St. Martin in the Fields

St. Martin's Church (in the Fields.)

Is situate on the Ely side of St. Martin's lane, a little Nly from the W. end of the Strand, without the Walls, Liberty, or Freedom of London, being in the County of Middlesex.

II. It is so called, as being dedicated to St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor. He was bred up at Pavia in Italy, was exercised in Chivalry; but converted his Mother to Christianity. He is said to have wrought many Miracles, was Bishop of Tours in France, and so died, Anno 388, and of his Age 81.

II. This Church was very small till the year 1607, when that part which is now the Chancel, was taken out of the Church-yard, and builded on, being an Enlargement of about 1 third of what the Church and Chancel now contains, as may easily be perceived by the Roof. And the old Church was about that time repaired and beautified, the W. Door case having the Date 1609. And the Situation of this Church being so far Wd as happily to escape the dismal Flames of 1666, it was wholly new beautified within, in the Year of Christ 1688, and again in 1701. The Enlargement was done partly at the charge of King James the 1st, and Prince Henry; the rest at that of the Parish.

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St. MARTIN'S Church and Church-Yard.

Which lyeth open for Passengers to the Street, from which it is severed by Freestones, set in the Ground Breast high, and handsomely sharpned Taper wise. The Church is but low and ordinary, much wanting new building, and to be enlarged, as being too little by far to contain the Inhabitants. But its Steeple is well enough; on which,as being the Parish where the King's Palace of Whitehall is, there is always set up a Standard Flag upon Days of Triumph of Joy. …

An Enlargement of this Church of St. Martin's was begun in the Year 1607, being the fifth Year of the Reign of K. James the First, and was finished in the Year 1608. This Enlargement was a beautiful Chancel, erected upon a Piece of Ground on the East of the Church, taken out of the Church-yard for that Purpose. K. James, and his most noble Son Prince Henry, were Benefactors to this Work. The rest of the Charges were born by the Inhabitants of the Parish. Randal Hopkins and Andrew Hacket, being Churchwardens at the Beginning of this Work; Andrew Hacket and Richard Stile, Churchwardens the next Year, at the carrying on and finishing it.]

At this Church are Prayers daily said at six a Clock in the Morning, and five in the Evening. It is furnished with an Organ. The Rector's House is on the North Side of the Church, being an handsome large Building.

St. Martin's in the Fields, in St. Martin's lane, near Charing Cross. This church received its name from St. Martin, an Hungarian, who was sainted for the cruelty with which he persecuted the Arians, and its being formerly situated in the fields. Though the present structure is of a modern date, there was very early a church upon the same spot, dedicated to the same saint; for there are authentic records of a dispute in 1222, between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London, concerning the exemption of the church of St. Martin's in the Fields from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. How long before this a building for the service of religion was erected there, is not easy to determine; but it was probably a chapel for the monks of Westminster, when they visited their convent garden, which then extended to it. However, the endowments of this church fell with the monks who possessed it, and in Henry the VIIIths's reign a small church was built there at the King's expence, the inhabitants being then too poor to pay for it; but this structure not being capacious enough to accommodate the parishioners, it was greatly enlarged in 1607. At length, after many expensive repairs, that structure was taken down in the year 1721, and soon after the first stone of the present edifice was laid. Five years completed the building, and in 1726 it was consecrated.

It is observable, that on the laying of the first stone, his Majesty King George I. gave an hundred guineas to be distributed among the workmen, and some time after 1500l. to purchase an organ. The whole expence of building and decorating this church, amounted to 36,891l. 10s. 4d. of which 33,450l. was granted by Parliament, and the rest raised by the above royal benefaction, a subscription, and the sale of seats in the church. …

This church is a vicarage, in the gift of the Bishop of London.

St. Martin's Church (in the Fields), Charing-Cross,—a few doors on the R. in St. Martin's lane from 487, in the Strand.

St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the church of, is situated on the northern side of the western extremity of the Strand, and derives its name from being dedicated to St. Martin, an Hungarian saint, who was distinguished for his ferocity against the Arians, and its addition from its former situation in the fields.

The original church on this site is of great antiquity, as there are authentic records of a dispute between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London, concerning the exemption of this church from episcopal jurisdiction. At the time of the reformation, the church was in such bad condition that Henry VIII., build a small church at his own expense, which being found not sufficiently capacious, was much enlarged in 1607 at the expense of Prince Henry and some of the nobility. At length, after many expensive repairs, that building was taken down in 1721, and the first stone laid shortly after. It was finished, consecrated and opened for divine service in 1726.

King George I., who laid the first stone, gave the workmen a hundred guineas; and when the church was nearly finished he presented the parish with £1,500 for an organ.

This church is a remarkably handsome edifice of the florid Roman or Italian style of architecture, designed by James Gibbs. The interior is richly ornamented, and has a splendid appearance. The portico, which is a very fine specimen of the Corinthian order, has been recently thrown open by the pulling down of the western side of St. Martin's-lane, and by the opening of the new street called Pall Mall East, an improvement that has been suggested for many years past.

This parish is supposed to have been abstracted from that of St. Margaret, Westminster. The advowson is a vicarage in the county and archdeaconry of Middlesex, in the diocese of London, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The present vicar is the Rev. George Richards, D.D., who was instituted in 1806.

Martin's (St.) in-the-Fields, was constituted a parish in the middle of the 14th century,³ but first made independent of St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1535, temp. Henry VIII., before which time the inhabitants "had no parish church, but did resort to the parish church of St. Margaret's, in Westminster, and were thereby found to bring their bodies by the Courtgate of Whitehall, which the said Henry, then misliking, caused the church in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields to be there erected and made a parish there."⁴ Henry, Prince of Wales, had added a chancel in 1607; but this was found insufficient for the parish, and the present church, designed by James Gibbs, architect, was commenced in 1721 and finished in 1726, at a cost of £36,891 : 10: 4, including £1500 for an organ.

On Monday last [Sept. 4, 1721] they began to take down the steeple of the church of St. Martin's in the Fields.—The Weekly Journal, or Saturday's Post of September 9, 1721.

Aaron Hill addressed a poem "To Celia in the Country: on the pulling down St. Martin's Church," from which it would seem that the demolition, carried out with irreverent hand, revealed how heedlessly the floor of the church had been used as a burial-place.

The pews pale squares in their whole lengthened row
Gave way and opened a sad scene below!
Beauty, youth, wealth, and power reduced to clay,
Larded with bones, yet moist, unsheltered lay:
Remnants of eyeless skulls, with hollow stare
Mocked the proud looks which living charmers wear:
Coffins rose, broke, unfaithful to their trust!
And flesh flew round me in unjointed dust.
Scarce a short span beneath that opening floor,
Where kneeling charmers prayed a week before.

Hill's Works, vol. iv. p. 55.

As now occupying one of the most prominent positions in London St. Martin's Church has been much talked of and criticised. Its general appearance is striking and effective. The portico—hexastyle Corinthian of good proportions—has been pronounced to be one of the finest pieces of architecture. Immediately behind it rises to a height of 185 feet the tower and lofty spire. Like the portico this, regarded apart, is a handsome architectural object, but its mass and elevation entirely overpower the portico, out of which it seems to issue. The interior is highly decorated, and is so constructed that it is next to impossible to erect a monument. In the vaults may be seen the old parish whipping-post, and the tombs of Sir Theodore Mayerne (physician to James I. and Charles I.), and of Secretary Coventry, from whom Coventry Street derives its name.

Lord Chief Justice Coke writing to the King (James I.), November 14, 1615, says that "the report that Mrs. Turner [executed as an agent in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury] was buried with Christian solemnities is false; but on account of her penitent death she was laid in St. Martin's churchyard."¹ Eminent Persons buried here.—Hilliard, the miniature painter (d. 1619); Hilliard had a house in the parish, and left by will 20s. to the poor. George Heriot, founder of Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh, buried in the church, February 20, 1624; in digging up the old churchyard for the enlargement of the National Gallery the workmen found the coffin containing the remains of George Heriot, and placed next to it that of the notorious highwayman, Jack Sheppard² (d. 1724). Paul Vansomer, the painter (d. 1621). Sir John Davys, the poet (d. 1626). N. Laniere, the painter and musician (d. 1646). Sir Theodore Mayerne, the physician (d. 1655–1656). William Dobson, called by Charles I. the English Tintoret (d. 1646). Nicholas Stone, the sculptor (d. 1647), and his sons. Stanley, the editor of Æschylus (d. 1678). Lacy, the actor, "in the farther churchyard" (d. 1681). Nell Gwynne, in the church (d. 1687). Secretary Coventry (d. 1686). Hon. Robert Boyle, the philosopher (d. 1691); Bishop Burnet preached his funeral sermon, and here the first Boyle lecture was delivered by Richard Bentley, the critic, March 7, 1692. Sir John Birkenhead, the wit (d. 1679); he left directions that he should not be buried within the church, because they removed coffins. Rose, the gardener to Charles II., who raised the first pine apple grown in England. Lord Mohun, who fell in the duel with the Duke of Hamilton (d. 1712). Laguerre, the painter (d. 1721). Farquhar, the dramatist (d. 1707). Roubiliac, the sculptor (d. 1762). James Stuart, author of the Antiquities of Athens, etc. (d. 1788). John Hunter, the surgeon (d. 1793). Charles Bannister, the actor (d. 1804), in a vault under the communion table. James Smith, one of the authors of the Rejected Addresses (d. 1839). The portion of the churchyard on the south of the church was known as "The Waterman's burying-ground," as being the usual burial-place of the Thames side watermen.¹ The parish burying-ground adjoining the church was destroyed in 1829. A new burying-ground was formed in Pratt Street, Camden Town, but it has been for some years closed and a portion of it built over. The parish register records the baptism of Francis Bacon, who was born, in 1561, in York House. Thomas Stothard, the painter, was baptized here September 7 (he was born August 17), 1775.

I well remember the time when barristers who had not been at chorch for many years, on being appointed King's counsel, used to go to St. Martin's Church (appropriated for this purpose), pay their guinea, and bring away a Certificate of their having taken the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England.—Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, vol. iii. p. 319.

Very early in my life I remember this town at gaze on a man who flew down a rope from the top of St. Martin's steeple; now, late in my day, people are staring at a voyage to the moon. The former Icarus broke his neck at a subsequent flight: when a similar accident happens to modern knights-errant, adieu to air-balloons.—Walpole to Mann, December 2, 1783.

On the 1st of June, 1727, one Violante, an Italian, descended head foremost by a rope, with his arms and legs extended, from the top of the steeple of St. Martin's Church, over the houses in St. Martin's Lane, to the farthest side of the Mews, a distance of about 300 yards, in half a minute. The crowd was immense, and the young princesses with several of the nobility were in the Mews.—Wright, Note to preceding Passage (Walpole's Letters, vol. viii. p. 438).

St. Martin's-in-the-Fields originally included the district afterwards divided into the several parishes of St. Paul's, Covent Garden; St. James's, Westminster; St. Ann's, Soho; and St. George's, Hanover Square; extending as far as Marylebone to the north, Whitehall on the south, the Savoy on the east, and Chelsea and Kensington on the west. When first rated to the poor in Queen Elizabeth's reign the parish contained less than one hundred people liable to be rated. The chief inhabitants resided in the Strand by the water side, or close to the church at the foot of the present St. Martin's Lane. Pall Mall and Piccadilly were then unnamed and unbuilt; and beyond the church westwards was St. James's Fields, Hay Hill Farm, Ebury Farm, and the Neat Houses about Chelsea. The early attempts at building were sternly repressed. Even in the reign of Charles I. it met with little favour. Garrard writes to Lord Deputy Wentworth, September 17, 1633–1634:—

Here are two Commissions afoot, which are attended diligently, which will bring in, as it is conceived, a great Sum of Money to his Majesty. ... The other is for buildings in and about London since a Proclamation in the thirteenth of K. James. Divers have been called ore tenus this last term, amongst whom the most notorious was Winwood's Little Moor, one of the Clerks of the Signet, who was fined for his buildings near St. Martin's Church in the Fields, one thousand pounds, and to pull them all down, being forty two dwelling houses, stables and coach-houses by Easter, or else to pay one thousand pounds more. ... How far this will spread I know not, but it is confidently spoken that there are above £100,000 Rents upon this string about London; I speak much within compass; for Tuttle, St. Giles, St. Martin's Lane, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, and beyond the Tower from Wapping to Blackwall, all come in, and are liable to fining for annoyances, or being built contrary to proclamation, though they have had licences granted to do so: my Lord of Bedford's licence in this case, as it is said, will not avail him.—Strafford's Letters, vol. i. p. 262.

June 3, 1634.—The Sheriffs of London are now busy in demolishing all Moor's houses, stables, coach houses; and twelve or fourteen dwelling houses are pulled to the ground.—Strafford's Letters, vol. i. p. 262.

St Paul's, Covent Garden, was taken out of this parish in 1660; St. Anne's, Soho, in 1678; St. James's, Westminster, in 1684; and St. George's, Hanover Square, in 1725. About the year 1680 it was, what Burnet calls it, "the greatest cure in England,"¹ with a population, says Richard Baxter, of 40,000 persons more than could come into the church, and "where neighbours," he adds, "lived, like Americans, without hearing a sermon for many years." Fresh separations only tended to lessen the resources of the parish, and nothing was done to improve its appearance till 1826, when the churchyard was contracted and the streets around St. Martin's Lane widened pursuant to an Act of Parliament (7 Geo. IV., c. 77).

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³ 1353-1361, Walcott, p. 9.
⁴ Recital in grant to the parish from King James I.

¹ Cal., State Pap., 1603–1610, p. 329.
² Times, October 18, 1866.

¹ Smith, Book for a Rainy Day, p. 265.

¹ Burnet's Own Times, ed. 1823, vol. i. p. 327.