St Ann and St Agnes with St John Zachary, London Genealogy

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St Ann and St Agnes with St John Zachary, the church of, is ont eh north side of St Ann's Lane, at the northern extremity of the New Post office in St Martin's le Grand, and receives its name from being dedicated to St Ann, the mother of the Virgin Mary, and its addition from its situation as being formerly diesignated St Ann in the Willows, from the number of trees of that species which grew in that neighbourhood. The foundation of this church is very ancient, and mention of it as so in 1322. It is a rectory, and the patronage was formerly in the dean and canons of the conventual church of St Martin's le Grand, until that corporation was annexed to the Abbey of Westminster, became patrons. Ont he supporession of teh bishopric of Westminster by Queen Mary, she gave it to the Bishop of London and his successors, in whom it still remains, alternately, with the dean and chapeter of St Paul's [Cathedral]. The old church was destroyed by the fire of London, and the presnet church was erected on its site by Sir Christopher Wren in 1680, and the parish of St John Zachary united to it. The interior is 53 feet square, and 35 feet high, and is sub-divided into a smaller square in the centre by four handsome Corintian columns, which support an ornamented ceiling...

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