IV. BISHOPSGATE. 1863 By the end of June 1863 I had taken spiritual and corporeal possession of my benefice, and in October I settled down to work. One soon realised the vastness of the charge. The Church of St. Botolph, with its historical memories of five centuries, was a sharp contrast to the unsentimental structure of the Bishop Blomfield era. An ancient parish in the City of London was much more inspiring than a Peel district in Costermongria. There was all the difference in the world-those only can appreciate it who have tried it—between eternally dunning one's friends and finding ample resources ready to hand. The new locale and surroundings made a new man of me. I am the sixty-third Rector of St. Botolph Bishopsgate. On the panels round the church galleries are inscribed the names of my predecessors, a feature of much interest to the strangers who pay us a visit. The list was compiled a few years ago, and I venture to give it here: John of Northampton. Robert Suardiby, 1361. John of Bradely. Adam Keme, 1363. Elias Finch, 1364. Robert Fox, 1368. Thomas Boghee, 1369. Thomas Ridelington, 1378. John Grafton. John Rydel, 1383. John Bolton. John Porter, 1390. John Campeden, 1395. John Gray, 1398. Roger Mason, 1399. John Saxton. Robert Coventre, 1434. John Wodde. Thomas, Bishop of Down and Connor, 1461, John Prese. Thomas Boteler, 1471. Robert Ayschum, 1503. Robert Woodruff, 1512. John Garth, 1523. William Hutchinson, 1584. Arthur Bright, 1590. Stephen Gorson, 1600. Thomas Worrall. Thomas Wykes, 1639. Nehemiah Rogers, 1642. Samuel Leigh. Robert Pory, 1660. Henry Bagshaw, 1670. William Gibson, 1743. Bishop of Chester, 1820. I do not know that there is very much to tell about these gentlemen. Dr. Russell had been Head Master of the Charterhouse School, held a stall at Canterbury, and was great at the poor-law. Dr. Grey married a young lady of the congregation, and became Bishop of Hereford. Dr. Blomfield ceased to be a pluralist when he was translated to London. Dr. Mant was of Bible fame, and was rewarded with an Irish bishopric. To go further back, poor Nehemiah Rogers was inducted on March 26th, 1642, and deposed before the end of the year; and his successor, Mr. Samuel Leigh, who came in as "the minister" during the Commonwealth, made a very rapid exit at the Restoration. John Lake was a man with a strangely chequered career. Born at Halifax in Yorkshire, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, at the age of thirteen, and on taking his degree joined the royalist forces at Oxford. He acquired great fame in some of the severest service in the war, and remained in the army about four years. It is not known when he was ordained, but he was inducted to the vicarage of Leeds before the Restoration. In 1663 he was presented by Bishop Sheldon to the living of St. Botolph Bishopsgate, and in 1670 he became Rector of Prestwich in Cheshire. After holding a canonry at York, and filling for one year each the sees of Sodor and Man and Bristol, he was translated to Chichester in 1685. While at Bristol his military propensities were again to the front, and he took part against the insurgents in Monmouth's Rebellion. In 1688 he was one of the Seven Bishops who petitioned against the king's Proclamation of Liberty of Conscience, and after being committed to the Tower with the others for a seditious libel, was acquitted in the same year. On the accession of William and Mary he refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and retired from the see of Chichester. He came back to Bishopsgate to die, and a few months later was buried among his old parishioners in St. Botolph's churchyard. I am often asked who St. Botolph was. Having consulted the authorities, I am in a position to state that he was an English Saxon, and "" no Scotchman as some pretend." Leland) writes thus. Botolph and Adolph (illustrious names) are celebrated by ancient writers not only for their piety but also for their learning, who were both brethren and monks, born of noble race, but much pleased with a monastical life, unto whom Ethelmund, a prince among the South Angles, freely designed a place in Icanhoe (then a desert place haunted, it is said, by evil spirits), not far from Lincoln eastward, where Botolph in the year 654 began to build a monastery. He died most happily in the same year in which St. Hilda died, 680, and was buried in the monastery." But that was not the end of him. "By the care of St Ethelwold" his relics were rescued from the Danes, "and translated part to the monastery of Ely, part to Thornby, and a third part conferred by King Edward of happy memory on the church of St. Peter in Westminster." St. Botolph's day is the 16th of May. I have heard that St. Botolph is the patron saint of beggars, and that this circumstance accounts for the dedication "Bale (from that great antiquary to him of the churches adjacent to the sites of four of the city gates. But I am not strong in hagiology, and cannot answer for this. I am often asked, too, why this place is called Bishopsgate, and here again I can supply the latest information. Bishopsgate was erected by Erkenwald, Bishop of London, about the year 675. It was subsequently repaired by William the Norman, who held the see between the years 1051 and 1075. The effigies of both these gentlemen stood over the gate. Another theory is that Bishopsgate was so styled as being the gate through which the Bishop of London used to ride into the city when coming from his palace at Stepney. How things have changed! When the present Bishop of London came to hold a confirmation at St. Botolph's the other day, he came from Fulham underground. The old church of brick Now about the church. and stone, which stood "in a fair churchyard adjoining the town ditch, upon the banks thereof," was one of the fourteen city churches which escaped the great fire of 1666. But it might as well have been burnt, for its ruinous condition soon became a source of danger. After many years of negotiation an Act of Parliament was passed in 1725 empowering the parishioners to build a new church at their own expense. This they did, and on December 1, 1728, the present church. was opened, the Rector, Dr. Altham, preaching a sermon of distressing length. |