The "Poets' Church" St Giles has in recent times come to be referred to as the "Poets' Church" on account of connections to several poets and dramatists, actors and translators beginning in the 16th century. Indeed, the second church on the site was at least partially funded by the 'poor players of the
Cockpit Theatre', presumably
Queen Henrietta's Men, who gave £20 to the rebuilding in 1630. An early post-reformation Rector,
Nathaniel Baxter was both clergyman and poet. In earlier life he had been tutor to
Sir Philip Sidney, and interested in the manner of Sidney's circle in literature and
Ramist logic. He is now remembered for his lengthy philosophical poem of 1606, "Sir Philip Sydney's
Ourania". Another poet philosopher of the period buried at St Giles is
Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (died 1648),. Chapman is perhaps equally famous in our own time as forming part of the subject of
John Keats's sonnet
'On first looking into Chapman's Homer' and as being a proposed candidate for the
Rival Poet mentioned in
Shakespeares Sonnets. Chapman's memorial was designed and paid for by
Inigo Jones who produced the masques to Chapman's texts as, due to a failure to successfully secure a patron, Chapman died in dire poverty.
James Shirley and the Stuart Stage St Giles' connection with poetry and the stage continued throughout the 17th century both before and after the
closure of the theatres by Parliament and, like much else in the parish, revived at the restoration of the Monarchy.
James Shirley and
Thomas Nabbes both writers of
masques, city comedies and historical
tragedies enjoyed a long connection with the church and parish and both are buried within the churchyard. Shirley was perhaps the most prolific and highly regarded dramatist of the reign of
King Charles I, writing 31 plays, 3 masques, and 3 moral allegories. He was known in his day for his comedies of fashionable London life in the 1630s but is perhaps best known today for his poem 'Death the Leveller' taken from his
Contention of Ajax and Ulysses which begins: Also buried in the churchyard was
Michael Mohun, a leading English actor both before and after the 1642–60 closing of the theatres. as entertainment for the wedding of
Mary Cromwell (1637–1712), the
Lord Protector's third daughter, and
Thomas Belasyse, second Viscount Fauconberg (1627–1700). Viscount Fauconberg, later 1st Earl Fauconberg was the nephew of the great
Royalist general and founder of the
Sealed Knot,
John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse (also buried at St Giles) and it was Cromwell's hope that this marriage, fittingly memorialised by the great Marvell, could unify the nation around his regime and succession. Cromwell went so far in his courtship of the Belasyse family as to permit the use of the Anglican liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer at the marriage service. Upon the Restoration of the monarchy, the Roman Catholic Belasyse family reaped the rewards of
Loyalty and John was made
Governor of Hull where he wasted no time in attempting to have the suspect Marvell's Parliamentary seat declared vacant in 1663, on the grounds of his absence in Holland 15 years later the Marvell would repay the favour with his anonymous pamphlet
An Account of Popery and Arbitrary Government (1678) which would contribute to the atmosphere of
Anti Catholic paranoia that led to the impeachment and imprisonment in the
Tower of the Five Catholic Lords, one of whom was his fellow parishioner,
John Belasyse. Belasyse would spend five years imprisoned in the Tower, without trial, before his eventual release. This period, which coincided with the
Popish Plot, reached its grisly degringolade in the trial and execution of 12 Jesuits and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Armagh,
Oliver Plunkett who were all buried in St Giles Churchyard not far from both Marvell and Belasyse.
Sir Roger L'Estrange , last Licenser and Surveyor of the Press in England. Translator of
Aesop's Fables The translator, fabulist, pamphleteer and last Surveyor of the Press in England,
Sir Roger L' Estrange is buried and memorialised at St Giles. He was both Surveyor and Licenser of the Press until 1672 - effectively a national literary censor. He earned the title of "Bloodhound of the Press" thanks to his careful monitoring and control of nonconformist ideas and opinions. L'Estrange succeeded not only in checking seditious publications, but also in limiting political controversy and reducing debate. Besides his official duties L'estrange published translations of
Seneca the Younger's
Morals and
Cicero's
Offices as well an acclaimed English translation of
The works of Flavius Josephus. Additionally he wrote a 'Key' to
Hudibras, the great satirical poem of the Civil Wars. L'Estrange's masterwork, however, was the first English translation of Aesop's fables intended specifically for children. This may be one of the very earliest works of children's literature, coming only two years after Locke's influential
Essay Concerning Human Understanding which posited the idea of children as a 'blank slate' and the subsequent desirability of provide them with "easy pleasant books" to develop their minds rather than simply beating them. Despite his own achievements as a translator and fabulist, Sir Roger is perhaps most often remembered for attempting to suppress the following lines from Book I of Milton's
Paradise Lost, for potentially impugning the King's majesty: Although he has been viewed unsympathetically by posterity for his perceived bigotry and anti-republican paranoia he was, at least in his own eyes, vindicated by the discovery and foiling of the
Rye House Plot in 1683. He was also an early disbeliever in the fictitious
Popish Plot. He is also credited with introducing the expressions
Whig and
Tory into English political language
The Romantics The Poet
John Milton's daughter Mary was baptised in the second church building at St Giles in 1647; whilst the daughter of
Lord Byron, Clara, and the children of the poet
Percy Shelley and
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin were all baptised in the present St Giles church font. In a poignant meeting of minds in the context of St Giles, Shelley would later quote a verse of
George Chapman's (buried at St Giles) at the beginning of his poem
The Revolt of Islam in
homage within his dedicatory preface to his wife: The
Poetry Society holds its annual general meeting in St Giles Vestry House.
The St Giles Bowl showing
Jack Sheppard at the Crown/
Angel Inn with St Giles churchyard on the right hand side. ,
St Giles High Street By at least the early 15th century the chief site of
public execution in London was moved from the Elms at
Smithfield to the northwest corner of the wall of the hospital of St Giles (now the junction of Flitcroft Street and
Denmark Street) where a gallows was erected. It became the custom of the Hospital to present the condemned man with a draught
strong ale, described in a later ballad as a
'broad wooden bowl' of 'nutty brown ale' to ease his passing into the next life. This became known as the 'St Giles Bowl'. After the dissolution of the Hospital and the further moving of the site of execution to the newly built triple gallows at Tyburn the custom was kept up by the
churchwardens of St Giles.
Walter Thornbury later remarked in London Old and New that "there is scarcely an execution at "
Tyburn Tree," recorded in the "
Newgate Calendar," in which the fact is not mentioned that the culprit called at a
public-house en route for a parting draught". At the time of the rebuilding of the Angel In 1873, the London
City Press reported that: Many famous felons and highwaymen took the St Giles Bowl at the sign of the Angel including John Cottington 'Mulsack' who picked Cromwell's pocket,
John Nevison 'Swift-Neck', and
'Handsome' Tom Cox who robbed the Kings Jester,
Thomas Killgrew. According to one fictionalised telling, Sheppard refused the Bowl and instead pledged that his persecutor, the corrupt thief taker
Jonathon Wild, would taste of the cup within six months. Six months later Wild was executed for theft at Tyburn. The Victorian historical novelist
William Harrison Ainsworth composed a
ballad and
drinking song on the history of the St Giles Cup beginning:
The church organ The first 17th-century organ was destroyed in the
English Civil War. George Dallam built a replacement in 1678, which was rebuilt in 1699 by Christian Smith, a nephew of the great organ builder "Father" Smith. A second rebuilding in the new structure was done in 1734 by Gerard Smith the younger, possibly assisted by Johann Knopple. Much of the pipework from 1678 and 1699 was recycled. A rebuilding, again recycling much of Dallam's original pipework, was done in 1856 by London organ builders
Gray & Davison, then at the height of their fame. In 1960 the mechanical key and stop actions were replaced with an electro-pneumatic action. This was removed when the organ was extensively restored in a historically informed manner by
William Drake, completing in 2006. Drake put back tracker action and preserved as much old pipework as possible, with new pipework in a 17th-century style.
Wesley's pulpit In the east end of the north aisle there is a small box pulpit from which both John and Charles Wesley, the leaders of the Methodist movement, were known to preach. Now whitewashed with a memorial inscription, it represents only the top part of a 'triple decker' pulpit which Wesley would have used in the nearby
West Street Chapel. Wesley had taken on the lease of the building off of a dwindling
Huguenot congregation and it remained with the Methodists until his death in 1791. Also known to preach from within this pulpit were
George Whitfield and
John William Fletcher. On 9 March 1818 William and Clara Everina Shelley were baptised in this font in the presence of the novelist
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) and her husband, the poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley. Also baptised that day was Allegra the illegitimate daughter of Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont and the poet
Lord Byron. Part of the group's haste in baptising the children together, along with Percy's debts, ill-health and fears over the custody of his own children, was the desire to take Allegra to her father, Lord Byron, then in
Venice. All three children were to die in childhood in Italy. After the premature death of the toddler Allegra Byron, at the age of 5, a grieving Shelley portrayed the toddler as Count Maddalo's child in his 1819 poem
Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation: Shelley himself was never to return to England, drowning off the coast of
Leghorn in 1822.
Memorials at St Giles Distinguished people with memorials in St Giles include: •
Richard Penderel, Roman Catholic yeoman forester who accompanied king
Charles II on his famous
escape from the
Battle of Worcester •
John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, (24 June 1614 – 10 September 1689) was an English nobleman,
Royalist officer and
Member of Parliament, notable for his role during and after the
Civil War. A committed
Royalist, he raised six regiments of horse and foot at his own expense and took part in the
Battle of Edgehill and the
Battle of Brentford, both in 1642, the
First Battle of Newbury (1643), the
Battle of Selby (1644), the
Battle of Naseby (1645), as well as the sieges of
Reading (1643),
Bristol and
Newark and was wounded several times. Belasyse is also considered to have been a founder member of the
Sealed Knot, a Royalist
secret society and underground organisation in operation during the
Protectorate. •
Sir Roger L'Estrange, English pamphleteer, author, courtier and the last Surveyor of the Press of England. •
Andrew Marvell,
English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician. •
John Flaxman RA,
sculptor and
draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European
Neoclassicism. •
Luke Hansard, printer to the
House of Commons •
Thomas Earnshaw,
watchmaker who simplified the production of the
marine chronometer making them available to the general public for the first time. Watchmaker to
Captain William Bligh of . •
Arthur William Devis, English history painter whose most famous work was of the
Death of Nelson, now in the
National Maritime Museum at
Greenwich. •
James Shirley 17th century English dramatist. House dramatist to
Queen Henrietta's Men. •
Thomas Nabbes, 17th century English dramatist and writer of masques. •
Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury,
Anglo-Welsh soldier, diplomat, historian, poet and religious philosopher. "the father of English
Deism". • Mary,
Countess of Kildare, consort of
Valentine Browne, 5th Viscount and 1st earl of Kenmare, a leading Irish Roman Catholic aristocrat and head of the Catholic party in Ireland after the failed
1798 rebellion. Died Portman Square, 1806.*
George Chapman, English
dramatist,
translator and
poet. •
Cecil Calvert, first Proprietor of the
Colony of Avalon in 1610 and
the Maryland colony in 1633. (Some of the colonists were from St Giles's parish.) His memorial was unveiled on 10 May 1996 by the Governor of Maryland,
Parris N. Glendening. Calvert, his son and daughters-in-law are buried at St Giles. Martyred on the island of
Nukapu, he is
commemorated in the
Church of England calendar on 20 September.
HMS Indefatigable White Ensign .] St Giles in the Fields is the custodian of the
White Ensign flown by at the taking of the
Japanese surrender in
Tokyo Bay on 5 September 1945. HMS
Indefatigable was the adopted ship of
Metropolitan Borough of Holborn. Following a request by the HMS Indefatigable association in 1989 the
London Borough of Camden (which had succeeded the Borough of Holborn in 1965) agreed the laying up of the ensign in St Giles in the presence of the ship's company from the
Second World War. St Giles in the Fields and "vagabondage" '
Gin Lane'. Set in the area around St Giles in the Fields.
St Giles the Hermit is considered the intercessionary saint of beggars and the homeless in the Catholic
calendar of saints and from its earliest foundation in the 12th century St Giles in the Fields has been associated with and noted for its connection to
vagrancy and
homelessness. With the abatement of leprosy in England by the mid 16th century the Hospital of St Giles had begun to admit the indigent and the destitute and the sight of homeless in the parish and within the churchyard has been familiar from at least that time.
Dispossessed Irish Catholics and penniless
Black Loyalists from the American colonies were particularly conspicuous in this period. This, the St Giles
workhouse, represented the first systematic effort at direct relief of the indigent and homeless in the parish and with its expansion (and the amelioration of the condition of the inmates) over the next 200 years it provided the basis of poor relief in the parish. Although the church of St Giles in the Fields still contributes to and works with a number of homeless charities the direct provision for the relief of the poor and the homeless has now passed to the
London Borough of Camden. The sight of the homeless and the distressed, however, is still familiar within the 'purlieus of St Giles'.
Other features The two paintings of
Moses and
Aaron on either side of the altar are by
Francisco Vieira the Younger, court painter to the
King of Portugal. The great stained glass window at the east end of the church, over the Lords Table depicts the
transfiguration of Christ on
mount Tabor. ==The life of the church==