St Mary's Church is a

grade I listed 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 Ire ...

parish church in

Ware Ware may refer to: People * Ware (surname) * William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian Places Canada * Fort Ware, British Columbia United Kingdom *Ware, Devon *Ware, Hertfordshire * Ware, Kent United States * Ware, Elmore County, A ...

, Hertfordshire, England.

History

There has been a church on the site since the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

mentions the presence of a priest at Ware, and the existence of a church is confirmed by a reference in another document from the reign of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, ...

, a charter given to

Hugh de Grandmesnil Hugh de Grandmesnil (1032 – 22 February 1098), (known in French as ''Hugues'' and Latinised as ''Hugo de Grentmesnil'', aliter ''Grentemesnil'', etc.), is one of the proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battl ...

.The charter gave permission to found an "

alien priory Alien priories were religious establishments in England, such as monasteries and convents, which were under the control of another religious house outside England. Usually the mother-house was in France.Coredon ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms'' p. ...

" in Ware, a dependency of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Evroul in Normandy. - The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

, the oldest part of the present building, dates from the thirteenth century, when the church served the town and the monks of the Benedictine priory. The church was restored in the nineteenth century by

George Godwin George Godwin FRS (28 January 1813 – 27 January 1888) was an influential British architect, journalist, and editor of '' The Builder'' magazine. Life He was one of nine children of the architect George Godwin senior (1780–1863) and trained ...

Architecture

The building is faced in flint. The tower is surmounted by a short spire of the type known as a " Hertfordshire spike" (see note).

People connected with the church

Charles Chauncy Charles Chauncy (baptised 5 November 1592 – 19 February 1672) was an Anglo-American Congregational clergyman, educator, and secondarily, a physician. He is also known as the 2nd President of Harvard. Life Charles Chauncy was born at Ard ...

, who served as

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pr ...

of the church in the reign of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

, emigrated to America where he became

President of Harvard The president of Harvard University is the chief administrator of Harvard University and the '' ex officio'' president of the Harvard Corporation. Each is appointed by and is responsible to the other members of that body, who delegate to the pr ...

. * In the 16th century the Fanshawe family acquired an estate at Ware, and members of the family were buried in the church: for example, **

Thomas Fanshawe (remembrancer of the exchequer) Thomas Fanshawe (1533–1601) was a Member of the English Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He also held the civil service post of Queen's remembrancer of the exchequer. Background Fanshawe was the eldest son of John Fanshawe ...

(1533-1601) **

Katherine Ferrers Katherine Ferrers (4 May 1634 – c. 13 June 1660) was an English gentlewoman and heiress. According to popular legend, she was also the "Wicked Lady", a highwaywoman who terrorised the English county of Hertfordshire before dying from gunsho ...

(1634-1660) the wife of Thomas Fanshawe, Second Viscount Fanshawe of Ware Park, and reputedly the Wicked Lady, a notorious highwaywoman. **Sir Richard Fanshawe (1608-1666), a politician and writer who served as Charles II´s ambassador to Spain.

Notes

:1. Flèche or short spire rising from a church-tower, its base concealed by a parapet, common in Herts., England. Pevsner, N., Cherry. "

BoE BOE, BoE or Boe may refer to: Abbreviations, acronyms or initialisms * Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom * Bank of English, a representative subset of the 4.5 billion words COBUILD corpus * Barrel of oil equivalent, a uni ...

, Hertfordshire". (1977)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Church, Ware

Buildings and structures in Ware, Hertfordshire