St. Pancras : being antiquarian, topographical, and biographical memoranda, relating to the extensive metropolitan parish of St. Pancras, Middlesex; with some account of the parish from its foundation

Front matter

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22101391052

St. Pancras;

Preface

It is now nearly a thousand years since the parish of St. Pancras was founded, and yet during the whole of that lengthened period no complete history of the parish has been published. Many have attempted it, but the antiquity of the parish, its vast extent, and the immense mass of material that can be collected or ought to be collected relating to it, have at first dispirited, then exhausted the patience, and ultimately led to the relinquishing of their object. Many collections have been made, but the collector, viewing the paucity of his materials, has shrunk from the task, and left the parish as it is at the present day — destitute of any local history.

When an account of a parish has been published, however meagre the same may be, it furnishes steppingstones for the successor, as clottings of dates and boundaries for subjects ; but when a man has to be his own pioneer, has to lay down his own plan, classify his own materials, chronicle his various events, with a

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blank space only whereon to lay the whole, then the task, which otherwise might be amusing, is both intricate and perplexing. Such is the case with the local history of this parish ; and were it not that many interested in the work have kindly lent a helping hand, the present attempt, like its precursors, might have passed away. The Author begs, therefore, to thank Rufus Waugh, Esq., for his advice and assistance, for many valuable local documents, and for his valuable list of the vicars of the parish, which forms a most interesting portion of the work ; as also for the list of churchwardens which T. E. Gibb, Esq., the vestry clerk, has so obligingly completed to the present day. He has also to return his sincere thanks to John Bullock, Esq., of the neighbouring parish of Islington, for the numerous items of intelligence which he only could supply, and which not only enrich the volume, but give a liveliness and interest to the work. To many others also the Author would thus publicly return his thanks, and he only hopes that the volume may meet with that acceptance which such a work ought to receive, and give as much pleasure to the reader as it has afforded to him.

Unfortunately, he has scarcely diminished the pile of memoranda which he himself and the kindness of his friends have accumulated ; but it is his intention,

PREFACE.

IX provided his subscribers should wish it, to follow this with a second volume, which the Author feels quite sure will be as amusing and interesting as he thinks the present to be. A parish of a thousand years’ existence must be very unfortunate if even two such volumes as the present can contain all that is of value to the parishioners ; but the Author fully believes the majority of that which is really valuable may be condensed into a second volume, and if any subscriber can enrich it with any antiquarian or topographical information, it will be received with thanks.

With this second volume will be given a series of Twenty Engravings of the most interesting spots in this interesting parish, so that the reader may be able to view the scene which has engrossed his attention, and thereby derive a double pleasure from the volume before him.

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MEMORANDA

RELATING TO THE

PARISH OF ST. PANCRAS.