St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street

The Church of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street was a Roman Catholic, and later Church of England, parish in the City of London, England. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and not rebuilt.^[1]

Location

St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street was located on the east side of Milk Street, north of its end in Cheapside, in Cripplegate Ward Within (parts of the parish were also in Bread Street Ward).^[2] John Stow, in his Survey of 1603, described Milk Street as having many fair houses for wealthy merchants and others. He attributed the etymology of street's name to it being a place where milk was sold.^[3]

After the Great Fire, the site, together with that of the adjoining church of All Hallows Honey Lane and several houses, was acquired by the City, cleared, and laid out as a market-place, called Honey Lane Market. The market closed in 1835 and the Corporation of London built the first City of London School there.^[4]

History

The earliest mention of the church was in 1162 as "St. Mary Magdalene in foro Londoniarum." It is also recorded as "St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street" in a dated between 1203 and 1215.^[2]

Stow described St. Mary Magdalene's as a "small parish church", which had recently been repaired. He lists a number of important Londoners who were buried in the church, including Sir William Cantilo, knight and Mercer (died 1462) and several Lord Mayors of London: John Olney (Mayor in 1446, died 1475), Sir John Browne (mayor in 1480; d.1497), Sir Thomas Exmewe (Mayor in 1517, d.1528), and Thomas Skinner (Mayor in 1596). He notes that "Henry Cantlow, Mercer, merchant of the Staple," built a chapel in the church and was buried there in 1495.^[3] Hughes confirms that the church records contain the names of many important City dignitaries.^[5]

The parish was a royalist stronghold in the years leading up to the Civil War.^[6] Its Incumbent was “deprived” during the Commonwealth^[7]

The Mortality Bill for the year 1665, published by the Parish Clerk’s Company, shows 97 parishes within the City of London.^[8] By September 6 the city lay in ruins, 86 churches having been destroyed.^[9] In 1670 a Rebuilding Act was passed and a committee set up under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren to decide which would be rebuilt.^[10] Fifty-one were chosen, but St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street was one of the unlucky minority never to be rebuilt.^[11]

Following the fire, the parish was united to St Lawrence Jewry.^[12] Partial records still survive at IGI.^[13].

References

1. ^ "The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993,2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
2. ^ ^{a b} 'Mary (St.) de Crichirche (Fraternity of) - Mary (St.) Matfellon' in "A Dictionary of London" Harben,H: London, Herbert Jenkins, 1918.
3. ^ ^{a b} 'Cripplegate warde', A Survey of London, by John Stow: Reprinted from the text of 1603 (1908), pp. 290-303.
4. ^ 'All Hallows Honey Lane 11/0', in Historical gazetteer of London before the Great Fire 1, Cheapside: Parishes of All Hallows Honey Lane, St.Martin Pomary, St. Mary le Bow, St. Mary Colechurch, and St. Pancras Soper Lane Keene D & Harding V.: Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1987 ISBN 0859641902
5. ^ ”The register of St. Lawrence Jewry and St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, London : 1677-1812” Hughes, A.W (Ed): London, Harleian Society, 1941.
6. ^ “Vanished churches of the City of London” Huelin, G.: London, Guildhall Library Publishing 1996, ISBN 0900422424.
7. ^ . “The City of London-a history” Borer,M.I.C. : New York,D.McKay Co, 1978 ISBN 0094618801
8. ^ "The ancient office of Parish Clerk and the Parish Clerks Company of London" Clark, O :London, Journal of the Ecclesiastical Law Society Vol 8, January 2006 ISSN: 0956-618X
9. ^ The "Churches of the City of London" Reynolds,H: London, Bodley Head, 1922
10. ^ "Wren" Whinney,M London Thames & Hudson, 1971 ISBN 0500201129
11. ^ "The City of London Churches" Betjeman, J. Andover, Pitkin, 1967 (rpnt 1992) ISBN 0853725659
12. ^ Notes on Old City Churches” Pearce,C.W.: London, Winthrop Rogers Ltd, 1909
13. ^ Genealogical Web-Site