Jonson
's payment in churchwardens' accounts of
St Martin
in the Fields
for 'Money gathered toward the buylding
& for their Pewes',
Mich. 1597 . The churchwardens are
named as
William Portington
and
William Bartlett
; a payment is also recorded from
Robert Brett
(
Jonson
's stepfather). The original accounts were destroyed in WWII and
had not been microfilmed, so the following transcription is taken from Kitto's
edition.
Eugene Giddens
[p. 489]
The accompte of the said
William
Portington & William Bartlett Churchewardens for their seconde yeare of office
Comensing at ye feaste of the birth of or lord god, 1596, & endinge one ye like
feaste, 1597, aswell of Receiptes as paymentes by yem
receaved & paidd as followeth
[p. 503]
Money gathered toward the building & for
their Pewes yat weare vnplased. as followeth
Beniamyn
Johnson xviijd
Rob't Brett ijs
Bibliography
Kitto, St Martin-in-the-Fields, 489-503
Bamborough (1960), 225
St Martin in the Fields was established in the thirteenth century in the 'fields' between Westminster and the City of London . Today it is in Trafalgar Square. It was rebuilt, and its boundaries extended, by Henry VIII c. 1542, and enlarged again in 1607 at the charge of Henry , Prince of Wales . The present church was built 1721-26.