Westminster’s reward From An Infatuated Rector
A city church used to be scandalised with the aid of the statue of a bluestocking, however St Margaret’s, Westminster, won a richer legacy
19 Dec 2015
a lady in a headdress that appears as though it have been product of these sponge fingers used to make trifles is sculpted in a marble statue that stands in Warrington public library, although it used to be not supposed to. It used to be first arrange within the altar rails of the chancel of St Stephen Walbrook within the metropolis of London. It greatly surprised the churchwardens, who in 1778 took some shocking.
those churchwardens, threatening a legislation suit, demanded that the rector, Thomas Wilson, should put off the statue, which he mentioned was a representation of history. but it used to be an open secret that he was once infatuated with the edition for the sculpture, Catharine Macaulay. Aged fifty three, to his 75, she used to be the celebrated creator of a history of England (from the reign of James I to the accession of George I) in eight volumes. Scandal attached to their relationship when she and her daughter with the aid of the late Mr Macaulay moved into Wilson’s massive home in bath, to utilize his intensive library.
essentially the most striking scene of their time together is Wilson’s social gathering of her forty sixth birthday, when he seated her on a throne to hear to six odes written in her honour. no matter this myth says about his adulation, i believe it possible that nothing wrong took place, although 18th-century tongues wagged and pamphlets flew, as they did concerning the friendship between Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale.
The statue at St Stephen Walbrook used to be taken down –the more willingly in all probability when Mrs Macaulay married a 21-yr-outdated ship’s mate at the finish of 1778. the wedding appeared chuffed, and she or he laboured on to complete her historical past.
It was no longer the primary time that Wilson had wrangled in public. He was born to it, for his father had been Bishop of Sodor and Man for fifty eight years, succeeding a bishop who had now not even afflicted to continue to exist the Isle of Man. Bishop Wilson (referred to as Thomas, like his son) used to be enthroned within the ruins of St German’s cathedral, then set about restoring his tiny diocese. all through extended struggles with the civil authorities, he used to be held prisoner for 9 weeks in fortress Rushen, and claimed that he lost forever the use of the fingers of his right hand from the damp there.
His son is said to have left Man as a result of he had no Manx, through which his father the bishop had compiled a catechism and devotional books. younger Thomas sought preferment and married a widow with a house in sensible Stoke Newington. at the age of 33 he landed the rectorship of St Stephen Walbrook, however it was once in the 1750s, in the rectorship (or “curacy” as it used to be identified) of St Margaret Westminster, subsequent to the Abbey, that he won a dispute with lasting results. The story is instructed within the winter difficulty of the excellent Westminster Abbey Chorister, printed for the outdated Choristers’ affiliation, but of far wider passion.
East window of St Margaret’s, in a 19th-century watercolour picture: BRITISH LIBRARY
The churchwardens of St Margaret’s wished to install some beautifully made16th-century stained glass within the east window above the altar. It got here originally possibly from Waltham Abbey. In 1758 one light was once thought to point out Henry VII in prayer, though in truth it’s Henry VIII, with Katherine of Aragon within the reverse nook, under her purchaser St Catherine, with a wheel. The Chapter of Westminster Abbey, sad with images of angels amassing the blood of Jesus (a Eucharistic observation) adverse its installation and went to legislation. Thomas Wilson dug in his heels. because of him, this window, one of the vital best of its period in London, survives to shed its wealthy mild. it is an much more supreme memorial than the statue left to Warrington by using his heirs.
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