St Margaret's, Westminster Explained

St Margaret's, Westminster Abbey
Coordinates:51.5°N -0.1269°W
Location:City of Westminster, London, UK
Founded:12th Century
Rebuilt:1486 to 1523
Designation1:WHS
Designation1 Offname:Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church
Designation1 Date:1987 (11th session)
Designation1 Type:Cultural
Designation1 Criteria:i, ii, iv
Designation1 Number:426
Designation1 Free1name:Country
Designation1 Free1value:United Kingdom
Designation1 Free2name:Region
Designation1 Free2value:Europe and North America

The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England.[1] It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch,[2] and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey.

History and description

The church was founded in the twelfth century by Benedictine monks, so that local people who lived in the area around the Abbey[3] could worship separately at their own simpler parish church, and historically it was within the hundred of Ossulstone in the county of Middlesex.[4] In 1914, in a preface to Memorials of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, a former Rector of St Margaret's, Hensley Henson, reported a mediaeval tradition that the church was as old as Westminster Abbey, owing its origins to the same royal saint, and that "The two churches, conventual and parochial, have stood side by side for more than eight centuries – not, of course, the existing fabrics, but older churches of which the existing fabrics are successors on the same site."[5]

St Margaret's was rebuilt from 1486 to 1523, at the instigation of King Henry VII, and the new church, which largely still stands today, was consecrated on 9 April 1523. It has been called "the last church in London decorated in the Catholic tradition before the Reformation", and on each side of a large rood there stood richly painted statues of St Mary and St John, while the building had several internal chapels. In the 1540s, the new church came near to demolition, when Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, planned to take it down to provide good-quality materials for Somerset House, his own new palace in the Strand. He was only kept from carrying out his plan by the resistance of armed parishioners.[6]

In 1614, St Margaret's became the parish church of the Palace of Westminster, when the Puritans of the seventeenth century, unhappy with the highly liturgical Abbey, chose to hold their Parliamentary services in a church they found more suitable:[7] a practice that has continued since that time. An additional detached burial ground was added in 1625 at what is now Christchurch Gardens.

Between 1734 and 1738, the north-west tower was rebuilt to designs by John James; at the same time, the whole structure was encased in Portland stone. Both the eastern and the western porch were added later, with J. L. Pearson as architect. In 1878, the church's interior was greatly restored and altered to its current appearance by Sir George Gilbert Scott, although many Tudor features were retained.[8]

In 1863, during preliminary explorations preparing for this restoration, Scott found several doors overlaid with what was believed to be human skin. After doctors had examined this skin, Victorian historians theorized that the skin might have been that of William the Sacrist, who organized a gang that, in 1303, robbed the King of the equivalent of, in modern currency, $100 million (see Richard of Pudlicott). It was a complex scheme, involving several gang members disguised as monks planting bushes on the palace. After the stealthy burglary 6 months later, the loot was concealed in these bushes. The historians believed that William the Sacrist was flayed alive as punishment and his skin was used to make these royal doors, perhaps situated initially at nearby Westminster Palace.[9] Subsequent study revealed the skins were bovine in origin, not human.

By the 1970s, the number of people living nearby was in the hundreds. Ecclesiastical responsibility for the parish was reallocated to neighbouring parishes by the Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret Westminster Act 1972, and the church was brought under the authority of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey.[1]

An annual new year service for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Britain takes place in the church in October, and in 2016 Bishop Angaelos gave the sermon.[10]

The Rector of St Margaret's is often a canon of Westminster Abbey.[11]

Commemorative windows

Notable windows include the east window of 1509 of Flemish stained glass, created to commemorate the betrothal of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII.[12] This has had a chequered history. It was given by Henry VII to Waltham Abbey in Essex, and at the Dissolution of the Monasteries the last Abbot sent it to a private chapel at New Hall, Essex. That came into the possession of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, the father of Anne Boleyn, then Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, next George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, after him Oliver Cromwell, from whom it reverted to the second Duke of Buckingham, next General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and after him John Olmius, then Mr Conyers of Copt Hall, Essex, whose son sold the window to the parish of St Margaret's in 1758, for four hundred guineas. The money came from a grant of £4,000 which parliament had made to the parish that year for the renovation of the church and the rebuilding of the chancel.[13]

Other windows commemorate William Caxton, England's first printer, who was buried at the church in 1491, Sir Walter Raleigh, executed in Old Palace Yard[14] and then also buried in the church in 1618, the poet John Milton, a parishioner of the church, and Admiral Robert Blake.

Weddings

As well as marrying its own parishioners, the church has long been a popular venue for society weddings, as Members of Parliament, peers, and officers of the House of Lords and House of Commons can choose to be married in it. Notable weddings include:

Other notable weddings include some of the Bright Young People.[21]

Baptisms

Burials

Funerals and memorial services

Other notable events

On Easter day 1555 in the reign of Mary I a Protestant ex-Benedictine monk, William Flower inflicted wounds to the administerer of the sacrament. He repented for the injuries but would not repent his motive which was rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation. He was thus sentenced for heresy and a week later severed of his hand and burned at the stake outside the church.

During the First World War, Edward Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton, gave a sermon in the church on the theme of "loving your enemies", promoting the view that any post-war treaty with Germany should be a just one and not vindictive. He had to leave the church after the service by a back door, while a number of demonstrators sang Rule Britannia! in protest at his attitude.[32]

Choirs

The treble choristers for St Margaret's are supplied by Westminster Under School. The church also hosted the first performance by the UK Parliament Choir under Simon Over in 2000.

Organ

An organ was installed in 1806 by John Avery. The current organ is largely built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Rectors

Mackenzie Walcott lists the following as officiating clergymen:[33]

Under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840, this rectory was annexed to the canonry of Westminster Abbey then held by Henry Hart Milman, such that he and his successors as Canon would be Rector ex officio.[36] This arrangement continued until 1978. The Rector was often (and continuously from 1972 to 2010) also the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons.[37]

† Rector died in post

Organists

Organists who have played at St Margaret's include:

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: St. Margaret's, Westminster Parish details . Westminster Abbey . 3 May 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080305183607/http://www.westminster-abbey.org/st-margarets/history/ . 5 March 2008.
  2. Book: Pevsner , N. . Nikolaus Pevsner . Bradley, Simon . The Buildings of England: London 6 – Westminster . 2003 . Penguin . Uxbridge . 0-300-09595-3.
  3. Web site: St. Margaret's, Westminster . McManus, Mark . 3 May 2008 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080611105551/http://www.ourpasthistory.com/England/st-margaret-westminster . 11 June 2008.
  4. Web site: St. Margaret's, Westminster . Hawgood, David . 3 May 2008 . Genuki (Genealogy UK & Ireland) . 30 September 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930222509/http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/WestminsterStMargaret/index.html . dead.
  5. From "Memorials of St. Margaret's church, Westminister, comprising the parish registers, 1539-1660, and other churchwardens' accounts, 1460-1603", reported in Notes and Queries (1914), p. 518
  6. John Richardson, The Annals of London: a Year-by-year Record of a Thousand Years of History (University of California Press, 2000), p. 81
  7. Book: Wright , A. . Smith, P. . Parliament Past and Present . 1868 . Hutchinson & Co . London.
  8. Book: Scott , George Gilbert . George Gilbert Scott . Stamp, Gavin . Personal and Professional Recollections . 1879 . 1995 . Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington] Stamford: Paul Watkins Publishing . [London | isbn = 1-871615-26-7 ].
  9. https://books.google.com/books?id=88whCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22king%27s+treasury+appeared+to+be+covered+inside+and+out+with+skin%22&pg=PA15 Catharine Arnold, Underworld London, Crime and Punishment in the Capital City , Simon & Schuster 2012, page 15
  10. https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/31195 Messages from Prince of Wales, politicians, church leaders at Coptic New Year Service, Westminster Abbey
  11. Web site: Interview: Robert Wright, Sub-dean of Westminster Abbey, Rector of St Margaret's. 26 May 2009. Church Times. 28 July 2018.
  12. Web site: St Margaret's Church – The east window . Dean and Chapter, Westminster Abbey . 21 October 2010 . St Margaret's Church.
  13. H. B. Wheatley, Peter Cunningham, London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, p. 467
  14. Web site: Sir Walter Raleigh – Execution . Smith, Christopher . 3 May 2008 . Britannia Biographies.
  15. R. E. C. Waters, Genealogical memoirs of the extinct family of Chester of Chicheley p. 91
  16. Book: Hodgkin . Lucy Violet . Gulielma: Wife of William Penn . 1947 . Longmans, Green and Co. . London . 28 . 1st.
  17. Book: Pepys , Samuel . Samuel Pepys . The Illustrated Pepys: extracts from the Diary . 1987 . Penguin . Harmondsworth . 0-14-139016-6.
  18. 'Milton, John', in Journal of the Society of Arts dated 8 November 1867, p. 755
  19. Book: Gilbert , Martin . Churchill: a life . 1991 . Heinemann . London . 0-434-29183-8.
  20. 40185 . Macmillan, (Maurice) Harold. H. C. G.. Matthew.
  21. Book: Taylor , D. J. . Bright Young Things: the lost generation of London's Jazz Age . 2007 . Chatto & Windus. London . 978-0-7011-7754-6. (American ed.: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 2009)
  22. Robert Edmond Chester Waters, Genealogical memoirs of the extinct family of Chester of Chicheley (1878), p. 105
  23. Maurice Petherick, Restoration Rogues (1951), p. 327
  24. The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 189 (1850), pp. 367, 368
  25. William Coxe, Memoirs of the Administration of the Right Honourable Henry Pelham Volume 1 (London: Longman, Brown, Rees, Orme & Green, 1829), p. xxx
  26. Felicity Nussbaum, ed., The Global Eighteenth Century (2005), p. 232
  27. Web site: Nicholas Boscawen . 15 October 2021 . Westminster Abbey .
  28. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/oliver-cromwell Oliver Cromwell
  29. [John Chambers (topographer)|John Chambers]
  30. Web site: Westminster Abbey. Ignatius Sancho. 3 July 2020. Westminster Abbey. en.
  31. E. Angelicoussis, "Jennings, Henry Constantine (1731–1819)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004,
  32. Alan Wilkinson, The Church of England and the First World War (London, SCM Press, 1996), p. 221
  33. Book: Walcott, Mackenzie Edward Charles. 1847. The History of the Parish Church of Saint Margaret, in Westminster. 84. Westminster. W. Blanchard & Sons. 11 September 2019.
  34. J. L. Chester, The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, Volume 10 (Harleian Society, 1876), p. 197
  35. Taylor, John (1711-1788). Courtney. William Prideaux. 55.
  36. act . 1840 . 113 . Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840 . 29.
  37. Web site: Speaker's Chaplain. The Church in Parliament. Church of England. 5 September 2014.
  38. The Deanery of Westminster. 13 October 1902 . 9 . 36897.
  39. "Bishop Hensley Henson – Master of Dialectic", obituary in The Times, 29 September 1947, p. 27
  40. Web site: William and Mary Carnegie . 8 August 2014 . William Hartley Carnegie Canon of Westminster and Rector of St Margaret's 1913–1936. Sub Dean 1919–1936. Born 27 February 1859. Died 18 October 1936. ... . .
  41. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/press/news/2016/january/the-reverend-jane-sinclair-appointed-rector-of-st-margarets-church Westminster Abbey – Sinclair appointed Rector of St Margaret's
  42. Dwight's Journal of Music, p. 331
  43. William Charles Pearce,A Biographical Sketch of Edmund Hart Turpin, 1911
  44. Web site: pixeltocode.uk . PixelToCode . Thomas Trotter . Westminster Abbey . 4 March 2023 . en.

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