parish church just seventeen years later. The burial-ground attached to the church was behind the Foundling Hospital, and it is said, such was the prejudice against being laid in virgin ground, that no one was buried here till a grave was dug for Nelson, the well-known author of Fasts and Festivals, when the superstition was effectually combated and the ground used for the purpose for which it had been formed. We are told by Noorthouck, that the church was dedicated to St. George, in compliment to Sir Streynsham Master, one of its founders, who had been Governor of Fort St. George; and the same authority says that, "the persons who built it intended to reimburse themselves by the sale of pews, but the commissioners for erecting fifty new churches, resolving to make this one of them, purchased it and caused a certain district to be appointed for its parish." He adds, what we can see for ourselves, with the aid of the 1787 view, that it is a common brick building without style or elegance, but that it was conveniently arranged and, as he quaintly terms it, "well enlightened"; while Maitland, writing in 1756, says, "The church is . . . a perfectly plain and most inelegant brick building, but the inside is of the composite order, and the enrichments are beautiful." Anne's reign was hardly the heyday of ecclesiastical architecture, and thus the churches which are now frequently to be met with, built to be uniform with modern Queen Anne houses, are seldom quite satisfactory. The genesis of the church was in this wise. In 1693, an unsuccessful attempt had been made to divide the parish of St. George's from that of St. Andrew's, Holborn; and although a petition had been presented to Parliament, nothing was done until some years later, when the increase in houses and inhabitants caused the Sir Streynsham Master mentioned before, with several other gentlemen, to be appointed trustees for a chapel of ease to be erected "for the convenient performance of their religious duties." Among the names recorded in connection with this matter are those of Sir William Milman; Daniel Child, Esq.; Robert Nelson, Esq.; the Hon. Captain Gore; the Hon. Colonel Lowe; and Paul Jodrell, Esq. The result of their efforts was that an agreement was entered into between them and one Arthur Tooley, who had on February 26, 1705, taken on lease from Nathaniel Curzon a certain plot of land for a term of sixtyone years, to build them a chapel and two houses. The sum allocated for this purpose was £3500, which money was to be raised by the sale 1 In 1723, says Noorthouck. A view of the Square, looking north, was engraved by Pollard in 1787, from a drawing by E. Dayes, a copy of which is in the Crace collection, where there is also a coloured print of the Square, dated 1812. 2 History of London, p. 745. of pews in the new chapel which appears to have been finished by July 1706, for on the first day of that month the trustees settled certain stipends "for the maintenance of a chaplain, an afternoon preacher (who was likewise a reader), and a clerk; to the first and second one hundred pounds each, and to the clerk fifty pounds"; Dr. J. Marshall having been already nominated first chaplain on April 9, 1706. From the Trustees' Minute Book, the sale of pews on April 21, 1707, amounted to £2780 -while on March 3, 1708, is an entry which reads, "To be paid to Mr. Tooley for chapel and two houses and vestry house, £4200." It would appear that the trustees soon after disposed of one of these houses, for on July 9, 1708, is the entry, "House sold for £400."1 In 1721, the church passed into the jurisdiction of Queen Anne's commissioners, who had at once to expend £2000 on necessary repairs. It must have been badly built originally, for in 1720 it appears to have been in such a state that many people were actually afraid of attending it, fearing, presumably, that it might fall about their heads. Again, in 1772, nearly £1000 was spent in putting it in order; while in 1813, it underwent a thorough renovation; and in 1867, it was completely constructed at a cost of between £3000 and £4000. A list of the rectors may be interesting and useful; it is as follows :— 1. Dr. Marshall, 1706–1730. 2. Dr. Samuel Green, 1730-1747. 6. Rev. J. Lea Martyn, 1806-1836. 7. Rev. W. Short, 1836-1858. 8. Rev. J. Back, 1858-1877. 9. Rev. Dacre Craven, 1878. 10. Rev. Edwin Bedford.2 Dr. Stukeley, the antiquary, and third rector of St. George's, to which he was appointed in 1747, in his MS. diary makes many references to the rural character of Queen Square in his time, and the open "exposure" of one side of the Square, an "exposure exposure" which Noorthouck properly says, renders it "remarkably airy and agreeable to the inhabitants of the other three sides." Dr. Stukeley, whose particular province in antiquarianism was that of early British archæology, from which circumstance he gained the name of "The Arch-Druid," and in which investigations, as Mr. Clinch says, "he sometimes allowed his speculations to be unduly influenced by his imagination,' "4 lived at one of the houses in Queen Square, and died here on March 3, 1765. He received the living 2 See Lewis Miller's account of church and parish. 1 J. Lewis Miller. 3 Walford. Marylebone and St. Pancras; àpropos of Stukeley's supposing certain earthworks at Somers Town to be the remains of a Roman encampment (p. 116). |