1699. Philip Horneck, who officiated from March 9th to October 16th.
1699. Thomas Knaggs appointed curate October 16th; he stayed till January 10th, 1707, when Francis Jeffrey succeeded. But in February, 1708, Mr. Knaggs returned, and was minister till May 17th, 1713.
1713. Robert Hicks, to June 10th, 1719.
1719. Humphry Persehouse, who was minister forty-one years. He resigned in December, 1759, when
1760. — Bailey, chaunter of Westminster Abbey, was appointed on January 1st by the Dean and Chapter. I believe he was succeeded by the Rev. John Gamble, nominated by his father, as lessee. He died in 1811.
1811. — Harris. [65]
1822. J. G. Foyster, M.A. of Queen’s College, Cambridge. He published a volume of sermons preached here. In 1832, Lord Brougham gave him the rectory of St. Clement’s, Hastings, on which he quitted Knightsbridge. He died there May 17th, 1855.
1832. John Martin, who shortly resigned, and was succeeded by the Rev. Hibbert Binney, D.C.L., the late minister, who, since June, 1838 (when he was appointed rector of Newbury), left the chapel to the ministry of the Rev. John Wilson, now D.D., and the present incumbent. Dr. Binney died June 6th, 1857. Among assistant ministers here have been the Rev. Alexander Cleeve, author of several devotional works, who died September 23rd, 1805; the Rev. H. J. Symons, LL.D., who read the burial service over Sir John Moore at Corunna. He gained the notice of the Duke of York in this pulpit, and quitted it for the Peninsula with a regiment, to which he was chaplain.
Baptisms and marriages were formerly solemnised here, and twenty register-books, some very small, and others quarto and folio size, are still preserved. Many of them, however, are but duplicates of the others, and three are memorandum-books of the clerks, with registrations, expenses, notices, and other entries therein. The regular register of baptisms has been missing a very long while, but duplicates of several years have been preserved; with the exception of a few leaves, all the books of expenses are lost also. [67] I have stated before that the books of the Lazar-house are also missing, and so is the burial book, if such ever existed. I shall be glad to quit this statement, so disgraceful to some of the former officials of the Chapel, and give a few extracts from those still fortunately preserved.
Previous to the passing of Lord Hardwick’s celebrated Marriage Act, in 1753, it was not necessary to the validity of a marriage that such should be performed in a church, or solemnised by any religious ceremony. And although the law of the Church visited with censure those who neglected its canon in this respect, yet the Common Law recognised other and more private modes. Consequently around and in London, at almost all the chapels, marriages were performed, and at some in a very discreditable manner. Lord Hardwick’s bill made it necessary to the validity of a marriage that it should be solemnised in a parish church or public chapel where banns had been regularly published. The result was, that as at these chapels banns were not published, marriages therein solemnised were no longer legal; and among others obliged to succumb to this law, Knightsbridge Chapel was one.