This church is a rectory in the gift of the Lord Mayor, commonalty, and citizens; and the Rector, besides glebe, casualties, &c. receives 120l. per annum in lieu of tithes.
St. Margaret’s street, Cavendish square; so called in honour of the Lady Oxford.
St. Margaret’s Westminster. King Edward the Confessor having resolved to rebuild the conventual church of St. Peter with great magnificence, imagined that it would be a dishonour to his new and stately edifice, to have the neighbouring people assemble in it as usual, for the performance of religious worship, as well as prove troublesome and inconvenient to the monks; therefore about the year 1064, he caused a church to be erected on the north side of St. Peter’s, for the use of the neighbouring inhabitants, and dedicated it to St. Margaret, the virgin and martyr of Antioch.
This church, which is situated only thirty feet to the north of the abbey, was rebuilt in the reign of King Edward I. by the parishioners and merchants of the staple, except the chancel, which was erected at the expence of the Abbot of Westminster. At length, in the year 1735, this church was not only beautifully repaired, but the tower cased, and mostly rebuilt, at the expence of 3500l. granted by parliament, on account of its being in some measure a national church, for the use of the house of Commons. Stow.
It is a plain, neat, and not inelegant Gothic structure, well enlightened by a series of large windows: it has two handsome galleries of considerable length, adorned in the front with carved work; these are supported by slender pillars which rise to the roof, and have four small black pillars running round each of them, adorned with gilded capitals both at the galleries and at the top, where the flat roof is neatly ornamented with stucco. The steeple consists of a tower, which rises to a considerable height, and is crowned with a turret at each corner, and a small lanthorn, much ornamented with carved work in the center, from whence rises a flag staff.
This church in 1758, underwent a thorough repair, on the inside a new vault was built through the whole body of the edifice, and the whole is ornamenting with new gilding and painting. A small view of it is in the same plate with that of Westminster Abbey, which see.
The patronage of this church, which is a curacy, was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, as it is at present in the Dean and Chapter.
On the south side of the altar is an ancient tomb, erected in the depth of popish ignorance and superstition, on which is the portraiture of Mary Bylling standing between the Virgin Mary and an angel, and over her is engraved the figure of an old man, to represent the omnipresent Deity, emitting rays of light upon the head of the Virgin, from whose mouth proceeds a label with these words, Ecce ancilla Domini; fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Out of Mary Bylling’s mouth issues a scroll with these words: Blessyd Lady, for thy glorious salutacion, bryng our sowles to everlasting salvation: and on two scrolls on each side of her, Blessyd Triniti, on me have mercy. Blessyd Triniti, on me have mercy. These four figures, with the several inscriptions, are engraven on small brass plates inlaid in the stone, as is also an inscription which gives the names of her three husbands, and lets us know that she died on the 14th of March 1429. Maitland.
There is also here a whimsical inscription on the tomb of Skelton, the merry Poet Laureat to Henry VII. and VIII. who died on the 21st of June 1529.
Come, Alecto, and lend me thy torch,