person, he adds, "This character is due to her, though coming from her father." The following letter, written by Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, in the reign of James the Second, was communicated to the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1814. It is addressed to Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely, the schoolfellow and friend of Dr. Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells. "I hear the Bishop of Bath and Wells expounds this afternoon at your Chapel, and I have a great mind to hear him, Therefore I desire you would do me the favour, to lett some place be kept for me, where I may hear well and be the least taken of; for I will bring but one body with me, and desire I may not be known. I should not have given you the trouble, but that I was afraid if I had sent any body, they might have made some mistake. Pray let me know what time it begins.' It is no wonder that the several bishops in succession should have suffered great inconvenience from the despoiled and dismantled state of the palace. The great gate-house, with the principal part of the dwelling-house, having been pulled down, they were compelled to enter the apartments reserved for them by an old back way. The rooms under these apartments were occupied by tenants, to whom the property had been underlet. Yet under all the annoyance of continued spoliation, the Bishops of Ely still continued to use portions of the premises as a residence. Half of the Crypt, which is stated to have been once used for the interment of persons dying within the precinct, was frequented as a drinking-place, where liquor was retailed; the revellings of those assembled frequently interrupting the performance of divine service in the chapel above. In the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum (3789, 15, Ely House,) the following occurs. It is a statement apparently made by one of the Bishops, and expresses in simple but forcible language the reasons they had for complaint: "The case between the Bishop of Ely and my Lord Hatton, concerning Hatton Garden. "By ancient records it doth appear, that there was purchased and dedicated to God's service, and given to the Church, and settled on the see of Ely, by one who was at that time Bishop of Ely, a spacious dwelling-house and manor, with gardens, closes, out-houses, and all conveniences pleasantly situated, standing in a great street, and open behind to the fields, consisting of twenty acres. That which the late Bishops of Ely thought they had great reason to complain of, is, that the greatest part of the dwelling-house is pulled down, together with a great gate-house and several out-houses embezzled and gone. The Bishop is confined to less than half. Several cellars are possessed by others, even under those rooms of the house which the Bishop hath now left to dwell in, and they are intermixed with the cellars which he uses, having lights and passages into the cloisters, and the most private parts of the house, even half of the vault, or burying-place under the chapel, is made use of as a publick cellar, or was so very lately, to sell drink in, there having frequently been revellings heard during Divine Service. "Lastly, the Bishop cannot but be extremely grieved to see a town, in a manner, built upon his own ground, without a church for the inhabitants to repair to, not having any claim to any parish, and those which be nearest to them so very great, as that they cannot hope for room enough among their neighbours, in their churches." At about the beginning of the last century, there appear to have been serious intentions of pulling down the mansion, and the other portions of the premises. The following document, copied from the original manuscript in a fly-leaf of the Register of Baptisms and Marriages solemnized in the Chapel, will serve to show the number and extent of the buildings. This register-book is in the possession of the Bishop of Ely. F March ye first Ground Rents that may be made of Ely House, 1708. 1500 0 0 The Lead including ye takeing down Stone, Timber, Bricks, Tiles, Glass, Wainscot, and The Old Materials, excluding ye Lead to be used upon 1000 0 0 1500 0 0 This computation and valuation is made by us, CHARLES STOAKES. It will be seen by an extract from a valuable little work first published in 1714, entitled "Pietas Londinensis," being an "Account of all the Churches and Chapels of Ease in and about London and Westminster, and of the set times of their public prayers, sacraments, and sermons, both ordinary and extraordinary," that the daily services were usually held in Ely House Chapel at that time. "If his Lordship resides here," says the writer, "morning prayers are every day at eight, and on all Sundays, holydays, and public days, again at eleven, and evening prayers at four continually, besides a public sermon every Sunday at eleven for the domestics, but free to all that come; and prayers again at five every Sunday night, where also the sacrament is administered every first Sunday of the month; but if the family be removed, there is no worship or divine service: all which is performed by Mr. Charles Morgan, his Lordship's Chaplain." Six of the Bishops of Ely died in the palace. By the Chapel registers, it appears that several baptisms and marriages were solemnized in it, by various clergymen, but principally by the bishops or their chaplains. The following are extracts from some of the numerous entries in the marriage register : Oct. 9, 1718.-Mr. Charles Fleetwood, of Ely House in Holborn, and Ann Weston, of Mapledurham, in the County of Oxford, marryed in Ely House Chapell, by the Right Rev. William Lord Bishop of Ely. Vicesimo Primo Die Mensis Januarii, Anno Dom. 172. In Capella infra Manerium Eporum Elien. in Holbourn, in Com. Middx. Brock Rand Cler. (veniâ prius a Revdo. Patre Thoma Epo. Elien. impetratâ,) Matrimonio conjunxit, Secundum Ritus Eccliæ. Anglicana, William Innys de Paroch. Sti. Gregorii, Lond. Bibliopol. et Elizabetham Taylor, de Paroch. St. Andreæ, Holbourn, in Com. Middx. viduam, coram Testibus quamplurimis. (Willus Cant. Licen.) May 6, 1744.-Charles Ray Clerk, his Lordship's Domestic Chaplain, was married by virtue of a licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Ely House Chapell, by the Right Rev. Robert, Lord Bishop of Ely, to Ann Potter, of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, London, spinster, according to the rites of the Church of England, in the presence of many witnesses. Sir John Reade of Shipton, in the county of Oxford, a Batchelor, and Harriett Barker of Sonning, in the county of Berks, a Spinster, were married at Ely House Chapel on the 18th day of October, 1759. Among the baptisms are the following: 6 May, 1746.-Mary, daughter of the Right Reverend Robert Butts, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ely, and Ann his wife, baptized in Ely House Chapel, by the Rev. Dr. Phillip Bearcroft, of the Charter House, London. 15 May, 1748.-Lucey, daughter of the Right Reverend Robert, Lord Bishop of Ely, and Ann his wife, baptized in Ely House Chapell, by the Reverend Mr. Charles Ray, his Lordship's Chaplain. Several other children of the Bishop were baptized in this chapel. The poet Cowper, in his Task, adverts to a singular circumstance which occurred in the Chapel at about the time of the defeat of the Pretender, the young Chevalier, by the Duke of Cumberland, at Culloden, in 1746: So in the Chapel of old Ely House, When wandering Charles*, who meant to be the third, Had fled from William†, and the news was fresh, And eke did rear right merrily two staves, Sung to the praise and glory of King George! Task, Book VI. The premises soon after this fell into ruin and neglect; until, in 1772, in the time of Dr. Edmund Keene, Bishop of Ely, a private Act of Parliament was procured, enabling the See of Ely to transfer the whole property to the crown. Dr. Keene had been consecrated Bishop of Chester in Ely Chapel, twenty years before this alienation was effected; his consecration having taken place on the 22nd of March, 1752, when the Rev. Dr. John Green, Regius Professor of Divinity, and Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, preached the sermon. The Act (12 Geo. III.) recites the names of Edmund, Lord Bishop of Ely, Owen S. Brereton, Esq., and Thomas Hunt, Esq., as trustees, in whose names the amount of compensation was to be paid into the Bank of England; and provides that " Ely House * Prince Charles Edward, son of the Chevalier de St. George. He escaped to France in September, 1746. + William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, third son of King George the Second. He died in 1765, aged 44. |