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 THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY 
 
 Allhallows Barking 
 
 AND THE 
 
 MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM PENN 
 
 New York: 249 West 13th Street 
 1911 
 
THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY -^UuL. U, 
 
 Allhallows Barking 
 
 AND THE 
 
 MEMORIAL TO WILLIAM PENN 
 
 ^Printed subject to revisioni 
 
 New York: 249 West 13th Street 
 1911 
 
 (^ ...i 
 
Gift 
 pf,G»L9land 
 
 JUN 22 1912 
 
 'I 
 
 
ALLHALLOWS BARKING 
 
 THE Church of Allhallows Barking is at the end 
 of Great Tower Street, E. C, to the west of the 
 Tower of London ; it is immediately opposite Mark 
 Lane Station of the Metropolitan Railway. It is the 
 oldest parish church with a continuous history in the 
 City of London, and is one. of the ^eighi 'churches that 
 survived the great fire of 1666. 
 
 Visitors to Allhallows Bai'king'shoiild not make the 
 mistake of seeking it in the town of Barking in Essex. 
 The latter was a convent founded in the seventh cen- 
 tury by Erkenwald, afterward bishop of London and 
 Saint. The City parish of Allhallows is an irregular 
 tract of about fifteen acres, and it is presumed that this 
 land belonged to St. Erkenwald and, together with the 
 manorial rights and the tithes, formed part of the 
 endowment of the convent. 
 
 Of the form and history of the church for four hun- 
 dred years nothing is known. With the Norman Con- 
 quest it begins to emerge into definite liistory, and it is 
 probable that a new building was erected after the fire 
 of 1087 which devastated the City in that year. But 
 the name "Barking Church" seems to have been quite 
 definitely fixed, for it is so designated in the reign of 
 King Stephen [1135-1154]. At all events, the convent 
 of Barking founded the vicarage of Allhallows in 1387. 
 
 The close proximity of the church to the Tower, 
 which was both a fortress and a royal residence, natu- 
 rally directed the interest of the English sovereigns to 
 it. The earliest known royal gift was made by Richard 
 
 [3] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 Coeur de Lion [1189-1199], who was the founder of a 
 "fair chapel" on the north side of the church. The 
 chapel speedily grew in fame and wealth. Edward I. 
 [1272-1307] placed a painting of the "Glorious Virgin" 
 in it, painted by one Marlibrun, a Jew of BilHngsgate. 
 In accordance with a vow made at that time, Edward 
 visited the chapel five times a year when in England, 
 and he obtained special privileges from the Pope for 
 those who worshiped there. It has been sometimes sup- 
 posed that the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion was 
 buried in the chapel, although its possession by the 
 cathedral of Rouen in France, to which church Richard 
 unquestionably bequeathed it, is now regarded as more 
 in accordance with probabilities. 
 
 However, the chapel of St. Mary de Berhing became 
 the care of the Kings of England and grew into one 
 of the most famous places of pilgrimage in England, 
 rivaling, in this respect, the London shrines of St. 
 Erkenwald in the cathedral and of St. Edward the 
 Confessor at Westminster. 
 
 "Nearly 200 years after Edward I.," writes Dr. A. 
 J. Mason, one of the latest historians of Allhallows, 
 "Edward IV. [1461-1483] endowed two new chantries 
 in this chapel with manors at Tooting Beck and S treat- 
 ham, which had belonged to the Abbey of Bee in Nor- 
 mandy, and gave it the title of the Royal Free Chapel 
 of the Glorious Virgin Mary of Barking; and his 
 brother, Richard III. [1483-1485], who is viewed more 
 favourably at Barking than in most other places, not 
 only founded a chantry in it while he was still Duke of 
 Gloucester, but, after he became King, he rebuilt the 
 chapel from the ground, and made it a Collegiate 
 
 [4] 
 
AllJiallows Barking 
 
 Church, with a Dean and six Canons, Edmund Chader- 
 ton, a great favourite of his, being the first Dean. But 
 those were the last days of such institutions. The 
 smihng 'picture' must have perished by the hands of 
 Henry VIII. 's [1509-1547] Commissioners, the chan- 
 tries were dissolved under Edward VI. [1547-1553] ; 
 and no trace now remains of the once celebrated chapel 
 unless it be a handsome tomb against the wall of the 
 north aisle." 
 
 This is the tomb of Sir John Croke, one of the first 
 wardens of a confraternity or guild connected with the 
 church and founded by John Tibet ot or Tiptoft, Earl 
 of Worcester and Constable of the Tower of London. 
 Tiptoft was the first of English Humanists and the 
 warmest friend of Caxton and his printing press. 
 
 While royalty lavished gifts upon the chapel the 
 church itself grew in civic importance. It was con- 
 venient for the burgesses to use it as a meeting-place 
 before presenting themselves on ofiicial occasions at the 
 Tower, and as a neutral ground on which representa- 
 tives of Court and City might meet. Thus in 1265 Sir 
 Roger de Leibum, who was sent by the King to receive 
 the submission of the citizens after the battle of Eves- 
 ham, received the Mayor and the citizens at the church 
 where terms were arranged. Here the citizens gathered 
 "in their best apparel" and proceeded to the Tower to 
 welcome the King's justiciars or to attend them during 
 their sittings. In 1285, on one of these occasions, the 
 Mayor, Gregory de Rokesly refused to attend. "He 
 formally 'deposed himself in Berkyngechurche by lay- 
 ing aside his insignia and seal at the high altar and then 
 entered the Court as an ordinary Alderman." The City 
 
 [5] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 was declared to be without a mayor and none was per- 
 mitted for thirteen years. Allhallows was one of the 
 three churches in which the curfew was rung. The 
 Knights Templars were here tried for heresy in 1311. 
 
 Very conspicuous in the interior furnishings of the 
 church are three magnificent sword rests of wrought 
 iron, commemorating the Mayoralties of Eyles, 1727; 
 Bethell, 1755, and Chitty, 1760. "In former times the 
 Lord Maj'-or used to attend some church in the City 
 in state every Sunday ; and the parish to which the Lord 
 Mayor belonged often testified its pride by erecting for 
 him, in his ofiicial pew, a rest for his state sword. But 
 no church in the City has such fine hammered Sussex 
 ironwork as the sword rests in Allhallows Barking, of 
 the Lord Mayors, John Chitty and Slingsby Bethell, 
 and even these sword rests are not so fine as the hand- 
 rail to the pulpit, or an elaborate hat-peg close by, where 
 some great merchant must have had his pew." 
 
 No authoritative information concerning the date of 
 the erection of Allhallows Barking appears to be 
 available. Its Norman fabric is now scarcely visible 
 and it has the general character of a church of the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth century. Although the general 
 effect of the interior is harmonious, it has been exten- 
 sively restored at various dates. In 1634-5 there were 
 many repairs and much rebuilding. An explosion of 
 gunpowder near by severely damaged the southwest 
 portion, so that nine years later the tower, which was 
 at the end of the south aisle and was surmounted with 
 a spire, was taken down. The present tower of brick, 
 capped with a dome, was built at the end of the nave. 
 Although very plain it is not without a certain gran- 
 
 [6] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 deur, and is a very rare example of church architecture 
 at the time of the Commonwealth. 
 
 On September 5, 1666, Pepys wrote in his diary: 
 "About two in the morning my wife calls me up and 
 tells me of new cryes of fire, it being come to Barkeing 
 Church, which is at the bottom of our lane." After 
 taking Mrs. Pepys and his gold to a place of safety 
 he returned to the scene of desolation. He continues: 
 "But going to the fire, I find by the blowing up of 
 houses, and the great helpe given by the workmen out 
 of the King's yards, sent up by Sir W. Pen, there is a 
 good stop given to it, as well as at Marke-lane end as 
 ours; it having only burned the dyall of Barking 
 Church, and part of the porch, and was there quenched. 
 I up to the top of Barking steeple, and there saw the 
 saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw; every where 
 great fires, oyle-cellars, and brimstone, and other things 
 burning. I became af card to stay there long, and there- 
 fore down again as fast as I could, the fire being spread 
 as far as I could see it ; and to Sir W. Pen's, and there 
 eat a piece of cold meat." 
 
 In 1814 drastic "restorations" were made. The high- 
 pitched roof of the nave made way for an inferior one 
 of fir and stucco ; the exterior battlements were removed, 
 and a seventeenth century vestry at the east end was 
 rebuilt. Other repairs and alterations were made in 
 1836, 1860 and 1870. The latest "restoration" was 
 begun about 1893 from the designs of the late J. L. 
 Pearson, the celebrated church architect. "A high- 
 pitched timber roof," says Mr. Philip Norman in 
 describing these operations, "has intruded itself over 
 the nave and chancel, an attempt to imitate what was 
 
 [7] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 there before the restoration of 1814. The florid north 
 porch with a chamber above it has been added in place 
 of a smaller fabric, which had at least the negative 
 merit of being unpretentious. Outside, the plaster has 
 been picked oif the walls, which have again been battle- 
 mented, and are now pointed with that projecting ridge 
 of dark cement so dear to most modem architects. A 
 trench has been dug along three sides of the building, 
 almost large enough to serve for purposes of defence. 
 It has been paved with tombstones from the disused 
 burial-ground." 
 
 The close proximity of Allhallows Barking to the 
 Tower made its graveyard verj'- convenient as a place 
 of burial for the victims of the scaffold. In many 
 instances these burials were but temporary. The body 
 of the celebrated Bishop Fisher, beheaded June 22, 
 1535, was "without any reverence tumbled" into a grave 
 on the north side of Allhallows; it was subsequently 
 removed and laid beside More in the chapel of the 
 Tower. The Earl of Surrey, "the first of the English 
 nobility who did illustrate his birth with the beauty of 
 learning," was buried here after his beheading on Janu- 
 ary 21, 1547; the body was subsequently removed to the 
 family vault at Framlingham, Suffolk. Similar execu- 
 tions and burials are recorded of Lord Thomas Grey, 
 April 28, 1554, an uncle of Lady Jane; of Henry 
 Peckham and John Daniel in 1556. The location of 
 these graves is not now known. Here, on January 11, 
 1645, was buried Archbishop Laud, who had been be- 
 headed the day before; in 1663 his remains were trans- 
 ferred to the College of St. John the Baptist at Oxford, 
 of which he had been President and benefactor. His 
 
 [8] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 steward, George Snayth, who had superintended Laud's 
 burial, was himself buried here in 1651, but at a respect- 
 ful distance from his celebrated master. The Nonjuror, 
 John Kettlewell, was, at his own request in 1695, buried 
 on the spot where Laud had lain; his epitaph still 
 remains near the bottom of the north aisle. 
 
 Allhallows Barking is peculiarly rich in memorial 
 brasses, and possesses one of the richest collections in 
 London. The earliest is that to WiUiam Tonge, dating 
 from 1389 ; it is small in size and circular in form. A 
 brass to John Rusche, 1498, is a late example of the 
 practice of placing animals at the feet; in this case a 
 dog. A brass to Christofer Rawson [d. 1519] and 
 his two wives is not far off. Nor is that to William 
 Thynne and his wife, 1546. Thynne was shown much 
 favour by Henry VIIL, but he is chiefly famous for 
 having edited the first complete edition of Chaucer's 
 work. A brass to William Armar [d. 1560] com- 
 memorates a servant for fifty-one years to Henry VIIL, 
 Edward VL, Mary and Ehzabeth. A superb brass 
 commemorates Andrew Evyngar [d. 1533] and EUyn, 
 his wife, one of the most notable monuments of its kind 
 in England. A small brass to John Bacon and his wife 
 Joan [1437] is the earhest and most beautiful of its 
 kind in the County of Middlesex. Other brasses, some 
 of them now fragmentary, commemorate Thomas 
 Virby, the seventh vicar, 1434-1453; Thomas Gilbert 
 and his wife [d. 1483 and 1489], Roger James [1591], 
 who came from Utrecht ; and Mary, wife of John Bur- 
 nell; she died in 1612. 
 
 A number of interesting monuments are afiixed to 
 the walls. Against the east wall, on the south side, is 
 
 [9] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 the monument to Kettlewell. On the north wall, near 
 Croke's altar-tomb, is the monument of Jerome Bonalia 
 [d. 1583], who was probably connected with the Vene- 
 tian embassy. Further west is the monument to Bald- 
 win Hamey, who was for five years physician to the 
 Muscovite Czar, and who died in London in 1640. 
 
 The splendid woodwork of Allhallows Barking is 
 worthy of more than passing notice; it constitutes, 
 indeed, the most conspicuous feature of the interior. 
 The lofty pulpit of carved oak was set up in the reign 
 of James I. [1603-1625] ; each face of the hexagonal 
 canopy carries the text "Xpm prsedicam crucifixum." 
 "There is a fine carved parclose at the back of the church 
 behind the old pews of the parish officers, and another 
 carved screen between the nave and the chancel. The 
 altar, which is enclosed by a handsome square balustrade 
 of brass [put up in 1750], and is itself an excellent 
 piece of oak carving, with an inlaid top, is backed by 
 a good reredos, into which are let, along with oil paint- 
 ings of Moses and Aaron, scrolls and festoons of lime 
 wood from the hand of Grinling Gibbons, who also 
 made the cover of the font." 
 
 Of the clergy connected with Allhallows Barking 
 no one was more celebrated than Lancelot Andrewes, 
 who, says Dr. Mason, may well be claimed as the patron 
 saint of Barking. It is to him, he adds, more than to 
 any one other man that the English Church owes her 
 escape from becoming a merely Protestant sect. Shortly 
 after him came Edward Lay field, nephew to Arch- 
 bishop Laud. He got into serious trouble with Parlia- 
 ment in matters of worship. He was arrested in the 
 church while divine service was in progress, mounted 
 
 [10] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 on horseback in full canonicals, and, with the prayer- 
 book tied around his neck in token of derision, was 
 hounded through the streets to prison. He was placed 
 on a galley ship, but was subsequently released. George 
 Hickes, a very learned man, was another famous vicar ; 
 he resigned before the revolution which brought William 
 and Mary to the throne. 
 
 It was after Layfield had been removed from the 
 parish that Sir William Penn brought his infant son 
 WilHam to be baptized in the church, a ceremony that 
 took place on October 23, 1644. The baptismal font 
 at which it took place was shortly after cast out of the 
 church, and the present font has, therefore, no associa- 
 tion with Penn. This significant event is duly recorded 
 in the registers of the church, which remain intact 
 from 1558. They appear to have been kept with con- 
 siderable care, and contain many entries of personal 
 and historic interest. 
 
 Of modern monuments the most striking is the east 
 window, dedicated by the Bishop of London in 1898 — 
 it serves as a memorial to the incumbency of Dr. A. J. 
 Mason. He it was who, at the instigation of Arch- 
 bishop Benson, organized the present clergy of the 
 parish as a college capable of mission work. 
 
 The tablet to the memory of William Penn, erected 
 by The Pennsylvania Society in 1911, is of bronze. Its 
 design was originally undertaken by the late Charles 
 F. McKim, a member of the Society, but his untimely 
 death prevented the realization of his plans. The design 
 was finally prepared by his firm, Messrs. McKim, Mead 
 & White. The inscription was written by the Venerable 
 George Francis Nelson, D.D., Archdeacon of New 
 
 [11] 
 
Allhallows Barking 
 
 York, also a member of the Society. The cost of pre- 
 paring and installing the memorial was generously met 
 by the Honourable William Andrews Clark, Vice- 
 President of the Society. 
 
 This Memorial has been erected in Allhallows Bark- 
 ing as the one building still extant in London definitely 
 associated with the birth of William Penn. The site 
 of his birthplace has long since disappeared. He was 
 born on Tower Hill, to the northwest of the Tower. 
 His father's house was in a court, sometimes called 
 George Court, on the east side of Trinity Square, Tower 
 Hill. What survives of the court is now a goods yard, 
 and lies between George Street on the south and the 
 Tower Station of the District Railway on the north. 
 Most of the court was destroyed in 1883 for the build- 
 ing of the station, and this, in turn, disappeared in 1904 
 as not needed. A fragment of the London wall forms, 
 or formed, a part of the east wall of the court in which 
 the Penn house stood. 
 
 
 2 4f^-y6°"- 4h-^y:Bo.^c£h-^^'^ GVf^ 
 
 Facsimile of the Record of William Penn's Baptism in the Register 
 of Allhallows Barking 
 
 [12] 
 
WORKS CONSULTED 
 
 C. R. D. Biggs: Berhynge Churche by the Tower. London^ 1899. 
 
 A. J. Mason, D.D,: The Romance of an Ancient City Church. In 
 
 The Nineteenth Century. May, 1898. London and New York. 
 
 Philip Norman: London City Churches that Escaped the Great 
 Fire. In London Topographical Record, Vol. 5. London, 1908. 
 
 H. B. Wheatley : The Diary of Samuel Pepys. London and New 
 York. 
 
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