All Hallows the Great

All Hallows the Great

On the east side of All Hallows Lane at the corner of Upper Thames Street. In Dowgate Ward (O.S. 1880).

Earliest mention found in records: "All Saints del Heywarf," 19 H. III. (Anc. Deeds, A. 1791).

Other names and forms: "All Hallows le grant," 1259 (Ct. H.W. I. 4). "All Hallows de la Heyswarwe," 1269 (ib. 10). "All Hallows at the Hay," 1271–2 (ib. II). "All Saints over Heywharf," temp. H. III. (Anc. Deeds, A. 1707). "All Hallows at le Heywharf," 1283 (Cal. L. Bk. A. p. 77). "Om scor sr heywarf" (MS. D. and C. St. Paul's, 1285, ff. 115–118). "All Hallows at the Hay towards 'vicum regium cordariorum,'" 1291 (Ct. H.W. I. 99). "Omnium Sanctorum ad Fenum," 31 Ed. I. (Lib. Cust. I. 230). "Omnium Sanctorum majorem at le Heywharf," 8 Ed. II. (Ch. I. p.m. m. 60). "All Hallows the Great in la Corderie," 11 Ed. II. 1318 (Cal. L. Bk. E. p. 85). "All Hallows next to the street of the Corders," 1326 (Ct. H.W. I. 318). "All Hallows the Great in the Ropery," 1332 (Ct. H.W. I. 373). "All Hallows called 'le Mechele,'" 1379 (ib. II. 208). "Omnium Sanctorum magna in roperia," 46 Ed. III. (Ch. I. p.m. m. 62). "All Hallows the More in Thames Street," 1537 (Ct. H.W. 11. 643).

A large cloister on the south side (ib.).

Repaired and beautified and steeple repaired 1627–9 (Strype, ed. 1720, I. ii. 205). Burnt in the Fire and rebuilt 1683, All Hallows the Less being united to it. Arch. Sir C. Wren. Cost £5600 (ib. 207). Taken down 1876 to widen Upper Thames Street, and the tower removed to the south side. Reopened 1877. Finally removed 1893, and the parishes united to St. Michael Paternoster Royal and St. Martin Vintry (End. Ch. Rep. 1903, p. 10). The fine carved oak screen presented to the church by the Hanse merchants is now in St. Margaret Lothbury.

Site now covered by a brewery, the churchyard only remaining enclosed and undisturbed.

A Rectory, one of the thirteen peculiars belonging to the See of Canterbury.

The advowson of the church was in the hands of Sir Hugh le Despencer the younger, 31 Ed. I. (Lib. Cust. I. 238). From that family it passed first to the Beauchamps, then to the Nevilles, and was by them settled on Henry VII. and his heirs (Newcourt, I. 247). The advowson was given by H. VIII. in 1546 to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the later presentations were made by him.

Derivation of name: "Called Alhallowes the more in Thames streete for a difference from Alhallowes the lesse in the same street; it is also called "ad fenum in the Ropery, "because hay sold neare thereunto at hay wharfe and ropes of old time made and sold in the high street" (S. 236).

See All Hallows Semannescyrce.

Allhallows the Great, a church in Upper Thames Street, immediately east of the South-Eastern Railway Station. Stow calls it Allhallows the More (for a difference from Allhallows the Less, in the same street). The church was erected in 1683, from a design by Sir Christopher Wren, at a cost of £5641. It is 87 feet long, 60 feet broad, and 33 feet high, and is of the Tuscan order. The tower, of five stages, which stood on the north side of the church, was said to owe its peculiar character to the builder, who improved on Wren's design; it was taken down in 1876, in order to widen Upper Thames Street. A new tower and vestry were built on the south side of the church, the interior was entirely renewed, and the church was reopened, October 18, 1877. The old church, destroyed in the Great Fire, was also known as "Allhallows-in-the-Ropery," from the ropes made and sold near thereunto at Hay Wharf, and in the High Street. The interior is remarkable for a carved oak screen, extending across the whole width of the church; manufactured, it is said, at Hamburg, and presented to the church by the Hanse merchants in memory of the former connection which existed between them and this country. No mention of the date of presentation appears in the parish books. [See Steelyard.] Pepys speaks of Allhallows the Great as one of the first churches that set up the King's Arms before the Restoration, while Monk and Montagu were as yet undecided. Edward Strong, Bishop of Chichester, 1477, who erected Chichester Cross, was rector. So also were George Day, Bishop of Chichester, 1543; Thomas White, Bishop of Peterborough, 1685; William Cave (d. 1713), the learned author of the Lives of the Fathers, and William Vincent (d. 1815), the famed master of Westminster School. Theodore Jacobsen (d. 1772), to whom is attributed the plan of the Foundling Hospital, is buried in this church. The Jacobsens, at the time of the Great Fire, possessed considerable property in the neighbourhood of the Steelyard. The church serves as well for Allhallows the Less, and the right of presentation to the rectory of both parishes belongs to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

About the beginning of April, 1553, Knox returned to London. In February preceding Archbishop Cranmer had been desired by the Council to present him to the vacant living of Allhallows, in that city, which Knox declined.—M'Crie, Life of John Knox.

Allhallows, the Great, the church of, is situated at the north-east corner of Allhallows-lane, on the south side of Upper Thames-street, nearly opposite the lower end of Bush-lane, Cannon-street. It derives its name from its dedication to all the saints or hallows, and its epithets, to distinguish it from an adjoingin church of the same name, which was called the less. It is also in ancient books called the more, or the greater, and, ad Foenum in the ropery, from its vicinity to some rope walks. This church was founded by the ancestors of the Despencer family, from whom it passed to the crown, till in 1540 Henry the Eighth gave it to Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose successors it has remained to the present day. It is a rectory, and one of the thirteen peculiars in London, the parish of Allhallows the Less, originally called Allhallows, super cellarium, from being built on arched vaults or cellars, was united to Allhallows the Great, and the present church, built from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren, erected for the use of both parishes. Its present rector is the Rev. Wm. St. Andrew Vincent, a prebendary of Chichester, who was instituted in 1788.

The interior of this church is of the Tuscan order, is eighty-seven feet long, sixty feet broad and thirty-three feet high, built of brick and stone in a strong and solid manner. The tower is plain, square, and divided into five stories, and having neither spire, turret or pinnacles, has the appearance of being unfinished, which is very likely to be the case, as Sir Christopher Wren was too good a master of his art to erect such a foundation to carry nothing. Among the funereal monuments that were in the ancient church of Allhallows the Great, and that were destroyed by the great fire, was one of too interesting a nature to be omitted, even in a work like the present, where "brevity is the soul" of its excellence, if not of its wit. It was one erected, probably by the parish, to the memory of our illustrious if not amiable Queen Elizabeth, to whom may very properly be applied the epitaph of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.

"Sexu foemina, ingenio vir."*

The inscriptions on the monument in question ran as follows:

"If royal virtues ever crown'd a crown;
If ever mildness shin'd in majesty;
If ever honour honour'd true renown;
If ever courage dwelt with clemency;
If ever princess put all princes down,
For temperance, prowess, prudence, equity;
This, this was she, that in despite of death
Lives still admir'd, ador'd Elizabeth."

"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."

On the representation of a book above her bust is the following:

"They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion, which shall not be removed."

On the right side of the monument,

"Spain's rod, Rome's ruin, the Netherland's relief,
Heaven's gem, earth's joy, world's wonder, nation's chief."

On the left side,

"Britain's blessing, England's splendour,
Religions' nurse, and Faith's defender."

And beneath,

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course."
Queen Elizabeth died the 24th March, 1602."