4. CLERGY AND PARISHIONERS, FIFTEENTH
AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
The building of the fine Church that St Bride's came to be in the
fifteenth century was the work of an active and zealous parish, which
through its guilds and the numerous bequests of its parishioners has
left us a record of the eager interest taken in the parish Church. The
rectors, though often men of wider activities and holding other benefices as
well as St Bride's, seem to have joined with vigour in the good work.
William Denys, rector from 1403 to 1407, left to St Bride's by his will, dated
1412, two vestments, one black and the other red, embroidered with lions,
as well as legacies to its chaplains. (fn. 1) He had held office in York Minster and
was at one time rector of Beddington, Surrey. While rector of St Bride's he
held the prebend of North Alton in the diocese of Sarum. In 1407 Henry
Harburgh was instituted to the rectory before he was ordained deacon and
priest. (fn. 2) He held the prebend of Slape in Sarum and became treasurer to
Salisbury Cathedral. In 1422 Thomas Vaux (Fawkys), 'of noble birth', was
granted a dispensation to hold the rectory of 'St Brigide without the walls of
London', together with a canonry at Bangor and yet another benefice. (fn. 3)
A subsequent grant of 1431 permitted him to enjoy also the canonry of
Heytesbury and the prebend of Swalecliffe. (fn. 4) He remained at St Bride's for
thirty-seven years, and during this time several notable bequests were made
to the Church, including John Hill's augmentation of Wygan's chantry (1437)
and the foundation of John Ulsthorpe's chantry (1432) and further legacies
of the same benefactor. Thomas Vaux died in 1459, when his will, dated the
year before, was proved. (fn. 5) In it he desired to be buried in the nave before the
great cross, under the marble stone which he had prepared, and provided for
masses for his own soul and those of Mary his mother and Robert, Bishop of
Sarum, at the altar of St Anne. He left costly legacies of plate and vestments
of cloth of gold to his parish Church. He was succeeded by John Vaux
(Fawkys), no doubt a relative, who became Dean of Windsor and died in
1471. (fn. 6)
In February, the same year, Dr Henry Sharpe was instituted, (fn. 7) but after six
months he exchanged with Thomas Ardern (fn. 8) (from Little Haddenham,
Herts), who died a month later. He made his will in August (proved in
September), directing his burial in the Church. (fn. 9)
On the latter's death Dr Alexander Legh (Lyeghe) succeeded (fn. 10) and remained fourteen years, during which time he was frequently employed by
the King on embassies to Scotland. He was apparently born in Scotland, but
was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. From 1468 to 1473 he
was rector of Fen Ditton, Cambs, and in 1469 was a Canon of Windsor. In
September 1470 he and Alexander Carlisle, Sergeant of the minstrels, gave
Edward IV information of the treason of John Neville, Marquis of Montagu,
and probably saved the King's life. This service led to many preferments. He
was given a prebend in York Minster the same year that he came to St
Bride's (1471) and was appointed King's Almoner. Beside his Scottish embassies, he became a Councillor for Berwick-on-Tweed and was chosen one
of the Commissioners to survey the walls and bridge of Newcastle-on-Tyne,
and in 1484 was a Commissioner to carry out the truce with Scotland. The
next year he resigned the living of St Bride's, became temporal Chancellor
of Durham Cathedral in 1490, and died in 1501. (fn. 11) It was during Legh's
incumbency that Edward IV granted the Guild of St Mary its charter of
incorporation, a privilege doubtless obtained more easily through the royal
favour shown to the rector.
In 1485 Richard Baldry was instituted but was followed in the same year
by Thomas Jane, or Janyn. The new rector had been educated at Winchester
and New College, Oxford, of which he was Fellow 1454–72. He had held
livings in Essex and Middlesex before St Bride's and had a prebend in St
Paul's from 1471 to 1499 as well as being Archdeacon of Middlesex. In 1497
he was made a Canon of Windsor and Dean of the Chapel Royal and
resigned St Bride's on becoming Bishop of Norwich (1499), the year before
his death. (fn. 12) The name of his successor, the last of the rectors, is at present
unknown.
The appropriation of the rectory by the Abbot and Convent of Westminster in 1505 was the first of the changes that were to follow each other in
rapid succession during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Vicars were
henceforth to be appointed by the Abbey at a stipend of £16 a year, and the
first name we meet is Nicholas Myles, who, as already noticed, may have
been the Dr Miles whose murder is related by Stow. His death occurred in
1529 and his successor was William Mott or Mote. (fn. 13) He is known to have
held the livings of Willingdale Doe, Essex, St Margaret, Westminster,
St Gabriel Fenchurch, Hadley ad Castrum and Thaxted, both in Essex. He
resigned the next year in favour of William Saxey (fn. 14) who was vicar until 1543.
In 1534 the pioneer printer and pupil of Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, was
buried in the nave of the Church. In June 1537 a Carmelite friar named
Robert Austin preached at St Bride's and was challenged for his authority
which he gave as that of the Bishop of London. In the sequel a complaint was
made against him to the Council of State, but the result is not recorded. (fn. 15)
In Saxey's time Westminster Abbey was dissolved (1540) and William
Benson, the Abbot, became Dean of the new Cathedral. The patronage of
St Bride's thereupon devolved upon the Dean and Chapter, and their first
presentation was John Cardmaker alias Taylor, the Protestant martyr, who
succeeded to the vicarage on Saxey's retirement in 1543. (fn. 16) He had been an
observant friar at Cambridge, and at his presentation to St Bride's 'renounced
the presumed jurisdiction and power of the Bishop of Rome'. He became a
Canon and (in 1547) Chancellor of Wells Cathedral and was a reader in St
Paul's, where his sermons won public attention by his denunciation of Rome.
In Mary's reign he was convicted of heresy and burnt at Smithfield on 30 May
1555. (fn. 17) John Cardmaker had resigned the living in 1551, while Edward VI
was on the throne, but it was in his time that St Mary's Guild and the five
chantries were dissolved and the Church stripped of its ornaments by the
King's Visitors. An account of the guilds and chantries is given elsewhere,
and the inventory of the Church plate and vestments, a notable treasure bequeathed by former rectors and wealthy parishioners, is extant and has been
printed in full by Mr H. B. Walter. (fn. a) It is difficult to realise the complete
revolution that these changes must have made in so finely appointed a Church
as St Bride's, and the loss in sheer beauty that must have resulted. Cardmaker
seems to have found the work of spoliation a congenial task, and he was
among the purchasers of some of the vestments. From this time Puritan
views gained strength in the congregation and controversy became more
popular than ceremonial. We learn that from the proceeds of the sale of the
ornaments of the Church a fair Communion cup of silver was purchased, and
it seems that a Communion table was obtained at the same time. Some of the
money went to the repair of the Church, and some to charity, as to the
nursing and bringing up of a foundling child, 'laid in the street', and pensions
and loans to sundry folk in need. (fn. 18)
Berthelet
Christopher Whitton, who succeeded Cardmaker as vicar in 1551, (fn. 19) died
the following year, and John Hurlestone, a former Carmelite of Cologne, was
appointed in his stead. (fn. 20) He exchanged, in 1554, with Thomas Marshall, (fn. 21) a
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, who held prebends at Southwell and
Lincoln, and was at St Bride's throughout Mary's reign, when the Abbot and
Convent of Westminster were for a short while revived. In 1555 Thomas
Berthelet, the King's Printer and a noted bookbinder and bookseller whose
shop was at the Lucretia Romana in Fleet Street, was buried in St Mary's
Chapel. Machyn relates: 'The same afternoon was buried Master Berthelet,
Esquire and printer until King Henry; and was buried with pennon and with
cote-armour and four dozen of escutcheons and two white branches and four
gilt candlesticks, and many priests and clerks and many mourners and all the
crafts of printers, booksellers and all stationers.' (fn. 22)
In Mary's reign it seems that some effort was made to refurnish the Church,
for the following extract from John Stow must refer to a new rood screen:
'The partition betwixt the olde worke and the new, sometime prepared as a
screne to be set up in the hall of the Duke of Somerset's house at Strand, was
bought for eight score pound and set up in the yeare 1557.' (fn. 23) He adds: 'One
wilfull bodie began to spoyle and breake the same in the yeare 1596, but was
by the high Commissioners forced to make it up againe, and so it resteth.'
Thomas Marshall was followed in 1559 by William Living (fn. 24) who also held
the rectory of St Swithin, Cannon Street. Two funerals during his time are
described by Machyn, the first reminding us of the important Hospital of
Bridewell, hard by the Church. 'The first day of September (1562) was bered
in the parryche of Sant Brydes in Fletstrett, Master Hulsun, screvener of
London and Master Heywood's depute, and on of the masturs of Brydwell;
and ther wher all the masturs of Brydwell with gren stayffes in their handes,
and the children of the hospetell at ys berehyng; and ther was mony mornars
in blake, and Master Crowley dyd pryche; and ther was grett ryngyng as
ever was hard.' (fn. 25)
Next year (1563) there was a more stately funeral. 'The XX of Feybruary
was bered at Sant Brydes in Fletestrett Master Denham Sqwyre, and the
chyrche ther was mad rayled and hanged with blake and armes, and he was
cared to the chyrche, afor him a mornar bayryng a pennon of armes and after
cam a harold of armes bayryng ys cott armur, and then cam the corse with a
palle of blake velvett with armes on yt and iiij of ys men bare hym; and then
the mornars, the cheyffe was Ser Rechard Sakfeld (Sir Richard Sackville) and
a XX mo mornars; and the dene of Westmynster and the sermon.' (fn. 26)
William Living resigned in 1565 and was afterwards rector of St Mary
Abchurch and died in 1582. Nothing is known of his immediate successors.
John Price (fn. 27) (1567), Richard Matthew (fn. 28) (1568), Hugh Evans (fn. 29) (1569) and
Nicholas Clark (fn. 30) (1570–1) appear in the Westminster Abbey documents as
in receipt of salary for these years. In 1573 Queen Elizabeth presented Thomas
Knell, (fn. 31) sometime vicar of Acton and of Hackney. He resigned before
December of the same year and was succeeded in 1574 by Roger Foster, (fn. 32)
Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, who enjoyed the benefice for
eighteen years and on his death in 1592 was buried at St Bride's. The next
vicar, Richard Lloyd, (fn. 33) lived for little over a year and was buried in the parish
church on 19 October 1593. On his death the Dean and Chapter intended
to present Dr Gabriel Grant (fn. 34) (a later Canon of Westminster), but the
presentation was actually made to Henry Holland (fn. 35) in February 1594. He was
educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was vicar of Orwell, Cambs,
before coming to St Bride's. He published several books, among them:
A Treatise against Witchcraft (1590), Spiritual Preservatives against the Pestilence
(1593), The Christian Exercise of Fasting (1596), An Admonition concerning the
use of Physic in the Pestilence, and Lectures upon the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians
(1603). (fn. 36) Three of his children were baptised at St Bride's, and Mary his widow
was buried here on 24 June 1641. Holland died in 1603.