Volume of City of London historical miscellany, including papers relating to the Parish of St Mildred, Poultry, 1673-1701

The collection is a miscellany of printed and manuscript memoranda relating to events and institutions in the City of London. They refer to a period shortly after the Great Fire of London in 1666 and include several mentions of the devastation caused by the fire. The manuscripts in the collection appear to be fragments, sometimes chance survivals of parish administration, or contemporary ephemera. Most of the printed memoranda would probably have widely available.

The principal category of manuscript papers relates to the church and parish of St Mildred, Poultry and includes poll tax returns for precincts around St Mildred, 1689 (MS 532/11); petitions by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of St Mildred to the Lord Mayor and Justices of the Peace concerning the poor of the parish, 1691 (MS 532/12 and 29); note concerning payment for work done in the church, 1680 (MS 532/16); minutes of a meeting of the vestry ordering relief to be paid to some parishioners, 1680 (MS 532/24); signed agreement concerning the care of a child in the parish, 1674 (MS 532/25) memorandum about money due to the minister and the poor, 1679 (MS 532/27).

Other miscellaneous manuscript papers may relate to St Mildred, Poultry but are not recorded as such. These include the report of an unidentified vestry meeting concerning the appointment of church assistants, undated (MS 532/1); accounts of a junior churchwardenship of an unidentified parish (MS 532/2); receipt for rent on a house in St Giles Cripplegate parish, 1693 (MS 532/13); tithe tax returns for an unidentified parish, undated (MS 532/15); invitation to dine with the Gentlemen Volunteers and the 'five gentlemen who printed the Kentish Petition', undated (MS 532/17); accounts for an unidentified parish, 1675 (MS 532/20); burial accounts, 1681-1682 (MS 532/21); petitions for poor relief, undated (MS 532/22, 26); memorandum concerning an Act for the relief of the poor, 1693 (MS 532/23).

Miscellaneous printed items include references to apparitions seen at Old Bailey Sessions House and Tower Hill, 1680-1681 (MS 532/3-5); organs and prayers in church, 1692 (MS 532/6); alleged abuses committed in an election in Dowgate and Aldersgate, undated (MS 532/7); support for erecting a French protestant church in St. Martins Orgars, undated (MS 532/8); the treatment by Jews of children who convert to Protestantism, undated (MS 532/9); a widows fund to be set up by the Mercers Company, 1698 (MS 532/10); Charter-house hospital, 1687 (MS 532/30); burial forms for St Giles without Cripplegate, undated (MS 532/31-32); and an appeal for donations to Sion College, 1687-1688 (MS 532/33-35).

The parish of St Mildred, Poultry in the City of London covered an area that stretched north from the south side of Poultry to the corner of Princes Street and Lothbury. The church, first recorded in 1175, burned down during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1670-76, although the tower was not completed until the early 18th century. The new church served the united parish of St Mildred, Poultry and St Mary, Colechurch and the patronage of the living alternated between the Crown and the Mercers' Company. It was demolished in 1872 under the Union of City Benefices Act and the land was used for road widening. The parish was then united with that of St Margaret, Lothbury.

The compiler of this volume is not recorded, and its early provenance is unknown. The papers may have been put together by a churchwarden or a local historian, almost certainly at the beginning of the 18th century.

The items in this collection have been numbered and listed in the same order in which they appear in the volume.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers.

LANGUAGE: English

• This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright on the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

COPYRIGHT: Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk).

The collection was acquired by the library of University College Nottingham in the 1930s or 1940s.

• Guildhall Library, City of London: Parish registers of St Mildred, Poultry, 1538-1924.