H - !! 1-M.M Ml i 11 iiinii ;-|Iit"^. " "¦"¦"""" 5 1911 djwgdmt #ld Of tomtit: PARISH REGISTER; AND %\yt OCttjttgtft Clwttp* J. CORBET ANDERSON. MDCCCLXXV1II. CONTENTS Page The Old Church 163 to 174 Structural Retrospect ... ... ... ... ... 175 — 192 Advowson — Hectors and Vicars, etc. ... ... ... 193 — 217 Monuments and Epitaphs ... ... ... ... 218 — 247 Parish Register ... ... ... ... ... ... 248 — 255 Will of Archbishop Whitgift ... 257 — 262 Petition to the Eight Honorable the Master of the Polls ... 263 — 271 Appendix — / Judge's Order relating thereto ... 272 Statement of Property, etc., belong ing to Archbishop Whitgift's Hospital 274 — 276 ILLUSTEATIONS. Plate XIII. — Croydon Old Church after the Fire ... to face 192 Plate XIV. — Mill's Monument 226 Plate XV. — Archbishop Grindal's Monument... ... ... 226 Plate XVI. — Archbishop Whitgift's Monument ... ... 232 Plate XVII. — Murgatrold's Monument ... ... ... ... 232 Plate XVIII. — Archbishop Sheldon's Monument... ... ... 236 Plate XIX. — Lower Portion of Archbishop Sheldon's Monu ment ... ... ... ... ... 236 Plate XX. — Mrs. Bowling's Monument ... ... ... 242 Cuts in Text. — Initial Letter, page 163. Norman, Early English and Decorated Fragments, Twenty Representations of, on pages 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, and 183 ; "Window, 184 ; Ground Plan of Old Church, 18Q ; Brackets and Corbel, 187 ; Font, 187; Distemper Painting, 188, 190; Room over South Porch, 195; Facsimile of First Verses of Co verdale's Bible, 204; Warham's Tomb, 219; Six Brasses, 221, 222, 230, and 233 ; Tomb and Arms of Sir Nicholas Herone, 223, 224, and 225 ; Facsimiles of Inscriptions on Mill's Monument, 226 ; Effigy of Archbishop Grindal, 228 ; P. Bourdieu's Monument, 241 ; Ten Maps of Lands and Tenements belonging to the Whitgift Charity. (&<&<&> <&<&>(& A A (j)" i&Ai^ onumente an& 2lnttguttte£ of tf)e olti tariff) C|)utrf) of £>L 3lol)n tl)e Bap< ttft at CropDon, Surrey, tolricl) toa# Ueftropeti ftp fire on tfje ntgl)t of 3Januarp to$, £P)ccci;rtm+ Great as the alteration is which the hand of man has gradually wrought upon the aspect of our country, the change is not so vast as that revolution in society which the benign influences of Christianity have silently effected. For aught we know to the contrary, where now the praises of the Lamb ' are sung, in this bene or valley, once well watered by running streams,* amid the recesses of that primeval Coed the forest, traces of which still linger in the neighbourhood of Croydon ; — here where the sacred * Punning streams were the objects of superstitious reverence with our heathen forefathers. B 164 THE OLD CHURCH. oak tree formerly flourished,* the cruel Druid may have fired his colossean image of wicker work full of human victims sacrificed to appease the anger of his gods. Con cerning so remote a period, little is known; but it is almost certain that a population once dwelt hereabouts who knew not the true God, nor Jesus Christ whom He hath sent; this, to our far-off ancestors was indeed a valley of the shadow of death, for as yet the Sun of Righteousness had not risen upon Britain. Neither the time when, nor the circumstances under which Croydon Church was originally founded are known. We may infer that there was a structure dedicated to the purpose of Christian worship at Croydon, in the year 960, since to the Will of Beorhtric and JElfswyth made about this date, is witness, " Elfsies, the Priest of Croydon," Clpj* ief ppeoj-tef on Cnogbsene ; f for it is not likely a person would be so designated unless a fabric of some kind was set apart for him to perform the ministerial office in. And the building in which Elfsies officiated might have been an old one even in his day, as centuries had already passed by since Christianity had been brought to his pagan Anglo-Saxon countrymen ; to say nothing of that earlier introduction into Britain of the glad tidings of * The remaining indications of the primitive forest are now almost confined to names, such as the "hursts" in this neighbourhood, Wood- side, Norwood, etc. Yet so late as the close of the 1 7th century, Aubrey, writing about Croydon, observed, " In this parish lies the great wood call'd Norwood, belonging to the See of Canterbury, wherein was an antient remarkable Tree, call'd Vicar's Oak, where four parishes meet in a point. This wood wholly consists of Oaks." The Nat. Hid. and Antiq. of the County of Surrey, vol. ii., p. 33. ¦j- Codex Diplomaticus. A copy of the Will referred to is printed in Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent. THE OLD CHURCH. 165 salvation by Christ, which momentous intelligence appears to have first reached these shores when the Roman troops were overrunning the southern portion of the island, apparently about the time of the revolt of Boadicea, a.d. 60*. * Gildas. Tertullian, who wrote in the latter half of the 2nd century, says: '' et Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loea, Christo vera subdita, ; and those -parts of Britain which were inaccessible to the Romans, are become subject to Christ. Tertul. Adv. Judce, c. 7. Augustine landed upon the Isle of Thanet, in the year 597, and shortly after sought and obtained his celebrated interview upon the borders of Wales with the bishops and chiefs of the British Church. By coupling Tertullian's statement with the fact that soon after Augustine had landed to teach the heathen Anglo-Saxons, he found upon the western side of the Island a British church in full organization, it is evident the gospel must have been introduced at a very early period into Britain. The Britons, in fixing the festival of Easter, varied from the Roman practice, nor did they baptize after the Eoman manner ; the liturgical service used by the ancient British church also materially differed from the Romish liturgy. These peculiarities bespeak the high antiquity of the ancient British church ; moreover, they imply that Christianity was first introduced into these islands, not by missionaries from Home, but from Asia, either by direct communication, or through the churches of Gaul. The signatures of three British bishops are appended to the canons enacted at the Council of Aries, convened a.d. 314. Fathers of the British Church also appeared at the Council of Sardis, held a.d. 347, and at Eimini, a.d. 359. In Ireland and in Scotland, in the fifth and sixth centuries (befora Augustine landed) were Christian schools famous for their learning, viz., St. Finian, at Clonard, near the Boyne, and the renowned seminary at the Isle of Hy or Iona, in the Hebrides. Ven. Bede ; Arehbp. Usher. From the convent of Bangor, in North Wales, also missionaries spread the knowledge of the Scriptures far and wide. The ancient British or Celtic Christians do not indeed receive the credit which is their due in the great work of Anglo-Saxon conversion; for, although at one period, owing to the wrongs which they had suffered from the Saxons, they seemed determined not to attempt the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon 166 THE OLD CHURCH. Some missionary man it may have been, who, with spirit stirred within him as he contemplated the ignorance and idolatry around, selecting a spot of land near a running brook,* and clearing it with axe, then out of the felled timber constructed here an oratory. Rude although it may have been, still this was a temple in which the living and true God might be worshipped. The humble house of prayer was reared just at the turn of the well- trodden path, leading to where, close by, stood a fane of the false god — the deity our pagan Teuton forefathers fell down before, whose memory is still preserved in the name given to the fourth day of the week ; for Woden or Odin, dread furious one, claimed to be lord of IDobnes-bseg (Wednesday). Under some such circumstances as these it may have been that an eremite or monk architect put together the first Christian temple in Croydon, p Or does the old Parish Church of Croydon owe its origin to that scheme of able Archbishop Theodor, when, planning the establishment in England of a parochial clergy,J and guided by an usage of his native Asia, with race, yet it is certain that "the northern half of Anglo-Saxon Britain was indebted for its conversion to Christianity, not to Augustine and the Italian mission, but to the Celtic missionaries who passed through Bernicia and Deira into East Anglia, Mercia, and even Wessex." Dean Hook. * The river Wandle originally took its rise from various sources, a little to the east and south of Croydon Church. Until recently, it coursed in two streamlets, one upon the north, and the other past the south side of the church. f The place now called Waddon, anciently Woddens, is not more than a quarter-of-a-mile distant from Croydon Church. \ The Anglo-Saxon Church, its Hist., etc., by Henry Soames, M.A., pp. 74-5. Other writers, including Camden, state that " Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury (a predecessor of Theodor), about the year THE OLD CHURCH. 167 the sanction of King .ZEthelstan, he urged upon opulent proprietors the expediency of building and endowing churches upon their lands ; by way of encouragement, offering them the right of patronage to the churches they might erect. Hence, the origin of existing rights of patronage, and since some estates were large, whilst others were small, this accounts for the unequal sizes of parishes. If the Church here was founded under the latter circum stances, then we may presume that the marsh-environed, wattled stronghold of the opulent thegn who reared it, occupied the site adjoining the churchyard, where now stand the remains of the Archiepiscopal palace ; for it is likely the Saxon noble would consult his own convenience and that of his household, and choose a spot whereon to erect his Church near his own residence. Yet, wherever situate, or whatever may have been the antiquity or structural character of the fabric in which he officiated, certain it is we find that, about a.d. 960, Elfsies was the priest of Croydon. The 10th century was one of the darkest in the intellectual night. In contrast to the apostolic simplicity of that band who, in singleness of heart and holy fear mingled with gladness, and relying upon their risen Lord, went forth from an upper room at Jerusalem to evangelize the world, the Church in the West now presented the spectacle of a vast and mysterious ecclesiastical polity which had gradu ally arisen out of the ruins, of ancient and pagan Rome. 636, first began to separate parishes in England." Gough's Brit., Vol. I., p. clxxxix. Archbishop Theodor was solemnly enthroned at Canter bury, a.d. 668. The complete organization of the ecclesiastical power in England, appears to have been effected by Theodor ; " Isque primus erat in Arehiepiscopis, cui omnis Anglorum cecclesia mantis dare consenttrct."— Beda, H. E. iv. 2. 168 THE OLD CHURCH. Scriptural religion had become undermined. The supre macy over all the Kings and princes of the earth of " the servant of the servants of God," as the Pope with ostenta tious liumility styled himself, was established; and a sacerdotal class who deemed themselves invested with superior sanctity, separated from, and assumed absolute despotism over the laity. The Anglo-Saxon Church and the English princes, however, never yielded a servile obedience to the See of Rome. Yet vital religion everywhere was suffocated beneath the thick folds of superstition and ignorance. Literary appliances were scarce and costly, and the scant learning of the time was confined to the clergy. The pure Word of God was not then, as it now is, accessible to every reader, for although many of the churches were furnished with books, yet, as most of these were written in the Latin language, very few even of the clergy understood them. "Very few were they," says King iElfred, "on this side the Humber (the most civilised part of England) who could understand their daily prayers in English, or translate any letter from the Latin. I think there were not many beyond the Humber ; they were so few that I indeed cannot recollect one single instance on the south of the Thames, when I took the Kingdom."* It is said that King iElfred provided ancient England with a Bible in her native tongue.p iElfred the Great died on the 26th day of October, in the year 900 or 901, and although iElfred's plans for the improvement of the education of * Alfred's Preface, p. 82 — Wise's Asser. | Spelm, Fit. JElf., M. 167. The authority for this is an ancient History of Ely. THE OLD CHURCH. 169 his people diminished the evil he complained of, yet succeed ing turbulent times incident upon a renewal of the Danish invasion, tended to thwart the enlightened measures of the Anglo-Saxon king. The dogma of the infallibility of the Pope, encounters a difficulty in the character of John XII., who was sove reign pontiff in the year 960, since there is no circum stance in history better attested than the fact that this Pope was solemnly deposed on account of murder, adultery, and other heinous crimes. A.D. 960. This was the year in which St. Dunstan, as he is commonly called, having been appointed primate of the Anglo-Saxons, received the pallium from Pope John.* Returning to England, Dunstan signalized his advent to power by expelling the married secular clergy from their benefices, and obtruding into their places monks of the Benedictine rule. Yet, whether the Saxon priest of Croy don suffered from the new-fangled celibatic notions of his ecclesiastical superior, or otherwise, we have no means of determining. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in — "An. DCCCC.LXXV. Here ended the joys of earth, Eadgar of Angles King, chose him another light, beauteous and winsome, and left this frail, this barren life." Or, as it is expressed in another version of the same, probably cotemporary authority : — * Flor. Wig. 170 THE OLD CHURCH. "A. 975. The 8th before the Ides of July. Here Eadgar died, ruler of Angles, West-Saxons' joy, and Mercians' protector. Kings him widely bowed to the King, as was his due by kind. No fleet was. so daring, nor army so strong, that 'mid the English nation took from him aught, the while that the noble king ruled on his throne." After all said, however, what more was it than a slip of land that acknowledged this whilom potent Anglo-Saxon "Basileus" as lord, compared to the widespread extent of those dominions over which King Eadgar's descendant, our Sovereign Lady, sways her sceptre — an Empire upon which the sun never sets ! Great indeed has been the progress of the nation since Elfsies the priest of Croydon lived. It was Eadgar who, in order to extirpate these ferocious animals from the country, commuted the tribute from Wales in 300 wolves' heads. Scarce had King Eadgar departed, than the dread heathen Vikingr of the North, in long gilt-prowed craft, with Reafen ominously flouting at mast-head, bore down upon ill-fated Saxon England, which, disunited and dis tracted, quickly succumbed to Suein. It was in the year 1014 that Suein added to his other titles that of "full King of England," and in the same year he died suddenly. THE OLD CHURCH. 171 The Danish army then elected Cnut or Canute, Suein's son, to be his successor, and it is within the range of possibility that Elfsies may still have been doing duty as the aged priest of Croydon, when, in 1017, King Cnut commenced to rule over all England. The Dane swore to be just and benevolent, and touched the hands of the principal chiefs in token of his sincerity. Although the son of an apostate, Cnut displayed great zeal for the Church. He discountenanced the eating of horse-flesh in honor of Odin. With the view to still further discourage the old Pagan creed, and stem that host of heathen superstitions, which clung with the inveteracy of ancient association to the recent Danish converts, Cnut enacted laws against witchcraft and charms, the worship of stones, fountains, runes by ash and elm, and the in cantations that do homage to the dead. We may take it for granted, therefore, that the rule of this Anglo-Danish monarch had a tendency to strengthen, rather than weaken, the hands of the Christian priest at Croydon. But Cnut the Great, " Basileus " or Emperor of the Anglo-Saxons, Scots, Britons, Swedes, Danes, and Nor wegians, passed away. in 1035, when his empire, as had been the case with the empire of Charlemagne, fell to fragments. For another six years Saxon England groaned under the partial and oppressive imposts of Harold and Hardacnut, and then, not far from where Croydon Church stands, at Clapham, Clapa-ham, the ham or home of Clapa, the last-named intemperate ruffian fell down dead at the marriage feast of one of his nobles, as "he stood at his drink."* With Hardadnut expired the Scandinavian domination over England. * Saxon Chron., An. 1041 ; another version recounts the circumstance 172 THE OLD CHURCH. What a picture is here presented to us of the manners of that early period throughout which it is probable a succession of men, ignorant and grossly superstitious although they may have been, yet let us hope in sincerity, from the very spot where Croydon Church now stands, taught the Word of life — truly a light shining in a dark place ! It was in the year of our Lord 1041, that, amid every demonstration of Saxon affection, Edward the Confessor, as he is named, was crowned in Winchester Cathedral King of all England. The long and comparatively peace ful reign of the monk-King was distinguished by a church- building activity, and it is not unlikely that the fabric, if of timber, and still standing, in which Elfsies preached, was then pulled down, and' a new Church built at Croydon upon the model of those stone structures which Edward had so good an opportunity of examining during his pro tracted exile in Normandy. The earliest direct notice of Croydon Church is in Domesday Book. An entry in that venerable record relates to the manor of Croydon : it contains the words 11 ibi eccli" signifying here a church. At the time of the survey there was, in the County of Surrey, one abbey, one monastery, one nascent convent, sixty-four churches, and three chapels.* Our old Parish Church, therefore, is a Saxon foundation. under An. 1042, to which year R. Hoveden also assigns it. Clapham was formeily in the parish of Lambeth. * In Sharon Turner's Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, B. viii., c. 9, the number of churches assigned to Surrey at the period of the survey is sixty-two ; but a scrutiny of the Surrey Domesday yields the above list, THE OLD CHURCH. 173 The fabric is dedicated to St. John the Baptist — a holy and remarkable character: his raiment was of camel's hair ; a leathern girdle was about his loins ; his meat was locusts and wild honey : he drank neither wine nor strong drink. If the first church erected in this county was reared in our parish, there would be a peculiar significance in the dedication of Croydon Church to the forerunner of Christ. Or does the dedicatory title of Croydon Church contain an allusion to the particular circumstances of the site or locality upon which it was planted ; originally, in fact, an island, surrounded by running streams and a morass. That at the first introduction of Christianity to the Pagan Anglo-Saxons, before they had time to erect churches, it was not unusual openly to baptize the converts in rivers or streams, in a way similar to that practised by John the Baptist in the Jordan, appears from the relation of Vener able Bede. A very old man told Deda, Abbot of Parteney, that he himself in the presence of Edwin, chief of the Angles, who lived on the north side of the River Humber (the North- Hum brians) had been baptized with a great many others in the Trent at noon- day by bishop Paulinus. Deda personally conveyed this information to Bede, by and there may have been even then other churches in this County, for wonderfully accurate as the great record of William the Conqueror generally is, yet as an illustration that the Domesday commissioners sometimes erred, we may cite the case of Attingham Church, in Shrop shire, which is not mentioned in Domesday, although we know that Ordericus Vitalis, the celebrated chronicler, was baptized in it in the year 1075, prior to the compilation of the Shropshire Domesday. Ord. Vital. Keel. Hist. Eng. and Nor., B. v., c. 1, and B. xiii., e. 45. 174 THE OLD CHURCH. whom the interesting tradition has been handed down to us.* The old Parish Church of St. John the Baptist at Croy don \#,s burnt down on Saturday night, January the 5th, 1867. * Yen. Bede, Eccl. Hist, of Eng., B. ii., c. 16. Structural i&etrotpect After the fire, when large portions of the fabric fell, or were pulled down, and the plaster was stripped from the walls, moreover, as the area was excavated preparatory to rebuilding, various interesting revelations were made con cerning our Parish Church. The ground plan of a more ancient House of Prayer, which had occupied the same site, could be clearly traced : indeed the builders of the latter appear to have religiously preserved, as far as they could, the foundations of the former. As each successive alteration was made in the character of the structure, the old walls were merely pierced or taken down to the required level, but the ancient foundations were not disturbed. In respect to the period involved in an attestation of a priest of Croydon at so early a date as the year 960, it cannot be said that any portion of the lately destroyed Church could be identified as Saxon. No rude balluster shafts were discovered, or " long and short work " — nothing of the kind. It is doubtful if, amid the debris of Croydon Church, there was a single fragment of character so de cidedly Anglo-Norman, as that it might be affirmed of it, this is a relic of the Church standing here when the Con- 176 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. queror's Commissioners visited the place. The carving which apparently has the best claim to be considered as having belonged to the fabric that existed here when Domesday was compiled is represented by the cut sub joined. The rude imita tion of the Ionic volute, and the dotted ornament visible in this mutilated fragment of a small capi tal, impart to it a resem blance to the huge capital of the respond or half- pillar attached to the wall on the right hand as you enter the Chapel of the White Tower. This Chapel in the Tower of London was built previously to the demise of the Conqueror in the year 1087.* Figs. 2 and 3 belong to the Late Norman era : a.d. 11 35 to a.d. 1210. The square form. and peculiar sunk channel or indent in the abacus of the former, and the zigzag carv ing on the latter certify these stones to have been wrought within the period embraced by the dates mentioned above. It was from out of the north wall of the old Fig. 2. * In the Abbey Church of St. Etienne erected about a.d. 1066, and also in the Abbey of the Holy Trinity at Caen, dedicated 18th June, 1066, are capitals somewhat similar to the one delineated above. See Cotman's Architectural History of Normandy. STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 177 chancel that Fig. 3 was taken. To the Late Norman era also may be assigned the frag ments of Croydon Old Church, from whence Figs. 4, 5 and 6 were sketched. Several slight variations of Fig. 6 were found. Besides the zigzag, of which Fig. 5 is an enriched specimen, Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. 178 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. J\ '"'>.----." Fig. 7. the cable moulding was a decorative detail peculiar to the style in vogue at the period of which we are treating. Of the cable moulding, however, I could .only see one bit, and it was enriched with a dotted ornament. From this stone was sketched Fig. 7. I wish it bad lain in my power to display to the eye of the reader something more pretentious than sketches of carvings, in design so simple and commonplace; some mysterious symbolical Norman sculpture for instance, such as that fine series in Kilpeck Church.* It is the duty of the chronicler, however, to record things as he finds them, and uninteresting although these drawings may appear to many, nevertheless they re present the relics of that house of prayer in which our forefathers worshipped more than 600 years ago. Several other fragments were found bearing the im press of a high antiquity. Of such was the head here drawn, Fig. 8 ; the original is vast. To the Late Norman suc ceeded the Early English period of Gothic architec- rig 8 * See Illustrations of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, by G. R. Lewis. STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 179 ture, which prevailed generally throughout the 13th cen tury, a.d. 1200 to a.d. 1300. By this time the massive Norman, with its heavy semi-circular arch, had been entirely superseded by a lighter and more elegant descrip tion of structure in which the pointed arch was used. In the earlier development of this style, neither mullions nor tracery appeared in windows, which, as yet, were mere lancet-headed long and narrow apertures, consisting of one, two, or more lights. Of the Early English style, the tooth, or dog-tooth ornament is the peculiar distinction. This ornament appears to be an advance from the Norman zigzag ; much dog-tooth or nament was found amid the ddbris of Croydon Church (see Figs. 9 and 10). Some Early English work is pre served in the arched aperture in the north wall of chancel of our new Church. Fig. 11 represents the trefoil base of a small clustered column. The other base (Fig. 12) has a notch-like ornament in the hollow of the moulding, seen in some parts of the north of France, yet seldom met with in this country. In an architectural as well as antiquarian Fig. 9. Fig. 10. sense, therefore, the latter is an interesting 180 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. relic. The fragment is classified as Early English ; with some of the other remains so classed, however, it may have be longed to that Croydon Church concerning which we read that iEgidius de Audenardo was rec tor in the year 1282. Fig. 13 was drawn from frag- mental remains, apparently of a huge circular column; a deep hollow and bold round mouldings are characteristic of Early Eng lish work. Two other fragments are delineated in Fig. 14; unlike the former, these have an angular character. Per haps the arcading that separated the nave from the side aisles of the ancient Church rested on Fig. 13, STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 181 pillars alternately octagonal and round. In either instance, the stones delineated bore traces of coloured decoration. A hand holding a book is visible in the one ; in this the colours used were crimson or red, yellow ochre, black or dark brown, and white. In Fig. 14 the colours are crim- Fig. 14. son, yellow, and black. For centuries these painted fragments had been embedded in the north pier of the chancel arch. The Decorated period succeeded that of the Early En glish ; it was distinguished for its large windows divided by intricate and delicately moulded mullions branching into flowing tracery in the head. For graceful natural design, and beautiful execution, stone carving reached the highest perfection it has yet attained during the Decorated era ; yet all was subordinate to the grand design of the building. The Decorated English style lasted for about one hundred years, from the latter part of the 13th to the latter part of the 14th century. 182 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. Fig. 15. Very few evidences of the glorious Decorated era were found amid the ruins of Croy don old Church. Some, how ever, wrere discovered ; of such is Fig. 15, representing a man's face peeping through some leaves. The identical frag ment from whence this was sketched is now a terminal to the label round the aperture previously referred to in the north wall of chancel of the present Church, having been placed there for the sake of preservation. The filleted mould ing attached to the mutilated owl's head represented in Fig. 16, and that more elaborate moulding shown in Fig. 17, enable us to decide that some portion at least of a Church formerly standing here be longed to the Decorated period. There were no mouldings or tracery to be seen in the destroyed Church equal to those suggested by Figs. 18 and 19. With the exception of two lights or windows at the west end of its aisles, the fabric of St. John the Baptist recently burnt down belonged to the end of the 14th or early part of the 15th century. The sketch sub- Fig. 16. Fig. 17. STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 183 Fig. 18 joined, Fig. 20, represents one of the windows referred to. These lights had broad splays, and the tracery in their heads was of a simple character. They were alike in pattern, but they essen tially differed from all the other windows in the de stroyed fabric, the latter being perpendicular in cha racter, and in keeping with the structure they lit, where as the two former belonged to a transition period, be tween the Early English and Decorated eras. Yet ancient although these lights were, when the west wall of the fabric was stripped prepara tory to its being re- flinted, it was discover- ' ed that the Early De corated windows had ,: been inserted in place / of still older windows. It is certain that, pre viously to the fire, the walls of Croydon Church had been thrice pierced ; and the pre sumption is that this succession of lights exhibited a design in harmony with the general character which the fabric bore at the respective dates of their insertion, Fig. 19. 184 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. whether this occurred during the Late Norman, Early English, Decorated, or Perpendicular periods.* It is an interesting fact that the walls of Croydon Church were found to be full of Norman, Early English, and Decorated fragments; debris of a former structure, or structures, reverently used up. A sculptured history of our country may lie embedded in the walls of * our old parish churches : stones wrought by Saxon and Norman hands, by men who lived in the stormy time of the Usurper, or who fought in the Welsh and Scottish wars of King Edward the First. The accompanying drawing is a ground plan of the fabric destroyed in 1867. The old Church of St. John the Baptist, Croydon, consisted of a nave (1), north aisle (2), south aisle (3), chancel (4), a western tower (5), a south porch (6), a north porch (7), north chancel aisle, or St. Mary's chancel (8), south chancel aisle, or St. Nicholas's chancel (9), and a sacristy or vestry (10). It has been already observed that this was what is technically known as a Perpendicular structure. It is conjectured that the work of rebuilding, or rather converting, Croydon Church into a Per pendicular fabric was commenced by Archbishop Courtenay, from the circumstance of the arms of this prelate (or, three torteaux) having formerly been affixed to the north Fig. 20. * Indications of some of the ancient windows have been preserved in the north and south walls of our new church. STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 185 entrance; and to the same heraldic authority we are indebted, when we place the date of its completion in the days of Archbishop Chicheley, whose arms (argent, a chevron gules, between three cinquefoils of the last) were carved at the side of the western or principal entrance. The Perpendicular style of architecture, exhibited by the late structure, attained its purest development towards the end of the 14th, and in the early part of the 15th century ; exactly the period embraced by the archiepisco- pates of the alleged rearers of the fabric. If any confirmation were required to prove that the late building was only an alteration and enlargement of a Church which for ages previously had stood upon the very same spot, it would be found in the circumstance that there is no record of the consecration of Croydon Church. The rule of the Canon Law is never to consecrate a Church unless it has been consumed by fire, desecrated, or built upon unconsecrated ground. It follows, therefore, that if this had been a new fabric, reared upon a fresh site, its consecration would have appeared in the register of the archbishop in whose time it was built. The changes made in the ground plan towards the close of the 14th and at the commencement of the 15th centuries appear to have consisted in the addition of the south porch (t>), two chauntries or chapels at the east end of the aisles (8, 9), and a vestry (10). In length, from east to west, and in breadth, from north to south, the fabric under went no change ; this was proved by the great antiquity of the lower parts of the walls. 186 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. Ground Plan of Croydon Church, destroyed 1867. A Font, b Pulpit, c Prayer Desk, d Lectem. e Piscina, p g Holy Water Stoups. h i Altar Tombs recently discovered, j Mills's Monument, k Archbishop Grindal's Monument, l Mjnument by Flaxman. m Ellis Davy's Tomb, n Herorie's Monument, o Grave of John Singleton Copley, p Murgatroid's Monument, q Arch bishop Whitgift's Monument, b Warham's Monument, s Archbishop Sheldon's Monu ment, t Grave of Archbishop Potter, u Grave of Archbishop Herring, v Grave of Archbishop Wake, w Stove that burnt down the Church, x Palace. STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 187 There was a curious series of rudely carved corbels and brackets in Croydon old Church ; the majority were grotesques, yet some represented human faces, others were floral in character, whilst upon one a bird was carved, with eggs in a nest. The font, which was of an octagonal form, is sup posed to have been coeval with the Perpendicular fab ric ; it had quatrefoil panels on its sides, filled alter nately with grotesque heads and roses. Not a vestige of the font survived the fire. Font. 188 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. In the chancel stood a brass eagle, with extended wings ; this was the ancient lectern. Saved from the conflagration it now stands in the new Church.* " In the Rebellion," says Aubrey, " one Bleese was hir'd for half-a-Crown per Day, to break the painted Glass-Windows, which were formerly fine."p The organ, a remarkably fine one, erected in 1794, was the work of Avery, who always considered it to be his chef-d'oeuvre. When the Church was cleaned in 1844, distemper paint ing was discovered on the south wall. A saint of colossal proportions, with a club, was depicted, sustaining a small * The following extract from the parish register relates to this lectern: — "June, 1729. James Marsh pulled ye eagle in ye church upon him, and cutt his hand & blead to death, about 8 years old & buried ye 11." f The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Vol. II., p. 30. STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 189 figure, the foot of which is visible in the accompanying cut. Near the giant a little cherub appeared, sounding a trumpet, over a monk holding a lantern. On the other side was a semcircularly arched and portcullised embattled gateway, over which, at a small quadrangular window in a wall, were represented a king and queen.* Another and still more interesting specimen of rude mural decoration was found on the south wall of Croydon Church when the gallery was removed in September, 1857 : from it I made the drawing on page 190. The sloping line of the gallery is indicated both in the sketch of the saint with the club, and in the sketch of the knight ; the position the knight occupied relatively to the giant being shown by the figure 8. The armour of the knightly figure appears to be of the description known as cuirbouilli, namely, leather boiled in oil. This moulded into any form, and becoming hard enough to resist a sword-cut, was frequently used as a substitute for plate armour, f The restoration of the interior of Croydon Church, which had been commenced in the year 1851, under the superintendence of the eminent architect, Mr. (now Sir) G. Gilbert Scott, was advanced a stage further in 1857, and finally completed in 1859. The fire which deprived the inhabitants of Croydon of their old Parish Church was occasioned by the over heating of a flue-pipe : this ignited at its south-west corner * Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1845. i It is amazing to what an extent this practice of painting in churches was carried at one period in this country. The diary of William Dowsing, who was appointed Parliamentary Visitor for the County of Suffolk to smash and break the "superstitious pictures and ornaments of churches," will give the reader an idea. 190 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. -***- -- //-^^^ Supposed Subject— St. Geokge slaying the Duagox and delivering " v« Lady S.uska.' Presumed date, the \ith century- STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. 191 the roof of the nave, at a distance of thirty-five feet from the stove. Owing to a temporary interruption in its supply, no water could be procured until it was too late to be of use. With mysterious celerity the flames stole eastward along the varnished pitch-pine roof, and then broke out en masse over the chancel, exactly the opposite end of the Church to that in which, the fire had been first observed. A south-easterly gale blew hard at the time. Grappling with the flames, as these burst from the roof, the angry wind hurled them with fearful vehemence back to the north-west. It was a sublime scene to witness the fiery whirlwind assault, in mid-night, the grand old tower of Croydon Church. The vast roof fell in at half-past eleven o'clock, just half an hour after it had ignited. Soon after the breaking out of the conflagration a snowstorm commenced, and millions of sparks, caused by the falling in of the roof, now mingling with snow-flakes, presented a dazzling spectacle. It was a singularly beautiful, yet terrible sight, also to behold the flames as they burst through the gorgeous stained glass windows, and displayed hues the most magnificent. Soon after the roof fell it became evident that the tower had caught fire. It would have been little short of a miracle indeed if, in the face of such a fiery hurricane as the one which on that night spent its fury upon the tower of Croydon Church, its contents had been saved. As it was, the fire penetrated into the lowrer storey through an unlucky aperture specially cut for ventilation during the restoration. The flames then made their way into the higher storeys of the tower, up which they presently roared, as in the chimney of a huge blast furnace. The bells melted with the great heat as they hung, all of them, 192 STRUCTURAL RETROSPECT. excepting the big tenor, which falling, smashed through the stone roof of the vaulted space under the tower, and came to the ground with a thud. A blackened carcase of tower and skeleton outer walls were all that survived the conflagration. Plate XIII. CROYDON OLD CHURCH. [After the Fire.) 2tttootofcw— l&etfora an* Wiitaxg, etc* The Church of St. John the Baptist, Croydon, is in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and was formerly both a Eectory and a Vicarage. The original endowment of the Vicarage cannot be discovered, but Henry de la Rye was presented to this Vicarage in the year 1289 by iEgidius de Audenardo, the then Rector. An ancient instrument, dated at Maidenston, 2nd of June, in the year 1348, in the time of Archbishop Stratford, whose register is lost, is preserved in that of Archbishop Courtney, and contains an ordination made by Archbishop Stratford of what tithes were then to belong to the Rectors and Vicars of Croydon, respectively. Of this instrument the following is an abstract* : — Archbishop Stratford, having of his mere pastoral office called before him — "John de Torneford, and John de Horstede, perpetual vicar of Croydon, cites them to lay the ordination of the portion of the said vicarage, if they have any, on a certain day and place, before his commis sary appointed for that purpose ; they appear and assert * The instrument itself is copied at length in the Appendix of Ducarel: see also Steinman's History of Croydon, Appendix. 194 ADVOWSOST. that they had no such ordination, and pray that he would settle the portion which each of them is to receive, accord ing to the true annual value of the fruits, profits, and income of the said rectory. Accordingly, with the con sent of the rector and vicar, regard being had to the income and the charges of the said Church, it is decreed, that the rector of the said Church for the time being, shall have all the great tithes within the said parish, viz., those of corn, hay, falls of wood and timber cut within the bounds of the parish, all live mortuaries due at funerals, and a moiety of the tithes of lambs, which are to be tithed per capita, and are due by custom or right within the said parish, and also a pension of eight marks to be paid in equal portions on the Feast of St. Michael, Christ mas-Day, Easter, and the Nativity of John the Baptist, by the vicar of the said Church for the time being, and all other incomes, fruits, and profits of the said Church not hereafter allotted to the vicar. The vicar to have and to hold the house belonging to the said vicarage, with the garden thereunto adjoining, as also all, and all manner of oblations in the said Church of Croydon ; likewise a moiety of the tithes of lambs, which are to be tithed per capita, and also the money arising by custom or right from those lambs that are not tithed per capita ; also all tithes of wool, calves, pigs, geese, ducks, pigeons, cheese, milk, butter, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruits, as well those growing in gardens and orchards, as those that are dug out of the earth ; as also tithes of flax, mustard, eggs, merchandise, and of mills built or to be built within the bounds of the said parish, and all other small tithes which are- not before allotted to the rector, as also all legacies left to the said Church which the rectors or vicars may receive, and have by right or custom, and also all ADVOWSON. 195 dead mortuaries in any manner belonging to the said Church. The said vicars are also by themselves and another priest to perform divine service in the said Church, and to have the ministering of the bread, wine, candles, and all other and singular necessaries belonging to the celebration of the divine offices. They are also to find such books, surplices, vestments, and ornaments of the said Church as are usually found by rectors or vicars by custom or right. They are also to pay the tenths and other impositions usually laid upon the Church of England on any occasion, according to the known taxation of £10 sterling, at which the said vicarage is taxed. It is also decreed that the rector shall repair the chancel of the said Church, viz., its roofs and walls Room over South Porch. within and without, and be at the expense of all ordinary and extraordinary charges happening to the said Church ; and it is also decreed, that the vicar and his successors shall D 196 ADVOWSON. make oath upon the Holy Evangelists to the rector, that they will be guilty of no fraud or deceit by themselves or others, publickly or privately, in the portion due to the rector, nor usurp anything to themselves. Lastly, the Archbishop reserves to himself and his successors the power of augmenting or lessening the income of this vicarage, if he shall think proper so to do." In the archives of the Bodleian Library is an ancient "Valor Beneficiorum," compiled in the twentieth year of King Edward I., which formerly belonged to Sir Henry Spelman. Of this, generally known as Pope Nicholas's Taxation Roll, so much as relates to Surrey is printed in the Appendix to Aubrey's Perambulation of that county, in which, amongst other particulars, may be found " Deeanatus de Croyndon, Ecclesia de Croyndon val. Lx. marc. Vicaria ejusdem val. xv. marc." In 1534, the vicarage was valued at 21/. 18s. ll^d.,* and in Ecton's Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum it is thus stated : — Clear ( Croydon V. (St. John Baptist) [Pecul] } yearly value -< Pens. Prior, de Bermondsey V ' 451. Os. Od. (evis. viiirf. Redd. Mansion, iid. j In the Liber Regis, the vicarage, discharged of the payment of first-fruits, is rated at 21/. 18s. dd. In the eleventh year of King Edward II. , there was an " Inquisitio ad quod damnum" -\ previous to an exchange between Archbishop Reynolds and the Prior and Convent of Bermondsey of the advowson of this Church, then be- * Reg. Winton, Fox, pi. 5. f Inquisitio ad quod damnum, 11 Ed. 2, m. 36. Advowsox. 197 longing to the Archbishop, with the latter, for 28Z. 12s. lid., in Wichesflete, containing one hide of land and two mills, with the appurtenances, in Southwark. It would seem that subsequent to this inquisition, and the return upon it, is the instrument in Archbishop Reynolds' Register,* appropriating the Church of Croydon to the Convent of Bermondsey, of which instrument the substance is, that since the revenues of the Convent are greatly diminished by an inundation, and its income miserably reduced, to prevent the said Convent being irrecoverably dissolved, the Archbishop appropriates to it this Church. This act is not dated, but by the foregoing and succeeding acts, it seems to have been entered in this Register about October, 1320. The document is cancelled in the Register, and probably this appropriation never took place, for when vacancies occurred, the succeeding Archbishops continued to present to this rectory till the time of Archbishop Courtney. According to the Register of Archbishop Courtney, in his time, however, an exchange was made of this Advowson for the Manor of Waddon, between that Archbishop and the Prior and Convent of St. Saviour's, Bermondsey. After the King's Licence and the Pope's Bull had been obtained, the matter was referred to Robert Bragbrooke, Bishop of London, the sole judge delegated by the Pope for that purpose ; and he, having heard the pleas on all sides, in a solemn manner, in the Church of Croydon, by his sentence, dated January 16, 1390, brought the exchange to a satisfactory conclusion. It was also agreed by indenture (dated on the Monday in the first week of Lent, the fourteenth of King Richard IL), made between Archbishop Courtney and the Prior and Convent * Reg. Reynolds, fol. 98 b. 198 ADVOWSON. of Bermondsey, that the collation and patronage of the Vicarage of Croydon should remain in the Archbishop and his successors, and that in the event of a vacancy, the Archbishop, or his successors, should name two proper persons to the Prior and Convent, one of whom they should choose and present to the said Vicarage, to be admitted and instituted Vicar of this Church. Thus matters continued till the dissolution of the Convent of St. Saviour's* in 1538, when the great tithes, rectory manor, and chancel, as part of the possessions of that * The following extract from Tanner's " Notitia Ifonastica" relates to the convent of Bermondsey: — " Cluniac Abbey. — Aylwin Child, citizen of London, about the year 1082, began a new and fair church in Southwark, to the honor of our Holy Saviour, with design to place therein a convent of monks of the Cluniac order, who were procured from the priory De Caritate, in France, by means of Archbishop Lanfranc, a.d. 1089, about which time King William Rufus augmented the small estate which Aylwin had procured for these religious with the grant of the manor of Bermondsey, and other revenues. This priory was made denison, 4 Ric. 2., erected into an abbey a.d. 1399, and was endowed, before the dissolution, with an yearly income worth 474L 14s. 4.d. ob. q. Dugd. 548Z. 2s. 5d. ob. q. Speed. The site was granted 33 Hen. VIII., to Sir Richard or Robert Southwell." The custom that prevailed before the Reformation, of suffering the great Monastic establishments to absorb the advowsons of parishes, and leave only vicarages remaining, supplemented as this was, by the un principled manner in which the monastic houses themselves afterwards were broken up, and their acquired parochial endowments scattered, led to a confusion from which England suffers to the present day. Top often in times past, have the spiritual necessities of wide districts been sacrificed to the kitchen of the convent. It was this corrupt Papal system that deprived Croydon of its rector and the great tithes. Another misfortune, consequent upon the way in which the monasteries were suppressed, was an ignorant destruction of a great many valuable books, MSS. accumulated through the diligence of the mediaeval scribes. ADVOWSON. 199 Convent, fell to the Crown, and the advowson of the Vicarage reverted to the See of Canterbury, where it remains. In 1550, King Edward VI. granted the Rectory to Thomas Walsingham, Esq., of Chislehurst, and Robert Moyse, Esq., of Banstead. In 1727 this estate belonged to James Walsingham, Esq., who by will, dated August 16th in that year, devised the same to his sister, Lady Elizabeth Osborne, for life, but made no ulterior bequest of it. He died in 1728, without issue, leaving three co heirs, viz., Lady E. Osborne, Anthony Viscount Montague, and Mrs. Villiers. Lady Elizabeth left her third to Henry Boyle, Esq., who took the name of Walsingham, from whom it descended to the Hon. Robert Boyle Walsingham. He conveyed it in 1770 to Anthony Joseph Viscount Mon tague, descended from Barbara, a second sister of James Walsingham, who inheriting his father's third, and pur chasing that of Mrs. Villiers, died seised of the whole in 1787. The trustees under his will sold part of the tithes to Lord Gwydir and other land-owners, and conveyed the remainder to George Samuel Viscount Montague, who was drowned in Switzerland in 1793. He had conveyed his portion of the rectorial tithes to various land-owners, some buying the rectorial tithes of their own estates, and others (where proprietors declined) buying the rectorial tithes of the estates of other owners. Thus the rectorial tithes of this parish were widely distributed, and where they were bought by the owners of the estates on which they were charged, they became practically absorbed, and the estates free of great tithes. The last lot sold was the great tithes of the commons, a lot apparently of no value, and which was bought for a trifle by Mr. Robert Boxall. From small events, however, great ones often proceed, and 200 ADVOWSON. this was the case here ; for Mr. Boxall, finding that no corn, grain, hay, or wood existed on the commons, thought that if they were all enclosed, some titheable article might in time grow there, or, at. any rate, that in an enclosure he might obtain an allotment for his prospective but then barren right. It was, therefore, Mr. Boxall who first stirred the important subject of the Croydon enclosure ; and, when it took place, he had an allotment made to him in lieu of the rectorial tithes of all the commons of Croydon. Hence, every one now possessing land, formerly part of the commons, possesses land free from rectorial tithe rent charge. After these sales, the Rectory itself consisted merely of the chancel of St. John's Church and fhe Manor House at North End, and these were sold to Mr. Robert Harris, father of the late surgeon, Mr. Francis Harris, and one of the magistrates of the Croydon Bench, who died in 1807. Mr. Harris's representatives sold the chancel and Manor House to the late Alexander Cauldcleugh, Esq., whose representatives sold the chancel after the fire in 1867 to trustees for the inhabitants of Croydon. Under the same enclosure an allotment was made to the Vicar of Croydon, in lieu of the vicarial tithes of the commons of Norwood, so that any land in Norwood, formerly common, is now free from vicarial tithe rent charge; but the rest of the parish is subject to vicarial tithes.* Easter offerings are presented to the Vicar throughout the parish. A house was appropriated to the Vicar in the reign of Edward III. This formerly stood on the south side of the * Under the Tithe Commutation Act of the year 1837, the vicarial tithes are now commuted into a rent charge. ADVOWSON. 201 old churchyard. Rebuilt by Archbishop Wake, at the instigation of his lady, in 1730,* this vicarage was pulled down in 1847, and the ground on which it had stood was added to the churchyard. The new vicarage was then erected about a quarter of a mile westward of the Church. On the 16th February, 1417, we find Archbishop Chicheley issuing a Commission, requiring John, Bishop of Sorron, to reconcile the Parish Church and church yard of Croydon which had then been lately polluted by blood. p The cause and manner of this bloodshed remain a secret, and the country being at that time internally at peace, we are led to suppose that it arose from some popular affray. Formerly there were two chauntries in this Church, one dedicated to St. Mary, and the other to St. Nicholas. The first, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was founded before 1402, by Sir Reginald de Cobham, Lord Cobham, of Ster- borough Castle, Surrey. The incumbent was to pray for the repose of the souls of the said Sir Reginald, his wife Joan, his children, and of all faithful Christian people. The presentation of the chauntry priest the founder vested in twelve of the principal inhabitants of the town of Croydon. The total income of this chauntry, derivable from various tenements and lands in Croydon or elsewhere, was 16/. Is. 2d. John Comporte was the last incumbent, who had a life pension of 6/. 1 3s. 4c/. granted him at the dissolution of this chauntry in 1 Edward VI. The other chauntry, dedicated to St. Nicholas, was founded for the repose of the soul of John Stafford, Bishop * Mill's Essay on Generosity. f Reg. Chiclteley, fol. 331, a. 202 ADVOWSON. of Bath and Wells, and of William Oliver, Vicar of Croydon, before the year 1443, as in that year Bishop Stafford was translated to the See of Canterbury. The patronage of this chauntry seems to have been in the Weldon family, from their name being connected with several presentations. The total income of the chauntry was 14/. 14s. 6c/., obtainable in a similar manner to that of St. Mary's. The last incumbent was Nicholas Sommer: he likewise had a grant of 6/. 13s. 4c/. for life at the dissolution.* The following Bishops were consecrated at Croydon Church : — 1534, April 19, by Archbishop Cranmer, Thomas Goodrich, D.D., Bishop of Ely, and John Capon, alias Salcot, LL.D., late Abbot of Hyde, Bishop of Bangor. 1541, September 25, by the same Archbishop John Wakeman, last Abbot of Tewkesbury and first Bishop of Gloucester. 1551, August 30, by the same Archbishop, John Scory, D I)., Bishop of Rochester, and Myles Coverdale, D.D., Bishop of Exeter.-]- 1591, August 29, * Lists of the Incumbents of St. Mary's and St. Nicholas's Chaun- tries, and also the items of the endowments of these chauntries, are given in Ducarel, in Garrow, and in Steinman's Histories of Croydon. f As the honoured instrument of greatly extending the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, the name of Myles Coverdale will always be mentioned with veneration. The ancient MSS. were often beautifully illuminated; sometimes written in letters of gold and silver, these were bound with plates of pure gold or silver, and studded with precious gems. The discovery of the Art of Printing about the middle of the 15th century created a revolution in the method of transmitting knowledge by books, and the ADVOWSON". 203 by Archbishop Whitgift, Gervase Babington, D.D., Bishop of Llandaff. 1612, September 20, by Archbishop Abbot, assisted by John (King), Bishop of London, Richard (Neile), Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and John (Buckeridge), Bishop of Rochester, Miles Smith, D.D., Bishop of Gloucester. For upwards of eight hundred years the structure con cerning which we write remained the only Episcopal Church at Croydon. But, owing to the vast increase in the population of the parish, the ancient status of St. John the Baptist has been modified by the division of the tedious way of writing books by the hand was superseded by the art of printing them from cast metal types. The first printed English translation of the New Testament we owe to Tyndale, who afterwards was martyred. This rare book was printed in the year 1526. Tyndale also translated from the Hebrew into English the Pentateuch : the only perfect copy of the latter known to exist is in the Bibliotheca Grenvilliana in "the British Museum. It was printed in 1530, in which year Tyndale also published an English translation of the prophet Jonah. But to Myles Coverdale, subsequently consecrated Bishop of Exeter, in Croydon Church, the honour belongs of having been the translator of the first entire Bible printed in the English language. Upon the 4th of October, 1535, Myles Coverdale published his translation of the whole Bible. There is no evidence concerning the date at which he commenced this great work, and it is uncertain where it was printed. Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter by Edward VI. Upon the change of religion in Queen Mary's reign, he was ejected from his see of Exeter, and thrown into prison ; out of which he was released at the earnest request of the King of Denmark, and as a great favour per mitted to go into banishment. Soon after Elizabeth's accession, he re turned from exile. When Coverdale was old and poor, Grindal, Bishop of London, gave him the living of St. Magnus, at London Bridge. Here he preached for about two years, but not coming up to the terms of conformity then required, he relinquished his parish a little before his death. He died 1569, being 81 years of age. Subjoined is a fac- 204 ADVOWSON. Parish of Croydon into fifteen other ecclesiastical districts,* and the erection therein of as many ecclesiastical edifices, all of which have been opened since the commencement of the year 1827. By an order from the Secretary of State, the old church yard was closed for interments on the 1st of August, 1861 ; a handsome cemetery having been provided for the town. simile of the opening sentences of Myles Coverdale's translation of the Bible. Z^e firft Copter. ivrttf v$ybc aubcmptf^ uwtKb *>p<> ^Inb^fobptybcuctt^crcljcljgl)^ there was li(#t.aiftb.)