Reflect on this, depart, and learn to die.
In this church lie the ashes of many noble, and some royal personages, executed either in the Tower, or on the hill, and deposited here in obscurity; particularly,
George Bullen, Lord Rochford, who was beheaded on Tower hill on the 17th of May, 1536.
Anne Bullen, wife to King Henry VIII. beheaded two days after, on a scaffold erected on the green, within the Tower.
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who from a blacksmith’s son at Putney, became the favourite of Henry VIII. and one of the most zealous promoters of the reformation from popery; but was beheaded on Tower hill in the year 1540.
Catharine Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. beheaded on Tower hill on the 13th of February, 1541.
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, beheaded on Tower hill, on the 24th of June, 1552.
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who lost his head at the same place, on the 22d of Aug. 1553.
Under the communion table, lies the body of James Duke of Monmouth, the natural son of King Charles II. beheaded for asserting his right to the crown, in opposition to James II. on the 15th of July, 1683.
St. Peter’s alley, by St. Peter’s church, Cornhill.