We have mentioned two events so far removed in time as the reigns of Edmund and Charles I, and they are the only ones in which Ealing and its vicinity seem to have been perturbed by armed forces, but it should be added that when England was threatened with invasion by Napoleon in 1797, the inhabitants of Ealing and Brentford formed a volunteer corps of some two hundred strong, and at the close of the war its colours were, happily unstained, deposited in the Parish Church at Ealing.
The Brentford Martyrs.
But this locality is associated in history not only with war’s alarms, but with religious and political divisions. From Falkener’s History of Brentford, we learn that “Not long after the death of seven godly martyrs that suffered in Smithfield were six other faithful witnesses of the Lord’s true Testament, martyred at Brainford, the 14th day of July, 1558, which said six were of that Company, that were apprehended in a close, hard by Islington, and sent to prison. Whose names hereafter follow: Robert Miles, Stephen Cotton, Robert Dynes, Stephen Wright, John Slade, William Pikes. The six forenamed martyrs (gentle reader) had their articles ministered to them by Thomas Darbyshire, Bonner’s Chancellor, at sundry times, when though they were severally examined, yet had they all one manner of articles ministered unto them, and they had made answer unto the same, in the end the Chancellor commanded them to appear before him again, the 11th day of July, after in the said place at St. Paul’s. When they came he required of them, whether they would turn their opinions to the mother holy church, and, if not that, then whether there were any excuse to the contrary, but that he might proceed with the sentence of excommunication. Whereunto they all answered that they would not go from the truth, nor retreat from the same while they lived. Then he charged them to appear before him again the next day to hear the definitive sentence read against them, according to the ecclesiastical law then in force. At which time he, sitting in judgment, talking with these godly and virtuous men, at last came unto the same place Sir Edward Hastings, and Sir Thomas Cornwall, Knights, two of Queen Mary’s officers of her house, and being there they sat down over against the Chancellor, in whose presence the said Chancellor condemned these good poor lambs, and delivered them over to the secular power, who received and carried them to prison immediately, and there kept them in safety to the day of their death. In the meantime, the naughty Chancellor slept not, I warrant you, but that day in which they were condemned, he made certificate into the Lord Chancellor’s offices, from whence the next day after was sent a writ to burn them at Brentford aforesaid, which accordingly was accomplished in the same place, the said 12th day of July. Whereunto they being brought, made their laudable prayers unto the Lord Jesus, undressed themselves, went joyfully to the stake, whereunto they were bound, and the fire flaming about them, they yielded their souls, bodies, and lives, into the hands of the omnipotent Lord, for whose cause they did suffer, to whose protection I recommend thee, gentle reader. Amen.” Why the martyrdom was at Brentford does not appear, though presumably it owes that unhappy distinction to its status as County town of Middlesex, and there it was that in former days the poll was taken for the election of Knight’s of the shire.
Wilkes At Brentford.
Readers of Constitutional history are familiar with the struggle between the House of Commons and the people for the freedom of election, contests identified curiously enough in the last century with the names of Wilkes and in this of Mr. Charles Bradlaugh. In the early part of the century Brentford was the scene of much rioting and disorder and even bloodshed, and the route from Charing Cross to Brentford was often lined with eager partisans cheering or hooting the freeholders as they made their way to record their votes for or against the man whom the irony of fate had made the champion of the national liberties.
The Plague.
But if Ealing has seen but little of the horrors of war it has groaned under a visitation more terrible still, the hideous hand of the Plague of 1665 and 1666. It is said to have been brought to the neighbourhood by two soldiers who were quartered at the Half-way House at Old Brentford, and the Parish Register bears sad testimony to its ravages. It raged for more than twelve months, and claimed for its own more than two hundred and fifty victims.
| June 24. | —A souldier dyed at the Half-way House at Old Brentford, at Don’s. |
| July 1. | —A souldier that dyed at James Garraway’s. |
| July 10. | —John White and a son of Richard were buried of the plague, from Don’s. |
| July 12. | —Richard Don the master of the house. |
| July 13. | —Two children of Richard Don, a maid, and a maid of James Garraway’s, all buried in one grave, in Old Brentford field, of the plague. |
| ,, 22. | —Sarah, a child of James Garraway’s, died of the plague. |
| ,, 26. | —One that dyed in the Burrow at Old Brentford of the plague. |
| ,, | One that wrought at Robert Monday’s of the plague. |
| ,, | The wife of Joseph Grant of the plague. |
| ,, 31. | —A child of Ben Watts of the plague. |
| Aug. 23. | —Annie, wife of Robert Rendell, of the plague. |
| ,, 24. | —A girl buried of the plague, from Walter’s House in the town. |
| ,, 26. | —Three children from Brentford of the plague. |
| ,, 27. | —Two from Mr. Walter’s house. |
| ,, 28. | —Robert Randall. |
| ,, | Francis Potter. |
| ,, 29. | —A child named John Mason. |
| ,, | Goodman Carter’s wife. |
| Nov. 10. | —Robert Cromwell’s maid. |
| ,, | Barbarietta, the daughter of John Welbro’ Gent. |
In the months of November and December the plague increased in violence, and as many as seven died in one day. Most of the dead were interred in holes dug in the fields to the south of the village, which to this day are called “Dead Men’s Graves.”
Ealing is rich in noble buildings dedicated to the service of God. The parish church, St. Mary’s, stands on the site of a former structure, which was built in 1729, under Act of Parliament and by the Authority of a “brief,” replacing the original church that had begun to sink. The present edifice is of brick, and consists of a nave and chancel, organ chamber, ambulatories and a square tower, designed after the Romanesque style, a corruption of the Doric and Ionic. It is basilican in its internal and external appearance, and a baptisty stands in lieu of the southern transept. The monuments from the walls of the former structure are mostly collected in recesses at the west end. The Church is subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, in whom is the advowson. Robert De Balmers, Bishop of London, we learn from Falkner, gave the tithes of Ealing, in the reign of Henry I, to augment the salary of an officer in the Church of St. Paul’s, called the Master of the Schools. But on the office of Mastership of the Schools merging in that of Chancellor, it is probable that the tithes of Ealing reverted to the Bishop of London, for in 1308 the Church of Ealing was appropriated by Bishop Baldeck to the Chancellor, subject to the payment of £ 10 per annum to the Vicar of Ealing, and to the reading of lectures in divinity, either in his own person, or by a sufficient deputy, on penalty of forfeiting the whole profits of the rectory, a third of which in that case was allotted to a lecturer, a third to the repairs of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a third for the maintenance of the Church. In the taxation of 1327, the Church of Ealing was rated at 25 marks. In the reign of Edward VI the vicarage was valued at £13 6s. 8d. The present value of the living, according to the Clergy List is £800.