Houseling people in 1548 were 110.
The interior of the present church is octagonal in shape, containing seven recesses, separated from each other by clustered columns and pointed arches, with a clerestory above. The roof is groined and is formed by eight beams of iron, united at the centre. The tower, which rises at the south, contains three stories, and is surmounted by an octagonal lantern; the whole is terminated by a high open parapet. At each angle of the tower there are large pinnacles. The total height of the steeple is 130 feet. The body of the church is chiefly composed of brick, but the tower is of yellow freestone.
Chantries were founded here: For Richard Bardelby, Prebendary of Dunnington in York, who died in 1316, at the altar of St. Michael; by Robert Hez, whose endowment fetched £10 : 19 : 8 in 1548, but there hath been no priest found for twenty years before that time, and so the money is employed in repairs of the church; for Nicholas Coningstow, John Knape at the Altar of St. Katherine; by John Burrel de Askham, for himself and for John de Langeton and Simon Flemyng, for which the King granted his licence, May 8, 1375. Here was founded the Brotherhood of Our Lady and St. Dunstan, wherein was the Guild of St. Anne, endowed by William Chapman, valued at £11 in 1548, when Randall Smith was chaplain; within the same Guild was a Chantry, founded by William Marshall, whose endowment fetched £22 in 1548, when William Neale was chaplain; and yet another Chantry was endowed in the same Brotherhood by William Westwood, and for which the King granted his licence July 22, 1440, at the Altar of St. Mary in the south part of the church.
ST. DUNSTAN IN THE WEST (OLD CHURCH)
A large number of monuments belonging to the old church are affixed to the walls, commemorating Gerard Legh, a member of the Inner Temple, who died 1563; Cuthbert Fetherstone, the King’s doorkeeper, who died 1615; Alexander Layton, a famed swordsman, who died 1679, and others. Among later monuments are those of two Sir Richard Hoares, both Lord Mayors, in 1712 and 1745, whose descendants were liberal benefactors of the new church. Ralph Bane, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, were buried here in 1559, also Dr. Thomas White, founder of Sion College. Here, too, were baptized the great Earl of Strafford in 1593, and Bulstrode Whitelocke in 1605, author of the Memorials of English Affairs. William Tyndale was a frequent preacher in this church, and in more recent times William Romaine was appointed Lecturer (1749). In 1895 a stained-glass window at the north-west was erected in memory of Izaak Walton.
A considerable number of gift sermons are recorded by Stow: Dr. White gave £18; Mr. Adams gave £2. The total of the smaller contributions was £5 : 6 : 8.
There were two charity schools, one for fifty boys, four of whom were taught navigation; the other for forty girls, who were fitted for service. These were established in 1708, and an infants’ school was founded shortly after in Fetter Lane. The three still exist as “fee-paying” church schools.
Among the clergy of the church have been William Tyndale (d. 1536); Dr. Thomas White (d. 1624), founder of Sion College; Dr. John Donne (1573-1631), Dean of St. Paul’s; the silver-tongued Dr. William Bates, ejected in 1660; Richard Baxter (1615-91); and William Romaine (1714-95).