|
St John's, Smith Square
St John's Smith Square is a redundant church in the centre of Smith Square, Westminster, London. Sold to a charitable trust as a ruin following firebombing in the Second World War, it was restored as a concert hall. This Grade I listed church was designed by Thomas Archer and was completed in 1728 as one of the so-called Fifty New Churches. It is regarded as one of the finest works of English Baroque architecture, and features four corner towers and monumental broken pediments. It is often referred to as ' Queen Anne's Footstool' because as legend has it, when Archer was designing the church he asked the Queen what she wanted it to look like. She kicked over her footstool and said 'Like that!', giving rise to the building's four corner towers. History In 1710, the long period of Whig domination of British politics ended as the Tories swept to power under the rallying cry of "The Church in Danger". Under the Tories' plan to strengthen the position of the Anglican Church an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the 3rd century and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury. The English church renounced papal authority in 1534 when Henry VIII failed to secure a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The English Reformation accelerated under Edward VI's regents, before a brief restoration of papal authority under Queen Mary I and King Philip. The Act of Supremacy 1558 renewed the breach, and the Elizabethan Settlement charted a course enabling the English church to describe itself as both Reformed and Catholic. In the earlier phase of the English Reformation there were both Roman Catholic martyrs and radical Protestant martyrs. The later phases saw the Penal Laws punish Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Strong The Elder
Edward Strong the Elder (1652–1724) and Edward Strong the Younger (1676–1741) were a father and son pair of British sculptors mainly working in London in the 17th and 18th centuries. They led a team of 65 masons and were responsible for many important projects including the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral and Blenheim Palace. Life Edward came from a long line of masons and quarry owners and was the son of Valentine Strong (1609-1662) and Anne Margetts. Valentine had built Sherborne House for Sir John Dutton 1651 to 1653. His grandfather Timothy Strong rebuilt the frontage of Cornbury House in 1631. His elder brother Thomas Strong was also a mason but died young in 1681. In 1680 he became a full guild member of the Masons Company of London. London was still in the aftermath of the Great Fire and many major rebuilding projects were planned. Strong formed a business relationship with Christopher Wren around 1680 with their first joint project being St Benet's, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Furse (priest)
Charles Wellington Furse, MA, JP (born Johnson; 16 April 1821 – 2 August 1900) was Archdeacon of Westminster from 1894 until his death. Furse was the third son of Charles Wellington Johnson, of Great Torrington, Devon,Bernard Burke and his wife Theresa Furze. In 1854, he changed his surname from Johnson to Furse in 1854, to inherit from his maternal uncle John Furze (Furse). He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1848. After curacies at St Andrew the Apostle, Clewer and Christ Church, Albany Street he was Vicar of Staines. He was then Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College and concurrently Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford. He was the incumbent at St John's, Smith Square, Westminster from 1883 until his appointment as Archdeacon of Westminster The Archdeacon of Westminster is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Chapter of the Royal Peculiar of Westminster Abbey in London. The holder of the post oversees relationships with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Vincent (priest)
William Vincent (2 November 1739 – 21 December 1815) was Dean of Westminster from 1802 to 1815. Biography Vincent born on 2 November 1739 in Limehouse Street Ward, London, was the fifth surviving son of Giles Vincent, packer and Portugal merchant, by Sarah (Holloway). Theological career William was admitted at Westminster School as a 'town boy' in 1747; he became a king's scholar in 1753, and in 1757 was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating as BA in 1761, he returned to Westminster as usher. He became second master in June 1771, and in the same year was made chaplain in ordinary to the king. He graduated MA in 1764 and DD in 1776, and two years later received the vicarage of Longdon, Wiltshire, which, however, he exchanged within six months for the rectory of All Hallows, Thames Street. In 1784 he became sub-almoner to the king. He shared the tory views of his family, and in 1780 published anonymously a ''Letter'' in reply to a sermon preached at Cambrid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Finch (priest)
Robert Poole Finch (1724-1803) was an English divine. Life Finch was the son of the Rev. Richard Finch. He was born at Greenwich 3 March 1723–4, entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1736, and was admitted a member of Peterhouse, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1743, M.A. in 1747 and D.D. in 1772. He was ordained as a deacon in 1744, and appointed a curate at Greenwich in 1748. On becoming a priest he was chosen to be chaplain of Guy's Hospital, a position he held for 37 years. In 1755 he was appointed to the lectureship of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, which he continued to hold to the time of his death. He was a preacher of some eminence. He published numerous sermons, and, in 1788, a treatise entitled ''Considerations upon the Use and Abuse of Oaths judicially taken'', which passed through many editions and became a standard work among the publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In it he insisted that oaths should be administered with solemnity, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Blair (priest)
John Blair FRS, FSA (died 24 June 1782), was a British clergyman, and chronologist. Life He was born and educated in Edinburgh. Leaving Scotland as a young man, he became usher of a school in Hedge Lane, London, in succession to Andrew Henderson, author of a well-known history of the rebellion of 1745. In 1754, he published, 'The Chronology and History of the World, from the Creation to the Year of Christ 1753, illustrated in fifty-six tables.' It was dedicated to the lord chancellor (Hardwicke), and was published by subscription. In the preface he acknowledged great obligations to the Earl of Bute. The plan and scope of the work originated with Dr. Hugh Blair's scheme of chronological tables. The 'Chronology' was reprinted in 1756, 1768, and 1814. It was revised and enlarged 'by Willoughby Rosse in Bohn's 'Scientific Library,' 1856. In 1768, Blair published 'Fourteen Maps of Ancient and Modern Geography, for the illustration of the Tables of Chronology and History ; to whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Willes (bishop)
Edward Willes (6 March 1693 – 24 November 1773) was an Anglican bishop who was Bishop of St David's and later Bishop of Bath and Wells and one of the most prominent English cryptanalysts of his time. Life He was born in Warwickshire son of the Rev John Willes and his wife Anne (or Mary) Walker, daughter of Sir William Walker, Mayor of Oxford. They belonged to a junior branch of the long-established Willes family of Newbold Comyn; Sir John Willes, the long-serving Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, was his brother. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford and graduated with a BA degree in 1712. While there he learned cryptography from William Blencowe. In 1716 he became a Decipherer for George II, and distinguished himself by deciphering messages between Swedish diplomats which were sympathetic to the Jacobite cause. He was rewarded by the government by being granted the living of Barton in the Clay, Bedfordshire, which he held between 1718 and 1730. He subsequently deciphe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Gee (priest, Born 1657)
Edward Gee (1657–1730) was an English churchman, known as a controversialist, and later successively Dean of Peterborough and Dean of Lincoln. Life The son of George Gee of Manchester, a shoemaker, he was baptised at Manchester Collegiate Church on 29 August 1657. After attending Manchester Grammar School, he was admitted a sub-sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, on 9 May 1676. He graduated B.A. in 1679 and M.A. in 1683. He was incorporated in his master's degree at Oxford 4 March 1684. Subsequently, he is styled D.D., a Lambeth degree from 1695. He took a prominent part in the anti-Catholic controversy towards the end of James II's reign. In May 1688 he was appointed rector of St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, London, and soon after he was called chaplain in ordinary to William III and Mary II. On 6 December 1701 he was installed prebendary of Westminster. Twenty years afterwards, on 9 December 1721, he was instituted dean of Peterborough, but he resigned that office for the dean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Jennings (priest)
John Jennings (1798 – 26 March 1883) was Archdeacon of Westminster from 1868 until his death in 1883. ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'' previously identified the John Jennings educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge as "doubtless" the Rector of St John's and Archdeacon of Westminster, but now states that this is a mistaken identity: Archdeacon Jennings was educated at Trinity College Dublin, graduating B.A. 1820, M.A. 1832. After a curacy at West Meon, Hampshire, Jennings moved to St John's, Smith Square as a curate to Canon H. H. Edwards, succeeding Edwards as rector on Edwards' resignation in 1832. He became a canon of Westminster Abbey in 1837, Rural dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective. ... of St Margaret and St John, Archdeacon of Westminster in 1868, and Sub-Dean. Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and since Edward the Confessor, a burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have occurred in Westminster Abbey. Sixteen royal weddings have occurred at the abbey since 1100. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site (then known as Thorney Island) in the seventh century, at the time of Mellitus, Bishop of London. Construction of the present church began in 1245 on the orders of Henry III. The church was originally part of a Catholic Benedictine abbey, which was dissolved in 1539. It then served as the cathedral of the Dioce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pamela Digby
Pamela Beryl Harriman (''née'' Digby; 20 March 1920 – 5 February 1997), also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English-born American political activist for the Democratic Party, diplomat, and socialite. She married three times, her first husband was Randolph Churchill, the son of prime minister Winston Churchill, Her third husband was W. Averell Harriman, an American diplomat who also served as Governor of New York. Her only child, Winston Churchill, was named after his famous grandfather. She served as US ambassador to France from 1993 to 1997. Early life Pamela Digby was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, the daughter of Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby, and his wife, Constance Pamela Alice, the daughter of Henry Campbell Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare. She was educated by governesses in the ancestral home at Minterne Magna in Dorset, along with her three younger siblings. Her great-great aunt was the nineteenth-century adventurer and courtesan Jane Digby ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five UK Parliament constituency, constituencies. Ideologically an Economic liberalism, economic liberal and British Empire, imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to Spencer family, a wealthy, aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British Raj, Br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Charles Furse (priest)")
.jpg "Click for more on -> William Vincent (priest)")
