Parish of St. Saviour (Southwark)AuthorChristopher HighleyCopy EditorJanelle JenstadEncoderJanelle JenstadEncoderKate LeBereEncoderMolly RothwellMarkup EditorMolly RothwellProgrammerMartin HolmesParish Project LeadChristopher HighleyProject DirectorJanelle JenstadThe Map of Early Modern Londonhttp://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/includes.xmlVictoria, BC, CanadaDepartment of EnglishP.O.Box 3070 STNC CSCUniversity of VictoriaVictoria, BCCanadaV8W 3W12016University of Victoria978-1-55058-519-3Janelle Jenstadlondon@uvic.ca
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This large parish on the south bank of the Thames was part of the deanery of Southwark, in the diocese of Winchester and the province of Canterbury.
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Finished entity tagging. Proofed document and changed file status from draft to stub.Removed old geo coordinates now superceded by GeoJSON.Added GeoJSON auto-generated from old geo coordinates.Started entity tagging.Added content contributed by Chris Highley. Further work is required to tag entities.Removed comma from authroity name and replaced with parenthetical descriptor.Standardized respStmts for JENS1, MCFI1, and HOLM3 and added TAKE1 as Junior Programmer.Removed empty facsimile and/or surface elements with XSLT.Generated file from spreadsheet.Parish of St. Saviour (Southwark)
This large parish on the south bank of the Thames was part of the deanery of Southwark, in the diocese of Winchester and the province of Canterbury.
Location
South bank of the Thames in Surrey, between London Bridge to the east and Lambeth Marsh to the west (Boulton 9).
Name and Etymology
The Parish of St. Saviour (Southwark) was also known as the Parish of St. Saviour (Southwark) and St. Mary Overy (St. Mary Overie; St. Mary Overies) I.e., over the river.
Significance
The parish had a reputation for religious radicalism and supported several puritan clergy and lecturers including:
TitleAuthorPrinterDateSTC NumberESTC Citation NumberA short summe of the vvhole catechisme. Wherein the question is propounded and answered, for the greater ease of the common people and children of Saint Saueries in South-warke. First gathered by Mr. Thomas Ratliffe minister of Gods word in Saint Saueries in South-warke.Thomas RatcliffeEdward Allde161920746S119779Certain godly and learned sermons, preached by that worthy seruant of ChristM. Ed. Philips in S. Sauiors in Southwarke: vpon the whole foure first chapters of Matthew, Luc. 11. vers. 24. 25. 26. Rom. 8. the whole, 1. Thess. 5. 19. Tit. 2. 11. 12. Iames 2. from the 20. to the 26. and 1. Ioh. 3. 9. 10. And were taken by the pen of H. Yelverton of Grayes Inne Gentleman.Edward PhilipsArnold Hatfield160719853S114640A heauenly voyce. A sermon tending to call the people of God from among the Romish Babylonians: preached at Paules Crosse the 12 of Ianuarie. 1606. By William Symonds.William SimondsJames Roberts160623591S100150Englands first and second summons. Two sermons preached at Paules Crosse, the one the third of Ianuarie 1612; the other the fifth of Februarie, 1615. By Thomas Sutton Batchelour of Diuinitie, then
fellow of Queenes Colledge in Oxford, and now preacher at Saint Mary Oueries in SouthwarkeThomas SuttonNicholas Okes161623502S105186
The parish was also the site of the Rose, Swan, Globe, and Hope playhouses, as well as bull and bear baiting arenas, and other places of public entertainment (Cerasano 3; Cerasano 93).
Maps and Images
William Rendle’s Old Southwark and Its People (1878) includes a c.1542 sketch map of the parish within its Southwark setting at its beginning.Antony Van Den Wyngaerde’s Panorama of London, Westminster and Southwark as they Appeared A.D. 1543 (1543) of the city and its suburbs. This detailed view looking from the south-east, shows major buildings in the parish including the church, and extends as far west as Rochester House on bankside.John Norden’s London (1593) shows the parish to its western boundary at Lambeth Marsh, and includes the sites of a playhouse and Beare howſe.Claes Jansz. Visscher’s Londinum Florentissima Britanniæ Urbs Toto Orbe (1616) includes detailed representations of the south sides of the church of St. Saviour (Southwark), Winchester House, and the gate to London Bridge.Augustine Ryther’s The Cittie of London (1633). Note what appears to be a cucking stool to the west of Winchester House.Wenceslaus Hollar’s S. Marie Ouer’s in Southwarke (1647).Wenceslaus Hollar’s Long View of London from Bankside (1647).Wenceslaus Hollar’s Ad Londinvm epitomen & ocellvm (1647).
History
The Parish of St. Saviour (Southwark) was formed in 1541 by uniting the parishes of St. Margaret (Southwark) and St. Mary Magdalen (Southwark). It is one of five parishes in the borough of Southwark (Surrey) according to Stow’s 1598
Survey. The others are the Parish of St. Thomas (Southwark), St. George (Southwark), St. Olave (Southwark), and St. Mary Magdalen (Bermondsey). Modern accounts place St. Mary Magdalen (Bermondsey) in a different borough (Boulton 9).
At the dissolution, the church of St. Saviour was leased by the parishioners (a corporation made up of vestrymen) from the crown. In 1614, a group of wealthy vestrymen bought the church and rectory outright from the crown. This gave the vestry the right to appoint two ministers (or a minister and a lecturer).
In the west, the Parish of St. Savior (Southwark) included the Manor of Paris Garden or Paris Garden Liberty, and in the east, the Borough or Boroughside. Between these areas lay the Bishop of Winchester’s Liberty, also known as the Clink. Only the eastern, Boroughside, area of the parish was under City control. It formed part of London’s 26th ward (Bridge Ward Without), created in 1550. In 1671, the Manor of Paris Garden became the new parish of Christ Church.
Literary References
TitleAuthorPrinterDateSTC NumberESTC Citation NumberNoteThe true history of the life and sudden death of old Iohn Overs, the rich ferry-man of London And how he lost his life by his owne covetousnesse. And of his daughter Mary, who caused the Church of Saint Mary Overs in Southwark to be built, and of the building of London-BridgeNANicholas Okes and John Okes163718922S110189In this didactic tale, the rich but miserly ferryman John Overs fakes his own death in order to save a day’s expenditure on food for his apprentices and servants. When Overs rises up in his shroud, he is struck and killed by a servant who mistakes him for the devil. As a usurer, Overs is denied Christian burial by the monks of Bermondsey, until his daughter Mary bribes them. However, when the abbot discovers this he disinters Overs’ body and throws it on back of his ass which dumps it near a gallows at St. Thomas a Waterings. The daughter puts her father’s wealth to pious uses by founding a church near the site of her former home: the church of St. Mary Overs. The work contains six distinct woodcuts.The puritaine or The vviddovv of VVatling-streeteWentworth Smith but attributed to Thomas MiddletonGeorge Eldc. 160721531S106337This play satirizes a character named Simon St. Mary Overies—apparently an allusion to parish lecturer William Simonds.
Notable Residents
The theatrical entrepreneur Philip Henslowe and his son-in-law the actor Edward Alleyn both served as vestrymen and churchwardens and held other parochial appointments. Francis Langley, the owner of the Swan playhouse, also lived in the parish. The poet John Gower, William Shakespeare’s brother Edmund, and Bishop Lancelot Andrewes have tombs in the church. The clown Will Kempe along with the playwrights John Fletcher and Philip Massinger are also buried here. Until 1625, a prominent Catholic family, the Brownes (Viscounts Montague), had their London residence at Montague House that was located directly north of the church of St. Saviour (Questier 512-519).
Parish Records
A full set of parish records, including baptismal, marriage, and burial registers, as well as Communion Token Books, is on deposit at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA): LMA P92/SAV.
LMA’s description of the records may be found here
(enter the above reference in Reference Code on the Advanced Search menu). Many of these records have been transcribed and analyzed by William Ingram and Alan H. Nelson in their indispensible online resource:
The Parish of St Saviour, Southwark. Information about Parishioners, from Various Sources, 1550-1650. The site includes searchable transcriptions of Views of Inmates, Views of New Buildings, Parochial Presentments, Vestry Minutes, Sacramental Token Books, parishioner wills, and other primary documents in the LMA and other collections.
Further Resources
Caldin and RaineConcanen and MorganMaldenNelsonNorthwayRaineRoberts and GodfreyThomsonWhite
Further Information from MoEML
William Ingram and Alan H. Nelson, in conjunction with the London Metropolitan Archives, have created an online database of the token books of the Parish of St. Saviour (Southwark).