Appendices: The church of St. Pancras

Survey of London: Volume 19, the Parish of St Pancras Part 2: Old St Pancras and Kentish Town. Originally published by London County Council, London, 1938.

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'Appendices: The church of St. Pancras', in Survey of London: Volume 19, the Parish of St Pancras Part 2: Old St Pancras and Kentish Town, (London, 1938) pp. 124-131. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol19/pt2/pp124-131 [accessed 19 April 2024]

In this section

APPENDIX I: Vicars of St. Pancras

See note page 148. The additions are Hilperby, Bushye and Birkhed.

For Bushye see St. Pancras Notes and Queries Nos. 202, 221. For Birkhed see App. V, p. 130.

1183. Fulcherius, the Priest
1190. Alexander, clerk
1380. Thomas
–1401. Walter Culverton
1401, Aug. 5– John Thwyng
1406– John Clifton
1428, May 14–1434. John Boswell
1434, Oct. 23– Henry Drayton
c. 1456. William Hilperby
1535–. (Died Aug. 1551.) John Reston or Royston, D.D.
c. 1542–1545, Feb., died. Thomas Somnor (fn. n1)
1545, Feb. 23–1547. William Greveson
1550, May 24– Thomas Abbott
1553, Mar. 22– William Collier
1580–. — Gray
c. 1586. Paul Bushye
1591, Dec. 22– Henry Badley
1608, Mar. 1–1610. Died 1611. Francis Marbury
1610, Feb. 4– Richard Warner
Henry Bradley, senior
1633, Oct. 20– Henry Bradley, M.A.
1625, Dec. 20–1631. John Elborow, A.M.
–1647, May 1, seq. — Denison, S.T.P.
1650, there. William Birkhed
1660, Oct. 22– Timothy Boughey
1664, June 17– Thomas Daniel, A.M.
1665, Feb. 23– Thomas Daniel, A.M.
1665–1689. Randolph Yearwood (fn. n2)
1689, July 29–1706, July 9. (Died Oct. 3, 1730.) John Marshall, LL.D.
1706, July 9–1716. (Died Aug. 3, 1729.) Nathaniel Marshall, LL.B., D.D.
1716, June 6–1749, Dec. 1, died. (fn. n3) Edward de Chair, A.M.
1750, Jan. 16–1796, Dec. 19, died. Benjamin Mence, B.A.
1797, Jan 21–1810, Oct. 26, died. Weldon Champneys, M.A.
1811, Apl. 13–1814, May 7. (fn. n4) Thos. Fanshaw Middleton, D.D., F.R.S.
1814, May 17–1846. James Moore, LL.D. (fn. n5)
1846, July 11–1860. Thomas Dale, M.A. (fn. n6)
1860, July 27–1869. William Weldon Champneys, M.A.
1869, Oct. 26–1877. Anthony Wilson Thorold, M.A.
1877, Sept. 25–1887. Henry Donald Maurice Spence, M.A.
1887, July 7. Henry Luke Paget, M.A.
1906–1936 Edmund Lionel Metcalfe, M.A.
1936. Rt. Rev. Horace Crotty, D.D.

Old St. Pancras (Perpetual Curates till 1863, then Vicars).

1850–1859. Cornelius Hart
1859, Nov. 9–1887, Mar. 5. Died. William Robson Arrowsmith, B.A.
1887, June 7–1912. Robert Allan Eden, M.A.
1912–1926. James Carter Rendell, B.A.
1927–1930. George Victor Warry Sibley, M.A.
1930–1938. Thomas Archibald Smart, A.K.C.
1938. James Joseph Moore

APPENDIX II: Visitation Of St. Pancras (fn. 164)

36 Henry III (1249–50)
(Translation)

State of the Church of St. Pancras

There is a mass book there, old but serviceable, with [musical] notes, and complete, having a kalendar at the beginning.

Also, a graile, good, complete and with notes and serviceable.

Also an antiphonar, good and with notes and serviceable, with the ordinal inserted.

Also a legenda, good and serviceable, with the temporale and sanctorum in one volume.

Also, two psalters fairly serviceable.

Also, two manuals fairly serviceable.

Also, a book of tropes, quite serviceable.

Also, a collectarium and a capitularium.

Also, a white silver chalice of plain work, weighing 20s., with a paten, fairly serviceable.

Also, four hallowed palls for the altar, very serviceable.

Also, three pairs of vestments, of which two are for everyday use, perfect and quite serviceable, with one white chasuble old and worn out, and a third more serviceable, with a chasuble of silk.

Also, there are three serviceable surplices there and one old rochett.

Also, a consecrated super-altar, perfect and serviceable.

Also, a silk frontal, good and perfect.

Also, one that is old and of little value.

Also, a water vat of pewter and fit for use.

Also, two cruets made of pewter and the worse for wear.

Also, a small censer.

Also, a chrismatory without a lock.

Also, a pewter vessel, without a lock, for the reservation of the Lord's body.

Also, a serviceable font of stone.

Also, two old pewter candle-sticks.

Also, a small marble stone, ornamented with copper, for carrying the pax.

Also, 3s. 4d. for the church light which the late John Pigun gave by the hand of his heir for ever.

Adam de Basing has a tenement and has laid a charge upon it for 8 years.

Also, one penny which Henry de la Hulle assigned by the hand of his heir for ever, which he pays.

Also, there are in the parish 36 messuages besides the messuages of Tothale, Ruggemere and Northbury and Alkichesbury.

From other messuages he pays one halfpenny for the rowel, and one farthing for the Paschal candle.

Also, the perpetual vicar has the buildings near the church which the vicar R—made a good enclosure for and erected.

Also, he has four acres of arable land, and all the small tithes of the parish, and moreover he receives 100s. out of the great tithes by assignment of the Chapter.

Also, there is on the north side of the church there another piece of ground where the great tithes are collected, and the entrance to that ground has been blocked up by Master W. de Lichfield, and he is making a road to it by the high altar.

Also, there is a defect in the windows, and in the wall of the chancel outside.

APPENDIX III: Visitation Of The Church Of St. Pancras (fn. 165)

Made on the day of the commemoration of All Souls [2 November], 1297, 15 Edward I (Translation)

The churchyard requires to be better fenced and the churchyard gate to be repaired.

The churchyard is befouled by animals.

The church porch must be roofed and joined on to the nave.

The nave of the church must be better roofed and two windows therein glazed.

The tower is in fair condition, with two bells with ropes; and it is not known whether the church has been consecrated.

Also, there is a vessel of lead for holy water in the entrance to the church with a sprinkler, and another vessel of pewter for the same purpose in the chancel, with a sprinkler.

Also, a stone font leaded inside, having a cover with a lock, the water escapes through the cracks.

The nave of the church is adorned with images of the Holy Cross and St. Mary and St. John on either side of it.

Also, of St. Mary at her altar, with a tabernacle; and of St. Catherine and St. Mary Magdalene, and of St. Nicholas at his altar.

Also, two portable crosses of wood.

Also, there are wanting a bier and a pall for the dead poor, and one ladder.

Also, there are two handbells.

There are no banners.

Also, the chancel must be better roofed, and the windows at the east side must be barred and repaired.

The seats are sufficiently far apart, with benches and book boards.

Also, there is one ordinal, after the use of St. Paul's, with a Martrology and the benedictions of salt and water.

Also, a hymn book with musical notes, with a Capitularium and Collectarium.

Also, there is one Psalter by itself with a Kalendar.

Also, one Antiphonary complete.

Also, a Legenda Temporalis with a Kalendar, Capitularium and Collectarium and Historiae, with musical notes.

Also, another Leganda Sanctorum, with a Collectarium, Kalendar and Historiae noted.

Also, one good Gradual with a Troparium.

Also, one good Manual complete with a Venite book and the Sequences of the Blessed Virgin Mary and other special saints.

Also, one good Mass Book, noted, with a Kalendar: must be better bound.

There are wanting the Statutes of the Synods, the Statutes of Peckham, Articuli Conciliorum and the Capitular of Ottobone.

Also, a fairly good cloth for the lectern. There is no lenten veil.

Also, one serviceable surplice, and another is missing.

Also, one shabby rochet.

Also, one ordinary towel and one towel [for mass] shabby.

Also, two frontals of linen for the great altar.

Also, one variegated with green and yellow colours.

Also, six hallowed palls, of which there is one with an orphrey of diaper.

Also, there is one vestment for festivals, with orphreys, and a chasuble of cloth of gold, and the apparel of the amice is embroidered.

Also, one vestment for Sundays, with orphreys, the stole and other vesture being embroidered, and another yellow chasuble of rich silk.

Also, a third vestment with orphreys of cloth of gold, and a chasuble of rich red silk. Also two pairs of corporals with two cases of cloth of gold. There is no marriage veil.

Also, a stone altar, not consecrated.

Also, one suitable super-altar.

Also, one ivory comb.

Also, a silver chalice, partly gilt, weighing 16s.

Also, a pewter chalice is missing.

Also, there are two cruets and one wine bottle and a bason of pewter.

Also, one glass jar has been taken away.

Also, there is one censer.

Also, a wooden vessel for incense, with a spoon.

Also, a lantern is wanting. There are wanting some dark lanterns, and the Paschal candlestick.

Also, one portable cross of brass and another portable cross of wood and another little one of enamel.

Also, figures of St. John the Evangelist, St. Mary with a tabernacle, and St. John the Baptist.

Also, two little bells and two portable candlesticks of pewter.

Also, one pax of wood with gilded copper plates, and a piece of marble fixed in the centre.

Also, one fan and one herse and an iron mould for the wafers.

Also, a stone chest in the vicar's room.

Also, a bronze pix for the eucharist with a suitable tabernacle with a lock.

Also, there is lacking a pix for carrying the Eucharist to the sick.

Also, there is one chrismatory with a lock.

Also, the buildings of the vicarage are in a ruinous state and badly roofed. and the vicar receives from the small tithes about thirty shillings a year.

Also, the rectory houses are fairly well roofed, but the walls in places require plastering; and there belong to the said rectory two acres of land which are worth twelve pence a year.

Also, Paulinus the Botiller holds the profits of the church and the rectory glebe as a farm from the farmer Master Ralph de Ivingho, for twenty four pounds a year.

APPENDIX IV: Certificate Of Church Goods (fn. 166)

Middx. temp. Edward VI, dated 3 Ed. VI (1549–50) Saint Pancrasse yn the Feldes

This is the Inuentory of all the ornamentes, jewell and bells belongyng to the psrysshe church of saynt Pancrasse yn the feldes besydes London yn Kentishetowne yn the county of Mydd. made the xijth day of Marche yn the third yere of the raigne of our soueraigne lord Edward the Syxthe, by the grace of God kyng of Englond, Fraunce, and Irelond, Defendor of the Fayth, and of the Church of Englond and also of Irelond yn earthe the supreme hedd.

Firste xvne vestementes, some of sylke, some of satten of brydges, some of bawdkyn and some of Fustyan.

Item, a cope of satten of brydges and ij olde copes of bawdkyn.

Item, a chalice of syluer weying xiiijne ounces.

Item, another chalice of syluer weyeng iiijor ounces.

Item, four corporas cases.

Item, foure candelstyckes of latten for the aulters.

Item, syxe alter clothes good and badde.

Item, thre belles yn the church steple.

Item, a lytell bell yn the chaple.

Item, foure standerdes for the herse of latten.

Item, two holywater stockes of latten.

Item, a byble of the greate volume.

Item, a paraphrases of Erasmus.

Item, a masse boke and an olde portas, a manualle & a precessyoner.

Item, two hand towelles at the alters end.

Item, a herse cloth of sattyn of brydges.

Item, a braunche of latten for the rode of the chaple.

Item, a cresmatory of latten.

Item xiijne bolles of latten for the rode of the churche.

Item, ij payre of sensors of latten.

Item, a pyxe of latten.

APPENDIX V (fn. 167)

A Survey of Church Livings was made in 1650 by order of Parliament and the report on St. Pancras was as follows:

Kentish Towne Alias Pancras

John Elborow of Wennington, in the county of Essex, clerk, has at this present the parsonage of the parish of Pancras in the county of Middlesex aforesaid which he holdeth by virtue of a will made by Margaret Bust, deceased, who hath a lease thereof from Doctor Wynnif, Dean of Pauls, dated 22nd April, 1637, 13 Charles, to hold from the Annunication of the Virgin Mary then last past for 21 years, paying therefore yearly thirteen pounds, sixteen shillings and eight pence. There was another lease granted by the Dean and Chapter of Pauls to Sir Richard Ottman of Chart, next Sutton Valence, Kent, knight, dated 1 February, 11th King James, for fifty years, of four acres of meadow called by the name of Parsons alias Parsonage close, lying on the north side of Pancras Church aforesaid. The said Richard demised the said close unto Arthur Hart, citizen and cook of London who died and Thomas Hart his executor, in consideration of ten pounds, and five pounds a year rent to be paid, demised the same and the remainder of the said term unto the said John Elborow who holdeth the same by a deed dated the 18th of November anno domini 1626; what the parsonage and that will be worth when the time is expired, we are not able to judge. Also, we do present that the church of the parish of Pancras is called by the name of Pancras Church, and standeth in the fields, remote from any of the houses of the said parish. That there were certain lands given by deed or will for the repair of the said church and not otherwise, which lands were by Sir Robert Payne, knight, Peter Benson and others, feofees in trust, by licence granted them from the lords of the manor of Tottenham and Centelowes Court disposed of as followeth: to wit, in consideration of £54 to them in hand paid by Mr. Richard Gwalter, they did by lease dated first of June, 9 Charles, 1643, demise to the said Richard four acres of the said land for 21 years at two pence a year rent, and in consideration of £27 in hand paid by the said Richard, they did by another lease, dated 2 August in the year aforesaid, demise unto the said Richard two acres of the said lands for the term aforesaid, for the like rent. We are informed that these monies were laid out and disbursed for the building of the chapel that is now in the said parish, which is very convenient and fit for all the parishioners to come unto. There is also a lease dated 20th June, 9 Charles, unto to Thomas Ive, deceased, of seventeen acres of the said land for 21 years at £17 a year rent, the remainder of which was assigned over unto one Peter Benson and is now in his possession. All those lands when the leases are ended we believe will be worth four nobles an acre the year. We do present that Mr. William Birkhed is a godly orthodox minister and is settled amongst us, with the consent and good liking of the parishioners, and by order of the Committee of Plundered Ministers of the 7th March, 1650, and he hath for his present maintenance the vicarage of the said parish, which is, with the four acres of glebe land, and the tithes, which is four pence a cow and six pence a calf with tithe pigs and fruit, if the same be duly and truly paid him, worth £28 the year. There is an augmentation of £50 a year allowed him, but he can hardly get it. We do present that there is in the said parish one chapel very convenient for all the parishioners, there is another at Highgate very convenient both for those of Kentish Town and Hornsey Parish, and for that end it was built; more we cannot say.

Note. The Rev. John Elborow was the cousin of Margaret Bust who by her will, proved 22nd October, 1638, directed that she should be buried in the chancel of the church of Wennington, near her late husband and child.

The two acres leased to Richard Gwalter on 2nd August, 1643, are in Chester Road, Highgate. In 1654 Sir Robert Payne, John Ofley and Peter Benson surrendered the land to fresh trustees as, "two acres of meadow, part of Horsleys in Broadfield" held of Cantlowes Manor, in trust to apply the rents and profits to the repair of the Parish Church of St. Pancras and the Chapel of Ease.

APPENDIX VI

Survey made in 1668 (fn. 168)

Imprimis. The vicarage house containing six bays of buildings or thereabouts.

1. One stable and brewhouse thereunto adjoining, containing Three bays of buildings or thereabouts.

2. One orchard and one garden, both containing about half an acre.

3. One croft by the house containing about half an acre.

4. One yard and one other small garden, between them containing about a quarter of a rood.

5. Two cottages or tenements near the Vicarage house containing about three bays of building, now in the possession of Paul Ives and Thomas Umblethorpe.

6. Two orchards or gardens and a backside thereunto belonging containing about one rood.

7. One piece of garden lying in Kentisetowne called the Closes, and abutting upon a lane now in the possession of Dinah Murrell, containing by estimation five acres or thereabouts, left by Sir — Chlomeley to the vicar of Pancras for ever, twenty shillings of the yearly rent thereof excepted, which is left to the master of the Free School at Highgate for ever.

8. The Church-yard containing — acres, more or less.

9. In the hamletts within the parish every man and his wife two pence, every widower and widow one penny.

10. For every house with a yard or backside throughout the parish three pence and every house without one penny.

11. For every cow renewed two pence and for every strop milch cow one penny.

12. For every foal one penny.

13. For every swarm of bees one penny.

14. For geese one tenth and for every odd one above ten an halfpenny; and if there be under ten, for every one one penny.

15. For pigs, every tenth and for every odd one whether under or over ten one penny.

16. For every cock two eggs and for every hen one, and so for turkeys and ducks.

17. For sheep the tenth threepence or the tenth part of the wool, or if the vicar does not take the wool in kind then for every sheep one penny.

18. For lambs every tenth, but if the vicar does not take them in kind then for every lamb two pence.

19. For every churching six pence to the vicar, the baptism four pence to the clerk.

20. For every banns of marriage ninepence to the clerk and for every marriage with banns two shillings to the vicar and nine pence to the clerk.

21. For every burial within the parish to the vicar four pence and to the clerk one shilling and two pence, and for every man and woman buried in the chancel ten shillings to the vicar and for every child five shillings.

22. The clerk of the church receives no yearly salary.

Footnotes

  • n1. In his will desired to be buried in the chancel of the church.
  • n2. This incumbent was constantly at variance with his parishioners. "He complained that the poor were hindered and deprived of money given for charitable purposes, and that the trustees of the church lands had refused to expend the rents of those lands in the augmentation of his income, and in the payment of the rent of a house for his residence while the vicarage house was being built. In September, 1675, he was arrested on three actions for debt, and in 1676 was a prisoner in the Fleet. In 1677 he opposed and hindered the expenditure of the rents of the church lands in the repair of the parish church, and for so doing was cited in the ecclesiastical court. He was suspended for three years by Sir Thomas Exton, as Commissary to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, for marrying two persons without banns or licence. He died in July, 1689, and was buried in the churchyard." The parish registers kept by him are entirely unreliable, as may be seen from the manuscript transcript in the Guildhall Library, made by Mr. Challen.
  • n3. He was run over in the street by the bad driving of a drunken carman
  • n4. On 8th May, 1814, was consecrated first Bishop of Calcutta and Primate of India. He died 8th July, 1822, aged 52. His effigy is in St. Paul's Cathedral.
  • n5. During his incumbency the new St. Pancras and other churches were built in the parish. The population in 1811 was more than 46,000, and the old church accommodated only about 150 persons while the Kentish Town Chapel provided for about the same number. St. James's, in the Hampstead Road, became parochial in 1793. In 1822 the new parish church in Euston Road was completed and the old parish church became a chapel of ease. Then followed Camden Chapel in 1824, Somers Town Chapel and Regent Square Chapel in 1826, the Collegiate Chapel of St. Katharine's in 1836, Christ Church, Albany Street, 1837, All Saints, Gordon Square, 1842, St. John, Charlotte Street, 1846, St. Bartholomew's, Gray's Inn Road, 1846.
  • n6. He was born at Pentonville, 22nd August, 1797, and was Professor of English Language and Literature in London University. He died at the house of his son, the Rev. T. P. Dale, No. 2, Amen Court. He actively promoted the building of new churches within the ancient parish of St. Pancras.
  • 164. St. Pancras Notes and Queries (1903), p. 9.
  • 165. Ibid., p. 11.
  • 166. P.R.O., E 315/498, fo. 36.
  • 167. Lambeth MSS. Parl. Surveys, Vol. 12, fo. 283.
  • 168. P.R.O., S.P. Dom. 1668. Vol. 46, fo. 73.
  • 169. Guildhall Records: Assessments, Box 22, MS. 8.