St. James's Church

St. James's Church, Piccadilly,—behind 200, about ⅙ of a mile on the L. from the Haymarket.

St. James's, Westminster, the church of, is situated on the south side of Piccadilly, nearly opposite Sackville-street. It owes its origin to the increase of buildings in its neighbourhood, and its parish is a cantlet from that of St. Martin's in the Fields. It was built from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren, in the reign of Charles II., and was finished in 1683.

This church may be justly considered, in spite of its mean exterior, as one of the most perfect of its great architect's designs, whether it be considered for commodiousness, beauty, or ingenuity of construction. Sir Christopher himself considered it as one of the best contrived of his parochial churches, and so speaks of it in a letter to a friend, which is printed in that rare and scarce work, Parentalia, and again in my Memoirs of Wren, page 430, wherein I have also given a section of its construction.

It was built at the joint expense of Henry Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St. Albans, whose name and title are used for two of the neighbouring streets, and of the principal inhabitants of this district. The church was made parochial by act of parliament of the 3d James II. The walls are of brick, with rusticated quoins, facias, architraves and other dressings of Portland stone. The ceiling is arched and beautifully panelled, supported by Corinthian columns, which divide the interior into a nave and two aisles. The construction of the roof, which is engraved in the before-mentioned life of Wren, is singularly ingenious and œconomical both of room and of materials; and it is not too great praise to say that is the most novel, scientific and satisfactory as to results of any roof in existence.

The interior is 84 feet long, 68 broad, and 40 high, and will contain two thousand persons.

This parish is rectorial in the county and archdeaconry of Middlesex, in the diocese of London, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The present rector is the Rev. J.G. Ward, who was instituted by the Bishop in 1825.

James's (St.) Church, Piccadilly, or St. James's, Westminster, begun 1680 by Sir Christopher Wren; and consecrated Sunday, July 13, 1684; erected at the expense of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban, the patron of Cowley, and the husband, it is said, of Henrietta Maria, the widow of Charles I., and so named in compliment to James Duke of York. The parish was taken out of St. Martin's-in-the-fields. The "Act for erecting a new Parish, to be called the Parish of St. James within the Liberty of Westminster," was passed in 1685 (I Jac. II. cap. 22). The first rector was Dr. Tenison, and the second Dr. Wake, both successively Archbishops of Canterbury: Dr. Thomas Seeker was also rector of St. James's (1737–1750) and Archbishop of Canterbury. Another eminent rector was Samuel Clarke, author of The Attributes of the Deity, whom Voltaire called "a reasoning engine."¹ The exterior of the church is of red brick with rusticated stone quoins, and is mean and inelegant. But Wren was limited as to cost, and he decided to consecrate his efforts on the interior (84 feet by 68, and 40 feet high), which is a masterpiece, light, airy, elegant, and capacious. It is Wren's chef-d'oeuvre—and especially adapted to the Protestant Church service.

I can hardly think it practicable to make a single room so capacious, with pews and galleries, as to hold above 2000 persons, and all to hear the service, and both to hear distinctly and see the preacher. I endeavoured to effect this in building the parish church of St. James, Westminster, which I presume is the most capacious with these qualifications that hath yet been built; and yet at a solemn time when the church was much crowded I could not discern from a gallery that 2000 persons were present in this church I mention, though very broad, and the nave arched up. And yet, as there are no walls of a second order, nor lantern, nor buttresses, but the whole roof rests upon the pillars, as do also the galleries, I think it may be found beautiful and convenient, and as such the cheapest form of any I could invent.—Sir Christopher Wren in Parentalia.

December 7, 1684.—I went to see the new church at St. James's, elegantly built; the altar was especially adorned, the white marble inclosure curiously and richly carved, the flowers and garlands about the walls by Mr. Gibbons in wood; a pelican with her young at her breast, just over the altar in the carved compartment and border, environing the purple fringed with I H S richly embroidered, and most noble plate, were given by Sir R. Geere, to the value (as was said) of £200. There was no altar anywhere in England, nor has there been any abroad, more handsomely adorned.—Evelyn.

Sir Robert Gayre, mentioned by Evelyn, lived in Jermyn Street.

The marble font, a very beautiful one, is the work of Grinlin Gibbons. The missing cover (represented in Vertue's engraving) was stolen, and, it is said, subsequently hung as a kind of sign at a spirit-shop in the immediate neighbourhood of the church.² The beautiful foliage over the altar is also from his hand. The organ, a very fine one, was made for James II., and designed for his popish chapel at Whitehall. His daughter, Queen Mary, gave it to the church. The painted window at the east end of the chancel, by Wailes of Newcastle, was put up in 1846. Alterations which had been made at different times had done much to injure the effect of the interior, but in 1866 new staircases were erected, the organ gallery restored to its old place and form, and the whole interior brought as far as possible into agreement with Wren's original design.

Another foolish thing that was done by the same advice, as I suppose, was sending to the minister of St. James's Church, where the Princess [Queen Anne afterwards] used to go (while she lived at Berkeley House), to forbid them to lay the text upon her cushion, or take any more notice of her than other people. But the minister refusing to obey without some order from the Crown in writing, which they did not care to give, that noble design dropt.—An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, p. 100.

Berinthia. Pray which church does your lordship most oblige with your presence?
Lord Foppington. Oh! St. James's, madam:—there's much the best company.
Amanda. Is there good preaching too?
Lord Foppington. Why, faith, madam—I can't tell. A man must have very little to do there that can give an account of the sermon.—Vanbrugh, The Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger, 4to.

Lucinda. For my part I hate solitude, churches, and prayers.
Belissa. So do I directly; for except St. James's church, one scarce sees a well drest man, or ever receives a bow from anything above one's mercer.—Mrs. Centlivre, Love's Contrivance. 4to.

Colonel Woodvil. You will find we go to church as orderly as the rest of our neighbours.
Sir John Woodvil. Ay! to what church?
Col. St. James's Church—the Establish'd Church.—Cibber, The Nonjuror, 8vo.

St. James's Church is also worth seeing, more especially on a Holiday or Sunday, when the fine assembly of beauties and quality come there. But there is one great fault in the churches here, and that is, that a stranger cannot have a convenient seat without paying for it; and particularly at this St. James's, where it costs one almost as dear as to see a play.—Defoe, A Journey through England, 8vo, 1722, vol. i. p. 305.

The punishment of my sins has at length overtaken me. On Thursday the third of December, in the present year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-two, between the hours of one and two in the afternoon, as I was crossing St. James's churchyard, I stumbled and again sprained my foot.—Gibbon to Holroyd: Misc. Works.

Eminent Persons interred.—Charles Cotton, Izaak Walton's associate in the Complete Angler (d.1686–1687). Dr. William Sydenham, the physician, "in the south aisle, near the south door;" a tablet was erected to his memory in 1810 by the College of Physicians; he lived and died (1689) in Pall Mall. James Huysman, the painter (d. 1696); he lived in Jermyn Street. The elder and younger Vandervelde. On a gravestone in the church was this inscription: "Mr. William Vandervelde, senior, late painter of sea-fights to their Majesties King Charles II. and King James, dyed 1693." Michael Dahl, the painter (d. 1743). Tom D'Urfey, the dramatist (d. 1723). There is a tablet to his memory on the outer south wall of the tower of the church; the inscription is simple enough: "Tom D'Urfey, dyed February 26, 1723." Henry Sydney, Earl of Romney, the handsome Sydney of De Grammont's Memoirs (d. 1704); there is a monument to his memory in the chancel; he lived and died in Romney House, St. James's Square. Edward Talbot, the friend and patron of Secker, Benson, and Butler, and father of Catherine Talbot. Dr. Arbuthnot (d. 1734–1735), the friend of Pope, Swift, and Gay. Mark Akenside, M.D., author of The Pleasures of Imagination; he died, June 2, 1770, in Old Burlington Street, and, leaving by will his body to be buried at the discretion of his executor, was interred in the church of the parish in which he died. Benjamin Stillingfleet (d. 1771), a monument by John Bacon was erected by E.H. Locker. Dr. William Hunter (d. 1783), "buried in the rector's vault." Mrs. Delany (Mary Granville) (d. 1788), monument on a pillar. James Dodsley, "many years an eminent bookseller in Pall Mall" (d. 1797); he was the brother of R. Dodsley; there is a tablet to his memory. James Christie the auctioneer (d. 1803). The Duke of Queensbury (old Q, as he was called), in a vault under the communion table; he lived in Piccadilly, and died in 1810. James Gillray, the caricaturist; in the churchyard, beneath a flat stone on the west side of the rectory; he died in 1815, aged fifty-eight. [See St. James's Street.] George Henry Harlowe, the painter (d. February 4, 1819), was buried under the altar. Joshua Brookes, the anatomist (d. 1833). Sir John Malcolm, the eminent soldier and diplomatist (d. 1833), was buried here, but his remains were afterwards removed to Kensal Green. The register records the baptisms of the polite Earl of Chesterfield and the great Earl of Chatham. The portraits of the rectors in the vestry are worth seeing.

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¹ Warburton to Hurd, p. 49.
² Brayley's Londiniana, vol. ii. p. 282.