First Church.
In a book,[[647]] now in the possession of the Holborn Metropolitan Borough Council, containing a number of extracts apparently copied from an earlier volume, is the copy of a document dated 26th January, 1630–31, in which it is stated that Queen Maud, about the year 1110, here built a church “pulchram satis et magnificam,” and called it by the name of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It is possible that the statement is merely based on the fact of the foundation of the hospital, including the church, at about that date.
Although there is no record of any presentation to the living before the Hospital was suppressed in 1539, the fact that the parish of St. Giles was in existence at least as early as 1222[[648]] necessitates the assumption that the church was partially used for parochial purposes. After the suppression of the Hospital the whole fabric became parochial.
The earliest institution that has been found to[[649]] this church is dated 20th April, 1547, and was at the presentation of Sir Wymond Carew. On the next occasion (1571) the privilege was exercised by Queen Elizabeth, and since that time the patronage has always been in the hands of the Crown.
Very little information remains as to the architectural character of the church (whether the original structure or not) at the time of the dissolution.[[650]]
Besides the high altar there must have been an altar to the patron saint, St. Giles. There is also evidence of the existence of a chapel of St. Michael, for in the 46th year of Henry III. Robert of Portpool bequeathed certain rents to provide for the maintenance of a chaplain “to celebrate perpetually divine service in the chapel of St. Michael, within the hospital church of S. Giles.”[[651]]
According to an order of the Vestry of 8th August, 1623, there then existed a nave and a chancel, both with pillars, clerestory walls over, and aisles on either side.
The Vestry minutes of 21st April, 1617, record the erection of a steeple with a peal of bells, but from the fact that “casting the bells” is mentioned as well as the buying of new bells, and from the reference to it in the following year (9th September, 1618) as “the new steeple,” it seems probable that something of the kind had existed before. Parton[[652]] says that there was in early times a small round bell tower, with a conical top, at the western end of the church, but his authority for the statement is very doubtful.
The size of the church, measured within the walls, was 153 feet by 65 feet.[[653]]