SS. ANNE AND AGNES, ALDERSGATE
This church stands on the north side of Gresham Street, towards the west end. The date of the foundation of the original church is uncertain, but mention is made of it in a deed dating between 1193-1212, in St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was damaged by fire in 1548, reconstructed and again destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The present building was completed by Wren in 1681. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1322.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of:
The Dean and Canons of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, 1322; the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, 1510; the Bishop of Westminster by grant of Henry VIII., January 11, 1540-41; the Bishop of London and his successors by grant of Edward VI., July 4, 1550; confirmed by Queen Mary, March 3, 1553-54.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The present building is of brick, and measures 53 feet square, and 35 feet in height. Within this area four Corinthian columns form another square. The tower, rising at the west, measures 14 feet at the base and culminates in a vane; the total height is 95 feet.
A chantry was founded here by Thomas Juvenal and Alice his wife at the Altar of St. Nicholas; to which Richard Grant was instituted chaplain, April 10, 1363.
The church formerly contained monuments to Stephen Brackynbury, gentleman, Usher to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. William Gregory, Mayor of London, 1461, was buried here, but no monument remained in 1598.
The principal benefactors were William Gregory, alderman and skinner, and John Werke, goldsmith, both of whom bequeathed a number of houses to the parish in the fifteenth century.
Some of the most notable rectors were: John Hopton (d. 1558), Bishop of Norwich; Samuel Freeman, Dean of Peterborough, 1691; and Fifield Allen, Archdeacon of Middlesex.
At the corner of Noble Street is the churchyard of St. John Zachary, which parish is now incorporated with St. Anne and St. Agnes. This is a fairly large piece of ground surrounded by brick houses. There are many upright tombstones among the blackened shrubs within. Beyond there is a large building of red brick finished with piers of polished granite.
The Church of St. John Zachary, which was situated in Maiden Lane, was burnt down in the Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of St. Anne, Aldersgate. It was built or founded by a monk named Zachary. The earliest date of an incumbent is some year between 1217 and 1243.
The church has always been in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, from the earliest record up to 1666, when the parish was annexed to that of St. Anne and St. Agnes.
Houseling people in 1548 were 240.
Chantries were founded here by Thomas Lichfield in 1320; for Roger Beynyn and Isabel his wife before 1322.
Stow records that the monuments in this church were well preserved in his time. Some of the most notable persons commemorated were: Sir James Pemberton, who founded a free school in Lancashire, and was donor of many other charitable gifts (died 1613); Philip Strelley (d. 1603), benefactor to the parish, and Henry de Spondon, rector here in 1366.
There were some small legacies belonging to the parish, but few names are recorded by Stow. Colonel Henry Drax was donor of £20, and his wife of £30. Philip Strelley, of 40s. a year.
By the subscribers of the united parishes thirty boys and twenty girls were taught, clothed, and put out as apprentices.
William Byngham, founder of Christ Church College, Cambridge, was rector here.
In Gresham Street are also the halls of two City Companies.