STRONG I, Edward I

1652 - 1723  (70 years)

• Name	STRONG I, Edward  [1, 2]
  Suffix	I
  Born	5 Sep 1652	Taynton, Oxfordshire, England   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Died	8 Feb 1723	Langley, Hertfordshire, England   [1]
  	Abbotts Langley, Hertfordshire, England
  Person ID	I19604	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023

  
  

  Father	STRONG, Valentine,   b. 1609, Little Barrington, Gloucestershire, England ,   d. 26 Sep 1662, Taynton, Oxfordshire, England  (Age 53 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	MARGETTS, Ann,   b. 25 Apr 1612, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England ,   d. 1699, Great Barrington, Gloucestershire, England  (Age 86 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Married	9 Nov 1633	Charlbury, Oxfordshire, England
  Family ID	F1217	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	BEAUCHAMP, Martha,   b. 1653, Little Barrington, Gloucestershire, England ,   d. 15 Jun 1725, St Albans, Hertfordshire, England  (Age 72 years)
  Married	Feb 1675
  Children	1. STRONG, Edward,   b. 1674, Oxfordshire, England ,   d. 10 Oct 1741  (Age 67 years)  [natural]   2. STRONG, Elizabeth,   b. 13 Jan 1677, Old Fish Street, London, England ,   d. 26 Oct 1747  (Age 70 years)  [natural]   3. STRONG, Thomas,   b. 16 Nov 1681, London, England ,   d. Nov 1681, London, England  [natural]   4. STRONG, Martha,   b. 13 May 1683, London, England ,   d. Jun 1685, London, England  (Age 2 years)  [natural]   5. STRONG, Thomas,   b. 5 Mar 1684, Oxfordshire, England ,   d. 26 Dec 1736  (Age 52 years)  [natural]   6. STRONG, Lucy,   b. 27 Mar 1687, London, England  [natural]   7. STRONG, John,   b. 25 Nov 1688, London, England ,   d. 1689, London, England  (Age 0 years)  [natural]   8. STRONG, John,   b. 1690, London, England ,   d. 26 Oct 1737, Kent, Maryland, USA  (Age 47 years)  [natural]   9. STRONG, Martha,   b. 25 Aug 1692, St Benet Paul's Wharf, London, England  [natural]   10. STRONG, Susannah,   b. 27 Oct 1701, London, England ,   d. 29 Jan 1747, Leyton, Essex, England  (Age 45 years)  [natural]
  Last Modified	16 Sep 2023
  Family ID	F5283	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Memorial to Edward Strong
  		Edward Strong 1652 to 1723
  		Edward Strong

  
  

  Documents

  Valentine, Thomas & Edward Strong Stonemasons

  
  

• Notes

  A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851 The database was principally compiled by Emma Hardy, Ingrid Roscoe, and myself in the course of the production of A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, published in hardback by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and the Henry Moore Foundation (© 2009). The younger brother of Thomas Strong, from whom he inherited the family building and quarrying business, Edward was apprenticed to his brother on 2 January 1672 and no doubt assisted Thomas in his work on several of the City churches. He was described as ‘of [the] City of London, Freemason’ on 1 April 1675, when he married Martha, the sister of Ephraim Beauchamp, of the parish of St Thomas, Southwark (Lic Vic Gen). There were four children, the eldest of whom was Edward Strong II. Edward I was made free of the Masons’ Company by redemption on 6 April 1680, the same day as his younger brother, John (†1725). He became renter warden in 1692 and master in 1796. In 1691, when he bound his son Edward II, his address was given as St Benet Paul’s wharf, a convenient location for receiving stone from the family's Oxfordshire quarries. Strong took over Thomas’s contracts after his death in 1681. He completed several of his brother’s churches and was himself responsible for the masonry and carved stonework of several more, representing contracts amounting to over £11,000. These included St Michael Paternoster Royal, St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, St Mildred, Bread Street and St Clement, Eastcheap (3-6). He also worked at Winchester Palace (2), where, according to his own account, he ‘had all the designs of all the masons’ work committed to his care, by Sir Christopher Wren, the surveyor’ (Colvin 1995, 936). His principal London commission was as a master mason at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he took a prominent part, supplying large quantities of Burford stone and contracting for the east end, the north portico, the north side of the nave and part of the dome. In 1694 he was employing 65 masons at St Paul’s (listed in the Masons’ Company general search of September that year), more than twice the number working under his fellow-contractors, Christopher Kempster and Ephraim Beauchamp. He and his son were together responsible for the lantern.The contract included a considerable amount of carved stonework (8). Strong’s other work as a mason-contractor included Morden College, Blackheath, the Palace of Whitehall and in 1696, the first mason’s contract at Greenwich Hospital, where he worked in partnership with Thomas Hill. In 1705 he and his son Edward took the chief mason’s contract at Blenheim Palace, where they erected the whole of the main building at a reputed cost of £10,958 (10). They had recourse to litigation to attempt to recover the considerable sums owing to them when work came to a standstill in 1712 as the result of a dispute between the architect John Vanbrugh and the Duchess of Marlborough. They appear to have been unsuccessful in recouping their costs and the whole contract was clearly an unhappy business since the Duchess habitually intervened and changed her mind. The indentures of a number of Strong’s apprentices are recorded in the Masons’ Company registers: John Miller and Richard Cowdry began their training under Thomas Strong and were turned over to Edward on Thomas’s death; Richard Duffill joined Strong’s team in 1682; Richard Webb of Burford (who trained first under John Miller) was turned over to Strong in 1690; Edward Strong II is listed in 1691, Mathew Bancks in 1692, Thomas Atkins in1700, Edward Beacham (Beauchamp) of Burford in 1705 and William Prosser in 1717. Strong took full advantage of the opportunities for a master mason and quarry owner at a time when unprecedented building activity offered great rewards for a man of his experience. The fortune he accumulated enabled him to establish himself as a landowner in Hertfordshire, where he bought the manors of Hyde at Abbots Langley and Herons at Wheathampstead. He lived at a house called New Barns on the River Vere, near St Albans. Strong died on 8 February 1724 and was buried in St Peter’s church, St Albans, where there is a monument with a portrait bust. His lengthy epitaph states that he worked at St Paul’s ‘even from its foundations to his laying the last stone’ and adds that, with Wren and Compton, Bishop of London, ‘he shared the felicity of seeing both the beginning and finishing of that stupendous fabrick’. IR Literary References: Builder, 24 Sept 1864, 700-1; Knoop and Jones 1935, 20 n 2, 75-6; Wren Soc XV, passim; Green 1964 (1), 62, 98-9, 126-8, 132, 133; Gunnis 1968, 376; Colvin 1995, 936; Webb 1999, passim Archival References: Masons’ Co, Freemen, fol 66, 6 April 1680; Masons’ Co, Masters and Wardens Additional MS Sources: Bodleian, Rawlinson MS, 387 Will: PCC 45 BOLTON Portraits: Bust, marble, Strong monument, St Peter, St Albans; canvas, artist unknown, United Grand Lodge of England (Colvin 1995, 936) Thomas and Edward Strong Thomas Strong’s family had been quarry owners in and around Burford (a village on the Oxfordshire/Gloucestershire border) for generations (Colvin 1995, p.934). Ownership of quarries gave them control over stone supply. By engaging in contracting they could also offer a complete service, from the supply of stone to the decorative carving. However the quarries were a long way from Oxford, the principle market for their product. It was possibly for this reason – or possibly by an invitation from Wren for whom he had built a new quadrangle at Trinity College in Oxford in 1668 (Colvin 1999, p.936) – that Thomas Strong left Oxfordshire for London after the Great Fire. Strong joined the Mason’s Company in London in 1670 (Knoop 1935, p.43). He worked on four of Wren’s City Churches: St Stephen Walbrook (with Christopher Kempster, qv.), St Clement East Cheap, St Mary Magdalene and St Michael Cornhill (Knoop 1935, p.43; WS X, pp.45-53). He probably also worked on St Benet, Thames Street and St Austins, two contracts that were later taken over by his brother. St Paul’s seems to have been Thomas Strong’s chief work in London at the time, earning him £7,918. He rose to the Livery in 1671 and was made a member of the Court of Assistants in 1675. He might well have gone on to become Master, but he died in 1681 at the age of 47. He had never married or had children. On his death he bequeathed his quarries and his contracts to his younger brother Edward Strong (1652-1724) (Colvin 1999, p.936). Edward Strong was 18 years younger than his elder brother. He seems to have arrived in London, in his late twenties, only a year or two before his brother’s death. He was a highly able man who quickly picked up work, – no doubt helped initially by his brother’s contacts – and swiftly established himself through his own skill as one of the major contractors of the age. He was to remain the Master Mason at St Paul’s until its completion, earning £46 466, twice as much as any other contractor (WS XV p. xiv). He joined the Mason’s Company by redemption in 1680, was Warden in 1694 and made Master in 1696. He worked for Wren on seven of the City Churches and was paid in total more than any other contractor in any trade, a sum of £19 548 (WS X p.54). He also worked for Wren at Winchester Palace, and Greenwich Hospital and on Marlborough House and Morden’s Hospital Blackheath (which he may have designed) (Colvin 1995, p.936). He also held the contract with his son, Edward Strong jnr. (1681-1741) for Blenheim Palace. It was Edward who took over his father’s contracts in his increasing retirement from practice after 1710. Family and other connections were as critical to obtaining work in the seventeenth century as they are today. Those at St Paul’s have not been outlined before. This paper will now attempt to do so for the first time. Two families were connected to the Strong’s: the Beauchamps and the Kempsters. Ephraim Beauchamp and the Kempster Family Edward Strong (1652-1724) married Martha Beauchamp, sister of Ephraim Beauchamp (Knoop 1935, p.33). The Beauchamp family came from Burford like the Strongs. Martha’s other brother, Joseph was a carpenter there, whose son went on to be apprenticed to Edward Strong Junior. Burford and its neighbouring villages of Taynton and Little Barrington were tiny places and families must have known each other well. It was no doubt through his brother-in-law that Ephraim moved to London and got work at St Paul’s. Apart from a contract at St Dunstan-in-the-East, we only have records of Beauchamp working at St Paul’s and even then he seems to have worked as a partner of Christopher Kempster, taking over the contract previously allotted to Edward Pearce (qv). Between them they were paid £15 132 for their work which included one quarter of the dome. The Kempster family owned a quarry in Burford, Oxfordshire near the quarries owned by the Strong family at Taynton and Little Barrington. They moved to London through the Strong connection. The Kempsters had an annoying habit of calling most of their sons Christopher or William – see table 2 (below) – which makes it difficult to distinguish between them in documentary sources and has caused a great deal of confusion. Two of the family worked at St Paul’s, Christopher Kempster (1627-1715) who held the contract with Ephraim Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Construction History, May 2009 Beauchamp mentioned above and William Kempster (1651-18) who was his third child and second son. While Christopher (1627-1715) was working in London, it is probable that the quarry was looked after by his eldest son Christopher (1647-?), who probably hoped to inherit it and pass it onto his son also called Christopher. We do know the younger Christopher died in 1699 possibly after his father but not before his grandfather. When Christopher (1625-1715) died he passed the quarry on to his son John (1664-?). Copy of Memorandums of Works in Masonry done by Mr. Edward Strong, Sen., and His Family : Wrote by him the 12th of May 1716, and copied from his original Manuscript the 17th October 1740. By Robert New, his Grandson. London, May the 12th, 1716. Memorandums of several works in Masonry done by our familv, viz. by my grandfather, Timothy Strong; by my father, Valentine Strong; by my brother, Thomas Strong; by myself, Edward Strong; and by my son, Edward Strong. My grandfather, Timothy Strong, as I have been informed, was born in Wiltshire, but settled at Little Barrington, in Gloucestershire, and had those quarries, and those at Teynton, in Oxfordshire, in his possession. He had several apprentices, and kept several masons and labourers employed in those quarries, to serve the country with what they wanted in his way of trade. And about the year 1630 he built the south front of the house at Cornbury, in Oxfordshire, with the vaulted cellars, great hall, and rooms adjoining the fame. He had only one son, named Valentine, and one daughter, named Ann. About the years 1631 or 1632, Valentine married Ann, daughter of Edmund Margetts, of Charlbury, in the county of Oxon, and when married settled at Little Barrington before mentioned with his father, and continued there during the lifetime of his father Timothy, who died about the year 1635 or 1636. The said Valentine and his family shortly after that time removed to Teynton, in Oxfordshire; these quarries, as well as those at Little Barrington, being left him by his father Timothy. About the year 1640, he built a house for William Whitmore, Esq., at Slaughter, near Stow in the Wold, Gloucestershire, and about that time some other buildings for other Gentlemen in that county near adjoining. About the years 1651, 1651, 1653, &c, he built a house for John Dutton, Esq., at Sherbourn, in Gloucestershire. About the years 1661, 1661. &c. he built a house for Andrew Barker, Esq., at Fairford, in Oxfordshire, and there he died before the said house was finished, and was buried in the church yard there, (as the date upon his tomb lets forth,) in November 1662, with the following epitaph on his monument ;— "Here lyeth the body of Valentine Strong, Free-Mason : he departed this life November the •••, A.D. 1662. Here's one that was an able workman long, Who divers houses built both fair and strong. Tho’ Tho’ Strong he was, a stronger came than he, And robb'd him of hit life and fame we see. Moving an old house, a new one for to rear, Death met him by the way, and laid him here." He had by Ann his wife, six sons and five daughters, viz. Ann, Thomas, William, Elizabeth, Lucy, who died young, Sarah, Valentine, Timothy, Edward, John, and Lucy, the second of that name. All his six sons were bred to the masons' trade; and Thomas, the elder, finished the foresaid house of Mr. Andrew Barker, after he bad been at Longleat, in Wiltshire, doing business for Sir John Thynne (or James Thynne, Esq.) About the year 1665, he built those large stables for the Earl of Clarendon, at Cornbury, in Oxfordshire, which front the town of Charlbury, by direction of Hugh May, Esq. About the year 1665, &c. he built lodgings for scholars at Trinity College, Oxford, under the direction of Dr. Christopher Wren, of Wadham College. About the year 1665, &c. he built that part of Cornbury House fronting Oxford, and all the terraces walls thereto belonging; but it must be observed, that the stone used in the terrace walls was dug in the park, and standing against the body of earth raised against them; which earth gave a moisture to the said walls, and was the occasion of the frost splitting and destroying the face of all those walls, which were by him again repaired, new faced with a more durable stone from Teynton Quarry, by directions of Hugh May, Esq. In the year 1666, before the 'foresaid house at Cornbury was finished, happened the dreadful fire of London, which destroyed the greatest part of that city. In the year 1657, artificers were invited by Act of Parliament (see Note 1) to rebuild the City of London, and accordingly the aforesaid Thomas Strong provided stone at the quarries which he had the command of, and sent the same to London, and sold great quantities to other Masons. He also took up Masons with him to London to work with him to serve the City in what they wanted in his way of trade, and continued there in that employment for many years, till most of the houses and halls were built; and about the year 1671, he began building the parish-church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, by the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor; in which building Mr. Christopher Kempster was his assistant (see Note 2). Note 1. It is a curious circumstance, if we attend a little to the regulations proposed, and the improvements adopted at the meetings of the Commissioners and Surveyors under this Act, (19 & 20 Car. ii,) to reflect upon what a state the old city must have been in, that could render such improvements necessary : without adverting to the accumulation of rubbish in consequence of the fire, there scarcely seems a single yard of level ground in the original site of any of the streets. Note 2. The old Church of St. Stephen, Walbrook, was finished in the year 1439. Consumed in the fire of London, it was rebuilt as it now appears 1676, and, as is well known, is considered by every nation in Europe (except perhaps a few most consummate Critics in our own) as the true standard of architectural taste and architectural elegance. In the year 1675, he made the first: contract with the Lords and others the Commissioners for rebuilding the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, in London; and on the 21st of June that year, laid the first stone in the foundation with his own hands (see Note 3). Note 3. The remains of the old Church being (blown up and) taken down, the first stone of the present noble pile was laid by Mr. Strong, a Mason, the second by Mr. Longland, June 11, 1675. (Seymour, Vol. I, p. 661.) In this year he also built a front of stone betwixt the wings of Lord Craven's house at Hempstead Marshall, in Berkshire. About the year 1677, he began building the parish-church of St. Bennet’s, Paul's Wharf, by the direction of Sir Christopher Wren (see Note 4). Note 4. This Church was consumed in the fire of London ; the present was finished in the year 1683. About the year 1680, he began building the parish- church of St. Austin's by St. Paul's, by the same direction (see note 5). Note 5. This, which is the only parish church in the City dedicated to this Saint, stands on the North side of the West end of Watling-Street, and in records is termed " Ecclesia Sancti Augustine ad Portam," because it was near the gate that formerly gave entrance to St. Paul's Church-yard out of Watling street. It was finished in 1682 ; the steeple in 1695. ple in 1695. These Churches before mentioned he began, but did not live to see them finished ; but dying about Midsummer 1681, (unmarried.) left all his employment to his brother Edward, whom he made his sole executor. The said Edward Strong continued to carry on the several works before mentioned, as well what was by contract as otherways, which was the East end of the Cathedral of St. Paul's, (from the middle of the most Eastwardly window on the North side,) till the same was finished as it now is. Also the North Portico of the said Cathedral, together with the North West leg or quarter of the great dome, and so continued westward to the middle of the window of the morning prayer chapel to the middle line of the body of the said Church, under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, until t(he fame was finished. The said Edward Strong finished what was left undone of St. Austin’s Church, and St. Bennet's, Paul’s Wharf. The said Edward Strong continued carrying on the building of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, with Mr. Christopher Kempster, who was, as aforesaid, partner with the said Thomas Strong till the said Church and tower to the lanthorn were finished. In the year 1681, the said Edward Strong laid the foundations of St. Mildred, Bread-street Church, and did all the Masons' work in the said Church (see Note 6). Note 6. A most curious window, divided into five compartments, and highly ornamented, is stated to have been destroyed with this Church. In these compartments were five most beautiful paintings in glass; which, art, after having long lain dormant, had a partial revival in, and a little after, the reign of Elizabeth ; when, under the influence (I think) of Flemish. masters, some beautiful specimens were produced. The subjects of those in this window were: 1st, The History of the Spanish Invasion; 2nd, A Monument of Queen Elizabeth ; 3rd, The Gunpowder Plot ; 4th, The Plague (1604) ; 5th, The Portraiture of that worthy Gentleman Nicholas Crisp, who gave, besides this window, &c.,his share to the reparation, seven pounds. In the year 1683, he began to rebuild the parish-church of St. Clement's East-Cheap, both stone and brick-work, and finished the same (1686). In the year 1683, or 1684, he laid the foundation of a house for King Charles the Second at Winchester, in which; Mr. Christopher Kempster, before-mentioned, was in partnership with him for the foundations only, and from the water-table upwards the said Edward Strong had the greatest share of the masons' work, and had the designs of all the masons' work committed to his care by Sir Christopher Wren, the Surveyor. In the year 1684, &c. he built the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fith-street (finished 1685). In the year 1687, &c. he built the parish-church of St. Michael Royal, upon College-hill (see Note 7). Note 7. Richard Wittington, who, in a very curiously illuminated ordinance, dated the 21st day of December 1414, in the possession of the Mercers' Company, is stated to have been oftentimes Mayor of the said City, (London,) founded and "Ordeyned a commendable College of certain Priests and Clerkis, and House of Almes for the perpetual sustentation of xiii pouer folk successively for evermore." These establishments were annexed to this Church, wherein the said Richard Wittington was three times buried. First, by his executors ; secondly, in consequence of his tomb being violated from an idea that in his coffin was contained great riches, which he had ordered to be buried with him ; and, thirdly, in the reign of Queen Mary, when the parishioners replaced the original monument. In the year 1694, he performed all the stone-work of Sir John Morden’s Hospital, on Blackheath, near Greenwich. In the year 1695, he rebuilt the tower to the battlements at the West end, and, and repaired the rest of the walls of St. Vedast, Foster-lane Church. In this work he took in for partner Mr. William Collins, who, living in the parish, desired to be concerned in the laid works, and at the request of Sir John Johnson and some others he was admitted. In the year 1696, he began the stonework of the building of the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, in Kent, in partnership with Mr. Thomas Hill, till the said Mr. Hill left the work ; and after that he took in as partner Mr. Ephraim Beacham, till he also left the said works ; and after that he took in his son Edward as partner in the same works, who continues to be with him, and they are jointly concerned in the same, viz. 1716. In the year 1705, Edward Strong, sen., and Edward Strong, jun., before mentioned, began to build Blenheim-house, in Woodstock Park, in Oxfordshire, and carried it on till the 12th of July 1711, at which time a stop was put to the said building by the (supposed) enemies of the Duke of Marlborough, for whose honour and good services to the nation the laid house was erected. (see Note 8) Note 8. The Queen's Message came down to the Commons, January 17, 1704-5. A Bill was consequently brought in, and the Comptroller of her Works ordered to build in Woodstock Park a magnificent palace to be called Blenheim House. Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect, has been censured, because in building a mansion, which was to remain as the monument of a victory, or rather of a series of victories, which, while they repressed the inordinate power and (for a time) the inordinate ambition of France, placed this country upon the very pinnacle of glory, he considered stability as the first requisite ; domestic arrangement only as the second. Voltaire says, "If the rooms were but as commodious as the walls are thick, the house would be convenient enough :" but Voltaire wrote with the pen of an enemy, as this sneer well evinces, and, I have no doubt, was as much offended by the sculptured pun, the British Lion tearing the Gallic Cock, (which is indeed unworthy of a national fabric,) as by any part of the building. His censure of this and many other things which he saw in England, I consider at natural; but the censure and malignity of the friends of Sir John, for his presuming to have infused into his comedies more genuine wit and humour, and into his architectural designs more criminal genius, than any man in his age, it has been said, was not to be endured. Now I must observe, that all the impotent spite and malice which he had every day occasion to laugh at, were quite as natural, and as sure to follow the track of great talents, as the effusions of his Gallic censurer ; and when we read these distichs, “ Earth lie light on him, tho' he Laid many a heavy load on thee." " I am with Captain Vanbrugh at the present, A most sweet-humour'd Gentleman and pleasant ; He writes you comedies, draws schemes, and models, And builds Dukes' houses upon very odd-hills.” " Beneath the rubbish we espy A thing resembling a Goose pye." " We may expect to see next year A mouse-trap man chief Engineer,” and a thousand other such sarcasms, both in verse and prose; perhaps they ought to be considered, as he unquestionably considered them, as the highest compliments that could be paid to his genius. About the year 1706, Edward Strong, jun., began the lanthorn on the dome of St. Paul's, London, and on the 26th of October 1708, Edward Strong, sen., laid the last stone upon the same (see Note 9). Note 9. It is a curious circumstance, that one brother should lay the first stone of this magnificent structure, and, at the distance of thirty-three years, another brother mould lay the last. Also the said Edward Strong, jun., laid all the marble paving under the said dome, and in the cross aisles to the North and South porticoes. He also repaired all the blemishes and fractures in the several legs and arches of the dome, occasioned by the great weight of the (said) dome pressing upon the foundation, the earth under the same being of an unequal temper, the loamy part thereof gave more way to the great weights than that which was gravel ; so that the South West quarter of the dome, and the six smaller legs of the other quarters of the dome, having less superficies, sunk into the thinner part of the loamy ground, in some places an inch, in others two inches, and in other places something more ; and the other quarters of the dome being upon the thicker part of the loamy ground and gravel, it did not give so much way to the great weights as the other did ; which occasioned the fractures and blemishes in the several arches and legs of the dome. About the year * * • *, Edward Strong built the ornaments or lanthorn upon the square tower of Christ Church, in London (see Note 10). Note 10. This Church was finished 1704. Sir Nicholas Brembar, Lord Mayor of London, was buried in this Church 1386. Before the dissolution of religious houses, this was the Church of the Grey Friars. Weaver states, that it was honoured with the sepulture of four Queens, four Duchesses, four Countesses, one Duke, two Earls, eight Barons, and about thirty-five Knights. But in contemplating the lists of the burials in this place, I find, that those of persons of rank and high distinction were much more numerous, and that, from the establishment having long been supposed to have been endued with peculiar sanctity, and the prayers of the holy brotherhood with peculiar efficacy, its vaults and cemetaries were long the receptacles of the most distinguished families both in Court and City. The stone-work of Mr. Draper's house, at * * * *, in Surry. About the year * * * * he built the ornaments or lanthorn upon the square tower of St. Vedalt, Foster-lane Church. About the year * * * *, Edward Strong, jun. built the lanthorn on the square tower of St. Stephen's, Walbrook Church. And, at the same time, he built the lanthorn on the square tower of St. Michael's Royal Church, on College-hill. Also, at the same time, built the lanthorn on the square tower of St. James, Garlick-hill Church. Also rebuilt the upper part of the tower and repaired several parts of the body of the Church of St. Christopher's, in Threadneedle-street. In the year 1715, took down the great old tower of St. Michael's, in Cornhill (see Note 11), and rebuilt the same in the year * * * *. Note 11. This tower escaped the ravages of the fire of London, although the body of the Church was consumed. It was rebuilt in the year 1723. With regard to the old steeple, or bell-tower of the old Church, it was begun in 1421, and had a ring of six good bells, one of which was called Rus, being the gift of William Rus, Alderman and Goldsmith, about the year 1421.' This bell was rung nightly at eight o'clock, and otherwise for knels and peals, and, what is extraordinary, was rung by one man for a hundred years. Stow has a story of a violent tempest of thunder and lightning, which happened while the men were ringing these bells on St. James's night. A ghost also appeared, in the form of "an ugly shapen sight, coming in at the South window, and lighted on the North. For fear of this, they" (the men) "all fell dawn, and lay as dead for the time, letting the bells ring and cease of their own accord.” This ghost, after exceedingly damaging the steeple, left upon the stones of the North window, " which seemed like butter printed and scrat, the print of a lion's claw deeply indented ;” for, continues Stow, "I have seen it oft, and put a feather or small stick into the holes where the claws had entered" (the stone) " three or four inches deep" ... In the fame year, 1715, built the North front of the Earl of Chandos’s house, at Cannons, in Middlesex.

  
  

• Sources

  [S309] Public Member Trees, Ancestry.com, (Name: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.;;), Database online. Record for Valentine Strong http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=0&pid=7064 [S152] England, Extracted Parish and Court Records, Ancestry.com, (Name: Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2001;;).