The date of the first prior, Rahere, was 1123, that of the first rector 1544.
When the Priory was suppressed, the patronage was given by Henry VIII. to Sir Richard Rich, who granted it to Queen Mary. It was inherited by Queen Elizabeth, who regranted it to Sir Richard (then Lord) Rich, in whose family it remained until it was purchased by William Phillips early in the nineteenth century, in whose descendants it now remains.
From West Smithfield, the entrance to the church is through an Early English arch with the dogtooth ornament. The length of the church is over 130 feet, the breadth 57 feet; the Lady Chapel, built early in the fourteenth century, is about 60 feet long by 26 feet wide. The style of the building is mainly Norman, and was executed by Rahere (1123-1144) and his successor Thomas of St. Osyth (1144-1174); during the next half-century the Early English nave was added. The clerestory, in the Perpendicular style (1405), is in marked contrast with the Norman Triforium beneath it: the ambulatory passes behind the altar. The most striking innovation early in the fifteenth century was the pulling down of the Norman apse and the erection of an east wall, rendering the eastern portion of the church square instead of semicircular; a new apse was built, however, by Aston Webb, to whom also is due the flat oak ceiling of the tower, erected in 1886, and the north transept, and the north and west porches, in 1893. A bone crypt is situated beneath the eastern part of the Lady Chapel, and was vaulted by arches of a single span of 22 feet; it was restored in 1895. Three bays of the east walk of the cloister exist, and were restored in 1905. The tower, built in 1628, contains five of the oldest bells in London, dating from before 1510.
Many chantries were founded here, but went with the suppression in 1539.
This church contains a number of interesting monuments. The most notable is that of the founder, Rahere, placed on the north side of the church within the communion rails. In the south aisle there is the tomb of Sir Walter Mildmay (d. 1589), one of Queen Elizabeth’s ablest statesmen, and founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. On the south wall there is a monument to Edward Cooke, a physician of repute who died in 1652; this is composed of a soft kind of marble, known as “weeping marble,” because in a damp atmosphere it breaks out into moisture. The renovation of the church has caused it to weep no more. Thomas Roycroft, the printer of the Polyglot Bible (d. 1677), has a memorial by the Lady Chapel screen, erected by his son Samuel. On the north wall of the choir a tablet records the death of John Whiting, who, on his death in 1704, left the parish a sum of money for educational purposes, which is still applied in accordance with his wishes. Sir John Deane, the first rector here and founder of the Witton Grammar School, Northwich, in 1557, is commemorated by a brass opposite the founder’s tomb. The font in the south transept is that in which the painter Hogarth was baptized in 1697; he was created a life-governor of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in acknowledgment of his gift of staircase paintings when the Hospital was rebuilt.
There were many charities attached to this parish after Stow’s time (1605), but they were all swept away under Bryce’s Act except John Whiting’s schools.
Thirty boys and twenty girls were maintained by subscription and John Whiting’s gift.
Perhaps the most notable rector was Thomas Westfield (1605-1644), Bishop of Bristol.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE LESS
This church served as the Hospital chapel in monastic times, and has been used as a parish church for those within the Hospital precincts since the dissolution of the priory. In 1789 the interior of the tower was remodelled by the younger Dance, but in 1823 the church was practically rebuilt by Thomas Hardwick. It has since been restored, and the only trace of the old work is to be found in the vestibule beneath the tower. The date of the first custodian was 1223. The date of the first vicar was 1532.