St Michael Wood Street with St Mary Staining, London Genealogy

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St Michael Wood Street with St Mary Staining, the church of, is situated on the west side of Wood Street, Cheapside. The original church is of some antiquity, [as early as]...1328. The old church was destoryed by the common conflagration of 1666, and the present church was erected a few years after from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. The neighbouring church of St Mary Staining was also destroyed at the same time, and the parish was united to this act of parliament. The patronage of this rectory was anciently in the abbot and convent of St Albans, till the suppression of the religious houses by Henry VIII, who sold it to WIlliam Barwell, who in 1558 conveyed it to the trustees for the parishioners, in which it still remains. After the fire of London, the adjacent parish of St Mary Staining was united to it by act of parliament; the patronage of which devolving to the crown after the Reformation, it is now in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and the united rectory is presented to alternately by his Lordship and the parishioners. The united parishes are now a rectory in the city, diocese and archdeaconry of London, and in before mentioned patronage.

[ Adapted from: "Topographical Dictionary of London" by James Elmes; published 1831]