St Mary Aldermanbury was a parish church in the

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 fr ...

first mentioned in 1181 and destroyed by the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

in 1666. Rebuilt in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

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 ...

, it was again gutted by

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

in 1940, leaving only the walls standing. These stones were transported to

Fulton, Missouri Fulton is the largest city in and the county seat of Callaway County, Missouri, United States. Located about northeast of Jefferson City and the Missouri River and east of Columbia, the city is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri, Metropolita ...

in 1966, by the residents of that town, and rebuilt in the grounds of Westminster College as a memorial to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

. Churchill had made his Sinews of Peace, "

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

" speech in the Westminster College Gymnasium in 1946. HPIM4308 St

The footprint of the church remains at the junction of London's Aldermanbury and Love Lane, planted with bushes and trees; a memorial plaque has been placed by Westminster College in the footprint. The gardens also house a monument to

Henry Condell Henry Condell ( bapt. 5 September 1576 – December 1627) was a British actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing and editing the First Folio, the col ...

and

John Heminges John Heminges (bapt. 25 November 1566 – 10 October 1630) was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. Along with Henry Condell, he was an editor of the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare ...

, key figures in the production of the

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's plays and co-partners with him in the Globe Theatre. Condell and Heminges lived in the St Mary Aldermanbury parish and were buried in its churchyard. This monument is topped with a bust of Shakespeare. The remains of the church were designated a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on 5 June 1972. The monuments are separately listed. In the 1830s, the notable

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

William Jowett William Jowett (1787 – 20 February 1855) was a missionary and author, in 1813 becoming the first Anglican cleric to volunteer for the overseas service of the Church Missionary Society. A leader of the Evangelicals at Cambridge, he worked in Malt ...

was a lecturer at the church.

Burials

Notable burials in the church included the notorious "hanging judge"

Judge Jeffreys George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and serving as ...

. Of the interment of Judge Jeffreys,

Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centr ...

wrote:

"Jeffreys was taken on the twelfth of September, 1688. He was first interred privately in the Tower; but three years afterwards, when his memory was something blown over, his friends obtained permission, by a warrant of the queen's dated September 1692, to take his remains under their own care, and he was accordingly reinterred in a vault under the communion table of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, 2nd Nov. 1694. In 1810, during certain repairs, the coffin was uncovered for a time, and the public had a sight of the box containing the mortal remains of the feared and hated magistrate."

Also buried in the church were: * Edmund Calamy, Presbyterian minister, who was the perpetual curate of St Mary Aldermanbury 1639–1662. *

Edmund Calamy the Younger Edmund Calamy the Younger (c. 1635–1685) was an ejected minister. Early life Edmund was the eldest son of Edmund Calamy the Elder, by his first wife, Mary Snelling. He was born at Bury St. Edmunds about 1636. His early training he got from his f ...

, a preacher removed by the

Great Ejection The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England, following The Restoration of Charles II. It was a consequence (not necessarily ...

* Edmund Calamy III, historian and Presbyterian minister * Edmund Calamy IV, his son,

dissenting Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

minister *

, actor, member of the King's Men * William Damsell, Receiver-General of the

Court of Wards and Liveries The Court of Wards and Liveries was a court established during the reign of Henry VIII in England. Its purpose was to administer a system of feudal dues; but as well as the revenue collection, the court was also responsible for wardship and l ...

and a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Thomas Digges Thomas Digges (; c. 1546 – 24 August 1595) was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many s ...

, astronomer who is believed to have been the first person to postulate in print that the universe is infinite *

, actor, member of the King's Men *

James Janeway James Janeway (1636–1674) was a Puritan minister and author who, after John Bunyan, had the widest and longest popularity as the author of works read by English-speaking children. Life Janeway was born at Lilley, in Hertfordshire, the son ...

, Puritan author and minister * William Painter, author

Marriage

* In 1656 the poet

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

married his second wife, Elizabeth Woodcock, at St Mary's.''The City Churches'', Tabor, M., p.87: London, The Swarthmore Press Ltd, 1917

Footnotes

External links

Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury - Churchill Memorial - Fulton, Missouri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary Aldermanbury 12th-century establishments in England 1966 disestablishments in England English Baroque church buildings Churches rebuilt after the Great Fire of London but since demolished Grade II listed churches in London Aldermanbury Parks and open spaces of the City of London Corporation Christopher Wren church buildings in London Relocated buildings and structures in the United Kingdom

Burials

Marriage

See also

Footnotes

Further reading

External links