Chapter I: Preface

The materials necessary for writing a life of Sir Christopher Wren are so difficult of access as possibly to explain the unsatisfactory character of such biographies as do exist. Mr. James Elmes, who venerated Wren's genius, published in 1823, a Life which contained a careful if a dry account of Wren's architectural works and of some of his scientific discoveries. He also published a smaller work, 'Sir C. Wren and his Times,' intended perhaps to give a flavour of personal interest to the other volume. Neither book succeeds in doing this, and both have suffered from the circumstance that Mr. Elmes' failing eyesight did not permit him to correct the proofs of either work, and accordingly many serious errors as to names and dates stand unaltered in them. There is a sketch of Wren in the British Family Library, one published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and one in the 'Biographica Britannica,' but in them all it is with some of the works of the great architect that we become acquainted, not with himself.

The chief authority to which any biographer of Wren must perforce turn is, the 'Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens: viz., of Matthew, Bishop of Ely; Christopher, Dean of Windsor and Registrar of the Garter; but chiefly of Sir Christopher Wren.' This work, a folio, with portraits[1] of the three whose lives it records, was published in London in 1750, dedicated to Mr. Speaker Onslow. It was chiefly written by Christopher, the eldest surviving son of Sir Christopher Wren, finished and finally published by Stephen Wren, M.D., the second and favourite, son of the Mr. C. Wren above mentioned, 'with care of Joseph Ames,' a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Several copies were presented to the University of Oxford.

The 'Parentalia,' of which but a small edition was published, is now scarce and little known. It is put together, not quite at hap-hazard, but with no real method or order: digression ensues upon digression until all clue to the original date or subject is lost. Nor is the very imperfect 'index of names' of any real assistance in the labyrinth thus created. Yet, with all its faults, the book is of great interest, and bears amidst all errors and omissions an unmistakably genuine stamp.

'Bishop Wren's Diary,' reference to which will be frequently found in the following pages, was kept by him in the blank leaves of 'Pond's Almanack,' after this fashion:

'August 30.--_Per vim hostilem eripior domo meâ._ 1642.'

These entries cease with the death of his wife in 1646; even his own release from prison is not mentioned.

The old heirloom copy of the 'Parentalia' intrusted to the writer of these pages contains a large additional number of prints and wood engravings by Virtue, Vandergucht, Loggan, and others, some printed accounts of the City Churches, and several letters, rough drafts of treatises, Garter records, and other MSS. in the handwritings of the Bishop, the Dean, Sir Christopher himself, and of some of their correspondents. Among the curious omissions of the 'Parentalia' are the maiden name of Bishop Wren's wife, the date of the death of Sir Christopher's mother, Mrs. Mary Wren, and the places and the dates at which either of Sir Christopher's two weddings took place. Some of these and other gaps I have, by the aid of 'Notes and Queries,' been able to supply. Wren's son and grandson are both alike silent on all political matters subsequent to the Restoration. The Popish Plot, the Trial of the Seven Bishops, King James's Abdication, the Landing of William of Orange are all passed by in perfect silence. The traditional politics of the Wrens were certainly those of the loyal Cavalier party, and they were in favour at the Court of the Stuarts.

It is curious how all political colouring disappears from the record after the period of the Restoration. Yet Sir Christopher, his cousins, and the very Mr. Wren who writes the book were all in Parliament, and that in more or less critical times. Such accidental hints as there are point, I think, to Sir Christopher as adhering, though very quietly, to the politics of his ancestors; and assuredly neither he nor his descendants had any cause to love the house of Hanover!

Wren was a steady Churchman, bred up in that school of Andrewes, of Laud, and of Matthew Wren, which, if it was anti-Puritan, was equally and emphatically anti-Roman. For this reason, if for no other, after the trial of the Seven Bishops had shaken the confidence of every Churchman in the country, Wren may have acquiesced in a settlement which appeared to promise protection to the Church without finally excluding the Stuart line. The 'Parentalia,' published five years after the last Jacobite rising in 1745, preserves, as has been said, a political silence which may be that of discretion or of disappointment.

One word should be said as to Gresham College, where Wren held his first professorship. It was founded in 1579 by the will of Queen Elizabeth's great merchant Sir Thomas Gresham. The college was no other than his own house in Bishopsgate, forming a quadrangle round a large garden. The seven professors, each of whom gave a lecture a day in term time, had a salary of 50_l._ a year and were lodged in the house. Gresham College escaped the Fire, and gave lodgings at that time to the Lord Mayor and the aldermen, who had been less fortunate. In 1768 it was pulled down by Act of Parliament, to give a site to the new Excise Office, and the original collegiate scheme was destroyed, though the lectures are still given in a lecture hall.

Little is known of Wren in his Masonic capacity. He is said to have been a member and a master of the 'Old Lodge of S. Paul,' now known as the 'Lodge of Antiquity.' All the records of the Lodge belonging to that time have unfortunately been lost, so that they cannot be consulted with reference to this matter.

The question has been raised whether Wren was a Freemason or not. On this point the 'Parentalia' makes no explicit statement, though it appears to imply Wren's connection with the Order.

The Duke of Sussex caused a plate to be engraved in 1827 and affixed to the mallet which Sir Christopher was said to have presented to the Lodge, with this inscription:--'A. L. 5831. A.D. 1827. To commemorate that this, being the same mallet with which His Majesty King Charles II. levelled the foundation stone of S. Paul's Cathedral, A. L. 5677, A.D. 1673. Was presented to the Old Lodge of S. Paul, now the Lodge of Antiquity, acting by immemorial constitution, by Brother Sir Christopher Wren, R.W.D.G.M., Worshipful Master of this Lodge and Architect of that Edifice.'

The statement respecting King Charles's presence is probably an erroneous one. The Lodge possesses also three gilt wooden candlesticks in the form of columns, inscribed 'Ex dono Chr. Wren Eq. A. L. 5680.'

Where quotations have been made directly from the Wren MS., from the 'Parentalia,' or from Evelyn's Diary, the spelling and stopping of the originals have been faithfully reproduced. For the rest, the writer can only hope that these pages may serve as a contribution towards that full and worthy biography of the great architect which may yet, she trusts, be written before London is finally robbed of the Churches with which Wren's genius endowed her.

_August 1, 1881._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] From which the three vignettes in this volume are taken.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

1585-1636.
PAGE
Ancestry of the Wrens--Matthew Wren--Travels to Spain with
the Prince of Wales--Interview at Winchester
House--Bishop Andrewes' Prophecy--Wren made Master of
Peterhouse--Bishop of Hereford--Consecration of Abbey
Dore--Office of Reconciliation--Foreign Congregations
and the Norwich Weavers--Result of 'a Lecturer's'
Departure. 3

CHAPTER II.

1636-1640.

Dr. C. Wren--Birth of his Son Christopher--East
Knoyle--Order of the Garter--How a Murderer was
Detected--Christopher at Westminster--A Latin
Letter--Diocese of Ely--Impeachment of Lord
Strafford--Of Archbishop Laud--Articles against Bishop
Wren--Resigns the Deanery of the Chapels Royal. 31

CHAPTER III.

1641-1647.

Bishop Wren accused--Westminster Abbey attacked--Imprisonment
of the Bishops--Bishop Wren's Defence--'Utterly Denieth
all Popish Affections'--The Garter Jewels--Archbishop Laud
Murdered--Christopher at Oxford--Philosophical Meetings. 55

CHAPTER IV.

1647-1658.

Death of Mrs. M. Wren--King Charles Murdered--A monotonous
Walk--Inventions--A Dream--All Souls' Fellowship--
Beginnings of the Royal Society--Astronomy--An Offer of
Release--The Cycloid--Cromwell's Funeral--Letters from
London. 85

CHAPTER V.

1659-1663.

Apostolical Succession--Difficulty of preserving
it--Letters from Lord Clarendon--Bishop Wren's
Release--The Restoration--Convocation--Savilian
Professorship--Royal Society--'Elephant in the
Moon'--Pembroke Chapel begun. 109

CHAPTER VI.

1664-1667.

Repair of S. Paul's--Sheldonian Theatre--The Plague--A
Letter from Paris--Consecration of Pembroke Chapel--Fire
of London--Bishop Wren's Death--His Family. 139

CHAPTER VII.

1668-1672.

Patching S. Paul's--Sancroft's Letters--Wren's Examination
of S. Paul's--Salisbury Cathedral--London as it might
have been--Letter to Faith Coghill--Wren marries
her--Temple Bar--S. Mary-le-Bow--Artillery
Company--Gunpowder used to remove Ruins. 165

CHAPTER VIII.

1672-1677.

Birth of his eldest Son--S. Stephen's, Walbrook--S. Bennet
Fink--Plans for S. Paul's--The Excavations--Son
Christopher born--Death of Faith, Lady Wren--Second
Marriage--City Churches--The Monument--Tomb of Charles
I.--Remains of the little Princes in the Tower. 191

CHAPTER IX.

1677-1681.

Emmanuel College--Greenwich Observatory--Birth of Jane and
William Wren--S. Bartholomew's--Portland Quarries--Dr.
and Mrs. Holder--Death of Lady Wren--Popish
Plot--Papin's Digester--Sir J. Hoskyns--All Hallow's,
Bread Street--Palace at Winchester. 215

CHAPTER X.

1681-1686.

Chelsea College--S. James's, Westminster--A hard
Winter--Chichester Spire--An Astronomical Problem--A
Seat in Parliament--More City Churches--A curious
Carving. 239

CHAPTER XI.

1687-1696.

Parliament dissolved--Church building--Acquittal of the
Seven Bishops--James the Second's Flight--William and
Mary--College of Physicians--Hampton Court--Greenwich
Hospital--Richard Whittington--S. Paul's Organ. 259

CHAPTER XII.

1697-1699.

Opening of S. Paul's Choir--A moveable Pulpit--Letter to
his Son at Paris--Order against Swearing--Peter the
Great--S. Dunstan's Spire--Morning Prayer Chapel
opened--Westminster Abbey. 279

CHAPTER XIII.

1700-1708.

Member for Weymouth--Rising of the Sap in Trees--Prince
George's Statue--Jane Wren's Death--Thanksgiving at S.
Paul's--Letter to his Son--Son marries Mary
Musard--Death of Mr. Evelyn--Queen Anne's Act for
Building fifty Churches--Letter on Church Building. 297

CHAPTER XIV.

1709-1723.

Private Houses built--Queen Anne's Gifts--Last Stone of S.
Paul's--Wren deprived of his Salary--His
Petition--'Frauds and Abuses'--Interior work of S.
Paul's--Wren Superseded--Purchase of Wroxhall
Abbey--Wren's Thoughts on the Longitude--His
Death--Burial in S. Paul's--The End. 317

APPENDIX.

I. Reverendo Patri Domino Christophoro Wren S.T.D. et D. W.
Christophorus Filius Hoc Suum Panorganum Astronomicum
D.D. xiii. Calend. Novem. Anno 1645. 337

II. Churches, Halls, Colleges, Palaces, other Public
Buildings, and Private Houses built and repaired by Sir
Christopher Wren. 338

III. A Discourse on Architecture, from Original MS. 340

INDEX 351