £2941. It was consecrated September 8, 1767. In the chancel is a tablet to the Rev. William Beloe, the translator of Herodotus, and twenty years rector of this parish (d. 1817). The Rev. Robert Nares, so well known by his Glossary, was his successor in the living (d. 1829). Over the communion table is a copy, by Sir Nathaniel Dance Holland, of P. da Cortona's picture of Ananias restoring Paul to Sight, a present from the painter. The living is valued at £1700; the right of nomination is in the Lord Chancellor. The register records the marriage, December 26, 1588, of Sir Francis Knowlles [Knollys] Knt., and Mrs. Lettice Barratt.

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¹ Stow, p. 66.

Allhallows, London-wall, the church of, stands a little westward of Broad-street in London-wall, whence it derives its second name. It is a rectory, the patronage of which was anciently in the prior and convent of the Holy Trinity, near Aldgate, who in 1335 presented it to Thomas Richer de Sanston. At the dissolution of religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII., this church, with the priory to which it belonged, was surrendered to the crown, in whose gift the advowson still remains. its present rector is the Rev. Robert Nares, a canon residentiary of Litchfield, archdeacon of Stafford, and a prebendary of St. Paul's. He was instituted in 1817. It escaped the fire in 1666, but became latterly so ruinous that in 1765 the parishioners obtained an act of parliament to pull it down and rebuild it; which they did from the designs of the elder Mr. Dance, the (then) city architect, who also built the churches of Shoreditch and Bishopsgate. It is a plain substantial church, of brick and stone, with a well proportioned stone tower and cupola.