General Description
The church consists of a nave of seven bays 150 feet long and 44 feet broad, north and south aisles each 28 feet broad, a chancel of five bays 87 feet long, a western tower (making the total length 293 feet), a south porch with chamber over it, and a chapel 18 feet by 40 feet immediately to the west of the porch. All the nave and aisles windows, except the four at the ends of the aisles, have decorated tracery, two designs (one of them a very poor one) being alternated throughout; the three western bays of the chancel have also decorated tracery. The four end windows of the aisles, the west window of the chapel, and the four windows in the eastern bays of the chancel are Perpendicular. The great east window has modern tracery, copied from the east window of Carlisle Cathedral. The three south windows of the chapel have reticulated tracery. The tower is vaulted at a height of 157 feet. Below the vaulting are the door, three great windows (west, north, and south), and above them four pairs of windows with ogee heads; between the two sets of windows the walls are pierced by an interior passage. Above the vaulting is a ringing chamber, and over that the belfry surrounded by an exterior passage. Access to this is gained by two staircases, the lower portions of which are no part of the tower, but are contained in turrets, which were the principal decoration of the west front before the tower was built. The belfry contains the clock and a peal of twelve bells, on which tunes are played by machinery every three hours. The bells are dated as follows: 1 and 2, 1785; 3, 1772; 4, 1710; 5, 1617; 6, 1758; 8, 1867; and the remaining four, 1897. The roof of the tower rests on the transoms of the four great belfry windows, the upper part being hollow. On the top of the square tower stands the octagonal lantern, which appears never to have been finished. The total height is 280 feet. The furniture is not very noticeable, except the series of sixty-four misericorde stalls in the chancel. The altar is a modern one, 12 feet long. There are a modern brass eagle lectern, a very poor litany desk, and the base of a poor modern screen; the renaissance pulpit, with its sounding board recently restored, is one of the best pieces of furniture. The font was designed by Pugin, and is as satisfactory as could be expected; the benches are clumsy and raised on platforms, and the alleys except the central one have been filled with unnecessary benches, and so appear unduly cramped, but there is a good open space at the west end. At present the base of the tower is used as a vestry, but the erection of a new vestry opening from the chancel is in contemplation. An organ is mentioned as having been in existence in 1480, but it was destroyed in 1590; a new organ was begun in 1713 by Schmidt, and it has since been continually repaired and added to; there are now 2378 pipes. It is rather buried in an organ chamber built out on the north side of the chancel, and has a poor monotonous case dating from the last restoration.
Monuments
The oldest monument in the church is one dated 1340, a black marble slab in memory of Wisselus Smalenburg, citizen and merchant of Münster. It was originally in the Church of the Franciscan Friars, but was buried on the destruction of that church, then built for about a hundred years into the wall of a cottage, and eventually was placed in Boston Church, near the west end of the north aisle, in 1897. There are two good fifteenth-century altar tombs in recesses in the south aisle: one of a Knight Hospitaller in full armour, the other of a lady; both are unidentified. They were originally in the Knights’ Church, and, when that was pulled down in 1626, were moved to Boston Church, but have only been in their present position since 1853, when the lady’s tomb had the arms of Tilney carved upon it, though without any idea that she really belonged to the Tilney family. On each side of the altar is a black marble slab with brass; that on the north being in memory of Walter Peascod and his wife; that on the south in memory of Richard Strensal, rector from about 1375 to his death in 1408. He is vested in surplice, almuce, and cope, the orphrey of the cope being adorned with figures of the Apostles under canopies. Both these were originally in the Chapel of SS. Peter and Paul. Towards the west end are some slabs which have no doubt been engraved with figures, the faces and hands joined in prayer being now filled in with concrete. The monuments generally seem to have had their places much shifted in the restoration in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Endowments
The parish was originally endowed with tithes (which are now represented by farms allotted in lieu thereof on the enclosure of the fens) and glebe. On the ordination of the vicarage in 1480, the vicar was allowed the use of the rectory house (pulled down in 1750, and now represented by a house built in 1870), and also had a stipend of £33, 6s. 8d. (fifty marks), charged upon the endowments of the rectory: he also receives from the Governors of Boston Grammar School an annual income of £266, 13s. 4d., representing the provision made by Philip and Mary when they restored to the Corporation of Boston the ancient endowments of the trade guilds, out of which the Grammar School and the assistant clergy had been supported. These endowments had been confiscated in 1552, under Edward VI., by William Parr, Marquis of Northampton, who subsequently took part in the attempt to set Lady Jane Grey on the throne: the vicar also has a fen allotment and various small modern endowments which, allowing £75 for fees, bring up the income to about £400 per annum net. Provision is also made under the charter of Philip and Mary for a second priest—the lecturer—who receives £250 per annum from the Governors of the Grammar School, and interest on £200 (Falkner’s Legacy), which latter sum is in the hands of the Corporation. The Mayor’s Chaplaincy, founded in 1557 by Henry Fox, has an endowment of about £160 per annum, managed by the Boston Charity Trustees. There is a modern endowment of about £45 per annum, given by the Misses Gee, for the curate of St. James’; the Ecclesiastical Commission allow two sums of £60 each towards the stipends of the fourth and fifth priests; and there are other small endowments for the choir, the fabric and the poor, which bring up the total income from endowments in connection with the church to about £1000 per annum. It is impossible to exactly distinguish the rectory endowments from the other lands held by the Corporation, but, roughly, their value may be taken at £1200 per annum. About £2000 per annum is raised by voluntary subscription in connection with the church.
Boston Church.
Rectors and Vicars
1228. John Romanus. His legitimacy was doubtful, and he had to obtain a papal dispensation before holding the benefice. He was Canon and first Sub-Dean of York Minster, and afterwards Treasurer and Archdeacon of Richmond. He was the father of the Archbishop of York of the same name. He died in 1256 at an advanced age. It is not known who was his successor in the rectory.