St Faith under St Paul's


St Faith under St Paul's in Castle Baynard Ward was an unusual parish within the City of London. The church was physically removed in 1256 to allow for the eastern expansion of Old St Paul's Cathedral.
The parish appears as "St Faith within the monastery of St Paul's, London" in 1381, with mention of John Phelip, as a former parson.
Until the reign of Edward VI the parishioners worshipped at the end of the west crypt under St Paul’s Quire. Sir Simonds D'Ewes, the diarist, attended the wedding of his father Paul and his stepmother, Lady Elizabeth Denton, in "St. Faith's under St. Paul's" on 5 March 1623, and Sir Simonds's younger sister Mary also married there on 4 December 1626 The bills of mortality for the year 1665, published by the Parish Clerk's Company, shows 97 parishes within the City of London, of which St Faith was one. From the reign of Edward VI until the Great Fire the parishioners, mostly booksellers in Paternoster Row, transferred to the Jesus Chapel, their separateness emphasised by a screen.
After the Great Fire, the parish was united with St Augustine Watling Street, an arrangement that worked amicably well long after anyone who could have remembered the old cathedral had died, the name also being used in official records. and plans. Partial records survive at IGI and a drawing by Thomas Kerrich is preserved at the British Library while visitors to the rebuilt cathedral are still reminded of the association during their tour.

Burials