All Hallows Barking

All Hallows Barking

On the north side of Great Tower Street at the south-east corner of Seething Lane. In Tower Ward.

Earliest mention found in records: "Berkinchechirche," 13 Stephen (Reg. Roffense, p. 117).

Other forms: "Berchinge-chirche," temp. H. II. (ib. 45). "Ecclesia Omnium Sanctorum de Berkingecherche," H. III. (Anc. Deeds, A. 1628). "Berkyngcherche," 4 Ed. I. 1275–6 (Cal. L. Bk. B. p. 258). "Berkinkecherche," 1275 (Ct. H.W. I. 21).

"All Hallows called Berckinges-church," 1285 (ib. 71). "Eccl. Omnium Sanctorum de Berkyngchirche," 31 Ed. I. (Lib. Cust. I. 230). "Parish of St. Mary de Berkyngcherch," 1349 (Ct. H.W. I. 612). "Berkynggecherche parish towards the Tower" (Anc. Deeds, A. 1925). "All Saints, Tower Street," 6 H. V. (Anc. Deeds, C. 1295). "All Hallows de Berkyng," 1433 (Ct. H.W. II. 467). "All Souls Barking," 1502 (Lond. I. p.m. I. 48).

A chapel called "Berkyngchapel," erected by Richard I., adjoined the churchyard, and the north chancel aisle of the church is said to have been erected afterwards on a portion of this site (Maskell, 14).

Church restored and a College of Priests founded, temp. Ric. III. Suppressed 1548.

The curfew was to be sounded here every night, 44 Ed. III. (Cal. L. Bk. G. p. 270).

Church again restored 1613, 1634, and 1814.

Brick steeple erected 1659.

The church was not destroyed in the Great Fire, 1666, the dial and porch only being burnt. It was severely damaged in 1649 by an explosion of gunpowder, with the result that portions only of it retain their mediaeval character, these older portions being the pillars dividing the nave from the north and south aisles, the masonry of the east wall of the chancel and perhaps of the east window. But the tracery of the window has been renewed. The western end of the church was the most severely damaged (L. and Midd. Arch. Soc. II. 126–7).

Registers commence 1558.

A perpetual Vicarage. Patrons: The advowson of the church was given by private owners Riculphus and Brichtwen in the time of Stephen to the See of Rochester (Reg. Roff. p. 117). By 31 Ed. I. it had passed into the hands of the "monialium de Berkynge" (Lib. Cust. I. 235). At the suppression of the monasteries it was given by Henry VIII. to the See of Canterbury, 37 H. VIII., in whose possession it has since remained (L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans. II. 127).

Name: Dedication to All Hallows and the Blessed Virgin Mary (Newcourt, I. p. 239). An example of a double dedication. See Church Dedications.

It is suggested that the name Barking was added to the dedication because of the connection of the church with the Abbey of Barking to distinguish it from the other churches in London also dedicated to All Hallows (Newcourt, I. 239). But if so, it must have belonged to the Abbey before the grant of the advowson in the time of Stephen to the See of Rochester, as it is described in that grant as "Berkinchechirche" (Reg. Roff. p. 117).

See St. Mary de Berkyngcherch, Chapel.

Allhallows Barking, a church at the east end of Great Tower Street, in the ward of that name, dedicated to Allhallows and St. Mary, said to be "the most complete mediaeval church remaining in London." The distinguishing title of Barking was appended thereto by the Abbess and Convent of Barking, in Essex, to whom the vicarage originally belonged. Richard I. added a chapel to the building, and Edward I. a statute of "Our Lady of Barking" to the treasures of the church. Richard III. rebuilt the chapel, and founded a college of priests, suppressed and pulled down in the 2d of Edward VI. It is 180 feet long, 67 wide, and 35 high; the tower (rebuilt 1659) rises about 80 feet from the ground. The whole building had a narrow escape at the Great Fire, for, as Pepys records, the dial and porch were burnt, and the fire there quenched. This church, from its near neighbourhood to the Tower, was a ready receptacle for the remains of those who fell on the scaffold on Tower Hill. The headless bodies of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (the poet), Bishop Fisher, and Archbishop Laud were buried here, but have been long since removed. The body of Fisher was carried on the halberds of the attendants and buried in the churchyard. Laud's body was removed after the Restoration to the chapel of St. John's College, Oxford. John Kettlewell the nonjuror was buried here, April 1695. The brasses (some six or seven in number) are among the best in London. The finest is a Flemish brass to Andrew Evyngar and wife (circ. 1535, and well engraved in Waller's Brasses), but the most interesting is one injured and inaccurately relaid, representing William Thynne, Esq., and wife. We owe the first edition of the entire works of Chaucer to the industry of this William Thynne, who in 1532 (when the fine old folio was published) was "chefe clerk of the kechyn" to King Henry VIII. The cover to the font is of carved wood, and much in the manner of Grinling Gibbons. Three cherub-shaped angels are represented supporting with upheld hands a festoon of flowers surmounted by a dove. The wreaths about the altar are evidently by the same hand. The organ, by Harris, 1677, was enlarged by Gerard Smith in 1720, again by England in 1813, and lastly by Bunting in 1878. The interior of the church was restored, the west gallery removed, and the walls decorated under Messrs. Francis, architects, in 1870, and painted glass inserted in some of the windows. William Penn, the Quaker, was baptized in this church on October 23, 1644.

On May 23, 1667, George Jeffreys (the judge) was married here to his first wife, Sarah Masham.¹ This marriage is not mentioned in Maskell's History of Allhallows Barking, 1864, but the marriage of John Quincy Adams (afterwards sixth President of the United States) to Louisa Catherine Johnson, on July 26, 1797, is there noted. The living is a vicarage, valued at £2000 a year, in the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Over against the wall of Barking churchyard, a sad and lamentable accident befel by gunpowder, in this manner. One of the houses in this place was a ship-chandler's, who upon January 4, 1649, about 7 of the clock at night, being busy in his shop about barrelling up of gunpowder, it took fire and in the twinkling of an eye blew up not only that, but all the houses thereabouts to the number (towards the street and in back alleys) of 50 or 60. The number of persons destroyed by this Blow could never be known, for the next house but one was the Rose Tavern, a House never (at that time of night) but full of company; and that day the parish dinner was at that house. And in three or four days after, digging, they continually found heads, arms, legs, and half bodies miserably torn and scorched, besides many whole bodies, not so much as their clothes singed.—Mr. Leyborne, in Strype, B. ii. p. 36, and see Maskell's History of Allhallows Barking.

Dr. George Hickes, whose Thesaurus is so well known, was vicar of this church between 1681 and 1686. Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, was born in this parish, 1555.

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¹ Life of Jeffreys, p. 24.