Ealdgate Ward. Dukes Place. 61

Ealdgate Ward. Dukes Place.

Holy and Undivided Trinity [in some Remembrance probably of the old Priory of the Holy Trinity, on part of which Ground the Church now stood.] And he named it, The Church or Chapel of St. James within Algate.

Then the ordinary Prayers were said, with three select Psalms by Tho. Langley, and other Petty Canons of St. Paul's. Then the xxiii Psalm was sung with Musical Instruments. Then a Sermon was preached by John Whiting D.D. out of the 2. Sam. vii. 13. He shall build a House for my Name, &c.

Then a Child was baptized, Sir Henry Marten, the Bishop's Vicar General, and Sir William Cockain Alderman, and the Lady Maioress, Sureties; being baptized by the Bishop, and named JAMES.

Then the Bishop made another Prayer, praying God to accept that Day's Duty and Service, of Dedicating that Church to his great and dreadful Name.

Then the Bishop went to the Chancel, and called the Maior and Aldermen, to whom, being placed before the Lord's Table, he spake in these or the like Words:

"My Lord Maior, and you the Aldermen and Commonalty of this City, you have done a worthy Work in building this House for God. It is your most earnest Desire to have it Consecrated. Which Request you have obtained, and therein a double Favour both from God; that it hath pleased him to accept from simple Men such mean Offers, and to tye his Pleasure by Promise to such Places as this; and also from the Church, which hath appointed the Means for performing thereof. And this Request is by me already satisfied, and that Duty performed. Now then, you must know, That this Place is become an Anathema: And that in every Anathema is both a Consecration and an Execration; a Blessing and a Curse. If you shall use it rightly, and to that Purpose only for which it is sanctified, it will be an Anathema, a Blessing to you and your Families. If otherwise, and that you profane it, it will be an Anathema, a Curse to you and your Posterity."

" Therefore I do here charge you, in the Name of Almighty God, in whose Presence you now appear, and to whose great and glorious Name this Place is now Dedicated, That neither ye by your selves, nor by any Permission of others, do suffer any thing to be done contrary to what is now intended and performed. If ye shall, I do call the great God of Heaven, before whose Altar ye now stand, and this Congregation here, witness against the Souls of you and yours, at the dreadful Day of Judgment. But my Hope is, you will not. And yet, for more Assurance, I do require you to pass me your Promises before God and this Company, not to do or suffer it any way to be profaned."

And accordingly the Maior and Aldermen gave their Word; and promised sufficient to endow the Church, for a Priest to serve in it.

And then the Bishop read a Prayer for a Collect.

This being done, they betook themselves to the Lord's Supper; and the Archbishop, the Maior, Aldermen, and several otheres received. And then the Bishop pronounced another Prayer for a Conclusion.

Then they all went out to the Plots set out for the Church Yard; and one of the Bishop's Chaplains, viz. Thomas Worral B.D. read the xxiii. Chapter of Genesis. Then the Vicar General gave the Bishop an Instrument setting forth the Places, with their Dimensions, allotted for the Church Yard, And then the Bishop read, In Nomine Domini Amen, &c. Cum Honorandus Vir Dominus MAIOR, &c. Then he added a Prayer, That those that should hereafter be Committed to that Earth, might be so guided by God's Grace while they are here in this World, that setting God evermore before their Eyes, and accounting all Things vain in comparison of their enjoying of their only God and Saviour, might live in his Fear and dye in his Faith, and so be made Heirs of his Everlasting Kingdom.

And so the Bishop dismiss'd the whole Congregation in Peace, with the Apostolical Benediction.

This Instrument was signed and dated the 10. Day of January, Anno Dom. 1622. and of the Bishop's Translation the second.

In the beginning of the Reign of K. Charles I. the Parish of St. Katharine Creechurch contended with this new Parish of St. James Dukes Place, as though all that Place was but a Precinct of the Parish of the said St. Katharine. In this Suit, Dr. Barnaby Gooch Master of Magdalen College in Cambridge, with the Fellows of the same House, Patrons of Creechurch joyned with Stephen Denison Minister, or Curate of the said Parish. This Matter obtained a final Decree by three Judges Delegates, Tho. Talbot, Hugh Barker, and Edmund Pope, Doctors of Law; viz. That within the Dukes Place there formerly stood a certain Parish Church of the Holy Trinity; and that the Inhabitants within the said Place frequented it, for the celebrating Divine Things. And this Church of St. James, newly built and re-edified within the Place, called Dukes Place, was, and is rightly and lawfully, together with the Church Yard adjoyning to it, Consecrated by GEORGE, by Divine Providence, Bishop of London, and named the Church of St. James within Aldgate, and ought so to be had and esteemed, and to be a Parish Church.

Whether Duke's Place was in Creechurch Parish.

Sir Edward Barkham Alderman of London, by his Will dated Jan. 15. 1632. gave unto the Parson of the new Church in Dukes Place, the yearly Sum of 40s. to be payed to the said Parson yearly for the time being, upon Good Friday; upon Condition the said Parson preach a Sermon in the foresaid Church upon the Maundy Thursday. And to ten of the poorest People of the Parish, that have been at the Sermon that Day 2s. a piece, to be distributed at the Discretion of the Church Warden; that is, 20s. to the Poor. Which three Pounds to be yearly issuing out of a Messuage and Tenement called the Flower de Luce.

A Gift to this Parish.

This Tenement being burnt down in the great Fire, the Heir of the said Sir Edmund Barkham, did, an. 1668. pray the Judges sitting in the Hall of Clifford's Inn, That the said Legacy might therefore be abated: And the Judges ordered that the third part should be abated for 40 Years next to come, to begin at Christmas 1668. and when the 40 Years were expired, to be 3l. as formerly.


The Monuments here are few.

 

A Child without Name buried in the Chancel as soon as born, with Latin and English Verses on a Brass Plate.

Monuments here.


Qui mihi prima fuit, fuit hora novissima vitæ;
Cœperat, incœpto desiit esse dies.
Consecrare pater voluit primordia Christo:
Præveni patrem, Christum adeundo patrem.

My