Chelsea parish includes Lowndes Square and the adjoining streets, while Kensington includes Queen’s Buildings, and a few houses in Sloane Street. Thus is Knightsbridge absurdly divided, when for generations there has existed within it a place of worship which could have been easily rendered the focus of a new and independent parish, had its patrons been so minded. The opportunity was lost when St. George’s was formed, and Trinity Chapel, from having been, as it were, the nursing-mother around which the village gathered, was permitted to dwindle, without a thought for it, into comparative insignificance. This ancient religious edifice I will now give an account of.
TRINITY CHAPEL
Was anciently attached to a Lazar-house or Hospital, with the history of which it is most intimately connected. When or by whom founded is not known—at least, if such is recorded, it is not mentioned by any writer on ecclesiastical affairs; but as it appears always to have been attached to the Abbey of Westminster, we may conclude its foundation was connected with that establishment.
The earliest mention I have met with of the Lazar-house is in a grant of James I., preserved in the British Museum, [52] as follows:—
1605, James R. By ye king,
Trustie and welbeloued wee grete you well. Whereas we are given to understand that the sick, lame, and impotent people in our hospitall of Knighte-bridge, in our county of Middlesex, are greatly distressed for want of wholesome water, both for the dressing of their meat, and for making condiment potions for their sores, and that in our park called Hyde Park, in our sayd county, adjoyning to the sayd hospitall, there is within of 140 paces of the sayd hospitall a meete spring of good water, wof by pipe of lead of the charge of five and thirty pounds, may safely be brought to serve the sayde house, for their relief in yt behalf, without any inconvenience growing thereby to our said parke; in consideration of ye poverty, and for the contynuall use and ease of ye sayd impotent and distressed people, wee are graciously pleased to bestow uppon them ye sayd sum of xxxvl., lawful money of England, for and towards the charge of bringinge the sayde springe water to the sayde house by pipe of lead. Wherefore our pleasure is, that you, our warden of our Mint, shall appoint workmen, and give order for the doing thereof, and defray the charge, not exceeding the sayd sum of xxxvl.; ffor the which wee do hereby give you full allowance out of those our moneys as remayne in your hande, lately coyned in our Tower. And this shall be our sufficient warrant unto you, and the duplicate of this published by you a sufficient warrant and discharge to ye keeper and keepers of ye sayde parke, and to all other persons that may consent for the doing hereof. Given under our sign, &c., at or Castle of Windsor, the sixth day of September, in ye thyrd yere of our raigne of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the thirty-eighth.
To our trusty and welbeloued servant Sr Thomas Knyvett, Knight, warden of our mynt. C. C. Inwood.
But, although this is the earliest document concerning the Lazar-house I have seen, there exist earlier, to which the public have not access. Lysons says there is, among the records of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, a statement of its condition in 1595, drawn up by John Glassington, Governor of the House, by profession a surgeon, and whose family rented the hospital, &c., from the Church of Westminster (at the rent of 4s. per annum) for many years. In this document he states that there were no lands belonging to this hospital, nor a groat of endowment; that there had been a certain piece, which was then enclosed within Hyde Park, to the great detriment of the charity. He also states that when he became governor, the building was ready to fall; that he had expended above £100 on it; that there were commonly thirty-six or thirty-seven persons in the house, who were supported by voluntary contributions; that the charge of the previous year, in provisions only, and exclusive of candles, linen, woollen, salves, medicines, burials, &c., had been £161 19s. 4d. He adds a list of fifty-five persons whom he had cured, some of whom had been dismissed as incurable from other hospitals. An account of the regulations of the house is subjoined by him, by which it appears that the patients attended prayers every morning and evening, and that on Sundays there was morning and evening service for the neighbours; that those who were able were obliged to work; that they dined every day on “warm meat and porrege,” and that every man had his own “dish, platter, and tankard, to kepe the broken from the whole.” [55]
In the parish accounts of St. Margaret’s are several entries relating to this hospital:
| 1634. | Item, for a pair of sheetes for Jane Clare, when wee sent her to the Spittle at Knightsbridge | 3s. | 6d. | |
| 1638. | Item, to Mr. Winter, keeper of the hospitall at Knightsbridge, for the keeping of the Three Innocents for one month | 16s. | ||
| 1639. | Item, to Mr. Thomas Neale, for three paire of shoes, two paire for the poore Innocents at the Spittle at Knightsbridge, &c. | 6s. | 6d. | |
| 1646. | Disbursements for the poore Innocents in the Spittle, or Lazar-house, at Knightsbridge; sum total, | £4 | 2s. | 11d. [56] |
There are no books or accounts of the Lazar-house existing at the Chapel now, neither have I been able to ascertain whether they exist elsewhere, or even at all. But in one of the register books still preserved is a list of persons discharged from it; the date of the year is not given, but I have reason to think it about 1676. There are twenty-seven entries, of which the following may serve as samples:—
March 5—Priscilla Knight to London, criple.
,, 6—Mary ffranklin to Berkshire.
,, 9—John Wordner, his wife, to children, to Bristow, criple.
,, 10—Nicholas fflood, his wife, 4 children, to Wales, criple.
,, 18—Robert Dicerson, his wife, 2 children, to Gloster.