KINGSTON HUNDRED 



merit to Mark Snelling, alderman of the City of 

 London and a benefactor of the church and parish, 

 died 1633 (?) ; and two other monuments of about the 

 same period. There are many 18th-century and later 

 monuments. 



On the pillar east of the south transept is an ancient 

 painting (probably coeval with the chapel) of a 

 bishop with his pastoral staff, mitre, &c., and holding 

 what may be a comb, which would identify him with 

 St. Blaize the patron of wool-combers. 



In the tower is a fine ring of ten bells ; the treble 

 is dated 1748 ; the second 1841, by T. Mears ; the 

 third 1750, by Robert Catlin ; the fourth 1875, by 

 Blews and Son, Birmingham ; fifth, sixth, and seventh 

 1826, by T. Mears; the eighth is inscribed 'The 

 8 old bells recast and two new trebles added to make 

 10 by subscriptions, S. London, S. Belchier, Collectors, 

 1748' ; the ninth, 1879, was recast by Mears and 

 Stainbank, and the tenor (which weighs 33 cwt.) by 

 Mears, 1850. 



The old communion plate, which was a large service 

 dating from 1708 and 1716, has been stolen ; that in 

 use is modern. 



The registers date from 1542 and, up to 1812, they 

 comprise twenty volumes as follows : i. mixed 

 baptisms, marriages and burials 1542 to 1556, a well- 

 bound volume on the original paper ; ii. the same, 

 I 560 to 1574 ; iii- mixed, 1574 to 1586, and mar- 

 riages at the end also for 1574, 1575, and 1579 ; 

 iv. 1586 to 1602 ; v. 1603 to 1609 ; vi. July 

 1620 to August 1621 ; vii. September 1622 

 to June 1636 ; viii. 1636 to 1653 (in this volume are 

 many notices of banns published on market days and 

 Lord's days) ; is. 1653 to 1665, at the end a list of 

 deaths from the plague 1665 ; the register has been 

 lost or torn out from 1665 to 1668, this book is partly 

 vellum and partly paper ; x. 1668 to 1693 (paper) ; 

 xi. 1693 to 1713 (parchment) contains a list 

 of the burials of Dissenters from 1696 to 1699 ; 

 xii. 1712-13 to 1740, parchment with paper end 

 sheets; xiii. 1741 to 1749, parchment; xiv. 

 baptisms and burials 1749 to '7^9 an( ^ marriages to 

 1757 ; xv. baptisms and burials 1770 to 1789 ; xvi. 

 the same, 1789 to 1809 ; xvii. the same, 1810 to 

 1812 ; xviii. marriages 1754 to 1769 ; xix. the same, 

 1769 to 1807; and xx. the same, 1808 to 1812. 

 The earlier books are of paper and are much torn and 

 worn out, but have been carefully interleaved in 

 recent years in paper volumes. 



The churchwardens' accounts of Kingston are pre- 

 served from 1503 to 1538 and recommence 1561. 

 A brief mention may be made here of some of the 

 items affecting the fabric and fittings. 43 * In 1504 and 

 i 505 a mason was paid for building and repairing the 

 steeple, which, from entries in i 508-9, had a weather- 

 cock and gilt cross. In 1523 the second bell was 

 exchanged for a new one, and in 1529 the third bell 

 was recast ; again in 1535 the second and third bells 

 were recast at Reading. In 1553 there were five bells 

 in the steeple, ' a sauns bell and a chyme for the belles." 

 In 1561 another bell was recast at Reading, while in 

 i 566 the fourth bell, which weighed 6 cwt. 42 lb., was 

 recast. The great bell was recast in 1574. There 

 was a clock in 1508. A large payment was made for 



KINGSTON- 

 UPON-THAMES 



lead in 1561, evidently for re-roofing. An order was 

 made in 1585 for the removal of the pulpit from the 

 place it ' nowe standeth unto the north-west piller,' 

 and in the same year : ' It is ordered that the 

 seats in the church shall be altered and the parish- 

 ioners to be placed in order in their degrees and 

 callings.' 



The chapel of ST. MARY MAGDALENE, attached 

 to the grammar school, and now used as a gymnasium, 

 is a building of much interest. It was founded by the 

 merchant, Edward Lovekyn, in 1309."' He 

 apparently died childless, and his successor, Robert 

 Lovekyn, was excommunicated for neglecting the 

 endowment of the chapel. 538 Robert was succeeded 

 by John, his son, who increased the endowment. 6 ** 

 The chapel came into the hands of the Crown at the 

 Dissolution,' 40 but in 1560 was granted to the gover- 

 nors of the lately revived grammar school,** 1 who have 

 retained it until the present day. If the date of its 

 erection 1351 were not known, it might have been i 

 ascribed to some twenty years later at least. It is a 

 plain rectangular building, 38 ft. by 17 ft. 2 in., with 

 octagonal vices at the eastern angles. The north vice 

 retains many of its steps but has no outlet at the top ; 

 the southern one now has no steps and has an outer 

 doorway inserted in its south side ; both open off the 

 east wall by a pointed doorway and both are of ashlar. 

 The east window has three cinquefoiled pointed lights 

 with two quatrefoils (rather after the ' Perpen- 

 dicular ' style) in the traceried two-centred arch ; the 

 side windows are each of two cinquefoiled lights with 

 a sexfbil over in the two-centred head ; only one 

 (the easternmost) of the three in the north wall is now 

 open, the second being filled in at the glass line, and 

 the third (if a window ever existed in the bay) having 

 lost all its tracery. On the south side the two eastern 

 windows remain, the existence of the westernmost 

 being again doubtful ; the west window is similar to 

 that at the opposite end. All the windows have 

 widely-splayed inner jambs and arches, with the edges 

 moulded as a double ogee-mould or, perhaps more 

 properly, as the sides of two filleted rolls ; themullions 

 inside have two hollow chamfers ; the inner jambs 

 and arches are original, but the external stonework of 

 all the windows is modern excepting the north-east 

 window, which is very much decayed. At the foot 

 of the mullions of the east window were set two image 

 brackets carved with the heads of Edward III and 

 Queen Philippa, but the latter has now disappeared 

 although it was existing in l883, M> its place being 

 occupied by a modern foliated capital. In the south 

 wall, east of the first window, is the piscina, rather tall 

 for its width and rather shallow ; its sill contains an 

 octofoil basin and is somewhat broken ; the upper 

 shelf is also damaged; the head has a cinquefoiled ogee 

 arch. 



Between the second and third bays in each side wall 

 is a shallow recess 3 ft. 1 1 in. wide, the use of which is 

 not apparent ; they are too shallow for sedilia but may, 

 in connexion with the original woodwork, have formed 

 the setting for the two most important and western- 

 most seats ; they have a transom moulded and em- 

 battled at the level of the window sills and, at 

 about double the height, a foliated three-centred 



* Surr. Arch. Colt, viii, 68. 

 W Ibid. 256. 

 Ibid. 258. 



489 Add. Chart. 23524-7. 

 440 Surr. Arch. Cell, viii, 258. 

 Ml Pat. 2 Eliz. pt. xi. See V.C.H. 

 Surr, ii, 1 56 et seq. for the probability of a 



5 11 



school having been held in the chantry 

 before its suppression. 



441 See illustration to article by Major 

 Heales in the Surr, Arch. Cell, viii, 296. 



