Christopher Kempster (1627 – 1715) was an English master stonemason and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who trained with

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

, working on St Paul's Cathedral.

Biography

Kempster was from

Burford Burford () is a town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswold hills, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located west of Oxford and southeast of Che ...

in Oxfordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He sold

Cotswold stone The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

from his quarry at Upton, near Burford, to rebuild

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

after the Great Fire of London in 1666.My Family Tree: Jordan, ElizabethRick Bull
14 November 2007. He was also Christopher Wren's master mason during the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral in London. His County Hall, built 1678–82 in Abingdon, is now the Abingdon County Hall Museum. The Kempster family quarry supplied stone for Blenheim Palace,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

colleges, and

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

. His buildings, many with Sir Christopher Wren, include: * Abingdon County Hall * St James Garlickhythe,

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

(Kempster also made the font) * St Mary Abchurch, City of London * St Mary's Church, North Leigh * St Stephen Walbrook, City of London *

Tom Tower Tom Tower is a bell tower in Oxford, England, named after its bell, Great Tom. It is over Tom Gate, on St Aldates, the main entrance of Christ Church, Oxford, which leads into Tom Quad. This square tower with an octagonal lantern and facet ...

, Christ Church, Oxford John Perrott, Lord of the Manor, engaged Kempster to refit St Mary's Church, North Leigh, and to build a burial chapel for the Perrott family to the north of the north aisle. Kempster linked the Perrott chapel and the north aisle by an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

of Tuscan columns. St John the Baptist's Church in Burford has a memorial to Christopher Kempster.BurfordThe Cotswold Gateway

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempster, Christopher 1627 births 1715 deaths People from Burford English stonemasons 17th-century English architects Architects from Oxfordshire